What did you do in KSP1 today?

[klesh]

Inspired by the news of the patch, I fired up KSP today and landed a rover on the Mun.  First time using the Making History rover wheels and panels.

Launched this in a classic Apollo-style SaturnV.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Edited April 14, 2018 by klesh

[Halfdan]

there are those days where you cant be bothered to build a new base, but you have an obsolete transport ship lying around....

[DeltaDizzy]

2 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

I'm using a few... So far, I've not been too happy with the results. I will get there eventually.

PM me and I might be able to help. I know a few things...

[GoSlash27]

Made a stock replica of the Rutan Voyager.

It can easily circumnavigate Kerbin on a single Juno.
 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

Here's the craft file if anyone wants it.
http://wikisend.com/download/963174/Voyager.craft

Best,
-Slashy

Edited April 15, 2018 by GoSlash27

[TeslaPenguin1]

1 hour ago, GoSlash27 said:

It can easily circumnavigate Kerbin on a single Juno.

Hmm...

Sounds like you might be eligible for both this challenge...

and this one...

good luck and happy flying!

[Airdude]

Docked the fuel module to my Mun Station, one module left to go before it’s all complete.

[Ace in Space]

The frantic flurry of activity at Jade Station continued in order to get the three docked crafts back on track as quickly as possible, since they were already behind schedule. And of course there was the obligatory kraken encounter, albeit a minor one that just ate the legs on the fuel lifter.

Spoiler

On ‎4‎/‎9‎/‎2018 at 10:46 PM, Ace in Space said:

Had a minor encounter with a kraken that necessitated a reload - the fuel lifter descended to the minmus flats at the breakneck speed of two or possibly even three meters per second, which blew one of the legs off in a fiery explosion.

Well I'm certainly not going to let that happen again. We'll descend very carefully this time.

Steady as she goes...

Yeah, that's the face I made too, Berman.

I reloaded and for the rest of this mission I just landed directly on the engines. No more problems occurred.

After plenty of frantic fuel shuttling that went well into the Minmosian night (which was a challenge since the vehicles were never intended to be constantly zipping back and forth like that in the dark), all three crafts were undocked and set on their way, with their entire travel stage delta-v budget restored.

The rover's naming priority continued to be weird. Previously, the entire station had automatically taken the rover's name, and I corrected this by renaming the station back to what it should have been. After undocking the rover, it was now also named Jade Station. I really, really, really hope this behavior is unique to its interaction with this particular station and it doesn't do this on Quartz Station. Anyway, I corrected the name again, and then Buzz, Anger, and Hairy were back on their journey. I was initially just a touch concerned by the fact that Jade Station orbits backwards, but with the low gravity (and being so close to the edge of Kerbin's SOI), it proved trivial, and the crafts achieved Solar orbit with delta-v expenses still within the double digits.

	Habitation	Science	Rover
Delta-V at Departure	5211	5198	5161
Spent on Solar Orbit	91	66	72
Spent on Maneuver #1	1665	1660	1652
Current Delta-V	3455	3472	3437

Although, that makes it sound smoother than it was. In reality, I had to quickload once or twice to figure out why something was happening; while flying the habitation module from map view, burning toward my maneuver target caused the delta-v cost to go up and my navball to wobble uncontrollably. It turned out that when undocking from the station the control point had been set to Hairy's cupola, which is mounted in the rocket backwards so the docking port can face forward. Because I was in map view to watch the orbit line, I couldn't see that the rocket was now backwards due to this unexpected default. Once I correctly set my control point to the probe core under the port, everything was fine, save for some weirdness with the maneuver nodes on the map.

Spoiler

If you don't see what's wrong here, the maneuver node is quite a ways behind me, but the timer says I still have over a minute before I reach it. The map's usually a bit off, but I've never seen it this far off.

Once everyone was safely on their way, Jade Station could try to recover from this madness, and there was yet more fuel shuttling (but at a more relaxed pace) to refill the tank that had been bled totally dry. But now everything's back to normal, and all crafts are en route to Dres as intended!

For the record, here's a summary of the Delta-V situation so far. Note that I didn't actually go back and add up all the delta-V spent so far, but got that row of numbers just from subtracting what I have last written down for the current delta v from the initial numbers. So if I've made any math mistakes, this is the bit I'm going to quote when they come back to bite me.

	Drill	Tank	Conv.	Hab.	Sci.	Rover	Com1	Com2	Com3	Com4	Com5
Initial Delta-V	4302+	5351-	4419	5211	5198	5161	~4880	~4886	~4886	~4889	~4889
Spent So Far	1745	1941	1864	1756	1726	1724	1987	~1713	1789	1858	2039
Delta-V Left	2557+	3410-	2555	3455	3472	3437	~2893	~3173	~3097	~3031	~2850

Most of these numbers look good. I've projected the next maneuver for each module and it ranges about 700-820ish m/s. I haven't plotted nodes for the final capture burn, since there's likely going to be disparity between the projected course and the actual course, but my initial test numbers put that step at just shy of 2000 m/s. So that means our budget is around 2700-2820 delta-V. The converter and the drill have me worried, but may still be alright - the drill has more than my calculated amount due to having an unknown amount of delta-V left over from ascent, and the converter (which has one of the lowest costs for the next burn) has lots of monoprop on board and may be able to squeeze out the last few m/s for capture. From there, the vast amounts of monoprop on most of the crafts should be enough to enable rendezvous and docking to assemble the station.

[JadeOfMaar]

I played KSP for over 6 hours straight, even on stream, and finally started an interplanetary voyage. Half of the voyage (or what needs to be done) is already done...just getting there, landing in atmospheres and planting flags.

https://imgur.com/a/LMffY Album with captions.

My Hermes inspired station with 2 landers, a rover/mini-base, 2 scanner probes and a spaceplane. Its exit burn from Gael cost nearly 7km/s and the Gauss capture burn cost 10 or 20km/s. 

(In KSP 1.3.1)

[Kronus_Aerospace]

Just found a super OP glitch, just have your vessel set to whatever direction to wish, get a Kerbal out, and have them climb up or down a ladder that is blocked by part of your spacecraft, the Kerbal will magically propel your spacecraft. Why get out and push when you can exploit Kraken physics?

Notice the decreasing orbital velocity.

EDIT: Physics warp does not increase the rate of the effect, so when you go to 2x physics warp the acceleration generated by this glitch is halved, the effect balances out. And, yes I'm exploiting this for a craft that ran out of fuel.

EDIT: This effect produces exactly 1 m/s^2 of acceleration, this roughly equals 2.7 kN of thrust, although I don't think the thrust is relevant, as I highly doubt the acceleration being 1 m/s^2 is a coincidence. Likely this is the acceleration of a Kerbal on a ladder. If this is the case than this effect may occur independent of the vessel mass, obviously creating the potential for enormous vessels to be propelled entirely by a single kerbal. Will have to do further testing, but for now I need to get Ferry and Gerdorf back home using this Kerbal powered K-Drive!

Edit: Even if the acceleration is reduced on larger vessels, the applications of this glitch are still numerous. A vessel carrying scientific equipment utilizing this glitch could land on every moon smaller than the Mun in the Kerbal system. The ability to set the vessel's SAS to point at whatever necessary node or marker makes this glitch extremely practical to use, to the point where it's similar to using a regular rocket engine, only without the ability to throttle.

Edited April 15, 2018 by Kronus_Aerospace

[CatastrophicFailure]

25 minutes ago, Kronus_Aerospace said:

Just found a super OP glitch, just have your vessel set to whatever direction to wish, get a Kerbal out, and have them climb up or down a ladder that is blocked by part of your spacecraft, the Kerbal will magically propel your spacecraft. Why get out and push when you can exploit Kraken physics?

Crap, he’s discovered the Ladder Drive. 

Everybody run! on a ladder...

[Ace in Space]

1 hour ago, Kronus_Aerospace said:

Just found a super OP glitch

That looks... very strange.

But wow. That is OP. And hilarious!

[Colonel Cbplayer]

Dogfights with sick synthwave music playing in the background with a stupid cheese plane

 

[Corona688]

On 4/13/2018 at 6:14 PM, Kronus_Aerospace said:

I'M FREAKING OUT

THIS IS DEFINITELY NOT A NORMAL

I'm serious, this effect only happens when this craft is turned on... I think I've accidentally made my first glitch machine

You maniac, you've flooded the world!

[Geonovast]

ASD Trinity delivered a small craft and fuel pod to Akron station.  The station has two SKREP crafts on hand at all times for crew evacuation, but this new craft is meant to take small trips to the Mun (and possibly Minmus, it does have 4,000m/s of dV.)

The shuttles and SKREP launches typically bring too much fuel to the station, so keeping the pod topped off shan't be a problem.

Once Progress has departed, one of the resident engineers will be sent out to relocate the Jr. docking ports to the upper docking hub, and weld the fuel pod to the station, since it gets a little crowded on the lower one, especially with two shuttles docked.

 

Edited April 15, 2018 by Geonovast

[Urus28]

  

I've sent a proper rover on Minmus that can be used by kerbal or by remote control. My courageous explorer have found it near their landing site and used it to study Minmus geology on various places.

In front of the Minmus Grand Hotel. First time I use USI life support habitation in the design of a vehicle, very interesting.

 

Finally I discover a problem in my calculations.... Not enough delta v to return on Kerin (80m/s missing)... So I launched a rescue mission with supply and fuel. Hopefully the habitation time was calculated with enough margin.

 

Edited April 15, 2018 by Urus28
Picture size

[Cavscout74]

In my 1.4.1 career, I got my Jool-diver into the lower atmosphere of Jool - was down to 1753m altitude before it poofed.  Then my Pumera SSTO reached Laythe orbit, along with a survey sat & lander probe.  Waiting on the other crew vehicle, science/fuel station & both surface bases still.   

[Kronus_Aerospace]

Ladder Drive update!

Apparently the Kerbal doesn't even have to be moving in order to produce the effect. As long as the Kerbal's head is pressed against part of your spacecraft it will produce thrust. However the amount of thrust produced is very low

[Ace in Space]

11 minutes ago, Kronus_Aerospace said:

Apparently the Kerbal doesn't even have to be moving in order to produce the effect.

So Kerbals can actually pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Brilliant!

[Mr. Peabody]

45 minutes ago, Kronus_Aerospace said:

Ladder Drive update!

Apparently the Kerbal doesn't even have to be moving in order to produce the effect. As long as the Kerbal's head is pressed against part of your spacecraft it will produce thrust. However the amount of thrust produced is very low

This has been a "bug" for quite a few versions. The lower the spacecraft mass, the higher the acceleration. It's not very useful though since kerbals cannot timewarp on ladders and even with an extremely low mass craft acceleration remains marginal.

[Geonovast]

2 minutes ago, The Dunatian said:

It's not very useful though

And here I was anticipating "Reach Jool using only the ladder drive" challenge. 

[Kronus_Aerospace]

1 hour ago, The Dunatian said:

It's not very useful though

I wouldn't be so sure! I made an optimized craft that utilizes the Ladder Drive, it is capable of surviving atmospheric reentry, has a seat for time warping, carries a full compliment of scientific equipment, and has sufficient TWR to land on low gravity moons. With further optimization It could also land on larger moons like the Mun, and maybe even worlds like moho.

Here it is on Minmus. The craft is controlled via a probe core which is supplied by an RTG

Here it is taking off.

The only issues right now is that the thrust isn't perfectly in line with the rest of the spacecraft. However, I've found that for this specific issue having the Kerbal climb downwards rather than upwards produces much more centered and even thrust.

Edited April 15, 2018 by Kronus_Aerospace

[Triop]

I came in like a wrecking ball  ♪♫♬

And lived to tell the tale, eat that Miley Cyrus... 

 

[Pthigrivi]

So some fun stuff arrived at Duna today.

Duna Advance, communications and site surveying before bertha shows up.


Im sure this aerocapture wasn't strictly necessary, but its always fun to expose sensitive equipment to light plasma.


Duna com sats out,


I should probably go for tetrahedral constellations in the future.

I've got a landing zone picked out at the rim of the Northeast basin but kinda want to check it out for a nice flat spot.

Pwetty

Aw Wally's so cute:

Yep. Its flat.



Ike Surveyor on the way out:



Also remind me to put the big dishes on something that doesn't occlude so much next time.



Here she is. 



This on the other hand worked out great.

I don't know if it makes sense but I'd love to be able to repack these.

Edited April 16, 2018 by Pthigrivi

[Mr. Peabody]

5 hours ago, Kronus_Aerospace said:

I wouldn't be so sure! I made an optimized craft that utilizes the Ladder Drive, it is capable of surviving atmospheric reentry, has a seat for time warping, carries a full compliment of scientific equipment, and has sufficient TWR to land on low gravity moons. With further optimization It could also land on larger moons like the Mun, and maybe even worlds like moho.

Here it is on Minmus. The craft is controlled via a probe core which is supplied by an RTG

Here it is taking off.

The only issues right now is that the thrust isn't perfectly in line with the rest of the spacecraft. However, I've found that for this specific issue having the Kerbal climb downwards rather than upwards produces much more centered and even thrust.

And how is that different from hyper-edit?

[Drakenex]