What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Caerfinon]

16 minutes ago, ColdJ said:

Thunderbird 1.

giddiness INTENSIFIES! 

 

[ColdJ]

@Caerfinon

Well I have 4, 3 and 2, though I have learnt much since I made them and can go back and improve some things, like the colliders for thunderbird 2, it works fine how it is but if a Kerbal climbs on it the illusion of surface gets killed quick. Don't know if I can do 5 as it is very large and If I can model it it will probably need to be cheated into orbit. I did have lots of fun dropping the pod in the ocean and then launching 4 on a mission, returning and redocking and then having 2 come in and pick up the pod to take it back to base :).

[IncompetentSpacer]

Today my Mars flyby probe arrived in Mars SOI after 9 months of travel. As final stage, responsible for science gathering and midcourse corrections, I reused the Moon Lander probe I used earlier that year for the exploration of the moon.

I almost had the opportunity to gather science from Phobos but however much I fiddled with maneuver nodes, I could not achieve intercept. So I decided to dip into mars atmosphere in order to gather as much science as possible:

 

Unfortunately, I got too greedy and dropped too low, below 80 km of attitude, enough for my high speed to generate friction with thin mars atmosphere and overheat the structure of the probe. At same time planet blocked the "line of sight" for the onboard antenna with Earth ground stations, meaning that data transfer was interrupted before all data could be transferred.

Still I managed to get 20-ish science from the atmosphere and perhaps 140-150 science(not counting the Sun SOI science while traveling to Mars) in total from the Mars so definitely a "Mariner 4" aka "Mars Flyby" contract was a resounding success.

 

[Kerbalsaurus]

I finished Building my artificial gravity space station, called Kubrick Station. It'll experiment with the effects of artificial gravity on a Kerbal. If all goes well, gravity rings will be added to future deep space habitats for missions to Jool, Eeloo, Eve, more advanced Duna missions, and those planets no one cares about. This took an embarrassingly long time to build in the VAB, and it was extremely hard to get the ring into orbit. Well, here it is.

First module on pad.

Mid launch.

Almost in orbit.

First module in orbit.

Final module being launched (I forgot to get screenshots of the ring's launch ).

Fully constructed space station, with the first crew shipment . A total of three crew shipments were launched. So there are 9 Kerbals on board.

[Caerfinon]

Air-Sea Rescue Operations

[stephensmat]

Frustration! Tried a new way to assemble a new ship. Docking the engines together has proven... infuriating. I keep missing, overshooting, slamming things into each other... The docking ports just won't line up!

I know I can do this. I've successfully done it before. Why is it driving me batty tonight?

Day wasn't a total write-off. I managed to land a Rover on Duna. Got my first scan of a meteorite.

Looked for my next target... Zoomed out, and out...

I landed within fifty feet of that one. What are the odds?

[Piatzin]

Gunships, inspired by Tolmekia

[Kerb24]

I was a bit short on time today, so only was able to do half of a Duna mission. 

Spoiler

On the pad. 

Liftoff. 

SRBs detached. 

I forgot to take screenshots for most of the launch. 

Kerbin escape burn. 

Coasting towards Duna.

 

[ColdJ]

Released a minor update of my Huey and Chinook mod as it was pointed out to me that if my Hind mod was not installed then there were no textures. This has now been fixed.

https://spacedock.info/mod/3072/Huey and Chinook Helicopter parts pack.

[ColdJ]

Meanwhile, Thunderbird 1 is coming along nicely. It has VTOL and a dual mode engine, the wings retract, the fins are functional and the landing legs work, they come out of the shoulders though rather than the impractical and impossible from the wings that they had in the series. Those dark rectangles are the rarely seen windows, just have to work out how an internal should look as the actual size is way bigger than the mismatched scenes where you saw them enter.

[IncompetentSpacer]

Today was string of failures and one success . My moon orbiting mission is probably delayed over 300 days or thereabout (and therefore my moon landing mission) due to two failures : 

In the first launch RD-108 sustainer engine failed to ignite, which meant almost 60 days delay while rocket was rolled back and rolled out again and reserve crew ready trained (In RP-1, you need to train your crew for each mission).

Then in the second attempt one of the RD-107 boosters failed catastrophically, careening the rocket of course and disintegrating entire rocket in process when I tried to ditch the boosters prematurely.

Kerbals survived, landing safely at Arabian Peninsula so there is that at least..

Moon lander mission was a partial success, since it fulfilled the contract but landed in a already known biome (because apparently flat area of few sqm in middle of Moon highlands is counted as Midlands biome) so no science gain there.

I was never tempted to do save scumming as I was then .

Meanwhile Venus Voyager reached the Venus SOI and therefore Venus flyby mission objective was fulfilled. By going back to Space Center and accepting Venus Orbit contract and firing remaining fuel at PE, I finished that contract too. Venus atmosphere from orbit, as seen on the image below is boring as hell, so only one picture from that mission.

[Ben J. Kerman]

I flew some planes around, mostly. I made an MD-11, a 737 MAX, and an A380 with Niest Aerospace, which I just downloaded today(McKonnell Kouglas KD-11, Koeing 737 MAX, and Kerbus K380 respectively), and made my own Kerbus logo in Paint 3D, and I was surprised at how well it came out. I also modified my Airplane Plus K320 (A320) and made a K317 and a K3  pretty much only by changing the length of the fuselage and the wings a little bit. Yes, I know there is no A317 or A3, but I was experimenting/being a Kerbal. The K3's Vr speed was actually almost 20 m/s higher than that of the K317 and K320. I'm starting to worry I might never go to space again!

Other highlights from my day of flying include me being able to land a 737 at the island airfield with no explosions (But I apparently forgot to take a screenshot ), and I even landed a KD-11 with no tail safely after a tailstrike on takeoff from the KSC by allowing the ailerons to control pitch. 

 

Since I have started playing FSX a lot more recently as well as more KSP, I remembered how much I love planes, alongside cranes and trucks and stuff. I also remembered how bad a pilot I am in a real flight sim (I'm alright in KSP) but in my defence, why don't try flying a plane with arrow keys?

Kerbus Logo

Kerbus Logo Text (Yes, that little part sticking out on the "K" is intentional)

Kerbus K320

Spoiler

https://u.cubeupload.com/Bjh223/screenshot1284.png

https://u.cubeupload.com/Bjh223/screenshot1298.png

https://u.cubeupload.com/Bjh223/screenshot1294.png

Kerbus K317

Spoiler

 

 

Kerbus K3

Spoiler

https://u.cubeupload.com/Bjh223/screenshot1331.png

https://u.cubeupload.com/Bjh223/screenshot1333.png

 

Kerbus K380. If I'm being honest I didn't spend a huge amount of time making sure this plane looked very close to the original, I just wanted to fly it. I sort of got the landing gear configuration right, though.

Spoiler

Koeing 737 MAX 8 (With a new and improved MKAS system!)

Spoiler

I even tried to make the 737 landing gear as accurate as possible.

 

https://u.cubeupload.com/Bjh223/screenshot1271.png

 

McKonnell Kouglas KD-11. I cheated a tiny bit; the cockpit is technically meant for a DC-10.

Spoiler

https://u.cubeupload.com/Bjh223/screenshot1358.png

https://u.cubeupload.com/Bjh223/screenshot1359.png

https://u.cubeupload.com/Bjh223/screenshot1258.png

https://u.cubeupload.com/Bjh223/screenshot1259.png

 

I forgot to mention; I'm kind of an aviation nerd. Ich liebe Flugzeuge! Wait, maybe I didn't forget, since at the beginning of this post I kind of said that I loved planes. I guess I just think too much. Or do I? Hmm...

Edited August 12, 2022 by Ben J. Kerman

[dci]

Today, I started with orbit correction of Minmus Reconnaissance Orbiter, periodically visiting antenna at highest point of Minmus. After about 3 years, orbit drifted about 100m off of desired surface point, now it is back and flying directly over antenna.

Spoiler

Flyby occurs every Minmus day, satellite makes exactly 15 orbits, when it returns above antenna.

Finally conducted all experiments in science lab on my Minmus base, so excess can be sent back to Kerbin, using one of return modules from science launcher.

Spoiler

Base is about 9 years old (nowadays I am finishing year 12, without KAC mod is impossible to visit all stock bodies, at least with recon and mapping orbiters in such time window). I am thinking of abandon this base. Robotic parts are experiencing "strange" offsets and work, I wanted to do, is all done. Cant wait to Kraken slaughter, which Squad promised in KSP2. Time will tell, but I am pessimistic in this case.

Quadruple science launcher, two of rockets are already used in past, time to launch number 3. Just insert science to bottom science box, press AG 1-4 (notice numbered launch tubes) and stage.

Right after ejecting, done by two sepratrons inside launcher tubes and ejecting protective heat shield it can get to orbit really fast. Well, that's why I love Minmus.

Back on Kerbin

Finally arrived to Jool system. Plan was to visit Vall, Bop and Pol, it is already done and now, because transfer window opened right after finish of work, ship is heading back to Kerbin with valuable data and nine already five starred explorers, including the Original Four.

Spoiler

Ship is derivate of TRISTAR 9, which I use for Mun-Minmus-SOI trip and for Gilly visit and introduced in this topic earlier. Now it looks like it is capable to do work in Jool system, except Laythe and Tylo, yet still needs refuelling.

Vall visit. Return to orbit took ALL of the fuel, LFOX and monoprop, all were used and there was still about 5 m/s deficit, so I did rendezvous using transfer stage. Very, very tight.

Banana test on Bop. I have refuelling station/lander on Bop orbit, so here I refuelled, and got 4500 m/s again.

Picture before refuelling. Fuel station is same design, I use on Mun, Minmus, Ike, Gilly, Dres and (here) Bop.

Nut lose on Pol orbit
Nope, just experiment.

Another science on Pol. This moon is imo much nicer than Bop.

After TRISTAR's engine section disposal, on way back to Kerbin. Getting to Hohmann orbit took about 1300 m/s, another 2000 m/s will be spent for LKO insertion. I don't really like direct returns and usually ignore aerobraking possibilities when I have enough delta-v.

 

This trip completes (or will complete after return to Kerbin) several contracts:

• Land on Vall
• Bring Vall Ice chunk to Kerbin
• Bring Pol Yellow stone to Kerbin
• Perform m-goo surface experiment on Pol
• Science data from Jool orbit.

Ship is filled with about 90 experiments, I am curious, howmany science I will get from that, even when I know, I'll sell it immediatelly in administration building, because all necessary science for tech tree was completed before year 2 just by harvesting Kerbin's moons.
Some says, game ends, when you finish tech tree. Nope. This is time, when game really begins. Game end is when your save is ~30MB, filled with flight and science logs and when your quickload takes half a minute with 8th gen i7, 16gigs of RAM and good NVMe SSD.

 

Also arrived to Ike with contracted space station and finished another contract credited for more than 1M roots. 

Spoiler

And returned from Ike/Duna with new fresh five star Kerbals.

Spoiler

Duna Bullet, which I introduced in eaerlier post months ago right before atmosphere reentry. This design I recycle third career run, maybe since 1.0.5, idk exactly. But every time I start career, I rebuild it from scratch, like all the ships and lifters.

 

 

[Kerb24]

Resupplied my Duna Station and orbited Ike.

Spoiler

I had started this mission yesterday and had already gotten halfway to Duna. Just a quick correction burn is needed. 

And then a long burn to insert into Duna orbit. 

Lower stage detached. 

Docked. I'm thinking about grabbing an asteroid and bringing it to this station. 

The previous resupply spacecraft undocks, and heads to Ike to complete a milestone contract: Ike orbit. 

I now have a Gilly mission to do, and also a crewed mission to Ike.

 

[ColdJ]

8 hours ago, Ben J. Kerman said:

I flew some planes around, mostly. I made an MD-11, a 737 MAX, and an A380 with Niest Aerospace, which I just downloaded

Where did you download it from?

[Ben J. Kerman]

Right here: https://spacedock.info/mod/3034/NeistAir%20Reupdated

I got the link from here:

 

[ColdJ]

Just now, Ben J. Kerman said:

Right here: https://spacedock.info/mod/3034/NeistAir%20Reupdated

I got the link from here:

 

Thank you.

[Caerfinon]

Today was about space. 

The orbital tug positions the last piece of the space station into place and then the docking ports joining all the various bits were "Kaboomed" to form solid welds. 

The orbital tug will undock and return to Kerbin while the station awaits it's first crew.

(no airplanes or helicopters were used in the construction of this facility, which I know... is a weird departure for me)  

[MythicalHeFF]

Pulled a classic rookie mistake and crashed into the runway light at over 250 m/s while messing with ways to make the fastest boat using propellers.

[Kerbals_of_Steel]

Did a bunch of smaller missions recently including a solar particle sampling mission on the Drake class mini-shuttle:

Worked out the bugs and started flying Skate drone planes to both Kerbin space stations:

And finally layed the groundwork for some eventual expansion of the WOLF logistics system with a land-train running from KSC to the Desert biome and back:

 

KoS

 

 

 

 

[Robin Patenall]

Due to a quirk of timing, I had to work with two vessel going to both of the extremes of the solar system today.

The first was performing the inclination burn for my Moho science / SCANSat satellite, the "Hi-Ho Mo-Ho". I had launched it at 'a' Moho transfer window, but not a great one, and doing so from Kerbin polar orbit where it was finishing off doing a Hi-Res resource scan was an exercise in planning. I had to do a burn of >1000m/s anti-normal with a single Dawn Ion engine followed by setting maneuver nodes so that I can do most of the >3000m/s capture burn outside Moho's SOI and not pretending to be a bullet when I reach it.

The second was sending my common Commnet relay / Science / SCANSat satellite off to Plock / Karen, something made difficult by the pusher stage only having a single Nerv. Doing a 13min burn (I'd even already done 750m/s during periapsis kicks) made significant errors in the orbit at >600GM. I had to add a load of radial out to get everything to line up with the projected orbit. Now I just have to wait 71 years for it to arrive.

Next on my list to do is to send off my multipart Eve  / Gilly mission.

Edited August 13, 2022 by Robin Patenall

[king of nowhere]

I interrupted my regular routine for an important new.

Today died Piero Angela. I don't think he was famous outside of Italy, but in Italy there's virtualy nobody that doesn't know him. He wasn't an italian science communicator, he was THE italian science communicator. His name was practically synonimous with documentariesto the point of entering common language. Perhaps his closer equivalent was Neil Degrasse Tyson, but I don't know if he's equally popular and pervasive, and for seven decades. Piero Angela raised generations of future scientists.

So I prepared a little tribute to him

This is Pieroangelsat 1. It's got a huge communication array that it uses to stream science documentaries nonstop.

[Rutabaga22]

Building a little plane for my kerbals, I made the starting kerbals the mercury seven. I love putting it near the ground a watching the little guys walk around it.

[DunaManiac]

I designed a few bases with Kerbal Konstructs to facillitate my battles with BD Armory.

The first is a logistics center with a runway running 50 degrees north (to allow easier transport from the KSC) and a runway running directly east-west. The cross-runway intersection to quite a while to perfect.

The second is a small TV Station with a radar emplacement.

Edited August 14, 2022 by DunaManiac

[BadOaks]

Zephyr VIII launch of OPAL-1, an RTG-powered probe intended to study Edna and it's moon, Dak. An identical OPAL-2 spacecraft will be headed for Dres.

Sunrise during the cryogenic transfer stage's ejection burn.

OPAL-2 outbound of Kerbin.