What did you do in KSP1 today?

[mrmoo]

On 1/7/2025 at 5:43 PM, Duke MelTdoWn said:

Meltdowns career, day 55-57 continued

Contract: temperature scans on Mun surface. I used a 'Samaritan' rover that was already parked at the surface only 300 km away due north. Also scanned a Mun crater on the way. Messed up first landing attempt and second one was very close call too.

Contract: repair a Rover on Minmus and drive it to destination. Why bother with repairing when 'Sandworm' can just pick it up with its robotic arm? While driving full speed at night on the Flats, I hit a Green Sandstone and had to reload.

Contract: build a base for five and land it on the Mun. I did a launch of a second 'Gege' lander and a 'Runabout' orbital shuttle to MunStation I. Used a Medium Reusable Launcher II again.

Contract: repair a Sat in Kerbin orbit. Of course it is in retrograde orbit, so I needed a dedicated launch. To keep launch costs down, I used a modified 'Gisl' shuttle with external command seat inside a payload fairing so I can do EVA. These designs require a flip maneuver at 40 km before engaging the Nerva 2nd stage hiding under the front cowl. I slightly messed this up and almost did not make it to orbit. Also takes a lot of delta-v to get to the Sat, but I will probably make it back to Kerbin afterwards.

Contract: build a base for five with lab and land it on Minmus. 'Cerulean' base has wide stance and low center of gravity. It will be docked in orbit with MinmusStation to serve as additional lab module after the contract is completed. Launched using a modified Light Reusable Launcher with extra Kickbacks, which might have been overkill.

U use a lot of Mk3 and Mk2 plane parts in ur builds, not a critism just thought it was really cool, always sort of thought that some are for rocket, some are for planes. Might try and do that some time round

[Kimera Industries]

2 hours ago, mrmoo said:

U use a lot of Mk3 and Mk2 plane parts in ur builds, not a critism just thought it was really cool, always sort of thought that some are for rocket, some are for planes. Might try and do that some time round

Yeah, my Minmus Elcano rover uses a Mk 2 inline as the cockpit. It looks pretty sweet.

The mission is linked in my signature if you're into Minmus like me.
I'm currently reinstalling mods a few at a time, in batches. Hopefully, I can catch the troublemaking one this way. So I haven't even played the game yet, only clicked "quit" as soon as I verified it can load, to install the next batch of mods.

[Duke MelTdoWn]

I continued the 'MunAir' research program and was messing around with two stage spaceplanes. Carrying to second stage piggyback like the real life Shuttle Carrier Aircraft does not work out. I had issues with asymmetric thrust.

Warping the first stage around the second works and looks very Kerbal. The idea is to recover both stages separately. MunAir TJ second stage has 2550 m/s left in orbit with 8 passengers.

This concept works somewhat, but the plane is hard to fly. I think I will stick with good old 'Valkyrie' as interplanetary shuttle in career, it costs the same and has more range and TWR.

I also uploaded some designs from the past weeks to Steam workshop.

Base Jump Platform - Jump from 957 meters after chilling in the Sky Lounge. Don't forget your parachute!

'Gler' Sat Launcher - Cheap SSTO to get small satellites into Mun orbit and return to KSC afterwards.

'MunAir' Tourist Transport - This is the 'RE' version. Does not need Rapier. 8 Tourists to orbital Mun station. 

On 1/8/2025 at 11:00 PM, mrmoo said:

U use a lot of Mk3 and Mk2 plane parts in ur builds, not a critism just thought it was really cool, always sort of thought that some are for rocket, some are for planes. Might try and do that some time round

The reason why I use Mk2 and Mk3 parts a lot is because they have a much bigger crash tolerance than rocket fuel tanks. I like to recover my launchers with parachutes, if you land in water under chutes you will have a bad day with Mk1 parts

[Lyra]

4 hours ago, Duke MelTdoWn said:

I continued the 'MunAir' research program and was messing around with two stage spaceplanes

Another fun thing to try might be a twin-fuselage spaceplane with the second stage in the center and wings over the payload, something like the Stratolaunch Systems "Roc" aircraft. I'm actually going to mess around with that right now and report back on how it flies.

[Linkageless]

15 hours ago, Duke MelTdoWn said:

This concept works somewhat, but the plane is hard to fly. I think I will stick with good old 'Valkyrie' as interplanetary shuttle in career, it costs the same and has more range and TWR.

That's a good looking concept!  Reminds me of a much less aesthetically pleasing Mk3 design I did around 2019.  I'd built a Nerva powered interplanetary booster system called DragonFly and wanted to see if I could get one to orbit using a similar wraparound SSTO spaceplane, rather than it's usual vertical SSTO booster.  It worked, but was a pain to land and aside from some fuel savings it wasn't an improvement on vertical launch, so ultimately it didn't get used.

Sadly, I've not been able to find the wraparound spaceplane craft file, but am now feeling inspired to have another go at that concept.

I found piggyback-style with terriers can be made to work if you use SAS prograde and carefully trim their thrust with an independent throttle.  That was for an Eve SSTO spaceplane expedition and advance scanning/relay systems.  In this case, the SSTO was the largest and providing most of the thrust; I can see that where they are roughly equal there's likely to be a lot more instability.

On 1/9/2025 at 12:33 AM, Kimera Industries said:

Yeah, my Minmus Elcano rover uses a Mk 2 inline as the cockpit. It looks pretty sweet.

They do look good for rovers, don't they.  They also offset nicely on top of other stuff when creating huge rovers.

[Duke MelTdoWn]

35 minutes ago, Linkageless said:

That's a good looking concept! 

I found piggyback-style with terriers can be made to work if you use SAS prograde and carefully trim their thrust with an independent throttle.  That was for an Eve SSTO spaceplane expedition and advance scanning/relay systems.  In this case, the SSTO was the largest and providing most of the thrust; I can see that where they are roughly equal there's likely to be a lot more instability.

Thanks! I am more of a "form follows function" kind of guy, that is why most of my landers look quite cobbled together. But this one came out quite nice.

Yes, the problem I had was that because both stages are about the same size, the center of mass was quite high above the center of thrust. I tried to angle the rapiers in the lower stage towards the COM , but that was not enough. 

I guess I could grab an AN-225 Mriya model from someone

Also, while sorting old screenshots I found that I had solved this piggyback thing about a year ago already. I built a carrier for Valkyrie. In this case I moved the Rapiers up so they are in line with the second stage. But all this is much more complicated and expensive than expending a single Thoroughbred booster.

[Eclipse 32]

what mod adds the "Gateway" supermodified gas giant with the world-ocean and the big floating crystals?

[Mr. Kerbin]

1 minute ago, Eclipse 32 said:

what mod adds the "Gateway" supermodified gas giant with the world-ocean and the big floating crystals?

I think Beyond Home.

[FTLparachute]

1 hour ago, Duke MelTdoWn said:

I guess I could grab an AN-225 Mriya model from someone

Forum Text Disambiguation presents the Ascending Node - 225 Myria

[Eclipse 32]

19 minutes ago, Mr. Kerbin said:

I think Beyond Home.

dammit. i've attempted to install that a few times, and it will not download, since one of the critical support mods will not cooperate.

i'm probably gonna try to install it with no other mods,  and if it works, then download the other mods i need.

[RedAl1en1]

if you succesfully download it can you tell me how ive been having the same problems XD

[Eclipse 32]

21 minutes ago, RedAl1en1 said:

if you succesfully download it can you tell me how ive been having the same problems XD

it appears to be an issue with Parallax. it's saying that the site is not responding properly. 

aand i found out why. it's attempting to download it from the spacedock page for it. the one that doesn't exist.

ima go yell at the manager.

does anyone know how to tell CKAN to download a mod from a different site than the one it's trying to?

[Duke MelTdoWn]

The quest for weird space planes continues!
I replaced the Mk0 tanks with wing strakes, now this connection creates lift instead of drag. Does look ugly, but form follows function, right?
Used Nerva in 2nd stage instead of Terrier for more range. I had to add some side LF tanks which make it even ungainlier.
With Nerva I only need oxidizer from 23km to 35km altitude (and to return first stage).
So I filled the unused OX capacity in the 2nd stage and saved 2 FL-T400 tanks in the first.
The whole thing and 1st stage on its own fly surprisingly well.
2nd stage likes to flip retrograde on reentry

'JoolAir'
2x Rapier, 1x Nerva
Launch mass: 38.4 tons (without passengers)
Price: 73,610
Delta-V: 5027 m/s in 2nd stage (with 8 passengers); 1st stage can insert 2nd into 75x75 Kerbin orbit
TWR: 0.30 in Low Kerbin Orbit (with 8 passengers)

 

[FTLparachute]

Today I got a rocket in very low Jool orbit. And, presuming the poll I did stays the same...

Tomorrow, I make this a reality.

[Duke MelTdoWn]

Career day 57 - 58
Soldiering on slaying those contracts!

'Sandworm' Exploration Rover - relocated to Lowlands to scan Olivine Formation for a contract.

'Cerulean' Base - Minmus transfer burn completed.

'Pannychis' Gilly Stack - Starting to leave for Eve. Split burn 1 completed. 
Split burn tutorial I followed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12xKgSoKwlI&t=107s
Launch Window calculator by alexmoon: https://alexmoon.github.io/ksp/

'Munair' Shuttle - Undocked from MunStation II and will transfer 8 crew to Minmus to gain XP.

'Teardrop II' Shuttle - docked at MunStation II with the crew it picked up from Pannychis.

MunStation II - started to decommission MunMiner II by moving solar panels and fuel cells over to the Station.

'Gege II' Miner + 'Runabout' Orbital Shuttle - Arrived in Mun orbit and set up rendezvous with MunStation I.

'Naga' Sat Repair - Arrived at target Sat, but Derald is out of skill and out of fuel.

I started to design 'Naga II' as rescue mission and practice retrograde orbit insertion. These designs (derived from 'Gisl') rely on a flip maneuver at ~ 45 km, the Nerva engine is under the front cowl. I found that it is very important to fly a steep ascend profile (20° from 15 km to 40 km) so there is enough time to execute the flip successfully.

I have a question: what is a good altitude to aim for to aerocapture Pannychis at Eve? Weighs in at 130 tons.

Edited Sunday at 02:52 PM by Duke MelTdoWn

[Fraktal]

Daily fail: after setting up survey equipment on the Mun, I tried to have my scientist let go of the ladder he was on in order to jetpack to the command module hatch so that we can go home.

I ended up staging off the lander's engine instead because the cursed "previous/next craft" button switched from the survey equipment to the lander instead of the kerbal.

[Lyra]

I made what's probably the most beautiful-looking SSTO I have ever constructed so far.

Unfortunately it flies terribly (runway-fling takeoff and that big arch of wings likes to make it roll like mad, plus the long fairing will sometimes bend out of place while under high aerodynamic stress) and isn't very practical beyond "can get 3000 dv in LKO with 40 passengers, I guess". I might make an improved version with more range, capabilities, and stability soon and post it on KerbalX.

[FTLparachute]

On 1/12/2025 at 12:10 AM, FTLparachute said:

Today I got a rocket in very low Jool orbit. And, presuming the poll I did stays the same...

Tomorrow, I make this a reality.

Yeah, this was sorta a scrub. full brief in mission reports tl:dr - couldn't fly, so had to do some aerobatics to get back to jool orbit.

[Kimera Industries]

I think I have all the mods I need now. I caught the culprit- the butler did it! (And by butler I mean Final Frontiers.) Shame about not having that mod, but the game loads now! I think I will now try to actually play the game.

[N_Danger]

I have been having issues with every game I started (computer turned off at the power switch because it locked up in the VAB screen issues) recently and finally after much mod trouble shooting , I started a game using Simplex Kebalism as the main driver for play.

 The main Goal will be a manned, self sustaining, base at Duna.  

The first orbital sat

   

 

[AlamoVampire]

Still have not found the courage to resume my main save so still faffing about in my recent test save that i started to see if procedural fairings worked and what not. Been dealing with imposter syndrome and feeling like im being judged. In an offline single player game. Fun times  but im also doing some muscle memory stuff. Go to mun, capture an asteroid, build a small commnet. Stuff like that. Nothing big, but my first mun landing since my return made me smile. Ive missed this. 
002301132025

[Duke MelTdoWn]

14 hours ago, Lyra said:

I made what's probably the most beautiful-looking SSTO I have ever constructed so far.

Looks awesome, reminds me of the Naboo ships in the Star Wars prequels.

[Cavscout74]

After talking with a coworker who just discovered KSP, I decided to fire it back up after a long break.  Picked up a 1.12 hard career where I left off. 

Had the tech to build a basic spaceplane

Kerbal Launch Failure mod reminded me it was still working with a radial decoupler failure seconds after launch.  Still managed to make orbit though

Testing a jet powered drone for Laythe exploration

Had my Eve Dust Sample Return mission finally get home too

And most recently sent off the first manned Duna mission of this career:

Crew transport arriving.  Jeb & company did a quick orbit of Ike before coming back to dock with a science station & wait for the crew lander.

Successful landing of my Duna outpost

Bringing in the Duna Rover to land

[Eclipse 32]

question for the mods: where would a "the complete history of Kerbal Space Program and the KSP forums" go?

[Lyra]

8 hours ago, Duke MelTdoWn said:

Looks awesome, reminds me of the Naboo ships in the Star Wars prequels.

I can totally see that resemblance :3

I took a little inspiration from the prequel/clone wars hyperdrive rings for the big arch as well