What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Deadweasel]

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[TD]Today, the KSC and its new business venture partner TranStar Corporation celebrated the successful completion of the first extra-planetary resource procurement program.

The program's inception began with the launch of the TranStar Emerald Explorer, a massive mobile refinery and carrier platform, based on the space program's Goliath hull design.

Followed soon after by one of the new DV-103 Dromedary dropships, which assumed its docking slot in the forward vehicle bay. With all mission elements in place, Mission Specialist Joley Kerman went on EVA to perform the pre-flight integrity checks

In the process of moving the Dromedary's engine pods, wings and tail to transport configuration, pilot Nedry Kerman waved as Joley sailed by overhead.

Having completed inspection of the scanning satellite constellation, stowed in the aft equipment bay, Joley headed back.

Soon afterward, Mission Kommander Bob Kerman received clearance to begin Emerald Explorer's trans-orbit ejection burn for the Mün. Hours later, the massive vessel was in the midst of its final capture burn.

Immediately after Bob signaled final parking orbit maneuver completion, the deployment activities began. Nedry disengaged the Dromedary's dock collar and reconfigured the ship for towing operation.

Maneuvering quickly and surely, Nedry guided the little ship into position to extract the first of TranStar's "Jade Bird" scanning satellites from Explorer's aft bay.

Once connected, he brought the satellite's systems online and ran a quick check of its systems while Joley transferred primary and RCS fuel into its tanks. Within minutes, all was ready, and Dromedary jetted away with its prize.

After gaining altitude to ensure the satellite's orbit wouldn't cross Explorer's own, Nedry added a slight inclination before setting Jade Bird 1 free on its equatorial path, there to begin initial scans for kethane deposits. It quickly pivoted to orient itself and began its work.

TranStar had bet the farm on this project, with most of its operating budget consumed by it. Most of their executives were watching the feed back home, fingers crossed in anxious anticipation.

*blip* called Jade Bird 1 across the void. She'd found nothing but dirt and rocks in the current sector. Two of the suits had to restrain themselves from expressing premature despair.

*blip* she called after a few minutes, and then again after a similar pause. The anxiety in the board room at TranStar Corporation was now almost palpable.

*blip*... *blip*... *blip*

30 minutes later, the first of TranStar's multi-million kredit satellites had reported nothing of interest. At this point, all of the suits had taken their seats, some were shaking their heads despondently into their hands.

Then, Jade Bird 1 made a very different sound.

*beep*

She had found what she was looking for. The board room instantly came alive with shouts, yells and cheers, echoing those taking place at Mission Kontrol, hundreds of kilometers away.

*beep*... *beep*

Aboard Dromedary, still floating nearby the satellite, Nedry was pumping a fist in his own quiet celebration, aware that more drastic actions could accidentally trigger a control or raise a ruckus on the comm channels.

"That's our cue, Dromedary" Bob called, "bring it on back and let's get started on the primary flight."

Hours later, Jade Bird 2 was tucked into her nearly-polar orbit about the Mün, sweeping the surface and beeping or blipping alternately as she uncovered a great deal more precious kethane deposits on the lifeless moon below.

Days later, after the scanning satellites had done most of their work, another Dromedary arrived at Emerald Explorer, this one equipped with its own scanning suite, and tasked with delivering the first kethane mining rig to the Mün's surface.

Jebediah had been assigned to this flight, much to the consternation of the Explorer crew. He was a hotshot at the stick, and unfortunately he was well aware of it.

He had arrived at Explorer's location at near breakneck speed, coming to a neat halt alongside her at the very last possible moment, and grinning ear to ear through the carrier's bridge ports.

"Back of the bus, Jeb," Bob deadpanned, refusing to acknowledge the other's blatant hotdogging. "The rig's charged and ready when you are."

"You got it," Jeb winked, and his little ship belched white mist as he floored the thrusters up and aft.

Minutes later, all aboard felt the gentle thud reverberate through the ship as Jeb yanked the mining rig unceremoniously from its slot.

"I got the goods," Jeb drawled over the all-channel, obviously feeling in his element, "and I'm blowing this pop stand! See ya slackers!"

Nedry tried to offer some advice as his partner blew by, a hair's breadth from his window.

"Watch out for the load balance. Don't forget to set the wings-"

"-to vulture profile, I got this home-slice. Later 'tater!" Jeb cut in, even as he drooped the wings to offset the mining rig's weight underneath his ship and blasted away on a de-orbit burn.

Soon after, the bridge crew watched in terror as Jeb's beacon dropped precipitously near the surface. Then, over the comm:

"So, uh... This thing's okay with just one solar panel... Right?"

Bob began gently banging his head against the forward console, while Joley performed a quick calculation and keyed up.

"Affirm that," he said, being careful not to sigh openly into the mic, "but rotate the wing to get the panel as much light as you can."

"Rog, drills are on the loose," Jeb replied casually.

"We got tools to fix the legs on the rig too?" he asked shortly, managing to almost sound appropriately sheepish this time. Joley cut off the hot reply Bob was about to fire back.

"Yes, assuming you didn't destroy them outright during that travesty you call a landing." Bob smiled his thanks. Joley's barb was far more politically-correct than what had almost been aired over the very open, very public channel.

An hour passed, and Jeb called up that he'd topped off the rig's storage tank and was on his way back. He sounded much more humble and businesslike now.

"How many red lights?" Joley asked after the rig's status.

"Uh, I count four strikes of the kraken on the board, flight," came the reply, "but they're only jammed open, not destroyed." Joley sighed his relief and patted Bob's arm with a reassuring smile.

Soon, Jeb was aligned to dock the rig in its deployment collar, but held off stationary, waiting for Joley's repair EVA.

It didn't take the Specialist long to re-align the jarred suspension on the broken landing legs

and Jeb resumed the docking maneuver.

Once his board showed a proper connection had been made to the rig, Bob initiated transfer of its payload to Explorer's own massive storage tanks.

"Kontrol, Emerald Explorer," he called on the kommand channel, "first load is transferring aboard, we've hit pay dirt."

"Explorer, Kontrol," came the reply, cheers threatening to overtake the channel, "congratulations, and great work. We understand the runner has encountered ahh... mechanical trouble?"

"Affirmative, but the rig is restored to full function. However, the dropship is short one of its solar panels."

"That's not good news, folks. Those panels are heavy. Missing one means he'll have to offset the imbalance by limiting one of his engines-"

"Already done that Kontrol," Jeb cut in, "she's good to go."

"What about re-entry on the home trip?" Kontrol asked, which was answered by the silence they had pretty much expected. "Top it off and bring it back, Jeb. Explorer, since you don't need the extra scanner out there, your 103 can take over shuttle duty for the rig."

"Copy that," Nedry answered from his cockpit.

"Well I don't copy," Jeb griped. "This is my gig!"

"Your 'gig' is now getting your bird back home in one piece, Killjoy," the voice at Kontrol answered, using Jeb's unofficial (and loathed) callsign. "Course plot is on its way, we expect your arrival in two days, three hours. Kontrol clear."

Jeb muttered something rather impolite about the voice's owner and his intimate knowledge of animal husbandry, even as he snatched fuel from Explorer's reserves and hammered the "undock" button on his console.

"Maybe next time Klipper," Joley called, diplomatically using his official callsign, "we'll have plenty for you to do."

"Yeah yeah," Jeb replied with bitter resignation, "next time for sure. See ya."

Two days and and an hour later, Jeb had decided to get back at Kontrol with one last bit of theatrics. Completing his final burn, he closed the throttles and smirked to himself as he imagined the panic that must be ensuing in the kontrol center just now. He glanced at his course plot to be sure the curve was just so, and the smirk became a wicked grin. The plot was nearly vertical, ending just on the western edge of space center grounds. He was descending at nearly 2 kilometers per second, and accelerating.

The comm sputtered to life, filled with bursts of static as his Dromedary descended into the ionosphere.

"Drom... -at is g... -re on a terminal course!"

"Copy, and I just peed in my suit. Good luck getting those stains out!" Jeb replied, knowing full well it was unlikely anybody on the ground had heard a single syllable of it. The little ship began to glow as it plummeted into the lower atmosphere.

A mere 1 kilometer from destruction, Jeb punched the throttles and torqued his ship upward, translating to lateral flight just in the nick of time to avoid barreling headlong into the ground. Angry sounds were issuing from his headset, which went completely ignored.

All business once more (he wasn't a complete idiot, at least), Jeb brought up the wings and engines in preparation for a graceful and showy landing, as was his custom.

Unfortunately, it had apparently come time to pay his dues, and the Dromedary bucked sideward, just as he was bringing the ship to a halt a few hundred meters above the runway.

"Oh shhhi-" Jeb murmured, realizing he'd forgotten to readjust the engine balance to compensate for the missing solar panel assembly, just as he'd forgotten that his comm mic was still active.

DV-103-2 arrowed for the ground, gaining forward velocity as it went, but Jeb wrenched the stick hard with expert intuition through the sounds of rending metal and explosions. Moments later, he was cutting the engines and setting the parking brakes, putting the finishing touches on a landing that had been slightly less picture perfect than he'd intended, but it was at least a landing, nevertheless.

A decent crowed had gathered outside the kontrol building by the time he opened the canopy and prepared to disembark. Most among the onlookers wore expressions of shock and disbelief. One of the Dromedary engineers was almost crying. Jeb took in the tableau for a moment, then flung his arms out widely, as if presenting yet another masterpiece.

"TA-DAAA!" he cried, his voice echoing alone over the field and off the space center buildings nearby.

Somewhere in the gathered crowd, somebody clapped ironically.[/TD]

[/TR]

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[Spartwo]

Realised how dense my ships are when I sized them up for a drydock.(Every second one isn't mine they're for comparison.

I also began fortifying Duna.

Edited February 7, 2014 by Spartwo

[SuperWeegee4000]

I started playing around with AEIS and accidentally made a cubesat TIE Fighter.

[Squatch]

downloading mods, debating on b9, but definitely getting FAR and KW, any others I should think about for my scientific endeavors amongst the stars

[bowfonz]

I landed Jeb on the surface of Ike and returned him and all the science back to Kerbin safely in a single trip. No fuel remaining. Came screaming in with a hail mary landing at over 3km/s. This is probably child's play for most people but a big deal for me because I've spent very little time outside Kerbin's SoI.

[Blaze 9X]

I spent a lot of time on a rover, it took a lot more to get it to the mun. Had fun using craters as ramps. XD

[capi3101]

Had a beautiful docking maneuver between the Auk VII and its target vehicle, transferred fuel and attempted to land. Damn thing went into a flat spin at 27,000 and never recovered - in my balance testing, I never bothered to drain one of the forward RCS tanks. <facepalm />

With all the spaceplanes landed or crashed, I still needed to get a good number of Kerbals home from various missions. First was a simple landing of the Three Musketeers from Kerbin orbit - in a TARDIS. No problem. Landed just off the runway. Then I had to rescue three whiteshirts from Mun I'd sent there on a Kerbal X expedition. The rescue ship, a refinement of my early Flying Dutchman 7 design, had over 10,000 m/s of delta-V when it made orbit. One nuke so the thrust sucked and there was more than time I about bought it when I finally got to Mun. Finally landed less than 150 meters from the Kerbal X, transferred the crew and went home.

So overall a good day. I do wish the Auk VII had worked. Maybe with just a little moar planning - I need to add more intakes to it anyways.

[Commissar]

more testing of base compnents... unfortunately, my crane and station parts lost about 6 legs between them... 4/6 legs on the base of the Power Tower i'm putting up just dissapeared... nothing in thef-3....

[Aragosnat]

I landed Jeb on the surface of Ike and returned him and all the science back to Kerbin safely in a single trip. No fuel remaining. Came screaming in with a hail mary landing at over 3km/s. This is probably child's play for most people but a big deal for me because I've spent very little time outside Kerbin's SoI.

Congratz for making it back safely without refualing needs. And dispite playing for over 1097 hours. I don't think it would be easy for myself. Ah. Slow learner I be it seems. Anyways a few minutes ago. I successfully landed a SSTO space plane after it delievered its payload. 3rd land where I did not brake it upon landing or had to use parachutes to safely land:

As you can see I had a wee bit of fuel left. But, I glided all the way down with only a little re-heating of the ship. Lasted for a few seconds and was very light. The craft was able to slow down to slightly about 28-38 m/s before touching the dirt and safely costed to 7 m/s before braking as I forgot to remove the front gears from the brakes. Glad I remembered before hitting the brakes.

[Whackjob]

[Treveli]

Following Scott Manley's lead, started by developing and deploying a geostationary network of com sats. Got a little bored three sats in, so I did a Mun fly by (second in this career) and gained 200+ science. Returned to com sats with an improved model, thanks to the tech unlocked with the science. Changed models after three more sats cause I realized the 2nd model was a poor design. After deploying four of my third com sat design, modified the design to act as a kethane scanner and deployed one each to Mun, Kerbin, and Minmus (for my first ever trip there).

Maybe tomorrow I'll try for my first Mun landing.

[capi3101]

That's a very small ship.

At least I didn't make any cracks about compensating for something...:sticktongue:

Edited February 7, 2014 by capi3101

[Tw1]

I gave five magic rings to five special young kerbals.

Who didn't seem to appreciate their new Keo-Cruiser aircraft. I think it's awesome.

Made it to KSC 2. Just.

[SuperWeegee4000]

I launched the Santorini 1, a "sounding" rocket built to go far, but not too far, into Earth's atmosphere. Um, about that....

And I got it back safely.

It uses AEIS and StretchyTanks (actually StretchySRBs but I used LFO).

[Spartwo]

The miracles of light illness.

[Sylon00]

Anyone with mad skills want to make some Olympic rings in space? I think it would make for a pretty badass space station, and photo op, lol.

[NoPanShabuShabu]

I tried out RasterProp Monitor IVA instruments and flew to the Island Runway and back. Return was completely IVA, which I can do in the stock view, but this was fun.

What are those things flying around in front you ask? Well ...

Yep, that gear was not down.

[Rakaydos]

Jeb did a slingshot around the mun, then another around Minmus for a massive science boost early in carear. Unfortunately, because I timewarped out of minmus SoI, I missed Kerbin's atmo. After burning my remaining fuel, I was still on ejection path.

A launch later, I remember Jeb still has RCS fuel! So I dump my RCS fuel... and ALMOST capture, about 40-80 MS short. Que Jeb getting out and pushing repeatedly... against a craft that lacks SAS. Jeb is passing minmus orbit, with 56 hours until he becomes lost in solar orbit.

After losing interest and going back to the VAB, I notice one of my mods has been unlocked- the KAS Fuel Line Hookup. Excited, I work out a new launcher with a set of them and some science for solar orbit, work out the bugs, and launch Bob on a hyperbolic path to catch up

Matcing courses within a m/s or so, Bob quickly rushes out, grabs a fuel look up, flys over to Jeb's fuel tank, grabs the line, flys back, links the two craft... and the Kraken Strikes, destroying Jeb's fuel tank, engine, and a third of his science. Jeb has 12 hours till Kerbin Escape.

Seeing Jeb still has his RCS thrusters, Bob tries again, being extra careful in matching velicities this time. Crossing his fingurs, he links again... success. Jeb gets all the RCS propellant, Bob keeps all the rocket fuel. Jeb unlinks, carefully aims for kerbin, and begns shedding velocity. It takes most of the tank to get Jeb to stay in Kerbin SoI. But thanks to Bob's quick thinking, the day is saved.

Bob goes on with Jebs old trajectory, does solar science, and returns to kerbin, landing for 500 science. Jeb fllows him in, and his remaiing science is also worth 500 or so.

[Jouni]

I noticed that if you launch from LKO to an orbit that passes close to the Sun, the orbital period is very close to 40% of Kerbin's orbital period. Then I made some back-of-the-envelope calculations and determined that if you make the orbital period about 30 minutes less than the 40%, you will pass very close to Kerbin after five orbits.

So of course I had to try it. The plan worked so well that I needed only 7 m/s course corrections and some very spectacular aerobraking to get back home.

I'll have to remember this trick the next time I play career mode. It's a simple mission that needs only about 9000 m/s of delta-v, so you can pull it off quite early, instead of doing yet another Mun landing or sending yet another mission to Duna.

[Drexir]

Finally landed on the mun!... To be fair though it was my first attempt. I haven't had the game long. However it wasn't that smooth of a landing. I had a good bit of fuel left. I danced a couple of km's above the surface for about 5 minutes (literally) because I kept coming at an odd angle. I would try and kill I guess you can call it horizontal velocity. As soon as I thought every thing was well and brace my self for the land I would literally last second be "nope!". Simply because I was always coming in at a slight angle. After dancing in the air or rather space? for far too long I just decided to land and adjust the angle as best I could. Two legs touched the ground then I knew something horrible was gonna go wrong.

The ship bounced a couple meters into the air, did a 360, hit the ground at exactly the same angle, bounced back up. Then down. Up then down. Until it had no momentum left and surprisingly landed softly on the ground. On it's side. Again surprisingly nothing broke. I pondered how I was gonna get off the mun. Resolved that concern by simply telling my self I can get it to launch on it's side no problem. Where I proceeded to get out of the capsule. Do the routine stuff take a sample, eva report. Then decided to see if I could do some more science while I was there by finding different biomes.

Zoomed out and found a nice crater a few km's out. Started walking there. And discovered that the jetpack was faster to travel around with. As I was coming up on the crater I realized I was going way too fast. Tried to slow down and managed to slow down a lot but not enough. Bill Kerman managed to survive the impact of the ground. But then he proceeded to skid on his face and bounce 100's of meters which was enough to discover the mouth of the crater. Where he proceed to continue to skid on his face about a km down this crater. He was fine. Got the surface sample. Decided to go back to the ship and leave. This time I was going to be careful not to make Bill suffer eating dirt for 100s of meters. Something went wrong though. I was going too fast straight to the ground. Trying to kill as much velocity as I could.

Splat! Bill Kerman hit the ground and just went POOF. He died from the most stupidest thing you could die from. After realizing I had no quicksave only a quick save after I got a stable orbit around kerbin. I realized I just had wasted the last hour or so of my life. I could either a) Redo all that science I had just done. Attempt to go to the mun and land near the spaceship. In an attempt to retrieve the science stored in the vessel. Option A sounded too tedious. Option B? Well that was my only option left.

So now I guess I will attempt to go do that now. I have no idea how I'm gonna do this. Considering to get within walking distance of the ship. Would require a lot of precision I don't have.

Never knew just how important quicksaving was until I lost hours of progress. *sigh*

[SuperBigD60]

...that needs only about 9000 m/s of delta-v...

Yeah, only.

Anyways, I went to Laythe, because I noticed I had too much fuel in the ship I was testing and we can't have that.

[Tw1]

I attempted to build a vessel that would fly two kerbals to Jool, using the "Jenkens Kraken Drive". It didn't go that smoothly.

Launched from KSC2. Because reasons.

Getting into orbit with the K-drive proved frustratingly elusive, despite revisions.

So I abandoned that plan, and stuck my Lander on one of my standard lifters. Engaging the K-drive in space, gave much better results, though I had to go back to the space center before it would work.

However, when it was time to "burn" again, and ram the thing towards Jool, I had a problem. One of the drive's legs had broken.

It couldn't be retracted and broke again if I tried to repair it. As well as that, repair caused the ship to lunge away from the repairing kerbal.

Fortunately, the 2km/s worth of chemical fuel in the final decent engine was enough to deorbit, and return to Kerbin.

And my would've-been-interplaneteers landed safely.

Conclusion: Kraken drives show potential, but still need some refining.

Edited February 8, 2014 by Tw1

[Vanamonde]

So I built this goofy-looking ship for an Eeloo mission.

(I don't understand why some people dislike career mode. I mean, look at the marvellous dorkinesses we have to resort to when we have limited parts. )

Then I got impatient waiting for a launch window and tried to go the long way around, and got a Duna intercept instead.

What the heck? Hadn't been to Ike yet in .23, so off we went. Diverted to aerobrake at Duna.

Arrived at a poor time for an Ike encounter,

but got an intercept anyway.

Then the genius of my design became evident. Once in space "high over Ike," I took a full set of all applicable science readings, in pairs, so as to max out transmittable science, and then ejected the spent materials bays and goo pods, since their data was already passed along and they were inert mass.

(The spent science devices were ejected on Ike-impact trajectories, to reduce space junk.)

I then repeated this process in "space near Ike."

And then the probe set down on the surface, and took a third and final set of paired science readings.

Total yield: 506 science. Kerbal science marches (clumsily) onward!

One thing which helped overcome the (self-imposed) adversities of the mission was that the prototype was profoundly overbuilt, and had somewhere around 60% more dV than the mission required.

Edited February 8, 2014 by Vanamonde

[jordsta95]

Well I did this yesterday, but I sent this beast to Duna and Ike:

Although the burns weren't that efficient, I did get to Ike, land etc, and return (even if I did have to send a refueling craft or two )

[Jouni]

Yeah, only.

9000 m/s isn't that much. A simple Mun landing already requires 7500 m/s, and a mission to Duna takes 8000 m/s, but only if you know what you are doing. From a career mode perspective, the biggest issue is not the delta-v requirement, but that you need solar panels to keep SAS operating and RCS for orbit adjustments, so you can't really do the mission with just 45-point technology.