What did you do in KSP1 today?

[capi3101]

(1.6.1) Today I've got a bad combo of 'need to write quickly' with 'a fair amount of stuff to talk about' going on. I'll try to make this cogent. Maybe a dramatis personae would speed things up?

Capi's KSP career campaign (in order of appearance):

• Lima 1: Echo Flyer 7 quadcopter design at Laythe.
• C. P. Baker: Fourth generation Pathfinder/TBD outpost design on Laythe.
• KSC Marker: Primitive Juno-powered/Stayputnik controlled rover designed to mark the ends of runways, largely obsolete but still sometimes useful.
• Woodsy Owl 7: Eve-launch booster rated for 1.5 tonnes; second iteration currently under construction.
• Alexander L. Kielland: Fourth generation Pathfinder/TBD outpost design on Eve.
• TBD 7e Mun: Fifth generation TBD base-seeding rover design, specifically designed for Mun landing.
• Piper Alpha: First generation Pathfinder/TBD outpost design at Mun.
• Auk XI: 10-passenger spaceplane design.
• Kerbinport: orbital weigh station around Kerbin.
• Gilligan: Minnow 7b 6-kerbal rated medium touring craft, first of her class.
• J. G. Backus: Minnow 7b 6-kerbal rated medium touring craft, fourth of her class, replacement craft for T. Howell III.
• LSV House Harkonnen: Muad'dib 7 Block I Alcubierre Drive-equipped interplanetary transport, first of her class.
• Laytheport: orbital weigh station around Laythe.
• Tradidit Lestum Yards: orbital shipyard around Laythe.
• Deepwater Horizon: Second generation Pathfinder/TBD outpost design at Minmus.
• LSV House Atreides: Muad'dib 7 Block I Alcubierre Drive-equipped interplanetary transport, second of her class.

No, I don't think that sped things up at all...and it looks weird too.

Day started out with Lima 1, which I flew 4.5 kilometers over to C. P. Baker in order to check my NavUtilities data for the new Runway I'd put out there.


Doesn't look too far off to me. I dare say I'll be able to use this thing when the time comes.

Test completed, I had engineer Monty Kerman step outside long enough to recycle the KSC Marker craft that had gathered the data needed for the ILS, its mission complete.


Call me crazy, but I think that thing kicked up a larger cloud of dust than the first iteration of the Woodsy Owl 7 did when I had to recycle it...

That finished up my current activities at Laythe, so next it was to the VAB and the design of the TBD 7e Mun craft, which largely replaced the booster/Tylo-landing stage of the previous TBD 7e craft with a smaller one rated for Mun launch and landing. Job done, I went out to Piper Alpha and ordered construction of one of these craft commence; printing will take 16 hours and 56 minutes.

I noted some of my staff out on Mun didn't have any registered experience. Theofel decided to help them out while I was out there with a quick flag-planting.

PA has some spare staff at this point and some of them will be manning the new Mun outpost, which I'm building for a contract. PA is several versions old at this point as well, and I've been thinking about replacing the base for a while now. The contract gives me an excuse to do so. Chief among things I've learned: the resources in one biome are consistent throughout that biome, i.e. the Midlands at the equator are going to be just as good as the Midlands at 40 degrees south, about where PA is...

With all my other contracts in a waiting pattern, I turned my attention to my latest colonization contract. Colonists Karie, Enfry, Sidcal, Podvin, Kerden, Mildin, Bartrick, Dudtop, Agahat and Mitvin Kerman were all loaded aboard an Auk XI and launched for Kerbinport, their window coming up almost as soon as the plane was out on the tarmac.

Auk XI, four starts. And so yet another colonization mission begins.

The plane took off successfully and rendezvoused with Kerbinport after a thirty minute flight.

I really oughta get that other Auk down at some point - it's really killing my frame rate around the station...not to mention that I've only got four kerbals scheduled to return to the surface and that one can haul twelve...

Once docked, the colonists transferred to Gilligan and J. G. Backus docked to the station, with Gilligan taking on fuel supplies from the station's stores; Backus was already fully fueled. Fueling complete, Gilligan departed the station and burned to intercept LSV House Harkonnen in HKO; flight time to intercept was 25 minutes. Backus departed the station for Harkonnen ten minutes later; flight time to its intercept was nineteen minutes. Both ships hit their intercepts and conducted burns to take them to rendezvous; Gilligan will arrive in 95 minutes, while Backus will arrive in one hour and 45 minutes; there's about twenty minutes difference between their scheduled arrival times. Once at Harkonnen, the plan is for the ship to warp to Laythe, where Gilligan and Backus will deliver their passengers to Laytheport. I should have an identical Auk ready for flight at Laythe at that point (it's currently under construction at the Tradidit Lestum Yards) that will take them down to C. P. Baker. I don't have the length of their stay written down, apparently...I should remedy that at some point. I probably will; I'll likely be continuing to mention this mission as it progresses.

Ended the day by landing the Auk at KSC 09. Took two tries but I got it down.

Not exactly a perfect landing. Beat the hell out of the first one, though...I have to remember that the Auk XI has a higher stall speed than other members of the Auk series. Don't know how this thing is going to behave on Laythe...

So today I'm likely going to be dealing with the colonization mission first. I've got a crew to deliver to Deepwater Horizon at the moment; they finished getting junk off the surface and I still need to get them back home. The Woodsy Owl reprint is about done, so I have that mission coming up soon as well. LSV House Atreides will be handling the return of the payload from that mission to Kerbin and conducting the initial Dres flyby at the same time, as well as returning some passengers from a Gilly-touring mission to Kerbin. Longer term I've got a new space station over Gilly to build and then recycle, a new shipyard is going up over Tylo, and the aforementioned junk from Minmus will be arriving at Kerbin. Lots of things going on right now; I'll be sure to keep y'all posted as best I can.

Edited November 20, 2019 by capi3101
fixing typos

[Xurkitree]

 

 

Edited November 20, 2019 by Xurkitree

[RizzoTheRat]

Discovered that the scanning arm needs more clearance than I expected to be able to scan anything.  I've lugged this all the way to the Mun and I can't use the scanning arm because it hits the ground.

On the plus side my new Rover deliver module worked pretty well despite clearly needing wider landing gear, it's a bit precarious on a 6 degree slope

[Cavscout74]

My 1.8 career expanded to the Mun with an impactor/orbiter (not two craft, one craft that impacted the Mun and completed an "orbit the Mun" contract somehow), a fly-by & return, plus more kerbals in orbit, early comm relays - including one that nearly failed during launch due to lost comm's.   Complete details here

Mun fly-by & return probe launch from Desert Space Center, seen here staging away the booster engines Atlas-style

My first uncontrolled reentry of a probe meant for recovery, controlled only by ballast & aerodynamics.  Worked on the first try, although it did have a noticeable but not excessive wobble in pitch.  I've resisted clicking the "Require signal for control" button for a long time, and it has definitely added a new challenge. 

POLO-1 (Polar Observation & Link Orbiter), modified from the first Mun probe MRCO-1.  So now I have Marco & Polo in orbit around Kerbin.  Losing communications during launch nearly spelled disaster, especially since the booster stage hadn't even separated yet.  But it stayed straight & managed a 129km Ap and comm's were reestablished before reentering so it all worked out

 

Edited November 20, 2019 by Cavscout74

[Retro Starship]

Well here I tested the Mk1 capsule and the Mk1 Inline cockpit to see if the cockpit could go into space ok and not crumble. I did this along with my tourism career mode contracts with two kerbals. It was not a contract task but something I wanted to try for myself to see if I could get out of the capsule and climb into the cockpit in space. All worked great and I made it back just fine along with my two passengers.

Altho Marney Kerman does not look happy that I took time to test this on their dime.

 

 

[capi3101]

(1.6.1) Not much to report for my day yesterday; it was pretty much just a day of getting things where they needed to be going. The day started with the departure of the Spamcan 7 2-person monoprop lander from space station Minmusport with pilot Johnler Kerman and engineer Deston Kerman aboard. The original intent had been to get the two kerbals back to the Deepwater Horizon outpost on the surface prior to the arrival of Gilligan and J. G. Backus at rendezvous with LSV House Harkonnen in high Kerbin orbit, but when the time came for the plane change that would put the lander over the outpost prior to landing, it was obvious that the maneuvers were going to take longer than what I had available. I went ahead and let the lander go around for one more orbit, and in the meantime the two Minnow craft completed their rendezvous and docking maneuvers.

Had issues with Backus's docking of the "hitting the wrong button" variety. At least this time it was the time warp button resulting in a nuisance bounce-off, instead of the "full thrust" explody variety.

With the two ships safely docked, my attention turned to getting the lander down to DH. Only took two tries.

Note to self - while screenies like this may be cool, make sure you can get to the thruster controls when you take them. 1.2 seconds to suicide burn is not really a time to be taking screenies...

Once the lander was on the ground safely (i.e. on the second try), Johnler got out and attempted to hook up the resource transfer station from the outpost's exterior to the lander; it was just out of reach at first and had to be maneuvered to a closer position, but once that was done and the lander hooked up, fuel was transferred successfully. Johnler detached the hose from the lander and went inside the base, with Deston following suit shortly thereafter. The lander then took off yet again and affected a successful return rendezvous and docking with Minmusport after about two hours. With that job done, the rest of my time yesterday was spent getting House Harkonnen to Laythe; the craft broke orbit from Kerbin at the optimal point and warped to Jool, arriving there at 10,025.8 m/s; three warp-back maneuvers were required to slow down sufficiently for Jool orbital entry, but instead of entering orbit the warp ship continued to slow to the point where she could perform a direct warp to Laythe orbit, arriving there at 1,564 m/s and settling into a 495.2 by 458.3 kilometer, 3.37° inclined orbit.

First up on my agenda today is a quick refueling shot to Minmusport, after which I'll be getting Gilligan and Backus over to space station Laytheport. The plane that will be ferrying the colonists those two ships are carrying is not yet ready, and in the meantime construction of the remodeled Woodsy Owl 7 at the Alexander L. Kielland outpost on Eve has concluded, so I'll likely be making the second attempt at hauling crap off of Eve today. Assuming that goes well and I can get the payload all the way to LSV House Atreides currently in Eve orbit, I'll be bringing its payload to Kerbin today. Might be getting colonists down to Laythe as well if I have enough time. Longer term I've plans to build a new surface base on Mun, another briefly extant space station for Laythe and a shipyard for Tylo. I've also got initial ops at Dres on the immediate horizon as well. I'll let y'all know how things go.

[Retro Starship]

Looking somewhat like the Batplane going at 551 m/s. Not bad for a pair of Juno's and a Wheesley.

 

[RealKerbal3x]

I packed up the crane that I need to construct my Munbase inside the fairing of a 5m class rocket.

As you can see, it's a weird contraption that uses robotic parts to fold up. Once at its destination, it will unfold and since the robotics will no longer need to move they will be locked and autostrutted.

It's pretty light, so it doesn't really need the dV that the 5m rocket provides to reach the Mun. I only chose that size of rocket because it wouldn't fit in anything smaller  The launch is scheduled for tomorrow, if time permits.

[Retro Starship]

1 hour ago, RealKerbal3x said:

The launch is scheduled for tomorrow, if time permits.

Good luck!

[Cavscout74]

My career succeeded in placing a probe safely on the Mun's surface, along with a pair of geosynchronous comm relays and a few other successful missions.  Details here

Jeb & Kelrik returning from a week in space

 

 

I also did some tinkering in sandbox with a low tech tourist rocket, but it was just too ridiculous to actually use in this career:

[RizzoTheRat]

Precision landing is a lot easier in a vacuum (skip to the last minute or so if you have a short attention span)

I think it needs a slightly smaller dead zone for the RCS alignment, it's currently half a meter which results in the slight mismatch on the docking port, but it's reusing the RCS function from my docking code so I don't want to break that.

ETA:  Yikes, do YouTube links always come out that big?

Edited November 21, 2019 by RizzoTheRat

[Triop]

50 minutes ago, RizzoTheRat said:

ETA:  Yikes, do YouTube links always come out that big?

Yes, is that a problem for phone users ? (I only use the forum on my pc.)

Today I finished my Mini Truck build.

It's stock + tweakscale and I'll soon be uploading my cars on KerbalX.

Next up is giving it some "MODifications"

 

Q: Are my pictures too big to ? I can make them smaller if that is better.

[Zeiss Ikon]

36 minutes ago, Triop said:

Q: Are my pictures too big to ? I can make them smaller if that is better.

I think the board software rescales the link images for both pictures and video links -- I sometimes read this board on my tablet (Kindle Fire HD10), and the thumbnails are quite a bit smaller relative to the page on that device than they are on my desktop computer.

[Castille7]

Today I was practicing my burn ins for a video. I hope to land close to the KSC this would look neat on film. I plan to land in the daylight tho.

Getting pretty close here!

Edited November 22, 2019 by Castille7

[nelso]

I did a straightforward mission to Ike and Duna which costed 260,000 for the vehicle and rewarded about 4,000,000.  One of the 3 missions was transporting about 3000 ore from Ike to Duna which I planned into the mission.  It also needed to support 11 kerbals for another mission.  The main stage had enough fuel to circularize around Kerbin, but not enough for the burn to Duna, so I had filled all the ore tanks prior to launch, and converted ore to liquid fuel while waiting for a good transfer window to Duna, then converted the rest while on the way to Duna.  The Ike and Duna landings were pretty simple and I had more delta V than needed.  Might even be able to get it back to Kerbin in one piece cause the vector engine is so good.

Vehicle at launchpad

I clipped a vector engine into the fuel tank to allow easy landing in the main stage.  Also you can see some ore has been converted to fuel at this point, with more to go, so delta V is lower than actuality.

Ike landing

Duna landing.  With 8 main parachutes it wanted to fall at 30 m/s.

One of the 3 missions completions.  Also, you can see I put the ore tanks at the bottom to lower the center of mass.  It didn't have much problem landing on slopes.

[Okhin]

Been playing around with a new program with mods. So, nothing really big for now as I'm trying to get enough science to build my first sat relays around kerbin before going to the Mun (since I've installed Remote Tech and the contract packs). I need to build a plane to run tourist around precise place on Kerbin though. And I do not like planes. But it seems to be the easiest way to farm those science points to.

So yeah, not a lot too show for now, basically starting up a space program.

[capi3101]

(1.6.1) Most of my day yesterday was spent in efforts to get a batch of ten colonists down to the C. P. Baker outpost on the surface of Laythe. The day began with a quick mass driver shot between the Deepwater Horizon outpost on the surface of Minmus and space station Minmusport, sending up replacement supplies of monopropellant from my recent hijinks there. That job done, Gilligan departed LSV House Harkonnen recently arrived in Laythe orbit followed five minutes later by the departure of J. G. Backus. Both ferry ships completed burns that would take them to space station Laytheport in just under half an hour, with Gilligan arriving at rendezvous first but Backus completing the first docking maneuver.

Backus arriving at Laytheport as I'm losing my lighting. No, that's not Gilligan docked already - that's M.A. Summers. Forgotten I'd left her there...

After both ships docked, they both took on fuel from the station's stores.

With time to kill at that point, I headed over to the Alexander L. Kielland outpost on the surface of Eve, where KAC was telling me that construction of the redesigned Woodsy Owl 7 was complete. In preparation for an Eve launch, the same crew that had retreived the target Module L-H80 - namely, pilot Lerod Kerman and engineer Taning Kerman - went EVA and proceeded to move the module over to the site of the base's new launchpad, the original pad having been destroyed during the initial launch attempt.

Okay Lerod, I'll mount this thing - you get ready to stand underneath and light the fuse...

Unfortunately, I'd never bothered to check on the craft's progress while construction was still ongoing - turned out the Woodsy Owl still had nine hours to go on construction thanks to a relative shortage of Rocket Parts. Kinda miffed about that but it is what it is, and what it is is my fault for not bothering to check on the craft's progress. Lerod and Taning went back aboard and I stayed with the outpost until I was sure there was enough Rocket Parts aboard to complete the job. The launch will take place in nine hours - that's guaranteed now...

The delay gave the Tradidit Lestum Yards in Laythe orbit sufficient time to complete the ongoing print of an Auk XI 10-passenger spaceplane. The new plane was fueled and launched from the shipyard, and was delivered to Laytheport after an eighty minute flight. After loading all ten colonists aboard and taking on replacement fuel stores, the plane departed the station and proceeded to deorbit for atmospheric entry.

Auk XI leaving Laytheport with passengers aboard. I've got Vall in the background to try to prove that this isn't Kerbin, for all the more good it's doing...

Perhaps putting Jool in the shot would be better proof - that ain't Kerbin...


Inherent coolness level: Triforce of Awesome.

The plane entered successfully and proceeded to follow the NavUtilities data I'd input earlier this week for a landing at Baker 36, the north-south Kerbal Konstructs Runway that I'd even earlier put out there. When I got within range of the Outer Marker and still didn't have site of the Runway, I knew something was amiss; crossing the Middle Marker with no Runway in sight is usually cause for a missed approach and go-around; naturally I decided to go in for landing anyway. Plane survived but I lost both ventral engines in the process. Important thing is that the plane did make it down to the ground intact, which is more than I can say for the first plane that tried to land at Baker...

Auk on the ground. Showing y'all the good side, not the damaged side. Never did figure out what happened to the damn Runway...y'all saw my screenies a couple of days ago, there's proof that it was there...

The landing marked the end of my day yesterday. Occurred to me that I had performed no provision for getting the passengers off the plane, something that I'll have to turn my attention to rather rapidly now...

Aside from getting my passengers off the plane, getting it repaired and refueled and back up to Laytheport and figuring out what the crap happened to the Runway, I've got the Woodsy Owl launch probably coming up today, and I'm liable to see the launch of the new Mun outpost from the extant Piper Alpha Mun outpost; that one's been kinda low on my radar but it's coming up fast. The nascent and expected-to-be-short-lived new space station over Gilly is also nearing completion, as is the launch of the new Tylo shipyard. Last entry on my KAC calendar right now is the return of the junk I'd hauled up from Minmus. Don't know how much of this I'll get to today - my playing time lately, if y'all can't tell, has been rather severely curtailed thanks to IRL events. Hoping the weekend won't be quite as busy and I'll be able to get more things done. I'll let y'all know on Monday.

[Retro Starship]

Well trying my 1st tribute to the project Gemini program from the early 60's (well 1961 to 1966) was tried very quickly last night. I also needed a break away from career mode and to play around more with sandbox parts.

I was going to attempt the Mercury program at 1st, but allot of programs like the V2, Jupiter-C rocket, vanguard and so on are still something I am going to try along with the Apollo missions. To start, the Mk2 Command Pod Gemini capsule was easy to play around with along with the Making history stock dual engine LV-TX87 "Bobcat" and an odd construction of the Titan II rocket.

Please be gentle with me, this was a one night experiment for my 1st try at this. hehe, I am, after all, only 2 months old...ksp wise.

Well here is shown my 1st attempt at this and it was successful even without any saves! A good launch of my Gemini 1 rocket, three complete orbits, and a smooth landing on the dark side of kerban. I just love seeing that ablator melting. Only Jeb was in the capsule even though Gemini 1 and 2 were tests with no one on board. Gemini 1 though was destroyed on purpose on re-entry in real life so 1 and 2 were just that..tests. Both came back without any pilots. (I told Jeb, dont worry, your coming home).

Please note: No accuracy here is maintained. Delta-V's, low earth orbits or even rocket details are not here accurate and is just my test.

 

Gemini 1 (with test pilot Jebediah Kerman)           days 8–12 of April 1964

Three Orbits

Jeb makes it back.

In the future I will hopefully make a better representation of the Gemini system and the other 10 launches which will include Grissom and Young (Virgil Kerman and John Kerman) for Gemini 3 to start the series.

[paul23]

I was doing a routine supply mission with my freighter. Just using mechjeb to create an encounter and kill relative velocities ("match velocity at closest approach"). Fully working from map view as why would I watch the craft.

 

Then I went into craft view for docking and I was greeted by this:

 

 

ouch, that's close for comfort. About 10 meter distance.

Edited November 22, 2019 by paul23

[RealKerbal3x]

You might recall that yesterday I posted about packing my Mun base crane inside its launch vehicle. Today I actually launched that rocket, but not before revising the fairing shape a couple more times - I wanted the rather irregularly shaped craft to fit inside (obviously), but not have a fairing so big that it would cause too much drag and flip the rocket.

Launch, eh. I've done it many times before, and you've seen it many times before.

Dang, I didn't get a pic of the TMI burn. Here we are coasting away from Kerbin instead.

Fast forward to Mun orbit, where we waited a few days for the lighting conditions at the planned landing site to improve. Here we needed to unfold the crane fully so it could work as a, you know, crane once it reached the surface. The discarded upper stage (it has a probe core so it can deorbit itself) is in the foreground, and you can see the descent stage attached to the top of the crane's Mk2 lander can.

There we go, fully unfolded. Time to land.

Skipping forward again, this time to the final descent burn. While this craft is physically big, it's rather light, so those four Twitches on the descent stage suffice - they give a TWR of over 2.

Stuck the landing! I had a bit of horizontal velocity on landing, but since this craft has wheels with brakes, that was dealt with fairly easily.

I used the old trick to get rid of the descent stage - throttle up a little so your craft is almost lifting off the ground, and then decoupling. The stage actually escaped Kerbin's sphere of influence, and had an interplanetary trajectory that almost reached Dres' orbit

PS: There's one of these craters from the BG expansion nearby, so when the base is built and the crew arrives they'll be able to scan it

[qromodynmc]

I was working on some of the weirdest looking serial production aircraft, used stock robotic parts for propellers, i really like the options they offer.

 

Edited November 22, 2019 by qromodynmc

[Cavscout74]

My career started getting into the space tourism business, with 2 flights so far and more planned.  I also did some testing of new aircraft designs for Kerbal Express Airlines and a few other things, details available in the mission report

Tourists heading to LKO

Searching for an anomaly north of KSC

Airliner testing

 

[Nezclaw]

I went ahead and launched the improved MunExtractor, landing it some fifty km from where Bill and Bob are. More solar panels, more radiators, bigger drills.

The spaceplane hangar remains infuriating. I built a plane that flies okay, took it out, and it just. It flew okay for a while, but turning is extremely finicky even with the flaps adjusted, and the tricks for handling a falling aircraft do not seem to work. In a flat spin? Drop the yoke and rudder counter to the spin. Doesn't really work. In a stall? Nose down and accelerate. Okay, but I'm also tumbling wildly and I don't know how to solve that. Should not the airflow be preventing excessive rolling? Should it not prevent sharp yawing? A plane should not be spinning sharply around the y axis! You turn the rudder and the air resists the turn, which causes you to bank! Particularly at higher speeds! You don't just snap around! And you also don't have the rudder go all the way over! you keep it angled as you progress through the turn! And it doesn't provide lift! Why is it shifting the center of lift??? It doesn't lift it stabilizes!! I had to use the drogue chutes to provide enough drag to stabilize it out of the fall it was in!

Edited November 22, 2019 by Nezclaw
*runs off to the wind tunnel to prove a point*

[Triop]

3 hours ago, RealKerbal3x said:

 

 

Reminded me of Tron:

Edited November 22, 2019 by Triop

[Triop]

Today. we've let our new rookies testdrive the new prototype Viper . . .

ALL THIS FREE SPACE BUT YOU HAD TO HIT THE FLAGPOLE ! ! !

 

 

Edited November 22, 2019 by Triop