What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Ar-cen-ciel]

My space lab was discovered to be defective (it would've exploded at the slightest shake) after I've sent the damn thing into the orbit, so I've decided to make send my life-support capable spaceplane to the rescue.

In the end, I managed to land my spaceplane in RSS... in the western beach area at South America.

Had to pull all sorts of cheat for that one though... where do I start...

- First I used HyperEdit to get the plane near the space lab

- Then I had to reset the kerbonaut's position (rocket thrusting all the way back to the spaceplane's door is hard already).

- Then I had to decelerate rapidly using docking mode to avoid reentry burn. 8km/s is simply too fast for reentry as it is.

- And finally, I had to use the antigravity engine as an impromptu chute. Cuz I'm not quite sure about the safe touchdown speed. (not to mention that my plane wasn't equipped with drogue chutes)

That's quite a number of handicaps, but still, it's better than them dying at the space lab that would explode at the slightest shake.

As the reward for putting up with all that, here's a view of the payload of the LF version of the spaceplane.

Edited November 15, 2016 by Ar-cen-ciel

[Martian Emigrant]

G'day Kerbamates and Sheilas.

Today same old. Accumulating science from the labs and spending it on tech.

Doing contract to spend time. And I get this:

 

WT Eck is a "Previously undisturbed Class B asteroid"?

 

As not been mined? Still in it's original orbit? As to be sleeping when I get there? What?

 

I don't think it's worth the money.

 

ME

[Draconiator]

1.2.1 seems to be more mod-friendly than the other updates, so I went hunting for things to use in my install.  I also installed TweakScale so I can have other diameters without having to resort to other mods.   Anywhooo....the first thing I built with my new "stock" (I.E. things I can't do without in my KSP) is this huge lifter with a Duna colony ship on top:

It uses Tweakscale and the Space-Y Heavy Lifter Parts Pack (although there is a 0.625 diameter booster in there..by no means "heavy", lol)  They might have increased the weight limit of the pad because this thing will not destroy it.  It weighs 3,100 tons (rounded) and it's easy to compare the size because that orange tank at the top is normal size.

[SmashingKirby148]

Finally finished my Laythe Space Station! After we get the crew we can finally colonise the surface!

I love this shot by the way <3

[DarkOwl57]

On 5/17/2013 at 4:20 PM, Dr. Muttonstache said:

Welp, Station Zeta was finished, housing a small amount of kerbals; 16 to be exact, including Bill.

Now im not sure what to do in KSP next

Create an interplanetary fleet of SSTO fighter jets to conquer the entire solar system! (I recommend starting with an Eve SSTO, as it is the closest planet to Kerbin.)

4 hours ago, Draconiator said:

1.2.1 seems to be more mod-friendly than the other updates, so I went hunting for things to use in my install.  I also installed TweakScale so I can have other diameters without having to resort to other mods.   Anywhooo....the first thing I built with my new "stock" (I.E. things I can't do without in my KSP) is this huge lifter with a Duna colony ship on top:

It uses Tweakscale and the Space-Y Heavy Lifter Parts Pack (although there is a 0.625 diameter booster in there..by no means "heavy", lol)  They might have increased the weight limit of the pad because this thing will not destroy it.  It weighs 3,100 tons (rounded) and it's easy to compare the size because that orange tank at the top is normal size.

Will this make an appearance in Etherium?

[Draconiator]

32 minutes ago, DarkOwl57 said:

Will this make an appearance in Etherium?

The ship on top, no.  The lifter itself...most definately.  I will have to copy the craft files I need over to 1.2.1 but if they work, look for it!

[JadeOfMaar]

From the same company that delivered a fully functional USS Enterprise to Kerbalkind and basically all my alien designs comes a new experimental SSTO with a fraction of the SSTA power. Deep Sky™ presents: the MPV Nero L, wearing the flag of the king of @Galileo's planets... Nero.

Nero in Nero Orbit. Because why not???

Edited November 15, 2016 by JadeOfMaar

[DarkOwl57]

18 minutes ago, Draconiator said:

The ship on top, no.  The lifter itself...most definately.  I will have to copy the craft files I need over to 1.2.1 but if they work, look for it!

Can't wait

[Draconiator]

44 minutes ago, DarkOwl57 said:

Can't wait

I'm probably going to have to modify it too, not enough thrust, d'oh but...I'm working on it now.

[Sharpy]

Trucky finished the circumnavigation of Duna.

(see my post for more pics from the road. Some views were really breathtaking...)

And now I've picked the stranded kerbal and craft, discarding all science-gathering payload.

Before:

After:

 

I've assembled remains into a makeshift shelter for other would-be castaways, with some supplies and enough jetwing fuel to cross half of Duna..

 

 

[ROXunreal]

Completed my second-ever rover mission, again to the Mun. Unlike the first rover which was basically a science container with a thermometer, barometer, solar panels and small wheels, this was a proper full size vehicle that visited four different biomes and conducted five experiments in each.

 

Without going into the specifics of the horribly implausible launch vehicle with a fairing five times the diameter of the rest of the launch vehicle body, which made me look up and seriously consider the Infernal Robotics mod in the future, let's just say we safely got to orbit with little difficulties.

After Mun capture and orbit tweaking were complete, the landing rig started its descent. The landing target was just inside the northern rim of the Mun's North-West Crater. The landing rig performed adequately and fuel capacity was judged right, with only about 15% to spare after landing.

After landing, the MunRover II detached from the landing rig, drove out from under it, then fired the retrorocket decoupler that separated and launched away the beam that connected the rover to the landing rig.

MunRover II then set a course northwards, got out of the North-West crater into the Midlands, then onward further north into the Northern Basin, finishing in one of the Midlands Craters within the Northern Basin. Science was collected in all four biomes, and the rover's overall performance assessed. A very important aspect of this mission was to assess various rover systems, as MunRover II was a test bed for future rover missions to Duna, Eve and beyond.

We found that speeds in excess of 15m/s were dangerous on more than very slightly varying terrain and speeds above 10m/s were extremely dangerous if coming up on a hill as the rover could jump and suffer terminal damage. The rover was fitted with four linear RCS thrusters on the underside, but these proved to be useless as they could barely get the rover off the ground in one second, let alone dampen its descent if it were to come up on a jump. We thus discovered that RCS ports on the top of the rover would be of much more use, to keep it from jumping in the first place. Lastly, with SAS and RCS enabled, we found the rover to be much more stable at high speeds, as the RCS would attempt to keep the rover from rotating on any axis when it would briefly leave the ground, thus lessening the chance of an asymmetric landing and subsequent rollover at high speed. All of this was of course determined through simulations, and not ever was the mission reverted twenty times.

The large solar panels, tilted sideways to catch more of the sun's energy due to the northern latitude the rover was operating in, proved more than sufficient. Several smaller panels on each side would likely suffice. Launching retrorocket decouplers from the rover body at peak thrust also worked with no damage to the vehicle.

With the science from the target biomes collected, the findings were transferred to the science container which also doubled as the fuselage of the small Messenger module, which is the part of the rover sticking out upwards.

The Messenger then decoupled with a retrorocket decoupler which gained it around a thousand meters of altitude, and then achieved orbit using its own Spark engine.

The Messenger performed far beyond its design expectations - not only did it achieve orbit easily, it had so much fuel to spare that the original plan of having a Kerbal from Mun Orbital station to rendezvous with it using the small Mun lander from the station was scrapped, and the Messenger actually rendezvoused with Mun Orbital by itself. This proved difficult due to the minimalist design of the Messenger not incorporating any reaction wheels, the gimbal of the Spark being deemed sufficient to attain orbit and inclination approximately matching that of Mun Orbital, which was what the Messenger was designed for. Thus all maneuvering during rendezvous and changing direction could only be done with the engine running at low thrust, by using its gimbal. This proved adequate to rendezvous at a distance of 200m from the station.

Once a visual was established, Bob Kerman went on EVA from Mun Orbital to retrieve the science data from the Munrover II's Messenger.

The data will be brought back to Kerbin in a planned Mun Orbital crew rotation and station expansion mission.

 

 

Edited November 16, 2016 by ROXunreal

[LordFerret]

5 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

... Deep Sky™ presents: the MPV Nero L, wearing the flag of the king of @Galileo's planets... Nero. ...

Damnit... trying to right-click to view the thing.

 

In other news:

We're going to Dres. Yes. Yes, we are.

(I've also got SCANsat ships on the way to Moho, Eve, and Duna.)

[SSgt Baloo]

I was getting tired of waiting for procedural parts to show up so I could make some weird planes when I realized that I could use wing segments as tanks. I tried a bunch of different things, but I think I liked this one, best.



The center section of the wing runs from just under the cockpit to well behind. The main wing panels have significant anhedral, while the wingtips are upswept. It flies stably and is fairly maneuverable.





More here: http://s28.photobucket.com/user/SSgtBaloo/slideshow/15NOV16

[Brownhair2]

Kelble, Aldan and Helcee decide to stay the night and do some stargazing!

Not that there are many stars to see...

I didn't take any pictures of the Wader taking off yesterday, so here you go:

Those engines on the pontoons aren't just for show

Once the Fleas burn out, the pontoons are ditched, since at that point they're just dead weight

If case you were wondering, yes, the Wader does look an awful lot like the original Duneshifter. That's because the Duneshifter is just a Wader, but with drop tanks instead of pontoons and no buoy.

Now all I need to do is get all of the Kerbals onto the Amber and head home!

It's nice having a mission actually succeed. I think I'll come back with more Waders.

Back at the KSC, I've updated the Pulsar:

And I figured out a use for it!

1. Re-enter atmosphere
2. Deploy parachutes over target location
3. Descend
4. Do whatever you wanted to do
5. Return to orbit!

This will be very handy for precise landings. I'm thinking of trying it out on Laythe, since the islands are rather small. Titanus may also be a target destination, since the Pulsar is complete overkill in atmo. My main concern is I won't have enough delta-v for circularization. Although I could use the EVA pack... (I'm only talking about Titanus btw. Laythe will be fine.)

Edited November 17, 2016 by Brownhair2

[AstroBovice]

A few months ago, I went to Duna for the first time. Ares I and Ares II left about a month apart and arrived at the red planet about 10 days apart. Ares I, a ground sample retrieval and return mission with a small one person lander. Bold for the first interplanetary mission, but KSC decided if we were going, we were going to get our money's worth. Ares II was a much bigger lander, with the main objective of the mission being getting a science lab on the surface. The Ares II crew were going to be the loneliest Kerbals in the solar system until Ares IV came to rescue them 2 years later. They did get a rover in the mail a few months later to ease the boredom, though. Ares III went on the next transfer window and was a similar mission to Ares II with the only difference being this lander would return to orbit for rendezvous with the rescue ship. 

Album of Ares I & II: http://imgur.com/a/91j3l

Which brings me to today! Got back in the game after a lull and decided to rescue my Kerbals and finish off this mission. I built a big transport ship with a smaller return ship that I named the Odin spacecraft. Two pieces assembled in orbit, a habitation and utility module (w/ 2 simple satellites in payload bays,) and a thrust module with 4 nukes and lots of fuel. Here is a photo with the payload bay open showing the satellite. Lander docked to the front. 

The mission of Ares IV : rendezvous with Ares III in orbit, retrieve Ares II crew with rescue lander, orbit Ike, come home! Also, put one satellite in orbit around Duna and Ike.

Wish there was more excitement, but Ares IV was a complete success! The ship had plenty of extra fuel, got into a good orbit, and Ares III rendezvoused without a hitch. Sent the rescue lander down and landed it about 20 km away from the Ares II. A short rover trip later, and after 4+ long years away from Kerbin, the crew made contact with another Kerbal. Though their social skills were a little rusty...

Both landers docked to the Odin spacecraft. Relieved crew included  

Quick Ike visit to drop the payload and then back home!

Back home docked to Cascadia Station.

Transport home soon! Thanks for reading  Full album: 

http://imgur.com/a/MgTtl

 

Edited November 16, 2016 by AstroBovice

[Starman4308]

It is quite a nice feeling to be sending stuff interplanetary; the only real drawback is when you're also wasting a lot of time stage-managing things in the Kerbin system.

In any case, two major bits of progress: #1, the new ISRU equipment has been landed on the Mun, with a successful round trip returning a net of about 150,000 liters of liquid hydrogen to the primary lunar space station.

One of two miners landed on the Mun:

Spoiler

One of two fuel rovers on descent to the lunar surface:

Spoiler

 

 

The ELMSS Extended Lunar Mission Support System, a fancy way of saying "giant liquid hydrogen tank and a bit of extra munchies for trips to non-equatorial biomes", as the landers don't have the dV to both make a large plane change and land.

Spoiler

This is my one reasonably good image of the frustrating process of loading LH2 into the lander to return to the space station; there was Fun (tm) such as realizing I hadn't added any KIS attachment points to the lander (solved via persistence file editing, though on reflection I could've grabbed a spare port from the rover), the lander springing back up into the air upon reloading, finding out that jetpacking with 400 kg of attachment ports doesn't work so well in Mun gravity, etc. A little bit to the right in the distance is the lander, this time at least only 2 km away from the miner.

Spoiler

The other bit of progress: the Eve transfer window is arriving, and I'm launching four primary relay satellites, four Gilly sub-relays (of which only one has an interplanetary antenna, the rest relying on either that one or the primary Eve relays), one Eve lander (one-way), two scanning/orbital science satellites, one permanent Gilly lander, and three ion-powered landers which will be sent to all three of Gilly's biomes, and then plot a course back to Kerbin.

Spoiler

Miscellaneous: resupplying my spectrometer satellite with additional impactors. Due to a botched ascent, I felt it prudent to shuck off four of eight impactors to lighten the load, while still on ascent.

Spoiler

An attempt to redirect a D-class asteroid using Karbonite ISRU and a trimodal LH2/LOX nuclear thermal engine. Moderately experimental; I'm not even sure if asteroids have Karbonite to mine. While straight LH2 would be more efficient, by doing that I'm throwing away huge amounts of LOX mass in the process, and I suspect that'd give more overall delta-V than going with straight hydrogen.

Spoiler

 

[Zedwardson]

Not played KSP in about 2 years minus some minor short plays, so needless to say, I had a lot to learn.

Did 7 launches today.

Bravo 1 - no launch, testing launchpad

Bravo 2 - Small lauch, reached 10,000 feet

Bravo 3 Large solid rocket launch (for the program) - Suborbital, reached 130k km. 

Bravo 4 Converted over to liquid stages , Bravo 210 (Two tanks in stage on, 1 in stage 2, no boosters

Bravo 5 Bravo 310 launch, failure, (need to add fins)

Bravo 6 a Bravo 310 launch, not quite orbital.

Bravo 7 a Bravo 313 launch, reach orbit, landed on a rock face.  Program canceled.

Now that I can orbit, going to start a real save and use mechjeb and so on.

 

[Guest]

I put up the beginnings of a large... it's called a shipyard but it's probably going to be more of a fuel depot — after much frustration yesterday trying to dock modules that are far too large. I went with just the initial launch onboard a Sword XIII for the start of my... I dunno, colonisation save? Just gonna explore the system in sandbox and do whatever I think is fun and awesome.

Spoiler

 

 

The launch of Astraea, what I would consider a modestly-sized foray into capital ship design.

Spoiler

 

It's times like these make me want to keep engine lighting installed despite the weird issues it has (like lighting up planets).

 

Powering up to a crispy 900K. I've never actually gotten reactors to work at 100% before, let alone the two largest in tandem. Fixed fin radiators are magical~

 

To the stars! Well, in due time; she's still on trials. 0.25 TWR on ion engines (32 of them!) for a 300t ship is a lot better than I was expecting, plus I've got 47k delta-V in addition to the ability to aerobrake. First mission will probably be aimed at the Joolian system; I want to set up the bulk of my non-Kerbin infrastructure there for further venturing toward the outer planets.

 

Edited November 16, 2016 by Guest

[Mycroft]

Welp upon discovering that the Hydra-70 rocket turrets adjusted their aim for gravity, rendering them useless in orbit, I started looking into another couple weapons mods. Sheer awesomeness level catapulted upon finding a gun that destroys the VAB with one shot, and a runway section with three. So yeah I'm making a space destroyer that will blow any other ship into next year with two shots, guaranteed.

[The Flying Kerbal]

Last night Kerbin entered a new era as the probe Pathfinder 2 entered orbit around the Mun!  At 22.34 Earth time, the LV-909 "Terrier" engine ignited to insert the probe into an orbit around Kerbin's nearest celestial neighbour, the first Kerbal-made object to visit a heavenly body.

However behind all the Champaign and congratulatory back slapping at mission control, eyebrows were raised when the orbit was analysed by the few technicians who were left to run the show while everyone else got totally sloshed!  As they looked at the feedback coming back from Pathfinder, they soon realised the spacecraft had established an unplanned orbit of at least 45 degrees.  It was known that after the initial launch from the KSC, the LKO Pathfinder 2 entered was 1 degree off at the equator, but they still seem perplexed at how this could translate into such a huge discrepancy by the time the probe reached the Mun.

However, being more the "glass is half full" types (even though glasses with ANY liquid left in them were few and far between after the previous night's party), they did point out that such an orbit would in fact give them a much greater coverage of the Munar surface as they look for potential future landing sites.  Nevertheless, as Pathfinder 1 continues on its way to Minmus, they realise questions need to be answered as to why Pathfinder 2 entered such an eccentric orbit upon its arrival at the Mun.

 

And that's what happened guys... any ideas why I ended up in an orbit at such a funny angle?  I suspect I didn't plan the encounter with the Mun right, but not too sure why.  All help will be very much appreciated.

Edited November 16, 2016 by The Flying Kerbal

[Curveball Anders]

2 hours ago, The Flying Kerbal said:

And that's what happened guys... any ideas why I ended up in an orbit at such a funny angle?  I suspect I didn't plan the encounter with the Mun right, but not too sure why.  All help will be very much appreciated.

The slightest error in starting orbit or burn parameters can have large impact over distance.

I normally check the projected trajectory post the initial burn and often have to insert a small correction burn like half way to the target. (The exact spot for cheapest correction varies, depending on the bodies involved and the error to correct).

[The Flying Kerbal]

Thanks very much for taking the time to respond Curveball.

Yes, most annoying as I had more than enough Delta V to fix that one degree inclination in the orbit.  Unfortunately an "it's close enough attitude" attitude crept in as I was so looking forward to the Trans Munar Injection burn, I didn't take the time to sort that slight incline out.  However as the real purpose behind Project Pathfinder is for me to learn how to play the game, it has certainly provided a valuable lesson.

The Minmus encounter will be next, and this time I know the orbits of Kerbin and its moon were matched perfectly... I really put in a lot of effort to insure my first flight to Minmus would get off to as good a start as possible.

 

Meanwhile back in the drawing office at the Kerbal Space Centre, designers and engineers are rumoured to be already working on the "Duna 4" launch system... destined to take Kerbalkind to the stars and beyond! 

[Curveball Anders]

It was a slow evening so I ran design and flight simulations (as in trials in sandbox) for the landers, rovers and comsats that are to be added to That Standup Guy and That Other Standup Guy before they leave for Dres and Duna.

If tonight is as slow it'll be time for design and trials of the return vehicles.

[capi3101]

(1.1.3, FAR to go) Yesterday's fun and games began with the design of the Auk V light refuel and refitting spaceplane, designed to deliver four tonnes of fuel to orbit. Using KAS parts, the craft is capable of refueling anything with a connector port, and it carries the tools to attach craft that don't have said ports already, such as the Bleepity-Bleep 7 probe delivered to LKO yesterday by the doomed Auk IV. Of course, such operations require the use of a Kerbal, preferably a Kerbal engineer such as Bill, who apparently I haven't sent on any missions prior to yesterday. Shame on me...

I hadn't intended to do Auk V as a tailless delta design since I've had issues with those in the past, but the overall design parameters of the craft pretty much required it. Took a few tries to get enough pitch authority to fly the stupid thing, but ultimately I got it up and got a quick rendevous with Bleepity-Bleep 7. The rest was cake.

Auk V approaching Bleepity-Bleep 7.

Bill has attached the connector port to the probe.

Probe and plane successfully attached via winch cable.

Fuel transfer took place and the Auk V landed successfully at KSC 09. One thing I hadn't noticed - and didn't notice until the plane was on final - was that the fin was tilted to port. I'm surprised that didn't affect the flight adversely; it's a design flaw that has been corrected at this point and a relatively minor point on what was otherwise a successful mission overall.

So with Bleepity-Bleep refueled and ready to go, I went to put the probe into its final orbit for contract. Got it there with a minimal amount of deviation and...the damn game didn't give me the contract. I'm still trying to figure that one out.

Antenna, check. Power generation, check. Contract accepted on Friday, probe launched on Monday and put into position Tuesday, check. WTK?

Really cheesed about this - I need the money from that contract badly...

Later in the day I designed the Auk VI, a ferry plane designed to haul ore from orbit to the surface. I have no immediate need for this plane and I still need to do some testing on it to see if it can do its intended job without running out of gas. At least it makes orbit okay.

Auk VI with bay doors open.

Ended my day by replacing the Panther engines on the Bad Idea 5 surveyor plane with a pair of Whiplashes, and then sending the thing on a surveying mission 1200 klicks from KSC towards the poles with Val aboard. 

I've never noticed that Kerbin has rivers before...

On her way back to KSC, Val landed to do a ground temperature survey, which went well. Overall the flight went well but I botched the final landing at KSC 09 badly and the plane disintegrated - fortunately, Val survived the crash and is now being treated for minor burns and sued for loss of craft...

Also began preliminary design on a craft that would deliver an X200-32's worth of fuel from the Münar surface to LMO, but that's not all that far along - barely worth mentioning, actually. Haven't really got a good name for it yet, either.

Edited November 16, 2016 by capi3101
Being banal about italics where needed...

[CatastrophicFailure]

19 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

What's that big center fuselage section from? It looks even bigger than Mk4 parts!

16 hours ago, Sharpy said:

Trucky finished the circumnavigation of Duna.

Did you run the whole thing by hand? How do you cope with the hours of sheer boredom?