What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Halfdan]

another presupply mission done

after several months of coasting the movers and the spaceport markers are deployed 

overshot the landing site by about 2 kilometers, but thank god thats not a big thing about landing rovers ^^

[Sufficient Anonymity]

I played for the first time in ages, and went on a nice relaxing little flight

Edited December 9, 2016 by SufficientAnonymity

[Starman4308]

27 minutes ago, SpaceastronautX said:

Oh god almost 200 millons tons!! That is like the weight of Kerbin!!

First, that's 200,000 tons, not 200 million.

Second, even if it were 200 million tons, Kerbin would still outmass it by a factor of 265 billion. Gilly out-masses 200 million tons by a factor of 620,000. I know it's probably hyperbole on your part, but I get a smidge annoyed when people underestimate just how gigantic celestial bodies are.

On my own end: finally landed on Gilly. Very difficult at 6.4x scale; you need to remember to hit the thrusters before landing, because 45 m/sec is just a smidge too fast for most landing legs. Labor of Hercules, I tell you.

Finally got that E-class asteroid into Munar orbit for a contract (WHY), after five lunar slingshots because of course I came in retrograde.

Moho is going to be the death of me. A robotic lander (not even a very heavy one) is costing me nearly a million roots, a large fraction of which is going to the xenon propellant for a 12-engine ion cluster. That engine is amazing in many ways; it needs 2,000 EC/sec (would be utterly impractical to run on solar anywhere but Moho/Eve), consumes ludicrously expensive xenon, has a pittance of thrust relative to its mass (43.45 kN for a 2-ton engine which needs over 2 tons of solar panels... at Moho), and has a wonderful, wonderful 12,000 s^-1 of specific impulse, giving me > 20 km/sec of delta-V.

Maybe were it not so close to the Sun, I'd go for a nuclear thermal rocket instead, but at Moho, cryogenic NTR fuels are going to boil like mad.

Also: sprach Zarathustra:

Edited December 9, 2016 by Starman4308

[Red Iron Crown]

25 minutes ago, SpaceastronautX said:

Oh god almost 200 millons tons!! That is like the weight of Kerbin!!

200 kilotons is 0.2 million tons.

[Program Kerbal Space]

What I did today (Actually it was 2 days ago) was attempting to land on the Mun, but I time warped to fast and ended up in orbit around the sun /: Great story isn't it?

[The Raging Sandwich]

STS-7 (A mission to deploy a test probe for ion propulsion provided by ISPE. After the failure to reach the Mun by their other test probe because of insufficient battery power, a new one was made with triple the batteries. The probe was deployed and the crew return back to Kerbin with a [much] less than perfect landing.): Success

ISPE Ion Propulsion Test 2 (Deployed from STS-7, burned once to raise the apoapsis to about 3,000 km, and again after an orbit to reach the Mun. It attempted a low flyby, so low that its bottom solar panel had to be retracted. Ironically, it ran into a small hill. The concept was thorughly tested, however, and is ready for official use.): Success

Ike 1 (The first manned mission of the Ike spacecraft. Due to the less than sufficient nuclear engine used in the T1 mission, it was switched to a regular liquid fuel engine. The Kerbal engineers [me] forgot to add any oxidizer after the switch, though. The launch and TMI burn was perfect, but the fuel problem was realized just before they entered the Mun flyby and was ready to conduct an orbital insertion. A mission abort was issued and it used its RCS thrusters to lower the periapsis from 2,300 km to >0 m. Landing wa successful.): Partial success

[Brownhair2]

And here we see a wild flock of spaceplanes in orbit around Laythe:

They are preparing for their great migration to the lush grasslands of Kerbin

The journey will be a harsh and grueling one. Let's hope they survive...

(haha just kidding i deorbited all of them after transferring the kerbals)

Edited January 5, 2017 by Brownhair2
No kerbals were harmed in the making of this documentary

[N_Danger]

 With all the science gained from Val's Mun orbit mission I took the first tier solar panels.

Which allowed me to launch my first Low Res Mapping missions to the Mun and Kerbin.

 

After which I put a data relay network up.....Well 3 satellites will count as one right? 

 

Edited December 9, 2016 by N_Danger

[Mycroft]

58 minutes ago, SpaceastronautX said:

Oh god almost 200 millons tons!! That is like the weight of Kerbin!!

Lol! It sure feels like it. A launcher that can lift it will likely take it over 300,000 tons. But its weight on my RAM is far more than the entire Kerbal system combined.  

37 minutes ago, Starman4308 said:

First, that's 200,000 tons, not 200 million.

Second, even if it were 200 million tons, Kerbin would still outmass it by a factor of 265 billion. Gilly out-masses 200 million tons by a factor of 620,000. I know it's probably hyperbole on your part, but I get a smidge annoyed when people underestimate just how gigantic celestial bodies are.

Hey man cut him some slack! Hyperbole is a figure of speech and nothing to get in a tizzy over. Cool statistics tho.  Like I said tho, it far outweighs the whole Kerbin system as far as RAM usage.  I guess that as well as ruining the enemy ships, it will ruin their FPS too.  

[Odonian]

Decommissioned my old Atta water extractor, transferred crew and turned the lights on in the hub module of Leafcutter 2. It's a beautiful Minmus morning.

[kball]

It's amazing. I have been playing KSP off and on for a little over a year.

And only last week did I go interplanetary!

TL;DR; KSP just keeps on giving. Can YOU set up 100% comms coverage.

It's not because I haven't been able to or because I haven't put in the hours. It's because I really have gotten that much rewarding playability out of the Kerbin System until now. A year with KSP and I've still got the whole Kerbol System to look forward to. Sure I probably could have made it to Duna long ago. But I got real fun and satisfaction out of following the career progression and picking up every contract that offered a new challenge before pushing that boundary.

That fact is a testament to KSP's incredible depth of playability. So a huge thanks to the creators and current developers for that!

And now... and now! 1.2!

I just started playing 1.2 a couple days ago because it came out just when I had my first missions to the inner system planets (Duna, Eve and Moho). I didn't want to switch to 1.2 without the comms network, and I couldn't enable the comms network and brick my interplanetary missions. What a dilemma! I soldiered on, continuing to pick up the the contracts I'd never seen before while my ships sailed out into the system. Yes I'd rescue Mitgel and his debris from the surface of the Mun. And yes I'd rescue Catette from the surface of Minmus (because I wanted to see if my surface rescue ship performed just as well there, of course!). And yes, I would dutifully haul that ore from Minmus back to Kerbin. Man was it hard to slow that bag of rocks in time!

A few days ago my missions arrived safely in orbit around their destinations. Now... 1.2! Comms! So this is what I did today:

I've got a relatively low dV transfer window to Eve open RIGHT NOW. I'm going to be sending landers and Kerbals there soon (probably the next transfer window) so I'd better send some Relay Sats out now to cover comms when my real missions arrive. Might as well send some science landers as well so the relay sats can escort them along... they can experiment with Eve aerocapture while they're at it.

And now I'm sending out comm sats to Duna and Moho. My transfer windows there are more relaxed.

I love that 1.2 has presented me with this particular challenge (I realize mods could have done it for me sooner, but as I said, I've yet to tire of the stock experience. MJ and KER is all I use). I'll leave you guys with the same challenge:

Ensure 100% comm coverage on any body

The KSP reddit provided this solution:

https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/18sc2o/what_satellite_constellation_requires_the_fewest/

It suggests 4 satellites configured into a tetrahedron that rotates about the body. But further research leads me to believe this might be a naive solution (Would love for someone to explain why!) The Space Exploration StackExchange pointed me to a patent for a 4 satellite 100% coverage constellation and it prescribes something much more specific than a tetrahedron.

http://space.stackexchange.com/questions/1035/what-is-the-fewest-number-of-satellites-required-to-have-constant-global-coverag

https://www.google.com/patents/US4809935

My Comms missions to Eve, Moho and Duna will only include three satellites. They'll neglect the poles for now. But I'm going to see if I can get this 100% coverage set up on Mun and Minmus in the meantime. How would you go about it?

I'm thinking:

• Spoiler

   

  • Send all sats into an equatorial orbit (maybe on one ship?)
  • Plot maneuvers at 120 degree longitudinal intervals to incline their orbits.
  • Expand and contract their orbits one at a time to configure their true anomalies (same as time of periapsis passage?)

   

   

Thanks again to everyone who made this awesome game and to you guys here who make this community.

 

Edited December 9, 2016 by kball
TLDR

[Ruthgar]

Been a while since I've posted something here.

 

Didn't do much in KSP today, just started a new game with the usual dream team of kerbals that will be led by a new one, one JG Kerman, who will be the lead kerbanaut for this world.  Appropriate I think for what happened today.

 

"Thank you John Glenn for being a part of that first group of explorers to brave that which is beyond the limits of our world to show us a glimpse of what is beyond it.  May you Rest In Peace."

[Colonel Cbplayer]

Lazor fights

 

[Angelo Kerman]

I added railings and cables to the Heisenberg's cargo lift:

 

[XB-70A]

The day was pretty slow so it gives me the force to make something tonight. I keep working on many different shuttle systems (the Eos is still in orbit) but also have to anticipate the next transfert windows for Duna and Eve. The last one is the target of tonight work with a first relay and scanning sat' to get some funds, Eve Express.

This satellite got nothing special. about 3 km/s of dV for itself it will not have to much capabilities once in Eve's SoI.

 

For a timing (and lazyness) reason I picked my medium-heavy launcher Ariadne 5 and her 4 km/s available.

 

Séparation des EAP.

At this time the launcher is light enough and the atmosphere so thin that the accelration is about 3G.

 

The Ap already is at 400 km and will just necessitate a small kick to circulize. Instead of a Swivel, like on my Ariadne 4, on this model a Poodle is the engine of the ESC stage-like.

 

With just two of its antennas deployed, Eve Express will wait for about 300 days here at 400 km for its transfert to happen.

 

But meanwhile in the VAB...

Destined to explore Duna the rover Singularity is nearly ready for its launch too.

[loch.ness]

I did a "cheat menu" test of my prototype Duna Return Capsule (below)

On the simulated landing the parachutes slowed it to ~17 m/s with a little help from the OMS mono-prop rockets to get it slow enough for the chutes to properly open.  I don't think I used more than 15 m/s on the landing attempt but I lost an engine and had to scrub the simulation because I came down to hard.  

My excell is budgeting for 1200 m/s delta V to orbit from Duna and I'm packing 1308.5 m/s, so I've got wiggle room for usign the OMS rockets on landing.  I have a TWR of ~ 2.4 (though I just realized that I'm using Vaccum numbers and not adjusting for Duna's atmosphere so I should throw another Monoprop tank on it to be sure since I don't know how to calculate Duna's atmosphere and its effect on thrust/ISP.

The DAV uses M.O.L.E. parts which carry LS supplies and monoprop as well as having seating for 5 kerbals.  I was thinking of trying to make a 6 kerbal extended Duna mission, but 5 is looking like a solid number.  I'm thinking of using a variation of the above configuration for an Orion too.

Had no time to work on my Orion or Crewed Transfer Vehicals yet.

[algwat]

Long story....the short version...I got to here... oh the drama and heroics to make this happen and save the orbiter that failed to do a final approach burn  and had to be rescued...

built using payload delivery drones....and docking ports....

felt good about it then made this......

Edited December 9, 2016 by algwat
spelling check..again

[lodger]

Having spent the past 2 1/2 years enjoying rocket launches, booster stages and all the nice missions one can do with these, I eventually went ahead to that other building at KSC, the one where they build these winged thingies ... ah ... 'spaceplanes'. Got totally addicted to that now and am currently playing and toying around with various designs.

The first picture shows a NERV equipped variant of the original ASES SP2 Xkos design as was discussed in this thread - as you can see this one has traveled quite a distance.

 

 

Next on the list is another design that I use to deliver payloads to LKO. in the image down below an ASES SP3 Xa has just delivered a science module to my slowly growing KOS (Kerbin orbital station)

Edited December 9, 2016 by lodger

[Clipperride]

8 hours ago, kball said:

It's amazing. I have been playing KSP off and on for a little over a year.

And only last week did I go interplanetary!

TL;DR; KSP just keeps on giving. Can YOU set up 100% comms coverage.

It's not because I haven't been able to or because I haven't put in the hours. It's because I really have gotten that much rewarding playability out of the Kerbin System until now. A year with KSP and I've still got the whole Kerbol System to look forward to. Sure I probably could have made it to Duna long ago. But I got real fun and satisfaction out of following the career progression and picking up every contract that offered a new challenge before pushing that boundary.

•   Hide contents

   

- Why oh why won't my tablet browser let me delete the spoiler window??

- Why are there so many great posts and only 25 likes per day (If I haven't liked yours it's because I ran out, but I do read them all)

- And, the reason for the Quote - Snap, me too!  After a year of playing KSP, I too ventured out to Duna for the first time in my new(ish) 1.2 career save.  Very satisfying to land an un-crewed craft to check out the ∆v requirements (I don't like to hyperedit) before sending a team there in year 3. What a great "game" (not really a game, more a way of life!)

Toodles

Edited December 9, 2016 by Clipperride

[How to: KSP]

On 12/1/2016 at 5:07 AM, DBowman said:

I learned that not only will  + +  

throw this    around these   per my Mars 2024 flyby

it also has the deltaV and consumables to visit this  an Aten class Near Earth Asteroid 2000 SG344 

If you use one more  to stack another Briz-M core as a booster then there are about a dozen NEAs it could visit. Some are smaller than the craft, crazy to think of finding a 3m rock in the middle of so much nothing.

 

On 12/1/2016 at 5:07 AM, Aragosnat said:

Guess what I spied with my little eyes:

Also KerbNet does not seem to see it even though I got the Explore/History First bonus funds from being within 2.4 km even running into it with the probe. Still did not see it on KerbNet... 

 

On 12/1/2016 at 4:03 AM, eloquentJane said:

@Leafbaron You're right, the cargo bay is from MRS - although on that shuttle it's not actually for cargo, it's for the docking system and instrumentation. It's a low-tech shuttle that will be used as an early-to-mid -game crew transport. The 1.875m tanks from M.O.L.E are also great for making small vehicles like this. It took me a while to get the fuel flow right though, and the same goes for finding a low-tech engine with enough gimbal range (I settled for the 5 degree range of the Moa from SpaceY).

 

On 12/1/2016 at 3:34 AM, Triop said:

Today was SSTO time.

 

On 11/30/2016 at 11:50 AM, Galileo said:

I didnt make anything higher.. are you using Sigma Dimensions?

 

On 11/30/2016 at 0:15 PM, CatastrophicFailure said:

It's the SD cfg you cooked up here...

Can confirm, bumpiness is considerably bumpier. And also, 10km mountains. 

 

On 12/1/2016 at 0:20 AM, Clipperride said:

I've been playing through my first Career Mode game (I've never got further than landing on the Mun in Career Mode before) for a week or so and have reached-

Year 1 - Day 260.  Transfer Window to Duna.

I had hoped to have more time to test my Duna bound vessels, but a satellite contract around Minmus ate up a load of time when I was really paying full attention!  Despite that oversight, there are now four ships on their way to a Duna encounter.  Rather than sending four different craft, the lack of time led to a change of plans, with two of each of the two tested ships each launched 90 minutes apart.

The first two are each carrying 4 communication satellites a piece to be placed around Duna and Ike.  The next two Interplanetary craft have a small automated lander each, to return some science and test out the technology for a crewed trip the next time the Duna window opens up.

 

[SpaceastronautX]

12 hours ago, Starman4308 said:

First, that's 200,000 tons, not 200 million.

Second, even if it were 200 million tons, Kerbin would still outmass it by a factor of 265 billion. Gilly out-masses 200 million tons by a factor of 620,000. I know it's probably hyperbole on your part, but I get a smidge annoyed when people underestimate just how gigantic celestial bodies are.

On my own end: finally landed on Gilly. Very difficult at 6.4x scale; you need to remember to hit the thrusters before landing, because 45 m/sec is just a smidge too fast for most landing legs. Labor of Hercules, I tell you.

Finally got that E-class asteroid into Munar orbit for a contract (WHY), after five lunar slingshots because of course I came in retrograde.

Moho is going to be the death of me. A robotic lander (not even a very heavy one) is costing me nearly a million roots, a large fraction of which is going to the xenon propellant for a 12-engine ion cluster. That engine is amazing in many ways; it needs 2,000 EC/sec (would be utterly impractical to run on solar anywhere but Moho/Eve), consumes ludicrously expensive xenon, has a pittance of thrust relative to its mass (43.45 kN for a 2-ton engine which needs over 2 tons of solar panels... at Moho), and has a wonderful, wonderful 12,000 s^-1 of specific impulse, giving me > 20 km/sec of delta-V.

Maybe were it not so close to the Sun, I'd go for a nuclear thermal rocket instead, but at Moho, cryogenic NTR fuels are going to boil like mad.

Also: sprach Zarathustra:

A Moon for Mun! Xd

[capi3101]

(1.1.3, FAR to go). After having spent the last three nights doing overnight shifts, last night I got to sleep. I probably needed it.

So, not a lot to report this morning to y'all. An Auk III medium tanker spaceplane flight was successfully sent up to the Kerbinport space station to refuel the passenger ferry Strange Cargo, with leftover payload fuel going to its sister ship Next Objective also docked at the station. I'll be sending up another Auk III in the near future to finish fueling Next Objective, since I need both craft ready to go back out when their sister ship Big Stink returns from Minmus, which will happen in just over five days. And I'll be landing the current Auk III at the next opportunity.

I spent the rest of my evening attempting to make a working submarine in the litterbox, dubbed Nautilus 7. After figuring out the best way of getting the eighty-tonne monstrosity out into the water, I discovered that subs with stock parts are hard - the fewer floaty bits you have, the better, and apparently a single piece of structural fuselage is sufficient to keep eighty tonnes of sub on the surface if you attempt to use it as a conning tower. I suspect that balancing your CoM is also a must, putting subs on a level of difficulty on par with VTOLs - which I have done before, but are also difficult to do well. You can't have enough of the large SAS wheels, and you can't expect to go anywhere fast if you're only using a pair of Wheesleys for propulsion. I did see a YouTube video where somebody built a successful stock sub that could do 9 m/s by building an actual screw-type propeller with stock parts; I might try emulating that design to see what I can learn from it, and not just try to go off of memory next time...

Edited December 9, 2016 by capi3101

[loch.ness]

Now that I have a working Ascent craft model I started looking at a crew transfer vehicle.  I want to transfer 2 teams of 5 kerbals to Duna (10 total) for a big mission, preferably with space left over.

Using the Cheat menu to test how it flies, thrust, turning I put this in orbit:

USI-LS Habitation wise it can handle 10 Kerbals for 3 years.  Life support only claims 84 days though.  The calculator doesn't include the recyclers from hydroponics and fertilizer 

It has a forward docking port (Plan to have a 5 Kerbal Orion docked for transfers later) which leads to the Bridge, Science labs, and hydroponics lab.  Behind that are a MOLE habitat and greenhouse for zero G work space.  The habitation ring for crew quarters.  Aft of that is a Medical bay to deal with homesickness and the read docking region with additional agroponics modules.  I am considering having 2 3 kerbal escape capsules docked at the rear docking module on the final load out (This would allow the entire crew + 1 stow away to return to kerbin in an emergency before departure, but they'd be dead weight afterwards).  Behind that is fuel and engines.

Launching this thing will be a challenge in itself.  I'm debating between having an Orion docked on the nose during transfer and sending an Auto Piloted Orion separately.  Sending one ahead would be optimal but then makes it hard for the crew to get from the ship to their landing craft.  I'll cross that bridge once I get to it though, for now I'm happy with the general aesthetic and limited amount of wobble on my ship (There is still more wobble than I want but I can cope with it as it is now).

[Leafbaron]

13 hours ago, N_Danger said:

 With all the science gained from Val's Mun orbit mission I took the first tier solar panels.

Which allowed me to launch my first Low Res Mapping missions to the Mun and Kerbin.

 

After which I put a data relay network up.....Well 3 satellites will count as one right? 

 

how did you just get clouds and nothing else that comes with EVE/SVE?

[septemberWaves]

Done yesterday, uploading today.

I sent an N1 rocket to Arkas in a test save. With a launch mass of nearly 1.5 kilotonnes, this is one of the largest rockets I've used.

Launch:

Spoiler

The thirty first-stage engines are composed of 6 Constellation engines and 12 Pulsar engines (basically a pair of Constellations) from the Vx Series II Engine Pack.

Ignition.

Liftoff.

The N1 flies exceptionally well, unlike its real counterpart.

First stage cutoff.

First stage separation, second stage ignition.

Fairing separation.

Launch escape system jettison.

Unlike the real N1, this one circularizes with its second stage.

With what was left once in orbit, the transfer to Arkas was executed. The grey third stage of the rocket was supposed to do this, but I ended up with far too much delta-v. The Soyuz tank that was inside the fairing actually ends up barely being used.

Arkas transfer and landing:

Spoiler

After the transfer burn, the N1 second stage is separated.

The vehicle leaves Kerbin behind.

Arriving at Arkas.

Circularizing with the N1 third stage. This was supposed to be done by the Soyuz tank, but the mission had 2km/s more delta-v than it needed, so there was little point in wasting the N1 upper stage.

The N1 upper stage is separated.

The lander separates from the return craft and de-orbits, making the only use of the Soyuz stage.

Re-entry was successful. Arkas's atmosphere surprised me in how non-lethal it is. The terrain beneath was also something of a surprise, considering how it looks flat from space but I ended up descending towards a slope.

The lander wasn't built very well, and points prograde after decoupling the heat shield. It was only designed for testing delta-v amounts.

I tried several times to land safely. Unfortunately, the slope made this impossible, so I simply jettisoned the parahutes and started the ascent. This slope is about 3km above sea level, but it will still help me to gain an indication of how much delta-v is needed. This lander has over 5km/s, which I guessed would be approximately enough for sea level on Arkas.

The parachutes are jettisoned and the ascent begins.

Ascent proved to be surprisingly easy. It seems that a sea level ascent is likely to cost only around 5500 to 5800m/s.

First stage cutoff and separation.

Second stage ignition.

Circularizing. I won't bother showing the return, it was not particularly interesting. The main purpose of this mission was to figure out how much delta-v is needed for Arkas, with the side mission of testing the N1 (simply for the sake of making a vague N1 replica).