What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Azimech]

Today I did a test for a possible evolution of the Asura II engine. The proposed engine, Asura III, has the 50 Juno's replaced with 16 Panthers. 
I don't like the idea. Sure, part count is lower and there's much less for ModuleEnginesFX to do. But the test involved max climb rate after taking off, this defines in a way the max cargo capacity. And what do you know: to achieve the same climb rate you have a higher fuel consumption with the Panthers than with the Juno's. Even if the Panthers are more fuel efficient, their TWR is a lot worse. Not only that, because of the higher mass of the helicopter, I need additional control authority on the tail, 3 Juno's isn't enough at full power - and extra Juno means a changing static CoM, need extra mass in the nose ... etc.

I knew I was right when I built the Asura the first time.

Hybrid engine with Juno's and Panthers? Maybe.

That vertical thing on top of the rotor of the closest heli is an RBSC: "Retreating Blade Stall Compensator". It works flawlessly and improves control at all speeds and power settings.

[NISSKEPCSIM]

Remember that test flight of the reusable booster that I conducted two weeks ago? The one that flew back to the KSC after separation using the Whiplash turbo ramjets? Well, I finally got around to uploading a mission report for it:

Simple launch; Ascend, small gravity turn, begin orbital insertion and separate when fuel depleted, payload continues on to orbit, while the booster re-enters, flies back to the KSC, and lands.

However, on Year 1, Day 63 (October 2nd, 1964), tragedy struck. President John F. Kermanndy's wife, Jacqueline Kermanndy, was killed by a bullet intended for her husband, during a presidential motorcade through Dallas, Texas.

Read more on the mission reports thread.

[Julien Kerman]

I did nothing very special today, I placed a Satellite in polar orbit around the Moon...

...and Jeb & Bill tested the Gemini command pod in LEO where they had some EVA fun.

[Mikki]

4 hours ago, Azimech said:

What is the power source and why are the engine pods mounted on klaws?

Well, for the curious...
Read this and maybe try it yourself. Its 100% stock KSP 1.3 
ChopSui Chopper

[Dr. Dank]

I accidentally crashed Jeb into a Mun Arch.

[Gameslinx]

I did quite a lot of stuff today, after getting back from a 30k expedition over 2 days:

First of all, I spruced up the heightmap of one of my planets called Sonus and applied EVE and Scatterer configs to them. The results are simply breathtaking:

Have a great day everyone!

[tater]

I DLed Principe since there is a working mac version. I am having fun with n-body physics. (no pics, sorry)

[Starman4308]

CLOSE-I flew by Icarus.

There was a panicked moment where I realized I was timewarping straight past the low-orbital space.

Then I realized, no, I wasn't timewarping, I was just approaching Icarus at 14 kilometers per second.

Fortunately, I appear to be in something resembling a resonant 95-day orbit with Icarus, and the probe still has ~1 km/sec of delta-V to arrange later flybys.

Not enough to capture into Icarus orbit, but I can do some radar mapping just with repeated flybys.

I also realized that if you're not careful, Thalia can and will melt your engines even if you have radiators; the last minute of an 8-minute Thalia capture burn became more like 3 minutes once I realized my engine was about to melt. The steering losses were bad enough that I didn't actually fully capture into Thalia orbit; fortunately my destination was Eta, and I wound up getting an intercept from the capture burn, so I could just finish it off at Eta.

[steedcrugeon]

worked on bringing the REKT mod up to 1.3

[Brownhair2]

First, it was the Songbird. It weighs 27 tons and costs 24,000.

Then it was the Burro. It weighs 40 tons and costs 27,000.

The next step is obvious.

Weighing in at 445 tons, the Pisces is my largest shuttle by a huge margin. It's also my most expensive, costing 156,500 (good thing this isn't a career save.) It's capable of hauling orange tanks into orbit, and more!

So what am I going to do with it? I'm so happy you asked, voice in my head! I'm going to build a space station!

Tadaaa!

The station's only purpose is to process science. I might add more in the future, but this is all I need for now.

[Tyko]

2.5x rescaled career game (5000 d/v to orbit Kerbin) - designed an Atlas D style booster that could drop engines. Couldn't figure out an elegant way to drop two outside engines, so instead I mounted 4 Thuds around a Reliant mounted on a decoupler. This let me stage off the Reliant when I didn't need the extra thrust. Works like a charm.

Edited June 18, 2017 by Tyko

[voicey99]

I was messing around with @RoverDude's Sounding Rockets, trying to get one to Kerbin escape velocity and suddenly realised-why not go the whole hog and fly one to another planet? I took this monster of an SRB stack...

...and landed it on Duna. I could probably have got further than that but, quite frankly, I've impressed myself enough by having the precision (it is made entirely of SR parts, no LF engine, other mod or even vanilla pieces in sight-that means no radial decouplers!) to get it to Duna. And the whole thing only cost 14,287 too.

[Guest]

After solving a serious case of PEBKAC involving the "R" key and several clean reinstalls I got back to my Wallops playthrough. Vanguard hardware is okay. This one has large payload fairing but it's carrying Explorer I, basically, so it turned out fine. This is the first launch that made a "suborbit", in effect, since the orbit will decay rapidly from atmospheric drag. I launched a second one knowing I could do it better and managed a 150km periapsis, which should be stable for quite some time. I'm not sure if I want to build Atlas but Thor is very much on the list because I've been wanting to make Delta replicas for some time.

Edited June 19, 2017 by regex

[Immashift]

Operation Eeloo Karborundum is finally ready to burn for Eeloo  

[TheDARKOMETER]

Made my first ever VTOL. Weaponization of it will be my next step. 

 

Vertical take off from the VAB helipad. En route to the carrier for VTOL Landing test. 

 

Vertical Landing to the carrier

 

Touchdown

 

Satisfying af 

Edit: Weaponization was easier than expected, and some minor polishing was done.

VTOL's are easier to make than I previously thought, amazing to see I made it in less than an hour without much difficulty.

Declassified Specs:

4x VTOL Jump Jet equalling to 160kN vertical thrust

2x J-404 93 kN thrust class engine

Combat Range: 1,730,387.5 meters

Maximum VTOL weight: 15,900 kg

Internal Fuel: approx 14,000 kg.

Edited June 19, 2017 by TheDARKOMETER

[JadeOfMaar]

I was hungry last night so I went out for Buffalo Wings. (Started exploring the Wild Blue Industries mods and the USI support in them.) The 'wings' are actually Heat Control for an onboard reactor.

I was quite satisfied so I upsized the order (more buffalo body...less wings). I made this rover longer as it's going to fit into a nice extra-long OPT cargo bay.

 

[LaytheDragon]

I haven't been on this thread in awhile, so I might as well post some stuffs, some from today, some from a today in the past.

I launched another set of Minmus base modules. The three-stage asparagus malfunctioned somehow, and the tanks had to be dumped off-center manually, one-at-a-time, but everything survived it (on the second still-messed-up-staging launch attempt). 

The payload: some sleek 1.25 m to 0.625 m pipe adapter base parts with mini-drills, and a landing pad section.

With the new 1.25 m to 0.625 m adapter and mining tubes, the EC-stocked mini-tubes can be and are docked to the ISRU module and the communications/2.5 m to 1.25 m adapter tubes (the inline port on the side of one of the new tubes is docked to an open shielded port on one of the large adapter tubes). The base can produce fuel now as a result, though I need a claw refueling truck, or an adapter module, to connect with the VTOL ships' ports, so those ones can leave and bring in more parts.

The new pad at the moment is basically a cosmetic base part and a fun ramp, until I both expand it and add an adapter between it and the base parts. It does have a multi-port in the center for any landing ships with bottom ports. I may also expand it to have a docking tower for side ports, or maybe if I want to get fancy, a hanger for standard nose-mounted ports.

The base isn't complete yet, but it was complete enough to launch one of the Z. desjardinii SSTOs off to Duna, along with the Aieaoa Relay that was orbiting Minmus.

The Z. desjardinii took a refueling stop at Infinity Minmus (by docking without RCS, which it doesn't have. It required the failure VTOL design already docked there (which also docked without RCS) to be ejected forever, with its kerbal pilot put in the station).

After refueling (the first time I ever used the station for its purpose), both the SSTO and the relay took a dive to Kerbin, where they each did the burn to Duna.

'

(this post is long enough, so no burn pics) After awhile, each arrived at Duna, with the SSTO having gotten there purposely-first. The spaceplane unfortunately barely had enough fuel to slow down for aerobraking and landing, and it took multiple quickloads before the aerobrake maneuver was successful.

The SSTO went straight for Duna's canyon, which was entirely a coincidence, and landed vertically (there wasn't enough lift to land as an aircraft normally would) on the slope, where it started mining with its drill.

(Just before dawn on Duna. The blue terminator can be seen on the horizon partially occluded by dust.)

The relay arrived at Minmus using its two ion engines and settled into a polar orbit. The relay can only reach Kerbin when the two planets are near each other in their orbits (I fixed Duna's color, too).

Lastly, Kopernicus Expansion is finally updated, meaning I had to toy around with footprints and (it appears buggy) comet tails.

Edited June 21, 2017 by LaytheDragon
Wrong Fish Name for the SSTO

[Azimech]

Uploaded four cars and busy with number 5. They're all powered by four Juno's and have boost flaps.

Lowell GT60 1967. Finished half a year ago but just gathering dust on the harddrive.

 

Porsche 917K 1970.

 

Porsche 935/78 "Moby Dick" 1978. Also finished half a year ago.

 

Modified a car by SpaceTrashCan with his permission, a Le Mans prototype, the Porsche 919. This one has two Juno's.

 

Someone asked me to build a 1969 Camaro SS. Work in progress. Need to tune the suspension and finish the bodywork. The other one is my 1968 Ford Mustang, I simply used the chassis and engine to build the Camaro. What, a Ford chassis underneath a Chevy?! Blasphemy! Yep, that's me.

 

 

 

[StupidAndy]

I did it...I finally did a successful Mun mission! but I was so in the moment I forgot to take ANY pictures

I have quite a few things I did today besides that, satanic boosters, rescue missions...that's it though...

oh and a funny contract!

I canceled it because he was in an inclined orbit the same as the Mun, so kind of hard

oh yeah, awesome feature, the heat shields blacken now

and now the satanic boosters

RISE MY BREATHEREN!!!

ABORT ABORT!!

sorry no pictures for the Mun landing

 

 

[Kosmonaut]

Did an interstellar mission for some RP I'm doing on NationStates

 

[Whisky Tango Foxtrot]

Nothing screenshot-worthy, but the tugs I used for my Ike and Gilly missions are finally on their way home. Looking forward to launching some heavy hardware with the next few transfer windows (although they won't be back in time for the next Duna and Jool windows, so I'll have to make other arrangements.) The Explorer-1 is also on its way to Eve, but I've already posted screenshots of that.

I also did some F5F9 simulations on some future missions, but I'll wait until they're launched for real before I post details about them.

[Starman4308]

Not all that much. Ran my second Icarus flyby (the third will probably be the terminal flyby on account of it being a pain to set up, and not much more science to be gained).

This one was once again at 14 km/sec relative velocity, with a periapsis of 9 km, skimming probably ~1-2 km from terrain at the lowest point. I should've F5-F9'd to check; I was too busy grabbing this screenshot:

Such a close flyby was risky, but necessary for screenshots bragging rights science.

I also finished design of my Iota/Ceti ground station. With TAC LS installed, I equipped it with:

Over a ton of food, water, and oxygen, enough for almost 180 days

EDIT: 180 days with the planned crew of 4.

A Sabatier reactor and water purifier to further extend life support (will probably bring a hydrate-mining module to make food the only necessary input)

All sorts of KIS/KAS goodies

4 Gigantor panels

2.4 tons of capacitors

22.1 tons of batteries

The enormous battery capacity is there because of the 15-day Ceti night. I'm not sure how realistic nuclear reactors would be, less because of the power output, and more on account of the radiation shielding that would be necessary. if anybody has some real-world info on what it would take to shield a ground base from the radiation produced by a small nuclear reactor, I'd appreciate it, as I'm striving for some realism in that regard.

Edited June 20, 2017 by Starman4308

[CatastrophicFailure]

56 minutes ago, Starman4308 said:

The enormous battery capacity is there because of the 15-day Ceti night. I'm not sure how realistic nuclear reactors would be, less because of the power output, and more on account of the radiation shielding that would be necessary. if anybody has some real-world info on what it would take to shield a ground base from the radiation produced by a small nuclear reactor, I'd appreciate it, as I'm striving for some realism in that regard.

Well, just pulling an answer out of my-- er, thin air here, IRL you've got all the shielding you could possibly want just laying all over the ground like dirt. Because it is dirt. Just bury the reactor and/or the habitats, which would probably be a good idea anyway. If you're just roleplaying the challenge (no Kerbalism), then instead of tones of shielding just send along a space bulldozer & call it good. 

[qzgy]

17 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Well, just pulling an answer out of my-- er, thin air here, IRL you've got all the shielding you could possibly want just laying all over the ground like dirt. Because it is dirt. Just bury the reactor and/or the habitats, which would probably be a good idea anyway. If you're just roleplaying the challenge (no Kerbalism), then instead of tones of shielding just send along a space bulldozer & call it good. 

Dirt, would probably need a cap ontop (unless you completely bury it.) Alternatively, land the reactor far far away and connect a line across the ground. (KIS/KAS). Also pulling answer/suggestion from thin air.

[CatastrophicFailure]

21 minutes ago, qzgy said:

Dirt, would probably need a cap ontop (unless you completely bury it.) Alternatively, land the reactor far far away and connect a line across the ground. (KIS/KAS). Also pulling answer/suggestion from thin air.

But... space bulldozer...