What did you do in KSP1 today?

[JadeOfMaar]

Designed to split in two, this little heap of ambition aims to deliver Xenon gas to the Mun base and to an OmniProbe yet to be launched with empty Xenon tanks. The LV consists of four more Kerbodyne stacks in Asparagus and four really tall SpaceY SRBs. This was supposed to land using its monoprop engines but I thought not to waste the Kerbodyne stacks and LFO. Once it lands (and it reminds me of Cupcake Landers) and moves itself in, Bill gets out and scuttles the stacks for MaterialKits, and later, the midsection itself. The updated Graveheart craft is then built and is currently helping the base produce Ore faster to maximize MaterialKits production.

Jebediah launches up from Mun after Eiyuu and Arcia enter its SOI and circularize at a fair height to rendezvous. Things go sour after a timewarp ends late, leaving insufficient burn time. Fortunately, all the RCS and both engines survive so the saucer slid back to White Base like a badS. Hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come. This is the first time Eiyuu gets to drive and he's going to helm the flagship. Also, it's a good thing I didn't rush to replace the saucers (and the base), because I broke the decal by editing its cfg file. I discovered its Repaint context menu.

[Choctofliatrio2.0]

I've finally started getting a bit more active in KSP!

Did this a few days ago, but whatever. Started a sandbox world to practice stuff. Launched an ore satellite to Minmus, and landed this nifty little rover on the Mun.

It won't let me make images for some reason :/

 

Rover works alright. I can't really use the reaction wheels or it flips out, but it has a good amount of RCS to right itself. A little slide-y on turns, but hey, my first real rover, what are you gonna do?

[Guest]

Huh, interesting. 

I redid the Angel design with Mark 2 parts. Same mass, to within a few hundred kg (give or take, I tried with both one and two crew cabins). The Mark 2s appear to produce a lot more drag than the Mark 1s. I did get it into orbit, but only barely, and had to use a very different launch profile -- the Angel can hit Mach 3 at around 3k altitude, and from there on I just angle it up at 30 degrees or so and it's off. (I also reshuffled the parts so now the crew cabins are all in the main fuselage where it's not so windy.)

The Cygnet OTOH has to climb to 10k to get any serious speed, and pitching up to 30 degrees is a lot harder there and loses a good deal of it. I burn a lot more fuel getting into orbit; there's barely any left for manoeuvre.

I.e. the less sophisticated craft is clearly the more useful one in this case.

[Sharpy]

I built a kite, flew it, and posted a challenge about it.

[eddiew]

Realised I had three kerbonauts who were just a couple of XP shy of level 5, but had never landed on Mun. Felt like a good opportunity for a training run

The proven Firebird chassis lost some storage capacity to make room for the crew cabin, but thanks to a big (~1000 science) KR&D investment into another 5% engine ISP, she hit LKO with even more juice than usual. A miscalculation left her with twice the oxidiser she needed and unfortunately cost her some efficiency, but it wasn't significant enough to give the trip any problems.

The other miscalculation was mission control not realising that that Munar biome had never been visited before, thus sending a ship with precisely zero science instruments   Double surface samples and EVA reports were taken and one copy dropped off at Starcrossed for processing, but still... poor planning.

That aside, three new 5-star kerbonauts, and two of them are scientists, so it's clearly time for a crew rotation so that these senior boffins can take charge of the orbital lab!

[LN400]

Getting more and more frustrated with FASA and attempting to build a functional Apollo mission using non-FASA parts.

[Guest]

Finally tamed that light Mark 2 spaceplane design (Cygnet).

I figured that the problem wasn't lack of thrust with the Whiplashes, but drag. So, I went and added 10 tons of mass to the craft: most of it rocket fuel, but also a second Aerospike. Then I iterated like crazy to get the aerodynamic stability right.

Eventually I built something that's useful: not as much fun to fly as the Angel and its nutty aerodynamics that let it pull Mach 3 at almost sea level, but capable of carrying 10 crew (cf 7 for the Angel), as well as making use of the Mark 2 part versatility for a cargo version. Launch profile is a subsonic climb to 7k, level out and accelerate to 900 m/s, then nose up 10 degrees and accelerate to 1100 m/s, nose up 30 degrees, rockets on, and away she goes. Gets to LKO with plenty of manoeuvring fuel. Take-off is slightly squirrelly but manageable; acceleration to orbit is easy, it's very well-behaved on re-entry, and the Mark 2 body gives enough extra lift that landing is somewhat less scary than with the Angel -- empty, it'll fly as slow as 60 m/s or so. 

But wow, that took some serious design and iteration work. Here's the last experimental version taking off on a test flight -- I only adjusted the fuel lines for aesthetics for the "production version."

Even with its inconveniences -- you have to shuffle crew between the cockpit and the cabins on rescue missions -- I strongly prefer the Angel. It's much more fun to fly.

Here's the latest iteration of the Angel, going absurdly fast at low altitude.

Edited September 10, 2016 by Guest
Added picture of Angel.

[eddiew]

Crew rotation turned road trip.

Five-star scientists Ollie Kerman and Leo Kerman are dropped off to head up research as Starcrossed Station, increasing the science output to 54/day, while Piper Kerman, Yuki Kerman and Fern Kerman are retrieved for further training. Rei Kerman and Kelly Kerman are collected from the old Skyball Station around Rald, now completely dry of data and with nothing left to offer.

Seeing as how the Firebird had plenty of fuel left, and the crew contained a six-pack of 1-star scientists and a lone pilot, mission control instructed them to take a scouting trajectory over Rald's southern hemisphere and see if there was anywhere good to land. Luckily, this time the engineering team had stayed awake in the briefing and has packed the bay with science instruments. The double-cabin of the Firebird comes in handy, since it allows duplicate data gathering, one copy for home, and one for Starcrossed on the way.

(Also, yes, five scientists. May need to retrain a couple. It's not that I don't like science, but I do only have one lab )

[numerobis]

I built a plane that will soon shatter my distance record on jets. I'm matched with my record right now, and I have 650 units of fuel left -- more than half what I took off with. Unfortunately I can't show you this ridiculous beast because imgur doesn't let me post for some reason ("failed", not sure why).

Anyway: cockpit, pre-cooler, wheesley, a pair of Fat-55, and minimal control surfaces. No landing gear. Landing gear is for chumps -- I ditched them on takeoff.

Edited September 11, 2016 by numerobis

[Corona688]

24 minutes ago, numerobis said:

Unfortunately I can't show you this ridiculous beast because imgur doesn't let me post for some reason ("failed", not sure why).

Try converting it to a lower-resolution jpeg.  KSP screenshots are max-resolution png's which take up ridiculous amounts of space.

 

Today I built my first new spaceplane since atmospheric heating became a thing, the Lammergeier:

Also the first thing I've successfully built using the RAPIER.  The awkward probe core stuck to the back is because I was still doing unmanned trials.  The last batch couldn't make it to orbit, this one did so with 200 fuel to spare.

Edited September 11, 2016 by Corona688

[numerobis]

21 minutes ago, Corona688 said:

Try converting it to a lower-resolution jpeg.  KSP screenshots are max-resolution png's which take up ridiculous amounts of space.

These are smaller resolution than what I usually send up without issue; and converting to jpg or half-size png doesn't help. Mystery. I'm sure it'll be fixed tomorrow.

[Sharpy]

Made that gantry at last. Now just to land it on Minmus...

Edit:

The engineer assigned to that gantry... he's a rather seedy type.

I mean: it was known that the assembly will require a screwdriver as the gantry is structurally attached to the launch stage and it can't just be decoupled. He had misplaced his own. The whole mission was delayed as he found out he had no screwdriver only after the propulsion module was launched for rendezvous. So, another launch was performed - a very small rocket with two lockers (two just for balance), loaded with two EVA propellant canisters (one per locker), the screwdriver, and a taco (to balance the screwdriver). The rocket arrived to the partially assembled gantry and stopped by the cabin, to let the operator pick up the items.

So he proceeds stuffing his pockets with the contents of the lockers. Then he takes the screwdriver, detaches the the lockers and installs them on the gantry. Then he strips the solar batteries of the rocket and stuffs them in a locker. He removes the nose cone of the rocket, then he detaches the probe core and battery and stuffs them in the locker. Then he moves to the other end, detaches the engine and stuffs it into the other locker, leaving the tank and the nose cone floating as space junk.

Then he finally detaches the launch stage, and instead of letting it go, to let its probe core perform the deorbiting burn, he detaches that probe core, (tiny OKTO2) and stuffs it in his pocket.

[KIS/KAS really brings out the hoarder in me.]

Edited September 11, 2016 by Sharpy

[Mikki]

Bill, Bob and Jeb made a serious Duna touchdown, most successfull stockcraft ever with a rover and the gearundercarriage detachable for lighter ascend.

[Corona688]

I think I'm getting better at flying modern KSP spaceplanes, as it only took about 150 more fuel to add a bunch more cargo to the Lammergeir -- 4 passengers, a bunch of RCS, and a docking clamp:

Easily the biggest spaceplane I've ever made, now.

Edited September 11, 2016 by Corona688

[Leopard]

Tried lobbing a nuclear power probe at Eve, after two failed launches (handled with a few traffic cones and a D notice) the third clawed to orbit.

ran out of fuel halfway there, tracking cut, hope it doesn't hit anything important.

tried again with more conventional rockets, Eve 1 L is now on the surface after a text book flight including first aero braking mission. Eve 1 remaining in orbit. Follow up mission landed on Gilly for a significant beam back science load.

attempt at a follow up on Duna failed with the probe missing the link up and looking at multiple years for the next, tracking terminated.

flag on Minmus mission, easy money really, sent Bill as he's the only one still on Kerbin so he levelled up nicely with a science trip to the southern pole that ended up in the highlands.

reasonably successful weekend. 

"no target" bug back again, deleted a few more saved ships and flags to mitigate it. Also loss and scrambling of staging data getting annoying now.

to cap it off built an aircraft design that to my amazement actually flies. Nothing overly useful though but a start, thinking on a high altitude one next

[Mikki]

Never enough roids... my giant asteroid wrangler is actually a beast, it applies more than 23000knm torque with errrmm.... around 19 large stock reaction wheels. The Vernors on the engine rig end alone apply about 3000knm when engaged. It has a nuclear reactor from NFE , the SAS sucks lots of juice.
Now i have three huge roids in Kerbin orbit, two of them are still 3000 tons .

Pic from mun gravity assist to slow down efficiently to kerbin orbit
 

[Puggonaut]

Did this after getting pointed in the right direction to download Kosmodrome , love the new lauch sites .

Visuals GEMFX , EVE , SVE , EngineLight , Realplume , Scatterer , Smokescreen , TextureReplacer .

 

PC Spec is i7 3770k GTX 970 4gb , 16gb Ram 2tb 7,500 rpm hard drive all stock running Windows 7 .

 

[Planetace]

I made my first fully working SSTO!

I call it the Kiter, because I was making it for the kite challenge. But when i saw its cargo bay was too small for a kite i thought "screw it, we are getting it into orbit!" And here we are. Also, some eye candy of it orbiting kerbin.

 

Also, its payload was a small satellite. Here it is!

 

Another thing, this was a HUGE challenge for me due to the fact I cant dock and rarely leave the kerbin system :P

Edited September 11, 2016 by Planetace

[eddiew]

Finished up the crew rotation with a visit to Minmus, and a flyby of Mun on the way home. Six 1-star kerbonauts went out, six 3-star kerbonauts came back  

Having fought against an overpowering yaw to the left all the way through the return from Minmus, so severe that it had prevented me from docking with Starcrossed station and set the ship into a spin whenever SAS was off, I noticed when landed on the runway that the tailfins were angled left. Pressed alt-x and it went away. I'm such a noob 

[Guest]

Okay this may be the most Kerbal thing I've done so far.

I wanted to make a heavy spaceplane, and after failing to get anywhere with the Mark 3 parts (besides, I find them unattractive), I just strapped a bunch of fuel tanks together with spit and wire, stuck some engines on and some wings to the sides, and called it a tanker. I called it the Delta-Vee for obvious reasons. 

Sadly, it handles like a hellbeast. I'll have to see what I can do about that, but ugh.

I did make one refueling run to a space station I kind of sort of built for the purpose, but I didn't manage to land it safely. I didn't think my runway touchdown was all that hard -- despite it handling like a hellbeast --, but be as it may, an unscheduled rapid disassembly event followed. Fortunately it's entirely un-Kerbaled so no lives were lost.

Images related.

Hard at work -- the one useful thing it managed:

Shortly before the rapid unscheduled disassembly event -- I overshot KSC a bit on re-entry...

[jackdown]

Visited Dres+ system last time in 1.1.3 

Edited September 11, 2016 by jackdown
lame english;)

[Guest]

More spaceplane R&D. 

I found another golden design: a big one, this time. I dubbed it the Archangel, because it handles a lot like the Angel, except that this one can go well past 100 tons take-off weight. I've tried three variants, and they're all lovely: the Archangel 1-T (tanker), 1-P (passengers, takes two Mk3 crew compartments!), and 1-C (cargo, big Mk 3 cargo bay). 

This one accelerates like Angel -- blasts past the sound barrier practically right off the runway -- and is extremely straightforward to orbit: climb an accelerate at 15 degrees pitch until you hit 900 m/s, then pitch up to 30 degrees, and punch the rocket at around 15k altitude. 

Orbital manoeuvring is likewise fine for something this size. I would've liked to put Vernier ports on it but there really weren't any suitable spots for fore and aft ones, so I had to make do with RCS, which is a bit weak for something this big. But still, docking was reasonably easy.

Deorbit is painless, except for one caveat: I have to pump what fuel is left to the forward tanks, otherwise it'll flip backwards instead of stabilising into controlled flight. By controlling the fuel sloshing between the tanks, I can decide how stable I want it to be post-re-entry, and how long I want to hold the 90 degree pitch. The two are kind of mutually exclusive.

Landing is the best part: that big ol' wing gives scads of lift, which means it'll float down to the runway at around 50 m/s, perhaps even lower, I haven't checked.

I might still tweak the tail section, but other than that it's about done.

I don't know about the looks, but for functionality it is a beauty.

You may also notice I didn't put a cockpit on it: it's all automatically controlled. There's an Okto 2 tucked away between two of the sections (no, I don't consider that cheating, if it's a little component that could realistically be internally stored). 

If you want to, you can, though -- just replace the tiny Mk 1 jet fuel fuselage with a Mk 1 in-line cabin.

Edited September 11, 2016 by Guest
Added note about landing.

[linuxgurugamer]

I released a new mod:  

 

[Crocket]

I put the Apollo station into Mun orbit today.

She's not much to look at, but she's my first attempt at a station. She has 6 disposable crew, 2 of each class, one male and one female. She's in a roughly 400x400 Mun orbit as we speak. I've got a lander and an RCS tug chasing her, and I plan to launch a larger fuel complement later: one X-200 just won't do.

Edited September 11, 2016 by Crocket

[JadeOfMaar]

Today! We boldly go!

Spoiler

Ore tanks and Mk0 LF tanks for volume demonstration only. Actual warp drives and positive gravioli inside the nacelles.

 

Edited September 11, 2016 by JadeOfMaar