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What did you do in KSP1 today?

Xeldrak

By Xeldrak
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KingPhantom

KingPhantom

Posted
Posted

after over 550h of playing i had mi FIRST successfull shuttle mission created all by myself!

i had a small station in kerbin orbt. assembled in orbit (core and 2 solar pannels) with 2 rocket starts. in the core rocket i forgot to remove jeb. so i had to bring him back. normaly i would do a probe with 1 seat for rescue. but i tried it in another shuttle build... so i build a mk2 plane near to the real shuttles (1 main engine -> the new shuttle engines are great! and 2x small orbit engines). just 1 small tank and a carbo bay. i build it in SPH and tested it in VHB. flew great. and good gliding abilities. so i gave it a try. as planning the rocket i remembered that i dont have the docking port on the station (i only hat Jrs up there). so i quickly build a "docking adapter" for the station and stored it in the cargobay.

after i did the rocket with my poor knowledge and adjusted the main engine to the center of mass i tried it and it worked. i was able to do a complete orbit with the external tank. drop it and move to the station with the small engines. i added the docking module and docked with minor problems (rcs was placed badly on the plane so it had a slight spin when using). 

after getting jeb i deorbited a little bit hard and lost some RCS modules in the heat (how do you not loosing that???). i regain control over the plane right above the ocean in front of the KSC and landed perfectly on the runway... i was so happy that it worked this fine!

i never did screenshots. i was too nervous and exceited about it... i will redo a mission with that plane and add another module (after i did a bigger module with a probe rocket... i dont have MK3 in this save).

 

was great.

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Curveball Anders

Curveball Anders

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Posted

While running my regular routine of saving lost kerbonauts left behind by less organised agencies and as usual letting tourist hitch a ride (and pay the bills) and made a slight error.

After making sure that everyone needed saving was safe I checked the files for where the various tourist wanted to go.

All done except that two wanted a touch down on the Mun.

Fine they're at Mun Station One, put 'em in a lander, and get it done. Let's use the science lander, and let 'em land in some new spot on the Mun so I can harvest some science for free.

Hmm, why is the craft not responding to commands after undock?

Oh, bugger! The science lander doesn't have a robo-core! I now have a fully fuelled craft, but commanded by two tourists, slowly drifting away from a 90 ton station ...

I actually managed to dock the station to the lander, but it wasn't a very graceful manoeuvre ...

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DaMachinator

DaMachinator

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, The_Rocketeer said:

Jeb sticks another landing when all others would have perished:

http://plays.tv/video/57a3cf4ddc5941b986/jeb-sticks-another-landing

And this is why I use RealChutes....

THERE IS NO EXCUSE NOT TO HAVE DROGUES

NONE WHATSOEVER

OT: I started a new career save with TAC-LS, RemoteTech, KSPI-E, and about 5 million other mods. Most of them utilities.

I then proceeded to send probes into various stupid situations with no comms coverage.

First probe: Straight up and back down.

Second probe: Same, but landed in water to use the bathymetry module from DMagic.

Third probe: Straight up to the upper atmosphere and rode a giant heat-resistant toroidal balloon back down. (And then regular parachutes.) The engine broke off. I was not happy about that.

Fourth Probe: Straight up and sideways very very fast. (An orbit.)

Fifth Probe: Straight up into space high and back down. Again, giant heat-resistant toroidal balloon saves the day since I have no heatshields and nothing burns up from the 1.6km/s reentry.

Sixth Probe: Into a polar orbit (after many failed launches trying to figure out the cause of the mysterious instability) with parameters according to a SCANSat contract I got. Since I don't have the KER part unlocked yet, I used the Mun to read my inclination :)

Planned seventh probe: Planned lunar flyby, with everything set on a timer using the RemoteTech flight computer. This will get me enough science (hopefully) to start hurling tourists into orbit for fun and profit. If it doesn't, I'll probably invest in a comms network. I have what I think is a good design. The problem will be getting it there. (Coupled with how inanely expensive it will be :()

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cueceleches

cueceleches

Posted
Posted (edited)

Today I managed  to launch this base in one single flight and landed on Dres. I guess I will have to tweak the launcher as it wobbled quite a bit at every node execution. Maybe those two reaction wheels on the base are badly place?

base1.jpg

Edited by cueceleches
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Corona688

Corona688

Posted
Posted (edited)

Reaction wheels should be near the center of mass.  There's no point spacing them out like that, especially since that makes their forces oppose each other, expending torque by physically bending your ship.

Today I did my first ever tourist mission, a gentle introduction via flying a little old lady past the mun.

It was a new challenge in some ways.  I'd never really worried about the view through the windows before.  I had to make a last-minute adjustment to fly past the light side of the mun instead of the dark side, we are not a fly-by-night operation.

munar-alignment.jpg

Nearly an award winning picture.  Nearly.  What is she holding the camera with, her mouth?

Edited by Corona688
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CatastrophicFailure

CatastrophicFailure

Posted
Posted (edited)

@cueceleches @Corona688

In KSP, it doesn't matter at all where you put reaction wheels, their torque is applied to the vessel as a whole. Long, noodly vessels with RW at both ends will flex because the structure is flexy, not because the wheels work against each other. 

@cueceleches it looks like what you really need there are struts connecting between the hitchhikers, that's where your flex is coming from. 

Edited by CatastrophicFailure
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Corona688

Corona688

Posted
Posted (edited)

I'm not sure that's true.  Where you put them certainly makes a huge difference to how well they work.  The end of a long noodle is perfect for an RCS thruster and perfectly suboptimal for reaction wheels.

Edited by Corona688
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Diche Bach

Diche Bach

Posted
Posted (edited)

ADDIT: some screen caps added (note these are still highly imperfect, and only partly tested, but yeah, the first part I managed to get into orbit and its up there right now, zipping around, beeping . . . only problem being, I cannot control it except for about 2 hours per day! :D)

Had a couple missions: 1. setup a satellite in a specific orbit (unmammed apo ~1,859 km; per 295km); 2. set up Kerbal Space station (support 4 kerbals, under 250km), so I figured I'd continue my odyssey of learning how to use all the mods I have installed, how to use the builder interfaces, and how to do stuff in general, and try to design some nicely 'modular' stuff that could kill two birds with only two or three 'stones' . . .

The operational plan here being:

I. Launch a rocket with the first package to fulfill the sat mission, but with plenty of extra science/power/maneuver/docking facilities, so that . . .

      a. Zero stage is the sat

Top View

u8Lpm.jpg

Underside (note it has like 8 DTS-M1 antenna on it, they have [supposedly] a 45-degree cone but pretty good range, so I figured long-term having them pointing in pretty much all directions would enable it to serve as a relay for future missions)

wgXFr.jpg

Here it is with all the antenna deployed (they break if subjected to air stress) and all the science modules deployed (nothing quite so beautiful as a big wonky-ass chunk of metal with lots of gizmos and pointy bits sticking out, eh?)

Ybv2l.jpg

Here is the launch vehicle with the sat on top (illuminated!)

pTZce.jpg

And lastly, the 2nd package that is intended to dock with 1st and thus complete the KSS mission. Have not managed to dock this in simulator mode and do not have the cash to build it yet . . . gotta finish some other missions first . . .

DzEw4.jpg

      b. 1st stage is a small _manned_ section (to take advantage of my level 2 pilot) that can undock from 1st (to make the sat "unmanned") and with the intent to then . . .

Here is a closeup of the upper stages. For the second module I think I might do away with the manned module, to save on costs. The SAS on the 2nd tier of unmanned core seems fairly good, so I'll test and see if it can handle all that top drag. The level 2 pilot handles it with zero problem though, so one way or another I should be able to get it up once I have the cash.

VqqXw.jpg

     c. redock with the sat, then with all the excess D-V in the 2nd &/or 3rd stages, move it to the lower orbit

II. Use same rocket vehicle to launch second package (including living quarters), designed to dock with first package and then to a lower orbit to finish KSS mission.

The end result intended to be: a two part space station with the top most section being a communications, solar power and science module, the next section being a living quarters, and then later sections added to bring in mobile science lab, training facility, etc.

So I built this huge ass vehicle package family named after the firm that wants the satellite up there "Zaltronic." Well to be exact, first I built the first satellite (way overkill) and launcher, then I took that launcher and built the second "module" with living quarters, supplies etc.

I then did the simulated flights (Kerbal Construction Time) to test this stuff and managed to get the eccentric orbit setup and then undocked.

At this stage I was reminded of how difficult docking is! Turns out it might be EASIER to dock from a larger distance than from a satellite you just UNDOCKED from! It was epic but I finally managed to do it.

Now I've just got to get enough funds to build the second part and get that sucker docked to complete the KSS mission. Career mode is awesome . . .

Edited by Diche Bach
added screen caps
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CatastrophicFailure

CatastrophicFailure

Posted
Posted (edited)
9 minutes ago, Corona688 said:

I'm not sure that's true.  Where you put them certainly makes a huge difference to how well they work.  The end of a long noodle is perfect for an RCS thruster and perfectly suboptimal for reaction wheels.

In real life, yes, but the game doesn't calculate it that way. Don't take my word, have a look at the wiki.

 

bleh, someone changed the wiki. So I'll take it to a  Higher authority.

Edited by CatastrophicFailure
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Corona688

Corona688

Posted
Posted (edited)
5 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

In real life, yes, but the game doesn't calculate it that way. Don't take my word, have a look at the wiki.

Gladly:

Quote

The placement does matter for reaction wheels. Generally speaking they can cause some problems if placed far from the center of mass.

Just because torque is summed doesn't mean it's not scaled by distance from center of mass before its added.  Mathematically speaking, that's trivial to do.

Edited by Corona688
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Corona688

Corona688

Posted
Posted
12 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

bleh, someone changed the wiki.

...I just remembered something.  I'm certain that did change because I can remember when it behaved like you say, and I can roughly pin down when, sometime 2012-ish:  Earlier than the earliest revision on the Wiki.

Back then, I built a rover out of one probodyne and two micro wheels.  It balanced like a champion.  By setting my joystick with separate wheel and torque controls I could even drive it around Kerbin, albeit carefully -- if it tipped over more than 30 degrees, it'd stay fallen.  But it was in its native element on the mun.  It could recover from falls there, levitating like magic.

A version or two later, it stopped working.  I was so disappointed.  I couldn't ever figure out why -- until now.

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Corona688

Corona688

Posted
Posted (edited)
33 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

You conveniently ignored my other link. Have a read thru the whole thread:

 

I was getting to that.  You're posting quickly, I'm trying to post quickly.

First, Red's statement simply doesn't jive with my experience in the game.  Not in the slightest. 

Second, I can remember when reaction wheels did act like that, pre-2013, because I abused it -- and I remember my disappointment when that was fixed.

Third, you remember the wiki stating that fact.  I doubt you imagined it, but the wiki hasn't said that in literal years -- so long that it's not even in its revision history.

Fourth, the end of its revision history dovetails nicely with the time I recall the game change breaking my rovers.

Fifth, my two-wheel rovers still don't work.  I tried one last week.

So I suspect this is an old game behavior which people are still watching for because it can be difficult to tell the difference unless you actually get worked up enough to measure it.

If I could run KSP right now, I'd do so, and get a definitive answer.  I'll gladly say "you were right" if my expectations are defied.  Can we put this on hold until tonight?

P.S.  My answer on whether they actually bend the ship is a solid "I have no idea".  They just work more efficiently at the center of mass for me.

Edited by Corona688
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Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted (edited)

I finished an orbital research station yesterday with the fuel pods. Sword Mk 12 upper stage departure.

3fcb23ddaa.png

 

Today designed and docked an upgraded version of my OSV, ie. orbital service vehicle, my fancy name for what is essentially just a tug, but they also work as oversized landers, crew transports, etc. This particular one pursues passing asteroids to bring back samples for analysis at the station. It also still has the upper stage of the vehicle that launched it attached, since there was still fuel left in it and the vehicle didn't torque while docking despite the (mostly dry) mass below it. Bonus: Jool visible in the distance, thanks to Distant Object Enhancement.

1752da2f9a.png

 

Better view of the OSV during ascent. It's got a pretty wacky uh... arrangement. The vulnerability of the solar panels prevents aerobraking, but it looks cool, right?.. Right? Anyway, I hope to make these RTG powered when I unlock the tech node in this save.

efad4c3f18.png

 

I also made this rover, which I had trouble landing since I put it down on its back end rather than wheels. I just wanted to drive something around on the Mun, but it'll also do science for me and find a good place to establish a base, assuming it doesn't flip over at some point. Appearance based on Russia's BTR series of APCs, but the inside is actually hollow and there are a bunch of seats on the back instead. I thought of putting tanks inside and using fuel cells... maybe for a future model, once I have some infrastructure. Also my first ever use of these structural panels.

f80272678f.png

3460258486.png

30a949fb03.png

Edited by Guest
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Cupcake...

Cupcake...

Posted
Posted
49 minutes ago, Firemetal said:

Awesome video @Cupcake...! Those rovers were so cute! How much Dv did that lander have? Awesome work!

As for me, I begun the elcano challenge on Dres.  Posting a mission report soon! :)

It puts out around 3.5k fully fuelled. Good luck on Dres! :wink:

 

Cupcake...

 

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