What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Boganaut]

Took on a "Build a space station into a class E asteroid and bung it into orbit around Eve" mission. Intercepted the 'roid OK, but realised I didn't have nearly enough battery power. I was pretty much ready to say "bugger it" and had started adjusting the orbital plane when an intercept with Kerbin appeared. It was offering to give me an extra 0.1 degree for free and also do 75% of the work in bringing my periapsis close to Eve's orbit! With the flyby plotted to come withing 800km of Kerbin, I decided it was time to fix the power problem and add some manoeuvring thrusters to the 'roid.  Made a successful intercept and ended up with a nice distribution of units at 6 points around the... well look, I'm going to rename it to "The Potato". The Potato now handles exceptionally well for a 1000t+ object and is now in the process of final burns for Eve intercept. The rookie crew aboard have been learning as they go and somehow, they still haven't run out of snacks!

[capi3101]

(1.1.3) Wound up not doing much of anything yesterday. I still wasn't satisfied that the redesigned Hellhound 7 rover delivery system would have sufficient fuel to make it to Duna and then land, so I decided to look at alternative means of delivering one. I had the thought, "Hey, I have KAS and KIS, I wonder if I could put all the parts into a container or two and have it constructed on site." So I spent my day working on the Rover-In-A-Can 7, which largely involved putting together a lander that would make it to Duna with enough storage space for all the parts involved, separating the essential parts from the non-essential parts and then figuring how how the hell I was supposed to put the damn thing together (Bill complained that the instructions were all written in Farsi). On the fourth try and after twenty minutes, Bill had put together a working Hellhound, and he and Bob took it for a test drive that lasted exactly four minutes (idiots ran it into one of the R&D buildings at 30 m/s trying to go through the building tunnel and blew most of the front end clean off). Concept proven, the rest of the day was spent building and testing a transfer stage and booster that would get the lander to Duna. The craft is certified at this point, so I'll probably be launching one (the rover Apathy) in my career save later today.

[Carl]

What is it with Kerbals and their snacks. Done nothing the last two days as i work on getting the images uploaded for my writeup. Imgur was behaving most of yesterday, but for these last few images it's being a gigantic PITA again. Grrr. Then i have to get the images into the writeup post and comment them. Curious whats the forums limits on max images per post, got 74, (going to spoiler them and in their own thread don't worry), so might have to split that bit up...

[Kertech]

strictly speaking it happened last night, main career save bugged out, nothing working, NaN's everywhere, I don't have the desire (or time) to sit through the half hour boot to find out where the problems are coming from, so guess clean install, fewer mods (well nah) 

Prepare yourselves, when Imgur reboots, a massive photo dump is coming your way! 

[Rainbowtrout]

I decided to go lunar today. The ship crashed down on the surface, but the two kerbals survived. With some "NASA-Mandated Three-Dimensional Mobility Device Exploration", one died. I then (for poops and giggles) to send the other one into a suborbital trajectory. For science, I assure you.

He hit 500 m/s, and then collided with the surface head first. But, not before this poetic shot.

http://imgur.com/a/uF7qh

One last look at home before death. 

[Carl]

Your evil. Just saying.

[CaptainTrebor]

Turned a severely underpowered plane into an uncontrollable plane then into a barely controllable plane.

[septemberWaves]

2 hours ago, Kertech said:

Prepare yourselves, when Imgur reboots, a massive photo dump is coming your way!

So I'm not the only one who's been experiencing problems with Imgur. Do you know what's up with it?

[justidutch]

    A number of missions are covered in today's report, so apologies for the length and number of pictures.  Here we go...

    First off was an attempt to fulfill a basic contract to expand the station in orbit around the home planet, by 5 seats.  Easy.  The main KSP Directorate took it upon themselves, though, to 'persuade' the engineers to come up with a ship that looks and could even act like a plane.  The engineers wanted to ask why, but they like their jobs and want to keep them so they kept their mouths shut.  Since the lazy scientists haven't yet devised an air breathing engine that could get a large enough plane that seats five high and fast enough (let alone the stodgy admin types who are refusing to upgrade the hanger facilities so any plane is limited to 30 parts),  a simple plane that could be delivered to orbit via big ole booster(s) was the plan that was proposed.  So, the first step was to create a 5 seater plane with a docking port.  Thus the 'Shuttlecock' was borne.  A single test flight was enough to convince everyone involved that this first step was complete.

Spoiler

 

    Various attempts at booster and delivery stages/vehicles were attempted, but in the end a quartet of solid boosters was the cheapest and most reliable answer.  A test flight was conducted, the plane (after the addition of some 'spacey' parts like RCS thrusters and solar panels) got into orbit very successfully, and everyone was happy.  Until, that is, the pilot revealed that the KSC political officer had given him direct and strict orders to continue the flight and dock with the station, no return to the ground until that had taken place.  When the rest of the team learned this news, they all laughed in the political officer's face; apparently he didn't realize that Kerbin Stayshun's docking ports are all of the wrong size to mate with the plane!  So now the plane is up in orbit, the money has been spent and it is mostly useless without any mission to fulfill, and the political officer has been promoted to snack vending machine operator. 

Spoiler

 

    The next mission, then, was to actually finish the 'expand station' contract, and to do it as cheaply as possible. $25k was needed for this little project, a series of solid fuel boosters lofting a couple hab modules welded together into orbit, and some very small liquid fuel engines getting it the rest of the way there.  No RCS made docking a touch more tense than normal but no problems were encountered when all was said and done.  The little boosters will detach once the admin types are confident that the addition will become a permanent fixture.

Spoiler

 

 

    The third mission was another station expansion, this time adding 5 seats to Mun Stayshun.  Although very little prfit was made on this venture, a nuclear powered ship that can used to ferry astronauts back and forth was gained.  Plus the public are always very happy to hear nuclear power being put to good use, so this was a bit of a PR mission.

 

    This was followed by a simple 'plant flag on Minmus' mission.  Although hardly exotic or even exciting anymore, they are good money makers, what with the science lander docked to a Minmus Stayshun that has enouhg fuel for plenty of trips.  One day all the multiple science eperiments that have been gathered on and around the mint moon will serve as good data in labs around the Kerbol system.

 

    Another Minmus based contract was executed to perfection, and again although without too much profit, a tanker/tug ship was gained.  This contract called for a new 5 person Minmus station with a cupola.  With the discovery of a new 'grabber' thingy that theoretically can hang onto anything, the thought was to include one as well, just for fun.  So this minimalist station and tanker combo were devised and delivered into a 150km high orbit.  As a demonstration, the tanker then decoupled the station, floated away, then docked with it again.

Spoiler

 

 

    A few days went by but then it was time for a manoevre by a station a few hundred days into its mission.  Actually, its mission is already finished but has been retasked with another one, which is to get into an orbit that is close enough to Moho that it can go visit it at any time, or be used as a port of call there.  This particular manoevre was to match inclinations with the planet.  The burn was several minutes long, but it looks like there is enough fuel remaining to reach Moho and gain orbit, should the need arise.

 

    As all the previous mission were taking place, the oft-ridiculed office for FOOD (Foreign Object Observing Department) called to say it discovered a good target for the new protoype grabber thingy.  A class-A asteroid had just entered Kerbin's SOI and was 8 days away.  So, over those first few days everyone watched the rock's progress and came up with schemes of how to get to and capture it.  Eventually a ship was conceived that would get the job done at fairly minimal cost.  Most of the artists and designers cringed at the final product, but a select few admired it's uniqueness.  The ship blasted off with the rock still a few days out, its initial orbit about 5 degrees off the rock's inclination.  After matching that up it waited in a 125km high orbit until the time wa right that it could intercept the interloper at its closest point above (or below) the home planet.  A rendezvous was made and the grabber thingy worked as advertised.  The ship then hauled it's quarry into a stable orbit to satisfy a few interested third parties, then matched inclination with Mun and brought the orbit in much tighter.  There is not too much fuel left in the ship so it might not be able to bring the rock back to Kerbin Stayshun, but pretty close.  At any rate it is in a safe and stable area so that the KSC admin types can decide what to do with it later.

Spoiler

 

[DrLicor]

I continued with modeling on the zayra module, Everything is done know except the docking ports. The solar panels where quite a puzzle to find out how they extend and retract, but I managed to get them as realistic as possible. 
 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

[Jett_Quasar]

This stock replica of a Correllian Corvette featured in the new Star Wars film Rogue One, is also an SSTO craft.  Yet there are many other surprises in store for you on this test flight...

There are a couple things I forgot to cover in the video: 
1) The craft does have 3 missiles it can use to shoot things down - they are the same stock variety as I put on other craft like the U-Wing and Tie fighters.
2) The craft has an interior which is accessible in the area where the ladder is located - there is also a hatch to a Hitchiker crew cabin in there as well.   

DOWNLOAD THE CORVETTE FILE HERE:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/e6ba1atl9oq4ym1/Corvette-SSTO.craft?dl=0

 

Here's a clip that didn't make it into the video:

Jett

Edited January 19, 2017 by Jett_Quasar

[something]

After yesterday's episode of "Duna space planes are a piece of cake", I decided to undergo another Alt+F12 simulation and landed the spaceplane with the final set of modifications on Duna. While I decided to land with infinite fuel yesterday, in order to see if it was possible in theory, and then get it to orbit with limited fuel, I now decided to land with finite fuel and see how much fuel was left thereafter. Something on the order of magnitude of 1600 m/s. Great, you can totally get to orbit with that. So, I now have a space plane which can land and re-orbit Duna without the aid of ISRU. Which theoretically means I could go to Duna and back without ISRU equipment, if there wasn't a contract stating, I had to mine a certain amount of ore on Duna...

Why again, am I doing this?

 

Beyond of that Jeb and Bob received some new toys for the Interplanetary Transfer Vehicle, which is still orbiting Kerbin...

Edited January 18, 2017 by something

[Carl]

Quote

So I'm not the only one who's been experiencing problems with Imgur. Do you know what's up with it?

 Like this

Including you, myself, the person you quoted, and someone earlier at least 4 on this site alone are having issues.

Also my DER writeup is done :).

[kraden]

I've always had problems with imgur. I feel like I have trick it into doing what I want. 

Carl, you could always link the imgur album and post your pic comments there instead of putting it in a spoiler. Just a thought. Looking forward to seeing them either way. 

[Kertech]

2 hours ago, eloquentJane said:

So I'm not the only one who's been experiencing problems with Imgur. Do you know what's up with it?

No idea, past two weeks its been truly awful, anyone got suggestions for a different image host?

[AccidentsHappen]

13 minutes ago, Kertech said:

No idea, past two weeks its been truly awful, anyone got suggestions for a different image host?

If you have Discord, you can post it into a chat, right click, copy the link and put it into your thread. It's very reliable for me, and should work for you too. I'm pretty sure you can use Facebook, or maybe Twitter if you have it, but I'm not sure about them. Good luck

[Carl]

40 minutes ago, kraden said:

I've always had problems with imgur. I feel like I have trick it into doing what I want. 

Carl, you could always link the imgur album and post your pic comments there instead of putting it in a spoiler. Just a thought. Looking forward to seeing them either way. 

Don't know how you missed it, but link:

 

[Kertech]

26 minutes ago, AccidentsHappen said:

If you have Discord, you can post it into a chat, right click, copy the link and put it into your thread. It's very reliable for me, and should work for you too. I'm pretty sure you can use Facebook, or maybe Twitter if you have it, but I'm not sure about them. Good luck

it's annoying cause back when I first started using it everything worked perfectly, then imgur updated something and it broke  

 

Anyway huge collection of pictures to wade through (about 30hrs+ gameplay) Part 1

Station 2 Launch

Spoiler

 Huge rocket, payload is about 40 tonnes to LKO in 6.4k

    

Designed for a five phase expansion, the core module contains a transfer vessel docking array of the four ports in active use, plus five construction for four science labs and an extended trus segment.

 Enough supplies to support a crew of 6 a year and a half, full thermal, radiation shielding, but limited attitude control

Mun  Station Core

Spoiler

Based off of the station 2 design this one is a bit lighter (well it is about 10,000m/s to circulise it in Low munar orbit!) and is more designed to facilitate multiple mun landings with reusable craft!

 

Mun station will have fewer science modules on it's lower "konstruction" ports, instead have fuel tanks

An almost identical mission was flown to minmus so I won't post it

Vagrant 1a - Ares 1

Spoiler

Vagrant mk 1 is a long range probe designed to be the first interplanetary spacecraft. Primarily it is a research craft, however it will also serve as a communications hub (if able to make orbit) 15 were ordered (and 6 launched before game crash,none made their target before B-day)

 Below is a basic blue print, this probe crams a massive 10,000dv in LKO

 

 

[Carl]

Quote

Huge rocket, payload is about 40 tonnes to LKO in 6.4k

I laugh at your puny rocket, 40 tonnes is not big payload comrade, 40 tonnes is little payload. Big payload is russian 1400 ton orbital payload for mission to rescue lost probe.

Hehehe, couldn't resist sorry.

Seriously, cool.

 

[septemberWaves]

5 minutes ago, Carl said:

I laugh at your puny rocket, 40 tonnes is not big payload comrade, 40 tonnes is little payload. Big payload is russian 1400 ton orbital payload for mission to rescue lost probe.

40 tonnes is a fairly big payload when the Kerbol system is 6.4 times bigger than usual.

[Carl]

Ahhh, yes ok, didn;t realise you where using a scale like that ;). You must have really goosed up the existing engines or somthing then, because dang is that dv intensive.

[Kertech]

Part - 2

Ike test flight

Spoiler

Crew transfer vehicle, designed to be partialloy reuasble, and intergrated propulsive landing/LES system! (Launch Vehicle = Badger III heavy)

RCS is slightly out of ballence, but systems function well,

After 24hours in orbit descent burn was charted

Love this shot though, the world scale increase doesn't give the same atmosphere depth the standard scale does, so I'm pretty sure those mountains are alomst in space!!

As with every other part of this launch I only seem to have night time photos, always the way huh...

 

Calliope - Ranger 2

Spoiler

One of the final remaining Calliope mk 1s mounted on an aged Ascent Booster (the first 64k rocket I built) It's inefficient, lacks a lot of utility but still can take a kerbal to HKO!

 

LBSI - Leia 1 Test

Spoiler

The Leia, the largest ship so far made by the LBSI, launched on their first booster! (LBSI stuff is slightly OP in normal scale but is great with more space!)

I really like this ship, it just works, onboard fuel tanks have about 1000m/s and Lifesupport for 20 days. RCS is balanced perfectly, even when empty

 

 

Has parachutes, though if feeling brave, just fire up the retro rockets, it's gotta TWR of about 3-4 (or Bob knock out levels!)

 

Station 2 - Crew transfer 1

Spoiler

Jeb went up to have a look at station 2, he went in an out sourced LBSI - Kappa mk 2 (the Leia's lighter predecessor) 

Of course everything happened at night...

Docked to D-4, COTJR-1 port. Hatches opened and Jeb eventually goes through and set up the station for the rest of the crew to arrive

Eagle - 2

Spoiler

This rocket is about the same mass as the original mun station, it carries a full eagle 2. A partially reusable mun lander

This ship is actually one I am annoyed about losing (found the craft file so gonna recover it!!) the upper part has a surface analysis systems, whislt the lowerstage was interchangable depending on the mission! so much cheaper than apollo style after 2 uses!

Station 2, Module 2

Spoiler

Station science module, 30 tonne payload, to rendezvous with the core module.

(you gotta love dem golden balls...)

 

The ports were then welded together, this station is not meant to come apart! The transfer module was detatched and de-orbited

 

I think I'll leave the rest with a few shots

 

This is a station science package return module, docking to Synergy node

Next is an even bigger Lab module for station 2

 

Followed by an LBSI Leia for crew transfer

 

Original plans for this station include two cyclotrons one to be posterior and one on the inferior construction port. The superior construction port would have been another solar array to power all that!

 

I love the look of this capsule, feels somewhere between stock and space X!

 

16 minutes ago, eloquentJane said:

40 tonnes is a fairly big payload when the Kerbol system is 6.4 times bigger than usual.

It was an absolute pain to get it up there without the full use of 3.75m tech as well! Not shown are the 4 failed editions where they either ran out of vertical speed and/or DV! I'm just a sucker for when something looks good and works...

I'm sticking with 6.4 scale, but starting again due save game corruption!

17 minutes ago, Carl said:

Ahhh, yes ok, didn;t realise you where using a scale like that ;). You must have really goosed up the existing engines or somthing then, because dang is that dv intensive.

that's okay, it's in there somewhere but is probably hidden! 

Scale up actually is quite fun, most of the time in ksp you're launching stuff, so making that the challenge again is great (not to belittle anyone who finds standard scale hard/rewarding, everyone do what you like!)

[septemberWaves]

@Kertech Something I find quite effective in 6.4x scale is to have the first stage consist of radial LRBs, and igniting the core only once those have burned out and been jettisoned. It means you need more powerful engines, but that's generally not a problem since the most powerful stock-optimized engines for a certain diameter tend to have much more thrust than is usually necessary (depending on the mod, of course, but this frequently seems to be the case). An example is my Sonnah I rocket, a variant of which is depicted in this album. I know that's for a small payload, but the idea can be upscaled without too much difficulty. I think with 6 first-stage boosters around a similar core booster, as well as a couple of vacuum-optimized upper stages, you could probably get 40 tonnes to LKO using this sort of configuration with 2.5m fuselages (though it obviously depends on whether you have engines which can produce enough thrust).

Another thing I find to be quite effective is solid-based launch vehicles like this one. They're not great for large payloads unless you have access to enormous SRBs, but they make a good cheap option for smaller payloads because the larger Kerbin necessitates higher thrusts if you want good efficiency when heading to orbit. The one I showed as an example is entirely solid-fueled, but I have several variants with liquid-fueled upper stages that are extremely convenient.

I've also been adapting both of these ideas to 4x scale and they work similarly well. Neither is particularly great at stock scale, but it seems that when you scale up they become very useful methods for getting stuff into space.

Edited January 19, 2017 by eloquentJane

[Odonian]

I recently started a new save file, and I've begun colonizing Minmus again.

Today I've landed a Balaenoptera Sifter:

I also deployed a Leucocoprinus Agroponics base:

Dirt for sifting and water for agriculture are supplied by this automated Cymothoa Extractor, which I actually landed yesterday:

[kraden]

2 hours ago, Carl said:

Don't know how you missed it, but link:

 

Shoot, I'm on my phone and for some reason links won't always show properly. It looked like you posted one of Triop's videos... thanks and sorry!