What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Angelo Kerman]

Due to lots of IRL stuff, I haven't done much modding of late, but I did manage a small mission today.

The expedition crew took one of the new Starlifter cargo planes and flew a long way:

Despite having extra fuel in the cargo bay, the plane couldn't reach the North Pole Research Station. So, they set down about 100+ km away at the refueling point. A tanker configured Starlifter took off from NPRS to rendezvous and refuel the expedition's plane:

It arrived without incident and proceeded to refuel the other craft:

After the tanker returned to base, the expedition team continued on their mission. After a long day of flying, they arrived at their destination. The team's engineer then proceeded to set up their outpost while the rest of the crew inspected a strange monolith:

They finally got their outpost established and provisioned with several days of snacks:

Edited November 18, 2019 by Angel-125

[Nezclaw]

i forgot the radiators on my asteroid drill. An attempt to dock a tiny craft with a couple radiators with it proved unsuccessful, as the RCS thrusters weren't positioned correctly. I also moved my Mun drill to a point with more ore. The craft landed on a twenty degree slope. I am filled with anxiety when i look at it. i don't have enough fuel to move it. i don't want to explode Bill and Bob.

[edit]

Edited November 18, 2019 by Nezclaw
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[Triop]

43 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

but I did manage a small mission today.

'Small' he says....

Cool Starlifter.

______________________________________________________________________

TODAY, PLAYING SOME GOLF.

 

 

[MikeZDB]

Today we had launch and finish the Venera 3 style mission.

As always, the mission report here, and the photolog mission here. (Spanish language)

[capi3101]

(1.6.1) Thought about confusing all y'all by just posting my log short-hand this morning, but then I decided against it.

My day on Friday began at the Scan Queen outpost on Ike, where I used the base's mass driver to shoot up a supply of Rocket Parts to space station Ikeport; upon then transferring over to the station, I completed an extant station expansion contract (the Rocket Parts were the final missing component). Two replacement contracts offered in the wake involved expanding the C. P. Baker outpost on Laythe as well as sending a group of ten kerbal colonists there. With colonists finally en route, I ordered up an Auk XI 10-passenger spaceplane at the Tradidit Lestum Yards in Laythe orbit; construction will take 25 hours and ten minutes to complete. I haven't tried out the spaceplane runway near C. P. Baker yet; it isn't on level ground, so there's no telling if it's really safe to use or not. Leaning towards the latter...

With the Tango 3 touring craft docked up and all other business complete, my next order of business was getting LSV House Corrino back to Kerbin. Corrino broke orbit over Tylo, warped to a position to pick up speed over Jool for the transit, then warped the rest of the way to Kerbin. The ship arrived at 6,637 m/s, requiring ten warp-backs before slowing down enough for orbital entry. While warp-backs were ongoing (in fact, uncomfortably close to their completion), Roy Hinkley reached her intercept point with space station Gillyport in Gilly orbit and conducted a burn for rendezvous - rendezvous was set for 62 minutes later. Corrino then finished her warp maneuvers, settling into a 511.8 by 405.5 kilometer and 1.46° inclined orbit. After securing the warp drive, activating the on-board mass driver and transferring fuel supplies out to G. Grant and Tango 3, Tango 3 departed Corrino and began a mission to rescue pilot Sansel Kerman from LKO; flight to the intercept point was 21 minutes.

While that was going on, daylight finally reached the Spamcan 7 Bop-A lander on the surface of Minmus. Pilot Johnler Kerman and engineer Deston Kerman continued their efforts at that point to mount Part G991D, a Mk-3 to Mk-2 adapter, to the top of their lander.

So, KAS rules for grabbing and moving objects require sufficient kerbals to be within three meters of the object's center of mass. The position of the CoM on one of these things is rather awkward, as Deston was realizing in this screenie...

After some serious amounts of finagling, the two kerbals actually managed to mount the payload onto their craft.

That last push was a bit of a doozy. Good thing the gravity on Minmus is so low...

That bit of the job done, the two kerbals set their drills and started mining ore to refine into monoprop for their lander. This did require a quick EVA - the drills on the design are too low and I've not yet taken the time to redesign the craft in the VAB - but ultimately they got some Ore flowing into their tanks.

After Tango 3 aligned and burned to set a rendezvous with its target (flight time to rendezvous just under one hour), Roy Hinkley arrived and docked safely at Gillyport. Tourist Carfurt Kerman boarded the station's Spamcan 7 lander and proceeded to a brief visit to the surface, returning shortly thereafter to Gillyport. Carfurt then returned to Roy Hinkley, and after taking on fuel supplies from the station, Roy Hinkley departed and set up a burn to take her to rendezvous with LSV House Atreides in orbit of Eve. Tango 3 then arrived at its rendezvous with Sansel's Capsule.

A Mk1-3 command pod...I never really use these. Stats have gotten better on them over the years apparently; maybe I should start. In any case, it seems a bit big for just one kerbal...

Sansel transferred over to Tango 3 without incident, at which point the craft began maneuvers for atmospheric entry. 

There was a time when all Minnow missions would've ended with the craft entering Kerbin's atmosphere. That was before I realized their full utility. I've since grown attached to them apparently, which kinda made this a little hard to watch.

Tango 3 set down in the Mountains fifty kilometers east of KSC, and fortunately found an area of twenty-degree grade rather than a fifty-degree slope. The craft's return not only fulfilled Sansel's rescue mission but completed the current exploration mission. The new exploration mission: flyby Dres. Hallelujah. Also picked up a mission to expand the Vermilion Block 360 outpost on Vall, most of the conditions of which should be easy to finish at my leisure. There is the second engineer that I'll have to get there at some point, but...

Saturday didn't see much done (as is usual for me - IRL it's my busiest day). The Non Mentha Yards over Minmus finished its print of the Bill Clinton 7b probe that was scheduled to take Part G991D to Kerbin, and launched said probe after fueling. I also had the Boop-Boop 7x probe recently launched at Pol conduct a burn to put it in a 617.9 x 591.5 kilometer, 110.76° orbit; this was close enough to mission target parameters to count and complete the associated contract, at which point the probe received the designation P-02022-015810. And that was it for the day. Like I said, not much.

Yesterday was a little busier. Roy Hinkley conducted the scheduled burn for Eve and will arrive at periapsis in just over eight hours. An initial burn to align with House Atreides has also occurred; she's still 5.67° off the plane but it's still a fair sight better than the some-odd 37° she was at initially. The Spamcan on Minmus finally accumulated sufficient Ore for refining up 80% capacity, which was enough to launch; the spacecraft took off and entered a 16.2 by 15.7 kilometer, 0.01° inclined orbit, at which point the docking port decoupler was utilized to cut Part G991D loose. The lander burned for rendezvous with space station Minmusport (flight time 68 minutes) while the Clinton began maneuvers to rendezvous with Part G991D; total flight time to rendezvous was just short of two hours, during which time the lander arrived and docked safely at Minmusport. Johnler and Deston transferred over to the station's standard Spamcan 7 lander for eventual return to the Deepwater Horizon outpost on the surface. The probe's rendezvous with its target went without incident.

Bill Clinton 7b docked with Part G991D while I make a check for memory leaks. Yep. I've got them somewhere...

With the target in place, the Clinton made a burn to take it to atmospheric entry at Kerbin. The craft will arrive at periapsis in 42 hours and 13 minutes.

I haven't really taken the time to plan for everything that needs to happen in the wake of this weekend's activities. I have five new contracts that require some degree of initial planning - two outpost expansions, a new outpost mission (decided to finally build a second base on Mun though I need to get some data from Piper Alpha - mainly its biome - to see if I can't position this one in a little more lander-friendly of a spot), a new space station mission and a colonization contract that needs to get underway. I'm most likely to begin work on the colonization mission, which means a spaceplane flight in the near future. Probably will have Atreides do the Dres flyby on the way home from Eve when the time comes - that won't happen until the remodeled Woodsy Owl takes off from Eve (hopefully without incident). I am anxious to get on to Dres - one of only three worlds I've yet to visit this career save.

[RoboRay]

13 hours ago, Triop said:

I love how the Mun is photobombing your picture. Cool stuff.

I actually waited for that moment to get the screenshot.  

[RizzoTheRat]

Think I've found the limits of my PC in 1.7.3.  Not quite sure how many parts there are but it's quite a few.  PC is flicking between green and yellow and straight in to the red if I try x2 physics warp.  I really should have given it more engines, it's a 7 minute burn to the Mun, and this is a test of a new ship concept for long distance expeditions so it probably out to have more power if I'm going to send a version to Duna.

[RizzoTheRat]

On 11/17/2019 at 12:45 PM, Hotel26 said:

In this case, fire the light, speedy, maneuverable Spear at the target to get a quick dock and now you have a real (proper-sized) dock to steer to and  connect with.  Yea, Brother!

Do you use KIS/KAS?  I'd be interesting to see if you could use it as a harpoon and winch your bigger ship in on the cable

[Cavscout74]

I did a little tinkering in sandbox before continuing my 1.8 career.  Threw together a little Mk2 shuttle - it used 4 SRB's (2 above & 2 below the wings) to get to orbit, then I flew it down to a safe water landing since it had no landing gear or chutes.  For something that took less than 5 minutes to build, it flew & glided remarkably well.

Then it was back to my 1.8 career.  Great leaps of progress were made - jet engines, first satellite & first suborbital kerbal.  Details can be found here.

While waiting on the above jet to be researched, Jeb contented himself with flying high performance prop planes of questionable design:

Ending the day with Val being launched on a suborbital hop, becoming the first kerbal in history (of this career) to leave the atmosphere. 

[Triop]

Today, we've boosted our engine on the Golf GTI.

Wheelie !

Made a VW logo from stock parts:

The GTI logo is a decal:

Edited November 19, 2019 by Triop

[Nezclaw]

Didn't get too much done today, I launched a craft to deliver radiators to the asteroid drill, this time with the RCS thrusters positioned better, so docking was pretty easy. I'm not actually sure if it's helping any though... The Scientist is not a badS, from the looks of it Kerbals are just ecstatically happy when reentering. I'm not actually sure what to do next... I'm playing science sandbox, and while my next objective should probably be to reach another planet... I'm not really sure how to do that.

Also, as someone who took one (1) aerospace engineering class back in highschool, the airplane hangar is infinitely frustrating.

[Lt_Duckweed]

Technically yesterday, not today but...  I made what is, to my knowledge, the first and only Jool SSTO ever:

 

[Hotel26]

I couldn't help myself: yet another lunar, executive-class, personnel transporter...

I built a bigger version of this yesterday (2x Mk2 cabins) on the spur of the moment, but decided to downsize it today.  So this is Polaris II.

 

Can land it on the roll...

KER reports 1,815 m/s dV (at the Mun).

I guess I am going to load it with just enough OX to go 0-to-550 m/s (and vice versa) with the Dart.  Execs are always in a danged hurry to be somewhere, aren't they?...

 

4 hours ago, Nezclaw said:

the airplane hangar is infinitely frustrating

Roger that.  The VAB bugged me for about two years.  As payback, I have a very liberal rule about "clipping" parts.    The VAB taketh away (thy sanity) so the VAB hath to giveth back!

Edited November 19, 2019 by Hotel26

[Castille7]

5 hours ago, Triop said:

Today, we've boosted our engine on the Golf GTI.

Wheelie !

 

 

That's Wheelie cool!  

[McFarnsworth]

Eve Return, featuring Featurebloat.

 

"That launcher sure has some expensive engines, might as well try and bring those back"

"That interplanetary stage might as well be a bit bigger and be expandable so it has some use later"

"If I'm leaving all that useful gear behind on the surface, might as well put some wheels and a science arm on it"

 

But so far I'm stuck here:

My terrier keeps heating up and exploding, and I don't really know why. It's surrounded by parts that have the same temp. threshold or lower, but those don't heat up. It's behind the heatshield at all times. I tried a different rocket design where it was pretty close behind the heatshield, but that made no difference either.

And I refuse to spam heatshields all over the thing until it works.

[capi3101]

(1.6.1) Yesterday was a fairly minimal day. I began it with a pair of refueling mass driver shots to LSV House Corrino recently returned from Tylo, the first from the South Base outpost near KSC for normal fuel supplies and the second from SL Shai Hulud for to refuel Corrino's Alcubierre drive. That job done, i headed out to the C. P. Baker outpost on Laythe, where the crew there printed up a new Hacienda industrial module. Engineer Monty Kerman went ahead and deployed the module, configuring it as a new mining unit.

I'd say they needed another drill about like I need a swift kick to the head, but honestly you can never have too many drills. That Xenon storage unit, though...

The crew at Baker then began printing up a Lab module using the outpost's launchpad; total construction time was seventy minutes, during which time I went ahead and dared to use Kerbal Konstructs to plowshare the surrounding area for two klicks in every direction and flattened the terrain. Nothing blew up (thank God), but the operation buried Baker's old KK Runway, so I went ahead and scrapped that one and put a new one out there. The terrain is level and so is the Runway, so I'm a lot more confident the damn thing will actually be usable now. When the Lab module was complete, a contract to expand Baker quickly followed suit; I didn't actually need the Lab, so it was recycled and I went ahead and ordered up a KSC Runway Marker for purposes of finding the inner markers (Baker 18 and Baker 36) of the runway.

I've always kinda thought these Pathfinder bases I've been making were a fair size; this operation showed me just how small they really are.

Having grabbed the coordinates/elevations/headings of the inner makers (which I'll use for a custom configuration in the NavUtilities ILS mod), I went ahead and attempted to returned the Marker to Baker's launchpad for recycling, but the craft didn't have enough oomph to get back on there. I'll have Monty do the job at the next opportunity. No replacement contract was offered after the base expansion, so there's that as well.

While the Lab was printing up, I did go ahead and do a few things elsewhere. Having checked the VAB for a design matching the necessary criteria for a contract to put a new space station in orbit of Gilly (and making some very minor modifications to an existing design), I went ahead and ordered up said space station at the Samwell Tarly Yards over Gilly; construction will take just under 21 hours. The plan is to have the space station extant just long enough to fulfill the contract, then run it through STY's recycler. I've got two stations over Gilly already - I really don't need a third. I also had the crew at the Vermilion Block 380 outpost on Vall print up, deploy and inflate a Castillo Walkway and Castillo Depot, fulfilling an outpost expansion contract's requirement for five extra seats in the process (not to mention increasing the storage capacity for things I didn't need to increase the storage capacity for, namely Oxygen and Water in this case). That expansion contract is still ongoing - it requires the presence of a second engineer, which I'll have to figure out how to manage at some point.

Monty didn't get out and recycle the Marker right away because at that point I had to turn my attention to Roy Hinkley inbound to Eve from Gilly. The craft conducted an alignment burn with LSV House Atreides in high Eve orbit and then set up an intercept; flight time to that intercept was 43 minutes, after which a pair of burns were required to bring Hinkley into Eve orbit and bring the two ships to rendezvous. Hinkley made the rendezvous and docked to Atreides successfully, but I don't want to think about how close I wound up cutting it...


Let's see...88 m/s minus 31.5 m/s is what now?

Atreides is slated to bring the Woodsy Owl 7 (with Part L-H50) back to Kerbin, so she'll stay in orbit until that happens. The plan is for Atreides to do the initial flyby of Dres on her way back as well.

Not too much going on at the moment that hasn't already been mentioned. I do have a Laythe colonization contract for C. P. Baker that I need to get underway (hence the focus on getting a working Runway over there), so I'll probably be focusing on that today. Plan there is to send up an Auk to space station Kerbinport, transfer the ten Kerbals involved over to Gilligan and J. G. Backus docked at the station, get them over to LSV House Harkonnen in HKO, warp over to Laythe, get everybody over to space station Laytheport where hopefully a second Auk currently under construction in Laythe orbit will have been delivered by then, and then fly everybody down. I still need to consider plane refueling and passenger offloading, something the Auk series does not do natively. I think though that the tour bus Wisent design I recently used at Mun might do the trick; Laythe's got a bit more gravity than Mun so the control problems I experienced there should (keyword: should) not occur. I guess I'll find out. Also got a contract to establish a new outpost on Mun. Going to go ahead and put that one in the equatorial Midlands using the extant Piper Alpha outpost on Mun as a starting point, since I have spare staff there. Odd notion to colonize a world from a colony, but I guess that's the plan. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

[Retro Starship]

Nothing much last night except finishing off some distant career contracts where I managed to cause my Jet to over heat and crash at the south pole! (Jeb was freezing but still alive!) so I did get to complete that mission and come home.

So funny tho because, yes, my engine was still overheated, burning and stuck in the ground but also my batteries were hot?? Dont know? They were inside the compartment which was closed. Hmm. It must have been one of the lithium rechargeable types you find in the new skateboards... lol!

 

Also because of all the express trips I have been giving to dozens(maybe more) of Kerbals into space and orbit, I managed to completely finish off my space center upgrades!! wooot!  At tier 4 no less!!  

1.65 mill for the R&D and some I had left for the airstrip as well.

 

[Triop]

Today, we finished the VW Golf build.

 

[Cavscout74]

My 1.8 career made several bold leaps, with Kerbals in low & high orbit and a probe fly-by of Mun

Full details here

Edited November 19, 2019 by Cavscout74

[Retro Starship]

14 minutes ago, Cavscout74 said:

My 1.8 career made several bold leaps, with Kerbals in low & high orbit and a probe fly-by of Mun

Oh that looks really cool @Cavscout74, and where did you get that classic escape system from the Mercury program. Always loved that look!

Edited November 19, 2019 by Saturn5tony

[Yeet_TheDinosaur]

8 minutes ago, Saturn5tony said:

Oh that looks really cool @Cavscout74, and where did you get that classic escape system from the Mercury program. Always loved that look!

I think they are parts from Bluedog Design Bureau

They make old NASA mission parts and some modern ones. You might want to look into it if you like the look of it!

[Cavscout74]

44 minutes ago, Saturn5tony said:

Oh that looks really cool @Cavscout74, and where did you get that classic escape system from the Mercury program. Always loved that look!

PEBKAC Launch Escape Systems:

 

[Nezclaw]

Today I sent a probe up to collect some gravity data and deliver it to the KSS. I had to send the kerbal manning the station out to collect the data since once again i messed up the RCS placement. I also sent a probe in the direction of Duna, and mucked around in the spaceplane hangar some more. Still don't really know what I'm doing there...

[airtrafficcontroller]

One week after the first Mun fly-by in 1.8, my first landing on the new terrain shaders.

Spoiler

 

[Nezclaw]

1 hour ago, airtrafficcontroller said:

One week after the first Mun fly-by in 1.8, my first landing on the new terrain shaders.

  Hide contents

 

that sound you hear is my laptop melting. Looks great though.  

i managed to fat finger the warp button and blew way past a maneuver with no recent quicksave. fortunately it was a minmus return so i could come around again, but i blew the mun flyby i had planned in order to toss me into a fairly close Kerbin orbit.

The extractor i have on Mun with Bill and Bob is entirely insufficient for the job, I severely underestimated how much power it needed. I'm tempted to launch an upgraded version (you get a solar panel, and you get a solar panel) and see if i can land it near B&B so they can switch crafts, crack open the ore more effectively, and get Jeb.

Or I could design a lander that doesn't fall over yet has enough fuel to deorbit, land, launch, and return to orbit.