What did you do in KSP1 today?

[GDJ]

Felt nostalgic today. Made a flying wing based on the Horten HO229 flying wing prototype (Germany, late 1944).
Flies fantastic. Tops out at around 980 km/hr (slightly faster than the real HO229)
Total turd getting the engine cowlings right, and even then they aren't that close.....but close enough.

[adsii1970]

Decided to do some fishing for "sea bugs" today. Thanks to @Just Jim for the inspiration... and thanks to @Fengist for providing the mods I continue to abuse use!

 

Edited July 21, 2017 by adsii1970

[CatastrophicFailure]

56 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

Decided to do some fishing for "sea bugs" today. 

 

 

 You should call her Alexa. 

 

[Angelo Kerman]

I made it possible for astronauts to quit if you don't pay them:

[PT]

14 hours ago, Lo Var Lachland said:

@PT, I see you use the Mk1 inline cockpit for your orbital tugs! So do I! I love the visibility.  

Really cool station design btw. 

Thanks

Sadly inline Mk1 sucks for returning from EVA, gotta weld some ladders for grabbing. There is also amazing Kerbonov cockpit, but I have not used it in 1.x since I discovered it could aeroaccelerate on reentry. I'll try it again as it seems it got updated recently.

Do not forget that this station design is not only cool, but functional as well! Even with Persistent Rotation its easy for docking if you keep it aligned to normal axis. When docking, as long as berthed spaceship does not screw CoM too much (one of reasons why I keep redocking Zenith), I can just (slowly) rotate station to present viable docking port to new module instead of going around breaking solar panels. (Yeah, my station design covers for my bad docking skills, which I can partially blame on low FPS near big station)

[XB-70A]

The Moho Direct relay has just arrived.

Approaching the planet slower than expected the braking maneuver required "just" 3 km/s of dV while the whole system still had a bit less than 4 km/s available.

 

 

With only 34 seconds of fuel remaining for the 4th stage Terrier the maneuver has to be started much more sooner than the node, as the satellite just got one underpowered Spark for its own propulsion.

 

 

The satellite now keeps on the deceleration by itself. With a KSC link power at 31% I was afraid to lose any control of it if did not circularize before a total loss of contact...

 

 

... but Moho Direct made it! Entering an orbit not quite good of 263 x 340 km.

 

 

A second super small burn had to be realized to circularize at 262.8 km. Then all direct and relay antennas were deployed, ensuring a 98-99% connection with the KSC and even a pretty nice one with Eve and even Duna. 

I am still not totally decided about the use of this relay originally built for using a rover on Moho one day, as I never landed any here and instead always sent crew missions. A super compact one originally built for Eve maybe could made it but I would have to change the parachutes for engines and a small tank... and probably switch its cheap Soyuz-2.1v launcher for a Soyuz-2.1a.

Edited July 21, 2017 by XB-70A

[Bornholio]

Since Pap's RP-0 dev branch merged with master RO/RP-0 I've started yet again from scratch. This time full on Hard mode. No moving words around on that one.  I do allow saves though because "KSP".  Test flight really gives me agonizing defeats occasionally.  A little rush building, no more than two increments (19%), get the missions rolling faster.  All my initial KCT points go into build rate, I'll spend most of my cash upgrades and tech tree node points on R&D rate. PEG automation for ascents if it makes sense otherwise I fly them mostly manual to orbit.

MODS: RSS/RO/RP-0 plus FASA Parts pack and all required, Remote Tech, Test Flight, TACLS, Persistent Rotation, RSSVE/EVE/Scatterer, Stage Recovery, KCT, DMagic OS, SCANSat and a few I've missed.

First launch was too aerodynamic and never got slow enough to open chutes, flying low water data was not intact.

Second Launch went better and included the first volley of space biological test capsules.  First stage was also recovered with bio capsules for atmospheric data regions.
 

Spoiler

Trying to get the full suite of grasslands data from

I use a MJ unit modified as a "Boxy" to use as a science container to allow experiments to be tucked inside and still get transmissions out easy. 75k$ and 1kg, with no other functions except a fun red light.

Setting interface angle to increase drag and ejecting the nosecone/tank, coming in with way too much chute.

One  more launch with no bio capsules included to grab some missed data and more missions.

Fourth Launch going for Oklahoma (highlands biome)

Spoiler

Is this flight legal, NOPE!

Coasting over past Mississippi and New Orleans.

Near the Pan handle region the final low flight data is received and transponders allow recovery of the nearly melted probe.

 

Spoiler

Several heavier launched going toward orbital capable. Run time on a-4 and a-9 engines and XASR's goes to max data.

General flippiness and engine failures made this mission almost a scrub.  Some strakes improve the handling but not enough. AJ10 motors make their debut and get more runtime before failing.

Too many stages making up for short burn times attempting to get to orbit, also too many engine failures. near 9kdv but only made 8.2 in flight.

 

Then the manned launches started
 

Spoiler

First pass shores just into space 160km, no descent retros

Then using A-9 sustainer (lol), and some small liquid side boosters plus an xlr upper stage to push it up to 200km and then retro as the heat started.

Thanks to NOx RCS the ride was pretty stable and entry on target.

Third manned launch tried minimal airbrakes, not worth the effort.

Drogue and Mains, drogue gives the pilot a scary look heading down, mains must hurt the neck when they spin them around.

Forth used reduce size motors for retros and descent control using a better re-entry shape plus heavier RCS.

Regular missions to 200km high until mission payouts stopped.

 

Go for orbit with a-4 boosters aplenty
 

Spoiler

Quad a-4's with and A-6 main, Three XASR's second stage and single on top.  Easily getting higher sounding rocket missions and first orbit.

None of them blew up, yeah, low thrust on one just short of burnout.

Running clean after separation, RCS engaged at this point to avoid possible flipping as second stage gets ready to light hot.

Worried for power and coms, made it as efficient as possible since it fulfilled both my first solarsat and comsat missions. RCS sideways to tune the orbit to 150km PE.

Think this was first polar orbit mission

More early comsat missions

 

 

Atlas motors but two stage, LR79 triple, LR105 second stage.

Science in the tropics

The Moon becons and comsats need placement.
 

Spoiler

First heavy comsat for a 4x3kkm LEO Satellite coverage. Atmospheric transition was a bit rough.

Extended the Gamma boosters.

Better seperation and more dV kept the transition to upper atmosphere smooth.

Orbit injection and Apogee kick stages still intact. Insertion is using a Gamma 2, A AJ10 main kick and XASR orbit tunning motor plus plenty of RCS.

First Lunar Mission!  Injection motor failed and Lunar orbit kick motor was used to inject and RCS tuned.  Still had extra tank of RCS inside baby sgt cluster for attitude adjust so spent it on capture burns.

Main injection motor burned over its rated time and design office did not notice until it failed with 500dV short fall.

Impactor released 19 hours out from moon at -12km PE and main adjusts trajectory to 100km PE.

First heavy combination Weathersat/Comsat.

 

Last impactor mission used a de-orbit motor at impact +2hrs and did not risk main orbiter failing to adjust orbit on its own. South polar regions where ejecta suggest possible water ice.

Lunar science and Communication orbiters named Lunatic Alpha, Bravo and Charlie here Charlie rises over the lunar north pole having gathered its final science data before pushing back up to act as a comsat.

Lunatic Charlie with multiple nozzle main injection and 2x3 motor capture motor plus self de-orbiting impactor

Main ascent to orbit was rough and each was very close on margins, each missions experienced at least one engine cutout or low thrust on ascent.

Lunatic Alpha adjusting its orbit in a rough equatorial band at 1000km circular

Lunatic Bravo's spent stage acts as the impactor after the main impactor went off course due to an overly vigorous ejection.

Lunatic Bravo departs on pair of injection motors failed causing a spin, the stage was ejected and craft stabilized intime to use the capture motor to adjust the burn back on target.  Unlike Alpha no extra RCS reserve was available for capture so nearly all RCS fuel was spent capturing into its final comsat orbit.

 

Using PEG ascents
 

Spoiler

Heavy Comsats are heavy.

 

PEG taking a low thrust on center engine in stride.

see the new RSS version of Mech Jeb in this case booster burn was programmed for well after side booster cutoff and you may notice one engine has failed entirely and reduced thrust from the other two as first stage goes into MECO. Still made it to orbit

 

 

Who needs good alignment for lunar orbit?

Edited July 22, 2017 by Bornholio
lots of cleanup notes

[luizopiloto]

Made a Saturn-V like rocket in commemoration for Apollo-XI 48th anniversary.
https://kerbalx.com/luizopiloto/Saturn---V

 

[Maelstrom Vortex]

On 7/19/2017 at 5:10 PM, Stewcumber said:

Today I improved my 'engines' by having a much smaller space for the axle to rotate in, so it bounces around less and is therefore less likely to explode. No landing gear wheels required! I spawn my creation with the axle attached with a decoupler, and then let it drop down into the slot. I then lower the legs of landing gear to 'lock' the axle in place and stop it bouncing around.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zae042tprsj9f3l/KSP 2017-07-19 20-21-16-90.mp4?dl=0

I then thought I'd try out an air powered car, which actually worked! 

Watch me turn off the landing gear brakes and then power away at a blistering 3m/s!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bqx5o47zy0mp3lc/KSP 2017-07-19 20-33-23-06.mp4?dl=0

 

 

One suggested improvement for this. Replace the beams holding the main shaft with a hollow mark 1 structural body. It'll be so much smoother when it turns.

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

Messed around with a modified version of @jfrouleau's Flapping Blade Demo heli.

 

@Cupcake... ya think you could pull off some of your magic piloting shenanigans in something like this? It handles surprisingly similar to one of those dropship things of yours!

Edited July 21, 2017 by EpicSpaceTroll139

[PT]

Well, no Saturn V for me today, but I did launch something big!

Continuing from yesterday... I fueled up Zenith OMS tank, mounted custom built OMS engines and... ENGAGE!

Custom OMS for Zenith passed all tests successfully. Infernal Robotics allows for thrust offset compensation, be it with variable thrust or its geometry, in quite compact frame. With current configuration OMS tank gives 2440 DeltaV starting at decent TWR of 0.64.

Of course rotating 250 tons of spaceship is not most efficient way for maneuvering but such problems are nothing for Zenith OMS! Full thrust reverse! (Although those two tug drones should find new place to dock)

Zenith is currently parked in 1000x1000 orbit, waiting for its interplanetary engines and cargo for its tour of Sonnah moons.

Moar pics here.

Current loaded with:

• OMS tank+engines (not yet welded with main hull,  might grow a bit in order to maintain deltaV and TWR while cargo grows )
• Comm Tower.
• Four left over tug drones.
• Bill in his Grasshoper engineering craft.
• Valentina with Lanfen as copilot.

Edited July 21, 2017 by PT

[cratercracker]

18 minutes ago, EpicSpaceTroll139 said:

Messed around with a modified version of @jfrouleau's Flapping Blade Demo heli.

 

@Cupcake... ya think you could pull off some of your magic piloting shenanigans in something like this? It handles surprisingly similar to one of those dropship things of yours!

I RAN OUT OF LIKES

*throws up*

 

[alp3r]

Spent 4 hours making a Polikarpov I-15. Didn't make a backup save for it. Ctrl+Z'd once. Game crashes, file corrupts, am able to load it onto the runway but not the hangar. About to go mad and smash my head into a wall and kill myself. If anyone can help, here's the support link: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/163548-craft-cant-be-spawned-in-hangar/#comment-3127697

 

Edited July 21, 2017 by alp3r

[CatastrophicFailure]

1 hour ago, EpicSpaceTroll139 said:

Messed around with a modified version of @jfrouleau's Flapping Blade Demo heli.

 

@Cupcake... ya think you could pull off some of your magic piloting shenanigans in something like this? It handles surprisingly similar to one of those dropship things of yours!

Sigh. I become ever more convinced that I will gain an inhuman mastery of advanced quantum mechanics long before I have even an inkling of understanding of stock... spinnny-bendy things. 

[luizopiloto]

1 hour ago, EpicSpaceTroll139 said:

Messed around with a modified version of @jfrouleau's Flapping Blade Demo heli.

 

@Cupcake... ya think you could pull off some of your magic piloting shenanigans in something like this? It handles surprisingly similar to one of those dropship things of yours!

I was like... meh... just another slow stock chopper... then it did a side loop and I was like:

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

23 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Sigh. I become ever more convinced that I will gain an inhuman mastery of advanced quantum mechanics long before I have even an inkling of understanding of stock... spinnny-bendy things. 

You might be able to learn some from the stock helicopters and turboprops thread: 

 

[Astrofox]

Ultralight. Technically I did this yesterday, and I was trying to record this yesterday, but my recording software was doing strange things.

So I recorded this gem:

 

Read desc. if you're interested. I doubt you will be, though.

[Geonovast]

Intentionally stranded Jeb and Bob on The Mun so I had to go rescue them.  (I'm practicing a few things, like landing this rover with a self-disposing no-return craft.)

[TheDARKOMETER]

 

So I made my first ever MiG Replica, a MiG-21, in KSP with FAR Installed (I'll be having FAR from now on )

It has actual Russian heat seeking missiles, but the AMRAAMS are made in the US of A. It can pull 9+Gs no problem.

Bonus, MiG-21 Buzzes US Aircraft Carrier with Harrier Jets.

 

Here's a sneak peak of what's to come next. (Really proud of the Internal Weapons Bay)

Edited July 22, 2017 by TheDARKOMETER

[Cpt Kerbalkrunch]

I always love the deliver asteroid contracts. I only take them if they're class D or E and going somewhere far enough that the reward is high. Brought this class E to Laythe and cleared a couple million bucks for it.

 

 

Here, the return craft is separating to bring my Kerbals back home. Ran into a very strange bug with this craft. I wanted to use an Mk2 Lander Can. But, when I did, I couldn't put Kerbals on board. When I hit launch from the VAB, the ship would be unmanned. Tried a bunch of times. Then I brought Kerbals out to the launchpad and loaded them into the ship and launched that way. A few seconds later, the entire ship exploded and got Krakified. Really weird. Finally gave up and put two Mk1 Lander Cans on top of each other. Looks crappy, but it didn't blow up. 

 

 

Also took a contract to deliver 3,050 units of ore from Gilly to Eve. It made another couple million, so I couldn't resist. This contraption worked just fine.

 

 

While the Eve window was open, I also sent a couple of ships to Moho with a bit of a gravity assist from the Purple One. This fuel shuttle for use with my new mining/science rover on Moho.

 

 

Had to send this rover because (this may sound like a joke but, sadly, it's not) I actually forgot to put science equipment and an antenna on my mining/science rover.  As you can see, it ran out of fuel in orbit.

 

 

A bit of tedium here. Needed to land the fuel shuttle, refuel it, then come back up to refuel the rover ship. Couldn't though, cuz the fuel shuttle has an Mk2 Lander Can on the bottom. This was planned. Explore Moho contract wanted a crew transfer. You probably noticed Jeb's return ship; built upside down and sent with the rover. Jeb wanted to land on Moho and I couldn't talk him out of it.

 

 

Transferred Jeb back and forth, landed the shuttle, came back up and refueled the rover and return ship.

 

 

The little science module is connected and the rest of the delivery rover is dumped.

 

 

Lastly, Jeb landed to put yet another notch in his belt. Now he'll just hang out and wait for a window home.

 

 

Sorry for all the pics. Haven't posted in a bit.

[MiffedStarfish]

Built a 1:1 MiG-17 replica.

And discovered the wonder that is BDA manual gunfights.

[Corscaria]

KASA launched the Rok colony ship today, carrying 312 passengers + 10 crew members on a one way trip to Laythe. After achieving Kerbin orbit, the Rok was refuel and is awaiting a compliment of 6 shuttles which will carry the passengers to the surface of Laythe. After the colonization mission, the crew will stay aboard the Rok in Laythe orbit, and the ship will be converted into a space station for interplanetary commerce.

[XB-70A]

While Moho Direct was accomplishing its mission Vishnu for its parts was approaching Minmus for two different missions :

Aslorf Kerman was trapped in her capsule at a terribly low orbit and needed a (well paid) immediate rescue.

 

After a terribly annoying circularization at such altitude and in total dark condition, the crew managed to approach the Cupola Module to approx 50 m. Hopefully the Illuminator made its job perfectly.

 

After one minute of space walking Aslorf reached the X-21A spine door...

 

... and it already was time to leave the mint ball. 175 m/s of dV being needed to come back home. 2/3 of the mission being completed, only the Spark engine test while leaving still was needed.

 

A super slow acceleration and we were leaving Minmus once again. The last contract being completed now was remaining the most stressful part of the mission, ensuring a safe return to them.

[fourfa]

On 7/21/2017 at 11:29 AM, Bornholio said:

 

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WOW! Epic post, thanks for sharing so much detail (and proper spoiler tag etiquette!)

Edited July 22, 2017 by fourfa
ironically, I can't figure out how to delete the empty spoiler tags :(

[cratercracker]

Hello my deep dark fellow lurkers of this thread who likes other posts not because he/she likes it, but because he/she is supposing he/she will get the same in return...

Back to KSP stuff though...

1."Promise-Heavy" flight! It is a first fliable "replica" (if you can call it like that) of Falcon-Heavy! I am interested though... Have @Matt Lowne or @ShadowZone done Falcon-Heavy replica

And yes! I landed all the stages! Hooraaaaay! (Note: landing big stuff is stressful)

 

 

 

 

And now...We are off to Duna! (Note:aerobrakes on Duna are boring) Will be waiting there for the lander to arrive..

 

 

2. Launching "RetroSpectra" satellite, using new "Apos" launcher! You can kinda guess what kind of orbit it went to... (Note: retrograde orbits succ)

  

 

3. Maiden Flight of "Agata" rocket carying the faulty payload- ''DFM" (Data From Mun)

This thing is reaaally fast with its first stage.. (Note: GOTTA GO FAST)

Altough the "lander" spinned out of control during the descent burn....

 

 

And then we lost it...

4. Retruned to my favourite craft-"Phoenix" ground speed recordsmen.

(Note: Gotta go fast may cause physical and psychical damage for open minded people)

 

5.Flight of ''Mantel"..

Oh the memories...

 

 

GG FOR TODAY