What did you do in KSP1 today?

[NISSKEPCSIM]

Conducted a manned test launch of my B-57A heavy rocket plane. Its pilot was the lucky Werhnand Kerman, brother of Wernher Von Kerman, and legendary test pilot. Just for fun, I named the aircraft the Yeager Jäger. This, time, in an attempt to lower the atmospheric drag, I launched the rocket plane vertically from the launchpad.

I still experienced "some" atmospheric heating though. 

This time, however, the aircraft reached an Apoapsis of 90 kilometres.

At 20 seconds to Apoapsis, the Yeager Jäger begun what resembled an orbital injection burn, but it ran out of fuel before it could reach orbit. I was trying to see how far it could get before it was drained of oxidizer. If this was actually carrying a shuttle to launch, the spaceplane would have been released now, with the B-57A landing using FMRS.

And so, Werhnand began the re-entry procedure at 7 minutes into the flight.

And then something unexpected happened. I skipped off the atmosphere - and started to ascend again.

This new trajectory carried me away from my previous fall towards the sea, and over towards the nearest land mass - and was totally accidental. 

Sadly, no World's First representatives burst through the door into mission control, but, after another two minutes, Werhnand re-entered - again.

A much more flame-absent re-entry. I started to glide towards the island, and banked over to the left so that it approached a relatively flat patch of land.

What a beautiful horizon!

And it happened at night, as it should.

I then started my engines and flew down to a low altitude.

I deployed my landing gear once I reached an altitude of 1 kilometres.

And... touchdown!

And so, 12 minute into the mission, Werhnand Kerman landed on a remote island, far, far away from the KSC.

[NISSKEPCSIM]

Building the new crew shuttle:

[Julien Kerman]

The transfer window for Jool opened, so I launched the new space station for Vall which I prepared yesterday.

Here you can see the station with transfer stage & ion powered return capsule:

 

Also a probe, which was launched almost 3 (in-game) years ago, finally passed Urlum's orbit. The mission is actually an experiment - I want to see how far a probe can get.

 

It shows how far the outer planets are...

Everything looks so tiny

[joacobanfield]

One of my MechJeb modules rebelled during reentry, and exited the solar system at about 1300 km/s. It's currently 20G away from Kerbol.

[JoeNapalm]

2 hours ago, joacobanfield said:

One of my MechJeb modules rebelled during reentry, and exited the solar system at about 1300 km/s. It's currently 20G away from Kerbol.

 

"Open the pod bay door, KAL!"

"I'm sorry, Bill, I can't do that."

 

 

Jeb wasted all the oxidizer (making funny voices) and we had to deorbit the shuttle using RCS.

For some reason, he and Bill thought it was hilarious.

-Jn-

Edited May 1, 2017 by JoeNapalm

[slubman]

Still playing in my GPP career, I finished the preliminary assembly of a refueling and research space station around Ceti.

Still to be added:

• A nuclear reactor
• More fuel storage
• Metal and rocket part storage, second science lab for rocket part printing, to have a fully functional Simple Construction ship yard.

[NISSKEPCSIM]

This:

1 minute ago, NISSKEPCSIM said:

I built this fully re-usable space shuttle using FMRS, Rocket Factory, and SXT! It can carry 6 crew to LKO, with 100m/s of DeltaV for orbital maneuvering, and just enough for landing. It uses the Piggyback Shuttle concept, where the shuttle is mounted to the side of a manned rocket plane, and is launched vertically. The carrier rocket plane separates during launch and lands back on the runway, and the shuttle continues to orbit. Fully reusable!

Strange as it may seem, this entire Space Transportation System was not intended for this challenge at all - I was just messing around, trying to make a reusable spacecraft for transferring crew between stations in LKO when I stumbled upon this challenge!

The carrier aircraft is a heavily modified B-52 rocket plane, named the B-57A, and the shuttle is an X-20. As for individual names, the B-57A is named the Yaeger Jäger, and the X-20 shuttle is called Space Oddity. Major Tom and Ground Control sold separately.

  Reveal hidden contents

Prepping for launch:

3... 2... 1... Lift-off!

[No Lift-off Screenshot ]

The ascent, using 5 Skywipe engines from the Rocket Factory mod, was very... hot. 

After lining up both spacecraft along the attitude for the orbital injection, the B-57A ignites its engines once more, and the X-20 ignites its single Skywipe engine. Actually, in the picture above, was taken during a different launch, where the shuttle used an underpowered Terrier engine.

And, me being me, I didn't take any pictures of either the orbital injection or the shuttle separation from the B-57A. But here's the shuttle completing the orbital injection:

Since this was a proof-of-concept mission, legendary test pilot and brother of Wernher Von Kerman, Werhnand Kerman, simply stayed in orbit as I jumped back to the carrier aircraft separation using FMRS. Jeb himself, one of only two BadSs on Kerbin, was sitting in the pilot's seat of the B-57A, as Werhnand was expendable, and Jeb is not Gene was concerned with Jab switching off the SAS and trying to manually fly the entire unstable, unbalanced, prototype, multi-thousand--investment X-20 spaceplane to orbit.

Back in the B-57A, I (Flame-absently) re-entered the atmosphere, stalled forwards, regained control once I reached thicker atmosphere, switched on the Panther radially-mounted jet engines, and attempted to fly back to KSC.

"Engines to full throttle!"

Even at 4x timewarp, it took me seven minutes to reach the island you see in the above image.

"Wait, what!? We've only got 8 units of fuel left!? Oh for Kraken's sake! ABORT LANDING!!!"

Landing gear extended.

"We're coming in close..."

And... touchdown!

The B-57A slows to a halt on a remote island in the Kermuda Rectangle. Conspiracy theorists are baffled as to how no aliens came to abduct Jeb, and how the plane was found by recovery crews, with Jeb in it.

And, with the carrier aircraft landed, I jump back to the main mission, and remind myself that I forgot to turn off auto-recover in FMRS! I don't like it when I land, and switch back to my other spacecraft, only to find that my carrier aircraft has disappeared, and all its resources and refunds are recovered, but I'm not greeted by the recovery screen.

I wasted 100m/s of DeltaV to simulate orbital maneuvers, and then performed the de-orbit burn.

And, of course, pictures before and after the burn, but none during the burn! Which, I might add, left me with a mere 8 units of fuel left!

Oh, by the way, the shuttle did decouple from the B-57A, but the decoupler stayed attached!

The magic of subassemblies. 

Re-entry:

Come to think of it, I could have called the Space Oddity shuttle the Phoenix, as the Mk-2 nearly overheated and exploded during re-entry.

As I was not bleeding off speed quickly enough, I performed my most daring maneuver yet - deploying the airbrakes of the shuttle, and nosediving towards KSC! And it happened at night, as it should.

Now that I had slowed down enough, I leveled out and started to bank to face the right direction for my landing approach, after igniting my auxiliary Juno jet engine.

Did a couple of banking turns, just like the real space shuttle. (Which, in all honesty, I despise - mostly because of its failure rate and ridiculous inefficiency - "...Some say that trying to achieve reusability with early 1970’s technology forced design decisions that compromised both safety and reliability. Reusable main engines were made a priority which meant a new design with new materials were required. The refurbishing of these after each flight turned out be more expensive than building new existing designed ones. Because the main engines were mounted to the shuttle and not the launcher, the payload area was significantly reduced. This design of having the shuttle strapped to giant super cooled fuel tank and having two effectively uncontrolled solid rocket motors, that once fired could not be turned off, in time lead to the failure of two of the five shuttle craft and pushed the operating costs almost as high as the flights themselves..." "... A flight failure rate of 1 in 68..." "...And killed 14 people over the course of the program...")

On approach to runway and landing gear deployed:

And... touchdown!

A successful mission - and fully reusable, unlike the real STS. I am not to be held responsible if Elon Musk retires from SpaceX and starts a small-time muffin store. 

 

 

[jackstech]

never mind i got it

Edited May 2, 2017 by jackstech
at the end i finish the project

[Triop]

Now that my pilots learned formation flying they can't stop showing off....

[JoeNapalm]

11 minutes ago, jackstech said:

giving up with the shuttle challenge .. i worked it on it 20 hours straight from yesterday and simply  cant make it work ( even delete all the shuttle crafts cos i was so mad and frustrated )

Oh noes!

What was your sticking point?

Sure some folks around here can help you troubleshoot...at least until you run out of Kerbals.

I pride myself on my space planes, and my first test run with the shuttle ended up...well...here:

 

I had to make a few adjustments based on that test...

But maybe someone's seen whatever is keeping your shuttles from skyward glory, and can offer advice?

 

-Jn-

[Red Shirt]

Slapped a docking port jr on my shuttle and docked with the KSS. Took three attempts. First I botched by not having the dv to rendezvous. Second, got to orbit, looked around, no space station. D'oh, forgot (again) to warp forward on the launchpad for intercept. Third time was charm.

 

We won't discuss how upon reentry I could not regain control after burning off too much speed. - I will say I don't understand it. I can fly this as a jet and leave the runway at under 60 m/s. It's all good, knocked the wings off when it crashed landed in the mountains, but the guys walked away.  

[astroheiko]

During the Fly by of Narisse I attach the Rover to the Lander. For this I take the Tug and dock it to the Rover. Then I pulled the Rover out of the Cargobay.

 

The Lander has undocked. The Mothership will not take an orbit around Narisse and go further to Minona and will wait there until I have explored all the moons with the Lander.

 

The Rover meets the Lander.

 

I brake for an orbit around Narisse and wait for the landing. First I have to take care of the Mothership.

 

The landing approach. There are quite high mountains on Narisse, as you can recognize in the background.

 

This time I did not forget the reminder photo and the flag - as with Hadrian.

 

What do we have here? An annomaly. But I do not show much, I do not want to spoil you the fun. Only a small hint: it is not a monolith. Of course, I still have a complete picture.

 

And back in orbit. Overall, I got 143 records from Narisse. Next station is Muse.

Greetings

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

Flew my new prototype helicopter twice today. Both flights ended the same way, with a blade on the aft rotor colliding with a non-existent I-beam, and me somehow managing to land it otherwise intact. I'm proud of the strength of the bearings on this thing.

It was surprisingly controllable considering the violent rattling that the unbalanced rotor sent through the entire structure.

Well, back to studying for the calc exam. Yay. Meanwhile new math is running around in my head.

Edited May 2, 2017 by EpicSpaceTroll139

[Bornholio]

24 minutes ago, astroheiko said:

During the Fly by of Narisse I attach the Rover to the Lander. For this I take the Tug and dock it to the Rover. Then I pulled the Rover out of the Cargobay.

 

You and your fancy sky boxes... Very pretty. 

The skyboxes that is.  Oh and the ship all pastel pretty also.

@EpicSpaceTroll139 this is why helicopters are the complete opposite of the K.I.S.S. Principle.  Two rotors! (Mind Boggles)

Edited May 1, 2017 by Bornholio

[DarkOwl57]

So this weekend, I did a ton of things. (I'll see if my PC wants to play nice and load Imgur so I can show pics)

1. Made an F-22/F-16 combo.

Using the power of B9, Airplane Plus, Quiztech, and BDA, I made an F-22 body/wing shape, with an F-16 cockpit. It actually flies really well; Using afterburners it can super-cruise at around 375 m/s, and it's maneuverable as a bird! Also, using some B9 lights, I can make the entire plane light up! It's so pretty, flying at Mach speed with blue lights casting a glow over the 500 lb. bombs.... *sigh* One problem though... When I did a rescue mission, our only K-22 was shot down by an AA gun that decided to play dead and then shoot Val down for no reason at all...... yay...

2. Built an F-15.

So the NSK Version of the F-15 is great! 2 Panther engines, incredible speed, looks sexy enough to marry- It's got everything! The vessel has the Quiztech RCS ports embedded into the wings (To reduce drag), and of course, the same Blue B9 lights that I love oh so much. Cons? It's a tad tail-happy. If you pitch up, the plane'll go, but the prograde marker'll take some time to join you, making it at an almost constant risk of a stall. And that's with the afterburners off and the gimbal locked. But on the bright side, it's a perfect dogfighter/bomber/air superiority fighter/whatever you need it to be.

3. Built an F-18.

So I figured that my F-15 looked kinda like an F-18. So, knowing me, I build my own F-18 to test the looks. It's literally an F-15 with the front air intakes rotated. Otherwise it's the exact same. It's more stable though, so 1-0, F-18!

3. Built a WWI Biplane.

So yeah, thanks to Airplane Plus, I've managed to get propellers! And the first thing you have to do with propellers is... MAKE A BIPLANE! So after fiddling with centers of lift/mass, reverting flights, and cursing out the PC due to game crashes (I had like 3), I finally made the HAWX Bi-23. It's slow... But maneuverable!

4. Built a WWII Fighter.

So yeah, I basically took the top row of wings off the biplane, taped Safely welded a more high-powered engine on the front of the craft, added retractable landing gear, and BOOM! Spitfire/Hurricane/P-50/whatever you want it to be! (The engine is so high-powered, I actually hit 200m/s going horizontal. And the lift?! Oh it's beautiful! She takes off for herself at 65-70 m/s, and 40 if you use the pitch. I think I'm in love...)

5. Created a dogfight.

So yeah, remember things 3 and 4? Well knowing me, I had to put them up against each other in a dogfight! Because why not?! So the first kill was (Sadly) From the enemy Bi-23's. But I wasn't shot down. I uh..... I may or may not have hit the other plane and ripped my own wing off. But hey! The enemy went down and Jeb managed to bail out, so win-win! Except for the plane.... It didn't win at all...

Then the next kill took a little longer. I got like 10 or 15 hits on the tail connector, but it didn't blow! In fact, the only explosion that the enemy did have in that span was from the landing gear blowing up! @blackheart612? I think those shortened tail connectors are a tad too resistant to heat.

However, Jongfred went down. The enemy Bi-23 was too maneuverable, and shot off the tail and right wing. Jongfred bailed, and somehow the Bi-23 got put into a forced crash, where it just stalled out and spun into the ocean!

So there I was, 1 v 1. WWI v WWII (I was the WWII). I BDA Vessel switch to Camsie Kerman, and then BOOM! Explosion at the rear. We lost the right-side tail fin. I thought we were toast. In fact, when I did an experimental pitch-up, I almost lost control. BUT CAMSIE WASN'T PHASED! She used the controls to turn off pitch on the rear, and activate everything at the main wing. The K2 is extremely maneuverable, and it has almost no stall speed, helping Camsie a ton. She yanked the control stick up, cut the throttle, and let the enemy shoot past. And then? Camsie shoots off the entire right wing, cementing her place in Kerbal lore and legend!

6. I built a huge VTOL thing.

So using IR, B9, and a ton of other stuff, I got a VTOL that actually somehow flies. It's a pain to land though.

7. I built an AC-130.

Due to a request from a friend, I decided to make the legend. Took a while to get right, and after 1 game crash, many tweak scale edits, and aesthetic changes, the plane was ready to fly. However, it can't drop bombs. The internal bomb bay just combusts as soon as I fire the clusters... And then I had another game crash. *sigh*

[Martian Emigrant]

2 hours ago, jackstech said:

giving up with the shuttle challenge .. i worked it on it 20 hours straight from yesterday and simply  cant make it work ( even delete all the shuttle crafts cos i was so mad and frustrated )

Shuttles are very hard to do.

And IMO the dumbest idea on the face of this world.

Some people say they provide a great feeling of accomplishment when they finally work.

I did manage the challenge but wouldn't do it again....Maybe.

ME

[Ajiko]

Test some ideas about seaplanes. Successfully. Nothing was broken on splashdown, I mean.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 1, 2017 by Ajiko

[Vall9X4562]

I Somehow managed to get Valentina stuck in Kerbin's "Asteroid" Moon. (Im a imgur newbie so if pictures don't load blame me)

And then i found that theres a peice of door underground at the destroyed VAB

And then the Gyro Kraken attacked Valentina after trying to use hyperedit to get her out of the asteroid

and finally, i travelled the speed of light.

[jackstech]

i made it my shuttle ( stock / no tricks / mechjeb mods parts or someting else ) after  another 24 hours stight of figth ( we need more test and the video or screens for the challenge  but ) here my 1st succesfull test

 

Edited May 1, 2017 by jackstech

[Martian Emigrant]

2 hours ago, Ajiko said:

Test some ideas about seaplanes. Successfully. Nothing was broken on splashdown, I mean.

 

It's

It's gorgeous.

.....Fairing-Hull.........Pure genius.

(I have to steal that one for myself)

ME

[DDRocketsInc]

[KSP1.2.1 "Trekking" Career Save] I am travelling on business for a week, lots of 'off' time in the hotel to expand the DDRocketsInc empire!!!

Unfortunately I did not check the file transfer from home desk top to laptop sufficiently......the KSP folder did not fully copy so can't play the save game .......several minutes of desk thumping erupted before I realised that the KSP 1.2.1 download and most of the mods did copy over to the 'recovery disk'

Solution?? Install a fresh copy of KSP 1.2.1 with a few of the mods, start a sandbox mode game and get to work engineering the Kerballed Duna mission I was planning for the next transfer window in about 1 year of game time in the saved game.  What's more without the pressure of looking for more contracts and worrying about failures getting the Kerbal's to work at home on this "engineering simulation" of the Duna mission is surprisingly relaxing.

I'll post some photos of the ship/launcher development tonight. I wonder if I can land a booster?!?

 

 

[Sinistar45]

I am currently creating a space station core that will orbit kerbin, it will house over 10 kerbals at a time and have the ability to refuel other rockets. So Far i have determined that at least 10 rockets will have to be launched, maybe more if things dont go according to plan

[Odonian]

Put more brutalist architecture in space today – an extractor and a refining/manufacturing base.

Edited May 2, 2017 by Odonian

[ARS]

Designing large scale cargo SSTO

[Kuansenhama]

The day of reckoning has come. I was finally ready to send off my Mun base. I had a nice site picked out; there was both metal and fuel ore, with the only real hurdle being that the highest concentration of both was within the Mun canyon.

But before I could even get to launching I had to resolve some technical troubles on my desktop. These troubles... did not get resolved, so I resolved to move the save to my macbook, and the little mac hamster in my computer had to run on his wheel as fast as he could to keep my heavily modded ksp running. But it did. (Thank goodness for performance improvements.)

Then I ran into a number of troubles with the actual landing of the base on the planet. The my first attempt was widly unstable and exploded about 30km above the space center. The second attempt came up about 70m/s short on the Delta-V budget and the result can be seen below.

Once we got Mortimer Kerman to stop hyperventilating, I made a third attempt at launching the base and finally landed but was a little off target. Allow me to reiterate that this base is meant to be in the bottom of the mun canyon..

Once all the modules were safely and securely in the bottom of the canyon, I docked them together and looked for a nice flat spot...

All set up. Everything that launches from here is gonna get to do a death star trench run on the way out for added coolness.

Time to start banging out upgrade modules... Once crew were are board. (shuttled in separately on an overbuilt lander for safety reasons )

I started scrapping some of the original modules and building new ones. Without KIS being updated for 1.2, I can't place survey stakes, so I was forced to get a little creative with launchpads and how I deployed base modules. Though the base as it is now looks pretty darn cool...

Thankfully I can now build for free and tomorrows plans will be:

-Better life support for this base.

-Unlimited relays and rescue missions. (Rescues in orbit around the Mun just got a lot more appealing.) Plus this base is the most comm-blackout place in the universe considering it is never facing kerbin.

-Science modules.

Edited May 2, 2017 by Kuansenhama