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What did you do in KSP1 today?


Xeldrak

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I decided to send a probe into interplanetary orbit just to get science. I noticed that Duna, coincidentally was in the right spot for and interplanetary transfer. So, I fiddled around for a minute and then got an intercept. I finally got into Duna's SOI, I was way too far off for the more traditional aerobraking method, so I used my engine to slow down from escape velocity, then I lowered my Periapsis for aerobraking into a more circular orbit, when I was aerobraking through the atmosphere i also gathered more science in Duna's upper atmosphere. I eventually gut into a low enough orbit to boost my periapsis back out of the atmosphere.

First (actual) interplanetary mission

First aerobraking on a planet that's not Kerbin.

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A proud day for VAT Aerospace.

Working my way through Career Mode in 0.22 sans Mechjeb, which has been an interesting experience, and one well worth it. I'm getting a much better grip on landing now - particularly killing horizontal speed to get the lander to descend vertically. Still getting the odd close shave - Jeb's landing ended up on its side, but I was able to right the ship with gyros without breaking anything off. Insertion burns are getting much better - better with the initial burn, and learning to adjust early to fine tune approaches.

As my science has progressed I got to the various probe bodies allowing unmanned flights, and used this to develop large lifting bodies and landers. My Williams platform managed to parachute a probe onto Duna, allowing expansion into the bigger engines and development of the Dresden platform which when combined with a larger lander proved capable of landing on both the Mun and Minmus, and then returning home.

The decision was taken to develop the lander into a manned one, with the single Kerbal capsule substituted in, and thus the St Petersburg launcher/manned lander platform was created.

So today, history was made...

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Jebediah was first - he's been the mainstay of the manned program and was rewarded by being first Kerbal on the Mun.

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Bob's unfailing dedication and not complaining about being second to Jeb was rewarded by being first on Minmus.

Both boys were returned home safely for good science returns. Bob's Minmus mission went particularly smoothly - daylight landing was smart (!) and the lakes make for nice targets.

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Experiment with all SRB Nova Punch using their huge 2.5 meter SRB. Extreme acceleration near burnout on both boosters.

Launch;

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Extreme acceleration;

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Compression failure;

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A set of braces from the adapter cone to the second stage SRV fixed the problem. The acceleration reached 14 G at burnout. The probe, launched in the afternoon, is orbiting between Eve and Moho.

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Landed a six-Kerbal expedition above the Mün's arctic circle. Still didn't find any cheese...

Launched said expedition back into Münar orbit, plane-shifted to an equatorial orbit, MOR'd with another lander in orbit, then attempted to send that same crew back down to the surface for a precision landing. That attempt did not go well; fortunately I quicksaved beforehand. I still need to read up on precision landing it seems, though.

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I experimented with the near and future propulsion mod as well as finally trying out procedural fairings. Tried sending a kethane probe to Duna but since I hadn't played around with the mod much things kinda went sideways.

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Liftoff went smoothely.

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Forgot to add an sas and since the probe core had so little torque I just left it off... was perfectly fine up until I separated the boosters then I went a wee bit off course.

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Fairings worked perfectly fine, I rather like those. To its credit the near/future propulsion stuff worked perfectly fine as well though I did vastly underestimate just how fast that thing would burn the hydrogen, I also underestimated how fast it would deplete the batteries, and overestimated the effect of the two huge solar arrays + the reactors ability to keep it charged. Will need to do some tweaking but I think I can work it out.

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I recreated Scott Manley's SSTO aircraft he created in his most recent lesson in aerodynamics video. It ended up being the first SSTO vehicle I've ever gotten into orbit. Hell, it's the first ACFT I've ever gotten off the ground without catastrophe. I even made it around the planet and landed back at KSC! I re-entered a little short so I had to fly home, but still, I feel like I've accomplished something.

Right as I got her into orbit.

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I wish this one was a little more centered, but taking screenshots with my Mac isn't easy. I kept accidentally throttling up.

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Coming back in.

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Here she is, simple yet efficient.

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Finished my station, even stocked it with escape pods. Of course it wasn't until after I had all 6 of them docked with the station and I was sending a few of the kerbals home (I didn't test them before hand) that things went wrong. The first one I accidentally decoupled the fuel tank from the command pod, and then the pod from the station. For some reason I will assume it was the decompression of the airlock the pod started to float away from the station. I started going EVA with my kerbals to another pod for a second try. When I finally got to the last kerbal however I was getting rather bored with making these little treks. I managed to make the third one interesting. I started spinning the pod and then hit EVA, got my timing down and let go. Almost perfect aim (he hit the station about 3m to the right of the pod). Got him inside and moved on home.

So I took care to make sure I had the docking port and decoupled the pod (I realze now my problem is the pods from NP have built in decouplers) It wasn't until I took control of said pod that I realized the only reason the escape pods had RCS fuel when I was docking them was the tug I was using to move them in place... Fortunately using the torque from the pod and a short burst from the engines I can still get them away from the station.

From there things just got worse. Part of the reason they had both engines and RCS was because my station is built in 900k orbit. You can get down using just RCS but it takes forever. Well I set my decent profile but I chose poorly and ended up using all of my fuel. I was however in atmosphere at about 55k however with the speed I was going that dip wasn't going to help much. Made three trips around kerbin before I finally got deep enough in the atmosphere to bleed off all of my speed. On the plus side the landing was remakabely well aimed for a complete disaster, landing just behind a hill to the west of the KSC.

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Today in Australia, was Melbourne Cup day. It was a good race, and I was inspired.

I present: The Kerbin Cup!

The race that stops a space program.

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It was an epic race!

In other news, Joolius Xena finally is around Pol.

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When I land, I will have finally touched every body in the Kerbol system.

Edited by Tw1
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Not so much in KSP ... but pushing things about KSP around in my head.

After browsing some more mods, stalking the forums, watching loads of youtube videos on career mode, starting 4-5 career mode games - I came to the decision that career mode is yet not complete and polished enough for me. I bloated posts with my thoughts on the subject, read with delight that the next patch will contain quite a bit of what I would wish for and will call .22 testing to be over for now.

Back to .22 playing once more! Will start a career mode and hack myself a completed tech tree (because I still like the science gizmos to do something, for reasons), add all my old mods and some of the newer ones and jump back into building and flying!

First stop: Putting things picked up from Scotts new tutorial videos to good use and build a space plane that hopefully fly this time!

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Visited Laythe for the 9000th time. This time packing some science equipment, a mini VTOLSSTO and an interplanetary transfer ring. It's image heavy so I'll spoiler tag it.

Arrival in orbit:

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Docking with the science module and detaching from the ring.

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Entering the atmosphere and landing VTOL style.

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Spending the days transmitting scientific data and gathering surface samples.

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Now it's time to leave...

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We detach the probe onto the surface, so that it may continue to transmit data. It appears to be doing well.

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Rendezvous with the ring and preparing for Joolian departure.

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