What did you do in KSP1 today?

[jimmymcgoochie]

First the Io-bound probe managed to completely reverse its course and start orbiting retrograde around Jupiter, when it was previously orbiting prograde and aligned with Io’s orbit; and then its Europa-bound sibling ended up on an escape trajectory right out of Jupiter’s gravity well when it should have been on course for an encounter with a small (~200m/s) course correction in its orbit. And on multiple occasions I had to edit the save file since some cryogenic propellants keep disappearing- including the rather unexpected loss of all the liquid oxygen from the crewed Mars lander but the liquid hydrogen was untouched, when usually the hydrogen goes missing first.

The sooner I finish this save, the better.

[ColdJ]

Shiny. Now have 3 styles of cargo nose cone and an extension tube, in 3 different sizes. They are reflective metal shiny. I believe I have got the cargo and thermal resistance properties right. Cross fingers. If there is an expert on thermal configuration and modules out there, please contact me so I can get my work checked. It took many different models to get to this point and I am happy how they have turned out.

Spoiler

 

Edited January 25, 2022 by ColdJ

[BekfastDerp13]

Nothing, but I got a laptop that will be able to run KSP 2 when it comes out. I am going to continue to play KSP on Xbox until 2 comes out.

[Hyperspace Industries]

I installed sandcastle, ksp broke when I tried something, I restarted ksp, it worked (with sandcastle).

Other than that, well:

Spoiler

Landed a printshop/workshop module for Artemis base.

Disassembly spree!

Back home.

Deploying a sandcastle cone.

Built an EMUV chair, had to ship in monoprop though.

Walking home before the delivery arrives, and because the eva pack was out of gas.

This does put a smile on my face.

[ColdJ]

1 minute ago, Hyperspace Industries said:

This does put a smile on my face.

I sent you a new link with the latest.

Are you saying that SandCastle can build my E.M.U.V chair?

[Hyperspace Industries]

11 minutes ago, ColdJ said:

I sent you a new link with the latest.

Are you saying that SandCastle can build my E.M.U.V chair?

Well, sort of, the construction cones are essentially survey stakes from extraplanetary launchpads. So to be accurate, EL can build it.

[PT]

Today I checked out what changed over last year, started new career and as always began creating starfleet yet again.

With just Kerbin orbital science I crafted primitive inter-munar cruiser Alpha, which got to high orbit for science and missions thus unlocking solar panels...

After Valentina got energy module and a bucket of fuel to three orbital stooges I got reminded that in Career you gotta do expensive upgrades to pump fuel around...

So I took it whole to Mun orbit, got enough rewards for upgrade, ditched tanker, returned to Kerbin... and got stuck in  elliptic orbit as stock dV readout lied to me.

Oh well, Valentine drop-pod can circularize and descent on its own, at least I'll get reward for returning from Mun orbit? Nah. I forgot to put on radial chutes after putting docking port on top...

So now I have to do a rescue with a low tech drone... Ugh.

After flying around with a piece of junk loaded with horrified tourists...

I got Valentine back and with a hefty bit of science I upgraded my suicide can to carry more fresh meat, and it became mostly reusable!

Several rendezvous maneuvers later I decided that despite huge improvements, stock maneuver nodes are not enjoyable to use when precise plane matching is required. Apparently I prefer to have at least Apollo level of technology of computer assist, so back to MJ and KER it is...

Next set of missions will be several launches of suicide cans to fund refuel of Alpha, expanding it to 10 Kerbs because some investor mistook it for space station,  fill it with few Mun tourists, saddle it with contract satellites, and a Munar lander and maybe a rover. Because I gotta learn what in tarnation a Mun Stone, and how to load it on board. Yaay changes I have not read patchontes about!

 

[SpacePixel]

It ain't much, but it's honest work

Although it is always good fun to push the envelope ever further, returning to the comfort of high safety margins is rather refreshing. This is Damaris, a long-range multipurpose spaceplane built for ease of use and joy of flight. It cannot score you a world record, but when you need to deliver a base module, land a rover or resupply a colony, you will find that you do not need a 24-joint actuated robotic elevator (looking at you, Cassandra) to get the job done, but a reliable spaceplane with ample margins of error. This is where huge fuel tanks, large wings, overpowered engines and a simple ramp all come in handy to make the journey as comfortable as possible. 

[Whackjob]

I may soon have a machine that I can build big on again.  So... hope.  Maybe.

[Randazzo]

9 minutes ago, Whackjob said:

I may soon have a machine that I can build big on again.  So... hope.  Maybe.

The man, the myth, the Whackjob

[Scarecrow71]

Yesterday I set up a challenge for the historical cold war Space Race between the Soviets and the Americans.  And today I completed the first flight of said challenge.

 

[Kerb24]

I proved that my Duna lander worked, now I need to get it to Duna.

[Axelord FTW]

2 hours ago, Whackjob said:

I may soon have a machine that I can build big on again.  So... hope.  Maybe.

Myself am waiting on a case and gpu to complete my new pc. LianLi  Lancool II Mesh and MSI RTX3060, specifically.

With an i5 12600k, 32gb of RAM (3200, 16-18-18-38, CL16) this won't be a world-ending-stronk computer, but it will serve me very well. I don't tend to play new games all that much, and very rarely AAA titles marketted out the wazoo over how 'good' they look. I'm also upgrading from 1920x1080 to a 2560x1440 monitor.

Currently, I'm using a gtx1650 in a prebuilt, which is seriously bottlenecked by the i59400F in it. You can always just play with crap visuals, but you can't downgrade computational steps.

I've slowed down playing KSP in the last week in anticipation. Current modset is getting a tad too heavy, which is an issue, but only until the new PC is up.

Edited January 25, 2022 by Axelord FTW

[Echo__3]

I was messing around and made this little VTOL.

 

[scottadges]

So far my Probes Before Crew career start is going well! 

The simple Codac Observer (aka BDB's Lunar Observer) was the first piece of Kerbal technology to ultimately reach out beyond LKO, thanks to the potential of its Prometheus/Titan 3rd stage and onboard monopropellant engine.

Here it is capturing the first stunning photographs of the Mun: 

After the Munar flyby, this little guy had so much dV remaining in the monopropellant engine, it was able to adjust maneuvers to get a wholly-unexpected Minmus intercept some 15 days later.

In the spirit of a craft that just wouldn't quit, it captured the first pictures of Kerbin's distant little moon well beyond its original intended mission.

With Minmus receding from view and on its way to escaping Kerbin SOI, it used its last ~100 dV of monopropellant to attempt a Kerbin re-capture... but it just wasn't enough. The Codac Observer now continues its adventure off into the heavens (i.e. escaping Kerbin SOI for a wider Kerbol orbit).

 

Edited January 26, 2022 by scottadges

[jimmymcgoochie]

I’m tired of endless fiddling with nodes to get those four probes to orbit the four main moons of Jupiter. What’s next?

Ah yes, endless fiddling with nodes to get four probes to orbit the four main moons of Jupiter… But these ones are rovers and that’s totally different 

[Madrocketman]

For the first time, I started RO-RP1

So far, I just started my first orbital rocket program

My first orbit was on July 4th 1957, so a few months before Sputnik got to space

The RP-1 mod has been more challenging and rewarding than stock KSP. Been loving the grind!

[PT]

Continuing from previous episode...

I rescued stranded Alpha starship with freshly contracted passenger module expansion, already packed with terrified civilian space frogs wishing to fly around Mun.

For some reason my starships tend to count as space station for contracts so I decided to keep requested expansions as permanent modules, thus lack of deorbiting capability in passenger module (and matching visual style, which is important!). Resulting mass saving allowed me to bring a hefty space tug drone and enough leftover fuel to get back into LKO.

Continuing with headcanon that station=starship, I accepted request for new cruiser from Reaction Systems LTD capable of reaching Mun orbit with 4000 LF and 5000 EC.  Hopefully Alpha second Munar voyage will get me enough science and funds to resurrect Carryall class from my last campaign.

With limited funds, lacking base upgrades, and stone age technology, I struggled on to equip some fancy cargo on Alpha, but first I needed some more dV and raw omph to carry all that junk and dead mass around. And that joy of carrying satellites to space without cargo bays or fairings... But just in three launches I got Alpha blasting toward Mun for second time. Just a tad shy of 100 tons, with modest ~4500 dV (depends on cargo weight and thrust vectoring loses) powered by five measly terriers to get some extra mileage out of it.

I refueled center tanks with leftovers from rendezvous stages of boosters, so that's one launch successfully avoided! Should be enough for Kerbin SOI tourism and lightweight science.

Cargo:

• 6x tourist
• 2x reusable unkerbed Mun landers
• 1x contract satellite
• loooots of spare fuels for landers

[Vanamonde]

22 hours ago, Kerb24 said:

I proved that my Duna lander worked, now I need to get it to Duna.

The smart and methodical approach. Avoids all kinds of headaches.

[jimmymcgoochie]

Poked some rovers and sent them off to biomes new, poked Ganymede with a rover despite dodgy wheel suspension bouncing it off the ground at considerable speed and nearly breaking stuff, watched two probes sail helplessly past Ceres because their transfer window was terrible and they lacked the delta-V to capture (How bad? Well, the copies of those missions I launched a year later are arriving at the same time and with a lot more fuel left in the tanks!) and did a bit of gravity pinball among the moons of Jupiter, again…

[swjr-swis]

Slowly recovering from a crashed HDD and several months of serious play-time deprivation, so easing back into KSP by going through the data I restored/recovered. Which once again brusquely confronts me with the myriad of unfinished KSP projects I have. I really need to make some recordings and screenshots and do whatever final tweaks I feel are needed and publish. Some of these have been lingering unfinished for years now.

So I asked Jeb for help again. Here he can be seen field testing the SWiS Mujoob 1F prototype VTOL carrier jet, by chasing down and escorting a rogue A2A3 "Chainsaw" snack delivery device that was flying through KSC airspace (one of two he fired from under his wings just moments before... but nobody needs to know that).

 

He was also kind enough to dust off the 1.3.1 update of my 1.1.2 UFO-Mk2. His verdict: start from scratch please, no longer fun in the newer atmo physics. So I did. Decided to go with supercharged ion propulsion and virtual particle fuel this time, and simplify the design (read: 66% part reduction). It's coming along nicely - it's SSTA now (except Eve, adapting a secondary propulsion system for high pressure environments as we speak). Jeb taking the current iteration for a spin:

Jeb still prefers to pop the top and ride it tank commander style.

Supercharged VTOL and HTOL ion propulsion, fed by virtual particle physics (trademark pending).

Restarting from scratch allowed me to significantly simplify the design, dropping total part count by 69%, although part count may increase a bit before the final iteration. Also in the plans: a separate 1.12.3 version, to use a few ideas I have that require the new-fangled (and possibly DLC) parts. One oft-requested feature for the 1.1.2 version seen here: using the more UFO-like landing legs instead of plane gear.

The reason there's no craft link yet: still working on a secondary propulsion system for high pressure environments (ie. Eve), where ions -even supercharged ones- are effectively useless.

More soon.

 

Also:

Jeb found this forgotten project under a tarp in the corner of the hangar.

He assures me it's fully functional and quite operational (in that creepy Sith emperor voice he does sometimes). Here he is demonstrating long-range capability and thermal stability, finishing a circumnavigation cruising at a balmy mach 6.1... on supercharged RCS propulsion. In an Mk1 cockpit! More from that soon too.

 

And then there's a whole hangar full of prototype SWiS spaceplanes I never seem to finish. Valentina wants some time with those. I haven't made any promises, yet.

 

[modus]

Yesterday for like the first time (been playing since 1.7) I played with the volume up (no wife and kids around) so I could actually hear the music. Nice, very nice

[Hotel26]

A complicated scene ... and the work of the last few days:  [click + arrows => slideshow]

   

I had just launched a couple of High Energy Transfers to Duna while simultaneously commencing exploring  & mining operations on that planet; when I thought it might be nice to send a brace of Shuttlecocks to see how they perform on the red planet (despite that requiring the single NERV engine to operate well enough in 20% atmosphere)...

I discovered the Shuttlecocks were not stackable, but hit on the idea of sending up an Asterisk space station hub to mount five of them.  After refueling all those at my KX2 Pole Star space station, I've assembled the Asterisk/Shuttlecocks with an Escort transfer injection booster and we are Go for launch.

Edited January 27, 2022 by Hotel26

[AtomicTech]

15 hours ago, Vanamonde said:

The smart and methodical approach. Avoids all kinds of headaches.

The best way to prove a lander works is to run the dV numbers at Duna ASL and check to make sure the TWR is at least 1.5. 

[PT]

Continuing from last episode...

I went back to Mun with a cargo of two landers, contract satellite, and a gaggle of screeching tourists.

Due to limits of early career lander barely managed to return,. With ~1300 dV and 4+ TwR it should work, but it was too unstable to be reliable.

A look at Alpha remaining 3700 dV lead to quick visit to Minmus where landing was, obviously, a breeze despite imbalanced thrust. I decided against strip-mining and returned with just one drop per pod. Safe return of landers to Kerbin was primary objective to push forward World's First missions.

Few wasteful burns later pods were dropped into atmosphere, cabins got re-kerbed with second batch of tourists, and Alpha officially became a passenger ship.

On the way a fresh Kerbonaut was kidnapped from stranded pod, but she turned out to be disappointment engineer so I'll have to enslave some pilots for hard cash.

While designing a starship for mission a problem of size came out. Having 5k LF and 7 seats conflicted with requirements for unassisted Mun/Minmus landing, so order was put for basic Carryall to finally obtain Mun rocks while a fresh, big, model will wait for better antennas... and some interplanetary transfer window.