What did you do in KSP1 today?

[MattJL]

I've been working on a Skylab replica with functional solar array hinges.  They're not perfect, but it does accomplish the goal of unfolding the solar array "wings" correctly:

In the VAB.

The hinge (thermometer + RCS bearing) and attachment setup is strong enough that it can survive launch without struts/autostrut.

Detail of the hinge.  Once in space, the small docking port that holds the solar array wing parallel to the body is decoupled, allowing the part to swing freely.  I've hidden a small landing gear (wheel) inside the structural tube in order to help kick the array out to the correct position, or else it just sits there.

It usually swings around a bit aggressively until the ports click together.  A side effect of this is that the arrays never quite lock into a perfect 90-degree orientation, but that's fine enough by me.

Docked!  You can see what I mean about it not quite being perfect.

Arrays all deployed, now awaiting crew.

Just for kicks, Skylab as it actually was.  Those structural panels really are handy!

[Triop]

Testflying.

Every landing you can walk away from . . .

Edited January 16, 2019 by Triop

[Cavscout74]

Didn't have a lot of time today, but I did some more tweaking on my CF-05 Firebar jet - it turns out, a 3rd engine was just what it needed to cure it.  I actually made one more change after this screenshot, changing out the MRS basic jet for the stock Juno in the tail, and replacing the ramp intakes with the XM-G50 intake for the tail engine. 

My twin Minmus rescue also went off without a hitch.  Both rescuee's with their capsules were safely returned to Kerbin.  I even remembered to include extra snacks, so neither one starved on the way back.

 

[colonoscopy]

launching my rocket for sure

[Zosma Procyon]

This. I think I'm going to send it to Dres and stick it on an asteroid.

[MaverickSawyer]

Didn't do much today... ran around the KSC with an Akita Rover loaded with science parts, doing experiments and refreshing my memory of the quirks and idiosyncrasies of said rover. I then set up a prototype fuel silo for monopropellant (the Akita's fuel of choice for range extension) near the KSC, and deployed a small camper van (also based off the Akita) with two engineers aboard near the runway for future missions and operations.

[Pipcard]

A simple resource scanner enters Dres orbit

[Xurkitree]

Meet Electrode, the Ball Pokemon

It stores electricity under high pressure. It can often explode without provocation. - Pokedex entry from Pokemon Red.

[MSA]

I got science from the GRAVMAX over the Western Canyon on Duna, and it said the gravity was the lowest on Duna.

WWWHHHAAATTT???

[septemberWaves]

I did some tests on the prototype of my Alnitak-1 crewed spacecraft. I also sent some scientific probes to orbit the Mun. Details can be found here.

[Shadowmage]

On 1/14/2019 at 4:12 PM, eddiew said:

...it floats... and it has propulsion in the 'water'...

Most of the KF wheels (and tracks) have water propulsion.  As long as some of the wheel is visibly above the water surface, but still in contact, you'll get some movement ability.  One of those neat little hidden features that almost nobody finds or uses

[eddiew]

Just now, Shadowmage said:

Most of the KF wheels (and tracks) have water propulsion.  As long as some of the wheel is visibly above the water surface, but still in contact, you'll get some movement ability.  One of those neat little hidden features that almost nobody finds or uses

Aha! I was speculating that it might relate to the wheels being only like 95% submerged and thus kicking a bit more water out the back than the front - but then I thought that was a pretty fancy thing for KSP to model. I didn't bank on modder attention to detail   Definitely be making use of this feature in future - now that I know it is a feature.

Would lowering spring force have made the wheels ride a little higher in the water for better propulsion?

Also, did you know that scaled-up medium wheels have a higher maximum safe speed than large wheels? They burn a lot more power than the big ones, but they make for a much faster ride with no burst tyres...

[capi3101]

(1.5.1; T-2 days to 1.6.x) No screenies today, y'all. Sorry.

Yesterday began with the successful conclusion of the Auk XIII single-passenger spaceplane flight carrying tourist Gilbree Kerman on a simple up-and-down. The plane landed safely at KSC 27, after which I received a pair of contracts to expand the Deepwater Horizon outpost on Minmus (because obviously a base that can already hold over 150 kerbals that has only three kerbals manning it is lacking in space). The first was fulfilled relatively quickly but the second will have to await the arrival of Strange Cargo, which conducted a gravity assist burn of 62 m/s off of Kerbin coming back from Mun; the ship will arrive at Minmus in nine days time. Deepwater Horizon also assisted me in yet another successful ore-drilling con job.

LSV House Harkonnen finished her ramp-up free fall to warp into a stable "low" orbit (1.6 Gm) over Kerbol; she'll reach position for ramp-down and final warp to Duna orbit in about 4.5 days give-or-take. I was happy to find that the math I used to determine how long it would take the ship to reach its intended ramp-up speed of 25 kps (8 hours and 32 minutes) wasn't that far off, with the discrepancies easily attributed to rounding errors. While that was ongoing, she completed her printing of a Pink Noise 7 triple communications satellite carrier; the satellites are ultimately intended to be deployed in equatorial orbit over Duna.

In an attempt to determine why certain LDEF soil analyses were not working yesterday, I transferred the projects from Doc commercial labs over to dedicated Geology Labs at both South Base near KSC and Piper Alpha on Mun. This worked; the project at South Base is finally collecting data, while the one at Piper Alpha completed itself instantaneously. The Venkmann 7b probe I'd erroneously launched from the Dystopia Planitia shipyard over Kerbin a few days ago with an LDEF orbital tools experiment (which requires a crewman to do) returned to the shipyard and was successfully recycled, and to replace it in a manner in which the experiment could be done properly, I designed the Fred Savage 7 MOLE laboratory module and began printing it up at Dystopia Planitia; upon completion the module was transferred to space station Kerbinport. Owing to the fact that there were no scientists assigned to the station, it fell to rescuee pilot Janpont Kerman to begin the experiment. Finally, with another surface junk hauling mission in the pipe, I redesigned the SCSS 7 garbage hauling craft extensively. The SCSS 7a is a two-kerbal craft designed for single-use; upon successful completion of its mission, the crew is to bail out and the craft will be recycled. Printing of an SCSS 7a is in progress at the Non Mentha Yards over Minmus and is nearing completion as of this post.

At the moment, I have nothing really to do besides let things finish running and/or printing, so it's likely that House Harkonnen will make her final warp to Duna today. The plan is to put up a communications satellite constellation over Duna first, then drop in a surface scanner to find potential landing sites. After that, a Hellhound 7 rover will be dropped to the surface to verify a site, at which point Harkonnen will have to go back to Kerbin - she may be capable of printing up a TBD base-seeding rover, but the necessary resources to ensure a successful deployment of such a rover are back at home right now. I still haven't decided if I'll start afresh with 1.6.x as is tradition; I'm leaning on "not" for once, given the amount of time and resources I've put into my 1.5.1 save and the fact that I'm just now getting to Duna...

[Itsdavyjones]

Completed a GaP mission to mach 3 as i finally unlocked the engines necessary .

Afterwords, I had the first of two sundiver missions launched.  The one awaiting launch is the nuclear option, whereas the one that was launched is the ionic option.  The ionic option only needed some slight orbital assembly to be able to work as planned, as there are solar panels on struts to keep the main panels safely stowed at periapsis.

 

[eddiew]

"Eve looks the same everywhere."

Ascending to the brow of this ridge was an exercise in patience, calling for a low gear and a switchback path up the side. Turns out that Scorpio doesn't quite generate enough power when the motors are being taxed this hard, and several breaks are needed before the rover finally reaches the crest and the crew can see down into the vast crater on the far side.

The descent is quicker than the climb, but much riskier. This is the steepest slope yet encountered on Eve, and despite the atmospheric drag, there's a possibility that Scorpio could become a runaway, overloading its wheels and sending the forward section crunching down into the terrain.

Fortunately, Scorpio comes with adjustable suspension, and Bill is able to add a respectable amount of ground clearance at the front.

Nursing the brake pedal, Jeb manages to get everyone down safely with only minimal loss of snacks.

And it turns out the lab is now full of data - but the crew confirms that they intend to reach all waypoints anyway. Worst case, they'll load the surface samples onto EEVEE for analysis back on Kerbin.

[bitzoid]

Went to Dres for the first time today and laded my rover base. It's sitting at the deep valley of a ressource rich crater. I hear the weather is nice, there.

[Triop]

YF-24 BDA testday:

 

Edited January 17, 2019 by Triop

[Stratzenblitz75]

Today, I went to the sun:

 

[Xurkitree]

1 hour ago, Stratzenblitz75 said:

Today, I went to the sun:

 

[REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED][REDACTED]

AND THAT'S WHY I LOVE YOU

[Triop]

So some footage got released today.

It appears that 2 years ago rebels took over a refueling station placing  some anti air tanks next to it.

This is a video of the retaliation:

Pilot: "They never saw me coming"

Edited January 17, 2019 by Triop

[MaverickSawyer]

Couple of noteworthy goings-on today...

 

First, after 81 days, 4 hours, 17 minutes, and 7 seconds... Explorer 1's mission came to a glorious, fiery end at an altitude of 44,250 meters.

This was the FIRST orbital launch I made in this save, and it went out to Minmus's orbit. Huzzah for BDB solid motors and compact solar batteries!

Moments before destruction...

Explorer 1 wound up making three complete orbits uninterrupted before performing a bank shot off Minmus about 60ish days in. Minmus proceeded to redirect the hardy little probe onto a path towards the Mun, who put the final touches on the end of mission dive. All told, for such an early and inexpensive little probe, it served a long and notable life. Its passing was mourned by the team who built, launched, and monitored it.

Rest in pieces, Explorer 1.  

 

In happier news, the mandatory safety standdown has ended, and missions have begun to pick up in tempo again. A high-resolution mapping probe was dispatched to Minmus, where it will provide Synthetic Aperture Radar scans and resource concentration monitoring, as well as providing secondary comms relay capacity. Also, the Salyut 1 station was finally activated on orbit, after more than a month's delay imposed by the prioritization of the THAAD mission. It will be used more as a testing ground for new ships, modules, and technologies than as an active science lab, but it will nonetheless see much use. Case in point: a Progress resupply ship arrived with new docking rings to replace the older probe-and-drogue setups it launched with, and a crewed Soyuz II craft flew up to make the swap and prepare the station to receive its first experimental visitor... the TKS-Lite, carrying the Three Brothers. TKS-Lite will be my primary long-haul crew shuttle, as it has much more space than a Soyuz, but is cheaper, smaller, less complicated, and lighter than the BDB Apollo.

Speaking of testing, Bill was tasked with testing some new EVA gear while TKS-Lite was docked at Salyut 1...

Helmet interior lights, microphone and earpiece headset, and extra work light.

Sunglasses? Check.

Bill was quite fond of the Omni-Tool's offhand mode, and the headset was found to reduce random helmet noise by nearly 70%, significantly improving communications. All future EVA missions will be making use of these new tools. The sunglasses have also been found to be quite helpful during dayside operations, but they are somewhat difficult to quickly remove or replace upon crossing the terminator. They'll absolutely be useful for surface ops, but they are not suitable for orbital work. RFPs for alternate solutions are being written up now. The helmet interior lights and the work light received "meh." ratings from Bill, but the PR team loves the helmet lights. They are likely to become standard issue for press-worthy missions unless serious issues emerge. The work light may be used for Kerbin engineering teams, but otherwise, helmet lights seem to be superior, as they take up less inventory space.

Edited January 17, 2019 by MaverickSawyer

[putnamto]

sent my replacement minmus hopper to the minmus orbital science lab today, then took it for a test run to two different biomes, success.

then sent my ISRU module to the muns orbital dock to wait for my surface base to be in sunlight so it can be landed and moved into position.

and the headache that was involved with that second task, the docking ports decided they didnt like eachother so docking was a trivial event, then the kraken showed up afterwards giving me seconds to move fuel and decoulple the extra tank.
 

 

[KestrelAerospace]

I took my (much-redesigned and finally completed) KC-909 superjumbo for its inaugural range-testing flight:

It went fairly well, and I'm (finally) pleased with both the aesthetics and the functionality of the airliner, considering it's fully stock. The 909's range ended up being about 3300 kilometres, meaning it can probably be taken to Kerbin's poles. I'm planning on setting up a base on the South Pole sometime, so this is likely the craft that will bring in the research team.

The view from the cabin is courtesy of Jeb, who was the only passenger aboard this somewhat lonely two-hour test flight. The capacity of the 909 is fifty Kerbals, which is a respectable amount and the largest passenger capacity I've ever built for any craft.  The part count is 118 parts, so not overly taxing, and overall, I'm very happy with how this jet turned out.

Edited January 17, 2019 by KestrelAerospace

[cantab]

@Stratzenblitz75 No. Freaking. Way. Mind=blown.

Three things really stood out. The first, when I saw you driving a fairing on the runway and realised you're about to integrate a payload of that scale "by hand". Second, the mechanism for folding the ring, I was expecting a bunch of dockings but instead you just smoothly bend it into a circle in one operation. And third, spinning up the rings.

Oh, and fourth, those comically small boosters on the repair launch. Well, small in comparison, but actually blooming massive by themselves.

[Shadowmage]

23 hours ago, eddiew said:

Would lowering spring force have made the wheels ride a little higher in the water for better propulsion?

Nope, when in the water, the wheels always sit fully drooped (nothing for the spring to press against).  You can get more force by mounting the wheels higher, so that when in the water only ~50% of the wheel is submerged (the point of greatest force output).

23 hours ago, eddiew said:

Also, did you know that scaled-up medium wheels have a higher maximum safe speed than large wheels? They burn a lot more power than the big ones, but they make for a much faster ride with no burst tyres...

  Yeah, the scaling balance is a bit... strange... in places.  As long as the power draw (and mass) of the part make sense for their new scale, I wouldn't worry too much about cross-part-(im)balancing, esp comparing parts at different scales.