What did you do in KSP1 today?

[purpleivan]

Further 1.2 career progress

 

A couple of helpless kerbals rescued from Kerbin orbit. Brought down just a few km west of the KSC, which made the recovery team happy.

 

Sent a habitation module to dock with the science station in Minmus orbit for a "build a space station" contract. Unfortunately I forgot to account for the fact that I was relying on the capacity of the existing station for three kerbals to bring me up to the total of twenty required for the contract, so I'll need to send another module with that extra capacity, occupied by with three pilots, that I also forgot to stick the thing, on board.

Not a complete loss as the new module did fix the issue of the science lab not having an antenna to transmit its data back to Kerbin, so at least there's that.

 

 

[RoboRay]

The Habitation Modules for my coming Laythe mining base arrived...

Jool's rings are barely visible, just over the horizon.

The landing legs protect the mobility wheels from the impact of landing, which they otherwise would not survive.

The entire separation and independent landing sequence was automated with SmartParts timers and altimeter triggers.

[The Raging Sandwich]

I did a bit more yesterday.

Messenger 7 (The second mission outside of Kerbin's SOI. Launched it into interplanetary space in a slightly lower orbit than Kerbin's, but things aren't looking too good.): Probably failure.

Eve A/Gilly T11 (Test of the orbital Gilly spacecraft. A slow takeoff but eventually got into orbit just fine. The fine engineers in the VAB [me], however, forgot to put any electrical systems inside the spacecraft. A burn by the retro rockets to deorbit kept it alive for a little while longer. After, it completely ran out of power and was destroyed on impact with the water.): Failure

S-1 F.7 (Bill Kerman, the Kerbal who was supposed to become the second Kerbal in orbit, tookoff in the now training craft S-1. The plane began to stall for some reason at low altitudes, causing Bill to have to bail out, just hoping he would survive. He failed to use the EVA pack to slow his fall and he died on impact with the water. The S-planes have now been designated for test-pilots only.): Failure

[Martian Emigrant]

Returned to my 1.2 career.

I hate the early-low-tech-days.

Now half way up the tree. Much better.

I made a get some cheap-science-at-home-rover.

 

The last version had 4 of everything including 4 scientist.

The radar dishes are separate places to visit too.

 

Still unclear on the concept of networking. I started seeding the planet ways with junk relays. Not sure yet if that does anything except adding to Mr Kesslers collection.

 

I never send probes. Always has a pilot on board. Well 95 percent anyway. It will probably bite me somewhere.

Sent a lab in orbit of Kerbin.

 

IT's OK.

 

OK enough that I made a different version to send to the MUN. But in the remodelling <EXPLETIVE DELETED>  The forward port was deleted. I was trying in the dark to select a non-existent port.

I will have to add to it from the side. From ONE side.

 

Here we have Vallina (A Junior rescuee pilot) leaving after adding rooms EDIT left to herself by a junior rescue pilot in the new Mun-Station.

 

It was supposed to be in front. GRR.

 

Oh well. I will derate the main engine and fly with a crooked COM to the Mun. I am not scrapping it.

 

ME

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 6, 2016 by Martian Emigrant

[adsii1970]

Nothing yet... but the day is still quite young.

[Alchemist]

Kerbnet got me surprized this time. It marked a location... that I didn't expect to be there. There was something there long ago, but then it seemed to get buried and then it just dissapeared from detectors...

Took me quite a while searching the mountain range, because Kerbnet isn't too useful for pinpointing such things, even after I sent the second plane carrying the rover body (actually, it carries an actual rover in the bay) - it required landings all around and still pointed with quite some offset

But it's really back!!!

 

P.S. Turns out Kerbnet on the rover body really doesn't like elevated anomalies. If you are slightly above it, it will be plotted further away than it is, if you are below the target, it won't appear on the scanner at all.

[Guest]

Rover Duna screenshot. Beware of spoilers!

Spoiler

Actually two rovers.

 

Edited November 6, 2016 by Guest

[CatastrophicFailure]

3 hours ago, RoboRay said:

The entire separation and independent landing sequence was automated with SmartParts timers and altimeter triggers.

Smart Parts FTW! What mod are those chutes from? They look awesome. 

[RoboRay]

1 hour ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Smart Parts FTW! What mod are those chutes from? They look awesome. 

They are functionally the stock parachutes and drogues, but Ven's Stock Parts Revamp resizes the canopies to a more realistic scale (and makes everything prettier with replacement models and textures).

Here's some pics of my testing rig so you can see what the base will look like, when it's assembled:

All the wheels are oriented in the same direction when the modules are all docked together, so it can actually move around (slowly, with frequent broken wheels) after assembly.

There will also be a fuel-tank farm attached off one end of the main truss.

Jeb and Val, relaxing after a hard Form/Fit/Function testing day:

 

Edited November 6, 2016 by RoboRay

[TheEpicSquared]

Expanded my SpaceLab space station for my KSP Megastructures story. Looks nice doesn't it?  

The station is made mostly of parts from the incredible Mark One Laboratory Extensions mod. Check it out, it's awesome.  

 

[Tyko]

1 hour ago, RoboRay said:

<SNIP>

Here's some pics of my testing rig so you can see what the base will look like, when it's assembled:

All the wheels are oriented in the same direction when the modules are all docked together, so it can actually move around (slowly, with frequent broken wheels) after assembly.

 

The base design and landing sequence is really well done! congrats and thanks for sharing ideas  

[septemberWaves]

I did some more testing of my new Raven-series launch vehicles. I also finally assembled the Raven V (which now uses 3 Raven IV 500 cores instead of a Raven IV 500 and two Raven II 500s).

Below: a Raven IV 744 (7 main engines, 4 SRBs, R4 upper stage) launches a 39.1 tonne test payload. The test proved that this configuration has a capacity of at least 40 tonnes to LKO.

Test payload with R4 upper stage after circularizing in an 80km orbit. There was a reasonable delta-v margin.

 

Below is the first launch of the Raven V, carrying the R5-B upper stage. The R5-B is an augmented R5 upper stage, which uses more efficient engines at the cost of lower thrust. It also has a truss structure attached inside the fairing. This upper stage is designed for use as a chemical propulsion module for a Saraneth I or Saraneth II interplanetary transport.

The R5-B in low Kerbin orbit. It uses five toroidal aerospikes instead of the Kiwi engines used on the standard R5 upper stage. The truss structure above is designed to hold (depending on the mission) either a small payload or an extra fuel tank (launched separately, would be jettisoned when empty). I may design a truss configuration that can take both a payload and a half-size fuel tank, but it is more likely that the missions the Saraneth I and II are designed for will not require such a setup.

 

I also tested out the new Mercury CT-3A vehicle. This one can transport 6 crew, and is launched on a Raven II 400.

Edited November 6, 2016 by eloquentJane

[NSEP]

I built these last week:

[Brownhair2]

The MTU Crystal is off to Vanor, with 2 Waders (space seaplanes? sea spaceplanes?) and a mining ship in tow

[Martian Emigrant]

26 minutes ago, NSEP said:

I built these last week:

Lunokhod!

That's awesome.

Is there no limit to imagination and what this game can do?

 

ME

 

 

[Starman4308]

So first, an amusing result when landing a Minmus base for Sean's Cannery:

Spoiler

I maaaay have taken this image more than once out of pure excitement:

Trajectory (Ike gravity brake saves maybe 200 m/sec, costing ~10-20 m/sec to set up when just outside Kerbin orbit):

Spoiler

Gravity brake at Ike:
 

Spoiler

 

I strongly suspect that a big part of the benefit of this maneuver is not necessarily the slingshot, but just the fact that Duna's gravity isn't acting on you for the entire duration of passing through Ike SOI.

 

The insertion approaches, with my first-ever kOS script to handle the maneuver. Turns out the kOS script was completely unnecessary in the end; while Kerbin was eclipsed, one of my solar relays kept me in constant connection.

Spoiler

RCS thrusters fire for five seconds before the burn begins, as well as two seconds into the burn, to ensure proper ullage (pressing the main engine's fuel to the bottom of the tank).

Spoiler

Inserted into elliptical orbit: at apodune, circularized into 4,000 km orbit to serve as communication relay for subsequent missions. As of writing: one more has been circularized, the third will probably circularize at next apodune, and the fourth will be entering Duna SOI in nine hours.

Spoiler

Ike eclipses Duna:

Spoiler

The survey satellite, loaded with instruments, is approaching and inserting as we speak. I'll let the UI on the second image speak as to the design decision I most regret about the survey probe.

Spoiler

 

 

EDIT: I've checked; it's been almost a month since I sent most of these craft towards Duna. Wonderful to finally have that come to fruition.

Edited November 6, 2016 by Starman4308

[The Raging Sandwich]

What I did today:

Discovery 4 (A retry of the Discovery 3 mission which tried to do a low-altitude flyby of the Mun. This time, I did a high-altitude and a low-altitude [got within 4.2 kilometers] flyby.): Success

Transit 4 (The first Keosynchronous satellite. A relay probe for deep-space spacecraft and probes.): Success

Eve A/Gilly T12 (A retry of the T11 mission which ran out of electricity after the retro burn. Final test before a manned orbital mission.): Success

Starbird Flight 1 (After the numerous deaths of potential Kerbalnauts, a new training craft, the Starbird, was devised and only test pilots could fly the S-planes. However, upon landing, the test pilot [forgot the poor guy's name ] lost balance of the craft and crashed.): Failure

Messenger 8 (The first Minmus satellite. Conducted a polar flyby of the Mun on its way, then conducted a Minmus flyby coming within 30 km of the surface. It was then placed into a very high orbit of Kerbin to test future deep-space spacecraft components.): Success

Starbird Flight 2 (Before crashing, the test pilot of the first flight reported it was hard to pitch up. Canards were placed on the front and the test pilot [forgot his name, too ] took off and landed back at the KSC.): Success

Starbird Flight 3 (Since the new Starbird was much easier to fly, Rosanda Kerman [the first pilot of the S-1, since promoted to Kerbalnaut status after Valentina Kerman's death] gave it a go before her upcoming orbital flight.): Success

Gilly 2 (The first manned orbital flight flew by Rosanda Kerman. Flew 3 orbits and landed. During reentry, the retro package failed to decouple, so the entire reentry was done with the retro package on. After deploying the parachutes, Rosanda jettisoned the heatshield which caused the spacecraft to spin wildly. Rosanda took control and landed safely.): Success

Discovery 5 (Tested a [sort-of] Molniya orbit. The top fairings failed to deploy and the rocket lost electric charge before the orbital insertion burn, and it crashed into the ground.): Failure

 

Next flight: Starbird Flight 4 (A training flight for the Kerbal replacing Bob Kerman [I keep forgetting everyone's names!])

 

Discovery 4's flyby

 

Discovery 4 at closest approach

Messenger 8

The Starbird

Gilly 2

[Stewcumber]

I completed my first munar landing after a year away from KSP  "just point it towards that big grey ball"

Just before I had a go in my airliner and did a cockpit landing on a broken runway which was interesting!

I'm definitely hooked again!

Edited November 6, 2016 by Stewcumber

[ThatHomelessGuy]

On 05/11/2016 at 10:37 PM, Triop said:

Well . . . .

 

Reminds me of Event Horizon.

[Triop]

Well . . . .

[Brownhair2]

So Arin's a bust. Which means the MTU Horizon is coming home. In seven years. (Hey it's a big step up from seventeen years)

One last look at Arin:

i will come back.

[Triop]

About to test a new fighter with spotter.

Edited November 7, 2016 by Triop

[nosirrbro]

Layed imperial claim to Zhiig crater with a medium-small mun base

[Sharpy]

The Trucky has arrived to Duna, and I think I made a good 200km in it.

Well, first, I had a really silly rescue mission.

I botched the encounter; too high relative speed, too low TWR of the rescue pod, it only zipped past the stranded Kerbal and reentered the atmosphere, too deeply to recover. Oh well, at least I recovered it, no losses. But then I could switch to the stranded kerbal... who was stranded in a rescue pod. Able to inflate it, then give it a push, enter it, deploy the built-in parachute and happily land on Kerbin, all on his own. No rescue needed.

Then the trucky.

It landed perfectly fine; it's quite light and durable, so the 15m/s of landing was nothing to it. Then Bill stripped the parachutes, and I got to collecting science.

And immediately the first problem became known: that damned Kommutronsky antenna. It looks cool, it seems cool, but it's works exactly as well as Commutron 16, except taking about 5 times as much electricity. Effect: transmitting the data took well over a day.

In the morning, I headed to Polar Highlands. And another day and a half down the drain.

Decision: Heading to Jetwing, to strip one of its antennas and install it instead of this kommie crap.

It was a late evening. I decided to run into the night for as long as the batteries suffice.

I ran out on a western slope, good 40km away from the landing site. Error. Should have stayed on an east-facing slope or a top. The probe drained the batteries over night, and the sun was behind the mountain - and wouldn't show up until late afternoon (polar cap! The sun is never high!)

Luckily the trucky cab comes with an engine - essentially, a LF-only fuel cell. I tapped into the fuel supply to produce enough electricity to crest the mountain... and the sight took my breath away.

After recharging the batteries a bit and adoring the views, I continued towards the Jetwing. More vistas.

Climbing to mountain pass

First merest glimpse of terrains out of the polar caps...

Reaching the highlands...

Zoom in on this pic and look at the rear view cam.

Then there was the monolith along the way - the same I had buzzed with the Jetwing.

Finally, the crater.

The approach was dangerous - the terrain seems deceivingly easy after the hellish highlands, but it slopes down constantly. Trucky is beautifully stable at 17m/s, but absolutely flip-happy at 25m/s. Going downhill, I had to brake all the time. Luckily it has good brakes.

Finally, I reached the Jetwing, standing there with last vapors of fuel in the tanks.

Well, the original plan was to borrow one of the two antennas. But Bill Kerman is Bill Kerman, and does Bill Kerman things.

 

The "stationary science platform" (to be left permanently; packed on the Trucky when I still wasn't sure if Jetwing is a viable idea) got four solar panels from Jetwing, while the panel meant for it went onto trucky's roof. Antenna installed. Jetwings scavenged and installed for their reaction wheels and batteries. Also, the one jetwing packed on the Trucky originally, installed with the two scavenged. Better roll authority that way, and more electricity.

The antenna solved the problem - Trucky could perform all the science without stopping - not even 1/3 the battery would be used on sending the complete batch. So it went through two more biomes, heading south, for a polar crater... and that's all for today.

 

[AccidentsHappen]

3 hours ago, Sharpy said:

The "stationary science platform" (to be left permanently; packed on the Trucky when I still wasn't sure if Jetwing is a viable idea) got four solar panels from Jetwing, while the panel meant for it went onto trucky's roof. Antenna installed. Jetwings scavenged and installed for their reaction wheels and batteries. Also, the one jetwing packed on the Trucky originally, installed with the two scavenged. Better roll authority that way, and more electricity.

The antenna solved the problem - Trucky could perform all the science without stopping - not even 1/3 the battery would be used on sending the complete batch. So it went through two more biomes, heading south, for a polar crater... and that's all for today.

 

Lovin' the road truckin'.

I had a Spirit-inspired solar powered Rover on Duna, and I had planned on using it to cover a hemisphere of biomes. I managed to get to 4 biomes before I ran out of power at the South Pole, inbetween two hills (i have bad luck with Rovers. Or Rovers have bad luck with me...). I got some power back in the tanks, but i still couldn't climb the hill. I eventually gave up and used it as a permanent science outpost. I also had a few other probes and things I'd left on the surface. When I finally sent my manned Rover to Duna (a big sucker with another two-man Rover in the cargo bay. It also had a fully equipped science Lab and sufficient life support and hab space to last it for yonks.). I drove my Rover around Duna, collecting, recollecting and processing science as I went. I reached some old probes and collected their science and dropped off an inflatable hab module at each one (I had mass to spare, so why not set up small bases all over the place?). I drove all the way to the south pole to plant a flag for the memorial of my Spirit Rover, and as a dropped off the hab module, I found that I had dumped enough stuff that I could carry the Rover with me. I used my smaller and more agile Rover. nicknamed by the crew 'The Jeep', to tow it out with its cable and I pulled it up on top of the hill. Cassidy Kerman hooked it up to the Big Rover's power supply and filled up its old batteries to full. I drove it into Cargo bay 2 and drove off. After a long year of collecting science, the crew drove the Rover back to the Ascent Vehicle and piled all the research into the the pod. I had a claw on the bottom to tow a class A asteroid that I had tracked colliding with Duna as I entered SoI into orbit for closer inspection (and maybe a station), but the rock was never found. Instead, a clipped my Spirit to the bottom of the DAV. I had Luna Kerman turn the Mobile Base onto hibernation mode till the next crew arrived, and she boarded the DAV with the others. I launched, pulled into Low Duna Orbit and ditched the Ascent stage. I hit the orbital engines a got a direct encounter with the waiting mothership to bring them home. Spirit was transferred to the cargo bay intended for the asteroid and using barely any delta-v, I set the crew on an Ike encounter that would slingshot them home (kinda... I had one or two corrections to make). Only as I left the SoI of Duna did my search for the lost asteroid conclude. After going into the tracking station and focusing on Duna, I found the asteroid sitting in a (very) slowly decaying Duna Orbit that just passed through the atmosphere. I was kind of peeved, but in the end, around 2000 science wasn't bad!