What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Cyrious]

Got around to delivering the 2 centrifuges to the Mun station. Havent expanded or spun them up yet cause I need more engineers to do so and I kinda sent most of my unassigned Kerbals including all of the spare engineers to Duna.

Speaking of the Duna mission, the main mothership did its course correction burn, and I made the rather annoying discovery that apparently the engines for the relay satellites were all active during the escape burn, wasting propellant. Go me. I was considering sending a tanker during the middle of the Duna window but in the end went against it.

The Jool mission had a hiccup. I wasn't paying full attention to the burn (it was a 32 minute Ion burn), and the autopilot following the Node Prograde indicator resulted in the probe going bonkers when I ran down the burn time. Instead of the neat Tylo-Vall-Laythe triple flyby for the Jool system entrance, I now have to settle for a Tylo-Vall capture flyby. Knew I should have used bigger solar panels or gone nuclear for it.

[CatastrophicFailure]

Messed about with my Stratolaunch copy today...

Because it can't be that easy. 

Now needs the entire runway to get airborne, even with two extra engines, tipping the scales at around 450 tonnes.

 

Stepped up to 2.5 meter parts. Because MOAR BOOSTER! (singular, since there's still two.)

Bartfrid there doesn't look very confident.

 

Yet initial results are... promising...

 

On second thought, that eclipse can't be a good sign. 

Already have the "Moon red as blood" right outside, don't need any more ominous portents!

 

Still looking promising. Soon with 100% MOAR payload!

Oh, come now, Bartrid, it's not that bad.

I suppose if my name was Bartrid I'd be a little insecure too, though...
Eat my shorts!

Why you little--!

 

[qzgy]

32 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Now needs the entire runway to get airborne

RATO time?

Also looks a bit like you're missing a fairing.

[CatastrophicFailure]

25 minutes ago, qzgy said:

RATO time?

Also looks a bit like you're missing a fairing.

Quite.  Or discover how many Goliaths will fit under that wing...

I wasn’t expecting to get that far with it, so I didn’t bother with a fairing.  Now I need to make an actual lander, too. I’m too used to 6.4 scale, what’s delta-V from LMO to the surface and back, again?

Edited August 23, 2018 by CatastrophicFailure

[qzgy]

11 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Quite.  Or discover how many Goliaths will fit under that wing...

I wasn’t expecting to get that far with it, so I didn’t bother with a fairing.  Now I need to make an actual lander, too. I’m too used to 6.4 scale, what’s delta-V from LMO to the surface and back, again?

Both work.

Ok, though it still seems it might have helped with performance at least within the atmosphere. TBH IDK either, I just look at this handy dandy delta-v map. Says about 600. Make it 650 for piloting error.

[Cyrious]

Now I get to launch and attach the other bar to the Mun station, so the original bar, the two centrifuges, and this bar form a square. I really do hope the multi-docking works. I've done a multi-dock test, and that worked out, but nothing on this scale.

 

Edit: for the record: Multi-docking is much easier when the target ports are fixed and arent 50+ meters apart or wobbling around after first contact.

Edited August 23, 2018 by Cyrious

[Raptor42]

I spent the whole day building Falcon 9 replica, then tried to launch and land it. The build took around 20 mins, video editing 2 hours, same goes with the flight.

Video here

Edited August 23, 2018 by Raptor42

[Cyrious]

Welp, apparently its not going to work with the octo-girder docking ports. Shame. I could only get one side to lock, but the other pointedly refused due to how stupidly precise 90 degree only ports have to be.

So, now its time to add some Octo girder to Sr port adapters to the station, then launch the bar again with Sr ports instead of octo ports. Lets see what this does.

Edited August 23, 2018 by Cyrious

[JadeOfMaar]

I cheated into high Icarus orbit then escaped into a very low Ciro orbit to test fuel scooping. It was a great success except that these 3.75m scoops were nerfed compared to their smaller sizes.

Grannus is a crabby little star and harassed me to let him into a shot so there it is. Also I made some use of this clone engine's other fusion mode for some more TWR (only about double) but with only typical super-high Isp, which compared to the Epstein mode, everything is super costly in Isp.

The overheat here happened only because I timewarped a little too high and heat logic turned off/bugged out/whatever. Near the star, the limit seemed to fall from > 1000x to > 100x.

Attempted an EVA. It wasn't as dangerous as I thought.

[Triop]

I just finished test driving the Dessert Derby.

 

[Lisias]

After more than a month without really playing, I decided it was time to come back to my 'First Career" - just to realized I was kind of cheating without being aware (I forgot a cheat activated). #sigh

Well, it's a game. We call rollback  So I cheated again  and restored a backup from 40 days ago that was for sure "uncheated", and restarted from there. Would be interesting replaying that missions again with the know-how I currently have.

So… I rescued Lt Melald again and, well, I managed to get some really nice screenshots this time!  

Spoiler

And this time, I put stairs on the damned blimp so I could retrieve the victim properly, instead of trying stunts like this:

 

On the not so bright side, I discovered some new Null References Exceptions on the KSP.log - I think I well spend the weekend chasing bugs again.  

[anoldtincan]

Today I executed a repair/salvage mission for my multi-spectral scanning satellite. Archibald Kerman, our new pilot recruit, launched on a Boto mission into polar orbit, and managed to rendezvous with the scanner. It was healthy but the antennas were not deployed, and after a quick EVA Archie cranked open the antennas and brought it back from the dead. His secondary mission was science gathering, and since he was in a polar orbit he got most of the crew and EVA reports over Kerbin's biomes, before coming back with a solid amount of science.

Next, I worked on maximizing the range of my Ocelot aircraft for a midair survey mission halfway around Kerbin. I added 6 drop tanks, and the rotation speed jumped from ~50 m/s to 100 m/s.

Here is Verlan dropping tanks 2 & 5 on the way out to the survey site:

She successfully completed the contract and landed after a record-breaking 3h50min flight. Upon landing, she damaged an engine, but she walked away unhurt.

After losing Jeb, leadership decided another approach was needed for survey contracts since the plane can't always be landed precisely. Development has progressed on the KA-T-3 Antelope, with a belly-slung science rover.

Tests so far have been promising but I'd like to extend the range a bit for longer-haul surveys.

Finally, a three-star contract came along for a station in solar orbit. My plan is to fulfill said contract and then use the station as a base for Mun, Minmus, and possibly Duna or Eve expeditions. With a hefty advance and a good chunk of science, development began on the station and a lifter large enough to launch it.

This 2.5 m LFO engine from the Karbonite mod is a huge boon this early in the game - it has twice the power of a mainsail but no thrust vectoring, hence the additional engines on the side. The upper stage is powered by a Swivel engine.

And deployed in LEO is our first space station, christened the Valentina in honor of our fallen kerbonaut. She needs to be refueled before breaking orbit for Kerbin's SOI edge. Planned upgraded include replacing the clamp-o-tron jr's with 1.25m size docking ports, increasing power generation capacity (one solar panel was destroyed by the fairing deploying), and adding more modules for whatever the current mission calls for.

I never get tired of the views in KSP.

[Triop]

Testing some weird stuff . . .

[Cyrious]

TADAA! My adapter idea and use of the Clamp Sr ports worked like a charm. The second bar is linked at both ends. Lets just hope it doesnt become a 480 ton expanding debris field when I switch back to it in the future. I MIGHT be able to use one of the senior ports inside the square once the centrifuges are up and running for crew transfers. The one directly in line with the main station shaft though is probably never going to be used again. The centrifuges are simply too big.

Once I get another engineer out here, I'll get the centrifuges online, then start thinking about adding a Fuel module to the other end of the station. If I dont have the space, the fuel module will likely end up running as its own dedicated station. Speaking of which, I need to start ore and Karbonite mapping.

Edited August 24, 2018 by Cyrious

[FinalFan]

On 8/12/2018 at 10:32 PM, djr5899 said:

Finally built my first ever mining craft, and sent it to the Mun for a test run. It did fairly well for a v1.0.  Much bigger than anticipated, but got the job done that  I expected it to do.  Only problem with my test run is that my heavy ore concentration landing site was in a crater, and didn't have any direct sunlight.  Burnt through 16,000 units of electric pretty dang fast.

Next items on the list is to test out my fuel rover for transfering fuel to nearby ships, building a craft to carry the rover, slapping some extra engines on the fuel rig so it can reach Duna, and add all of these to the line of ships I have waiting for transfer window to Duna to open.  Should be six ships in total:  Ore scanner satellite for Ike, Ore scanner satellite for Duna, unmanned fuel ship to orbit Duna, Ore drill/processing ship, rover carrying ship, and manned lander ship.  May reduce it to 5 if I find a way to add the rover to one of the other craft without too much redesign.

Your first miner had 16,000 battery power?  Wow, it must have been a heck of a prototype!  My first mining vessel was just a Mun lander with refueling capability, but even my first "real" mining craft only had about 6,000 units.  I figure, either it's got a solid power source and it doesn't need that much, or it doesn't and it's going to run out regardless.  I guess more batteries would help you refine in orbit on the dark side as well as the sun-side without running dry... and I did slap at least 20K of battery on my first asteroid miner because I didn't want to use fuel cells. 

[Colonel Cbplayer]

I managed to pull together and make a video that I feel shows why I like ksp as a game

 

[Cyrious]

Launched this tiny little thing to the mun for a contract. Heres the kicker: I decided to challenge myself a bit and built the launcher entirely out of solid rocket motors, including the transfer stage/Payload Assist Motor (which I think came from a mod pack).

Turns out with all solid launches/high TWR launches its much better to start the gravity turn the moment you're clear of the pad, and make it a extremely aggressive turn that turns you into a meteor by 30km altitude. Fins are naturally also highly recommended.

[Tonka Crash]

I finally got my Minmus station online. It was assembled in LKO over 11 launches and then moved to Minmus in this form. The plan is to serve as a fuel depot for interplanetary missions. At present the fuel tanks are mostly empty. 

A mining site has been set up on Minmus, but the big drills are still en-route. For now it's getting by on a pair of Jr. drills on the back of the exploratory rover.

[Cyrious]

Quick Question: what is considered Low Kerbol orbit? Cause I have a magnetic survey mission that requires low Kerbol orbit for 2 of the objectives. Looking up the delta V maps say its 610km (which is stupidly close). Naturally, I'm gonna do it, just need to know how well shielded and cooled I need this thing to be.

[Cavscout74]

4 minutes ago, Cyrious said:

uick Question: what is considered Low Kerbol orbit?

< 1 million meters

 

er... kilometers

Edited August 24, 2018 by Cavscout74

[ShadowZone]

I decided to revisit a classic... the wonderfully weird space shuttle. Then I thought, why not tell everybody how to built it correctly so it stays controllable.

 

[Cyrious]

Well, if I'm gonna sundive, I'm doing it with a shield. The panels completely encase the spacecraft inside except for the engines and solar arrays. Inside, there's the radiator set for the reactors as well as general heat rejection, should keep the rest of the hardware cool while I'm close to the sun. In the event I do blow up the solar arrays, the reactors hidden inside the sunshield will provide enough power to allow for maneuvering to continue.

 

Edit: So I've got the escape burn plotted... its a 2 hour 40 minute burn with nearly 7km/s dV going into it. This is not including the monstrous (0 to 60 degrees) required plane change maneuver I need to do to meet mission requirements 48 days after I leave Kerbin. Worst part about it is there's no planetary window for me to go out to to get the assist of of currently open.

Edited August 24, 2018 by Cyrious

[qzgy]

Cross posted from the Electric Boat Chellenge.

Welp I made a thing.

Presenting a Rowboat, infomally called the Flop-o-matic 9001 (Patent Pending)

It moves (very slowly, barely 1 m/s) by flopping the paddles at the side in a rowboat-ish fashion. Truth be told, its more like a bird. But in water. And bad at being a bird.

It needs work.

Edited August 25, 2018 by qzgy

[Triop]

Today I made this cool picture of Jeb returning from a survey contract.

He almost ran me over, I jumped aside just in time.

[Cyrious]

I'm going to experiment with large-scale multi-docking using this target here. Because it's purely experimental, I used the power of Hyperedit The Kraken to get it into space. Note the lack of engines. The modules I'll dock to it will contain engines, and I'll maneuver it around a bit to see how it handles before deorbiting it.

If it pans out, I have a design from KSP .23 (I think) that I wish to revisit for a bulk cargo hauler, as well as a potentially *landable* variant meant for Station Science on Kerbin's Muns. The landable variant will be... interesting to pull off i think.