What did you do in KSP1 today?

[TheKrakenHerder]

Launched a boilerplate MEM on an Aegis I. I modified the launch tower, milkstool, and replaced the two mastodons with nine of the 1.25 meter engines whose name escapes me.

Spoiler

This one's just a boilerplate, no legs, equipment, descent engine, or anything really. The actual ones will have gold fuel tanks.

 

[Duke MelTdoWn]

A prototype of the 'Gargantua' Mining System did a test flight to the Mun. Seems to work well in principle, I need to tweak some minor things like initial fuel load. Also need to continue with a return to Kerbin test. The new design incorporates the findings from https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/topic/208074-ore-vs-fuel-which-is-more-efficient/.

Improvements compared to the 'Behemoth' Mining System include:

• More payload: the 'Morgaine' Fuel Fairy now transports 40,800 LF, of which about 33,600 (168 tons) are estimated to be usable payload to LKO. This is up from 120 tons of ore in the Leviathan Mk.3 Ore Freighter. Total mass 245 tons.
• Morgaine now uses Mk1 LF tanks which have less dry mass than ore tanks. Dry mass is only 42 tons (up from 37 tons in Leviathan Mk.3). This also boosts the range of Morgaine to 13959 m/s.
• Mining gear stays in constant use because it stays permanently on the surface in the 'Sindri' Refinery Rover. This allows you to buffer 3000 ore while waiting for the next ship to be refueled.
• More efficient Mun takeoff/landing because we do not need to lug around the mining gear. Instead we use a dedicated Descent/Ascent Stage.
• Only one engineer required - stays permanently with Sindri.

Drawbacks:

• Lost flexibility - only LF can be transported. Should be fine because nobody runs their interplanetary ships on LF+OX anyways?
• You need to land 'Morgaine'  close to Sindri.
• Can only transport 2 tourists in 'Morgaine' , but more cabins could be added easily.
• Requires Breaking Ground parts to connect Sindri to Morgaine. Connection with stock parts will result in Kraken attack.

Pictures of the full flight:

Spoiler

VeHeReLau needs slighty bigger boosters for this 202 ton payload. It put Gargantua into a 100x65 km orbit with all the fuel it had.  Luckily the immediate reentry took VeHeReLau back very close to KSC.

I used the 4 Darts of the Descent/Ascent Stage to supplement the 4 Nervas of the bottom Morgaine Alpha to reach TWR 0.5 during Trans Munar Injection. The Nervas shoot through holes in the Descent/Ascent Stage.

Some oxidizer was still available to enter Mun orbit, then continue on Nervas.


Undock Sindri and Morgaine Beta from Morgaine Alpha and Descent/Ascent Stage. Leave Morgaine Beta in orbit. Land Sindri first so we can start mining.

This is a nice flat spot with 12.67% ore. Start mining immediately.

Land Morgaine Alpha using the Descent/Ascent Stage next to Sindri.

In the meantime, Sindri was already able to collect 2000 ore. Connect Sindri to Morgaine Alpha. This was complicated by a tire I burst during Kerbin orbit insertion, and I forgot to pack Repair Kits. Telescoping refueling arm comes in very handy here. I tried to do stock connections between Lander and Rover, but this only invited Kraken attacks. We need the flexibility and give of the robotic parts.


Refueling everything took a 5* engineer 2 days and 3 hours. Could have been shorter but the sun went down and I needed to continue with less drills running on fuel cells. Return Morgaine Alpha to Mun orbit using the additional 4 Darts and OX of the Descent/Ascent Stage for a TWR of 1.95. Sindri keeps mining.


There is not enough OX to go all the way to orbit, the last 50 m/s are flown on Nervas using LF from Morgaine Alpha. 1600 LF are kept in the Descent/Ascent Stage to land Morgaine Beta. Voila, 40800 LF in low Mun orbit ready to be shipped to low Kerbin orbit.

 

Edited September 24, 2023 by Duke MelTdoWn

[N_Danger]

I sent off a rover to Tellumo.

Fairing Deploy.

And after arrival at Tellumo and a few orbits a landing was committed to.

Entry 

 

Heat shield separation after chute deployment.

And we're are up and running with a long list of objectives to complete.

(15 minutes later) Some one call a tow truck.

[TwoCalories]

8 hours ago, TheKrakenHerder said:

I modified the launch tower, milkstool, and replaced the two mastodons with nine of the 1.25 meter engines whose name escapes me.

I think those are Swivel engines?

[JcoolTheShipbuilder]

Today, I really just... made a 'bridge' escape craft, which has a nifty carrier that it can connect to!

The nuclear engines have 5km/s of delta v, which is not bad considering that it also has a lot of dry mass and oxidizer.... i guess... There are two rhino engines for an extra boost at a good effeciency.
The front round part does undock (it originally detatched with a decoupler), and is able to fly away with a capacity of 19 kerbals (and one more in the captains swivel chair).
The ship is probably capable of landing on Duna and returning to orbit... I might need to add a ladder.

The pod can easily enter Kerbin's atmo from LKO, has close to 2km/s of fuel if detatched fully fueled up. I couldnt put enough parachutes to slow its descent to below 10m/s, so it does use a bit of propulsive touchdown with the parachutes helping the orientation as it likes to fall upside down. All the crew capacity of the ship is on the pod. Also the whole pod can act as a little boat, a bit unstable in the water tho.
While building this, my game crashed just by looking forwards in the SPH... luckily I had saved this right before..
This needs TCA to hover, and the aerospikes at the front provide way more than enough leverage. I will test this ship soon.

 

I think the only DLC part is the robotics servo, which is used for the captain's swivel chair lol

[Lyra]

Did some IVA flight at sunset to wind down after a long day. It's a really relaxing experience with the right playlist on.

Also managed to push the Athena to its absolute limits and reach 4000 m/s in orbit, but that's totally not important :‌P

[Kimera Industries]

I installed Airplane Plus and it didn't work, so I installed CKAN and my life is a lot better now. Made a fighter jet, a seaplane, and a business jet with afterburner and missiles. Airplane Plus adds a ton of parts that I had specifically wanted before I even knew it existed, so I love it. I set up a mission for my Wrong Red Moon series (link below) the other day cause I had the craft ready, only to find that I can't control it beyond The Mun because I forgot an antenna. Reverted the entire flight, added an antenna, and left the game cause it was late and I was pretty frustrated at having to redo the entire mission. Fortunately, I realized I only had to re-document everything after the fairing deploys and you get a look at the rover, so that's nice. Experimenting with a new color scheme for the R-7 replica I'm using for these missions. Perhaps it could even have a bit of color coding to it as well.

For now, I'll keep the story running smoothly in Wrong Red Moon (which I call WoRM) and when I get a Minmus station or something I'll consider an accident happening as part of the story. Plenty of those happening unintentionally already, so we'll have to just wait and see.

That's all for now, see ya next time! (If you can catch up to my business jet that's actually a fighter)

[Duke MelTdoWn]

Return of Morgaine Fuel Fairy to Kerbin orbit was successful. I wanted to see how much LF can be transported at most, so I made 10 aerobraking passes to lower my apoapsis. In the end it took me 5 days to ferry 36,065 LF (180 tons) out of the original 40,800  back to the Behemoth Orbital Refinery . This can be quicker if you are prepared to use some fuel for braking. About 1600 LF will be needed to return Morgaine to the Mun.

One issue I did not anticipate was the UI for fuel transfer. With a stock game you would need to select over 100 individual LF tanks in Morgaine as source for the transfer, some of which are not even visible from the outside. So I guess a fuel transfer mod is in order.

Spoiler

 

Edited September 26, 2023 by Duke MelTdoWn

[AtomicTech]

I started a career playthrough at 10% science rewards and with a lot of early stuff unlocked to carry me through the year.

I might even add OPM later

[Duke MelTdoWn]

I made a puny submission to the Air Speed Challenge (below 10,000 m).

I am not sure if the weird placement of the heat shields in front is considered cheating ^^. 1937 m/s is not bad for a days work. I saw some old threads with higher altitude ceilings, you can go much faster it seems  

Workshop: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3041717110

Edited September 26, 2023 by Duke MelTdoWn

[Kimera Industries]

I finally got my rover mission for Wrong Red Moon done. Found some interesting chocolate chip rock formations on the surface. Minmus is a nice place, with pretty colors, I'm excited for future missions.

Check it out if you like, or not. It's your choice.

Or is it?

[AstroWolfie]

i sent bill kerman to the sun as punishment for his crimes against kerbals. and i also built jeb and val a house!

[KASASpaceProgram]

Today I got my groove on in Soundtrack Editor, its made for some of the most emotional missions to date.

(when you see a bold/italic text, you can youtube those to listen along)

Step into my space hangers where Woody Phillips' Toolbox Classics album is accompanying my construction efforts. The sounds of buzzsaw's and tiny Kerbal hammers swirl with the notes of Bach and Mozart into a beautiful concoction of steel and ingenuity. We drop by Mission Control to complete the last of our paperwork where we can hear the echo's of NASA Spaceship Ambience VOL 2 - Real NASA Radio Chatter, in the background. The Rocket complete, we head to the launchpad where SpaceX Pad Abort Go/No Go Poll radio comms mumble in the background as our brave pilots, scientists, and engineers thoroughly check the last of their pre-launch sequence tasks. 5...Between each second, there is only silence...4...every number feeling like an eternity...3...the pre ignition burners begin to spark...2...no turning back now...1...Ignition...an overload of all the senses as Kerbalkind punches physics in the face and like the Wright Brothers on that windy December day, rise into the sky like a Phoenix taking flight. In concert with the engines roar we hear Carl Orff's O Fortuna overtake our own senses as a retina piercing dot of light erupts from the surface of Kerbal, the melody, tense and energetic, but quickly changing to pull us down like the increasing gravity on our Kerbals. We're reminded to remain focused as the choir pounds out, "sem-per cre-scis, aut de-cre-scis, vi-ta de-te-sta--bi-lis", we see our Kerbanauts, eyes glued to instruments, hands gripped to arm rests, shaking violently from the detonation of fuel and oxidizer chasing them upwards into the air. The Tracking Station locked on our roll trajectory as we streak across the sky, higher, higher, O Fortuna rising with us to a crescendo as we cross over Max q. (or perhaps this was a horizon line mission, in that case we scream off the runway, our vessel again defying the odds to reach for the sky. All the while we begin to hear Ride of the Valkyries, pushing us further into the ether.) As we begin to pierce the atmosphere we're met with a silence unlike any we've heard in our lives. But what's this?, a lone trumpet, why yes I think it is, it's Also Sprach Zarathustra bursting in as we burst out of this world, providing us a warm welcome to a cold, cold universe. As we begin to crest our apoapsis, so does the soundtrack. The Kerbals kick into gear making their orbital alignment calculations to the tune of In the Hall of the Mountain King. Our burn maneuver approaches, more tension rising, clash, clash clash, clash of the  cymbals ringing out as we're hovering over the activation key. 3...2...1...initiate burn maneuver, the tension still growing when suddenly the melody breaks up, our burn timer hits zero, CUT ALL ENGINE POWER NOW! Have we done it? Double, no triple checked, we're here, we've achieved orbit, and in comes The Blue Danube by Johann Strauss II to confirm our calculations. The world now spinning under us at 10,000m/s, we sit back and enjoy Danube. Soon we hear Cornfield Chase by Hanz Zimmer bringing even more of a sense of calm and wonder to the world below us. We sit back, we take it in, beautiful isn't it. At some point in the shuffle of other Interstellar OST by Hans Zimmer songs, we are met with Day One by Hanz Zimmer. This song feels different, its building to something unlike we've experienced before. As the music guides us in our search for meaning, we suddenly find it at the crescendo. Just as the sun beams over the edge of the earth, a shadowed mechanical feat of engineering appears silhouetted in our sights, the KASA Orbital Station One, or KOSO Station (yea its a recursive acronym of an acronym but it works.) Orbits aligned, we begin our careful approach to KOSO station, Bill Kerman flips to his docking procedures in the flight manual, it's time. What tune could possibly accompany such a procedure? None other than No Time for Caution by Hanz Zimmer of course. No need to paint this picture for you, just sit back, close your eyes and let that one play out, I'm convinced you'll have no problem creating your own beautiful scene in your head. ...Come on TARS, I'll wait ... Pfft-Ssssssss (thats the sound of the docking ports equalizing as that organ sustain finally lets you take a breath). Ok we're docked, so...?...science time? Initiate Kerbal science and EVA timelapse...to the tune of... Offenbach's Can Can. Haha let me know when you've stopped laughing. Well, work done its time to head back to Kerbal. We undock, initiate a quick retrograde burn and begin our descent back to Kerbals surface. Get those heat shields ready because our capsule isn't the only thing going to be picking up some insane speed. Thats right, we're ripping a hole in the atmosphere the same way RUSH E is now ripping a hole in your eardrums...and everything you thought you knew about piano music. Are we gonna slow down or what? Ok this is starting to get a little ridiculous, everything is turning red. Hey isn't this the song that lit Mark Rober's player piano on fire? This song is really only good for one thing, going fast and burning. Ok well with that insanity over, our comms should be coming back online any second, and oh what do you know, I think I hear the Apollo 11 landing - Go/No-Go sequence. Looks like we're ready for chute deployment and touchdown. Beautiful landing if I do say so myself, Bill.  Alright, great successful mission, now lets get that capsule recovered and get Bill home, but wait what about the other engineers and scientists, still on KOSO station of course. They've got some science and repairs to wrap up before heading home. I wonder how they are doing and you're probably wondering what else their soundtrack has to offer, I'm especially interested in how they're adapting to version 9 of our Kerbistically programmed ALgorithmic computer. Oh look, one of our engineers is just arriving back from an EVA now.

Spoiler

"Open the pod bay doors please, KAL." ... "Hello, KAL, do you read me?" ..."KAL, open the pod bay doors."

 

p.s. I have bronchitis and may be a little loopy on the cough meds at the moment [snip].

Edited September 27, 2023 by Vanamonde
needed a title

[Kimera Industries]

I did another mission for WoRM, and I want to alternate between kerbaled and unkerbaled missions for now. I docked two craft (Korolev 2 and Korolev 3) and transferred the crew of K3 (1) to K2 (2) making the K2 capsule at full crew capacity (3) and the only ship that would survive reentry. First time using Docking Port Alignment Indicator, super awesome and easy to use! Also tried using Trajectories to land close to the Dessert launch site (Which I call Baikurbanur Kosmodrome for fun) and actually landed just past it very close to the desert temple, my first time seeing it in person.

Yes, I know Baikurbanur is already a place, but whatever. And it's not the Baikurbanur Kosmodrome, is it? Thus preventing 100% of possible confusion.

Also, RasterPropMonitor is so cool- something about seeing a ship diagram mid-flight is really satisfying.

Love it. CKAN is great.

Edited September 28, 2023 by Kimera Industries
Added RPM screenshot.

[AtomicTech]

8 hours ago, AstroWolfie said:

i sent bill kerman to the sun as punishment for his crimes against kerbals. and i also built jeb and val a house!

Ah! Very nice!

Where's their new casa?

6 hours ago, KASASpaceProgram said:

Today I got my groove on in Soundtrack Editor, its made for some of the most emotional missions to date.

(when you see a bold/italic text, you can youtube those to listen along)

Step into my space hangers where Woody Phillips' Toolbox Classics album is accompanying my construction efforts. The sounds of buzzsaw's and tiny Kerbal hammers swirl with the notes of Bach and Mozart into a beautiful concoction of steel and ingenuity. We drop by Mission Control to complete the last of our paperwork where we can hear the echo's of NASA Spaceship Ambience VOL 2 - Real NASA Radio Chatter, in the background. The Rocket complete, we head to the launchpad where SpaceX Pad Abort Go/No Go Poll radio comms mumble in the background as our brave pilots, scientists, and engineers thoroughly check the last of their pre-launch sequence tasks. 5...Between each second, there is only silence...4...every number feeling like an eternity...3...the pre ignition burners begin to spark...2...no turning back now...1...Ignition...an overload of all the senses as Kerbalkind punches physics in the face and like the Wright Brothers on that windy December day, rise into the sky like a Phoenix taking flight. In concert with the engines roar we hear Carl Orff's O Fortuna overtake our own senses as a retina piercing dot of light erupts from the surface of Kerbal, the melody, tense and energetic, but quickly changing to pull us down like the increasing gravity on our Kerbals. We're reminded to remain focused as the choir pounds out, "sem-per cre-scis, aut de-cre-scis, vi-ta de-te-sta--bi-lis", we see our Kerbanauts, eyes glued to instruments, hands gripped to arm rests, shaking violently from the detonation of fuel and oxidizer chasing them upwards into the air. The Tracking Station locked on our roll trajectory as we streak across the sky, higher, higher, O Fortuna rising with us to a crescendo as we cross over Max q. (or perhaps this was a horizon line mission, in that case we scream off the runway, our vessel again defying the odds to reach for the sky. All the while we begin to hear Ride of the Valkyries, pushing us further into the ether.) As we begin to pierce the atmosphere we're met with a silence unlike any we've heard in our lives. But what's this?, a lone trumpet, why yes I think it is, it's Also Sprach Zarathustra bursting in as we burst out of this world, providing us a warm welcome to a cold, cold universe. As we begin to crest our apoapsis, so does the soundtrack. The Kerbals kick into gear making their orbital alignment calculations to the tune of In the Hall of the Mountain King. Our burn maneuver approaches, more tension rising, clash, clash clash, clash of the  cymbals ringing out as we're hovering over the activation key. 3...2...1...initiate burn maneuver, the tension still growing when suddenly the melody breaks up, our burn timer hits zero, CUT ALL ENGINE POWER NOW! Have we done it? Double, no triple checked, we're here, we've achieved orbit, and in comes The Blue Danube by Johann Strauss II to confirm our calculations. The world now spinning under us at 10,000m/s, we sit back and enjoy Danube. Soon we hear Cornfield Chase by Hanz Zimmer bringing even more of a sense of calm and wonder to the world below us. We sit back, we take it in, beautiful isn't it. At some point in the shuffle of other Interstellar OST by Hans Zimmer songs, we are met with Day One by Hanz Zimmer. This song feels different, its building to something unlike we've experienced before. As the music guides us in our search for meaning, we suddenly find it at the crescendo. Just as the sun beams over the edge of the earth, a shadowed mechanical feat of engineering appears silhouetted in our sights, the KASA Orbital Station One, or KOSO Station (yea its a recursive acronym of an acronym but it works.) Orbits aligned, we begin our careful approach to KOSO station, Bill Kerman flips to his docking procedures in the flight manual, it's time. What tune could possibly accompany such a procedure? None other than No Time for Caution by Hanz Zimmer of course. No need to paint this picture for you, just sit back, close your eyes and let that one play out, I'm convinced you'll have no problem creating your own beautiful scene in your head. ...Come on TARS, I'll wait ... Pfft-Ssssssss (thats the sound of the docking ports equalizing as that organ sustain finally lets you take a breath). Ok we're docked, so...?...science time? Initiate Kerbal science and EVA timelapse...to the tune of... Offenbach's Can Can. Haha let me know when you've stopped laughing. Well, work done its time to head back to Kerbal. We undock, initiate a quick retrograde burn and begin our descent back to Kerbals surface. Get those heat shields ready because our capsule isn't the only thing going to be picking up some insane speed. Thats right, we're ripping a hole in the atmosphere the same way RUSH E is now ripping a hole in your eardrums...and everything you thought you knew about piano music. Are we gonna slow down or what? Ok this is starting to get a little ridiculous, everything is turning red. Hey isn't this the song that lit Mark Rober's player piano on fire? This song is really only good for one thing, going fast and burning. Ok well with that insanity over, our comms should be coming back online any second, and oh what do you know, I think I hear the Apollo 11 landing - Go/No-Go sequence. Looks like we're ready for chute deployment and touchdown. Beautiful landing if I do say so myself, Bill.  Alright, great successful mission, now lets get that capsule recovered and get Bill home, but wait what about the other engineers and scientists, still on KOSO station of course. They've got some science and repairs to wrap up before heading home. I wonder how they are doing and you're probably wondering what else their soundtrack has to offer, I'm especially interested in how they're adapting to version 9 of our Kerbistically programmed ALgorithmic computer. Oh look, one of our engineers is just arriving back from an EVA now.

  Hide contents

"Open the pod bay doors please, KAL." ... "Hello, KAL, do you read me?" ..."KAL, open the pod bay doors."

 

p.s. I have bronchitis and may be a little loopy on the cough meds at the moment [snip].

Very well written

[Kimera Industries]

Well, I guess I've been watching too much Matt Lowne lately cause I finally got it together to do a Duna mission. Already at several hundred science points, and the lander hasn't even gone down yet. I used the Trajectories mod to help me out with aerobraking, really neat, and better than doing 5 or 6 airbrake attempts blindly. (It was the lucky #7 that got me into Duna orbit) Got some neat screenshots. My one concern is, well that's a lie, there are two, 1. Can my command pod hold all my science, and 2. Will my nuclear stage have enough dv to return to Kerbin? Hoping for some leftover liquid fuel from the lander to refuel, but who knows? Time will tell the success of my mission.

[Hotel26]

SPACE NEWS GAZETTE

Working the drag shift at Mission Control 1d+ ago and a KAC message for an SOI change crossed my screen: "Kerbol -> Eeloo".    What?

Blinked a couple of dozen times in rapid succession to revive my senses.

A mission that started 3y 169d ago, which would put its launch date in early 2020^[1]...

A Zenith starter kit: with (L-to-R)  Mule tanker, ORB miner, some unidentified early prototype space station hub, Spider sky crane and an MP-propelled RA-100 for Meerkat call-home comms duty.

Philfrid, Robrett, Bilbur, Barvis and Butthead Kerman on board^[2], just auto-aroused from cryo-sleep.  "Hi guys; time to stretch for some calisthenics!".

I still cannot believe it.  This is my first manned mission to Eeloo arriving.  I can't even remember what I was doing in early 2020!!  Can you?

OK, Mission Control Handbook outlines a wake-up call; bio-signs validation; all-systems check; coffee pot engaged (and on the vessel, too!).  Then SMS messages to registered family members of all crew to let them know their brave loved ones have arrived at their destination/new home (and remind their names).  Busy, busy, busy.  (That unidentified space station hub is bugging me now.  Gonna have to go hang out in the archives for a while to figure out what it is; and how to power it up.)

[1] started this current Orbit world in January 2018.  Really.  The no-warp rule enforces real-time by prohibiting any warp longer than 30m.  Regs clearly state: "find something else to do".^[3]

[2] OK, a couple of alert readers have written in to remark that there appears to be accommodation for only four Kerbals in the Zenith ship...  So I may have at least one stow-away in the crew complement?

[3] which is why I am currently managing 932 flights.  Oy!

Edited September 29, 2023 by Hotel26

[Lyra]

6 hours ago, Kimera Industries said:

My one concern is, well that's a lie, there are two, 1. Can my command pod hold all my science, and 2. Will my nuclear stage have enough dv to return to Kerbin? Hoping for some leftover liquid fuel from the lander to refuel, but who knows?

Command pods can hold one of every unique experiment completed, so you should be fine. As for dv, I've been able to return to Kerbin with ~600 and my go-to dV calculator says 556 is the minimum; if you have 700 or more then you're 100% fine. If you really need to push the limits, transfer the liquid fuel, use EVA construction to put unnecessary parts (like extra solar panels or even empty fuel tanks) on the lander while it's docked, and then ditch the lander in Duna orbit.

Good luck!

[Aerodynamic Kerbal]

For the past two days (not today though) I was trying to make some Mk2 SSTOs (I genuinely didn't know how to make and properly for so long). First, the MSSTO-100 (might rename it to 200, because I made another SSTO that IS my FIRST one).

I managed to raise the apoapsis to about 100 km. Quite the record for me.

I had quite a lot of leftover Delta V, and the Mun was right there (it always stays right there, doesn't it?). I decided that I'm ready.

So, I picked a landing spot (I didn't really pick it, I just wanted it to have a view of Kerbin because hehe screnshot)

For those of you that have watched at least one Matt Lowne SSTO video, you might notice that he lands them like regular landers and then flips them before touchdown. (There isn't an alternative way, is there?). I wouldn't say that the landing was smooth, but eh

And this is where the issues started. In no particular order:
1. The terrain was very rocky, maybe landing in a crater was a bad idea. And for some reason (realism, duh) I have Parallax colliders enabled. That means it would be almost impossible for me to take off.
2. I put the landing gear at the very back (for some unknown reason) and taking off (even from the Mun) would be very tough. So.

I moved the landing gear a little behind the CoM. Then I moved the spaceplane around until I found a (somewhat) appropiate landing spot and...

I don't remember the exact way I managed to rotate, but I think that I hit a rock (luckily, physics decided that the landing gear should be on my side now) and altough that killed off a lot of speed, I still managed to gain altitude. This nuclear engine is almost useless... I barely managed to get over 10km. Now for the way home.

I decided I should re-enter a couple of times until I'm somewhat satisfied with my Apoapsis. In the end, I realised that I might not have enough fuel for landing. And just like on my previous SSTO, I forgot to put any electric source, meaning that I had to use the nuclear engine to gain energy. Eventually I got a 300km apoapsis and 80km periapsis. I had to wait for the KSC to come up on the day side. I had to re-enter several times, because my craft was back heavy when it depletes 80-90% of its fuel and it flips over. And I landed. I guess.

Now for the second SSTO.

I decided I should go bigger if I want higher chances of leaving the atmosphere. This is what I came up with.

It was too late when I realised that the Whiplash engines are basically useless in this case (the only thrust advantage is in the first 1 minute of flight, which is the easiest). But I didn't have as much fuel this time. So I gave it a simpler job and I rendesvouzwesac (ahh I don't know how to spell) with my "Eye To The Sky: The Third" space station, which is at 300km altitude. Quick Hohmann transfer and here I am.

I FORGOT TO PUT SOLAR PANELS AGAIN. And electricity was running out fast, so I didn't have a lot of time to do anything.

Another Hohmann transfer and I eventually de-orbited.

sunrise 

This re-entry was a lot smoother. Landed on the first try.

And today I, tried making an Mk3 SSTO but there was something in the first phase of the flight and I gave up.

[Kerballlistic07]

Downloaded Reentry Particle Effect Renewed today and it was loooooong overdue that I did. It's a thing of beauty:

Launched a crewed spacecraft to test the reentry effects:

Reentry:

And successful landing:

I did other stuff too, but it's not super noteworthy lol

[Aerodynamic Kerbal]

Remember the Mk3 SSTO I was talking about yesterday? Yeah, so uhh I fixed some issues it had.

At first I did a flight test with just the cockpit and the fuel tank as the center fuselage. It made it to around 120-150km. But I decided I should try docking it with my space station. 

I put a short cargo bay and a docking port (in a way that works with FreeIVA, hehe) and this time I DID NOT forget to put solar panels. I put 10 RCS thrusters as well.

Quick Hohmann transfer

One thing that I should note is that 10 RCS thrusters were NOT enough. They barely gave me any power. This may have been one of the most annoying dockings I've ever done.

However, no docking is hard enough for me.

My space station is a mess isn't it

Now for the landing, I had to do it in 2 tries, because I overshot the KSC at first.

I made it to the mountains west of the KSC. But I entered a somewhat peculiar tailspin that I couldn't recover from (maybe because I transfered the fuel into the middle fuel tank). Luckily, I made a quicksave a little earlier, so a quick F9 and

The landing was easy

One issue is that the handling is very tough. Not only during athmospheric flight, but in orbit as well...

[miklkit]

It is all about balance.  The craft must be balanced with both full and empty tanks.  This MK2 is balanced so that the COM hardly moves at all.

You would be wanting to install "fill it up"  with CKAN to do this.  It is the gas nozzle icon on the bottom.  You also might want to watch VAOS on youtube.  I learned a lot there.

[Robin Patenall]

I did the first landing of my Jool 5 mission on Tylo (to dump the weight of the Tylo descent stage).

(Yes, they're not kerbals. As I have to be careful to put the right crew on the right missions to the right moons, I wanted to be able to distinguish them easily by sight)
My only issue was that I accidently added two barometers rather than a barometer and a negative gravioli detector. I'll manage to get all the other readings but will have lost the landed at Tylo one as they're not comming back.

[TwoCalories]

I didn't get any pictures, but I worked on a new mission for my career game.

I was planning a mission where the lander (as well as a hab module) is launched and positioned in Kerbin orbit, then the crew docks to the lander and does an eyeballs-out style maneuver with the lander's orbital insertion stage to get to the Mun.

I wanted to be sure that the upper stage could push the whole stack to the Mun, so I added a fuel tank that was supposedly of equal mass to the CSM.

It was one of the largest fuel tanks, which was odd.

After a little testing as well as using the KER readout instead of stock (sometimes stock is glitched) I determined that the stock readout was, in fact, glitched.

I just decided to assume the upper stage had enough DV. Hopefully it works.

[N_Danger]

More rover stuff. This one to Gratian.

Arrival and prep for entry.

Prep for landing

We salute the sky-crane's sacrifice.

 

Go on a road trip.

And investigate stuff

Spoiler

Berries

Meteors 

and Sand dunes