What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Vezbot]

Years after the Tiny But Mighty Crew docked to a class B asteroid was thrown out of Kerbin's SOI due to the Mun, I decided last night to pilot the craft back to Kerbin, and then low Munar orbit where the asteroid will stay permanently. It is also a good place to rotate my crew and get the craft to finally release it's grip on the space rock. The orbit was slightly different than Kerbins and a bit inclined, but doable.

First I matched the orbits and put it slightly lower than Kerbins. Then I time warped and watched the faster craft, once behind the planet by about 90 degrees, close in and get closer. When it came within half a billion meters to the planet, 250 Million M closer to the sun + 250 million M behind the planet, I pointed the both the asteroid and the craft prograde and ignited the ion engine.(which normally has a delta V of 15000 meters a second with the RADKOR craft version 1, the mass of the asteroid brought the DV to 2000 m a sec). Definitely doable, even if the burns are long. After the prograde burn was completed, I went from 1200 m/s to about 900 m/s, but the orbit was now in Kerbin's SOI.

In fact, the relative velocity to Kerbin was so low, that I didn't have to do much to actually get captured. Only 45 m/s relative velocity.

Soon after I had adjusted for a Mun encounter, but the approach was at a 90 degree angle if you compared the trajectories. Because of this, I needed to get rid of 500 m/s and I was in a retrograde trajectory in the Mun SOI. After a painful capture and inclination change. I started to lower the orbit and finished with 200 m/s left. It was good enough for me to release the crafts claw on the asteroid and make their way down to an area on the Mun where they can join another crew to head back to Kerbin.

Sorry if my posts have been long lately, but I have been more active on my PS4 with KSP and seeking ambitious and fun missions to do.

[Popestar]

5 minutes ago, Vezbot said:

Sorry if my posts have been long lately, but I have been more active on my PS4 with KSP and seeking ambitious and fun missions to do.

Don't apologize!  Your posts are awesome, and are inspiring me in ways to both plan missions and how to write my daily "What Did I Do" segments!

[N_Danger]

I worked on a un-crewed Munner orbiter mission to validate the design and mission profile before sending kerbals.

In orbit with enough Delta Vee to reach the Mun. Check.

Enough Delta Vee to get into a 20 km x 20 km orbit. Check.

Enough Delta Vee for a return to Kerbin. Check.

Reentry. Ahh... I need to work on that. (The reentry speed coming back direct in JNSQ is too high to not have a heat shield apparently) 

And this people, is why we do unmanned missions first before sending kebals.

[Popestar]

1 hour ago, N_Danger said:

Reentry. Ahh... I need to work on that. (The reentry speed coming back direct in JNSQ is too high to not have a heat shield apparently) 

And this people, is why we do unmanned missions first before sending kebals.

Or why you create a CommNet of satellites to transmit science back to Kerbin.

[jimmymcgoochie]

Launched a little flotilla of cheap science sats to scrape up some Kerbin science for a contract, then successfully added an extra bit to an orbiting base eventually bound for Gilly. Then I deorbited the extra bit and switched back to the base and-

Many simultaneous explosions, 34 pieces of debris stopped dead in Kerbin orbit and slowly falling to the surface, and only a small piece of the base left intact. The last version did something similar before I replaced it, maybe the design is flawed or just tastes nice for the Kraken...

Edited October 7, 2020 by jimmymcgoochie

[Popestar]

KERBARAGUA SPACE AGENCY MEMORANDUM

In Re:  Mission File 01

Vessel:  Stayputnik 1

Time:  Year 1, Day 2, 9 hours

To:  President Manuel Kerman

Mr. President, I hope that today finds you happy and well.  We have some exciting news to share with you, and we trust that our efforts here at the KSA are bearing the fruit you had in mind when you requested this agency be born.

Today we launched our first satellite, and we have achieved orbit!  Stayputnik 1 is the first in what we hope is a long line of relay satellites designed to allow communication from space back here to Kerbaragua; the potential for how many of these we can deploy and how far out we can go to insure safe, effective, and timely communications is beyond what we could have originally hoped for.  We are certain that we can use this satellite to relay critical information back from the Mun, provided we can obtain the funding to undertake that mission.

The details of Stayputnik 1, for your perusal:

1. The main body of the vessel is, in fact, the Probodyne Stayputnik.  Unmanned, of course; why would we risk having one of our pilots stay up there indefinitely?
2. The satellite is outfitted with our latest technology for command and control, the Probodyne OKTO.  It's not much, and it doesn't do much of anything - including keeping the Stayputnik 1 on an optimal heading - but it works!
3. The satellite is powered by the Z-200 Rechargeable Battery Bank and 4 OxStat Photovoltaic Panels.  It's overkill for the low amount of power this thing may need, but you gave us the money and we didn't want you to think it was going to waste on silly things like chips and fishing expeditions.  Not that we're using the funding for those things.  We aren't.  But it's hard not to think about it when you're hungry and the ocean is a stone's throw away.
4. For communicative relay, we outfitted the device with a pair of HG-5 High Gain Antennae.  Again, overkill, but the money would have gone to waste otherwise.

It should be noted that this deployment also satisfies the requirements for the contract to test the TS-06 Stack Separator.  Please inform O.M.B. Demolition Enterprises of this, and have them wire the funds to us as per the contract details.

We have included a photograph of the device in space, although we still aren't sure how we can take photographs from up there and send them back when we haven't deployed a camera yet.

Sincerely,

Herman Kerman

Director, Kerbaragua Space Agency

Edited October 7, 2020 by Popestar

[kerboknaut]

After Experiential Knowledge's last fiasco, where Valentina and three other Kerbals were stranded at Ike for an uncomfortably long time, the engineers have decided interplanetary missions will be much easier in the future with a proper refueling station set up high over Kerbin. This will be the team's first attempt to capture and mine an asteroid, and they were excited about the prospect.

An asteroid mining station was constructed and parked in low Kerbin orbit, equipped with three large drills, and ISRU converter, several varieties of large fuel tanks, four large solar arrays, a science research station and a large communications relay. After several recent probes were lost to dead reception, the engineers in charge of planning missions were resolved to park as many large communications relays in various orbits as possible to try to reduce such unexpected losses of control in the future.

Bill, now the most experienced space engineer, who had so far mined the Mun, Kerbin, and Ike, was put in command of the mining station and the two scientists aboard. It was his first command, and one of the largest vessels launched so far into orbit. He felt proud, piloting the massive craft to a stable orbit 100 km above Kerbin. "Yeah, but isn't the autopilot doing most of the work?" chimed one of the scientists. Bill pretended he didn't hear that. 

A separate vessel to actually tug the asteroid into orbit was constructed and launched shortly after. Powered by nine nuclear engines, its nose was designed to grab and mine the asteroid for fuel as it pushes it. A Mark-II  cargo bay holds the ISRU unit and other equipment needed for the operation. Valentina was put in command of the tug and is accompanied by Erdorf, a mid-level engineer in charge of operating the drills and cracking the occasional joke if things get tense. 

This was going to be a simple mission. Locate the asteroid, tug it in, hit it with the miner, and bring the Kerbals home. What could go wrong? 

Valentina and Erdorf launched without incident and set a course for what seemed like the nearest unknown object. They launched out of Kerbin's orbit and set their nuclear engines and nearly 7,000 m/s of delta-V to work. The problem quickly became apparent that they had no idea where they were going or how to locate the particular asteroid they were after. Eventually they appeared to be relatively close on the map, but the asteroid was no where in sight. Their fuel reserves were running low, and Valentina made the decision to return to Kerbin orbit before it was too late. 

After some research the engineers at Experiential Knowledge realized they needed to "track object" in the tracking station for the asteroid's trajectory to appear in the Kerboknaut's mission computer. This realization set the mission back a bit, as a new refueling vessel would need to be constructed and rendevouz with Valentina's tug before the asteroid could be met. According to the engineers, it was still 38 days away and would pass between Kerbin and the Mun. They set to work. 

The refueling vehicle was heavy, and needed several stages of droppable fuel tanks, six Clydesdale boosters, and many, many struts. Somehow, it made it to orbit and docked with Valentina's tug. The refueling process was somewhat slow, selecting all twenty-four liquid fuel tanks in the tug and one-by-one emptying the tanks in the refueling vehicle. After twenty minutes or so, the tug was refuelled and ready to meet the asteroid, which was now only five days away. As Valentina was filling out some routine mission paperwork during the process she accidentally activated the engines on both vessels for a moment. They spun a but but the whole thing held together. Holding back flashbacks to refueling on Ike, she reminded herself to always deactivate the engines in such a situation just in case something gets bumped!

The refueling vessel had a large communications relay attached and was left in orbit as a communications satellite after refueling the tug. "That's not space junk" the lead engineer explained to the board, "that's our latest satellite." This phrase would go on to become an important marketing slogan for the program. 

Tanks full, Valentina pulled some fancy maneuvering and hit the asteroid about 45 degrees before its periapsis, plenty of time to bring it into a steady Kerbin orbit. The problem quickly became apparent that this asteroid would be mined and empty in almost no time. Indeed, withe the drill deployed the entire 24 ton asteroid was empty before the tug's tanks were full. This would not do.  She undocked her tug and left the empty asteroid in orbit over Kerbin. She sent a message to the scientists back at the base: Find her a bigger asteroid. 

Though they were not used to being spoken to by a female Kerbal, let alone one with authority, the scientists went to work anyways and located a huge, class E asteroid 100 days out of Kerbin's influence. The trajectory was uploaded to Valentina's computer. Game on. 

Valentina and Erdorf set their trajectory and waited until the asteroid was close enough to perform a rendevouz. Once in sight, they were both impressed with the size of what they had come across. 2,000 tons of rock, and over 1700 tons of usable resources floated delicately in front of them.  After only a dozen or so attempts to grab it close to the center of mass, the drills, solar panels and radiators were deployed and the asteroid was gently nudged into its Kerbin orbit. 

Still, the mining station will need to be brought to the Asteroid's orbit and the Kerbals will need to find their way home somehow. Nevertheless, a bottle of sparkly green wine was opened at Experiential Knowledge's headquarters to celebrate this historic accomplishment. 

In low Kerbin Orbit, Clauski wondered if he had been forgotten about. He spent his days puttering around Interplanetary 1, imaging he was commander of a mission to the farthest reaches of the solar system. He would land on planets that haven't even been discovered yet, and bring back all of the knowledge about the universe they contain. "Kommander Clauski" he muttered to himself as he patrolled the bridge, looking carefully for dust, dreaming about the future. 

[Lewie]

Didn’t do much, just completed some relay sat contracts. Sent a relay to Ike, Duna and Laythe. I used the same rocket and probe for each launch, actually. It’s really slick...I can recover the srbs via stage recovery (by far, it’s one of my favorite mods!) and I an manually land the core booster. The second stage is just the jet fuel tank, and a nerva. (With a probe core, solar panels and antenna of course.) After putting each probe in its desired orbit, I just fly the booster back to kerbin. (After ditching the relay, the heats shield is exposed. Probe core is clipped into the tank) I wish I had pics, it would make this much, much more clear. The entire rocket only costs 25,000 funds, and you can return almost all of that. 

Also started construction on a rocket to carry a crew to duna orbit and back. I’m putting a mini-lander inside it, so I can complete another contract for landing on Duna’s surface. 

[N_Danger]

9 hours ago, Popestar said:

Or why you create a CommNet of satellites to transmit science back to Kerbin.

 This was just working out how to orbit the Mun and get the kerbals back alive. I have already grabbed the all the science from Muner orbit with my current instruments. I just need the EVA reports from a kerbal now.

[Hotel26]

I've been shuttling pax/equipment between LKO and GKO (geosynchronous Kerbin orbit).  Supertanker powered by a Mule proves quite effective for moving fuel between orbits.  (I plan to send Supertankers to Gilly and Ike, too.)

  

 

Meanwhile, on the Mun, a Spider and a Jetta:

"Shall we?"

 

"Yes.  Let's go!"

 

"Hey, ho!  Exploring, we will go!!"

 

 

Edited October 8, 2020 by Hotel26

[Grogs]

I took a contract to rescue a kerbal stranded on the Mun. I have to admit, just the name of the kerbal, Billy-Bobmund Kerman, had me intrigued.

 

He was in the north polar crater, so I took the large capacity lander down. I wab able to set the ship down within physics range of Billy-Bobmund.

 

Billy-Bobmund seems happy for the rescue.

 

Leaving the Mun's surface with the new kerbal in tow, the crew got a good view of the mountainous region around the north pole.

 

I also spent a bit of time on ship design. I wanted a ship that could carry crews back from interplanetary destinations so that all the mission hardware (landers, station, refueling tankers, etc.) could be left at the destination. This design can manage about 7,000 m/s dV with a low, but tolerable TWR. That would be enough for a round trip from Kebin to Eve, Duna, or Dres. All the other planets would be reachable, but would probably require some refueling at the destination.

[Vezbot]

United Airlines be like:

 

[N_Danger]

I had to totally redesign the Muner orbiter mission as the 3 kerbal pomegranate pod was not surviving re-entry. So I went with the 2 kerbal Mk 2 Command Pod from Making History (only 2 kebals gaining exp. at a time so not exactly what I wanted)

In obit with enough Deta Vee to reach the Mun. Check.

Enough Delta Vee to get into a 20km x 20 km orbit around the Mun. Check.

Enough Delta Vee to return to Kebin. Check.

Survive re-entry. Check.

Remembering to put a parachute on. Check.

The Mission is a go for the first crewed orbit around the Mun next session.

 

[Guest]

Flying Eeloo base. During refuel I saw first time seeing the fuel transfer bug. Very annoying but doable.

[jimmymcgoochie]

Built a new rolling base to deploy on Minmus using KSTS for in-orbit construction. Switched to the base when it was ready and it was a mangled mess with most of the important parts (wheels, fuel tanks, engines etc.) at stupid angles. Switched it out for a new one (cheat to runway, recover, launch again, cheat back to the same orbit- if the game decides to break a perfectly sensible vessel then I’m prepared to use the cheats to fix it), wasted a good 30 seconds burning for Minmus with the wrong control point set before correcting it, set up a nice Minmus intercept, hit time warp and the intercept vanished completely- apoapsis wasn’t even that close to Minmus any more, requiring more fuel to be wasted on a correction burn.

I think in future I’ll just check the cost to do orbital construction with KSTS but then cheat the vessel into orbit and deduct the funds, that way it might actually work without random explosions and everything getting jumbled.

[Stamp20]

I brought all of my kerbals on a mandatory training exercise.

Spoiler

Even the 5 kerbals that were on my space station. I forgot to get pictures of the vehicle that brought them back down.

I built a giant, over-engineered spaceplane to carry all of my kerbals and some tourists, and it still has extra room.

First stop, Armstrong.

Along the way, Lenbur Kerman was rescued.

There was a very close pass to a mountain in front of the landing site.

I tried to EVA all of my kerbals, but after around 8 I started to lag a lot, so I gave up. Fortunately, the flag planted experience counts for kerbals inside vessels, too.

Because landing on Ash requires a lot of dV, I included ISRU to refuel.

Leaving Armstrong.

Next stop, Ash.

Ash is like a mini-Tylo, no atmosphere and relatively high gravity.

Nothing to see here. Just... testing the seismic sensor.

First try!

After a long refueling session, it was time to take off.

The large engine in the middle helped the plane get off the ground.

I used a gravity assist off of Lua to lower my orbit for aerobraking.

A second, accidental Lua flyby helped save even more dV.

Aerobraking pass 1.

Going in to land, but I overshot the KSC.

A few hundred km downrange, I landed safely.

Everyone (except Lenbur) is now level 3.

I also recreated The Skeld from Among Us.

Spoiler

500 parts and only 10 FPS.

The Mk1 Lander Cans are vents.

Security

Reactor

Medbay

Electrical

 

Edited October 8, 2020 by Stamp20

[Astrionix]

Bob looks kinda sus

[Wallygator]

WDIDIKSPT?  I waited for a Dev blog update.

[Guest]

Finished my Eeloo Base today. Waiting for music to process before I share video

[Guest]

It finally processed.

Here it is boys and girls

It's one of my most favorite crafts ever.

 

[kerboknaut]

When our heroes were last seen, Bill was steering Experiential Knowledge's largest vehicle launched into space, a new asteroid mining and refueling station, into a high polar orbit where Valentina and Erdorf waited with the 2,000 ton asteroid and their nuclear tug. Bill had plenty of fuel in his tanks, but the asteroid was quite a ways away and the mining rig took a lot of oomph to push. It was going to be close. 

By the time the rig's orbit was almost in line with the asteroid, it was still three hundred km distant and drifting away at about 25 m/s. Bill was out of fuel, and the monopropellent reserves weren't enough to push the giant rig much at all. So much for proper planning. There wasn't enough time to send another refueling vessel up, and the mission planners were more interested in working on the next project than draining their strategic reserves on refueling trips for every mission. 

Luckily Valentina was on the job, and quick thinking as always, she switched her ISRU unit on the tug to make only mono, and then told Erdorf to fill up the one (structural) fuel tank she had with that capacity. With 200 units of mono and a medium tank of ore, Valentina and Erdorf undocked from the asteroid and headed towards the stranded mining station nearby. Bill and the two scientists were happy to see the tug arrive a few minutes later. 

Bill and Val reminisced about the trip to Ike several years ago when they were both young Kerboknauts. Val was fresh out of the academy, and was hired by Experiential Knowledge on their founding. Bill was another of the four original Kerboknauts, and was recruited from a remote polar mining operation. They told him he was hired because they thought he would be used to the loneliness of space, having spent his formidable years pretty much totally alone on Kerbin. He never told anyone, but it wasn't the same. It was hard to explain, but up in space, he just felt so much farther away from home. For a minute he thought about sharing this thought with Val, who he might consider his closest, heck, only friend. She was right there! All he had to do was open his mouth ... his couldn't remember his throat ever feeling that dry before. 

"Hey you're pretty quiet up there!" he heard from the science facility. "Tired of talking to our guests already?" "He likes talking to us more" "No he doesn't he hasn't said anything to us this whole trip" "I head him fart yesterday" "Well that's not talking is it genuis" the arguing continued. 

"Well, looks like you're topped off" Val radioed. "See you on the flip side?" 

"Yup" croaked Bill. "See you then, er - See you there ... I mean, sounds good."

Bill kicked himself as the tug pulled away. "He's probably playing hard to get" "He's an engineer - he learns from rocks" "And they give him the orange shirt?" Bill wished they had soundproofed the science facility a little better when they build the mining rig. 'Biggest ship ever sent to space, and he can still hear everything those idiots say' he muttered to himself. "What was that?" "Did he just talk?"

The mining rig brought with 3200 units of full liquid fuel tanks, so all Bill needed to do was convert the ore to oxidizer. This done, he set a course for the asteroid with the roughly 200 m/s of delta-V at his disposal. This was more than enough to make it there. 

Once the rig made contact with the asteroid it was quick work to grab it and begin harvesting. A little while later Valentina and Erdorf pulled up in the tug. "Mind if we wait here?" Bill heard on the radio. "It's easier to pass the time with some company."

Bill felt a rare warmth inside. "Sure," he said. "Sounds great."

 

Meanwhile on Kerbin, the scientists and engineers at base were getting busy working on something big. A tension had been building across Experiential Knowledge's growing home base facilities. There was a lot of the universe to see, and they had discovered all of the parts they thought they would need to travel to anywhere in it. But not quite just anywhere. This was a bit ambitious, and they knew it. Ambition was a part of the culture, though. It was frowned upon if you weren't an ambitious Kerbal, from the way you dressed to what you ate to what sort of mission you proposed. And the last proposal to reach the board was the culmination of this culture, an idea so ridiculous it would either crush the entire agency or immortalize it, and forever bring Kerbinkind to the next level. 

At least, that's the way it was paraphrased to the board, who were unanimously appalled by the idea. "They can't be serious" "We will all be drug through the streets" "This is absurd" "I never imagined it would come this far"

The board agreed it would be impossible to say no, and it was given the green light. After that meeting, none of them would sleep well for a long, long time. 

Two shuttles were launched from EK's Kerbin launchpad, each controlled by a remote guidance unit and with room for six Kerboknauts. Rescue contracts had been piling up a bit, and Kerboknauts deployed to missions across the system would be brought back home. 

 

As the rescue ships arrived back on Kerbin, the Kerboknauts were greeted by a looming structure in the Vehicle Assembly Building and lots of chatter around the offices. It didn't take them too long to figure out that they were almost all going to be on that ship, Interplanetary 2. 

 

*Next time:*

[KeaKaka]

I rediscovered the fact I already knew:

 

I cannot fly the space shuttle.

[Magzimum]

I built a Minmus base. All stock. Big unit on the left is the  Minmus Valdez. It can disconnect and get into Minmus orbit to refuel my next overdimensioned mission.

What I like most about the base is that it has no wheels and no engines. It's all built up from parts that I flew in separately, and connected using the little rovers that are scattered around the base.

Edited October 9, 2020 by Magzimum

[Grogs]

Busy day. I rescued a couple of stranded kerbals around Minmus and Kerbin. I'm going to continue rescuing kerbals until all the rescue pods on the carrier are used up. By then, I should have around 50 total. I can't see ever needing more than that even with several interplanetary missions going at once.

 

Landed on the Mun to fulfill a contract and check out an anomaly that turned out to be another munar arch.

 

Then I sent Jeb and Bill hurtling off towards Duna in the first kerbed mission to another planet. They'll take the ISRU rover to Ike and refuel the transport stage to serve as a fuel tanker for the lander that will follow in a couple of weeks.

 

And I sent a bunch of newie kerbals on a course to leave the Kerbin SOI so they could get their third star. As soon as they left the Kerbin SOI they promptly reversed course and headed back towards KEO Station.

 

I also launched the Duna Express which will be the crew return vessel for the Duna mission.

Spoiler

On the pad

 

SRB Separation

 

In orbit with the booster still attached and fairing deployed

 

Released from the booster, which will head back down to be recovered. I made a few mods from the original version that brought the Duna Express' dV up to about 8,000 m/s total.

 

All that dV does come at a cost. The burn to go from LKO to KEO took almost 4 minutes. Fortunately time warp during burns doesn't cause any problems with this design.

 

Docked at KEO station to wait for the departure to Duna. I won't have a pilot to fly it to Duna until the group of kerbals that just left Kerbin's SOI gets back and levels up.

 

[N_Danger]

I launched my Muner orbiter Mission.

Spoiler

Bill gets the High orbit EVA science.

Jeb grabs the low orbit EVA science. ("That's a big crater")

Then it is time to go home.

 

No worries in this capsule.

And then I launched some scanning and relay probes.

Spoiler

One to polar orbit around Kerbin.

And then one around the Mun.