What did you do in KSP1 today?

[XLjedi]

Re-entry flight testing proved the fat airline wings on the SC-33 prototype (image below) were indeed...  An abysmal failure. 

Spoiler

Although... the resulting catastrophic re-entry (3 to 4 large disconnected parts tumbling in flames through the upper atmosphere) was indeed pretty spectacular, if not horrifying, to behold.

Good news is, the wings were redesigned and the problem solved!  In the process, the part count was reduced, the TWR increased, and the overall craft now has a more balanced and uniform look.    Several missions to and from orbit were indeed successful and it's probably the most stable Mk3 SSTO in the UT Exolifter line now.   

Particularly interesting on the re-entry...  This one loves to skip on the atmosphere like a stone on water when coming home.  I targeted the return orbital trajectory the width of an ocean and it comes in and bounces right over the ocean, gaining altitude and pushing the projected fligth path forward.  ...then finally dropping into the KSC area and still overshooting the runway at like Mach 2 and 25 km.  It managed to bleed off enough speed that by the time I was abeam of the island base runway I was maybe in the range of 600-700 m/s and I had enough altitude (still like 22 km) to roll inverted and do Split-S to come back at the KSC runway for a direct approach on runway 27. 

I don't have any other SSTO that comes home anything like this one and rolling inverted like that on the overshoot... that was just fun!  

Looking forward to commissioning this one to KerbalX this weekend.      

[LC 44]

Hello everyone,

I am new to this forum and have been playing KSP since January 2018 on my PS4. Ideally I would like to play on my imac but I do not think that is possible at the moment without some sort of jerry rigging.

At any rate so far my accomplishments in KSP include (in order they happened):

1. Basic rocket construction, launch and rentry

2. Achieving orbit

3. Achieving lunar Mun orbit

4. Landing on the mun and coming back safely (This was the 2nd mission. It was a rescue mission to get Valentina off who was stranded on the mun on the first mission).

5. Landing on minmus and coming back safely

6. Arriving at Duna and having a probe in orbit

 

Right now I am trying to learn orbiting rendezvous and docking. A well to be frank.....KSP's lesson tutorial sucks.

[RealKerbal3x]

I set up the OuterNet communications network in KSO. A nice screenshot:

I will be posting a full mission report on my thread, probably tomorrow (The link to my mission report thread is in my sig)

Edited December 14, 2018 by RealKerbal3x

[CatastrophicFailure]

12 hours ago, Zosma Procyon said:

And it's gone. At this point the game crashed, probably because all of the parts being destroyed. So I had to restart the game and deorbit it again. This time I didn't watch it die.

Viking funeral.  

[Cataclism]

...I found a few ways of how (NOT!) to use MechJeb translatron + Smart A.S.S. + Umbra electric engines. 
 

 

[Zosma Procyon]

23 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Viking funeral.  

Exactly. It had a good life. Drove almost 1000 km through the Eve highlands, produced around 10,000 science, and rescued two new Kerbals. But it was overweight, under powered, had two many parts (mostly comparably useless solar panels and small ore tanks), and since I built it before I learned to fully prevent the ground vehicle shimmy never really worked properly. It somehow had both too many wheels (because they were set up wrong) and not enough wheels (because the arrangement I chose left two few in contact with the ground with it was on uneven terrain). I'm probably going to send a successor mobile base in two or three Eve transfer windows. The next one might be a tripod, with two forward drive pontoons and one rear for better stability, or a hexipod. And it will certainly be smaller and have a more controllable reentry method. And it will have MANY more nuks, maybe costing in the neighborhood of 10 million because of them. I prefer the constant power output of those expensive little toys over the atmosphere mitigated solar cells. They just weren't worth the extra part count on Eve.

On 12/13/2018 at 3:02 AM, ARS said:

I'm testing a small disposable rocket for quickly putting small satellite in orbit

And going underwater

I wish tank treads were a standard part of the game. I'm hesitant to try new mods on my touchy Macbook Pro.

[LushChicken]

I want to go to the mun but I want to go to duna to.

What do I do?

 

Edited December 14, 2018 by LushChicken

[RealKerbal3x]

5 minutes ago, LushChicken said:

I want to go to the mun but I want to go to duna to.

What do I do?

 

Learn how to get to the Mun first. Going interplanetary to Duna is a lot more complicated than getting to the Mun, with complicated stuff like transfer windows etc.

[LushChicken]

Just now, RealKerbal3x said:

Learn how to get to the Mun first. Going interplanetary to Duna is a lot more complicated than getting to the Mun, with complicated stuff like transfer windows etc.

Ok thanks 

[RealKerbal3x]

Just now, LushChicken said:

Ok thanks 

Good luck! If you get stuck just ask on the forum...we're very friendly and like to help new players

[Plane Crazy]

Sent a survey probe to Duna.

[maallaard]

Found out that KRASH is the absolute best mod ever when you're brave enough to turn off the revert-flight button

god bless you @linuxgurugamer 

[Cavscout74]

In addition to some routine missions, I did some experimenting with my Lightning spaceplane.  I switched to the SR-71 style cockpit from the Mk 2 expansion mod, and shuffled a few other things around to make a (I think) better looking design without too much of a performance hit.  Original Lighting has 3926 m/s dV on the NERV with full tanks, & masses 15.37t empty & 30.98t full.  The Lightning II has 3770 m/s dV on the NERV & masses 16.22t empty & 31.98t full.  LF & Oxidizer loads are identical, although the Lightning II holds a touch more monoprop (78 units vs 55 in the original).  The only change it needed after the first test flight was installing a medium nose gear in place of a small.  The small gear was just too short, and I couldn't get the nose off the ground till I reached the end of the runway.  The Lightning II also increases capacity from 5 seats to 6.

Departing KSC on the first test flight with Jeb at the controls.

Circularization burn

Getting ready for reentry.  I may stack a 2nd set of Big-S strakes outboard of the first set for a little extra fuel & lift.

For comparison, the original Lightning

[Xurkitree]

I edited some engines over 2 days to make them ridiculously impossible, in prep for something i would like to do.

1: An Ion engine which runs better with higher atmospheres. I edited the thrust so that it has a usuable TWR on Eve. Probably runs on Dark Magic.

2:A Rocket Engine having the same performance at any altitude. And by same, I mean, ISP remains constant no matter what. Its a Constant engine.

Yay numbers!

Edited December 15, 2018 by Xurkitree

[maallaard]

7 hours ago, Xurkitree said:

I edited some engines over 2 days to make them ridiculously impossible, in prep for something i would like to do.

1: An Ion engine which runs better with higher atmospheres. I edited the thrust so that it has a usuable TWR on Eve. Probably runs on Dark Magic.

2:A Rocket Engine having the same performance at any altitude. And by same, I mean, ISP remains constant no matter what. Its a Constant engine.

Yay numbers!

You made an engine have the same performance as an aerospike?

[eddiew]

Still rather strapped for cash despite the sponsorship deals from our Munar probe, mission control orders the engineering team to put together "something inexpensive" that can get a kerbal to Munar orbit.

The result is Munbat I, featuring not just one, but two SRB stages, and costing a pocket-friendly 15,162 roots. We're pretty sure it can get to the Mun and back. Probably.

Fortunately, Jeb turns out to be a heck of a pilot. Not only does he guide the unwieldy beast to a safe orbit above Kerbin, but his eyeballed Mun-intercept is so accurate it turns out to be a Mun-collision. 

Circling the Mun a few times, Jeb takes in the sights and even bothers to write down some observations before burning for home, bringing back a significant haul of useful information and an inflated ego.

The mood at KSC is increasingly positive. Over the past week, the R&D team has finalised their design for "solar panels", which should solve our electrical shortages, and several sponsors have developed enough confidence to back us for our first Mun landing, with the result that we've finally been able to upgrade the VAB to allow for some larger rockets.

After which we have a mighty 66k roots in the bank. The tracking station team are mostly playing pub golf and moaning about not actually having any equipment with which to do anything. HR puts up some handwritten posters that say "A frugal space program is a still-operational space program." 

(This now is the first career in which I'm going to have to land on Mun without the ability to take a surface sample... that 450k upgrade for the research dept feels a very long way away! Hopefully the contract system will notice I have solar panels now and start asking for some satellite launches...)

[manek22]

Worked on my Mun/Minmus hopper.  Used to take new Kerbals from Jack Station in LKO to Mun/Min, and back to the fueling station.  This version has 1 pilot and 8 passengers.  Working on one for Duna that has 16 passengers.

*Edit because words*

 

Edited December 15, 2018 by manek22
Because words

[Xurkitree]

1 hour ago, RedBee92 said:

You made an engine have the same performance as an aerospike?

No better in higher atmospheres, and worse in space.

[Hotel26]

I test flew a Starfighter I had downloaded recently.  it was fun and it inspired me to make one of my own with a bit more realistic proportions.

(I only do stock components, though.)

Lots of fun to fly, especially the landings...

Edited December 15, 2018 by Hotel26

[capi3101]

I spent my day yesterday continuing to expand the nascent Piper Alpha Pathfinder outpost on Mun and the Deepwater Horizon Pathfinder outpost on Minmus. I was able to complete the remaining facilities print jobs at Piper Alpha and I was able to get all of the structures in place with the exception of the Pipeline mass driver and three Castillo units I intend to build there eventually. I did have a few issues getting the Rangeland unit in place, but I got them sorted out; at this point, I'm in a position to launch Mun missions directly from Piper Alpha. Next up there is getting the Pipeline installed, and once that's done I can launch a receiving end mass driver to space station Munport. I am a little concerned that I don't have enough personnel operating the base right now. Should that prove to be the case, I'll be sending some more kerbals that way before too long.

Deepwater Horizon is coming along fairly nicely. At this point the base has got several resource warehouses, two Claimjumper stripmining units and a pair of Ironworks foundrys, and I'm beginning the process of putting the base onto nuclear power; that's been slow going on account of the relatively fast rotational cycle on Minmus - the base currently uses solar. The plan there is to use Pathfinder's distributed base system to set up a small nuclear power station a few hundred meters to the west - the outpost itself is on the Greater Flats but it's close to the boundary of the Lowlands, which have a much higher content of uranium ore. The initial attempt to build structures there failed; both the Saddle base unit and the Pondarosa habitat I printed up to start the new outpost spontaneously combusted - what I get for not grabbing the KAS screwdriver first. I'll have to reprint those structures and try again later. A mission to retrieve the remains of the transfer stage that delivered Deepwater Horizon to Minmus also took place; that mission had some limited success. 

Plan for now is to continue to expand the outposts. Mun's just about ready. Minmus still has a bit of a ways to go.

[Xurkitree]

Definition of rocket 

(Entry 1 of 3)

: any of several plants of the mustard family: such as

a : ARUGULA

b : DAME'S ROCKET

I found out this

[Daveroski]

4 hours ago, manek22 said:

Worked on my Mun/Minmus hopper.  Used to take new Kerbals from Jack Station in LKO to Mun/Min, and back to the fueling station.  This version has 1 pilot and 8 passengers.  Working on one for Duna that has 16 passengers.

*Edit because words*

 

I bet you are really pleased that now only one guy has to leave the ship and plant a flag so that everyone in the ship gets the 'planted a flag' qualification.

 

[RealKerbal3x]

I brought STS-4 back from the space station, but due to my bad piloting a control system glitch we overshot the KSC at an altitude of 50km and ended up ditching in the ocean ~200km out from the space centre. Pics to come tomorrow in a mission report (I should probably stop plugging my thread )

And my first ever flag on the Mun, planted by Jeb ages ago, mysteriously disappeared . At least the Aquarius' descent stage is still there.

[eddiew]

The age of space tourism has arrived! Two VIPs, two separate orbital trips, getting EVA reports from orbit above every biome, plus some useful surface science and always-needed roots. With the data and funding from these local missions, R&D were able to put together schematics for even heavier SRBs, propelling (pun intended) our third tourist to munar orbit.

And indeed her deep pockets finally allowed us to upgrade the VAB and build a rocket capable of landing on Mun and returning from Mun. 

Once again, we sent Valentina, since she seems to have an eye for eyeballing those orbits with minimal deviation, and frankly she doesn't talk back to flight control as much as Jeb does. Turned out that engineering had given the Mundog some godawful* low-thrust engine that delivered barely 1.6 TWR at Mun, which was pretty horrible, but Val somehow got things under control within 100m of the surface and managed a soft landing despite the screw up. Fortunately it didn't matter much on the ascent, and the efficient, puny engine soon had her on the way back to Kerbin.

...where she may have left ejecting the return stage just slightly later than would normally be advised, however. But no harm was done, and her pod landed safely despite the fireworks.

(Also I'm quite impressed with myself for managing thus far without manoeuvre nodes. I don't fancy trying for Minmus without them, but clearly I can get to Mun and back as many times as needed to get the funds and science to upgrade the KSC facilities.

*Also the Mundog's engine cannot be fairly described as godawful. It's actually the most efficient thing on the shelf right now, and would be superb for probes, but it's also very low thrust, and frankly I mistook it for a Spark in the VAB so I got a nasty shock on starting my descent. Lucky it had the grunt to set down at all, that could easily have been a mission abort and return home if I'd stuck any extra weight onto that lander!)

Edited December 15, 2018 by eddiew

[Pthigrivi]

Just about maxed my shuttle finally. Time to upgrade?

Then realized I'd spent almost an hour making staffing decisions.