What did you do in KSP1 today?

[RoboRay]

36 minutes ago, Martian Emigrant said:

What mod is that?

The clouds I mean.

Stock Visual Enhancements, which includes EVE, Scatterer and a few other visual odds and ends.  It's a nice one-stop-shopping way to get a great looking game.

Edited October 15, 2016 by RoboRay

[JadeOfMaar]

What I did in the last day or two was to take this stock-esque SSTO, change its engines and nose, and see if it would still fly like it has done. The results were satisfying, then I launched other SSTOs for fun and to enjoy engine sounds.

 

Later, I went and revived this craft design, fixing its fatal IntakeAir problem and giving it a few test flights. And just now I rebuilt it and another 8-kerbal carrier in the current version of the OPT mod (I've lagged behind in this mod's versions because Reasons™). This craft has been renamed from the dull "Moon Express Cargo Drone" to FedEx MunEx Uber (personnel/taxi edition) and MunEx Amazon (module carrier). Its optimal cargo weight is not yet measured.

 

Edited October 15, 2016 by JadeOfMaar

[flatbear]

more iva ssto flight hours

[DerekL1963]

Took the evening off from working on my Jool 5 run.  Built a 1.2 install (J5 is in 1.1.3) and farted around in career mode, which I haven't tried in over a year.  Yep, still loathe career mode.

[kraden]

Visited my third natural satellite.

I like that it's green.

Had to do some science, of course.

Then moved it into an orbit where Mun wouldn't eject it from Kerbin's SOI.

Disembarked and headed home.

[kotomikun]

A further upgrade was made to the Tourist Trap line of cash cow craft, making room for 20 passengers in fancy fender-bender-proof capsules. By sheer coincidence, there were 7 "high-gee" contracts available totaling 20 wealthy victims, so Val and Bob set off to visit the Mun and Minmus once again. The two-million-fund profit from this trip should help pay for a trip to Duna, if that transfer window ever gets here...

 

The engineers must have infared vision, because they keep forgetting that electric lights are a thing. Luckily, one of the neater craters was experiencing high noon. Or perhaps high moon. Wait, what's a "moon?"

 

They had, at least, been thoughtful enough to not block the passenger windows with the fuel tanks.

 

Bob and Val checked out the nearest crater-inside-a-crater. Insert your preferred meme joke here.

 

On the way out to Minmus, they flew through the canyon at the east end of the crater, for completely scientific, non-thrill-seeking reasons.

 

One midcourse 90-degree turn later, they reached Minmus's north pole. A tiny Kerbin seems to have landed there, as well...

 

Bob got to plant the flag this time, but Val apparently pranked him with a backwards-printed one. Either that, or this is a reflection. But there aren't any big flat monolithic objects way out here, right...?

 

After a quick hop to the lowlands, where Bob discovered he could somehow transmit to Kerbin straight through a hill, it was time to head home. Fuel appeared dangerously low, but it turned out they were looking at the wrong part of the d/v map, and they had a few hundred m/s to spare.

 

One of the batteries exploded in the upper atmosphere, but the other two were fine. Bill suspects it was one of those seventh-generation Kamsung models.

 

The tourist pods were robust, but the command pod was so flimsy that, if the ship tipped over after splashdown, it would explode like a sledgehammer made of confetti. Except the confetti would be science parts and... probably some other kinds of parts. But KSC's instantaneous Star Trek transporter recovery technology brought it back before disaster could strike. Wait, why aren't we exploring the solar system with that?

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

This actually happened last night, but anyways...

I unlocked mk3 plane parts in my 1.2 career save, so I built a plane using them. It seems either the strength of wing parts have changed or I forgot how flimsy they were because about 1/2 of my wing came off.

Spoiler

From now on, I am going to either put an abort system or test these things unmanned, no matter how simple and unlikely to fail they appear to be.

 

Sorry for the dark pictures, but I really wasn't expecting to be taking them.

Edited October 15, 2016 by EpicSpaceTroll139
(note about dark pictures)

[DragonHalo99]

5 minutes ago, EpicSpaceTroll139 said:

This actually happened last night, but anyways...

I unlocked mk3 plane parts in my 1.2 career save, so I built a plane using them. It seems either the strength of wing parts have changed or I forgot how flimsy they were because about 1/2 of my wing came off.

  Reveal hidden contents

From now on, I am going to either put an abort system or test these things unmanned, no matter how simple and unlikely to fail they appear to be.

 

Sorry for the dark pictures, but I really wasn't expecting to be taking them.

I would use the Rigid attachment and autostrut on that. I had a similar incident when testing a mk2 aircraft I built. One of the wings came off when I tried to turn around. Somehow I managed to land it and at least the cockpit and nose section survived the resulting crash.

[loch.ness]

Started a new 1.2 career (by accident, meant to start and test mods and then load my old career - but overwrote the old one).

Jeb took KASE's new Pigeon, our first aerial observation vehicle on a tour of the region around the KSP to fullfull four different observation contracts.  Bob is quite upset with him because he didn't wait for Bill to finish installing an antenna and most of his observations were about how the plane flew rather than data about different biomes of Kerbin.  KASE was paid handsomely for this and its reputation increased, though Bob's research team learned nothing that they could work with.

Jeb landed at the KSC shortly after sundown.  His observation report read:  "Wow."  Val has expressed her displeasure than Jeb got to fly the Pigeon at sunset.

To help her cool her jets about not getting to fly the jet, Val got to pilot the Bobstone 2A rocket, thus becoming the first Kerbal in orbit and the first Kerbal to go EVA (though Jeb did beat her to space on a suborbital Bobstone rocket.  Valentina completed one full orbit before returning over the polar ice shelf.  Val had already retracted her antenna within the Bobstone service bay, so until she landed there would be limited communication, but even that was lost as the re-entry plasma blacked out all signals too and from the command module.

The capsule touched down with many detailed notes regarding temperature, atmospheric pressure, mystery goo behavior, and Val's own observations on different biomes she'd been able to make out from orbit.  Bill and Bob are currently thinking that this data might be enough to put forward plans for a Munar flyby mission.  Mortimer is currently making the rounds at the big companies trying to see if anyone is willing to help front money for some infrastructure investments to support the program.

 

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

11 minutes ago, DragonHalo99 said:

I would use the Rigid attachment and autostrut on that. I had a similar incident when testing a mk2 aircraft I built. One of the wings came off when I tried to turn around. Somehow I managed to land it and at least the cockpit and nose section survived the resulting crash.

I had the Rigid attachment on in that version. After the events depicted in my post, I turned on autostruts too. I also slightly reduced my elevator control surface authority, and I didn't have any in-flight RUD problems until I tried landing at the island and said reduced elevator authority resulted in a fairly hard landing, which for unexplained reasons caused the wings to break off and flip over the top of my plane, takeing out my rudder. (I eventually came to a stop upsidedown on a slope at the side of the runway... amusingly my gear had no damage). After that I increased the elevator control authority back to normal levels and so far I haven't had any problems.

Edited October 15, 2016 by EpicSpaceTroll139
more details of crashlanding

[SelectHalfling0]

19 hours ago, Colonel Cbplayer said:

I build a mech 

 

Its, its beautiful.

[ValleyTwo]

I put up my second ComSat.  

I swear I am not drinking when I put up the Sats, I am just too lazy to make their orbits look perfect.  I just plan to make it so they don't bunch up together.

[Red Shirt]

Updated to 1.2  Normally I wait and let the dust settle (and for patches to be released) but the reports have most all been positive so.... Grabbed a stock ship and sent Jeb, Bill, and Bob to Mun. Landed next to an anomaly. Planted a flag, Jeb zipped smoothly up and down the ladder. Launched to orbit, Returned to Kerbin. Attempted a night time parachute landing at KSC. The whole flight went perfect and very smooth.... until the capsule slammed into the mountains west of KSC. Val we have a job opening.

First opinion of 1.20 is best version yet (at least since 0.25 as the nukes got nerfed after that). Now if I could learn to miss the mountains.

 

[CassiniPanini]

About to build a rocket to go to duna & Ike and back. Attempting to get every Trpohy for the game (PS4 Version) . Will post progress pics soon

[luizopiloto]

21 hours ago, Colonel Cbplayer said:

I build a mech 

 

You're my hero...

[septemberWaves]

Still in 1.2, I've been constructing the IPT Eclipse and preparing it for its first journey to Mios. This has led to what is probably the closest rendezvous approach in my entire experience of playing, courtesy of MechJeb's terrifying accuracy.

Rather conveniently, the IPT Eclipse was pointing in the exact right direction, and the third propulsion module happened to be rotated correctly too (surprisingly, this was not intentional).

[eddiew]

Made a fat little rocket...

Following in the footsteps of the Grenadier's landing on Tylo, this mission is a single-launch to a deep space target - in this case, Tekto.

Tekto poses a unique challenge, in that it's thick atmosphere demands a reasonably aerodynamic shape despite the low gravity. (Ed: actually, it's best done with a really aerodynamic shape, but it turns out that brute force and overpowered engines can compensate for a lot. If I go back here, it will probably be with a spaceplane, possibly with ISRU facilities onboard.)

...and once again, we find our pilot is not following the mission parameters   Apparently Jinx Kerman really wanted to see the ocean. I guess she has been stuck in that capsule for the past 6 years, we can't blame her for wanting a swim. In liquid ethane... odd girl. On the up side, she lands respectably close to the rover, cutting the 50km return journey over rough terrain down to a quick jaunt along the shoreline.

The ascent proves to be... well, terrifying, actually. Despite the heavily improved vector engines kicking out over 500 isps at sea level, the atmosphere proves to be a lot thicker than expected, and drag continues all the way up to 40km altitude. (Ed: no, really. The in-game note says 0.6 atm, it's actually double that, and it doesn't seem to thin out as quickly as Kerbin does either.)

Falling just short of the fuel requirement to circularise, Jinx falls back on the manoeuvring thrusters, managing to stretch those last few m/s out of the monoprop reserves. Future missions should note; Tekto is potentially harder to get off than Kerbin.

As usual, the transfer stage is massively overspecced, and not only can it come to meet the lander, but it more than compensates for the lander being bone dry, bringing it back to LKO and seeing it safely to Starcrossed station for data transfer. Its job done, it is left in a parking orbit with 1/3 of its fuel untapped because... well why not? It can't land safely, and it may be useful some day.

The Musketeer is at least perfectly tested for landing back on Kerbin. Made with truly space-age materials, it is highly heat resistant and provides complete protection for the rover in its cargo bay. Yes, after 96 years of flinging rockets towards the skies, kerbalkind have finally worked out how to make tyres survive re-entry - and as a bonus, all the expensive experiments come home too, recovering at 97% value and a respectable 1/4 of the original launch cost.

Total mission profit; about 2 million roots. Total science; Starcrossed is loaded with 4500 data, expecting 22,500 science points after processing. 

[Martian Emigrant]

8 hours ago, kraden said:

Visited my third natural satellite.

.....

Awesome.

Did you lower it, raise it or sync it to the Mun?

 

ME

[septemberWaves]

@eddiew I'm very impressed with that vehicle. It's an excellent design both in terms of effectiveness and appearance.

[Clipperride]

Got the "Jeb Flyer" to do this!!??!!

 

Spoiler

And Jeb survived the resulting ditch-at-sea abort 

[Martian Emigrant]

Won't be doing much today.....In my RL there are people coming over.

But I got to move Kerbals from the "Colapsing shadow universe" into the more stable one.

 

Unfortunately the "Original Four" can't come as their meeting themselves would implode the universe....The disaster could be limited to a single galaxy but the maths are fuzzy on that one.

 

Their sacrifice will not be forgotten anytime soon.

 

...

 

Oh. Look. Bunnies.

 

 

ME

[eddiew]

6 minutes ago, eloquentJane said:

@eddiew I'm very impressed with that vehicle. It's an excellent design both in terms of effectiveness and appearance.

Thanks   In this case, I really wanted to go with the sort of bell-shape landers that recent Mars landind proposals seem to have been spitting out.  Although, tbh, a lot of that is down to KR&D delivering engines that can keep up with how I want things to look ^^;

I'm not 100% sure whether this mission would have worked with un-KR&D'd parts... Possibly, if the suborbital hop was scrubbed. Ascent from Tekto in the lander needed about 3300m/s, and maybe stock vectors would have delivered that from a full tank - in which case all the rest is probably fine too. I haven't really invested in improving the 7.5m parts because I don't use them often and they're already very powerful, and the big 2.5m nuclear engine has a starting isp of 1500 and from the large quantity of fuel remaining, I suspect that it would have managed this mission just fine, especially had I bothered to use a gravity assist to get into Sarnus orbit.

One thing I did learn about Tekto though; use pointy landers like you would for Eve. That one was... too blunt for 1.2 atmospheric pressures. Did most of the climb at 120m/s because the drag was so high. Pretty sure it's actually easier to get off Kerbin than Tekto. If I return, I will look at winged ascent vehicles, since I reckon you can get good lift right up to 40-50km, getting you through the horrible sea-level drag zone.

[septemberWaves]

Update: another shockingly close rendezvous brings the final propulsion module to the IPT Eclipse. I particularly like the first image below because the IPT Eclipse is eclipsing the Sun.

[Guest]

I derived a gas world from the Rald moon mod and called it Halo after the vast halo of wispy water atmosphere around it. I was supposed to be an ocean world with no landmass except ice caps but I couldn't be bothered to mess with height and normal maps, so I made it a gas... well it's far from giant, and in that respect it's probably one of the most impossible worlds anyone has made for KSP. It occupies the place of Minmus' orbit, with Minmus as a subsatellite (celestial mechanics be damned, subsatellites are cool). The atmosphere is an extremely high (proportionately speaking) 100,000m but so thin and cold I've yet to experience any shock heating.

 

Featureless but pretty. I sent my thusfar only successful shuttle, Hornet, to observe my handiwork and make an attempt at flying.

 

We're flying already, all the way up here (I couldn't get the atmosphere to look taller), but the atmosphere is too thin for Hornet's wings to get a hold and she enters into a pathetic tailspin. Trouble is, unlike on Kerbin, the atmosphere below never becomes thick enough for her to right herself through lift alone.

 

At around 17000m, clouds begin to envelope the craft. They have a nice variation in tone from near-turquoise to a deeper icy blue, presumably thanks to Scatterer.

If you want the sunflare:

 

Flight is not easily accomplished by a heavy cargo shuttle with bulky aerospikes on the rear, but a jet-powered plane with good gliding ability would be right at home. A horizon can be observed through the clouds once sufficiently low, which eases the trepidation of the descent a lot (for me, at least).

Edited October 15, 2016 by Guest

[kraden]

1 hour ago, Martian Emigrant said:

Awesome.

Did you lower it, raise it or sync it to the Mun?

 

ME

I lowered it but kept its inclination. I like it's uniqueness and felt that is inclination was an extension of that. I had thought that I had taken a screenshot of its final orbit but when I was loading to imgur I didn't see it and it was quite late. I can post it later today if anyone would care to see it.