What did you do in KSP1 today?

[JadeOfMaar]

Today's weather forecast: sunny skies as usual with an 80% chance of ....Ball Lightning? Well, a true service has been found for the Mk3 racer, a.k.a. Ball Lightning Freight.

Jebediah launches off to refill the giant tank at the orbital crew hub, with 62 tons of LFO, and waving Fort NOX's flag and outshining Valentina when she first did so (that is, not wrecking the craft at the end of the mission).

So much purple...

Docking had to be performed without the generous hand of Docking Port Alignment Indicator. Maybe it's just my game (and the many crashes), or Control From Here does not work with the Mk3 Inline Node. @SuicidalInsanity
 Comment?

Periapsis wasn't dropped low enough after departure, it seemed, as Jebediah had to do some noodling to bring the Apoapsis into the atmosphere and preempt a second aerobrake pass. It's quite okay, though. He packed some beef and had it hang out the hatch to make into jerky. Having SAS hold the whole way down otherwise gave him all the time to leave the seat and set up his midnight munch on the dark side of Kerbin. A fun snag occurred though: One of the tanks drained asymmetrically, causing the plane to drift sideways. Jebediah could have wound up as salad beside the beef jerky.

Landing was pretty graceful if not speedy and bumpy. Ah well, Grasslands for the win. He's also noted to install drogue chutes. The atomic engine could do with some security through stopping power, not that he had any problem with landing dangerously. He's going to fly up a second time and refill [the station body] and/or the idle Saucer Shuttle there.

 

[icedown]

@JadeOfMaar  Why the heat shield on the nose?

[eddiew]

Doohan Kerman loses a few surface experiments to the inexplicably hostile sands, but the pyrotechnics seem to be mostly harmless and no injuries are sustained. While the surviving experiments are packed up, Nimoy Kerman regales the crew with the song of his people.

With the light fading, the crew decides to wait out the night where they are before making a move again next morning - by pushing the Thunderhawk off the cliff!

With 2/3rs of their oxidiser left, the crew decide that conditions are optimal for an ocean landing. Science gathering is necessarily limited, but that doesn't stop Kelley and Lily having a darn good go at getting some data.

Matching the Odyssey's orbital inclination is cheapest with a departure at sunset - and the crew are glad of the fact, as a rainbow of colours glisten on the ocean around them. Now there's a photo that will drive the tourist industry!

The Thunderhawk being a lot lighter than the Odyssey, it's much more fuel efficient to leave the mothership in its eccentric orbit had have the lander head back to meet it. After a surprisingly easy rendezvous and docking, the science data is transferred to the lab. Nimoy and Kelley set set about the long task of working through it while Jinx, Lily, Roddenberry and Doohan kill time playing space darts and i-spy.

(Ed: scientists have to work so hard compared to other professions... I feel bad for them. Might see if there's a config file that would accelerate the data processing speed.)

Edited October 1, 2016 by eddiew

[Crocket]

So... interesting things happened.

I thought I fixed the fuel issue on the lander. Nope! Still broken. While I thought it was fine, I sent Jeb up to the Mun in it.

It was only then that I noticed the uneven fuel levels. Not wanting to risk another deadly spin, I sent Jeb to a crater 4 kilometers away from the lander with his EVA pack for... reasons.

Of course, this situation being as it was, Jeb overshot the lander by a kilometer on re-approach and ran out of fuel. Jeb hiked and hiked until he finally got up to the lander. Jeb had to jump and scrabble up the tanks like mad to get in, but he never really did. Instead, he just baaarely tapped a lander leg, which naturally went full Aloha Snackbar and took Jeb with it. Squad, can we get some Kerbal-resistant legs in 1.2, please?

[moogoob]

Still playing around with that nuclear lander I copied from a Scott Manley video. Last we saw, Bill had been from Kerbin to Pol, then Bop, leaving flags everywhere. Next up was another place I've never landed a Kerbal - Vall! Yes, I use probes way too often.

Vall is on the upper end of bodies that this lander can handle gravity-wise and it was a good thing I'd used as much fuel as I had by then as my TWR would have been too low otherwise - it was only a TWR of 1.6 on my attempt.  Well, it went textbook. I use Mechjeb's suicide burn readout to guide my landing pass. With low TWR landers it's often best (and safest!) to land Apollo style, by using the spacecraft's rotation rather than throttle to affect your course down and/or bleed off horizontal velocity. The countdown can be used to help this - if it goes below zero, tile your spacecraft up to increase vertical speed, if it goes up, tilt horizontally. Works for me!

So I still have about 1300 m/s left in the descent stage and 2400 or so in the centre tank...

EDIT: Oh! And in an earlier launch of the same model lander, Bob visited the canyon on Dres. The list of crewed landing sites increases!

Edited October 1, 2016 by moogoob
Details, details.

[Tw1]

This is not an invasion.

It's a scouting mission. We're here for scientific purpose-  

Tangy Kerman: " Signs of activity over there."

Kedrin Kerman: "I got it."

 

This is not a weapons demonstration. 

The blasts are exposing rock strata. 

This is not a squadron practicing formation flying.

This is definitely not a prototype warship on its way to solve an issue on the Mun.

I assure you my intentions on Duna are entirely peaceful.  You all have nothing to fear. 

 

 

Edited October 2, 2016 by Tw1

[ShawnPhillips]

With the 1.2 pre-releases out I have started playing KSP again. So I made a Pilot episode of an upcoming KSP video series I have been wanting to make for a while.

 

Future episodes will have a slightly different format then this one, Being more like a sandbox playthrough with the crew going on wacky adventures and playing out more like a comedy series then a serious scientific exploration.

[Guest]

I brought back mission Kerbert I from Duna. 

Reconfiguration for return: leave the orbiter/fuel module orbiting Ike with what fuel is left in case someone needs it later, abandon the science module now that it's done its job and all the science has been collected in the science storage can (inside the little utility bay), and dock up with the orbiter command pod.

Back in Kerbin orbit, rendez-vous with the cargo spaceplane sent on a recovery mission.

All collected! All that remains is a routine re-entry and landing, collecting a cool 2500 or so in Science. (I can only imagine what it would've been processed through a lab, but I don't want to max out the tech tree too soon...)

[JadeOfMaar]

@icedown My most prominent spaceplanes are hypersonic. That is, they accelerate to Mach 6 and beyond while still accessing IntakeAir, so the cockpits absolutely need thermal protection. You can click the NOX flag in my sig for more info and a gallery.

@Crocket That uneven fuel drain actually happened to me very early in the testing so I checked and prepared for whether it would happen again. It did not and seems to be a chance thing so no design changes need to be done. But if you save the center engine for the uppermost stage you can better avoid that danger and you won't miss out on TWR or dV. Also, I think the kerbal+lander leg problem is fixed in 1.2 along with most general wheel issues.

Edited October 1, 2016 by JadeOfMaar

[SuicidalInsanity]

11 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

 Maybe it's just my game (and the many crashes), or Control From Here does not work with the Mk3 Inline Node

I've looked into the issue and you're correct; it'll be fixed next update.

[Schtiebuu]

Today ive landed after 3 real time weeks (worked on other missions) my Lander with docked Rover to find an Flat point to build an Duna Outpost.

On the landing maneuver ive shutted down 2/4 brake engines because one of them wanted grill the Rover command module XD. But 2 Engines had enough power to brake the Lander and Rover safety.

Edited October 1, 2016 by Schtiebuu
more infos :P

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

Made a stupid decision in career mode: try to climb K2 on foot.

http://imgur.com/a/hBvf2

[Cupcake...]

Made a nuisance of myself at the KSC.

 

Cupcake...

 

[steedcrugeon]

I managed to get my first ever mission to Duna:

[moogoob]

Well I uh, made this:

It's surprisingly practical for low gravity worlds like Minmus, low TWR notwithstanding. Currently has too much fuel, but I'm working on balancing that.

[Ty Tan Tu]

Despite that www.kerbalmaps.com is down I landed on Mun with a lander. I picked a site on the left side of the bigger crater and placed a survey rover. At first I started down hill, but it kept going down and down and down. So I headed back up hill with the rover thinking I would go into the cater to the west, but before I got there, I ran into a flat plane. I let let my rover roll up and down hill until if stopped, assuming that would be a zero slope. I had to dampen it a bit, but it did stop. I marked the longitude and latitude, and landed a small Mun base there using MechJeb.

[Corona688]

1 hour ago, Cupcake... said:

Made a nuisance of myself at the KSC.

Let me see your outtakes of that XD

[Cupcake...]

9 minutes ago, Corona688 said:

Let me see your outtakes of that XD

Never! I mean er... there were no outtakes to speak of.

 

Cupcake...

[septemberWaves]

I made approximate replicas of every variant of the Atlas V that has flown (as well as the Atlas V 511, which hasn't flown as of yet), all scaled to the stock KSP system with their real payload masses (accurate to nearest 100kg). Figuring out the asymmetrical SRBs was actually a lot easier than I had anticipated, and they fly very well - when using MechJeb's autopilot that is, since most of them do require a fair amount of constant stabilization in order to not crash. Interestingly enough, the way I set them up actually forces MechJeb to use a more efficient ascent trajectory than the default setting, saving between 100 and 300m/s on the ascent compared to usual.

I don't have pictures of all of them, but here is the largest, the Atlas V 551, with a maximum payload to LKO of 18.8 tonnes.

[Benji13]

I did a couple of things.

1 - I certified that KSP does not use N-Body Physics:

 

2 - I went for a swim. In the suns radiation.

Anyone bring the Aloe Vera?

[Firemetal]

Added more two drop ships to my Duna ship. The last few days, I rocked two big refuellers and a slightly smaller one to it.

Now I have to wait for a transfer window and send the crew up to begin the mission. Then I send the cruiser, an ascent vehicle, a big pickup truck like rover and a hab module to Duna.

Exciting stuff!

Fire

[Choctofliatrio2.0]

8 minutes ago, Benji13 said:

1 - I certified that KSP does not use N-Body Physics:

Wow! Any pictures of the view from Kerbin?

 

I finally have gotten back into KSP after a long hiatus. Started a sandbox to practice various stuff I haven't done much of, like mining and interplanetary probes. I also started a space station, because I like them.

Got the first 3 modules up today, not counting the core. On the top is a small habitation module (nobody in it yet). On the left is an automated laboratory, the right is two RCS tugs (I used one for the hab. If it's something like the solar trusses, I'll probably use both so we don't get asymmetric RCS)

Hab bay open. Those goo containers and solar panels are real, but I'm pretending they're supply containers. I need something to put in my fancy, lit up, easily accessible service bay.

[Benji13]

@Choctofliatrio2.0 I tried to launch a ship but it would spawn inside the blue ocean at the centre of Kerbin. Probably has something to do with every sphere of influence in the game being in the same place. 

[icedown]

 

Might be working on a new project

[JadeOfMaar]

Had to do this launch on secondary computer. My main computer literally can't handle this and its part count of 400+.

Sleep is for tourists. The transfer window flies open in the dead of night. And like a Catwoman, the HMS NANC Brown (With Valentina and Nancy Kerman piloting) leaps through it, well-equipped and unafraid.

Don't let the aerospikes deceive you. Those are not her main engines....

And the main engines are Not A Nerv Cluster™

She's also Not A Nice Chick. She's going where nice/normal chicks don't want to go.

And look at those probes. She's going to have fun where no one else goes to have fun.

Gallery with more pics and informative/semi-serious commentary: http://imgur.com/a/09mp5