What did you do in KSP1 today?

[qzgy]

5 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

But... space bulldozer... 

What if we use space bulldozer to bury the colony?

[Bornholio]

12 hours 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.

A small reactor (<10MW, several NASA examples) would have a Tungsten Boron Lithium composite shield and a space of 3-6m from some mass of propellant or water tankage. This is called a radiation shadow. Its only needed when the reactor is powered up.  Nuclear Thremal Rockets are much higher power density and need more spacing along with use of the crafts propellant as a shadow. Current Nasa Studies place 1.8t of shield at 6m from three 500MW BNTR engines , plus 9 to 12 meters of hydrogen tankage that is used.  Once the BNTR's are operating as small power reactors the spacing alone is enough.  Cosmic radiation in space is more dangerous than the reactors at a few meters. a quick example is the SNAP-10A. 

Swimming in a nuclear reactor/spent fuel pool https://what-if.xkcd.com/29/

Obviously more complex topic than just the radiation, heavy metal solubility etc are other concerns. But they are not issues in a sealed space reactor.

Comprehensive overview of nuclear in space by NASA https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20150002600.pdf

Scared of nuclear, nuclear workers maximum yearly dose allowed is about the same as a 20 hour plane flight, like the one I took to Kobe japan.  About the same amount from an NTR (not running) for a year standing next to it ~2-3m.

On to what i did in KSP today, and over the last few days

Comsats for Low Earth orbit

Lunar Launches

Spoiler

Lotsa Deltav V spamming drop tanks between here and the moon.

Firing my torpedo, err lunar impactor for science.

 

kersplat, for science

Spoiler

Putting the lander back up into polar orbit, Now its a lunar Comsat!

Radar Mapping the Earth in 1959

First rendezvous mission and then docking.

This one had eggcellent seperation.

Docking sideways requires good RcS balance

 

Lunar Mapper and lander heads to orbit, Loosing some RCS propellant tanks along the way.

Made it. Thust imbalance is ok, ready for TLI, more torpedos to launch at the moon. Lander and radar Mapping all crammed in the same boat. Sample return next launch.

 

Edited June 20, 2017 by Bornholio

[Spacetraindriver]

Test flew my F-117 today, after just building her yesterday. Yes, I know its messy, but at least it can fly...and use almost half her fuel in just flying around the space center...(at least it has a bomb bay..!)

 

[KerikBalm]

Not just today, but:

3x resizes gameplay. Tweaked the atmosphere to only be 1.25x stock based on the wiki saying "The atmosphere of Kerbin is patterned after Earth's U.S. Standard Atmosphere (USSA), though with the vertical height scale reduced by 20%"

Anyway, I finally got around to "completeing" the KSS I had started construction of a long time ago by adding a faux centrifuge module:

But as with most space stations around kerbin orbit, I lost interest in it as I can just launch on demand if I need fuel or life support for kerbals. I instead decided to use it as a ship, and had it depart for minmus (whose orbit is swapped with Mun in my game) for refueling.

 

The surface-orbit shuttles for Duna and Rald are fully fueled and in orbit of minmus awaiting departure windows, as is the interplanetary vessel that will serve as a fuel depot and orbital hab (with its engine section detachable as a heavy duty tug/ejector stage). I had already launched the interplanetary LV-N tug... all that was needed was the modules for a modular surface base, so I launched those, connected them to the IP tug, and sent it all to minmus for refeuling (just so that I'd have oodles of dV to spare upon arrival). 4 modules (+1 fuel depot module already in the shuttles/dropships) instead of the 3 I sued for the minmus and Mun base. Also the modules were longer/bigger than the Mun/Minmus modules (the shuttle bays are longer) because the destination is so much farther away, I can't add something on a whim/on demand, so I'm bringing more than for my Mun/minmus base.

Speaking of the Mun base. Its construction was halted for a long time due to insufficient fuel for the dropship to return to orbit, load the ISRU module, and then bring the module back down to the surface to support further flights. I had to send extra fuel for it, which took a long time to arrive (remember, 3x resize, and orbit swapped with Minmus). Well, it arrived while I was doing all the other stuff preparing for a Duna-Rald mission, and I found that only the poles of Mun had water. This then came with the challenge of finding a spot that was in perpetual light rather than perpetual darkness, but I think I found it. I had tested the dropship with a ~40 ton payload to the surface and back previously, but I found these much lighter payloads on one way trips gave me much lower margins than I wanted - I had tested equatorial deliveries when it was in a closer orbit (tidally locked = faster rotation the closer it is). The polar orbits used more dV, and then I needed even more to rdvz with the module carrier. Ah well.

unloading the ISRU:

Spoiler

Due to forgetting to quicksave, and some aggressive driving when returning the small rovers, I had to repeat this landing

Unloading the main habitat and command module (with 1 small container greenhouse and 1 algae farm)

initial connection of the module:

Spoiler

The Munbase is online, but the dropship needs to be refueled one more time to go up and retrieve the greenhouse that will allow the base to indefinitely support 8 kerbals instead of the way it is now where it can only provide enough food to sustain one kerbal (even though I've got 2 kerbals in there). I already have 2 additional crew for the base waiting in orbit of Mun

The mun surface base as it is now, with the rover parts flanking the fuel tank, because I still need to fill that tank and transfer the fuel into the nearby dropship 2 more times before its ready to get the greenhouse module. I doubt I'll bother to add a science module and to expand the hab and greenhouse space - no need to increase part count any more when it already has all the functionality that I desire.

My minmus base again, for comparison, with fuel tanker:

Spoiler

 

[regex]

Launched a few Thor-Ables today. I unlocked the required engines and guidance last night, and built the rocket, then had to unlock some new probe cores so I wasn't just launching Explorer I over and over. Of the three launches one was a failure due to communication malfunction, it broke up over the Amazon. The other two managed 150x12000km and 433x19606km orbits. Here's some highlights of the "electric toothbrush":

[Jouni]

I launched another copy of my Vall ship, with reduced oxidizer for the VTOL engines this time, and headed for Eeloo.

Or, actually, because I hate waiting for launch windows, I took advantage of the Jool window opening in 14 days.

Spoiler

 

A few years later...

 

The drop tanks lasted almost all the way to the surface. Because I dropped them at a low altitude, large parts of them survived.

 

There was another piece of debris a few kilometres away, so Jeb went to investigate. Meanwhile back at the ship...

Spoiler

 

Wait, where did that other fuel tank go?

Spoiler

 

Now it's also falling from the sky!

Spoiler

 

It's raining death over here!

Spoiler

 

Finally things had calmed down enough that the crew could come out and investigate. I still don't know what happened to the drop tanks.

 

And then it was time to go home.

Spoiler

 

[XB-70A]

Just get some minutes free today to build a small and new rover destined to Eve. The last time I went to the purple ball with a rover was in 1.0.5 and it was a partial failure...

So here enter Triviality :

Hopefully the Eve Express com-sat already arrived some days ago and was placed on a polar orbit. This will give an interesting area to explore with this little 8x8 bug.

 

 

Three braking chutes coupled to a main parachute plus 4 Twitch engines for a soft landing. 2 Sepratron will throw away the whole section just at the time the wheels touched the surface.

 

 

The choice of the launcher was difficult... so many possibilities were available. Elektron-K was costing less and Short Step 7 would have been more performing for more money, so Dawn-3SLB finally was selected. 

 

 

Tomorrow morning will be the "moment of truth" with a simple test flight consisting of a jump to 500 km with a return at high speed in Kerbin atmosphere. Another occasion to test the whole system. 

Edited June 21, 2017 by XB-70A
$#@% aurtografhe

[Brownhair2]

Didn't take any pictures because I forgot/didn't feel like it

I did several things:

• I brought the Songbird back from Eve. It's currently sitting in HKO because I ran out of delta-v, so I'll have to go and rescue it.
• I rescued another ship in orbit around Dres. It barely didn't have enough delta-v to get back to Kerbin, so I refueled it via Klaw.
• I cycled out the crew aboard the Zodiac Station. Bob and Val are now up there, among others.
• Did an orbital scan of Minmus. my evil plan begins...

[Whisky Tango Foxtrot]

So I was rendezvousing with my Mun station when I ran into a problem. A few seconds after turning off timewarp the station would begin rotating and moving erratically despite not receiving any input. Needless to say, this made docking pretty much impossible. I was able to get around the problem by reloading my save, putting my ship on its rendezvous trajectory but then switching to the station and controlling it while the ship approached rather than the other way around. When I switched back to the ship I was able to dock normally, however I then found that all the docking ports on my station that had already been linked up before my arrival had locked themselves, requiring that I edit my save file with a text editor to allow the docked craft to be released. Still I'd done that before so I just chalked it up to a random act of Kraken and went on with my game.

Then it happened again.

The very next time I sent a craft to the station it once again started spinning out of control, and when I managed to dock with it I once again found that all the ports had locked up. This was becoming a serious problem and I was starting to think that I'd have to replace the entire station. Before taking any rash action, though, I gave the station a thorough examination and found this:

That's one of my Klaw adaptors (a module with an AGU at one end and a docking port on the other) halfway embedded in the side of my science and command module. I normally leave these attached to a bare spot on my stations with the docking port facing outward so that if I need to grapple something I can use one of my standard tugs to do the job (by linking the tug's docking port with the adaptor's) rather than building a dedicated craft. Occasionally I'd experience and issue where one of these modules left unattended would shift its attachment angle over time, but it had never got this bad before. Still, it seemed pretty likely that this was my problem.

Unfortunately, that locked docking port problem had also affected the AGU, and I couldn't get it to release. Luckily, I didn't have much data in the lab, so I evacuated its scientists to my habitation section, separated the entire module (first unlocking the docking ports by editing my save file,) and hauled it away.

I'd left a pilot in the cupola pod in case I needed to be able to control the module during docking, then had him EVA to the tug's command seat before burning retrograde and setting the module onto a collision course with the Mun.

I'll have to replace it later. Meanwhile I've learned a valuable lesson: The AGU is the spawn of the Kraken.

Of course, I already knew that.

[NSEP]

No pics, but yesterday i made a Progress and R-7 Replica. Will show it later.

[JadeOfMaar]

The GPGT rover went back to space today.  

"Look mom, no hands! ....No wings either!"

It used its RCS down to 1 unit each of LFO because its pilot forgot, after camping down there and enjoying herself, that the reaction wheel was disabled due to action group. The station had to move in order to complete the docking.  

 

[Kosmonaut]

I've created a new sandbox save- just launched my first Kerbals into space after establishing a relay network around the Mun. In this save, I want to do detailed and thorough exploration of the Kerbin system before branching out, maybe later.

This is the odyssey of Lucifer 1-1..

But before I get to that, I would just like to explain how I named it. Lucifer is the actual payload, a two person capsule strapped to a pre-made columbia (as there is a tradition of naming spacecraft that) service module. The first 1 means that it is the first mission profile- just flying around the Kerbin system. 2 might be bringing payloads and experiments, and 3 will be a direct-ascent landing on the Mun, with 3b being a direct-ascent landing on Minmus. It has the Delta-V if I just add landing legs. The Core Stage and boosters are enough to get it into an orbit of about 250kmx790km (the one time I tested it), and I ditched the second stage early, almost full, so that I could test the actual Lucifer spacecraft. The second 1 means that it is the first mission of its type. I will probably go to Lucifer 1-3, than Lucifer 2-3, than Luficer 3-3 and 3b-3, before I make a more advanced Lucifer spacecraft.

Here it is, just after ditching the second stage, in a highly elliptical orbit around Kerbin

Jeb stays inside to keep it steady while Val steps outside to become, as well as the first kerbal in space (as her seat was higher up than Jeb's seat during launch, so she technically go there before him), the first Kerbal to perform an EVA

I set up a Minmus Flyby with just over half my fuel left, just skimming the surface. My goal is to get close enough that the lights will illuminate the surface (but that never happened)

I used way too much fuel avoiding mountains and the ground, and by the time I escaped Minmus I was out of fuel. My solution? I got Val out to push.

I was too lazy to take more than four screenshots, but there you go

[Azimech]

Two cars. One for Kerbin, the other for somewhere out there. Stock parts.

Citroën 2CV, 1948 - 1990.

 

The famous car that helped rebuild the French economy.

Citroën 2CV - deux chevaux-vapeur - literally two steam horses, the CV was a way of defining road tax based on engine power.

• Design started before the war with various prototypes completed. The car had to be light, economical and easy to produce. One special requirement set by the President of Michelin was that a farmer should be able to drive across a freshly ploughed field with a basket full of eggs, without breaking a single one.

• Between 1948 and 1990 9 million cars of all variants were produced at various factories. Most were produced in Europa (including Slovenia) but multiple factories produced them in South America.

• The cars became famous for their fantastic smooth ride and infamous for their incredible rolling tendency. Contrary to popular belief the cars also had very impressive roadholding, being understeered at default but able to corner at high speeds without losing most of its grip. The chief designer, André Lefèbvre, was a suspensions specialist for racing cars.

• The level of technology was high for 1948. The car used front wheel drive while rear wheel drive was still the norm for 95% of the production cars that year. It was powered by an aircooled two-cylinder flat (boxer) engine with only 375cc, which grew over the years to eventually 602cc.

• The chassis was a rolling one, meaning the entire bodywork could be removed with less than 20 bolts, leaving the engine, gearbox, brakes, fuel tank, exhaust and suspension/wheels mounted on the chassis. You can literally bolt a chair on the chassis and drive away.

• A fantastic feature was the canvas roof that could be rolled back, on every version. Also the rear bench could be unlocked, removed and carried out by one person in seconds. Great for picnics!

 

My car has most of the design principles of the original. It’s based on a chassis though simplified. Like the original, the entire bodywork can be removed and replaced with something else. A single cubic strut just above the jet engine is what keeps the complete body in place, together with four struts in the rear. See the album for a few pictures.

Propulsion: it has the jet engine in front and only the front electric motors are enabled. Having driven a real 2CV I know the handling and as such I’ve tuned the friction, spring and damper settings to as close as real as possible. The jet engine is set at 30% power, if you want to have some fun, just set it to full. A boost flap is present. And I’ve left the canvas roof open.

A car with solar panels all around and you give it a jet engine … very logical, Azimech!
Yeah … you know me … don’t like electric cars in KSP - way too slow. Until piston engines are a thing, I’ll use jets in every car I build or get my hands on.

The wheels stick through the fenders at high speed! Lousy!
Don’t blame me, we need smaller stock wheels.

.

 

Aaaand ... the other one. the 2CV Space.

Features:

• 3 reaction wheels,
• 3 fuel tanks,
• 2 xenon tanks,
• 2 fuel cells,
• 1 ion engine,
• 1 science container,
• complete science package,
• lots of vernors you can configure (standard: roll, brake, accelerate).

 

You can find them on KerbalX.

Edited June 21, 2017 by Azimech

[Julien Kerman]

"Venus Lander Probe 03" arrived!

The transfer stage had still 2200m/s deltaV left, so I decided to enter into orbit before I start the descent burn.

Then everything went wrong

First, during the descent into the atmosphere the antenna broke due to the high deceleration.

And then, 13km above the surface, the probe exploded, because the atmospheric pressure was way to high.

I decided to load a previous save and let the probe in orbit, where it will be used as an relay station for upcoming missions.

I also launched a new Jupiter probe, it will enter into orbit and explore at least two Galilean moons.

Edited June 21, 2017 by Julien Kerman

[Tyko]

1 hour ago, Julien Kerman said:

Then everything went wrong

First, during the descent into the atmosphere the antenna broke due to the high deceleration.

And then, 13km above the surface, the probe exploded, because the atmospheric pressure was way to high.

I decided to load a previous save and let the probe in orbit, where it will be used as an relay station for upcoming missions.

I also launched a new Jupiter probe, it will enter into orbit and explore at least two Galilean moons.

Sorry about the troubles, but your results were very similar to many of the actual Venus probes

[Julien Kerman]

15 minutes ago, Tyko said:

your results were very similar to many of the actual Venus probes

Well, I already designed a new Probe, which should resist the atmospheric pressure.

[Tyko]

16 minutes ago, Julien Kerman said:

Well, I already designed a new Probe, which should resist the atmospheric pressure.

Cool. I'd be very interested in how you're solving that. Cargo bays for sensitive parts?

[Julien Kerman]

12 minutes ago, Tyko said:

Cool. I'd be very interested in how you're solving that. Cargo bays for sensitive parts?

I decided to use an advanced probe core / avionics unit which tolerates much higher temperatures and pressure, you will see soon. Next Venus window opens in 200 days 

[eddiew]

7 minutes ago, Julien Kerman said:

I decided to use an advanced probe core / avionics unit which tolerates much higher temperatures and pressure, you will see soon. Next Venus window opens in 200 days 

Atmospheric pressure is a thing now? Why did no one inform me??  

[joacobanfield]

It´s an option in the difficulty screen.

Also, Val did not like the Trascendence Device today...

 

[Kyle Worden]

Launched my first Career Duna mission, going to establish a communications network, deploy a telescope for contracts, and land a small rover.

 

[XB-70A]

The rover Triviality made its inaugural flight :

 

Under the thrust of the powerful first stage the whole launcher rise promptly.

 

First stage separation at 24 km and 1200 m/s, everything OK.

 

The second stage place the Ap to 500 km and still got enough fuel to ensure the circularization, but as the flight consist in a simple leap I jettisoned it, immediately followed by the third stage and the fairing.

 

Some maneuvers while in space the test the whole system controls. Each inputs reacted perfectly.

 

Separation of the rover breaking stage which should gives enough punch to circularize around Eve then ensure a final breaking impulse to de-orbit close of the atmosphere.

 

Ciao to the solar panels. The breaking stage is leaving is own plasma tail while being lower than us. Everything is still going well.

 

Still no problem with the heat. The whole system should survive the Eve's atmosphere.

 

Well... I should have lowered a bit the fairing ejection force as it disappeared immediately. The system still was stable at this time and decelerated not too hardly.

 

Heat shield dropped and all chutes opened, descending velocity of 7 m/s.

 

The most stressful moment as the inclination of the landing site was far more important than what I expected... and the CoM of the system is high with this fuel tank.

 

Arg! The rover nearly flip due to the upper tank, but hopefully by ejecting it nearly at the same moment the wheel touch the surface limited the problems. For just a bit of fun a tried to accelerate the rover to its breaking speed... 34.2 m/s.

 

Just some points to refine and it will be ready for its flight to the purple ball.

[Whisky Tango Foxtrot]

Project Foothold is away! I've already sent a few missions to Jool but this one represents the biggest step by far in setting up a long-term base of operations around the Gassy Green Giant.

First to go was Foothold Station

Although calling it a "station" is a bit of an overstatement, since it's just a fuel tank with some docking ports on it and a comms/power strut. It doesn't even have its own probe core, instead depending on a monopropellant tug that will be permanently attached to it until such time as the station can be expanded. Still, it'll provide a place to store fuel in orbit of Pol, which will be important for the next vessel:

Here we have Foothold Base, a mining installation that will land on Pol and establish a renewable fuel supply in the Jool system to support future missions, with said fuel being ferried to the Foothold Station using a lifter craft that's already on its way. Attached to the mine is one of my Moth-class science planes. It's actually completely incapable of propelling itself through space (I had to strap some R.A.P.I.E.R.s to the sides to get it into orbit) but upon arriving at Jool it will be sent to Laythe, where it will be placed on a re-entry course, land at a prospective mining site and take science readings in advance of further missions to the watery moon. After that it will remain on Laythe permanently, functioning as a long-range rover to allow further exploration.

It feels like I'm finally getting somewhere with my Jool missions, even though none of them have actually arrived yet.

[Stratzenblitz75]

Today, I landed a stock aircraft carrier on eve.

 

[Brownhair2]

So... I did it. I unlocked every node in the Tech Tree (that has parts. I have Community Tech Tree installed.)

I... guess that means I'm done?

Nah, I still have some loose ends to tie up.

In case you hadn't figured it out, the reason why I did a scan of Minmus is that I'm going to build a base (what else would I do?) And it's going to have a LABORATORY! Which means MORE SCIENCE! MUAH HA HA HA--

Wait, it's not going to have any mining equipment. I didn't need to do the scan.

...

Hey look, pictures!

Featuring the world's most hideous "rover."

Minty Mining Station? I have no clue what you're talking about.

I'll add more modules later, but this is the bare minimum I need for SCIENCE!

Also I swear it will look less like hazard-ish's base when it's done