What did you do in KSP1 today?

[DerekL1963]

On 11/22/2018 at 5:21 AM, NHunter said:



 

What mod do those modules come from?

[NHunter]

42 minutes ago, DerekL1963 said:

What mod do those modules come from?

Uhm... Let's see...

Near Future Launch Vehicles, Near Future Propulsion, Near Future Solar, Station Parts Expansion Redux, Stockalike Mining Expansion, and a personal overwrite of MKS for the six ... things around the central tower. And I'm too lazy to remember where the radiators are from.

Some tweakscale was applied

I think, that's it.

[Curveball Anders]

I did me first mining expedition, never bothered before but w.t.f.

Worked kind of wonderful except that my miner was to light, or my excavators was mounted too low.

Once I activated the excavators the entire mining, converting, storing gadget starter to hop.

The ground was actually checked and had a gradient of 1.2 degres, which didn't stop the hopping mining gerät from walking across the flat plain ... (Bill EVA'd to plant a flag and had to run to catch the dancing miner)

Later I rescued the engineers from the dancing miner, then it suddenly exploded ...

I think I'll try for more solid miners now on ...

 

[NHunter]

6 hours ago, Curveball Anders said:

< ... >

Worked kind of wonderful except that my miner was to light, or my excavators was mounted too low.

Once I activated the excavators the entire mining, converting, storing gadget starter to hop.

< ... >

Sounds like a mass-distribution issue couple with bad rigid attachment/auto-strut. Or a bad version of SME that had the drills produce too much vibro (I personally never caught them producing any).

My base is very heavy (I landed only an Extraplanetary Launchpad workshop and a few supplies of Rocket Parts, everything else was built on Ceti) and is about as immobile as a craft can be in KSP. With all fuel tanks and storages filled, it nets around 850 tons and even its dry mass is ~100. I still managed to launch it into 'air' a few times when coming out of timewarp due to bad alignment of cradles' legs (colliders extended under the surface when base was without physics). Once that was fixed, I had no issues with it.

Do also note that my stack excavators are upscaled from 2.5m to 3.75m - to save on the part count.

[Kebab Kerman]

I have set off on a journey to build the single largest aircraft I will ever make in KSP, even larger than this one. There's a big chance it will be the last supergiant plane I will ever build. Size goals: >600 meters long, >650 meter wingspan, and >250 meters tall. When it's done, it will be posted to KerbalX. I'll probably make it powerful enough to get straight up stations into orbit. I might be insane, but since when is that new?

[capi3101]

Was out of town without Internet for much of the past week; my activity log has gotten a bit on the long side once again...

I've done a good amount of LKO rescue missions over much of this past week using the venerable Gurney 7 rescue craft; rescuees have included pilots Alder, Suly, Patrod, Gregald and Rodhat Kerman, scientist Dilbur Kerman, and engineers Gemlorf, Ceri, Janbles and Jergar Kerman. Of the missions done, only Suly's ran into trouble - her craft was in a high and inclined orbit, and the Gurney ran out of fuel before it could deorbit so it was necessary for her to get out and push. The rest were easy pickings. 

A site I saw a lot this past week. Patrod damn near got the capsule back right on the money.

I also spent a fair amount of time fiddling with the 1.5.x version of Pathfinder and getting used to how the mod is actually intended to work. I got a viable base-seed rover designed finally and launched the TBD 7a in my litterbox save with Jeb, Bob and Bill aboard, sending them on a test deployment of the base rover to the Munar midlands just northwest of the Twin Craters. The shakedown run has had a few hiccups along the way related to the mod itself but the base is slowly maturing. Certainly helps when the site has the correct mix of on-site materials to manufacture Equipment through an IronWorks; the other ways take too long...

I also designed a utility rover to conduct a pressure survey contract in the vicinity of KSC; originally I had intended to use a Scimobile for the job but the Buffalo mod parts were available, so I went with them instead.

Next priority for KSC upgrades - parking. Lisbal looked for whole seconds and couldn't find anywhere else to park besides Gene Kerman's spot...

The little rover that I constructed worked so well that I decided to keep a hold of it as the Wisent 7 - originally, it was just an unnamed one-off craft. 

Last Tuesday saw a redesign of the Boop-Boop 7 probe craft to eliminate the need for a fairing; one was launched to a high and inclined Kerbin orbit for contract. Jeb conducted a flight of the Kerbal Tour Bus 2 with tourists Marman, Mitney and Geoffrey aboard, and Bob returned safely from his flyby of the Mun, unlocking the next exploration contract to dock something in Kerbin's orbit. Jeb also conducted a two-and-a-half hour circumglobal flight to clear five aerial survey contracts using the Bad Idea 2 survey plane.

Jeb flying over the peak of Mt. Killakerbal. He's showboating when he really should be trying to get on the damn glideslope...

Didn't get around to dealing with the docking contract until yesterday, when I designed a new Agena Target Vehicle craft and launched a pair of them to LKO. After docking them in orbit, I returned both probes to the surface about twenty klicks east of KSC, undocking them after chute deployment just prior to splashdown.

And at night. Gotta have at least one crummy screenie, right? If you look real hard you can see the other Agena back and left.

With the docking mission done, it was time to send Bob back to Mun, this time aboard a Fireball 7 science lander. Forgot that the game makes you return a craft from orbit before letting you land, so I'll be dealing with that little factoid later today. Meanwhile, I also did a parts test, Jeb did a three-point aerial survey 600 klicks east of the KSC along with another parts test, and scientists Lenbal and Rodemone Kerman were loaded aboard a reconfigured Wisent rover to run a Pathfinder temperature survey in the vicinity of KSC; that's still ongoing as of this morning. At this point I've got much of the 90-tier science unlocked and all of KSC maxed out except for the SPH, Administration and R&D, the three of which are at Level 2 at least. Still have yet to land on Mun, but hopefully that's coming up today. Bob's already arrived in a polar orbit and is conducting low-orbital EVAs for science, having finished up all the biomes except for the larger craters.

Hoping to get on to some more interesting things Soon^TM.

[Delay]

I made my Principia career, which is still in 1.4.3, Ven's Revamp-dependent. In other words: I installed it.
...And I had a lot of fun editing solar panels in the save file to make them line up again. For some reason all of them were rotated by 90° (they were the unretractable variant), so I simply retracted them via editing and then extended them in-game. Annoying, but it's understandable and it didnt have much impact.

Aside from installing a part revamp I also captured an asteroid.

(And I'm honestly clueless about this wobbling in the trajectory... What is it caused by?
And this is not an error; it actually follows this path. You can see how it gets smoother the closer I get to Kerbin.)

After getting the asteroid into a somewhat stable orbit (please direct all complaints to The_Mun@KSP.com) I ended up using the Mun to slow myself down.
One of those times where the counterintuitive method of actually going further away brings you closer to Kerbin with less fuel expended. It only used 36% of the fuel I still had; a direct approach would've taken more than 50%!

 

I don't know what Ven did to the parachutes, but I was cought quite off-guard by it. They behave very differently in comparison to stock, bringing me down to 50m/s after just being deployed, and to 5m/s after fully opening.

I love it.

[Mignear]

Continuing work on latest superheavy plane.
 

I think I know why Belka builds so much giant flying monsters now, its pretty fun to make em.

[Fearless Son]

3 hours ago, Mignear said:

Continuing work on latest superheavy plane.

The first thing that popped into my head when you posted that was "chonky".

[Delay]

4 hours ago, Delay said:

I made my Principia career, which is still in 1.4.3

...Aaand now it's in 1.5.1.

Maybe. I still have to check for incompatibilities, as I've seen that the Poodle has been completely redone anew. This may cause problems while decoupling old vessels (it's now slightly taller, so parts may clip).

Edited November 27, 2018 by Delay

[Tyko]

30 minutes ago, Delay said:

...Aaand now it's in 1.5.1.

Maybe. I still have to check for incompatibilities, as I've seen that the Poodle has been completely redone anew. This may cause problems while decoupling old vessels (it's now slightly taller, so parts may clip).

The stock Poodle wasn't  changed between 1.4.x and 1.5.x (I so wish it was). Maybe some mod is messing with it?

Edited November 27, 2018 by Tyko

[Delay]

8 minutes ago, Tyko said:

Maybe some mod is messing with it?

Ven's. Or rather: The updated version by @Kerbas_ad_astra that was made for 1.5.1.

He redid the engine once again; changed the dimensions of it slightly. There is explosive potential behind every spacebar now, as far as the Poodle is concerned.

Edited November 27, 2018 by Delay

[Tyko]

17 minutes ago, Delay said:

Ven's. Or rather: The updated version by @Kerbas_ad_astra that was made for 1.5.1.

He redid the engine once again; changed the dimensions of it slightly. There is explosive potential behind every spacebar now, as far as the Poodle is concerned.

you may want to ask on the VSR forum page then    that's where Kerbas_ad_astra responds to VSR questions 

[Delay]

@Tyko The save, if I can recall correctly, currently has no craft with a poodle above a decoupler. I'm okay.
It was just a vehicle that I cheated into orbit for testing purposes that just happened to have this setup, and vessels built after installing the revamp should be good.

Edited November 27, 2018 by Delay

[Fearless Son]

On 11/25/2018 at 9:01 PM, Servo said:

Did I say testing? I meant Testing the GAU-8. Because I had to make one that worked, of course. One bonus of building with communatrons is that your gun doubles as a chaff dispenser.

That's some nice Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt!! you got going on there.

[TrooperCooper]

 

I'm on vacation and finally had time to play some KSP with a new career again.

 

Completed a Jool 5 run (just orbitals, no landings) with a nuclear cruiser which almost completed the science tree for me.

 

Now putting together a plan to mine Karborundum on Eeelo (at Sarnus with Outer Planet Mod). Current concept includes an extensive manned scouting operation, searching for the right spot to put the mining base down. Picture below shows the Exploration Rover, able to keep three Kerbals alive and happy for 25 years (under USI life support rules) on the surface of the moon with two on-board reactors, agroponics and all the scientific and scanning equipment necessary to unveil the secrets of Eeelo...

 

Rover is pretty much complete and finnished test runs on Kerbin. Now working on the skycrane for it. Setup will be stripped to a nuclear interplanetary freighter, based on the nuclear cruiser that was used for the Jool trip.

 

 

[Castille7]

Today I gave a Space Station called Azimuth another attempt and at the moment it's coming together.

The Station and the framework being docked both have fuel, engines and a cockpit for control until they are not necessary any longer then they will be decoupled. If the Framework docks without complication here I will post this on the WIP Thread for those who would like to follow the build.

[Cavscout74]

I explored a rock arch on Mun in my new career, and left the lower stage of the lander behind to act as a science station

On the ground near the arch. 

Upper stage returning to orbit, then on to a safe splashdown on Kerbin

[Drakenex]

The gateway

Based on:

 

 

[Guest]

I made some asymmetrical SSTO planes for a challenge.

I like how Pikasso and Brakue turned out. Brakue even flies remarkably well, considering.

[Hotel26]

5 hours ago, Brikoleur said:

Brakue

That's a very crafty asymmetric usage of an AV-R8 winglet in juxtaposition with a standard canard (if I have that right).

Had me fooled for a moment or two, I must say... 

Edited November 28, 2018 by Hotel26

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Hotel26 said:

That's a very crafty asymmetric usage of an AV-R8 winglet in juxtaposition with a standard canard (if I have that right), I must say.  Had me fooled for a moment or two...

Close, it's a standard canard on one side, standard tailfin on the other. The two have identical (or as good as) lift characteristics... 

[Cyrious]

I upgraded the Fuel station's Power and Cooling module. 2 reason for this

1. I had no major method of power production during the night cycle and thus had to stop production while in the shade.

2. This:

Thats my entire station running in excess of 500K, with the radiators saturated in their output. I got tired of coming back to the thing only to find the heat had freaked again and turned the whole smash into a sauna.

Solution:

Moar radiators. Like, an unholy crapton more, plus heat exchangers on top of that (I think the exchangers come from the Radiator pack that is supposed to accompany NF-Electrics). In addition to the original 10MW core heat capacity of the 8 XR-1250 Radiators, I added 8 DF-8K Graphene radiators, adding another 64MW of core heat rejection capacity and something like 1.5GW (Thats Gigawatts) of total heat rejection capacity to the station. The heat exchangers will (hopefully) help draw heat away from the rest of the station and into the monstrously huge radiators, allowing thermal pulses to be shed faster. Both the XR-1250s and the DF-8Ks are directly attached to a heat exchanger in pairs. Each heat exchanger also has surface mount radiator panels attached to deal with smaller heat pulses that take too long for the big and hueg panels to get to work on. All in all it comes out to almost 80MW core heat rejection and ~1.7GW total heat rejection.

Overkill? Yes. Do I care? Nah.

As for power, I stripped most of the solar arrays off the design, leaving 4 for standby and light power generation. The batteries were also removed, as both the local power storage and bulk power generation has been taken over by a 2000EC/s nuclear reactor. This solved multiple problems, including night side power generation and not having enough power to run the entire station at full bore.

As a nice little bonus, I managed to trim 20 parts off the total count, because this thing is a laggy monster and every little bit helps.

[capi3101]

Had a decently busy day yesterday. Having downloaded the MOLE mod a few days ago and wanting to give some of the parts a go, I spent a fair amount of time building something that I wound up calling the Turdbiscuit 7 for lack of imagination - the craft consisted of MOLE's Brumby 2-kerbal capsule (a Gemini CM analogue) along with a pair of MOLE science modules, as well as a few saddle tanks from the Buffalo mod to store some extra LF I needed for a space station contract. After finally working out all the kinks in the design - and boy were there quite a few - I finally got the craft into orbit of Kerbin with Jeb and Val aboard. The two went ahead to Mun, orbited briefly to kill off a second space station contract, and then returned to Kerbin; their landing satisfied the last Explore Kerbin contract, paving the way for Bob and his Fireball 7 science lander to finally begin his historic Munar landing mission. Would've took a screenie of the Turdbiscuit but it gave me a lot of headaches. I doubt I'll be using it much in the future. Besides, it really could stand a better name...

I might've mentioned doing something with Bob yesterday.

So say we all! But really there's only me... ♫ And that means I'm so great! / And also there's The Ch- ♫ COPYRIGHT VIOLATION!!!! (I don't know if Bob would really know the Strongbadian National Anthem anyways...)

After finishing up gathering EVA reports for all biomes in a low Munar polar orbit, Bob only had to wait another two hours for Jeb and Val to get home; upon go-for-landing, he collected surface materials, goo, temperature and pressure readings as well as crew and EVA reports and surface samples for the Northwest Crater, Lowlands, Northern Basin and Midland Craters before returning to Kerbin. His mission was a complete success, earning 1982 science for my program and enabling full upgrades to all facilities at KSC except for the R&D building at this point. The way to Minmus is now open for me, and I'll probably be launching the inaugural mission to the minty moon at some point later today.

Yesterday I began a mission to conduct a temperature survey on Kerbin. Pilot Suly Kerman along with scientists Lisbal and Rodemone Kerman were loaded aboard a heavily modified Wisent 7 utility rover equipped to conduct the job. Suly was told to "just park it somewhere", which she did by driving the rover all of fifty meters north of the KSC 09 inner marker. The two scientists boarded the equipped MOLE module, the solar panels were deployed and for the next eighteen hours they just kinda sat there until enough lab work had been done to fulfill the mission. Once finished, Suly drove the fifty meters back to the Runway, where the three Kerbals piled out for a publicity shot.

Wisent 7 'returned' from the mission. Pictured are Rodemone (left), Suly (top) and Lisbal Kerman (right). Couldn't even bother to smile for the shot, the jerks. But I suppose I wouldn't be happy either if I'd had to sit in a car for eighteen hours straight.

Finished up my day with a Gurney 7 rescue mission, picking up scientist Roddon Kerman from LKO for contract. I also adjusted one of my Kerbin-orbiting satellites for contract.

Today, aside from the launching of the Minmus mission, I intend to launch a few tourists in the direction of Mun; I've got a whopping fifteen of them that want to go on a flyby trip. Ordinarily this would be something I'd do with my Superfortress 7 ferry craft, but I'm still quite a long way off from having all the tech I need for those and in the meantime a full third of my contracts are choked up with them. I'm thinking about using a MOLE-based craft to sent them on their way. That'll teach those freeloading jerks, right? Besides, I know that eventually I'll have to dock two ships in orbit of Mun before I'll get the contract to land on Minmus, and MOLE craft are designed for that sort of thing. I went ahead and took an aerial survey contract for the region near Kerbin's south pole that I'll probably try to get to today with Jeb and a Bad Idea 2 survey plane; one of the waypoints asks for a surface reading, which should be interesting - it's been a while since I landed near the south pole. Other than that, it's mainly more early career stuff on my agenda for now.

[Zosma Procyon]

On 11/27/2018 at 11:37 AM, Mignear said:

Continuing work on latest superheavy plane.
 

I think I know why Belka builds so much giant flying monsters now, its pretty fun to make em.

You should try building your own wings out of the structural wing parts. Those premade wings aren't very good. 

I'd love to see you send this beat to Laythe.