What did you do in KSP1 today?

[JadeOfMaar]

10 minutes ago, Galacticvoyager said:

But wouldn't they fire in one direction?

They would but I do believe you won't need nearly as many of them per tank module. Just eight for translating up/down, sideways and roll, and four for translating forward and back, and then you can replace most of the Mono tankage with more LFO. You save part count + there's more LFO for passing vessels to give or take.

Unless....you have something very large and very practical with Puff mono engines for main propulsion.  

[ProtoJeb21]

After that VERY eventful Mun landing, I spent the next few days making planes, adding on to Kupole Station, and attempting to bring a base module to the Mun. A word of advice to new players...

DO NOT PILOT A BASE MODULE TO LOW MUNAR ORBIT FROM LOW KERBIN ORBIT WITH JUST RCS THRUSTERS!

Seriously, my hand HURT after that! I had to hold down the "H" button for something like 5-6 minutes.

Today, after crashing the game a few times while working on Interstellar Adventure Revived 1.1.0, I decided to return to something I stopped doing once I found my first potential planets: Magic Boulder hunting. I made a spacecraft named the Emiko-class Grabber and sent it out on a Hyperedit-fueled mission to grab Magic Boulders and put them in Kerbin orbit. By the end of my excursion, I had pulled up 8 new boulders, including an unusual navy blue one.

Full album here: http://imgur.com/gallery/24uqJ

[Planetace]

1 hour ago, JadeOfMaar said:

They would but I do believe you won't need nearly as many of them per tank module. Just eight for translating up/down, sideways and roll, and four for translating forward and back, and then you can replace most of the Mono tankage with more LFO. You save part count + there's more LFO for passing vessels to give or take.

Unless....you have something very large and very practical with Puff mono engines for main propulsion.  

I dont use the Puff mono engines for main propulsion, and I want any Liquid fuel and oxidizer in the last stage to stay in the last stage so that It increases the liquid fuel and oxidizer amount of the spacestation...

Edited February 4, 2017 by Planetace

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Galacticvoyager said:

I want any Liquid fuel and oxidizer in the last stage to stay int he last stage so that It increases the liquid fuel and oxidizer amount of the spacestation...

There are a couple points against this:

1. The Vernors are slightly more efficient.

2. MP tank mass ratios are worse than LFO tanks.

Ergo it follows that, for the same launch mass, using LFO RCS will leave you with marginally more useful reaction mass ending up on the station. Unless of course you want the partially-filled MP tanks anyway for other craft that dock using MP.

Edited February 4, 2017 by Guest

[winged]

Today I've made PC stress test...

 

Aircrafts you can see here consist of 1500 parts (total)...

 

 

Results? I've got stable 60 FPY. Test passed!

 

 

Valentina is happy.

 

More pictures here: http://imgur.com/a/OwuGQ

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, Jabbman said:

Yet another 'failed' launch  

Mixed up my decouplers and launch clamps, with fun results. Check your staging!

Oh, boy this reminded me when I've tried to conquer Eve for the first time (KSP 0.25 or 0.90):

Edited February 4, 2017 by winged

[SchwinnTropius]

Made my first custom part. It's nothing special, but the knowledge gained will be incredibly handy for future parts.

[septemberWaves]

9 minutes ago, winged said:

Results? I've got stable 60 FPY.

Frames per...year?

[winged]

1 minute ago, eloquentJane said:

Frames per...year?

Something like that.

[Zeiss Ikon]

Today saw a design review of Selene 1 Mod. 3a and Selene 1 Mod 3-1, following a Mun flight of the latter vessel in which Jeb was to land while Elyris piloted the transfer stage.  The design review was partially prompted by Jeb's spectacular crash while attempting landing

within hiking distance of the flag from Elyris's previous landing.

There was initial concern that a flaw in the vessel might have caused the crash, but examination of vehicle telemetry and Elyris's eyewitness report led the review committee to conclude with 60% confidence that Jeb simply screwed up -- this was to have been the first landing with the new two-stage lander, and it's believed that Jeb simply got too low, with too little thrust, overshot the landing zone by several kilometers, and struck the wall of the crater at high velocity (calculation based on observed burn time and position suggests impact was at a significant fraction of Munar orbit velocity).  This conclusion was supported by the fact that he had discussed maneuver planning over the intercom with Elyris, and appeared to have set up a low eccentricity suborbital path that passed directly over the previous landing site at very low altitude.  This was compounded by the rather long deceleration burn required by the LV-909 Terrier engine with the significantly heavier lander (LF/O descent stage under what was essentially the same monopropellant-only lander that stranded Elyris in Munar orbit, repurposed as an ascent stage).

The design review, however, did find and correct a number of minor defects in the vessel, along with corresponding ones in the Mod. 3a version, including redundant heat shields, on both the transfer stage RCS tank (intended, this tank is kept with the command pod through reentry) and the command pod itself (unnecessary, as the pod is to be separated from the RCS tank at or after parachute deployment).  Also, there was found to be no means of decoupling the transfer stage RCS tank other than jettisoning the command pod's redundant heat shield.  Poorly distributed fuel cells and antennae were also found and corrected, and staging sequence reviewed and updated.  Redundant struts were eliminated.  The same error of omission of stack separator and docking clamp between the transfer stage command pod and the lander was found in the Mod. 3a as had existed in the Mod. 3-1.  Finally, both vessels' fairings were modified to minimize cross section and reduce shoulder angle, both of which ought to reduce aerodynamic pressure and drag losses during the Max-Q regime during launch.

Any issues with upper stage configuration aside, the Mod. 3-1 launched well; the two boosters, each with two orange 640 size tanks and a Mainsail engine, plus fuel transfer to the core, improved initial acceleration and allowed early yaw maneuver to initiate gravity turn, though they did (as criticized during the design phase) require throttling back rather deeply for much of the atmospheric portion of the launch.  However, the combination allowed placing the transfer stage/lander stack into a stable orbit without using any transfer stage dV beyond what was needed to recircularize after deorbiting the booster core.  Thus, after transferring to Mun, capturing into Munar orbit, and transferring back to Kerbin reentry (albeit without the mass of the lander's command pod and its heat shield), the transfer stage still had more than 30% remaining fuel when it was jettisoned to burn up in Kerbin's atmosphere.  This much reserve seems to qualify the Mod. 3-1a (designation after design review and corrections) provisionally for Duna flyby, Mun/Minmus missions with heavier landers, and other operations beyond LKO.

[Leopard]

Last night I designed and assembled the "F1 resupply" craft, basically eight Mk1 liquid fuel tanks as payload, three more and a nuclear engine for itself, some solar panels, batteries and a probe core, plus a few reaction sheets and an RCS rig. Some 40 tons, got it into orbit (first time as well..).

has a nose docking port to couple to the F1 currently orbiting Eve out of fuel - the Gilly lander now on one of its rear ports as a parking point.

resupply ship also has a new module for F1 on its nose port, small service bay with the 'through' docking port, bay is stuffed with extra batteries and has an antenna on the side as it turns out F1 lacks one...

Tried to get the resupply to Eve today but the game wasn't cooperating, if I touch the time warp controls I get the 'no target' issue whereby I can't return to KSC so gave up for the night.

[astroheiko]

For my journey to Tellumo

 

i did a rendezvous with my Fuelstation 

 

and launched the Spaceplane for Tellumo.

 

the Spaceplane also needed to be refueled for the Transfer to Tellumo.

 

planing the Transferburn

 

So the next thing will be the mothership

 

Mothership is in Orbit, so i can land the "SSTO Rocket"

 

Refueling the Mothership

 

planing the Transferburn to Tellumo

If you want to see more pictures - I am writing a mission report

A Journey to Tellumo

Greetings

 

Edited February 6, 2017 by astroheiko

[flatbear]

landed my duna mining rig

[dangerhamster]

Operation Cheapskate continues its attempt to avoid space....

Turns out space telescopes don't become telescopes when in atmosphere.

And Val and Jeb found themselves redefining "near" ending up 700km from home.

[N_Danger]

Sent a fuel tanker to Duna.

 

And launched....

an un-kerbaled lander/rover combo for validation on Duna.

The take off and successful achievement of orbit clears the vessel for Kerbeled operations.

Now to send a Kerbeled  expedition to Duna. For all the science.

[Ty Tan Tu]

Gilly to Dres.

I my attempt to visit all the major planets. Moho and Eeloo were hard, but Gilly to Dres was the hardest. I still have Duna and the Jool system left to go.

[Sharpy]

*facepalm* didn't press F1 even once.

Made a "science rover" for mid-to-high gravity planets. Consists of frame based on Planetary Bases parts - laboratory, command module, two airlocks. Really big rugged wheels, First deployment: Moho. Test run was very promising: I made about 2x40km (there and back), deploying SEP stations in two new biomes. Moho, at least the northern regions, is enormous mountains with scarce, small flats in between. The rover had no difficulty driving down a nearly vertical wall, it can stably maintain ~30-40m/s, survived a jump at well over 50m/s from a cliff, generally is pretty hard to damage as long as it stays upright, and pretty hard to tip over. I'll need to test its uphill capability - it was nicely accelerating up a 45 degrees slope, but Mohole is more than 45 degrees - if I'm lucky, I won't need a dedicated mohole descent vehicle.

[cantab]

Tried to get more range out of my Lemon Demon plane

 

Put my first Kerbal in low Moon orbit on the Muse.

 

And got my own take on Earthrise

 

Put the science station Nightwish in LEO, using the same lifter as on Muse (which does 13 tons to LEO), and began raking in that lovely science. I'll have to spend it wisely though - it's imperative I get the tech to land on the Moon now.

 

[Guest]

Sundiver was disappointing after I vastly underestimated how difficult it is to move a solar orbit trajectory around and by the nature of a crewed deep space mission being time limited by supplies. A more reasonable probe (well, I say reasonable, but it is something like 80% solar panels by dry mass) that can take its time sets off in its wake. Arkadia works pretty nice though, no trouble with control or heat, and under 100 parts. Minor concern over power since it is solar with a constant life support and cooling bill, but I did design self-flying RTG powerpacks that can latch onto the Jr. service docks. You can see one on top of the Sundiver below.

 

Hygieia and Hestia are commissioned. As with Arkadia, the ships are launched in a single piece massing only around 60t despite their size. Fuelling is done in orbit and a CSM module is launched separately and docked to the front.

 

Screwed around with SFVE's Kerbin glow colour and got this. Also added a second cloud layer and shadows. I think I'll keep it like this, though the brightness of the glow makes it look a bit weird at the night/day terminator, it's as nice as I'm like to get it short of running Scatterer.

 

Sent the first miner to Dres. More to go out that way. I wanted a 3kt (wet mass) ore tank to load up on an entire E-class, but it would have to be 20x50m. The tank on this is only 100t, and the ship itself is a nuclear-plasma version of my solar-nuclear shuttle.

Edited February 5, 2017 by Guest

[Servo]

I messed around a bit more with my JSF, focusing on visuals this time.

Main changes occurred on the intakes plus rear stabilizers, plus some tweaks to the lift fan and the stuff under the wing.

 

The reference image I used, for reference.

[netbumbler]

 

Edited February 5, 2017 by netbumbler

[septemberWaves]

I completed my entry for my Fancy Probes Challenge. Complete mission report can be found here.

[DBT85]

I put my first 2 relay satellites in Geostationary orbit. Probably played for 200 hours and never done that. One to go.

[NISSKEPCSIM]

15 hours ago, ProtoJeb21 said:

After that VERY eventful Mun landing, I spent the next few days making planes, adding on to Kupole Station, and attempting to bring a base module to the Mun. A word of advice to new players...

DO NOT PILOT A BASE MODULE TO LOW MUNAR ORBIT FROM LOW KERBIN ORBIT WITH JUST RCS THRUSTERS!

Seriously, my hand HURT after that! I had to hold down the "H" button for something like 5-6 minutes.

Just put a paperweight on the H key. That's what I do.

[Martin0]

2 hours ago, NISSKEPCSIM said:

Just put a paperweight on the H key. That's what I do.

The rcs blocks right click menu has an option to use throttle controls

[Martian Emigrant]

I have a Bolt on my desk.

It's aprox. 1cm in Dia×5cm with a largish hex head. Nice weight to it.

I use it as my rover-throttle-lock.

 

ME