What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Warmachine]

I'm building something.... big...

Project Tourmaline is the code name for this mothership-style interplanetary craft. I play with life support, so when considering things like a training mission to Jool, I need to contend with the fact that my Kerbals will need sufficient facilities to keep them alive for multiple years in space. I'm missing a few technologies I want before actually starting to assemble this thing-namely some of the more advanced nuclear reactors and nuclear engines my mods provide, but this is the general idea.

The TWR of this thing is more akin to something powered by ion engines, but given that as of writing, with all 8 cargo containers full of fertilizer (a very unrealistic payload for this thing), it clocks in at 315 tons "fully assembled." This will only go up once the reactor is installed, a proper nuclear engine is installed, and the docking arms are completed.

I still haven't figured out two things: what kind of lander to build, and how to deal with turning this thing and keeping it stable. I figure I just need to hide reaction wheels somewhere (sticking them in random places looks really ugly), but also there's also an argument to just bite the bullet and include LFO verniers.

 

Edit: I finished a prototype and took it on a hyperedit test flight. Unity blew up when I tried to view the Jool system though...

Edited February 3, 2020 by Warmachine

[Jetpackmaniac]

Saw the mundust castle in the main menu for the first time.

 

 

[Hotel26]

I start thinking about names for craft shortly before they come out of the hangar doors for the first time.  I honestly had no idea with this one -- until I was performing the docking tests:

It is Butterfly...

I built this one purely to rev-eng the wing design.  The wings are too big for a space-plane.  But the name fits.

Edited February 3, 2020 by Hotel26

[BadOaks]

The KTS Morning arrived in the Eve system and, after some fiddling to find where the time-warp boundaries were, took up a high orbit around Gilly.

Halul, Bilsey and Bob brought the mining ship down and did some biome-hopping and contract work before mining up a load of ore for refueling. The contracts brought in about 2 million kerbo-bucks to fund the other parts of my space program.

Right now I'm eyeing an Eve-Moho transfer window and wondering if the ore miner could work on Moho. 

Edited February 3, 2020 by BadOaks

[AHHans]

I broke Jeb.

[DoubleAACE]

TIL that landing debris still counts for landing on the Mun (the probe core exploded on impact, whoops).

[Retro Starship]

4 hours ago, AHHans said:

I broke Jeb.

A force of 276 g's!!   ahhhh poor Jeb, I am sure he never felt a thing.

Edited February 3, 2020 by Retro Starship

[purpleivan]

More contracts free career gaming today.

Searching for pyramids with Bob and Val.

A quick orbital science cleanup with Jeb.

Then finally a Mun orbital flight, with Jeb once more at the wheel.

It was intended as a landing mission, but the level 1 tracking station and the inefficient trip that resulted in, scotched that idea.

[Retro Starship]

 Retro's Six Kerbal trip to Minmus 

Last night my career task was to bring 4 Kerbals to land on Minmus. Oh this was fun, so I grabbed my rocket called Basilia V got Valentina to pilot it and Sally Kerman to do some science and the 4 Kerbals that was needed. Erlo Kerman tho was the only one that had to go to the sun which I will do tomorrow. He also needed a trip to Minmus like the rest. I could have risked the trip to the sun as well, but this was the first time using that many Kerbals for me. I know it may take alot more energy to return to Kerban with that extended trip.

Val and Sally boarded the Gemini capsule, the rest in the extremely comfortable passenger section.

Here is the Kerbal passenger list:

 

The Mission:       5.....4.....3.....2.....1.... LAUNCH!

Spoiler

Orbit to Minmus has been made!

Mission accomplished, KSC we have landed on Minmus

Now back to our lovely planet Kerban:

Spoiler

With that many Kerbals I made it home just fine, but around the sun I think I would have had issues. Erlo will stay in his spacesuit and tomorrow night, he will see an orbit around our star! The other 3 Kerbals funded me very well for this trip.

Edited February 3, 2020 by Retro Starship
spelling issues

[Guest]

This will probably be the last music video I produce. Copyright claims are too annoying to deal with...

[Arco123]

Finally got the Apollo 11 Tribute done. I'm going on a break for a week so I can work on my book and rest: 

It's got a lot of firsts in it. Plus it's 21:9.

[RizzoTheRat]

On Sunday I launched a probe to Duna and was very proud of my kOS script that got it all the way there.

On Monday I realised that I couldn't undock the satellites from it with the communications delay imposed by RemoteTech, so ended up reloading from a save and adding some hinges to fold the satellites out to the side. 

Today I launched the satellites in to a lovely formation around Duna, with very little eccentricity on the the orbit.

Then I realised I'd forgotten to target the dish on the transfer stage, which is due to go on to a polar orbit carrying an an array of ScanSat sensors, but luckily I had activated the omnidirectional antenna so it should be able to talk to the Kommsats and therefor link back to Kerbin...except it couldn't.

I spent quite a long time calculating cone angles and distances to see why it might not have a connection....until I relised I'd forgotten to put a $%&£*@! probe core on the £$%£@^& thing!

AAAAARGH!

Edited February 3, 2020 by RizzoTheRat

[Retro Starship]

1 hour ago, Arco123 said:

Finally got the Apollo 11 Tribute done.

Wow, That took my heart away, well done!

[michaelbezos1]

Quote

Project Tourmaline is the code name for this mothership-style interplanetary craft

nice attempt, i like this creativness as it pushes me to do simmilar jobs, projects only benefits from the and the cost is zero. Like they say "even more than welcome " to this. Nice work, keep going.

[michaelbezos1]

Turning on the game now, hopefully making some progress. 

Fulgar likes my post i like that moreover if somebody follows me same excites me as my theory is that people always copied and followed me thats why worlds goes forward:D 

Unfortunately pogress does not appeal usually sticking at the same points as it pushes to make own researches, time -consuming but fortunately free. 

Made future plans webpage at rocketlaunches.webnode.com as it is even more than welcome to be on the top and even more than welcome to develop this most desiring and exciting area and fortunately free. 

 

Edited February 4, 2020 by michaelbezos1
adding info

[Kerbolitto]

JUMPS

 

 

Edited February 4, 2020 by Kerbolitto

[Retro Starship]

(1.8.1, Making History, Breaking Ground, Kerbalism and many mods)

Ok, I dont even know what to say here. (haha)

Last weekend I just tested a bunch of stuff for my level 6 career parts contracts at once with a very unusual rocket! Engines at the bottom, engines at the top and engines all the way around... LOL!!!

You may think its funny to see my capsule way down below this post, get into the water from space with an engine on top and test it, but I did it and was able to almost complete all my tasks. It still makes me laugh.

Spoiler

 

Wait a min, is that an engine at the back AND THE top of that capsule!!!!

WHICH WAY DO TO I GO - - - forward or backward .. hahaha!

 

Is that Cherenkov atomic engine in the wrong place??? Nope!

What the. . .

OK, Now Gene Kerman is really asking me to test stuff in funny ways, but hey.. It can be done.

[Mars-Bound Hokie]

I decided to fly to the old space center to get some science points. Though I've already maxed out my tech tree, I wanted to do something cool real quick while waiting for one of my craft to hit Jool's SOI (57 days from now). I originally planned to use a Mun Hopper to get there, but the atmospheric spectrometer exploded from me flying too fast. I then hit the SPH and redesigned one of my older aircraft to carry all scientific instruments in a protected cargo area.

 

• Smartbird in the SPH
  • Cost: 66,990
  • Crew Capacity: 2
  • Mass: 21.73 tons
  • Science:
    • EVERYTHING
• For sale at your local KerbalX dealer

 

Though I was at a greater risk of running out of fuel, I only needed to get to the old space center before collecting scientific data and getting picked up.

 

• Once again, my plane's on fire less than five minutes after takeoff.

 

• I plugged in the coordinates to the old KSC into the landing guidance system so I can see the target indicator on my navball.

 

• If you look closely near the right rudder, you'll see some buildings down below.

 

• I circled around the area repeatedly just to get some aerial shots and find a good landing approach.
• This plane is very maneuverable, not to mention quicker to slow down than most supersonic craft.

 

 

• You can see the old VAB in the back.

 

• I then moved the plane to the old launch pad for some science. 

 

[Cavscout74]

Downloaded JNSQ & Kopernicus and started playing around with the intent of restarting my Out of the Sands career in JNSQ.  I also installed Tetrix tech tree and a very few parts mods to start with.   First launch in sandbox easily made orbit - of course it was sort of an N-1 with an Apollo CSM on top and no LM, so if I hadn't made orbit I would've been pretty upset. 

I had set Ablator to 400 - expecting to use more than stock KSP, but I actually ran out of ablator on reentry from a 200km orbit.  The bare heatshield was still enough to protect the crew by that time, but still a surprise.

Then I started messing with smaller rockets to attempt to build a <18t/<30 part manned rocket that could make orbit.  I managed to get a 1.25m manned rocket to make orbit, and it only had 19 parts but it tipped the scales at just over 22 tons.  So far, attempts at a redesign have made if heavier.   Only grabbed a single image, preparing for reentry:

 

Then I jumped back to my science save to fly a few low-tech missions into the upper atmosphere & even a quick sub-orbital hop:

First one, without decouplers unlocked.  The upper stage Flea (with thrust set to something like 40%) didn't have enough power to blow up the Hammer below it, so my flight was even shorter than expected:

Later mixed SRB & LFO design with just enough dV to poke a few km above the atmosphere and grab science

And coming back down:

Next step is to see how it handles the rest of my mods.

[Pipcard]

Y59, D270 - The K-3 launch vehicle (10-meter diameter) carries the WiM-17 mining vessel and Amethyst probe complement, which will explore the Neidon system (Outer Planets mod)

Y59, D277 - After refueling at a depot, the craft uses nuclear lightbulbs (1500 s Isp) to perform the transfer burn

Neidon will be reached in 5 years

[Mars-Bound Hokie]

I got bored and built a replica of the SR-71 Blackbird. After messing around with it a bit, I gave it the official seal of approval and posted it on KerbalX

 

• SR-71 Blackbird replica in the SPH
  • Cost: 36,953
  • Crew Capacity: 2
  • Mass: 23.63 tons
  • Science:
    • Crew report
• Craft file here

 

After the first flight test, I tried to take it to the next level and circumnavigate Kerbin in under an hour. However, that did not work out well for me.

 

• By the time I realized I wasn't going to make it back to the KSC, I was getting close to the crater formation. I then turned my plane slightly northeast and flew low so I can mark the Crater Rim station's location on Kerbnet.
• I then pitched up, but the controls were locked. I managed to release the locks on the debug menu before my engines completely drained my tanks.
• I then cut the throttle (and the engines, once I saw that they were still using fuel) and flew to a nice (relatively) flat spot to land. Thanks to my drag chutes, I didn't go far once I hit the surface.

 

Personally, I blame the precoolers for my problem. I already have shock cone intakes for the engines, not to mention I could trade the precoolers for 800 more units of fuel - then I would have made it back. On the other hand, I don't know if I should make that call just yet.

• Just how useful are they when combined with shock cone intakes?
• In terms of aircraft performance (speed, altitude, maneuverability), how different is using precoolers from not using them (putting fuel tanks in their place)?

[Kerbolitto]

20 minutes ago, Mars-Bound Hokie said:

 

Personally, I blame the precoolers for my problem. I already have shock cone intakes for the engines, not to mention I could trade the precoolers for 800 more units of fuel - then I would have made it back. On the other hand, I don't know if I should make that call just yet.

• Just how useful are they when combined with shock cone intakes?
• In terms of aircraft performance (speed, altitude, maneuverability), how different is using precoolers from not using them (putting fuel tanks in their place)?

 

I'd say that if you fly high enough you won't need pre coolers, as you reduce throttle at cruise speed, also, one shock cone might be enough air for both engines (I use 1 for 2 Rapiers).

[Mars-Bound Hokie]

2 minutes ago, Kerbolitto said:

I'd say that if you fly high enough you won't need pre coolers

Which is how high?

• Also, as embarrassing as this sounds, I don't know my cruise altitude and speed. All I was going for was:
  • Looking like the SR-71
  • Meeting (if not beating) its real-life counterpart's maximum performance stats

 

3 minutes ago, Kerbolitto said:

also, one shock cone might be enough air for both engines (I use 1 for 2 Rapiers).

Personally, I wouldn't. 9 out of 10 times I used one intake for two engines, one of them had a tendency to flame out while the other one seemed to hog all the air.

Besides, I'm going for an SR-71 replica here. Nobody would notice the precoolers being swapped for fuel tanks, but no air intakes in front of the engines means that it doesn't look ANYTHING like an SR-71.

[KerikBalm]

Kopernicus updated, so I promptly tried my cargo-lander for my modified Duna (3x size and SMA, atmosphere thinned slightly, gravity increased to 3.76G/ by 1.25x, atmosphere scaled to 90km instead of 50/ by 1.8x).

I had to start the suicide burn earlier, and at higher speeds. Wasted a lot of dV on a slow final descent, and had a really sub-optimal ascent (too vertical, very little horizontal velocity and Ap - where I had to burn nearly all the way to orbital velocity), didn't start with full fuel (for better TWR). I did the more difficult De-orbit, land, reorbit profile (maximally heavy landing) over the Launch from surface (fueled from surface ISRU), orbit, land profile. Still made it to orbit with 100 m/s

Spoiler

 

[Hotel26]

OK, drag me back to the 20th century, then.  My very first prop plane: the Blue Baron

I took a trip out to Koney Island (at night) and realized I didn't need to lug the 580 kallons of fuel.  It's electric.  (I guess they didn't have internal combustion back in the 20th??)

It's quite pleasant to fly and, being a tail-sitter, just as much fun to land...  (Full flare, stay off the brakes and land uphill, whenever available.)

On final for KSC R27L:

Viewer Poll:

1. did not end well...
2. ended too soon...
3. all of the above...?

Edited February 6, 2020 by Hotel26