What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Itsdavyjones]

Made a plane with FAR that managed to complete 4 visual survey missions in one go, would've made it back to KSC were it not for the forward landing gear getting stuck in the ground after completing the EVA part of a contract (wish i knew EVA report while flying above the site worked before lowering the gear)

[SHaFT7]

Broke my save by removing mods in an attempt to un-hit the RAM celing. So I restarted career for the umpteenth time and now I'm heading to minmus after a successful Mun landing.

This is why you need to backup your saves folder regularly, especially when messing with mod removal.

[manatee321]

Began an assisted career mode, where the previous .25 went back in time(*mod issues*) and the briefcase can only hold so much kerbobucks and science. Reputation was also lifted a bit to get logical contracts faster, funds started at 2.3 million, 1/4 of the original save. This was because I dislike starting with to many basic parts, its just repetitive. Doing so I'm having a ton of fun in .90 career mode.

[Agricola]

Day 5 Hard Career mode. 5 days without a fatality, but that all changed in a sickening few hours. The famous 3 are no longer,

RIP Bill, Bob and Jeb.

I had hoped to keep them alive years in the future. But no.

Jeb died when parachutes failed, sending the capsule hurtling towards the ground. The sickening few moments knowing that Jeb was about to die.

Bob died without even making it off the launch pad, the rocket toppled over and there was no escape.

Bill died in a survey jet craft, coming down to land, descent too quick, last second full thrust to avoid crash, landing strut caught the ground flipping the craft over in full throttle and the resulting slide across the ground at 200m/s disintergrated the cockpit.

SO Do I give up and start again. Maybe not, I have completed 60+ contracts, have 200k cash and have unlocked most of the level 1 science.

[TrooperCooper]

Growing tired of having to harvest and convert fuel on Minmus and having to ship it into LKO, I have set up the basic layout for a ground-based fuel refinery just outside of the space center. With the MKS/OKS logistics connection, I will then be able to refuel my LKO depot easily.

The refinery part is working already. The logistics drone connection will be tested tomorrow (need to upgrade my orbital station first) and then I can expand the refinery with more modules of the same type to increase production and capacity.

Edited January 11, 2015 by TrooperCooper

[ROXunreal]

After a period of boring grinding, my career mode is really kicking off. In the last two days I did four Mun and two Minmus landings, and unlocked the entire 160 science tier + nuke engines. I'm now at about the same point where I was when I played science mode, my only other previous game, which I terminated to restart in career. Everything from now on will be completely new to me.

Minmus rocket and landing

My lander is visible here from 2.2km away as a barely noticeable greyish speck in the center of the plains, just under the horizon.

One of my Mun landings. This was the first flight and landing not done by Jeb, as I remembered that other Kerbals actually exist.

I also made a ton of money by combining profitable parts testing contracts in Kerbin orbit or sub-orbit. Heavy engine testing combined with one or two lighter item tests such as stack separators netted me several hundred thousand roots per test. It takes a while for these kinds of contracts to be offered though.

Parts test launch during dawn solar eclipse.

Launching and testing KS 25x4, a large stack separator below the diameter adapter and a tiny stack separator on the pod tip.

My rocket was overkill so I got to bring an extra stage back, almost completely full of fuel. Very neat landing for my standards, even if aided by chutes.

Launching and testing the KR-2L and an ion engine (narrow part under the pod).

Edited January 12, 2015 by ROXunreal

[NecroBones]

Fixed my darned landing legs for SpaceY.

Plus, played some career and made it to the Mun (first trip beyond LKO in this career).

[ghpstage]

Started a new career and managed a manned landing and return to Minmus with this thing.

Cost is just under 9k, and the only part I used that couldn't be built with Survivability was a single Solar Panel, that wasn't strictly necessary.

Then I built a rocket for a Mun landing. Which came back with an unacceptably large amount of dV remaining, and at 18.6k it cost too much too!

So I took a hatchet to it and came up with this,

Its amazing how much cost you can cut while barely impacting the dV. This thing is missing less than 200m/s compared to the original.

I intend to get ambitious, and send one to Ike, and a second to Duna. Duna should particularly interesting due to the need for an engineer!

Also intend to see if an SRB heavy probe costing 5.5k can reliably land in the Jool system.

Duna and back for under 15k would be a massive achievement for me, especially without upgrading the R&D building

Edited January 12, 2015 by ghpstage

[KazeNinja]

Testing experimental land maneuvering craft. (fancy name for a thing that goes really fast)

Jeb approves.

http://i.imgur.com/VGOzAcP.jpg

i approve

I actually need to get back into ksp now that mods are updating and I need to make some videos

[CatastrophicFailure]

After the rather unexpected success of Isfjell 1, today Isfjell 2 launched the first crew to 6.4x Minmus.

It ended up being a night launch to attempt to launch directly into Minmus' orbital plane, but that part didn't work out so well. Between lag, wobbles, and the sheer 6100-ton mass, Isfjell is rather squirrely early in the launch.

SRB sep about a minute into the flight.

Stage II on climb out. After the first stage drops the stack becomes much more stable & controllable. I made some adjustments to the flight profile, and even with the added mass of this launch there's now just enough delta-V in the second stage to complete orbital insertion. It's deliberately dropped with a couple hundred m/s left to ensure it reenters & burns up, with the third stage finishing insertion.

Stage III burns for Minmus. The planes were way off so a small correction will be needed later in the flight.

Plane change maneuver about 16 hours out from Minmus, with Kerbin & the Mün in the background.

Shortly after this, the lander separates, and then the tag-along payload. The spent stage will end up on a harmless eccentric orbit well above Kerbin.

MiniMapper III is, of course, a mapping satellite. It's powered by an ion engine with a sick amount of delta-v, so it powers on ahead of the lander to begin scouting landing spots.

A day and a half after MM3 settles into orbit, the Isfjell 2 lander enters Minmus' SOI. The all veteran crew is Jerdous, Burdos, and Chadvey Kerman, who was also the first Kerbal on the Mün. Here, Jerdous gathers some high-orbit science and enjoys the view.

The lander was designed for landing on the Mün, so it has ample fuel for two landings. Thanks to the map data gathered by MM3, the crew is able to attempt a risky night landing first to investigate --REDACTED--

It's decided that Jerdous will have the honor of being the first Kerbal on Minmus. Shortly after landing, he decends to collect some quick science and investigate the --REDACTED--

What an odd --REDACTED-- giant ball of ice cream.

After quickly planting a flag and collecting a sample, Jerdous returns to the lander to wait out the short Minmusian night. Supplemental RTG power has been added to this lander to enable overnight stays, but power output is much reduced. The crew will wait until daylight for most of their exploration.

Burdos is next down the ladder. His first task is to retrieve the --REDACTED--

Jerdous and finally Chadvey then join him on the surface for pics in front of the --REDACTED--, jumping around in the low gravity, and sharing disappointment that the ground is not, in fact, made of ice cream. Instead, on closer inspection it appears to be some greenish form of curdled milk...

As the night closes in once again, the crew straps in for a relocation burn. They'll be heading south and east, back into daylight, and into one of the strange flat areas shrouded in iridescent fog.

Descending into the tenuous clouds...

The perfectly flat ground here is broken only by the occasional rock as the lander touches down. The mist drifts by, thick as some sort of legume-based liquid appetizer.

Burdos exits to gather data from the experiments, enjoy the view (that's Mojo visible just above the sun), and ponder something deep an existential like what's for lunch.

Obligatory flag planting and plaque commemorating.

With fuel in the decent stage nearly expended, the crew lifts off in the return stage. There's more than enough fuel in there for yet another landing, but they're running low on snacks too. The mission is on day 8 at this point, and there's just enough left for the 4-day return to Kerbin.

Or at least there was supposed to be. Maybe lingering disappointment from the discovery that Minmus is not, in fact, a large frozen desert combined with cotton mouth from 10 days of freeze-dried snacks, but the crew runs out of food & water still a day & a half out from Kerbin. But the mission must go on, so here Chadvey disposes of the empty life support containers.

The capsule then separate from the return stage. The capsule has been upgraded to be fully free flying, with basic RCS propulsion and enough dV for small orbit corrections. The return stage & life support containers are left on a collision course with Kerbin.

Lifting re-entries are getting better & better. This capsule has far more attitude control than earlier designs, allowing it to actively maintain a "sweet spot" angle of attack to land on target rather than just rolling back & forth.

I was aiming for just south of that island in the distance. Came down just a bit east of there. Here, the capsule is slowing past mach 5.

Chutes deployed and heat shield jettisoned...

...and splashdown! Airbags autodeploy, and 12 days after launch the mission is a stunning success. Another 80 days to rebuild the launch pad, then an unmanned Duna/Ike mission is in the works.

Edited March 27, 2015 by CatastrophicFailure
Manditory Public Disclosure Sanitization

[mdkendall]

Since my first two Duna science probes fell over on landing, I decided to send some replacements. Made a three-probe carrier and launched it, then three probes (one at a time), to LKO. Here it is all docked together and ready for the transfer burn. And the good thing is that I launched my first two probes in 0.25, but now I'm on 0.90 and Duna has biomes! So three probes should get lots of science.

The transfer window opens in about nine months. Might have to find something else to do while waiting.

[Aragosnat]

Well. Found out that some parts like to explode with the first radial decoplers. Made it intresting to see a spread dropping back to Kerbin:

[TokiTech]

Courtesy of yesterday's research got myself a mobile kerbal launcher, official addition to my KSC ground unit. Exploit with the Unity physic it does 2 modes, horizontal and vertical launch depend where the kerbal stand. But amazing performance able to shoot a kerbal to the ocean from runway spawn made me giggle alot.

I want to make a video of it, it is hilarious but don't exactly have an editing program and time to do it.

Siege mode deployed

Edited January 12, 2015 by TokiTech

[Cirocco]

Finished refueling it

http://i.imgur.com/IPCeTjh.jpg

you sir or madam, are absolutely insane.

I salute you.

[KerbMav]

After cringing in fear of possibly having killed my career-save, I managed to rescue it by putting some folders I deleted back into place.

Phew.

Did a few small part tests to get my lab guys to come up with a ladder that will work in space.

Need it for a Kerbin Moon Bus for frequent expeditions and crew transfers, capable of flying from a Kerbin orbital station to either moon, Mun and Minmus (of course!), landing there and returning to the station with only limited aerobraking at Kerbin.

I now have three different designs for the bus - maybe I will just launch some probes to see how much dV I really need (based on my personal flying and pinpoint-landing style) and decide after that which one to built.

Also, unwilling to lose on good contracts, the mission control building is the first one to reach its maximum level for unlimited contracts.

[Scrat]

This weekend I installed a bunch of mods to make the game harder and more realistic. I am doing part test jobs to be able to upgrade my vab and reach a stable orbit around kerbin. The mods I use are Far, Deadly Reentry, Real Solar System, Kerbal Construction Time, Remote Tech, Tac Lifesupport and Kerbal Engineering. The game is even more fun to me now

[Yukon0009]

[Kerano]

While landing my latest mission on Duna, I got to thinking... if you could tweak any planet or moon's atmosphere, what surface pressure would make it cheapest (in delta-v) to land and return from?

[DDAYAM]

Working on getting my too big and too slow science station into orbit. Crew modules up next. Currently just a MPL and other science type-stuff.

[andruszkow]

Spent the last two days trying to think of a proper design of a craft to transport base parts around Kerbin. Today I realised I need to go the VTOL/Sky crane route to be able to transport large stuff without wingspamming a spaceplane or using part-heavy mods like B9. So yeah.

[xiziz]

I burned out my PSU last week, so I'm om hold, so I drew some mk1 aircraft parts I'll have to sketch up in blender.

[electronicfox]

I went into IVA view (one of the B9 cockpits)during re-entry, and saw a lever that said "do not pull while in flight".

I pulled the lever and watched Bob fly away.

[Slam_Jones]

Working on getting a functioning MKS station goin on the Mun. The idea is to get all the drills, factories, farms, etc sorted out on the Mun, then taking the same stuff to another planet.

The latest trouble I've run into is the Kerbal-disconnecting-External-Seat-from-while-driving-and-turning-into-debris on my resource transfer truck. My solutions are so far: re-make the truck with an actual command pod, or make a transfer VTOL.

I'll probably end up making both.

PS: I finally got two rep blobs! Woo!

[ShadowZone]

I got frustrated... a LOT

[Liowen]

Bill and Jeb just had a bogus journey while crossing the ocean..... and as per usual I did not quicksave anywhere.