What did you do in KSP1 today?

[eddiew]

6 minutes ago, qzgy said:

Creative. Did you have the Mk1 crew cabin unlocked yet? I assume that could have also worked too...

Nope, this was my second unlocked pod ^^;  But it fit the footprint well

[Jouni]

While I have landed on Tylo many times, I have never explored the planet. Today I decided to change that.

The expedition required two launches. The first was my standard interplanetary ship. As the ship wasn't carrying any heavy payload, there was no need for the usual booster contraptions. Just two standard heavy boosters, with one additional Vector each to get the TWR above 1.

Spoiler

 

As the thermal control systems were dangerously close to the boosters, I had to rotate the ship to get rid of the boosters safely.

Spoiler

 

The second launch had a weird fairing protecting the payload. As the transfer stage was non-nuclear, I needed six heavy boosters to lift it.

Spoiler

 

The payload was a huge rover.

 

The rover took a fast route to Tylo, while the mothership arrived around 100 days later. Because I intended to land near the cave, I put the ships into an orbit with a 50-degree inclination.

 

The crew boarded the expedition module...

Spoiler

 

...and took it to the rover. Meanwhile the mothership moved into a 1000 km orbit to relay communications between Kerbin and the rover.

Spoiler

 

The Vector is a convenient engine for Tylo landers, though the gimbal range is way too high. I usually limit the range to 30% of the maximum to keep the ship controllable.

Spoiler

 

Everyone on the surface. The ladder must be on the uphill side of the rover, or the kerbals have a hard time climbing on top of the fuel tank.

 

The rover can go over 60 m/s downhill, but you can't brake or steer safely beyond 30-35 m/s. The kerbals are clearly enjoying the ride.

Spoiler

First destination reached. You can see the rover in the middle.

Spoiler

 

[Spacetraindriver]

Minmus Landing on Kpollo 3!

One small step for a Kerbelle, another giant leap for Kerbal kind!

No modifications were done to the craft, just mission parameters, so I'm hoping the CM can get home with half its tank (and whatever is left in the LM)...I'm sure getting off the surface would be no problem. (Knocks on Wood) If not I guess I'll send them to the Mun for pickup.

Edited June 26, 2017 by Spacetraindriver

[qzgy]

Finished off that battleship from yesterday. By that, I mean I added lights.

[Drakenex]

Coming soon to ETS the Missions

 

Pegasus sends Artemis 1 on it's way to the moon

 

[Cpt Kerbalkrunch]

Good tidings, fellow Kerbonauts. My beloved laptop has returned from California; unscathed, completely repaired, and (seemingly) better than ever. I always set graphic levels to "ultra" or whatever is highest, and KSP usually has my crotch cookin' within about 20 minutes. I have to kick the fans on high and leave them there. For some reason, it's not doing that anymore. Not sure why, but it's a good thing, so I'm not gonna dwell on it.

Anyway, trying to pick up where I left off, but I had a lot of missions going so I'm feeling a little off balance. This one in particular, I'm not sure what I was thinkin' about. It's a mission to Moho for an "explore Moho" contract. Also have a contract to mine ore and, because I'm greedy, I took a satellite contract for extra cash. Threw it all on one rocket, but I guess I miscalculated.  Didn't have enough fuel for the capture, so I just detached the satellite to complete the contract.

 

 

The ship I had to let fly by and back into a solar orbit roughly the equivalent of Moho's. I wasn't happy, but what can you do? I launched a refueling mission and moved on to other things. The refueler finally arrived, and the mission was back under way. Captured at Moho and made my landing. I was extremely pleased to get this disaster cleaned up. Figured I'd just drill to complete my contract and then go home.

 

 

So I've got my laptop back, and maybe it really has been improved, but me? I haven't changed a bit. There are no ore canisters on this vessel. 

How could anybody be this boneheaded? This is actually starting to become my signature move. I wonder if I could patent it? That way, anytime someone forgets to put ore canisters on a driller I could get paid for it.  Think I'll look into that.

 

I actually remember now that this ship was intended for Eeloo. I diverted when the window to Eve opened first (used Eve to lower orbit for Moho transfer). That, at least, explains the huge solar panels. What a disaster. God, I love this game.

[tkw]

On 4/24/2017 at 1:16 PM, Numerlor said:

Launching heavily modded game on 3 gigs of ram wasn't a great idea

  Hide contents

That dish is in front of everything

 

 

uuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhh

Edited April 24, 2018 by tkw

[Wrench Head]

I went fishing for the Kracken again, today with live bait.

 

[Zeiss Ikon]

(Science game)

As it turns out, the add-on tank for Fuel Station Valentina 1, even with only one cone adapter filled and the return stage tanks empty (to be filled from the adapter tank, or at worst, from the fuel station after docking), is too heavy for the Mun launcher that had been initially selected.  Even after uprating the launcher with additional boosters gave enough energy to put the tank into orbit, simulations showed there wasn't enough dV left in the transfer stage to get the stack to the asteroid (making the plane change near apoapsis rather than in LKO would have saved considerable dV, but wouldn't change what was needed to raise the orbit).

Fortunately, the 2.5m technology is mature enough by now to allow mix-and-match with those parts -- an orange tank booster consisting of a two-tank core surrounded by single-tank boosters, all with Mainsail engines, with fuel ducts for asparagus operation, and a transfer stage consisting of a half-length 2.5 m tank, cone adapter, and Poodle gives plenty of dV for the transfer.

A few struts were needed to steady the boosters (not shown in the VAB shot), but once that was done, the launcher flew well enough, and the outward angled cone entries on the boosters helped them separate cleanly.

In orbit, there's plenty of dV left to raise orbit, change plane, and rendezvous with the rock.

Edited June 26, 2017 by Zeiss Ikon
Add image

[JadeOfMaar]

I built an OPT not-space plane and made room for my own mod's parts, and took it on a leisurely test-flight on Gael. Some engineers are planning to fly this around and retrieve things that return from orbit, starting with the KIS Deliverance spaceplane which returned from Niven and splashed down a few hundred km to the West of KSC--near the beach on the opposite coast of this continent, and which aerobraked at Mach 10 and lost no parts.

Today, speed and power are not on my menu. Endurance and utility are.

I don't like making VTOLs... But it's a VTOL.

 

[Tex_NL]

We all know chances of accidental debris collisions are so infinitesimally small they can just be ignored.
But today I got one that made my sphincter move like a rabbits nose for a second. I noticed an object whizzing by my newly constructed station. Checking the map I found an counter orbiting shipwreck was to come even closer at the next encounter, just 0.5km. And for a THIRD time half an orbit later. To be safe once and for all I moved my station to a slightly lower orbit.

What makes those three close encounters particularly rare is the inclination difference. If one parameter would have been ever so slightly different they would never have come that close.

Edited June 26, 2017 by Tex_NL

[Daffi Kerman]

Capture an asteroid and throw it to my space centre!

[qzgy]

23 minutes ago, Tex_NL said:

We all know chances of accidental debris collisions are so infinitesimally small they can just be ignored.
But today I got one that made my sphincter move like a rabbits nose for a second. I noticed an object whizzing by my newly constructed station. Checking the map I found an counter orbiting shipwreck was to come even closer at the next encounter, just 0.5km. And for a THIRD time half an orbit later. To be safe once and for all I moved my station to a slightly lower orbit.

What makes those three close encounters particularly rare is the inclination difference. If one parameter would have been ever so slightly different they would never have come that close.

Kessler syndrome? I'm guessing its a lot worse IRL. Also, about rabbit noses...

[KerbMav]

Continued my mishap-ridden Mun expedition - I have a vague idea of what might have gone so utterly wrong, but no way to confirm or check really, somehow girders as landing gears mess with my dV/thrust?.

Will make an album when I finally get those kerbonauts and that much needed science back home.

[qzgy]

1 minute ago, KerbMav said:

Continued my mishap-ridden Mun expedition - I have a vague idea of what might have gone so utterly wrong, but no way to confirm or check really, somehow girders as landing gears mess with my dV/thrust?.

Will make an album when I finally get those kerbonauts and that much needed science back home.

Extra mass, changing the delta-v equation? I would guess that, but I don't think it should make much of a difference.... (unless its a super tight margin of error mun mission)

[KerbMav]

2 minutes ago, qzgy said:

Extra mass, changing the delta-v equation? I would guess that, but I don't think it should make much of a difference.... (unless its a super tight margin of error mun mission)

This was different, KER showed a perfectly fine dV number, and another vessel with similar dV got into orbit easily, but with this one I struggled to even get into the 9x9km orbit in the end, and only by welding off the struts via KAS. Might be that the inclination was at fault? I launched at about 50deg latitude into a 53deg inclined orbit to align with rescue attempt number three. (Number one was simply getting close with enough supplies, buying to research enough parts for attempt three, attempt two was only to get a contracted Kerbal back home.)

[qzgy]

Just now, KerbMav said:

This was different, KER showed a perfectly fine dV number, and another vessel with similar dV got into orbit easily, but with this one I struggled to even get into the 9x9km orbit in the end, and only by welding off the struts via KAS. Might be that the inclination was at fault? I launched at about 50deg latitude into a 53deg inclined orbit to align with rescue attempt number three. (Number one was simply getting close with enough supplies, buying to research enough parts for attempt three, attempt two was only to get a contracted Kerbal back home.)

Maybe. As I understand, launching into higher inclined orbits does take more delta-v. I don't know any numbers about this, so I'm not sure if a 50 degree or so inclination would make enough of a delta-v difference to make a struggle to get into orbit...

Does anyone know rough numbers?

[JoeNapalm]

5 hours ago, Tex_NL said:

We all know chances of accidental debris collisions are so infinitesimally small they can just be ignored.
But today I got one that made my sphincter move like a rabbits nose for a second. I noticed an object whizzing by my newly constructed station. Checking the map I found an counter orbiting shipwreck was to come even closer at the next encounter, just 0.5km. And for a THIRD time half an orbit later. To be safe once and for all I moved my station to a slightly lower orbit.

What makes those three close encounters particularly rare is the inclination difference. If one parameter would have been ever so slightly different they would never have come that close.

I actually, many many moons ago, had an actual debris strike.

Shoulda bought a lottery ticket, while I was at it...

 

-Jn-

[TheDARKOMETER]

Today I did some attempts of a Pugachev's Cobra on my F-16 with engine gimballing enabled. 

 

 

[ARS]

Today, I'm successfully tested my new craft, based from gundam 00 Awakening of the trailblazer: KBS-74 Ktolemaios

While it's shape is a bit... un-aerodynamic, it's surprisingly flyable in atmosphere. And just like the one in the movie, it's powered entirely using GN particles with self-sustaining GN Drive, allowing it to operate indefinitely

I should've bring my gundams. I made Exia for jeb, Dynames for Valentina, Virtue for Bob and Kyrios for Bill...

 

Edited June 26, 2017 by ARS

[Zeiss Ikon]

1 hour ago, qzgy said:

Maybe. As I understand, launching into higher inclined orbits does take more delta-v. I don't know any numbers about this, so I'm not sure if a 50 degree or so inclination would make enough of a delta-v difference to make a struggle to get into orbit...

Does anyone know rough numbers?

You get 300 m/s free from Kerbin's rotation if you launch east from KSC.  Launch enough west of north to get a 90 degree inclination, you  then have to kill that 300 m/s, and supply the same amount extra in the intended inclination -- but since the two are at right angles, it "only" costs you about 430+ m/s.  Launch further west, for some reason (and no sensible reason you'd want or need to, just wait three hours instead so you're launching from the other side of the planet, relative to the stars), and that figure can increase to as much as 600 m/s for due west.  For any sensible inclination, then, you'll spend no more than an extra 430+ m/s compared to the ideal launch, due-east to zero inclination.

[qzgy]

58 minutes ago, Zeiss Ikon said:

You get 300 m/s free from Kerbin's rotation if you launch east from KSC.  Launch enough west of north to get a 90 degree inclination, you  then have to kill that 300 m/s, and supply the same amount extra in the intended inclination -- but since the two are at right angles, it "only" costs you about 430+ m/s.  Launch further west, for some reason (and no sensible reason you'd want or need to, just wait three hours instead so you're launching from the other side of the planet, relative to the stars), and that figure can increase to as much as 600 m/s for due west.  For any sensible inclination, then, you'll spend no more than an extra 430+ m/s compared to the ideal launch, due-east to zero inclination.

You know we are talking about the mun, right? I guess that technically these numbers do apply, but they shouldn't be the same for the mun.

[eddiew]

With the resounding success of our probe lander, there is clearly only one course of action, and only one kerbal for the job.

I always forget the antenna on my first Moon/Mun missions  

[maceemiller]

So today I decided to start a new career in version 1.3 as Ive only just upgraded from 1.2.2.

Here is the mod list Ive got.....havn't started the game yet but Im ready.

Whats your thoughts?

EDIT: HPTechTree mod is also there just not from CKAN

Edited June 26, 2017 by maceemiller

[Firemetal]

Matt Lowne has gone to Eeloo with a MK3 SSTO and a small lander in a cargo bay. People like Hypnautical, Daniel Kim, Mark Thrimm ect. did it with a Mk1 SSTO with no tiny lander. I'm curious to see if anyone has done a Mk3 SSTO directly to Eeloo's surface before. Because Pelican II, a Mk3 Laythe Spaceplane, can do it. (I think)

One test run so far. Got to orbit with about 6800 m/s in the tanks. 12 Rapiers and 4 Nukes. 234 tons fully fuelled and .54 TWR at sea level fully fuelled. With more efficient maneuvers than in the test run, it should be able to go and return from Eeloo. Mark Thrimm said in his video that he had 6500 m/s in orbit so with a few gravity assists, this should work.

Here are the two problems with the craft.

• The Dry CoM goes behind the CoL. This can be fixed by pumping fuel forwards, but I'm unsure that that would help when the fuel tanks are almost empty.
• With only 4 nukes, I'm not sure I'll have a high enough TWR to land on Eeloo efficiently. But we'll see.

So let's hope this works.

Fire