What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Carl]

No what i meant was the thread was like one below this one, that was my first time linking it. Ofc if your on phone makes more sense, desktop pleb here :p.

[Kertech]

50 minutes ago, eloquentJane said:

@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.

I found a similar thing, later launches of the vagrant series and lunar recoainsance probes used solid first then core, then second. (not posted mainly cause I have 500+images, think people might get bored, I know I was scrolling!!)

The scale up from 1.25m, to 2.5m feels even more dramatic at 6.4 than it does normally at stock scale! HGRs 1.85m a perfect compromise!

 

[septemberWaves]

21 minutes ago, Kertech said:

The scale up from 1.25m, to 2.5m feels even more dramatic at 6.4 than it does normally at stock scale! HGRs 1.85m a perfect compromise!

I agree, though I get 1.875m parts from M.O.L.E.

The scaled-up versions of Kerbin (both 4x and 6.4x which I've been using lately) also introduce good uses for the enormous parts from SpaceY Extended. I've never used the 7.5m parts from that mod for conventional payloads in the stock scale, and never used the 10m parts at all (with the exception of my N1-inspired Arkas rocket). I like the fact that the larger system forces me to make use of significantly bigger rockets. It feels more realistic, it makes funds more challenging, and it makes accolades more rewarding. I also love designing launch vehicles more than almost any other type of vehicle, so the extra complexity required is absolutely perfect.

[Justin_Kerbal]

Yesterday I launched the "Multi-Collector" for rescue contracts and general rescues:

Releasing a pod after a rescue:

 

[Brownhair2]

Did a test run of my new and improved Condor! (It's the SSTO I made yesterday. Maybe I should say the names of these things sooner)

It has less delta-v, but it already had more than enough to begin with. It's now able to carry 12 kerbals, plus an additional kerbal if you transfer the co-pilot.

Landing was a bit rough, but that was partially my fault. I lost too much speed, and didn't throttle up enough. But it still landed successfully. Just had a bit of a bounce.

I'm willing to bet that I can replace the crew cabins with fuel tanks and get a half-decent refueler. It still won't be a lot of fuel, however.

[Angelo Kerman]

After finishing DSEV's Clydesdale, I started working on the inline variant, the Danube Delta:

It's coming along nicely, I just need to modify a copy of the Clyde's IVA and redo the outer shell.

[adsii1970]

5 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

After finishing DSEV's Clydesdale, I started working on the inline variant, the Danube Delta:

It's coming along nicely, I just need to modify a copy of the Clyde's IVA and redo the outer shell.

Is it re-namable/re-numberable or will a new skin need to be applied?

AND...

Did some screenshots for the next installment of Kerny's journal. Thompberry's having a slight disagreement with Gene over his walkie-talkie... Special thanks to @Enceos for the walkie-talkie and sunglasses. If you look closely, @Angel-125's mods are in the background and in the distance...

[Angelo Kerman]

54 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

Is it re-namable/re-numberable or will a new skin need to be applied?

AND...

Did some screenshots for the next installment of Kerny's journal. Thompberry's having a slight disagreement with Gene over his walkie-talkie... Special thanks to @Enceos for the walkie-talkie and sunglasses. If you look closely, @Angel-125's mods are in the background and in the distance...

Just like with the Heisenberg, you can change the name tags to whatever you want. Just create a new flag, and the part will use the game's flag selection screen. They work independently of the mission flag.

[Torquimedes]

11 hours ago, CaptainTrebor said:

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

You've recreated the history of fighter jets right there.

[ScarM]

Contracts have had me make additions to the "Mun Drilling Base"

What was a balanced system has ballooned to this. I estimate there are 697 parts in the base alone.  (Not including the fuel car bottom center.)

Is there such thing as landing too close to the expensive, hard won Mun Base?

Needless to say, I was PANICKING!   Those nuke engine don't slow an empty fuel tank well.

All seems to go well except the fuel car did not dock properly.

Note, the fuel car wheel support is in full contact with the wheel of the supply tank (bottom center) before the docking ports could mate. (just left of the nuke engine)

An adapter from the orbiting Mun Station was used to extend the docking port reach.

Edited January 20, 2017 by ScarM
Correct errors; Improve proof reading skills.

[flatbear]

22 hours ago, NISSKEPCSIM said:

I can never manage to get that close to the KSC. I always overshoot or undershoot. :-) 

Don't worry. Most of the time my spaceplanes just land on random deserts or splash down in the ocean

[AccidentsHappen]

1 hour ago, flatbear said:

Don't worry. Most of the time my spaceplanes just land on random deserts or splash down in the ocean

I'M NOT ALONE! Half the time I'm trying for KSC I'm coming in a dead straight line for the runway and a GOSH DANG MOUNTAIN gets in my way. They're so pesky, they sneek up on me when I'm not expecting it and spook me...

Edited January 19, 2017 by AccidentsHappen

[Jett_Quasar]

Still more testing going on...

Jett

[HazelPine]

Not exactly something I've done today, more of a thing I'm currently doing, but I've been trying to drive my small science and karbonite prospection rover out of the Northwest crater on the Mun. Since the crater has no karbonite, it's unsuitable for my upcoming Mun base, and the rover has to scout a landing spot.

 

So far, I've flipped over and exploded over 20 times in the last hour, so this may take a while. 

 

At least I get to see some cool stuff along the way.

Rover MR-1 "Sunbeam" coasting at 30 m/s around a large crater.

 

I also have an exact copy of this rover, the MR-1 "Vinyl", trying to make it's way into a flat area, but the low g is horrible for it.

 

EDIT: In another stroke of genius planning, guess where my biome mapper sat didn't manage to map? Yep, exactly where I'm driving.

But it looks like I'm almost out of the crater, at least.

Edited January 19, 2017 by Pine

[Magzimum]

@Pine, I don't see any reaction wheels on your rover (but then I don't recognize all the parts either, so perhaps there is one). Reaction wheels can help a lot to straighten a rover when it becomes airborne on a low-gravity planet/moon.

[HazelPine]

@Magzimum, the only reaction wheel present is the one inside the probe core, and it has saved me quite a bit so far, since the rover is quite light. But I agree that I should've put a proper reaction wheel now that you mention it. Thanks for the tip!

Edited January 19, 2017 by Pine

[Leafbaron]

Yesterday was quite productive at the Trehus Propulsion Labs space center. outstanding contracts were completed in anticipation of the arrival of Duna Probe I. Which included some high altitude satellite contracts fitted with the newly researched RA-100 relay along with 2 rescue missions from the moon. about 160 days later our first Duna probe arrived and circularized it's orbit sending scientific data back to Kerbin. Due to transmission oversights, The probe is fitted with extra science studies. So the boys in the lab are determining if landing on Ike is viable. As the probe is now, it has 3000+ m/s of dv in the tanks. Its either land at Ike and biome hop or transfer deeper into the Kerbin system to collect science from more distance bodies. The only issue with that is com net range may be an issue. 

[septemberWaves]

Done a while ago, but uploaded today. Launch of a refueler spacecraft for my Laythe spaceplane.

[Tyko]

16 hours ago, Odonian said:

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

Today I've landed a Balaenoptera Sifter:

 

In the upper picture you added windows to the side of the MKS agriculture module. What mod are those windows from?

Also, the bottom picture looks like a giant gas grill 

 

[MitchS]

Nothing. Haven't been able to play since last Wednesday! Going from an almost-every-evening rhythm to over a week of real-life-getting-in-the-way is kind of... ermm... jarring. *scratches, twitches, sweats coldly*

[DarkOwl57]

9 hours ago, Jett_Quasar said:

Have you made Tie-Fighters for this? And if so, I feel sorry for your frame-rate

[capi3101]

9 hours ago, AccidentsHappen said:

I'M NOT ALONE! Half the time I'm trying for KSC I'm coming in a dead straight line for the runway and a GOSH DANG MOUNTAIN gets in my way. They're so pesky, they sneek up on me when I'm not expecting it and spook me...

Try NavUtilities. Gets you close to Mt. Killakerbal without actually smacking it (unless you're being stupid in the first place, that is).

 

(1.1.3) Yesterday I began my activities with the loaded Auk VI ore descender spaceplane, which I'd sent up the day before to deliver 2100 units of ore to LKO (not the job it was designed for, but it did the trick), in order to fulfill an ore delivery contract. Contract was completed successfully, so my attention now turns to getting the plane back down again - it only has 20 m/s of delta-V left for want of LF and I'd like to offload at least some of that ore...

Replacement contract - Explore Ike. Couldn't believe it.

Since Ike was on the itinerary for the upcoming Duna mission already and the launch window was coming up in another fourteen days, I decided to get the rest of the expedition's hardware into LKO and spent the rest of the day doing that - a grand total of ten launches in this order: 1) A Rover-In-A-Can 7 delivery craft, which has the pieces aboard to assemble the Hellhound 7 rover Apathy on-site, 2-3) two Nostromo 7a ore haulers dubbed Bellerophon and Prometheus, 4) the Hojo Zeta outpost, 5-6) two Fireball 7a science landers dubbed Yokohama and Kyoto, 7-8) two Spamcan 7b personnel landers, and 9-10) two Bleepity-Bleep 7 probes (specifically B-B 7i and 7j). The probes were both delivered using Auk IV probe delivery planes and I had sufficient time to land one of those planes successfully at KSC 09 yesterday. I was prevented from making the attempt at landing the second plane because real life decided to butt in. I now have seventeen craft bound for Duna and Ike in orbit (including the Dunaport 7 and Ikeport 7 space stations, the refineries Enchova Central and Scan Queen, the rover Malaise, the Bleepity-Bleep 7h probe and the ferry ship Laggin' Dragon; LKO is pretty full right now...

Current operations include retrieving an Old Bessie 7 fuel hauler from the surface of Minmus, getting Laggin' Dragon to Mün and back and refueled before the Duna mission is scheduled to depart, getting the Auk VI back to the surface, and retreiving Lemsy's Hulk from Minmus. Pretty well tied into Duna/Ike at the moment; over half of my extant contracts involve the red planet and its satellite. I'm confident the hardware will be up to the challenge, but I guess I won't really know until launch day arrives.

[Triop]

Today, we build a mini-dragster.

[Kamuchi]

Getting some tourists back to the ship and get a great Gael background scenery

The ship for whoever is curious http://imgur.com/a/uRHfM

[septemberWaves]

I built and tested a Gemini mimic for 4x scale Kerbin.

Captor 1: first iteration. This is the base design, including the almost-final Captor 1 spacecraft, and the first iteration of the Titan II launch vehicle. This first launch lacks a launch escape system.

Spoiler

Liftoff is successful.

The rocket reaches accelerations of just over 3g before the first stage burns out.

First stage cutoff.

First stage separation.

Second stage ignition. This is the one-engine Centaur stage. I also made a two-engine variant.

Engine cutoff as 105km apoapsis is reached. The atmosphere is at 98km, so the 105km parking orbit is 7km above the atmosphere.

Circularizing. I didn't realize that MechJeb's autopilot feature for auto-deploying solar panels still deploys them if they're inside an interstage fairing.

Launch vehicle separation.

The spacecraft has just under 1600m/s of delta-v. Not quite enough to fly by the Mun at this scale, but the real Gemini spacecraft never did a Mun flyby. I'm aware that they also didn't use solar panels, but I didn't want to risk using the fuel cells built in to this command pod and then running out of monopropellant by forgetting to turn them off.

 

The next iteration of the Captor 1 spacecraft includes a launch escape system. The real Gemini spacecraft had ejector seats, but that's not easy to accomplish in KSP so I use a launch escape tower instead.

Launch to test the LES:

Spoiler

Launch abort system engaged, 10 seconds before first stage cutoff. This allows it to be tested when the rocket is reaching almost its highest acceleration.

The solid rocket motors on the LES are arranged in an asymmetrical pattern, to allow high thrust whilst also automatically pushing the command module out of the way of the rocket. Maximum acceleration achieved is 5.1g.

LES is jettisoned once burned out.

Parachute deployment.

The crew are able to land safely after a launch failure.

 

A final launch ensures that the LES does not detract too much from the total delta-v of the rocket, and that the system can still reach orbit. This iteration also includes separation motors for jettisoning the Centaur stage, so that it does not remain in orbit.

Spoiler

First stage cutoff and separation, second stage ignition.

Circularizing. I disabled the auto-deploy feature for the solar panels this time.

Centaur stage separation.