What did you do in KSP1 today?

[purpleivan]

In A Sciencing We Will Go Val arrived at Duna.

Before swinging around Ike.

Then returned to Duna for a landing and a quick scientific smash and grab.

Jeb arrive shortly after in the return ship and admired the view.

Val headed up from the surface with as much science as here arms could carry.

Before the pair returned to Kerbin.

About 2000 science points were earned on the way.

Not a bad days work by these two.

[RizzoTheRat]

Went on a 3 kerbal rescue mission, picked up the one in Mun orbit and then headed back to Kerbin to collect the other two.  Rendezvoused with the first pod...and discovered it was empty...yes I've already rescued both of them but forgot to stop tracking their pods.  Oops

[Jetpackmaniac]

I escaped Kerbins SOI for the first time last night, which is all fine and dandy except it wasn't intentional, and there are three kerbals on board, and they're out of fuel... Also two of the kerbals are recent Mun rescues,  which need to be returned to Kerbin to complete several contracts. What happened was I ran out of fuel in Mun orbit, so I figured I could get them home with the RCS thrusters. I got an escape from the Mun and started burning at Kerbin apoapsis to renter. At this point I took the only screenshot I thought to take during the whole operation.

Shortly after taking that screenshot I was recaptured by the Mun and slingshot out the Kerbin system. Aparently while slowing down to renter at Kerbin, the Mun caught up to me and I ended up in a very strange gravity assist, and RCS thrusters aren't known as the strongest sources of thrust in the game. I was unable to get out of the gravity assist and now they are in orbit around the sun.

Edited September 20, 2020 by a_space_oddity
grammar and reworded

[Lewie]

@a_space_oddity you know, there IS a kerbal rescue force...

And we’d be more then happy to rescue your crew, if you’d like!

Edited September 20, 2020 by Lewie

[Jetpackmaniac]

@Lewie I think I can handle it, I enjoy the challenge of rescuing. But thanks for the offer. 

[NHunter]

Getting back into KSP after a break...

Attached a set of relay satellites (4x, each capable of reaching Rhode from low Kerbol orbit) and a science lander to KSS Venture. Also moved the crew there - all that is left now is to fully fuel this monster with antimatter, and it's ready to depart for Kerbol.

[jimmymcgoochie]

Fed the Kraken with some old rover wheels, RCS thrusters and- a whole 1.25-2.5m adapter fuel tank?! Usually it only goes for small stuff or things with suspension, so that fuel tank was a new one.

And completed the real objectives of the mission- stripped down a defunct Minmus base (lost all its onboard crew and lab science experiments due to Kerbalism fouling up when CTT was installed) and got most of its parts packed into a big droneship made mostly of KIS containers, then sent it, a rocket turned rover turned rocket again with some more parts on/in it and the crew of engineers (and a pilot who needed a flag plant on Minmus to level up) back towards Kerbin. All that's left on Minmus is the old lab/hab module- which still has a dribble of fuel left and could be used for seismic impacting- and the old greenhouse with an empty fuel tank stuck to it- too big and heavy to bring that back this time, so it'll just have to stay there.

And the old space station that was in Minmus orbit before the big science foul-up just captured into a low Mun orbit to collect what little science remains on board before I either lob it at Minmus for more seismic science, or try to recover it on Kerbin for some refunds.

I also achieved something I've never done before- rescued a Kerbal floating on EVA with no propellant, using a ship with no RCS thrusters, on a sub-orbital trajectory. Stupid engine went on the blink and the engineer who went out to fix it fell off the bottom of the crew pod, but fortunately for all concerned the spacecraft moved close enough that he could grab it and he got back in again.

[DunaRocketeer]

After having a bit more fun flying my subsonic trainer plane... 

...I focused my attention on planning my endgame mission - a Jool exploration flight. It's a bit of a diminutive design for a Mk3 spaceplane, but it will comfortably SSTO from Kerbin, so I reckon it'll do ok on Laythe:

Also, it can deploy ISRU equipment to refuel its mothership. There are ore tanks in the bay, but I intend to dock a larger ore tank on the nose port when it's on refuelling missions. I plan to use the low-G environment of Pol as the drilling location so a big tank on the top shouldn't be much of an issue.

 

Edited September 20, 2020 by DunaRocketeer
clarity

[Guest]

I made a Tylo Station today

Images here: https://kerbalanders.wordpress.com/2020/09/20/a-private-station-in-lto/

 

[AlamoVampire]

I was busy with tweaking a space plane, and after losing the ability for it to actually make it to orbit as an SSTO <design errors in the tweaking honestly, easy enough to fix, but frustrating> I decided to give myself a break and play a different game. As I was exiting out, I came to the main menu and was greeted with quite the visual treat!

 

yay 2nd time ive seen it this year, and about the 5th time in general

 

011909212020

[ValiZockt]

It’s the year 2027, three years after the successful  landing on the South Pole of the Moon. Due to great findings there, the interest in the moon is at its highest again. Both Blue Origin and SpaceX agreed joining together to complete a manned mission to the Moon. Both vehicles (Background: New Glenn, Foreground:Falcon 9 Block 6) are vertical at the pad and ready for the first two launches that will deliver the first modules to support a 30 day Mission. 

[Grogs]

I picked up a mission to rescue a kerbal in orbit, but I noticed a problem with the design of my rescue pods. I had the probes magically attached to the interstage nodes of the fairing, and when I released the first one, the decoupler remained magically attached.

 

Not much to do except recover the pod carrier and launch a replacement using stack separators instead.

Spoiler

 

The new rescue pod carrier intercepted and locked on to the capsule containing Doodbro Kerman.

 

The recovery was successful. I'm anticipating that Doodbro will bring the space program that certain 'laid back' air that it was missing. Apparently his graduating class voted him most likely to be found wandering around a supermarket in his bathrobe drinking milk from the carton.

 

Over at the Mun, Jorlof and Leeden went down for a routine 'plant a flag' contract that ended up being not so routine. I ended up screwing up the suicide burn and tried to fire the RCS thrusters the whole way down to try and compensate. Here they are 90 m above the surface still dropping at 41 m/s. Leeden looks a little worried.

 

Spoiler

Final impact velocity was around 25 m/s, but the spider legs held. After bouncing about 50 m/s back into the air and flipping upside down, the crew was able to bring the lander down for a soft landing and plant the flag. Other than maybe the inside of the space suits, nothing was damaged.

 

[Hotel26]

6 minutes ago, Grogs said:

Doodbro

+1, Lebrowski!

Edited September 21, 2020 by Hotel26

[Kerbals_of_Steel]

I landed a workshop at the North Rim base using Kerbodynes patented Paul Bunyan technique:

And the Kraken claimed another victim:

Warning, Graphic Content

Spoiler

Obbo (the Unfortunate) was going about his duties fueling the small equipment around the refinery when the Kraken suddenly grabbed the KAS hose he was carrying and flung him on a ballistic arc at ~80m/s.

He served honorably, if not particularly well, during the first manned expedition to the Mun. Misleader of expeditions, wrecker of rovers, possessor of a personal misfortune generator of absurd power, he was yet a valuable member of the team, eagerly taking on even the toughest and most boring of assignments. His strong will and sense of humor allowed him to carry the  moniker "Obbo the Unfortunate" with simply a smile and a commitment to do better next time. He is the first Kerbal confirmed killed on the surface of the Mun. (The fate of Giesel Kerman is still a mystery, and her official status is Missing In Action.)

Fly Safe, Obbo.

 

[kedrednael]

I want to put seimographs and deployed science on every planet in the Kerbin system.
I start with Moho!

 
The first stage is reusable and only needs 2 vector engines for lift off.

The second stage gets the craft into orbit and into a kerbol orbit.
The final space craft has 3 detachable xenon fuel tanks, of which the first one has a battery and a solar panel because it is used at Kerbin for the final ejection velocity. This was not the final version of the craft I used; the final version does not have ion engines attached to the detachable xenon tanks.

The first xenon fuel tank gets discarded during the inclination matching burn. Just detach the drive section and redock the spacecraft without the empty xenon tank.

Moho capture burn, notice the offset ion engine for the solar panel. The craft is nice and balanced so it can run at 16x time acceleration.

After Moho capture the return capsule docks with the final detachable xenon tank, and the light lander lands on Moho! It has a TWR of about 1.2

Seismograph and other science deployed!

Returning to the return capsule orbit. The lander gets left in moho orbit. Still 60m/s left when reentering kerbin's atmosphere ..

[Geonovast]

2 hours ago, Grogs said:

Not much to do except recover the pod carrier and launch a replacement using stack separators instead.

I wouldn't use stack separators, that'll just leave trash floating around.  Still use the decoupler, just flip it around.  Remember, the little arrow points to which side will detach.

[Guest]

23 hours ago, NHunter said:

Getting back into KSP after a break...

Attached a set of relay satellites (4x, each capable of reaching Rhode from low Kerbol orbit) and a science lander to KSS Venture. Also moved the crew there - all that is left now is to fully fuel this monster with antimatter, and it's ready to depart for Kerbol.

What´s that big engine on the back?

[Guest]

I got big plans for Eeloo of Upsilon. I am going to make the largest craft that I have ever attempted to take off the ground. I will be making a polar Eeloo base which will be a big center tower and four side hallways connected to rover hatches.

[NHunter]

1 hour ago, gabo04 said:

What´s that big engine on the back?

I'd not say that it's "on the back" since it actually starts from the ring near the first set of radiators. (yes, that thing is like 35 meters long)

It's the "AEX-XE 'Cochrane' Beam-Core Antimatter Engine" from the old Far Future Technologies mod. (with a pair of 1.875 LFO engines and fuel tanks attached to the sides. Those were used to move the ship from EL on Armstrong to Rhode orbit and since there is still some dV left in them, I haven't ditched them yet)

[RP1IsSuperior]

2 hours ago, gabo04 said:

What´s that big engine on the back?

It's a magnetic nozzle from KSP Interstellar Extended. It's most likely running on fusion power, but idk what fuel combination, probably lithium and deuterium.

[RP1IsSuperior]

The Munus 13 Probe captured a Munar eclipse, flew by the moon, and completed it's orbit lowering burns after 30 days. These were added to try and prevent overheating of the probe, as well as some small radiators. The probe touched down successfully after a hairy mountain landing, where it could have landed on a slope. Munus 13 proved that probes can enter the atmosphere can return unscathed from the Kerbin system, and possibly interplanetary velocities, and manned spacecraft could probably complete this as well.

The Zalkier Spacecraft got a redesign to remove scientific equipment and add a built in propulsion system, removing reliance on the K-8 upper stage if necessary. Work is being started on a new more powerful launcher that can launch heavy manned spacecraft, with 3.5-4 tons to LKO, to remove reliance on the K-8 and its underpowered Investigations continue on the K-8 which was rated for 1.8 tons to LKO mysteriously can barely 1.3 tons.

 

Edited September 21, 2020 by RP1IsSuperior

[Okhin]

Working on a sort of O'Neil cylinder around my hollow station design. 1800 part count. The seconds last forever (took me almost one minute to go through 10s of game). Or it's so massive it's a black hole and times goes slower ? Anyway, the game got out of memory killed before I could take any screenshot (and it's mostly R&D, so launching the thing is a different topic).

So, now I'm working on lowering the part count somehow. 1800 of them is too much for my poor laptop it seems.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Geonovast said:

I wouldn't use stack separators, that'll just leave trash floating around.  Still use the decoupler, just flip it around.  Remember, the little arrow points to which side will detach.

I only find stack separators useful when I need to separate multiple things that I would need in the future. Usually just to keep debris free I go on suborbital trajectory.

[Grogs]

 

6 hours ago, Geonovast said:

I wouldn't use stack separators, that'll just leave trash floating around.  Still use the decoupler, just flip it around.  Remember, the little arrow points to which side will detach.

39 minutes ago, The Doodling Astronaut said:

I only find stack separators useful when I need to separate multiple things that I would need in the future. Usually just to keep debris free I go on suborbital trajectory.

 

Decouplers turned the other way would work too. Since I have to deorbit the whole carrier, release the front capsule, and then push the carrier back to orbit the stack separator just reenters and burns up in this case.

 

 

 

[Okhin]

And so, I've been part hunting and after killing a lot of solar panel and other small parts, here it is, a small O'Neil cylinder like (not closed, no environmental control), at just a bit above 1000 parts.

So, that's from the side, just after all the docking have been adjusted with the telescopic arms. Before freeing the cylinders. I've stopped myself at two stack of 5 MK2 modules, so that's a short O'Neill.

Deployed, and the rotor have started to move their weight. An emergency braking test was ran and concluded successfully (at least, rotor brakes aren't like wheel brakes. They do brake.)

Valentina is having lots of funz in the simulation, and really wants to build this thing for real.

The main issue is time.

I mean, there's two cylinders. Each made of 8 sections. Plus the central spar, which is still not complete (lacks of docking port for instance). That's a bunch of launches. I need to figure out RCS'ing all of these and dual dock the ring sections, before docking them to the retractable arms of the central spar.

Maybe I should assemble the ring first, and then dock the central spar inside of it. I've got telescopic arms for that, should do it.

Anyway, if you want to try it, the O'Kerman cylinder is on Kerbal X.

And all this "engineering" happened, because I'm procrastinating building a return craft for Eve.

Oh, and yes. It's pure stock (with Breaking Ground though)