What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Leafbaron]

14 hours ago, XB-70A said:

Transfert window to Eve has opened :

With just about 400 m/s...

... before separation.

A Poodle well keep on the work but for an unknow reason just one solar panel load with the craft. In the VAB two clearly appear. Anyway it must be destroyed during the entry in the purple ball atmosphere.

91 days, it takes less than my first trip to Duna.

Farewell Kerbin, this is a single way ticket to an unknow world.

Just a small correction and 19 days later...

... Eve appears for the first time on my screen. Hard to discern, a small ball is just over the nosecone.

Now it's just a question of hours before entering in its sphere of influence. Their is probably just enough fuel remaining onboard for ajusting the trajectory and use the atmosphere for an aerobraking. I wonder how the little rover will bear these conditions.

What mod did you use to replace the universe in the background that looks amazing!

 

 

-Leafy

[Galileo]

2 minutes ago, Leafbaron said:

What mod did you use to replace the universe in the background that looks amazing!

 

 

-Leafy

It's texture replacer.  After you have texture replacer you can download a skybox to replace the stock one.  The skybox he is using the the milky way galaxy.  

Edited September 14, 2016 by Galileo

[Leafbaron]

Thanks @Galileo I'm definitely going to have to do this!

 

-Leafy

[Leopard]

Had a bit more fun and games, had to delete a few more saved craft and now getting to the point where my next mission means deleting active probes to free save space.

Otherwise...

Minus ground base now exists, all up launch from Kerbin landed in one go, sent without crew. landed on the flats, and actually intended to land there which is progress. Follow up flight of a slightly stripped down lander (science kit removed) managed to land within 400m, so thats now processing and happy.

Mun station was refuelled to fund a further trip down so more science there, both labs now munching nicely.

 

Next up is the return to Duna, specifically to fulfil a contract for exploring Ike and science round Duna, plan is a manned mission to both and science in orbit, with a lab module, a 45T craft (about 23T dry) to process the science on the way back... about 4k5 m/s total on the mothership for the round trip which should be enough back to Kerbin orbit from Kerbin orbit. A Duna lander and an Ike lander, both of which will be dropped before the return. 

Will see if it works, and if I can get 23T to orbit then refuel it...

[SuperHappySquid]

I recently made a video showcasing some of the spectacular vistas awaiting explorers on Kerbin, with a little help from scatterer. :¬)

 

 

[eddiew]

Loaded all my three-star kerbals into a nuclear tug for a training mission.

Piloted by Roddenberry Kerman with co-pilot Jinx Kerman, science officers are Nimoy Kerman, Kelley Kerman, Yuki Kerman and Fern Kerman, while providing the engineering fixitry will be Doohan Kerman, Piper Kerman and Rei Kerman.

Including the 3/4 drop tank, Odyssey I packs a startling 17km/s, thanks to some KR&D investment (~5000 science points gone ). With every orbital experiment known to kerbalkind, she's well equipped for taking on the deepest of deep space missions. Except of course, landing. Which is why we also need...

Nono should be a mere 11 tons on touchdown at Moho, with a total delta-v budget of 3.1km/s. Wheel damage is a bit of a problem at 1g when running full speed, but I'm hoping that Moho's quarter-gravity will be a bit gentler on the tyres. Just in case, Nono sports a big torque wheel which should keep him upright over the bumps, and the LET cabin sits three crew, so there will be room for an engineer to sort out punctures.

In-orbit delta-v budget is just over 13km/s, excluding Nono's own. With good planning, it should be enough to go to Moho and return. With poor planning... eh, we'll send a fuel barge if we have to, but mission control is optimistic that it won't be necessary  

 

*edit* At this point I discovered that somehow my fuel flow was krakensed and the lower nerva has no access to the upper tank. I'm not going to re-shoot the whole lot, I'll just revert to an earlier save, fix it, and continue from orbit. FML.

Edited September 14, 2016 by eddiew

[Munar Faliure]

I decided that I was finally going to start a land base for the first time in my time playing KSP. Everything on the mission went fine up until i realized I didn't make it so i could decouple the fairing's base. I still think it looks good though.

[Bomaye]

They all got Remote tech parts- So the question is: De-orbit or keep for 1.2?

[kraden]

 

4 hours ago, Brikoleur said:

From the "just because you can doesn't mean you should" file, or perhaps the "hold my beer and watch this" file, or even the "I can't believe NASA didn't think of this" file:

(No, it didn't make orbit.)

That'd be one he'll of a ride! 

Edited September 14, 2016 by kraden

[Aegrim]

8 minutes ago, kraden said:

Yeah, if part count is an issue then I can understand your predicament. Props on finagling that into the cargo bay though. Definitely not a standard setup for the arm.

Not the part count, just I don't want to have to use even more pistons to make it go to the same length. That robotics UI list is long enough for me.

 

Mechjeb doesn't like launching my shuttle when this is the cargo :S

Edited September 14, 2016 by Aegrim

[RizzoTheRat]

Having put a network of 4 RemoteTech Komsats in to LKO, each with a Communitron 16 to talk to each other and KSC, and a pair of DTS-M1s to talk to Mun and Minmus, I plan to put in a couple of ground stations that will communicate with KSC via the Komsats, and with any distant missions via an 88-88

So I build a little KomDrone that flies really well (installed MechJeb to use the Smart ASS feature for long duration atmospheric flights) with the intention of positioning 2 of them 1/3 of the way around the globe from KSC

 

Unfortunately it seems even facing directly backwards a communicatron 16 will snap off, so I have no way to keep control of the thing once it passes out of the 500km range of the DP-10

All I can think of at the moment is 2 options:

• A kerballed bomber that drops a comms station by parachute and returns to base (ETA: I'll need to work out how to activate it's antenna on a time delay for that to work)
• A larger diameter body with a KR7 dish hidden in a service bay and keep pointing it at specific komsats as they come in to range

Any better ideas?

Edited September 14, 2016 by RizzoTheRat

[Leafbaron]

2 hours ago, SuperHappySquid said:

I recently made a video showcasing some of the spectacular vistas awaiting explorers on Kerbin, with a little help from scatterer. :¬)

 

 

"Planet Kerbin" a documentary narrated by David Attenborough

[Benji13]

21 minutes ago, RizzoTheRat said:

Having put a network of 4 RemoteTech Komsats in to LKO, each with a Communitron 16 to talk to each other and KSC, and a pair of DTS-M1s to talk to Mun and Minmus, I plan to put in a couple of ground stations that will communicate with KSC via the Komsats, and with any distant missions via an 88-88

So I build a little KomDrone that flies really well (installed MechJeb to use the Smart ASS feature for long duration atmospheric flights) with the intention of positioning 2 of them 1/3 of the way around the globe from KSC

 

Unfortunately it seems even facing directly backwards a communicatron 16 will snap off, so I have no way to keep control of the thing once it passes out of the 500km range of the DP-10

All I can think of at the moment is 2 options:

• A kerballed bomber that drops a comms station by parachute and returns to base (ETA: I'll need to work out how to activate it's antenna on a time delay for that to work)
• A larger diameter body with a KR7 dish hidden in a service bay and keep pointing it at specific komsats as they come in to range

Any better ideas?

There's a mod that adds an aerodynamic plane antenna. The mod should still work if you spruce up the cfg a bit. You'll also have to add a cfg for Remotetech. If you can't be bothered just copy over the communotron-16's, change the value for distance and your good to go. 

 

Edited September 14, 2016 by Benji13

[Sharpy]

Experimenting with welding, I made a carrier for Orange Drones.

Getting it to orbit was a b*tch, the tanks not only draggy but also wobbly!

Lemme give it a spin...

Of course, the bay, consisting of two MK4 bicouplers and a bunch of tweakscaled MK3 tanks connecting them is rock solid, being a single weldment.

Edited September 15, 2016 by Sharpy

[KerrMü]

As I write this the XKS Valerie does her orbit insertion burn at Kerbin after her testflight to Ike.

Bill, Bob, Jeb & Val spent just 2 weeks in orbit of Ike, including a landing, the rescue of Lurina and fulfilling 2 observational contracts. After that they left Dunas SOI, stepped hard on the brakes, and after nearly crossing Mohos orbit on their return trajectory they are now coming home. The breaking burn takes just 4600m/s and 75minutes (which is why I´ve got time to write this) and the tanks of the Valerie should have approximately 40% of fuel left after this. I call that a succesful testrun.

The next Duna window is still a few weeks away, so they can take a well earned vacation while I refuel their ship. (with 72 Xenon tanks that could take a little while...). And then our intrepid heroes will set out again, because...

they really wanna go there...

[XB-70A]

7 hours ago, Leafbaron said:

What mod did you use to replace the universe in the background that looks amazing!

 

Sorry to be late Leafy. I know Galileo already answered you, and would like to help you more but the problem is I downloaded a complete gamedata folder that a user shared some times ago now (my oldest screenshot I can find with the Milky Way is from June). 

I still have the .rar file and if it can help you here are the folder inside :

- BoulderCo

- EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements

- scatterer

- TextureReplacer (this folder countain another called "default" which got the .png files nammed "GalaxyTex", those are the rear galaxy images)

 

Hope it helps.

 

[RoboRay]

I brought home my last KSP 1.1 mission...

[Aegrim]

I got my station arm into orbit but can't get the other end to attach. It's attracted, and that makes the whole thing wobble back and fourth but never seals or snaps.

Edited September 15, 2016 by Aegrim

[JadeOfMaar]

I was encouraged to make more Trekkie vessels, particularly older ones, and of course, ones from other factions/races. On my way to finding and deciding on the Excelsior Class of the Enterprise B, I stumbled over the Enterprise D's distant kin, the Nebula Class, particularly "USS Prometheus." Learning that the object mounted on the tail is different per vessel and seems very likely to contain scanner parts, I thought I'd kerbalize such a worthy ship. That part consists of procedural wings (but there's a hollow, thinner stock wing segments version too) and it's removable/swappable via Senior docking node.

 

Revisiting this semi-fail design afterward, which I wanted to junk, and save the nacelle design, it came to me... I have two hypersonic SSTOs that don't use Oxidizer. Why not try to make this work too, and especially without OPT engines? ... SUCCESS... This plane later landed on the Island Runway and made a 180 turn and stopped right at the opposite edge of it. It overshot KSC and might not have made it all the way back. She's supposed to pick Jeb up from the orbital crew hub... She could have. And she's twisting Bob's finger to keep this joyride/deviation from schedule a secret.

Edited September 15, 2016 by JadeOfMaar

[Aragosnat]

8 hours ago, RizzoTheRat said:

Having put a network of 4 RemoteTech Komsats in to LKO, each with a Communitron 16 to talk to each other and KSC, and a pair of DTS-M1s to talk to Mun and Minmus, I plan to put in a couple of ground stations that will communicate with KSC via the Komsats, and with any distant missions via an 88-88

So I build a little KomDrone that flies really well (installed MechJeb to use the Smart ASS feature for long duration atmospheric flights) with the intention of positioning 2 of them 1/3 of the way around the globe from KSC

 

Unfortunately it seems even facing directly backwards a communicatron 16 will snap off, so I have no way to keep control of the thing once it passes out of the 500km range of the DP-10

All I can think of at the moment is 2 options:

• A kerballed bomber that drops a comms station by parachute and returns to base (ETA: I'll need to work out how to activate it's antenna on a time delay for that to work)
• A larger diameter body with a KR7 dish hidden in a service bay and keep pointing it at specific komsats as they come in to range

Any better ideas?

 

Simple spam sattelites that have relay antennas in orbit. Having 3 to 6  will be nice.

 

But, today I played with SSTO planes in KSP 1.1.3.. No parts clipped abnormally. Just LF only tank with 2 400 elect batteries in cargo hold on a return flight back to KSP:

Had to use about 78 units of LF to reach KSC runway. Landed and bounced a few times before being able to not bounce and stop. Was close to going 180 m/s first time tires touched runeway. Other then that it flies nice.

[touzenesmy]

Started working on the SSTO-5C, it'll be a hard one because the ones before couldn't have more than 600m/s once full charged on Minmus base.

[Puggonaut]

Finally got GemFX settings the way i like them , still using 1.1.3

[RizzoTheRat]

4 hours ago, Aragosnat said:

Simple spam satellites that have relay antennas in orbit. Having 3 to 6  will be nice.

That's how I've usually done it before, 4 LKO satellites for comms as far as minmus, and then when I've got he better antennae 3 in a higher orbit with long range dishes for other planets, but I had a go at using ground stations instead on my last game.  Keeps the amount of junk in orbit down as if I build some new upgraded ones I can just recover the old ones.

The ones in my last game were a bit over engineered though, and I guess I must have used a dish to track the LKO komsats while in flight.

[smysha]

I was too lasy to do 3 separate launches to put ScanSats to Mun, Kerbin and Minmus.

So i put all tree satelites into one rocket.

Realism style!

Edited September 15, 2016 by smysha

[MaxwellsDemon]

Some more Duna mission design work and planning.   I'm going to have to take on more contracts to pay for it all, but there's time before the transfer window.