What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Axelord FTW]

Slowly, carefully, dizzyingly learning Principia.

Certainly makes me feel like a smoothbrain again. Ah, the teenage years!

Too bad my current modlist makes the game crash if I try to start a new game with Principia, and I went and started fresh install for that. Backed up the modded fileset somewhere else in the meantime. Seems to run fine sans steam, so that's nice. Thinking of starting a new career to acclimate, and ease the mods back in. I have a LOT of mods I consider essential.

[eddiew]

7 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

you can definitely roll with this and arrange for an orbital Ablator refill depot and MM patch the Ablator module and resource into your choice cockpits and launch planes with that supply empty. You'll need the lab of course, some radiators, an engineer with failure repair skill, and an Ore supply. Then you active the Blacksmith module(s) in the lab and the refill converter which appears in the part(s) that hold Ablator.

Interesting... I might give this a go. I was pondering whether to make some thermal tolerance patches using OPT's parts as my guideline, but the idea of an expendable heat coating feels quite good. Although that does mean the SSTO needs to be rendezvous/docking capable... or that the ablator factory needs to have a Klaw and be able to come to them. Which might be the best answer.

Probably need about 1000 units of ablator on those frikking air brakes though   

[JadeOfMaar]

@eddiew I'd say just patch whatever part to have 2700K heat tolerance (the only stock parts that have this, apart from fairings and heatshields, are Mk3) and a bit more mass, maybe 20%. Thermal protection doesn't come entirely from pasting ablative material over a thing, but the hull's layers are more complex too. OPT includes two space-grade airbrakes and there's an "Ablative Airbrake" mod which provides the stock airbrake but colored like a heatshield (and likely with actual good base stats).

Spoiler

The stock airbrake is actually from a small IRL fighter plane and actually isn't meant to be used on spaceplanes!

 

3 hours ago, eddiew said:

or that the ablator factory needs to have a Klaw and be able to come to them

Lol! I need to see this. I know it's gonna be good.

[eddiew]

5 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

Lol! I need to see this. I know it's gonna be good.

Oh dear, now I feel compelled to create a station with a very long robotic arm that can Klaw any vessel within 50 metres... but that might have to wait until I actually kick off a proper game instead of just noodle around in sandbox.

Mostly I was thinking to have a big ore station in LKO, and a small blacksmith 'pod' that would float around in orbit and glomp on to any vessel that needs the attention   Although especially using modded engines, I'm sure it's possible to build a useful SSTO that also carries a docking port and has balanced RCS. 

11 hours ago, Axelord FTW said:

Slowly, carefully, dizzyingly learning Principia.

Oh hey, I remember spirographs...

[jimmymcgoochie]

I stuck a big red X on the side of a big booster for my first interplanetary crewed mission in RO/RP-1, just so the very expensive nuclear space tug can grab onto it and tow it around without having the same sorts of controllability issues it had with the (similar size and weight) core stage of the same ship. By that I of course mean it was barely flyable, didn‘t really go where I wanted it to and ended up dropping the booster off vaguely near the main body of the ship to make its own way the rest of the way.

[king of nowhere]

while my main mission is slowly inching towards its end, i also took some time to move forward my secondary mission: slate elcano. From the equator, I just reached the south pole, here shown in all its glitchy glory

i also deployed a small science station (to the left of the rover, in the only available patch of flat ground). it has no practical value whatsoever, but i placed it for the art

last image is without light amplification. i had decided i wanted to use just the floodlights, without any extra light, but the last few kilometers i gave up on that. have you seen how incredibly shattered that terrain is? driving around it in high gravity is already hard enough, without the additional difficulty of not seeing where I'm going.

it doesn't help that lights seem to have some sort of glitch so that while the rover should illuminate everything in a 60° arc in front of it, in practice there are always a lot of dark spots. I can tell it's a glitch because they move around.

Edited November 30, 2021 by king of nowhere

[Axelord FTW]

Oh dang, thanks for reminding me about the night-vision mod! Totally forgot about it.

[Kerb24]

Got my Eve landing crew to Eve orbit, now need to get them to the lander.

[Pipcard]

(Hatsunese Space Program/HASDA - Phase 4 - 01)

1987-02-02 - First launch of the M-2A rocket carrying the Neginohana-6 Engineering Test Satellite to geostationary transfer orbit

Hatsunese Rockets 1952-1987

[Guest The Doodling Astronaut]

meant to come out yesterday. But y’know life happens  

Now I can rest knowing Nero is done 

[Kapitalizing Every Word]

I did a simple routine Duna mission. 
With enormous amounts of unnecessary docking because i always find it fun and rewarding to do so.
Have a great day .

[AtomicTech]

6 hours ago, Kapitalizing Every Word said:

I did a simple routine Duna mission. 
With enormous amounts of unnecessary docking because i always find it fun and rewarding to do so.
Have a great day .

Neat!

 

I've been spending some time adding greenhouses to my Junkyards Mod!

[Angelo Kerman]

I started my save's launch campaign to reach JNSQ Laythe. There are quite a few vehicles in the fleet. I've just started lifting the elements that will form Laythe Base.

I have six base modules to lift into orbit. Each module is 32-34 tonnes including their deorbit and landing equipment and common chassis. Once they land, they'll automatically congregate and dock to each other. The modules have the same basic design, shown below. They have an inflatable heat shield to handle the atmospheric entry heat and a skycrane to deorbit and provide final landing thrust. Four radial docking ports double as airlocks.

Laythe Base will have 2 habitats, a "Labitat" science module, a greenhouse, a support module (drills, power generation, converters), and a 3D print shop module. I'm sending them out in pairs, so that's 3 vehicles just for the base, each with the 64-68 tonnes of base modules. Below, the greenhouse module is about to link up with the Labitat.

Right now, I'm launching the modules, linking up the pairs that fly together, and plotting their maneuvers via the KSP 1.12.2 maneuver app. Once that's done I'll add their propulsion sections.

Each module is delivered via Jool Heavy, which is based on the DIRECT launcher. Here's a look:

As you can see, the propulsion module separates from the core stage and lands via parachute. I get about 50% of its value recovered via StageRecovery.

Finally, below is the Kerbin Departure Stage. It is designed to double and an orbiting tug- though right now they're just doing their job and getting dumped into the ocean.

When I have excess propellant after delivering their payloads into orbit, the KDS flies over to the Drax Fuel Depot and donates all that they can spare.

This depot is made from a modified shuttle external tank. The shuttle flight launches into orbit, offloads the truss with the solar array, and docks it to the tank. Here's a quick look at the assembly sequence:

I plan on putting one of these in munar orbit- and there is a competitor product in the works- but that will take awhile because my launch facilities are tied up with Project Laythe...

For those interested, you can read my mission reports here:

And the shuttle and Jool Heavy in those pics can be found here:

 

[CoreI]

Today my Ares Program, seeking to land a Kerbal (5, actually) on Duna crept closer to its goal! However, not without setbacks.

I added the starboard life support module to Hermes, the transfer ship which will take Kerbals and the Duna Descent Vehicle (attached to the bottom of Hermes) to Low Duna Orbit. That LS module was the final module for Hermes, so it is now complete. However, it has not yet been detached from Tycho Station (top left, much smaller than Hermes itself). 

 

Meanwhile, on Duna, Ares preparation continue for the Kerbals to make the journey next transfer window. Today I maneuvered 2/3rds of the Duna communications network into place (key word: 2/3rds). Then, I landed the base for the first Ares mission (left). Then I attempted a landing of the Duna Ascent Vehicle (middle and right).  As I descended, I realized the vessel was right on the edge of the nearly-complete comm network's blind spot. However, I was able to maintain communications for 99% of the descent... until I was 100m above the surface. I had some throttle applied, so the DAV only hit the ground at 15 m/s, but it was enough to destroy the engine and snap the ship in half.

Now I'm faced with the dilemma of whether to send the crew AND replacement DAV next transfer window, or delay the landing by a window and just send the replacement DAV next window.

 

[Scarecrow71]

13 minutes ago, CoreI said:

Now I'm faced with the dilemma of whether to send the crew AND replacement DAV next transfer window, or delay the landing by a window and just send the replacement DAV next window.

They are Kerbals, so they should be used to being abandoned for long periods of time.  Send them to Duna in the next window, and send the DAV in the window after that.

[Axelord FTW]

On 11/30/2021 at 4:52 PM, eddiew said:

Oh dear, now I feel compelled to create a station with a very long robotic arm that can Klaw any vessel within 50 metres... but that might have to wait until I actually kick off a proper game instead of just noodle around in sandbox.

Why not have a long, multi-jointed, articulated, extendable robotic arm with claws at both ends? It could 'inchworm' its way around space structures.

Or does the game still won't play ball with looped craft lineage? I remember trying something like this way back then, but KSP didn't like it one bit.

[Starwhip]

Silverfish II, electric boogaloo.

Might make another attempt at the circumnavigation challenge. Also, still not dead.

[Axelord FTW]

I have FINALLY gotten a new instance of KSP with all my previous mods AND Principia to be stable.

Now, to climb back the career ladder once more.

[jimmymcgoochie]

Rendezvousing the same two crafts twice due to a time warp induced teleportation from 100m to 5km separation, which is even worse considering one of them was about 750 tons and the other was closer to a thousand.

Also landed two rovers on Venus, parked a total of three orbiters around it (two from the rovers with their own suites of science experiments, plus a third dedicated science probe) and set up another probe’s approach to Jupiter so it can capture into the plane of its moons for maximum flyby opportunities. Another Jupiter transfer window approaches rapidly with a cluster rover mission almost ready to launch for it, then it’s all hands on deck to get the Mars ship finished and ready to go.

[unolover322]

its not really today but yesterday i launched a satellite into orbit then got bored and deorbited it

[eddiew]

14 hours ago, Axelord FTW said:

Why not have a long, multi-jointed, articulated, extendable robotic arm with claws at both ends? It could 'inchworm' its way around space structures.

Or does the game still won't play ball with looped craft lineage? I remember trying something like this way back then, but KSP didn't like it one bit.

There is now a setting for same vessel interaction... I have yet to try it.

[adsii1970]

35 minutes ago, unolover322 said:

its not really today but yesterday i launched a satellite into orbit then got bored and deorbited it

Nothing wrong with that at all...

A few years ago, I had so many satellites in LKO that it was getting dangerous for my brave Kerbalnauts to spacewalk. I even had a few near misses and docking mishaps (I still have these from time to time) as space debris and old satellites left in orbit would zoom by. Some of them would hit my active vehicles, causing them to spin wildly out of alignment and ruin docking maneuvers. So, with that, I began a whole new bunch of space missions in my little sandbox game - space junk collecting!

Now, don't laugh! I had to design a bunch of new space vehicles and to reimagine how I did my missions and objectives. I knew I had a lot of second stages in both low and medium Kerbin orbits, some still had LFO in them. So, I wanted to be able to harvest that fuel and keep it in orbit while discarding the stage. It became an interesting challenge. And those who know me know that I enjoy a fun challenge. I divided it into three parts:

1. Launched a refueling depot that had empty tanks to hold the recovered fuel from all the second stages and satellites in low and medium Kerbin orbit. I also made sure that it had empty RCS storage capabilities, too. Be sure to include enough fuel of its own to get into orbit to where it needs to be parked. I put a lot of docking port jrs. on it.  My first station had ten.
2. Launch a vehicle (I use a remote - uncrewed) that can be used as a tug and transfer vehicle. After these vehicles were placed in orbit, they remained in orbit. When I wasn't using them, they would be docked to the orbiting refueling depot.
   • The basic design would require the standard tank setup a normal satellite would require, but also a claw, docking port jr., empty RCS tanks, and tanks to hold LFO.
   • I would drag the satellites or discarded stages to about 500 meters of the station, and make trips back and forth until all of the resources were transferred. The orbital drift got to be irritating. So, this required a change in how I did things.
   • Harvesters were made larger and more efficient. I'd even send multiple harvesters to the discarded stages to assure all resources were transferred. I no longer was bringing the satellites or debris back to the station.
3. Now, having all this useless debris in orbit, I still had to get rid of it. That's when I made my "junk collection" satellites. These were essentially nothing more than a claw to grab hold of the debris, an engine, a control unit, and the typical RCS setup. It's uncrewed because it won't survive reentry.

This was challenging and actually caused me to change the design of every satellite and launch vehicle I use in my games from this point forward. Although I no longer use this system, there are still some things I have used that I learned from this. I always have a Docking Port Jr. on all my satellites and probes. It makes recovery a lot easier. I do use a space shuttle system and have become somewhat proficient at satellite capture. Second stages are always planned to the extent they are almost out of fuel when jettisoned. I also have included a probe core on them, so I can use the remaining fuel to give them a sub-orbital trajectory.

Anyway, thanks for sharing what you do.

[Admiral Fluffy]

I am currently making craft for a Jool mission.

[Kerb24]

Today I landed my first kerbal on another planet, and they should be able to get back to Kerbin. What planet did I land them on? Eve.

[jimmymcgoochie]

Yes, MechJeb, I do want you to detach the landing legs. AFTER taking off, not before!

Aside from that stupidity, launching half a dozen little lumps of Mars into orbit went without a hitch and the rendezvous was performed- WITH THE WRONG PROBE.  Got there in the end, but getting those samples home will require some creative staging to scrounge up the necessary delta-V.