What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Geonovast]

Terrible (TBD) SSTO, but helluva view.

[Starman4308]

Mostly just a couple mass demos: the Saturn 1-Centaur with about 12 tons' payload capacity to Earth escape velocity, in this case sent to add a new crater to the Moon. Still a bit humbled that this, the largest booster yet (well, except for the Saturn 2 below), is... basically just tied with the Delta IV Heavy for GTO payload.

 

The Saturn 2, which substitutes a pair of F-1A engines for the single F-1 and 4x RS-27 of the original Saturn 1.

The S-IVB: and if you look in the distance, you can still see the first stage in the distance, almost 5 km away...

 

I've also launched a second Arean Lunar Surveyor probe... but given the difficulties I had with the transfer to Mars, I might need to launch a third.

[qzgy]

8 hours ago, XB-70A said:

ooh thats pretty.

8 hours ago, XB-70A said:

And this too. Although It could benefit from some more wings in the front cause it looks a bit funny at the moment.

[Ace in Space]

I've made the ridiculous plane even faster, and way cooler!

Behold, Galahad II.

It goes just as high and runs just as efficiently as Galahad I, but looks way better. It reaches a top speed of 1350m/s, and more importantly, it sustains that speed without anything blowing up.

Look at how happy Jeb and Val are. This is like Kerbmas come early for them.

[JadeOfMaar]

I finished working on parts and other functional things for a mod today, and did a not-too-open pre-release because reasons.

The parts are For science!™ (stock parts for scale) Some plain text on one of them reveals the mod.

Then I revisited my After Kerbin expedition. Before leaving Aridos, the crew of 4 have 6 waypoints to fly through and observe. Not all of them are landable.

Upon landing and using some timwarp, note the outboard aerospike mounts (down-scaled slanted adapters).... the plane suffers extreme cramps and the adapters pop off. I call this a @CatastrophicFailure and need to revise the plane's design and teleport a new plane into the proximity of this one.

 

Edited March 6, 2018 by JadeOfMaar

[LordFerret]

Whew!

I put the Eeloo-Colony ship into orbit, just inside the orbit of Mun (8.5m km). There, I assembled all of its modules. I diverted a bit from the original intended plan of two landers to using one. Other than that, it is as I envisioned. Tonight, the last two components, the fuel pods, were added. One more thing to add remains, crew. That's tomorrows game plan. Then we wait for a window.

721 parts
598.21 tons

Picture to follow.

Edited March 6, 2018 by LordFerret
late... tired... need sleep... can't type

[LaydeeDem]

Today I pushed my Jackdaw-R* lifter to its limits with some heavy payloads. Launch #1 sent up a second node module for the Kerbin Space Station, and launch #2 sent up a 6-ton salvo of 12 commsats into a 230 km polar orbit.

 

*R is for reusable. I'll think of a proper naming convention later.

 

Launch #1 was full of surprises. The heavy payload gave us little delta-v left to work with up in orbit and a prolonged rendezvous meant there was only minutes left of battery power left by the time docking occurred. Nonetheless it all came together and the KSS now has a node to affix a cupola, airlock and science lab.

Of course it's never that simple. During the return flight the Jackdaw booster core engaged in an unplanned dendrobraking maneuver. It landed in a tree.

Launch #2 was much more uneventful, despite it being the first polar launch of the Jackdaw-R. The 12 satellites do not have enough delta-v for total global coverage and generated a large amount of debris during their deployment. At least 4 more sats will need to be launched for total coverage of Kerbin. Global coverage of Kerbin will allow the Minmus comms relay to have uninterrupted communication with KSC and nearly anything within Kerbin's SOI. Also it's just cool to have a lot of sats flitting about.

[Kerbuvim]

KSP Enhanced Edition (PS4)

One step is left to platinum achievement

[Hotel26]

 

Aquila Cruise fuels on the pad at Baikerbanur in preparation for a dawn launch into a 25 deg inclination orbit.

Payload will be delivered to an amorphous island ENE of KSC.

UPDATE: always launch when the destination sector of the orbit is in daylight.  (How many times do I have to yell the Kerbals that!!)

So I launched earlier than planned, in a hurry.  It did not go well.  (And too dark for the photos to show the magnificent Baikerbanur alpine scenery!)

Cruise re-entered somewhere south of KSC and is now attempting to limp home...

Edited March 6, 2018 by Hotel26

[MaxwellsDemon]

Again, not much time to devote to KSP (story of my life lately  ) but I did poke around with redesigning some Mir-type station modules.   (Typical.  I get the station built and then immediately start redesigning it...)

[Hotel26]

Brigadier Gen. Ronard Kerman:  Congratulations, Lt. Kerman Rondos Kerman!  You are now promoted to the rank of full Kerman in this Kerbal's Space Force.  Well done, Kerman Kerman!

General Halski Kerman:  Heeelll, yeah!  Tarnation, boyy!  That was mighty purty flying.  I thought you were gonna plum buy the farm there!  What's it feel like, flying an A-partment building!??

Kerman Rondos Kerman:  Well...  aw, shucks.  It was nothing, I guess...

General Halski Kerman:  You know you cain't leave that thang parked there, dontya?  Why, in my day, we woulda just parked the vee-hickle right outta the way -- up there on the helo-pad, say...

 

Edited March 18, 2018 by Hotel26

[KevinW42]

I started a new career save after not playing in a while and I was trying to set up a relay network around Eve with a long range relay in a high polar orbit and three short range relays in medium elliptical equatorial orbits. Since they were all part of the same launch they were doing their insertion burns at around the same time and the satellite dispenser for the short range relays lost contact in the middle of the burn. MechJeb had control, but couldn't cut the throttle, so at the end of the maneuver the craft just started spinning around with the engine on until it ran out of fuel. Fortunately the satellites themselves had just enough fuel left that with some careful management I was able to get them all to their target orbits and the mission was saved...

 

... well almost. It turns out reusing the same design from the Duna mission wasn't such a good idea and the short range relays didn't have quite enough range to give proper coverage of the surface. But at least I got a sentinel telescope to successfully piggyback off of the mission so it wasn't a complete waste.

[TheKorbinjer]

I created a Cessna 208 Caravan replica with mods (duh), it looks amazing, flies amazing - reaches its real life max altitude of 7.6 km and above (wow), and flies faster than it was intended to fly. (like 150-170 m/s)

It's also the first plane that i have replicated that can still fly without crashing while flaps are deployed. Yay!

 

Also, this is my first post in several months! Hi everybody!

[eddiew]

With the Ceticean Institute parked up around the pinkest moon, the crew began the prep for their first descent, only to notice... there's no lander. 

Which was in no way an oversight because mission control absolutely always intended to send a lander as a secondary package. (Because it completes those stupid rendezvous and dock world firsts.)

With the new Kricket Squad-Rover docked, the two scientists draw straws and lucky Llew Gaelan gets the seat on the first descent. Leo will have his turn on the second expedition, and is secretly quite pleased to be left alone for a while so's he can cherry pick the snacks out of the cupboard before anyone else gets back.

For a rover using 'classic' wheels, Kricket Squad performs surprisingly well, rarely threatening to tip or spin and finding traction on slopes of up to thirty degrees. In a surprisingly short time, the survey locations have been scouted, and the crew have made the 10km trek to the lowlands biome.

Launching the Kricket Squad is no more elegant than landing it, being an awkward 'point at the sky and fire the engine' manoeuvre. Nonetheless, it works fine, and launching at the right time to directly intercept the station gets them back aboard the Ceticean Institute in mere minutes.

As for the fuel margins... we're not sure. The engineering team is suggesting that their original designs did not include full tanks of monopropellant, since there is no reasonable way that Kricket Squad would need that much. Care will be needed with future expeditions to avoid running dry at an awkward moment.

Edited March 7, 2018 by eddiew

[magnemoe]

Found how to aerobrake heavy ships efficiently, using an baseplate to counter the inflatable heatshield's drag. 

as an bonus ship is more stable then landing

[LordFerret]

20 minutes ago, eddiew said:

For a rover using 'classic' wheels, Kricket Squad performs surprisingly well, rarely threatening to tip or spin and finding traction on slopes of up to thirty degrees.

Pretty neat, although I've always found it dangerous to drive about with solar panels extended. Your luck must be better than mine.

[eddiew]

4 minutes ago, LordFerret said:

Pretty neat, although I've always found it dangerous to drive about with solar panels extended. Your luck must be better than mine.

The 6-wheel stance is proving surprisingly solid. Only the front and back are motorised, and only the front steer, so it's a little ponderous in a turn, but that helps the reaction wheels keep it upright   It does wobble and bounce a bit, and it's a really, really good idea to map wheel controls separate to SAS so you can torque and steer at the same time, but on the whole there weren't a lot of outtakes from this expedition ^^

[Kerbuvim]

KSP Enhanced Edition (PS4)

All achievements in the game are obtained!

[magnemoe]

Realizing again how much I love KAS. 

Two things here, the plate deck is an field upgrade of an 19 man passenger ship I call it a drag plate ^(tm) to increase stability during aerobrake. 
The capsule I'm about to install heath shield on is from an contract, picked up kerbal with an minmus utility lander and attached capsule to it, made two docking ports an probe, parachute and battery, plan to drop after inital aerobrake. 

[Guest]

The no-reload, no-revert career proceeds slowly but surely. It's remarkable how different the design process is when you have to focus on making things as safe, as reliable, and as easy to handle as you can. For one thing you end up reusing designs much more: once I got a nice, solid lifter I reused it exactly as it is for different purposes, adapting the mission profile to suit the rocket instead of adjusting the rocket to suit the mission. 

Notable milestones:

• Safe, very low-tech, fully automated 4-kerbal rescue craft (highest tech: Okto, 1.25 m heat shield, Mk 1 crew cabin, radial-mount parachutes). I got the part count for the full launch down to 30 so I was able to launch this from a level 1 VAB. The core is two crew cabins with a heat shield at one end and a utility bay containing the probe core, reaction wheel, and batteries (plus chutes, a panel, a detachable nose cone etc). The heat shield puts it into a safe attitude when re-entering; it rests on the shockwave on the way down. I used this before having a comsat constellation around Kerbin, and it was perfectly safe as long as you watch the vessel links and arm the chutes immediately after deorbiting and detaching the propulsion module (and put your Pe far enough from mountains so you don't smack into one). From there on out, just sit back and enjoy the ride down.
• Reliable, low-tech, reasonably inexpensive, easy-to-fly light lifter (highest tech level is the Reliant engine). It's good for up to 15 tons or so. Core is Swivel-powered; it has two LF boosters running Reliants to each side, with fuel ducts feeding the core. Standard insertion stage is Reliant-powered but can be swapped for something else if it works better. The TWR profile is a little unusual: on the launch pad it's about 1.5-1.7, second stage is about 1.0, and insertion is about 2.0 and up. Gravity turn is 10 degrees between 75 and 100 m/s depending on payload. Consequently the full-throttle trajectory goes up pretty steeply to start with; when the boosters are spent and discarded, it flattens out naturally, and a full-throttle prograde burn will get it to about 85 km with a small circularisation burn. When the second stage is spent it's almost in orbit and the generous TWR in the insertion stage makes it easy to get wherever I want to go, up to and including Mun and Minmus for lighter payloads. 
• Comsat constellations around Kerbin, the Mun, and Minmus. No more comms blackouts for probes!
• Medium-range Kerbin science drone. It's a cute little twin-boom thing that carries a Science Jr and the rest of the stuff. The mission was to scrape up a few points of Sci needed to open a node I wanted. Flies nicely. Sadly on the maiden flight I got cocky and crashed it when trying to land, uh, on a mountain.
• A pretty complex combined launch: a three-satellite comsat constellation for Minmus, a bigger science probe to a highly inclined, high orbit on contract, and another contract comsat to a slightly inclined, medium orbit. That was an important launch as it pulled me out from the brink of bankruptcy and gave me the comsat constellation I need to explore Minmus. 
• And my most sophisticated mission: a crewed Mun landing using a newly-developed 97% recoverable lifter and return module. The lander remains in orbit around the Mun for eventual refueling and reuse or recovery.

Comsats!

Some pictures from the Mun mission.

The craft has three stages: the recoverable lifter, which like the Wangari Maathai goes up like a rocket and comes down like a plane, the orbiter/return module, and the lander. The return module re-enters like a plane, glides as close to the KSC as it can get, then pops some 'chutes and lands. I'm not risking horizontal landings on crewed flights until I have a SafeT cockpit, and I'm about one tech node away from that.

I'm only discarding interstage scrap with this design. The lifter, dubbed EKPO-1, is good for about 12-15 tons. It's not much but gets the job done in this stage of the career pretty nicely. Despite all the aerodynamic surfaces and other stuff on it, it's surprisingly efficient -- I got into orbit nicely with the standard-issue 3400 m/s. (EKPO has about 3600 on it with this payload, which provided a nice safety margin.)

The lander is a standard affair. Only difference of note with my previous ones is that it has a much bigger dV safety margin. It could handle Vall easily, or Duna if I slapped on a 'chute or two.

Once back from the surface, it docks with the orbiter/return module, Valentina crawls into the cockpit, and we pull the science into a can tucked inside one of the service bays.

Re-entry and transition to normal flight is a standard, straightforward affair. The only way in which this differs from a regular plane in flight is that it doesn't like to go all that slow. It had sufficient fuel to get down to a 250 km orbit for re-entry; however, in a simulated mission,* the shuttle returned directly from a Munar transfer orbit (Pe 55 km, final re-entry on the third pass through the atmosphere) with no part even approaching critical thermal loads.

It could ditch safely, but as it's inherently risky, Mission Control felt more comfortable adding a few 'chutes for a pleasant, safe splashdown.

In the meantime, the EKPO-1 lifter deorbited, glided back near the KSC, and ditched. It has enough wing to be able to go nice and slow; also the tailfins dip into the water first and slow it down much more gently than the usual somewhat violent affair.

*The sandbox game where I test and tune my craft prior to handing them over to the Brikoleur Space Program proper.

Edited March 6, 2018 by Guest

[eddiew]

Stranded this surprisingly content tourist in low Gael orbit... 

TLDR, I've buffed the rep and cash payout from tourism enough to make them worth doing (or at least worth finding space for tourists on missions you were doing anyway). This VIP wanted to go to Ceti and was paying enough to carry 6 crew members alongside her. Since I have 6 crew who have never been off-world, it was a no brainer. On the way back, we stopped at the Ceticean Institute, refuelled, and took a hop to Iota, thus getting kerbonauts Galileo, Jade, Sigma, Raging, Poody and Bobert two flags worth of experience each.

And then... then I realised... with all chutes deployed, the terminal velocity of the command pod plus hitchhiker is at least 9.5m/s. Several simulations proved that the hitchhiker cannot withstand the impact of landing even on water. With the last dregs of fuel, the ship was placed in an inclined, 82x82 orbit. A rescue mission will be required. Hopefully there will be an available launchpad that can cut down some of the plane change required after launch.

(It's quicker to do the rescue than it is to reload and run the two moons again. Plus failure makes the game interesting. I shall henceforth try to live with non-fatal mistakes  )

Edit: I really hope tourists can transfer vessels... although I could dock a chute module on top, which would probably be a far cheaper answer!

Edited March 6, 2018 by eddiew

[Zosma Procyon]

I started, well actually restarted for the 6th time (I'm picky), construction of my Base Crawler Type 7. When I settle on a final design, it will be sent out to Laythe. Anyway I had to test the layout of a ladder assembly, so I put my test dummy Joroly in a precarious position.

He's the perfect test dummy. High courage and low intelligence.

[Kronus_Aerospace]

Today I am going to TRY to get this 10 KILOTON mass into LKO. Wish me luck boys.

[Atkara]

27 minutes ago, eddiew said:

Edit: I really hope tourists can transfer vessels...

They can. Been doing this for a while.

Just don't expect them to EVA.

Edited March 6, 2018 by Atkara

[eddiew]

57 minutes ago, Atkara said:

They can. Been doing this for a while.

Just don't expect them to EVA.

Coolbeans, thanks. I'd rather transfer because it'll get the whole series of world firsts out of the way and maybe open up a new planet  

In other news, I just noticed this...

Since when was this a thing? I love it, but I want to customise what it says...