What did you do in KSP1 today?

[RedDwarfIV]

Got 1092 science from a single Minmus mission today. I'm a bit envious of the guy above who could do what I did without the massive lander and the interplanetary transfer stage. Still, I didn't need to refuel at all, or rendezvous with a station as my lander had a science lab fitted. It was an ugly looking thing, but very functional. The IPTV stayed in orbit while the lander came back to Kerbin. In truth, this was a test run, as I plan to send the IPTV [Ceres 01 Dres Surveyor] to the aforementioned dwarf planet. Soon I'll probably test the lab rover I made.

After that, I used the science to buy important aircraft bits, and built a spaceplane. It was pretty good, but it was missing solar panels and batteries.

The result was this rather hairy descent:

[Sirine]

Dated back: 21-Dec-2013

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[quietsamurai98]

I put a geosynchronous station in orbit around Kerbin!

Then I realized.

The station's orbital position was opposite KSC's surface location.

That makes launches from KSC to dock with the station a lot longer.

[capi3101]

Finally was able to come home and play KSP. Decided to try building an SSTO Tier 0 Rocket I suggested a few days ago to make sure I hadn't steered anybody wrong. Flew it up, orbited Kerbin, came back down. Successfully recovered the command pod and five of the nine fuel tanks. Might've been worth a bit had it been a career flight and if I'd shot it poleward...

Decided to try my hand at the Kerbal X challenge. I could've sworn I'd flown one of those to Mün and back before...I got it to the Mün but I'm reasonably sure it ain't coming back any time soon.

[Traches]

I put a geosynchronous station in orbit around Kerbin!

Then I realized.

The station's orbital position was opposite KSC's surface location.

That makes launches from KSC to dock with the station a lot longer.

You could fix that pretty easy!

Burn retrograde for a little while, lower your periapsis a bit (which will reduce your orbital period to where you will orbit slightly faster than the planet's rotation) Then time warp till you're in a place you like, wait till apoapse and circularize again.

[xnorb]

Bill landed on Minmus (First try to get there) with no fuel to return home, so i had to launch my first rescue mission:

http://imgur.com/a/DH6j8

[Duke23]

Today was a productive day (sort of).

I put a communications satellite up in ~650km orbit just because. It's the only thing I've ever used MechJeb on other than seeing how it works, and it's just to rotate it towards Kerbin whenever it's focused.

Put an overkill lander on the Mun. The inner stages never even got used and it had some fuel to spare in the outer set which is what I was expecting, and it had a nuke cruiser waiting in 60km-ish Munar orbit to take it home -- it's really meant for Duna once I add more parachutes to it but this was the best test I could think of without actually going there. There was a tiny probe attached to the top but it came in too fast and that probe was really better suited for Minmus anyway, and it crashed in quite a pathetic way. The probe did find something I thought was interesting before it crashed though. Is that a tunnel to the other side of the Mun? lol.

Minor catastrophe averted while building a new prototype interplanetary ship. This one is supposed to actually come back, if all goes according to plan. This shot was taken after all the bad stuff happened, but the ship I'm talking about is the farthest to the left. First of all it had an escape pod docked to the copula just like the station itself, but that decided to fly apart for some reason when I staged the second set of boosters so I dropped what was left of it and brought a replacement up with the hitchhiker containers for the station. It basically is the main section of the station but without the hitchhiker and it's got a docking port on the rear to tug a lander, and ports on the sides for engines I haven't brought up yet. But before this shot I had docked it to the science lab which was apparently a really bad idea. The entire station started to buck and sway when it connected and I thought it was going to rip itself apart, SAS couldn't do anything about it and I couldn't even stop it myself. Finally I had to undock and switch to the station to help SAS sort the problem out, then pick a better place to dock after everything settled down. Physics got me again... But I knew the risks when I tried it. Bob, Jeb, and Kurt are currently hanging out in the main hitchhiker container arguing over who gets to fly the new ship to rescue Bill from Duna, assuming it gets that far.

Edited January 2, 2014 by Duke23

[Vanamonde]

I've been sick, and so have done almost nothing in .23 so far. But today, my first experimental drone with the Rapier engine not only achieved orbit, but then landing on the runway.

[AlamoVampire]

not going to post pictures here for this entry, but, I finished up my first ever MANNED mission to Eeloo. Shameless plug: The Eeloo Chronicle!

if you wanted to read it hehe, just be warned, its a long read with tons of pictures lol

[Bloodbunny]

I finally deleted my .21 content, having not played that version since mid November, backed up my .22, and installed .23

Time to start all over again, as I always do when going to a new version

[zeppelinmage]

Despite some issues, my Minmus X Exploration Program has been wildly successful. I found out a few things during this mission;

1) The mobile lab doesn't add much, beyond a small transmitting bonus. My lander was still better off simply returning home with all the data.

2) 0.23 nerfed experiment copies hardcore. It used to be I could do the same experiment 4x and get decent science each time. Now, though, it drops to 0 for the third copy, if not the second.

3) I barely had to refuel at all. My lander was over-engineered severely for Minmus. I was able to perform three terrain "hops", and still had plenty of delta-V to return home.

4) In adding instruments, I chose... poorly. I found out that I had not installed the Gravioli Detector as I had planned, but had, in fact, installed the similarly-colored pressure sensor. D'oh!

Still, pulled in over 2k in Science. Almost done with the Tech Tree, and I have yet to (purposefully) leave Kerbin SOI.

Edited January 2, 2014 by zeppelinmage

[AlamoVampire]

Despite some issues, my Minmus X Exploration Program has been wildly successful. I found out a few things during this mission;

1) The mobile lab doesn't add much, beyond a small transmitting bonus. My lander was still better off simply returning home with all the data.

2) I barely had to refuel at all. My lander was over-engineered severely for Minmus. I was able to perform three terrain "hops", and still had plenty of delta-V to return home.

3) In adding instruments, I chose... poorly. I found out that I had not installed the Gravioli Detector as I had planned, but had, in fact, installed the similarly-colored pressure sensor. D'oh!

Still, pulled in over 2k in Science. Almost done with the Tech Tree, and I have yet to (purposefully) leave Kerbin SOI.

http://i405.photobucket.com/albums/pp133/zeppelinmage/screenshot83.png~original

impressive! yeah, inside Kerbins SOI that lab seems to me <my tech tree was done before .23 hit, thank you spam science lol> a touch useless IN the SOI, but, I think going beyond the SOI it may be more useful since it will reset the goo and bay, which make for <i think> longer missions outside kerbins SOI.

oh, hehe, want over engineered? behold my multipurpose science lander:

[madspy]

I was trying to go to Laythe. I am in orbit of Jool and the map screen says I do not have an encounter with Laythe. Go to normal view and the planet is right in my face. This happens all of the time.

Edit : By "Right in my face" I mean I am flying straight into the atmosphere at something like ~2000 m/s

[Biker Joe]

I Haven't been playing KSP all through the holidays so basically today was my first time playing the game in 2 weeks, decided I better do something...

So I designed a Space Station!

and sent it up into orbit around Kerbin with a circular orbit around 150k

[WillHop]

impressive! yeah, inside Kerbins SOI that lab seems to me <my tech tree was done before .23 hit, thank you spam science lol> a touch useless IN the SOI, but, I think going beyond the SOI it may be more useful since it will reset the goo and bay, which make for <i think> longer missions outside kerbins SOI.

oh, hehe, want over engineered? behold my multipurpose science lander:

-snip-

Just out of interest, what part count is that?

[Retread]

Despite some issues, my Minmus X Exploration Program has been wildly successful. I found out a few things during this mission;

1) The mobile lab doesn't add much, beyond a small transmitting bonus. My lander was still better off simply returning home with all the data.

2) 0.23 nerfed experiment copies hardcore. It used to be I could do the same experiment 4x and get decent science each time. Now, though, it drops to 0 for the third copy, if not the second.

3) I barely had to refuel at all. My lander was over-engineered severely for Minmus. I was able to perform three terrain "hops", and still had plenty of delta-V to return home.

4) In adding instruments, I chose... poorly. I found out that I had not installed the Gravioli Detector as I had planned, but had, in fact, installed the similarly-colored pressure sensor. D'oh!

Still, pulled in over 2k in Science. Almost done with the Tech Tree, and I have yet to (purposefully) leave Kerbin SOI.

I see your Minmus mission, and raise you 2700 science...

I kept the science lab in orbit and used it to clean out the sample lab and goo container every time Jeb returned with the lander.

[Benjpalmer]

Rescued Bill from the Mun.

[zeppelinmage]

I see your Minmus mission, and raise you 2700 science...

I kept the science lab in orbit and used it to clean out the sample lab and goo container every time Jeb returned with the lander.

http://bazinga.smugmug.com/photos/i-k3p3634/0/X2/i-k3p3634-X2.png

Very nice. I just completed another Minmus exploration mission, hitting more biomes. Once the lander comes back to Kerbin, I expect somewhere near an additional 2k in Science. I chose to bring 4x of each experiment, rather than transmitting them at a loss.

[Astraph]

I decided to make my first landing outside Kerbin - and chose Eve. The results are... Well...

<iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="550" frameborder="0" src="http://imgur.com/a/96lI8/embed"></iframe>

The probe is very simple - a fuselage section with inline air intake, small winglets, aerobrakes, two drouges, smallest liquid tank and four radial thrusters (that 1,5 kN variant) + NERVA for transistion. I've tested the design on Kerbin and achieved soft landing, hoped Eve's thicker atmosphere will make gliding easier. My greatest mistake is using B9's compressed air thrusters as RCS engines... It seems they require oxygen as well, a bit counterintuitively...

Anyway, Eve I & Gilly II are on their way. Next transfer window in 140 days, will have plenty of time to prepare another batch of probes. :3

Edited January 2, 2014 by Astraph

[Retread]

Very nice. I just completed another Minmus exploration mission, hitting more biomes. Once the lander comes back to Kerbin, I expect somewhere near an additional 2k in Science. I chose to bring 4x of each experiment, rather than transmitting them at a loss.

You don't need four of each instrument - get a Kerbal close on an EVA, right click on the instrument, and retrieve the data. You can store an unlimited amount of data in a capsule. I landed in all nine Minmus biomes, did all of the experiements, returned to the orbiting lab, and transferred the data to my crew transfer vessel. By the time I was done, I had 73 experiments stored on a vessel with no instruments at all.

[Snarfster]

You don't need four of each instrument - get a Kerbal close on an EVA, right click on the instrument, and retrieve the data. You can store an unlimited amount of data in a capsule. I landed in all nine Minmus biomes, did all of the experiements, returned to the orbiting lab, and transferred the data to my crew transfer vessel. By the time I was done, I had 73 experiments stored on a vessel with no instruments at all.

Don't forget you can use the lab that is in orbit to reset goo canisters and science cans (after removing the experiment by hand).

It's a shame there's no biomes outside of Kerbin and its moons yet, that would make the lab SO much more useful.

[Guest]

Sent some Kerbals on their way to Jool, then played around with my new toy. This ranks pretty high on my "Dumb Ideas" list:

It's pretty tough to land... I need to play around with thrust limiter settings.

Any landing you can walk away from, right?

[tntristan12]

Heh. This is crazy... So, I launched a kethane mapping satellite to the Mun and carefully mapped out the electric charge capacity / consumption / regeneration to pretty much a tenth of a unit. By all accounts it should have had enough juice to survive a blackout flying behind the Mun at a 200km orbit, and recharge fully before passing behind again. Unfortunately KSP seems to have a mind of its own at times (I blame the Kraken) and during time warp the sat didn't recharge quite as fast as I was expecting. It ran out of juice about halfway behind the Mun on the second pass, so I nuked it and added an extra solar panel to the next model (better to overengineer than underengineer). I sent it back into orbit and lo' and behold, I ended up in a sun-facing orbit that never experiences a blackout...

So I kicked myself for that, but on the plus side the new sat that I launched and placed into a polar orbit around the Mun happened to start mapping data in *exactly* the same cell as the other satellite stopped... I mean, what are the odds of that!?

EDIT: D'oh. Looking at it now, it's not where the other sat stopped, it's where the other sat began. In light of that it hardly seems random at all since the second sat I launched had *exactly* the same flightplan as the first one. Oh well, I still was pleasantly surprised!

Edited January 3, 2014 by tntristan12

[zeppelinmage]

You don't need four of each instrument - get a Kerbal close on an EVA, right click on the instrument, and retrieve the data. You can store an unlimited amount of data in a capsule. I landed in all nine Minmus biomes, did all of the experiements, returned to the orbiting lab, and transferred the data to my crew transfer vessel. By the time I was done, I had 73 experiments stored on a vessel with no instruments at all.

I chose my method mainly because I'm still not very good at 0g EVA. It would have been rather time-consuming, not only between docking after every biome, but going EVA afterwards to collect the experiments... For me, it was more efficient to have it all on one lander and just do two flights. (My second go netted 2500 science, btw.)

As for today's activity... since my Minmus mission was concluded, I decided to return the science lab (and its associated Kerbals) to Kerbin. The lab would burn, after a rescue mission. First, I hooked the lander to the lab and used what gas I had left to return to Kerbin orbit. Then I sucked the last of the fuel from the lab to the lander (since there wasn't enough to deorbit both), and the lander successfully returned home. Then it was time for the rescue missions.

The first one was a three-man capsule. I gave it a pilot, leaving the two-man can empty. (This will be important later.) The rendezvous went as planned, and I hooked in with the ladders aligned. I went to EVA the station crew and realized... I'm a seat short. The station held three - two for the lab, one in the cupola. D'oh! No matter, I'll send up a second unit to recover him. Anyway, I load the kerbals into their can and begin reentry sequence. All goes as I expected until it was time to pop chutes. Due to the docking/undocking, my staging didn't fire when I hit [space]. (There's probably an extra command I haven't learned yet to fix this.) So I popped my drogues manually. There were two, and they fired non-symmetrically. A couple things happened. First, the two-man can fell off my rescue craft. The two trapped kerbals began to freefall. Then, my drogues snapped. Because the lander was heavier, it impacted the two-man capsule, detonating my nuke engines. Two kerbals dead, most of my rescue craft disintegrated. Amazingly, I still had the pilot's can, with one chute attached. Maybe it would land safely? ...nope. Dead on impact.

My second rescue went much more successfully. Sent up a robotic probe with an empty seat. Docking was a pain, mainly because the COM shifted badly on me. The docking port was on a "stalk" of RCS fuel and reaction wheels, and it flopped back and forth with every RCS thrust. Took me almost 15 minutes of finagling it to get it to lock. Got my Kerbal to the rescue pod, and began the deorbit burn. This rescue craft I engineered better. The pod itself separated fully from the engines and lab, so once the whole thing broke 30k, I popped the decoupler. The pod splashed down safely 2km from where the lab did.

Minmus Exploration: Success

Lander return (x2): Success

Science lab return: Success

Lab techs rescue: Failure (3 KIA)

Station pilot rescue: Success

[Markhoz]

So this week i was trying to do a Munar Space Station, and today I docked the last module, the one who will bring my kerbonauts down on the Mun and back. So the docking went pretty good, even if the Space Station was rotating on herself. Then i prepared one of the kerbonauts in the lander and undock it from the station, so i burned retrograde until the orbit was good enough to land.

So u know i landed but, even if in the station i have a module for the refueling, i went out of oxidizer and after 10 seconds my engine just died and left me alone 15km high