What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Ty Tan Tu]

I tried to land on Duna, but messed up pretty badly. I was thinking I could use a LV-909 "Terrier" in conjunction with a parachute on my lander. Boy was I wrong. The "Terrier" did not provided enough thrust in the Duna atmosphere to slow me down enough to even deploy the chute. As Kurt Vonnegut would say "And so it goes." After spending a great deal of time getting to Duna, only to crash, upset me quite a bit, so I decided I needed a success to lift my spirits. I sent a lander to Mun and visited the Neil Armstrong Memorial.

Now back to the drawing board for Duna! I think I will try the old venerable LV-T30 "Reliant" this time. :-)

[Starman4308]

 

 

Redesigned the Moho relays, this time with more delta-V, both from a stronger (TWR and Isp-wise) pulsed inductive thruster carrying a silly overkill of argon (27 km/sec full, insertion burn is ~ 10 km/sec of delta-V thanks to less-terrible TWR), and from a hypergolic kick stage used on the transfer burn. They're all in orbit now, still getting the inclination to 0 and into a stable circular orbit, however.

A large Moho orbiter, despite its kick stage, had to complete the transfer burn on its ion engine. Those of you acquainted with that Murphy fellow might know what happened next.

There may have been unintended consequences of how the sigint radar dish deployed itself. Fortunately, you get a lot of solar power at Moho; a single blanket array was delivering 800-1100 EC/sec (started over 1000, seemed to drop over time for some reason).

The first module of the planned Duna station has been designed, about 70 tonnes, requiring the use of the 100-tonne booster to send it to Duna. The first mission to the Duna station will be "deliver 32 Kerbal-years of life support supplies to fill up the completely empty tanks on the station because that's the only way we could fit it onto the largest booster in inventory". Said supply will take the second largest booster in the inventory. Part of this is pure paranoia, basically "if everything but the station dies, I want the 6-Kerbal team to survive until resupply can come", but it's still illustrative of the absurd amounts of life support Kerbals will need for interplanetary missions.

4 hours ago, Ty Tan Tu said:

I tried to land on Duna, but messed up pretty badly. I was thinking I could use a LV-909 "Terrier" in conjunction with a parachute on my lander. Boy was I wrong. The "Terrier" did not provided enough thrust in the Duna atmosphere to slow me down enough to even deploy the chute. As Kurt Vonnegut would say "And so it goes." After spending a great deal of time getting to Duna, only to crash, upset me quite a bit, so I decided I needed a success to lift my spirits. I sent a lander to Mun and visited the Neil Armstrong Memorial.

 

What was your descent slope like? If you come in too steep, that can be a problem; you want to come in with a periapsis of several kilometers above the surface such that you can bleed off a lot of horizontal velocity before landing.

Edited December 11, 2016 by Starman4308

[Ty Tan Tu]

4 hours ago, Ty Tan Tu said:

I tried to land on Duna..

I made it!

[Big Kerbie]

Things did not go well for my program today.  Two major hiccups have program managers on the edge.

The unmanned Minmus Flyby and Return mission had completed its science mission and was full up and was nearing Kerbin's atmosphere interface. Set up for a 35k periapsis entry. Apparently that was too low for the speed it was carrying. The control gimbal right over the heat shield blew tossing the heat shield away. The unprotected remainder lasted another 30 seconds before it looked into dust. Nothing was recovered. Guess we'll try again with Minmus Flyby 2.

Mun1, a three kerbalnaut lander has been the pinnacle of the program's manned efforts. A ten day mission on the Mun at lowlands was at its close and it was time to return. The fuel load was suspect, but it was decided that Jeb could get them back to Kerbin without alot of problems. They made munar orbit easy enough, but then things got dicey. With the combined effort of the remaining fuel and monopropellant, it was going to be difficult to make 40k periapsis at Kerbin. After the burn, the boys found themselves in a highly eccentric Kerbin orbit with a periapsis of 300k and apoapsis of 10800k. A faulty (illplanned) decoupler would not let the 30 units of monopropellant in the command pod be transferred to the service section.  Bill volunteered to get out and push in three days when they get back to the apoapsis. And so it is, my first Mun landing mission went from "Greatest Feat of Engineering" to "Engineered by the lowest bidder with no budget for simulations"

They'll be ready for a landing in three days. Until then, we wait.

[Fireheart318]

I built a "TIE" fighter to fly around on Duna. Before you get too excited, it's not a Star Wars TIE, just an ion glide that happens to have Twin Ion Engines. Also, it SUCKS! On top of all the suckiness, realistically, couldn't get within a few kilometers of it without getting severe radiation poisoning because the engines use ionizing radiation as a propellant and get the electricity from a nuclear reactor!

 

Take this and keep it far away from kerbals: https://kerbalx.com/Fireheart318/Ion-Fighter-DUNA-ONLY

Edited December 12, 2016 by Fireheart318

[katateochi]

The weekend started off with a minor issue on landing; (accidentally switched to a nearby rover) and crashed into the fuel tanks by the SPH.  It looked spectacular but thankfully no one was hurt. Lots of fire though.

I've been playing a career with the Tourism Plus Contract Pack (which is really good btw) so quite a lot of flights taking large groups of paying customers to an orbital hotel.  

This weekend I've been building the orbital casino (one of the tourism plus contracts) which requires being built around asteroids. I got lucky and chanced on one of the magic boulder style asteroids so I've used that as the center piece. That, plus a huge (biggest I've ever seen) class E.

The central asteroid is joined to the habitation ring by bolting a set of tweakscaled claws with KAS ports on them into the asteroid and then joining them to the ring. Took me absolutely ages to position the ring around the asteroid (being a perfectionist didn't help, I wanted it looking a certain way) and then holding it in place while the bolts where moved into place and an linked by an engineer. 

I'm petty pleased with how it looks but it has a major problem.  If I approach it in another craft (from further than 2.2km away), as I get near it, it will start to shake and rip itself to bits.  BUT I've found a way around that problem; If I switch to the station before the approaching craft gets into range and then wait for the approaching craft to come into range then all is well. 

Also been building another station to deal with all the excess fuel I've been extracting from captured asteroids. The extractor craft (which is totally asymmetrical in design) can carry one of the fuel pods to an asteroid, mine it and then bring the fuel pod back and pick up another one (or actually just transfer the fuel, which is easier than redocking it; the cage which goes around the fuel pod helps balance the RCS thrusters but makes it really tricky to dock, so next version won't have that!)

And meanwhile at Bills Scrapheap on Minmus (a base which has been (mostly) assembled on site using KAS/KIS), engineers continue to strip down spent stages and retired craft and repurpose them into cobbled together probes and some very primitive rescue craft. 

Probe bound for Duna; will split into orbital section and lander on arrival....or it might just burn up on entry as we didn't have any heat shields knocking about. But like everything launched from here it's built just out of stripped down parts from retired craft and refueled from locally mined fuel, so it doesn't cost the space program anything (it just takes ages to assemble something that would normally take a few minutes to make in the VAB and with no symmetry or offset tools they look kinda odd, and of course there's no fly-test-revert process)

(left; guerilla launch platform, launching a probe which is going to do a fly by of Eve. right; pile of spare parts and an engineer preparing to launch on a makeshift rescue craft to go and slap some parachutes onto a stranded (rescue contract) craft and punt it into a Kerbin intercept path. As you can see, no expense spared for rescuing Kerbals ) 

[Triop]

Some Joyriding.

Enter the Kerbal Dakar 2017 !

 

Edited December 12, 2016 by Triop

[Guest]

Designed this because my Constellation rocket is overkill for most launches but I still want something 7.5m wide for large loads that aren't necessarily heavy like stations & bases. Eden sunflare goes very well with sunrises/sets.

Boosters: SpaceY S223 ×4

Lower stage: SpaceY E1 ×1, SpaceY R1 ×6

Upper stage: Kerbodyne KR-2L+ ×3

 

Edited December 12, 2016 by Guest

[Gaarst]

I went to Jupiter.

Closing in:

Spoiler

This thing is freaking huge, flew by at 45,000km and still takes almost half of the view.

Best picture I could get of Io (300,000km away, next mission will focus on flying closer to the Galilean moons):

Spoiler

Another picture of Io, with Europa behind (did not get any interesting view of other moons):

Spoiler

Now on my way to Saturn (I'm confident I will catch Pioneer 11 at some point)!

[Program Kerbal Space]

What I did today is go through the trouble of making a replica of a plane, and trust me it was a pain anyway the plane is Here.

[Mycroft]

I finished the first layer of a polar comms network with 34 relays scattered over the planet. Gonna build the next layer up in kerbistationary orbit with about 17 more satellites scattered around the Kerbin system.

[Maxsimal]

47 minutes ago, String Witch said:

Designed this because my Constellation rocket is overkill for most launches but I still want something 7.5m wide for large loads that aren't necessarily heavy like stations & bases. Eden sunflare goes very well with sunrises/sets.

Boosters: SpaceY S223 ×4

Lower stage: SpaceY E1 ×1, SpaceY R1 ×6

Upper stage: Kerbodyne KR-2L+ ×3

 

Is that just SVE + scatterer or more?

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Maxsimal said:

Is that just SVE + scatterer or more?

KSPRC terrain textures + SVE cloud config/textures + scatterer + planetshine (apart from the effect it's named for, it also allows a lower minimum ambient light level) + Eden sunflare I mentioned

Edited December 12, 2016 by Guest

[Sharpy]

3 hours ago, katateochi said:

This weekend I've been building the orbital casino

I'm trying to imagine that.

Dice. Dice bounce off the table and fly across the room.*

Roulette. Ball shoots off the 'mill' and hits a kerbal in the eye.

Poker. The dealer lets go of the deck during shuffling. Cards everywhere!

Slots. Jackpot! The whole base fills with flying coins!

 

Didn't even realize how much gambling depends on gravity!

[Srpadget]

Today I learned that global warming induced sea-level rise is apparently a "thing" on Kerbin.  i'm guessing the kerbals learned it too, but it's hard to tell when speech sounds just like bubbles...

Edited December 12, 2016 by Srpadget
I never get this picture-sharing thing right on the first try...

[AccidentsHappen]

5 minutes ago, Srpadget said:

Today I learned that global warming induced sea-level rise is apparently a "thing" on Kerbin.  i'm guessing the kerbals learned it too, but it's hard to tell when speech sounds just like bubbles...

Yeah, I had that problem too. Those Kerbals really need to learn that punching a hole in the atmosphere with a Rocket also happens to punch a hole in the ozone layer. And a hole that Bill can't fix.

I ended up getting sick of scatterer's water texture overlapping with the land (couldn't fly in cockpit view), that I just turned it off. Now I get beautiful Kerbin as well as no flooding!

[Mycroft]

31 minutes ago, Srpadget said:

Today I learned that global warming induced sea-level rise is apparently a "thing" on Kerbin.  i'm guessing the kerbals learned it too, but it's hard to tell when speech sounds just like bubbles...

Dude! That looks cool!

 

Now I want a mod that floods the KSC during hurricane season!

That would be cool!

But not something I would want to deal with on a regular basis.

[Brownhair2]

The Sundiver is in orbit around Sonnah, but it has no fuel left. Which means it's up to Jeb to bring them back!

I'd like to quickly take a moment to point out another novel use of the strap-two-giant-boosters-to-it strategy:

(This is also how I get my MOTHERs into space)

But I digress. This thing uses nukes, which means it has a lot of delta-v. More than I could ever need. I'm thinking of replacing them with Vectors for better TWR.

 

Now to bring them home!

Just barely managed to get over water, although I'm not sure why I was so worried. This thing glides surprisingly well.

And... touchdown!

I bet the crew is very happy to be back, especially after originally being told they weren't coming home.

 

 

[loch.ness]

I made my first pass at the Orion only to find that the launcher has so much fuel that it made orbit (sans SRBs) so I can certainly tone it down for my Kerbin SOI operations and the ship can probably make Duna as things are now.

The first test was a Munar flyby to test the Orion at full force on re-entry and it was fully manned because I had 5 kerbals in need of Munar orbit experience.  After passing into Mun SOI on a free return trajectory we burned retro until we had an orbit and then burned prograde until we were right back where we were.

The two MOLE pieces don't have a matching texture which bugs me a little and neither half has full control on its own, meaning its dependent on a probe core for its controls.  That worked for us on this flight since the people needing experience were not pilots but it could be a problem later on.

With a full crew of 5 the Orion has supplies to last a long long while but only Habitation for a bit over a week.  That fits with what I'd be using it for.

My plan calls for an Orion (or 2) waiting at Duna orbit for the 10 Kerbal KASE team to arrive.  The Orion would ferry the first team of 5 to their lander to start their mission on Duna and then come back and ferry a small team to Ike for survey missions before returning them to the crew ship and sending that group to its lander.  After that the Orion waits in orbit to act as an emergency pick up rather than forcing the main ship to manuver much in orbit.  The capsule itself might be brought back with the crew ship to be used for return to kerbin or it might be left awaiting refueling for use on future missions.

Kase will continue using the Apollo CSM or STS for Kerbin SOI operations.

[Sharpy]

3 hours ago, Mycroft said:

Dude! That looks cool!

 

Now I want a mod that floods the KSC during hurricane season!

That would be cool!

But not something I would want to deal with on a regular basis.

Tell me how to trigger that.

I got a mod that brings in USS Enterprise, full-sized. As a dependency for another mod.

And I'm really averse to use of the gravity hack. This would be PERFECT!

[AccidentsHappen]

5 hours ago, Srpadget said:

Today I learned that global warming induced sea-level rise is apparently a "thing" on Kerbin.  i'm guessing the kerbals learned it too, but it's hard to tell when speech sounds just like bubbles...

Yeah, I had that problem too. Those Kerbals really need to learn that punching a hole in the atmosphere with a Rocket also happens to punch a hole in the ozone layer. And a hole that Bill can't fix.

I ended up getting sick of scatterer's water texture overlapping with the land (couldn't fly in cockpit view), that I just turned it off. Now I get beautiful Kerbin as well as no flooding!

 

EDIT: lol wut. I hit submit like 3 hours ago. Didn't even realise it didn't post...

[Clipperride]

Yesterday I;

- Redesigned my 7 seat tourist carrier, saving 10,000 per launch (and named the new version The Kash Kow)

- Got the Original Four up to level 3

- Rescued a Kerbal from an incredibly low Minmus orbit

- Got some easy money testing a few parts on the launch pad.

- Built a new Mun Base (contract) but failed to land it in one piece, so need to put it down some less slopey ground.

Then spent ages looking at other folks space planes looking for Mk3 inspiration.  

Gotta love Sundays!

[JadeOfMaar]

Having soaked up some inspiration from @RocketPCGaming's stream last night and the talk about Lockheed Martin's lean green supersonic machine, I went and took my free time, once I had some, and built something like it with Procedural Parts & Wings. Despite it being unwieldy due to the amount of lift surface it performs very well (engine-wise) and easily circumnavigates Gael/Kerbin with cruise speeds between Mach 4 and 5.5 @ 30km altitude. Optimally it should complete a lap and still have 1/4 or 1/3 fuel remaining but tripping over myself with two attempts to align with KSC for final approach led to a lot of needless descent and fuel wastage...Then I had to double back and land headed Westward.

Before I added the crew cabins and cockpit it would have done just as well at Mach 3 @ 21km altitude with up-scaled Panther engines, but the TWR dipped too far and I had to replace them with down-scaled OPT engines. The nacelle radius is 1.875m.

In the orbit view picture, KSC is at the eastern edge of the visible sunny-side continent.

  

[Tyko]

14 hours ago, katateochi said:

 

The central asteroid is joined to the habitation ring by bolting a set of tweakscaled claws with KAS ports on them into the asteroid and then joining them to the ring. Took me absolutely ages to position the ring around the asteroid (being a perfectionist didn't help, I wanted it looking a certain way) and then holding it in place while the bolts where moved into place and an linked by an engineer. 

 

Looks great! Is that station joined to both asteroids? I wasn't even sure that was possible without having it self destruct

[loch.ness]

Before I send the crews I'll of course need a tool for picking landing sites.  To that end I started working on my Duna rover.

Curiosity can collect core samples and use a laser to check for signs of life.  It also has a sensor for checking the atmosphere for hydrogen and plenty of power.  It drives rather well though the steering is reversed and the wheels feel a little off.  I might not be able to fix that without a complete rebuild though and I'm pretty happy with how she looks.

Next step will be setting her up with a skycrane and an atlas and then either launching at the next window or well before.  I did send along a standard relay sat before the next window with the intent of doing the same thing here.