What did you do in KSP1 today?

[CatastrophicFailure]

1 hour ago, djr5899 said:

Here's the launch rocket ready for takeoff.  Notice how the rocket is way off the center of the launch pad, and really looks like it should be falling over. I'm guessing this is because the fuel tanker rover has some length to it, but was built in the Hanger horizontally instead of vertically.  When tipping it vertical for launch, I think this was the side effect.  Launched just fine though....

Yup, that’s a side-effect or flipping it. To fix it, you need to grab the root part or shift-click the whole thing and move it around In the VAB, which is often easier said than done. 

But... what’s holding it up? I don’t see any launch clamps... 

[capi3101]

35 minutes ago, Cavscout74 said:

I saved the design, but I don't think it's only advantage (shorter transfer burns) outweigh it's disadvantages - slow takeoff & climb, less yaw stability during reentry, slightly lower fuel capacity, and I believe overall more fuel burn due to the extra mass.

Just looking at the design, I can address the yaw stability  - the tail fins are too small. Try putting one or two of the shuttle-style ones on the back and see if that helps you out any. Might also try pumping some fuel forward if the stability issues persist.

Three RAPIERs...how much does this craft weigh at takeoff? Just asking.

4 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

But... what’s holding it up? I don’t see any launch clamps...

Dark magic, obviously. Bill's been playing with his ouija board a bit too much again...

[djr5899]

18 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Yup, that’s a side-effect or flipping it. To fix it, you need to grab the root part or shift-click the whole thing and move it around In the VAB, which is often easier said than done. 

But... what’s holding it up? I don’t see any launch clamps... 

Oh, I leveled Jeb up to level 5 wizard.  Levitation spell holding it up.  

[Hotel26]

7 hours ago, Cavscout74 said:

a pair of NERVs.

Great experiment and very interesting results!

There is a class of SSTO with 4x RAPIER and 1x NERV.  4 RAPIERs is a lot of dead weight to carry around from planet to planet, so it's a kind of luxury.  Goes to space effortlessly, though.

Then there's the minimalist 2x Whiplash and 2x NERV class: it takes some perseverance to learn to get this to orbit reliably, but it is quite reliable.  And then you've got 2x NERVs...

So if you decide not to go the Whiplash route, but opt for luxury -- yet 3x RAPIER plus 2x NERV still seems sluggish -- then it could be enticing to try 4x RAPIER plus 2x NERV...??  Just add the extra NERV you want...?  3t...

Edited October 15, 2018 by Hotel26

[Kebab Kerman]

I've just realized.

Nobody has built a (Proper? True to scale?) Airbus Beluga in KSP yet.

 

This is my time! MY TIME TO NOT BE A DESTRUCTION-CRAZED GENIUS WITH ACCESS TO NUCLEAR BOMBS!

 

I am going to have some fun. And hey, if it works, I can finally launch planes out of another plane. Woohoo!

[Xurkitree]

WHOOOP! I finished my Grand Tour mission! 

Kerbals are glad to be recovered.

[Cavscout74]

14 hours ago, capi3101 said:

Just looking at the design, I can address the yaw stability  - the tail fins are too small. Try putting one or two of the shuttle-style ones on the back and see if that helps you out any. Might also try pumping some fuel forward if the stability issues persist.

Three RAPIERs...how much does this craft weigh at takeoff? Just asking.

It was just odd, since the original design uses the same fins & doesn't have the same issues.  I did have to move them for the redesign, but I didn't think by much.  I guess it was enough to get them blocked at high AoA & lose yaw control. 

And I totally forgot to look at the takeoff weight this morning.  It does work, just slower to accelerate down low that the original model.  That and the handling differences make me want to stick with the original design.  It has two versions - the base model that I use for Laythe to ferry crews between ground bases & the space station; and the crew shuttle version that I use around Kerbin to bring crews up to crew cyclers & large exploration vessels, that has a different cockpit, full RCS & a shielded docking port in the nose.  Both handle nearly identical and have been mostly* good to me through 4 different careers so far.  I just wanted to experiment and see what I could do with the basic airframe. 

 

* The base model had a takeoff accident on Laythe in my last career that cost me the 4-man crew.   Otherwise, I've only had a few smaller "mishaps" that flattened a tire or at most smashed an aileron since it's been out of sandbox testing.

[RealKerbal3x]

3 hours ago, Xurkitree said:

WHOOOP! I finished my Grand Tour mission! 

Kerbals are glad to be recovered.

How many centuries did it take?

[qromodynmc]

I've been working on the old boy;

it's not finished yet but there arent any major things to do either.

[RealKerbal3x]

I had a lot of fun playing around in 1.5. I only had the time to check out the parts in the VAB and take a look at the new spacesuits -- they're awesome! I'll have to have a look at the manoeuvre nodes tomorrow.

By the way, I love the new animations on the 'Mun or Bust' menu screen. The little kerbal runs his hands over his sleeve like he's saying 'noice suit'

[Delay]

1.5!

Accidentally made an SSTO.

But that allowed me to test the new maneuver nodes with staging in between!

The "Start burn in:" timer actually needs to be enabled in the settings; it doesn't come as default, strangely enough.

The timer actually turns yellow for the last 10 seconds of the countdown:

 

[purpleivan]

I started work on a set of parts for Purpleivan's Land O' Junk, a purveyor of fine recycled parts with a more junkyard appearance than the stock ones... opening sometime soon.

So far it's just a couple of fuel tanks, a parachute (but not quite worked out how to get the animation working right yet) that I've made so far. I've also made a start (not shown) on the ROK-T45 engine (equivelent to the Swivel).

If Jeb's Junkyard's hightech parts are a little out of your price range, Purpleivan's Land O' Junk has what your space program needs, at low, low prices (no guarantees, no refunds).

Also useful as props for screenshots etc.

[Klapaucius]

I got my 42nd craft uploaded to KerbalX--continuing the tradition of out-there designs.  I also started a thread which will feature my planes, subs, rovers etc on alien worlds from various planet packs, highlighting those planets and moons with atmospheres.

The first video in the series shows this plane flying around Gael, from Galileo's Planet Pack.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 15, 2018 by Klapaucius

[Maelstrom Vortex]

I pulled off the nerve wracking just in the nick of being short of fuel:
 

 

Edited October 16, 2018 by Maelstrom Vortex

[Geonovast]

A little something for all the Halo fans out there.  I planned on spending a few hours tonight playing Reach, but after one mission, I had to jump back on KSP and put this together.  I have some refining to do, but it's flyable and landable at least.  Hooking up my joystick should help with that.

 

[Kernel Kraken]

17 hours ago, qromodynmc said:

I've been working on the old boy;

it's not finished yet but there arent any major things to do either.

This is amazing! Just a tip, I would have used the square intakes offset a bit into the fuselage for the intakes (I'm working on my own F-4 at the moment). This looks better than anything I could have done, still!

[Hodo]

all I did was revert back to the previous version so I can continue on my missions undisturbed.  

[capi3101]

Saw where 1.5 dropped yesterday. Thus begins my usual thirty day countdown to finish things up before switching over...furthest I've gotten in the game was with 1.3, where I was almost up to the Gilly exploration missions. 1.4.5, I haven't even reached Duna yet...

And to further start on a depressing note, no screenies for y'all this morning. Well, okay, maybe I'll give y'all one...

Jeb afterburns up a mountain in the Kerboat 7, a craft that can't decide what it really wants to be. Boats, roves, flies...doesn't go to space but I hear that's coming with the next upgrade option package...

(1.4.5) So, my log dates back to last Friday, when I managed to finish up the AIRS challenge - the full album of my entry can be found here. I knew I wasn't going to top the scoreboard but I still had fun doing it, which is the whole point, right? The issues I was having with the Kerboat 7 in the days leading up to my run were ultimately traced back to the landing gear (of course), and once I finally found a setting that didn't end up in the craft tumbling end-over-end on gentle touchdowns at less than 100 m/s, I was in business. At that point, the tricky part became getting down the hill from the island runway to the water intact. 

That reminds me - that one had a badge with it. I should update my sig for it.

Not much else of note has happened since then; I've been working on a board game prototype of late and getting the parts put together has eaten much of my time. Since Friday, I've recovered a nose cone from LKO for contract, finished up the rescue mission of scientist Ditrey Kerman, finished up an ore con job between the refinery Deepwater Horizon and space station Kerbinport for √375k, tested a 10m heat shield splashed for another √20k, launched a Bill Clinton 7b grabber probe to a high, inclined, retrograde Kerbin orbit to attempt to rescue Hudbree Kerman (rendezvous is scheduled in about eleven hours at this point), and launched a trio of Boop Boop 7a probes for various contracts. Another probe is sitting on the launchpad for a mission to put an LKO sat in a polar orbit; that'll happen first thing next session. Most of my contracts are in holding patterns awaiting things to get where they're going. The rest are just not that terribly interesting to talk about... 

 

[qromodynmc]

2 hours ago, Kernel Kraken said:

This is amazing! Just a tip, I would have used the square intakes offset a bit into the fuselage for the intakes (I'm working on my own F-4 at the moment). This looks better than anything I could have done, still!

Ah thanks for the tip! I was sitting and thinking about what can i do to fix bad look on intake, i literally forgot inverting square intake

[roboslacker]

Today 4 kerbals were stranded in Duna orbit. I eventually managed to get them back to the return ship.

[djr5899]

Upgraded to 1.5 yesterday.  Like the stages showing on dV burns.  Haven't really played with new parts/colors yet.  Biggest thing is, trying to finish off the Science tree in my career, and upgrading to 1.5 made X Science stop working.  It's the only mod so far that I have installed that isn't working (KER, surface lights, RCS build all barked at being out of date, but still functioned fine).   That's make getting the last 3000 science points a lot more difficult.

Pulled off one uneventful Minmus landing and science gathering to get the last bit of science to unlock the large ore tanks.  Tonight, will be focusing on starting to build my new Minmus ore miner, and if happy with the design, will get it set down on Minmus next to Jeb and the fuel tanker rover.

[Xurkitree]

On 15 October 2018 at 11:51 AM, RealKerbal3x said:

How many centuries did it take?

Weirdly enough, 47 years and ~88 days.

I honestly thought getting to Eeloo for Kerbol orbit around Jool would take 26 years but it was far less.

 

also the only reason I played ksp today - counting how much science I got from the Jool system. It overheated my computer,as usual. 

its 19711.3 btw

Edited October 16, 2018 by Xurkitree

[Draconiator]

Well, RL got me AGAIN, so no time to really do anything, but now that winter's coming I'm slowly starting to get back into it.

 

Needless to say, I think they found new ways of training while I was gone.

 

[Cavscout74]

My main accomplishment for the day was putting kerbals on Moho for the first time in this career.  I didn't get many good screenshots though

Docking the PCC-03 Calypso with Moho station in polar orbit.  The Moho lander (top) and a fuel tanker (left) had arrived several months before.  The transfer stage of the station is empty, but before it gets ejected, the mission engineer was tasked with transferring the radiators to the station itself.

Approaching the Mohole, wow that's a long way down. 

Docking the Moho lander back to the polar station. 

Tomorrow I have a ground base, second fuel tanker & a remote rover entering Moho orbit.  All 3 have done their initial deceleration burns, but didn't have time to finish getting them in orbit.

 

[djr5899]

On 10/14/2018 at 10:07 PM, djr5899 said:

Haven't had as much time for KSP lately, and when I have, been in one of those stuck modes where anything I try and build or any mission just doesn't work out quite right.  Today, though, I loaded up an older career save where I have the most progress to date, and I successfully got the first piece of my Minmus mining operation in place.  I built a fuel truck rover, which will be used to take fuel from a future ore mining rig, and transfer it to a launch tanker.  The launch tanker will be responsible for making sure that my future Minmus refueling station stays stocked with all fuel types.

Here's the launch rocket ready for takeoff.  Notice how the rocket is way off the center of the launch pad, and really looks like it should be falling over. I'm guessing this is because the fuel tanker rover has some length to it, but was built in the Hanger horizontally instead of vertically.  When tipping it vertical for launch, I think this was the side effect.  Launched just fine though....

 

Here is the rover with the fairing removed, but the back "orbital maneuver and landing engine" still attached.  Wasn't quite sure how  well this was going to come down on Minmus or  Mun without using chutes, so I added some RV-1 engines in case I needed extra help slowing it down on decent

 

Made it to the surface, ditched the landing engine, and ready to drive the last 1.2km to a drill site I had flagged in a mission yesterday

 

Final destination reached.  Now Jeb just needs to wait around for the drilling rig and orbital refuel tanker to show up, so he can hitch a ride home.

 

Next up, build the orbital refuel tanker.  Building that first, as I still need about 300 science in a separate mission to unlock the large ore holding tanks.  I also was smart enough (this time) to do some test measurements of where my rover tanker docking port will line up with future craft, so I know where to put landing struts and docking ports for fuel transfers.

This evening I accomplished Phase 2 of my Minmus refueling network.  Phase 1 was getting the Fuel Tanker Rover on the surface, seen in the pictures above.  Phase 2 was to get the ore mining rig to the surface.

On the pad and ready for takeoff....

 

Here's what the Big Rig looked like on its decent to Minmus.  You can see the rover on the ground in the background, about 500m away from the Big Rig landing spot.  

 

Here comes Jeb with the rover.  Dear god let the docking ports line up, or else I have about 500,000 funds in Minmus space junk on the surface

 

Eureka it works.  Docked and available to take on converted liquid fuel, oxidizer, monoprop, or xenon fuel.

 

One of the challenges I have had in the past when building mining rigs (besides my tendency to build up and not out) was, on the bottom part of the craft, I always used 2.5m tanks, and I always ran out of room trying to fit radial engines, landing struts, drills, and a ladder for Kerbals to depart.  Going up in size to the 3.75m tank on the bottom solved that issue for me with this build.

Phase 3 will be the orbital fuel tank, which will be responsible for landing on the surface, receiving fuel from the rover fuel tanker, and then returning to lower Minmus orbit to refuel crafts.

Phase 4 will be adding a orbital fuel station, so the orbital tanker can work on refueling the station, and any ships can dock with the fuel station.   Hope to get Phase 3 and 4 completed by the end of the weekend.