What did you do in KSP1 today?

[MR.Mac]

Just decided to do an "old school" style mun landing. Sometimes the old way is the best way!

Mun is drawing near!

Separation confirmed:

And we have landed!

One GIANT leap for Kerbalkind!

[Cupcake...]

I'll let the funk speak for itself.

 

Cupcake...

[TheEpicSquared]

16 minutes ago, Cupcake... said:

I'll let the funk speak for itself.

 

Cupcake...

What's the spike inside the panther engine? Nice craft, by the way  

[Daveroski]

I got them to Ike.

Despite a few game bugs. Spontaneous disassembly on load being one of them.

Vanilla.

[ROXunreal]

Launched my first station, Mun Orbital, to the Mun of course. I'll wait for more parts to become unlocked before committing to a Kerbin station.

 

Then sent Jeb on our third manned Mun mission. He explored the Mun highlands between the East crater and the Twin craters, the familiar areas our manned and unmanned missions have visited before. Jeb also evaluated the minimalist MMS (Miniature Mun Shuttle) lander craft, before taking off and docking with the newly launched core module of the Mun Orbital. Running out of fuel, Jeb performed the final stages of rendezvous as well as the docking with RCS alone. Jeb will stay on the station for several weeks before a craft is launched to expand the station and replace him, as he is needed for new frontiers (it's Minmus time!).

 

 

[capi3101]

(1.1.3, 2 to go) With enough money earned from contracts over the previous day, I began my weekend on Friday with a launch of the Bates Motel 7 with engineer Edner Kerman onboard on a mission to establish a ground outpost on Minmus. I've had better launches, but the craft made it to orbit and is now on its way towards the minty moon.

Bates Motel 7 in the VAB, final design.

The transfer burn of the Bates Motel corresponded with the Münar insertion burn of the latest Gurney 7a rescue mission, so there was a bit of shuffling going on there. Gurney 7a's mission to pick up scientist Catxie Kerman from Münar orbit was a success and the craft successfully returned to Kerbin, fulfilling the rescue contract. Strange Cargo also began making aerobraking passes at Kerbin; I've had to keep the periapsis high on those so that the craft will survive - even the brief dip to 45k gets some of the parts dangerously hot and I'm concerned at about how long it's going to take to finally get her down to a reasonable orbit. Next Objective remains in orbit of Mün pending a review of the passengers aboard to see who needs to stay in order to land on the Münar surface.

Probably the most important thing that happened in-game was the continuing science mission of Kokura at Mün. After getting orbital gravioli readings from all but one of the Münar biomes, Valcy and Juluna took the craft down to the Münar surface, where excursions were made to the Twin Craters, East Crater and Northwest Crater before the craft returned to Kerbin. Re-entry was a bit harrowing; with one of craft's fuel tanks on the verge of exploding, the lander section was jettisoned only to explode moments later. Part of the command section (notably Juluna's pod, where half of the craft's science had been stored) got dangerously hot before the craft finally started to cool down. Recovery after that was successful, Juluna earned her two star rating and Kokura returned having gathered over 3000 science points, which I promptly used to unlock RAPIER engines, the big RGU and Drone Cores, giving me more than sufficient tech to begin developing SSTOs.

The rest of the weekend was spent designing SSTOs. Three designs began initial design - the Auk I (low-density passenger drone), Auk II and Auk III (medium tanker). Of the three, the only design I can say has been successful so far is the Auk II medium-density passenger drone:

Auk II in LKO.

Auk II made it to LKO on her second flight attempt, and the only reason why she didn't work on her first attempt was my own stupidity - I had set the stabilators to control yaw instead of pitch. I did go ahead and perform a re-entry of the craft and it survived although the antenna burned off, so there is room for improvement there. I am confident that the craft won't kill any passengers, though, so I'll probably be using it to offload Strange Cargo's tourist group when the time comes and return them to Kerbin's surface.

Auk I is promising as a replacement for Gurney 7, though I need to tweak the design so that the craft will carry more fuel. Auk III has the same problem, though that craft has made it to orbit once already (just without enough fuel left over to do anything once it's in orbit, including orbital rendezvous). I'll likely be tweaking these designs as the day progresses today.

 

[JadeOfMaar]

Getting back to business in KSP 1.2.1... So much screenshottery to do and delta-V to measure for the sake of my KSPedia-like thing and an upcoming dV map for the Galilean Planets.

Here's Jebediah who's supposed to be old and retired as happy as any kerbal can get at Tarsiss, the moon of moon.

And then at Catullus, keeper of the Tarsiss. I didn't try to land him there for screenies. (He's not in polar orbit but) I find this view unexpectedly epic. The mix of lights give the scout ship a Romulan vibe, doesn't it? Also, running medium SVE wouldn't do any screenshots justice. I can guarantee you it will look like Eve down there.

 

Valentina was sent instead to be landed on Catullus, with a better dV measuring craft but that still went very poorly. So she landed on Loki, the nearest moon of Gauss and discovered the Shadow Fest!

Truly all is not as it seems in Gaussian space.

 

 

 

 

 

[dangerhamster]

Set up a relay network around the Mun. 3 satellites were dropped off by the Satflinger mk1, the 3rd is stowed in a cargo bay behind the control module.

Not bad for a first attempt, no maths were hurt or indeed involved.

With one hurdle clambered over it was time to address wether the tried and tested Grizzler would function. One swift copy of my 1.05 save later.........

Luckily the rover didn't imitate a pogo stick on steroids on loading as well. A couple of minutes with the trusty sonic screwdriver re-established structural normality.

Driving proved "interesting" as the fear-no-terrain features of the Grizzler were defeated by a deadly flat surface. Screenshots were taken but are withheld to protect the public (and 'cos photobucket had a hissy fit). Suffice to say something fundamental is wrong with the design in the 1.2.1 environment.

A visit to the Mun revealed the same problem but in this case the engineer in charge somehow forgot his screwdriver and is faced with a slow 10Km drive back to base. Whilst looking very very silly.

[Mikki]

I just launched my good ol` "Kerbalery",



To get my Kerbals back to KSC, "First class."
I don`t know what to do with the "IPV I", it was my first successfull LH2 vessel assembled in orbit, but it has some equipment backdraws drawbacks and "IPV II" is allready in use. Scrap it or keep it? 

Edited November 7, 2016 by Mikki
he spell yeah8D

[Leafbaron]

Completed several missions last night, including a 4 biome hop on Minmus; Minimus greater flats, Midlands, North pole, and ending at Minmus flats. The resulting science from the mission netted around 2200+ science, with the newly acquired research I was able to begin development on new aerospace technology and work began immediately on a 1.25 spaceplane with payload capabilities (thanks to MRS). First test flight with space plane dubbed the Dodo, was a success but the engineering team was just a couple 100 dV resulting in a sub orbital trajectory reaching velocities of 2100 ms at ~70kM apoapsis. Liquid Fuel supplies were rich but oxidizer suppliers poor. The engineers devised a devious way of storing extra oxidizer along the main LF storage tanks. A second test flight ensued, which reached an even 80kM orbit with a few hundred m/s of dV left (250-300). This extra dV budget could be used for orbital rendezvous or equated to about 700 m/s of atmospheric flight with the jet engines, Just enough to back to KSC. Pictures to come.....

 

Landing Near the poles on Minmus, I like the view of Kerbin and the Mun

Leaving Minmus in Return Capsule, nice shot of all three Kerbin Bodies

Returning to Kerbin

1.25 SSTO "Dodo"

 

-Leafy

Edited November 8, 2016 by Leafbaron

[something]

Landed on Gilly for the very first time. Dude, that's the very definition of slow motion. I was tempted to hit the FWD button several times but the game didn't allow below 8km...so yeah. Sent the satellite suborbital, launched the MJ landing guidance to get me the time of touch down and went on to read the forums for about 6min. Slowed down the craft and read again. You probably don't even need to slow down before impact there, as there literally is no impact which deserves that name...

[septemberWaves]

1 hour ago, Mikki said:

I don`t know what to do with the "IPV I", it was my first successfull LH2 vessel assembled in orbit, but it has some equipment backdraws and "IPV II" is allready in use. Scrap it or keep it? 

It looks like a pretty nice design. I take it that it uses nuclear thermal propulsion?

In any case, it looks too expensive to simply give up on. What I would suggest is that you upgrade any modules that need upgrading (either by using KIS/KAS or simply by replacing the module), and then get a couple of missions out of it. You could perhaps use it as a support vessel for your IPV II, or maybe send it to a different destination to get more varied exploration done within a similar time schedule.

Also, I'd be a bit concerned about those hydrogen tanks if I were you. Those solar arrays don't look powerful enough to completely prevent boiloff if you go to the outer solar system (I'm not certain about this however, I don't have a huge amount of experience with cryogenic tanks yet). It might be beneficial to add a new module to the vehicle with some extra power generation, assuming that you don't have a fission reactor hidden in there somewhere.

[Mikki]

19 minutes ago, eloquentJane said:

It looks like a pretty nice design. I take it that it uses nuclear thermal propulsion?

In any case, it looks too expensive to simply give up on. What I would suggest is that you upgrade any modules that need upgrading (either by usingKIS/KAS or simply by replacing the module), and then get a couple of missions out of it. You could perhaps use it as a support vessel for your IPV II, or maybe send it to a different destination to get more varied exploration done within a similar time schedule.

Also, I'd be a bit concerned about those hydrogen tanks if I were you. Those solar arrays don't look powerful enough to completely prevent boiloff if you go to the outer solar system (I'm not certain about this however, I don't have a huge amount of experience with cryogenic tanks yet). It might be beneficial to add a new module to the vehicle with some extra power generation, assuming that you don't have a fission reactor hidden in there somewhere.

It`s Kerbal atomics powered, and with a more than sufficient nuclear reactor equiped to prevent boiloff. The parts are far to big to disassemble in orbit, i think i am gonna scrap it bit by bit for the smaller valuable parts like the reactor... i shouldn`t have weld it in the middle (Konstruktion mod), so maybe i have to tear it apart with explosives... Never did that for this purpose before. 
Have to test it out with a large KIS container in a shuttle and see what i can retrieve from it.

Edited November 7, 2016 by Mikki
the spell yes 8D

[Thygrrr]

I tried to build an SSTO Plane (MK2 Architecture). After dozens of crashes and splashdowns, I achieved a bunch of suborbital flights, albeit with no payload, around 500 m/s too slow, and now I am wondering if I need to use different engines (best results so far I got with two R.A.P.I.E.R.s, but fuel economy and trimming are a challenge).

More lift results in better climbing and takeoff capabilities, but makes descents extremely hazardous.

 

 

I also hit "FULL THROTTLE" on an entire Minmus base which had 3 skycranes, a Lander, and a return module attached. I usually don't revert or quicksave, but this time I quickly re-loaded persistent and pretended nothing happened. Now, only the SkyCranes have active engines.

Edited November 7, 2016 by Thygrrr

[septemberWaves]

@Mikki Ah, the docking port welding is definitely a problem. I personally wouldn't consider welding the docking ports in any situation, since there is always the chance that it may be useful to replace modules. But I suppose it's entirely personal preference really.

Also, if you want to tear it apart and recover the expensive components, you don't need explosives. Just get a kerbal out there with a screwdriver, and they should be able to detach any two connected parts (I think the default key for this is "h", but I could be mistaken). I've used this in the past for undocking modules when docking ports glitched out and refused to undock, but it also works for other things. By disassembling it that way there is no need to destroy any components, and you can recover all of the parts that you think are worth recovering.

[Stewcumber]

I went to Minmus for the first time in a year which was uneventful... Then I made a racing boat!

 

I strapped some SRBs onto it to see how fast it could go, but didn't think about how to get to the water...

It flew pretty well for a boat! It managed to glide and land in the water without any problems even

Ah well, back to space tomorrow!

 

 

 

 

[ThatHomelessGuy]

Finally landed the plane at KSC and made it with 12% fuel. Found out that I had taken 1218 screenshots during the 5hr 23min mission.
I'm going to have to go through it and assess the collection and make an image dump of the best of them for a mission log so to speak.
Until then I have a few snaps to tide the fans over
The crew rejoices as Kafrica becomes a welcome landmark over the horizon.

The mountains that every pilot who has ever flown from KSC should know like the back of their glove.

Valentina gets a tad bit excited and almost kills the crew just as they can see home.


Suddenly the instruments partially come back to life but alas they are less than reliable and give a conflicting airspeed report. Val asks bill to look at it after they have had some rec time.

And touchdown is a tense moment for everybody but Valentina's confident she has this plane figured out. Especially now the tanks are nearly empty.

Valentina passes her first "toy" as she lands her second.

Stopped and landed. Cut all those resource numbers in half for the real values but if you go by % you are good.

And the crew set off to find some much needed rest and Kalcoholic beverages. (For this save I intend to leave aircraft on the tarmac and refitted with KAS/KIS unless I feel they need to be decommissioned. If they are reusable then I'll just restock them and take the cost hit for the whole plane until then) This plane cost 66k


Meta game snaps in spoiler.

Spoiler

Mission time proof

Flight path here shows roughly the flight path taken across kerbin. (Yes there is a wiggly bit in the desert mountains where Valentina did have some fun between the mountains dodging cliff faces and weaving through valleys) Each colour represents a distance between takeoff and landing.

Bob's science recovery was a nice bonus to the contract money we got. Though he wasn't entirely necessary to the primary or secondary objective he was ultimately useful at more than just using up extra life support.

I'll edit this post later with a link to the whole mission log when I'm done processing all the pictures into an album. But after that flight the crew are fairly confident this plane could make it round the globe with a few upgrades some careful piloting and a little time in Bills errr Gym

[Firemetal]

 

Been building some ULA stuff lately. Today, I built a scaled down Atlas V. (This one is about 2.5-3m in diameter when the real one is 3.81m in diameter) Very proud how it came out. Especially the Centaur. Once I perfect it and my 3.75 scaled up but kind of scaled down Delta IV (Uses 2.5m tanks but is 3.75m long and the real one is 5m long) I'll put downloads in the Spacecraft Exchange.

Fire

(This Centaur is really awesome!  )

[JadeOfMaar]

48 minutes ago, Stewcumber said:

A challenger appears!

Spoiler

On 10/29/2016 at 2:00 AM, JadeOfMaar said:

 

 

 

[ThatHomelessGuy]

5 minutes ago, JadeOfMaar said:

A challenger appears!

  Hide contents

 

 

@Stewcumber @JadeOfMaar One of you has to build a track and share the save or set a challenge of some sort like round the island base and back then race each other.
Oh please do.
I haven't even got near making boats since 0.90 so I haven't even got anything to throw into the hat but I think I might have to learn how to sail rockets soon.

[-M-TheDoctor]

1 hour ago, Stewcumber said:

I went to Minmus for the first time in a year which was uneventful... Then I made a racing boat!

 

I strapped some SRBs onto it to see how fast it could go, but didn't think about how to get to the water...

It flew pretty well for a boat! It managed to glide and land in the water without any problems even

Ah well, back to space tomorrow!

Looks like a fun time... Though, I'd like to see someone take a stab at this bad boy...http://www.h1unlimited.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/88-Degree-Men1.jpg

 

 

 

 

[JadeOfMaar]

19 minutes ago, ThatHomelessGuy said:

@Stewcumber @JadeOfMaar One of you has to build a track and share the save or set a challenge of some sort like round the island base and back then race each other.
Oh please do.
I haven't even got near making boats since 0.90 so I haven't even got anything to throw into the hat but I think I might have to learn how to sail rockets soon.

Mine contains just a little Mk2 Expansion and Tweakscale-- easily replacable for a stock-only variant which I already planned for. Your idea is awesome. You may PM me for building tips. It's basic stuff.

 

---

Progress is smooth, unlike a GIF. Staring at the star while it was above Otho gave me the thought "Why don't you... catch the END of an eclipse while in atmosphere?" And so I did. Valentina's been landing on the minor worlds with atmosphere and putting the yard stick to them for liftoff... So you don't have to™.

 

Edited November 8, 2016 by JadeOfMaar

[Aragosnat]

Welp. Yestarday help some one understand how to get into obit better as well as how to tell how not to land on the Mün. But, at least showed how to tell when one is close to landing.

[Brownhair2]

@JadeOfMaar What mod are you using for the planets?

---

The MTU Amber has joined the fleet, carrying two more Waders to Laythe

But more importantly, the MTU Eagle is arriving at Titanus!

The Eagle is down to 2375 m/s delta-v, which is uncomfortably low, but it'll go up once I ditch these heavy spaceplanes.

EDIT: Turns out re-entering the atmosphere at 5000 m/s is not a good idea. I should know better. Luckily quicksaves exist!

Edited November 8, 2016 by Brownhair2

[JadeOfMaar]

This @Brownhair2

I like your New Horizons adventure by the way. I've wanted to see some action with that planet pack.