What did you do in KSP1 today?

[TheDeorbiter]

I went to Duna today I did use infinite fuel to do so, I still need to work on how not to waste a lot of fuel, but once I do so, I will do missions, without cheating obviously

[okoshima]

sent a probe to gilly, got scared by the lack of gravity then took it to eve on its landing stage, also attempted a space station only to have it taken out by the only piece of debris in the game (I'm ocd about cleaning up) oh and crash tested my rover. all in all a fun day

[Liowen]

I went to Duna today I did use infinite fuel to do so, I still need to work on how not to waste a lot of fuel, but once I do so, I will do missions, without cheating obviously

You know I have never learned how to turn on infinite fuel or gravity hacking. I honestly thought using mechjeb to help me learn how to time interstellar missions was a bad thing, but using a fuel hack is worse LOL. Congrats on the Duna run, I have been to Duna, both with mechjeb helping me get the right burns and by hand, but have not landed there yet.

[Sticklyman]

I'm working on sending a 1.25m lander to Duna and back. I spent a few hours just trying to get the lander to work right, and then getting it and the command section into space. Every time I tried launching the two together, catastrophic disassembly ensued. Here's a shot of the two parts just after docking. I flubbed my first attempt at setting up a Duna encounter (wasted a few tons of fuel) so I reverted and will try again after the holiday.

[tygoo7]

I successfully downloaded an update from the future and explored a new planet.

-snip-

What mod is that? That doesn't look like planet factory?

[quasarrgames]

I successfully downloaded an update from the future and explored a new planet.

hmm... either photoshopped neptune, or universe replacer.

[turkwinif]

I landed on Dres for the first time ever! It has a small SOI though, made it tough to get an intercept.

[Travisfv]

My first multi ship transfer to another planet. I sent a small fuel carrier to Duna four days before I sent my team. Just after it arrived, I got it in a nice high orbit and switched to the team, and then got them settled in. The mission was only to gather a quick bit of science and test my ability to have that coordination. Seriously, they dipped into Duna's atmosphere for an aerobrake to get some samples while burning through the sky, and then went right into orbit to meet the fuel carrier. Refueled and like 60 days later left for Kerbin.

I really wanted to orbit Ike and get some EVA reports from it, but I only has 2000 D/V left over and I really didn't want to lose any Kerbals. Havent lost anyone in .22 yet.

[User Unrelated]

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/59871-UU-Space-Program-%28will-update-with-new-missions%29?p=807675#post807675

[Tw1]

Threw a whole bunch of stuff at Minmus.

And Mun as Well.

Most of it is still in orbit, but did land some.

Wackjob tribute perhaps?

Danble was just lying around when the launchpad arrived.

But then, he spotted an opportunity to reprise his most famous photo. Sort of.

()

And after that, he discovered the mechjeb trampoline.

Edited November 28, 2013 by Tw1

[Liowen]

Well since it is 2:30 am In Michigan and I am still up I took my Duna Lander and tug into orbit, but my impatiences got the better of me and below you will see the orbit I have and the bad choice I made at the end of it. I am off to bed after posting this I need it.

I nearly made a run to Drees

I am going to leave it running while I sleep without time acceleration going so I can finish after some rest. Even though this is a test and does not count to my official landing by in my eyes.

Edited November 28, 2013 by Liowen

[gslarmour]

Been fooling around with an LKO station. When it was launched, no one was paying attention, and Bob crawled into the cupola module for a nap. After a couple days, we realized he was missing. Sent up a small rocket with an empty capsule for him to ride home in. Rendezvous was a little hairy because he was dehydrated and burned through nearly all the monoprop. Jeb took remote control of the station to align it with the capsule, then Bob transferred over and he was able to land about 40km from KSC.

[MonkeyFuzz]

Last night I made my first manned landing on Duna via a craft dubbed the "Duna Visitor". I had visited Duna several times before with ISA mapsats and other probes both orbiting and landing. I'd even had an orbiter/return ship visit both Duna and Ike in 0.22, bringing back much Science.

Launch was a simple affair, utilizing an upgraded Apollo-style launcher, capable of putting 72+ tons into LKO. Planetary transfer went smoothly as well, needing only one or two course corrections, and arriving at Duna after about 66 days. Airbraking is always the most hair-raising experience, especially on foreign bodies where I'm less familiar with the altitudes necessary for sufficient friction. Dropping down to 11km over Duna is a surreal experience since doing that on any other body with an atmosphere would mean certain capture.

A 45x45km orbit was achieved after a half-dozen passes. The lander module successfully decoupled from the interplanetary section and began its descent. I aimed for a landing in the lowlands, knowing that my crew would need as much atmosphere as possible to not be forced to depend on their chemical engines completely for landing. It's unnerving how low a ship gets before slowing to below 100m/s, even under 13 parachutes. Landing was achieved with a moderate use of fuel, bringing the crew to rest on a slight slope.

Experiments were run, soil samples collected, and a lovely hexagonal flag planted at the site. The greatest mission glitch would prove to be the failure of the rover to disengage from the underside of the lander. It would mean the ship would drag an extra 1.3 tons of mass back to orbit and the crew's ability to explore the area was limited.

After a few hours on the surface and having completed their mission objectives, I elected to bring them back to orbit. The diciest stage was now to be tested, to see if the lander had enough fuel to return to orbit. The crew of Duna Visitor launched eastwards, tracking to follow the orbit of the awaiting interplanetary stage. Not only did the lander prove to have enough fuel, but through some inept handling, I failed to gravity turn at the appropriate time and put them into a trajectory with an apoapsis of 80km. Some maneuvering high above Duna placed them into an 80x42km orbit and further adjustments achieved a circularized 42km orbit, allowing them to play catchup with their target. Several days of chasing were needed to rendezvous, but the lander successfully met the interplanetary stage. Once within 60m, I decoupled the lander's main fuel tanks, landing legs, and engines, leaving the forward section equipped with the 3-man capsule, experiment modules, flight computer, and RCS fuel and thrusters. Docking backwards, to rejoin this forward module to the interplanetary stage, is an awkward experience, even after changing control perspective to that of the rear docking port. While the controls act appropriately to how they should be for that perspective, my own mind didn't handle it well. After a few minutes of thrusting, the ships were reunited and the most dangerous parts of the mission concluded. The interplanetary stage still carried ~2/3 of its launch fuel, more than enough to return to Kerbin.

The crew remained in Duna orbit for several more weeks awaiting the departure window. The flight home was nearly uneventful with only a significant course correction of ~700m/s required to ensure entry into Kerbin's atmosphere.

Their triumphant return from Duna heralded a leap in Science of 1500 points and a major milestone in my own efforts in space travel. Next up on my agenda for my KSP: manned landing and return from Gilly with a pass through Eve's atmosphere to allow data collection.

(Unfortunately this computer doesn't have any of my mission screenshots.)

[Geschosskopf]

So I'm not the only one to send hordes of ships instead of a single mothership. That looks a hell of a lot better organized then my blob of ships here though.

It's the only way to fly . Especially for Jool. There's no sense in hauling everything around between all the moons. Just send the moon-specific stuff where it needs to be instead.

[FlamedSteak]

I clenched my buttocks for the first of two most important aerobrakes for this mission.

I've never done a direct Laythe intercept before....so this was nerve racking.

[KerbMav]

Tried a plane design - but I was never really good at it.

Noticed that KSC is sitting on almost half a million units Kethane - build a havester/truck and send it back for redesigning some parts, but concepts were proven here.

Shifted my Kerbin mapping satellite to hopefully finish the last specks on the poles. Turned off mapping for Mun as it is finished 100% - low resolution only, but that will do just fine.

Used some of my already spaceborn probes to leach science.

Launched a mapping and scanning probe to Minmus - while waiting for the burn in LKO I leeched some more science. And on my way to Minmus while still high over Kerbin I noticed, that I could biome specific gravity readings from low AND high orbits, more science even.

And lastly, I followed a piece of debris into the atmosphere so it could finally vanish.

Next: Probe assembly due in 2d for Duna and Ion probe about to start its voyage beginning at Eeloo.

[ToteBaggs]

I made something fun, after going through some of Scott's Stuff involving the "rod from god" mod, I thought of something probably just as brilliant.

Z.O.D.D.

Zed Operated Deployment Doohickey (Zeus Weapons platform)

in order to build my design here at minimum, you'll need:

procedural fairings and Damned/infernal Robotics mods.

Ship External at launch pad With instructions

Internal construction (Had a hard time connecting the girder segment to the bottom of the rotatron)

My first time in building and testing I'd tried to put one rota-tron on each end of the girder segment but being a fixed placement with the structural fairing made the Ship want to twist and wrench itself, aka: bad idea, then i remembered there was a free spinning un-motorized rotation coupler available as well, slapping that on the bottom of the girder, I was able to make the interior a proper revolver chamber

I had set the 4th fairing to high velocity ejection for the demonstration so it would not interfere with the mechanism. as you'll see below.

After that it was just a matter of programming the Motors and staging correctly.

Adjusting the Elevated Hinge Joint to a 90* angle from the ships perceived trajectory

And at 90*

Projectile is released

Reload chamber with new round/rod

I can assume that, using the actual rods you'd have to lengthen the revolver barrel body to hold them, On top of useing likely higher power consuming motors to keep them in check during launch Sadly my original idea was to stack 3-4 small decoupling collars at once / stack separators to give the ammunition the gentile push out of the chamber it needed to get going however the stack separator itself would not connect with the elevated hinge, OR the radial decouples, but i think it's a fair trade to let it go unless someone can think of a way to do it, I'd love to see,

Now,, I know a few questions on this may get asked, like

How do you keep the cockpit form rotating and throwing off your aim on the horizon?

The answer is actually just using 3 structural type fairings, instead of girders and beams on the outside of the body. Which would cause more drag during lift off and atmospheric flight (plus it looks terrible anyway a smoother sleek surface gives it panash)

how do you keep the ship form rotating when you use to rotatron to reload the ammo?

I suppose add a Higher rated SAS module and turn it on, theoretically by using Higher SAS you can negate the effects of internal inertia form the revolver's chambering process.

beyond these questions, i suppose it's all theoretical but the proof of concept is there, and it does function, on ground level at least,

I suppose the next idea i should have would be to find a way to couple probes/Rovers to this launcher and have them piggy back to various planetary bodies for kethane and sat map scanning.

I'd love to see what you guys can come up with on this one, Might be fun. :3

[Aragosnat]

Played around with the concept of Ion Drive Escape pods. Found out I need to add landing gears if I want to keep the engine. Also started trign to do multpiple missions at once and not just leave them in orbit while I wait to get one done. Re adjusted my Mün lander made it not as top heavy. Still need a better place for the landing gears. My Kerbals took this picture of the Mün on fire either from crash landing into Kerbin or from the many crashes uopn it.

[Landwalker]

Wrote up a spreadsheet to calculate how many instances of any given experiment at any given location (celestial body, height above said body) one needs to conduct in order to "harvest" a user-provided percentage of the maximum total science for that particular combination.

E.g. If I'm doing temperature scans and want to extract 95% of the "cap" for that experiment in each location, I need to perform (and transmit) it 5 times. On the surface of Kerbin, that will give me approximately 3.8 science, and leave 0.2 science uncollected. On the surface of the Mun, however, it'll be ten times that (38 science collected and 2 science uncollected) for the same five transmissions.

It really underscores just how abominable the transmission efficiency of the Science Jr. materials study is. 20% already seems bad, but when you realize that you have to perform it twenty times in order to collect 95% of the possible science...

[Major "zubb" Tom]

I finaly got my second rover to the Mun today, the first one looked like a box with six wheels.

5 wheels after I landed.

EDIT: Its name is "Rovey".

[goldenpeach]

I have used KAS to make a debris de-orbitor craft.

I used it to deorbit a debris(a vestige of my firsts manned mun mission in career(it was in a very eccentric orbit(the result of staging during the mun transfer burn)).

Unfortunatly, the connection between the de-orbitor and the debris break during time-warp(due to the plugin): I had to redock in order to do the deorbit burn at apoapsis.

[FlamedSteak]

I finaly got my second rover to the Mun today, the first one looked like a box with six wheels.

5 wheels after I landed.

EDIT: Its name is "Rovey".

Does.......does that even work?

Either way you win the internet prize today for some serious lateral thinking.

[Monkeh]

Got my, 'round and toroidal tank only', Duna return mission craft all the way to Duna, only to be foiled by an upside down girder! Full mission report incoming.

So gutted

Edited November 29, 2013 by Monkeh

[Liowen]

Today I got to Duna, and decided to go for a landing even though I was tired. My landing sites have been terrible choices, in fact Minmus is my only flat ground landing. Pictures below!

I know many have done this many times over, but for me this is my first and I have only been playing limited amount for a month.

[Deadweasel]

Today I got to Duna, and decided to go for a landing even though I was tired. My landing sites have been terrible choices, in fact Minmus is my only flat ground landing. Pictures below!

*snip*

I know many have done this many times over, but for me this is my first and I have only been playing limited amount for a month.

Hey, this ain't a popularity contest (at least in this thread)! It's "What did you do in KSP today?"

Sure, others might have done it, but that's no reason to not feel some pride in your accomplishment. Good job! I remember well how it felt the first time I dropped a vehicle down there. And the second, and the third. You know what, I dropped like twelve different things on that kerbal-hating planet until I actually got a rover to survive the landing.

Pretty sure the neighbors thought I'd just won the lottery or something that night.

So yeah, good job, and don't dismiss your accomplishment just because somebody else did it first. After all, that doesn't stop the Chinese, now does it?