What did you do in KSP1 today?

[TrooperCooper]

Launching the fuel depot of my space station right now...

(all tanks loaded of course - need to ensure I get some nice fireworks)

[Felsmak]

Launching the fuel depot of my space station right now...

-snip-

(all tanks loaded of course - need to ensure I get some nice fireworks)

The Mayans were right.

[TrooperCooper]

Take off...

Booster kickout at 6k meters...

Getting rid of the launch stage...

Observing the first Mun eclipse caused by Kerbelkind... the debris of the launch stage...

Established orbit... though an awkwardly shaped one. Was kinda hard to steer and control with five seconds per frame and misbehavior of the vessel...

[Othuyeg]

Woah woah woah, now someone is doing something horribly correctly there. I like your ambition.

Also, I am afraid docking is going to be rather challenging because of the frame rate issues.

[Othuyeg]

I did weird stuff. I started off by adding a new kethane lifter to my minmus base and then... things deteriorated.

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[cantab]

I launched ALL the transfer stages:

This was not a stable payload. At around 50 km I lost control and did a full 360 spin before regaining control, and the launcher failed to put the transfer stages into orbit.

On circularising, the wrong engines fired. Instead of the ones at the back, the next set up ignited, causing this to happen:

The part in the background should have a docking port on the front, it got blown off by the engine exhaust. So now the biggest of my four transfer stages is a hunk of junk. I'll probably just dock it to the station and use its fuel for other stuff.

Also, left lots of litter from the strutwork.

[KerbMav]

Recovered from the crash last time (that of the game during touch down back on Kerbin ... ), the last quicksave put me right before reentry of the crew pod/cockpit of my decommissioned Explorer II.

Eager to get the Explorer III ready, I went straight to the VAB after recovering the pod - designing an all-round lander for all Joolian moons is difficult though. I may need to design extra modules for the lander to carry it to and from the more difficult ones. Also refueling might require a dedicated vessel and should only be done on the moon with the lowest gravity to maximise the possible payload.

(Also, my next save will scrap my changes to the nukes, them using only Kethane adds a bit of extra challenge, but also gets on my nerves by now. )

Next up:

Putting the remaining modules of the Explorer II to rest on Minmus

Redock the Kethane Transport One to the KSS and decide its fate

Prepare for a Dres window

Orbital operations of the double-probe at Moho

Getting the Jool Probe on its way (pref. just before launching the manned mission with the as of now unbuilt Explorer III)

Either building a working plane of find another way to visit the anomalies on Kerbin

[Jack_Aubrey]

Meeting with mister Kraken... makes me consider new options to rescue a Kerbal at Mun and bring back a no so well design Scientific vessel

This is the tanker who met the kraken:

And this the out of fuel scientific vessel orbiting mun:

[soulsource]

still wondering how I can get 20 tonnes of weight into orbit with only the 45 (and possibly) 90 point tiers of the tech tree

That should be doable. Nevertheless I'd skip two of the 90 points entries (maybe Aerodynamics and Advanced Flight Control) and get the 160 points "Heavier Rocketry" for the Mainsail engine. I have a lifter design using Mainsails and other Rockomax parts that gets 35 tons of payload to orbit (screenshot). If you radially mount some additional tanks with skipper engines you should nevertheless also manage.

Yesterday I've finished my design for a refuelling ship that should easily get to low eve orbit. The test launch was funny though. It's perfectly symmetric and still it has the tendency to rotate when the engines are on. Can it be, that the largest decoupler is not balanced properly (I enabled physics for it to make it usable)? Anyhow, it's working, and in the worst case I can replace the Kerbodyne stuff with Rockomax components (the last stage is half full when the craft enters LKO).

I also did another refilling mission for the lander for Eve. Three or four more, then the lander will be transferred to a high orbit around Kerbin and refuelled a final time, before it'll be sent off to Eve.

The current flight plan for the Eve mission is as follows:

• On the next transfer window an unmanned fleet consisting of the lander and 10 tankers will be sent to a low orbit around Eve. The tankers each transport a full Kerbodyne S3-14400 Tank, the lander will probably burn the content of 13 of them (It just has an Isp of 360).
  
• One transfer window later the next fleet of tankers will be sent, depending on how much fuel is still missing in the lander. Also, one tanker needs to have enough fuel left to deorbit the lander.
  
• Again on the next transfer window,the crew will be sent to Eve, together with a return vehicle and a lander for Gilly.
  
• The Gilly-Lander will be decoupled first and bring two brave Kerbals to Gilly. While they are on their way,
  
• the return vehicle will dock with the Eve-Lander and Jebbediah will finally man the Eve lander.
  
• A tanker will dock to the Eve lander and deorbit it. As soon as the periapsis is within the atmosphere, it will decouple.
  
• The lander will descend and hopefully land in one piece and on solid ground. This requires a well timed burn just before the ship hits the ground, since the parachutes are too weak to slow it down enough.
  
• Jeb will plant a flag and pick up some dirt.
  
• The Eve lander will ascend to Eve orbit and dock with the return vehicle. Jeb will abandon the lander.
  
• The Gilly Lander will land on Gilly and return to the return vehicle.
  
• The return vehicle will wait for a transfer window to Kerbin and - surprise - return.
  

For the most critical point, the landing on Eve, I'll make a quicksave and retry if I fail, since it already took me hours and it will take me quite some more to get the lander in Eve orbit.

[Alfondoo]

Last night I started working on a replica of Virgin Galactic's White Knight 2 Launcher. This one is carrying a small dummy Spaceship 2, will be working on an interplanetary SS2 today

Edited June 2, 2014 by Alfondoo

[michaelhester07]

I finally got Utopia Planitia built!

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With the wonders of recycling I had extra startup resources. I recycled the station builder and all of the freighters that built it. Now I just need to build something in it worthy of such a station.

In other news I also tried a stock Eve land and return mission. Looks like I'll need at least 8000 dV to get off Eve successfully. Heres a few shots of the launches for the ships involved (which could probably go to Jool's moons more easily).

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Landing was the easy part. It was taking off that was the hard part.

[GregE]

Launched a new mapping probe (SCANsat), to replace the one I already have around Mun. (Screwed up the original transfer, and put it into a basically equatorial orbit... which is useless for mapping).

Seemed I vastly overestimated how much Delta-V I would need (or underestimated the power of my launch craft). And was able to get the probe into a nearly polar Mun orbit with about 1500 Delta-V left. Decided to head to Minmus and map it. Transferred successfully and began mapping in a 200x200 orbit around the poles. Once the map was complete, I suddenly remembered that I can get Science by analysing the completed SCANsat maps and transmitting them back to KSC.

It was then that I realized that I forgot to put transmitters on the probe.

[Master Tao]

Alfondoo,

Clearly, great minds think alike. I came here to post a little rocket plane I was working on yesterday:

[Piper]

I recently got back from a big vacation out west, so naturally I hopped right back into KSP, and had a VERY big day The first thing I did, was take a screenshot of my landing on Moho with the crew of Kerbodyssey 3. I ended up landing at night (and took off and rendezvoused at night as well), so the screenshot is kinda dark, but at least that meant Jeb and Genedred didn't have to deal with the intense heat and radiation coming off of Kerbol. After getting back into orbit and rendezvousing with the Kerbodyssey 3 return vehicle (with a very lonely Bob in it), I did a bunch of science in low Moho orbit, boosted up to a high Moho orbit, did more science, and since I was already in a good place in Moho's orbit to return to Kerbin I did just that.

After sending the crew of Kerbodyssey 3 on their return trip home, it was just in time to switch to Kerbodyssey 5, to insert it into Duna orbit, and for Kerbodyssey 6 to insert into Ike orbit. After Kerbodyssey 6 orbiting a bunch of times to map the surface of Ike for terrain and Kethane, I landed on the surface, becoming the first moon of another planet for me to land on. Landing went really well, although I realized I landed on the far side of the moon, so Duna is always below the horizon. And of course, despite trying to land on low terrain, I landed on the side of hill. Oh well, I have tons of fuel still, so I can just take off again and land somewhere else, and still have a wack load of fuel to return home.

After the successful landing of Kerbodyssey 6, I went to Kerbodyssey 5 to land it on Duna. If you are wondering about why 6 landed before 5, it's because I launched 5 first, but ended up putting the lander for 5 on a longer trajectory to Duna, meaning the return vehicle for 5 would arrive first, then 6 would arrive at Ike, and then the lander for 5 would arrive/land on Duna and I didn't feel like it was a big enough issue to fix after the fact. And if you are wondering about Kerbodyssey 4, that one is slowly making its way to Dres.

So, getting back to Kerbodyssey 5, the lander was meant to entering straight into the atmosphere and land directly (no orbital insertion), so I didn't have a choice in which side of the planet I landed on, and naturally I arrived when Ike was below the surface of where I was going to land. Insertion and landing went very well, albeit I landed on yet another hill.

[Alfondoo]

Alfondoo,

Clearly, great minds think alike. I came here to post a little rocket plane I was working on yesterday

Yours looks much nicer than mine Those extra mk2 bits look awesome. You've inspired me to do better

[cantab]

After fixing the inclination of the transfer stages I launched last night and raising their apoapses to be tangent to the station's orbit, I set up the phasing burns only to find I didn't even need to do one for one of the stages! Was already on course for a close intersect in six orbits time. Complete blind luck there, but I'll take it.

[WillHop]

Today, things got weird

Sam Hall updated his Kerbonov mod, and it included a heavy duty command seat, which I thought looked pretty cool - I was also messing around with Porkjet's SP+, when I had a brilliant idea. Joemund, always the happiest* volunteer, was sent forth on this adventure to break the limits of Kerbalkind and attempt a daring feat of extraordinary courage and stamina.

*may or may not be happy to volunteer

As you can see, a perfectly innocent unmanned SSTO was being tested for means of peace. Or rather, that was the lie the public were spun.

However, what was really happening was groundbreaking, dangerous research. Joemund, the brave maverick, was in space with no helmet.

He got really excited but it appeared that Kerbals functioned as per usual in space without their helmets.

Anxious to get out there, Joemund got.. confused.

<a href="https://imgflip.com/gif/9agb6"><img src="https://i.imgflip.com/9agb6.gif"/></a>

Bizarrely, his jetpack wasn't on his back but he was still able to wizz around in a similar fashion.

I have therefore come to the conclusion that Kerbals have no need to breath and that they have ducts in their body that function as a jetpack..

Oh Texture Replacer, your ingenuity is my playground.

[problemecium]

Today I created an SSTO rocket able to bring an 80-ton payload to LKO.

For those curious, the thingy on top is the surprisingly useful "NRAP Test Part" by stupid_chris.

Addendum: Kerbatar 2 is now where Kerbatar 1 left off - ready to go as soon as the next transfer window opens up.

Edited June 3, 2014 by parameciumkid

[soulsource]

I had fun, building a rover (or Eve-car, how Bill, who tested it, called it) that will be sent to Eve together with the lander in the first transfer window. I'm pretty sure that it will not work on Eve due to the higher gravity, but the test drive through Kerbins desert was really cool, especially when controlling the beast from IVA. Of course it will go to Eve unmanned, driving to the landers landing site on remote control.

My goal with the rover is to also get the science for "Splashed Down", this is why there is a rocket engine/outboard motor mounted on it. The engine also comes in handy to slightly alter the landing point.

Edited June 3, 2014 by soulsource

[Duke23]

I don't think I've ever built a ship with more than 9k DV (after getting into LKO) and I'm pretty sure I sent that one up empty. Well I was playing with some stuff earlier... This obviously isn't very useful as is but it was a test design and it seems to have passed. Meet the Kahuna, the largest rocket that's ever left my launchpad in one piece, with a little over 14k DV left after getting into a 351 x 348km orbit. It probably would have had more than what's shown but I staged it wrong and it releases one set of engines before they're out of fuel. Also it's a b**** to steer. This might be adapted into a heavy lifter for LKO and have some bugs ironed out, or I might just scrap it and call it a day. I know it's excessive and inefficient especially since the last stage is 10k DV by itself with an LV-N, but hey, gotta get it all out of my system before I have a budget right?

My CPU is pissed.

Update: I decided to go mess around, so the Kahuna performed a low flyby of Eve, landed on Gilly (with the help of MJ to keep the nose up on a hill) and returned to a 4000km retrograde Kerbin orbit with a whacky inclination that I had to fix. I have a Class B asteroid + hitchhiker in a ~2300km retrograde orbit so I will probably rendezvous and ditch the ship since it has no docking ports or science equipment and no way to safely land.

I think this thing set a few records for me. Heaviest to leave the launchpad and achieve orbit, twice as heavy leaving LKO as my previous largest ship (the one I had to send up empty and refuel), and first landing on Gilly. If you want to be technical it's my first powered landing on LV-Ns but c'mon, it's Gilly. And I know it's "not that big" but I'm excited because I felt like I was hitting a wall for payload and rockets size in my .23 save and wasn't really even trying in .23.5; the fact that this actually worked gives me hope that I can build bigger and better.

Edited June 3, 2014 by Duke23

[Evil Ed]

Grinded some science at Minmus with a lander shuttling between an orbiting lab and Minmus biomes. Lander needs update as it is very unstable when landing in sloped terrain, guess that will be todays project...

[McFarnsworth]

Tried to capture an E class asteroid, and failed miserably.

Launched a rescue mission to Duna. Ever since solar panels became a requirement for manned pods a few versions ago I had two kerbals stuck in a dead capsule in Duna orbit. After 15 years they started running out of snacks so I sent a small module containing some batteries and some solar panels to dock with the pod. Luckily the old craft had a docking port and plenty of fuel for the return trip. I forgot to put RCS on the solar module so docking was ... interesting. Lost a few solar panels and a landing leg in the process, but enough of the craft survived to make it back to Kerbin.

Launched a rescue mission to Eeloo. Two Kerbals have been stuck in a primitive landercan on the surface for 26 years and several KSP versions now. It has no docking port, the central (electricity generating) engine broke off during landing because the kraken ate the landing legs on the way there, and obviously it doesn't have solar panels. Amazingly it still has some power in the batteries and enough dV to make it to orbit, but unfortunately no power generating engines (lv909 only) anymore. The rescue ship is a case of a lot of fuel and not enough engine so it won't be able to land, but I fear the batteries in the rickety lander won't last long enough to establish a stable orbit. One of the Kerbals can probably jump out and jetpack his way to safety, but the other will have to valiantly sacrifice himself and crash back down on the surface.

[Shna_na]

I think I'll go capture an asteroid and work on my space station. I'll be with you all in a couple of hours.

In the meantime, some of these crafts are pretty good. I don't know how your PC's can manage that part count though. Poor thing must be fried.

[soulsource]

I don't think I've ever built a ship with more than 9k DV (after getting into LKO) and I'm pretty sure I sent that one up empty. Well I was playing with some stuff earlier... This obviously isn't very useful as is but it was a test design and it seems to have passed. Meet the Kahuna, the largest rocket that's ever left my launchpad in one piece, with a little over 14k DV left after getting into a 351 x 348km orbit. It probably would have had more than what's shown but I staged it wrong and it releases one set of engines before they're out of fuel. Also it's a b**** to steer. This might be adapted into a heavy lifter for LKO and have some bugs ironed out, or I might just scrap it and call it a day. I know it's excessive and inefficient especially since the last stage is 10k DV by itself with an LV-N, but hey, gotta get it all out of my system before I have a budget right?

My current record for a fully fuelled ship is somewhere between 14000 and 15000 m/s dV remaining when in LKO, split across three LV-N powered stages. The reason I built that monster was that I totally overestimated the dV needed to go to a low orbit around Eve. I don't have a screenshot, but I can make one today in the evening, since the ship is on a test-flight to Minmus. Well, the design might come handy when I'm going to explore the outer part of the Kerbol system.

[Superfluous J]

Today (Well, yesterday but I haven't slept yet so it's still today for me) I got my "Eve Exploder"^* ship in orbit around Kerbin. It is destined to be the first ship that I've landed on the surface of Eve and returned.

I'm pretty proud of it. Fully fueled on the surface of eve it will be just over 17 tons. Boo-yah.

^* Named after Scott Manley's manner of saying "Explorer." And also because in testing it blew up a lot.