What did you do in KSP1 today?

[RizzoTheRat]

It turns out my kOS landing script doesn't correctly align to the landing coordinates at high latitudes, and in correcting the drift while trying to landing in the Minmus Poles biome, my tourist bus burned through it's entire stock of Monopropellant.  The bus isn't able to land back on Kerbin on it's own and needs to dock with it's launch vehicle to get home.

Luckily I had a remote controlled tug from a previous mission still parked in orbit with enough fuel and monopropellant to dock with the bus and top it up .

[Lewie]

4 hours ago, Goaty1208 said:

The other day I got Not a Number meters per second, altitude and eveything else...

Now, the first "birthday" of Goat Engineering Inc. is coming, so I am planning a Laythe mission, but I need some tips. Do you have any?

Yes, I do! try to get a tylo gravity assist, it is very rewarding, and you save a ton of fuel. Use nukes for the trip, but that's a given. Aerospikes make great engines for lathye landers.

[Goaty1208]

1 hour ago, Lewie said:

Yes, I do! try to get a tylo gravity assist, it is very rewarding, and you save a ton of fuel. Use nukes for the trip, but that's a given. Aerospikes make great engines for lathye landers.

Thanks!

[JorgeCS]

On 10/9/2020 at 6:31 AM, KeaKaka said:

I rediscovered the fact I already knew:

 

I cannot fly the space shuttle.

"It's a brick with wings"  

[Vezbot]

Today I sent up a crew to capture a class C asteroid with a perapsis of 15000 m. It was approaching kerbin at an angle of 12 degrees. I launched a Saurus VI grapple rocket at that angle too to match the asteroids. I made my ascension to higher orbits, and corrected my inclination to where it matched the asteroid's. After this my orbit intersected the asteroid's at two points. One being the path where the asteroid goes downward, and the other where the asteroid would head out of Kerbin's SOI if not for the atmosphere. I picked the one where the asteroid heads downward.

My orbital period is 20 days and 3 hours and the orbit is well away from the Mun, closer to Minmus orbit. (Mun always messes things up with it's easy to approach orbit.) Since the asteroid wouldn't arrive for another 113 days, I had to make it that I could complete one orbit where the asteroid wouldn't pass the intersect. I orbitted 4 times, now the asteroid approach was ~31 days, give or take a few hours. It would enter Kerbin soi in 31 days and be at perapsis in 37 days. So I made an estimate with orbital speed to figure out when the intersect would be crossed. I guessed 35 days, I did a prograde burn at the intersect to increase my orbital period from 20 days and 3 hours, and soon enough I saw the dark red intersect appear after my orbital period passed 30 days with an orbit of 25 Mm perapsis, 45 Mm apoapsis. As I burned the intersect got closer, finally it matched up with mine and I would get a close approach with the asteroid after completing an orbit that is 35 days and 2 hours.

Closest approach: 3.5 km

Relative velocity: 750 m/s, would be higher but that's the reason I do these far above Kerbin. 

So I burn off the relative velocity and then make my rendevous with the asteroid. It wasn't a glowing one unfortunately. I dock with the asteroid and make some changes to the orbit to bring the perapsis at 18km. I slow down the asteroid in the atmosphere enough to where I can orbit around Kerbin and go into atnosphere again. The asteroid is now going 1500 m/s less than 20 km and isn't slowing down fast enough. With an object of that mass I would compare it to a dart.  It slows down to 900 m/s but it's barely above 1 km, right before I deploy my drogue chutes the asteroid hits the ground, flattening my crew, killing them instantly and blowing up all the parts attached to the asteroid.

The asteroid was really tough however and survived the initial impact and I switch to the giant rock. The asteroid is rolling at a speed of 400 m/s, I can't help but laugh at how ridiculous it looks. Eventually after rolling about 8 km it comes to a complete stop. 

I need to do more missions like this, asteroids are fun to mess around with. Also rip asteroid recovery crew or something.

[Corona688]

A 2020 reprise of my 2017 craft "The Refresher".

I made it 3000 roots cheaper, then added 3000 roots more equipment.  At 1200/ton it's fairly cheap for an early-ish career craft.  It's also a hair under the 140 ton "cheap" launchpad limit.

The concept remains the same - a big whack of fuel, engines, and equipment to ferry around a mun or minmus lander, and spares for things they might break or use up.  It'll get them there and back, the rest is their own problem.

Edited October 17, 2020 by Corona688

[N_Danger]

I started out intending to just do a flight test of the Muner landing mission package. Basically can it get into orbit with enough Delta V to get to the Mun.

It went so well my inner Jeb told me to just go for it.

Spoiler

Booster and faring separation where perfect.

I had some oscillation after first stage separation, 10-15 degrees on the vertical axis but it settled down after about 30 seconds. Made it into orbit.

And we are on the way to the Mun.

 

 

A capture burn puts the lander and service module into a 20 KM x 29 KM orbit.

And I go for the landing.

A picture of Jeb and Bill, first Kerbals on the Mun.

Spoiler

We take off after a short stay.

Rendezvous with the SM is routine.

As was the docking.

"The going home burn" is good

 

 And the crew returns with the science. 

 

[RizzoTheRat]

Built a craft to go to Eve and Duna, but 4 kommsats and a Scansat, plus the transfer stage, is too heavy for my SSTO, so I've built a new one.

The middle one is my main workhorse, powered by 5 Vectors it can lift a 36 tonne Rockomax tank to LKO.

The one on the right I built the other day to launch a small 5 tonne satellite, it's powered by a single vector

The new one on the left is powered by 9 vectors and just put 50 tonnes in to LKO

 

All three can land back on the runway for 100% fund recovery

[Popestar]

I started a sandbox game today so I can test builds, orbiting, Mun intercept, and landing.  I found a rocket build in an Early Career Mun Landing thread, and I was able to build it with the parts I know I've acquired in my career game.  And then I tested the build through launch and orbit, which was successful.  The orbit was odd; I launched directly east, but by the time I made orbit I was probably 20 degrees off.  I wasn't equatorial, but rather my Ap (which was going towards the Mun) was headed towards the north pole.  Not a big deal; I can always do a calculated burn to correct that so I'm more east/west.

The burn to transfer to the Mun's SOI was easy enough thanks to the in-game tutorials.  However, I realized that the ship I built using the above thread doesn't have enough fuel to make it to the Mun, land, and back.  I may have to alter this particular design to incorporate just one more fuel tank, even though that's going to increase weight and might do the opposite of what I need it to do.  I'll have to do more testing!  Anyhow, once in the Mun's SOI I was able to do a burn to orbit the Mun.  Again, the orbit wasn't equatorial, but about 20 degrees off.  That's due to the the orbit I had at Kerbin, and again, I can probably correct with a simple burn to alter the angle.

My problem came in landing.  I have run through the in-game tutorial a couple of times, with mixed results.  3 times today I landed...but the craft flipped over.  Even with the landing gear down, it flipped over.  And in my sandbox game, I didn't just tip, but crash-landed and blew up the poor Kerbal in the pod (alas, poor Jeb, we knew him well).  I was pointed retrograde, and I was at about 1/3 throttle for most of the burn (Pe was ~6k when I started).  I have KER installed (I think that's the one that shows what I'm about to talk about), so I could see my airspeed and altitude relative to the Mun's surface.  I know I need practice, but at about 1.5 km I was no longer just dropping, but I was moving...west, is the best way to put it.  I was coming down diagonally, and that's odd.  After going retrograde I moved the camera so the engine was pointing to the right side of the screen and the surface of the Mun was towards the bottom (to hopefully help gauge how close I was).  But I was going diagonally towards the nosecone of the pod, which eventually crashed me into the side of a crater.  Not sure what I did to make that landing go diagonally, but I'm sure it has to do with how I'm doing the burn.

So, right now, as it stands, I can build, launch, enter the Mun's SOI...but I can't land.  I am sure I just need to practice, but any tips anybody wants to shout out there will be most appreciated!

[N_Danger]

36 minutes ago, Popestar said:

My problem came in landing.  I have run through the in-game tutorial a couple of times, with mixed results.  3 times today I landed...but the craft flipped over.  Even with the landing gear down, it flipped over.  And in my sandbox game, I didn't just tip, but crash-landed and blew up the poor Kerbal in the pod (alas, poor Jeb, we knew him well).  I was pointed retrograde, and I was at about 1/3 throttle for most of the burn (Pe was ~6k when I started).  I have KER installed (I think that's the one that shows what I'm about to talk about), so I could see my airspeed and altitude relative to the Mun's surface.  I know I need practice, but at about 1.5 km I was no longer just dropping, but I was moving...west, is the best way to put it.  I was coming down diagonally, and that's odd.  After going retrograde I moved the camera so the engine was pointing to the right side of the screen and the surface of the Mun was towards the bottom (to hopefully help gauge how close I was).  But I was going diagonally towards the nosecone of the pod, which eventually crashed me into the side of a crater.  Not sure what I did to make that landing go diagonally, but I'm sure it has to do with how I'm doing the burn.

Check out this thread. 

@Snark 's answer is how I started doing my Mun landings. You will need to practice because is isn't called a suicide burn for nothing.

[Kerbals_of_Steel]

After much buildup, I finally installed MKS and began my long anticipated invasion colonization of the Mun:

Ignore that randomly eccentric near Kerbin probe, it's debris from the unpictured  first launch wave that will come down soon enough. Ended up sending 15 separate Saturn V analogue (or Saturn V heavy)  launches and should be able to house 50-75 Kerbals with full life support on the surface, and added couple gravity rings to Munar Station:

 

[Popestar]

3 hours ago, N_Danger said:

Check out this thread. 

@Snark 's answer is how I started doing my Mun landings. You will need to practice because is isn't called a suicide burn for nothing.

Great thread.  One question:  what is SSS?  There's no mouse over for that acronym.

[Zosma Procyon]

I'm procrastinating from landing my Eve Airplane, so decided to make a Katyusha style rocket barrage. I also recorded it to remind myself how to use Screenflick.

And I made it a gif, too.

https://i.imgur.com/KKTiYWO.gifv

Edited October 18, 2020 by Zosma Procyon

[N_Danger]

1 hour ago, Popestar said:

Great thread.  One question:  what is SSS?  There's no mouse over for that acronym.

I'm sure he meant SAS.

[kerboknaut]

6 hours ago, Popestar said:

So, right now, as it stands, I can build, launch, enter the Mun's SOI...but I can't land.  I am sure I just need to practice, but any tips anybody wants to shout out there will be most appreciated!

If you are pointing retrograde for the entire burn but the ground is still moving, that sounds like when I forget to switch the velocity indicator from orbit to surface. Not sure if this is the issue,  but if you click on the 'orbit' above the navball and switch to 'surface' the retrograde direction will change slightly to be relative to the moving surface, and your should hit the ground straight on.  

[RyanRising]

I don't have any pictures of this event, and I really should have. All I've got is the launch vehicle that initially put my first Eve ascent vehicle into orbit, and a picture from the VAB of that vehicle.

Spoiler

And unshrouded in the VAB:

It circularized with that nuclear stage, then had to be refuelled by multiple tankers before doing its ejection burn. I had made two decisions about this thing that are terrible for a well-formulated mission, but turned out to save two Kerbals from my incompetence.

1). The vehicle would take two Kerbals from Eve sea level to Low Eve Orbit.

2). I would land it fully fuelled.

That last decision resulted in this being the most expensive mission I've ever flown in KSP. I had sent two unlucky Kerbals in a separate orbital base to LEO, where they rendezvoused with the lander and boarded it. A third stayed behind, to keep the seats warm and meet up with them again once their surface ops were complete. After sending a rover and some science down to meet them, I deorbited the lander, inflated its heat shields, and began reentry.

Did you know Eve has oceans? I certainly did, and was able to avoid them while getting the rest of the modules down to the surface. But my lander was a lot draggier than those modules, and it didn't have any way to reposition itself or fly to a better location. As a result, as I descended through the clouds on parachutes, I was greeted not by the equipment I'd set down around the planned landing site, but a big ol' explodium sea. When the lander hit the liquid, it would tip over. That might not kill the Kerbals immediately, but even if the rocket miraculously didn't disintegrate on impact, it wouldn't be able to take off.

But it wasn't in the drink yet, and after all, I had a full load of fuel. After some frantic reorganising of the staging menu, a "T-Z-Space" maneuver, and enough luck to avoid being destroyed by the landing equipment, those Kerbals were going right on back to the inky black from where they came. I was too aggressive with my gravity turn,, and incurred enough drag losses that I didn't quite get back to orbit, but the Kerbals' EVA jetpacks were able to finish the job.

The third Kerbal in the orbital base had expected to meet up several days later with a command pod and service module full of Eve rocks and science report. Instead, she'd met up a few hours later with two Kerbals in spacesuits and nothing else. There were no grand speeches that day, and scientific progress would have to wait for another mission. But all three of the Kerbals I'd sent to Eve were able to return on the next window, and I'd call that a win.

My next Eve mission features an ascent vehicle which uses ISRU on the surface to fuel itself, reentry simulations (F5+F9), and a separate descent module that only brings the Kerbals down to the surface once the ascent vehicle has confirmed a successful touchdown. It also doesn't cost over 2 million Spesos.

[Zosma Procyon]

I landed my Eve Airplane on Eve. I recorded the deorbit and landing, and the video is 40 minutes long. I'm going to see if I can figure out how to edit it down before uploading it to youtube. Here are a few pictures.

Here it is just after I blew the fairing, but before unfolding the wings and motors.

Valentina Kerman had the honor of setting the first flag of the mission. She's the last of the original four to set foot on Eve, and this is the last new place left to her.

It took a LONG time for the aft heat shields, ballute, and parachutes, to touch down.

Here are Agarien (Engineer) (Left) and Megtha (Scientist) (Right) in front of the first deployed science outpost I've ever made. I tried to color code the crew (orange for pilots, yellow for engineers, and blue for scientists), but it didn't completely work.

Here is Tilda Kerman, a properly color coded scientist, out to collect data from several experiments.

[Magzimum]

When your mothership isn't supposed to survive re-entry, but you have too many Kerbals on board and have to try it anyway:

Notice the heatshield below the  Mk2 lander can.

I sent a big ship to Moho - lander and mothership (i.e. Apollo style). Landed. Got back. Mothership was not rated for re-entry, but somehow a 6th Kerbal had snuck into the ship so I had to give it a go or organize a rescue mission (boring!). Those wolfhounds should only survive a 6 m/s impact, but somehow did not break as it hit the ground at about 15 m/s. Oh well. Not gonna reload and retry. All hail the Kraken who saved the ship.

 

 

[The Space Dino]

Turned my Laythe landing into a Vall and Bop landing - and took a picture of Tylo, Vall, Laythe and Jool on the way back 

[Hotel26]

Latest FedEx shipment arriving at the Mun: 8 Rodeo Luna rocket bikes.

 

In other big news...  It's been 12-14 years since my last computer.  I built it myself.  It's true that the motherboard and CPU got an upgrade (an Intel I5) from work surplus parts a few years ago, but it's been limited still to 8GB.

As my Orbit world ("save") has expanded, 8GB fills up in an hour or less.  So, tomorrow...

So, tomorrow...  (speaking of FedEx)  my new deal arrives.  Ryzen 9 and 64GB of memory.  "Take that, KSP!!"  And, of course, I expect it will.

Everything's backed up onto one disk.  I pull that disk out, slip it into the new computer and boot up.  One more sleep! 

Edited October 18, 2020 by Hotel26

[GDJ]

Flew a piece of aviation history (sorry for the night picture)

Guess what I built?

 

Hint: it's still flying after 80 or so years.

[Vezbot]

For the first time I brought a class E asteroid into Kerbin orbit. The orbit was almost a capture too, it had an inclination of 88 degrees though, I rendevoused with it and my 700 m/s became 11 m/s, but I only had to burn 6 m/s to get it into a high Kerbin orbit. I then discarded the third stage and I used my ion powered RADKOR heat flyer, which had 40 m/s after docking from a lot of Dv. Getting rid of the inclination is taking forever but it's a class E asteroid. And even a high Dv ion craft like the RADKOR heat flyer will take a long time to move it anywhere. I also renamed the asteroid to "Big Boi".

Asteroid mass: 1147 tons of usuable fuel, 253 tons of unusable mass. Total mass: 1400 tons. 

 

[RealKerbal3x]

34 minutes ago, GDJ said:

Guess what I built?

DC-3?

[GDJ]

43 minutes ago, RealKerbal3x said:

DC-3?

Bingo!

[N_Danger]

I sent a my first probe to Duna in this play through.

We had overcast but nothing to stop the launch.

My transfer stage finishes up the orbital insertion.

I finally get to Duna and grab the high orbit science.

I then grab the low orbit science during the capture burn. It isn't at an 90 degree incantation or a circular orbit at the correct altitude for the multi-spectral scan so I will need to do some more burns for that.

And finally I circularize at about 750 KM for the long term multi- spectral scan and biome mapping.