What did you do in KSP1 today?

[DerekL1963]

Still plugging away on my Jool 5 challenge preps (I know you are all so tired of hearing that)...

I was curious whether the Tylo/Vall lander could reach Bop or not.  After Hyperediting a fueled lander core to Vall, I was quite surprised to find that not only could it reach and land on Bop - it could then return to the mothership without being refueled.  On the actual mission, since the mothership is between Vall and Bop I'll probably make a pitstop there to top off the fuel tanks and give myself a little extra margin.

I'm actually quite pleased with myself - I've now made one lander do triple duty.

Some beauty shots, the lander on Bop and rendezvousing with a docking target in the mothership's planned orbit.

Since the Jool 5 challenge requires a mission report, I started a thread in the Mission Reports forum detailing my prep work and explaining some of my decisions along the way.
 

Stop by and take a look, comments and questions are welcome!

Edited September 29, 2016 by DerekL1963

[eddiew]

Mission control knew that the Thunderhawk was an oversized cargo for the Odyssey, but nobody quite seemed sure how to do the maths to work out its final range... so they sent the Thunderhawk anyway and checked the computer readout once it got there. Result; not ideal. In theory it would be good enough, in practise it would be tight, and success relies on the right alignment of celestial bodies to 'just happen'.

Mission control does not like relying on things to 'just happen' so the engineering team are instructed to make yet another adaptation of the Investigator airframe, this time one that could loft a heavy tank.

Of course, a spaceplane isn't the best mechanism for attaching things to a mothership... but the Sylveon is still attached to Starcrossed Station and is the perfect format to be a tugboat. 

Sylveon looks like some kind of pink critter as it deposits its eggs on the Odyssey's twin docking ports, but at least it gets the job done. With the extra fuel installed, the Odyssey's range rises to near 12km/s. It should work out more once the Thunderhawk starts burning some of the oxidiser, but for now, everyone is content that the mission is practical.

Today's lesson; always leave your assets in orbit unless you have a real good reason to bring them to ground. It doesn't have to be an SSTO to be reusable

Edit: on another note, I'm impressed by 1.1.3's handling of 4 simultaneous things near each other in space. In 1.0 or earlier, that would have been a slideshow, but this time was genuinely reasonable. I could tell there were many parts on-screen, but it wasn't a challenge to work with. If 1.2 is an improvement again, I may in fact not need to upgrade my CPU as I had been considering  

Edited September 29, 2016 by eddiew

[Guest]

9 hours ago, RoboRay said:

I finalized the design for my Duna unmanned sample-return mission:

How do you do an unmanned sample return? I thought only kerbonauts could take samples.

[eddiew]

1 hour ago, Brikoleur said:

How do you do an unmanned sample return? I thought only kerbonauts could take samples.

I think he's using the new 1.2 science container to pull data from the materials bay into a small return package that's easier to handle... but I agree I don't think there's a surface sample option with probes (yet?).

[LordCorwin]

Well, today I tried to do a sort of Elon Musk challenge... put 100 Kerbals in LEO orbit with a rocket similar to his proposal.

So I built the Elon-1. Here you have some pics.

It's being hard to keep track of all the Kerbals close to the ship. Moreover the game has crashed several times in the process.

Now I will see how many of them I can recover in the same ship

[Martian Emigrant]

46 minutes ago, LordCorwin said:

Well, today I tried to do a sort of Elon Musk challenge... put 100 Kerbals in LEO orbit with a rocket similar to his proposal.

So I built the Elon-1. Here you have some pics.

It's being hard to keep track of all the Kerbals close to the ship. Moreover the game has crashed several times in the process.

Now I will see how many of them I can recover in the same ship

You EVA-ed them all?

[Bomaye]

49 minutes ago, LordCorwin said:

Well, today I tried to......snip

Wait, whaaat, you EVA all of them?!?!? But why??? 

[LordCorwin]

Yeah, all of them but Jebediah. Just for fun, I wanted to see if KSP could support it.

Sorry Jeb, someone had to control the ship. Next time you will go to Eelo :-)

[RoboRay]

3 hours ago, Brikoleur said:

How do you do an unmanned sample return? I thought only kerbonauts could take samples.

There's no surface-sample for probes in stock.  We're bringing back the goo samples, the ones from the materials bay, and air samples from the atmospheric analyzer.

And we can pretend we've got soil samples too, because who would really send a probe-return mission to another planet that can't scoop up some soil?

Edited September 29, 2016 by RoboRay

[Avonix]

6 minutes ago, LordCorwin said:

Yeah, all of them but Jebediah. Just for fun, I wanted to see if KSP could support it.

Sorry Jeb, someone had to control the ship. Next time you will go to Eelo :-)

You beautiful, beautiful madman.

 

 

So today I started experimenting with trying to get something into a Geo-Sync orbit. I have failed tremendously. Further testing will be needed and I'll send up Jeb in a shuttle to clear up the mess of parts now in orbit.

[capi3101]

(1.1.3) Spent some time looking at some old images I posted on Imgur about a year ago, specifically of my old Stratofortress 7 intermünar ferry design. Since I wasn't on my home computer at the time, I went ahead and used the image to help me rebuild the craft from scratch, taking the time to add a few extra niceties and a few quick modifications to it (for example, the RCS tanks are now ensconced safely inside a Service Bay, which also includes an OKTO2 core for automated control and batteries, and the design now has headlights). Ran a test flight of the design in my litterbox save to double-check all systems/staging etc, then transferred the craft file over to my main career save. Launched the first Stratofortress - dubbed Jabit III - with Kathbertha at the helm on a mission to rendezvous with the Kerbinport 7 space station. Rendezvous and docking were complete successes, and now Jabit III is on her way toward Mün, where it will dock with the Munport 7 space station, offload its passengers and then return to Kerbinport. Still haven't figured out how I'm going to get the tourists down there just yet - I remember having a lander designed specifically for that purpose but I also remember not liking it very much...

[kraden]

4 hours ago, Brikoleur said:

How do you do an unmanned sample return? I thought only kerbonauts could take samples.

The only way I know how in 1.1.3 is via infernal robotics. There is an additional parts pack for it which includes a surface sampler. I've never used it myself, but there is a promotional video which shows it being used.

[JadeOfMaar]

After fumbling with a couple of designs for a 2.5m lander (all of which resemble a rocket sled or a big man's pants depending on how you look at it) that differed in fuel type: Lithium, LFO, LF. I went a different route and made a Mk2-esque, pill-style lander. Where on Mun I tested it seems like quite a fun and jaw-drop visually pleasing place. I want to plant a second base there.

Getting liquided that there's a tendency to only make landers that fit the bill with one seat in the cockpit/can, I put two command seats behind the cockpit and signed off on that. Installing it into its mothership I then thought to attach some science parts to it, even though this is Sandbox. The science parts are for resource sampling and anomaly tagging as there will be much questing.

The first spoiler contains the sled/pants lander: stock atomic version. The design goal is to fit in a Mk3 full-length cargo bay. That one is a fail due to the length of the NERV and the need to add and clip LFO tanks to compensate for wasted tank volume and lost dV...and not have the NERVs directly attached to the cabins. There's an airbrake underneath to prop up for liftoff.

Spoiler

 

 

The next spoiler contains really over-powered things.

Spoiler

On a far side of the fence, I tested engines on Eve!

Tried out OPT's latest update and Eve Optimized Engines. Wanting to succeed at this for the heck of it and to try out some newly returned OPT engines, I spammed those just enough for the design to work: 6x J81 Hybrid Nacelle supporting 2x Dark Drive. I got 211 tons of ship to make orbit (with the help of 640 tons of launcher). Next test? ...How much can I do without those engines and with this new experience.

Upscaled the Twin-boars to 3.75m... The recolored skippers are Adam from Eve Optimized Engines. Ship needs more Yaw control. Disturbingly this is practically the reincarnation of the winged alpha-stage mothership I tried to launch waaaay back. It even had four twin-boars then.

 

Earlier screenshot but still valid.

...

After all that I made a little seagull kind of rocketplane with highly eccentric mk2 engines. Its performance was awesome but it didn't go far.

I didn't write "liquided." but I get it.  [I meant to say I was quite angry about lander design.]

Edited September 29, 2016 by JadeOfMaar

[Guest]

Commercial launch. Needed the funds to upgrade my tracking station. Two satellites into keosynchronous orbits for Rockomax and Strutco. Went without a hitch. I may actually be learning this game. 

[Corona688]

10 hours ago, eddiew said:

Edit: on another note, I'm impressed by 1.1.3's handling of 4 simultaneous things near each other in space. In 1.0 or earlier, that would have been a slideshow, but this time was genuinely reasonable. I could tell there were many parts on-screen, but it wasn't a challenge to work with. If 1.2 is an improvement again, I may in fact not need to upgrade my CPU as I had been considering  

I love that SSTO biplane.

1.2 is amazingly smooth.  I don't build as large as you, but a lot of the jitter we've come accustomed to as normal in 1.1 just isn't there.  It's so nice I'm sticking to it even though it means giving up Kerbal Alarm Clock.

[kraden]

Lol @JadeOfMaar "liquided". I thought you were using some new slang that I was unaware of.

Well, despite my apartment getting torn apart due to the water damage, I found some time yesterday to work on my Minmus base. It now has a greenhouse and is working on it's Karbonite expansion. I also realized that I have 20 kerbal tourists all wanting to go to Mun, Minmus, and orbit the Sun. Trying to make one vehicle to launch them all is a pain.  My inner system probe Intrepid has managed to do flybys of both Moho and Eve, even managing to scrape Eve's atmosphere for a little extra science.

Hopefully I can put some pics on imgur tonight so I can share the progress visually.

[eddiew]

59 minutes ago, Corona688 said:

I love that SSTO biplane.

1.2 is amazingly smooth.  I don't build as large as you, but a lot of the jitter we've come accustomed to as normal in 1.1 just isn't there.  It's so nice I'm sticking to it even though it means giving up Kerbal Alarm Clock.

The KR&D'd engines do rather help, but yeah, it turned out to be such a good generic shape that I have a hard time replacing it. As a tanker, it'll get 18k units of fuel to orbit, as a dropship it's fine with a cargo ramp at the back, and as a general cargo carrier it'll happily shift 2.5m parts. There's a lot of drag in it though, which I don't really understand... something about mk4 just isn't shielding like it should.

The only real jitter I get in 1.1.3 is what I think is the garbage collector. Intervals vary, sometimes it's 2 minutes, sometimes it's 10 seconds, but the game is full of little pauses that feel like the mouse just got stuck - then it moves again. Annoying when it happens during a landing sequence   Still, feels like 1.2 might even be next week, so I'll wait and see how my fave mods respond  

[Corona688]

I mean, there was jitter I didn't realize was there until it was gone, the happens-to-everything jitter you get accustomed to with any MIcrosoft OS.  That was noticeably better, probably due to 1.2's improved multithreading.

The prerelease is out already, you know.

Edited September 29, 2016 by Corona688

[Martian Emigrant]

4 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

 

Love the asymmetric pants. Looks like a man with gout and a wooden leg.

So Kerbal.

I have to remember that one. And imitate it.

 

ME

[Guest]

Kerbert I arrived at Duna and achieved its mission objectives without incident.

Aerocapture.

Parachutes open.

Flag planted!

Resetting experiments.

Landed on Ike.

All that remains is the wait for the return window, and the return trip.

[Crocket]

I gave a friend a quick lesson on how to build planes since he wants the game. On a completely unrelated note, there was a crash just east of the KSC.

[eddiew]

Played KSP until half past bed time, regretted my life choices. Full report tomorrow. Will just leave this here meantime.

(Not a single experiment kersploded! Thunderhawk is now loaded with over 1000 science after just one stop, and there's a lab up in orbit. My crazy goal of 100,000 science points might actually be viable after all!)

[Crocket]

I've been playing around with my biome hopper that @JadeOfMaar so graciously tested and I noticed that one of the engines has fluctuating oxidizer levels, putting it into an unrecoverable spin in flight and being a general annoyance when trying to lift off. Will investigate soon.

Coulda sworn I took some screencaps...

[Floby]

Started Career Mode over again, because the new Xbox One update deleted my saves.  

[Martian Emigrant]

1 hour ago, Crocket said:

I've been playing around with my biome hopper that @JadeOfMaar so graciously tested and I noticed that one of the engines has fluctuating oxidizer levels, putting it into an unrecoverable spin in flight and being a general annoyance when trying to lift off. Will investigate soon.

Coulda sworn I took some screencaps...

I have had ship that had developed a thrust asymmetry. (I suspect Part clipping is involved).

Check the fuel flow at full thrust between the 2 you may find one is starved. shutting down the good one cures the bad one. It's as if the game decided there ain't enough air or fuel for two so it favors one.

If it's the same bug as I have seen then you may adjust the thrust limit of the engine at something less but acceptable for the game.  2 engines at 80% on a moon might work fine.

 

ME