What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Pipcard]

Y48, D419 - Akagi Base has been expanded with two more modules (crew to arrive later). The crew also has a long range exploration rover available now.

Edited July 25, 2019 by Pipcard

[coyotesfrontier]

Not today, but I made an Apollo recreation mission in celebration of the 50th anniversary:

https://imgur.com/a/v5CkuUH

[magnemoe]

Had an very close encounter with Ike. 
Done with science mapping of most of Duna so return to Ike to refuel and get into polar orbit of Duna.
Was very low on fuel so I was not able to reach low orbit but I could simply let the tug who act as tanker match orbit. 
However I had enough fuel to get an intercept so I did that. This dropped Pe down to 8 km but that should not be an problem. 

Had some problem getting the tug to match speed with lander, looked at map and saw that Pe had an problem, it was underground. 
This is bad so I switched to lander used the last 7 m/s dV and the rcs to try to raise Pe, I missed ground with 200 meter something. 

Tug was lost, had to prioritize lander and the tug had some previous damage becasue of an bug. 

Later I found I had extra fuel in the LEM module, so much that I could gotten into an 20 Km orbit without problems

[RealKerbal3x]

12 hours ago, Vanamonde said:

Made my first prop plane. Actually flies pretty well, though runs out of fuel after just a few minutes. 

[snip]

I would suggest decreasing the engines' motor size in the PAW to around 10-20%. It should still have enough thrust to fly, and consume much less fuel.

[Hotel26]

A couple of advances made since I reported here:

I borrowed an idea from @Brikoleur and his BASE-XS and BASE-XL craft and pulled Goblin out to a wider base:

to allow the addition of refueling docks at surface level for refueling wheeled VTOL craft to refuel.  (Conceivably, two of these four could be oriented horizontally to service rovers (but my own space program has now completely eschewed use of surface crawler equipment).)

                                                             

And to save time landing Ladybug rovers (brought in in "stacks"), I've corkscrewed them in the VAB (for engine thrust clearance) so that a whole stack can land as one unit.  (I did ultimately have to move that scanner to the other side of the engine, though.)

 

Bean counters, you know.  Cost cutting.

Edited July 25, 2019 by Hotel26

[Chris Hopkins]

1 hour ago, Hotel26 said:

a whole stack can land as one unit

You're a genius, why didn't I think of this? It never occurred to me to turn one of the bays into a craft in its own right.

I can now also imagine one of my spaceplanes flying along the surface of the moon dropping down one rover carrier for each biome!

[Hotel26]

2 hours ago, Chris Hopkins said:

turn one of the bays into a craft

O but you credit me too much!    It's actually just a flying tank with a couple of Twitch engines.  You'd be surprised at the dV, I think.

In any case, the best way to try it out is to download Goblin from KerbalX.  The rig includes a Zephyr launcher and a Ladybug 'flitter'.  It'll take you to the Mun.  You can set the Goblin miner/base down anywhere you like and then use the Ladybug to go explore.  Ladybug will go to orbit and back or vice versa.  When it's low on fuel, bring it back to the Goblin and land it on the top dock.  It's not so hard to do, especially if you land very close and then tune the Sparks down to 25% thrust to get you finer control of your hover altitude.  There's lateral RCS control to make it even easier.

Just one of this combination will allow you to explore every biome on your Mun and bring fuel up (with the Goblin) to your space station as well.  But if you do want a stack of 6, go for Ladybug...

Edited July 25, 2019 by Hotel26

[capi3101]

(1.6.1) Fairly busy day yesterday. I would've taken more screenies but I've had a spate of rotten luck there lately wherein all the fun stuff (rendezvous, launches, etc.) keeps happening at night. Key-and-fill lighting mod. Need one. Seriously...

Having ended my day on Tuesday with the launch of an Auk XI 10-passenger spaceplane bound for space station Kerbinport, my first order of business yesterday was getting said plane to the station and docked.

Auk XI rendezvousing with Kerbinport, one of the few screenies in daylight I've had lately (and as you can probably tell, just barely).

Pilot Jedbrett Kerman, scientists Lageremy, Nedmore and Thommon Kerman, and engineers Beamon, Monty and Necale Kerman all disembarked from the plane. Turned out that with J.G.Backus's arrival at the station earlier in the day yesterday, I had plenty of places to berth the staff while they deplaned; I'd been worried about that. After everyone was off, Eve rescuee scientist Malgar Kerman and Eve rescuee engineer Luddorf Kerman boarded the plane as well as tourists Neilfrid, Haiald, Lefel, Newrigh, Malbo, Lizemone, Magdard and Dergel Kerman, five of which were recently returned from Eve's surface. The Auk departed the station at that point and made preparations for deorbiting.

Other ongoing events prevented the Auk from deorbiting for a full three orbits. The Samwell Tarly Yards over Gilly had completed its print of a ScanSat meant for fulfillment of a satellite contract over Gilly (required resource scanners, hence the use of a ScanSat), and after fueling said satellite it was launched from the station and began making burns to put it into final position. I had a contract to test a stack decoupler over Gilly, so a testing rig was drawn up in the VAB and printing of one of them began at STY; the simplicity of the design lead to its completion in 54 minutes. While I was in the VAB, I took the time to correct a couple of noted flaws with the designs of the Beer Can 7 Eve ascent vehicle and the Cigar 7 Eve descent module, mainly in terms of staging though I also added a few large ASAS wheels to the Beer Can for good measure.

Gilligan rendezvoused with LSV House Atreides over Gilly, having just gotten back from delivering engineer Macnie Kerman to STY to bring the shipyard online. After docking and with all business in the area complete, Atreides warped to Jool, arriving at 13,650 m/s and requiring six warpback maneuvers to slow down enough to enter a 6,228.7 x 5,415.7 kilometer, 2.40° inclined orbit.

House Atreides warping over Jool, with Laythe and Tylo also visible.

While that was ongoing, the print at STY completed but the test failed - I missed the part where the part had to be on an escape trajectory at time of test, and had made no provision to send it on such a trajectory. So, the test rig was recycled, a redesign to include a fuel tank and engine was made in the VAB and a new print began, requiring another 65 minutes to complete. The delay with the second testing rig print gave me sufficient time to finally land the Auk. Re-entry was fairly normal but the plane got a little slow on the approach to KSC 09 and I damn near had to land with the engines at full throttle just so it'd maintain lift long enough to reach the Runway. It was a sloppy landing, but the important thing is that the plane arrived intact, coming to a stop off the Runway just in front of the SPH. It's what happens when you let an engineer drive, I guess. Anyway, the plane's safe return cleared five contracts in the process and brought a very long and arduous expedition to a successful conclusion. Kinda wish I had a ticker-tape parade mod of some kind; for all that happened, the end of it all felt anticlimatic somehow...

Did my parts test over Gilly next; getting something on an escape trajectory over there requires a good hard sneeze - test was a success and the probe was terminated in short order. I also got the ScanSat probe - designated probe G-01340-052525 upon arrival - into its final position in a synchronous orbit over Gilly for contract. With seven contracts cleared in rapid order, I didn't have much for it at that point but to go to Mission Control and get some new contracts - I've now got a nine-Kerbal colonization mission to Scan Queen on Ike, a 4-kerbal tourist mission to go to Minmus, Duna, Bop, Gilly and Jool, a pair of ore cons, an ion engine test at Mun and a test of a parachute at Duna all to do now.

While I was coming up with a game plan for handling all that, I figured I'd get a head start on training my next outpost crew for whatever's next after Bop. To that end, I finished sending up fuel supplies to Kerbinport from the South Base outpost near KSC (I'd tried to so yesterday but the outpost had ran out after having fueled two returning warp ships). Jedbrett, Herby, Julbald, Beamon and Monty all joined pilot Aldler Kerman aboard J.G. Backus, which then departed the station and burned to rendezvous with LSV House Harkonnen in Kerbin orbit. The plan there is to have Beamon become the standing chief engineer aboard Harkonnen, which has been lacking any permanent staff for quite some time now. Harkonnen is also going to be the mission ship for the new colonist/tourist expedition. I have three tourists that want to go to Mun and Minmus, so I'll probably send Strange Cargo out soon with them to do that part of the trip, and I have plans to send Harkonnen out to Minmus to go pick up some extra Xenon Gas - production at the Deepwater Horizon outpost has been pretty good to date and I imagine there's a fair reserve built up there now. The next big thing I've got on my agenda, though, is getting House Atreides to Bop so that I can deliver the surface outpost lander and crew, and I'll likely keep everything else on hold for now so I can stay focused on that until the crew has landed. I'll probably be making the maneuvers to put Atreides into orbit later this morning.

Made plans to have a three-day weekend, so I may or may not have a report for y'all tomorrow morning. If not, I'll be sure to mention anything interesting on Monday for y'all.

[ARS]

Made a small observation helicopter, SWASHPLATE (Mk.1). It uses intermeshing rotor design

[Yellowburn10]

I sent up a new space station core for my career in LKO, and had the orbital booster stage deorbited to crash into the ground, only to have realized that when it crashed, instead of hitting the "back to space center" button, I hit the "revert flight" button. It's not that bad, the flight's pretty simple, but still kind of frustrating to have to do it all over again. Maybe this time I'll put parachutes on the booster so I can recover it.

[Cavscout74]

I had a combo Vall relay & lander arrive in Jool's inner system today, caught a near perfect Tylo fly-by which got it into Jool orbit and with a small correction burn at Tylo Pe, straight into a Vall intercept for a polar orbit.

Approaching Tylo:

Approaching Pe over Vall's south pole:

Lander on its way down:

Safely landed

After landing & looking around, I discovered there was a geyser only about 300m away from my initial touchdown, and I had some fuel remaining, so I hopped over for a better look:

Other than that, I got a few course corrections done and a few other probes entered the edge of Jool's SoI.  I did some final corrections on my Eve crew lander (like adding ladders to the crew lander plus solar panels & antennas to the transfer stage) and got it launched to LKO.

[Aphobius]

I've improved my helicopter a little and made a video of it.

 

[magnemoe]

9 hours ago, Chris Hopkins said:

You're a genius, why didn't I think of this? It never occurred to me to turn one of the bays into a craft in its own right.

I can now also imagine one of my spaceplanes flying along the surface of the moon dropping down one rover carrier for each biome!

Its an old KSP idea for rockets, nicknamed twisted candle, very nice on Eve with the old fake air resistance. 

Less used today but has some uses, just use it to stage probes or for Tylo bases is two. 

[buenavides1]

Build and fly planes. 

[DeltaDizzy]

1 hour ago, magnemoe said:

Its an old KSP idea for rockets, nicknamed twisted candle, very nice on Eve with the old fake air resistance. 

Less used today but has some uses, just use it to stage probes or for Tylo bases is two. 

Five years later and it seems there's still a ton of stuff I never knew.

[Castille7]

Today after I got a near full of fuel bird, I did a test run to Duna and decided to catch Ike's Orbit. I was lacking a few things......important things like control, the Shuttle crafts, a few struts that were either forgotten or broke during the journey, and did I mention control???  I have to say I struggled to get here but at least I know I can make a trip this far out for now. Next trip will be with better Control and the Shuttles.

Here was my makeshift control 
Balance was terrible, I had wings that weren't all filled and not sure what else may have thrown the balance off.

 

KERBOL EXPLORER 172 In Ike Orbit

 

 

[Tw1]

This darn helicopter. Not only did it refuse to hover over the one spot, meaning this was how I had to recover my kerbalnauts: 

It goes and falls of the boat.

Whoever was responsible for using stretchy cables instead of strong ones will be getting a stern talking too.

My ship K.S.S Harvester, however, performs admirably.
Sure, it's sluggish, and not just because of lag. But that slow operation makes it easier to use - I forgot to configure action groups to use the reverse thrust to steer.

It is, however, slightly cursed. The ship stays afloat, but parts added to it tend to sink. 
My crane arm had ended up at the bottom of its tower somehow, so it needed to be replaced.

The old one, currently doing a jig on the deck is about to find itself it the water.

Also, here's the CASE of the INVISIBLE ASTRONAUT 

  Spooooky   

Lastly, the time reverting to VAB brought in a little more than the vessel: 

Maybe the launchpad was feeling the cold? 

 

Edited July 26, 2019 by Tw1
Did you know the forum does not allow external emoji?

[Hotel26]

5 hours ago, magnemoe said:

nicknamed twisted candle

"Twisted candle" is a technique for staging, is it not?

I think Chris Hopkins was referring to "turn" as in "use for an unexpected purpose".

So, in this case, not to labor the point, this is not a staging mechanism.  The payload contains a stack of 6 units and it is delivered to e.g. munar orbit.  I was then flying them down to the surface one at a time.  A single set of Twitches on the lower flitter would not be powerful enough to land the whole stack and when originally lined up, the thrust from the second-lowest flitter started to burn the Twitch below (and presumably lose thrust as well).  I simply rotated the orientation so that all thrusters could fire simultaneously.  Nothing brilliant about that either.  Now I get to fly the whole stack down and then pick one off the top for each individual mission.  Simple "expense cutting", as usual.

The idea that does get my motor running about Ladybug (and its ilk; others have done similar things), is that it is very powerful for munar exploration.  I am going to scrap all my wheeled rovers/fuel trucks.  The sticking point has always been though, how to refuel it (without going to a space station)?  But it's not so hard to top-dock on a mining rig.

Edited July 26, 2019 by Hotel26

[Guest]

Steadily developing a mission architecture for making it to The Moon :3

[magnemoe]

3 hours ago, Hotel26 said:

"Twisted candle" is a technique for staging, is it not?

I think Chris Hopkins was referring to "turn" as in "use for an unexpected purpose".

So, in this case, not to labor the point, this is not a staging mechanism.  The payload contains a stack of 6 units and it is delivered to e.g. munar orbit.  I was then flying them down to the surface one at a time.  A single set of Twitches on the lower flitter would not be powerful enough to land the whole stack and when originally lined up, the thrust from the second-lowest flitter started to burn the Twitch below (and presumably lose thrust as well).  I simply rotated the orientation so that all thrusters could fire simultaneously.  Nothing brilliant about that either.  Now I get to fly the whole stack down and then pick one off the top for each individual mission.  Simple "expense cutting", as usual.

The idea that does get my motor running about Ladybug (and its ilk; others have done similar things), is that it is very powerful for munar exploration.  I am going to scrap all my wheeled rovers/fuel trucks.  The sticking point has always been though, how to refuel it (without going to a space station)?  But it's not so hard to top-dock on a mining rig.

Yes, understood this was an stack of probes. 
However having an twist so all engines could be fired at once could let you burn all getting into Mun orbit then decouple and landing them without extra engines, granted that the small radial is not that effective. 

Today I found a bit of an memory leak. 

It passed 46GB might get up to 47GB 
Getting back to space center resolved this. 


New record for memory use in any program for me. 
Glad it was an mechjeb landing manual would have failed as frame rate dropped so low it was hard to just move the camera 

[Vakarian]

Im currently trying to land on Duna for the first time. I gambled it had an atmosphere (forgot to actually look it up lol) and eventhough it did I learned it was a very low atmosphere the hard way. So second try is on its way as we speak.

Edited July 26, 2019 by Vakarian

[Stewcumber]

Today I loaded up Kerbal for the first time in a few weeks and find we have propellers!? I've wanted propellers for years (but not enough to download a mod). They seem significantly more powerful than the "home made" propellers I made with the robotics update rotors.

I've got a lot of learning to do! I wonder how efficient an electric plane can be? 

[Johnster_Space_Program]

Today in KSP I reached 500 hours of playing the game, and I've enjoyed every single one of them! (It really shows just how much I love playing this awesome game)

As you can see, it says 500 hours.

My Current Saves (1/2)

My Current Saves (2/2)

Some missions I have made (the Apollo Alternate History is one that i'm working on!)

[nascarlaser1]

The mission was going so well too... but then upon leaving the Munar surface our SAS failed...and...well I'm not really sure what happened next. By the time i realized anything was wrong,we had clipped the edge of the crater and our entire engine system was gone. We hit the ground and skidded for at least another 2kms, getting knocked all over the lander can. Finally we stopped and I managed to pull myself out of the tiny hatch...but it was too late....the radios were silent.....there was no reply from KSC...

Last known audio journal entry of Jebediah Kerman dated Y D72: 05:30:21.

 

Edited July 26, 2019 by nascarlaser1
fixed image

[Cavscout74]

I also finished my "Rescue Stalin from LKO" contract.  Upon recovery at KSC, I exited the game & renamed her Svetlana instead of Stalin.

Stalin preparing for reentry while her wrecked capsule & the engine stage of the recovery vehicle drift away below