What did you do in KSP1 today?

[RizzoTheRat]

Playing with a KOS script to land my New Glenn-ish SSTO.

The wings make for an interesting approach, with a kind of vertical S to kill the horizontal velocity and steepen the landing angle.   I'm using trajectories to do a deorbit burn that should land it about on top of the KSC,  then I'm pitching the "nose" up at 1400m/s (this seems to be the point where the temperatures start to drop) which extends the glide by a couple of kilometers, and drops the horizontal speed a fair bit without needing the engiines, allowing me to then pitch it down and kill most of the horizontal velocity before for the braking phase.  With no parachutes it's got a ground speed of 25m/s and vertical speed of 230 when the engines cut in.  Currently using about 200m/s for the deorbit burn and under 400 for the landing.  I can probably tune that down a bit though as I could to a a lesser deorbit burn from further away and I'm currently spending several seconds gently easing down at about 6m/s, although the latter is useful to allow the RCS to kill off any remaining horizontal velocity.

Also need to sort out the guidance a bit in the final phase, it's all pretty rough with just pitching up or down 10 degrees at the moment, and my sideways correction isn't working properly.  If I can figure out the pitch down properly I should be able to reliably put it down on the pad every time, plus I need to set up the script to automatically sort out the fins, it seems KSP can't cope with using fins backwards so I'm disabling them for the ascent and re-enabling for the descent.

 

[Aerodinamic Potatoe]

bueno mande una nodriza a jool despues de pasar SEMANAS de la vida real construyendola,pero de lo que estoy mas orgulloso es que la nave nodriza tiene una ``fuente principal´´

que consiste en un asteroide que ``tome prestado´´ de su orbita horrorosa en kerbin y luego lo acople a la nodriza,actualmente lo estoy explotando como fuente de 

combustible

 

Quote

well I sent a nurse to jool after spending WEEKS of real life building it, but what I'm most proud of is that the mothership has a `` main source '' which consists of an asteroid that `` borrows '' from its horrific orbit in kerbin and then attaches it to the nurse, I am currently exploiting it as a source of fuel: cool :: targetpro:

 

Edited November 5, 2019 by Vanamonde

[Lisias]

A bit ashamed from what I did early morning (nah… not really!), I revisited the Velociteze concept.

What if the Komet had not tragically failed as she did, and the Velociteze would be built by the British Aviation Industry of the 60s?

Edited November 5, 2019 by Lisias
updating link

[Aerodinamic Potatoe]

On 1/11/2019 at 14:42, capi3101 said:

(1.6.1) Tomé la tarde libre, así que pensé que les daría un informe antes del fin de semana mientras aún podría ...

Ayer comenzó con la inflación de la cúpula principal de Castillo en el puesto avanzado de Usumacinta en Tylo. Con el domo principal en línea, seguí adelante y configuré sus OmniCoverters para aumentar la producción de Konkrete allí en anticipación para desplegar el resto de la base. Una vez hecho el trabajo, salí al rover Rogue 6 en Mun, que había recibido la tarea de recoger a ocho colonos del módulo de aterrizaje de 8 pasajeros Crater Maker 7 el miércoles y no podía salir del cráter al que conducía debido a el hecho de que el rover quería voltear de extremo a extremo en lugar de conducir. Soplar la cámara de visión nocturna sobre la cosa tampoco había ayudado; Pícaro 6Tuve que esperar más de tres días Kerbin para que hubiera suficiente luz natural para conducir. Dicho esto, una vez que tuve suficiente luz para ver, trazar un camino seguro fuera del cráter fue un asunto bastante simple.

Fue en gran medida una cuestión de encontrar un grado ligeramente más bajo que el que estaba tratando de escalar originalmente. Muy importante cuando su rover quiere voltear en lugar de conducir ...

Una vez despejado del cráter, el viaje de 3,4 kilómetros de regreso al puesto avanzado de Piper Alpha fue relativamente simple (si el mareo provocaba 0. Me sentí bastante aliviado cuando la base no se destruyó al ingresar al rango de física.

Nunca he estado tan feliz de ver ese montón de basura colectiva surgiendo sobre esta cresta ...

Una vez llegado, científico Sonden Kerman salió del conjunto del conductor y el vehículo enganchado hasta el puesto de avanzada, momento en el cual los colonos desembarcaron en el puesto de avanzada para una estancia de 34 días. Sonden desenganchó el rover y reanudó su puesto en el observatorio del puesto avanzado. Rogue 6 , mientras tanto, ya estaba dañado (después de haber perdido un tanque de combustible y la mitad de sus RTG en la unidad fuera de la sonda) y sopló tres de sus neumáticos cuando Sonden lo conectó a la base. Como no me gustaba la cosa para empezar, procedí a maniobrarla hacia la plataforma de lanzamiento de la base para reciclarla.

Podría haber mencionado que al rover le gustaba rodar de extremo a extremo. Conseguir que el rover subiera a la plataforma implicaba aprovechar ese hecho ...

Hecho ese trabajo, volví a Usumacinta , donde pasé mucho tiempo terminando la construcción de la base. Utilicé el Tango 1 rover a mi favor cuando se trataba de desplegar el resto de las instalaciones de base previstas.

Madorf carga troncos de vapor en el vehículo. Claro que lo venció al tener que regresar a la Hacienda para agarrarlos y arrastrarlos a su posición uno por uno. Agregue otro a la versatilidad del diseño Hellhound 7 : patear el trasero y tomar nombres desde el v. 0.19.

No pasó mucho tiempo después que se produjo suficiente Konkrete para inflar el resto de las estructuras de base. Me complace informar que la construcción de Usumacinta está completa en este momento.

Usumacinta en Tylo: terminado, alimentado y totalmente operativo después de solo 36 horas de trabajo.

Con Usumacinta terminado, luego fui al VAB para poner un refuerzo calificado por Kerbin en el diseño de la estación espacial I keport Core 7, bautizando el nuevo diseño como Tyloport Core 7 . Una de estas nuevas naves fue ordenada en Usumacinta ; Se espera que la construcción demore un poco más de 29 horas. 

Como Usumacinta estaba lo más terminado posible, ya era hora de que comenzara a trabajar en mis otros contratos nuevamente. La casa LSV Harkonnen había estado sentada en órbita alrededor de Laythe todo el tiempo que había estado construyendo Usumacinta con dos turistas a bordo que querían visitar a Gilly, así que lo siguiente en mi lista fue llevar a Harkonnen a Eva. Harkonnen rompió la órbita sobre Laythe y se dirigió a Jool, estableciéndose brevemente en una órbita inclinada de 9,243.4 por 5,871.3, 1.44 ° antes de comenzar las maniobras para igualar las velocidades antes de la deformación. Mis esfuerzos allí dieron algunos buenos frutos: Eve estaba cerca de alinearse con Jool, y así, cuando finalmente partí del SOI de Jool para ir a Eve, Harkonnenllegó a 2.549,3 m / s, muy cerca de mi velocidad objetivo deseada habitual: pudo maniobrar directamente en una órbita inclinada de 826.7 x 708.9 kilómetros, 3.94 °. Una vez en órbita, Roy Hinkley, que había sido atracado en Harkonnen , partió y se quemó para alinearse con Gilly después de un retraso de 27 minutos. Luego realizó una inyección de trans-Gilly quemada catorce minutos más tarde, y llegará a la periapsis sobre Gilly en poco menos de 39 horas (es decir, aproximadamente seis días Kerbin).

Hasta ahora, llevé a cabo una misión de rescate sobre Kerbin: Gilligan salió de la estación espacial Kerbinport con Jeb en el palo y maniobró para llevar al piloto de rescate Elfrod Kerman desde su cápsula, devolviendo al rescatado a Kerbinport después de aproximadamente dos horas de ida y vuelta. 

Gilligan tira en Kerbinport. Sólo tiene que averiguar cómo voy a conseguir Elfrod a la superficie ahora ... No creo que la nariz del avión cuya es visible justo encima de la navball tiene suficientes asientos abiertos.

Entonces, en este momento, el orden del día está ordenando pequeñas cosas. Tengo un par de contratos de perforación que hacer en Ike y Bop, tengo una misión de inspección que hacer en Kerbin, y tengo basura que sacar de la superficie de Eve. Estoy un poco preocupado por el último: aunque la carga útil será lo suficientemente ligera y estoy convencido de que puedo guardarla en un compartimento de servicio, el compartimento de servicio en cuestión es de 3.75 m. Podría tener que diseñar el escenario central para que sea lo más cónico posible solo para minimizar el arrastre. También tendré que poner la carga útil en la parte inferior del cohete simplemente porque transportarla hacia la parte superior implicaría diseñar la capacidad de hacerlo en el cohete, que es una masa que no quiero agregar. Puede que también desee enviar  Harkonnen a Kerbin; ella todavía está transportando que el G-LOCoficio que pasó cerca Tylo para el contrato de exploración actual y que va a ser seis días antes de Roy Hinkley incluso llega a Gilly, por lo que ella tiene tiempo para una carrera rápida entrega. Si puedo hacerlo y desbloquea Dres en el proceso, tanto mejor - Estoy sentado en dos contratos de satélite para Dres ya que no puedo hacer nada con hasta que tenga permiso para salir de esa manera. 

Voy a dejar que todos saben cómo va mi fin de semana vienen lunes.

que mod utilizaste para la construccion de las colonias

[Zeiss Ikon]

(1.6.1 RSS/RO/RP-1)

I was frustrated after my first attempt at a sun-synchronous orbit and solar powered satellite failed when Diana Mk. 1 came up a few dozen m/s short of the required orbit.  Clearly, I'd reached the end of what alcohol engines could do, both in terms of performance (at least within a 150 T limit for the freshly upgraded second pad complex) and reliability.

Some tech had completed while I was waiting on the build for the last Diana Mk. 1 launch, however.

First, I built a few of these, and let Jeb and Val each take a couple hops, with "X-Plane High" and "Crewed Suborbital" contracts.  Meet. Hermes Mk. 2 (Mk. 1 was a death trap that only flew once; the less said about that the better).

Yep, it's a Javelin Mk. 1 with wings and control surfaces added (hint: remember how a Redstone was steered?).  With the tank upgraded to Tank III tech, it can launch a pilot above 220 km.

The first couple flights, with the original Tank I, flew to around 90 km; from that height it's possible to round up from the near-vertical dive of the vessel's native stability into a passable glide.  At least compared to a skydiver in a squirrel suit.  Hermes Mk. 2 glides at about four times the speed, however, and with the same glide ratio, the sink rate is pretty high.  You won't be climbing in thermals in this, I'm afraid.  From 250 m/s, however, it's capable of pulling up into a near-vertical zoom and bleeding off speed to well below 100 m/s.  Sadly, from altitudes above about 160 km, it breaks up when trying to pull up sharply enough to prevent thermal failures (one winds up well above the cockpit's rating of Mach 3 when passing through 21 km, from that height).  Non-fatally, so far, but it's fair to say Hermes Mk. 2 has probably finished its run.

After those launches (now in mid-1964), I decided to use some of that new tech that had come in to build the next generation of the Diana line.

Meet Achilles Mk. 1 -- named for an archer and runner whose name is rememered after more than thirty centuries.

There's just something about a stainless steel balloon tank that says "Launch me!"  And yes, this should look familiar.  Air-start reliability problems?  Ignite all your engines on the ground, so you can abort before destruction if there's a problem.

It took me overnight to figure out why this wouldn't make orbit in sim, even without any payload at all.

It's because the first generation LR-105 and LR-89 series engines it uses are the ones from the first generation SM-65 Atlas -- ICBM!  it was never intended to reach orbit in this configuration, it was intended to lob a few hundred kilos (inside that tiny tank at the nose) a few thousand kilometers.  The tank is sized so each engine burns its rated time: 2:15 for the boosters, and another 3:15 (total of 5:30) for the sustainer.  I do have an upgrade available for each of those engines, already, though, so before this even flies outside the simulator, it'll get upgraded and tank stretched to match the version that launched Mercury.

There won't be a Mercury capsule in this save for some years yet, though -- I've got multiple nodes yet to unlock, and more than a year of research time for each, before I'll have the capsule and heat shield for crewed orbit (unless I can find a way to design a spaceplane that will survive reentry from orbital velocity).  Meantime, Diana Mk. 2 is based on Achilles Mk. 1, and ought to be able to toss a lightweight satellite into a sun-synchronous orbit with a very modest upper stage; Diana Mk. 3 will be based on Achilles Mk. 2 and able to make orbit without additional stages and with significant payload.

Edited November 5, 2019 by Zeiss Ikon
Left out picture

[capi3101]

On 11/4/2019 at 6:13 PM, Xander el interplanetario said:

que mod utilizaste para la construccion de las colonias

El nombre del mod es Pathfinder: aquí está el enlace. No sé si hay una configuración de localización en Español o no.

Usando Google Translate, espero que esta respuesta tenga sentido.
 

Quote

 

The name of the mod is Pathfinder: here is the link. I don't know if there is a localization setting for Spanish or not.

Using Google Translate, so I hope this answer makes sense.

 

Edited November 6, 2019 by capi3101
added English translation per moderator instructions.

[Cavscout74]

Did a quick test of a new heavy mobile base design around KSC.  It went poorly:

[Servo]

In a whirlwind build process, I managed to knock out this F-117A Nighthawk replica in about three days. Turns out that reading the memoirs of the guy in charge of designing an aircraft as iconic and undoubtedly weird as the Nighthawk leaves you itching to fly one yourself. Whoda thunk?

And really, who wouldn't want to fly this beaut?

KerbalX download: https://kerbalx.com/servo/F-117A-Nighthawk

[Triop]

13 minutes ago, Servo said:

And really, who wouldn't want to fly this beaut?

That 2nd image is looking right at me...

Very cool, nice lines. I guess there's no z-fighting between wingparts ?

Now I want it painted black.

My day, well....

 

 

[RizzoTheRat]

1 hour ago, Servo said:

Turns out that reading the memoirs of the guy in charge of designing an aircraft as iconic and undoubtedly weird as the Nighthawk leaves you itching to fly one yourself. Whoda thunk?

 

Ben Rich's "Skunk Works"?  Great book. 

[Fizwalker]

5 hours ago, Zeiss Ikon said:

(1.6.1 RSS/RO/RP-1)

I was frustrated after my first attempt at a sun-synchronous orbit and solar powered satellite failed when Diana Mk. 1 came up a few dozen m/s short of the required orbit.  Clearly, I'd reached the end of what alcohol engines could do, both in terms of performance (at least within a 150 T limit for the freshly upgraded second pad complex) and reliability.

Some tech had completed while I was waiting on the build for the last Diana Mk. 1 launch, however.

First, I built a few of these, and let Jeb and Val each take a couple hops, with "X-Plane High" and "Crewed Suborbital" contracts.  Meet. Hermes Mk. 2 (Mk. 1 was a death trap that only flew once; the less said about that the better).

Yep, it's a Javelin Mk. 1 with wings and control surfaces added (hint: remember how a Redstone was steered?).  With the tank upgraded to Tank III tech, it can launch a pilot above 220 km.

The first couple flights, with the original Tank I, flew to around 90 km; from that height it's possible to round up from the near-vertical dive of the vessel's native stability into a passable glide.  At least compared to a skydiver in a squirrel suit.  Hermes Mk. 2 glides at about four times the speed, however, and with the same glide ratio, the sink rate is pretty high.  You won't be climbing in thermals in this, I'm afraid.  From 250 m/s, however, it's capable of pulling up into a near-vertical zoom and bleeding off speed to well below 100 m/s.  Sadly, from altitudes above about 160 km, it breaks up when trying to pull up sharply enough to prevent thermal failures (one winds up well above the cockpit's rating of Mach 3 when passing through 21 km, from that height).  Non-fatally, so far, but it's fair to say Hermes Mk. 2 has probably finished its run.

After those launches (now in mid-1964), I decided to use some of that new tech that had come in to build the next generation of the Diana line.

Meet Achilles Mk. 1 -- named for an archer and runner whose name is rememered after more than thirty centuries.

There's just something about a stainless steel balloon tank that says "Launch me!"  And yes, this should look familiar.  Air-start reliability problems?  Ignite all your engines on the ground, so you can abort before destruction if there's a problem.

It took me overnight to figure out why this wouldn't make orbit in sim, even without any payload at all.

It's because the first generation LR-105 and LR-89 series engines it uses are the ones from the first generation SM-65 Atlas -- ICBM!  it was never intended to reach orbit in this configuration, it was intended to lob a few hundred kilos (inside that tiny tank at the nose) a few thousand kilometers.  The tank is sized so each engine burns its rated time: 2:15 for the boosters, and another 3:15 (total of 5:30) for the sustainer.  I do have an upgrade available for each of those engines, already, though, so before this even flies outside the simulator, it'll get upgraded and tank stretched to match the version that launched Mercury.

There won't be a Mercury capsule in this save for some years yet, though -- I've got multiple nodes yet to unlock, and more than a year of research time for each, before I'll have the capsule and heat shield for crewed orbit (unless I can find a way to design a spaceplane that will survive reentry from orbital velocity).  Meantime, Diana Mk. 2 is based on Achilles Mk. 1, and ought to be able to toss a lightweight satellite into a sun-synchronous orbit with a very modest upper stage; Diana Mk. 3 will be based on Achilles Mk. 2 and able to make orbit without additional stages and with significant payload.

You use Textures Unlimited for the stainless steel....? If so, would you be willing to share the settings?  Much appreciated in advance!

[septemberWaves]

I launched a Munar flyby probe.

 

[Triop]

Today is over, I'm going home. see you tomorrow.

[Zeiss Ikon]

3 hours ago, Fizwalker said:

You use Textures Unlimited for the stainless steel....? If so, would you be willing to share the settings?  Much appreciated in advance!

No, that's the recoloring tool built into the new (to me, at least) "Modular Tank" family (which replaces the "deprecated" procedural tanks I've used in earlier versions of RO -- contains a basic tank, Service Module, and Balloon tank models).  Don't have time to start the game and check which mod this came from, but I set the color to "silver" preset and turned "specular" all the way up. 

[capi3101]

(1.6.1) Not much to show for my day yesterday - between a training session at work and evening events, my overall playing time was quite short.

Day started off by clearing out a pair of ore hauling contracts, after which I checked in at the Usumacinta base on Tylo and stayed there long enough for the crew there to replenish their supply of Rocket Parts. That done, I went to Mission Control next and picked up some new contracts. One of those involved putting up a satellite over Gilly, so I next went out to the Samwell Tarly Yards over Gilly and ordered up a Boop-Boop 7x probe; engineer Macnie Kerman had it ready to go after 88 minutes of printing. While that was ongoing, tourists Gerbald and Beaman Kerman (the latter of whom is not to be confused with engineer Beamon Kerman, who is currently aboard LSV House Harkonnen over Eve) loaded up aboard an Auk XV 3-passenger spaceplane at KSC on a quick little up-and-down jaunt. I decided I'd use their touring mission as a way to carry down rescuee pilot Elfrod Kerman from space station Kerbinport, so I had them take off and head to the station.

Auk XV takeoff. Another plane I don't get out of the barn all that often. Shame that the lighting isn't any better...

After a successful launch, the plane was put on a course to rendezvous with the station nineteen minutes later, where it affected a successful docking. Elfrod transferred to the plane's pilot seat and the Auk departed, burning to de-orbit for an eventual safe landing at KSC 09.

I say it was a safe landing, but eagle-eyed folks may note how close to the side of the runway the plane is currently positioned. Anyway, here's a better look at the Auk XV...

The landing cleared two contracts; I picked up only one in the wake of the plane's landing though.

During my late evening session, I took the time to fly the Echo Flyer quadcopter that pilots Lutop and Kimfrid Kerman had flown out to a survey area yesterday back towards KSC. Lutop swung by the South Base outpost three klicks south of KSC 09's inner marker to drop off Kimfrid there, as she was scheduled to go out there for permanent assignment anyway. That job done, Lutop returned the Flyer to the KSC.

Echo Flyer sitting in Mortimer Kerman's favorite parking spot.

That's all I have to show for yesterday's activities - as I said, not a whole lot happened. I haven't got all that much on my plate right now either - I've got thirteen contracts right now. Five of those are long-term colonization contracts and SENTINEL missions, two of them are for Dres satellites (which I won't do until I have gotten the exploration mission to orbit Dres), two of them are tied up in current flight of Roy Hinkley still en route to Gilly from Eve, and one is the current exploration mission to return a craft to Kerbin's surface from a flyby of Tylo. I've also got the Gilly sat contract - the probe is ready at this point, so I'll probably get that going today - a junk hauling mission at Eve that needs to get underway but is going to involve a long-haul flight over Eve, and a parts test involving a splashed RAPIER on Kerbin. Pretty slim pickings over all. I still probably could get that parts test done in hopes for something better today, and I still could (should) move House Harkonnen over to Kerbin to drop off the G-LOC craft it's hauling to get the ball rolling on the next exploration mission.

I hope to have something more substantial to tell y'all tomorrow.

[Retro Starship]

Last night I got this little jet running for some low altitude crew tasks for career mode. 1st time finding a tree as well. It runs really smooth now but these lading gears can be really sensitive. Still 3rd tier so the better ones are a ways away. Got a chute on it just in case.

[Lisias]

Since my last post here...

Spoiler

 

… I was wondering how it would look a daVilland Comet on Stock parts. I ended up that Stock doesn't have round fuselage for the task, we have  the Mk1 for 2 Kerbals, Mk2 for 4 (but this one is flat) or we have Mk3 for 16 Kerbals (and this one is oval). Well, it ended up that I could live with that - I ended up building a Comet 1 looking craft with the Comet 4 PAX capacity.

Quote

This beauty is tricky to fly. Has lots of thrust, but it's heavy as hell.

Don't takeoff with full tanks - you don't need the extra fuel (this behemoth can fly for 12 hours!), and you will loose the ability to balance the craft on flight. You will need to do heavy fuel management on her.

Use take-of flaps (9) for taking off, don't rotate under 70m/s - she will fly, but you will have a bad time keeping her on the air. Watch the tail, don't let it hit the tarmac. Raise the flaps as soon as you can, they induce drag.

Use landing flaps (8) for landing. Be cautious to avoid stalling. She don't have thrust reversers, you will rely only on wheel and air brakes to stop her. Watch the vertical speed, the landing gears don't withhold too much abuse.

Once you balance the fuel, she's pretty stable and a delight to fly - SAS can handle her easily.

Don't climb faster than 10 ~m/s - you will stall for sure. Watch the airspeed, slightly lower the nose as it starts to drop. The ideal climbing airspeed is near 140 m/s, a bit less is ok. The vertical speed will drop due this, just take the hit and keep going. The initial cruise altitude is 6500 meters high. As you loose weight by burning fuel, you will be able to safely climb higher.

She will warn you when you are near her operational limits - she will start to slightly oscillate to left and to right. Drop slightly the speed if in level flight, or drop the nose if climbing (watch your vertical speed!).

Overall, she behaves near a real jet of that era - faster than pistons, but sluggish and heavy. And gas guzzlers.

 

[NHunter]

Put a flag on Minona:

[Zeiss Ikon]

12 hours ago, Zeiss Ikon said:

No, that's the recoloring tool built into the new (to me, at least) "Modular Tank" family (which replaces the "deprecated" procedural tanks I've used in earlier versions of RO -- contains a basic tank, Service Module, and Balloon tank models).  Don't have time to start the game and check which mod this came from, but I set the color to "silver" preset and turned "specular" all the way up. 

Okay, @Fizwalker, I'm home again now, opened the game (takes 10+ minutes, and I had 5 until I had to head for work): the "Modular Tank" family I'm using (in favor over the older, "deprecated" Procedural Tanks) is ROTanks.  The tanks have nice textures (been using them exclusively in this save, other than one airplane I imported from a previous save that had an inaccessible, embedded Tank I), and every single bit and piece can be recolored -- without losing the corrugations and other details.  Same stats as the old, obviously (else they'd unbalance RO), but much more versatile for the builder, as you can include various nose tapers and looks, base tapers, flairs, fairings, etc., as well as having a very broad and precise range of capacity adjustments.   That Achilles tank is one piece, from a framed dome base (very similar to the center engine thrust structure on the real Atlas) all the way up to the inset dome nose attachment structure.  Pull the other bits off it, and it looks quite a lot like an actual 1960 vintage Atlas tank.

[Kchinger]

Well, last night I sent a scanner/relay probe, a lander/biome hopper, and a command module on their journey to Minmus for my first landing there. 

Today I finished maneuvers and they are parked 25km up and circularized, except the probe is out at 299km scanning. 

Got ready to separate and descend and realized I had a problem. I intended to bring a scientist and a pilot. Instead I brought an engineer and a pilot. 

So, I built another ship to bring a scientist, grab the extra oxidizer I accidentally sent with the original command module NERV. It'll swap folks, rescue someone from Minmus, head to Mun where I have a lander in orbit low on fuel, transfer some extra fuel and a person.... Hmm, I just saw another flaw in my plan. My lander at the Mun is a one seater, and I need to rescue someone from the surface for a contract... 

Maybe I take a probe core with two docking ports on it along and dock it, by itself, to the lander. Have to make sure I time the descent to see my relays, but should be okay, I have a couple in Molyinar (sp?) orbits at Mun. 

Always something with this game. 

[Ruedii]

Today I just made an intercept a little too precise.  BOOM!

No mech-jeb either.  I haven't reinstalled my mods since the 1.8 update.  I just did a real precise planning and intercept.

[Fizwalker]

1 hour ago, Zeiss Ikon said:

Okay, @Fizwalker, I'm home again now, opened the game (takes 10+ minutes, and I had 5 until I had to head for work): the "Modular Tank" family I'm using (in favor over the older, "deprecated" Procedural Tanks) is ROTanks.  The tanks have nice textures (been using them exclusively in this save, other than one airplane I imported from a previous save that had an inaccessible, embedded Tank I), and every single bit and piece can be recolored -- without losing the corrugations and other details.  Same stats as the old, obviously (else they'd unbalance RO), but much more versatile for the builder, as you can include various nose tapers and looks, base tapers, flairs, fairings, etc., as well as having a very broad and precise range of capacity adjustments.   That Achilles tank is one piece, from a framed dome base (very similar to the center engine thrust structure on the real Atlas) all the way up to the inset dome nose attachment structure.  Pull the other bits off it, and it looks quite a lot like an actual 1960 vintage Atlas tank.

I'll have to take a look at those.   They are gorgeous.  Thank you for the info and reply!

[TheKSPBeginner]

10 hours ago, Ruedii said:

Today I just made an intercept a little too precise.  BOOM!

No mech-jeb either.  I haven't reinstalled my mods since the 1.8 update.  I just did a real precise planning and intercept.

Very interesting

[Kchinger]

14 hours ago, Kchinger said:

Well, last night I sent a scanner/relay probe, a lander/biome hopper, and a command module on their journey to Minmus for my first landing there. 

Today I finished maneuvers and they are parked 25km up and circularized, except the probe is out at 299km scanning. 

Got ready to separate and descend and realized I had a problem. I intended to bring a scientist and a pilot. Instead I brought an engineer and a pilot. 

So, I built another ship to bring a scientist, grab the extra oxidizer I accidentally sent with the original command module NERV. It'll swap folks, rescue someone from Minmus, head to Mun where I have a lander in orbit low on fuel, transfer some extra fuel and a person.... Hmm, I just saw another flaw in my plan. My lander at the Mun is a one seater, and I need to rescue someone from the surface for a contract... 

Maybe I take a probe core with two docking ports on it along and dock it, by itself, to the lander. Have to make sure I time the descent to see my relays, but should be okay, I have a couple in Molyinar (sp?) orbits at Mun. 

Always something with this game. 

Continuing in the vein of "it's always something", I sent up the second ship with the scientist. Went to do my capture burn around Minmus and realized I'd forgotten solar panels. Luckily I was able to use the engine to gimbal and generate just enough electricity to control the attitude and complete something resembling an orbit. 

Then it was time for the second rescue, this time with an engineer with some panels and an electric screwdriver. Successfully docked (no easy task, I stupidly relied on the built in RCS of one of the command pods, but my ship is way too big still for that, so it was mostly an engine affair, which the skipper is less than ideally suited for). Got the panels attached to rescue #1, and it headed off to rendezvous with the original Minmus lander ship so the scientist and pilot can continue their mission to land. 

Rescue #2, meanwhile, will rescue one person from Minmus orbit for a contract and then head to Mun, meet the low on fuel lander in orbit, stick a probe core with two docking stations on it on top of the lander, and then Munar lander probe will head down to rescue someone from the surface for a contract. And do a bit of science while there on a hopefully new biome. 

Probably going to have a ton of fuel left on various craft after all this is done, so I might use it to move my Mun MPL station into orbit around Minmus before everyone heads home. Drop off some extra science from Minmus surface at the MPL on the way, maybe swap on a two star scientist for a one star that's there. If there is still fuel left and the Minmus lander hasn't hit every biome maybe I'll fuel it up and go again. 

This game has endless possibilities of things to do and endless ways to screw those things up. I love it. 

[capi3101]

(1.6.1) With a lot of my extant contracts tied up in the "getting it where it's going" phase, I started my day off yesterday at KSC with a simple parts test, in this case to test a splashed RAPIER engine.

I can't help but notice that this thing looks an awful lot like something my kids built in Scouts a few months back. Their recovery rig was a ping-pong ball on a streamer that worked somehow; mine at least has a proper chute...

The replacement contract offered was bupkis, so next I went over to the Samwell Tarly Yards over Gilly, where a Boop-Boop 7x probe had finished construction. The new probe was fueled and launched, then promptly recycled at the yard - I had put the wrong type of scanner on the design. Going immediately to the VAB from there, I designed the Boop-Boop 7w probe, which was the 7x with the other two types of scanners attached and no other changes. A new probe was ordered up at STY, with time to completion estimated at 94 minutes.

With a short window in order to do so, LSV House Harkonnen broke orbit at Eve and warped to Kerbin, arriving at a speed of 12,567 m/s. 37 warp-backs later (I'm noticing that the numbers are coming down there as Eve continues to approach alignment with Kerbin), the ship settled into a 568.5 x 473.7 kilometer, 1.70° inclined orbit. Once Harkonnen was in orbit and secured from warp operations, the G-LOC 7a return-to-Kerbin craft that had been printed up over Bop and hauled via LSV House Corrino and Harkonnen to Tylo and then Eve departed Harkonnen and began maneuvers to deorbit and land at KSC. The probe set down safely 5.5 klicks west-northwest of the space center, fulfilling the current exploration contract. The new contract will see me transfer crew between vessels over Tylo (an easy proposition, considering Corrino is still in orbit there) and a return flight to Kerbin's surface from Tylo's surface. The second of these might be a while, as the Usumacinta outpost on Tylo is still currently in the process of building the Tylo-orbiting space stations. The delay does give me time to design a craft that should be able to launch from Tylo safely. I probably already have a design or two rated for Kerbin launch, docking and recovery that'll do the trick...the Minnow 7b design comes to mind...

My day wrapped up with the Echo 3 quadcopter on Eve - I have a contract to pick up a 1.3 tonne piece of garbage from the surface and get it back to Kerbin, and with the rest of the infrastructure to do this in place or already under construction, I still needed to get it over to the Alexander L. Kielland outpost for the launch. Echo 3 was parked 13.5 kilometers east-southeast of the base, so I first had to fly it over there and land it without blowing the base up spontaneously; that didn't happen, thank goodness. Once parked at the base, pilot Lerod Kerman and engineer Taning Kerman piled out of the base and into Echo 3, taking the base's screwdriver and a spare junior docking port with them. Echo 3 then flew out to the site of Module L-H50, which was 1,530 klicks to the west of ALK (i.e. on the opposite side of the planet, on the opposite shore of the Explodium Sea). Flight time was about two hours.

It's not a Buffalo ISRU like I thought, though...that may or may not be a problem. First thing's first though; I'll have to mount that hunk of garbage to roof of the copter...

I credit the Atmosphere Autopilot mod with holding the craft steady enough to use 4x physics warp the entire time out there - otherwise the flight would've been a butt-buster for sure.

Today I need to get L-H30 mounted to Echo 3 at least; the flight back to ALK can wait a bit if it needs to. I have two satellites to launch (the Bill Clinton 7c dockable grabber probe that'll haul L-H50 back to Kerbin is ready over Eve and my Boop-Boop 7w is ready to go at Gilly), and I've got a new contract to expand space station Ikeport with some pretty easy stuff so I need to get a Moneybux module built and ready to go for orbital construction there. Not much going on otherwise. It'll still be a few days before the first space station launches at Tylo and before Roy Hinkley reaches Gilly for the tourist hop there. I do know that one of my current colonization contracts will finish up in another two days or so and I'll be getting fresh contracts to consider at Mission Control before too long (got three offered right now that are meh so I'm letting them slide). I could do the crew transfer at Tylo as well, I suppose. I'll let y'all know what all happens tomorrow morning.