What did you do in KSP1 today?

[ROXunreal]

26 minutes ago, Fearless Son said:

I really like your science rover design!  I never thought of applying the Science Junior unit as a horizontal "drum" like that, but it makes a lot of sense.  

If I might make a recommendation?  The RCS might be insufficient to dismount it on Duna, what with it's higher gravity and air pressure (though still low compared to Kerbin, of course.)  But the idea is sound; it might be wise to swap the RCS thruster packs with Puff monopropellant engines, which give a little more total thrust and are throttleable (at the cost of only thrusting in one direction.)

Thanks. The issue with the "drum" arrangement is that it doesn't "snap" horizontally in the VAB when attached to a surface, meaning that the wheels attached to the Science Jr aren't perfectly centered with the front wheels, making it turn slightly which is very annoying when time warping and traveling a you have to constantly correct the heading, and if you do so at too high a speed it can make the whole thing flip. I guess it could be centered properly with a lot of testing at SC to make sure it goes straight or mostly straight over longer distances.

I'll figure out a different way of deployment altogether for Duna as this was somewhat clumsy even on the Mun. It'll probably be a sky crane of some kind, meaning I'll have to make room for an attachment point on the top side.

[Fearless Son]

16 minutes ago, ROXunreal said:

Thanks. The issue with the "drum" arrangement is that it doesn't "snap" horizontally in the VAB when attached to a surface, meaning that the wheels attached to the Science Jr aren't perfectly centered with the front wheels, making it turn slightly which is very annoying when time warping and traveling a you have to constantly correct the heading, and if you do so at too high a speed it can make the whole thing flip. I guess it could be centered properly with a lot of testing at SC to make sure it goes straight or mostly straight over longer distances.

I'll figure out a different way of deployment altogether for Duna as this was somewhat clumsy even on the Mun. It'll probably be a sky crane of some kind, meaning I'll have to make room for an attachment point on the top side.

It might mean a slight increase in mass, but adding a couple of structural pieces to the side of the rover while angle-snap is turned on can give you some parallel places to mount your wheels which extend past the nominal end of the core part.  You can then use the offset tool to clip them into the rover and create the appearance of them being attached to the drum.  

[KerBlammo]

Put a prototype Rocket Of The Future on the Mun.

[DiamondExcavater]

I had to delay posting here...

I recreated the Star Wars speeder bike. Basically a VTOL scaled down, probably not as fast or stable..

here is a video

I would agree with anyone who says the videos too long and boring, but on the contrary I show some of my development and thoughts on the craft...

Recreating is much harder than making things from scratch.

[Castille7]

Built a new DeepSea Base and Submarine. The Base is enroute to location somewhere in the deep Kerbin Seas. The base has drilling capabilities and will be used for refueling Submarines.

 

More Pic's

Spoiler

 

Diving

 

 

Edited January 12, 2018 by Castille7

[AngrybobH]

I finally got my Eve probes in order and paid for and on their way. The engineering challenge of an Eve surface return vehicle for 2 kerbals was finally completed and sent. So the time for the crewed vessel to leave came. And here they are waving goodbye to Kerbin for their years long mission.

This ship was designed for multiple missions and to go to many other planets but I think it needs a redesign of the engine section. I'm not entirely pleased with the TWR and dV. The plane on the front will stay on Eve as it does not have the dV to return.

[CanOmer]

Reusable SSTO rocket which carries 18100kg Nuclear Mun Science Hopper. Landing of the rocket is failed due to wrong landing location.

Payload is on its way.

Edited January 13, 2018 by CanOmer

[DiamondExcavater]

1 hour ago, CanOmer said:

Reusable SSTO rocket which carries 18100kg Nuclear Mun Science Hopper. Landing of the rocket is failed due to wrong landing location.

I suggest using air brakes to help control the stage better

[Atkara]

Spent most of today's session reaching this naughty girl, stranded ~480km from my Duna outpost.

The rescue craft, also carrying 3 tourists, paying for sightseeing, is on the way:

Currently, there's a surface miner, operating between Duna & Ike. It will take care of both the tourists and the stranded Kerbal.

In other news:

Spoiler

Jeb, Bill & Bob are on their way back from Duna, onboard Explorer 1. Val, just wouldn't shut up about not going "out there" so, she pilots it's sister vessel to Dres, together with the rest of the flights en route there.

One of the two relay packs that are currently en route to Jool. Two relays with surface survey/scan capability per moon and two main relays for the big guy.

Meanwhile in LKO:

Two recovery vessels are being fueled up, before departing for Eve. The first is going to pick up a Kerbal and it's pod around Gilly. For the second, the plan is to use Eve's gravity well to reach Moho's orbit, where another Kerbal is awaiting rescue. While there, it will inspect a part that also requires recovery. If it can fit, I'll bring both back. If not, there's always the next transfer window.

Per standard procedure, their crews will board them a week before departure.

 

Edited January 13, 2018 by Atkara

[Jimbodiah]

Contemplating how many launches it will take to complete my new station.

For those of you counting: 23 launches for just the station parts, then 2-3 extra for tugs and support, and at least 10 to fill all the tanks with the required resources to function as an EPL platform and refueling station for my NearFuture and FarFuture fleet.

Edited January 13, 2018 by Jimbodiah

[CatastrophicFailure]

1 hour ago, Jimbodiah said:

Contemplating how many launches it will take to complete my new station.

Just... just one very large one?

[qzgy]

1 minute ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Just... just one very large one?

Base does look packable enough....

I would stack everything (all the modules I mean) in a long skinny pile or with the main truss on the bottom with some station assembly tugs nestled in somewhere. Then launch the long skinny pile.

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

Been testing my own Falcon 9ish recoverable first stage with stock wide-base landing legs. Was inspired by a neat craft I saw on KerbalX.

Currently it is named very kerbally as "Failcan 1"

[Jimbodiah]

Euhm.... By "long and skinny", do you mean 10m diameter and 150m high?

I was actually thinking of breaking out the Jupiter III (7.5m) and launching 4-5 modules at a time, or even make the EPL part operation first and just send up shipments of Rocketparts. But all-in-one? You guys are nuts!  

[Mr. Peabody]

 

♪ Over hill over dale we will hit the dusty trail and the rover goes rolling along... ♪ (More elcano roving)

[Fearless Son]

I spent the evening designing and snapping together a modular surface base prototype on the green at Kerbal Space Center:

The rover in front was used to put the various pieces together.  It has a pair of large reaction wheels set to SAS only.  This helps it keep the large parts stable while carting them around.  The modules themselves have standardized end pieces that allow them to line up with one another and the rover.  Said end pieces also have structural elements on the bottom which keep them level on the ground and also mount small landing gear which lets them roll comfortably while attached to the rover, before they get tucked up into stationary mode.  

[Guest]

General rehearsal for my grand Jool mission. Built a prototype station, ISRU, tanker, two relays, lander, prospector, and surveyor, packaged it into a payload, and took it to Minmus.

Everything worked fine although I did come up with a bunch of refinements for the real thing. My tanker was the least satisfactory component of the operation; it was really hard to control on Minmus' low gravity after I landed it and there were some CoT/CoM issues as well, so I dealt with those. Also did some tweaking to the payload to make it more aerodynamically symmetrical; my plane was pulling to starboard which made launch a little fiddly. The intermediary ballet where I reconfigured from boost to arrival configuration (release the relays and the surveyor, collect the tanker, ISRU, and prospector into one ship, drop one of the boosters, and collect the core, lab, lander, and other booster into another ship) went without a hitch.

I also seem to have accidentally invented a passively safe heavy lifter SSTO. When I re-enter, it settles first into a steep 60-degree AoA and won't budge from it whatever I do; then when it hits around 10 km altitude, it noses down into normal flight (which at that point means a steep dive as I'll only have about 220 m/s speed, but it recovers from that easily). Pretty much all I have to do to re-enter is drop the Pe to 50k, point the nose at the sky, sit back, relax, and take the controls when it's flying aerodynamically again. I do not know why it behaves like that but I'm not complaining.

[Mignear]

Modified my standard design of the "25" aircraft to roughly estimate how fast a 4-engine plane of around the same mass would go and also to see how much chutes and airbrakes it takes to slow the thing down.

Conclusion: Fast enough that I could probably use it as a probe launcher. The test design itself is designated RB, for "Record-Breaker".

1 test craft was sent to the Polar Base to replace Jeb's 1st generation "25", but it crashed into the ground a mere 300m away from the Polar Base while attempting to slow down upon landing, the pilot, Rosory Kerman was killed in the crash.

Another aircraft will be sent in due time once the design is further refined.

[XB-70A]

A contract was asking for a new satellite around Minmus, that's all. At least they were not asking for another creepy configuration with useless Seismic Accelerometer on it (...).

However, this did not happen totally as expected, the second stage having decided to troll me!

Given yesterday's flight, I could only choose my old Gamma IV Medium for the mission! Let's look at these beautiful shadows from the launcher and the upper part of the launch pad-only, the bottom part does not count...

 

The acceleration was more than average at the beginning, the poor launcher having a hard time to fight with its mass.

 

Hopefully, the SRBs made a wonderful job and were ejected at 15 km after a 54 seconds hard work.

 

I definitely have a problem with sunflares screenshot... why do I love them so much?

 

Saying goodbye to the first stage (and its 25k funds... .) Despite its lack of punch with its single Swivel, the second stage still was able to keep on accelerating easily, placing the Ap at 500 km...

 

And to kick the new Comsat to Minmus in four days of travel. All antennas were deployed at this time.

 

Contract completed. However, since the beginning, the satellite was not only conceived for the deal, but for another purpose: to relay at one of the highest orbit over Minmus.

For that we must first get rid of the second stage which came bulky, it's at this moment it decided to become some kind of a troll...

Spoiler

 

Lowering the orbital speed to give the second stage a crash trajectory.

 

Goodbye you little piece of metal, you made a good work.

 

(I can't wait to see you crashing violently and diapering hehe...)

 

Yeaaaah! Woooooo-hooo... Wait! What is THIS!

 

I simply can't believe it! How did it survived!!!

 

Anyway! Just disappear you piece of junk! Muahahahaaaaaaa...

 

... Can't believe it...

 

Are you going crash or what?! Come on just crash!

 

Yeah... come on, COME ON!!!

 

... How is it even possible?..

 

FINALLY!!! AFTER TEN LONG MINUTES!

 

After having laughed at me so well the satellite was placed on its supposed orbit, helping to connect a bit more the probes going to the Jool system.

 

 

[Kebab Kerman]

9 hours ago, Brikoleur said:

General rehearsal for my grand Jool mission. Built a prototype station, ISRU, tanker, two relays, lander, prospector, and surveyor, packaged it into a payload, and took it to Minmus.

Everything worked fine although I did come up with a bunch of refinements for the real thing. My tanker was the least satisfactory component of the operation; it was really hard to control on Minmus' low gravity after I landed it and there were some CoT/CoM issues as well, so I dealt with those. Also did some tweaking to the payload to make it more aerodynamically symmetrical; my plane was pulling to starboard which made launch a little fiddly. The intermediary ballet where I reconfigured from boost to arrival configuration (release the relays and the surveyor, collect the tanker, ISRU, and prospector into one ship, drop one of the boosters, and collect the core, lab, lander, and other booster into another ship) went without a hitch.

I also seem to have accidentally invented a passively safe heavy lifter SSTO. When I re-enter, it settles first into a steep 60-degree AoA and won't budge from it whatever I do; then when it hits around 10 km altitude, it noses down into normal flight (which at that point means a steep dive as I'll only have about 220 m/s speed, but it recovers from that easily). Pretty much all I have to do to re-enter is drop the Pe to 50k, point the nose at the sky, sit back, relax, and take the controls when it's flying aerodynamically again. I do not know why it behaves like that but I'm not complaining.

I think you forgot the part where- wait, those are fairing parts! I thought they were part of the craft that had blown off!

[Geonovast]

I've been working on this guy.  Even though I don't play career, decided to play with a 100% recoverable orbital delivery rocket, since I suck at large plane SSTOs.

This will bring you to about an 80km x 80km orbit easy enough, dump the boosters in that orbit, then you'll have at least 1,000 m/s left in the center to bounce around in orbit and return.  Boosters stay in orbit until you're ready to bring them down.  The top 2.5 to 1.25 adapter tanks are reserved for de-orbiting the boosters.

The command pod is my standard re-entry pod, with its own parachutes.  Has enough supplies for three for about 11 days in orbit.  Coupler is only there for emergencies.

 

Also I got a new mouse with the side forward and back buttons.  Set the forward button to toggle map view, and the back button for screenshots.  Pretty handy

[Guest]

More preparation for the grand Jool mission: bringing together the crew. I decided to decommission Ike Station and use its core to bring back Jeb, Val, and some strays I rescued from Duna orbit. Here are the stations docked for crew, fuel, and Science exchange.

Before that though I did a more conventional Duna landing. It got a bit hairy because I wasted a lot of dV coming down -- I misjudged my trajectory and would have landed in a biome I had already visited. I did manage to squeak back into orbit but it was really tight, the last 40 m/s or so I had to use RCS, and I was almost out of monoprop as well when I got there. I had to send someone down from Duna Station to pick Sambin up, but in the end everyone was fine and I got the science back too.

Then I merged Minmus Station and Rukh Station -- the Jool prototype -- into one bigger station, and sent up a plane to retrieve the extra crew. Thanks to the Jool experiment, there's now a rather an absurd quantity of fuel on Minmus Station. Maybe I'll think of something to do with it later.

So I'm just about all set. I just got a bit more Sci from Duna and Minmus and am thinking of spending it to get fuel cell arrays and RTGs, which would make some of my Jool mission components more efficient. That would of course mean adjustments to the design, which means I would be sending unproven technology to Jool, which sounds exactly like what I want to do.

[Jett_Quasar]

Just uploaded my latest design...

Download on KerbalX.com now.

 - Jett

[ROXunreal]

Made the sexiest lander of my life for a nine-Kerbal mission to Minmus.

The mission had three objectives:

1. Scan Minmus with the M700 survey scanner for a future mining operation and refueling station

2. Do several biome jumps and collect science data

3. Provide training and experience for the crew of nine mostly fresh Kerbonauts

It was a great success, all objectives were met and science from five different biomes gathered.

 

Leaving Kerbin

Surveying Minus

Final landing burn after having detached the scanner and transfer stage

Group photo! What a great day for our space program! The experience gathered here will enable these Kerbals to crew the as of yet unmanned stations under construction in the orbits of Kerbin, Mun and Minmus, as well as manned missions to Duna and Eve

Detachment of the science module after the final biome is explored and science transferred to the main craft

Landing on Kerbin

 

Edited January 13, 2018 by ROXunreal

[Jimbodiah]

Launch #4 for my new station. The new tug using Infernal Robotics is a godsend, stable docking of different part sizes and shapes; just change the width and length of the RCS and off we go. Each section will be joined by two Konstruction docking ports that will be welded together when the parts are in their correct position.  I just hope I don't accidentaly weld my tug to the station at some point.

SSTU, Infernal Robotics, Station Parts Expansion Redux, HeatControl, NF Solar.

 

Edited January 14, 2018 by Jimbodiah