What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Sharpy]

Sandbox experiment: there's a hope of making a reasonably sized sea level Eve SSTO using a nuclear thermal jet engine.

The engine, and the airplane perform beautifully at sea level. Take-off speed around 30m/s.

And the airplane can reach 26km, where air pressure is like 12km on Kerbin, with LV-N reaching over 90% of its ISp. So, the "arduous climb" ascent profile should be perfectly possible, providing I can pack some 6km/s of delta-V into the airplane.

Of course there are no nuclear thermal jets in stock, so it's all moot concerning the challenge. Still, a fun vector of research.

[septemberWaves]

@Halfdan Nice reusable booster. What's its payload capacity like?

Also, that's a clever way of attaching the landing legs. Personally I tend to go for either a shorter engine (which usually ends up being a cluster of smaller engines) or I'll use wings as landing gear - which is quite effective, as well as having the added bonus of helping with stability. I've never really thought about attaching them on structural parts before; I might play around with a similar concept when I start making reusable launch vehicles for my long-term career.

[Halfdan]

@eloquentJane thanks

cant really say where the payload capacity lies, i came up with the design for a satelite contract, wich was kinda small

i will have do do some testing, but with the side boosters i get pretty good performance out of it

[Benji13]

38 minutes ago, Halfdan said:

42 minutes ago, Halfdan said:

i am really getting fond of reusable boosters

 

20 minutes ago, eloquentJane said:

Also, that's a clever way of attaching the landing legs. Personally I tend to go for either a shorter engine (which usually ends up being a cluster of smaller engines) or I'll use wings as landing gear - which is quite effective, as well as having the added bonus of helping with stability. I've never really thought about attaching them on structural parts before; I might play around with a similar concept when I start making reusable launch vehicles for my long-term career.

If you guys are open to mods there is a great one made for this exact purpose. The Kerbal Reusability Expansion:

It has a variety of booster landing legs along with grid fins and other useful things. 

Edited December 4, 2016 by Benji13

[Clipperride]

Experimentation continues into Mk1 - 1.25m SSTOs (usually I build space planes with drop tanks, so I don't get to use this acronym often!) It's easier now I have unlocked the Dart engine, but without the large circular battery, power remains an issue during re-entry. (Although the thought has suddenly occurred to me I could pack batteries away in a small service bay Doh!).

However, the fact the Dart One (must work on my name's!!) runs out of power quite soon into its re-entry profile has been a bit of a boon.  Sure she tumbles like an autumn leaf on a gusty day, but at least that stops the cockpit from overheating and exploding. And, I usually still have enough time to regain control before meeting the ground (usually).

I also "discovered" that hitting the EVA rather than View button at 1,500m/s is bad for the effected Kerbal-dude.  Live and learn....

[CatastrophicFailure]

2 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

I redesigned the Service Bay, now called the Hangar Deck, to get rid of the rings on the end, and figured out how to get the crew hatches to work.

Here's a picture with the hangar open:

And a quick build to show how it looks with other airship hulls:

The hangar deck serves as the basis for the Heisenber's flight deck system. Simply add a flight deck component atop the hangar, and you've got a runway. Add an elevator component to lift your aircraft up to the flight deck or down to the hangar deck for storage. A special dome-shaped part will make the hangar seamless against the other airship hulls. While I could make the hangar/flight deck one part, I've found that you wouldn't be able to use the hatches built into the floor, and you'd need a special part at either end of the hangar that has crew hatches.

Psst... keep way from open flame. Oh the Kermanity!

4 hours ago, RoboRay said:

Completed the first Mun landing in my 6.4x scale Career, in the East Crater (the rim is under the horizon)...

(That's the Service Module exploding, up ahead.)

 

Dangit... now where's that heat shield with the built in legs from?? Man, you got all the cool obscure mods! 

[Triop]

We decided to build a trike.

It  is  awesome.

Edit, we gave it an update.

Edited December 4, 2016 by Triop

[RoboRay]

1 hour ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Dangit... now where's that heat shield with the built in legs from?? Man, you got all the cool obscure mods! 

LOL, it's the Dragon heatshield from KRE...

 

[Brownhair2]

Returned another SSTO that I left on Serran:

Meanwhile I have no idea how to rescue Franlie and Beadrine. All of my SSTOs that have enough delta-v to get into orbit around Titanus have terrible TWRs. I don't think they'd be able to get into orbit fast enough before falling back into the atmosphere. Is this what it's like to try to land on Eve?

The Horizon and Amber have reached Laythe. Unfortunately, I accidentally put them in retrograde orbits. So I had to waste a lot of delta-v changing my inclination. Let's hope I have enough to get back...

First landing is a success!

Still no land. Which I kinda like. Just ocean as far as the eye can see...

[Leafbaron]

Had to uninstall EVE, with the recent parts mods ive installed my "rig" couldn't handle it

Also, made this SSTO capable of hauling 40 tons to space. Maybe even a little more, in a 70,200x70200 km orbit i still have 500 Dv in the tanks. 

On the runway she's massive, coming in at ~250 tons, she'll push through the upper atmosphere at past mach 3. 

It needs reaction wheels. it turns veryyyyyyyy slowly

Edited December 4, 2016 by Leafbaron

[Gordon Fecyk]

When Ediahlil reminded me there's often more than one solution to a challenge, I thought about the urban legend about a physics student messing with their professor. Then wasted five hours to do this:

 

Edited December 4, 2016 by Gordon Fecyk

[MaxxQ]

Tried to set up a commnet around Gael (the new home planet of the Kerbals from Galileo's Planet Pack).  I'm not trying to go for anything fancy like geosynchronous orbits, though.  That kind of math just makes my head hurt.

Anyway, built a launch vehicle carrying four commsats/relays, which I planned to deploy at timed intervals, then raise them to a higher orbit after a set amount of time between each.  It actually worked out beautifully, until I realized I needed two more to get a full 360 degree coverage.  Looking at it, I realized I could get away with just three, and still get good coverage, but I figure there's nothing wrong with a little redundancy when it comes to commsats.

Anyway, after analyzing the flights, and the DV left in the commsat tanks, I determined that I could drop a tank from each one.  The four tanks that were eliminated allowed me to add the two additional commsats with only a modest increase in the length of the entire launch vehicle, and I didn't have to change anything else to accomodate them.  I kept careful notes during the initial attempt, and following the same launch/orbit/release/raise orbit for each individual commsat I used originally, I should have six new commsats placed sixty degrees apart orbiting Gael at the equator.

[Martian Emigrant]

4 hours ago, Gordon Fecyk said:

When Ediahlil reminded me there's often more than one solution to a challenge, I thought about the urban legend about a physics student messing with their professor. Then wasted five hours to do this:

 

Well Thank you for the wasted 5 then.

I heard that story quite a long time ago, Ago. Ago. Along time.

There was another option in that version:

 

Bribing the janitor with the expensive barometer to tell them the height of the building.

 

I looked at another of your vids. I laughed. Rick Kerbal on the Rick Kerbal Report. Mustachioed Chris Kerbal. What looks like a Canadian Tire Sticker on the station.

The music too. So ONF/NFB.

Good fun.

 

ME

Edited December 4, 2016 by Martian Emigrant

[Clipperride]

I completed a personal first in KSP today.  I finally decided to go and visit Duna and the first of my communication relay probes arrived today after 135 days travel time.  I made one error in my forward planning.  The probe carries 3 smaller relays that I planned to space evenly in an equatorial orbit.  In a moment of madness and in an attempt to save a little money and weight, I opted for the solar panels that can only be deployed once.  Having deployed them on the trip to Duna, they fared rather badly during aerobraking!  Luckily the main vehicle (also fitted with relay antennas) has retractable panels and one of the little releasable probe kept hold of one of its solar arrays.  I also have an identical probe arriving in 1 days time, so will hopefully end up with four relays around the planet.

- In Orbit Around Duna - A Personal First

[RoboRay]

Val and Bill dropped into the Mun's Canyon (which isn't nearly as impressive at 6.4x scale)...

 

[septemberWaves]

@Benji13 I always play with mods. I don't use KRE because the parts in it are designed for very specific circumstances (very SpaceX-styled rockets) and I don't really like to limit myself that much.

[N_Danger]

 Sent my first manned orbital mission up in this play through.

During which Jeb goes on an excursion.

By the way, Jeb really, really likes this kind of....stuff.

 

[RoboRay]

10 minutes ago, eloquentJane said:

@Benji13 I always play with mods. I don't use KRE because the parts in it are designed for very specific circumstances (very SpaceX-styled rockets) and I don't really like to limit myself that much.

Ironically, I use the SpaceX-style parts in KRE to build completely non-SpaceX-style craft.

[Starman4308]

1 hour ago, RoboRay said:

Val and Bill dropped into the Mun's Canyon (which isn't nearly as impressive at 6.4x scale)...

 

 

 

 

What are you using for the rescale? What I'm using (KScale64 with Sigma Dimensions) rescales the surface to 3.2x; while that still reduces the slopes by a factor of 50% relative to stock, you still get relatively steep terrain.

On my end: more so-very-tedious ion burns to capture probes into Eve orbit.

Edited December 4, 2016 by Starman4308

[Sharpy]

11 hours ago, Gordon Fecyk said:

When Ediahlil reminded me there's often more than one solution to a challenge, I thought about the urban legend about a physics student messing with their professor. Then wasted five hours to do this:

 

I demand two more measurements!

Use the KAS winches to measure pendulum period, 1) of pendulum reaching building height down, 2) short pendulum on the bottom and top of the building, as gravitational acceleration varies!

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

Shenanigans

I'm wondering whether I can fly a fighter jet through the mini-bridge/tunnel

[SmashingKirby148]

About to launch my take on the Mars Pathfinder mission. Wish me luck! This one will be interesting.

[Halfdan]

continuing on my research for reuseable spacecraft and reduced scrap production

for a recovery contract i launched today a modified version of my Koyuz - S(alvage) on the reuseable core stage that i posted yesterday

 

Capsule seperation and boostback burn

last meters before landing

the Koyuz approaches the target 


and lands safely after successfull grabbing and crew transfer

(water landing wasnt planned but hey it worked and makes for sort of a fun speedboat )

in summary, all that got wasted were the side boosters, and the decoupler on the capsule, all in all i think this is a good design 

Edited December 4, 2016 by Halfdan

[Gordon Fecyk]

7 hours ago, Sharpy said:

I demand two more measurements!

Use the KAS winches to measure pendulum period, 1) of pendulum reaching building height down, 2) short pendulum on the bottom and top of the building, as gravitational acceleration varies!

Oh I thought about that too, but haven't tried Kerbal Attachment System or Kerbal Cables on 1.2.1 yet! Can I cheat and use the Gravioli detector? KAS would also make the direct measurement a lot simpler, I imagine.

Also to do the pressure measurements properly I'd have to take a thermometer up there; from what I managed to find you need to take atmosphere temperature into account as well. Does it make a difference whether Ferram Aerospace is in use?

Finally, I figured bribing Gus Kerman with a shiny new barometer wouldn't be very effective.

[Added on] OK a few hours later, I put together a simple pendulum using a stock hinge based on mk1 fuselages and Stayputnik probes as bearings, and got the oddest result. My average pendulum period on the roof of the VAB was about 4.66 seconds, and on the ground at the foot of it was about 4.71 seconds. Pretty good; there's a measurable difference there. But I'm so rusty with pendulum physics that I'm pretty sure I goofed on this equation: g = (4*pi²)*(L/T²), where L would be the length of an 'ideal' pendulum and T was the period.

Assuming 9.81 m/s² on the ground, I figured an "L" value of about 5.5 metres, which was close to the actual length considering it was made of heavy girders, and ended up with g = 10.01 m/s² on the roof. I'm pretty sure I got something reversed there.

--

Edited December 5, 2016 by Gordon Fecyk
Added results of pendulum experiment

[XB-70A]

The X-35A Adikia is nearly finished, but just like the X-38 it took inspiration from the landing has to be realized with parachutes.

Just as a test I tried to land this lifting-body horizontally at low speed and create my first Kerbals unicycle by the same way. Images are better than words :

Approaching with a huge sink rate!

 

Nice BOOM but Steven seems to enjoy being a firework.

And...

TADAAAAAM...

 

I feel like being an artist.