What did you do in KSP1 today?

[N_Danger]

I sent my first interplanetary probe to Duna on this play through.

The journey there 

Spoiler

 

And now on station as a relay after getting the science. There is plenty of D/V for any contracts that come up.

 

[Cavscout74]

Got a few things done in my career today - first, sent a crew of 6 on a quick trip out of Kerbin's SoI for training.  Three launched from Kerbin, rendezvoused with the three that were at Pegasus base on Mun, then dropped off the three new crew at Mun & brought the first Mun crew home. 

Mun crew getting ready to launch

Docking with their transport for the training hop

Then, I found a period of excellent comm's around Laythe, so I went ahead with landing the Laythe Ocean Explorer

Chutes deployed

And a sudden solar eclipse

After splashing down & testing out that all systems were operational, some preliminary data was sent back to Kerbin, then went to standby mode to recharge its batteries before continuing to explore

Then I tested out @Angel-125's  Mk-33 in sandbox, which was a lot of fun.  Other than a stall/spin during reentry (which I recovered with a burst of thrust from those monster engines),  it went pretty well but I did run out of fuel and landed short of KSC.  For something so big, it handled pretty nicely

[Plane Crazy]

I sent the former Gilly transfer craft to the Mun to fulfill a docking contract from way back, because I didn't know that you had to dock two separate launches. I docked it with a small probe launched from a spaceplane.

Ascent:

Deploying the probe:

Docked:

Recovering the probe and crew, and refueling the transfer ship's monopropellant tanks:

Landed back on the runway (the nose cone exploded on ascent, will probably replace it with another shock cone):

[RoninFrog]

I successfully claimed Minmus for all Kerbalkind by landing a rover, building a base, and docking a spaceplane:

And then I sent an army off to conquer the Duna system.  Multi-module bases are sometimes a real pain this way.

[RyanRising]

I found out Kerbals can switch between sets of perpendicular ladders by pressing A or D.

I've owned this game for more than six years and I've never tried this.

SIX YEARS

WHY

[MikeZDB]

After 5 years of planing this project, we still work  5 years for me, 11 years for Kerbal Space History. I LOVE THIS GAME EVER. 

Today we had launch and finish the Gemini - Agena style mission.

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

 

KSP I STILL LOVING YOU.

[Hotel26]

  

 

This is Harpoon...   We're no longer afraid of Eve.

Edited June 23, 2020 by Hotel26

[Geonovast]

6 hours ago, RyanRising said:

I found out Kerbals can switch between sets of perpendicular ladders by pressing A or D.

That is really good to know! 

[Martian Emigrant]

Hey all Kerbalites.

 

The last few days I have been practising pinpoint landings.

Jeb re-found the Memorial and placed a flag.

Val went for it.

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for dropping in.

 

ME

[Cavscout74]

9 hours ago, RyanRising said:

I found out Kerbals can switch between sets of perpendicular ladders by pressing A or D

Holy **** I never knew that either!!!! 

[Stewcumber]

22 hours ago, Stewcumber said:

The science engineering has continued...

Cogs and stuff.GIF

Well today I took that principle to the next step and built a front engine, rear wheel drive car. I needed to make the wheels (T-37 Tube or something) have a crash resistance of "a lot" so they didn't explode).

It's got a locked diff, so it's basically a race car

Starting off is not smooth as it is just a bit of wheelspin and 'clunk' and you're off.

It's got a bit of a wobbly chassis though, as you can see when I instantly go from 0-100 torque (with the biggest high-speed rotor too). I'm amazed the cogs all hold together though!

https://i.imgur.com/PsKQbYC.mp4 (50mb video)

Not sure where to to next. Maybe stop the rear wheels shaking so much - rigidify the whole axle (not sure that's a word)

[Geonovast]

@Stewcumber what about doing some actual gear reduction for the axle like a real car?  Might smooth things out.

Getting some working spider gears in there would also be pretty epic

[Cavscout74]

Posted an update to my career here.  Today's accomplishments were getting the Peregrine-Mun lander in place.  The change to a Dart engine in place of the Terrier was a big improvement, but the VTOL engines are a little weak for Mun. 

The landing was a little rough, with multiple bounces and a near-rollover, but surprisingly nothing broke.  The design has since been updated with a 4th pair of VTOL engines, but this is still usable as-is if I'm careful.  I also have to watch the Dart - being above the CoM, at full power it has enough power to override the reaction wheels.  About 75-80% seems to be safe, but going above that is problematic.

And my Bop combo relay & lander arrived, set up a near-polar orbit for the relay, then dropped the lander

Edited June 24, 2020 by Cavscout74

[Pipcard]

Y67, D172 - The WiM-18 miner/tanker carries the Eternity probes to Plock

Plock will be reached in 7 years (the projected orbit looks jagged due to floating point errors far away from Kerbol)

Edited June 24, 2020 by Pipcard

[BadOaks]

Day-one expedition of the first Eve landing. While Thompsy fired up the ISRU equipment to re-fuel the ascent vehicle, I had Mundon climb into the ASEV and begin exploring. 

I began by doing a low altitude survey of the biomes immediately surrounding the landing site (explodium sea, shallows, lowlands, midlands, highlands, peaks) and then climbed to 20km so the on-board KerbNet scanner could cover a wider area.

From there, the ASEV tracked westward across the bay over to a local mountain, then set down on the peak and I took some pictures of Mundon looking dramatic.

Mundon then did some biome-hopping, collecting surface reports from Eve's peaks, foothills, and highlands. Here he is picking up a volcanic rock sample.

When the sun started getting low enough that shadows were obscuring surface visibility I had the ASEV turn and head back to the ascent vehicle.

It was actually very lucky I headed back when I did, as the solar panels were no longer producing enough electricity to run the motors. On reaching the ascent vehicle I had to make a somewhat panicked landing when I realized there was only a few seconds worth of juice left.

Once safely on the ground, Mundon collected 54 reports from the ASEV and boarded the EAV to spend the night. In the morning he'll be heading out again to fulfill a survey contract 200 km to the east.

 Full Album:

Spoiler

 

Edited June 24, 2020 by BadOaks

[RealKerbal3x]

@BadOaks Awesome ascent vehicle and exploration aircraft! I'm thinking about stealing that design for an exploration vehicle when I eventually send Kerbals to Eve

[BadOaks]

1 hour ago, RealKerbal3x said:

@BadOaks Awesome ascent vehicle and exploration aircraft! I'm thinking about stealing that design for an exploration vehicle when I eventually send Kerbals to Eve

Steal away! In fact, if you or anyone else is interested I just uploaded it KerbalX: 

https://kerbalx.com/BadOaks/Airborne-Surface-Exploration-Vehicle-ASEV

[JorgeCS]

58 minutes ago, BadOaks said:

Steal away! In fact, if you or anyone else is interested I just uploaded it KerbalX: 

https://kerbalx.com/BadOaks/Airborne-Surface-Exploration-Vehicle-ASEV

Downloaded and upvoted  

[Contrabass Ophicleide]

I did a Jool probe (in sandbox). didn't manage to do all the things I had planned, but I would say it was a success! 

 https://imgur.com/gallery/VXt5V7G

Edited June 24, 2020 by Contrabass Ophicleide
forgot to put in something

[Retro Starship]

17 hours ago, Geonovast said:

Getting some working spider gears in there would also be pretty epic

After watching @Stewcumber 's video on this craft, I think the Kraken would have a field day on it! lol

[Selective Genius]

I have always been upset by the restriction imposed upon the payload size because of the cargo bays, so taking inspiration from  'SSTO space program' on youtube I made an early game SSTO.

This has a 2.5m fairing, and can accomodate payloads upto 3.5m diameter pretty easily. It managed to get 5 tons to orbit easily. The Re-entry and landing was smooth has heck too. But the craft struggled with initial ascent, as it was underpowered. This forced me to start the rocket engines at a lower altitude within the atmosphere, and at much lower speeds.

And then I realized :" Wait a minute! Why am I restricting the length of the payload??!!"

Therefore, Mk2 of the SSTO was created.

It is not very different to Mk1, the fuselage, wing and fuel tank placement is 95% similar. But it has 2 more whiplashes then the previous iteration, solving the underpowered ascent problem. So much so that this craft has 1600 m/s delta v in LKO for a 7 ton payload, whereas Mk1 barely had enough to deorbit, with a 5 ton payload! Moreover, The payload length is not restricted, and I think it can take 9 tons to orbit comfortably. Now all it needs is some cosmetic modifications. It is a front loader, so I suppose it can carry Surface Base Modules to and from surface to orbit...

SSTO Prototype Mk2 completing the circularization burn with it's dummy cargo of 2 full ore containers (7 tons).

Refuel it in LKO, attach a droptank or ISRU and I perhaps can do a Laythe mission with this SSTO. A Duna mission would be child's play.

But just when I was patting myself in the back, disaster struck! Re-entry was smooth, so was the final approach, but this craft STALLS like a Flying Brick! It crashed about 50 m from the runway! Its most likely the unshielded docking port causing this issue... But I guess I will slap some parachutes, which makes it good enough for Kerbin,  maybe not good enough for Laythe.

Suggestions for improving this SSTO are welcome.

[DStaal]

42 minutes ago, Selective Genius said:

But just when I was patting myself in the back, disaster struck! Re-entry was smooth, so was the final approach, but this craft STALLS like a Flying Brick! It crashed about 50 m from the runway! Its most likely the unshielded docking port causing this issue... But I guess I will slap some parachutes, which makes it good enough for Kerbin,  maybe not good enough for Laythe.

Suggestions for improving this SSTO are welcome.

How about a robotic clamshell using Breaking Ground hinges and structural panels?  Would that be able to shield the docking port?

[Selective Genius]

3 minutes ago, DStaal said:

How about a robotic clamshell using Breaking Ground hinges and structural panels?  Would that be able to shield the docking port?

That might be possible, will try it out the next time I play KSP.. I suppose 3 structural panels with 3 hinges, covering the docking port like the petals on Pathfinder?

[DStaal]

Whatever design works best - I was thinking basically use a handmade clamshell fairing covering the entire payload (which can then be re-closed for reentry) but if you can make something smaller that works, that would be good.

(If it's just the docking port and not the whole thing, you might see if a shielded clamp-o-tron helps.  A larger clamshell would only be needed if you actually need to make the whole center fuselage aerodynamic.)

[fulgur]

Perhaps if, inside the fairing, you added one of those C7 2.5m nosecones behind the port. I think that that would be a more effective way of reducing drag. Plus, I believe you can't attach stuff to a shielded port in the SPH/VAB, so unless you want to build a crane you'll have to find some other way of making it aerodynamic.