What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Brotoro]

I decided to make a "proof of concept" test of a self-aligning docking port. The port uses "petals" to guide and align the ships as they come together. I don't have nice little parts to work with, so I made my petals out of 1x1 structural plates mounted with cubic struts to a standard size ASAS unit which has the docking port on the front of it.

Below are the two ships. coming together somewhat out of alignment:

Coming closer.... At least one of the ships must have SAS turned off at this point so it can rotate when the plates touch...

Below, the petal plates are bumping along one edge...

...and the magnetism of the ports pulls the ships together. Aligned and docked!

Below is an animated GIF of another test. Sorry for the sudden change of view angle after docking, but you know how KSP is.

Now, these petals are big and ugly, but I assume some modder could make a nice looking port with smaller petals that do the trick.

[capi3101]

Took two tries at getting the superheavy tug into orbit (accidentally switched over to another ship before the orbital insertion burn and missed the window on the first try); success at last. Project Typhon is underway. Going to need to redesign my existing barn burners to accommodate the design (basically just mod them to accommodate the different docking port).

Might have to give that docking port "pedal" design a try. Would be greatly interested to hear if it reduces the craft's tendency to wobble under thrust.

Got my new station docking pier into orbit. Forgot how much thrust I'd put on the detachable maneuvering module though; tried to light the stage at full thrust and the whole thing poofed into non-existence. At least nobody was aboard. Will try again tonight.

I'm thinking about creating a "dockable" lander design...the idea being to create a lander with more fuel and/or thrust depending on the desired target (e.g. a Tylo lander would be waaaaaaaay to powerful to land somewhere like Gilly, so you don't need as many stages obviously). I suppose it'd be just as easy to create a whole family of staged landers...going to have to give this idea more thought.

[zzz]

It was yesterday actually

Made big plane(nothing exceptional) to finally(avoided it previously) try B9 SABREs(even with self restrictions I used - feels too easy)

and made video(can I post it?) of it (tedious, as almost all spaceplane ascend videos, if you not have cup of coffee and some time)

Edited July 2, 2013 by zzz

[Spooks]

And you've made a replica of SR-71 Blackbird Craft file???

Anyways, i had a busy morning Trying to send a MapSat to Duna i've noticed pretty neat alignment of outer planets. It allowed me to send MapSats to Dres, Eeloo and Jool in one go It wasn't easy, because my MapSat launcher is not very stable, and SmartASS tends to flip it immediately - so i had to do 4 manual launches in about an hour. But after some explosive setbacks my probes are on their way, with the one Dres-bound already after course correction burn. Trajectories are not very efficient nor fast, but they'll do. After all this hassle i decided to go with the flow, and launched final probe meant for Duna, despite lack of launch window. It will be one heck of a long coasting, but at least i have it out of my hair and can concentrate on preparing manned missions.

i hope the link works https://www.dropbox.com/s/an6xi51dl5j3vtp/sr%2071.craft

[Spooks]

Spooks, I like that base design... think I'll nick some of the ideas from it

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7t06hl78ixeucr2/Boor.craft

i remade it a bit to you dont need so many mods

and gl you need it

[Vanamonde]

these petals are big and ugly

So attach them to decouplers and eject them after docking. Nice idea, by the way.

[Spamal0t]

Now, these petals are big and ugly, but I assume some modder could make a nice looking port with smaller petals that do the trick.

+1 Kerbal Internets for you. This is beautiful engineering.

[legoheli]

Today I designed a controllable, targetable and soon to be mobile SAM system to set up around my base. I know there are no enemies, but we have decided that this is a valid excuse for range safety as well.

It consists of a launch platform, a solid launch stage and a liquid cruise stage for the missile. It has a range of 15 km, and can reach altitudes of up to 27 km, but due to limitations I would say that radius of engagement is 12 km. After launch, I switch to each missile and control them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rcc2V328h8

It has now been upgraded to have 5 missiles, all launched individually.

[Aragosnat]

Well. I can tell you what I did yestday that I'm quite pleased and happy about. Put up a SSTO space place in orbit around Kerbin with a Ae of 134 km about thanks to the power of doughnutz as you can see in the pic. I even have a little bit left over to try a return attempt or wait for another ship to refuel it.

[Giggleplex777]

I got a VTOLSSTO to orbit and landed it successfully.

[jgjiscool]

I intercepted the Integrated Kerbin Satellite network... at 220m/s.

I also took Bill to the Mun and tried out the new Kethane "Deconstitutor NONOSTOP"... scarred for life I tell you!

[Spooks]

kerb transporter

[kevo]

hi at last managed to land on the mun after numerous times of falling over im sweating after tht concentrating so hard lol

[NGTOne]

I landed this monstrosity on Eve:

Click the image for more information and a full mission log (or at least some pretty pictures).

Edited July 3, 2013 by NGTOne

[arq]

A Jool window was about to open, so I sent a rocket packed with probes and a small fuel tanker off for there.

Though after I got the 2nd ship set up on a transfer orbit (took like 6 periaps kicks to get the dv with the low TWR) I set it to time-accelerate out of Kerbin's SOI only to watch it crater Mun at 3500m/s. Oops. I had to spend an extra 150m/s to add evasive maneuvers to my Jool transfer...

[Tw1]

I intercepted the Integrated Kerbin Satellite network... at 220m/s.

I also took Bill to the Mun and tried out the new Kethane "Deconstitutor NONOSTOP"... scarred for life I tell you!

Yeah.. I deleted that part. Was curious enough to see what it looked like, but I'd never subject my Kerbals to that.

What did I do today?

In KSP? Nothing, as I'm 380km from my computer.

But, IRL, I drove past three planets today and will go past the rest tomorrow.

Well, models of planets. They're part of the world's largest scale model of the (real life) solar system, with the observatory in the center representing the sun. Visiting should be good.

Edit: Coonabarabran is supposed to have New South Wales's clearest and darkest skies. And though it's freezing outside, the stars are amazing right now.

Edited July 3, 2013 by Tw1

[Sufficient Anonymity]

No in-flight photos of this, sadly, as the whole thing was flown in the pitch black of the munar night, including landings (I'll admit there was some mechjeb-based assistance there), but I flew my old munar base over the the fuel station I set up yesterday, then landed a new logistics rover (there was no way I was driving it 600km).

I've also built a tanker/crew change vehicle to shuttle back and forth between LKO and the aforementioned munbase.

[capi3101]

Designed a new lander for my superheavy tug missions. 45 tonnes and made it into a 100k LKO on its own; still trying to work that one out, as the numbers would suggest it only has about 3600 m/s of delta-V in total - and it made it up there with 732 m/s to spare. Asparagus staged; probably has something to do with it. My first asparagus-staged design, incidentally. Stuck it on a Zenith VII booster to see if it could take off, land, take off and land again. Booster got caught on the lower docking port lights; had to rip it off, then failed to re-pack one of the chutes. UVD. Might try again tonight. Still thinking about how I might use this as an upper stage for an Eve lander.

Edited July 3, 2013 by capi3101

[thunderstar]

tested the AIES aerospace pack and landed a kerbal on the mun with a small lander probe included with the lander

[Sufficient Anonymity]

Further progress update for today.

The old munbase was flown north out of physics range to reduce lag, and a light rover was landed by it to explore the nearby canyon. The plan to use the logistics rover in fuel transfers was scrapped, and instead KAS was installed on the fuel shuttle, which has since left testing and carried out its first refuel. It means it has to land closer to the wellhead (so I have to remember to stow the solar panels and drills there each landing) but it reduces overall mission complexity. It does, though, require kerbals to carry out some labour; they are rotated occasionally to compensate.

[Xeldrak]

Played around a bit with alternative Propellants

Turns out - RCS has a terrible ISP

[Tiron]

Played around a bit with alternative Propellants

Turns out - RCS has a terrible ISP

Because it used to be really easy to go to the Mun with just RCS if you did it right.

As for what I did today, I mapped minmus...and then stopped when Harv said 0.21 breaks compatibility.

[regex]

Yesterday I got this started and today I brought up two more fuel tanks and the big communications array, making a total of 12 launches and 11 dockings. I borrowed a lot of styling from other people I've seen because I tend to build unimaginative sausage stations; I'm pretty happy with this so far.

I still have seven more modules planned to bring up but I'm not sure I want to go through with them before the 0.21 update. Besides, after the ASAS fix I might be willing to try bringing up orange/dual grey tanks (the RCS flails around so much during docking because of mass shifts...)

[Giggleplex777]

Testing VTOLs.

[Tiron]