What did you do in KSP1 today?

[katateochi]

Any banana you can walk away from......

Touch down was perfect; smooth, no bounce and right at the start of the runway....only things was, I was still going around 300m/s and this craft isn't fitted with drogue chutes.  The end of the runway was approaching uncomfortably quickly so I tried the emergency-stop technique of putting the plane into a slide....and slid sideways right into the lamp at the end.  Impact took out one side of the plane but the main fuselage stayed intact....just banana shaped.  I think hitting the lamp saved us from a rather nasty encounter with the bottom of the slope. The tourists where understandable annoyed, but I'm not refunding them.

[CatastrophicFailure]

53 minutes ago, woeller said:

US Lab Destiny before docking. I know, still no RMS

Wait, so you’re using the Kerbal to move the module around? What mod enables that?

[woeller]

31 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Wait, so you’re using the Kerbal to move the module around? What mod enables that?

It's the MMU that's coming with Cormorant.

[Triop]

I've started a new little project called "Pole2Pole" where I drive from the Northpole to the Southpole.

I started with a new sandboxgame and flew first to the Northpole, placing the flag and flew back to KFC

Then I did the same at the Southpole:

We are now on day 1, two and a half hours into the mission...How long will it take you guess ?

If I succeed I may turn this into a challenge for the winter holidays.

 

Edited September 1, 2018 by Triop

[Lisias]

14 hours ago, LushChicken said:

Hey what mods is your cockpit on X-3-PAX  sorry if you said it

I think it's KAX. The rear landing gears are from FireSpitter.

[Castille7]

46 minutes ago, Triop said:

Then I did the same at the Southpole:

This is sooooo funny!!! 

[JadeOfMaar]

@Hotel26 Awesome plane, and I'm glad you have something new and functional for your squadron... but what I built is not Skylon. My plane is from the LAPCAT A2 concept hypersonic passenger plane (also British/European). The SCIMITAR engine goes with this.

Edited September 1, 2018 by JadeOfMaar

[Geonovast]

I've spent the last two hours setting up my joystick.  (After installing 1.3.1 on my basement computer)

It would be really sweet to have an option that swaps the yaw and roll axes.  Right now I have them configured opposite as secondary inputs in docking mode, and I essentially have to use docking mode all the time for rockets.  It's not terrible, the joystick has a small directional pad for translation, which is really spiffy.

I'd like to go full joystick for a launch, but still need to use the insert/delete keys (Not mappable!) for getting in and out of docking.

Also for some reason this computer is considering the forward / back buttons on the mouse to be joystick inputs.

[Dafni]

9 minutes ago, Geonovast said:

I'd like to go full joystick for a launch, but still need to use the insert/delete keys (Not mappable!) for getting in and out of docking.

 

I feel your pain, same here. Been irking me since forever now.

[Zeiss Ikon]

2 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Wait, so you’re using the Kerbal to move the module around? What mod enables that?

"Get out and push" has been around since Kerbals have had jet packs on EVA.  Before 1.0, for certain.  It's a (sort of) standard method of self-rescue if you're stranded, out of fuel, and don't need a bunch of dV to get to safety -- since the EVA fuel refills every time the Kerbal reenters their pod/cockpit, you just have to remember to leave a few percent to get back inside, and you have infinite (if very annoying to use) delta-V.  Mind you, I've never been able to do it -- the module I'm trying to push always tumbles -- but others report doing amazing things that way.

[MisterKerman]

Completed a series of contracts while escorting tourists to and from Minmus.

[Triop]

I need a John Deere . . .

[-M-TheDoctor]

2 hours ago, Triop said:

I've started a new little project called "Pole2Pole" where I drive from the Northpole to the Southpole.

I started with a new sandboxgame and flew first to the Northpole, placing the flag and flew back to KFC

Then I did the same at the Southpole:

We are now on day 1, two and a half hours into the mission...How long will it take you guess ?

If I succeed I may turn this into a challenge for the winter holidays.

 

This is the high quality content I come to expect from these forums. 

[Triop]

I has a new toy

https://kerbalx.com/Triop/Hyper

Edited September 2, 2018 by Triop

[-M-TheDoctor]

Didn't do much of note today, spent most of the afternoon at the local Blueberry festival! Love my Blueberry shakes... anyway, did some experimenting and poking around and about KSC to pick up this sweet last drops of science credits, crashed a few drones because they're cheap, pilots are not (I MISS YOU VAL!!! ) Got the science I needed to unlock the next set of rocket parts and set my sights for the first Kerbal to orbit Kerbin. I had only one Kerbal on my mind for the job- Valentina  Jeb Palan Kerman!! Yes the brand new, never before even flown in a plane, first time in the drivers seat of anything of value, Palan Kerman was the top pick to be the first Kerbal to not only got to space, but enter a stable orbit around the planet.... she managed only one of those two things....  Val would have done significantly better  Jeb tried to talk her through the complex maneuvers needed to enter a stable orbit ("point the blasted thing pro-grade and push GO! It's first day stuff Palan!!") she got lost, aimed too low, fell into the atmosphere for some unplanned aero-braking, and ended up with an apoapsis of 250km and a pariapsis of only 2000m.... So, again, congratulations to Palan Kerman on being the first Kerbal to exit the Kerbin atmosphere! yay...... 

One good shot of the final decent though, including a red Mun and Jool way in the distance....  

[Hotel26]

2 hours ago, Triop said:

I has a new toy

double-plus-like. 

 

Edited September 2, 2018 by Hotel26

[Mignear]

Adventures in using only the Juno engine for planes.

[LushChicken]

8 hours ago, Triop said:

I has a new toy

I want that!!! Can I download that on the steam workshop 

Edited September 2, 2018 by LushChicken

[Hotel26]

Nice weekend.  I finished sea trials on Seaspray II (will post soon); did  Skylon on an impulse in a spare couple of moments; some further study on Reverse Engineering (a.k.a. copy-catting)...  usual victims...  flattery and all that.

I started this latest career back last January.  (All my careers have been sandbox.)

I just checked in on an Eeloo deep-space relay probe.  It's at 14Gm.  Destination is 70Gm.  (Kerbin is 13Gm)  It has 3y+ to go.        I'm only <300d into this career.

If anything goes wrong, it will be pretty hard to know why! 

So I call this career, Management Mode.  Here are the rules.  Take Sandbox mode.   Add One Rule: do not warp more than 30m.

30m is plenty of time for a launch.  Or to return to a terrestrial rover and continue a leisurely exploration.

The result is dozens (hundreds) of subsidiary projects, all going at once.

Long ago, I purchased and read the book, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, by Richard Rhodes, to try to learn how the Manhattan Project (Oppenheimer) was managed.  Interesting on many other facets, but no cigar.

I think playing KSP in Management Mode gives some kind of insight into what NASA is like as an organization.  Projects sometimes culminate after the instigators have retired...

How is it managed for continuity until each and every goal is achieved?

Edited September 2, 2018 by Hotel26

[kurgut]

[RO/RP-1] Just finsished Ulysses mission: Ulysses is a probe intented to orbit the Sun in a near polar inclination (80) thanks to a Jupiter gravity assist.

Launch Vehicle is Atlas V: first stage is RD 171, second stage is Centaur T (2 rl-10), transfer is done with centaur, and 2 kn engines (aerozine/nto), also used to perform deep space maneuveurs.

Launch:

Centaur stage separation

Plotting gravity assist, final orbit will be the green one (I achived finally 71 sun inclination, not 80 as the real )

Also planning a Phobos Sample Return mission, spacecraft is based on a modified version of the Mars Sample return spacecraft that I already launched, now, waiting Mars window to launch

Phobos return spacecraft:

Barely the same as the Mars one, just removed the Mars first ascent stage, fairings and chutes:

And finally, I sent a TDRS in Geosat orbit (relay):

@Zeiss Ikon

Is that you new career you started? Nice Launch Vehicle

Edited September 2, 2018 by kurgut

[NHunter]

Today, I've landed on Duna:

Obligatory flag planting:

And once all of the science was collected, it's time to begin the long journey home (no botanists were forgotten on the surface):

Goodbye, Duna!

All in all, it was a pretty successful mission, though I don't think I will continue using this particular design of landers. It's much less stable than the one I've used for Ike and Moho (due to being in 2.5m form-factor instead of 3.75, thus ending up with CoM way higher off the surface). Oh, and stock 2.5m probe core doesn't allow one to store surface samples, unlike (even resized) NFLV ones.

Edited September 2, 2018 by NHunter

[kurgut]

15 hours ago, woeller said:

It's the MMU that's coming with Cormorant.

Haha, don't say me that you docked a multy tons ISS module using the MMU? good kerbal work

[kurgut]

14 minutes ago, NHunter said:

Oh, and stock 2.5m probe core doesn't allow one to store surface samples, unlike (even resized) NFLV ones. 

Here is a little patch that will allow you to store experiments with all parts that have a command module (do probes/capsules), should work on KSP 1.3.1 to 1.4.*

Simply put it in your game data folder

here the link:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1TVGuyNhvY40tl6axra6yR0xzOangePAA

Say me if it works!

[Zeiss Ikon]

Today (not yesterday, last night, or over the past weekend, for a change), I fulfilled two lucrative contracts with a single launch (not counting the one that failed to make orbit because I forgot to let it sit on the pad while the first stage tanks filled).

The Bumper family launchers have all been loosely derived from the original Project Bumper design, an A-4 (AKA V-2) without its warhead boosting a WAC Corporal (small sounding rocket with hypergolic engine).  Over time, the engines have been upgraded, tanks stretched, fuel mix changed to suit the engines.  The first orbital launch in this career was on a Bumper D2a -- which barely made orbit at all, finishing insertion with the RCS on the final core.  There were still contracts to fill while R&D (seemingly) spent their time over coffee and donuts (at present, I'm nine years out for nodes I've already invested the science points on -- if I wait for Atlas and Mercury tech, it'll be 1970-1972 before I can launch a Kerbal into orbit).  Since I have a workable orbital launcher, obviously I ought to be able to upgrade it to take more payload into orbits that require more delta-V.

This is Bumper E1.

The booster core is an RD-103, a fourth-gen upgrade of the RD-100, which was a Soviet replication of the A-4 engine that rained explosives on London around the middle of the War.  The original burned 75% ethanol, chosen because any higher percentage and the engines would overheat and fail.  A few more years of development, and the Soviets were able to run 90% ETOH for nearly double the burn time without even needing to monitor engine temperature.  Higher Isp, higher thrust, eventually similar reliability.  In this case, however, the RD-103 lacks the thrust to even lift the stack off the ground.  Fortunately, R&D turned out some actually useful solid boosters recently, the Castor 1.  Using the same type of fuel as the Space Shuttle, SLS, Ariane, Vega, Atlas, and Delta solid boosters, as well as  hobby rocket motors bigger than the ones Estes has sold for the past sixty years, the Castor boosters bring the TWR from below 1 to about 2.5 on launch, and burn for 38+ seconds.

After booster separation, the vessel actually slows slightly for a short time; the RD-103's thrust is less than gravity and air drag combined.  Not much less, however, and as propellant burns off, it picks up the pace.  The core burns out at about 43 km, around 900 m/s.  The sharp-eyed RSS players will notice that this launch is to the north from Canaveral -- I'm combining Solar Powered Satellite (which can go into any orbit about 300 km perigee) with Sun-Synchronous.

Unfortunately, I failed to get any images of the second stage -- it's another RD-103 with a shortened tank (to limit the mass the booster has to lift).  With staging as low as it was, there was concern the upper stage would tumble before the engine could come up to thrust, but in fact it only pitch/yawed about 45 degrees, and the air is thin enough that high that the jet vanes were able to correct once the engine reached full thrust.

Third stage is three AJ10-27, the current upgraded descendant of the original WAC Corporal engine.  Mechjeb has the stage pitched up fairly sharply, still raising apogee to become the 300 km perigee.  Stages four and five are identical, two AJ10-27 (spaced apart so the decoupler can mount between them).  On top of them is the satellite proper, an upper stage avionics core, two Sputnik antennae (Sputnik itself had four of these), three standard experiments (thermometer, barometer, and Geiger-Mueller counter), and the RCS tank  and thrusters.  Four thrusters push forward, while eight provide pitch/roll/yaw.

The RCS actually has 200+ m/s dV and (in line with previous Bumper family satellites) completes orbital insertion, ensuring that all previous stages fall into the atmosphere.  The upgraded launcher makes a big difference, though -- despite a significantly higher, slightly retrograde orbit, Sunseeker 1 (the actual spacecraft) has nearly 2/3 of its original load of 68+ liters of HTP remaining on orbit -- plenty for orbital changes, characterization of the sun-synchronous phenomenon, and eventual deorbit.

The combined payouts for completion of the Solar Powered Satellite and Sun-Synchronous contracts will give a start toward adapting the available technology for Lunar probe missions.  Based on the R&D schedule, it appears I might wind up using alcohol fuel for Lunar probes as well.

[Zeiss Ikon]

2 hours ago, kurgut said:

@Zeiss Ikon

Is that you new career you started? Nice Launch Vehicle

You mean Bumper E1?  Thanks! Yes, that's Take Six.  I'm pretty happy with it, though the orbit-payload that last launch went to is about its limit.  In the VAB, MechJeb claims it has just over 10,000 m/s, but the low TWR after booster sep costs a good bit in gravity and aero losses.  Bumper F will almost certainly need to have three or four main engines in the booster stage.  Fortunately, I've got enough flight time on the RD-103 now that igniting four at once at least doesn't virtually guarantee a failure.

Edited September 2, 2018 by Zeiss Ikon