What did you do in KSP1 today?

[space_otter]

Only two launches today. First, Roland Vincent became the first kerbal ever in orbit. His mission was very short, due to the fact that his ship didn't have a scrubber. His flight lasted around 40 mins, yet the CO2 level was already around 0.6%.

Launch on board an LV-2A 'Brownie'

The ascent profile turned out rather steep, the vehicle experiencing significant heating during stage sep.

 

Finally, the rocket separates after achieving orbit.

 

Re-entry was successful, coming very close to the KSC. It landed around 24 km away.

Mun-III launched and became the first craft to orbit the Mun. Launch was successful on board a brand-new LV-1B, which uses an uprated second stage engine. Studies show that a payload of up to 2t could be considered, if side boosters are used!

The first Mun lander,  the Minmus III orbiter (Set to launch on christmas day), and some more vehicles are in construcrion!

[kurgut]

Today,

I started working on this collaborative project, which is an IVA for the mk1 pod (and BDB one) to replicate the mercury command pod interior in KSP ! (still WIP obviously, most of the props are textures only, and don't work ingame yet).
We got some props working, as well as the periscope !
Also notice something interesting : Mercury didn't have a navball ! It had 3 displays at the top, for pitch, yaw, and roll. Yes, it's confusing to look at... so pilots manifested their urge to have something more natural to look at, and the navball (FDAI, "8-ball") was born, first flew on Gemini !

 

I aslo continued my IVA-only career, and did my first kerbal-ed Mun landing, in a gemini-alternate-ish style (don't know how to call this thing  ) :

Cheers

Edited January 11 by kurgut

[Watermel00n]

Successfully tested my Alternis Tylo Lander!

[Martian Emigrant]

Hello all.

Jeb invited Val to go checkout the new space-station.

She objected to not having a window.

All pilots should have a window.

Val: "Next time, I get to fly and you get the rumble-seat".

 

Spoiler

They got to the station. But didn't have enough delta-V to de-orbit so they borrowed some from the station.

 

On the return trip there was an un-forecasted cloud layer.

All is well. All Kerbals are healthy.

 

The next day mission control sent a cargo-tanker to the station.

 

 

ME

Edited January 12 by Martian Emigrant

[Hotel26]

Back in November, I had an Atlas III (ad), my heaviest class of surface miner (622,200 kallons total capacity), arrive in the Jolian system and -- by goof [sic] fortune -- find itself well-poised to  simply effect capture at Pol; rather than suffer the hazards of the Jolian pinball machine.

It was able, there, to refuel and then head toward its original target, Vall.  Today, happy to report capture:

 

In the meantime, I had as well, relocated my Vall miner, Goblin (ad), cap. 32,000 kallons, out to Pol.

Here's why -- in a spoiler, because this is a huge, huge "cheat":

Spoiler

With  fuel orbits established at Pol as well as Vall, I will be able to service incoming ships at Pol, much nearer the lip of the Jolian gravity well, refueling them before they venture inward.

The larger Atlas will be dedicated to producing fuel for operations in the inner system and also for outbound flights.

Paraphasing Heinlein, "once you ascend to Pol, you are half way to anywhere".  (Of course, I am using it in the reverse sense.)

 

Edited January 13 by Hotel26

[Kimera Industries]

7 hours ago, Hotel26 said:

The hazards of the Jolian pinball machine.

I hear you. I hope I never have to repeat that experience again.

[Pipcard]

[ARA] Y1, D288 - The new Yellow Dwarf 1 rocket (2S configuration) launches three relay sats (Gemini 13 to 15) to the Mun

Y1, D306 - The Gemini 16 rover is the first spacecraft to land on the Mun's far side

Y1, D320 - The Yellow Dwarf 1-2L rocket launches Gemini 17, the first Munar sample return mission

[Kimera Industries]

I launched the crew to CERES station! It's a crew of six, two of each job, one male, one female. I named one of the scientists Demeter Kerman because Demeter is the Greek equivalent of Ceres. Which is the name of the dwarf planet in the asteroid belt, which is the inspiration for Dres. Which is where CERES is going.

[uscespc]

Nomad from Star Trek TOS

Just an exercise in Blender, Unity and Coding. The clip has audio.

 

[Vanamonde]

1 hour ago, uscespc said:

Nomad from Star Trek TOS

Excellent likeness.

[space_otter]

First ever Mun landing!

This is a new rocket, but I really do need to finalise the design for a 1.875m rocket.

After landing, the probe hopped about for a bit, collecting science from three biomes. After this, it was decided that the probe should not risk performing another hop.

A new jet was tested out. The performance was found to be stunning, being capable of flight at 10,000m!

Minmus-IV was the first probe to land on Minmus, using an identical rocket to Mun-IV. I think I will call this rocket the LV-2.5A, being a spin-off from the LV-2.

Unfortunately, after landing the probes engine malfunctioned and thus a second mission will have to be launched to collect science from all the biomes.

An attempt was made to launch a two-crewed spacecraft, named Sirius. Unfortunately, the rocket got caught up on the launch tower. It then fell back onto the launchpad, destroying the launch mount but not the pad itself. After this it started tipping, so the engines were re-ignited to attempt to achieve a safe abort altitude. After this, the capsule landed by parachute.

A second attempt was made, this time with an untested abort tower. Orbital insertion was nominal, although a lousily designed service module led to only one solar panel functioning properly. The lack of a heat-shield only made matters worse. On the whole, Maria and Jonathan (The two unfortunate astronauts) were lucky to survive their dangerous flight. Needless to say, the entire Sirius program will be shelved, a new better two-crew rocket being place on the drawing board.

[Akagi]

I deorbited a bunch of random craft cluttering up Kerbin and spent an hour removing space junk because I was experiencing the Kessler effect.

[Pipcard]

[ARA] Y1, D339 - Denebola 14, the first crewed Mun orbiter

Y1, D359 - Denebola 15 docks to Alhena 1, the first crewed Mun lander

Edited January 16 by Pipcard

[Martian Emigrant]

Based on an SSTO from @Lyra

Our Spy-Satellite got a glimpse of a new type of SSTO. One using only liquid fuel.

Our engineers worked on one once but the computer holding the blue prints crashed....The save file was gone.

So Jeb was dispatched to steal one of their prototypes.

He was chosen because he had the same size as their test pilot and speaks the language.
 

Spoiler

So long suckers.

After making it to orbit Jeb transmitted back that he could make it to Minmus. The Mun if he was really careful.

Mission Control: "Don't you dare"

After a fiery descent where nothing exploded Jeb relit the air-breathing engines and flew toward one of our advanced bases.

 

Luckier than good. Jeb made it to Kiego Karcia (Crater Launch Site).

Several prototypes variations were made.

 

One was taken to Minmus.

Revisiting a previous in-game landing site.

The return had enough Delta-V to lower the orbit before hitting the atmosphere.

One to the Mun.

The ship had to hit the top of the atmosphere several times to slowdown and not explode.

The last one is doing some in orbit docking and refuelling tests.

There are talks of an Ike mission....Just because.

 

ME

 

Edited January 16 by Martian Emigrant

[Hotel26]

On 1/16/2024 at 6:12 PM, Martian Emigrant said:

Kiego Karcia

So cool!  (+5 coming your way.)

                                                                                

The following has been festering inside my cranium for a couple of weeks now.  I deliberately picked the most primitive drawing tool on Earth to further torture myself in getting it "on  paper", but that is just part of the whole fermentation process.

This is going to be the ILS Approach KSC R27 and it's a lulu because it employs VOR/DME arc segments.

 

I had feared that I was going to need to draft a separate approach for traffic originating from the NW but this will work efficiently for all comers.

All of the above will be explained; coming soon...

Edited January 17 by Hotel26

[king of nowhere]

 

I established a personal speed record going in low orbit around a red dwarf.

like, a really low orbit. going that low on kerbol would result in overheating, even with good thermal shields.

https://imgur.com/cDyuiNp

it's incredibly expensive to move this deep into a gravity field. I have this small planet orbiting very close to the star, and i must land on it, and it orbits at 36 km/s. so, the intercept speed is 10 km/s.

anyway, I was just going at it, when I realized I've never been this fast. not even the time I made a 10 km/s burn at solar periapsis in an attempt at a jool speedrun. so I took a picture for the posterity.
I am not posting it as some kind of record, for a couple reasons. first, if one wanted to make a record for high speed, it would not be too hard to beat. second, having a modded planetary pack creates a different environment where it's easier to reach low orbit around this star.

 

wait, just as I was about to post, I did realize I already went close to solar periapsis to explore inner planets in this very mission. and while I could not go as close, those stars were a lot more massive. I went to check, and indeed I got a lot faster: 57 km/s.

again, not a real record because of the same aforementioned reasons. but still worth noting

[Kimera Industries]

I experimented with overclocking NERVs and ions to replicate some interstellar engines. With infinite fuel and electricity, an overclocked ion (I can push them way higher than a NERV because NERVs overheat fast) got me away from Kerbin at 30km/s in just a few minutes. Realistically, in any sort of usable design I'd have to use the NERVs anyway and just suck it up about the heating problems because ions would take massive amounts of EC.

[Martian Emigrant]

Hey all Kerbonuts.

 

Mission control launched the  Tankernormous.

The tanker that couldn't be built.

Inserting it in a circular orbit 290KM over Kerbin with 12650 units of liquid fuel.

 

Followed shortly thereafter by Kathmon Kerbal in the the spanking new SBP1.

 

Spoiler

Filling all the tanks gave the SBP 5200DV.

Orbital mechanic school paying off.

Big time

Taking a hike? I guess?

Getting there and back.

Closer

Close enough

Space business isn't always cold.

Against my advice Kathmon de-orbited a bit early and had to start the air-breathing engines.

It looked iffy for a while but lift was developed when the ship got in the lower atmosphere.

Thank you Mr Bernoulli.

Almost there and just in time. Totally out of ice-cream. Oh and fuel.

The ship had to be towed in. And Kathmon walked back. Feels good after 6.5 years.

ME

[Pipcard]

[ARA] Y1, D382 - The Gemini 18, 19, and 20 relay satellites enter Minmus orbit (2.5x scale)

Y1, D382 - The Gemini 21 rover lands on the north pole of Minmus

Y1, D392 - Gemini 22, the first Minmus sample return mission (Great Flats)

Edited January 18 by Pipcard

[Hotel26]

This might seem a little mundane, but even Kerbals like to have a frolic in space!

I recently put a brace of (16x) Kerblink dumsats into a 60x90km orbit using Kerblink C-16 (ad):

     

The Kerblink sats spread out (I know I am oh so very late to this party!) but fundamentally "run on rails", as we like to say at SpaceX.

LKO Operations Desk at Mission Control sometimes see a dumsat or two in the vicinity.

And when the mission schedule gets idle for a spell, it's relaxing to switch to a Kerblink dumsat (unmaneuverable) and ride with its to its fiery de-orbit.  (upper right pic)

I do actually have a program running at Mission Control to declutter LKO (and we haven't figured out actually what these irritating little orbital gnats do) so it does all seem somewhat pointless.

Therefore, be it resolved: the next batch will go up in a westerly equatorial orbit...  Ho ho ho.  THe LKO Ops Desk are sure to get a big kick out of the periodic "Kerblink showers" they encounter, particularly those crossing the lanes between 90 and 60km!!   

Similariy ("fiery re-entry"):

Spoiler

I have been enjoying my latest Nerfjet MaxQ (ad); landing, so far, at Armstrong and Aldrin bases on the Mun.  With a total of 6.4 km/s dV it is my primary executive jet for space.

 

 

Edited January 19 by Hotel26

[Lyra]

Not to be outdone, [REDACTED] Aerospace's light SSTO program produces another liquid-only craft. Roaring into orbit with 3400 m/s left in the tanks, it can easily get to the Mun, Minmus, Ike, or Gilly and return home safe and sound. A refueling base at its destination could bring it to Duna or even Laythe, with a few modifications.

[miklkit]

Mistake was made.

 

Edited January 19 by miklkit

[ColdJ]

This

[miklkit]

I had made liquid only spaceplanes before but discovered that i had later deleted them, so had to start over.  Made 2 prototypes, both with passenger compartments so they could do something useful.  That and me being a bad pilot and adding in a fudge factor made them larger.  They both suffer from overheating going up and require a different ascent profile than I am used to.

V1.

V2

Yes a base at Ike is pretty useful for refueling.

 

[space_otter]

Not too many interesting launches. We are now almost at the end of the second year of this career. I launched a few crewed rockets, and one average Mun lander. The most interesting mission was Mun-V (a rover)

Launch on board an LV-3ASB4 (LV-3 core, four side boosters)

After separation, the TWR drops to 0.7, which is not ideal.

 

The lander, due to me being stupid, explodes on impact at 100 m/s. There goes 70,000 funds...

Finally, we launched a rather average lander. This seems to be working quite well. Unfortunately, biome-hopping was attempted. MechJeb's landing assist is great, however I wish it gave you navball directions. As I was at the south pole, I was completely disoriented. The spaceship impacted at 30 m/s after it ran out of fuel. That amount could easily have been saved if I could have launched in the right direction.