What did you do in KSP1 today?

[papuchalk]

45 minutes ago, Freshmeat said:

It sounds like it controls from the wrong direction. Have something that has "Control from here" option (probes, command seats and docking ports) facing forward and select it as control point after launch. I have forward and backward facing docking port juniors to enable backwards driving with throttle control.

hm i will check that. I thought symmetry of wheels is broken. In hangar symmetry works different than in VAB.

[Ace in Space]

1 hour ago, Delay said:

I built this thing which, as of now, has no name. Any ideas?

It's shaped like an hourglass. Chronos?

[Freshmeat]

1 hour ago, papuchalk said:

hm i will check that. I thought symmetry of wheels is broken. In hangar symmetry works different than in VAB.

Wheels do not orient to symmetry, but to direction.

[Castille7]

2 hours ago, Delay said:

I built this thing which, as of now, has no name. Any ideas?

Nice! I like to see new ideas, as for the naming I have a hard time with that subject too

[adsii1970]

3 hours ago, Delay said:

I built this thing which, as of now, has no name. Any ideas?

Klepsydra (the phonetic spelling for the Greek word meaning, "hour glass"

I use Mayan words to describe mine... For example, Koos is the Mayan word for bird of prey or falcon.

24 minutes ago, Castille7 said:

Nice! I like to see new ideas, as for the naming I have a hard time with that subject too

Yeah, naming can be difficult.

[Curveball Anders]

1 hour ago, Ace in Space said:

It's shaped like an hourglass. Chronos?

Or Marilyn?

[steve_v]

Today I tried to track down a bug that has randomly appeared when transferring crew, and failed even to identify the mod causing it. Then I gave up in disgust.
 

Spoiler

InternalModel error: Part Crew capacity is 2, but 4 seats are defined in internal model
 
(Filename: /home/builduser/buildslave/unity/build/artifacts/generated/common/runtime/UnityEngineDebugBindings.gen.cpp Line: 42)

IndexOutOfRangeException: Array index is out of range.
  at KSP.UI.Screens.Flight.KerbalPortrait.Setup (.Kerbal kerbal, UnityEngine.RectTransform containerViewport) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at KSP.UI.Screens.Flight.KerbalPortraitGallery.SpawnPortrait (.Kerbal crewMember) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at KSP.UI.Screens.Flight.KerbalPortraitGallery.RegisterActiveCrew (.Kerbal crewMember) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at Kerbal.Start () [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0

 

[Kernel Kraken]

3 hours ago, Delay said:

I built this thing which, as of now, has no name. Any ideas?

It's a bit tough to get it off the ground, but as soon as it's airborne and properly trimmed it flies really well at all speeds (from 60m/s to 851m/s). There's only one slight problem: This craft has a tendency to start rolling for no apparent reason, but that's easy to correct.

Here it is after (a rough) landing. The fact that I landed successfully on the first attempt tells you more about the aircraft than my piloting skills.

Black Widow sounds cool, hourglass shaped wings and all. It looks ominous too.

[Azimech]

The Elcano challenge is still running. So I decided to modify my Vapula RS engine once more and made the Vapula RSX. Made a catamaran/rover out of it and ... according to calculations it should be able to circumnavigate Kerbin around the equator in roughly 24 hours - and here comes the kicker-  without refueling.

So this is the 77 Maritime LR3 Charon. 

At 33% throttle and 29990 units of fuel while sailling it reaches a top speed of 48m/s with a fuel consumption of 0.43. On flat soil at 27% throttle it reaches a top speed of 59.8m/s with a fuel consumption of 0.36. I've done the math, if I avoid the mountains while keeping a somewhat straight line parallel to the equator, I should make it.

The Vapula RSX is an evolution of the Vapula RS, sporting a much lower drag, higher max static thrust (2500kN vs 1740kN), 2250 units of fuel and improved max angular velocity (in normal language: engine rpm) from 38 rad/s to 44 rad/s.

Look at that climb angle!

Good question:
"Why not remove the whole prop thing and point six jets backwards?"

Answer:
First of all it's fun to build your own engine/propeller. As a bonus this engine produces twice the thrust of the input of the blowers (jet engines) at cruise speed. No, this isn't black magic. If you're having doubts, ask @Yargnit, @quitessa, @EpicSpaceTroll139, @qzgy@luizopilotoand @EJ_SA.

You'll see more of this thing soon.

[papuchalk]

"Controll from here" helped with the steering issues on rover. Thanks for help FRESHMEAT

Built a lander for Duna today. Not the nicest that i made, but the garage underneath your ship is pretty limit to all nice designs

Lander is even capable to get the rover back to orbit. Rover is too precious to be left onDuna surface. It must be returned home.

Lander is also able to land on Kerbin, as the Service bay is resistent to high temperatures, serving as heat shiled.

Mission can be launched soon.

 

LANDER

 

Edited April 21, 2018 by papuchalk

[Spoo Hunter]

Built Cutangus' Rare Racer. It is surprisingly stable.

 

[Hotel26]

8 hours ago, Delay said:

I built this thing which, as of now, has no name. Any ideas?

Paperclip

[Hotel26]

On 2018/04/11 at 11:07 AM, Geonovast said:

So I built a sorta stunt plane really quick, just for laughs.  But I actually really like how it handles.

I'm way late saying this, but I knew I had to build this plane as soon as I saw it.  (You didn't give it a name so I dubbed it SABRE.)

Really enjoyable to fly!

Trust you don't mind as: "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery".

Edited April 22, 2018 by Hotel26

[qzgy]

1 hour ago, Spoo Hunter said:

Built Cutangus' Rare Racer. It is surprisingly stable.

But... why? That seems like such a stupid design....

Looks cool though....

[Mr. Peabody]

3 minutes ago, qzgy said:

That seems like such a stupid design....

Never say that. Conventionality is boring.

[qzgy]

Just now, The Dunatian said:

Never say that. Conventionality is boring.

Fair enough point.

[CatastrophicFailure]

2 hours ago, Spoo Hunter said:

Built Cutangus' Rare Racer. It is surprisingly stable.

 

How... does it land?

[Hotel26]

3 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

How... does it land?

I couldn't believe it either, so I DuckDuckGo'd it: it's an artist's impression of an airplane.  Quite well done given it looks so real.  It's billed as VTOL.  But, suffice to say, it doesn't exist in the real world.  (That should be a reminder that KSP has its very own and very unique physics.  )

[JadeOfMaar]

I started the texture pass on Airline Kuisine, mainly concerning its use with Snacks and its coming usability with Pathfinder.

I also posted 8 crafts to KerbalX... I'm surprised it has only been 1 month since my last post there. Link in my signature.

Spoiler

 

[Zosma Procyon]

I built another mobile boat base, which I am going to send to Laythe at the next window.

It is powered by four Wheezies, and two Panthers for steering. The thrust of the six engines with he Panthers on afterburner propels the base at a cruising speed of 33 m/s, with a burn time of 4.5 hours, giving it a range of 535 miles.

It carries two mobile processing labs, and lots of batteries and nuks. It will also have a bunch of solar panels of course.

Land travel is possible through the inclusion of 6 pairs of the medium steerable landing gear.

Forward visibility in the primary control cabin is a bit compromised. Thankfully there are no whales or pleasure boats in game.

Here is my usual test idiot Joroly regretting his career choice. The editor said the hatches on the pontoon cabins were obstructed. It was wrong. The base was traveling at full speed, so it is a good thing I didn't hit the space bar.

UPDATE: I just calculated that it doesn't need solar panels.  Each of the batteries has 8 NUKs recessed into it, and I have 13 of the batteries. Thats 104 nuks, providing nearly twice the electricity needed for two processing labs and an ISRU converter, and the radiators. And since this mobile base does not have electrically driven wheels, its needs are far lower than my other mobile bases.

Edited April 22, 2018 by Zosma Procyon

[Ace in Space]

Did quite a lot today. First, I adjusted the intercepts on all of the crafts en route to Dres, which only took 1 or 2 delta-v, and then set maneuver nodes to capture into an orbit. Not any particular orbit, just the minimum delta-v required to achieve an orbit of some sort. Park everything first and figure out where it all goes later, and hopefully nothing crashes into an asteroid. Two of the comm sats still have their stage 1 tank/engines, which means we know they have more than the delta-V budget of their final stages, at least. Some of the other numbers, however, are not looking good.

	Drill	Tank	Conv.	Hab.	Sci.	Rover	Com1	Com2	Com3	Com4	Com5
Delta-V Left	1851+	2683-	1834	2643	2667	2614	~2158	2331+	~2378	2331+	~2072
Delta-V Requirement	1897	1982	1956	2091	2081	2123	2010	1936	2020	1969	2207

It's no big deal if we lose comm sat 5; a four-sat constellation would work just fine. But the drill and the converter, obviously, are absolutely critical. The converter I may be able to salvage by decoupling it from the engine when its fuel supply runs out and using its vast supply of monoprop to finish the last hundred or so m/s change on RCS, and once it's in orbit it's just a matter of docking something else to it to refuel. It's a stretch, but worth a shot.

It's the drill that has me really worried. It has no monoprop or RCS thrusters. It's only just shy of the requirement, and even that I'm not sure of because, as the plus denotes, it had some fuel left over from its ascent stage, so it has always had a little more delta-V than my calculations indicate. But I don't know how much more. And without the drill, everything else is useless. But maybe, just maybe, if I can just get it into orbit, I can still save this operation. A while back I stated that there's no way to refuel the drill, since its docking ports aren't accessible until it jettisons its engines. I had forgotten, however, that grabbing something with the claw counts as docking! Normally grabbing with a claw involves moving the thing that has the claw so it smacks into the object to be grabbed, but in theory, I should be able to simply arm the claw and then slam something else into it instead, which should allow me to transfer precious fuel. I am not above sacrificing a second comm sat for this if necessary.

But this is all going to be a while, since the capture maneuver isn't scheduled for a year and some-odd days. Which is convenient, because the Eve launch window just opened up, and I launched another swarm of crafts for Gilly, to hopefully put a stop to the notification spam.

Naturally, I started tracking delta-v for these as well, until I realized how pointless it would be. These crafts are mostly the same ones that are part of the Dres expedition. The handful that weren't, I went ahead and updated to have similar levels of delta-v (including modifying the ones I'd left the tanks empty on by mistake, so that they could now achieve LKO with the full tank as intended). Which means that everything here has delta-v budgets in the four or five thousands - way more than needed for Eve orbit and transfer to Gilly. At any rate, they all have their maneuver nodes for plane change and Eve intercept lined up and ready to go, with the first burn happening in ten or so days.

Oh, and in about a hundred days, Ruby is scheduled to make its return burn on top of all of this. I may have too many irons in the fire at this point.

[jack gamer]

Im working on a duna base

[Xurkitree]

I landed on Vall in my grand tour of Jool (2/5) , and I saw this beautiful Solar eclipse (how to kerbalize that?) as Laythe comes in between it and me - and right as Jool rises into the horizon.

I'll post a picture with my crew (Valentina,Elifel,Crisald) later. But Man i feel so good seeing the Sun being eclipsed.

Edited April 22, 2018 by Xurkitree

[HeliosPh0enix]

I had the maiden voyage of my Drake 5 (named after Sir Francis Drake) to the Mun for getting some more science and fulfilling contracts. I had overengineered the orbital booster stage, so I ended up having extra fuel in my transfer stage to help with the landing. As I was performing my suicide burn, I remembered a tip to use the radial put hold to not get flipped around in case of accidentally reversing the prograde and retrograde markers. Unfortunately, I accidentally clicked on normal, then anti normal, all before finally selecting radial out, and my ship started doing flips only a few hundred meters from the Munar surface. Luckily, my now spent transfer stage served as an excellent crumple zone and sacrificed itself to lithobrake my lander. I bounced a little bit and landed on the landing legs, only short one of my 4 solar arrays and one of my 2 radial mount communotrons. It actually worked out pretty well, so I decided not to reload a quick save and instead rolled with the new circumstances. I performed all of the science I could then set out to do some biome hopping. Luckily, the part of the Lowlands that I landed in was right next to one of the Midland Craters, so I hopped over there for another load of science. At this point I think I had around 1800 delta-v left and I might have been able to get away with another biome hop, but all the other biomes were really far away so I decided to just return to orbit. Went back to Kerbin and spent the ~1000 science points I had earned. Overall, not too shabby. I had a couple of contracts that required sending probes to the Mun and just picked up another asking me to recreate the Luna 2, so I decided to make small automated lander to go to the Mun. Just a HECS core with a little bit of science, batteries, and an antenna strapped onto a tank with a spark and some landing struts. I transmitted a thermometer scan from Munar orbit for one of the contracts, and the other required me to land and do something on the surface. To complete the Luna 2 contract, I had to crash my probe into the Munar surface. So, I landed and finished all of my other contracts, then spent my last 70 m/s burning straight up and letting my craft fall back down to destroy itself.

Overall, nothing crazy, but I had a good time running these two missions to the Mun. Now I need to start setting up some orbital and surface infrastructure!

[DunaRocketeer]

I've just finished a long(ish) duration mission with some ships I'm quite proud of, so I've decided to make a kind of story showing their journey. The three ships depicted (the DanDare, SteveZodiac and the BuckRogers) have previously explored Minmus, set up Munbases and orbital space stations, captured asteroids, deployed satellites and retrieved debris and stranded kerbals, but this is their first Duna flight. Unfortunately I forgot to screengrab some bits, so a couple of images from another mission are standing in, but I think it tells the story well enough. It's a biiig image so there's lots to zoom in on.