What did you do in KSP1 today?

[EmbersArc]

Finally finished the kRPC-controlled mobile manipulator: GIF

[capi3101]

(1.1.3) Log has built back up on me again with a bunch of half-hour days...

So...let's see. Earliest entry I've got is for last Monday, which is when I finally finished the landing sequence of the Auk Ia light passenger spaceplane. If y'all will recall, I had test flown the thing up to the Kerbinport space station to deliver a pair of tourists and had to quit with the plane still trying to get back to KSC after a rather badly botched re-entry (by which I mean I'd overshot the Runway by 400 kilometers). After quick-loading my progress back up and quickly activating the fly-by-wire, I was able to get the plane back under control and returned successfully to KSC 27. Had a 5% fuel reserve on touchdown, said TAC.

I began Tuesday by putting the Bullet Bill 7 ion probe into its final disposition around Minmus. And by final disposition, I mean close enough that the game should've awarded me the contract. And I imagine it would've, had I packed an antenna on the stupid thing. <facepalm />

So I began looking around for spare antennas in and around Minmus as well as engineers with tools to perform a KAS repair job. Antennas I had to spare - there were two at the Minmusport space station and four at the Hojo Eta outpost, which I planned on abandoning anyway. So I was good there. On Engineers, though, I came up short - the only one at Minmus is Phovie at the Deepwater Horizon refinery. Naturally, plans began then to get her up to repair Bullet Bill, but that would have to wait until she finished refueling operations - Next Objective was parked at Minmusport with an expedition in progress. Finishing that expedition became the priority - scientist Catxie Kerman along with pilots Billy-Bobfurt, Frovey and Carta Kerman were loaded aboard the station's Spamcan 7a lander and made their way to the surface to plant flags. Having arrived safely on the surface and conducted their mission, the group returned to Minmusport, a verification check was made to ensure that all required landing operations were complete, all crew transferred back to Next Objective and the craft was refueled. Next Objective's next port of call was the Munport space station, so a transfer burn was set up and executed; Next Objective will arrive in the Mun's SOI in 24 days. I have the time to kill...

On Wednesday, I decided I needed a change of pace. I've noted recently that while I have spaceplanes for 16, 8 and 2 passengers capable of docking in LKO, I didn't have one for four passengers, a niche that needed to be filled. So I set about with the design of the Auk IX:


The Auk IX four-passenger spaceplane - the Edsel of the fleet...

Auk IX on re-entry.

The test flight commenced on Friday, where I discovered three flaws - first, it wasn't given any Z-axis thrusters, so while I could align it with the desired docking port at Kerbinport, I couldn't close or open the distance to the port. Test docking had to be scrapped. A second flaw happened on re-entry; I had failed to give it any battery storage - she almost ran out of power coming out of re-entry into powered flight. A final flaw was a bad setup of the control surfaces on the trailing edge of the wing - I had given her insufficient roll control and as a result she had unstable dynamic lateral stability (i.e. horrific sideslip) at low speed and altitude - FAR gave me green on the L-sub-beta but it showed up on the lateral simulation in the after-action analysis. I originally thought I had left the craft in Atmosphere Autopilot's rocket mode (which I've done before) and I nearly botched the landing before I realized what was actually going on - that said, I did get then plane down on the Runway and in one piece. All three of those flaws have been fixed at this point and other than that she flew beautifully. Still don't know how often it'll be necessary for me to transport four passengers as opposed to two or eight, and one thing I've noted is that this craft is more expensive than the Auk II, the 8-passenger variant. Not sure why...

Yesterday I went back to getting things ready to go with the Bullet Bill repair mission. Scientists Isavie and Danwig Kerman were transferred from Hojo Eta to Deepwater Horizon and Phovie went over to pull an antenna off the thing. I actually spent a fair amount of time trying to pick up Hojo Eta with the crane rover Lunkhead in an attempt to haul it closer to the refinery; I ultimately disillusioned myself from that idea after having to revert several times when the crane tipped over...

Next session will be a refueling run for Minmusport, and then I need to figure out exactly how I'm going to get Phovie off the surface and over to that probe. I did mention that the probe's in a polar orbit, didn't I?

[Brent Kerman]

On ‎4‎/‎15‎/‎2017 at 6:53 PM, Triop said:

Today we build a ship to go where no Kerbal has gone before...

Wrong! I've had a rover and research base there for several weeks.

[Bornholio]

14 minutes ago, Brent Kerman said:

Wrong! I've had a rover and research base there for several weeks.

Why are you hacking @Triop's computer, I'm sure its a potato. That's mean to hijack the poor fool's potato. Look at him struggle!

[Triop]

24 minutes ago, Brent Kerman said:

Wrong! I've had a rover and research base there for several weeks.

Well, that's not strange for a Kerbin Geographic Society Member ...

6 minutes ago, Bornholio said:

Why are you hacking @Triop's computer, I'm sure its a potato. That's mean to hijack the poor fool's potato. Look at him struggle!

Wait, are you calling me a potato ? ....

*sending fighters...

 

[Bornholio]

36 minutes ago, Triop said:

*sending fighters...

 

[Triop]

Went to orbit...In a MiG-21

Edit, had to make a MiG-15 SSTO after that...

Edited April 18, 2017 by Triop

[NISSKEPCSIM]

Back in my Eyes Turned Skyward-style career game, the USA successfully performed the first orbital rendezvous and docking (In this save) with the second and third missions of the 'Daedalus' program; 'Daedalus-Friendship-2' and 'Daedalus-Independance-3' respectively.

The the launch vehicles and two spacecraft docked:

And while America was celebrating its achievement, the Soviet union stabbed them in the back when they performed the first ever manned Munar flyby on a short- one day notice.

The 'Zond-2' spacecraft on approach to the Mun (Launched via a 'Proton' rocket):

And so, with the Russians far enough ahead that a good chunk of the American people lost hope that United States could land on the Mun first. And the the US made a comeback by launching the largest rocket ever made to test the 'Artemis' CSM for their 'Artemis' Munar landing program: The 'Jool-1.'

This was the first manned launch of the 'Jool-1' rocket and 'Artemis' spacecraft (After a long series of unmanned testing), and NASA decided to send Jeb up to LKO to test important safety equipment - like the Kerbonaut Safety Tether (KST) and the selfie stick!

(Oh, and a mission module consisting of a container full of supplies and equipment that was inside the fairing/adapter in place of the Munar lander)

More here.

[xendelaar]

I'm still working on my:

all reward sliders on 10% challenge

( catchy title huh? )

i want to unlock the entire tech tree the most grindy way possible. 

i have to say it's a really difficult but  luckily not impossible challenge.

I'm currently unlocking tier 2 techs and  visiting several Duna biomes using a drone and mothership combination. the mothership harbours a scientist and an engineer to reset experiments and repack shutes. 

check this link if you want to learn more about the mission. 

i visited 6 biomes so far.

 

[Brent Kerman]

I signed a petion to name the first manned Dragon capsule Jebediah Kerman. Check it out:Name the first dragon capsule Jebediah Kerman.

In KSP? You don't want to see what I built. Muhahaha! Those Rebels will die! My old space battleship with 30 15-inch guns now classifies as a light cruiser.

[The Flying Kerbal]

A Tale Of Satellite Launches, A Munar Miracle... And I Need A Lawyer! 

The last couple of days has witnessed the KSC transform itself into a busy little beehive as a steady stream of rockets roared off the pad to fulfil satellite contracts.  In all four were successfully put into the required orbits, although it has to be said not all went smoothly.  The most frustrating little tick was when I used a SETI ProbeSTACK 2 (with a built in thermometer) on my satellites.  Being a bit tight for cash at the time, (and being a miserable, tight fisted git to boot), I thought I could save myself nine hundred credits by using it to fulfil the requirement that the satellite should be able to record temperatures.  Off went the rocket, nicely got into an orbit, and then the fun started as I fiddled and futtered with the thing, to get the orbit adjusted to meet the requirements of the contract.  And I did it (YAYYYYY  ), the first time I tried such a contract, and I was feeling pretty smug with myself.  It was then I noticed the company who had tendered the contract - RSR Rockets - hadn't coughed up the loot!  After the KSC Accounts Section sent them a "gentle reminder" (pay up or we might accidentally hit your premises with a bloody great big rocket!) they fired back a response suggesting the KSC was being run by a bunch of morons and telling us we were supposed to add a 2HOT Thermometer!  So that was one lesson well and truly learnt...  Then came a whole series of satellite contracts, resulting in four successful launches.  The downside of all these is that for some reason they seem to interfere with the reception on the TV's of most of the good people Kerbals living on the planet Kerbin. 

The RSR Satellite which didn't meet all requirements of the contract (no 2HOT Thermometer).

Minmus Launch Vehicle, the now ageing workhorse of the KSC 

The Minmus H(eavy) with extra boosters for lifting heavier payloads throughout the Kerbin system.

And then came a strange contract, we were asked to take aircraft undercarriage on a suborbital flight to Mun.  Although our engineers thought it was an insane idea, the money was tempting so they quickly cobbled together a package which could perform some science at the same time as carrying out the task required.  The mission was a total success and the settlement of the bill was met with much cheer and celebration by all concerned.  But what to do with the little vehicle which had been used for the contract?  The original idea was to just leave it to spiral down to its doom on the surface of Mun, but then one of the cleaners suggested we should try landing it as the first ever landing on heavenly body!  After everyone had stopped laughing, a closer look suggested that while it would be a challenge, it might be worth a try.  It was already well into its terminal descent, travelling at over 550m/s at 5000 meters, and this wasn't taking account of the true height of the terrain, in the pitch black night side of the Mun, and with no way of knowing where the surface really was... what could possibly go wrong?  The first thing was to try to reduce the surface velocity; everyone was surprised at just how powerful and efficient the RE-12A Pomeranian engine proved to be and the 550m/s was quickly reduced to zero.  That didn't help with the slight problem of not being able to see in the dark.  The solution was to simply run the engine at sufficient thrust to try to keep the little craft descending at a velocity which would be survivable if it did hit something more solid than vacuum.  This would continue until it either reached the surface, or the fuel tank was drained.  Down it went, until suddenly it wasn't... it had come to rest, rather precariously, on the side of a slope... balancing like a one toed ballerina on its engine nozzle...

The Munar Miracle: sitting on a slope on it's small engine, the plucky little probe is lucky there's no wind on Mun.

The KSC needs a lawyer, we're going to sue Maxo Construction Toys for breach of contract!  They hired us to put a satellite carrying a materials bay into an equatorial orbit around Mun.  Nowhere did it specify what size of material bay, so to save space it was decided to use the mini version.  After a great deal of fiddling about getting the orbit the way it was required, not made any easier by loss of signal when the vessel was on the far side of Mun, there were green ticks on all points in the checklist, except for the carry a materials bay!!!  When no reward for carrying out the mission was forthcoming, a great deal of cursing ensued, and a threat to take Maxo to court over this issue.  So if you happen to know a good lawyer, do let me know.

 

Edited April 19, 2017 by The Flying Kerbal
Adding descriptions to the images and fixing some spelling mistakes.

[Julien Kerman]

I built a new probe to perform a Dres fly-by.

The probe is not very heavy, so I could use my smallest launcher.

To complete the burn, I had to use the ion thrusters.

This is the probe.

After a few corrections, I ended up with this.

[Red Shirt]

I built a base. It's big. Really big. According to vehicle stats in MJ it has a capacity of 471. In my mind I see 100 being more realistic. Here is the album:

Yes it's Minmus. Yes I modded the color with Dark Minmus.

The mods used on the base are Firma - a cool set of blocks to make whatever. Near Future Structural for all the connecting tubes. Greenhouses are old z_thing parts as are the golf ball tanks that I scaled down. The flag pole is from Flag Decals (thank you!). Some of the dish antenna I think are from C A Probes Plus.

Pic 1) I used HE to set the base in place (yeah yeah, I'm a cheater). Then I discovered KSP auto-filled the base with every Kerman in KSC (serves me right). So I had to recruit a pilot to start bringing some of them home. I'll send a bus next.
Pic 2) The mining and processing plant. I haven't worked out all the details but I figure KIS/KAS will be required.
3) In the center is the Command Center (home of bureaucracy). The Science Center is on the right. On the left is the Engineering complex. The golf ball is my recycling center.
4) The Power Producing solar panel arrays and the Greenhouses. I oriented the base so these are aligned to receive sunlight all day.
5) The base was designed with Duna in mind. This pic is the drilling pumps to tap into buried water. Finally a place where the stock 2.5 barrel tanks look like they belong.
6) The Habitat Pods. Beyond is the Commons Building for meals, exercise, and socializing.
7) An overall view from slightly above.
8) Flying my flag above the science tower.
9) Jeb on his way to his flight home wandered through the mining facility. Gives a better sense of scale of just how big is this base.

Even using welding, this murders the frame rate on my laptop. I don't care. It was fun.
 

[Kerbital]

I've been playing around with Throttle Controlled Avionics, working on a VTOL. This is all moded heavily though.

 

 

Edited April 19, 2017 by Kerbital

[Whisky Tango Foxtrot]

My Gilly ships (a miner/lander and station/refinery) have captured into Eve orbit and are waiting to perform the necessary manoeuvres that will take them to their final destinations. No screenshots yet; I'm waiting until the mission is actually complete for that.

Odd that Kerbality's first steps on a body outside of Kerbin's SOI will be performed by a pilot and engineer with little scientific background and no scientific instruments to speak of. They're just there to mine; the scientists (along with another pilot and engineer to relieve that first mining crew) will be coming with the next transfer window, and with any luck they'll have plenty of fuel waiting for them for their return trip.

[Bornholio]

I finally felt like I've got aircraft design down today.  Needed to do three RSS-RO/RP-0 X Plane contracts.  60km, 150km and mach 2 at 12km.  Pretty easy made a plane like the last one i showed fixed its problems though.

What makes me feel confident is that as I write it is gently gliding at 6m/s down and 180m/s forwards with no power on. It's pretty close to dry, a few hundred dV remain in the tanks.  Packed chutes are ready.

Dry and wet CoM are close to each other, wet a tad bit forward.  CoL is just behind dry CoM. Airbrakes don't throw it around. It re-entered fine at 3500m/s and no heating bars.

Took 12 tries to get it to load on the runway flat.  Landing gear have a bit of slope upward to make it no stick take-off. so physics loading keeps throwing it around.

Took it up to 155km and re-entered over the central Atlantic

At 9500m I leveled it out and let it drift.

at 4500 speed was down to 132m/s and vertical of 5m/s no inputs other than SAS on

Messed with it to set a fixed 4deg pitch and clean up the roll to 0. Stable enough that I'm yawning watching it.

Flared to 9deg pitch as it passed 50m Altitude and put on the airbrakes.

I did not think that this plane could wet land when I started.

Happy surprises. Chutes still packed, pilot still dry all 40 parts remain.

Edited April 19, 2017 by Bornholio

[Odonian]

Just landed my first Phyllorhiza module on Minmus. Very pleased with its appearance. Quite functional, too. I believe five modules in this series and three supplementary modules for cooling, resource extraction, and storage – altogether maybe 200 parts – should be enough to start cranking out nearly the entire USI supply chain.

[Blasty McBlastblast]

started a new modded career game, and rediscovered the joys of early tech flights! 

[digger1213]

What did I do? I made a post in the Gameplay Questions topic, trying to get my three probes to orbit in an unstable rocket. I fixed said rocket, making it look like a horrible bulb containing the three probes. I got the three probes to orbit, and proceeded to mess around with physics warp. Apparently spinning with physics warp can produce some very... interesting effects.

No probes were harmed during the making of these pictures. KSP is hilarious.

[kraden]

@The Flying Kerbal something you could do to test equipment requirements is to check the contract while the ship is still on the pad. Make sure all of the parts requirements have a green-light before launch. 

[JadeOfMaar]

I spent my night in a dark corner of the Chemistry lab inventing a new resource, 3 isotopes for it, each with special properties/use cases, and a system around it. To get it to show in SCANsat I edited SCANsat's files directly. Past experience told me not to bother making it as an MM patch.

It's my first hand-made resource with intent to publish and share and it walks the line between stockalike (the only new part is the ion engine) and Near Future, providing something better than the NERV engine, making the stock RTG more useful, and still be very appealing to the Vanilla party. All that's missing is something to serve as a reactor, and a fuel cell...and maybe tank cost balancing (it currently uses Firespitter Fuel Switch on the Ore tanks).

If anyone can catch the reference by which (or by whom) I named this resource I'll give them an art piece a cookie.

Edited April 19, 2017 by JadeOfMaar

[klesh]

I landed a supply ship at my Iota base so the scientists there could continue their lab work. (after landing I noticed I neglected to remove the 2nd pair of landing legs I was testing in the VAB, lol). Whoops!   I unlocked the ISRU drills so it was time to scan around the base for ore concentrations; needed a rover for the job.  

2 birds, one stone.

 

 

 

 

 

Concentrations at the base which is at the Highlands was 8.25%.  A short jaunt into a nearby valley revealed a Midlands biome with 14.62%.  Drilling and extraction will happen there, and a truck will drive the ore to the base where the conversion and final storage will be.  Orbiting Iota station produces lots of supplies, which I can then ferry down to the base, along with any replacement crews.  At this point the base is way more effort than the science gains from it are worth, but its still fun.

[JadeOfMaar]

19 minutes ago, klesh said:

the base which is 

--a very, very nice base.  

[kraden]

@klesh were did you get those landing legs? Also, as JadeOfMaar said, that's a sweet looking base! 

[DDRocketsInc]

48 minutes ago, klesh said:

I landed a supply ship at my Iota base so the scientists there could continue their lab work. (after landing I noticed I neglected to remove the 2nd pair of landing legs I was testing in the VAB, lol). Whoops!   I unlocked the ISRU drills so it was time to scan around the base for ore concentrations; needed a rover for the job.  

2 birds, one stone.

 

 

 

 

 

Concentrations at the base which is at the Highlands was 8.25%.  A short jaunt into a nearby valley revealed a Midlands biome with 14.62%.  Drilling and extraction will happen there, and a truck will drive the ore to the base where the conversion and final storage will be.  Orbiting Iota station produces lots of supplies, which I can then ferry down to the base, along with any replacement crews.  At this point the base is way more effort than the science gains from it are worth, but its still fun.

What and incredible base!