What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Planetace]

The first ever Galaxy in modded KSP....

Edited September 24, 2017 by Planetace

[LN400]

Attempting to build a fully working helicopter swashplate using IR and tweakscale. So close but no cigar just yet, collective works but the 2 swash discs are hard to keep tilting together as one. I need to find a freewheeling bearing/unpowered rotator that follows the swash tilt and it would be a step towards success.

[Whisky Tango Foxtrot]

I landed my mining base on Duna.

I've also been experimenting with a new type of SSTO.

[Planetace]

Changing up some of the textures...

Edited September 24, 2017 by Planetace

[Zeiss Ikon]

(career save)

Okay, the previous headline about Val being out of fuel on the way back from the Mun was a little overblown.  Well, all right, it was true, at the time, but after attempting "get out and push" (and finding that with a dead battery and no one/no probe core aboard to stabilize the craft, it was effectively impossible to do anything but induce and modify a tumble), I loaded a save from earlier in the mission, before doing most of the contract work (and long before reaching the Mun).

Explorer III is a simple outgrowth of Explorer II, with three pairs of boosters instead of one, and the core upgraded to a Swivel liquid fuel engine, allowing deletion of the fins on the old version.  The boosters were progressively reduced in thrust -- one pair at full, one pair at 60%, and the final pair at 40%.  This gave plenty of thrust for liftoff, but kept the G load from getting too high as well as preventing excessive aero loads in the lower atmosphere (aka "the soup").   With this much booster thrust, the core Swivel could be thrust limited to 50% as well, ensuring it would burn through the entire booster burn and well beyond.

The sharp-eyed will spot a pair of "Flea" solid boosters mounted to the transfer stage -- those, and the Hydraulic Detachment Manifolds they're attached by, are contract hardware; this launch carried four contracts: transmit or recover science from Kerbin orbit, test the Flea booster in orbit (160-170 km), and test the experimental HDM in orbit (220-230 km), as well as fly by the Mun.  There was also rather a load of science gear -- a Science Jr., first time that experiment has been flown (for the "science from orbit" contract), a pair of goo canisters inside the storage bay, and a pair each of thermometers and barometers -- the latter to recover data from the new regimes this craft was to fly through.

And she's off.  The four throttled boosters give equivalent thrust of two at full power; that plus the two full thrust boosters and the half thrust Swivel make the craft quite spritely at launch.

Even at near Max Q, the boosters slide cleanly away from the core when they're released.  The assymetry of the layout after beginning to discard boosters leads to a small pitch moment that eventually turns into a little orbit inclination.  The Mun is big enough and close enough it doesn't cause trouble, but  upgrades will be needed before Kerbalkind can venture further out -- because everything else in the system will require a certain amount of control over orbit inclination, and at present it's hard to even detect at small values, never mind measure or compensate.

G load drops off every time a booster pair burns out, then builds slowly as mass burns off.  The thrust limits were chosen as much for timing as for G control, but you can bet Val enjoys not feeling like Jeb, Bill, and Bob are sitting on her chest at the peak of boost.

Once the last of the boosters are gone and almost all of the atmosphere is below the vessel, and apoapsis is established above the Kerman line, Val turns ship from prograde to horizontal to build up orbital velocity without pushing her apoasis too high.  Unfortunately, the still-inert Fleas are dead weight, and the core, which has been burning since launch, doesn't have enough delta-V left to leave the vessel in orbit with full transfer stage tanks.  On the bright side, LKO has been referred to as "halfway to anywhere" (it really isn't, quite, but it's more than 80% of the way to the Mun in terms of delta-V).  Even burning half the propellant in the transfer stage will leave enough to get to the Mun and back once the Flea test is complete and those boosters are staged away.

Once in stable orbit, another little kick is all that's needed to raise apoapsis into the parameter range for the Flea test.  Sorry, no photos of that test; it was short and I was a little busy. 

The Flea test (which fired both boosters) easily set up the parameters for the HDM test in a little higher orbit, but didn't push the vessel into anything like a Munar transfer.  Still, once the boosters had been pushed away (always gratifying when experimental hardware works as advertised), it was a simple matter to burn the transfer engine long enough to raise apoapsis to the Mun's neighborhood.

Fortunately, not only is the Mun big enough and close enough that a little orbit inclination won't keep you from your goal, it's also in an orbit that's easy to find with minimal technology.  If you simply point prograde, wait until the Mun is dead ahead, and burn until your apoapsis is close to the Mun's orbit, you'll fall up to your new apoapsis ahead of the Mun, and then hang there (in the slowest part of your own orbit) while the Mun catches up.  The tricky part is controlling your ejection vector after your swing past the Mun.  The exact values are pure guesswork with the current technology, but there's a useful rule of thumb.  If you set up your apoapsis above Mun's orbit, you'll swing behind and get a gravity boost, adding velocity and raising your periapsis (by thousands of kilometers, if it's a close pass).  Set up to pass below Mun's orbit, on the other hand, and you'll swing in front, and Mun's gravity will slow you, dropping you directly into Kerbin

The former condition will take a lot more delta-V (almost as much as the original Munar transfer) to turn into a reentry profile -- quite possibly more than you have, in a mission that, like this one, involved hauling a lot of dead weight into orbit.  The latter requires only a tiny tweak to raise periapsis out of Kerbin's crust to an appropriate altitude -- that is to say, it's a free return orbit, though the return wouldn't be survivable without a small correction.

On the advice of the big-brains back at the Center, Val left her orbit a little below the Mun's, and as predicted, the Mun's gravity collected her, slipped her past on the Kerbin side, and then ejected her.  After subtracting the Mun's velocity, she came out almost dead in space at the Mun's distance.  Getting home was assured; getting there alive and intact would still require a little effort.

Despite her status as the most isolated Kerbal in history to date (the nearest other being roughly 11,000 km away on Kerbin's surface), and having a view no other Kerbal had ever had (the Mun from only a few hundred km), Val remembered to perform her science duties -- she observed one goo canister near Munar apoapsis, and logged one thermometer and one barometer reading as well.

During the return voyage, once she was clear of the Mun's gravity, she observed her other goo canister, logged the second thermometer and barometer.  Comparison of those readings with the ones within the Mun's sphere, and others from prior missions in Low Kerbin Orbit), will increase Kerbalkind's knowledge of space, at least in the general neighborhood of their homeworld.  Once that was done, and the waiting as the vessel fell toward its meeting with Kerbin, it was time to get set up for her first atmosphere pass.  There was reason to believe the materials experiment was less capable of withstanding thermal stresses than the rest of the vessel, so the reentry profile was chosen to go easy on that module. Accordingly, a two-pass reentry was chosen.

The first pass had a high periapsis, and was used to lower the apoapsis (and hence the velocity of the second pass) as far as possible.  In conjunction with that, the remaining propellant in the transfer stage was burned near periapsis, providing about as much braking as the high altitude amospheric pass.  Once the stage was dry, Val discarded it in favor of the higher braking effect of the blunt heat shield -- but by then she was already climbing again, heading out on her orbit with another hour or two of waiting ahead.

With the transfer stage gone, there's nothing to do but wait until it's time to point retrograde again for the landing reentry.  Once again, no photos of that period; preservation of the materials experiment required maintaining a high roll rate throughout reentry, and there weren't enough fingers to go around for a time.  Eventually, Val did succeed in bringing the entire vessel, intact, through the fiery reentry and -- with multiple parachutes installed -- to a very gentle splashdown.  Including donations for several "world's first" achievements, and a science haul exceeding any prior mission in the program, the administration declared the mission an unqualified success, and immediately shelled out for more facility upgrades.  Val will be the last Kerbal to fly to the Mun by the seat of her pants.

[SamBelanger]

Here are pictures of my future mod ''DoubleDouble'' WIP

(DoubleDouble is a mod that add a solar system that has 4 stars!)

 

Pictures :

Crisi system

Kerbin with the mod ''DoubleDouble''

Eeloo with the mod ''DoubleDouble''

Draco this is the only moon of Willana (Sorry for the graphic bug )

Moho with the mod ''DoubleDouble''

Picture of Milo

Crisi-BA and Crisi-BB

Crisi-AA and Crisi-AB

Picture of Willana

Kerbal in normal

 

https://imgur.com/a/y7Wgw

Edited September 24, 2017 by SamBelanger

[Alpha_Mike_741]

Made a very simple but useful UI function

Code:

Spoiler

	declare function UI_Menu
	{
		declare parameter Items ,Title is "Select an item from the menu" .
		local index is 0.
		local scr_wv is 0.	//Write Vertical position
		local cursor is "->".
		local scr_cursor_padding is "  ".
		function scr_write
		{
			parameter str.
			
			if terminal:width<str:length	//Truncate str if it's too long to fit.
			{
				set str to str:subString (0,terminal:width).
			}
			print "  "+str.
			set scr_wv to scr_wv+1.
		}
		
		if Items:length<1
			return -1.
		else
		{			
			ClearScreen .
			scr_write(Title).
			scr_write(" ").
			scr_write(" ").

			local items_lex is lexicon().
			
			until index>(Items:Length-1) 
			{
				items_lex:add(scr_wv-1,items[index]).
				scr_write(scr_cursor_padding+(index+1)+": "+items[index]).
				set index to index+1.
			}
			
			local firstItemIndex is (scr_wv-1)-(items_lex:length-1).
			local lastItemIndex  is firstItemIndex+items_lex:length-1.
			local cursorPos is firstItemIndex.
			local input is 0.
			until input=terminal:input:enter
			{
				print cursor at (0,cursorPos).
				set input to terminal:input:getChar.
				if input = terminal:input:PAGEUPCURSOR{				
					print scr_cursor_padding at(0,cursorPos).
					set cursorPos to cursorPos-1.
					set cursorPos to max(cursorPos,firstItemIndex).
				}
				else if input = terminal:input:PAGEDOWNCURSOR
				{
					print scr_cursor_padding at (0,cursorPos).
					set cursorPos to cursorPos+1.
					set cursorPos to min(lastItemIndex,cursorPos).			
				}
			}
			
			return (cursorPos-firstItemIndex+1).
			
		}
	}
	
	ClearScreen.
	print UI_Menu(List("Item 1","Item 2","Item 3")). //Example

[septemberWaves]

@Galacticvoyager Living up to your username I see.

[JadeOfMaar]

18 hours ago, coyotesfrontier said:

Quite a lot, actually: 

How appropriate that your first post contains a flag planting. Great pics, and welcome to the forum.  

[dvp]

Built a station in Mun orbit for refueling and shuttling back rescued kerbals, etc. Holds 54k/44k units of fuel, 7k Mono, and has a refinery.

Behind it is a tanker/mining ship. From another angle, better view of the docking extension and utility pods/landers. (Haven't used any yet - so the struts are still visible.)

Unfortunately, it's complex enough that I have to disable all my torque rings when docking otherwise this happens:

Doesn't look like much, but that thing sticking out from behind the station is all that remains of a much larger ship that shook itself to pieces and left a huge mess. On the upside, the station holds 1500 Ore now too!

[Landwalker]

Launched the Circe I, intended to be the first probe in orbit around Kerbin.

Didn't quiiiiiiite make it...

I ran out of fuel with a periapsis of about 67 km.  In my rust, I probably have terrible launch angles and gravity turns, which I'm sure had something to do with it... I just don't know exactly what the problem was, or the right way to go about fixing it.

As a result, Circe I failed in its attempt to become Kerbin's first artificial satellite.  Hopefully the financial setback won't cripple the space program entirely...

[Julien Kerman]

I was playing around with @Thrimm's Interplanetary Transport System in Realism Overhaul  

Lift-off!! Of course the launch pad broke ^^ 

42 Raptor engines, so that means only 6 FPS during ascent 

Stage separation! There goes the huge first stage.

Orbit archived! Maybe I will add the mod to my RP0 playthrough.

Edited September 24, 2017 by Julien Kerman

[Landwalker]

3 minutes ago, Landwalker said:

Launched the Circe I, intended to be the first probe in orbit around Kerbin.

Didn't quiiiiiiite make it...

I ran out of fuel with a periapsis of about 67 km.  In my rust, I probably have terrible launch angles and gravity turns, which I'm sure had something to do with it... I just don't know exactly what the problem was, or the right way to go about fixing it.

As a result, Circe I failed in its attempt to become Kerbin's first artificial satellite.  Hopefully the financial setback won't cripple the space program entirely...

 

1 minute ago, Julien Kerman said:

I was playing around with @Thrimm's Interplanetary Transport System in Realism Overhaul

....

Orbit archived! 

Show-off. 

[Planetace]

https://imgur.com/cwhHhIK

What a beautiful day...

Edited September 24, 2017 by Planetace

[Katten]

Today I'm testing some parts I threw together, with a small Mun mission.
I gotta say, it was very fun driving this type of ship. It requires switching between control points and engines for the orientation.
During landing, most of the control comes from Verners that are mounted under the ship. This lets all the RCS used be helpful in slowing down the descent.

https://imgur.com/a/fVvJa

[coyotesfrontier]

3 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

How appropriate that your first post contains a flag planting. Great pics, and welcome to the forum.  

Thank you! I've been lurking here for around a year, but never bothered to make an account until now. Imgur is giving me errors when I try to upload, but I'll make sure to give pics of my new Mun station soon. 

 

[Kosmonaut]

1 hour ago, Galacticvoyager said:

https://imgur.com/cwhHhIK

What a beautiful day...

' ' 'wow, , ,

[G'th]

 

 

[Kerbinchaser]

Made a set for a novel/movie, and then "accidentally" hit "do not save" when I clicked "load new" ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!! 

 

[Maelstrom Vortex]

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/177289421

test flight, flew manned space plane on EMD and Thermal ramjet power to mun and back. Minimal fuel use in the form of Hydrazine. Theoretically, transfers between atmosphere based planets could be performed without expending any hydrazine as it was only used to control munar descent and to punch off munar surface. On any atmosphere based world it could re-enter space on atmosphere alone and go wherever on EMD.

Edited September 24, 2017 by Maelstrom Vortex

[Partperpart]

Go to the mun for the first time

[Kosmonaut]

1 hour ago, G'th said:

 

 

subscribed

[G'th]

1 hour ago, Kosmonaut said:

subscribed

And other than myself you'd be my first. Yay lmao

[LN400]

Done for today with this swash project. It's not polished and needs some tweaking, as well as a way to get rid of the wobbles (which are surprisingly weak considering the flimsyness of it)

If anyone are interested in looking at it for improvements, then please feel free

https://kerbalx.com/LN400/Swash-Assembly-1

[Nergal8617]

Today I continued the expansion of the infrastructure for Minmus Base.  Got the manufacturing facility in place and then had to expand it to keep up with demand.  Ground Construction and KIS/KAS are essential when it comes to expanding a base that is already in place.  Next steps are more mining locations just to ensure I don't run out of raw materials, more power production for the manufacturing facility, and continued construction of the orbital transfer station.  Here is a shot of the expanded manufacturing facility.