What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Cavscout74]

8 hours ago, Martian Emigrant said:

He seems distracted as you can tell by is science report from Minmus.....

 

 

I can't explain that.....

 

ME

Clearly the top secret Minmus terraforming program is a resounding success.

[panzer1b]

Well nearly finished with my Sevastopol class space station...

View from the redesigned windows in the habitation/admin section.

The base's 2nd staircase, in the RnD/medlab section.

The local bar located in the spaceflight terminal.

Spaceflight terminal departure area.

One of the generic research stations complete with glowy monitor (the mk2 light actually looks very much like a computer screen actually).

View thru the smaller basic windows into the RnD section (with a random red monitor in the hallway).

One of 2 passages that go between the RnD section and both the Hab and Hangar bay sections.

Staring at Jool from the hangar section.

Interior of the rather spacious hangar (comes stock with 5 hardpoints but it is easily upgradeable to more (if you can stomach the lag from adding more parts atop the already nuts 740 of this monstrosity).

One of the other hangar section hallways with the admin office in view (the triangular panels stickin out of the MK2 bit is where the station command sits).

Medbay reception area with a nice view of the comms array out the small windows.

And the final section worth mentioning, KG348 RnD section which can be used to jettision aliens or unruly kerbals into the gas giant.

And finally the entire station in all its glory...

Honestly, even though that part count is on the upper borderline of useable as anything but screenshot material (ive docked a 400 part frigate to it without too much pain), and its so massive that the only way to do anything with it is to teleport it up (not even gonna bother making a rocket to get it anywhere), its byfar the coolest looking station ive made in KSP by a considerable margin.  Also quite efficient on parts as i abused certain mechanics to save on this.  Namely 120 degree MK2 hallways which let you make seamless low part count joints (no need for anything to cover gaps above/below unlike if i wanted to make the joints 4 way), and liberal use of 10m heatshields which look pretty good as a structural element to begin with and cover a huge amount of real estate compared to trying to do so with wings or about anything else.  I also tried to cover up teh awkwardness of the look by adding some girders going between section of teh hangar bay and i think it turned out nicely.  Almost every piece added to this station serves at least 2 roles, asthetic, structural, or utility (power generation, reaction control, command core, ect).

[Cavscout74]

I made some more progress in my 1.12 career, with the first Moho probe launched, a few more rescue missions, new jets & the first space station around Kerbin in this save.

Pioneer-Moho departing Kerbin.  I always appreciate when the game hands me a "Test NERV engine ...." contract long before I can research the NERV.

Jeb taking up a new CF-05 Viper jet for a spin at dusk

Kelrik & one of the rescuees returning for a safe splashdown

Finally, first crew docked with the Manned Orbiting Lab to begin operations.

Edited February 14, 2023 by Cavscout74

[AuddieD2015]

It feels like my space program operates in real time. I will play in science where money doesn't matter until I can carry out a mission well enough to not go broke in career. It took me along time to land a legit rover on one of the moons. I made that landing today in career without crashing into Minmus. I tend to think like Howard Hughes and launch one Spruce Goose after another, so I am not sure I would get anywhere without YouTuber Scott Manley's tutorials. Here is my submission for the commemorative stamp. (Special thanks to the geyser going off as I readied the shot.)

I didn't think to take the shot before crashing the mini skycrane. It was docked under the lander with the rover docked under it and the landing was done in two parts. There is a lesser chance of Jeb being killed that way. Now I just hope that the World's Firsts make a dent in the price tag or I might need to file Chapter 11.

[Martian Emigrant]

Hey all.

A lot of happenings going on.

 

Some little guys went to Duna.

 

Some went to Gilly.

 

while Jeb and bill went on a night test flight.

 

ME

 

[Mahnarch]

Ermahgerd! I just spent 2 hours building and taking "pictures" of Karl of Kerbin [hitting Ctrl+ PrtSc] and, for some reason, thinking it was auto saving the photos.

I finally remembered that I had to paste and crop after I got into orbit. lol. Derka-derr!

 

Anyway; always weary of the Kraken, the Kerbals have sent up another effigy of their legendary hero - Karl of Kerbin.

It is said that he faced down his adversary, alone, with nothing but a stick and a handful of half eaten snacks! He lost his eye when the Kraken lashed out as the life was extinguished from the worthy foe!

(Some say he lost it when he banged his eye on a sharp corner getting out of bed one morning. Those Kerbals have been excommunicated.)

Victorious, Karl returned to Kerbin in a fiery wreck and bailed out right before the craft impacted the mountains.

[Note: the Kerbal engineers didn't realize the circular solar panels were not retractable. Pretend it's a monocle that's half popping.]

Night:

 

Day:

[Triop]

Today,  I went for a short flight.

.

[Cavscout74]

My first round of Duna probes arrived around our closest neighbor, with a lander, science probe/relay and another science probe that went on to Ike orbit.  Then my Moho science probe arrived and (barely) entered orbit.  Lastly, my first batch of Eve probes departed - a science probe/lander combo (copy of the Soviet Venera 9), another different lander, a science/relay satellite and a dust sample return probe, but no pics of them yet. 

Duna lander - since I use "require signal for control" turned on, I had to ballast the lander with a fuel tank to orient correctly for entry.  I barely regained signal with the fixed antennas to stage away the heat shield & ballast.  I was <1000m altitude, with all chutes deployed, still descending way too fast when 1 tiny little bar popped up, allowing me to deploy the DTS-M1's and stage.

Pioneer-Duna entered a highly elliptical polar orbit to complete both science gathering & communications relay functions

Pioneer-Moho arrived, burned off all the fuel for its NERV transfer stage and most of the monoprop carried by the probe itself to establish its own elliptical orbit

[Krazy1]

I started JNSQ and am proud to say I got Jeb to orbit with a 2 stage 30 part rocket (using Better SRB mod suggested and upgraded launch pad >20t weight). He got a bunch of science and tried to re-enter. Ha, ha, ha! No way. He's going to be up there a while. He's orbiting at 3860 m/s. Stock is about 2300 m/s. Kenetic energy is v^2 so it's 2.8x as much in JNSQ. It's like trying to come back directly from Duna and aerobrake in stock...with early tech parts. I'm going to be rolling around KSC gathering science for a while: 

 

[udk_lethal_d0se]

I opened the game after 5 years, and realized there's now so many more features. Learning to mod again is going to be interesting. 

[Mahnarch]

Welcome back!

I was gone about a year, myself, until recently.

Getting the fire burnin' again.

[djr5899]

8 days.  I have less than 8 days...

For what you ask?  To finally, after 5 years of owning the full PC game (maybe 6+ years of playing including demo and XBox version)...to FINALLY VISIT EVERY PLANET/MOON in the game.  In the past, I have:

• Tried and failed.  And failed. And really really failed.
• Started in Science mode to reach all planets, and then stopped and went on to something else.
• Started in Career mode, then found I wanted to try something else.
• Started in Sandbox, sent all my satellites up, visited the Mun and Minmus for the 8000th time, and maybe a trip to Duna here and there...and then got sidetracked.

So, with KSP 2 having the Early Access Release coming out on the 24th, I told myself at the end of last week I needed to finally get this done before I would allow myself to buy KSP2.

So far in this Sandbox game, I have:

• Landed an unmanned ship on Duna
• Landed an unmanned ship on Ike
• Landed an unmanned ship on Dres
• Crashed an unmanned ship on Moho (ran out of fuel a few hundred meters above the surface)
• Kind of have of ship on its way to Eeloo (transfer window said small adjustment needed; seems like that isn't lining up).  This one is going to pass through the Jool system, so I may just shift course and have it land on one of the moons of Jool.

I don't think I've ever landed a craft on anything in the Jool system before.  I've flown a few craft into an orbit, but no landings that I recall.  I've also never really attempted Eve before, because any time I planned I was always trying to figure out landing and leaving Eve, instead of just landing a probe.

So the Jool system, maybe actually land on Moho this time (I have done it before), Eve and Gilly (I've managed to land on Gilly before), and then I'll hopefully finish with the easy Mun and Minmus...for the 8001st time. 

And I've got 8 days to do it.

[Krazy1]

1 hour ago, djr5899 said:

So the Jool system, maybe actually land on Moho this time (I have done it before), Eve and Gilly (I've managed to land on Gilly before), and then I'll hopefully finish with the easy Mun and Minmus...for the 8001st time. 

So you saying you got to all the other planets (almost) without refueling with ISRU at Minmus? That seems harder to me. Then you must start from Kerbin without hopping around. Almost 3 years for me, never made it to Eeloo and now I'm starting over again. Good luck finishing!

[king of nowhere]

About two years ago I developed a sturdy rover (Dancing Porcupine) that could race across Mun and jump inside craters.

About one and a half years ago, the latest version changed stuff about wheels, made them more frail. My old rover could no longer jump inside craters and come out in one piece.

About one year ago, I developed a sturdier and more powerful rover (Leaping Mantis)  for an Elcano challenge over extremely difficult terrain on relatively high gravity.

Today I decided to try Leaping Mantis on Mun, and I wasn't expecting too much, but it's jumping inside craters!

I did drive it for 100 km and it never broke once, despite extreme recklessness on my part.

 

[Kerballlistic07]

Well, I WAS going to spend the day preparing my KSP save for retirement since KSP 2 is right around the corner. Then they posted the system requirements. Now, I'm going to spend the day installing mods and making sure they work. Yippee.  

[JcoolTheShipbuilder]

I am back with more planets! 
here is Tumidam, the second planet in the Arcturus system!

It is a puffy gas giant, nearly three times the size of Jool at 16000km in radius, but has just twice the mass. It is still actively cooling from the stellar merging event that effectivley roasted the system.
The texture was generated by @NathlessOne using Gaseous Giganticus! (I just couldnt get GG to work)

I made its moon, Vitrum. It orbits extremely close to Tumidam, about 6000km from its cloud tops, and its SOI nearly reaches the atmosphere! I did make use of custom colors n stuff so it was not entirely colored via heightColorMap

Vitrum is a glass moon, its surface is mostly glass, with some jagged peaks and ranges here and there, it is slightly bigger than Kerbin. The planet is considered the prime destination for glass racing, which I imagine to occur very similarly to the pod racing in star wars.. except racing over glass instead of sand.

Tumidam is well in the schorching zone, so while Vitrum is breathable, bring some strong sunscreen to explore the glassy plains surrounding the two oasis cities setup by the native species!.

Fun fact about Vitrum, if it wasnt for the species moving this moon around 7000km outwards as Tumidam expanded from the intense heat of the event, it would have entered the giant's atmosphere and been destroyed.

I then took a screenshot landed on the surface of Glacios' moon Pagos and got a really beautiful sunrise

The surface of Pagos is using CTTP textures.. some of the planets in my mod is going to use CTTP and others entirely custom texture due to having very strange surfaces that wouldnt have any of the included CTTP textures
Also, I currently am not running any visual mods.. though... would a skybox mod be considered a visual mod? I am not sure lol..

Oh and I shrunk Temporalis for the lols

Edited February 18, 2023 by JcoolTheShipbuilder

[Nazalassa]

5 hours ago, JcoolTheShipbuilder said:

Oh and I shrunk Temporalis for the lols

... Well done.

Is the gravity still "super-high"?

[JcoolTheShipbuilder]

3 hours ago, Nazalassa said:

... Well done.

Is the gravity still "super-high"?

yes but it scales really oddly due to it being such a small body.. had to reduce it so I could land slower than 10m/s as if I try doing so above that, the terrain collider doesnt load fast enough and I just phase right through

[KSACheese]

On 2/16/2023 at 10:42 PM, djr5899 said:

And I've got 8 days to do it.

Best of luck! Down to six, but no pressure

[Randox]

Trying to get back into the groove in preparation for the new game. For my first mission I decided to launch my pair of interplanetary relays  (into alternating highly elliptic polar orbits). Had a non-critical collision during the insertion burn for relay one, which is now a bit lopsided:

I'm not sure exactly how close I was to plowing the relay directly into the launch vehicle, but it was someplace between the radius of that radio dish and the missing large solar array. The relay was deflected about 80 degrees off course on impact, though SAS and gimbaled thrust was able to bring it back on target very quickly.

For those curious, this relay undocked from the parent ship about 8 minutes prior to the launch burn. Separation was probably around 300m.

[Mahnarch]

2 hours ago, Randox said:

For those curious, this relay undocked from the parent ship about 8 minutes prior to the launch burn. Separation was probably around 300m.

Was it a "Check yo' stagin'" event or a cat-slash-dog that likes to walk on your keyboard at the most inopportune time because they secretly work for the Kraken?

[djr5899]

On 2/17/2023 at 1:08 AM, Krazy1 said:

So you saying you got to all the other planets (almost) without refueling with ISRU at Minmus? That seems harder to me. Then you must start from Kerbin without hopping around. Almost 3 years for me, never made it to Eeloo and now I'm starting over again. Good luck finishing!

Up until the last 1-2 years, I really stunk at building rockets that good, efficient delta-V usage.  I'm still not great at it, but for this play through I built an unmanned lander final stage, and then built my booster.  The setup ended up with around 14,000 total delta-V, which in theory should be good enough to visit every planet/moon except Jool (and be REALLY close with a tiny bit to spare for Eve).  Now, I'm also not the most efficient flyer.

I'm looking to see if I can build another craft that gets me a little more dV, but I went into this thinking I would probably need to setup some fuel mining somewhere in the Jool System to finish that off...even knowing from others that I cannot "actually" land on Jool.

[N_Danger]

Tests were conducted.

[Randox]

2 hours ago, Mahnarch said:

Was it a "Check yo' stagin'" event or a cat-slash-dog that likes to walk on your keyboard at the most inopportune time because they secretly work for the Kraken?

Just a brain problem. The relay separates from the carrier ship with only the force generated by undocking, so both craft are in almost the same orbit.

Usually I'd make a small burn to distance the craft. This time I let them drift and didn't see I was pointing at my carrier stage when I started my burn.

[Mars-Bound Hokie]

I made an all-electric small passenger plane and flew it around Kerbin.

 

• The E-40 Impulse on display in the SPH
  • It has "PLANE ONLY" in the name since I have plans to take it to Laythe later. In the meantime, I would have to test its capabilities here on Kerbin
• Its cargo bay is loaded with science station equipment, EVA kits, and repair kits
  • Although I personally don't really know how to operate the science stations. I just placed them close together and hit "Interact" (more on that later)

 

• Jeb hit the "Reverse thrust" button during takeoff by mistake, explaining why the plane was going backwards
• He had to get the plane back into position and restart the test flight all over again

 

• As soon as Jeb was airborne, he turned west in order to maximize the plane's exposure to sunlight
  • If he flew east, he would inevitably enter a dark zone and lose electric charge

 

• Nice shot of the E-40 flying over the desert
  • This was taken before I installed nav lights and rear robot arms in the next prototype
• I really need to start an album devoted specifically to cool background pictures

 

• Jeb looking at Engine One from the cockpit, as well as the mountains to the south
  • Engines are numbered starting with the furthest left (looking forward from the cockpit)
• Another great shot worthy of being some laptop's background picture

 

• 100 km away from the KSC, and the mountains to the west of it are in sight
• Under Engine 1, you can barely see the abandoned island airfield

 

• 1 km ASL and ~8 km away from the runway
• I'm so glad I disabled pitch and roll for the swept control surfaces (not the ones at the wingtips), since they were so counterproductive in previous test runs.
  • So now all they're good for is roll and flaps.

 

• 5 HOURS, 11 MINUTES, 30 SECONDS
• Since I was flying faster than the planet's rotation about its axis, I launched mid-late afternoon so I wouldn't outrun the sunny spot and therefore lose a constant power source.

 

• Final test run complete

 

E-40 Test Run Performance Stats
Cruising Altitude		7 km
Cruising Surface Velocity		200 m/s
Minimum Throttle Required		2/3
Blade Angle		38 degrees (45 is optimal)
Optimum Takeoff Time	Westward Flight	Mid-late afternoon
	Eastward Flight	Early in the morning (NOT recommended for long flights)

 

But I did not stop there:

Spoiler

• Using MJ Rover Autopilot to point me in the right direction, I flew to the Temple of Tut-Un Jeb-Ahn a few minutes after landing at the KSC

 

• Another successful landing
• Jeb got the science station equipment out (one by one) and set up shop near the temple 
  • Like I said earlier, I have no idea how they're supposed to work
    • Please help

 

Craft file: https://kerbalx.com/Mars-Bound_Hokie/E-40-Impulse-PLANE-ONLY