What did you do in KSP1 today?

[ColdJ]

I have working landing gear and working docking system to drop and pickup loads for the S-64 Air Crane. Still working out the most efficient way to have them be able to transfer to the Mack truck.

I have added an open frame carrier for the Humvee and Unimog. Had to redo their wheel colliders so they wouldn't get stuck when driving on. Have created a small gator utility vehicle that uses the "Command Chair" system for the Kerbals. I built a GoCart with the "Command Chair" system but Kerbals falling out or turning to dust when going faster than 52m/s was getting old, so now also have an internal model one. Is serious fun, but I wish it was possible to race against somebody. And I have built a Bus that carries a driver and 28 passengers.

Spoiler

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Edited September 12 by ColdJ

[PT]

Continuing from last time...

Baguette reached Moho and started dropping cargo.

Some space frogs enjoyed Lander Eclipse.

Shortly after an enormous gravitational disturbance wrecked starfleet infrastructure and caused loss of most scientific data. But space frogs are not known for giving up, so after some scrounging new cruiser was sent to investigate the cause.
Learning on mistakes of past designs, Modulus series is much more... modular. First two are now bouncing around Kerbin SOI, with nuclear powered third unit on its way to Eve to investigate loss of contact with Astarte sent there beforehand.

An invasive mass has been found on edge of Kerbin SOI, and Modulus crew bravely landed to check how it tastes.

Suspecting presence of other invasive bodies in Kerbol space a deep space observation vessel, Ivore Tower, has been launched.

Of course rebuilding spacefleet would not be possible without its backbone passenger/rescue workhorse cruiser. This time Bombardier  was commissioned. Initially sent with sixteen two-Kerb unpowered drop pods, under guise of cargo capacity extension contract its now testing new design of slightly powered drop pods after successful partial pod restock operation.

Going by orbital data obtained by Ivory Tower, it would seem that starfleet will need much more capable spaceship classes to properly categorize all new invasive astral bodies by their taste.

[Qwotty]

Today, in Kerbal Space Program, the day that I wrote this, I took Valentina Kerman out to deep space and got to do interstellar travel how I had been wanting to do it for the first time — which was without the problems from before — and had a great time (what some might call "the time of my life") right up until Valentina had died upon approaching a planet that I had locked Valentina into a descent towards, at which point I had. It was much too rapid of a descent for the RE-L10 "Poodle" Liquid Fuel Engine on-board to stop the beyond dangerous fall into (what I presume to be) "Oceanogseaf", a planet orbiting a star that I had flew all the way out to as Valentina Kerman called Recalewh, that of which is "roughly 0.94 times the size of Kerbol", according to the .cfg file for the planet. It was a sad note to end on, but I had learned a lot about how to do space travel using @RoverDude's Alcubierre drive part mod to travel to the stars provided by @Sushut's mod that randomly generates them while doing that space mission. Thanks to the helpful advice from @capi3101 and @JadeOfMaar, I was able to finally break through the battling with understanding how to utilize warp drives for interstellar travel and have not had the same problems that initially had stopped me from trying interstellar with the warp drives since, which just goes to show that those two really truly had knew what the Kerbal they were talking about. No more burnout due to being stuck within the confines of the Kerbol System or whatever planet packs have been released and no more having to worry about warp drives causing adventure-stopping explosions caused by lack of awareness about Exotic Matter levels, that of which had previously been extremely exasperating to deal with. Now I can post my interstellar space missions instead of having interstellar space mission breakdowns. So... that being said... big shoutout to four involved that I tagged with an @ sign... because — all four them, combined with my determination, effort, and smarts, are what made the mission being posted about possible.

Here is a GIF created with recorded footage of Valentina burning up:


The mission lasted for a total of 18 days, 2 hours, 18 minutes, and 11 seconds. During this time, it reached a maximum altitude of 43,565,771,237 meters and achieved its highest speed at 52,896,341 meters per second and 52,896,339 meters per second over land. The mission covered a ground distance of 8,921,565,727 meters and a total distance of 9,646,708,988 meters. The most significant G-force endured during the mission was 366.3G.

For a relatively small test ship, its reach was truly "out of this world". I remember falling asleep orbiting around a star, waking up, and then getting right back to business. This mission wasn’t just simply merely an impressive space mission like my others before that I have posted here; it was a cosmic achievement of epic proportions that was more far-reaching than any mission previously done before! It showed me proof that the world full of infinite potential due to infinite discoveries (see what I did there?) was now well within welcoming reach and that now I have the foundation for turning Kerbal Space Program into a nifty spaceflight combat wargame KSP RPG, but whether or not that is going to be with code in the form as a mod with some sort of release for the public is TBD. As of writing this, I am wondering if it going to be more of a D&D type of thing where imagination and immersion in combination with mods to boost — and perhaps even hypersupercharge them — take center stage, or if it is going to be more of a full-fledged roleplaying game system with coding and .dll files that goes in the GameData folder. Either way, I am sure that it will be epically fun and create engrossing procedural tales. 

That's what I did the day that this post was made, along with making a YouTube account for posting KSP videos. More on that and other stuff later. You all shall see.

[PT]

Continuing from last time...

Surveyor  was launched toward first star on the right first available transfer window sporting pulse fusion fresh out of factory it sails like Ion craft. Just with more explosions. Loaded with a dozen various mini satellites its meant to prepare comm network and basic telemetry of invasive astral bodies, regardless of their orbit... as long as its not retrograde. By the grace of transfer windows its now on course to Sarnus gas giant and its numerous moons.

With resources now drained, some silly publicity stunts in Kerbin SOI had to be done.

ISRU resource extraction was tested in various scenarios, as dictated by client requirements, and thus DigDug moon hopper/base was born.

Some unlucky kerbonauts were drafted to test new simplified semi-propeled descent pod equipped on Bombardier. Discovery that nowadays one can stage both drag and normal chutes before entering atmosphere was a welcomed breakthrough in drop pod design.

With some funding secured, first Modulus cruiser purged its modules...

and performed propulsion transplant

Aside of plentiful fuel tanks and scientific cargo, new engine section arrived with construction drone and some handy modules to upgrade other cruisers.

Ivory Tower received battery module, which allows it to properly transfer scientific data from onboard laboratory. Due to some minor design oversights its capabilities were... less than stellar.

Due to discovery that numerous kerbonauts were stranded in hulls with no airlocks, small hull breaching device was added to Bombardier.  Apparently Claw can't be Clawed, thus tug drone had to let itself be clawed by its cargo for transplant to be successful.

With maintenance done, Modulus proceeded to yet again investigate invasive astral bodies in Kerbin SOI.

After two landings at edge of Kerbin SOI, Phybi was found to be slightly more annoying to land on than Mun although contrasting regolith colours helped with finding flat terrain. Iszmi turned out to be a colourful Minmus... with lander piercing mountains.

Two Munders were then deorbited in tandem for further testing in planetary laboratories.

 

With some funding secured, and research slowly recovering to pre-disaster levels, a new vessel was commissioned. Light cruiser Eclipse  was build from keel to serve as orbital survey vessel. With four moons now around Kerbin, there is a plethora of contracts requiring just a simple low altitude flyby for quick scan. Some experiments, however, need to be dropped down to Kerbin for completion.
With new propulsion and hull technology unlocked, and limited cargo space required, a small and nimble hotrod of a spaceship could be made.

Central cargo bay is fitted with replaceable survey module, mounted on a handy hinge for easier access. Two sponson hold a trio of sample return pods each, which with proper mission planning can be used quite sparingly.

During a flyby of Minmus at altitude which would terrify civilians not familiar with orbital mechanics, Thomney reported sighting of some mysterious monolith on surface. Reports remain unconfirmed so far, and Thomney habit of basking in radiant glow of reactor cores in constant state of meltdown puts his reliability in doubt.

[NHunter]

Keep working on mapping Janus's moons in preparation for the arrival of the crewed exploration vessel (ETA: 3 days at this point... well 3 days till the first of deceleration burns)

Eterna:

and Talon:

[PT]

Continuing from last time...

Not much. A new starship has been sent toward Urlum, draining almost all available funding.

Upcoming launch windows for Urlum and Neidon prompted design of a deep space cruiser. Design based on Eclipse was chosen, which prompted some redesigns of existing satellites and landers to fit into Mk2 cargo bays.

Fitting kerbed lander-rover into Mk2 cargo bay resulted in kraken infested wobbly sausage, which was saved in archives as learning experience.
After testing it under simulated low gravity, with results matching its beauty, I went on to prep some classic landers for various moons, only to discover after two hours of building that MechJeb dV/TwR readouts are affected by gravity cheat...

Redesigning standard probes to better fit into Mk2 cargo bays went much better.

Eclipse Nullam relay satellite has been launched, with inline relay dish mounted on a hinge to uncover twin ion thrusters.

It was then docked to Eclipse Magnum awaiting in orbit for transfer window to Urlum. It will be left behind at Urlum to provide access to planned inner-outer system relay sat constellation.

Its three cargo bays loaded with orbital science boom, half a dozen small relay sats, quintet of generic science satellites, suicide drone for gas giant probing, kerbed ion lander for two moonlets, and a transformable Origami lander for other two heavier moons along with two refills of LOx stuffed in main hull.
With all cargo mounted on hinges amount of RCS/SAS on deployable cargo has been cut to a tenth, and redocking has been greatly simplified.

Due to uncertainties of such long voyage, command+lab module Eclipse Effugium can serve as escape pod worth few thousand km dV worth of Xenon.
Similarly ships primary reactor, Eclipse Ardens, can also be detached be it for safety, replacement, or to serve as a tug drone. Rated for 27 years of continuous low power settings it should lats for duration of mission, but just in case it comes with a big drum of glowing stones and in case of accident Effugium module can take over with its onboard backup reactor.

Reactor module offers ventral docking port, and sponson cargo bays are replaceable to allow for simplified cargo restocking.

With tests and preparations done, for a brief 12 minutes a new star could be seen down from Kerbin...


(all the handy Mk2 parts used for this vessel come from https://spacedock.info/mod/473/Mk2 Stockalike Expansion)

Edited September 15 by PT
mission progress has been made :)

[N_Danger]

We aero-braked around Duna to deliver an end to end test of a new lander. The intention was to pre-position the next lander with a full fuel load and wait for the crew on the next launch window.  To save fuel areo-braking was required.  5 passes dropped the AP to 450 km

Then the landing sequence was tested

As was take off from Duna to orbit

 

[stephensmat]

Anyone know what this is?

 

I've been exploring Duna. (I'll make a mission report post when I've achieved a few goals)

I've also been using the ScanSat mod. It pointed out several anomalies, so once I got a proper rover landed, I went looking.

The first Anomaly was a whole lot smaller than I expected, so I had to do a lot of 'circling'. I was starting to feel decidedly like I was on a wild goose chase, when I finally saw this.

It's the anomaly I was chasing, but I don't know what it is. It's probably a reference to something I don't know.

But, I planted a flag right next to it, and labelled the site as an Anomaly, so if I ever want to come back, it'll be easier to find.

[Kimera Industries]

1 hour ago, stephensmat said:

Anyone know what this is?

That's one of the Duna easter eggs! It's the camera mast of the Curiosity rover, buried in the ground.

[stephensmat]

My Tour of Duna Anomalies Continues. (Spoilers for those who haven't found it yet.)

Spoiler

 

[Tecorian]

So, not today, i have posted this Spacecraft earlier somewhere else.

But, it is a very good reentry vehicle and also able to do landing operations on f. e. Mun or Minmus.

Of course not able, to start from Kerbin.

With working lift in the rear-section, so my Kerbals need no dangerous ladder.

 

Here bunrning for reentry and going into atmosphere.

 

 

Edited September 17 by Tecorian

[capi3101]

I've been playing for a bit and am just now getting the infrastructure set up for permanent colonies on Mun and Minmus. Tourist runs have begun.


KLV Kira docked to space station Munport, with KLV Dax (right) recently departed. Both KLVs were full of tourists; Dax's group just wanted to go into orbit and do flybys, while Kira was prepping for a surface excursion. Both craft succeeded in their respective missions and have since made their way back to space station Kerbinport.

I need to start taking notes again, in case something interesting actually happens. Trying to repeat my earlier feat of getting colonies set up on every celestial body in the Kerbol system except Kerbol and Jool. This time I'm doing it with Snacks installed for just a little bit more of a challenge.

[Qwotty]

What I did the day in KSP1 the day that this was written was recording footage for a KSP YouTube video that will be the start of many, doing things like launching communications satellites and trying to do interstellar travel yet again. It was the type of thing that reminded me of that this game is Kerbal Space Program and not Kerbal Star Program. Those Alcubierre drive warp drive mods are cool and all, but I have yet to see NASA utilize one of those as of writing this, and isn't Kerbal Space Program supposed to be more in-line with NASA than something like Star Trek? 

That type of stuff combined with the star added by Infinite Discoveries messing with solar panels really made me think twice about getting carried away trying to add celestial bodies outside of the Kerbol System that way.
I mean, seriously — solar panels not working because of star mods? That’s a dealbreaker.

It’s one thing to have your ship blow up and then glitch through the fabric of space-time, but to have your solar panels — an often-utilized source of energy — rendered useless? That’s the straw that broke the camel’s back, and it was enough to make me reconsider. Especially knowing that not doing so could be what delays making videos, as it is easy to get lost in the vast expanses of the stars that Infinite Discoveries can give you and the troubles including bugs that can come with that, and trying to work with it became detracting and distracting that particular type of way. Integrating an Alcubierre drive and star systems to navigate to with it into KSP introduces much more complexity and vastly more challenging distances to work with, and in this case, it was too much. 

I remember Kerbal Space Program being this neatly contained solar system playground space sandbox where you could build, launch, and explore without worrying about century-long voyages or malfunctioning warp drives when I was growing up — a game grounded in its own quirky realism, where challenges were centered on the Kerbol system's intricacies. Then came along the interstellar mods capable of turning KSP into a half-playable mess, that of which I spent a lot of time with before realizing the value of not going crazy with Infinite Discoveries adding a bunch of stars that ultimately just end up breaking the game.

That is what I am going to go do for the sake of making videos as well see what I can do about manually adding some stars myself by hand or something like that which don't break the game, and maybe even my own propulsion system mod. 

Creating KSP1 videos is everything that I thought that it would be and more, and Kerbal Space Program's proven to be quite the fitting game for making machinima with. I am hyped as of writing this about being able to start sharing with you and to pilot my debut here. 

It has got me feeling like this:


By the way, on a funny and silly unrelated note, when I tried to add on some writing above with "Rewrite with Copilot", it spat out this when I copied and pasted it in:

"On thes f , a , - (n. for the. boni,, f all [", am I right?

When I say that I have been working on something for all of you, I mean it.
And here is proof:

And here are the stars that I was going to explore:



There are certainly no Kerbal Space Program videos uploaded quite yet as of posting this, but the link to the channel where they will be is here.
Until then, I will be here working on that.

[stephensmat]

That. Was. A. Headache.

My three hour plan became a three day improv. I've never used the Global Construction Mod for anything big before, and I failed to bring a few parts, made a few design mistakes. I thought I had everything sorted and sent in the same transit window. it ended up taking three such orbits to fix my screwups.

Its the Kerbal way. Fly. Fail. Fail better.

But eventually it was done, and I threaded together enough steps and took enough pics to make a Proper Mission Report. In fact, now that I think of it, it's my first Mission Report, rather than just putting a post in this thread. (And yes, Baldwin Base was named for the Character in For All Mankind)

[PT]

Continuing from last time...

DigDug had a lovely encounter with DigDug II, on which supernumerary pilots were shifted around to meet those silly "new station/base with 3 pilots" contracts.
Then they made easy kash by "fixing" rover that only needed its long range antenna to be unfolded.

In background Surveyor made course correction for Sarnus. Just some measly 6  years until probe bombardment can begin...

Having discovered that no one did UX testing on Surface Science deployment before shipping DLC for sales, I have bit the bullet and abandoned all pending contracts for this garbage. Some are still wasting CPU cycles in background, but no more contracts for them will ever be picked.

In meantime a profitable contract has been issued to test Tokamak fusion engine falling onto Mun, which was great moment to start establishing deep space relay network. On the way out of Kerbin new ship stopped by test unit of Eclipse class, to transfer engineer and Goo that was left on launchpad.

Tokamak turned out to be very annoying. Not only using low density LH2, which makes it hard to meet starfleet beauty standards, but by acting as powerplant when not in use it will keep devouring dV if pilot forgets to shut it down after maneuver.
After entering temporary lithobraking course, Seaman burned out to between Jol and Sarnus, ready to seed the system with its hefty load of relay satellites. Four years form now, Kerbol will receive a pearl necklace of relay satellites to connect inner system with gas giants loitering out there in dark.

Similarly to Eclipse Magnum heading out to Urlum, Seaman crew quarters serve as a ion life boat, between full library of old sci-fi shows and two gardens to recycle mystery goo, Galvin should remain sane enough to accomplish his lonely mission and maybe even make it back to Kerbin. Mission budget even had space for autotracking tv dish.

[Qwotty]

I uninstalled all of my mods to create a new mod setup for KSP1 machinima, and posted my first today.
I hope that you enjoy it.
Here it is:

 

[Scarecrow71]

Continuing on with my attempt at a HARD Caveman challenge, I got contracts to test stuff while splashed down.  I misjudged the buoyancy of the probe, and so it starts to sink.  I look directly at it...and realize I can see Kerbol THROUGH THE CENTER OF KERBIN WHILE UNDERWATER.

[RoninFrog]

Just used a RAPIER engine for the first time, haha.  And yep, they're pretty overpowered.

I used it to make a small SSTO which I then used to launch a small science rover to Duna.  I part-clipped an RA-2 and a dumpling into the nose cone, but it's purely for aesthetic purposes to make the rover capsule look more like the Perseverance  rover's capsule.  I didn't need the nose cone for aerodynamics since it was already in a cargo bay.  I forgot to stage off my Duna transfer stage (the two donuts) but it ablated off during Duna entry anyway.

Sorry there's no sound, macOS is finnicky.

 

Edited September 21 by RoninFrog

[Mr. Kerbin]

Dres has the Dres canyon. It is pretty easy to land on, has rings (kind of)... what else is good about it? Nothing really. It has a terrible  SOI size, along with its inclination and eccentric orbit, makes it hard to get to. However, there is a very cool easter egg that nearly no-one talks about. Not even the Dres Appreciation thread.

 

This was a pain to find, even with Kerbnet.  But I did it!

Spoiler

Mind you, I was looking from orbit. It would likely be easier with a rover or lander.

 

[NHunter]

The crewed exploration vessel finally arrived at Janus and got parked in a neat 1500 km equatorial orbit.

The three-Kerbal exploration team then used the usual lander to rendezvous with the interstellar cargo vessel carrying the spaceplane they'll use to land - and more importantly, return back to orbit - on Janus.

Had to do some fiddling to get the plane to actually undock, guess all that cosmic radiation in interstellar space glued docking ports together... Now, the brave trio is ready to start the dangerous and tricky journey to the surface of Janus, that, as a Jool, was believed to be a real gas giant instead of a supermassive terrestrial planet it really is.

[PT]

Continuing from last time...

Modulus III  finally reached Eve and after seeding some satellites, it swung by Gilly.  And I hated every minute spent there.

Afterwards, to celebrate upcoming transfer window to Duna, I sent up new engine/cargo section for Modulus with some "flatpack" mission cargo in disposable Mk2 bays.
Afterburnign Fission engine was picked for this mission, basically a tiny Orion drive with LH2 "wet" mode. ~40k dV at ~0.1 TwR and ~20k at ~1, quite flexible engine.

With a place to gather finally up in orbit, two transformable VTOL landers joined the team. Ion powered Wakizashi and its longer brethren, LOx with Ion "booster" Tachi, are built to provide comfortable surface workplace for scientists while pleasing engineers and sponsors with unnecessary moveable parts.

After science cargo was all loaded a turn came for simple escape craft, Tanto,  in case engine/heat control fail.

And then came test of next version of Eclipse Nullam relay drone,  new tech hidden inside might turn relay constellation Seaman will establish in 4 years obsolete before its deployment even began.

...and a telescope for a good measure.

With all modules locked and loaded, Modulus II  performed swap maneuver.

... and then I discovered that built-in KAC ripoff is a piece of trash with transfer window alarms being off by hundreds of days. Eh.

Well, time for wasteful non-Hohmann transfer. Which would went much better if I'd remember to switch cryotanks to pure LH2, all that unnecessary Ox is digging into TwR

Edited September 22 by PT

[NHunter]

And today yesterday I finally did Janus landing.

The first step is a massive deceleration burn to get the speed down to "safe for reentry" values of ~3.3 km/s. Even notoriously-tough OPT parts can't survive hitting such thick atmosphere at orbital 5.2 km/s. Hell, even at 3.3 km/s I needed to hold prograde to avoid overheating. It was a very tense couple of minutes.

Once the spaceplane is down to safe speeds, flying is actually pretty easy: with atmosphere so thick, pretty much anything with wings can fly. Now, flying *fast* is another matter (and Janus is really big, so getting anywhere interesting even at mach 1 will take ages), as aforementioned thick atmosphere also comes with enormous drag.

Anyhow, I've picked a small patch of land between two lakes as a landing spot, and after successful landing taxied the spaceplane to the shore. There, I did some science and some selfies.

Next, I visited one of Janus's many floating islands.

With all that done, it was time to return to space. Thankfully, the ascent isn't nearly as dangerous when it comes to heat, despite those pretty visual effects turning the spaceplane into a mechanical firebird. Instead, the challenge comes from enormous dV requirements. Even with OPT SURGE engines doing the heavylifting  (aka getting the spaceplane into reasonably-thin upper atmosphere where chemical engines can take over) essentially for free - just have to lug a big heavy nuclear reactor around to power them - I still needed to burn A LOT of fuel on those chemical engines to reach orbit. And stay there.

Once in space, I rendezvous with the cargo ship for refueling.

The next stop is Tau.

[bobcook]

After watching a few videos by VAOS and a few posts here I decided to try building my own SSTO with the mid-size parts. Lots of experimentation led me to a workable design that gets to orbit with more than 600dv remaining. I also managed to fly it back and land at KSC - first time I've managed to do that! Its a great feeling to see KSC appear over the horizon and be able to set down on the runway without crashing. I don't think I'll fly a lot of SSTO missions but I'm really happy I finally made one work.

Spoiler

 

[PT]

Continuing from last time...

I tested built-in transfer window tools against mods. Clock is totally useless, Maneuver Tool mostly works but fails for inclination change and sometimes waste few orbits when bouncing between moons. Ugh. Back to MechJeb it is, then.

With transfer windows now being valid, I sent a quartet of Sunshine ion corvettes into inner Kerbol system. Mission plan is to establish relay nodes, mag sats, ore sats, and drop basic one-way drones on Moho, Blas, Jot, Cind, and their moons. And hopefully span some nice out-of-Kerbin contracts.

Reusing "flatpack" cargo pods Sunshine class can carry three pods of varying length docked from front. Being built for cruise on low solar orbits, standard issue nuclear reactor was relegated to backup duty. Solar cells and radiators are aplenty.

triplet of ion engines up back is spaced for balancing through differential thrust.

Center engine is optional, providing fourth cargo slot at the rear when mission parameters call for more cargo.

With cinders below Moho orbit somehow possessing an atmosphere and capture burn in excess of 7k dV, dragging along an inflatable heat shield seemed prudent.

While Sunshines were being sent one after another, enough time passed for Modulus III to reach its second burn in wasteful non-Hohmann transfer to Dune.
Just before its burn, Modulus got assaulted by wild Kraken but enough cargo survived for it to complete basic mission parameters thus it continues on course. Only space telescope and Dune lander, Tachi, got lost.

Between some Kerbin SOI missions and various correction burns, enough time has passed for fist Sunshine to reach its target.

And then I got reminded that even on hull-melting low solar orbit doing prolonged solar powered ion burn does not work so well in planet shadow...

[Internet_Man]

Unfortunately, today my save was corrupted (and my main PC I use for ksp died tragically after severe HDD death) BUT I'm digging through my backup blu-ray disc collection to find my backed up save from about a week ago. I'm also getting a new computer.