What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Kronus_Aerospace]

1 hour ago, Delay said:

This really seems to be scatterer-related. You should probably report it.

I figured out that I just needed to update scatterer. The glitch I was experiencing only occurs with the ocean shader on, I just never noticed before as I've never had the ocean shaders active since the last KSP update. It was fun while it lasted though!

[RoboRay]

Oh, and I didn't get any pictures of the launches, but here's the taxi taking the crew home... 

Unfortunately, because I was landing on munar farside in daylight, I'm landing on Kerbin at night.  At least KSC has runway lights.

 

 

[Athen]

53 minutes ago, Kronus_Aerospace said:

 The glitch I was experiencing only occurs with the ocean shader on,

Yay! The solution to all my problems!

[Fraktal]

With some experimentation, I came up with a munar lander and return stage that can traverse from Kerbin to the Mun, land, then return, without using Terriers (uses a Swivel for the landing stage and a throttled Reliant for the return stage).

Problem is, the whole assembly weighs 14.5 tons due to the suboptimal engines requiring more fuel and I'm having major trouble putting it into Kerbin orbit to begin with. To wit:

1. First stage doesn't have enough dV to circularize (KER says 800-900 m/s short, in practice more like 1200 m/s short).
2. Upper stage doesn't have enough dV to both circularize and land on the Mun. Insertion from Kerbin and landing is OK (pulled it off from ~2200 m/s), but that's it.
3. If I try to include an intermediate stage to handle the circularization, the rocket becomes so long it starts to flex like a pendulum under SAS. And even if it doesn't, it's still several hundred m/s short of orbit.

My last attempt was a 116 ton monster with one Swivel, four Reliants and eight SRBs on the first stage; didn't work because the rocket rolled away from the takeoff trajectory (all my munar rockets do that, in fact: I take off, pitch east, and the rocket slowly rolls counterclockwise despite being perfectly symmetrical; does the game model the Coriolis force...?) and I couldn't correct because the lone Swivel couldn't roll the rocket, the command pod's reaction wheel had nowhere near enough torque and I hadn't researched control surfaces yet.

[Geonovast]

Since I actually have to plan things now with this career save, I decided to build a Minmus biome-hopper, and send Jeb and Bob off to grab some science, as well as complete a couple contracts.

Hit up 5 biomes, with a crew report, eva report, surface sample, goo sample, temp reading, pressure reading, and science bay sample from each one, as well as planting a flag. (Mainly to help me remember which biomes I already hit)

I'd considered hopping to a 6th, but glad I didn't, as I only had 87 m/s left once I had done my return burn.... Which turned out being quite polar.

 

Today we also learned something new!

I ditched the service module a little too late / ditched it without flinging it to the side.  I've done this before, usually it just comes back and quietly bounces off the heat shield.

Not this time!

The solar panels broke up just as it was hitting the shield, and two of the panel pieces actually got stuck between the heat shield and the pod.  This threw my re-entry into chaos, as the pod could not keep itself retrograde.  I got pretty worried as I was coming in at over 3 km/s, and the pod flipping over would have sure ended fatally.  Luckily the pieces either poofed out of existance, or broke free, and the pod was able to right itself.  So Jeb and Bob survived, along with the 2500+ science on board.

 

Actually impressed with how close to the KSC I was, given my re-entry procedure and that I wasn't exactly trying.

Edited June 3, 2018 by Geonovast

[CobaltShock]

I was messing around with some 10x stock Kerbol system

Other than questionable stuff with scatterer (can anyone help me with this?), I found the mountains to be the most entertaining things.

Edited June 3, 2018 by Steeeeve

[Wrench Head]

Went to the track!

 

Edited June 3, 2018 by Wrench Head

[FinalFan]

7 hours ago, Kronus_Aerospace said:

I figured out that I just needed to update scatterer. The glitch I was experiencing only occurs with the ocean shader on, I just never noticed before as I've never had the ocean shaders active since the last KSP update. It was fun while it lasted though!

To modify a quote from Homer Simpson,
"Mods.  The cause of—and solution to—all of KSP's problems." 

(Beer/life)

[Ace in Space]

Today I finally cleaned up the rest of my mess.

The first Ohana arrived at Eve and hauled Eridin back to Tiger's Eye station without a problem.

Spoiler

That little speck under the sun is the Ohana, floating off in the distance since it's no longer needed and, having no traditional docking port, awkward to keep attached to the station.

Shortly afterwards, the second Ohana arrived at Dres. Good lord, what a mess. Pretty much everything was almost out of fuel, except the converter, which as you may remember, used up all its fuel and had to ditch the engine and push itself the rest of the way to orbit with monopropellant.

Spoiler

I decided the best place to start would be the Hub/Drill, since without it there is no station. I gave it a small portion of Ohana's fuel, undocked again, and sent it to intercept RQT-056, a class E asteroid that I later renamed Quartz I. Looking at the fuel reserves on Ohana, I wasn't sure I'd have enough to salvage everything in one go, so I decided to tow the converter module over next, so that I could dock Ohana to the thing and produce fuel for it if needed. This turned out to be unnecessary, as Ohana proved to be pretty efficient and was able to get the tank and habitat modules attached before I even needed to consider fuel. I may have even had enough to do everything in one go, but I decided to play it safe and refuel before retrieving the science module, which ended up being the only time I refueled the Ohana at all. After all the modules were assembled, I needed to bring in the Dres Rover, which turned out to have enough juice left in it to rendezvous and dock on its own, so that was nice.

After that I parked Ohana in orbit and set about organizing the comm sats into a sensible constellation rather than a rat's nest. They didn't have much fuel left but they didn't need very much to make the adjustments so that all worked out just fine.

Everything went better than expected!  

So there you have it. All irons out of the fire. I'll be taking a break from KSP for a while, I think.

[Hotel26]

The executive parking lot at KSC is filling up...

From L to R: the Exec Quarters Krew Bus, the exec Jeep for beetling around the KSC campus, the exec 'Nemesis' [*] center-stage, and a very lethargic BeechJet  (which is gonna get a ticket & towed if it stays there much longer...!!)

* the Nemesis was intended to be a medium-range, quick-response, rescue jet but the Gof4 commandeered serial #1 for their own personal misuse.  The Kerbal mechanics have started calling it the 'microwave' because one, very quick 5-minute ride and the pax emerge looking presidentially tanned...  

Edited June 3, 2018 by Hotel26

[FeofileGrotter]

Boring Orion recreation.

                                                   ^^^ this is the launch of Orion to the Duna using atomic engines in space. Kerbal Joint Reinforcement is still not updated to 1.4.3, so everything is wrong.
                                                         my face when a deconstruction was happening:

[DJWyre]

A few hours into a new Career Mode play I get the usual 'Rescue Kerbal' mission.

What was not usual was the orbit parameters the game came up with....

Apoapsis near Kerbin's SOI limit, periapsis at about 7.5Mm, orbit counter-rotational.
Bear in mind that I had only just landed on Minmus and done a Mun orbit, I have most of the level 4 tech and a couple of level 5s.

Several missions are launched but the problem is not actually one of dV, but time. The capsule is on a Mun encounter trajectory, I don't have the funds to upgrade the Tracking Station to see it's post-encounter orbit. I get a craft in LKO and wait for it to exit Mun's SOI, so I can then plot a course and brute force things if necessary.
This also does not work, I can catch it eventually, but it's on course for a second Mun encounter - one that kicks it out of the system.

I'm not abandoning this Kerbal though, so I revert and try to think.
The problem is being in the right place before it's lost to interplanetary space. I don't know where it's going exactly... and then a mad plan forms.... I but I know where it will be.

Craft is launched and heads for the Mun and sets up in a polar orbit to wait for the capsule to skim through. I'm not the best KSP player so I kinda make a bad job of judging the burn to catch it. With fuel limited I get an intercept somewhere beyond Minmus.
Rendezvous seems to go fine at first, but as I get closer the map starts giving me insane new intercepts as I close in even though I'm down to <1km and under 5m/s, then either I press the wrong button or the same glitch makes my target box disappear. Navball says I'm less than 100m away and in a matched orbit, but I can't see the thing since it's a Mk 1 capsule which is black, like the sky. Eventually I spot it against the milkyway and double check it's still targeted, which it is. I get the Kerbal out and target the craft, still no box. I fly by the ball until the suit lamps light up her ticket home. A scientist thankfully.

I carry on with the usual stuff, landing on the Mun, rescuing another scientist from a slightly more sane orbit, building up the comnet, etc.

Truthfully, that was a few days ago.

Then, while on return from a combined, tourist, observation and rescue mission (another scientist!) from the Mun, a world first seemingly popped up at random.
It informed me that congratulations were in order for slipping the bonds of Kerbin's gravity and initiating a flyby of the sun.

I had forgotten to terminate the capsule.

[Gordon Dry]

Because of the radiation shielding from Kerbalism making the pods much heavier, I was not able to launch from the Mun's surface with the BluedogDB Apollo LEM ascent module.

So I decided to orbit both Kerbals using EVA RCS and managed it to intersect both of them within 90 minutes to the Apollo Block II CSM and enter.

They both became hungry and thirsty, but they survived.

Also see here:

 

[Kronus_Aerospace]

Today I did a whole lot of work on my large scale fighter craft. I added a cockpit made from solar panels and changed the wings up a bit. The craft now looks much better and flies a whole lot better too. Albeit at the cost of 574 parts. I guess I'm just allergic to low part counts 

Here's what it looked like originally for comparison

Edited June 3, 2018 by Kronus_Aerospace

[Delay]

4 minutes ago, Kronus_Aerospace said:

I guess I'm just allergic to low part counts

It's very easy to go into this part range. You build a thing here, then copy it somewhere else and before you know it, you hit 500 parts.

[Azimech]

It is done, I circumnavigated Kerbin in 22 hours, without refueling.

 

[Cavscout74]

What have I done in KSP today?  Well so far, i've discovered that my Duna crew is stranded because their return ship is gone.  This would be the same ship that brought them to Duna in the first place.  I've double-checked everywhere so apparently the game ate it.  Previously I've only had that happen with a probe around Jool.   I guess alt-F12 is in order to deliver a replacement ship

Edited June 3, 2018 by Cavscout74

[DJWyre]

Oddly enough, my next rescue was also a scientist (four in a row!? - not that I'm complaining...).

Then I landed four tourists on the moon in an utterly daft contraption.

[AngryKitty]

In sandbox, added the solar arrays to my half-completed station, using the recently-launched RCS tugs I installed on the last trip. No casualties to report...

[Hotel26]

4 hours ago, Cavscout74 said:

I guess alt-F12 is in order to deliver a replacement ship

You might also consider searching for your lost ship in a backup or quicksave.  If you find it back in time, copy-and-paste it forward into your current state.  (I'd recommend making a named backup save first in case anything goes wrong.)

It used to be that adding a vessel was simply a matter of slipping it into the .sfs file.  Now that .loadmeta files exist, I have a feeling it is not quite so easy perhaps due to a count of vessels.  But you simply deploy a dummy ship onto the KSC runway, save and then replace it with retrieved backup.  Old-style teleport and transmogrification.  (Or you might just think that Alt-F12 is easier: your call.)

(You'll need to ensure any onboard crew members (listed in the vessel) are present or retrieved too.)

Edited June 4, 2018 by Hotel26

[Pipcard]

The Emerald-1 atmospheric probe arrived at Jool

[SleepingFox]

I decided to take a “Save Kerbal from Minmus”, to make a few bucks to upgrade my science station.

Deciding to build a new cheap rocket from scratch, with an OKTO2 to save weight (unmanned).

Everything went well until my rescue-ship landed on Minmus, and I discovered I had forgot to put an antenna on the ship... and I’d landed too far away from the stranded Kerbal to “activate” him.

Ok, rescue mission no. 2 was sent off.... with an antenna.... but approaching Minmus Ap, and beginning to prepare for the burn to get into orbit, I discovered I had forgotten to open the solar panels, and there was no power onboard...

Ok, rescue misson no. 3 was sent off.... and this one succeded

In the end I could just as well have used my old expensive “science hauler with 2 crew” to pick him up....

[Castille7]

Today I made a Louisiana thing

"Crawfish"

Spoiler

 

Edited June 4, 2018 by Castille7

[GeneralMDBK]

Started figuring out the infrastructure that I'm going to use for the bulk of my transfers and construction regarding my future Mun and Minmus bases. First I came up with the vehicle that can carry cargo from LKO to the Mun or Minmus and even land at each moon.

Then I came up with a ring station for this specific craft.

Here is the Oie 1 docked inside of its station.

And lastly for now I came up with a minimalist refueling rig for keeping the whole system running.

Next I'll have to come up with some base designs and missions to colonize appropriately. If all goes well I may expand this operation out to Duna as well and beyond that if the success continues.

I do have to worry about funds as this is on a newer career save that I modified. I started the save and then alt-f12'd just enough science and funds to unlock and upgrade everything, and then I zero'd out the science and put the starting salary at 100,000. So I have to figure out how to make the cash just to get this project off the ground. The part count though is refreshing cause normally the count is so high the game will barely run but I designed these to be as low as I could. The Oie 1 sits at 128 parts, the Station itself is only 71 parts, and the Mouette 1 is only 71 parts. So with a rig like mine I was able to run the game with 3 of the stations linked together each with an Oie docked without the unplayable lag.

[Cavscout74]

51 minutes ago, Hotel26 said:

You might also consider searching for your lost ship in a backup or quicksave.  If you find it back in time, copy-and-paste it forward into your current state.  (I'd recommend making a named backup save first in case anything goes wrong.)

It used to be that adding a vessel was simply a matter of slipping it into the .sfs file.  Now that .loadmeta files exist, I have a feeling it is not quite so easy perhaps due to a count of vessels.  But you simply deploy a dummy ship onto the KSC runway, save and then replace it with retrieved backup.  Old-style teleport and transmogrification.  (Or you might just think that Alt-F12 is easier: your call.)

(You'll need to ensure any onboard crew members (listed in the vessel) are present or retrieved too.)

Just easier and quicker to cheat it back in place.  The ship was empty - crew was all on the surface.  I had thought it was docked to the Duna station, but when the surface crew came up to dock & get ready for the transfer window is when I discovered the issue.   I'm using Tracking Station Evolved also, so it's much easier to find a stray vessel, but no luck with this one.  On the plus side, the replacement ship is on its way home with the crew while a fresh crew is prepping to launch for Duna in a few days. 

I've also been assembling a station for Jool orbit (for a nice fat contract), and for fun I decided to see if I could get one of the expendable delivery vehicles back to Kerbin intact. 

About to dock the last crew module:

Close-up of the delivery vehicle.  I put the RCS on the girder frame to keep the station part count down with out needing an engineer to remove all the extra RCS blocks once docked.

Staging the delivery vehicle away from the completed station:

As it turns out, using a vacuum-optimized engine to try to slow down at <1000m doesn't work so well.  Still, the probe core & frame mostly survived intact, if a little bent