What did you do in KSP1 today?

[DerekL1963]

1 hour ago, Zeiss Ikon said:

I might need to consider adding mods for construction time and/or R&D time...

I use KAC to set a repeating alarm, and thus allow myself a launch only every so many days.

[DBT85]

I set about rescuing Valentina from her orbit around Minmus so that I could get all her science. I then used that science to make myself some half decent geostationary relays and successfully launched all 3 on one vehicle in the traditional, get a 4 hour orbit, release, orbit, release, orbit, release fashion. I'd never constructed anything that could do that, and never attempted this before. Frankly I think my final design might have been crude, but I was quite pleased and it all worked out well! Couldn't think of another way to get all 3 relays connected to the ship other than this.

I even managed to return the big orange tank to LKO to serve as the start of something bigger. It has limited fuel left but that can easily be rectified.

 

[Thrawn889]

15 hours ago, Flamingo said:

Today I once again played with SSTOs in my sandbox save. I'm trying to mix Mark IV with OPT for some big beautiful, but at the same pretty low part count planes.

In my career Jeb took yet another trip to the Mun, this time to the north pole for some delicious science, I was worried that it had slightly too little Dv, but it had just the right amount. But as I almost always do, I forgot to observe the materials bay, so I missed out on a lot of science there .
I first discovered it when I was 300m above Kerbin, and I didn't have time to quickload, so I decided to take it in the mountains as I haven't been there before. Unfortunately it's only a fraction of what I would've gotten on Mun.

And even more unfortunately my pod slowed down enough so that the chute got cut, but then it started rolling and the bay exploded...

I still got approximately 60 science though.

@Flamingo If you're stuggling to remember all the science. There's a mod i used called 'For Science'. As long as the science unit is there it will run the tests for you. If you have a scientist on board it will even reset materials bays and the like   Only thing it won't do is take your Kerbal EVA for you that's still upto you.  

[CaptainTrebor]

Landed on Minmus, then returned with a large amount of science on board. Would have been perfect if the science didn't blow up. Fortunately the heat shield , which was below the Science Jr. that blew up, became wedged at the bottom of the command module, therefore saving it from overheating. However, the EVA reports stored in the capsule survived.

Edited February 19, 2017 by CaptainTrebor

[Planetace]

Got a Duna Mothership into Orbit...

Testing out a revised Titan, and also needed a Duna Mothership so that once a Duna encounter is established, I can transfer over to the world of red spice! The Mothership is called Red Spice fittingly, will soon launch a lander and a kerbin return vessel onto Red Spice...

Buuuutttt, the revised Titan... Had a setback...

You can tell what setback it is just from this picture alone...

[Flamingo]

Today I fitted my Station with solar panels. Roberth took 38 small solars panels up, and attached them one after one before then going back to Kerbin. Now my station is finally somewhat self-sustaining (It still lacks electricity, but not as bad as before.

More pictures in the spoiler.

Spoiler

 Roberth could only have 27 panels in his bag, as he also had to carry a wrench with him, so he got Wernher to attach 11 panels on the outside of his pod, so he could move them when he arrived.

Finally recharging!

 

I also sat up some science experiments outside the KSC using the Surface Experiments Pack.

 

(And if you are wondering. Yes, I sent the Station up with no solar panels as I had not yet unlocked anyone. The reason why I have the Lab before panels are, that I find it too easy to get science once you have the station, but on the other hand I still want to use it. So I have lowered science to 20%. This makes the station necessary to get science, and is the reason why I needed it up so fast.)

[Haruspex]

It's Year 50, day 386 of the Kerbal Space Age. The Fifth Interplanetary Expedition has left the orbit of Bop.

 (Previously: Jool - Pol - Bop)

...and, after 53 days in the green shadow of Jool, arrived at Tylo.

Being a BadS adrenaline junkie is a must for a proper hero of Kerbalkind!

Another survey satellite is deployed into a polar orbit to map Tylo. 

There will be no landing on Tylo this time, unfortunately. The Explorer Module's nuclear engines are ill-suited to this kind of gravity, and the massive lander required for Tylo was dropped in favor of a much lighter Laythe atmospheric probe.

 Alas, The Fifth Interplanetary is not a true Jool-5.

 In a few days, all possible science is gathered and we are ready to depart to Vall.

Edited February 22, 2017 by Haruspex

[Servo]

Tower, this is Ghost Rider, requesting a flyby.

Still having trouble with getting the wings to not glitch out of their sockets, but it's improving. It worked once in flight, which was sweet.

[MikeZDB]

Today, the Kerbonov CRG6, fly to the Polaris Deep Space Comunication Base, carring supplies and first crew to start a new year of space exploration and control systems.

Image album of the travel from KSC to North Polaris Base, the Kerbonov CRG6 its capable to fly more than 1 hour with 6 tons payload, download and return to base.

Edited February 19, 2017 by MikeZDB

[dangerhamster]

After sitting in mission control whilst a Mun communications network was lofted Val decided to collect the monolith in the mountains east of KSC.

Not content with getting a visual she closed in to take a reading with the anomaly detector. Resulting in an unplanned air-ground interface.... A mountain goat jumped out in front of her, honest. Or it was wind sheer. Yup that's it, wind sheer. Nobody's fault at all. The important thing is no data was lost and most of the ship proved flyable.

After nursing the truncated ship back and executing a safe landing she parked up, left a note on the dash saying "Bill was here" and strolled off. Whistling.

 

 

 

[NISSKEPCSIM]

After launching a new hydroponics module using KSO station parts and the shuttle, I decided that I would need a new launcher. As much as I like the KSO, it has many restrictions, such as cargo bay space, fuel, etc. So what did I do? I basically did what NASA did when they retired the shuttle program. I made the SLS. Or at least, an SLS inspired rocket using the KSO's external fuel tank as the base, with four enormous SpaceY SRBs, and an upper OMS stage. The payload, 33 tons of liquid fuel for the (as of yet unnamed, please give me some suggestions!) space station.

I, personally, think that this SLS-33T looks awesome! Here's the full rocket at launch:

After circularization, waiting for the maneuver node to come up:

I was extremely surprised when this rocket, this mission being it's first ever launch, made it to orbit with more than half it's fuel left for orbital maneuvers.

The rendezvous was extremely boring, and I ended up ditching the OMS stage with half of it's fuel still in the tank.

Docking:

And... docked! She's a fine station, isn't she, the lopsided, asymmetrical eyesore that she is!

Come to think of it, she looks like one of the old Soviet Salyut stations. Yet I'm using MOLE! Oh no! I made a business deal with two rival countries!

Jokes aside, did anyone see the Falcon 9 launch from Kennedy Space Centre? That first stage landing was sweet! Too bad the clouds were so low and thick.

[Zeiss Ikon]

59 minutes ago, NISSKEPCSIM said:

Jokes aside, did anyone see the Falcon 9 launch from Kennedy Space Centre? That first stage landing was sweet! Too bad the clouds were so low and thick.

Didn't get to see it this time, but the computer driving those boosters seems to have suicide burns completely nailed.  Is that Mechjeb?

[Planetace]

Welp, took me a bit, but got my Ike and Duna lander loaded!

The Red spice mothership is nearly fully loaded and ready for its flight to Duna! (And my first proper flight interplanetary except for that one time that I got a random Eve encounter (but the Apoapsis was nearly outside of eves SOI.)) So best of luck for me guys

Just need to get that kerbin return vessel constructed and randevu with the mothership, 4.8 K of delta V inside!

[NISSKEPCSIM]

20 minutes ago, Zeiss Ikon said:

Didn't get to see it this time, but the computer driving those boosters seems to have suicide burns completely nailed.  Is that Mechjeb?

If you are referring to my station, yes, it uses Mechjeb for the more fine orbital maneuvers. I can easily do the rendezvous and velocity match manually, but Mechjeb can do them to minimize the deltaV requirements and get me a much more finer approach at a lower speed.

[Zeiss Ikon]

Just now, NISSKEPCSIM said:

If you are referring to my station, yes, it uses Mechjeb for the more fine orbital maneuvers. I can easily do the rendezvous and velocity match manually, but Mechjeb can do them to minimize the deltaV requirements and get me a much more finer approach at a lower speed.

No, I was asking if SpaceX was using Mechjeb to fly their booster landings. 

[NISSKEPCSIM]

Oh. You could ask SpaceX, but I'm pretty sure they weren't using KORD. :-)

[Planetace]

Kerbin return vessel docked!

The Red Spice mothership is fully loaded and ready! Guys, best of luck with the mission.

Oh wait, you guys might want to know the mission plan. Well, here you go...

 

1. Get red spice into orbit and load it up with a Ike and Duna lander, as well as a kerbin return vessel.

2. Burn to Duna.

3. Aerobrake in Duna's atmosphere to save Delta V.

4. Go into a LDO and launch Duna Lander.

5. Duna lander lands on Duna and initiates all the jazz.

6. Launch Duna lander off Duna and randevu to the mothership.

7. Refuel lander and burn to Ike (If delta V is high enough.)

8. Repeat the process done on Duna.

9. Burn from Ike and get back to Kerbin.

10. Use Kerbin return vessel to land on Kerbin while the mothership is left in a parking orbit.

[Whisky Tango Foxtrot]

I launched my second attempt at a Moho probe into Kerbin orbit.

My last one used an ion engine which, in addition to making the necessary burns an absolute pain, ended up not having enough fuel to capture (although that may have been due to the fact that I didn't know how to do an efficient interplanetary transfer back then.) This new one is based entirely around chemical engines, partly to avoid the problems from my last attempt but also partly because I'm in the process of upgrading my Kerbin station and needed to get rid of the oxidizer stored in some of its fuel tanks before I de-orbit them. I've confirmed via F5F9 simulations that this one does have enough fuel to achieve Moho orbit (after topping up its tanks at the station, of course) and it contains a much more advanced payload then my last probe, with a RA-100 relay (up from the RA-15 on the original probe) in addition to the surface scanners that will allow it to locate possible landing sites for a future manned Moho mission.

[Flamingo]

Are those two aerospikes your only propulsion @Galacticvoyager?
And if yes, how do you keep your ship stable as it looks like CoM and CoT are very misaligned?

[eddiew]

Sent a team to Gratian  

Used hydrogen tanks and the biggest nuclear engine from Kerbal Atomics to create a transfer stage with a there-and-back-again range of 10km/s. Excellent TWR and ISP, but the tanks really can't handle the heat of atmospheric entry, so all burns have to be done in vacuum. Tbh, it's arguable whether a conventional LV-N stage would have been better, since that could basically aerobrake without a problem and cut the delta-v requirements by about 40%.

In many ways, this planet is a trap. 0.75g is almost as bad as Tylo, and the 0.5 atmospheric pressure is both a blessing and curse since you can indeed use parachutes... but you'll suffer a lot of drag losses on the way back, especially if you're an idiot and use a flat topped object like the Spiceweasel lander. And yes, yes, it's basically a rechristened version of the Desertfox that did Niven at 3.2x.

Didn't seem to be any point reinventing the weasel.

A rejiggered Desert Willy provides the surface mobility, stripped of some solar panels and kitted with an extra RTG, since Gratian is a lot further from the sun than Niven. Bon Voyage was happy to pilot it in two-wheel-drive, although I'm instituting a personal rule of no Bon Voyaging over 100km from the LZ. Because otherwise it's just cheating.

The Gratianian spicestorms turn out to be quite ferocious. At least a third of the time will be spent watching cinnamon-clouds swirl across the cold, dry desert. Also, they look like lakes from orbit, which caused a lot of confusion in trying to land by the water's edge!

The spicy surface samples are worth a massive 480 data points, but it looks like being quite a while until the transfer home, so for now the crew are left to figure out how best to prepare them. Apparently they go quite well with stewed apples.

Iota Mining Corporation took a moment to review their operation and concluded that it wasn't very cost efficient to keep anyone on the payroll, so mission control sent a recovery flight to get them.

Short version, the Badgermole miner is over-complicated (and causes fps lag when docked) and the Alekeg refinery is just plain poorly designed. The radiators can't handle the convert-o-tron's heat output, and the whole structure reaches dangerous temperatures during "normal" operation. 

With the crew retrieved, Alekeg is guided under remote control into low Gael orbit. It still contains plenty of fuel and can be used by outbound flights, but it won't see use as a refinery again.

There may be a revised Iota mining operation in the future, with many lessons learned and applied, but it seems more likely that the mining and refining technology will find its way into field operations.

On the way home, Firebug III retrieves Leo Kerman from Mo'dur, with the intent of sending him on an upcoming mission. Rookie Griffin Kerman takes his place.

Edited February 19, 2017 by eddiew

[Sufficient Anonymity]

Started a new save with a new modlist, based primarily around OPT. Here's my primary SSTO.

Yes, I am capable of landing this thing (though it uses so much runway).

The IVA's absolutely awesome, too.

Edited February 20, 2017 by SufficientAnonymity

[Slam_Jones]

Built a few more mini racing quadcopters today.  Turns out, I can go smaller than my last attempt.

(Far left: Racing Quad III, which I had thought was as small as I could go.  From left to right from there, versions IV, V, and VI)

The latest version, VI, weighs about 11kg and can produce more thrust than is sane, so it is limited to 5.something TWR, though it could achieve 12+ if I set the thrust limiters back to full.

It is prone to going out of control once in a while, but for the most part it is relatively stable and maneuverable.  And the battery lasts much longer than the old version, somehow (Tweakscale oddities, I imagine).

 

Edited February 20, 2017 by Slam_Jones

[N_Danger]

 Jeb made the case for a Duna landing even though only one lander was left and thus no back up if it failed. Reports that he "stole" the lander are mere rumors and innuendo.

 

 Liftoff is routine.

 

And Jeb returns with the science.

I also failed at arriving at Moho. I got there but couldn't stop.

 

[F3ARSTUNTS]

mainly working on my SLS for moon and mars in RO / RSS

[Kertech]

So not been getting time to play much recently, but managed to find some free time to work on a Jool 5 project I've had on back burner for about a year!

Mother ship and landers done, just need to evaluate fuel situation and then cast off.

The mother ship is something like the 6th or 7th total redesign and the 4th or so iteration of that, but finally happy! Named the Elantris she is over 130 parts of industrial beauty!

 Plenty of scope for stable aerobraking with entire lander payload safe inside the internal docking structure (the big space with tubing in the middle!) Crew can access all docking nodes through access tubes

 

Since I've been playing pretty much exclusively either 6.4 or 10 times scale recently I decided to launch it in one piece (genuinely learnt so much about flying from the big scale!) Also I forgot how ridiculous space y is! These aren't even the biggest possible rockets! 

 

 

Payload is three parts: a simple tug for getting places in the Jool system (the Elantris is heavy) a plane for laythe and a moon lander, the upper stage being refueled and capable of vall etc, whilst with the lowerstage able to do tylo!

 

Quite looking forward to this mission, will eventually post a full log, including launches and many many dockings in mission reports!