What did you do in KSP1 today?

[garwel]

I just successfully landed my first probe on Duna, completely controlled by kOS. Alas, it lost its engines on landing, but it won't need them any more anyway.

Edited November 1, 2017 by garwel

[dvp]

3 minutes ago, Delay said:

I have started having problems with my 2.5 meter landers recently and I may need some help, I'm out of ideas.

To soften the touchdown for the fragile lander can, I don't seperate tank and engine of the last stage (I reuse the landing legs). That design actually works really well, but around halfway through reentry, the lander recently starts flipping around and continues descending facing... prograde. It does do a good job at making reentry more suspensful, but I don't want to risk losing the craft. What can I do to fix it?

You mean when you're re-entering Kerbin's atmosphere? That's weight distribution and aero. All things being equal, you enter heavy end first. But if one end is particularly more aerodynamic than the other, you'll get flipped around that way. Sort of like how raindrops work. (But instead of deforming to minimize drag, your ship seeks its lowest-drag equilibrium.)

Setting SAS to the opposite of the natural position, and enabling RCS, or otherwise inducing a tumble, is actually good, as it will slow you down faster.

If you're after stability, move fuel around to shift the center of mass towards the end you want pointing down, and if that isn't enough, add airbrakes to the end you want facing up.

A few drogue 'chutes on the "this end up" end of the ship will also get you pointed right-way-around, once you've reached a sufficiently low speed/altitude.

As long as your re-entry angle isn't too steep, you should be able to enter the atmosphere in most any orientation and slow down enough between 50km and 70km to not explode. (Although you might lose a solar panel or something.) If you can, save a little fuel and burn retro to guarantee your surface speed is under 1.9km/s at 40km altitude. Then you should be fine.

 

Numbers will be different for other plants w/ atmosphere. (Jool, Duna, Eve, etc.)

[garwel]

14 minutes ago, Delay said:

I have started having problems with my 2.5 meter landers recently and I may need some help, I'm out of ideas.

To soften the touchdown for the fragile lander can, I don't seperate tank and engine of the last stage (I reuse the landing legs). That design actually works really well, but around halfway through reentry, the lander recently starts flipping around and continues descending facing... prograde. It does do a good job at making reentry more suspensful, but I don't want to risk losing the craft. What can I do to fix it?

I think your CoM is too high (i.e. close to the top of the craft), which makes it turn the wrong side. I used to do this thing too and I would separate the last stage at some point during reentry. But it's a bit risky (e.g. sometimes I got my lander hit by the last stage or it got stuck and prevented me from keeping the vessel retrograde), so I now prefer to get rid of the last stage early and use a heat shield instead.

Edited November 1, 2017 by garwel

[Zeiss Ikon]

19 hours ago, DAL59 said:

The mission to minimus was successful, but I forgot to open the main chutes until too late.  

"The surgery was completely successful, but the patient died before regaining consciousness."

5 hours ago, NotJebediah said:

That sounds like a very Kerbal solution... I like it

Wait until you see my new 4-passenger, 2-pilot Mun/Minmus orbit tourist bus.  It's two of these attached belly to belly. 

4 hours ago, Delay said:

I have started having problems with my 2.5 meter landers recently and I may need some help, I'm out of ideas.

To soften the touchdown for the fragile lander can, I don't seperate tank and engine of the last stage (I reuse the landing legs). That design actually works really well, but around halfway through reentry, the lander recently starts flipping around and continues descending facing... prograde. It does do a good job at making reentry more suspensful, but I don't want to risk losing the craft. What can I do to fix it?

Put 3-4 fins radially around the top of the lander can (as high as possible).  Your landing legs are acting like fins; the drag is turning the craft over.  The lift from the actual fins will (should) override them and keep things pointed in the correct direction.  NASA actually had proposed designs like this back in the 1960s (SASSTO), and Blue Horizon's New Glenn booster will have fins at the top to stabilize return from boost (so does the SpaceX Falcon 9, except theirs are grid fins, which can be much smaller, and are folded flat against the aeroshell at launch).

Edit: Retracting the legs will also help.

Edited November 1, 2017 by Zeiss Ikon

[Jeb, The Lonely Kerbonaut]

I made some things. In my carrer save, i launched a scientific unmanned mission to Ike. I landed with sucess, in the (probaly) highest peak of Ike, 10.4 Km above the sea level. But i could fix some things in the mission. First, i forgot to bring some experiments. Second, i bring a spectro-fluid variometer, that don't have any utillity in Ike. And third, i expected landing and get a good view of Duna, but i discovered that Ike is tidally locked with Duna, and i landed in the side that Duna don't appear.  

Also today i installed Hyperedit, to make some tests in my sandbox save. I put the gravity of Kerbin and a atmosphere in Gilly and i teleported to the second space center easter egg.

And i tried to visit the UFO in the north pole and the desert temple, but without sucess. 

And for some unknow motive, the lander editor button in Hyperedit is not responding to my clicks. 

Edited November 1, 2017 by Jeb, The Lonely Kerbonaut

[SaturnianBlue]

I decided to see how quickly I could get to the Mun... By using KSP-Interstellar.

I strapped several tweakscaled Timberwind engines as a lifting stage. When activated, the ship was exposed to multiple G's.

At the end of the booster stage's burn, the entire ship was accelerating at 25Gs!

I started up the VISTA engine, which accelerated the vessel at nearly 4G's of thrust the entire way to the Mun.

I'm not sure whether I actually landed on the Mun. However, I'm pretty sure I close enough to roast the surface of the Mun with radiation from the fusion drive. Approximate landing time: 18 minutes, 15 seconds.

I also tried to return, since I still had plenty of fuel. However, the fusion drive cannot operate in the atmosphere (I think), I had to heat shield, and I had no parachute. However, I was able to burn up in the atmosphere at 31 minutes and 47 seconds.

[CatastrophicFailure]

1 hour ago, SaturnianBlue said:

 

I decided to see how quickly I could get to the Mun... By using KSP-Interstellar.

 

Scott Manley would be proud. 

[roboslacker]

 

Today, I did an orbital tourism mission, and landed a probe on minmus. I used my accumulated cash from space tourism to upgrade the launchpad to the max, and developed a promising design for a kerbaled mun lander.

[invision]

no this is not a failed launch, this was the extra parts my ship didnt need. the same thing happens when i take my pc apart to clean it.

[LordFerret]

Well, my lander landed...

 

That's the only piece which survived. It was a test. No Kerbals were killed or maimed in the process... just an RGU, and they're not sentient... yet.

[JadeOfMaar]

I did some intense benchmarking of my NOX Crown SSTO in 2.5x sandbox, and got several interesting results. Fortunately, it never came close to experiencing a catastrophic failure like in one certain test in stock scale.

I then did some catching up in the 2.5x game: launched a rescue/refueler probe for the science probe currently stuck in   orbit of Ceti, and launched this science probe to eventually bring home a bucket of science. There's enough solar panel on this just to keep the probe core and one of the four science processors running. I really did not think to put more panel.

[Delay]

5 hours ago, roboslacker said:

How are these legs not causing your craft to fall over!?

Mine always tip with these.

[Jon Tash]

Landed right next to my rover on Minmus and started to mine ore.

USM-Excavator I and USR-Muller I

[Tamsphein]

No structure to this post, gonna share some things I've been enjoying, 

 

First thing I need to do is clean my camera... (or better known as having two overlapping sun flares, Looks cool in screen shots but really annoying when trying to fly, felt like I was wearing J J Abrams reading glasses!!)

 

That's much better huh, just the one blob!

I finally have brought myself a computer powerful enough to consider running EVE, SVE and SVT, It is soo worth it!! 

I also downloaded collision fx and destruction fx, which has led to me crashing a lot for fun!

Current Plans, gonna finish the lunar mission below

 

And then download RSS and RO, I've finally worked out how to get 1.2.2 again on steam. Might stop lurking and post them at somepoint.

[Azimech]

@Tamsphein Welcome to the forum! And what a beautiful first post!

 

 

And I've been busy with a colony truck/ship for Laythe. It can also fly but isn't comparable with my airplanes. Now I need to build a launcher for it. De-orbit is easy, I let it tumble and it won't overheat, easily slows down to subsonic. Landing has to be done on solid ground to prevent the destruction of some nosecones. It's got a good range with throttle at 33%.

And here we see it approaching a prototype floating city. Also needs a launch vehicle.

[Whisky Tango Foxtrot]

Sent some new equipment to Duna.

That's an ore transport module with built-in landing legs (since my procedure for docking my current module with Duna's surface base involves landing on the ground nearby to get rid of the parachutes before lighting the rockets again for a powered descent onto the docking port) and a new command/science module for Duna Station with built-in radiators that should allow Duna Station's ISRU to run even when no tugs are docked with it. The module on the front is a communications booster consisting of a RA-2  relay enclosed within a 1.25m service bay, and will allow the tug to remain in radio contact throughout the trip. The tug carrying the equipment is newly-constructed and joined with the command module in the Spaceplane Hangar (I launched this via SSTO,) allowing it to stay attached without putting a docking port in the middle of the cupola window. The tug will remain in the Duna system permanently, transferring personnel and equipment between the Duna and Ike installations.

The tug that it will be replacing has also just left Duna.

This one is carrying a tug (originally meant for Eeloo and sent to Duna when Explorer 1's outer planets mission included a refuelling stop there; the mission has since been re-worked to consist only of direct flights with a different solution for getting a rover to Eeloo) on its way to Jool. I plan to land the tug permanently on Vall.

[CatastrophicFailure]

3 hours ago, Azimech said:

And I've been busy with a colony truck/ship for Laythe. It can also fly but isn't comparable with my airplanes.

I see you there, Caspian Sea Monster. 

[Jon Tash]

Remember the lander that was mining on Minmus(on the last page), well I forgot to put RCS on it to dock to my space station on Kerbin. So I'm taking it back home... It only has 450 units of ore in it.

USM-Excavator back home

Edited November 2, 2017 by Jon Tash

[NotJebediah]

23 hours ago, Zeiss Ikon said:

"The surgery was completely successful, but the patient died before regaining consciousness."

Wait until you see my new 4-passenger, 2-pilot Mun/Minmus orbit tourist bus.  It's two of these attached belly to belly. 

Put 3-4 fins radially around the top of the lander can (as high as possible).  Your landing legs are acting like fins; the drag is turning the craft over.  The lift from the actual fins will (should) override them and keep things pointed in the correct direction.  NASA actually had proposed designs like this back in the 1960s (SASSTO), and Blue Horizon's New Glenn booster will have fins at the top to stabilize return from boost (so does the SpaceX Falcon 9, except theirs are grid fins, which can be much smaller, and are folded flat against the aeroshell at launch).

Edit: Retracting the legs will also help.

I' d love to see that beauty fly

[NotJebediah]

5 hours ago, Whisky Tango Foxtrot said:

Sent some new equipment to Duna.

That's an ore transport module with built-in landing legs (since my procedure for docking my current module with Duna's surface base involves landing on the ground nearby to get rid of the parachutes before lighting the rockets again for a powered descent onto the docking port) and a new command/science module for Duna Station with built-in radiators that should allow Duna Station's ISRU to run even when no tugs are docked with it. The module on the front is a communications booster consisting of a RA-2  relay enclosed within a 1.25m service bay, and will allow the tug to remain in radio contact throughout the trip. The tug carrying the equipment is newly-constructed and joined with the command module in the Spaceplane Hangar (I launched this via SSTO,) allowing it to stay attached without putting a docking port in the middle of the cupola window. The tug will remain in the Duna system permanently, transferring personnel and equipment between the Duna and Ike installations.

The tug that it will be replacing has also just left Duna.

This one is carrying a tug (originally meant for Eeloo and sent to Duna when Explorer 1's outer planets mission included a refuelling stop there; the mission has since been re-worked to consist only of direct flights with a different solution for getting a rover to Eeloo) on its way to Jool. I plan to land the tug permanently on Vall.

Have you tried using action groups to cut the parachutes mid-air? I'm not sure, but maybe you can couple them to an action group then just cut them mid-air when you see fit... I'm not sure tho...

Edited November 2, 2017 by NotJebediah
Typo

[Agustin]

More Here: https://imgur.com/a/nby0S

Functional SeaPlane. It can land on runway and on water.

(In case you want to know where did I get those black textures, this is from: 

)

Edited November 2, 2017 by Agustin

[roboslacker]

Today, I sent Val to the mun in my career save.

https://imgur.com/a/ASp2s

[Whisky Tango Foxtrot]

26 minutes ago, NotJebediah said:

Have you tried using action groups to cut the parachutes mid-air? I'm not sure, but maybe you can couple them to an action group then just cut them mid-air when you see fit... I'm not sure tho...

I'm not sure if an engineer can re-pack a parachute that's been cut, and I didn't want to go through the trouble of testing it. I needed to transport some ore from the Minmus mine into orbit (for a mission I'll likely post about soon,) anyway, and I didn't have a container on-hand to do so so I thought I might as well launch this one and have it move the ore before I sent it to Duna.

[Azimech]

47 minutes ago, Agustin said:

More Here: https://imgur.com/a/nby0S

Functional SeaPlane. It can land on runway and on water.

(In case you want to know where did I get those black textures, this is from: 

)

You'd might want to try DCK. It can do a whole lot more.

 

 

28 minutes ago, Whisky Tango Foxtrot said:

I'm not sure if an engineer can re-pack a parachute that's been cut,

Yes, they can. But I don't know at which level (I never play career).

Edited November 2, 2017 by Azimech

[kraden]

2 hours ago, Azimech said:

<snip>

Yes, they can. But I don't know at which level (I never play career).

@Whisky Tango Foxtrot pretty sure it's level 3. I don't think you can put the "cut chute" action into an action group though, but I'm like 30 miles away from my computer, so I cant check and could be wrong.