What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Pipcard]

[ARA] Y2, D362 - Large containers for Material Kits and Specialized Parts (MKS mod) are added to Castor Base on Minmus. For now, MKT and SPT are brought from Kerbin, but the plan is to eventually make them from Minmus resources.

Y2, D397 - Using Extraplanetary Launchpads, modules for a Material Kits factory are assembled on-site from MKT and SPT. However, more Machinery needs to be imported from Kerbin for the factory to be operational.

Edited April 8 by Pipcard

[Kimera Industries]

Seeing the responses I got in the poll I set up on WoRM, I worked quickly and swiftly on Yeva 8! (Venera 8 kerb-ified) I'm having a hard time explaining why this project was so much fun to work on. Using a simple diagram, I built a quick and rough replica of the spacecraft. As you can imagine, it was a rather simple build.

As you can imagine, Eve reentry was hard.

I found a solution using the cube-shaped probe core, (you know, the one no one uses) that allows it to survive reentry behind the tiny heat shield. It also taught me a cool lesson about reentry angles, because the probe has no SAS. That's not true, it has SAS, but it can't point toward any nodes, so it's near-useless. I had to release the probe at a perfect angle so that it would be able to handle reentry.

It does have a margin of error because it is aerodynamically stable, so it will slowly point the right way given time. Eve's atmosphere is just so thick that it has very little time to correct before it explodes.

For fun, I deorbited the thing from LKO. It survived largely intact, splashed down, and then decided we were playing Subnautica, sinking downwards at a steady .8 m/s.

After that test was complete, I slapped a new paint job onto one of my R-7 alikes and we were good to go.

Lastly, for those of you actually following Wrong Red Moon, here's a mysterious module added to the Korolev spacecraft:

It looks oddly familiar. I wonder why...

[Scarecrow71]

I have a KSP1 career that I started a couple weeks ago, primarily because I finished the main storyline in KSP2.  I love KSP1, and I keep coming back to it time and again.  But I am digressing.  In my current career save, I'm testing out new build designs and trying to do stuff I haven't attempted before.  To be fair, I have the following mods installed:

• Community Tech Tree
• Contract Configurator
  • And multiple contract packs
• MechJeb 2
• Un Kerballed Start

Those are the main ones I have.  I have a few smaller ones (Hide Empty Tech Tree Nodes, for example), but the ones in the list are what I'm really most concerned about.  Anyhow, I got a contract to do a manned return from orbit of Eve, along with placing a new satellite in a specific orbit (156 degrees of inclination, Ap of ~19 million meters, Pe of ~12 million meters).  Normally I would have split this up into 2 launches, but I asked myself "Why do that when you have cargo bays and such".  So I created a spaceplane with a cargo bay and set it alaunch.  At night, no less.

After getting into LKO (~100km circularized), I was afraid I wouldn't have enough fuel to finish this.  But I decided to plough ahead with this, getting a transfer window with a fuel cost of only 1025 m/s.

It took about 600 m/s after circularizing to get into the right orbit with the satellite, which left me with 2800 m/s of dV to get home to Kerbin.  I was concerned not about getting home, but getting onto the ground.  The contract only stated I had to return to Kerbin, it said nothing about getting on the ground (landed).  So I figured if I at least could get an orbit around Kerbin, I'd be fine and could just rescue Valentina if needed.  Luckily, I was able to get a transfer back from Eve for ~600 m/s!  And because of the angle I took to come in, I was able to use Kerbin's gravity/rotation to only need another 600 m/s to circularize at 150km.  Which left more than enough to get Val on the ground.

So a round-trip from Kerbin to Eve orbit, deploy a satellite, and then recovery of the command module with the pilot in it.  You will notice that I didn't mention anything to this point about science, right?  This was my second manned mission to Eve orbit with a return, but this particular contract never came up during the first mission (where I collected all the science I could).  But I'll certainly take all the practice I can get, especially when I'm testing new designs.  All told, these 2 contracts brought me ~900,000 in funds, 45 science points (directly from the contracts themselves), and each was 3 stars/exceptional for reputation.  Not a bad day at the Las Kerbas Space Agency!

[Shammyofwar]

Played my mod 

and my 2nd KSP install with a

and

 

installed 

[Kimera Industries]

Today (well, yesterday, really) I made a mission badge for my soon-to-be Korolev 11. It's the equivalent of Soyuz 11, the first mission to a space station.

I also learned a valuable lesson: Paint 3D is tough to work with. Spend however much you need and download whatever programs you want, just so long as you don't have to make anything more complex than a scribble in Paint 3D.

I couldn't be bothered to make the text wrap around the circle. Paint 3D was making text boxes act strangely enough.

[Pipcard]

[ARA] Y2, D418 - The Aries 1 probe makes a flyby of Ike and Duna

Y2, D420 - Castor Base on Minmus now has an operational factory to produce Material Kits from local resources, a major component for off-world construction and base maintenance (MKS + Extraplanetary Launchpads)

Edited April 11 by Pipcard

[Scarecrow71]

Continuing on with my current career save, I got contracts to go to Gilly, orbit the overblown asteroid, and then come home.  Which I did...and I completely failed to take pictures on the way there and back.  But I had to go there and back to collect enough science to get two things I really needed:  RCS Guidance Unit, and the Clamp-O-Tron Sr.  I really dislike the smaller docking ports, primarily because they wobble all over the place.  I really prefer to use the big one, so I had to collect enough science to unlock those nodes.  In fact, before I forget, I should probably show you guys both my mod list AND the current tech tree in my career save.  Yeah!

One of these mods, probably left over from when I had an install of KSRSS at some point, has altered the clock in my game.  So I'm operating on a 24 hour clock, not a 6 hour one.  Which is fine by me; it doesn't alter anything as far as mechanics goes.

I know - this looks nothing like the stock tech tree.  Which is what I wanted.  Un Kerballed Start with the Community Tech Tree gives me just the right feel for progression that I'm looking for.

Anyhow, today I decided it was time to start working on the Kerbin space station, the Nebuchadnezzar.  This thing is going to be massive, and will take multiple - MULTIPLE, with a capital EXCREMENT-TON - of launches.  For reference, I'm kind of using the following model as a basis for this:

Space Stations Creator - 3D model by Ebal Studios (@EbalStudios) [5d33a66] (sketchfab.com)

I fully realize that this is going to be a massive undertaking that will more than likely invite the kraken to dinner.  But anything worth having is worth working hard for, right?  Right!  Pictures, and then some explanations!

So, here we are with the central command column of the station.  It isn't anything major, having the Hitchhiker module so as to house 4 Kerbals, but is currently controlled by the aforementioned RCS Guidance Unit (nobody is on board this thing yet).  I put several small antenna on the top of this thing (3 standard Communotrons and the first small dish you get), and then spiced it up a bit with some lights.  The blue ones on the "top" of the station blink, which gives kind of a neat effect when just watching it.  The red ones along the hitchhiker module are static red and are just lit up.  Hidden in the tube under the antenna are the guidance unit, a couple of batteries, and a decent-sized RCS tank (even though I didn't put any RCS thrusters on this thing; that tank is there for future needs).  A docking port at the "bottom" of the stack here will be used for future expansion.

Once again, not a bad day.  And the Las Kerbas Space Agency thanks you for your continued reading of our adventures!

[Lyra]

Decided to finally get CKAN and messed around with mods - got KER and RCS Build Aid, and decided to try out the OPT Spaceplanes as well. Haven't gotten used to it but the parts look cool and that's what matters most to me.

https://imgur.com/6OTXCkP

Gonna try out TURD tomorrow and see how some of my craft look with a paint job :3

[Hotel26]

12 minutes ago, Lyra said:

got KER

Was a long time before I got KER but cannot live now without the HUDs.

[Lyra]

1 minute ago, Hotel26 said:

Was a long time before I got KER but cannot live now without the HUDs.

I managed just fine with the stock periapsis/apoapsis markers for quite a while and in fact i'm having to get used to looking at the top of my screen rather than the bottom to see those values lol

RCS Build Aid is actually the one I'm looking forward to the most. Designing a big, complex SSTO with a stable CoM is tricky when you're also trying to make it look good.

[Hotel26]

2 hours ago, Lyra said:

I managed just fine with the stock periapsis/apoapsis markers for quite a while and in fact i'm having to get used to looking at the top of my screen rather than the bottom to see those values

That may be so -- and certainly was for me (for about 7 years!). 

In addition, my foundation premise was that a HUD is grows more useful as you add a few useful datums [sic] and then grows less useful as you add more data.  Everything should be instantly accessible.

So then I put quite a bit of work into determining, organizing and testing two HUDs of about 8-10 items each.

It's recently exploded into 4x HUD and I know where everything is instantly, which has resulted from concerted investment over time.

But this is how useful KER can be.

I've now reached the point that I think I want two modifications made:

1. economize on the space between the title and the datum (my left-most HUD is obscuring the Commnet % and the relay list pop-up)
2. option to display the Target Name alone without the Target function menu (the latter is useful but doesn't belong in my HUD).

Spoiler

If you are brave enough to take a glimpse into the future (if you stay with KER), and remembering that flight information mode is intensely personal to work style/mission objectives, but willing to look at the horizon: I have put my GameData/KerbalEngineer/Settings/SectionLibrary.xml file on Drive.  If you care to, copy your own into a safe backup place and then position this one in its place.  Try it out for a short while.  I will guarantee it won't satisfy your own particular needs (now or ever) but it will present you a vista of what KerbalEngineer might provide and how flexibly.  Then you can restore your own default.

 

Edited April 12 by Hotel26

[Krazy1]

20 hours ago, Lyra said:

Designing a big, complex SSTO with a stable CoM is tricky

Also recommend Simple Fuel Switch. Optimizing the LF/ OX ratio for SSTOs is usually iterative and the limited selection of stock LF tanks is annoying. So is rebuilding the whole ship to swap a center tank. 

Spoiler

caution though if you use Tweakscale, you have to switch fuel type before scaling or it will revert to stock capacity.

Try Improved and Updated Chase Camera for flying planes in general. And Trajectories for reentry is gold, along with the landing target in KER.

[Lyra]

1 hour ago, Krazy1 said:

Simple Fuel Switch

I tend to avoid mods like that cuz I prefer to either build my craft pure stock, or very obviously modded. Generally, if a modded part has the option to switch out fuel types (like OPT does) then I'll stick with those for switchable fuels and leave the stock parts as-is. I'm OK with rebuilding a craft sometimes. Will definitely check out Trajectories though, and I'll throw Waterfall in for good measure

In other news I got TURD working and while I didn't install the OPT (and Mk4) packs I did mess around with OPT and some TURD-recoloured parts to make a big SSTO, and recoloured an old stock design as part of a test:

For some reason all the TURD colours look really blueish when the craft launches, even though I made them redder in the SPH. You can see how blue those painted rapiers/adapters are compared to the OPT bicoupler.

[Scarecrow71]

Continuing on today with my space station, the Nebuchadnezzar.  For those of you who haven't seen it, or who don't want to go looking back through this thread, the inspiration for the station:

Space Stations Creator - 3D model by Ebal Studios (@EbalStudios) [5d33a66] (sketchfab.com)

Today's challenge is to put the ring section on the station.  KSP1 wasn't initially designed to handle circular station parts...but we all know that it can be done.  We've seen it before.  So I thought I'd give it a shot.  For anyone who says you cannot build one, I give you the night launch shot:

Yeah, that doesn't really show a ring, does it?  It's there; you'll see it in the next shot.  You will notice a few things here:

1. A boatload of struts.  I could have gone the auto-strut route with this, but I didn't want to do that.
2. There are fuel tanks both above AND below the ring section.  This was done to keep CoM in a stable place, lest the thing tip over mid-flight.
3. Red lights everywhere.  I have decided that I'm going to put lights on every section of the station, with different colors for different meanings.  Blinking blue (from the command module already in space) is for communications, while solid red is for crew compartments.  This thing has a mobile lab AND multiple crew cabins, so I threw a bunch of red on there.

Anyhow, let's get to where this thing is docked, shall we?  If anyone ever tells you that you have to send up a circular ring section in pieces and assemble them in orbit, tell them they are lying.  It can be sent up as one entire build...assuming you fly carefully.

So now we have the initial command module, some solar panels, some antenna, a mobile lab, and a lot of crew compartments.  There are 5 open docking ports - one on each spoke facing outward and away from the center, and one underneath the ring section facing downward and on the central stack.  We still don't have any crew on this thing; I'm waiting for the inevitable contract to transfer crew between vessels to come up before I send anyone up there.  I mean, I'll be adding pieces to this thing the whole time, so why not get paid to abandon a Kerbal up there?

And that's it for today.  Tomorrow I'll continue building downwards...but I'm not sure what to make of the components in the inspirational model.  There's no instructions, so I'll be winging it with what I put up there!

[Scarecrow71]

This morning I continued working on the Nebuchadnezzar, attempting to craft the fuel depot portion of this thing.  However, I realized that I did not have anything related to ISRU - no tanks, no drills, no converters (if those are a thing; I've never done ISRU in this game before!).  So adding a fuel depot to the station wasn't going to get me anything at this point.  I needed science points because, thankfully, the beginnings of ISRU are on the tier I'm currently working on.

I casually waltzed into Mission Control and started poring over the various contracts different agencies wanted me to deal with.  And looking through them, I found one to go start investigating Duna.  Just a simple fly-by and some science.  I can handle that, so I sent Jeb and Bob on a quest to go to Duna.  And as soon as I hit Duna's SOI, a contract popped up to get into orbit of Duna.  And after fiddling around with the maneuver node a bit in Duna's SOI, I realized I could swing into low Duna orbit, hit the thrusters and get an encounter with Ike.  So I did that, collected all the science there (both high and low), and managed to snag this shot:

Once I got all the sweet science points from Ike, I fired the rocket again and got into Duna orbit to complete that contract.  By the time Jeb and Bob got home, I had collected 3,020 science points through gadgetry and contractual obligations.  And thanks to that, I was able to open up the nodes to start dealing with ISRU.  So now, tomorrow, I'll get to continue working on the station.

[GDJ]

Inspired by the Aero Vodochody L-39 Albatros.....

[Scarecrow71]

And continuing on today with the space station Nebuchadnezzar.  As mentioned in a previous post, I'm going to build downward from the ring section first, and then outward.  In looking at the reference material, the most logical thing I can think of to build when going downwards is a small fuel converter.  Nothing major, as I only have access to the 125 currently.  But I'm thinking that we can at least have some ore storage and a converter unit down there.  And in looking at things, we need two separate launches - one for the convert-o-tron itself, and then a second for the 2 spokes coming out of the sides.  So we send up the converter first:

The reference material actually has another, smaller ring section to it, but I didn't feel it necessary to go through and build one that is, for all practical purposes, just a large fuel tank.  So instead, I just used a large fuel tank.  I put radial radiators on the converter, primarily because I know that the thing will overheat upon usage.  I know - no amount of heat management will stop it from overheating.  But maybe I can just delay the inevitable for a while.  Maybe.

You will also notice a jet engine on the bottom of this thing.  Look at the reference material, and you'll see that there is this reactor thing at the very bottom of the station, and the only thing that comes close to looking like it is a jet engine.  So we have a jet engine on the bottom merely for aesthetic purposes.  Ah, the things we can build if we only think outside the box.  Anyhow, it's now time to put the 2 spokes up onto the converter section.

One of the spokes - the one to the right - contains several of the boxy-looking cargo refrigerator things.  Each one holds an EC of 150, and as a bonus they can hold cargo. Not in the sense of true inventory, but if I put an engineer up there and do EVA construction, I can put stuff in them.  And you need EC for the converter, so having these right here makes sense (at least to me).

The second spoke - the one to the left - is 4 empty ore containers.  I tossed and turned on whether or not to have them, and in the end I decided that it's easier to transfer ore to them and then send the ship that brought the ore back to wherever it came from, so we can do the conversion on the station itself, instead of docking a ship and then waiting for the conversion to be done before it leaves.  Again, it makes sense to me.

You'll notice that we are now starting to bleed color all through this thing.  I wanted to have lights all over the place and have them mean different things, but after seeing this ridiculous mash of ugliness, I'm going to turn off a lot of the lights and just use them really sparingly.  So the next few shots will be less saturated and should make more sense with the color scheme.

And that's it for today.  Another successful day at the Las Kerbas Space Agency!

 

EDIT:  Just when I thought I was done for the day, I get a contract to put someone on board the Nebuchadnezzar.  And what did I say earlier?  If I'm going to abandon a Kerbal on the space station, I'm going to get paid to do so.  To the tune of ~250k funds.  So I hired a new sucker astronaut and put him on board the station.

Edited April 15 by Scarecrow71

[Pipcard]

[ARA] Y2, D478 - The Gemini 28 autonomous miner extracts the resources needed to make Specialized Parts (MKS mod) and transfers them across Minmus using a Planetary Logistics module.

Y2, D482 - With a new Atlas factory dome, Castor Base now has the ability to build spacecraft (with Extraplanetary Launchpads) and perform maintenance entirely using off-world resources.

Edited April 17 by Pipcard

[Mickel]

Not so much 'today', however over the last little while I've:

 - killed two Kerbals.  There is a flag to mark the spot.

 - been to Duna for the first time ever.  Landed probes on Duna and Ike

 - have a probe on the way to Dres, which will be another first

 - found the Mun Arch.  Obviously would have flown past it hundreds of times.  This time I just happened to be looking the right way.

 - worked out how to use Soviet style capsules properly

 - become waaaay more efficient with my launch vehicles compared to the first few games

I'm running science gathering on about 10% of standard, so I'm having to spread my wings beyond Kerbin and the moons to reach the 550 points level.

All on stock KSP1 with Making History and Breaking Ground.

I'm stuck trying to move a rover on Minmus.  It has power after I fixed it up a bit.  The wheels turn (in the same direction, which an improvement on when I got there).  But it won't move...

Edited April 17 by Mickel

[Hotel26]

A sudden urge: Nimble.

I could say it's a Minmus SSTO  but it was intended as a local hopper.

Very convenient embarkation through the rear door.

I haven't tried Kerbin re-entry tests but, full disclosure, won't be doing so either.

Edited April 17 by Hotel26

[KerikBalm]

Today, I ditched sigma dimensions, and just moded my custom system to 4x manually, after playing at 6.25x with KR&D.

Managed to get fully stock reusable spaceplanes taking >100 tons to orbit at 4x

I also got to a point that I was pretty happy with my 'Brumo' moon, but then accidentally posted the ksp2 rather than ksp1 mod forum

 

 

[Hotel26]

Progress at Eve.  From L-to-R: Venus Ascension (3x Mammoth), Hummingbird (2x NERV), Mule (4 NERV), Egg, Rim Shot.

 

The Ascension arrived, requiring one last top-up before descending to the surface.  The Mule/Hummingbird combination brought the Egg to the Rim Shot station.

The Ascension will take 11 kerbals down to the surface once a landing site has been scouted (by surface parties).  It'll then await a mobile refuel (to be implemented) and can take 3 kerbals out; then return on a final trip bringing three more down, making a total of 14 colonists in and 3 executives out.

Edited April 19 by Hotel26

[DunaManiac]

Here is the A-25 Condor: the Program's newest improvement on the SSTO concept perfected by the A-19. The A-25, in contrast to the A-19, has a sleek, futuristic look: more like the SR-71 than the Skylon.

Seen here is the A-25's predecessor, the A-19 Aquilae. Like the A-19, the A-25's job is mostly to transfer a lot of crew at a time to a station. Although the Aquilae is perfectly competent at its job, I wanted an SSTO with more crew capacity as it's gotten to the point where I need to launch a dozen kerbals at a time to my orbiting motherships. The A-25 has a crew capacity of 12 crew and 2 pilots and can carry some KIS equipment and BG experiments. The A-25 also retains the A-19's innovation of combining rudders and airbrakes (seen above). I originally wanted the A-25 to be able to operate with a higher fuel margin than the Aquilae, but despite having more fuel I ended up with less: while the A-19 had 200-300 m/s in orbit, the A-25 now has 100-150 m/s. However, by disabling the top RAPIER, the A-25's thrust is alligned with the center of mass, unlike the A-19 which required me to constantly pitch up while running the engine at full blast.

And the A-25 takes off on its inagural flight! Aboard are Vaysa and Gemdrin Kerman on a mission to the low orbit station Cornerstone. This will allow us to test 4 important skills: takeoff, rendezvous, docking, and re-entry. It's become somewhat of a rite of passage: Merlin, Accipiter, the partial SSTO A-12 and the A-19 have all had their maiden flights to the station.

Some of you may notice I'm taking off at an angle: this is because Cornerstone is at a high inclination.

After roughly a day in transfer, A-25 Condor finally reaches Cornerstone. Seen here is Flight Engineer Gemdrin configuring the controls for a docking.

And a successful docking! Gemdrin and Vasya exchange greetings with the 4th Cornerstone crew of 3 and offload some equipment, particularly some new life support equipment that was originally scheduled to be delivered by A-19 Aquilae.

Re-entry is always tricky at an inclination because you can only leave at certain times and one often has to change inclination to meet the KSC.

And we have landed! The A-25's first crewed flight is a success, which is certain to inspire the next generation of cargo-carrying SSTOs.

[N_Danger]

It was time for another trip to the Mun.

Val plants her flag

And she EVA's for the science

Time for a sun tan after we land

 

[GDJ]

Another inspiration. This time the Talon.....

 

This one is really fun to fly. Goes supersonic in dry mode, top speed of Mach 1.45 with afterburners, pulls 15+G turns without breaking apart, 2000 km range at 8000 m ASL.
Kinda tricky to land due to being rather touchy below 250 km/hr. Working on that part.

Edited April 21 by GDJ