What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Starman4308]

Decided to design my Jool comms relays, with three large interplanetary antennas to talk to Kerbin and two relays that will maintain approximately Kerbostationary orbit (in the event Kerbin is behind the Sun or something), plus an octet of lesser antennas to maintain communications with all five moons, two to retain contact with the other Jool relays, and the last one pointed at the active vessel.

My greatest regret was deciding "hey, I know solar power is very weak at Jool orbit, but why don't I try anyways; plus, unlike a reactor, it won't ever run out."

Six tonnes of batteries. About the same of solar panels (nine Megalodors, nine curved static arrays, all from Near Future). Another 600 kg of capacitors. I could've gotten 30 years of life with reactors for less than 2 tonnes, plus 800 kg per full refuel, or just gone with two tonnes worth of RTGs. I'm going ahead with the solar-powered plan anyways for now, mostly because I am drowning in funds and it was kinda fun designing the solar-powered version, but to go to the OPM planets, there's no way I'll be able to do that with solar.

Otherwise: captured a class D into Kerbin orbit (just low enough to avoid Minmus); took some configuring to make Karbonite drills spit out Karbonite when run an an asteroid. Some redesign will have to be contemplated for subsequent missions; I think I put the drills too close to the docking claw, meaning I couldn't really pivot all that well towards the asteroid CoM, meaning really low thrust and absurd expenditure of RCS propellant.

Finally: a station crew awaiting pickup at just the right time of day:

[Guest]

Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zippo. Goose egg. Squat.

Until the mods I wish to base my efforts on get their poop in a group, that's the way things will stay. It's not that bad, really. I'm getting a lot of writing done.

[Aragosnat]

Not much. Doing easish contracts.. Found out it seems Kerbal controlled crafts can talk to other Kerbal Controlled craft if one craft has antenna and the other does not:

As ye can see in the above. The focused craft has direct connection to Kerbin. But, no connection to the relay sats I have in orbit. With the exception of the Targeted craft "Mun Spaace Station Base". Which has relays as well as active live Kerbals. Also found out if the Kerbals have High enough EXP they can access KerbNet Without having a direct connection on the MPL.

[Brownhair2]

@Sharpy I'm impressed you built it without it floating into space

---

Encountered a weird glitch.

I decided to create a "vacation home" for the Kerbals on the Horizon so I could avoid accidentally putting them on any missions. After all, they've been in space for 11 years. I'm not going to immediately send them back up again.

Anyway, I build a detachable chassis that would drive the base to a location, then detach. But when I went to the tracking station to recover it, it was gone. Instead I found this:

And when I went back to the base, the chassis was gone.

I know better than to ask questions.

Meanwhile, I've restocked the Horizon! There is now a fresh batch of victims Kerbals ready to crash on some godforsaken rock explore new worlds!

And hey, this time the engines are still intact!

no, that is not the Horizon...

Now all I need to do is refuel the Horizon and attach planes/landers/planes and landers.

[Mikki]

7 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

. . . ?

to do what, exactly? 

...Fly-by every celestial body, i guess in the specified order, starting with the sun... The infamous "Ultimate Challenge".
I really don`t think its possible in stock, except with excessive asteroid ISRU along the way.
All the muns included btw. I have some time to try it though.

Edited November 20, 2016 by Mikki

[Martian Emigrant]

1 hour ago, Mikki said:

...Fly-by every celestial body, i guess in the specified order, starting with the sun... The infamous "Ultimate Challenge".
I really don`t think its possible in stock, except with excessive asteroid ISRU along the way.
All the muns included btw. I have some time to try it though.

Just fly-by? Can be done in stock.

I have visited everyone with a single man kerbal ship using 1.1.3. MechJeb was used for guidance.

The only worlds I didn't land on were:

Orbited: Jool, Tylo, Eve.

Moho was a flyby only.

 

ME

 

[JadeOfMaar]

17 hours ago, Sybok said:

 

What better way to make a grand entrance on the forums than to deploy a base that does the Harlem Shake? : D

Have a medal, @Sybok

---

Over the last two or three days I've been working on ResearchBodies integration for the Galilean planets. (Said mod is currently in a pre-release state but works just fine.) In a dedicated science game I ended up developing this kontraption on my early quest to earn enough science to unlock the telescope and proper parts for a lifter and probe body. The 5 capsules exist to prove enough Ec to transmit all science, per KSC biome/per launch until I unlocked batteries. The craft itself is a VTOL meant to skate against surface to the next biome until I unlocked any form of wheels. I never thought I'd need an engine for its alternator as badly as in this.

And behold, I have the power to make science with a cardboard box and a microwave oven.

Ultimately and finally succeeding I get to witness the initial unlock of a targeted body, in this case, the innermost planet, then after, one of the outer planets and all its moons with an experimental upgrade patch for the telescope. The range increased but its usage cost did not.

Edited November 20, 2016 by JadeOfMaar

[KSK]

After much fiddling with suitable launch vehicles I managed to get the Kerbin Archipelago into orbit. Crew transport operations are proceeding slowly but surely. Projected on-orbit crew is fourteen kerbals. Maximum crew is of course much higher but this is supposed to be an island of tranquillity not a flying sardine can.

 

I decided that I really couldn't be bothered assembling this on orbit since getting everything to line up nicely would have been a frustrating exercise and all the extra bits and pieces needed for docking the various modules would have spoiled the overall look of the thing. So  - single piece launch it was and to the kraken with any sort of pretensions to a realistic launch vehicle. 

After much fiddling around careful experimentation, I settled on a design using outrigger boosters attached to the uppermost Hitchhiker modules and a sustainer stage coupled to the base of the lab module. Reckless overuse of swept wings (basically serving as giant fins) on the sustainer stage gave it enough drag to keep the whole contraption pointing nose (for want of a better word) forwards during atmospheric flight  and I'm sure the aerodynamic nose cones on the outriggers played their part too. It was a bit finicky to fly (and thank the Kerm for autostrutting - also used with reckless abandon) but fly it did and I think the end results are rather nice.

Edited November 20, 2016 by KSK

[Sharpy]

4 hours ago, Brownhair2 said:

@Sharpy I'm impressed you built it without it floating into space

 

I built it on the upper side of Gilly so that it wouldn't fall off.

[Magzimum]

I answered my own question how quickly you can get a Kerbal on top of the large monolith. My record so far is 1 minute 07 seconds.

I considered to turn this into a challenge, since there are probably multiple ways to tackle this problem. Also, my score can easily be improved if you use a little more violence. What do you guys think, could this (with some good set of rules) turn into a nice little challenge? 

[Clipperride]

17 hours ago, Red Shirt said:

After a few shake down trips to Mun, I felt it was time to go interplanetary. 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

Nice looking lander you have there.  I'm looking for designs to steal for inspire my own upcoming Duna mission.

[Clipperride]

11 hours ago, Ty Tan Tu said:

The very first thing I notice is that an empty tank at the top throws off the center of gravity for a launch from Kerbin. I did get the thing in orbit and with a bit of swearing in orbit around Mimmus. 

After much swearing myself, I hit on a solution.  Use the offset tool to tweak the connector between the off centre stage and the rest of launch vechile.  

Below is a balance test for my rover, which had as much mass as close to the wheels as possible.

Spoiler

Have fun

Edited November 20, 2016 by Clipperride

[LordFerret]

11 hours ago, Martian Emigrant said:

I have had problems like that with planes while flying.

I think part of the problem is parts that are clipped. When they get reloaded from a save as opposed to from the VAB (SPH). It's different somehow.

What you can do is go to the cheat menu and select "Unbreakable Joints". Follow with F9. Once physic as finish loading and all is fine uncheat it. You should be back to where you were when you saved.

 

ME

That's a good idea, but I'm not wanting to use any cheats as such, plus I don't have any clipped parts. I try very hard to make sure I don't clip parts when building. I've since redesigned the craft slightly, and I think I might have the problem solved. I'll find out later today.

 

8 hours ago, Aragosnat said:

... Found out it seems Kerbal controlled crafts can talk to other Kerbal Controlled craft if one craft has antenna and the other does not: ...

Unless I'm totally misunderstanding how antennas work and/or your post; Every capsule / probe core has an antenna built in (check the part descriptions!), but it's very low powered, like 5k. The red lines in your image are showing the Comms on Kerbin being able to reach your capsule, but the capsule can't reach back. The yellow line from the capsule going to the station is showing limited connection... likely because the station has antenna power enough but the capsule doesn't, providing a poor connection (but a connection none-the-less). I believe as the distance between that capsule and the station increases, that yellow line will turn red, or disappear altogether.

[DMSP]

I made a Davy Crockett style RTG launcher. I love this game.

http://imgur.com/gallery/R6ar9

Damn Gifs don't load...

[dangerhamster]

Deployed rovers to Mun and Minmus as part of an ongoing testing program.

Keeley seemed to prefer the Grifter over the Utility, despite the latter's extra seating.

Plans to test a Grizzler/Grifter hybrid (wide wheelbase but with a proper cab) were put on hold when it was noticed funds were starting to evaporate. To secure a reliable albeit slow source of the old spendaroonies an asteroid detection probe was designed. In a fit of ambition a relay sat stage was added because, well, raisins.

The behemoth used up most of the available budget and hopes were high that financial stability would not just be on the horizon but in orbit round Kerbol to boot.

An unfortunate decision to leave the probe on the pad overnight to fiddle with other things proved to have consequences....

A slight "control authority problem" leading to an "unplanned air ground interface" combined with the lack of a  "that never happened" button left the designer red faced and the budget emptier than a Scottish pay toilet. Ho hum. Unable to launch anything bigger than a firework there followed a painful round of waiting for rover contracts and the occasional science report from X.

After several eons driving in circles enough was raised to launch the (redesigned) probe. which behaved this time and is now on station generating some lovely income.

 

 

[ROXunreal]

Mun Orbital station got its first science module. StationScience modules will follow.

 

 

[TheEpicSquared]

SpaceLab station is coming along nicely! Notice the 2 new solar trusses for maximum power-generating potential  

[SkyHook]

Christened both of my Duna craft! Shepard will be a crew transport and habitat while on orbit/in transit to Duna, and Valhalla will land crew and cargo on both Duna and Ike to complete some 4 million funds worth of contracts at the Red Planet. This is the culmination of about a month of designing and testing of both craft. Ad Astra! 

AR-01 Shepard 

 

AM-05 Valhalla

 

 

Edited November 20, 2016 by SkyHook

[Sybok]

Appreciate the feedback to my post  thx

Easier task today: An Asteroid-Base for Duna... and then I found this "diamond"

Never saw an Asteroid like this before. It is glowing in the dark!
The crew can read books in bed without flashlights now  awesome

[SmashingKirby148]

We have a new addition to the crew! Guess his name!... Did you guess ______ Kerman?... well... It's not actually a Kerbal!

Meet Gerald, the Kraken. He is the four legged walker in the picture above.

Ok, let me get into why I made this. To get science for my lab ( as you can see, we have made the base self-sustainable, so we made it prettier looking ), I need to quickly make something with as many experiments as I could. I chose the large Kraken container from the Kraken Science mod, and I may have gotten attached. ^^; I mean, come on, he has a Rubix cube!

So after that I decided to turn him into a proper character. Now to continue doing things at the Laythe Space Center!

[Aragosnat]

3 hours ago, LordFerret said:

Unless I'm totally misunderstanding how antennas work and/or your post; Every capsule / probe core has an antenna built in (check the part descriptions!), but it's very low powered, like 5k. The red lines in your image are showing the Comms on Kerbin being able to reach your capsule, but the capsule can't reach back. The yellow line from the capsule going to the station is showing limited connection... likely because the station has antenna power enough but the capsule doesn't, providing a poor connection (but a connection none-the-less). I believe as the distance between that capsule and the station increases, that yellow line will turn red, or disappear altogether.

 

They do. But, I find it odd that manned Crafts can talk to each other if one has relay/antenna and the other does not have the extra.. But, relay probes (just the probe core and relay antenna) cannot. Also Even though the craft says it has antenna. They (probe and crewed) can never send out unless they add an external antenna. But, can get signals only directly from Kerbin's comm system. Which I was expecting. Was not expecting another Kerbal craft that had external relay antennas to get a line to the one without any external(extra) antennas. If I remember right. It kind of has to by the relay antenna. As the basic non-relay ones don't work (does not show lines).

[Red Shirt]

5 hours ago, Clipperride said:

Nice looking lander you have there.  I'm looking for designs to steal for inspire my own upcoming Duna mission.

Thanks. Except for the square truss at the end of the outriggers, this is all stock. I needed more clearance for the rover. It also doesn't show in the pics but there is another tank mounted below the rover that feeds into the lander engines. It is used during descent and jettisoned before landing. Here is a shot from a Mun mission showing the descent tank. Threading the fuel line through the rover to the tank above took patience and a bit of luck.

[MrCalvinator]

This is the longest thread I have ever seen.  Anyways, I made a jet with tracking missiles.  All stock.  Mach 2.

oh yeah.  Also, did docking for the first time in my life.  

[Clipperride]

@redshirt I always love an extra drop tank!  There's something so satisfying as getting a vessel part way there, but still on "full" fuel

2 hours ago, MrCalvinator said:

Oh yeah.  Also, did docking for the first time in my life.  

Nice work!

 

Mun Rover Lab continues towards the South Pole (how far do you have to drive on the Mun before you can call it epic?).  With Kerbol so low in the sky, it's light is now skirting the horizon, meaning a solar powered rover has to start taking detours to keep the batteries charged.  The lab has now been limited to processing science data when stationary or coasting down hill. That's few and far between now! Every onwards!

Edited November 20, 2016 by Clipperride

[purpleivan]

I sent Valentina on a cheap (28k funds) trip to Duna for the Private Mun Landing challenge.

 

I pretty heavily over fueled the vehicle, so much so that the stage that took here to Duna was good for the trip back too, so the small stage that she rode into Kerbin's atmosphere which was intended to power the return to Kerbin, was still full.