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What did you do in KSP1 today?


Xeldrak

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Tried designing a universal (~6km/s DV) lander... failed miserably. :huh:

I think I need a new approach.

I did the same thing last night, except 12Km/s DV (total)... it LOOKED great (and has a TON of science opportunity), but I just couldn't put enough struts to keep it together, and no matter how many launch clamps I put, whenever physics loaded, it just fell off the pad... KER told me that it'd have enough thrust, too, so it's disappointing that I can't get it to work.

I really want to get it to space. I'm thinking I might have to empty the top 2 stages, and re-fuel in orbit.

It's a great design, though, nice chunky lander, and a probe-core powered totally-over-fueled nuclear re-dockable transfer stage that'd almost certainly have enough go-juice to get me home from almost anywhere.

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So yesterday (posting during my tired thought-haze the morning after that is being valiantly combated by coffee), I managed to send up an Ike lander and a Duna rover on a single launch to dock with my Duna exploratory rocket (this is the second launch of the construction). I had a few hiccups though. I sent the "manned" lander up without crew figuring I would pilot the rocket with the rover drone (which worked), but I had to EVA a pilot over from the Duna rocket to pilot the lander in for docking. Then the rover section's solar panels were mostly blocked by the landing... cacoon... I had built for it so that got a little hairy especially since I was trying to keep the lifter stage rocket that still had fuel on it for a fuel transfer (not originally planned). In the end, it all worked out, but it definitely tested my unplanned difficulties reaction capabilities. I need to send up two satellites yet as well as the actual interplanetary rocket stages. Trying to reach another planet is hard work.

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Doing my first Duna (and hopefully) return mission... At least with a planned return. Just landed, hope I can launch this thing from Duna, never did it... I do have a refuel station in Duna orbit, so I only have to reach orbit.

ducjwhY.png

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Doing my first Duna (and hopefully) return mission... At least with a planned return. Just landed, hope I can launch this thing from Duna, never did it... I do have a refuel station in Duna orbit, so I only have to reach orbit.

I don't remember the total dV to do it, but you can be in a safe, stable orbit anywhere above about 42km. Good luck!

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Today I built my first successful SSTO spaceplane, the Stiletto 1a. It has two RAPIER engines and uses stock parts plus KER and MechJeb (not used for this mission). Bill Kerman piloted it to orbit and back to land on the KSC runway. I've entered it for the K-Prize challenge, the first challenge I've tried.

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The Stiletto will hopefully become a shuttle for launches to a future LKO space station and I plan to try attaching some landing rockets for a mission to Minimus.

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Completed my first station. Has two orange fuel tanks filled to the brim, crew module and emergency escape mini shuttle that seats 4 including the pilot. Had one kraken moment while docking the final tank but thank god for quicksave! Next step mun landing and base with a ferry system between kerbin and the mun.

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- I discovered the design flaw with my landers goes WAY back.

- Decided to skip to a launch window for Duna. Got bored and moved an old Mun probe to the pole.

- Having done that, I decided to get my old Eve probe's cruise stage into orbit around Gilly. Succeeded.

- Then I lowered the orbit to get 'space near'.

- Then, discovering I was only a handful of meters up and barely inching along, I decided to land it.

- The nuclear engine snapped off on 'impact'. The quote marks were because I was literally barely moving. It just popped off when it touched ground.

- Then I achieved the landing, with the fuel tank settling nicely on the ground, and some science was gleaned.

Next up, I'm going to land more probes on Eve and Gilly. Kerbed and unkerbed, with the eventual aim getting kerbals the hell off Eve and back to Kerbin.

I may land a base on Gilly, just because it's got next to no gravity.

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"I'm still here, El Guapo..."

Flew the Auk Ia to orbit just for the hell of it. Jet ran out of gas at 40,000 (still had enough air to keep running). Still investigating what's wrong with my other spaceplane designs. I suspect insufficient thrust at this point.

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Sent a probe up to go around Kerbin and find where all the Kethane spots are, as well as mapping the planet using SCANsat, did the same to the Mun already. Gonna use it to print out the locations of all the "anomalies" and hopefully get me some SCIENCE in Career mode with it!

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I'm a bit thinking about what I should do... Next launch window is in 23 days, might start designing a rocket. Would be nice if it was so easy in real life! :)

Edit:

Always forget about Ike!! Had a manned vehicle in Duna orbit with plenty of fuel! :)

Edited by Loerelau
I'm stupid...
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I wish I had screenshots, but I had an amusing SNAFU on launch. I was experimenting with using clusters of aerospike engines, supported by a single Skipper booster to provide directional thrust. About 5000 meters up, I noticed that one of my (25) engines wasn't draining fuel at all - a quick visual inspection of my rocket revealed that the skipper engine had fallen off and was sitting on the launchpad. The sheer amount of exhaust from the engine clusters had kept me from noticing the problem.

The rocket made it all the way to orbit, and actually steered pretty well due to having a significant amount of reaction wheels. I'm considering getting rid of the skipper engines on purpose to see if I can get away with using the more efficient aerospike engines instead.

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Obfel and Chadcal Kerman returned from the surface of Minmus, docked with Melbus who was waiting aboard the main craft. Then got on a trajectory to Kerbin.

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The Lander was sent back to Minmus to a location I (randomly) picked as a site of my future Minmus base. The landers are design to be able to crash to the terrain after taking the Kerbals safely to the main craft. But Minmus has small gravity and even on the RCS fuel it was able to land (this one landed even with standard fuel). These landers will function as houses for the Kerbals and also (the ones with fuel remaining) as an backup solution if case it was necesary to quickly evacuate the base.

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And finally, after a long time, I got into plane building again. Unfortunetaly I dont have all the parts unlocked yet, but I managed to make a relatively good design aircraft, the "Let 4". Performance trials reveiled it handles well under power, but is unstable at low speeds. Current record of altitude is about 17km and speed 520m/s. After that it started to turn right and Thombrett Kerman was forced to shut down the engines to slow down and regain control...

screenrrr.png

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