What did you do in KSP1 today?

[KerikBalm]

I started a new career in my custom 3x system, skipped a lot of grinding by setting very high starting funds and science. Still took a contract to scan and return a volcanic rock from Kerbin... which I modded to show up in the badlands, along with geysers (as if the badlands were a volcanic place like yellowstone).

On a 3x planet, its quite a trip, I got there, got the scan. I started with 1350 units of LF, I got back with less than 5... I guess I estimated pretty well, but I didn't think I was going to make it.

I was also doing the explore contracts without wanting to skip ahead, so I launched a recoverable mission for a mun flyby. This screenshot is good at demonstrating the difficulty of SSTO and 100% recovery at this scale.

Not very close to orbit yet, but would be in orbit already and then some at normal scale.

[panzer1b]

100% finished my skytower concept, like 90% of everything i do it really takes the 2nd iteration to make it truly good in every category.  Taller, and less parts then previous model even if its alot more white and has less panels on it (as much as i really like structural panels, the stock ones are way too small to do more then minor touchups and detailing, cant make a wall out of em nomatter how much you want (well not without wasting 500 parts on that single wall).

This thing is just a bit taller then the VAB, and it was a nightmare to land on duna since its stupidly heavy and has barely any reaction wheels (all of which are purely asthetic consideration), and just 3 vernors at the very top to help somewhat.

My fav view of this thing, covering that metal girder thing which i have no idea what it is supposed to be (sorta stole the concept of that from the hl2 citadel this is based on).

After trying for ages to make a non straight strut (mostly by offsetting the strut into thin air), i finally came up with the idea of using offset tool and rotation and just strut between the separate floating components.  Managed to get a fairly decent looking albeit part count intensive cable that actually looks like its affected by gravity to link the tower to its 3 extended legs (which are needed to get the building to not fall over anywhere but the launchpad).

I think my idea of using panels falling off the building to expose the internals is a better idea then the previous model which had what was sorta a random opening which had no real reason to be there.  Also, to go along with the damage concept, the girder thing is also destroyed in a section near the exposed interior, as well as the whatever the heck that thing i made out of panels on the left).

Now to make some super super low part count filler living spaces to put around this.  While im so not a fan of MK3 parts for normal designs (too big for ship parts, and too small to store anything but the tiniest scout vehicles or microfighters).  I think ill go with something like a building complex but sitting on girders so its not just on the ground like a normal building would be...

[Angelo Kerman]

I finished the paneling on my Excalibur mothership. Then I did some flight testing:

With the panel lines drawn, I can start coloring in the saucer. That'll give me the baseline from which to make all the hull pieces.

[Cavscout74]

I made a 4-kerbal escape pod from the MH expanding airlocks.  First version used some mod parts & a 10m heatshield tweak-scaled down to fit a 1.25m stack.  Second version went with almost all stock parts, but I didn't like the way the airlocks were exposed during reentry.  Third version mounted everything to an 2.5m engine plate and was the cleanest design of the group.

Version 1 - smallest width design, 4 inflatable airlocks mounted radially on a 1.25m stack.

Version 3 - shortest version & pure stock.  Also easiest to mount to an existing station since the engine plate decoupler can be used to disconnect whatever vessel is used to bring it up to the station.  Although it has a pair of liner RCS ports for limited maneuvering, it works best if it is pointed retrograde before decoupling from a station - four sepratrons around the docking port provide enough dV to drop it from a 125km circular orbit to a Pe of just under 50km.  The parachute is a little too small (8.2 m/s descent rate when fully deployed) but it was a survivable landing with no explosions.

[GDJ]

What did I do today?

Let me flap jack tell ya's all:

I went to the Mun.



And landed there too.



Then proceeded to do some jumps to a more level area:

And do a schwack of science:



All told, I started out this mission with 2 science points to my name.
Now.....



4493.8 in one mission.

It was a good day to go to space.

[Espatie]

Today in "living incredibly dangerously":

 

Rescue contract in LKO. I Launched by standard LKO rescue craft when the target was just over the sea to the west of the peninsula KSC is on, and this time I managed to achieve a direct intercept from launch... with the minor issue that the rescue ship was still suborbital at the intercept point with a closing velocity of 40m/s.

Cue a *very* hurried bailout by the rescuee, a jetpack dive across space and into the capsule... just in time to see the altimeter tick over from 70,000 to 69,999.

 

I mean sure, I *could* have done it the boring way of making the rescue ship go into orbit, but where's the fun in that?

[Cavscout74]

In addition to testing escape pods & tinkering with a new KSP build, I took on an engine testing contract in between Jool mission launches in my existing career.  This was for the Mk2 Expansion "Rontgen" atomic jet.  So I built a new test aircraft to go with it, and it turned out to be quite fun to fly.

First take-off.  It doesn't need fuel, but it DOES need a little ballast in the nose, so the tank behind the air intake was reconfigured to hold lead, although it's only ~10% full to get the CoM where it's needed.  And yes, it uses Big-S tails for wings. 

While this little jet will break mach 1 near the surface and doesn't need fuel, it does have one slight problem - not only is it cooking the drone core, it's even got the cockpit starting to overheat

Version 2 with added radiators & airbrake.  There is a significant drag increase with the radiators, and it can't break mach 1 down low any more.  But it doesn't cook the cockpit either

After landing, it's actually safe to get out without having to worry about the pilot spontaneously combusting. 

A final change (no screenshots of that one) replaced the twin side mounted radiators with a single one mounted underneath, which made enough difference that it can get just over mach 1 down low and still not melt the pilot

[AngrybobH]

No supersonic speed for me. I took a break from launching mission pre-supply rockets to take in the sunset in with an easy flying airplane.

[TheSaint]

Setting up shop around Minimus.

[SamCaWu]

Nothing for 3 days already, I hate being so busy

[Lisias]

Today I have to write a Spacecraft Accident Report.  Tough times for L Aerospace/KSP Division!

Do you remember the Maiden Flight for the Kermas/Sub-Orbital Space Tourism Vehicle?

Spoiler

 

 

Well, the tourism business are tough. The craft need to be fully recoverable, including the boosters, in order to keep the business profitable and securing the revenue for the development of the Kermas family of Spacecrafts.

So recoverable boosters were developed. But things didn't worked out very well with the new boosters!

Kermas Sub-Orbital Space Tourism Vehicle :: Fully Recoverable Boosters

---

Spacecraft Accident Report

Synopsys

A Kermas Sub-Orbital Space Tourism Vehicle, currently in development by L Aerospace, also the only operator and identified by Karmas/SOSTV-01, suffered a major incident at KSC, Year 1, Day 7, 00:10:35 UGT (Universal Game Time).

The purpose of the flight was to transport tourists above Kerbin's Karman Line, into the verge of the Sideral Space, for a few minutes of amusement and joy. Departure from KSC was at 00:09 UTG.

When the spacecraft took off and tried to keep level flight in preparation for the main boosters ignition, the spacecraft dived violently into the sea, severing large parts of the vessel.

Full report can be found here, or clicking on the screenshots.

Edited August 12, 2019 by Lisias
Link fixing

[capi3101]

(1.6.1) Had a pretty active weekend with the ongoing interplanetary tourist and colonization expedition. Pretty long post ahead for y'all.

The day on Friday started with the completion of the Crater Maker 7 8-passenger lander at the Scan Queen outpost on Ike, which was built specifically to transport a group of colonists to the base from space station Ikeport. The base transferred fuel to the new lander, which then had to sit there for a bit to await a launch window for the Infans Calcitrant Yards also in Ike orbit that didn't interfere with any of the umpteen rendezvous and transfer maneuvers I had going on at the time. J. G. Backus was the first of these, rendezvousing and docking with LSV House Harkonnen in high Duna orbit having returned there after a quick 3-kerbal excursion to the Dunan surface. After a burn of a Bill Clinton 7c grabber probe to align its plane with that of Harkonnen (the probe hauling Tomwise's Craft to Harkonnen from Ike), Eunice Howell arrived and docked at space station Kerbinport, where it picked up colonists Taning, Wenster, Stephanie and Connor Kerman. Kerbinport transferred its remaining reserve stores of fuel and monopropellant to Eunice Howell, which then departed for an intercept with LSV House Atreides in high Kerbin orbit.

Next up was the rendezvous of the Spamcan 7 Bop grabber/lander with Deoly's Capsule, which was already known to be a defunct Pathfinder Hogan module, in an inclined retrograde orbit over Bop.

You chose the Box! What's inside the Box?! NOTHING!!!! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!! STUPID!!!! YOU'RE SO STUPID!!!!!!!!!!! (And if you got that reference, you're either really old, a Weird Al fan, or probably both).

The 'can grabbed the Hogan without issue, then began maneuvers to take it to the Bohai 2 base on the surface.

Eunice Howell arrived at her intersect and plane alignment point over Kerbin for House Atreides and burned from there to head to rendezvous; flight time to rendezvous 22 minutes, during which time the Infans Calcitrant Yards completed the Crater Maker Crew Adapter 7-passenger add-on module it had been printing. Monopropellant was transferred to the module, which then launched from the station's drydock and docked safely at one of the station's docking ports. Next Objective then completed a burn to take it to a fast rendezvous with House Harkonnen while in a sub-orbital trajectory over Duna, with flight time from burn to rendezvous a mere seventeen minutes. Eunice Howell then rendezvoused and docked with House Atreides safely, and the Clinton completed a rendezvous burn that would take it to Harkonnen in just over one Kerbin day.

It was at this point that the Crater Maker's launch window for ICY came up and the lander finally was allowed to launch from the base, putting it on a ballistic trajectory over ike that would take it to rendezvous in a mere seven minutes after launch. This unfortunately put the rendezvous uncomfortably close to Next Objective's rendezvous with House Harkonnen, which happened next.

Would've sucked to have been these guys had I botched this rendezvous...

I conducted Next Objective's rendezvous burn with Harkonnen, then immediately had to switch over to the Crater Maker for its rendezvous with ICY. 

I love it when a plan comes together...man, what is up with me and the eighties references this morning?

The Crater Maker docked successfully with the Crater Maker Crew Adapter at ICY; the composite craft departed after taking on fuel stores from the shipyard, heading for Ikeport. Next Objective was then docked to Harkonnen, which would await the arrival of the Clinton before it was ready to head out.

The Spamcan 7 Bop then affected a landing at Bohai 2. Owing to the fact that I forgot to turn up the dampers on the landing legs again, the craft bounced away from the landing zone by quite a little ways...

I hated everything about his kludged up POS...but at least it did the intended job.

Engineer Gemul Kerman at Bohai 2 EVA'd in an attempt to inflate the Hogan, but the ability to do it wasn't there anymore - that's how defunct the part is. Since nobody's got a can opener and the plans to print one aren't available, it'll be necessary for me to transport the whole piece of garbage to Kerbin to get Deoly out of there. I left the box sitting on the ground right by Bohai 2, and in the meantime recycled the Spamcan 7 Bop; its job was done at that point.

After 63 minutes of flight time, the composite 15-passenger Crater Maker 7 arrived at Ikeport, docking safely. Colonists Sieski, Joebin, Muncott, Napont, Derny, Edbas, Melely, Newski and Henely Kerman boarded the lander and the station transferred enough fuel to the lander to fill the tanks up, after which it departed the station for landing at Scan Queen. The landing took place first thing on Saturday.

It was a Good Thing^TM I was paying attention to the Time to Node Burn; KAC would've have had me sail right through it. Doesn't do that every time but it's annoying when it happens.

Landing was a success (after the craft stopped bouncing, of course). Outpost engineer Thombles Kerman hooked up the lander to the outpost and the colonists all disembarked to the Castillo module, where they'll stay for the next 21 days. (It's slim pickings for this group on the smarts front but I'll probably be able to re-train four of them as scientists when everything's said and done). The lander took on fuel for the return trip after all the passengers were offloaded and Thombles detached the lander from the outpost, where it waited a little less than half an hour for a launch window to take it back to Ikeport. Meantime, the outpost had produced sufficient Konkrete to inflate one of its two remaining Castillo modules - the Factory was inflated and immediately set up as an extra nuclear reactor. The lander returned safely to Ikeport by the end of the day, but not before the completion of G. Grant at the Dystopia Planitia shipyards over Kerbin. G. Grant took on fuel at the shipyard, then launched for rendezvous and docking with space station Kerbinport.

Yesterday was relatively busy for a Sunday, beginning with a resupply mass driver shot between Scan Queen and Ikeport and another one between the South Base outpost near KSC and LSV House Corrino in high Kerbin orbit; the latter was hauling a TBD 7dB base-seeding lander destined for Pol in her drydock but had yet to finish a full resupply (and it didn't finish a full resupply then - turns out South Base hadn't been making any monopropellant, which was desperately needed). Pilot Gregald Kerman also logged a crew report from the cockpit of Necessary Evil docked at Ikeport. 

With Gilligan and Eunice Howell having delivered all her intended passengers during the day on Friday and having finally hit the first waiting period where nothing was going on long enough to warp, House Atreides broke Kerbin orbit and warped directly to Eve, arriving over the purple planet at a velocity of 18,202 m/s. It took nearly fifty warp-back maneuvers to slow the craft down enough, but she ultimately settled into a 721.9 x 700.2, 1.86° inclined orbit. Once in orbit and with fuel supplies transferred, both Gilligan and Eunice Howell departed Atreides for space station Eveport.

Mrs. Howell is Slender Man!! Partially explains why her hut was so nice and how she managed to have such an extensive wardrobe, I guess...

The two craft arrived at nearly the same time, with a mere twelve seconds difference between their scheduled rendezvous; naturally I boned up Gilligan's rendezvous for focusing on Howell's, but eventually I did get both ships to the station.

Gilligan at kerbolrise over Eve, with Eveport in the background. Just to the right of Eveport is Eunice Howell - looks kinda like a couple of dead pixels in the skybox at this range.

Both ships were brought into dock successfully and refueled, while their passengers were loaded into the waiting Cigar 7 and Cigarette 7 Eve Descent Vehicles. One of Harkonnen's passengers is heading down to the surface as well, so at this point the nine Kerbals loaded into the EDVs are tapping their respective feet waiting for him to get there...

South Base finally refined sufficient monoprop for Corrino's supply, and after transferring it over via mass driver, Corrino broke Kerbin orbit and warped to Jool. One warp-back was required to bring the ship into a 5,643.2 x 5,244.8, 2.09° inclined orbit over the green giant. Corrino will remain over Jool until the delivery of the Pol outpost crew takes place - and wouldn't you know it, those guys are also aboard Harkonnen... 

With some time to kill this morning, Eunice Howell departed Eveport to conduct a low Eve orbit rescue mission for pilot Leo Kerman, who was retrieved from a Buffalo Short Passenger Module successfully. Eunice Howell is now on her way back to Eveport. Meanwhile, the Clinton finally arrived and docked with LSV House Harkonnen, which means Harkonnen can finally leave Duna. The plan is for Harkonnen to break Duna orbit as soon as Eunice Howell docks at Eveport; she'll head to Eve, where tourist Theosy Kerman will head to Eveport for surface touring. The remaining tourists aboard Harkonnen are more interested in Gilly; the intent there is to send Next Objective that way to perform that part of the tour, getting the passengers down and allowing the Pol crew to at least add orbits at Eve and Gilly to their resumes - I might go ahead and have them land and plant flags there since it's pretty easy to accomplish (if slow). Theosy has an Eve Ascent Vehicle of his own under construction right now (the Zima 7), which should be ready for launch in three days - he should be back at Eveport before folks return from Gilly. House Atreides will be headed to Jool next with comm satellites in her drydock for Pol; once again though, things will ride on Harkonnen, whose next stop after Eve/Gilly is home to drop off passengers and hopefully unlock Pol orbit contracts.

[Kerbuvim]

(google-translated)

Today I carried out the mission of the Ike-Duna in career mode, with USI Life Support.

The ship was assembled in several launches.

1. Core Habitat & Lander

 

2. Interplanetary transport stage

3. After waiting for the launch window the crew arrived

 

4. Start!

5. Ike

6. Duna

 

 

All heroes safely returned home, but some of them as tourists, they were tired at work and missed home.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 12, 2019 by Kerbuvim

[Gunnerline]

Greetings you Galactic Go-Getters!

 

When I last posted, I had just tasted the victory of a successful interplanetary mission.  So naturally, it was time to try again.  But the previous ship, the Unnecessary Expenditure, while functional, lacked some desirable traits.  We had come in very tight on delta-V, and while we are there around Duna, we didn't have sufficient fuel to explore Ike.  Further, while the return journey had plenty of fuel left to enter a final parking orbit, KSC still had to send a separate recovery vehicle to the ship to return the crew.  Finally, the Duna lander was, for all intents and purposes, just a redesigned Mun lander.  That wasn't nearly fancy enough, I think, for our space program.  So, for the next Duna mission, I put together two separate vessels, an interplantary transport vehicle, and a heavy Duna/Ike Lander.

Of course it's a Copernicus-style MTV

The Greater of Two Evils enters solar orbit, en-route to a Duna encounter some 260+ days later.

 

Before the Greater of Two Evils left Kerbins' SOI, a separate 25 ton heavy lander, the Lesser of Two Evils, was launched on a more aggressive trajectory, entering Duna orbit some 46 days before the manned crew would arrive.  Thankfully the journey to Duna was relatively uneventful, and the automated docking of the Lesser of Two Evils proceeded without incident.

Seriously, The Lesser of Two Evils is so much larger (and heavier) than it looks

Brendan Kerman takes a stroll along the Western Canyon.

Thankfully, 25 tons is a lot easier to move in low gravity.

 

Having successfully transported a three-kerbal crew to Duna, the Greater of Two Evils acted as a tug for the lander and brought the crew to an equilibrium orbit around Ike.  This also represents the first time I've managed to visit two separate planetary bodies in the same mission (not counting starting from Kerbin).

 

All in all, the mission was a rousing success, but flaws in the MTV I had designed became quickly apparent.  Principally, over 3000 delta-v had been lost during both transits due to fluctuations in available electric charge to keep the liquid hydrogen from boiling away.  For the next interplanetary mission, better solar panel placement would be necessary, and with panels large enough to ensure minimal sunlight would keep the fuel cold:

The MTV certainly didn't get any smaller after a revision.

With a new MTV assembled, it's time to head for Dres!  And this time, with a Mun lander in tow because if it's not broke, don't try and replace it with a vehicle 5 times heavier...

 

[Stewcumber]

I made a plane that can fly in perpetuity. It doesn't "draw" power at full throttle 100% torque and the small rotors plus "B" propellers can spin at 460m/s at 50% throttle at 5,000m ASL. Maybe I will make a bigger one that can actually carry something with four engines, I reckon it will only two more of those electric generators.

Benefits over conventionally powered aircraft:
Can fly for a very long time
Propellers look nice when they spin

Drawbacks over conventionally powered aircraft:
Slow-ass flying
Can only fly at 1x multiplier
No cargo capacity
Weird physics when diving (propellers act as airbrakes once they hit 460m/s)
Can't use the power of magic to work underwater
Need to counter act the torque they produce

[capi3101]

33 minutes ago, Stewcumber said:

Drawbacks over conventionally powered aircraft:
<snip />
Need to counter act the torque they produce

Do you have them both spinning the same way? If so, try getting one to spin the other way (assuming it's possible to arrange things that way) and see what that does for you.

[Loskene]

29 minutes ago, Stewcumber said:

I made a plane that can fly in perpetuity. It doesn't "draw" power at full throttle 100% torque and the small rotors plus "B" propellers can spin at 460m/s at 50% throttle at 5,000m ASL. Maybe I will make a bigger one that can actually carry something with four engines, I reckon it will only two more of those electric generators.

You'll get there pal. Took me a few false starts too before I got to grips with how these special beasts (in terms of KSP engines) handle in practice. The real magic is in "feeling" the amount of resistance the prop blades are getting against the airstream, which constantly changes with airspeed, direction and blade deflection. If you're at speed and the blades are gliding through the air like butterknives through water, drawing only enough force to counteract drag, you need practically no power at all to maintain them. I have the motors set to less than 5% their maximum on every prop engine, which is the minimal range I've found to maintain RPM when the blades are shoveling through the airstream flat-on, and I just leave them at 100, since the blade pitch angle really determines the strain on the motor and the forces on the plane. You can get them to dive through the transonic region but you have to know what way to fold the blades so you don't have any accidents on the way up to that speed.

I haven't tested the cargo lift capacity of this one yet but there's a lot of internal volume to work with and the engines are still overpowered for the empty frame, so I have no doubt you can make decent transporters from it. Shame about the timewarp effects though, that pretty much disqualifies them from long distance cruising that they're suited for.

[Guest]

Remember that cheesy trailer I made a few days ago...

Let's recolor it

 

Yeah... I forgot to check COM...

Edited August 12, 2019 by Guest

[Cavscout74]

Stormy launch

The actual launch was a complete failure, flipped in pitch nearing 10 km.  Very disappointing, haven't had that happen in a long time.  It wasn't even a new design, but it had a few changes and apparently one or more of them messed up the handling.

Other than that, I continued with my pre-Jool launches.  I'm basically done - this was a not-entirely-necessary crew shuttle to run between moons, and I already have well over a dozen other craft to transfer to Jool starting in 27 days, so I'm probably not going to bother with it.  I just want to get Jeb & other vets to Laythe again.  I haven't been in a while - with the frequent KSP updates, I usually start a new career with each new version.

[Castille7]

Kerbol Explorer 172
Update: 08.12.2019

Upon arrival at Ike I noticed I already had a Supply Ship docked to Kerbol Explorer 172 (Not liking that name, I thought it would grow on me, I may change this craft name later).  After docking I did some fuel transfers and then noticed when I decoupled one of the Shuttles I couldn't re-dock in the KE 172 bay because I didn't keep additional couplers to do this. In order to keep the Heat Shield and the ability to Shuttle from Bay to Bay I need more couplers. I think I had enough of them and it was becoming too tight a squeeze in the Bay. These Heat Shields are only for a one time use, so I may use different versions of the Shuttle for different missions. 

 

More Photos

Spoiler

 

Testing the Shuttle at Duna

 

Edited August 13, 2019 by Castille7

[hellblazer]

After taking a year off I think it's time to start again. 

Edited August 13, 2019 by hellblazer

[capi3101]

(1.6.1) Fairly quiet day, at least when compared to the busy weekend I had. Began the day by ordering up the print of a Pink Noise 7 communication satellite carrier aboard LSV House Atreides, which was still in orbit of Eve at the time. Total construction time took two hours and twenty minutes. In the meantime, Eunice Howell burned for a rendezvous with space station Eveport, having collected rescue pilot Leo Kerman from low Eve orbit late in the day on Sunday. Flight time to the station was 41 minutes, with the rendezvous and docking occurring without incident. Upon docking, Leo along with pilot Rodhat Kerman disembarked from Eunice Howell and joined Jeb aboard Gilligan docked at the station. Gilligan then departed Eveport and burned for an intercept with Atreides, reaching the intercept point 25 minutes later; a burn for rendezvous then occurred, with the rendezvous itself occurring 94 minutes later after two orbits.

On second thought, this probably wasn't the best camera angle with which to attempt to capture this moment. Not that docking's all that exciting anymore anyways...

With Gilligan docked and the decision made to leave Eunice Howell behind at Eveport as a ready auxiliary craft for the Eve/Gilly SOI, preparations were made by zombies for Atreides's departure from Eve (when you attach "by zombies" to a sentence and the sentence still makes sense, it means you used passive voice - a grammatical no-no and y'all's lesson for today. No, I haven't finished my morning coffee yet - why do you ask?). The Alexander L. Kielland outpost on Eve's surface shot fuel supplies and Rocket Parts up to Atreides via mass driver, and about that same time the Pink Noise print concluded, with Atreides fueling the probe in preparation for its launch. At that point, House Atreides secured her receiving-end mass driver, engaged her Alcubierre Drive and broke orbit, warping to Jool. She arrived at 11,500 m/s and required three warp-back maneuvers to attain orbit, and inadvertently flew past Laythe on her way in.

Oh for crying out loud...which dolphin put another damn planet in the way?!?!?!?!

Like the inadvertent fly-by of Vall last week, this event will preclude any chance of a future fly-by exploration contract for Laythe, but on the other hand those aboard got the related XP for a Laythe fly-by. Meanwhile, Atreides attained a 5,213.4 x 4,976.3 kilometer, 2.39° inclined orbit over Jool. At this point she's waiting for LSV House Harkonnen to deliver the G-LOC 7a return-to-Kerbin craft that visited Pol to Kerbin so she can get the go-ahead for orbit and deploy the Pink Noise at Pol.

Meanwhile, House Harkonnen had been awaiting a window to warp from Duna to Eve, with all of her business at Duna completed late in the day on Sunday. Harkonnen performed broke orbit and performed a direct flight to Eve, arriving at a speed of 17,750 m/s - far too fast to enter orbit. A total of 48 warp-backs were required for her to slow down sufficiently for orbital insertion; she eventually attained a 697.5 x 613.8 kilometer, 2.79° inclined orbit over the purple planet. At that point, it was time to shuffle some folks around - pilot Jedbrett Kerman, engineers Monty and Jubald Kerman, scientist Herby Kerman and tourists Chadbus and Hayby Kerman joined pilot Eridred Kerman and tourists Kelely and Calmore Kerman aboard Next Objective docked to Harkonnen, while pilot Aldler Kerman and engineer Luddorf Kerman were joined by tourists Geofbret, Verrim and Theosy Kerman aboard J.G. Backus (also docked to Harkonnen). Backus departed Harkonnen and burned for an intercept with Eveport, reaching intercept 38 minutes for later and rendezvous 30 minutes after that. Meanwhile, Next Objective departed Harkonnen and burned to align the plane of her orbit with that of Gilly.

This morning, Next Objective set up a burn that will take her to Gilly in five days; that burn has not yet taken place. Backus arrived at Eveport, docking without incident. After the station transferred fuel to Backus, Theosy - the last kerbal to arrive scheduled to visit Eve's surface - transferred to the waiting Cigar 7 Eve Descent Vehicle. The Cigar and the smaller Cigarette 7 Eve Descent Vehicle both departed Eveport at that point for landing near ALK. The Cigarette went down first.

Now don't y'all worry - there haven't been all that many folks who have died trying to land on Eve...

Glad I didn't miss this mark by more than I did...another ten klicks east and this thing would've splashed into the Explodium Sea...

Damage? I don't see any damage...and even if there was any, at least y'all are alive, right?

The Cigarette touched down about ninety klicks east of ALK, with the landing occurring without incident right up to touchdown - we lost three airbrakes there. Better those than the crew cabins, though.

Up next is the landing of the Cigar 7, which will either be followed very closely by Next Objective's burn to Gilly or occur one orbit after said burn. I'm leaning towards the latter - by the time the Cigarette reached the ground, the Cigar was already over the far side of Eve - landings can take a while and Gilly's not the easiest thing to reach. Since it'll be at least five days before the Gilly tourist missions - including one landing - occur, I'm thinking about going ahead and having Harkonnen head back to Kerbin for a little bit and at least get the G-LOC down so I can start setting up infrastructure at Pol; Harkonnen is also hauling a Bill Clinton 7c grabber probe with Tomwise's Craft attached on a junk-and-kerbal retreival mission, and it'd be nice to free up the docking port it's using so I can go pick up Necessary Evil from Ike. I'm also going to have to get engineer Gilford Kerman at ALK out in the Echo 4 quadcopter to go pick up the Cigar/Cigarette passengers. That will put a little bit of a delay on the ongoing construction of Theosy's Zima 7 Eve Ascent Vehicle so he can go home, but as I said, I've got some time to kill. The other nine kerbals going to Eve's surface are going to become permanent residents, with six of them looking like they'll make fine additions to the staff once their colonization contract concludes. Plenty going on right now - looking forward to knocking down some of these contracts I've got going on right now.

[Delay]

I have a rather obvious problem.

This 300 ton behemoth cost 145,000 funds. Where might it be heading?

Spoiler

Ike.

And that's my problem. My rockets are always OP for their purpose and they cost and weigh far too much!

 

Edited August 13, 2019 by Delay

[Yukon0009]

Finally, FINALLY built a reliable stock prop plane. After many hours of adjusting, this iteration didn't blow itself up mid-air, have it's propellor escape immediately, or simply not fly.

Flies at around 50 m/s, perfectly reasonable for a low-powered biplane. (It weighs less than 2 tons!)

Modified it and flew it to the Island airstrip.

And then I had to pancake it onto the ground because I jettisoned the landing gear to make it go faster.

Mission success!

Edited August 13, 2019 by Yukon0009

[Shadowmage]

On 8/9/2019 at 8:32 PM, Tw1 said:

As in modded wheels which can actually handle slopes. 

  Judging by the dust-effects on the wheels, I'm guessing you are using the KSPWheel stock configs?

Been awhile since I've tested them compared to the stock modules -- they still performing well without all of the stock module quirks?