What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Aeroboi]

Today I launched my first orbital rocket to deliver a small satellite, I call it the Kerkaputnik that was launched to listen to Gaia's surface to hear if there is more technologically advanced life besides the KSC and the dwellings beneath the mountains.

*1* Launch

*2* Solid rocket booster seperation.

*3* Following the gravity turn as she goes.

*4* Engines are slowly throttling down while coasting to 80 Km.

*5* Orbit insertion burn.

*6* Orbit has been achieved and today is the greatest victory in Kerbal history.

*7* Seperating the spy satellite 

*8* Junk, litter and debris are Kerbals worst enemies. Luckily this rocket came with some fine retro boosters...

*9* Playing with 120% re-entry really doesn't change much apparently, stages still de-orbit from low orbit without losing their paint let alone any parts.

*10* Meanwhile the spy satellite listens beneath but nobody radios in, for now kerbalkind has to assume they're alone on their mountain. As the satellite was no longer needed it fired it's de-orbit thrusters to cleanup LGO.

*11* Again re-entry heating doesn't destroy my vessel, I'm not sure what this sat is made of but it are some tough extraterrestrial materials.

*12* The fate of my first orbital vessel... a watery grave  

 

Edited June 29, 2018 by Aeroboi

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

Been working on my Saturn V and doing some stress testing of my new Microsoft Surface Book 2.

Plays KSP with good settings and dmp and other typically lag-inducing stuff buttery smooth, but it also kind of sounds like a gas turbine whether I'm flying a plane or not. Main nuisance though is the touchpad and clicker buttons being integrated, so I can't slide my thumb over to right click a part without moving the cursor. (I mean seriously, why would anyone ever want that feature?) Ok, enough of that rant

 

Also did some stunt flying. Yes I did make through. No I did not crash into the VAB afterwards.

Lastly I discovered one of my old electric planes still works. I thought it was broken by an update long ago. Turns out it flies just fine at reduced prop rpm. Could perhaps stand to have the horizontal stabilizer adjusted though and maybe the bearing made a bit more sturdy.

Anyways, that's probably all for a good while. Moving to college this week. Gonna be in the front of a pickup truck with 2 other people for 4&1/2 hours. Fun (not).

[jack gamer]

10 hours ago, The_rocket_fan said:

That’s cool, what mods are those?

BDA, Star Trek shuttles and future weapons [future weapons require bda]

[The_rocket_fan]

1 minute ago, jack gamer said:

BDA, Star Trek shuttles and future weapons [future weapons require bda]

Ah nice but why are they Separate versions?

[jack gamer]

19 minutes ago, The_rocket_fan said:

Ah nice but why are they Separate versions?

I think the creator of future weapons forgot to update the title, therefore its outdated but still works, and also  you can download the latest version of BDA, the Star Trek shuttles only work in 1.4.2 but I tried it out on 1.3.1 and it works.

[The_rocket_fan]

1 hour ago, jack gamer said:

I think the creator of future weapons forgot to update the title, therefore its outdated but still works, and also  you can download the latest version of BDA, the Star Trek shuttles only work in 1.4.2 but I tried it out on 1.3.1 and it works.

Alright thx for showing me that, and sorry if I asked so many questions, I’m new to ksp.

[jack gamer]

Just now, The_rocket_fan said:

Alright thx for showing me that, and sorry if I asked so many questions, I’m new to ksp.

No worries, I get confused as well.

[Cavscout74]

Today I landed a probe on Eve, which looks a whole lot better with EVE installed. 

I love the reentry effects on the lander shell:

On the ground after sunrise:

And once again, a giant thank you to the author of Probes Plus mod - you've pretty much taken over the unmanned portion of my space program

[ShadowZone]

After a few weeks break, I did another thing:

 

[JoeNapalm]

[Tyko]

On 6/27/2018 at 10:05 PM, Angel-125 said:

This morning I launched some elements to my space station, and tonight I continued designing a Cormorant shuttle for my story that's competitor to the KSOS (the Cormorant one wins).

 

Both look really nice! How well does KSOS play with 1.4.x? I see they've revivified it and are in the bug-squashing process now.

[Angelo Kerman]

6 minutes ago, Tyko said:

Both look really nice! How well does KSOS play with 1.4.x? I see they've revivified it and are in the bug-squashing process now.

It wobbles around a lot but it flies and the RCS plumes are bad. Cormorant is much more stable and more versatile. @Pak really did a great job with Cormorant Aeronology Mk3 parts. I did modify a couple and cloned a couple others to make that Cormorant KSOS alike for story purposes but the base parts are stock alike and fabulous.

[Leopard]

Following the safe return of Duna-5, it was noted the contract hadn't completed as the crew came home in another vessel.

Duna-6 was launched to learn and correct this, the lander lost a bit of mass, the orbital transfers were to be better optimised, and for safety the on orbit tank from the crashed Duna-4 could be robbed to excess fuel, all systems go.

obtained Duna orbit with more fuel than the previous mission remaining following a better transfer as planned, lander de-orbit burn was successful...

you can see the "but" coming can't you?

lander bounced slightly on touchdown, its intact, by with a 90 degree rotational offset from the desired position...

This leaves two stranded Kerbals now (Duna-4 & Duna-6) needing a more elaborate rescue.

Duna-7 is planned, same craft slightly stripped as this one is going to Ike for some contracts, hoping to free funds to upgrade the launch pad to level 3 (will take a few more missions) then the second phase of Duna exploration can begin, Duna-8 will be a repeat of Duna-6 as the last of the first generation missions as the land & return contract has too many funds to give up on, plus the experience will feed into the second generation of craft

we have a Duna orbital station mission - this is planned to end around Ike as Ike-Highport to act as an on orbit fuel station.

 

Learning a lot, much of it what not to do, but small steps and all that, the two of them are alive and will be rescued.

[kurgut]

After last Skylab expedition, the kerbal  ground control decided to deorbit the station in 1979, because they just wanted a bigger one for later, and this one was too old fashioned..

Spoiler

 

Bill missed his calculations, so the station didn't burn up entirely.

Then a orbiter/lander to Duna was send, and managed gently landing.

And finally, an Apuluk style mission was send to Minmus, because Jebediah was bored in the space center, so he tried for the first time manual landing, docking, rendez-vouzing, from this Lander module ( because the mechjeb unit is too expensive), this FDAI is terrible to understand, but all kerbals returned safely hopefully.

 

[Wrench Head]

As many know by now, I'm a race fan! As well as old movies.

I think its a MAD JEB weekend!

 

 

[Zosma Procyon]

I've had a busy past few days. Here are two highlights.

I landed a mobile base on Moho.

Here it is on final descent. I had to land manually because Mechjeb can't handle this configuration.

And here it is jettisoning the landing rockets and land controller. The controller impacted in the hills a few km away.

And here it is all set up and processing data.

 

I also had a rescue contract on Moho.

After the rescue craft parked in Moho orbit, I dropped the external fuel tanks.

Then I sent down this tiny little lander. Moho's tiny gravity let me use a single NERV.

And here I realized the Kerbal was on an incline, and had to land off to the west. Still I was able to rescue the Kerbal and take off immediately.

I left the landing gear behind.

Rendezvoused and docked with the mother ship.

And boosted it to a high orbit to await the next Moho to Kerbin transfer window. I was going to jettison the lander's engine, but realize the mothership doesn't have the delta-v to enter a safe orbit of Kerbin. But the lander will once refueled.

Edited June 30, 2018 by Zosma Procyon

[jack gamer]

Ive traveled my star fleet to find another space centerPilot: We see something! (Finally we landed) Jeb: What space center is that? Bob: Not sure, we should take a look at it. Bill: Hmmm, looks like we can still used this center. Val: Didn't they abandon this? Jeb: No, they probably forgot to delete it and started an improved version of the space center. Pilot's: we are contacting the space center that we found a another one. val: Im scanning the building, try going inside it. rest of the group: Ok! 

Edited June 30, 2018 by jack gamer
Just wanted to add one more image.

[Servo]

I finalized and published two replica craft: Concorde and the F/A-18!

Fly your own version of the iconic Concorde: https://kerbalx.com/servo/Concorde

Soar with the Blue Angels in a F/A-18 Hornet: https://kerbalx.com/servo/FA-18B-Hornet

[kapteenipirk]

Just taught id have some fun in the hotel bedroom at morning while i wait for both of my parents to wake up.

 

It can do over 600m/s in low altitude making it a pretty powerful little plane.

The cockpit is the old stock cockpit, i taught the plane would look much better with it than the new biz-jet cockpit.

[ARS]

I'm testing a new jet, with emphasis on maneuverability

It's able to make a tight maneuvers...

Which really handy when it's about to smash into the ground...

Or mission control... (Jeb looks excited though)

 

[The_rocket_fan]

6 hours ago, jack gamer said:

Ive traveled my star fleet to find another space centerPilot: We see something! (Finally we landed) Jeb: What space center is that? Bob: Not sure, we should take a look at it. Bill: Hmmm, looks like we can still used this center. Val: Didn't they abandon this? Jeb: No, they probably forgot to delete it and started an improved version of the space center. Pilot's: we are contacting the space center that we found a another one. val: Im scanning the building, try going inside it. rest of the group: Ok! 

Good story and role play 

[Atkara]

More science returns (to convert to reputation) and course corrections today. While at it, this little guy arrived from Gilly:

The core was loaded up into a spaceplane and flown back to KSC, to satisfy the game's "you haven't explored the 'x' body, unless you land back something that has been there" rule. As if bringing the crew back wasn't enough...

Anyway, Duna & Ike received their own mobile surface miners. No more grabbing out of fuel landers on a suborbital trajectory a-la Martian.

Yep, this is a recurring pattern that's spreading anywhere there's a practical reason to.

Eve to Moho window is ~50 days away, so I've got to prep these craft orbiting Eve, for their transfer burn. And there's a Jool window coming up in 170 days or so, which I'll use to send kerbals & equipment to Vall. This way, I'll have secured all my fallback options, before moving to Laythe & Tylo.

Edited June 30, 2018 by Atkara

[Castille7]

Well I made this, and it's seems others like the idea of flying cows, maybe I'll make one and post it at a later date 

TWISTER

 

[Zeiss Ikon]

Last night, after some discussion in another thread, I started yet another career in my 1.3.1 RSS/RO/RP-1/Principia install.  This one is strict "moderate" difficulty -- so no respawns, though IIRC I do still have reverts and reloads available.  Built and flew a couple WAC Corporal analogs -- Tiny Tim solid booster (about 20 G for 0.7 seconds), and sustainer burning IRFNA and Aniline/Furfuryl.  The only suitable fins available in the starting parts bin were B9 Aerospace Procedural Wing (Early) parts, which, I found, will burn off around 20 km up at around Mach 2.  Temporary solution: launch the sustainer with 50% fuel.  A couple such launches and I was able to get enough science to unlock the actual Aerobee fins and decoupler (Aerobee was the direct descendant of the WAC -- upgraded engine allowed a longer fuel tank section and larger payload to much higher altitude), and make four launches total before July 1951.  Probably need  to implement Project Bumper next -- A-4 (aka V-2) pushing a WAC upper stage.  Not much payload, but lots of altitude.

I also built a Bonanza (Bonanza cabin and Continental engine from Firespitter, B9 procedural wings, and I built the V tail version), but I found that it seems underpowered (probably needs adjustment to the constant speed propeller settings), and like anything else with small landing gear, has a lot of trouble with the ridges across the runway.  Apparently, Jeb doesn't like it much, either, because after the first test, he didn't reset his retirement date (as he did after failing to get the X-1 analog off the ground in the previous career).

[FinalFan]

Today my space program flight-tested and approved a "space plane to anywhere" design for the first time.  I've seen videos of these and I recognize the cleverness and technical prowess of doing it, but I never really saw the appeal as far as actually using the things for randomly hopping around the Kerbol system, since they usually seem to rely on absolutely minimal ISRU capability (as light as possible for a complete system), which means they take forever to refuel.  A more traditional craft with ISRU would be better for anything other than Laythe, surely?  Well, I decided to see what all the fuss was about and make my own infinite spaceplane.  But none of this pansy-ass stuff, no siree.  It's my first serious crack at a Mk.3 spaceplane!  Two large drills, a large converter, and a science lab to keep the boys busy.  Four Gigantor solar panels [edit from the future:  Gigantors for Laythe?  Oh you innocent child] and two medium thermals to keep it all running, and fuel cells for nighttime operations.  All neatly tucked away in two large cargo bays, one opening up and the other opening down.  Four NERVS for space, and eight Rapiers to get it there (and help with those big burns).  It doesn't need airbrakes and half a dozen parachutes, but it has them "just in case". 

The initial prototype mounted the Rapiers on four Mk.2 nacelles and weighed 114 tons.  It has the distinct honor of being my first spaceplane that could SAS down the runway without swerving right the hell off, and successfully flew to LKO and back.  But the negative nancies said the reentry profile was "barely controllable" and "not a disaster waiting to happen, but actively trying"—so we went back to the drawing board and came up with this: 

[edit:  TinyPic is dead; long live Flickr.  Original link for insanity posterity:  http://i65.tinypic.com/2eumk9s.jpg]

[ http://i67.tinypic.com/16izfbl.jpg ]

This version seems to have a more consistent center of mass.  It weighs 124 tons and has exactly the same amount of rocket fuel and 30% more liquid-only fuel, and also has considerably more wing.  It seems easier to recover from a wipeout, and the airbrakes are all on the same section of the fuselage, which was an issue that had always made me nervous about the prototype.  Since the test flight took place in an already-busy career save, I did not actually send it to Minmus but I confirmed it had more than enough fuel.  The landing at KSC was OK although I didn't quite manage to put it on the runway like the other one. 

Oh, a picture of the old one? 
[ http://i64.tinypic.com/jrvbed.jpg ]

 

Edited September 23, 2019 by FinalFan
TinyPic is dead; long live Flickr.