What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Brownhair2]

Finished my base

Patbro can finally come inside.

Now that that's done, I should probably rescue the Songbird, since the crew is starting to complain about snack lackage.

Now it has enough fuel to de-orbit!

Yay!

Edited June 24, 2017 by Brownhair2

[joacobanfield]

1 hour ago, ProtoJeb21 said:

How did you do that?

Hyperedit + Jool.

Also, today, I sent a rover to Minmus! Unfortunately, it's a piece of crap with way too much torque, almost unusable.

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

Did some rework of the code and used it to fly my shuttle to space.

Current version is semi-automated. The computer has full control up through booster separation, then allows me to slowly adjust the pitch at a rate of 1deg/sec using w and s. It will release controls fully to the player on hit of the the abort key.

Hoping to automate the rest of the launch tomorrow. Might also do some work to make it capable of flying to non-equatorial orbits. Roll program will be interesting to write as I still don't fully understand the direction/coordinate system of KSP/K-OS. I just know how to use "Lock steering to heading(hdg, pitch)."

[dangerhamster]

Jeb took out the increasing kludgefest that is Airship 1 for a little light contracting.

A slight diversion on the return leg allowed the team to obtain science data from the desert and tick off the anomaly in the mountains to boot.

Meanwhile the kidnapping rescue missions got underway with Grab 1, designed to return both the victim stranded Kerbal and their pod. Things soon took a turn for the Kerbal.....

"Aha our first catch of the day!" "Oh dear" "Ah, Kerbin we have a screenshot problem" "Maybe if we deflated it?"

[NISSKEPCSIM]

36 minutes ago, dangerhamster said:

*snip*

"You are only allowed to give 25 likes a day."

[Jouni]

I completed a simple Apollo-style mission.

 

This probably isn't the right way to land on the Mun.

Spoiler

 

189 days later...

Spoiler

 

Finally managed to land somewhere.

 

Taking off with RCS.

Spoiler

 

A year and a half later.

Spoiler

 

[Julien Kerman]

Went to Venus again.....

Reentry this time without any breaking parts:

First parachute deploys:

Then it broke due to the heat

The probe hit the surface with about 14 m/s, luckily the heatshield was still attached so the probe core did not explode or tipped over.

Unfortunately, I had no connection, so the probe was basically useless. * 5th attempt incoming *

 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Julien Kerman said:

* 5th attempt incoming *

This sounds like basically all my attempts at landing on Callisto, one problem after another. Keep it up!

I finished up the basic Atlas core and plopped my Able stage on it, making the ill-fated (IRL) Atlas-Able. This morning I tested it out with a potential lunar fly-by probe. Unfortunately, much like its real life counterpart the launch vehicle failed, this time with the sustainer mysteriously cutting out with about 1km/s of fuel left (thanks TestFlight... ) Still, I count this as a good test considering it broke all my previous altitude and orbit records with a 250km x ~9000km orbit. I'll put some batteries on the Able stage to allow for longer coasts and hope for a better launch tonight.

The probe was spinning at a fantastic rate from the SRM stabilization so the picture didn't turn out how it looked in game. I'll probably reduce the fuel in those spin motors in order to make mass for the batteries.

Edited June 24, 2017 by regex

[eddiew]

Got really lucky with a contract so early that wanted rover wheels testing. Hijacked it a little and sent Nimoy Kerman on a tour of KSC first, which unlocked enough nodes to improve rocket stability and finally get a kerbal into orbit.

"High" Earth orbit turns out to be unexpectedly high, but fortunately engineers Doohan and Roddenberry managed to borrow a Terrier engine from the local university and Takei performs an EVA at 10,000km altitude. With this landmark achieved, satellite contracts quickly come in and funding issues begin to fade as the VAB, tracking center, and mission control buildings are all upgraded.

[Ultimate Steve]

Well, I just got back from scout camp. Right before I left, I uploaded the final video in my "Eeloo Mothership Mission" series, in which I referenced an upcoming Grand Tour Mission which "may or may not ever happen." Now, there are probably several grand tour mission videos already out there, who would want to watch a dozen-episode series about an overbuilt mothership when they could watch an SSTO do a grand tour in five minutes?

So, I thought that in order to get noticed as a "major thing," I would have to do something very impressive. So I got to thinking about impressive ways to do a grand tour. Single launch? Been done. SSTO? Been done. EVA pack only? Been done.

But then an idea hit my head, and I immediately tried to shoot it down. The low specific impulse and high part count would mean that I would have to use dozens of refueling trips. It would take too long with the dozen other things I have going on (plus getting a job). I couldn't do it because I'd still need to use RCS to dock (although I have decided I will use it and bend the rules).

The more I tried to talk myself out of it, the more I convinced myself it was possible. I have landed an entire Mun base using this technique. Someone's even gone to Eve and back like this...

So, this is going to be really hard. And someone might actually see this post and finish it before me. But...

 

I am going to attempt a Grand Tour using only Solid Rocket Boosters for propulsion.

 

[qzgy]

24 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

I am going to attempt a Grand Tour using only Solid Rocket Boosters for propulsion.

Well then.... Good luck! By refeuling trips, I guess you mean that you will come back and attach payloads of additional SRBs. How much of a pain will docking be?

[Ultimate Steve]

1 hour ago, qzgy said:

Well then.... Good luck! By refeuling trips, I guess you mean that you will come back and attach payloads of additional SRBs. How much of a pain will docking be?

Correct, that is "refueling."

Docking, well, that is the question I aim to answer soon. I will probably have to at least use RCS for the final approach. On disposable landers (well, they will all be disposable probably) I might just use the EVA pack for the last hundred meters. Unfortunately, I will have to dock the aforementioned "refueling SRB's." I may cheat and use some RCS but up until the last few hundred meters I will try and stick with SRB's.

Currently in the process of making the Eve lander. I will test out RCS-less Kerbin Orbit Rendezvous right after that.

EDIT: Eve Ascent Vehicle is going well. If I manage to land close to the highest peak, I can actually downsize my lander quite a bit. One of my last separatron stages krakened on ascent and I still managed to reach orbit. I am going to see if I can cut it down so I can actually get it to Eve without killing my computer...

EDIT2: Landing: Check. Ascent: Check. If I fly it right. Standing up after landing: Almost check. I'm going to add either rear landing legs or huge jettisonable fins. Re-entry: Not checked. I have no idea how I'm going to get this past Eve's atmosphere.

Edited June 24, 2017 by Ultimate Steve

[NISSKEPCSIM]

Launched another 'Dyna-Soar' mission, this time utilising the reusable 'Atlas RM' 1st stage as well as the reusable shuttle.

The 3rdstage engine (Seen above ^) was underpowered for the orbital insertion burn (Normally it wouldn't even have a role in the orbital insertion, but because of the extra weight of the reusable hardware of the booster, it had to be used to complete it), as it had to do a 2 minute long burn (With a max thrust of 33 kilonewtons) after the 2nd stage ran out of fuel 3 quarters of the way through. I ended up in a 70x120 orbit because of it. So future missions will use the more powerful FG-90 engines, with 380 kilonewtons of thrust.

Also, I ended up landing the booster and recovering it. Just 'cause, you know, it's supposed to be reusable and all that shebang. (I used FMRS)

Oh, and this:

Quote

The Times New Roman Rumors

Year 1, Day 63 (January 6th, 1965)

NASA Secretly Flying Tourists?

By Kerbal Sitting on the Side of the Road in Tinfoil Hat

Above: A photograph taken of the 'STS-12' Dyna-Soar orbital flight, the first manned flight of the 'Atlas RM-200' reusable 1st stage booster - and it also may be one of the first ever NASA flights which secretly contained tourists.

Washington DC: Only two days ago, images were leaked by a source within NASA, containing incriminating evidence that NASA has been flying tourists in secret on their orbital 'Dyna-Soar' missions. Each photograph contains a 'Top-Secret' stamp in the top-left corner, and shows tourists entering and exiting the spacecraft, or simply training for the mission.

To read the full mission report and newspaper article, see here:

 

Edited June 25, 2017 by NISSKEPCSIM

[NSEP]

I started thinking of a Procedural Engines mod. I want to make the mod myself actually. I first need to make a prototype, wich is just one part, that fuctions as an engine that can change size, weight and thrust. If you want to help, PM me, thanks.

[Jett_Quasar]

Posted my Desert Speeder on Kerbal-X

You can download the craft file HERE

 - Jett

[eddiew]

(Take a cookie if you get the reference. If you don't then you're probably too young.)

Edited June 24, 2017 by eddiew

[Havocado]

Just waiting for Thor to give this hammer a little juice....

 

[CatastrophicFailure]

44 minutes ago, eddiew said:

(Take a cookie if you get the reference. If you don't then you're probably too young.)

I'm an old fart, but I'm not getting it... 

[Ultimate Steve]

Okay, update on the SRB grand tour.

The Eve lander is progressing well. Well as in "part of it works," not as in "It didn't take me long." It took me *checks watch* about six hours.

So, after I downsized my 400 ton monster down to something more manageable (150t for the actual vehicle, 20t for the landing module) I tried to find a way to land it. At first I tried doing it how Stratzenblitz75 did, IIRC landing like a plane and then using rockets to stand the rocket back up for takeoff. I tried this, and the plane part worked practically first try. The landing on the third try. Now, the standing back up part... *Three hours later*

Okay, new plan: glide to the landing site but at the last second deploy parachutes and land vertically. It allows for a precision-ish landing while being simpler than the other method. After that, I spent two more hours trying to fix various little problems, like tipping over on liftoff, not enough Delta-V, not enough TWR, etc.

The result is my once-simple ascent vehicle covered in various doodads that probably have their own purpose. My computer is really going to hate the launch vehicle for this...

Also I still haven't figured out atmospheric entry, but I can glide to a landing and then get back into orbit just fine (I think. I tested gliding and ascent, but not in the same test).

So, yay! Progress!

 

 

[qzgy]

@Ultimate Steve - Where are you planning to take-off/land? Are you going to try the tallest mountain for better efficiency and so on?

[Jouni]

A reentry in a command pod is quick, but it's hard to hit anything smaller than a continent reliably. Spaceplanes take forever to land, but you can choose your landing site precisely. Today I tried an intermediate reentry vehicle that can land reasonably quickly and reasonably accurately.

T+ 13:57: The craft enters Kerbin's atmosphere at 1.95 km/s with descent rate 0.59 km/s. Soon it is enveloped in flames.

Spoiler

 

T+ 15:06: I deploy the elevons momentarily at 25 km. The craft is currently moving at 2.11 km/s with descent rate 0.68 km/s.

 

The result is a bit extreme.

Spoiler

 

T+ 15:31: I regain control at 16.5 km, as the craft decelerates to subsonic speeds, and start diving towards the landing zone.

Spoiler

 

T+ 16:39: I deploy the elevons at 2 km above the surface to kill the descent rate before landing.

Spoiler

 

T+ 17:00: I deploy the parachutes at 400 m above the surface. They are set to deploy fully at 100 m.

 

T+ 17:06: The craft lands in a safe and comfortable manner 3 minutes and 9 seconds after entering the atmosphere.

Spoiler

 

Edited June 25, 2017 by Jouni

[XB-70A]

Too busy to make a real concept and flight, so I choose to build a new launcher. It finally appears to be a good choice as I was lacking a nice looking light one.

Enters the Alliance-2.1v (well Soyuz being Union it's the closest I found) :

Far from being a good Soyuz 2.1v replica but you know... stock. To imitate the NK-33 and the RD-0110R a Reliant and four Thud are powering the whole launcher. The second stage got four Thud again for the RD-0124 and a Terrier for the upper Volga stage (it's way too big and powerful to imitate it).

 

 

The first stage gives a good kick at launch, far from being impressive but more than enough.

 

After just more than a minute the 1st stage nearly is empty, the speed being at 900 m/s, the altitude at 20 km.

 

 

With four Thud for just some tons to kick the power as to be limited to 60% or the acceleration is rising to 9g...

 

Fairing and second stage jettisoned. Enter the last one wich will finish to rise the Ap at 500 km.

 

I just love this view.

 

Circularization completed. The upper stage still got some resources available...

 

but is not needed anymore. Mission ended. Such an ugly satellite. No really.

 

Of course 23797 for just 1 ton to 500 km is expensive, but I like it, it's hard to explain. I will probably dedicate to it my first 1.3 career's Moho light probe.

[Ultimate Steve]

@qzgy Correct, I will *try* to land at the top mountain.

Also, I started working on re-entry. Three inflatable shields seemed to do the trick, but my landing gear/psuedolaunchpad kept exploding. So I added four static heat shields. However, decoupling them makes the landing gear/psuedolaunchpad explode. I tried mounting them differently, but then the game crashed.

I guess I'm being told that seven straight hours of trying to make an Eve lander is a bit too much. I'll be done for now.

[ARS]

Guys, I need an advice. Can someone give me a guideline how to position the location of landing point (end of the line) while doing retrograde burn (while I'm still above the atmosphere) so that after reentry my craft lands on KSC? I'm trying to train myself about this. Last time I'm doing it it's too far from KSC (either past the island airfield on the east or on the mountainous region on the west) BTW, the craft in question is just a mk1 command pod with heatshield and parachute (initial velocity while in stable orbit is 2500 m/s)

[Bill Phil]

7 minutes ago, ARS said:

Guys, I need an advice. Can someone give me a guideline how to position the location of landing point (end of the line) while doing retrograde burn (while I'm still above the atmosphere) so that after reentry my craft lands on KSC? I'm trying to train myself about this. Last time I'm doing it it's too far from KSC (either past the island airfield on the east or on the mountainous region on the west) BTW, the craft in question is just a mk1 command pod with heatshield and parachute (initial velocity while in stable orbit is 2500 m/s)

Well kerbin rotates once in 6 hours. Meaning it goes about 60 degrees per hour. One degree a minute. So you could do a retro burn and look at the time to periapsis to get a rough estimate of the time. Figure out how many degrees the periapsis needs to be away from KSC. This is very rough, though. Not that accurate.