What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Jimbodiah]

Launch 6 brings in the large EPL tank filled with 29.000 units of of RocketParts and an EPL pad, so now I can start manufacturing some parts in space instead of sending a rocket for every single module.

Edited January 14, 2018 by Jimbodiah

[Mignear]

Continuing with the tests of the Record Breaker.
Low altitude airbrake test: The nose airbrakes were destroyed, now separated from the other main airbrakes to be used as a landing brake. The aircraft went from 1400m/s at around 9000m to below 200m/s in a split second, spinning out and stabilising itself after falling for a while. Chutes were set to be used on landing.

The Record Breaker on its low altitude flight test over the mountains near the KSC.

 

[Guest]

Continuing preparations for the grand Jool mission. 

I've decided that in addition to the primary mission -- orbital station with a lander that should handle Bop, Pol, and Vall, ISRU with tanker, surveyor, and prospector for Pol (or possibly Bop, not decided yet), and two high-power relays -- I want to do three secondary missions. One is to fly a plane to Laythe. I've done that before and know my way around planes so that shouldn't be difficult. The second one is a kerbaled visit to Tylo. Now this is something I haven't attempted before; I also want to stick to my philosophy of building not for missions, but for the capability of doing missions, so I want to be able to repeat it after refueling, which means a single stage to the surface and back. (The third one is a one-way trip, but even that is capability-building: I want to drop a RTG-powered rover on Tylo so I can telegram up science from the surface at will.)

Today I've been working on the Tylo return mission. Behold, the prototype Perfectly Safe Tylo Landing System (lifetime guarantee, lifetime of the pilot that is):

It's powered by six Sparks, only carries the four light reusable science experiments, and has been stripped of everything I think is non-essential. If it takes typically 2270 m/s to get to the surface and the same again to get back, I've got a quite a bit of safety margin as it has about 5300 m/s dV. It should it a TWR of around 3 on landing (and take-off). I also have a nice big reaction wheel so it's fairly controllable. The docking port Jr that points straight down is essential for control because the seat faces forward.

It would be possible to strip it down a bit further for more efficiency but that would make it a lot harder to fly and would thin down the margin for error more than I would like. I am still tuning the fuel/power loadout but it's about where I want it to be now.

Please note the way the command chair is comfortably cushioned by the toroidal fuel tanks, and the convenient positioning of the RTG, embedded in the wall of the orbital module's crew compartment, so the pilot can keep his snacks warm. Handy!

Edit: funny how big a difference tuning makes when near the margins like for a Tylo return mission. If I settle for a TWR of around 2 on landing/take-off, I can lose a ton of weight for the same dV.

The lander stage has about 5300 m/s on it, and the orbiter has a bit over 2500 m/s with the fully-fueled lander docked. Plan is to get them into Tylo orbit and top up the fuel with my ISRU tanker. Then the orbiter will put the lander on a suborbital trajectory -- I'm thinking it can cut maybe 500 m/s off the orbital velocity -- and then boost back into orbit. The lander will have to make it down and back again on its own. With the assist from the orbiter, it'll give it an effective dV of 5800 for the round trip. With a bit of practice (yes I quickload!), KER, and a starting TWR of 2, I think I can make the ascent close to the target number of 2270 -- let's say 2500 -- which leaves 3300 for the landing. This sounds tight but just about doable, although I will want to tweak the orbiter for a better TWR and maybe a bit more fuel: the more it can assist, the easier the mission will be.

Edited January 14, 2018 by Guest

[fchurca]

This week I:

• Bought a graphics card, but didn't have drivers for my old LMDE2
• Forced it to Debian Jessie and ploughed all the way up to Buster
• Realized that the CPU cooler's thermal paste had gone stale, decided to switch the stock AMD cooler for a Thermaltake
• Upgraded to KSP 1.3.1
• Enjoyed loading my space stations without my computer shutting down

[XB-70A]

Launch of a new space station, actually the first I ever sent to another planet than Kerbin. Of course the choice was Duna as I was lacking any inspiration.

The choice of the launcher was the good old fat Pallas heavy Vertical S.S.T.O.

 

With 22 engines, Pallas is enjoying a good amount of kick as usual, despite the 60 tons mass of the payload, the heaviest it ever carried for now.

 

Enjoying some nice colors while the Sun is about to disappear beyond the horizon for the K.S.C.

 

Beginning of the circularization at 200 km. At this time the launcher had so much thrust than it nearly was uncontrollable...

 

Hopefully, everything went well and the station was released after fifteen minutes. It now was the time to deorbit this fat Pallas and to see if it could take it from 200 km.

 

Everything seemed good at this point. Even if, despite its pretty low level of fuel remaining, the whole mass of the craft was restricting it to slow down easily.

 

Too short... as usual...

 

Everything went pretty well... until a stupid input from me which made the whole launcher roll and simply annihilate it... "just" around 550 000 funds has been vaporized, but except this everything was fine, really...

 

Anyway, it was time for the team to be kicked out of Kerbin and put on the tracks to Duna...

 

A pretty long travel which cost us around 1.3 km/s. Hopefully the station still have 1.2 available, more than enough to circularize around the red dot.

Edited January 14, 2018 by XB-70A

[Guest]

Today was spent tweaking and testing for the grand Jool mission. Highlights:

• I tested the Perfectly Safe Tylo Landing System in orbit around Kerbin: lofted it to 100k, then performed the manoeuvre, with my target 0 m/s relative to surface when I hit 70k, after which I "reorbited." My first design did not work; it did not have sufficient TWR to survive and in fact only managed to hit zero around 30k. I redesigned for better TWR -- after thorough testing it turned out that somewhat surprisingly a single Dart was the best choice of engine -- and re-tested; that one hit the mark easily with several hundred m/s to spare. So I'm confident it'll work.
• Buoyed by the successful test, I decided to add another Tylo mission: a one-way unkerbaled one this time. I would drop an atomic-powered rover there, capable of surviving indefinitely and transmitting back its discoveries. Turns out that was much easier than the round-trip design, and it found a spot on the nose of my Tylo launch. The plan is that the rover will go first, and Jeb will follow in the Perfectly Safe Tylo Landing System later.
• Since I wasn't happy with my tanker, I redesigned it, twice, the second time so I could fit it inside an aerodynamic fairing for launch, but as such things often go I like the end result better than my original. The twist is that instead of rover wheels I have landing gear, with only a pair of centre-mounted small rover wheels for power. This lets me tuck everything neatly inside a fairing. I made other changes as well, not least trading in the Dart for a Terrier, as a Terrier will be more than powerful enough to handle the take-offs on the low-grav worlds it needs to visit, while being lighter and a lot more efficient. A nice side effect of the landing gear is that it lets me point the tanker at the sky by retracting the rear landing gear while keeping the front ones extended.
• I also made numerous tweaks to the station core (for easier packaging as a payload, mainly, but it also ended up a hair lighter) and the Rukh heavy lifter. The most noteworthy is that now the plane has steerable landing gear.

There's one sub-mission left to plan: Laythe by plane. I've already done that once so that should be fairly straightforward, the main question being how to get it there; it can fly itself to orbit but would require refueling, and if I'm doing that, I might as well give it a drop tank so it can go and do the mission straightaway, without having to wait for another refuel in the Jool system. 

Edited January 14, 2018 by Guest

[Fearless Son]

The surface base prototype I built the other day (see upthread) clued me into the situation that my space program was not as flush with funding as I would like.  There was enough to build it, but I worried about running out of funds actually transporting it anywhere.  Fortunately since it was just a prototype on the green I could recover everything for a full refund.  I decided to run a few easy contracts to generate some quick cash.  First up was a rescue contract.  I decided to renovate the spaceplane I designed to transfer crew too and from LKO using parts I unlocked since it's initial construction, and it proved easy to fly right up where I needed it:

Milwig Kerman spacewalked from her wreckage into the crew cabin and we set back down to Kerbin.  I undershot the space center but I had enough fuel to fly the rest of the way on the engines. The R.A.P.I.E.R.s are pretty fuel efficient for cruising at high altitude and low throttle.  The craft was almost a little too responsive though, so I might tweak the authority on the canards a little to make it smoother, would not want it ripping parts off during a high-G maneuver.  

The spaceplane spun out a little while breaking on the runway, but fortunately nothing broke despite it sliding halfway down the shoulder.  I had it taxi back up in front of the spaceplane hanger so Milwig could get out and pose for posterity.  Mission complete!  

My next mission is to plant a flag on the Mun and test the LV-1R "Spider" engine there.  Sounds like a good excuse to go and get my scouting rover down to the surface to figure out the optimal place to build my Mun base.  I already have a large general area I want to investigate based on my scanning satellite: it is equatorial and has a large concentration of ore, but it is still a lot of territory and I need some boots (or sensors) on the ground to survey the best site.  

[DiamondExcavater]

17 hours ago, Jimbodiah said:

Launch 6 brings in the large EPL tank filled with 29.000 units of of RocketParts and an EPL pad, so now I can start manufacturing some parts in space instead of sending a rocket for every single module.

What’s the stick with RCS on them? Telescopic pistons? It must be a mod to be sturdy cos that looks like it’ll spaghetti  everywhere

[Geonovast]

I felt like being ridiculous, so I built this:

 

To bring this to the Mun:

[Jimbodiah]

17 minutes ago, DiamondExcavater said:

What’s the stick with RCS on them? Telescopic pistons? It must be a mod to be sturdy cos that looks like it’ll spaghetti  everywhere

Infernal Robotics, there is a stackable piston. I run KJR for reinforced joint without autostrut (which makes it go nuts as the booms can retract). They still wobble a bit, but nothing serious.

The arms can extend out to hold anything up to 7.5m and extend out for longer or short modules.

Edited January 14, 2018 by Jimbodiah

[Jimbodiah]

Just like the Death Star: Not completed yet, but already fully operational     Starting to take shape.

 

[qzgy]

6 hours ago, Geonovast said:

I felt like being ridiculous, so I built this  to bring this to the Mun

 

All overengineering aside, that is a pretty neat rover.

[Tynton]

[RealKerbal3x]

1 hour ago, Tynton said:

Is that......is that a black hole??

[Tynton]

@RealKerbal3x

No, it's a neutron star/pulsar.

It's also in that nebula.

Edited January 15, 2018 by Tynton

[RealKerbal3x]

6 minutes ago, Tynton said:

@RealKerbal3x

No, it's a neutron star/pulsar.

It's also in that nebula.

Cool

Wouldn’t it be awesome if KSP simulated magnetic fields? Ships would get totally destroyed by a neutron star.....

[Tynton]

I figured it'd be neat to simulate magnetic fields/radiation in KSP. I also figure this nebula would be hyper-radioactive anyhow, lol.

[Fearless Son]

I have a contract to plant a flag on the Mun and test a Spark engine while landed there.  I figured it was also a good opportunity to nab some science while I was there, as well as getting some up-close readings of high ore concentrations I detected from orbit.  That will help select a site for a Mun base.  So that means I would need a rover and a lander big enough to bring it.  Voila!  

The main lifter had enough fuel leftover after its circularization burn that I could use it to make a Munar transfer burn, just enough to intersect the Mun.  I then drop the lifter engine and burn a little further to enter orbit ahead of the Mun (to take advantage of the Oberth Effect when making my breaking burn.)

Unfortunately I accidentally retracted the landing legs just on touchdown when I meant to deactivate the SAS (because something had to "go Kerbal" on this mission.)  But fortunately I had almost zeroed the velocity so nothing broke, though the lander twisted and nearly tipped over when extending the legs again, but I thought ahead and used the verniers to keep the ship from falling completely over and righted it again.  Then we just detach the rover, transfer the crew, and we are ready to go!

We made a long journey through the Munar canyon from its eastern most point to its western most point, where it terminated in the Eastern Farside Crater.  The ore concentration was in the high teens inside the canyon, but much less than that in the crater.  Looks like the canyons will be where the base gets set up.  Unfortunately the canyon was difficult to navigate on the ground, with lots of steep slopes and shape changes in elevation.  However, near the eastern end of it there are some relatively flat expanses in smaller craters which might make for a nice site to land a base.

Our crew enthusiastically congratulate one another for having successfully navigated the entire canyon.  Further, since no mission to the East Farside Crater had been attempted before, it gave us a nice fresh stock of scientific data to process when we get back to Kerbin.  Considering how difficult the trip here was, the crew will try to navigate back across the midlands instead.  

But that is for tomorrow.  For tonight, they make camp (to the extent one can camp on the Mun.)

[kerbinorbiter]

Began work on my most dificult project ever the ULGS (Unifed Launching Guidance Script) for kOS

[Atkara]

Lots of work between Duna & Ike today. Turns out I didn't have 2 rescues there, but 3, with a 4th added a bit later. This meant that the 6 seater shuttle I sent, wouldn't fit them all, with 3 tourists and a pilot, already onboard. Anyway, got them all out of their pods and had them land on both bodies with the 2-seater surface miner that's operating there -including the tourists and the shuttle's pilot. Since my surface outposts come with 2 MPLs, and sufficient living space, I recorded everyone's progress and left two kerbals to be picked up by the next flight.

Jeb, Bill & Bob got back from Duna and settled in LKO, where a spaceplane picked up both them and the science. Explorer 1 will be refueled, restocked and prepped for the next mission. Oddly, the Duna fly-by contract wasn't satisfied. I guess it was expecting me to plunge the damn ship in the atmosphere and land it. This, I may do with the 6-seater, once it gets back -it's primarily a lifting body so, once it's evacuated from tourists & personnel, I could attempt a re-entry, followed by a gentle splash down. We'll see.

Kerbin Sentinel's current orbit wouldn't get acknowledged by the next asteroid contract -it had to be corrected. Also, both rescue & recovery vessels departed for Eve and Eeloo finally got it's own pair of relays.

And it seems I'm a happy player again, after editing spring settings on the landing legs of all my outposts & miners and the wheels of all my cars currently in service. Physics easing seems to be satisfied -for now

Edited January 15, 2018 by Atkara

[XB-70A]

A big step back to the past for me today, as I decided to go back to Shabby Castle, my Tiangong-2 (Heavenly Palace 2) inspired space station.

The last visit was in 2016 with Seedy Boat flight 5...

Alas, the launch was made with a nice time mistake and a lot of the inboard resources has to be consumed to re-align it on the proper inclination. The result being to feed the Shenzhou-like spacecraft with the fuel remaining on-board the station.

Then, the next flight should have been for refueling only and I had to build it...

So, let me introduce the Tianzhou (Heavenly Ship) inspired craft:

Diabolic Bark! Here climbing smoothly on its medium size launcher called Short Step 5.

 

With a initial TWR of 1.54, Short Step 5 is able to reach 800 m/s at an altitude of 20 km, before having to separate from its boosters.

 

Releasing the 3 tons fairing, Diabolic Bark can finally enjoy the natural light! Despite the low punch of the four Swivel engines, the main core kept on accelerating smoothly and surely.

 

One minute later the it was the first stage's turn to be expelled, the second stage taking over it with ease. 

Shabby Castle, orbiting at an altitude 130 km only it was then necessary to place the Ap at 200 km to ensure enough maneuvers possibilities. After-all, the second stage was more than over-fed with about 3 km/s of impulsion available...

 

However, in the necessity to reduce the orbiting debris number, the decision was took to get rid of it once the Ap was placed at the correct altitude, the circularization costing no more than 120 m/s, Diabolic Bark could take it easily with its 1.5 km/s available.

 

Circularization completed. Surprisingly, the launch time actually was excellent, requiring only 25 minutes of waiting before a nice occasion to meet with the station!

 

Slowing a bit while approaching the target. A great occasion to discover that I forgot to turn the light off more 14 months ago... I can't imagine the cost of the electricity bill!..

 

Enjoying the view of a large, and surprisingly spread town under us.

 

About 30 seconds remaining! Approaching at a slower speed than usual make it stressful.

 

Docked and starting the fuel transfer immediately. It appeared that Shabby Castle was not so low about fuel, and that Diabolic Bark got way too much available on board... Like what sometimes it is better to go through the radar control room, and see by yourself how much remains in a craft.

 

 

I'm thinking to leave Diabolic Bark docked for some time now, at least until I decided to re-build Seedy Boat as it really is hideous right now.

 

 

 

[DiscoveryPlanet]

ALL of these craft you can download (by dropbox) in 

Enjoy 

Edited January 15, 2018 by DiscoveryPlanet

[qzgy]

Touched it today.....

Made an attempt at a neat looking spaceplane. Doesn't space though.

Also released that bugatti air racer from like a month or two back. Haven't worked out the kinks, but maybe someone else would be able to.

[Geonovast]

7 minutes ago, qzgy said:

Doesn't space though.

Looks like it spaces.  Just not orbits.

 

A recent necroed thread made me throw together a small, nuclear Eve plane with a delivery system, since I don't have hyperedit.  I can F12 it to LEO, but still gotta get it down.

Core Life: Almost Forever.

Comes with a small KIS locker.

[something]

Saw that an Eeloo window was up ahead and as an orbiter is already on the way, I decided it was time to send a small rover to the outer reaches of the Kerbol system...

Probably could have done with less than a TWR of 2 but the asymmetrical load distribution of the rover with respect to the center of thrust just let me go for the "moar boosters" approach...

 

The rover basically consists of a lot of dishes, some experiments and a set of wheels. The landing plan is totally foolproof: The final stage will go down and then tip over onto the wheels of the rover. Nothing can go wrong.

Still wondering how that mission was awarded the appropriate funding....