What did you do in KSP1 today?

[joacobanfield]

I relieved crew from my "Space Station"

 

[Kerbital]

2 hours ago, StupidAndy said:

I sent three probes to Duna! now I must figure out how to get pictures...

MISSION REPORT!

If you have Dropbox it's really easy.  Put the pics in your Public folder, right click->Get the public link. Just paste the public link to the picture into post and the forum code automagically inserts it as an image.

[Sgt Doomball]

18 minutes ago, Kerbital said:

Thank you:) Oh yes, lots of mods. I installed pretty much any mod that gives me extra structural parts, engines, tanks, all Near Future mods, etc. I love mods:) I really like building ships, I spend a lot more time building than actually flying. Not all are even practical.

 

Ditto.

[Salvator]

2 hours ago, Sgt Doomball said:

No, but I did find out a technique to counter that. you need to start the engine as soon as the physics kick in

Thanks, i'll try that. Do you use Kerbal Joint Reinforcement, by any chance?

[Sgt Doomball]

2 minutes ago, Salvator said:

Thanks, i'll try that. Do you use Kerbal Joint Reinforcement, by any chance?

I did give it a try and my game said it was out dated.

[Salvator]

15 minutes ago, Sgt Doomball said:

I did give it a try and my game said it was out dated.

Hm so probably that is not the reason of the troubles with Firespitter gear. Well, thanks again.

[Sgt Doomball]

It was without firespitter. The problem is with the mod itself, the landing gear in Firespitter does not register as landing gear in the engineer report.

[Zeiss Ikon]

Yesterday, i had about an hour to play, and I flew an unusual mission.

(Science game)

With Jeb having recently managed to get himself to the Mun, Val started whining about being grounded.  In fact, she whined loudly enough that the Planning Committee came up with somethign special just for her.

The most recent mission to Minmus had generated reports of "mystery objects" showing on the orbit planner displays.  One of these was fairly close to Kerbin -- a little closer than Minmus -- and the Planning Committee decided to try to send a ship out to get a close look at it.  Valentina got the seat for this one, and climbed into the reliable Munar Lander Mod. 2, well proven to have the delta-V to get to Minmus, capture, and even deorbit with the transfer stage.

Complicating things was that the mystery object selected was far out of the ecliptic, relative to its distance; Val would have to launch into a polar orbit, close to the correct time of day, to be able to reach it without dV prohibitive plane changes -- and no one had ever flown into polar orbit previously (though Jeb had flown suborbital missions near, to, and over the North Pole, giving a good idea what was needed.  At the best estimate time, Val lifted off and promptly rolled five degrees, then started to pitch (normal launch profile is to yaw directly to the east, to take adavantage of Kerbin's rotational speed).  The rest of the launch was completely routine, except that the combination of losing 300 m/s from Kerbin's motion, and in fact having to kill that velocity to get a polar orbit, meant that the launcher used more fuel than usual getting to orbit.  This was expected, however, and Val's early gravity turn saved enough that she was still able to circularize without using any more fuel than was considered normal for an eastward launch.

One partial circuit of the 130x130 km orbit brought her into position for her ejection burn toward the mystery object, which had to be combined with a mild plane change, as the launch timing hadn't been perfect.  Then it was time for the waiting -- five days to apoapsis.  It was not unexpected that the object had moved before Val got close, but how far it moved was instructive, as was the fact that it wasn't visible with on board instruments (strongly implying it was tiny, by cosmic standards).

Then came the breakthrough: the same intern who'd taken a tape measure to the VAB during the booster staging crisis in the early days of the Munar Lander series had been assigned to distribute coffee in Mission Control -- and (she said) while trying to zoom in a screen for a better view of Val's track, discovered that the mystery object was trackable.  These objects had previously never been tracked, apparently because no one in Mission Control had thought to try.

By the time Val had returned to Kerbin (after the decision was made not to attempt to pursue a rendezvous with the original target object -- too far and too fast, she'd have never gotten back to Kerbin with the fuel available), the Tracking Station (once they knew it could be done) had discovered and plotted orbits for a round dozen of these objects, few if any as far from Kerbin as twice Minmus's orbital distance -- and one projected to pass Kerbin at a distance of only 900 km in about half a year!

Suddenly the whole focus of the space program was changed: if these mystery objects could approach Kerbin that closely, there was no good reason they might not actually hit the planet.  It suddenly became a priority to know what these things were, how big they were, and if there was a way to steer one away if it was detected on an impact orbit (in time).

[Kerbital]

Now, I have a new S-CREW-Y Class Lander to go with that mining ship. Maybe I'll set up a mission. "S" is for  splendid and "Y" stands for.... umm.... yeehaw? Moved all that sciency equimpent aside for a new snack bar, new toilet with a heated seat and a larger color TV with direct HD cartoon channel feed.

 

Edited March 15, 2017 by Kerbital

[eddiew]

Expanded the tourist industry's capacity for multi-contract missions with the first mk3 spaceplane of this career. One to Mo'dur, three to low orbit, three to Iota orbit, and three to flyby both Ceti and Iota - in one run! And since there are a few seats spare, mission control sent the few remaining 1-star kerbonauts up as well, since this should tip them over to the next rank.

Manticore can be refuelled to around 4km/s on the nervas, but for the purposes of this mission we only take 3200m/s, leaving enough spare fuel in Piggu for at least one more visitor.

(The large Rapier is a homebrew'd item using the stock model and Tweakscale's stats for a 2.5m engine. Needed something that would be KR&D compatible, though at this time, no research points have been invested with it, so it's the equivalent of about 5.6 stock Rapiers in weight and thrust. It looks cooler though, because I gave it the Panther rocket plumes.)

Of interesting note, 3200m/s turned out to be too much and we came home with 1300. Not to waste it, we put around a thousand back into the Piggu tanker. Which means we might as well not have bothered visiting it on the ascent, but nevermind, it's better to have 1km/s to spare than 1m/s too little.

For once, Manticore is a ship that has been well tested and the return and landing is so dull that it's not even worth pictures.

...ok, that was a lie. Turns out Manticore has a huge amount of lift when empty, and touchdown does not mean stays-down. After several bounces, and some terrifying yaws and rolls, the vessel somehow manages to come to a halt. On the runway. Having pulled about a 135 degree turn. But on the runway!

We'll take it however, because we need the money. Over half a million roots are collected in fares, and that's sorely needed in these impoverished times. And indeed, all our rookies are now 2-stars and a bit more useful to the program  

Edited March 15, 2017 by eddiew

[GDJ]

14 hours ago, Dafni said:

@GDJ what mod is that LEM from, if I may ask??

Thanks in advance

Of course you can ask!

Problem is.....I have over 100 mods and I have to sift thru them all to find it.
But I will find it and tell you.


At least I didn't answer "It's the Yeah mod that I downloaded it off that yeah site and I installed it in the yeah!".

[Kerbital]

26 minutes ago, eddiew said:

Expanded the tourist industry's capacity for multi-contract missions with the first mk3 spaceplane of this career. One to Mo'dur, three to low orbit, three to Iota orbit, and three to flyby both Ceti and Iota - in one run! And since there are a few seats spare, mission control sent the few remaining 1-star kerbonauts up as well, since this should tip them over to the next rank.

 

You should make a book, hopefully with Squad's blessing/license and do a Kickstarter project:)

[steedcrugeon]

After a short hiatus i have commenced building a Space station in HKO (just beond Minumus) using a quicky whipped together Rocket which has now become a Workhorse for all parts for all deliveries to the station. I have had to send up extra tanks as there is excessive surplus felt Fuel in the second stage.

I'm very much enjoying throwing things into the starry sky again!

Edited March 16, 2017 by steedcrugeon
Damn typos, although it has given me an idea for a lucrative new opportunity...

[Zeiss Ikon]

54 minutes ago, eddiew said:

it's better to have 1km/s to spare than 1m/s too little.

Truer words never spoken.  Says the guy who has, over time, stranded multiple Kerbals in various orbits...

[Bornholio]

MARS! Rhea III missions got to mars as the Rhea II had to return due to a Large Grid Array (LAG) induction failure.  Parts testing and integration on the Rhea II  UbioZur's fine technicians worked out the integration difficulties and the final result was very low LAG compared to the two preceding ships.  Mechjeb dynamic navigation computers aboard the Rhea failed and after three navigation errors compuonded the Rhea II needed 2 years of Hohman transfer to return to earth.  Werner was fully vindicated for including a mission excessive dV and life support budget and limiting the potential 22 man crew to only 6.

"Rhea III" and its Lander the "Hestia" are resounding successes,

Heading to Mars currently over Aussieland.

Saturn Robotic Explorer interupts mission

Arrival at Mars 27deg Inclination, Polar landings may be cancelled

First Martian landing of the Hestia

Sample Prepr bay gets used and Val starts storing the first crates of martian regolith and air samples

Crate is winched into place for the trip home.

Mission Flag

 

 

Edited March 16, 2017 by Bornholio
picture problem

[cantab]

Decided on a whim to see how my RSS rocket fares in stock. In RSS it takes 5 tons to Low Earth Orbit. In stock it takes that same five tons from Kerbin to Low Jool Orbit And by implication will deliver it to orbit any planet or moon in the system.

[Servo]

Out of game, I spend several hours cutting videos for a cinematic, and trying (and failing) to set up a career save with RSS.

In-game, I flew my XB-70 around.

It cruises at 1300m/s at 15km without too much trouble. The trouble comes when you try to turn around and fly home.

Plus, some flap-wing action for all of you.

 

[Angelo Kerman]

I made a test video of the VTOL system:

It is very much a work in progress; I plan to add more controls to the VTOL screen to handle things like thrust reverse, pivoting the nacelles, allowing you to set a specific angle, and so on. But what I've got is definitely coming along. (In case you're wondering, yes, the engine sound comes straight from a V-22 Osprey.)

[Ultimate Steve]

Today I mostly worked on craft for the reboot of Project Babylon (which I highly encourage everyone to contribute to).

First, I built a 200 part space station that needed a 600 part lifter. This led to the highest part count I've ever had on a functioning vessel. (I once built a 1500 part cluster of crew cabins just because I could, but that didn't do anything).

 

Also, I built a simple plane.

And then circumnavigated Kerbin.

This is the first legit Kerbin circumnavigation I've ever done. The first one I had to cheat in some fuel (because I didn't fill up some of the tanks) and ran out of fuel about five kilometers from KSC. I landed about 1km short of the runway and rolled the rest of the way.

I have a plan to send around four of these to Laythe.

[Wanderfound]

On 15 March 2017 at 10:04 AM, eddiew said:

Minor design error; there's a lot of roll surfaces, with the result that Drake II has major oversteer on re-entry. Easily fixed by dialling them down in the SPH, but mildly alarming when performing barrel rolls at 100m from the runway.

I'd be inclined to keep the outer ailerons at relatively high maximum deflection while using the inner ones as pure flaps and/or spoilers.

[PanzerAce]

Built a cheaty three person Minmus lander, put it into polar orbit for maximum science gathering with what few science gadgets I've actually unlocked. Landed it, planted flags, got the OG three to level 2, and brought them home with 1k science. Had a brown pants moment when, as I'm at about 50km up....I realize I don't have a way to jettison my return stage short of ditching my heat shield....which I'm not going to do at 2km/s. cue several hair raising minutes while I pray it doesn't flip and burn on me.

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

Discovered that the engine with the biggest bell in the game doesn't look quite big enough to be a F-1. But the bigger problem is the massive tankbutt that prevents me from moving it out radially as far as I want. I might end up needing to make custom stock F-1 engines using fairings for the bell or something.

Did some more testing of my E-50B in an attempt to figure out what needs fixing. Most flights ended like this 

And then there's this thing-that's-not-quite-a-sword-but-not-really-a-dagger-either. Don't ask why I made it. I really don't know. 

Maybe it would be part of some giant statue of a Kerbal knight.

[cratercracker]

Had quite a few launches this 2 days!

1. Second flyby and first "landing" on surface of an asteroid! I will call it Alexandrovich-Ivanchey A32 now!

Landing

2. Landing and fist exploration progress of "Violator" rover. It landed on a Farside crater and will explore it for 3 months.

3. Launch of "Farsider" Craft to orbit kerbin, dock with the station and return.

4. Launch of "Zodiak" rocket with a payload of a standard mk-1 but with a new SLIACS (safe landing in any condition system)

 

[NISSKEPCSIM]

Today I toyed with the concept of reusability. I hardly needed a new launcher, as I already had the 'Phoenix' reusable space shuttle, which is launched from a recoverable booster using Stage Recovery. But, I wanted to do it properly. I wanted to do it SpaceX style. Well, I almost made it.

I present to you, the 'Old Shepard' reusable rocket:

The first stage booster raises my Apoapsis to 90 kilometres, before it is jettisoned and performs a PAPL (Parachute Assisted Propulsive Landing). The second stage completes the orbital insertion and de-orbit burn, and the capsule detaches, opening its parachutes and landing.

Launch:

1st stage SEP:

Using FMRS, I switch to the booster and begin the trajectory flip.

Parachutes deployed:

Activating the 'Separatrons' for the PAPL:

Landed!

Returning to the main mission:

This mission was just to prove that a reusable rocket was possible; so I immediately de-orbited it.

Re-entry:

Parachutes deployed:

Landed!

 

[astroheiko]

All vehicles have now arrived at Gauss.

I've done a lot of complicated maneuvers so that everything is in place and on time. This alone took more than 3 hours. I will spare you the pictures of the maneuvers, whoever wants to - can see them in my report.

The Catulluslander was docked on the mother ship and the Crew ist waiting until everyone else is in their orbit.

 

The Survey probe has started its work.

 

And the Tarsiss SSTO was also taken around Gauss in a parking orbit at Catullus.

 

Also, I have just received this offer. So lucky for the poor guy that I have enough space.