What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Okhin]

So, I had a contract about a space station in solar orbit, and another one with finding comets. So, killing two birds with one stone I've build up a small space station, based on a Kubpola.

The boosters are really close to the station engines. Which might have too much fuel, but heck. And I do not have yet access to sepatrons. So I'm going to use shrimps as sepatrons for the time being. They're a bit expensive, but just staging the boosters and let them slide retrograde keeps them to close to the station and makes everything explode.

Second stage separation is A-OK. The station reaction wheel are shut down to avoid wiggling everything around, and toast them.

And third stage separation in LKO. I think those boosters are still rotating there.

The Dream Catcher (SO1) is deployed and ready to escape gravity!. The tail of the station displays a sequence of lights, and I've added a pair of docking port in the middle of the station, just for future extension. I have no idea why the dV meter loves up, but I definitely have more than 0m.s of dV.

Let's start a sequence of one minute burn in Periapsis until we escape.

And done. Stable orbit in between Kerbin and Eve. Sentinel telescope is up and running. Let's wait for those comets to pop now.

I also had to upgrade the Stasis KE1 station, in geosynchronous orbit of Kerbin.

After waiting for the station to pass over our head, and remembered that this sill not happens since it is in a geosynchronous orbit, we're ready to launch. It's a boring launch, so I'll skip the staging.

Valentina is now approaching the Stasis with the extension module docked on the head of her Cargo mover. At least, I'll have larger docking ports on this small station I guess. I didn't want to add a boring Hitchiker, so I've stuck togtehr somw Mk2 passenger module in a three branch star. With more solar panels.

And this is it. A bit more useful station now, with some more antennas and relay power. And regular Docking ports.

I'm running a campaign of mun crashers to generates some data. Now that I figured out what was going wrong (I need to crash when the deployed seismic sensor is under Kerbol), I should generate the science faster.

 

[JorgeCS]

2 hours ago, Flying dutchman said:

@RealKerbal3x i have sadly found the limit. 999m/s the wheels just won't turn any faster...

 

but i have made the 999m/s rover so maybe i should be happy with it.

Those figures are totally crazy... luckily you set the aerodynamic surfaces downwards to help the 'rover' stick to the surface  if they weren't there, it would have flown a few meters and then probably performed a rapid unplanned disassembly when touching the ground back again  

[N_Danger]

I had a land on the Mun and plant a flag contract so time to train up some kerbals.

A nice view from the landing site

Everybody climbs out for the flag planting

And a safe return home completes the day.

 

 

[Triop]

Today, I remembered how to insert a GIF

[Lisias]

On 7/25/2020 at 6:00 PM, Triop said:

Today, we race...

Anybody else still has the Races mod installed ?

Me!!!

And the car got trought in (almost) one piece!

Edited July 27, 2020 by Lisias
Eternal typos of the Englishless Mind

[Triop]

Cool, what is it's speed on the dragstrip ?

I have a 400 meter strip....

[Lisias]

17 minutes ago, Triop said:

Cool, what is it's speed on the dragstrip ?

less than 50m/s, I used a scaled juno as (real) propulsion.  But the thing reached 120m/s at the end of the airstrip!  

This stunt gave me some ideas....

 

[JorgeCS]

1 hour ago, Lisias said:

less than 50m/s, I used a scaled juno as (real) propulsion.  But the thing reached 120m/s at the end of the airstrip!  

This stunt gave me some ideas....

 

I'd say, make one in the poles and challenge @Flying dutchman... what do you say, @Lisias, @Triop? unfortunately my driving skills are shait  (Lisias, read it in portuguese and understand it in 'english not from the queen'  )

[Misguided Kerbal]

Did some docking today...

 

 

Spoiler

Shameless self plugs:

 

 

[Guest]

It's progress with a new suit and an Eve lander that almost works 2200 meters from sea level

[panzer1b]

Well found my old craft repository (when cleaning my HDD from various crap), and i then spend a bit of time revamping my old crafts. 

Made a really sloppy suit texture to fit AKS faction (stock lacked anything  blacking/greyish (and the hexagon patten adds some variety.  Wish we could have edited the normal map (and even moreso the glow stripe locations), but i did what i could without that ability...

This thing brings back memories, my attempt at making a HL2 styled citadel thing...

Not really old or anything but i installed a stripped version or restock (that works in 1.10, just had to ditch anything that required the plugin which wasnt updated correctly), and well made a few adjustments to my Dimension cruiser (the bridge actually looks right with those truss styled panels thanks to restock).

Now dis is a bridge, no more boring stock command pods, custom internals ftw.  Vaguely based on normandy bridge, commander sits on elevated platform in the back, and the rest of the crew are in side seats to operate the various subsystems.  Pilots are spread out and sit in 3 separate bridges for maximum redundancy (not that its all that essential given the armor plating).

Relaunched Omega station as the old one exploded itself for some reason when i brought a ship into load range.  Not really sure what the hell i did differently (same method of setting up the asteroid field around the station), but this time it doesnt seem as explody.

Spend a good 30 minutes shifting this thing's orbit (with 1 spark engine) as it somehow got flinged out of kerbin by a mun encounter (i dont even entirely know how something that didnt intersect the Mun's orbit could get gravity asisted, perhaps i left it too close to the mun and it eventually got caught but it).

Attempted to land a tank at this facility to defend it, misjudged dV requirements for 20t, and it exploded horribly in a crater nearby

And finally deployed a refinery to Duna orbit ready for landing the next time i load up the game...

 

All in all, got quite a ton of stuff done in KSP given the weather is garbage and i cant even leave my room since its the only room with AC in it and its 34 effin degrees outside :(

[Selective Genius]

My KSP time is halved, as my laptop's charger failed a few days ago. Moreover, since there is a 15 day lockdown imposed in my city, I can't get it repaired, or buy a new one either. Until then I am stuck using my roomie's old laptop. It has only 4 GB RAM and an AMD Radeon R5 M330, so its just about useless. It heats up like a stove within half an hour of playing the game. But it is still better than nothing.

Nevertheless, over the past few days I managed to get quite a few things done.

I undertook another surface sortie mission to the Munar surface, and one to Minmus. The science haul was phenomenal. Also, I love this vehicle!

I wanted to recover the science, but I did not want the crew to come back. They are busy researching on the science lab at my 'Gateway' polar Mun station. So I sent a sample return vehicle to get the science.

I managed to get almost 7600 science points and unlocked most of the tech tree with the last few nodes remaining. But, those last few nodes are worth 23,000 science points. So I guess I will have to work for it.

There was also a contract for dropping a base on Minmus, and I was planning a fuel refinery on that icy moonlet anyway. I made a fatal mistake, however.

I used Convertron-125s.... The most useless part in my opinion. Grossly inefficient and wasteful, and always overheats!

I started assembling the propulsion stage of my Duna ship and experimented with 'double docking' and I must say, I LOVE IT!

I was a bundle of nerves when I docked the drop tank to the core stage, but it was very satisfying.

I also got one really cash-money contract to Gilly. This, along with other Eve-Gilly contracts would be worth 10.7 million! That's as much as my treasury at the moment. Mortimer would be pleased~

Also, what is the best way to level up my crew? How much can I level up my kerbals (1 star, all of them) in the Kerbin system alone?

Edited July 27, 2020 by Selective Genius

[Grogs]

5 hours ago, Selective Genius said:

Also, what is the best way to level up my crew? How much can I level up my kerbals (1 star, all of them) in the Kerbin system alone?

Two stars is the best you can do in the Kerbin system. You'll need to visit both moons. Plant the flag on one and flyby the other will be enough.

To reach three stars, you'll need to briefly pop out of Kerbin's SOI so that you're in orbit around the sun in addition to visiting both moons.

[JorgeCS]

1 hour ago, Grogs said:

Two stars is the best you can do in the Kerbin system. You'll need to visit both moons. Plant the flag on one and flyby the other will be enough.

To reach three stars, you'll need to briefly pop out of Kerbin's SOI so that you're in orbit around the sun in addition to visiting both moons.

@Selective Genius, and you can do the 'out of Kerbin's SOI' as a small and almost free addition to the Minmus mission  

[Triop]

Today, I've re-opened the Kerbin Kantina

[Grogs]

One of my Mun Buses hauled a load of tourists into Minimus orbit. Nobody was landing so I pulled it into a polar orbit where it collected gravioli scans from the poles before returning to Kerbin.

Spoiler

Here's another Mun Bus returning to Kerbin with the Minimus landing crew. The four deployable heat shields on the sides have worked really well on this design, but they do add a bit of mass and require a fairing on launch.

 

The mission brought back over 2000 science in addition to the crew/EVA reports that were already transmitted.

 

 

I have a contract to mine 150 units of ore on Minimus so I sent a scanner probe. It first fulfilled another contract to place a satellite in a retrograde orbit before going polar for the scan. I also included relay antennas so it can function as another relay after the scan is complete. The scan revealed a high concentration of ore underneath my Minimus surface base so I'll place the mining rig near the base.

 

I launched another probe, the Kerbsat LR-1.

 

I put the LR-1 (LR = long range) in orbit to fulfill a satellite contract, but its main purpose was to test the design for future interplanetary missions. This has enough range to visit most of the planets without the EC headaches of a xenon-powered engine.

 

Finally, I launched a crew shuttle with 14 kerbals onboard, almost my entire space program. The main ship is the orbital shuttle seen earlier, but with full fuel tanks on the upper stage to give it 3000 m/s dV once in orbit.

 

Once in orbit, the shuttle will pick up a 15th kerbal stranded there, then visit the Mun, Minimus, and finally make a quick trip out of Kerbin's SOI so that the crew can get promoted to three stars. After they return, I'll have to figure out what I want to do next with this career. The next world-firsts contract is to orbit Eve, but the launch window isn't for over a year. I'll probably start setting up a refueling infrastructure around Minimus to support kerbed missions to other planets.

[RealKerbal3x]

I had a contract to haul a Class-A asteroid into orbit, so today I did that. Surprisingly, it turned out to be a magic boulder of the purple variety.

I also performed course correction burns for my Eve probes, and sent a satellite to Minmus for a contract, but I didn't get pictures of those. 

[Triop]

We'll be fine...

[Angelo Kerman]

I fixed bugs in Snacks related to background processing, then made some additions to my KSC:

[Angelo Kerman]

.. I also brought Ranger back home...

... and retired the K-20...

[CatastrophicFailure]

16 minutes ago, Angel-125 said:

I also brought Ranger back home...

Ooooh, what mod’s the Dyna-clone from?

[Angelo Kerman]

2 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Ooooh, what mod’s the Dyna-clone from?

 

@Well did a fantastic job of finishing it up and bringing it to life. I absolutely love it. So much so, I cancelled my own X-20 mod.

[Pipcard]

Y83, D93 - The Suisei Maru leaves Kerbin to colonize Moho

Y83, D200 - Hinode Base on Moho

[Grogs]

After rescuing pilot Ludorf Kerman in orbit around Kerbin, my crew shuttle put in at the Mun Station. I realized that the telescope at the front has blocked the docking port, but I don't really need fuel yet. I just parked nearby and sent kerbals across on EVA.

 

 

I had two kerbals that hadn't done a Mun landing so Val took them down to the surface in the spider lander.

 

I haven't used BG parts very much, but those hydraulic cylinders on the landing legs really hold this tall lander steady even on fairly hilly terrain. The three members of the landing party planted a flag then headed back up to Mun station where they received promotions for their accomplishment.

 

After returning to the station, everyone transferred back to the crew shuttle. I also took the scientist who had been working in the station's MPL along. Now with 16 kerbals aboard, the crew shuttle set course for Minimus.

 

Speaking of Minimus, I got a funny contract to build a new orbital station there. 5000 units of ore? Well I guess I can put my refinery in orbit and just carry up ore. But what am I going to do with 1500 units of monopropellant? Maybe I can make a tug that uses Puff engines to move fuel around or something. Crazy requirements aside, 800k funds should be more than enough to pay for it and the mining rig as well. My tech level is a little lacking at the moment but I can at least start working on the core now that I have Senior docking ports unlocked.

[Leopard]

finished with Gilly for the time being, three crewed flights there and back - there is a refuelling/processing station in Gilly orbit for "next time"

onwards to Duna, contract to stick a base with 6,000 units of liquid fuel on Ike.. well, I was sending a fuel processing plant anyway so its basically free money - V1 landed.. slightly nose down, blew up the payload bay with the probe core - so its now just sitting there, with the probe core next to it, as debris..

V2 has a back up probe core near the middle just in case, currently in LKO.

these are basically the Gilly refinery, with twice the engine power and the nuclear transfer engines integrated and more fuel tankage. send it, land it, let it fill up, collect the cash, will also fill the monoprop tansk and liquid oxygen tank space it has, some 6,000m/s when its fuelled, though TWR on Ike is about 1.3 when fully loaded, workable.

prep for the first out & back mission, same crew flight vehicle as used for Gilly - this mission won't be landing, a pure science flight for contracts, so the flight profile is easily in budget