What did you do in KSP1 today?

[purpleivan]

More nautical adventures for me today.

The Naughtylus headed to the great wall at the edge of the icecap, on a mission to see if there might be a navigable passage underneath it. Val managaed to avoid a nasty collision with the wall, with just a few metres to spare.

Nothing but rock here, so lets go down and take a look.

All the way down.

Down in the inky depths, the Naughtylus found the base of the wall. Bill went out to take a look.

With evidence that the wall was indeed a wall, and not some kind of hugh icecube, it was time to head West to look at other parts of it, just to be sure.

But sure enough all there was, was wall.

[Hotel26]

I've been having much more fun on Gilly than I thought I would.  The Moho fleet accompanied the Eve fleet here.  I have half of Moho refueled for the Eve->Moho transfer in 75 days.

I have a geosync space station parked overhead this mining site.

 

But Eve is calling!  So a quick build this evening; almost on impulse.  This is Electroglide:

Man, it is quite purty to fly, all trimmed up; no SAS, no AtmoAuto.  The trim and nothing but the trim.  Cruises at 168 m/s.

 

Edited May 25, 2020 by Hotel26

[southernplain]

Pathfinder-1 zipped past Duna at over 7km/s today.

The probe transmitted a wealth of science about the Duna system. The probe only has a small amount of onboard maneuvering propellant but it might be repurposed for another mission if a window presents itself.

[Guest]

More of A Certain Aesthetic.

This is a wildly overengineered commsat. It has not only masses of dV and RCS for fine-adjusting orbits, it produces way more power than it needs and has 2 x 2G relay antennas, deployable on hinges. It's called the Kolniya, because of course it is.

And here's something that's only very vaguely based on any real design. It incorporates some features from early sketches for moon bases. I built it for a contract -- 8 kerbals, on wheels, antenna and solar panels. Since I wanted it to do something useful as well, I put it an MPL and sciencey stuff. It's an outpost.

[N_Danger]

Put a rover on Eve and was reminded how dark it is there:

[Tonka Crash]

A Duna launch window came around, so I spent the last week rushing together a mission. Nowhere near enough testing was done, so I'll probably have to mount a rescue mission at some point. I did a sandbox test of the lander, but that was it.  This window snuck up on me.  Normally I'd assemble something like this in orbit with multiple launches or use Extraplanetary Launchpads, but there wasn't time for that. I recently installed @Nertea's refreshed NFLV mod and did it in one shot. First stage was 12 Clydesdales, a second stage of 19 Vectors.  There were a handful of reverts to adjust staging. 4 separate ships, multiple drop tanks and dozens of parachutes made this a bit more complicated than normal. I was also having issues with something around the fairing base failing during the circularization burn. Four struts fixed it, which i think was the only real change from what moved to the pad for the first attempt.

With Stage Recovery and USI heavy cargo chutes all the Clydesdales were recovered.

NFLV Vector Cluster fired after the Clydesdales separated.

The main ship with support craft.Top to bottom, Tanker, Rover and Lander.  Six crew on board.  A couple days ago I launched a probe controlled refinery that will land on Ike. The tanker is mainly to support multiple hops to different biomes.  The ship is balanced around the thrust line by adjusting the fuel loads in the support ships. There is another small drop tank opposite the rover to balance it's mass. The lander is sized for a 4 man crew, 1 pilot and room to recover the 3-man rover crew.  Last time I did a Duna mission I used a 3 man lander and had to do two trips to pick up the rover crew at the mission end, which was something I didn't think of ahead of time. 

Breaking orbit for Duna. The big orange tanks are drop tanks. The first trio drained during this burn. All the support ships get left at Duna, so the core ship should have enough dV for the return trip. The drop tanks get it there and should support initial operations until the refinery is running.

 

[Plane Crazy]

Bill and Bob went to the Mun to take care of a couple survey contracts.

 

It was a very tedious process, as I had to cross a large crater using a terribly designed rover that had no reaction wheels and tended to flip.

[Puggonaut]

Continued the Adventures of...…...

 

[michaelbezos1]

next launch will do with turned on camera to improve performance and researches. Also ordered tracker gps only in case as this launch plan to do it on this site https://photogallery8.webnode.com/_files/200000124-4134141344/IMAG0008.jpg

 

probbly withouth followers but hopefully will gain expeirence especially with seting igniters to launcher and hopefully movie from retrieved camera and after i publish here and at website. 

 

Keeps things together. 

It is possible also to build own spacecraft capsule or do bigger progress at youtube there are scholarship movies. 

 

[Plane Crazy]

Today I took a spaceplane into orbit to remove some debris.

[Stamp20]

No picture right now but I designed a space station that I'll put in orbit of Ovok. Getting it there is a different story.
Edit: Here's the picture.

Edited May 26, 2020 by Stamp20

[Angelo Kerman]

I finished the exterior of my Mk-33 Krew Module and successfully tested the hatches and extendible docking tube:

This week I'll be working on the IVA. It seats 16. The Krew Module is the last of the planned Mission Modules:

I'm still on track for a mid-summer release

[Lewie]

Today I sent up the lander stage of my eve probe. I just have to rendezvous the transfer stage then it will be sent to Eve. I am using a wolfhound engine for it. The wolfhound is quite simply, a lot better then the nuclear engine. It has a much higher twr, making burns much shorter. It also is more efficient, and provides a lot more delta v then the nuke.  

[Phoenix-D]

Discovered that putting a docking port on the side of the rentry modules is a Bad Idea. Or a great simulation of being drunk (yes even with control from here on).

Didn't help that I forgot SAS. No SAS + engineer driving + docking = AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARG.

[Okhin]

So, I added some Argon engines and tanks to the core module. Did it in four launches, burning a lot of Clydesdale, and spending a lot of time on Lithium powered RCS to dock (I should probably double or triple them in future launches, they're damn slow).

The argon tank + engine is on top. Yes, it also includes a heat shield, it could help to aero capture the whole thing. And I like the mushroom look it gives to anything.

Getting rid of the empty SRB, heading for a 120km Ap. The fuel left will be more than enough to rendezvous with the station.

Dock, rince and repeat. I can now move the station around, with almost 20km.s dV in Argon, powered by a nuclear core. This should allow me to go basically everywhere.

Next up is a logistic and docking bay. With a deployable comnet and hydroponics. I need to figure out how I'll set this up and spend some time messing in the VAB.

[Hotel26]

Sometimes in KSP, you just have to make yourself think like a Kerbal would!

I think I've finally beaten Robotics, Wheels and Physics to make this, Paxmover 3, which is actually fit for purpose.

1. jet propulsion!
2. reverse thrust!
3. airplane wheels!
4. the Kerbal way!

 

It accommodates up to 8 Kerbals.  Embarks and disembarks them easily: any aircraft.  Transfers fuel too!  But how do you get it to your regional airport?

 

Fly it out, of course!  Would be such a shame to waste that jet engine.  And like everything in KSP -- slap wings on it and it will fly!

Lands under chutes.  On the final leg, jettison the wings.

So far, I've haven't seen the shakes, rattles and rolls from this while docked to another craft.  I'll give it a week in test and then, if all good, post it to KerbalX.

Edited May 26, 2020 by Hotel26

[TonyC]

Today I sent a science probe around Corellia.

It was supposed to go into orbit around its innermost moon, but my fuel calculations were incorrect, and I had to settle for a flyby of two other moons.

2500 science points were gathered !

[Jereminator]

Wow that is a nice flight...

Today I discovered a 5+8M credits contracts with Sentinel Telescope on an orbit too high to map kerbin's asteroid and I spend around 2hours in the forum trying to understand I had to place another one closer to Eve to fulfill the mission... I've waited 20 years ingame before understanding something was wrong with the first one 

 

But now I am no longer in need 

[PTNLemay]

Sent a manned ship to Jool (finally), the Lazarus.  I've attempted this sort of mission before, but I've only ever managed a flyby.  Never a captured orbit.  It's not that hard, but my roleplay desires always gets the best of me and I bring way too many spare capsules to simulate life support.  And all that extra weight kills my deltaV.  This time I'm using an actual life support mod, so I know the crew will have enough food and living space to survive the trip.  The ship can hold about 7 people, but for now I've only got the classic 4 on board.

I sent a lander ahead of them, so I will also be attempting a landing on Laythe (and completing a Laythe crew transfer contract which will definitely not cover the costs of this mission).

 

 

EDIT:  Arrived at Laythe.  Just need to rendez-vous with the lander now.

 

EDIT 2:
Mission failed.  I was quite proud of my big Laythe lander, but the design proved incapable of accomplishing the mission.  It turns out, 0.6 atmosphere strikes a perfect evil ratio where it's both insufficient to slow you down with the number of parachutes you brought, but enough to completely mess up your aerodynamics on the way back into orbit.  Thankfully I did bring two landers, one to send down unmanned and see if it was safe, and a second one to actually bring down the crew.  With the loss of Capsule 1 we're scrubbing the Laythe landing.  Might try for Pol instead.

Edited May 27, 2020 by PTNLemay

[Guest]

More of A Certain Aesthetic. This time it's a Mun outpost. This is very loosely inspired by some early 1970s sketches for a permanent Mun station, dubbed Zvezda. The modules are somewhat similar and they were driven into place in situ like in the sketch. There's also a garage/entrance/airlock similar to the one in the sketch, this one houses a Space Niva however. I've also taken some liberties with the command module.

I've designed this to be extensible, I might add modules later should the spirit move me. This spot is Ore-rich, so ISRU would be a natural addition once I unlock it.

In the background is the Almaz-1 lander/skycrane that brought down the modules.

In real life most of this would have been buried to shield it from radiation. Only the garage/airlock would have poked out.

Another view, with Space Niva safely garaged.

This is the rocket that sent all of that up. I dubbed it the Broton-1.

 

 

[Retro Starship]

On 5/25/2020 at 8:04 AM, Puggonaut said:

Continued the Adventures of...…...

Wow, awesome re-creation of Flash's spaceship! Man that was cool!

[N_Danger]

I went and rescued Ted. No frills, just an empty capsule with a parachute.

And got pretty close to KSC . At least for me. 

[Cavscout74]

After my  mining base crew landed (at night of course), the second time was the charm for my Minmus fuel shuttle - the second one survived launch, the trip to Minmus and another night landing.  After a quick fill-up, it carried a load of fuel to Minmus station.  I had been a little worried - despite Minmus' low gravity, the engines on the shuttle are pretty small and I hadn't actually checked what kind of TWR it would have with full fuel.  Happily, it still managed over 0.3 g's.  I also managed to finish all my course corrections completed for my Duna mission.

Crew landing at the base, the fuel arm on the base went all floppy despite having the locks engaged - once the base was manned, the arm was able to be put back into its normal position

Mining base with the fuel arm extended, rover & crew lander.  I think I should've added 2 fuel cell arrays - with 2 large drills, the large converter, research lab & waste recycling, night time operations are a trade-off between work & not running the batteries dry.

Landing the fuel shuttle was pretty much like landing the crew - at night, trying to get close enough to transfer fuel without hitting anything or tipping over.  No pics because it was dark, but here the fuel shuttle is moving to dock with my Minmus Station.  The medium 2.5m tank is the fuel for the station, just the 1.25-2.5m adapter tank is used for the shuttle's engines - enough for ~460 m/s at full load, more than enough for the round trip.

Edited May 27, 2020 by Cavscout74

[JcoolTheShipbuilder]

On 5/22/2020 at 10:00 PM, SuicidalInsanity said:

Dres has a certain reputation as a place to avoid. Since I've never bothered to go there before, and I was bored, I decided to see what all the fuss was about.
It didn't end well.

 

huh... didnt expect that... wait... did that just imply that dres is home to an alien species?

Edited May 27, 2020 by JcoolTheShipbuilder

[Angelo Kerman]

I got my EVA hatches fixed:

That's Jeb hanging out on the docking tube's EVA hatch.