What did you do in KSP1 today?

[capi3101]

(1.1.3) Didn't get a chance to do too much this weekend; what I did do, I did on my desktop save. Farted around with a plane design that really needed something more than Elevon 1 available for a little while. Went ahead and got Jabit III to Mün with its load of tourists and docked the craft to the Munport 7 space station, offloading three passengers (though one of them seems to have disappeared; I'm not quite sure what happened there, nor do I know if I'll have to scrub his contract when everything is said and done). Put Jabit III back on a course to Kerbin, where the plan is to rendezvous with Kerbinport 7 to offload the single remaining passenger (the one that wanted to visit Mün but not land there) and do the whole thing over again. I also need to get a more substantial crew module installed at Munport 7, obviously. Put several probes into their final orbital positions for contract, though I was once again dismayed to discover that I had replaced a thermometer with an accelerometer on a probe where the contract called specifically for a thermometer...and this around Mün to boot...

The replacement contracts weren't interesting. I'll be waiting a few in-game days for new ones.

I really should get back to my laptop save - that deal with rescuing the Kerbal on suit thrusters only really did sound pretty fun...

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

Was working on a tanker in career mode and realized I could double my fuel/fuselage ratio simply by sticking Oscar-B tanks in a cargo bay. http://imgur.com/Tsova1F

It has a lower wet/dry ratio than regular tanks, but I blame that on having 4 tanks (and thus more metal) instead of one larger one.

I knew that more fuel should be able to fit in Mk2 tanks but I didn't know just how bad they were.

#Mk2fuselagetanksarespaceinefficient

Edited October 10, 2016 by EpicSpaceTroll139

[Sharpy]

Lithobraker 2 landed on Mun successfully. It survived the initial 380m/s impact as designed, though secondary bounces damaged the craft somewhat.

 

More than somewhat.

Nevertheless, the concept has been tested: extremely long fairings are viable impact absorbers.

 

[SkyRender]

Technically it was yesterday, but I decided to mess around a bit with the communications system in the beta and see what I could do with a Kerbosynchronous satellite ring.

I do so love my orbital synchronization calculator.  So useful...

[TheEpicSquared]

@SkyRender Mind telling me what "resonance" means? Thanks  

[SkyRender]

5 minutes ago, TheEpicSquared said:

@SkyRender Mind telling me what "resonance" means? Thanks  

Sure!  Resonance (in orbital terms) means that your orbit is such that the surface of the planet is aligned with the object in orbit.  A 1:2 resonance, for example, means that for every 1 day, the satellite will be directly overhead 2 times that day.  At a 2:1 resonance, the satellite will be directly overhead once every 2 days.  Therefore, at 1:1 resonance, the satellite is tracking perfectly with the surface.  We refer to this as "geosynchronous orbit", or in the case of Kerbin, Kerbosynchronous orbit.

Edited October 10, 2016 by SkyRender

[TheEpicSquared]

Just now, SkyRender said:

Sure!  Resonance (in orbital terms) means that your orbit is such that the surface of the planet is aligned with the object in orbit.  A 2:1 resonance, for example, means that for every 1 day, the satellite will be directly overhead 2 times that day.  At a 1:2 resonance, the satellite will be directly overhead once every 2 days.  Therefore, at 1:1 resonance, the satellite is tracking perfectly with the surface.  We refer to this as "geosynchronous orbit", or in the case of Kerbin, Kerbosynchronous orbit.

Ah I see thanks! Your calculator will be so useful to me now.  

[CatastrophicFailure]

10 hours ago, DerekL1963 said:

Started designing the lifters for the various pieces of my Jool 5 mission...  It's probably crazy that I spend an hour optimizing a booster that I'll only use once, but I can get obsessive about the details.

You should give 64k/RSS a try. The brutal nature of the realities encourages polishing/optimizing a good booster then using it as much as possible. 

[fourfa]

Been working on this very fun-to-fly spaceplane:

It's obviously called the I.S.O.C.E.L.E.S.  Still nailing down the backronym - In Search Of Cool Epithet [something] [something] Spaceplane

[SkyRender]

9 minutes ago, fourfa said:

Been working on this very fun-to-fly spaceplane:

It's obviously called the I.S.O.C.E.L.E.S.  Still nailing down the backronym - In Search Of Cool Epithet [something] [something] Spaceplane

How about Inline Surface/Orbital-Capable Extra-Light Exploration Spacecraft?

Edited October 10, 2016 by SkyRender

[fourfa]

rad, works for me!

[DerekL1963]

34 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

You should give 64k/RSS a try. The brutal nature of the realities encourages polishing/optimizing a good booster then using it as much as possible. 

Actually, it ended up that all the main parts (save two) of my mothership were +/- 10 tons of the first piece I lifted, so all that optimization time paid off - all the subsequent lifts were just modifications of that first lifter.  Now all I have to do is design the biggest PITA (the tank farm used for fueling on orbit) and I'm ready to roll into orbital assembly.

I've looked at variants of RSS, too much like work.

[JadeOfMaar]

Finally got some fun play in and resumed the Dres mission.

After a roll (or four) of the dice, Sigmund Kerman got the short straw and stayed behind on the NANC Brown while everyone else EVA'd and boarded the, umm, Pill Lander there. I need to rename the general shape of them as a disturbing trend may be forming. After undocking and turning the key Valentina got no response and with a small sneer, had to redock the lander to refill its tanks. This course of action brought confusion to the unwitting shotgun personnel seated around/outside the cockpit.

With a generous 4km/s of dV and sufficient RCS power they landed gracefully on the most curious of surface in the solar system to date, moreover: a place that doesn't exist (according to SCANsat) on a place that doesn't exist (according to Folklore). Munney Kerman affectionately tagged it Lies Upon Lies!

Preparing for the next phase of the mission, the lander party returned to low orbit and plotted a rendezvous with Sigmund who grumpily and nervously had to depart the ship and do a pilot's job, and bring down a Xenon Koaster to pick up Val. Her instructions seemed simple enough but there was still a small dose of trouble. Starting the reactors late on the koaster, some of its engines cut off and worriedly, he had to do most of his periapsis circulariztion at less than half throttle. Valentina wasn't going to use precious dV from the lander to meet up with Sigmund, though. The jump would only cost her 12m/s in EVA fuel. She recalled the archive entry of a 5-kerbal crew that got stranded on Mun, 20 or 30km from an outpost, and two of them jumped that vast distance and survived. Strangely, Sigmund found himself sweating in his suit. Although quite uncomfortable, this experience and a diagnosis of the koaster when they get home would add some suspense and handy science to the records.

Those two depart, making for high orbit. Nancy and Munney return to the surface, stopping first and planting a flag on a crater rim and its Impact Ejecta biome. Munney had a barrel of laughs as Nancy did a barrel roll down a portion of that rim. After leaving there they aim for the famous canyon and land at its Western edge. The plan was to go for a joyride, weaving through it but the vessel has < 900m/s left. The risk begins to creep in for dooming the lander to stay behind, immobile on Dres' surface.

 

 

 

[Leopard]

Took insanity out for a few more survey missions, may have to change the name for while she looks a bit odd with the cruciform tail she flies nicely.

First up was a single survey at 19k altitude but too far from home to fly up then over so lift off, get to about 100 m/s horizontally and fire the jets, then manually cut the rocket, fly to target area and relight the rocket, up then a gradual flight home.

Two more flights each at lower level so the rocket just for launching then jets for cruising, each with three targets, all complete, on the last one diverted over the desert on the way home for a bit of science as a reward.

If not for the lack of an upgraded runway (doing these flights to raise cash for a mun flyby) I'd modify to have the lower fin on a decoupler to be able to drop it for a landing on wheels. Parachutes doing nicely so far though.

Not done any really long ranged flights, the basic jets are way too slow, she'd get there, but I'd be a sleep by the time she did.

Only really started this as on the set difficulty the penalty for refusing missions is harsh, so figured I needed to do a few to clear them out, now just have one survey one left, and its a good long flight so may leave that one a while or try a more ballistic hop to get in the general area then just land and recover at a distance to save time flying back.

[Bomaye]

Made a Twin Cruiser, 1 by 1 for atmosphere and as 1 for low gravity moons/planets. Why? Dunno really 

It appeared that the 2 extra docking ports was a design flaw 

All stock w/ISRU.

[eddiew]

Finally away from Slate! The crew all agree that it's a strangely beautiful world but... wow, is it scary. Steep slopes, deep canyons, and gravity high enough to really demand that you obey the terrain and its whims result in a moon that tells you where you're going and doesn't negotiate. Or if it does, the deal gets worse every time you try, so you soon stop asking.

Now Eeloo on the other hand... 0.17g, flatter, smoother, lots of biomes in a small space. That's a proper moon, fit for a real kerbal to explore!

...and a very lucrative one. Jay, Thystle, Otter, River and Llew are briefly excited, until mission control explains that they don't get commission. Glory and salaries are what drives kerbonauts, apparently.

(Ed: I'm using the contract slot machine strategy from Strategia. This gives me random rolls on the values of contracts, and... yeah, I've been getting lucky with it. So far, this Sarnus cruise has netted somewhere around 6 million roots, and there's at least 5 more for landings and surveys on Ovok and Hale - both of which are teeny tiny worlds and won't challenge Telemachus's fuel reserves. I've also applied a little patch as supplied by @Shadowmage when I asked about how to make labs work better. Buffed the raw data storage by a factor of 10, and doubled the science output cache. Should result in a lot less nursing and trying to keep it topped up, since I can basically just dump a whole moon's worth of data into it at a time. Side effect, it processes much faster due to data stacking, but it's such a horrible mechanic that I don't feel too bad. What am I 'cheating' here - the need to spend 2 real time hours timewarping and transmitting? If that comes down to 30 minutes, then it's a change that should be made to the stock game. Spoiler below is the cfg file.)

Spoiler

@PART[*]:HAS[@MODULE[ModuleScienceConverter]]
{
	@MODULE[ModuleScienceConverter]
	{
		%scienceCap = 1000 // we still have to deal with the transmission cost
  	}
}

@PART[*]:HAS[@MODULE[ModuleScienceLab]]
{
	@MODULE[ModuleScienceLab]
	{
		%dataStorage = 7500 // this on the other hand, is free to increase, it just allows faster queuing
	}
}

 

The ore scan is a little meh, but that's ok because Ovok would be a better candidate for a mining base out here anyway - assuming that that has any.

[qromodynmc]

While everyone goes to space, i was watching some youtube videos about stock propeller planes, and finally managed to build one;

it does around 40-45ms, pretty slow but whatever, i had my fun today

[XB-70A]

Just have the time to conceive a new light SSTO/TSTO called XC-21 Surt, just for fun. Surprisingly everything went well on her inaugural flight (!). She needs just some adjustments and will be ready to be shared in some hours :

I used two small drop tanks on this first flight to see her consumption. She should be able to reach a low orbit on herself as a pure SSTO.

It's a question of style.

Waiting at 75 km for the 200 km rendez-vous.

As usual I used Outer Heaven for the test. The Kolibri Mk. I is still here as a cheap shuttle.

The re-entry was satisfying, the RCS finally being not necessary to maintain an angle of 20-25 some seconds after.

Short landing distance with the braking chute. Main landing breaks are set to 19.

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

Was rather amused by the inability of the folks at FLOOYD DRL to understand the significance of a spacecraft's name.

They want me to 'expand "Mun Station l" around Kerbin'

It's heading for the Mun tomorrow.

Also this:

Edited October 11, 2016 by EpicSpaceTroll139

[Andem]

26 minutes ago, EpicSpaceTroll139 said:

You see that there Kerbal stranded in orbit? The one by the name of Erfurt? Do me a favor, rescue him. 

Edited October 11, 2016 by Andem

[KamenRiderzero1]

Today I...

 

accidently reverted the game out of pre-test mode and deleted several save files...

[AstroBovice]

I went back to Duna for a rescue mission/ mass science grab. Will update soon. Sleep time. 

 

 

[RX2000]

FINALLY docked 2 ships together!!! I launched a tourist/science lander to the Mun, & decided to dock it with my Munar Science Station orbiting the Mun before it lands! I completed the contract to dock 2 ships around the Mun, as well as the world firsts of docking & docking around the Mun.

I really wish I could transfer fuel from the lower stage of the science station to the lander, but when I alt+right click the option isnt there. Not sure why it wont let me transfer fuel.

[DerekL1963]

Sometimes you just need to get five orange tanks worth of fuel into orbit and you say to yourself "self, I'm tired of delicate, perfectly optimized lifters - just get that sucker on orbit".

[KinkyFerrets]

On 10/9/2016 at 5:35 PM, Notanerd said:

15 March, 1940.

 A strange aircraft takes shape in the sky. It seems to defy the laws of physics. But you know that the German war machine knows no bounds.

Not yet...

http://imgur.com/gallery/vFCJH

First person to guess which aircraft this is based on will get rep if I knew how to give rep...

BV 141. Nice