What did you do in KSP1 today?

[jimmymcgoochie]

Three landings on Laythe- all on actual land!- plus four on Vall to conclude the primary goals of the Laythe and Vall Quartet missions; science transmission rates are extremely slow and radiation levels are stupidly high (though Laythe's atmosphere takes ~95% of that off at sea level) plus some of those experiments are long duration so there might be some science that just can't be gathered or transmitted before the probes inevitably fail.

If you've never played KSP with Kerbalism, just imagine a giant doughnut surrounding Jool, extending out as far as Tylo's orbit on the sunward side and even further than that on the outward side, where radiation levels can range from "what's that burning smell?" to "why do I have extra fingers?" on Tylo and then rise to "my eyes are bleeding!" on Vall and "my insides are melting!" in orbit of Laythe; Laythe's atmosphere absorbs most of it so the surface is relatively(!) safe, but still not a good idea to stay for too long, but Vall lacks such protection and is by some margin the deadliest place to land in the whole Kerbol system.

Oh, and as if that wasn't enough, there's a second smaller ring just inside Laythe's orbit that's ten times worse and will kill anything and anyone that dares to enter it, shielding or no shielding.

[Alien21]

This evening the Alien21 Space Agency was able to make for the first time some EVA construction with a satellite around Mun. The mission wasn't so much complex, except a KSP crash while we was closer this satellite. However a previous save of the game session has allowed us to complete the mission!

[ProtoJeb21]

I started a pure-stock Career Mode save a few weeks back and have almost fully unlocked the tech tree. I have two contracts for Eve missions: put a probe in a specified orbit, and perform a flyby and return the craft to Kerbin. Two probes (Freya I and II) will be launched together to fill those contracts, and Freya I will remain in orbit as a gravity/resource scanner and relay probe until I can establish a proper network. However, I want to take full advantage of the upcoming transfer window, so I've been designing Freya III, a rover that'll land near Eve's largest crater.

Originally I was going with an Oppy-style rover in a giant aeroshell, and would be deployed with a skycrane. This had several problems - lots of staging and extra probe cores, the possibility of the aeroshell overheating and exploding, the sheer size of the aeroshell, the solar panels breaking off, and the possibility of not being able to remove the skycrane one the rover had touched down. 

I went back and completely redid Freya III's landing method. Instead of a skycrane and an aeroshell, it'll just be stored in a 2.5m cargo bay with a heat shield and parachutes. I also swapped out the panels with a radioelectric generator and added some more Mystery Goos. I tested this twice using the stock HyperEdit, first on Kerbin and then on Eve coming from a far steeper angle than I would in the actual mission. It performed well both times (and don't worry, I reverted the flight. I'm not cheating my way to Eve).

I was hoping the lander can would act as a relay for the rover, but apparently not. That will make Freya I even more crucial. I might put it in geosynchronous orbit above Freya III's landing site until the rover completes its mission, then the orbiter can enter an upper-atmo grazing orbit for its main science operations.

[ColdJ]

7 hours ago, ProtoJeb21 said:

"What did you do in KSP today?"

Good question

Did you by any chance climb something, walk off the edge and then keep going up like you were climbing an invisible staircase? Because that has happened to me.

[ColdJ]

The next Iteration is almost ready.

 

 

•  

[Aerodynamic Kerbal]

Yesterday I continued with the VTOL projects and I MADE A PLANE THAT CAN TAKEOFF WITH FOUR JUMO ENGINES. But I threw it away. Too slow. Might try to make it Mk3 sized and use BIGGER engines.

I also tried making a Falcon 9-styled Booster but... The game crashed (for some reason it always happens on the PS4) and I Was too lazy to restart the game. Any tips for good engines for such boosters?

Note: I might want the booster to be an SSTO

Edited October 16, 2021 by Aerodynamic Kerbal
Opss i typed two instead of four

[Kapitalizing Every Word]

9 hours ago, ColdJ said:

Did you by any chance climb something, walk off the edge and then keep going up like you were climbing an invisible staircase? Because that has happened to me.

This issue is common for me when I jump into extendable solar panels and break them

[Kerbals_of_Steel]

Jeb, Bob and Bill took the Meli down to the surface as a pathfinder mission for the imminent arrival of the expedition's long term surface base:

Jeb blew the landing by some 10km, but the relatively flat terrain of the Midland Sea made summoning the scout rover relatively easy. Jeb went out rock hunting while Bill and Bob set up a seismic monitoring station:

 

He found a rock and took samples, then managed to wreck the rover and had to walk a couple km back to the lander since the sample and his equipment made him too heavy to jetpack. Bob and Bill were unsympathetic....

 

KoS

[Alien21]

17 hours ago, ProtoJeb21 said:

I started a pure-stock Career Mode save a few weeks back and have almost fully unlocked the tech tree. I have two contracts for Eve missions: put a probe in a specified orbit, and perform a flyby and return the craft to Kerbin. Two probes (Freya I and II) will be launched together to fill those contracts, and Freya I will remain in orbit as a gravity/resource scanner and relay probe until I can establish a proper network. However, I want to take full advantage of the upcoming transfer window, so I've been designing Freya III, a rover that'll land near Eve's largest crater.

Originally I was going with an Oppy-style rover in a giant aeroshell, and would be deployed with a skycrane. This had several problems - lots of staging and extra probe cores, the possibility of the aeroshell overheating and exploding, the sheer size of the aeroshell, the solar panels breaking off, and the possibility of not being able to remove the skycrane one the rover had touched down. 

I went back and completely redid Freya III's landing method. Instead of a skycrane and an aeroshell, it'll just be stored in a 2.5m cargo bay with a heat shield and parachutes. I also swapped out the panels with a radioelectric generator and added some more Mystery Goos. I tested this twice using the stock HyperEdit, first on Kerbin and then on Eve coming from a far steeper angle than I would in the actual mission. It performed well both times (and don't worry, I reverted the flight. I'm not cheating my way to Eve).

I was hoping the lander can would act as a relay for the rover, but apparently not. That will make Freya I even more crucial. I might put it in geosynchronous orbit above Freya III's landing site until the rover completes its mission, then the orbiter can enter an upper-atmo grazing orbit for its main science operations.

Nice shots! However a question, why not use a thermical shield which can cover the entire surface of the rover capsule? If I look your first photo, is clear that that shield is too small. Anyway, whish you a lot of achievements with this scientific mission!

[Wizard Kerbal]

17 minutes ago, Alien21 said:

. . . why not use a thermical shield which can cover the entire surface of the rover capsule? . . . 

Because they’re using a fairing, which work as heat shields that don’t even ablate! But, the base is vulnerable, so that’s why there’s a heat shield there.
https://youtu.be/F5Bov7o_Bsc

[Alien21]

2 minutes ago, Wizard Kerbal said:

Because they’re using a fairing, which work as heat shields that don’t even ablate! But, the base is vulnerable, so that’s why there’s a heat shield there.
https://youtu.be/F5Bov7o_Bsc

Hi Wizard,

I know that the base is vulnerable, and is the same component which I will always protect, but I mean, if you have potential issues that the fairing could be damage, why not use a bigger base and a better shield?

is strange however that if you try to build a capsule similar to Perseverance capsule you could have issues....but never landed on Eve, just only a flyby. Currently I'm doing on my carrer a mission to Dres, 1 planned to Duna and regarding Eve, 1 mission with primary target completed to achieve science data near the planet (flyby), but not excluding to extend the mission to allow the probe to get more data with a more lower flyby, and maybe a stable orbit.

[ProtoJeb21]

14 hours ago, ColdJ said:

Did you by any chance climb something, walk off the edge and then keep going up like you were climbing an invisible staircase? Because that has happened to me.

Every time the Kerbal jumped, he stood 1m above where he was before, standing on nothing but air. 

I shot him up with a canon with gravity hacked and he smacked into the launchpad. Then when I tried to get him up, the glitch appeared.

[ProtoJeb21]

Added on to Darwin Station in LKO and tested out the in-space construction feature for the first time.

Then I sent a couple of missions to Minmus. First was Minthe II, which had a 7-seat transfer module to pick up Val from Minthe Base and Peter stuck in LMO, as well as a reusable lander that could function with or without crew. Next was the core module for Minthe Station. I docked and refueled Minthe Lander there, and eventually the station will have fuel conversion and crew.

To cap off today's station work, I continued my contracted expansion of Mimas in low Munar orbit, and used the construction feature again to clamp down a weak docking joint. It's stuck at an angle now, but Lodry Kerman will be able to fix it later on. I just need another ~3200 units of LF on Mimas to complete this contract.

[Misguided Kerbal]

I finally revamped my Mungate Station, which has been sitting around the Mun since Year 2. For reference, my save is almost at year 10. With all my focus on the Mun again, this old station really deserved some love. 

Like usual, an ANTS nuclear tug brought the new station segment to the mun.

Docking in the dark (has anyone ever docked in daytime?)

The old station segment is removed and moved out of the way (it was hard to see anything)

And, docked.

The ANTS is moved to another docking port to open up that port for a future lander.

The old station segment is deorbited.

By coincidence, it happens to crash on the rim of the exact same crater as homestead base. 

 

[Araym]

Today?
Nothing fancy.

Unlike when I just build silly things in sandbox (reference to my previously shown Saturn C-8/Nova rocket), I pushed a bit on my (started not so much ago, in 1.12.2) career:

I'm basically just grinding money, flying around, with the limitation of of lv.1 runway and SPH, with a tech level that is basically "WW2 alike".
And with my obsession of build, if possible, only things from real world, it's a challenge to get some decent "replicas" in 30 parts only, not so much money (I play with the needs to BUY parts after research, so I have to limit further the choices) and with A LOT of limitation in global size of the craft (... as above, my VERY SHORT winged Spitfire-alike: I had to cut a good meter in wing span to stay in the allowed size)
BUt at least in the next 30 kerbin days I will get the runway at lv.2, to ease the dimension allowed (so I'll move my "Kitfire K5054" from the status of "poor man prototype" to a more fleshed out shape, even if I will later change the whole canopy set up, with more modular parts incoming)

EDIT:

... and finally, the runway is upgraded, and I was able to actually finish the wing. I gained a nice 1.4m in wing span.

Edited October 17, 2021 by Araym

[Hotel26]

I grounded my Minmus Dandelion fleet when a new pod arrived with an SSM (Surface Scanner Module) upgrade.

 

So I needed to land a Nerfjet to pick up the 9 crew...

Spoiler

[click + arrows = slideshow]

     

Departure was fun...

     

 

[ColdJ]

Updated Mini Moke Versatile to 2.0.1 and now on Spacedock.

https://spacedock.info/mod/2873/Mini Moke Versatile?ga=<Game+3102+'Kerbal+Space+Program'>#info

[Stamp20]

I started a new Snarkiverse save and the views are incredible.

Spoiler

Kerbin from the Mun near periapsis.

On the surface. I think the floating rocks are a glitch with Sigma Dimensions.

Minmus from Dres.

Kerbin is wallpaper material as always.

If you're wondering what visual mod this is, it's Scifi Visual Enhancements.

 

[Hyperspace Industries]

In the recent economic (laptop performance) crisis, the space program, on return from a large and mysterious vacation (haven't played ksp for a while), has had to make major cutbacks. Most notably cancelling all missions to the outer planets (no opm) and replacing the new and beautiful Astronomer visual systems, with older and more efficient default-eve systems. The military has removed funding for the now unclassified and cancelled "BD" weaponry project. Many other systems have been replaced, removed, and altered to increase efficiency. The space program will be officially restarted soon, we hope...

[Kapitalizing Every Word]

22 minutes ago, Hyperspace Industries said:

In the recent economic (laptop performance) crisis, the space program, on return from a large and mysterious vacation (haven't played ksp for a while), has had to make major cutbacks. Most notably cancelling all missions to the outer planets (no opm) and replacing the new and beautiful Astronomer visual systems, with older and more efficient default-eve systems. The military has removed funding for the now unclassified and cancelled "BD" weaponry project. Many other systems have been replaced, removed, and altered to increase efficiency. The space program will be officially restarted soon, we hope...

Sounds sad hope you can start playing again soon

[Hyperspace Industries]

1 hour ago, Kapitalizing Every Word said:

Sounds sad hope you can start playing again soon

The somber tone is entirely accidental, I've had a load of fun in this break. The performance is not that bad. 

Edited October 17, 2021 by Hyperspace Industries

[Kapitalizing Every Word]

50 minutes ago, Hyperspace Industries said:

The somber tone is entirely accidental, I've had a load of fun in this break. The performance is not that bad. 

Well then. Enjoy! I can't have more than 10 FPS with a 200 part craft but I still have loads of fun

Edited October 17, 2021 by Kapitalizing Every Word

[king of nowhere]

I spent the best part of two days taking a series of convoluted gravity assists to go from Ike to Moho. After 18 years of gravity assists, I finally lined up everything to intercept Moho at its apoapsis. I lined up the perfect transfer, all with gravity assists, and I managed to eyeball moho's apoapsis within a few degrees.

Then I discovered it would have been more convenient to do it at periapsis. 1000 m/s more convenient.

I am awfully conflicted between reloading to a few flybys before, or playing as it is. i should have enough fuel to finish the mission, but if i took 18 years and a half dozen flybys to get to moho cheap, I want to do a good job of it.

[qromodynmc]

I wanted to test top speed and high speed handling of my supersport car but place around ksc were too bumpy and short so i decided to bring it to north pole.  Problem is that none of my old cargo planes were working properly,probably because my 1.12 doesnt have kjr and that makes them very weak. So eventually i decided to strap car to some ssto.

And we made it.

and top speed is 309kph with jets.

[N_Danger]

I started sending stuff for a sustained Duna expedition, starting with the core to a habitat.

Really big SRB's

 

On our way to Duna.

We separate from the transfer stage and finish tuning up the orbit.

And now the hab/sci lab is ready for for the expedition. it sits in a 200 km x200 km polar orbit awaiting a Duna lander, a fuel tank, and 2 SM vessels carrying the expedition. They will attempt 2 landings on Duna and one on Ike. (the science lab is RP/looks only I don't use them)