What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Kosmonaut]

5 hours ago, GregroxMun said:

 

Those are very big rings that planet must have incredibly high gravity...

[septemberWaves]

7 hours ago, Kosmonaut said:

Those are very big rings that planet must have incredibly high gravity...

Maybe it's just that it has very few moons and is in a system without too many other particularly-massive planets which would disturb the orbits of the rings. There is an exoplanet with Saturn-like rings which, if moved to the place of Saturn in Earth's night sky and made visible, would be roughly the same apparent size as the moon, but if I'm not mistaken the exoplanet in question isn't vastly more massive than Saturn (I could be wrong about this though). I think there's more factors for keeping large rings than just extremely-high gravity.

[luizopiloto]

sent a cellphone tower to Minmus north pole...

[michal.don]

Decided to take on another quite ambitious project - Make a rocket with a reusable first stage. BUT! No recoveries. I'll have to manually go to the booster, load it on some kind of a truck, take to KSC, integrate another payload, take to the launchpad, refuel, relaunch, and land again. It could be interesting. So far, The test flight proved the booster can be landed, but I should get way better with precision landings, so I don't have to go get the booster so far.

One question though - I'd like to have a topic to share my progress. Should this go to "Spacecraft exchange", or rather "Mission reports"?

Michal.don

Edited September 15, 2017 by michal.don

[Mukita12]

I'm doing a Flyby of Jool and couple flyby of Laythe

 

[Azimech]

WIP: not the first boat propeller but probably the first successful gas turbine/electric motor hybrid ship. Instead of using a gearbox the engine is reversible. Top speed is currently at 9.3m/s but will probably drop as I add more parts and fuel. The engine can be uprated though. And I'm seriously considering adjusting the angled hull parts to be straight again, these produce the most drag at the moment.

[joacobanfield]

I dropped a probe... into Jool.

[scottadges]

Munar Lander Program

This is why I love this game: the ability to design, test, and operate spacecraft with remarkable detail. Certainly why KSP is so popular and has such a devoted community.

I approached this program like any design project: start with a prototype, refine the concept, and test in specific situations until successfully meeting the requirements.

Program Goals:

• Small craft, no more than 2 kerbals
• Operable between Munar orbit and the Mun surface (no Kerbin return)
• Refuelable (ore tanks, drills, and ISRUs)
• Maneuverable: good amount of RCS, thrusters, and reaction wheels

Evolution of the Munar Lander:

Design Note: 

From the outset, I knew I was working with modded parts and planning to clip parts within other parts to achieve the overall visual design. The fuel tanks, for example, are attached to the underside but then clipped into the main body. Likewise with the landing legs and RCS tanks. The ore tanks and ISRU's in particular are clipped together so they create a smaller profile component.

Lessons Learned:

• Know your component requirements: The fatal flaw of the Mark 1 was putting an LH2 engine on a craft with LFO tanks (d'oh!)
• Don't under-estimate for DV & TWR: Mark 2 was successful, but lacked sufficient DV and too low TWR for Munar landing
• Avoid over-building for the sake of aesthetics: Both Mark 1 and Mark 2 used parts that were overly heavy or unnecessary (but looked cool) resulting in poor performance. Ex: Too large batteries, capacitors, overly heavy solar panels
• Embrace design revisions: If something isn't working, don't be afraid to pull off the components and start over. Take the lesson from a bad design to make a better one.

Design notes and photos for each variant shown below.

You can also see more at my Imgur album: https://imgur.com/a/guguM

Mark 0 - Prototype

Spoiler

Original idea: A small cockpit with components on the side. It had fighter-jet type profile.

Early testing on Kerbin. The prototype design included parachutes for flexibility. The thinking was that this could operate on multiple planets/moons. The results were... less than spectacular.

The end result: Not nearly enough thrust to to slow the craft and the overall weight was too much for the parachutes.

Next iteration!

 

Mark 1

Spoiler

Evolution of the concept. Moved to the large pod/lander as the base for the craft, including solar panels as well for greater power production. This iteration also included a docking port as the operation mandate was now strictly a Munar craft.

Orbiting the Mun. Already there were some issues, specifically the craft was a little heavy, but the TWR readout said .98 in KER, so I thought we're be OK.

After successfully docking with the Munar Hab and refueling the LFO tanks, the lander undocked to prep for Mun  de-orbit burn.

But activating the engines... turned out it was an LH2 engine variant. There was fuel... but no way to burn it.

Next iteration!

Mark 2

Spoiler

Similar in most ways to the Mark 1 - with the notable addition of an LFO engine. After ground-testing the ISRUs and drills, there was some concern over the power drain for refueling operations. Adding larger solar panels, although heavy, made sense at this point.

Successful launch, transfer, and docking with the Munar Hab. All going well at this point and began Munar descent.

First approach used a continuous burn at retrograde to slow down to a reasonable surface velocity. But that was using too much fuel and left about 50 m/s remaining velocity at the surface. Crash imminent...

OK, then let's try "suicide burn" approach. Looking good... Nope, overall velocity too high at the surface compared to remaining DV. Still about 50-60 m/s lacking. Crashing...

Tried reducing orbital velocity by lowering orbits, then burn closer to the surface (an "almost-suicide" burn). Still not working... Too much fuel used during orbital changes, then not enough for slowing surface velocity. Still coming in too hot at 30-40 m/s when fuel ran out. 

After about 6-7 save reload/re-tries, I decided DV & TWR were too low and there was probably some weight to be removed. The craft at this point was about 14,000 Kg. Next iteration!

Of course, I had to send her out with a bang. I reloaded the save, emptied out the fuel, transferred the crew to the hab, and undocked her for the last time. De-orbited using minimum fuel and remaining RCS.

Getting closer... At this point, I felt like I had to deploy all equipment and systems .

And...

...kablooey!

It was actually impressive how the debris actually "bounced" off the Mun and continued on a suborbital trajectory. In several cases, they "flew" for almost 30 minutes (game time) before multiple more impacts obliterated the remains of the Mark 2 lander.

Next iteration, please!

Mark 3 - Final Design

Spoiler

The final refinement. Lessons learned. Craft optimized. DV specs checked and re-checked.

Optimal specs:

• TWR: 1.67, about 12,900 Kg.
• DV: ~1500 in lander alone

Docking with the Munar Hab, testing systems, and refueling. Went for a "traditional" landing, de-orbiting to 10,000m then periapsis retrograde burn and final "suicide burn". Much better fuel usage and efficient reduction in velocity to 1-2 m/s at the surface.

Program success! The Mk 3 landed successfully on the Mun. (No photos of landing... it was super-dark and I think the surface glitched, it was totally black until I switched out to Map view.)

The final test was to see long it would take to refuel using the mini-drills and mini-ISRUs. Hitting time warp....

Heat dissipation and electrical energy flow were really good, so the units kept running at optimal temperature. But it just took too long: 115 days to refuel ~500 units of LFO. The ore extraction was only .003 units per second  

Ultimately, the original parameters were essentially in conflict. The mini-drills and mini-ISRUs have low capacity, which will inherently take longer to refuel. So while the overall design works, it's just impractical to wait that long. 

 

 

Edited September 16, 2017 by scottadges

[DerekL1963]

9 hours ago, michal.don said:

One question though - I'd like to have a topic to share my progress. Should this go to "Spacecraft exchange", or rather "Mission reports"?

Since you're reporting in progress - I'd say "Mission Reports".

[roboslacker]

I built an SR-71. It's max speed is around 1400 m/s, which is around mach 4. It's reusable, a feature many of my planes lack. The next step is to add passenger compartments and call it an airliner.

[RoadRunnerAerospace]

Tried to launch cassini for a tribute video.... Needless to say, it didn`t get very far (I`m blaming it on mechjeb) 

Video will be at some point next week.......

[DAL59]

I installed CKAN, and am trying to do a RO/SSRSS career, but I have weird bugs.  When I hover over a part thumbnail in the VAB, it displays text for a random part.  When I drag the parts out, they are very tiny or invisible, or the part on the screen is random.  And now, I can't even get past the start screen,

Where are the buttons??

[DeltaDizzy]

@DAL59 They are invisible. Just click where they would be

[DAL59]

That worked.  Thanks.  

[XLjedi]

@DAL59 use the Force!

[DAL59]

@XLjedifound any monoliths at the smiley yet?  

 

[XLjedi]

@DAL59 nah, can't really see any evidence of a smiley up close either... but lemme know if you come across anything.

 

[DAL59]

https://imgur.com/a/N3kkF

???????

https://imgur.com/a/lEDcp

 

[XLjedi]

Yet another perfect landing!

[Ultimate Steve]

I haven't updated on RO/RP-0 in a while, so I guess I'll do that. I should probably get around to making my own thread for this, but ehh. I'm lazy and I know it.

IIRC, the last time I posted an update was shortly after my third lunar landing.

I made three lunar landings - all with different lander desingns, all three of which barely worked (not enough oxygen, off center thrust, and not enough fuel, respectively). Since the risk of an LOC was high, I decided that I'd take a few in-game years off to gather a lot of science and research all of the tech nodes I could so I could design Gravity IV (Hopefully ~200t to LEO) with the most advanced technology possible.

Cue Mu-Planetoid. Mu-Planetoid is an initiative to use Mu III (Later Mu IV) rockets to send science probes to other planets, sort of like the real life Mariner probes.

Mars impactor? Check!

Venus orbiter? Check!

Failed Venus lander? Check!

 

Another thing I wanted to do was another Sigma/Peregrine mission.

Sigma/Peregrine is a modern 1 man lifter that had a purpose (resupplying Sapphire Station) that became obsolete. So, I thought I'd try something special for its third (and probably final) flight:

Artificial gravity! And this went very badly, indeed. I think I managed 0.02g or so before the tether snapped. Then I couldn't reel it all the way in, and my life support container decided to snap off so I had to make an emergency landing.

After a while of Mu-Planetoid probes to Venus and Mars, I thought I'd try to do better. I was going to send a probe to Saturn (shown above) but it didn't have enough fuel so I sent it on a flyby of Mercury instead. It passed pretty close.

No pictures of this, because it hasn't arrived yet, but I tried putting more stages on a Mu-Planetoid and using it as a Mars relay and lander. It will not have enough fuel to complete its mission unless I can get aerobraking to work properly.

So I've reached the limits of Mu-Planetoid. Soon to come: Gravity-Planetoid. Basically advanced space probes (think Cassini, Galileo, etc.) using a lifter five times more powerful than Mu IV. This should allow for advanced missions like Martian moon landers, Saturn orbiters (preferably without gravity assists) and creation of Mars/Venus communications systems.

Cool picture of a random science part. I thought it would expand into an antenna, but I wasn't expecting it to be that... huge.

But, what I really came here to show you:

AVALON STATION!

Current mass is 150 tons, assembled over 10 launches with at least 7 more planned (not including crews or resupply missions).

Avalon Station is either a big Mir or a small ISS in real world terms. It was born out of the need to do something while the planet probes were on their way. Also planned is a Lunar orbit station, Eclipse Station, using my moon rocket (Gravity III) with station modules rather than the CSM/LM it usually carries. It will require seven launches to complete.

 

 

Also I just realized that if the RP-0 game clock starts in 1945, then it's currently 1962 in game and I've already landed on the moon and built half of a space station.

[luizopiloto]

Deployed SkyNet on Minmus... now... I can send those kraken baits... no... I mean... base modules to there...

[Julien Kerman]

Today I sent another 4 tankers to the Venus station.

There are still at least two tankers required in order to fill the transferstage completely. But it looks like I am on schedule, the Venus window opens in 60 days.

 

Edited September 16, 2017 by Julien Kerman

[dangerhamster]

More erratic rovering. After visiting the Twin Craters the Globetrotter angled southwest towards the pole with the intention of ticking off more biomes and checking out an anomaly. The added south component of their course meant that the big black was now catching up with them. Val decided to unstow the solar array which whilst increasing top hamper allowed them to keep the EC topped up even with low angle light. The chassis took this well staying sure footed even when its feet weren't actually touching anything.

Finding some relatively clear terrain allowed them to make good time darting around craters like a Vespa in Milan treats traffic. The non by the book but skilfully driven tactic brought them to the polar region just as shadows were making picking a course "interesting". Realising they would be unable to reach the target (or even see it) Val elected to take the shortest route into the poles

Ticking off the poles from the list Val parked up on the east wall to get maximum use of the next mornings light. Current situation 40km from target with 2 more biomes straddling their currently planned route and arguing over wether or not to nip out and plant a bunch of flags to clog up mission control's screens.

Edited September 16, 2017 by dangerhamster

[Zeiss Ikon]

(First career game, on my laptop)

Last night, Jeb orbited Kerbin.  It wasn't my intent to specifically emulate John Glenn, but danged if what was intended to be a longer mission didn't wind up ending at three orbits after a dead command pod battery cut short any attempts to transmit science and required waiting for the nozzle to be pointed the right way to deorbit (and charge the batteries enough to maintain control during descent).

It started with the construction of Explorer II, a logical outgrowth of Val's Explorer I, which made the first sustained flight outside the atmosphere (a fifteen-plus minute jaunt literally halfway around Kerbin).

Addition of the storage bay allowed mounting the goo canisters out of the plasma stream, to prevent the problem Val had with one burning off during reentry.  There was some concern over whether the pod and bay combination would be stable during reentry.  Jeb said it'd be fine.  Engineers said it'd hopefully be fine.  The core Thumper had a modified fuel grain, reducing thrust to 40% of original, while the strap-ons were unmodified.  Several engineers voiced concern, saying the fins looked too small, but Jeb said they'd be fine -- three times the size of the basic fins on the first Jumping Flea, and much, much further from the command pod; they'd have far more effect, plenty to offset the extra booster mass.

In the end, since it was Jeb's pale green body going in the cockpit, his opinion won out.  The upper stage was identical to the one Val had flown, except for using newer, larger tanks and increasing fuel capacity by a third.  The rocket was rolled out to the pad and Jeb climbed to the command pod.

 The recently upgraded pad now sports a blast deflector, coolant system (to protect the  concrete), and fueling capability for liquid fuel vehicles.  R&D hopes to come up with a practical method to stabilize a rocket on the pad in the near future, but for the moment, they still have to depend on designs that can balance on the nozzle bell.  Fortunately, that includes nearly everything that will fly at all well without (recently developed, not yet fully tested) gimballed engines.

Mission planning had emphasized a lesson learned from Val's Explorer I flight: that the aerodynamic stability of the vehicle would make it logy to turn with only the command pod's reaction wheel.  Jeb had a simple solution for that "problem" -- put the controls at maximum yaw as soon as he was clear of ground obstacles, and leave them there.  Slowly, slowly, the vehicle began to turn, pulling its velocity vector over with it, starting to build up the horizontal speed needed for orbit right from the beginning.

The unmodified boosters burned out while the core Thumper still had more than half its fuel remaining.  Jeb cut them loose and they separated cleanly, though aerodynamics pulled them together not far behind the nozzle, causing a spectacular explosion that startled the ground crew.  When Jeb called in to report successful staging, they realized that it wasn't his vehicle that had exploded, and cheers went up before everyone went back to his job.  Meanwhile, Jeb continued to command maximum yaw rate, still turning the nose over to push velocity toward the horizon, else he'd go too high, and too slow, to make a stable orbit.

A  couple kilometers higher, Tracking reported that Jeb's course looked nominal.  Jeb's response was terse, as one might expect: "Continuing maximum yaw maneuver."

Once the core Thumper had burned out, Jeb staged it away.  By then, his altitude was high enough to immediately orient to the horizon, and wait for his vector marker to drop near his nose before starting the Reliant and burning until Tracking ordered cutoff.  Orbit achieved!  Periapsis about 86 km, apoapsis close to 108 km.  Time to relax and do some science.  The "new thing" for this flight, other than being able to stay in space for as long as needed or wanted, was a data link antenna.  Jeb was to transmit the data from his goo, barometric, and thermometric experiments.

Unfortunately, someone in Mission Planning had dropped a decimal somewhere (slide rules require manually tracking that stuff) -- before the first experiment transmission could complete, the command pod's internal battery was fully discharged -- also leaving Jeb without any maneuvering capability.  Fortunately, his voice comm and parachute had their own, internal batteries, and the engine controls were fluidic.  Solution was simple: wait for the proper vessel orientation, and fire the deorbit burn.  The alternator in the engine would partially recharge the pod battery, even in a burn of a few seconds.  They'd simply have to hope it was enough to maintain pointing until reentry forces could take over -- and then hope Jeb was right, that the pod and storage module assembly would be stable during reentry.

So far, so good.

Hurrah!  Even Jeb looked relieved once the pod was deep enough into the atmosphere to confirm aerodynamic stability.  There clearly wasn't enough battery power left to keep the heat shield forward if he'd been wrong.

Even with that, Jeb looked a bit relieved when the parachute opened well clear of the mountain terrain.  He was supposed to do a surface EVA and make use of the newly issued surface sample kit after landing, but the capsule tipped and rolled after landing, and continued to roll (without the external goo canisters to stabilize it, as had been the case on his last mission).  Mission Control agreed with him that it would be too risky to leave the command pod on the steep slope -- not for fear of Jeb slipping, but out of concern that the capsule might roll away and leave him on foot, complicating the recovery process.

It was enough that he had, in fact, orbited Kerbin, solved problems in space, maintained control of the vessel in prolonged weightlessness, and returned safely through the atmosphere.  Proof positive that the new technology R&D had been pumping out did what it was supposed to do -- and also that Jebediah Kerman was a Bad-S.

 

Edited September 16, 2017 by Zeiss Ikon
typo

[Tw1]

It's not a superweapon, I swear! For real this time!

Took some nice pictures in space. 

 

Marked the passing of a favorite space probe.

Set up some ground relays. In theory, a faster (If you imagine cheating as on the ground construction) way of setting up deep space communications compared to  far flung relay satellites. Still needed small kerbostationary sats to link back to KSC.

Located on either side of the planet, these are "Kerbin's Ears".

There's just something so epic to me about isolated, metal truss towers.