What did you do in KSP1 today?

[JadeOfMaar]

@CatastrophicFailure

I spent the better part of my evening cobbling together and testing a design for a mothership with many cargo bays and mining gear for both Ore and Karbonite. I landed it on Mun and gauged its refinery potential (primarily Karbonite), trying to reserve Ore for EL functionality but the stock ISRU is present on the ship just in case... Then I took that same ship, and did a cheat-driven power dive straight into Kerbin with the Peri at 62km and peak speed of over 4.5km/s....retrograde...and burned at that periapsis as the patched conics seduced me with an immediate repeat encounter with Mun. I didn't get that encounter.

That was plenty wild fun for me, except for the high lag.

[eddiew]

1 hour ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Abandon all hope, ye who venture there... 

Lol   I won't lie, there were a lot of reloads during my expedition, mostly for rover flips, but aside from fuel balance issues discovered in LKO, no actual technical failures or bugs. Having got the Nono rover (or at least his head) back to ground, I would like to consider the Mohovian curse lifted.

Unless Lily Kerman, rescued from Moho orbit, brought it back with her   Maybe I should have her fly a solo mission first, just in case ¬_¬

[Guest]

16 hours ago, Workable Goblin said:

I, too, am noodling around in career with pre-1.2 while planning a proper career for the final version (with mods), and this is...kind of the exact opposite of my experience? I designed a launch vehicle which was basically identical to the second vehicle you describe, except with a liquid upper stage replacing the Hammer and Thumper, and it was awful. It basically did whatever it wanted while taking off until you managed to get through the first and second stages (that is, the four Thumpers and the two Thumpers), by which point it had usually lofted you high enough that you had time to line up for the final solid burn and final orbital injection on the liquid stage. Not to mention it was far too heavy to launch off of a T1 launch pad, so you had to upgrade that before you could do anything with it.

I did upgrade the launchpad first thing, but then that's a cheap upgrade.

I actually did a somewhat tricky contract launch with the Wonka 1 just yesterday -- satellite into Kolniya orbit. I upgraded the fins to AV-R8s for more control, but other than that it was my same ol' basic version, and it got the job done fine. I haven't even unlocked Swivel or Reliant actually.

For my heavier launches I did go LF though. I now have three basic launch vehicles -- Wonka 1, basically four Thumpers in a bundle topped by another Thumper, Wonka 2, which is seven Thumpers asparagus-staged, and Charlie 1, which is your basic Skipper + Rockomax with 2-4 Kickbacks set up and staged in a variety of ways, depending on the load.

What else is up? I seem to have developed a flourishing tourist trade, so I'm building the Minibus 1 -- a reusable four-passenger Minmus lander.

[smysha]

I've tried to re-create SOC Seagull in KSP

Too bad CoM ant CoT was not alighned properly and it had tendency to pitch down all the time. And another advice...

Don't ever try to splash down your seaplane at 100 m/s

[Martian Emigrant]

Went to bed late last night.

I finally managed to get an SSTO to the Mun....And back.

Small SSTO LKO no problem. Larger.....Problem.

So I put my hands at small and the Mun.

Managed to get to LMO. 8-10km orbit.

Landing proved to be a failure.

1-Not enough fuel

2-My playing with suicidal burns is too suicidal. Need to think that one more.

Just enough fuel to make it back to Kerbin for aerobraking.

I had to redo that one a few times. The MK1 capsule is too fragile to re-enter down to a PE of 55km or lower. I had to do multiple aerobraking  passes in the upper atmo.

But I got Callock back on Kerbin.

So up next. More fuel.....So much for trying to keep it small.

Edited September 19, 2016 by Martian Emigrant

[capi3101]

Still in 1.1.3; I figured I wouldn't make the switch until the 1.2 release is official and all my mods are ready for it. So, I plan on switching something like two or three months from now...

Surprisingly little took place over this past weekend. I did build a new Juno-powered aircraft, the Bad Idea 6, to go and fulfill a crew report contract in the vicinity of KSP (I say vicinity - in reality the target area was about 250 kilometers north-northeast; still beats having to fly clear across the planet, I suppose). After getting up there and realizing that the contract was for pressure readings, not crew reports, I reverted to the SPH and made a couple of quick changes based on how the craft performed during the initial flight, and added a barometer because...well, you know. Missed the fact that one of the waypoints was above 18,000, which I wasn't going to get on a pair of Juno engines of course, but I was able to take the readings for the other three waypoints and returned Jeb to the Runway. Landing was going okay right up until the end, where I proceeded to land nose-gear first and wound up slamming the rear of the plane into the Runway. Blew off the tail, but the rest of the craft survived. I may need to wait until I've got slightly better tech until I try to fulfill the rest of the contract.

Only other thing that happened was the construction and launch of Bleepity-Bleep 7, a probe designed to do a Minmus flyby for contract. All aspects of that mission went by routinely; the probe should make a Minmus encounter in about thirteeen days. I'm hoping that the flyby will unlock the full Explore Minmus contract; I've got Munar Prospector 7 all warmed up and ready to send Bob there to tap as much science out of that place as I can manage. I've got a contract to build a ten-Kerbal space station around Mun and then put two tourists on the Munar surface, and I'd rather not do that with crummy little Junior docking ports if I can at all help it....

Beep-Beep 7, a Munar probe, will arrive at Mun in another four hours.

[LordFerret]

23 hours ago, kraden said:

Well my plan was for a plane change but Kerbal Alarm Clock lied (or more likely I don't understand transfer windows well enough) about the window and if I waited until my descending node to do a correction burn then I would be too far away for an encounter. I saved loads of fuel by shifting my path such that my descending node became my encounter. It's a ScanSat probe anyway so I'll be just that much closer to the polar orbit it needs. 

This is a bit outdated, but I still find it useful. The graphic it provides gives me a quick on-the-fly example of what to shoot for.
Interactive illustrated interplanetary guide and calculator for KSP

If you're looking to get deeper into the math of such, this might help (I've never used it, but saved the link none-the-less).
Launch Window Planner for Kerbal Space Program

 

21 hours ago, Leopard said:

Disaster, Got my first rover to Mun, landed roughly in the right place. Follow up mission to take a newly recruited Kerbal, everyone is is on a mission, land nearby do the science then back to the orbit station - drop off a new larger lander in the process.

Easy...

Landing zone needs an inclination change to reach it, managed but then obviously have to wait for the rotations to align, which they finally did. in the dark.

Ho hum, have the rover so I know the altitude of the landing zone, figured it was worth a shot.

Slight incident involving some 200 m/s and the side of a crater that was a bit higher than expected later and we are looking at a flag as a memorial, though sadly it will have to be deleted shortly after to conserve memory.

 

Will try again later in the week.

 

Also Duna 2 is now in orbit of Duna, out of fuel, but processing science, need to construct a recovery craft, plan is that Duna 3 will be a revised lander with its fuel, then Duna 4 will be a fuel module for Duna 2, may be a bit wobbly but hoping manageably so, if not will abort the return and send something else out - designed to use the fuel thats already there...

 

Progress of a sort...

New mission rule, only land during daylight..

I don't know what version you're running, but if it's v1.1.3 you should check out [1.1.3] Hullcam VDS Continued. It has a night-vision camera which you could mount beneath your ship (and other places for other angles as well) which makes night-side landings possible and exciting (at the very least lol). I don't know if this mod works with the Pre-v1.2 release, I've not tried it yet (nor any other of the mods I religiously use).

Edited September 19, 2016 by LordFerret
correct spelling

[Leopard]

Eggbox here so no kids sadly

or stability

or large craft

oe a decent frame rate with medium ones

 

plenty of complaining though, so I feel right at home bumbling round in the dark.

 

explosion was pretty though

[Gilph]

Decided to retire my very first career save after 15 months (started with 1.0.5). 70 million currency and 300,000 science. Was up to 400,000 science, but purchased currency with it.  This was only lightly modded (KAC, KJR, Mechjeb). But, I decided to bring everyone home, so sent buses to bring everyone back to kerbin.

Career V2 was started in 1.1.3 to use Life Support. Up to 17 mods like Station Science, TAC LS, Soylent, R&D, KAS/KIS. Looking to do bases and KAS/KIS construction.  Will stay in the Kerbin system most of the time, I think. Goal is to not kill anybody.

Plan is to try the bigger life support mods when they come out in 1.2, and possible add the Outer Planets.

 

[kraden]

@LordFerret I'm adding those pages to my list of useful KSP info, thanks a lot!

[TheEpicSquared]

Well, I established a comm network in 1.2 and also got a chapter done in KSP Megastructures.

I also messed around with the new alt-f12 menu. I really like crushing kerbals with 10 gee's of gravity. 

[Matt Lowne]

20 hours ago, Francois424 said:

I loved using this floatplane, still needs a few tweak to make it how I really want her to be (nosecones to cover the back engines, redoing the science package, getting rid of a few batteries, maybe removing the breakable solar panels in lieu of flat static ones on the wings, an unbreakable KSP1.2 antenna might be a good idea).  But the basic fuselage and design is soooo good that I might just have found the kind of plane I wanted to use on Laythe. 

I'm glad you liked it! I actually experimented with flat panels on top, but I preferred the realism of having them retract, given that the aircraft goes hypersonic when on Laythe  

[Guest]

I've got the beginnings of a communications network in 1.2 -- three relays in keosynchronous orbit. Plus one in Kolniya orbit (on contract), and a station with a relay on Mun orbit. I also tested it by transmitting a crew report from a Minmus lander via an orbiting relay. Works, and is cool!

So probes are starting to work rather nicely. Only relatively rare blackouts.

The 1.2b is pretty stable really. Conics are still a mess, although a different kind of mess than before, and I ran across a nasty-ish bug with mobile research labs (can't start research, had to edit the save file for a workaround). Other than that no problems to speak of.

[Spaceception]

I nuked my way to Vall, click the link at my sig for more info

[MinerEdgar]

Made a jet pack, or more accurately a Rocket Seat.

 

[Wabbit]

I finished returning my Minmus expedition crew and created a Concorde-like supersonic passenger jet.

[Guest]

@-ELF-  Console version lets you see the Kerbals from the outside of the spacecraft through the windows.  Don't buy it yet though because it will eat your data.

[eddiew]

For reasons unknown to kerbal, someone offered a contract to take some orbital temperature readings around Ike and offered 600k roots + 115k per waypoint.

Obviously, there was only one thing to do!

...mission control acknowledges that there isn't technically a need for a dropship, but it would have been a shame to send the Odyssey out without a crew, so Jinx Kerman, Tora Kerman, Lily Kerman, Piper Kerman, Merlin Kerman, Rei Kerman, Fern Kerman and Yuki Kerman are handed a flag each, loaded aboard the new Yumi class vessel, stuck on top of a 3.75m rocket and fired towards the sky.

Surprisingly, everything works out fine, and they not only rendezvous with the Odyssey at 190km, but attach the missing science experiments from the initial Odyssey launch. Plus a mobile processing lab because Starcrossed is so hopelessly overloaded that there's no point even wishing for those boffins to get on with it. They're pondering over the Jool data, let alone the results of the Moho mission.

Capture into Dunian orbit is... peculiar. Ike is available to provide a gravity assist, which reduces the insertion to 600m/s in order to set up an encounter with... Ike. Perhaps this is overkill for a mothership packing 14km/s with a full cargo, but it never hurts to economise on the easy stuff. 

By the time the Odyssey and Yumi are in Ike orbit, the lab is stuffed with 748 data and merrily producing 50 sci/day. Some debate arises among the crew as to whether they should go for a landing on Ike as planned (world first) or Duna (more interesting by far). While it is true that Yumi packs 3km/s in her KR&D improved tanks, she hasn't been designed or tested for atmospheric performance. Plus, the engineers point out, TWR on Kerbin would be 0.43, which is rather close for Duna lift off. At this point, everyone decides they like Ike after all, and no further questions are raised. Descent prep will begin when Yuki and Fern have gotten through some of the initial orbital data.

Meanwhile...

Sarnusulose has completed an orbit around Sarnus which was long enough for the Moho expedition to depart and return and the Duna expedition to leave and arrive. Good kraken, but this planet has a big SoI! It is very likely that Kerbin could be moved out here and still have a 1-year orbit.

With only 200m/s left in the tanks, it seems unlikely that this heroic little probe will be moving on, but Slate is the only unmapped destination in the Sarnus system - and Sarnusulose's scanners are already on the job. Overall, nobody can really complain about this one.

(Ed: I'm swamped with science points! Even with KR&D to soak them up, at this rate I could run a crewed mission to all the Sarnusian moons and return without a refuel. Which is cool, but starting to feel OP... but then, I have been to a heck of a lot of places, and farmed the carp out of them, so maybe it's not an un-earned OP. I will review when 1.2 final version drops and mods start to catch up. Maybe I just need to push up the cost of the Alcubierre Warp Drive to 100,000 instead of its normal 10,000, just to give myself something to work towards. Also, I have about a 75% proportion of female kerbals this time round. I have no idea why, but I'm strangely envious of Merlin Kerman for being the only gentleman on this trip...)

Edited September 19, 2016 by eddiew

[theradRusssian]

I put up various relay and sp-uh... observation... satellites

[LordFerret]

5 hours ago, kraden said:

@LordFerret I'm adding those pages to my list of useful KSP info, thanks a lot!

In that case, I've one more link saved...

KSP Aerobraking Calculator

[aramil]

Made a sattellite network:

[SSgt Baloo]

Today I made seaplanes and flying boats.

The first one carried only the pilot, and required at least 20 kilonewtons of thrust to take off from the water, so I used the Merlin from Lack's Stock Extension. The rest used motors from the Airplanes Plus mod. The red-and-gray floats are from the Firespitter mod (and can be scaled up or down), while the other floats are from Lack's mod and can't be scaled.

The first was the only single-engined, single-seat plane in the series. I think all the cockpits I used were from Lack's mod, as well. If I'm wrong, let me know. I have a hard time keeping these straight in my head.

It flies well enough (all of the planes shown can easily take off and land on land, and can duplicate those feats on water, though a few need maximum elevator authority to unstick from water.

The next was a twin-engined, multi-passenger version of the first.  I had to use a taller pylon to elevate it from the float, and, like the first, it flies well enough. When landed in water, it does tend to sit rather low, but at least it doesn't sink. Despite the power claims for the Cyclone engine (shown) this plane is just adequate. It's best virtue is that despite having two engines, its fuel consumption is still kind of frugal. Also, if you look at some of the images, you can see my efforts to put a water rudder on these two, by using a very small fin and a very small elevon. Still not sure of the water rudders were any help. Getting turned around on water works fastest when you have differential thrust to help slew the plane around.

After the above plane, I wanted to see about making a flying boat, and discovered that the above floats could not be scaled, so I switched to the red-and-gray ones, which were. They also have more than one end cap, as one is a nose, while the other has a rudder (dunno if it works, though).

The above plane had "adequate" rudder authority and flew well enough, but I thought I could do better, so I rebuilt it with a taller tail (and more rudder), a bit more wing (the rounded wingtips) and different engines, the Bumblebee from Airplanes Plus. It flies much better, unsticks faster, and can get airborne in a bit more than 300 meters, which isn't STOL territory, but it isn't bad, either. With the more powerful engines, this one can get places in a hurry. Most of the others can't exceed 300 MPH without the person flying it exercising incredible patience. Only the last one can climb at 50 m/s without slowing  and stalling in a hurry. I still haven't wrung these out. I just checked to see if I could take off, land on water, get airborne again, and land back at KSP. They will perform all of these tasks without much difficulty, except for the few (all the twin-engine ones) that needed more elevator authority to get airborne from the water.

More here: http://s28.photobucket.com/user/SSgtBaloo/slideshow/19SEP2016

Edited September 20, 2016 by SSgt Baloo

[The_Rocketeer]

The Jurbo Quartet - my first four-engine turboprop.

4x Jurbo Whirlwind (18 Juno) engines, each smaller than radius 2 (exc. props), capable of 40 rads at full power and with adherence to 'manufacturer's instructions' (to prevent overspeeding), they'll run all day.

The aircraft will take off at 70m/s, cruises comfortably at 90+ m/s. Its biggest weakness is climbrate, which is unsustainable even at 5m/s. I think this is down to the propellors, which have been chosen for aesthetics.

[DBowman]

I had some success getting kOS to help me build very low TWR planetary transfers ( like 0.07 ms², the craft will run at 15% throttle limited by 2 RTGs) for a low mass Eeloo challenge

though sometimes the results look odd, and they are still painful to execute

 

Edited September 20, 2016 by DBowman
odd not add

[kotomikun]

Flew a plane over to KSC's mountain range to test some things about the dreaded unstoppable ragdoll tumble. Most of the plane exploded during the "landing." Probably should have taken that as a warning...

Jeb found a nice picturesque cliff to tumble down. At first he seemed to enjoy it, but then the Kraken tried to steal his spacesuit.

 

Wow. That's the first time I've seen Jeb look unhappy when no explosions were occurring.

 

Not surprisingly, some combination of high speed and eldritch spaghettification did him in, but he'll probably be reincarnated in the next Danny video.