What did you do in KSP1 today?

[RocketScientist]

1 hour ago, Angel-125 said:

I re-assembled the remaining elements of Minmus Base at the Lesser Flats Refinery:

*picture*

I'm currently in the process of printing up some more components to finish up the initial base. Once that's done, I'll expand it with more drilling and refining modules...

 

Wow, all my bases just look like a mess of tubes and landers accidentally tipping. Good work

[KerikBalm]

I went back to career mode, I moved minmus out to an orbit to be a very rough analogue for the 4th largest asteroid ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10_Hygiea ) since I already made Vesta and Pallas analogues (and ughh... is the plane change for Pallas... err I mean "pact" going to be a pain). I was looking at ~6,500 m/s to get into orbit of Minmus in my 3x game, and thus made a mini-lander, ditched relays and the ore scanner, etc (posted a pic of something close to the intended lander in an earlier post on this topic). I got my payload down do about 14 tons (or was it 24 tons?) to LKO... I didn't feel like doing an SSTO flight just for this, so I loaded up another save of re-usable rockets, and noticed that my reusable 2 stage rocket with this small payload was only resulting in a 2% payload fraction.... and the cost per ton due to fuel costs was rather high:

Spoiler

I get the Ap out of the atmosphere, decouple, and have the 2nd stage burn nearly horizontally and switch back to the first stage at about 45 seconds before its apoapsis. Then I make a not of the surface velocity near apoapsis, and reverse the surface velocity + about 20 m/s to get it to return more or less to KSC, after that reversal, I switch back to the 2nd stage, and get nearly to orbit, at least to the point that apoapsis is several minutes away, and switch back to the first stage as its reentering the upper atmosphere

^Yea, I could have gotten more out of the first stage booster.

2nd stage in orbit

Fist stage reentering, need to tweak the deployment of the airbreaks to prevent them from overheating

It didn't tip over, its landed at the base of the foothills near the mountains west of KSC:

I needed something like a 97% recovery to beat a disposable design (granted this design could take quite a bit more payload, the first stage in particular had a lot of unused dV. Fuel is too expensive relative to the other hardware IMO. In the end I tried a new medium sized Kerbin SSTO with a RORO ramp and mk3 cargobay - its payload capacity wasn't great on 3x kerbin with no nukes and all the dry mass of the mk3 bay and ramp, but it could take the 14 tons of probe up). 

Then I finally timewarped to join the first 2 sections of my "Space station" which ended up being turned into an interplanetary spaceship/a station meant for the duna system by the addition (before the first 2 station modules had even rendezvoused) of a honking big ejection stage (I'm still not sure if I'll detach it and retroburn to keep the ejection stage in kerbin's SOI for reuse, or carry it all the way to the duna system)

Adding the last module really put a strain on my computer, all combined it was 374 parts, I was glad to have the 200 part SSTO depart

Spoiler

Some time after the ejection stage docked with the lab and life support module, the "fuel depot and docking hub" module finally arrived, after a chase of many many many orbits.

The greenish science lab is my own modded greenhouse part to produce food and oxygen for the long journey

Some module rearrangement

Now all that is left is to add the centrifuge module:

As the centrifuge didn't have any propulsion, except for a piggybacking mun surface-orbit crew shuttle, and the SSTO was carrying excess fuel to put in the tanks of the station-ship, the payload wasn't released until after docking with the station, part count was really high. I was glad to have the module undocked and to send the SSTO away:

Then the piggy backing lander had to move so it wasn't off center:

The assembled ship and a mun surface-orbit crew shuttle depart for Mun, the main ship will fuel up, and be on its way to the Duna system in about 100 "6 hour days" (which isn't the day length, in my 3x game, its more like 10.4 hour days)

Unlike previous ships I've assembled in orbit like this, this is not a faux-centrifuge, I did a little "stock rotor" that can spin freely and redock (which it must do for time warp or anything that would cause the ship to leave the active physics bubble), so its a real centrifuge. I calculated given its radius that it needs to spin at just over 10 RPM to have 1 G at the floor (although it would be about 0.81 Gs 165cm from the floor.. how tall are kerbals anyway?), which it can easily do.

Just starting to spin:

Spoiler

Some intermediate spin photos:

And after about 120 degrees of rotation:

Nearly 180 rotation:

It has some wheels as part of the rotor, but they aren't necessary, I did earlier builds without them, but the rotation is smoother and less wobbly like this

Also, in case you're wondering, I don't turn down heating for the SSTOs that carried up the station sections, and they did get very hot during reentry, I have to be pretty careful:

but all is well that ends well:

[Pipcard]

17 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

I troubleshot a part that I'm making from scratch (it was quite tedious, to put it elegantly).

Then I misused Kerbal Flying Saucers some more  and built a concept station. It would be far more effective traveling and drilling asteroids but I wanted to give attention to the rather beautiful exo harvester. And I intend this design to sit in orbit of a planet or moon with Graviolium and other manned bases or stations in its SOI.

At the end of the build it gained the codename "Magneton" as it just happens to resemble the Pokemon with the same name.  

  

Ohhhh dear. This thing is gonna trip some people's OCD. Don't tell me! I see it!

Reminds me of someone's fanart

Magneton Satellite by NCH85

[Kronus_Aerospace]

 Today (and yesterday) After a cumulative 6 hours of work, I finally got the nose of my pelican to dock back with the rest of the craft.

Detached:

Redocked:

There's still a bit of work to be done on the mechanism, but the fact that it's finally working is incredibly satisfying.

 

Side Note:

This plane is draining the life out of me. The sheer scale of this project is unrivaled by anything I have undertaken in the past, months of work has been put into this, and it likely will not be finished for at least a couple of weeks. I probably would have quit this project a long time ago, if it weren't for the massive dopamine rushes I receive whenever I make a major breakthrough (like today). For now, I'm gonna celebrate, and get some sleep.

 

[MisterKerman]

Making this post while I wait for my tourists to safely land.

My most ambitious mission to date so far in my career. A trip to Munar orbit, Minmus orbit, and back to kerbin with 6 passengers. Not really a big deal but I'm really trying to make hay while the sun is shining. Easy lucrative contracts haven't exactly been falling into my lap this time around!

I redesigned my ship to include 3 extra boosters with fuel lines feeding my upper stages.

I try to avoid space junk, so I held onto the spent boosters until my Mun encounter. Sorry Mun!

Like I said, my craft isn't anything special, but it's fairly reliable for how little I legitimately calculate things. (Essentially never.) I appreciate the good work it does.

In the end I hauled in 22 contract notifications worth $810,000 not including the cost of the vehicle.

[djr5899]

In my current career save.....

• Finished swapping out my 3 geosync satellites around Kerbin for newer, more powerful relays
• Finished a contract to rescue a stranded Kerbin from Minmus orbit
• Finished a trip to the Mun, making my first Mun landing.  Main purpose was for Jeb and Bob Kerman to plant flags, to level up to Level 3.  The 600 plus science gained as part of this mission was a nice bonus.
• Came back to a 3 star contract to build a Mun base that supports 20 kerbals including 3 pilots, 7500 electric charge, research lab, antenna, and docking port.  This will contract, along with building my first science station orbiting Kerbin will be my next tasks for the next week or two. 

 

I have never built a base on a planet before, so this should be a fun challenge.  After getting docking in space down pretty good over the last few weeks, base building is my next big challenge.  After about 2 and a half years of playing (on buggy Xbox for first year and a half), I am finally enjoying the game again, and ready to start accomplishing more things than the likely 10% I only accomplished so far.

[MisterKerman]

4 minutes ago, djr5899 said:

3 geosync satellites

I have a minmus landing trip and then a proper conquest of the mun, then I'll be focusing on a space station and a comprehensive communication network like yours I imagine. (3 Geosync sats on each Mun and Kerbin.) Lots to do for appetizers in KSP before doing scary stuff!

[Xurkitree]

I made a duna relay network - composed of 4 CubeSats since MarsInsight is taking some with it, I decided to make the relays out of CubeSats - RA-15 anntenas. I placed them near Dunostaionary orbit.

 

i say near because I actually placed them in Ike’s orbit - 2 are in Ike orbit at polar orbits perpendicular to each other, and the other 2 are nearly equal distances ahead and behind Ike respectively. The main probe did survey scans of both bodies and released the sats one by one.

This means coverage is guaranteed by simply having Ike in the sky

I named the mission Duna Connect, cause Wynaut? 

Edited June 9, 2018 by Xurkitree

[JadeOfMaar]

Docked this 3-man taxi to the MOLE station (after maybe 4 days in orbit-- half of which was brought on by mis-calculating a burn and unwittingly sending this craft suborbital, fixing the orbit then plotting the next encounter).

There's a service bay holding science under the pod; the science explicitly requires time, crew and the science processors on the station. Some good food/Snacks were wasted in this somewhat hair-raising and time-wasting ordeal.

After this, two teams launched in this fun and fast but inefficient hybrid-electric airplane design, hunting anomalies and tagging them. It has managed to safely operate at Mach 9 and cross nearly 1/4 of Gael's circumference with its fuel load. Once the power of its OPT engine is no loner needed, the Thor Tech fans let it coast at subsonic speeds as long as there's LF for the WBI gas turbine to sip from and power them.

[CatastrophicFailure]

2 hours ago, Kronus_Aerospace said:

Today (and yesterday) After a cumulative 6 hours of work, I finally got the nose of my pelican to dock back with the rest of the craft.

Jiminy flarping fracas, the nose opens! 

[RealKerbal3x]

2 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Jiminy flarping fracas, the nose opens! 

Language!!!

[Drakenex]

updated TNIC!!

 

 

[Pipcard]

Launched a probe to orbit and land on Vall

[Kronus_Aerospace]

5 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Jiminy flarping fracas, the nose opens! 

It is a cargo aircraft after all! It was a LOT of work though. 

[Jett_Quasar]

Today I posted the latest installment of my KSP/Star Wars in response to the movie that is in theaters right now.

 

Download craft files from my Star Wars hangar on Kerbal-X now:
https://kerbalx.com/hangars/15975

 - Jett

Edited June 12, 2018 by Jett_Quasar

[Hotel26]

I've finally updated my Krew Bus to use the dual-Klaw raised landing-gear mechanism to support docking with Mk-1, Mk-2 and Mk-3 craft.

Transfer passengers with just 3 clicks each and use the Krew Bus as a mobile lounge to accommodate crew until re-assignment.

UPDATE: I've published my fuel truck, Vodka Daiquiri, as well.  It can be loaded onto a Pterodactyl for ferrying to a remote site and is also 2.5m-compatible for vertical launch and transmission to off-world destinations.

 

Edited June 9, 2018 by Hotel26

[Xurkitree]

YES!

I I finally managed to dock my refuelling ship with the KSS Hypernova!

Now all that’s left us to convert the ore into fuel and land on Moho AND I CAN FINALLY GET ON WITH THE GRAND TOUR GODS THEYVE BEEN WAITING FOR YEARS NOW

 

sorry for the rant but man I Am Happy!

[Ok_Bruh]

raced @Frastonto the mun

[Jackaroo0505]

Don't you just hate it when your comms with your deep space probe gets lost? I don't now with the Lagger's Brand Comm array! We aren't happy until you get less than 15fps! 

[djr5899]

Attempting my 2nd Mun landing today, this time with Pilot Valentina and Scientist Macbart.  Let's just say Valentina is not quite as skilled as Jeb at piloting just yet.  And Mission Control (ie ME) learned a valuable lesson about forgetting to quicksave multiple times in a mission.  My only saves on this mission were as I descended down to the Mun (only about 4000m from the surface), and as the lander laid on its side.

My first save on this mission occurred on decent to the Northwest Crater of the Mun, right as I was retracting landing struts and ditching my Poodle engine for quad Terriers.  Unfortunately, this decent was leading me to an inclined landing path.  On the first attempt, Valentina was relatively smooth landing, but being on an incline, the Lander bounced and could not maintain upright status.  Valentina told Macbart this was fine; they'd still be able to take surface samples, plant their flags, and "get off this rock."   

Alas, Valentina over-estimated her abilities. She thought she could just shutdown the top 2 engines, fire the bottom engines, and tip the lander back on its struts.  The Mun was having none of that. Valentina had to call in her favorite Avenger, Dr.  Strange, to use his Eye of Agamatto to revert time and give her another try.....and another.....and another......AND ANOTHER! Just wasn't working, so the good Dr. suggested going back a little further to that decent path, and maybe trying to alter Valentina's decent to land on a more stable path.  Yeah, that wasn't successful either.

In the end, Dr.  Strange will likely be teleporting everyone back to mission control to try this mission over again. The Mission Control personnel are not too please about the 2 hours of lost mission time they spent.

 

Here is Macbart standing next to the not so upright lander, and his and Valentina's flags.   Valentina is current sitting in the command module wondering how to is going to get them back into orbit.

[MisterKerman]

EDIT: Rapid Unscheduled Dissassembly due to: Not enough boosters.

 

Built a new rocket.

 

The CM is essentially an orbital tanker for multiple landings.

 

What do you think of my lander design? I'm not good at fuel planning, hence my tanker for a Minmus mission. Is it going to be adequate for a proper Minmus science ravaging?

 

Edited June 9, 2018 by MisterKerman

[ARS]

I built a hovercar. Pretty fast for a car that skimming at 100m/s above the ground

I think I'm gonna send this antigrav rover for my next exploration to aid kerbals in moving around

[Enceos]

Added the last functional piece to my Minmus industrial refinery.

[RealKerbal3x]

1 hour ago, Jackaroo0505 said:

Don't you just hate it when your comms with your deep space probe gets lost? I don't now with the Lagger's Brand Comm array! We aren't happy until you get less than 15fps! 

There are 2 ways of making comm networks: the 'comsats precisely placed in geostationary orbit' method and the 'spam satellites everywhere' method.

Well in KSP today, Jeb looked......um.......like this.....

I don't even know.....

 

[eddiew]

Flight control is a practical joker...

(Launching a thing without an attachment node at either top or bottom took some creative thinking...)

Edited June 22, 2018 by eddiew