What did you do in KSP1 today?

[RizzoTheRat]

Well this happened (apologies the quality seems a bit rubbish when recorded with the inbuilt windows 10 thing)

 

It's measuring the ground slope in degrees from horizontal, and once it halts the horizontal movement it heads off down slope at 20m/s, while limiting its descent speed, in search of somewhere at less than 15 degrees slope.  It gets a small flattish patch at about 1:50 in this example and starts to decelerate but not quick enough so heads off down slope again.  Red line is the required velocity down slope, blue is the horizontal velocity, green the delta, and yellow the required thrust vector to get maintain the hover and taxi in the right direction.

Probably not the most efficient way of doing the job, the hover taxi phase uses about 25% of the amount of fuel used to brake for orbital speed, but it does work and should mean I can do automated landings without the ships sliding off down the hill once they land.

 

 

ETA:

Put the whole script together and Val took a couple of tourists to the East Farside crater, and as luck would have it chose a landing point that only had a 12 degree slope so didn't need the terrain following code...which is just as well as the test ship used 25 fuel in the hover, and Val got home with 17 fuel remaining in the Frankenlander (it was a hastily cobbled together upgrade of the single seat lander that made extensive use of boosters to get in to orbit).  I think a better design of 3 seat lander is needed.

 

Edited March 26, 2019 by RizzoTheRat

[MacLuky]

14 hours ago, Angel-125 said:

Uh, that was like two years ago... But yes, it ended up in DSEV along with my other 2.5m station parts.

Installed!

[Draconiator]

I PROBABLY made the most Kerbal thing ever:

- Chance of bodily harm?

- Potential for things to go wrong?

- Jeb would love to fly it?

 

[Arzielle]

3 hours ago, Draconiator said:

I PROBABLY made the most Kerbal thing ever:

- Chance of bodily harm?

- Potential for things to go wrong?

- Jeb would love to fly it?

 

If you put enough guns on that thing, you might be able to reach orbit!

[MaverickSawyer]

Following up on yesterday's arrival at Gilly, mapping of the smallest celestial body in KSP was completed. Total biome count: 3. Time to science!

I directed Solaris 2 into a descent towards the surface, aiming for a highlands biome. Courtesy of the ridiculously low gravity, even the slightest nudge of the throttle with my low-tier ion engine resulted in TWRs of 2:1 or better. That meant that I could safely land with the solar panels retracted, to avoid any chance of breaking them, and still have enough electrical power to make a clean launch back to safer altitudes before deploying the panels again.

Following the successful landing and science session in the highlands, I made a quick jaunt over to the nearby Midlands biome...

And the Lowlands Biome as well, gathering science galore. Following this, Solaris 2 was directed into what was supposed to be a high-altitude orbit to loiter until the next window from Kerbin to Eve, where it would act as a communications relay. However, I overestimated the size of Gilly's SoI, and was instead launched into an escape orbit. I opted to not burn any fuel just yet, as the orbit would carry Solaris 2 back into Gilly's SoI in half an orbit around Eve, and then recaptured. Capture burn was a meager 2.2 m/s.

Pro tip for you younger players: Time is cheap. dV is not. 

 

Other missions and developments:

-Solaris 3 was finalized and sent on its way to Moho.

-All but two of my Duna campaign missions have finished their midcourse correction burns. The primary flotilla will be arriving over a 21-day window, with only two rather close arrivals, which even then are an hour apart. I can easily handle that.

-Launched a crew rotation for my Outpost on Minmus.

-Another round of experiments collected and returned from Minmus Station. I'll be able to lower it to a near Minmus orbit here soon... which means even more science!

-Speaking of the station, I added a compact nuclear reactor (more of a overpowered RTG to be honest...) to the aft end for additional power during dark periods in the orbit...

Standoff spar installation

 

Completed reactor assembly

 

And finally, I designed a mini-shuttle that seats six, as well as a booster that can (hopefully) deploy it.

Nearly a third of the part count is just in fins at the business end to keep it flying straight. But, should that not be enough, there's a potent LES/OMS system that did get tested, along with testing the ability of the shuttle to land safely. That part passed with flying colors at Max Q, so I'm comfortable with proceeding to an all-up test.

LES test flight

Sadly, my game crashed after I reverted to the VAB following the abort test, so I haven't tested it all the way to orbit yet. I'll have to add a docking adapter to my LKO station to accept this thing, too...

Hmm. Back to KSP! 

 

EDIT: Turns out, it flies great!

More pics of the ascent in the spoiler box below...

Spoiler

An inspection of the TPS and OMS engines was performed by the flight/test engineer...

It seems he's pleased with the results.

And, a quick sneak peek into what the station's scientists are up to...

The break from the monotony was much welcomed. 

Edited March 27, 2019 by MaverickSawyer

[capi3101]

Spent the bulk of my playing time yesterday with ScanSat Eve performing narrow-band passes in search of suitable sites to put down a TBD base on Eve's surface. I've cleared ten of fifteen biomes as of this morning, and three of the ones that are left are seas (I'm amazed at just how much of Eve's surface area is covered in liquid - never really realized it until now), so I'm calling the job finished. Pretty sure Olympus would've been usable but it's not equatorial, and I can't find the Craters for the life of me. I'll probably be putting the base either in the Midlands or Lowlands, since they both have concentrations of all the key resources I'm looking for. I've got a target area selected near a boundary between the two, so the next step is to put down an unmanned Hellhound rover in the area to scout for someplace suitably flat.

What time I didn't spend with ScanSat Eve yesterday was spent with print jobs aboard LSV House Harkonnen, which finished warping from its high polar orbit over Eve to a high equatorial orbit. First order of business for the day was the print of a heavily modified White Noise 7 communications probe, which replaced the lost Evecomm Bravo satellite I was forced to deorbit on Monday. When complete, the White Noise - rechristened as 'Evecomm Bravo', effectively ignoring that the previous probe ever existed - was fueled and burned to rendezvous with the Evecomm Alpha satellite, which was in position and became the reference point for the new satellite's deployment.

Evecomm Bravo (fore) at a distance of twelve meters from Evecomm Alpha (back), with Eve's Eastern Sea and Crater Sea visible.

The probe successfully made the rendezvous, then conducted the necessary set of maneuvers to put itself in a final position, successfully completing Eve's CommNet network.

♫ Triangle Man, Triangle Man ♫ / ♫ Triangle Man hates Particle Man ♫ / ♫ There's a fight ♫ / ♫ Triangle wins ♫ / ♫ Triangle Man. ♫

Harkonnen also completed, fueled and launched two more Pink Noise 7 communications satellite carriers and another ScanSat, in this case ScanSat Gilly. The probes will be left in high orbit over Eve and sent to Gilly when I get the go-ahead to begin exploration operations there. At this point, Harkonnen doesn't have enough remaining Rocket Parts on board to print off the Hellhound I need for the surface scouting run, so she'll be heading to Duna as soon as ScanSat Gilly clears the physics range of the ship's Alcubierre Drive; I'm giving it an hour at this point, which should be sufficient time. Harkonnen is carrying a fair number of tourists wanting to visit Duna and Ike, and she has staff aboard needing training, so that all will get underway as soon as she arrives. While there, she'll undergo a resupply mission. My plan had been for her to go back with the TBD landing on Eve, so at this point I may be sending LSV House Atreides currently over Kerbin to Eve with the printed rover. Makes sense to do that. Still have a planned colonist/tourist delivery run to Minmus scheduled with the new Auk XVI spaceplane as well. Nothing really interesting going on right now...

[RizzoTheRat]

Rescued 2 Kerbals in Kerbin Orbit, 2 in Mun orbit, and another 2 in Kerbin orbit before I finally got a scientist.  On the plus side my KOS rendezvous script has undergone a few refinements but I've now got 5 pilots in a space programme that doesn't really need them

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Well, then. You've got plenty of crash test dummies now, don't you?

[Tyko]

Finally actually playing again after months of modding and non-KSP time...whew!  Custom Stock solar system - 2.5x scaling, Minmus removed, Mun at a higher orbit, 30% science.

Successfully orbited my first Kerbal - Pilot Shelming Keragzai completed 5 orbits and splashed down just East of KSC. Here's hoping I get to play a lot more.

Link to album: https://imgur.com/a/qVK6C8c

Edited March 27, 2019 by Tyko

[A Random Kerbonaut]

I landed on Duna for the first time! (And lost my fuel in orbit...)

[MisterKerman]

Just picking away at KSP little by little when I get time. Mostly running experiments in a polar orbit above Kerbin while I avoid yet another commercial lander redesign for efficiency and more importantly looks.

[Salmon]

Today (well, yesterday actually) I managed to design a rocket that can launch this thing elliptical Kerbol orbit. I'll update it soon.

[scottadges]

Concept to KSP

Going through my "inspiration folder" for Spaceship Design, I found this concept artwork (I've had it a while) from this very cool artist over at DeviantArt. It's presumably based on the Nautilus X concept, but with a much more stylized and technical look. It occurred to me...that I might build it in KSP.  

"Mission Mars Vehicle" - original concept art by Dofresh:

My iteration of the Duna Mission Vehicle (DMV), including the DMV:LAR (Land and Return) and DMV:CCT (Crew & Cargo Transfer) Vehicles

Here are more images from the build process:

Spoiler

I've optimized it for a round trip to Duna, which was quite a challenge given the design isn't efficient in KSP terms. It has a little over 3400 m/s in the main ship, with enough dV for the lander to make a round trip to the surface. Both the LAR and CCT are independently RCS balanced and have sufficient dV and power generation aboard to make them quite versatile.

I had to modify the concept art design slightly to allow the the solar panels, large comms boom, and radiator boom to be assembled in orbit, as well as the articulated solar panel at the front wasn't feasible. 

The intention is to bring this to orbit over multiple launches:

1. Drive section (connected with Sr. docking ports just behind the Command section
2. Cargo Pods (3x in one launch)
3. Command/Hab section (RCS balanced for docking)
4. DMV Lander (rear docking hub)
5. DMV Crew & Cargo Transfer (front docking port)
6. Solar Panels / Comms / Radiators (with separate tugs for construction)

Then it's off to Duna!

Edited March 28, 2019 by scottadges

[DeltaDizzy]

[MaverickSawyer]

3 minutes ago, DeltaDizzy said:

That made it to orbit?

*whistles in respect*

[DeltaDizzy]

Just now, MaverickSawyer said:

That made it to orbit?

*whistles in respect*

I didnt post any pics of it in space now did I?

Just an atmosphere escaper, but orbit is next.

[MaverickSawyer]

1 hour ago, DeltaDizzy said:

I didnt post any pics of it in space now did I?

Just an atmosphere escaper, but orbit is next.

Well, I did this at the start of a previous save, and it made orbit...

A slightly different version (more up to date version of BDB, mostly, but the little solar batteries, too) made it to Minmus's orbital altitude, no sweat. It's all about the trajectory.  

[Puggonaut]

Wernher " Jeb were not waitng 5 years "

 

[Hotel26]

On 3/27/2019 at 6:34 AM, Draconiator said:

I PROBABLY made the most Kerbal thing ever

You got an environmental study first, right?

I'm just a little shocked, I have to say...  and nervous.

[capi3101]

Another pretty slow day to report to y'all today. On the plus side, I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel as far as the other "goings on" that have been eating into my playing time is concerned, so I'm hoping things will pick up soon.

 

My day began with a quick re-design of the Hellhound 7a rover from 1.4.x; changes included the removal of the booster for orbital production and a narrowing of the skycrane so the craft would fit inside the smaller drydock of one of my warp ships. I also went forward with the design of the TBD 7d base-seeding rover, a design intended to survive entry at Eve. Changes from the 7c and 7d included the addition of a ten meter heat shield, some chutes up near the front, a trio of radial tanks with Vector engines attached, and the movement of all of the usual base structure equipment from an open pallet on the craft's exterior to an internally stored module. The rover itself is not as long as previous TBD models. I won't know if the craft will be capable of making a survivable entry until the time comes, of course. I'm considering sending it down unmanned and have the crew go down later in case everything goes south, but haven't made a final decision there just yet.

 

LSV House Atreides was given the order to begin production of the revised Hellhound 7a; Ceri Kerman is the only engineer aboard (indeed, the only kerbal aboard) right now, so production is going to be slow-going; the rover should be ready in seven days. Meanwhile, to support the rover's production, Atreides was moved into a 305x100 kilometer, 0.5 degree inclined resupply orbit over Kerbin via conventional drive. The South Base outpost near KSC resupplied Atreides with a fresh load of Rocket Parts, as well as some standard fuel stores and Xenon gas for her warp drive. The decision to send Atreides out again opened up an opportunity for me, as it turned out - I had three tourist stragglers whose contract I picked up right after LSV House Harkonnen departed, and Atreides just happened to have a Minnow 7b touring craft docked. In an effort to speed up that print job, my intent is now to send Atreides over to Duna first and send some engineers over from Harkonnen; Atreides will deliver the stragglers, and when the rover is finished, will go deliver it to the target area on Eve. To support this plan, the Minnow departed Atreides and affected a successful rendezvous and docking with space station Kerbinport. A short while ago, the stragglers were loaded aboard an Auk XVI 12-passenger spaceplane along with nine colonists headed to the Deepwater Horizon outpost on Minmus. The Auk took off and at the present time has reached space; it's still on a sub-orbital trajectory as of this post, with plans to get it to Kerbinport later this morning.

 

House Harkonnen, meanwhile, had finished up all the tasks necessary to set up communications infrastructure in the Eve/Gilly SOI and was low on extra parts, so I went ahead and activated her warp drive to send her and her boatful of tourists on to Duna.

Harkonnen departing Eve. No doubt she'll be back sooner rather than later.

 

Harkonnen originally attempted a straight warp to Duna but arrived going far too fast for effective use of the warp-back technique to enter a stable orbit, so she departed and warped to a position 1.06 Gm over Kerbol on a heading directly away from the star, using the pull of its gravity to slow down. While there, she went ahead and took the opportunity to recharge her Exotic Matter stores using the ship's solar panels and on-board generator. Harkonnen is still conducting the slowdown maneuver as of this post; it should take a few more hours to complete, at which point the ship will head back to Duna.

 

Plans for the day are to get the Auk to Kerbinport, shuffle around the tourists, refuel the plane at Kerbinport and get it on its way towards Minmus. The Minnow will deliver the stragglers to Atreides, which should then be ready to depart for Duna. And then Harkonnen will also be heading that way - I've never attempted two warps at the same time, and I can see the prospect getting pretty tricky. I may go ahead and finish Harkonnen's maneuver before Atreides departs Kerbin just to avoid that headache. And of course, there's no guarantee that I'll get that far with the game today anyway...really need some things in RL to finish up so I can get back to serious business......

[Raptor42]

Only time that I was in KSP today was when I was taking screenshots for this blueprint of my launch vehicle that I use in my career game. Its name is "Europa". For some reason I decided to name my rockets with names of Jovian moons, my next rocket that I'm working on now is named "Io". I have to say... making blueprints is time-consuming, each is about 3 hours of work in Photoshop (Yes, I'm very very slow). Also the .psd file i made the .png from had something like 250MB. I'm planning on printing them as decoration for my room. The mods used in this vehicle are ReStock, ReStock+ and Cryogenic Engines with LF/O plugin. I hope to release those rockets to KerbalX Soon^TM. 

 

Edited March 28, 2019 by Raptor42

[RizzoTheRat]

I think it can safely be said that I got a bit too cocky.

I don't usually use Science labs, but as I'm playing with entirely with KOS progress is slower than usual so I figured I'd give them a go.

I was very smug when the circularization burn at the Mun turned out to need 0.14 seconds of burn time more than the transfer stage had, so the last little adjustment was with the landers engine after dumping the transfer stage.  Front front to back: 3 seater return stage;  core station module with the lab, fuel, monopropellant, 4 docking ports, solar pannels, a couple of weeks USI-LS supplies, etc; 2 seat Mun lander with science package; and the transfer stage.  Crew of 2 pilots, 2 scientists and 2 tourists.  Jeb will take the tourists home after they've both landed and a resupply ship will bring more fuel, supplies and another return capsule.

 

So flush with success form that I set the lander off for a fully automated landing in the Midland Craters.  Now Iv'e got all my functions sorted out this is pretty simple

runpath("Funcs-Common").
runpath("Funcs-Moons").
runpath("Funcs-RVDock").
Clearscreen.
ChangeApsis("",15000).  //Apsis, altitude
Circularize("Pe").      //Apsis
Munland(2.5,-101).		//Lat, Long	
Print "Do Science!".
wait 600.
Set warp to 0.
wait until kuniverse:timewarp:issettled.
WaitLaunch("MunStation1",20).	//target, lead angle
Munlaunch(15000,0).  	// Altitude, core fuel
RVTgt("MunStation1").

 

BUT...

I forgot about that 2.5 degrees Latitude, meaning the rendezvous didn't work quite as planned....

 

Quite impressed that it still managed to dock ok from 16km away, only issue was by using RCS for course correction it was going a lot quicker than usual when it started the final braking manoeuvre, and banged in to the station, but luckily no damage and it docked with plenty of fuel and RCS left.

Now I need to build a plane change script.

[Arzielle]

Today I messed with raster prop monitor and vessel viewer mod. I must say I was quite impressed. This is one of the stock SSTO's and I managed to get it into orbit from IVA, although it wasn't the most efficient orbit since I can't go too fast in the atmosphere when playing with FAR, deadly re-entry and 120% re-entry heating. I wasn't able to make a safe journey back however, even at the shallowest reentry, the cockpit blew up. The engines were facing the wrong way on the viewing screens, but other than that the mod was great! I had the screens set to display orbital information, fuel levels, drag, lift and heating.

Edited March 29, 2019 by Arzielle

[Tyko]

8 hours ago, Raptor42 said:



Nice design! I went with something similar to your Europa Heavy. The only difference is I went with LVT-30 engines for the boosters. The single LV-T45 in the center core still provides enough attitude control and the two LV-T30 have a much better power to weight ratio. 

Great blueprint too   

 

Edited March 29, 2019 by Tyko

[Zosma Procyon]

I have a contract for a station orbiting Duna, so I built this. It's not quite ready, and still needs RCS jets.

Edited March 29, 2019 by Zosma Procyon