What did you do in KSP1 today?

[DeltaDizzy]

26 minutes ago, BadOaks said:

In 3 years of playing KSP, this was the first time I've tried a manned mission outside of Kerbin's SOI using a life support mod, and it was a blast! Now that I know I can keep kerbals alive for long periods of time without support from Kerbin, the next mission will be much more ambitious. 

Good job, and I must say, that last screenshot blew me away! Just make sure you don't go too ambitious on your next mission though. Here, have some rep.

Edited May 27, 2018 by DeltaDizzy

[BadOaks]

10 minutes ago, DeltaDizzy said:

Good job, and I must say, that last screenshot blew me away! Just make sure you don't go too ambitious on your next mission though. Here, have some rep.

Thank you kind sir!

[Kronus_Aerospace]

1 hour ago, Hotel26 said:

Just departing the end of the runway: could this simply have been an unintentional tail-strike?

Nope, the fuselage is 15 meters tall, the tail was way out of reach. The tail simply cannot withstand the forces upon on rotation. The only solution I can think of to fix it is remove some autostruts. Perhaps allowing the tail to flex will prevent it from disintegrating.

Side Note: I have worked so long on this thing, if the tail of all things turns out to be the deal-breaker... needless to say I'll be a little frustrated

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

Finally got some time to do stuff in KSP inbetween all the scholarship essays and whatnot. Who knew summer could be so busy?

Anyways, I tested a new kOS Fly-By-Wire script I wrote to give artificial stability to my space shuttle (which unfortunately is not perfectly stable on its own due to my OCD about both having good crossrange and not adding any dead weight to the nose).

Everything was going well until I had to leave the computer for a minute or so to do something, and forgot to hit pause. I had left the shuttle with a slight down pitch trim, which was fine when I left it. At the time I left, the computer was operating on "Entry Control Law" and this kept the nose a bit below the 25 degree AoA neutral point used during the fiery portion of reentry in which I want to go in belly-first.

However, while I was gone the computer transitioned over into "Atmospheric Control Law" which has a much lower neutral point of something like 2.5 degrees AoA for gliding flight. Since it still had the trim-down, this put the nose below prograde. By the time I got back to the computer, the shuttle was in a 45 degree nose dive at 10km doing Mach 3. Oh and the cockpit was looking pretty toasty too. Luckily the artificial stability allowed me to "safely" pull about 4g and enter a relatively normal glide at 8600m. If I hadn't had that computer the thing probably would have flipped and disintegrated as I had left more fuel than I normally would have in the aft OMS pods.

Unfortunately the incident meant I came down short of the KSC.

I think tomorrow I'll try working on the computing efficiency of the control loop, and possibly buffing the instructions-per-update config on kOS, because I feel like the control might be a bit more crisp if the control loops cycled more than 6 times per second (as it currently does). Idk... I'll have to look up what rate stuff works at on real aircraft.

 

[BadOaks]

@EpicSpaceTroll139 That shuttle design is incredibly slick! Do you have any pics of the launch?

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

11 hours ago, BadOaks said:

@EpicSpaceTroll139 That shuttle design is incredibly slick! Do you have any pics of the launch?

I don't have any pictures of that particular launch (actually I used hyperedit for the testing because it took 10 attempts just to get the script to run without "UNEXPECTED EOI ON LINE 115. EXPECTED CURLYBRACKET CLOSE." or similar).

I'm not at my computer right now, and thus cannot get good launch screenshots, but video has a launch at the beginning.

Sorry for most of it being sped up... And dark  I'll see if I can find better pictures and/or video in the morning... *Notices time is 12:02AM* Wait it is morning here. Make that when I wake up.

Edit: Further make that when I get home from the blood drive

Edited May 27, 2018 by EpicSpaceTroll139

[Kronus_Aerospace]

Decided to make a J-2 today, Mostly out of boredom. Ended up with something that actually looks pretty good! I replicated most of the big design elements and managed to replicate the business of the J-2 as well.

I've already built and posted an F-1, I'm asking for trouble at this point.

[Hotel26]

There's Something About The Poles...  something very sinister...  and very freaky...

So, this evening's mission to set up an Air Force Base at the North Pole started badly with the loss of a Cruise Aquila launch on a northerly heading that I tried to finesse to go straight into a 90-degree inclination.  (The rotation of Kerbin gives a lesser inclination even on a 90-degree launch heading...)

Pilot/payload came down under chutes at 59N 82W and was slated for rescue.

Second launch was nominal with a 70x70km polar orbit achieved but using a more conservative inclination adjustment after securing orbit.

Here's the pictorial and click the first for a full-screen slide-show.  De-orbited the Cruise vessel at the south pole via a 30km perigee (at the north).  Slight overshoot before re-acquiring positive control of the vessel but Cruise probably has about a 1,000km range so operator error is easily absorbed/compensated for.  Shot 4 shows how things went pear-shaped.  On the night descent into the rescue location, gear extension revealed a very strange deformation of the left rear landing gear.  The dangerous nocturnal emergency rescue mission was hastily aborted and the wounded Ursa transport was routed back to KSC.

Under the capable command of Flight Lieutenant Barton Kerman, the stricken Ursa was nursed back to safety and very gingerly set down on R9 with no further mishap.  Crew aboard the Prospector rover were unloaded and the same strange polar problem was noted in the cant of its rear wheels.

Very strange. 

Edited May 27, 2018 by Hotel26

[Jett_Quasar]

Today I posted this:

Download all the pure stock craft from my Star Wars hangar on Kerbal-X now:
https://kerbalx.com/hangars/15975
 - Jett

[GDJ]

Very deep space shot.

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

@BadOaks  Ok I am back from having my arm stabbed and inflated (repeatedly) by misguided return needles, so here are some better lit screenshots  

 

 

Spoiler

 

Here is the craft file if you want to try it out. I need to update the launch script and upload the fly-by-wire script though, so in the meantime it may be less than easy to fly. https://kerbalx.com/EpicSpaceTroll139/Orbitus-Space-Shuttle

Edited May 27, 2018 by EpicSpaceTroll139

[Aaodon]

Duna Colony

Lifting off for Duna

Parachute is opened.

We did it. Finally I have landed Duna after 1 month.

Good Morning Duna  

[Cyrious]

I'm currently in the process of adding a crossbar structure to my minmus station. I'll post screenshots once done. A 40 ton 30 meter long bar of metal and hardware isnt exactly easy to pilot.

[Cyrious]

Here it is. The station crossbar. Fairly useful structure, but getting it into space is... interesting. The actual thrust axis for the bar (as it has its own engines) follows the short arms of the bar, not the long, so I'm essentially launching it sideways and have to reorient the whole smash once into space.

Just after staging of the main cores. Kinda botched the launch and got a bit too much vertical, but hey, not every launch is perfect. The tank-engine attached to the end will provide the remaining kick to orbit and was also used to do the plane matching to Minmus. The crossbar's engines did the transfer (and boy did that leave me a smaller fuel margin than planned for).

7 days later at Minmus, doing the plane change to match the Station's orbit.

Oh hai thar (grey blob is the station in the distance).

Yay for docking. These octo-ports suck when dealing with light craft, but when the two craft being docked clock in at ~35 tons each (and you've got the alignment just right), they work quite smoothly.

Tadaa! Got it on first contact too.

And the night-side shot. I love these stack inline lights for general lighting.

Now I get to loft about 180 more tons of hardware for the Minmus station, starting with the fuel pod. Once it's all up though, I can fleece Low minmus orbit for the Station Science Science data, then use the crossbar engines to boost it up above the Low limit and fleece that as well.

[Gegb1912]

Let's All Say What We Did Today, In KSP Or Not

[Gegb1912]

Nothing, Did Nothing

[Zeiss Ikon]

I fired up my freshly upgraded 1.4.3 sandbox to let Jeb fly this more than seven hundred kilometers.  At 20-40 m/s.  Over a space of more than three hours.

I also discovered that a paramotor based on an EVA parachute glides better than it has any right to when it's carrying 465 kg of engine and landing gear.

Edited May 27, 2018 by Zeiss Ikon

[Cavscout74]

Had a few arrivals around Eve today - a relay/lander probe combo for Eve, plus a manned lander & crew transfer vehicle around Gilly.  Followed up with recovering another scientist from Kerbin orbit.

Eve probe & relay entering Eve orbit.  The upper portion stages off to become a planetary lander while the engine & lower section remains in orbit to provide a relay.

Gilly lander & Eve Crew Vehicle docking in orbit of Gilly:

Lander low over Gilly:

LKO Recovery Claw in about to match planes with the rescue target:

 

[Dman979]

Another thread has been merged into this one.

[AiDee]

On 5/25/2018 at 1:53 PM, Ho Lam Kerman said:

RSS/RO?

I'd be surprised if so.

It was in RSS/RF, and the atmosphere is not enough for a parachute-only landing.

[Drakenex]

Skylab's Re-boost Mission

 

 

 

 

 

More here

 

[kerbonara]

On 5/26/2018 at 11:15 PM, BadOaks said:

After undocking, KTS Saskia spreads her solar array and prepares to go into hibernation mode, waiting for the next mission to arrive from Kerbin.

Beautiful pictures! By the way, which mod are those solar panels from?

[BadOaks]

@kerbonara Thank you! The solar panels are from Nertea's Near Future Solar (scroll down a bit), which is one of my favorite mods. 

[Hotel26]

I woke up this morning realizing I had a slot in my fleet for a missing plane.  Huzzah!!  A new plane to build (and all-day meetings in which to think about its design!)...

Nemesis is a medium-range, VSTOL, Mach 4+, rescue jet with rugged construction for specialization in bush work.  It's a bit light on fuel but rotation is just after 30 m/s and the 4th screen pic shows a freshly-landed Nemesis and I admit I popped the chute on round-out... 

[Click first for full-size slideshow]

 

Edited May 28, 2018 by Hotel26

[Geonovast]

A few days ago I decided to start a career, yet again.  Started over three times before I got the difficulty settings where I wanted.  1.4.3, basically stock.  Just KER and VAB Reorienter installed.  Gonna keep my modded install at 1.3.1 until they stop patching 1.4.

Made it much further than I usually have in career.  Actually have something on the way to the Mun.  Rather happy that I got an encounter on the first try without having manuever nodes available yet.  Did lead a bit much, but this'll work.

Also managed to get a low tech plane built that I'm happy with.  Usually they're ugly as sin and blow up during takeoff.  Thing was so well balanced on the first design that adding an antenna barely behind the CoM threw it off enough to pitch back on loading.  Would probably fly like a dream with a joystick.

I wonder how long it will be before I really miss KJR.

Edited May 28, 2018 by Geonovast