What did you do in KSP1 today?

Loskene · April 16, 2019

2 hours ago, purpleivan said:

It's a never ending cycle.

I bet you wish you decided on solar electric propulsion now.

Watching your little boat tour I've kind of wanted to explore more of Kerbin's landscape by non-space-based vehicle, but in a fashion that would take less time than your journey. Maybe a seaplane carrying a rover, something that can transport Kerbals anywhere and just go sightseeing. I might make the refuelling process a bit more interesting though, seeing as there's a lot of it when covering real ground. Maybe firing suborbital drop pods ahead from KSC and having the plane land near wherever they end up. Adventure!

Edited April 16, 2019 by Loskene

Barzon · April 16, 2019

I "landed" a booster! And built a station!

GarrisonChisholm · April 16, 2019

I built a space plane and when it was deployed to the tarmac an oscillation left and right began. Which amplified. With or without SAS.

Until it shook itself off the runway and started shedding parts.

Fun.

Cavscout74 · April 17, 2019

After being away from KSP for a while, I updated to 1.7 & started messing with the Restock mod. I had just been released when I stopped playing KSP, so I wanted to see how it looked. Short version: Now I have to figure out what mods I don't want so I can keep Restock.

Just messing around in sandbox with a simple 2.5m launcher & capsule. Pictured here prior to stage separation, but with everything deployed:

DeupxM1.png?2

Drifting to Ap, showing off the Restock version of the Poodle & service bay:

xpU4gDS.png?2

And now ready for reentry:

vv3bhr5.png?2

Castille7 · April 17, 2019

purpleivan · April 17, 2019

7 hours ago, Loskene said:

I bet you wish you decided on solar electric propulsion now.

Watching your little boat tour I've kind of wanted to explore more of Kerbin's landscape by non-space-based vehicle, but in a fashion that would take less time than your journey. Maybe a seaplane carrying a rover, something that can transport Kerbals anywhere and just go sightseeing. I might make the refuelling process a bit more interesting though, seeing as there's a lot of it when covering real ground. Maybe firing suborbital drop pods ahead from KSC and having the plane land near wherever they end up. Adventure!

Sounds like a fun plane to take a seaplane to points arond Kerbin.

I actually started with the plant to have an electricly propelled boat. However with the engine designs I found and mods I added, the speed was so low that it would have been more painful than all the refuelling. It's not something I'd used before, so possibly I made a mistake somewhere and I bailed on the idea too early.

MiscelanousItem · April 17, 2019

Over the last few days the KSC has been busy:

The first launch of a manned space craft was MOSS-1 "Kiwi" which was flown by Val :

Val spent 5 days in orbit listening to Pink Floyd

After the recovery of Kiwi-1 the KSC focused on the upcoming Kea program, for this purpose 2 facilities required upgrades: the R&D and the VAB.
To get the money required for the upgrades I resulted to the infamous contract bail-out grant combo(Val thought this was a lie, she might have listened to too much Pink Floyd).After these upgrades were completed I launched the very ambitious EOS-9 which aim was recovery of data from space around Minmus:

Jazzy reentry:

That mission netted me tons of science:

So now I'm ready for the Kea program:

Kea will serve as a orbiter for Munar missions, but it will also serve docking and LKO operations such as rendez-vous with Space Station Alpha (not a definitive name):

Edited April 17, 2019 by MiscelanousItem

Xurkitree · April 17, 2019

I made this -

capi3101 · April 17, 2019

(1.6.1) My log looks pretty busy this morning - taking up three whole lines of coded text, which is definitely longer than normal...

With the arrival of my team of engineers - Bill, Lucas, Ardon, Gilford and Gemlord - at the Bi-La Kaifa Shipyards over Duna on Monday, it was time to put them to work. The Enchova Central outpost on the Dunan surface shot up fuel supplies and Rocket Parts via mass driver, at which point the engineers began the print of a Bill Clinton 7c grabber probe. With an efficiency rating of 18.6, it only took the team ninety minutes to print it up. While that was ongoing, the CM Crew Adapter module I'd printed up at the Non Mentha Yards over Minmus on Monday finally arrived at space station Minmusport.

If this thing looks to you like three Mk-I crew cabins and a Mk-I lander can cobbled onto a piece of structural fuselage with a transfer stage, there might be a reason...

Once docked to the station, the Crater Maker 7 8-passenger lander undocked from the station and proceeded to dock with the Crew Adapter.

Double-docking. Yea...

Once docked, colonists Valman, Trafred, Tatiana, Calkin, Dudfen, Sheplorf, Samger, Rorim and Nelrie Kerman boarded the composite craft, which then departed from the station then landed at the Deepwater Horizon outpost on the surface. The lander was hooked up to the outpost and the new colonists transferred into the second of three Castillo modules at DH, where they will stay for the next 33 days. Still haven't gotten the mechanism that is supposed to allow me to retrain colonists into crewmembers working, unfortunately; at this point I've got a really big candidate pool otherwise...

Once unloaded the lander was refueled and then took off to rendezvous with the space station; the rendezvous is scheduled to take place ten minutes from now and will likely be one of the first things I take care of in my next game session.

With the colonists away, some fuel stores were transferred from Minmusport directly to the Auk XVI 12-passenger spaceplane that had delivered the colonists to the station along with tourists Obsey and Erbal Kerman, who just had contracts to take them to Minmus's orbit. The plane departed the station afterwards and burned for a return to Kerbin.

Auk XVI departing Minmus.

The plane should reach Kerbin periapsis in about 25 hours.

I decided next to address a basic flaw with the Dystopia Planitia 7 orbital shipyard design, namely that they were solely dependent upon solar power; their receiving-end mass drivers require a lot of power and it turned out that at Bi-La Kaifa there weren't sufficient solar panels installed to keep the mass driver operational even in daylight. I adjusted the base design to include a quad of SAFER nuclear reactors for future stations, but needed to do something with the existing ones To that end and with Game of Thrones on my mind of late, I designed the Hodor 7 nuclear extension probe, basically 4 SAFERs cobbled onto a piece of structural fuselage with docking ports on both ends, with a detachable docking and transfer stage. Once the Clinton was completed at BLK, I began printing a Hodor 7; it took my engineering team a mere 45 minutes to complete the first one, which was quickly docked up to BLK. Once the enriched uranium supply for the reactors was shot up from Enchova Central, the station finally had a steady supply of ample power. A second Hodor was prepared at BLK for installation at the Infans Calcitrant Yards over Ike; the second unit completed printing earlier this morning and is currently on its way towards Ike. Meanwhile, the Clinton successfully rendezvoused and grabbed Siefen's Craft from low Duna orbit, and at this point has a rendezvous set with LSV House Harkonnen in high Duna orbit. That rendezvous is likely to take place later today.

At this point, my crew at Bi-La Kaifa is done with their basic job, which was to deliver Ardon Kerman to her post; they just did a few prints while they were all still together. Next on my to-do list is to delivery Lucas to Infans Calcitrant, and maybe have Bill and Gemlorf visit the surface of Ike; neither is rated at higher than two-stars despite the fact that both of them have been to Ike, Duna and Eve orbit at this point, so bare minimum they need to visit an outpost with a lab module so they can punch their tickets. I've got the Clinton's rendezvous with Harkonnen coming up as well as the Crater Maker's return to Minmusport, and I could really stand to spend some time at Enchova Central recharging the outpost's resource stores; they've taken quite a hit lately with everything that's been going on. I'm not done at Central yet either - Harkonnen still needs to take on supplies for the TBD rover she's hauling. After all that though, I should finally be able to relax a little bit for a few days, at least until the Auk gets back to Kerbin, and definitely until experiments finish up at space station Dunaport here in a few days time. Still plenty busy in the meantime.

AFF · April 17, 2019

How simply test TS-50 separator splashed down on Kerbin:

Jett_Quasar · April 17, 2019

The craft files for both of these designs have finally been posted:

Download the pure stock craft file from KerbalX here:

https://kerbalx.com/Jett_Quasar/Lunar-Express

And from the Steam Workshop here:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1712506399

- Jett

Loskene · April 17, 2019

14 hours ago, purpleivan said:

Sounds like a fun plane to take a seaplane to points arond Kerbin.

I actually started with the plant to have an electricly propelled boat. However with the engine designs I found and mods I added, the speed was so low that it would have been more painful than all the refuelling. It's not something I'd used before, so possibly I made a mistake somewhere and I bailed on the idea too early.

Boats I've found to be finicky alright. Sometimes they just get hung up on something and make it impossible to pick up speed in the drink, often necessitating a major redesign. Particularly painful are seaplanes because of this and depending on how big I go it may require hydrofoils or something just to lift off, idk.

Does KSP model hydrofoils the same way as aerofoils, or am I just setting myself up for hydrofailure?

Edited April 17, 2019 by Loskene

purpleivan · April 17, 2019

13 minutes ago, Loskene said:

Boats I've found to be finicky alright. Sometimes they just get hung up on something and make it impossible to pick up speed in the drink, often necessitating a major redesign. Particularly painful are seaplanes because of this and depending on how big I go it may require hydrofoils or something just to lift off, idk.

Does KSP model hydrofoils the same way as aerofoils, or am I just setting myself up for hydrofailure?

I don't know the different between the two really, other than they're giving lift in different mediums. I've got not special insight into it, but I know what you mean about small tweaks making huge differences.

The "Kitchen Sink" boat I made a few days ago (the one with the rover, 2 jets and the minisub) would lose 1about 15% of its top speed if I filled three fairly small fuel tanks at the rear (less than 5% of the fuel capacity). I could only put it down to the boat being very slightly more level in the water without the fuel, so had less drag. But the difference wasn't visible at all... only showed up in the speed of the thing.

Loskene · April 17, 2019

8 minutes ago, purpleivan said:

I don't know the different between the two really, other than they're giving lift in different mediums. I've got not special insight into it, but I know what you mean about small tweaks making huge differences.

The "Kitchen Sink" boat I made a few days ago (the one with the rover, 2 jets and the minisub) would lose 1about 15% of its top speed if I filled three fairly small fuel tanks at the rear (less than 5% of the fuel capacity). I could only put it down to the boat being very slightly more level in the water without the fuel, so had less drag. But the difference wasn't visible at all... only showed up in the speed of the thing.

Hmm, yeah. If the game treats water like soupy air, the best way to go fast in it is to avoid being in it to begin with, keeping a tall, streamlined stance, hydrofoils or abusing nosecones and other aero model tricks.

RizzoTheRat · April 17, 2019

Delivered a station/lander combo to Minmus, and then found my plane change and vacuum landing KOS script has a few bugs that need ironing it.

600 is a sensible TWR for a Minmus lander right?

Pipcard · April 18, 2019

Preparing for my first Jool 5 - docked the (relatively tiny) lander for Tylo and other airless moons ("Jool Rabbit 1") to the Negi Maru

fulgur · April 18, 2019

Made a space station with USI Life Support. Enjoying Navball Docking Alignment Indicator a lot! (Much simpler than the non navball version).

FleshJeb · April 18, 2019

12 hours ago, Loskene said:

Hmm, yeah. If the game treats water like soupy air, the best way to go fast in it is to avoid being in it to begin with, keeping a tall, streamlined stance, hydrofoils or abusing nosecones and other aero model tricks.

Drag is proportional to density, and water is ~1000x as dense as air, so you're absolutely correct. I strongly recommend hydrofoils. 3 to 5 degrees angle of incidence on the foils seems to be around optimal (just like planes), and 5 to 15 degrees of dihedral. I try to the smallest amount of wing and thrust I can--Enough to barely get the craft up onto the foils when fully fueled and loaded. Otherwise, you can easily end up with an accidental plane. Balancing your lift can be a real challenge, because you're designing a craft that's operating in two different "worlds" at the same time. There's a lot of trial and error involved with hydrofoils, even if you're using RCS Build Aid, CorrectCoL, and Editor Extensions. Vessel Mover can speed the design process by getting you to the water faster for your testing iterations.

My best results have come from designing the craft to be passively stable, driving without SAS, and using only trim to keep the nose pointed at the horizon. I have a very solid hydrofoil I can PM you if you'd like something to test out.

capi3101 · April 18, 2019

(1.6.1) Screenie-less day for y'all today. Yesterday was pretty much a "shuffle things around" kind of day anyways...

My day started with work wrapped up at the Bi-La Kaifa Shipyards over Duna. Bill along with engineers Lucas, Gemlorf and Gilford Kerman boarded Gilligan docked at the shipyard, which then departed after taking on fuel supplies. Gilligan then departed and burned for Ike and an eventual rendezvous with the Infans Calcitrant Yards in orbit. As of this post, that rendezvous is set but won't take place for about another 75 minutes. Engineer Ardon Kerman remained at Bi-La Kaifa, where she'll serve as the shipyard's permanent station engineer. The second of two Hodor 7 nuclear reactor probes printed at BLK also burned for Ike and a rendezvous with Infans Calcitrant, and like Gilligan, that rendezvous is set. Because the probe is low on fuel, I've got it making several orbits around Ike before coming to the shipyard - it will be close to a day before it finally arrives.

Having completed the mission to rendezvous and pick up Siefen's Craft to take back to Kerbin, a Bill Clinton 7c grabber probe made its way to LSV House Harkonnen in a resupply orbit over Duna. I had left Nostromo 7 docked to Harkonnen the other day when I'd had it deliver Materials Kits to the warp ship, and it was taking up the last docking spot along the Harkonnen's central hub, so I went ahead and transferred off the fuel from the side tanks and had Nostromo depart for space station Dunaport; even without the side tanks, the lack of cargo gave the craft nearly 5000 m/s of delta-V; she arrived at the station safely late in the day. Meanwhile, the Clinton docked to Harkonnen and scientist Siefen Kerman should be set to return to Kerbin at the next opportunity.

Not much else happened yesterday. The Auk XVI 12-passenger spaceplane left Minmus's SOI en route to Kerbin with two tourists aboard, the Crater Maker 7 15-passenger lander docked safely at space station Minmusport and fuel supplies were shot up to the station from the Deepwater Horizon outpost on the surface, multiple supplies were shot up to Harkonnen from the Enchova Central outpost on Duna, and I did a check of all ongoing science experiments - they're still going to be several days finishing up. I did finally figure out that I needed to release the Venkmann 7 lander from the drydock at the Piper Alpha outpost on Mun in order for its science experiment to finally start; it'll be fifteen days before it finishes up at this point, but at least the damn experiment is finally running...

Today I hope to get Gilligan and the Hodor 7 to ICY; Lucas will be manning that outpost. I'm keeping Gilligan there for now in case it becomes necessary to go grab the Hodor and deliver more fuel to it. After that, Gilligan will be heading over to space station Ikeport, where Bill and Gemlorf are scheduled to go down and plant flags. They should both be eligible for promotion to 4-stars once that's done. From there, Gilligan heads back to Dunaport to await the completion of science experiments there in a few days, after which everybody not staying at Duna will be heading to Harkonnen for departure. Eve's next up on the long-range itinerary. I'll see how far along I get today.

OrbitalBuzzsaw · April 18, 2019

Launched the Kerbin System Transfer Vehicle (Better name pending) to the Mun with crew for the newly completed and enormous Mun Gateway.

I used an R1 rather than building a custom booster (This is a new save and as of right now I only have the R1 in terms of standardized boosters. I really like how the R1 came out and it's a joy to fly. 3 Vectors drawing from 2 Jumbo64 tanks, plus 8x LV-T30s asparagus staged each with 2x FLT-800s, upper stage is a 32-size tank, probe core, 600 EC in batteries, 4x small solar panels, antenna, fairing and decoupler powered by a skiff. The heaviest I've hauled is ~35t to Mun orbit, but with some fancy flying it could easily inject that much to Duna/Eve, so using it to launch a 17t, self-manuvering ship that only really needs to be boosted to LKO is kind of ridiculous, but it looks really cool IMO.

We got to orbit having barely touched the second stage and even then there was still about 200m/s of dV in the first stage, not used for space-junk reasons. I used this to inject, circularize and correct for rendevous with the Mun Gateway in orbit around, unsurprisingly, the Mun to save fuel on the transfer vehicle since surface mining operations aren't up and running yet and there's limited fuel reserves on the station.

The crew of 6 headed by Station Captain Bob Kerman inject for the Mun.

Mun orbit is getting a bit crowded:

3 equatorial medium range (RA-15) comsats at 500km triangular for communications coverage

3 polar short range (RA-2) comsats in a triangular formation at 250km polar for comms coverage over the pole

Polar ore surveyor that also functions as a (RA-2) relay in a 200km polar orbit

Mun Gateway, the massive 400 part station for fueling and as the main outpost for Mun, since bases are kinda hard without KAS and it's easier to build a big station than a big base. In a 50km, 5 degree inclined orbit

Mun Polar Station for... reasons (I really like space stations ok) in an 80km polar orbit

Plus on the surface:

A mobile base (i.e. a big crewed rover) currently in the Farside Crater, but slowly being driven to the Southwest Crater (hence the waypoint)

An incomplete surface base in the East Crater