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What did you do in KSP1 today?


Xeldrak

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Today I successfully launched by far my biggest rocket yet. I didn't start out to do that. I was just trying to launch the engine section of what will eventually become an interplanetary ship. The plan was to launch it empty and fill its tanks in orbit. But first I realized I hadn't installed any empty tank mods since 0.21. Rather than go look for them, I figured I'd just vent the fuel off on the pad using the TAC Fuel Balancer mod I did have. But the relatively small rocket that could lift the empty tanks couldn't survive just holding up the weight of the full tanks during venting, so I had to build a big rocket just for structural strength. And once I'd got that far, I decided WTF? Let's see if I can just launch the thing full up.

"Big Clyde" here is the result. All the 2-high KW Rocketry tankage is 1 enormous ascent stage with 4 of the big 4-barreled engines. It's ALMOST SSTO without the SRBs. All the SRBs do is save about 600 dV in the KWR tanks so the main engines can do most of the apoapsis burn. Without them, the payload doesn't have enough TWR to finish off the orbit. The payload is 5 big nuke engines and tanks, a docking port, and not much else. It weighs 177 tons starting out but burns about 10 tons of fuel at apoapsis, so 167 tons delivered to LKO out of 1710 tons to start with. There's not a single fuel line anywhere on it :).

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Airplane stuff as usual

He -162 Mock-up

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Making people spill their coffeAAD2A8AC10A2AEE00950044302E354AD79A90CD2

Pressed EVA button by accident over north pole.

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(If you are wondering how is that possible I have set my hat switch on joystick set up to emulate mouse and also a button that emulates Mouse2 button and when looking around the cursor wondered towards the EVA and when i pressed the mouse2 button to look around i found myself slowly floating away from the aircraft)

whered you download the parachute mod? Last I heard it didn't work with .2+?

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I installed my first mod, Kethane. Found out it's no good to me because the map function appears to be bugged.

Considering building a giant refinery rover anyway.

That's the spirit!

Since B9 got updated today, I got a lot done, seeing as I had prepared a whole bunch of things back in 0.20 to launch into space with my 0.21 space program. I put up a half-dozen scanning probes - one in polar orbit, on in an equatorial orbit, for Kerbin, Mun, and Minmus. I also put up the first module of Ascension Station, which hangs out over Kerbin at 450km. Then I put up my space telescope in geosynchronous orbit over KSC, and I put my first UX-120 Research Outpost down on the Mun. The UX-120 was an idea I came up with awhile ago, for a tiny two-part base that could be dropped on any planet I'm not going to bother colonizing. I've put one down on Mun, tomorrow I'll put one on Minmus. I want to also put them on Gilly, Duna, Ike, and Dres. I won't torture my Kerbals by trapping them on Eve, Eeloo, or Moho, and I want to restrict ops into the Jool system to large interplanetary ships, and that's also where I'll be colony-building.

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Well, I just had one of those KSP moments that make you feel really, really dumb (I know we've all had them but...).

So, after spending the last couple days messing around with the new update and getting all my 'must have' mods re-installed, I start my proper save up. Since one of those mods happens to be RemoteTech, step one for me is the, always boring, setup a relay network to service Kerbin and her moons. Okay, I had gotten four mini sats in LKO, and was just finishing up putting my third massive long-range comsat in KSO when I heard a mild *thud (in my apartment, not the game). I though nothing of it, since it's a cruddy apartment in the middle of Edmonton that makes weird noises all the time. A few moments later I had just finished getting my orbital period to six hours on the nose, so I took off the SAS and went to point it North. As soon as I turned off the SAS my satellite started rotating uncontrollably, and only with SAS would it stop. Okay, back to the space centre and re-load the craft, same thing. That's odd, back to the space centre, load up a different craft, and the same thing happens, as soon as SAS is off, it begins to spin. Now at this point I'm getting a bit worried, is it one of the mods acting up? Did I break the game somehow? I pause for a moment and go fill my water bottle that I keep by my couch (beats filling a cup every ten minutes). As I'm walking back I figured out what the problem was... That thud I had heard was my XBox 360 controller falling on the floor, and the way it had fallen took a few seconds for it to flip onto the sticks. Five minutes of panic, followed by three seconds of relief, followed by the last fifteen minutes feeling really, really dumb.

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I started my new Eve base... sorta. Things, as they tend to do when Eve is concerned went wrong.

Personally I blame Jeb, he built the damned lander module! After a few test drops on Kerbin he decided instead of strutting everything together like we normally do he would just hop out of the command module and go down to the hitchhiker can before starting his descent. Sounds fair right? After all when the chutes fully deployed on kerbin everything else broke away from the can.

This is why Jeb isn't allowed to have nice things. Although his ship did make it to Eve without a problem, and he did manage to do his little EVA, while landing the RCS tank failed to break away from the Hitchhiker can, shouldn't be a problem right? Its just a huge weight (nearly empty anyway) on top of the can. Except the landing struts no longer extended to the ground, not to mention Jeb had planned on lowering the struts after landing to put the can on the ground. Jeb was able to get out, but promptly fell on his head. Also since the lander was upside down, and eve having gravity and all he couldn't get back in the can (I wan't a rope ladder!) Not that it really matters because while Jeb remembered to move the solar panels to the can, he forgot to move the batteries so they blew up with the rest of the junk that broke away.

Jebs unnecessarily long spacewalk to transfer from command module to can.

JebSpacewalk_zps640944ef.jpg

With this Operation Rescue Jeb was launched.

Step 1 was getting a new module to Jeb ASAP so he could get out of the sun. Bill having remembered that Jeb still owed him $5 from the last time they were on Mun together and went Bowling volunteered to go.

After a few adjustments to the lander, namely struts between every section of it, additional chutes, and landing struts on both ends (new lander couldn't decide which end to land on in tests) he was ready to go.

Bills descent into Eve, almost dead on target.

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And Touchdown! As it turns out however Bill isn't that much better at engineering than Jeb is, while he did do the smart thing in adding landing struts to both ends, he forgot to add a ladder going each way so again, no way down...

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What he lacks in engineering ability however he makes up for in ingenuity, he found a simple solution to get his lander on the ground.

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Solar panels even still worked!

By the time Jeb finished his trek to the new module it was dark out. Not wanting to admit that his failed he decided to just not acknowledge its existence and plant the flag at the new one dubbing the site the "Jebs place" ... Bill wasn't amused.

jebnbill_zpsbc78f5b0.jpg

And that's what I did today.

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upgraded to ksp 0.21.1 and updated all mods. Lost 1 refueling spacestation, 2 kethane refining bases and 2 heavy kethane mining rovers *sign*

launched 4 map / kethane mapping probes. i'll rebuild the lost ships while waiting for transfer windows to open. Going to moho, eve, duna and possibly jool (need to calculate delta-v)

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Sent three probes to Duna. Played with slingshot maneuvers to get one probe around Ike. The second probe was successfully landed near Duna's equator. Probe three went flying off to Jool when I hit period instead of comma to get out of warp time. It had enough fuel left for Jool encounter. Will place it on Laythe.

What was interesting about the three probes launched at dawn at 15 minute intervals is that probe one traveled two days faster at escape velocity from the other two but ended up intercepting Duna days later.

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brought my satellite launching probe on a testrun to mun, placed 7 out of 8, one crashed into mun because I accidently released it retrograde and lowered its orbit too much, 2 of them fell victim to a total eclipse I had not noticed, rendering me unable to open their solar panel, so they are just spacejunk now I guess...

Well, all in all, the mission went not too bad anyway, next goal, minmus!

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Sent three probes to Duna. Played with slingshot maneuvers to get one probe around Ike. The second probe was successfully landed near Duna's equator. Probe three went flying off to Jool when I hit period instead of comma to get out of warp time. It had enough fuel left for Jool encounter. Will place it on Laythe.

What was interesting about the three probes launched at dawn at 15 minute intervals is that probe one traveled two days faster at escape velocity from the other two but ended up intercepting Duna days later.

Small changes in velocity can make a huge difference. The time it takes you to accelerate is negligable compared to the time drifting between worlds. Accelerating in the prograde direction around Kerbol will increase the time it takes to reach the destination.

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now i'm no rocket scientist but i may need that part on the floor............

I've actually built a lander that looked an awful lot like that one (only difference as far as I could tell is that I had a small stack RCS tank on top instead of the radial tanks) and had the same thing happen to me (with the RCS tank coming off as well). Ultimately still performed a close rendezvous (closed to within 5 meters of the CSM) and just jetpacked over. A problem, but not an insurmountable one if you don't mind leaving a fairly sizable chunk of "debris" in lunar orbit.

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Had family in town; let my niece try to build a rocket. Still trying to figure out why the bottom turbofan stage didn't light; I'm thinking we either got the radial intakes on incorrectly or it didn't have the right type of fuel tank. Debating on whether or not I want to try again or just delete it - something about having a rocket called "Star Stiles" just strikes me as......wrong.

Sent a Kerbal X to Minmus at the behest of the same niece. Was surprised that I was able to perform a round trip mission without modifying the design at all; this is the same rocket that stranded three of my Kerbals on the Mun back in 0.19...

Had Edwin go out on a Hellhound rover to plant a ground reference flag at KSC. Discovered that the ground near KSC has once again reverted to marshland, firm enough for a rover to ride on, soft enough for a Kerbal to sink halfway into the ground and poof into a cloud of nothingness when they try to jump out of it. I did set my flag; it promptly disappeared as soon as I recovered the mission.

Gave up on the Random Task 7; will attempt a new design for the Goodard Rocket Challenge.

Launched a Thunderbolt Superheavy 7 to an 80k orbit - mission Typhon 1a is now under-weigh. The accompanying Barn Burner Superheavy 7 launch failed...which concerns me; never had problems with those in 0.20.

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Got into orbit around Laythe with a single launch vehicle but failed a few times to land the little bugger. I know it's possible to get there safely with a single launch vessel, just yet to work it out. MUST TRY HARDER!

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Docked for the first time! (Finally...)

Got my crew capsule ship with 3 kerbals inside attached to my Space Station in LKO.

I feel so good, like I just accomplished an impossible mission, was impossible for me, like the first time I landed on the Mun, but even better!

Here are some images.

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Thanks Scott Manley :D

I don't really like him as much as most of the forums but it's thanks to him I learned how to do it.

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Today, I made Bob smile, for probably the first time ever since he's been with us.

It took a 20 kilometer drive away with Bill from the VAB and Jeb's crazy antics to finally calm his nerves.

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As for the joystick, that's a very different design from what Logitech used to put out! It looks a lot beefier than previous models, and definitely caught my eye. Thanks for the suggestion, I might just be trying that one out! :)

Yeah. I', loving that joystick. Even though it needs maintance. Then again. Dropping it does not help.

Anyways sending this off to Duna to rescue my Kerbals that are stranded there. Had to redo the rover as it did not have enough parachues for Kerbin. Well it did. Just badly placed for what was needed. So figured I need to redo the one in orbit:

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I then found out that if you tried to use note pad like I normal do to a quick fix to get better designs up with less hassle. It kills the save completely. Found that out do to my rover that was on Kerbin. The Kerbal in the external seat kept falling through it and then proplty getting run over by the rover bug. Had a Kerbal stranded at the North Pole of Kerbin and found out the rover became bugged after I ewent to drive it around to find secerts:

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And this is why I don't put texts on my flag no matter how I like to do it -_-

Honestly, it has never bothered me. Then again about 99% of the time when I am using a flag I am using more as a nav beacon, as in I target it from orbit in my landings.

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