What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Tapeta]

3 hours ago, capi3101 said:

What do you even call that type of craft?

It is attempt for ornithopter. Basicaly Dragon fly but four wings were not enought.

[The Destroyer]

Technically it was yesterday, but I got my Eve 1 kerbal, sea level to orbit prototype working, and it weighs a mere 15 tons! 

[Guest]

Proud of yourself, Jeb?

https://kerbalx.com/Brikoleur/BAK-666-Deathtrap

I also wrote up this: 

 

[Loskene]

34 minutes ago, Tapeta said:

It is attempt for ornithopter. Basicaly Dragon fly but four wings were not enought.

Your approach seems to be almost hummingbird style, generating lift on the forward and back strokes, have you thought of going further on that and mounting the wings vertically? Tilting them as they swing back and forth to maximise lift at all parts of the stroke. May need something else for forward propulsion though brute force pitching with reaction wheels would probably do the job.

[Guest]

24 minutes ago, The Destroyer said:

Technically it was yesterday, but I got my Eve 1 kerbal, sea level to orbit prototype working, and it weighs a mere 15 tons!

Impressive! How many stages is it?

[KerikBalm]

@BrikoleurShots of my mk3 3 deployable heliopter that I find flies too slow (and the SAS won't hold a heading, making time warp not a verz good option)

Spoiler

Getting the top and bottom rotors to line up again takes some trial and error:

Its got a full science loadout, with space for all the experiments:

Yes, I changed the wheels a little, here's a test load:

 

 

A reasonably fast tilt rotor, but its not a full VTOL with blades at this angle:

but landing is fairly easy:

I wanted to use deployment of the control surfaces/ blades to change their angle in flight, but its funky:

These blades were "deployed", (undeploy would change their angle for better forward flight... look at the pitch change that the blade closest to the camera goes through as it rotates:

I don't know why it does that, but it screws up my design. I thought maybe it was because it was moving in front of the CoM, and if I had 4 rotors, 2 in front, 2 in back, they wouldn't be doing that as they won't cross the CoM... but it still did that in the quad rotor, so my idea to change pitch didn't work

I don't want to use small servos, they are too floppy.

 

[Guest]

Oooh NICE! That's a sweet tilt rotor! Mine only cruises at 75 m/s or so but I think I'll revisit it with what I've learned in the interim. I think the limiting factor may be rotor diameter, with that size rotors they just won't go much faster than that.

I have collective on mine though, which makes it perform better in hover mode. I didn't think of using deploy to toggle between hover and aerodynamic, gotta try that. Very clever idea also to have three preset angles for the rotors, it gets around the landing problem nicely -- I'm going to play with that idea as well.

I also toyed with a Mk3-fitting chopper: if you put more compact wheels and a 2-blade rotor on the Rabbit it fits nicely. I solved the rotor alignment problem by keeping the freewheel motorised and setting a toggle for it: activate the motor and the lower rotor locks in position, then all you have to do is rotate the upper rotor to align with it and lock the brake on its motor. 

1 hour ago, Tapeta said:

It is attempt for ornithopter. Basicaly Dragon fly but four wings were not enought.

You made a working ornithopter? Massive respect!

(Also, the spice must flow.)

[KerikBalm]

2 hours ago, Brikoleur said:

Oooh NICE! That's a sweet tilt rotor! Mine only cruises at 75 m/s or so but I think I'll revisit it with what I've learned in the interim.

I wouldn't call it cruising, it drains the batteries pretty quick. Its got no fuel cells (but does have deployable gigantors for quick recharge... I've even though about trying to make it able to hover while recharging, since gigantors wont break off when its hovering)

My thought was that if I couldn't make a fast enough helo to deploy from a mk3 cargobay, I'd make the mk3 cargobay craft itself the helo, and have it take science rovers and base stuff... but its still too slow, SAS won't hold a heading, and drains power too fast. Its a kerbin side novelty. Offworld craft will still be rocket or jet powered...

Now I'm going to try my hand at subs, initial tests are not promising...

[KerikBalm]

So I thought that I could make a waterwheel work for sub propulsion, I was wrong.

My plan was that I'd have paddles on a rotor, clipped half into a fairing, so that half the paddles are in the fairing and shielded, and half are outside of the fairing. Thus with 2 sets of such rotors, I should get a forward force.

Instead I found that the surfaces that started inside the fairing are shielded from drag, even as they rotate outside the fairing, and the surfaces that start outside the fairing are not shielded from drag, even as they rotate inside the fairing.

Next plan is to make a swimming stroke....

[Guest]

Sounds terrific. A simple propeller too basic for you I take it?

[KerikBalm]

Props don't seem to work underwater

[Guest]

I HAVE AN IDEA

What if you put the blades of the paddlewheel on servos, with the paddlewheel itself a servo with full rotation, then made a K-1000 program that rotates the main servo, snapping the blades flat on-edge on the "backstroke?" 

[KerikBalm]

That's what I meant by "Next plan is to make a swimming stroke...." sorta of.

Have a paddle come forward edge on, rotate 90 degrees, push back, repeat

[Guest]

Great minds and all that. 

[KerikBalm]

my mistake... props do work under water, I had experimented with them at the surface, and they didn't seem to work, but a small diameter prop completely under water at first seemed to just make drag, but after it sped up and overcame static friction, I could get propulsion... I think its from interaction with the atmosphere, which is still "present" under the water

[SecondChance]

I've been testing a new long range ssto prototype, still needs some work, especially control surfaces, for some reason it wants to roll upside down on ascent!

As yet unamed, this prototype made it to Munar orbit and back with plenty of fuel to spare!Ideally I want this to be able to land on duna, then refuel for further trips. Although I might try a duna return w/out refeuling if I can squeeze it.

Only two crew, all science instruments and isru and drill (the small ones). Any good name suggestions?

[Hotel26]

I took a Nerfjet mounted on an Escort escape accelerator for a ride out to my new Outpost observatory, which is positioned in kerbolar orbit trailing Kerbin, just outside its SOI but still within visual range.

  

For no particular reason, I decided to dock the Nerfjet and Escort separately.  Unloaded all the pax into the Outpost and undocked the Nerfjet, still brim full of fuel.

It's something like 9d travel out to the SOI edge from Kerbin -- the Outpost is only another 5d traversal...  If you put your monocle into your good eye, and peer deeply into the second shot (click to enlarge), you should be able to pick out Kerbin, its Mun on the left and also Minmus equidistant on the right.

What a nice evening for space flight!

Edited June 7, 2019 by Hotel26

[Chris Hopkins]

2 hours ago, SecondChance said:

Any good name suggestions?

Cool ship! It's quite spikey; how about cactus?

[Puggonaut]

Robotics huh ?

 

[capi3101]

7 hours ago, Tapeta said:

It is attempt for ornithopter. Basicaly Dragon fly but four wings were not enought.

I'd say it's a pretty good attempt - it flew. @Brikoleur is right, though - you're not going to be able to evacuate your spice crews fast enough at that speed. What's the handling like on it? Are the flight characteristics similar to rotorcraft at all?

 

(1.6.1) Not much to report for yesterday; been giving Surviving Mars a whirl of late. I find certain similarities between it and my efforts in KSP to establish Pathfinder bases amusing. For example, the notion of mining concrete straight from the ground is something I think is just absolutely hilarious. Not past 12 Sols into the game but I do have a nice little mini-dome going out in some damn place on Mars whose name I can't remember...

Yesterday began with the ongoing maneuvers to get Necessary Evil, recently returned to Kerbin from a jaunt over at Mun, to space station Kerbinport. The ship arrived eventually and docked safely, at which point the crews were shuffled around to Strange Cargo and Next Objective also docked at the station. Currently aboard Strange Cargo with pilot Gwenlock Kerman at the helm is the Gilly crew - pilot Melrie Kerman, scientist Dumin Kerman and engineer Bartzor Kerman - along with tourists Wehrlock, Fercas, Bobing and Roslorf Kerman. Next Objective with pilot Eridred Kerman at the helm has tourists Nellfrid, Halald, Lefel, Lizemore, Newiigh, Magdard and Dergel Kerman aboard. Both of the ships have one extra seat reserved for pilot Alder Kerman and tourist Malbo Kerman, who at the beginning of the day yesterday were stuck at the Non Mentha Yards over Minmus while the shipyard was printing up a replacement craft for T. Howell III (also known colloquially as "their ride"), which was irreparably damaged in a docking maneuver at space station Minmusport on Wednesday. Nobody's leaving Kerbinport until those two get back.

After taking the time for a successful landing of an Auk IX 4-passenger spaceplane at KSC 09, I had LSV House Corrino warp over from Ike to Duna, where it was established in a 223x214 kilometer, 1.5-degree inclined orbit. Once in Duna orbit, Gilligan (which had been docked to Corrino) departed and rendezvoused successfully with Nelrim's Pod.

Gilligan at rendezvous with Nelrim's Pod. A Gemini analogue next to an Apollo analogue...there's something about this I find amusing...

Engineer Nelrim Kerman boarded Gilligan, which then conducted maneuvers to return to House Corrino; she's about 45 minutes out from rendezvous at this point. Once Gilligan returns, Corrino will conduct her first interplanetary warp and head to Kerbin, where she'll be dropping off most of her recent rescuees as well as a goo study completed at the Scan Queen outpost on Ike.

This morning, I went ahead and checked LSV House Atreides to insure that the craft was ready to haul Strange Cargo and Next Objective to Duna. I had to relocate the Minnow Adapter unit from one of the central docking ports to one of the ports on the ship's Workshop module, but otherwise she's ready when I am. I also went ahead and had LSV House Harkonnen return from Duna to Kerbin. Owing to the fact that the two planets are approaching alignment with one another at the moment, it was one of the easiest warp maneuvers I've had in recent memory - Harkonnen entered Kerbin's SOI at only about 3500 m/s and after just two warp-backs, Harkonnen settled into a 528x381 kilometer, 0.43-degree inclined orbit. Nothing is on the immediate horizon for Harkonnen. I'm sure something will come up soon.

Last thing that's happened so far this morning is the print of the replacement craft for T. Howell III at Non Mentha. The fuel supplies from Howell were transferred to the new craft, with the shipyard providing the remainder to fully fuel the new craft and with some monopropellant left aboard for Howell's journey into the ship breaker, scheduled for first thing next session. Aldler and Malbo boarded the new craft and the docking clamps were released, at which point the new ship was dubbed J. G. Backus. A maneuver was set up to send Backus on her maiden trip to Kerbin; it will commence in just under forty minutes from now.

Aside from decommissioning Howell, getting Backus to Kerbin and returning Gilligan to Corrino, I'll probably be warping Corrino to Kerbin today, and with any kind of luck I'll be sending Atreides to Duna as well. I do plan to begin constructing a Hodor 7 nuclear battery at NMY; that might finish up today depending on engineer Sulan Kerman's mad construction skills. Not a great deal going on other than getting folks to where they're going, sounds like. I'll try to take more screenies...

 

[woeller]

I've been trying to figure out how to set up a missile vertically.

 

[Tapeta]

1 hour ago, capi3101 said:

What's the handling like on it? Are the flight characteristics similar to rotorcraft at all?

About handling:

It look like a fish, it fly like a fish and it handles like a cow. Like a very sick cow actually.

The most important thing is to prevent it from rolling to the side. That happened at the end of my video, where it started to oscillate from side to side more and more and eventually it crashed.

[patzw]

Today I managed to complete one of my first contracts. Take a crew report over a specified location at an altitude of 17100+. As I'm so new to the game it took me a number of tries (sorry Jeb and Val!) but I was so proud when I finally got it right! 

[KerikBalm]

Well, here's my experiments with stock (DLC) subs... it seems when the blades first start spinning, they make all drag and don't move the craft forward perceptibly at all:

Let them spin up a little longer, and the drag lines get bigger, but whats that? a hint of yellow?

Then the craft starts to move slightly forward, and as if by magic, the blades start to work better:

The red goes away, and the yellow dominates... I'm not sure what the maximum speed is, but this is a start:

Then I tried to make something a bit faster by having the motors inside, presumably less drag:

I've noticed offsetting parts attached to the rotors too far from the rotors starts to lead to some weird behavior... I didn't think this was that far:

it started to spin up, I was expecting to start moving forward a bit:

And the blades exploded, sometime just one rotor expodes, sometime both, sometimes the whole craft.... I'm trying to refine this into something that I can turn into a science sub (and I'll add underwater surface features for good measure)

[Guest]

Still not able to kick my rotorcraft addiction. Today I improved my tilt-rotor BAK-23 Kestrel, creating the Super Kestrel in two versions, passenger and cargo. It looks better, has higher capacity, cruises faster (up to 90 m/s straight and level), and most importantly has a bunch of pilot assistance features -- notably collective presets for a variety of flight situations, and a flight regime switch that is much less scary than on the original, in fact it can be activated at pretty much any speed at an altitude of 100 metres or so. I really like how they turned out. Thanks KAL-1000!

Now they're also HTOL capable, and feature light thrust reversal -- minimum collective is a reverse gear. Doing a horizontal landing is extremely easy because you have great control over speed -- just keep the engines running and adjust collective to fly at whatever speed you want, right down to the stall speed. (Yes it can land safely dead-stick as well.)

They're not particularly manoeuvrable as helicopters -- although there is an extra roll control, L/R controls balance between the rotors -- but they're easy and fun to fly. The Super Kestrel C also has a fairly capacious cargo bay at this point.