What did you do in KSP1 today?

[RizzoTheRat]

Testing my kOS mission planner by automating tourist missions. ..with the added bonus of making loads of Kredits in the early game.

The planner runs in  a loop and works out what task it needs to do next to complete the mission.  In this simple case the first pass tells it to launch and circularise, and the second time tells it to land immediately.

 

[BadOaks]

8 hours ago, RizzoTheRat said:

What graphics mods are you using?  that looks stunning.

Thanks! Besides the usual list of mods (Scatterer, Planetshine, Distant Object, EVE, etc) I'm also using the following:

• TUFX with Zorg's profile, which is a separate download. This is what makes the color palette really stand out.
• I have an old version of Scatterer with a custom config to make Kerbin's atmosphere appear thinner relative to its size, to make it look more Earth-like.  The newer Scatterer versions changed the config format and I haven't figured out how to reproduce the effect yet. I also played with a few other settings like alpha and exposure.
• RSSVE Earth cloud textures for Kerbin. I think I may have also lifted RSSVE's .half files for scatterer.
• Ad Astra's city lights textures.
• Custom profile for Planetshine with a lot of the settings cranked up.

[Krazy1]

5 hours ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

Dres to Eve, around 950m/s or so

"In what universe?" I thought... in a snarky tone. 

5 hours ago, jimmymcgoochie said:

Snarkiverse

Oh... 

Still learning Principia... going to Minmus without any orange marker targeting system takes some getting used to but the smooth orbits are satisfying. 

Edited July 10, 2022 by Krazy1

[BadOaks]

My Duna probes arrived today. Duna-1 emplaced into a 1000 km orbit and Duna-2 at 2000 km. Despite launching a few days apart they ended up arriving within 50 minutes of each other.

Duna-2 used the transfer stage for most of the burn, then completed the circularization under its own monoprop thrusters.

Duna-2 then deployed into its operational configuration. It's mission is to compile high-resolution visual and resource maps of the planet.

Shortly after, Duna-1 arrived and completed its braking burn before separating from the transfer stage.

It then deployed as well. Duna-1 will complete a high-resolution radar altimetry scan of the planet and then drop altitude to map Duna's biomes with a multispectral imager.

[RandomGrape]

Failed to land on The Mun

[IncompetentSpacer]

57 minutes ago, RandomGrape said:

Failed to land on The Mun

We all were there at one point of time...next phase is landing on Mun but not having enough dV to get back.

[IncompetentSpacer]

Redesigned my previous rocket design with new tech I unlocked in my RP-1 career. Went from 149 ton to bit under 57.8t. This is where RO mod is not entirely realistic. It would be bit hard for such design to be made in late 50s, using existing tech, but whatever:

Total dV budget: 10806 dV with no cargo

Can lift 540 kg to LEO.

3 parts (stages) with RD-108 main engine and two RD-0105 engines in the middle and top.

 

 

[jimmymcgoochie]

5 minutes ago, IncompetentSpacer said:

Redesigned my previous rocket design with new tech I unlocked in my RP-1 career. Went from 149 ton to bit under 57.8t. This is where RO mod is not entirely realistic. It would be bit hard for such design to be made in late 50s, using existing tech, but whatever:

Total dV budget: 10806 dV with no cargo

Can lift 540 kg to LEO.

3 parts (stages) with RD-108 main engine and two RD-0105 engines in the middle and top.

 

 

Unrealistic how? The RD-108 was used in 1957 to launch Sputnik 1, while the RD-0105 was added as an upper stage engine on the same rocket in 1958 for lunar impactor missions.

[IncompetentSpacer]

Just now, jimmymcgoochie said:

Unrealistic how? The RD-108 was used in 1957 to launch Sputnik 1, while the RD-0105 was added as an upper stage engine on the same rocket in 1958 for lunar impactor missions.

Mass.

You think that Sergei Koralev would not design 60t launch vehicle for Sputnik 1 if he could? 8K71PS launch vehicle (R-7 Semyorka variant), capable of 500 kg to LEO, was bit shy of 270t.

It makes beating the historic dates somewhat easy in the mod (nowhere as easy as in earlier versions where people were launching kerbals in orbit by 1952 or at least by 1953 on normal difficulty).

 

 

 

[Misguided Kerbal]

I sent a tiny little probe around the Mun:

Spoiler

 

And another one to Minmus too, on the augmented version of the same launcher:

Spoiler

 

Also, I did a thing:

It actually flew surprisingly well (with SAS on, at least.) I'll definitely use this in the future.

[Selective Genius]

I have been away from KSP for God knows how long, and today finally had the courage to continue my career gameplay. I launched a prototype version of a Nuclear Tug that will use aerobraking to return to LKO from GTO, Munar Transfer Orbits or interplanetary burns. The interim name of this tug is

This is the tug with the heatshields in 'Stowed' configuration, allowing the Nerva engines to fire. The apoapsis was raised to Munar Orbit

The heatshields in 'Deployed' configuration. The vehicle handled aerobraking pretty well, but each heatshield lost 200 units of ablator out of 800. I suppose this has to be serviced and refitted with new heatshields after every 4 flights. That or use a less aggressive aerobraking strategy.

It needs several improvements (lateral docking ports in case I want to attach drop tanks or more tugs, a comms module, ladders for the crew to grab when they are replacing the heavy heatshields etc)

[IncompetentSpacer]

From rocket design to aircraft design in RP-1.

Fulfilling speed contract.

[Hyperspace Industries]

Woo HOOO!!!!

The day before yesterday:

Spoiler

Before

After deleting Boulder Co. 

First, in this save, ksrss 2.5 sub-orbital flight.

Wentelbaan 1 (translation from Afrikaans to English, Orbit 1), a orbital probe.

These are the low resolution clouds.

Shenanigan.

Today:

Spoiler

After putting my home nation's flag into ksp, and disabling all ill effects related to usi life support, making it more of a suggestion, I started trying to get to orbit.

Wentelbaan 2, span out, I think.

Handbrake burn for W3.

Same story.

Don't get your hopes up, it's long range suborbital.

Not that Jeb cares.

After many, many, many, many retries, and redesigns, Wentelbaan 7, with Jeb in command did this.

Out of fuel, but who the exhaust cares!

Flag alert.

Could not get out and push well, so debug it was, since it was getting late. (started at a late breakfast, consisting of corn-on-the-cob and braaied pork sausage (a braai is the superior South African barbecue), and it was already dark by this point and I just finished dinner/supper)

Landing. Boy, that took long. 

[N_Danger]

I did some flight testing of a new Service module. Mostly getting the ascent optimized.  

I'm playing with a life support mod for the first time and sending a manned mission to Dune now takes some more thought and planning.

238 days duration with 3 kerbals @ 3 snacks per day.

Now to build an orbital station around Kerbin to see what strategies will be needed to build one at Duna (With 2 to 3 years worth of supplies for 6 kerbals. looking at pre-positioning, re-supply launches, recycling and possible manufacture via ISRU as options)

[Krazy1]

I added Corelian planet mod to my Principia install. This upgrades Dres to a gas giant system... should be stock. 

[Wizard Kerbal]

On 7/7/2022 at 12:10 PM, Akagi said:

I wanna be a space-traffic controller. 

Me: "Apollo 11, turn sharply right and head for Mars"

A11: "Are you sure-"

Me: "YES I'M SURE!"

Much more boring. Just spacecraft names, their crew, destination, and status, and the date that input is required.

Like,
Firefly -Jeb, Bob, Bill - Duna System 
Waiting for window-y3d40 Solar orbit - y3d330

[TheKrakenHerder]

On 7/10/2022 at 5:06 PM, Misguided Kerbal said:

Also, I did a thing:

Please tell me this'll be in Starbound.

[Misguided Kerbal]

2 hours ago, TheKrakenHerder said:

Please tell me this'll be in Starbound.

No promises, but if I can work out the kinks, then I'll definitely be using it.

[IncompetentSpacer]

Continued my RP-1 career (this is third restart due to updates to various parts of the mod) - preformed my second Moon impactor mission (Emulating SSSR Luna 2 mission and US Ranger missions).

Due to RO mod not implementing time zones, I launched at 10:30 local time but it was pitch dark. As usual something had to go wrong and the main engine, RD-108, seized up but I lucked out on timing and I only lost 100 dV. I build my rocket with lot of spare dV so it was not a critical failure.

Image above shows third stage finishing its burn, finalizing the orbit around the earth. Below the last stage, including the impacter payload can be seen flying over Africa.

Impacter pluss avionics section on the way to the moon:

Unfortunately no images from the moon since I landed on the dark side. Resulting image would be pitch dark and no point in posting that.

I enjoy the early tech in RP-1 mod, since I find the age of space "firsts" to be most fascinating.

On 7/10/2022 at 8:47 PM, N_Danger said:

I'm playing with a life support mod for the first time and sending a manned mission to Dune now takes some more thought and planning.

 

Kerbalism? With all features on?

[BadOaks]

My Eve probes arrived in orbit. Eve-1, carrying a number of high resolution Scansat instruments, arrived first and inserted into a 2000 km polar orbit, first using the liquid biprop transfer stage and then finishing the circularization with its Hall thruster.

Eve-1 Album: Link

Three days later, Eve-2 arrived and took up a 90 x 800 km eccentric orbit. 

To deploy the first atmospheric probe, Eve-2 burned at apoapsis to lower periapse to 0 km, launched the probe on a ballistic trajectory, and then switched off two of the engines to restore thrust balance and burned to raise periapse back above the atmosphere.

Probe 1 used reaction wheels to orient itself just prior to atmospheric entry. Once the probe had become subsonic the aeroshell separated with the assistance of solid rocket motors, allowing parachutes to deploy.

After touching down in Eve's midlands biome, Probe 1 extended its main antenna and began transmitting the data it collected during the descent. It also started up a number of surface experiments which will run for the next few weeks.

The second probe was launched on a ballistic entry in a similar manner to the first probe. Eve-2 suffered an engine failure while raising its orbit again, however engine redundancy meant I just had to shut down the diagonal counterpart to the malfunctioning engine, restoring thrust balance.

Probe 2 came down in Eve's Sea of Gojira.

Splash-

-down??

Apparently either Eve's oceans have very low density or KPL needs to stop feeding churros to the hardware.

Eve-2 Album: Link

[MythicalHeFF]

Accidentally blew up an entire base in-flight because I forgot that part clipping is bad when you want to decouple stuff.

Totally managed to separate the engine stage and land with no cheating whatsoever...

[N_Danger]

4 hours ago, IncompetentSpacer said:

 

Kerbalism? With all features on?

Nope. Snacks!.  Starting on the easy side of things.

 

 

[Apelsin]

More nuclear SSTO fun:

[BadOaks]

The Dres Explorer arrived and braked into a 100 x 1600 km polar orbit.

It carries several Scansat instruments oriented towards the rear of spacecraft.

Having completed it's survey of Eve, I relocated the Eve-1 spacecraft from low orbit to Gilly using a bi-elliptical transfer to perform the plane change and then a phasing maneuver to intercept the captured asteroid. Total deltaV expenditure was around 3500 m/s, most of which was just escaping Eve's low orbit.

[Hotel26]

A couple of years ago, I had a capsule with a lone female Kerbal make a fiery re-entry and then approach a touch-down under chutes somewhere over those long Easterly plains.

Fascinated, I watched the trajectory stay glued to the middle of a very small lake.  And, quite amazed, I witnessed a safe splash-down in the middle of that lake. in the middle of nowhere.

Spoiler

 

The Kerbonaut (let's call her Sandra Kerman) had to go EVA under water and then swim for the shore.  Quite an unexpected and harrowing experience, I'm sure.

Mission Control (me) was not astute enough to get a fix on what we now call "Lake Gravity" -- and we have been searching for it ever since.

Well, tonight, we are happy to announce: we think this is it.  (Champagne?  Yes, we think this is reason enough...)

(Coincidentally, I live near a place called "Gravity Lakes" that is real.)

Edited July 13, 2022 by Hotel26