What did you do in KSP1 today?

[space_otter]

I got bored of my heavily modded career - It took half an hour to load, and then ran with dismal performance. So, I decided to uninstall almost all of my mods (I kept restock and a few visual mods), and attempt some challenges that I haven't done before. My first attempt at a Jool V was a failure, I couldn't be bothered to design a laythe lander and I only made vall and tylo... So I scrapped that mission and attempted a new one, this time a proper Jool 5. so far I have built the ship and launched it into Kerbin orbit:

 https://i.imgur.com/2oHQilQ.jpeg

Edited October 30 by space_otter
Oh no I started a new page

[Meecrob]

I tried to go to space...
 

 

[N_Danger]

Drove around testing a rover

[miklkit]

Delivered a new rover to Duna.  Now working on getting the crews home.

[KerbalOnKerbin]

I sent a probe out to Eve for communications reasons and also prepared another relay segment...

Oh, and got some gorgeous screenies!

(Sorry for having to make you click a link, I don't know how to embed things with images.)

 

https://imgur.com/a/ksp-images-NdU7Fyp

[N_Danger]

I sent my rover to Duna

There was an anomaly

[Vanamonde]

1 hour ago, N_Danger said:

There was an anomaly

Close enough. 

[NHunter]

Did Lond landing.

And with this, the only place left for my kerbals to visit is Verna.

[RocketPilot573]

Rescue mission 

[Alpha_star]

The reentry effects mod by MirageDev is just awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40GlhlkMYJk

[RoninFrog]

Went biking.

No reaction wheels, steers like an actual bike.  It also weighs 278 kilograms and consumes only 0.05 EC/s.

 

[Kimera Industries]

After the recent forums incident made me reevaluate my priorities for KSP, and since I've been learning a ton about missions to the outer planets (Cassini is now my favorite spacecraft, and Saturn my favorite planet, for partially unrelated reasons) in any new saves I will place a much higher priority on unkerbaled exploration, with missions like Pioneer and Voyager. 

[Scarecrow71]

18 minutes ago, Kimera Industries said:

After the recent forums incident made me reevaluate my priorities for KSP, and since I've been learning a ton about missions to the outer planets (Cassini is now my favorite spacecraft, and Saturn my favorite planet, for partially unrelated reasons) in any new saves I will place a much higher priority on unkerbaled exploration, with missions like Pioneer and Voyager. 

I need to do this as well.  And I need to remind myself that sounding rockets and one-way satellite trips are not the death of a space program; not all launches are going to return science points.

[Kimera Industries]

54 minutes ago, Scarecrow71 said:

I need to do this as well.  And I need to remind myself that sounding rockets and one-way satellite trips are not the death of a space program; not all launches are going to return science points.

Amen to that. I got myself into the mindset that each mission had to spectacularly outdo the last. My first and so far only Jool mission was a Jool 5. That's a wee bit overkill.

[kurgut]

On 11/6/2024 at 4:35 AM, RoninFrog said:

No reaction wheels, steers like an actual bike

That's sick

On 11/6/2024 at 4:35 AM, RoninFrog said:

and consumes only 0.05 EC/s.

That'd be the most ecological and efficient means of transportation on Kerbin then ^^
 

On 11/7/2024 at 4:30 AM, Kimera Industries said:

I will place a much higher priority on unkerbaled exploration, with missions like Pioneer and Voyager. 

Also, the joy of designing cool looking probes during hours is a blast, I love it : )

So, it's been a while, happy to see this thread so active, life has been busy for me, and I can finally enjoy some bits of KSP modding and playing time !

Speaking of probes, first probes that will be sent to explore Minmus in my IVA only career :

Not shown here, but the tiny lander will be attached on top of the orbiter

Cheers !

Edited November 8 by kurgut

[NHunter]

Completed the transfer of the kerbal'ed exploration ship from Janus/Lond to Verna. Since I still have a lot of dV to burn on that FFT engine, I didn't bother with efficiency and instead just burned for Verna for a near brachistochrone transfer. Thus, the transit took only 130 days instead of what might've been years.

And I've once again miscalculated the arrival times of the relays and the mapping satellite, so they got to Verna whole two days after the crewed ship. And I'll need to wait a little bit longer still before I have a good enough map of the planet for a nice safe landing.

[N_Danger]

Once more with feeling, A rover was launched to Duna

Spoiler

Booster Separation

 

Second stage ignition

Fairing Separation

Transfer burn

And coasting to Duna

Arrival

Spoiler

Separation of the transfer stage before entry

Entry heating 

Drogue chute deployment

 

Heat shield separation and wheel deploy

Engine start and then decent speed adjusted to 20 m/s for final approach

Touchdown and Sky Crane fly away (no crash this time!)

And the rover waits until dawn  to set out after charging up

 

[Lisias]

So... It's near Seasons again, and I'm recovering from a somewhat daring breakdown, and then I though "damn, it's time to do something fun for a change, or my next post will be on asylum...".

So I started to plan a new Career on KSP. A Caveman style career, I will set up a goal and I will try to accomplish it with the lowest tech possible. And with good economics, for a good measure, the cheapest as possible as long I don't kill Kerbals - and some redundancy on the crafts, of course, as sheet happens.

But I'm not a masochist neither, so some mods will be used. Making History (and Missing History!), TweakScale for fuel tanks, batteries, structures. wings and gears, MechJeb2 for launches and transfers. And did I mentioned I'll will use KSP 1.4.3? (still looking for a Canadarm ).

And I decided the goal will be a space station on LKO, at 120KM high. This thing will have 2 labs, a bunch of crew dependencies for scientists, operational crew, some tourists (space tourism!) and also as a stopgap transfer point for another station on Mün. Let's call it SkyLab, for fond memories from my childhood.

Due economics, the program need to be the most cost efficient as possible - but not cheap. So I need to measure cost/benefits of unlocking science nodes, as I want to run the Station as soon as possible even if by using lower tech.

So, the first requirement is cost efficient crew and cargo vehicles. So kiss baby byebye Space Shuttle.

This is what I came as a Crew Rotation Vehicle:

• MK1 Drone Core
  • With a so small crew capacity, I can't spare a seat for a pilot on every mission!
• 3 Crew
• 3 Cheap Puff engines
• 3 RCS Trusters
• 2 Batteries and 2 Solar Panels
  • Since this thing is going to be stationed on the station (pun not intended!) for a long time, it's convenient to be useful and serve as a backup system for power.
• Heat Shield
• Shielded Clamp-O-Tron
  • Cheaper than an ordinary Clamp-O-Tron attached to a Nose Cone.

It ended up being a bit overkill, with a full tank it's able to reach the Mün and go back, but any extra propellant can be used to refill the station's reserves, helping savings on refuel missions.

The launch vehicle ended up coming to this, as I was trying to use the cheaper and lowest tech as possible, as I intend to reach a sustainable station as soon as possible - i.e., with the lowest investment on R&D as possible:

However, all crafts are disposable. At the end of a mission, this is all I can get back:

Costing 13,280F (full tanks), or 31,606F (full stack) only about 6,650F is recoverable (assuming you splashdown on KSC shores!).

So each seat will cost me, at very best, (31,606 - 6,650) / 3 = ~8,318.66F .

Wondering if I could save some pennies by investing a bit more on R&D, I ended up getting inspiration on the Dream Chaser!

But, by the Krakens, I just could not managed to shove this thing on the top of a low tech, light and cheap Launcher Vehicle as it's done with Dream Chaser! So I ended up coming to this:

I will save you from the gory details, but launching this thing is a nightmare. A real nightmare. I posted the details on my blog here.

But since this thing will land back on KSC, I will recover the full price of the vehicle (less consumables):

So, we have a cost per set at (47,769F - 23,074F) / 6 = ~4,115.83F.

Less than half, not bad! Once I have the SkyLab operational, unlocking the MK2 and the Big-S Delta Wing will be a priority!

With a service bay, this little bird can reach Mün and come back, but this will raise the seat toll a bit - she just can't land with a bay attached, so it will be disposable.

Full details and craft downloads here.

 

Edited November 14 by Lisias
Updating links after site's refactoring,

[JeDoesStuff]

This isn't today, but I didn't realize the forums were back up so ig its fair game lol https://youtu.be/osRjfheAwwA?si=CG3Qspwj3c7PS-HP

[OrdinaryKerman]

Launched a 5 meter diameter station

mostly just aesthetic because I had to follow my 10 year old brother's sketch, doesn't have any fuel supply but does have a fish farm

Powerplant is an MX-1 Garnet fission reactor, propulsion is 2 fore/aft Far Future Tech large arcjet RCS and 8 small arcjet quads,  attitude control is by 4 International Space Station CMGs mounted above the (supposed) shadow shield

then docked a vertical launch SSTO to it (currently expendable, might be convertible into a reusable vehicle in future

catchup

rendezvous (brightness boosted 4x)

maneuvering to starboard docking adapter

ready for lunge

hard dock

centrifuge deploy

Quote

bunch of photos:

 

Edited November 13 by OrdinaryKerman

[Lisias]

I'm getting back to my senses and, so, the Kerbal that lives in me decided it's time to salute the Kerbal that lives you.

The premise is simple: what we can do about with this Dream Chase alike thingy to attend the (currently planned) Mün Station in the most cost/effective (and safe because... Tourism!) way possible?

 Well, looking again into the inspiring project I found the Shooting Star attachable service bay! Couldn't be more Kerbal!

Spoiler

Kerbals just wanna get fun, after all.

First things first: an attachable, disposable service bay to allow the LKO Shuttle to reach the Mün, rendezvous with a Station and go back - ideally without refueling, as fuel would be a very expensive resource there until I manage to establish a ore refinery on Mün.

And I came to this, it was pretty straightforward to tell the true:

Not bad, and costing only 26,109F (with consumables, only 2,185F more than LKO) and (assuming landing on KCS with fully depleted consumables), 25,292F on recovery. And I won't even need to ditch the service bay, with a bit of fuel on the nose, she managed to land with it attached!

Problem. Besides being able to reach and dock to the (planed) Mün Station and getting back, there's no hope for a circularisation on LKO before a reentry, and you will need to rely on aero-braking for that, i.e., kiss sweet tourists money bye-bye on this configuration, the KSC Tourism Department will never approve such maneuvre with civilians aboard.

So Tourism will demand in-situ refuelling, what may reveal itself too much expensive until I manage to establish a Münar ore refinery - but, until there, at least I will be able to cheaply rotate crew there.

Or not...

Boy, I got screwed by this one. I tried to reuse the LKO Launcher that, besides tricky to fly, worked. But couldn't - no matter what I do, the damned thing always ended up needing:

• Moar trust;
• Moar boosters, but then the thing loses control due that damned Shuttle's wings and I have to throttle down the engines, increasing the fuel consuption due the gravity toll;
• Moar engines, but then I need even moar fuel;
• Moar trust again, or she will not leave the ground;
• Rinse, repeat, get MOAR screwed again.

Apparently I managed to hit a very finickle and unstable sweet spot for the Orbital Crew Vehicle, and utterly failed to find another one for the Münar variant.

Getting fed up of processes and cyber-safety and compliance and what else (don't ask!! ), I concluded that it was time to let Jebediah Kerman meddle into the R&D facilities to let him give to the engineering team his insights about the problem: to pursue the possibility of making my LKO Crew Shuttle reach the (planed) Mün Station and get back - in a cost/effective and safe way. Of the most it can be done when Jeb is involved...

What could possibly go wrong, right?

And then Jeb saw this on Youtube (Kistler Fully Reusable Launch Vehicle):

And then Jeb did this on R&D:

And... The damned thing works.

However, as it's usual On the Kerbal Way™, the price tag is a bit eye watering, 70,138F, giving us a cost per seat of (70,138F - 25,292F) / 6 = ~7,474.34F .

Ok, still less than the cost per seat from the SkyLab Crew Rotation Vehicle, but yet...

Full details and craft downloads here.

Edited November 15 by Lisias
Moev on, no tyops to see ehre!

[RoninFrog]

 

[magnemoe]

Finally back in KSP after an long break. 

First part getting the science went as planned but a bit short on funds because not that favorable contracts. 
And out of practice, 4 crafts to Minmus and only one had enough fuel to land or return  
First was an rescue mission for 3 kerbals in Minmus orbit. picked up the two in low orbit first then the high one, did not notice it was retrograde until well trough the burn and was left with 120 dV. 
Luckily I was about to send my mobile Munbase to Minmus to assist building the Minmus base and had just launched an passenger ship and first module for the Minmus base. 
Both of then did not have enough fuel to land safely but I moved fuel from the ship to base module so it could land next to the Mun base. 

Later after extracting fuel I could return to Minmus obit and refuel the passenger ship.

Worse it looks like the base module bugged out, because of ore and other resources I can not build on the flats and has some jumping on loading the base who broke it.

[N_Danger]

Time for the just landed rover to pull over and camp

On the next days journey a sand dune is scanned...

followed by a blueberry patch.

After visiting the lowlands and midlands we are heading to the highlands and later to some craters. 

Caught air and flipped then exploded.  (Remember everyone. Speed kills)

[Kimera Industries]

4 hours ago, N_Danger said:

What mod is that biome map?