What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Guest]

The KSP is delighted to announce that the research, design, and development phase of the Archangel series of SSTO spaceplane is complete. 

The series is a heavy SSTO, horizontal take-off and landing vehicle. Maximum tested take-off weight is 141 tons. Under this load, the craft can climb at 10 degrees pitch to 10k altitude, accelerating to ca 1000 m/s velocity in the process, powered by its six Whiplash turboramjets. Launch to orbit is accomplished by pitching to 30 degrees and firing its sole Vector rocket engine. 

After many sleepless nights of trial and error, three variants made the final cut: the 1CL, 1FC, and 1FP.

The 1CL is a heavy freighter. It has been tested capable of lifting a payload of 15 tons to LKO. The test payload consisted of a heavy refinery unit, a mobile science lab, a cupola module, and associated support components. The craft had significant fuel reserves left after the operation, so the actual payload limit is higher; there is also room to modify the craft to carry even somewhat higher fuel loads while maintaining the cargo capacity. I surmise it would be capable of lifting up to 20 tons or so.

The 1FC is a combined tanker/freighter. It features a half-size cargo bay, with the freed-up space used to carry fuel. It is capable of lofting roughly 3000 units of fuel and oxidiser to LKO, or carrying a smaller cargo to the Mun and beyond.

The 1FP is a combined tanker/passenger craft. It carries the same maximum fuel load as the 1FC, but instead of the cargo bay it features a crew cabin seating 16. Over the course of development, a variant seating 64 was tested and found capable of reaching LKO and returning, but since there is no mission for crew capacity at this scale, the variant (1PL-X) was not chosen for production. 

All variants of the craft are aerodynamically stable at all fuel loads. Fuel transfer between tanks may be necessary over the course of the flight, depending on profile. Empty landing speed is between 40 and 50 m/s, and all variants can perform a dead-stick landing and survive ditching. As long as proper fuel load balance is maintained, they behave well under re-entry, with no components coming close to critical temperatures. 

The craft are expected to replace conventional rockets for most missions.

The KSP administration would like to than the many engineers, scientists, and pilots that made these advances possible, and, naturally, Jeb's Spacecraft Parts and Junkyard, its main sponsor.

 

[kraden]

10 hours ago, lodger said:

During a second EVA Bill mounted a Mystery Goo(tm) containment unit to the lower end of the KOTP and added a second Z-100 battery pack to his capsule to demonstrate the advantages of in-orbit / in-space construction.

Anytime I have awkward parts that I need on a ship or station, this is how I get around it. If something is too asymmetrical or bulbous for launch, into the KIS container it goes. Who needs giant, fairings when you can streamline your ship by attaching the parts later 

[eddiew]

Pondering heavy rover options...

TLDR, I need something I can use on Moho and weighs less than 20 tons. This guy is only 16t, and packs 3km/s in his tanks, meaning he can get himself down from orbit and back to the mothership without assistance. In theory.

He has exactly zero kNm of torque along the engine/docking port axis and is pretty prime for being dragged around - assuming I can get him to orbit at all. Kerbin testing is... not great, tbh. Struggles on any kind of a slope, and regularly pops a tyre. The latter isn't a big deal since I have plenty of engineers and that big LET lander module seats 3 so there will always be an engineer handy. The slopes... I hope won't be an issue at 0.25g, with only 60% fuel load? Maybe? 

And yes, yes I tweakscale those stupidly huge material bays because they are stupidly huge 

[CatastrophicFailure]

6 minutes ago, eddiew said:

Pondering heavy rover options...

 

TLDR, I need something I can use on Moho and weighs less than 20 tons. This guy is only 16t, and packs 3km/s in his tanks, meaning he can get himself down from orbit and back to the mothership without assistance. In theory.

Moho is a cruel mistress, good luck. Try the poles. 

[Sharpy]

I did it. WE did it!

First, a group photo of the heroes. Bill, Annard, Jebediah, Shepry, Melline. Builders of Minemus, the mining base on Minmus.

And the inanimate heroes. Two flatbeds, two mini cranes, the gantry, the storage truck, and the Surveyor craft.

And now what they did.

56 gigantors worth of power supply.

32 large drills.

5 ISRU units.

10 largest radiators.

27 large ore tanks.

9.16% ore content in soil.

18 places of permanent crew space.

On-site part manufacturing facility.

 

And Spirit, the supertanker.

175 tons of liquid fuel (35190 units), 215 tons of oxidizer (43010 units).

All engines of at least 315s ISp, main engines 340s.

Horizontal landing and take-off engines

8,000kN of thrust

Up to 11 crew/passengers,

2 large, 4 standard and 2 Junior docking ports

And high impact durability

The engineering bay provides access to the ship from EVA without use of jetpack or ladders.

This is the place before the construction began.

This is now.

[XB-70A]

Transfert window to Eve has opened :

With just about 400 m/s...

... before separation.

A Poodle well keep on the work but for an unknow reason just one solar panel load with the craft. In the VAB two clearly appear. Anyway it must be destroyed during the entry in the purple ball atmosphere.

91 days, it takes less than my first trip to Duna.

Farewell Kerbin, this is a single way ticket to an unknow world.

Just a small correction and 19 days later...

... Eve appears for the first time on my screen. Hard to discern, a small ball is just over the nosecone.

Now it's just a question of hours before entering in its sphere of influence. Their is probably just enough fuel remaining onboard for ajusting the trajectory and use the atmosphere for an aerobraking. I wonder how the little rover will bear these conditions.

[numerobis]

I accelerated at 3.6 mm/s.

Yes, seriously, *milli*meters per second. I have 26.9 kN of thrust to 26.8 kN of drag, and 27t of mass to accelerate. TWR of about 0.1 doesn't translate to big accelerations, especially in the atmosphere.

This is based on my most ridiculous plane yet: a single Wheesley pushing up three pairs of Fat-55 wings, plus two Mk1 fuel tanks and two Big-S strakes. I have a single canard-style elevon up front for pitch control, because I didn't quite balance everything perfectly (after burning off 200 units I was able to get things balanced better with some fuel transfers). For roll and yaw I use the cockpit's control wheels.

[Corona688]

I simplified and refined the Lammergeier a bunch more.  Shortened it, added more fuel in the wing pods, adjusted the landing gear, setup engine toggles, calibrated amounts of fuel and in general fine-tuned like mad.

The Lammergeier B1 has become a joy to fly.  Its center of gravity is practically stationary, and lift is so close to balanced it can be flown without SAS or reaction wheel all the way to 30,000m.  It reaches orbit with 200 fuel remaining and the proper amount of oxidizer to match.

The one remaining trouble spot, I still don't know how to land this thing within 500 km of the KSC

Edited September 14, 2016 by Corona688

[Guest]

24 minutes ago, Corona688 said:

The one remaining trouble spot, I still don't know how to land this thing within 500 km of the KSC

That's easy, all you have to do is experiment and bracket it down. Start with an 80 km circular orbit. Then put the periapsis at 55 km above KSC. If you overshoot, lower it. If you fall short, raise it. Try to keep your deorbit routine the same every time. A couple of km difference in periapsis altitude makes a lot of difference.

[Corona688]

I've been trying various angles from KSC, hadn't thought of various heights!  That's helpful.

Edited September 14, 2016 by Corona688

[Guest]

To decompress from all the heavy engineering that went into the Archangels, I just made this for fun -- something for Valentina to fly around, to orbit and back if she likes. The MiK-21.

[SpannerMonkey(smce)]

Today I tested wheels in 1.2 and found that they are good no clipping issues no blocking=Very happy bunny. Cheers Squad

Spoiler

 

 

[Guest]

And, last one for this morning, another toy for Valentina -- the MiK-25 Boxfat. It has enough delta-V to get to Munar orbit... just, but this version has no way of refueling so it'd be a one-way trip. TTW is bonkers, you take off, point it up at 45 degrees and watch that you don't overshoot the apoapsis. Could certainly make something that does something actually useful with this platform.

[eddiew]

2 hours ago, Corona688 said:

The one remaining trouble spot, I still don't know how to land this thing within 500 km of the KSC

I use Trajectories and put the red X off the west coast of 'africa'. Each ship needs to be flown a little differently, but you soon get the knack of judging when to brake and when not to

[touzenesmy]

Got my SSTO-4C corrected version on Minmus and the old version without airbrakes and light back to ksp...with a lot of efforts.

[eddiew]

Realised that my plan to drive from Moho's equator to the mohole will take 5.4 hours of game time, assuming an average speed of 20m/s.

Might be time to consider a polar orbit...

[MaxwellsDemon]

Spent some time redesigning a Duna lander, modeled after the classic 1960s North American design for the Mars Excursion Module.  (There are a few versions out there already, of course, but I was seeing if I could reduce the part count without adversely affecting performance.  I think I succeeded, but only testing will tell for sure...)

 

Das Dunaprojekt, as envisioned by Werner von Kerman:

Launches DM-01 through DM-06:  Assembly of major components of Duna One.

Launches DM-07 through up to DM-17:  Fueling flights.

Launch DM-18:  Duna Excursion Module

Launches DM-19 and DM-20:  Crew boarding

Edited September 14, 2016 by MaxwellsDemon

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

Accidentally loaded one prototype 700m tower into another.

If that wasn't enough this happened to another one

Edited September 14, 2016 by EpicSpaceTroll139
More shenanigans

[DunaRocketeer]

I gave my trusty TSTO lifter a capability upgrade.

The booster-stage has had a tank stretch, and a jet engine upgrade. Both of these changes improve the performance of the ascent phase, as well as shortening the time needed to fly the thing back to the runway. This has allowed a stretch of the upper-stage cargo bay and a commensurate increase in mass deliverable into orbit. The upper stage has also been given large wings. Before they were just small winglets used to control angle-of-attack during reentry. Now it can glide a bit, making landing on KSC grounds much easier, which gives me a better recovery bonus.

The basic design of the vehicle shown above has formed the backbone of nearly all my missions in 2016 (with the upper stage also serving as a great way of landing cargo on Duna, once it is refuelled in LKO). It has had gradual upgrades over time, and has come a long way since January:

I might move onto something different soon, but for now it is still fun to fly.

Edited September 14, 2016 by DunaRocketeer

[Aegrim]

I was about to post asking how to fit this into a cargo bay.

 

But in the end I just managed to squeeze it in with I believe no clipping.

[kraden]

1 hour ago, Aegrim said:

I was about to post asking how to fit this into a cargo bay.

 

But in the end I just managed to squeeze it in with I believe no clipping.

I usually end up using Tweakscale in tandem with IR parts. They always seem overly large for whatever I'm trying to accomplish.

[lodger]

20 hours ago, kraden said:

Anytime I have awkward parts that I need on a ship or station, this is how I get around it. If something is too asymmetrical or bulbous for launch, into the KIS container it goes. Who needs giant, fairings when you can streamline your ship by attaching the parts later 

I had an eye on KIS/KAS for quite some time now and after my first experience with it I must say that it adds a whole now experience to the game. Also, the KIS user guide is very well designed.

Edited September 14, 2016 by lodger

[Aegrim]

22 minutes ago, kraden said:

I usually end up using Tweakscale in tandem with IR parts. They always seem overly large for whatever I'm trying to accomplish.

Yeah but then they also lose their length and I'd have to use even more parts.

[Guest]

Exploring the lower limits of what you can do with spaceplanes. 

A light one that can get to Mun orbit, refuel there, and return? The MiK-25 (revised):

What's the most minimal spaceplane that can make LKO? The MiK-25 UL. That's 11 parts. Did it relatively comfortably although landing a tail-dragger without a tailgear is a bit hairy:

 

[Guest]

From the "just because you can doesn't mean you should" file, or perhaps the "hold my beer and watch this" file, or even the "I can't believe NASA didn't think of this" file:

(No, it didn't make orbit.)