What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Guest]

13 minutes ago, FleshJeb said:

If you're up for the challenge, you should try building one of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-90_Orlyonok Getting it to fly nicely with the takeoff jets turned off was not easy.

It's a shame (stock) KSP doesn't do ground effect. That design looks really hard to pull off in KSP because those massive props are going to torque the nose down like mad. I suppose the take-off jets in the nose would be there to counteract it? Now I'm intrigued, might want to try something like that actually...

(I also think it's very cool they went for coaxial contra-rotating props there too, very Kerbal of them!)

[Caerfinon]

Bringing home that sweet Mun science...

[Guest]

8 hours ago, FleshJeb said:

If you're up for the challenge, you should try building one of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-90_Orlyonok Getting it to fly nicely with the takeoff jets turned off was not easy.

It flies just fine. I could even get it to land and take off water without much trouble with the Scatterer waves off. Didn't (yet) manage to tune it to be able to do that with them on, consistently; once it hits 20 m/s or so most of the time a wave will grab it and it'll do a cartwheel. I've no doubt it can be done with a sufficient amount of effort. Should maybe give it a longer fuselage/hull...

(Tried with three different kinds of prop blades, those big ones and the 2.5 m fan blades are sufficient to get it into the air, the medium-sized prop blades don't quite cut it.)

Edited February 19, 2021 by Guest

[purpleivan]

What did I do in KSP today. Nothing... absolutely nothing and I should rectify that (must... launch...... something!)

But it is my 2000th post on the forum, so there is that

[RealKerbal3x]

Just now, purpleivan said:

But it is my 2000th post on the forum, so there is that

Well... I don't want to ruin it for you but posts in the Lounge and Forum Games don't count towards the total. So you probably have more than 2000

[Cavscout74]

9 hours ago, Brikoleur said:

It's a shame (stock) KSP doesn't do ground effect. That design looks really hard to pull off in KSP because those massive props are going to torque the nose down like mad. I suppose the take-off jets in the nose would be there to counteract it? Now I'm intrigued, might want to try something like that actually...

(I also think it's very cool they went for coaxial contra-rotating props there too, very Kerbal of them!)

There was a mod called Ground Effect that added ground effect into stock aero.  Seemed to work fairly good - both for WIG's and it seemed to smooth take-off & landing for regular aircraft.  I even built a somewhat functional WIG like the Orlyonok.   Then I tried to rebuild it with robotics so the nose opened to allow cargo in & out.  Two days later, I quit playing KSP for 6+ months.  

Thought I still had some pics of the semi-functional one:

[Pipcard]

1964-07-01 - Sakura-3, the first geostationary satellite

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Cavscout74 said:

There was a mod called Ground Effect that added ground effect into stock aero.  Seemed to work fairly good - both for WIG's and it seemed to smooth take-off & landing for regular aircraft.  I even built a somewhat functional WIG like the Orlyonok.   Then I tried to rebuild it with robotics so the nose opened to allow cargo in & out.  Two days later, I quit playing KSP for 6+ months.  

Still is. 

My Orlyonok works great with completely stock physics (Scatterer wave buffets off) or with Ground Effect + Scatterer wave buffets, but I can't get it to work with just Scatterer wave buffets. It'll almost always dip a wingtip at around 20 m/s and pirouette.

Even so I'm calling it a win.

Edit: I gotta say, I'm not really feeling this design. Those take-off jets feel like a kludge. If I wasn't able to make it work without them, I'd take that as a sign that a redesign is needed.

Edited February 19, 2021 by Guest

[Astrionix]

 

[dprostock]

Moho, exact South Pole.

The little pale blue dot on the right, is Kerbin.

[Cavscout74]

I really need to post an update to my career report but I don't have time right now.  My career is marching along with the first manned Mun landing plus a few Kerbin-side contracts (finding a monolith & breaking mach 2 in an aircraft).

EDIT:  Got the career  update posted here

Val on her way to hunt down a monolith.  Took at >1700km flight to reach it, so my little CF-01 Star needed some drop tanks to reach it.

CX-02 rocket plane taking off for the mach 2 contract, also flown by Val since Jeb was prepping for his Mun landing mission.

Launch of Dawn-MPV-2, with Jeb & Kelrik bound for the first Mun landing

Finally researched the EVA pack, so my crews don't have to cling to the ladder for dear life

Descending to land

Jeb & Kelrik on the Mun, gathering samples & planting a flag

Once finished, it was time to return to orbit:

 

Edited February 20, 2021 by Cavscout74

[KeaKaka]

2 hours ago, Astrion said:

 

Quick question, but why are you using the BDB 1.6 mercury parts? They have been revamped in the latest update and are now more realistic.

[harrisjosh2711]

Made a kerbal collectors coin.

[Astrionix]

49 minutes ago, KeaKaka said:

Quick question, but why are you using the BDB 1.6 mercury parts? They have been revamped in the latest update and are now more realistic.

I'm in the 1.8 version of KSP. I should probably change it, tho.

Edited February 20, 2021 by Astrion

[purpleivan]

14 hours ago, RealKerbal3x said:

Well... I don't want to ruin it for you but posts in the Lounge and Forum Games don't count towards the total. So you probably have more than 2000

Really, weird.

Oh well... so this is my UNKNOWN NUMBER OVER 2001st post... WOOT!

[Guest]

All right, I got one that can take off water with Scatterer buffets on and Ground Effect off. Most of the time, anyway. Main change was that I had to make the wingtip floats fatter to stop the wings from dipping during the acceleration. I think it's true to the Orlyonok design though -- giant coaxial prop at the top of the tail, elevator wingspan about the same as the main wingspan, take-off jets angled down at the nose, floats on the wingtips.

Making one that works with stock physics or Ground Effect was much easier. 

 

[Zosma Procyon]

I've been experimenting with air launched rockets to get Kerbals off of Eve, and tested the best version yet today. It was just 245 m/s short of entering a stable 150ish km orbit around Eve. The idea is that by flying up under electric power to 10ish km, I can skip some of Eve's stupidly thick atmosphere.

I wonder if anyone can guess where the prefix "EVL" came from. HINT: It's stupider than you think.

[The Aziz]

First Tylo lander finishing its circularization burn after launch

Also sent a 2 seat lander to Duna, something I haven't done in years.

Edited February 20, 2021 by The Aziz

[Guest]

Hey I think I'm getting the hang of this seaplane thing. Check out BAK Kittehlina. Scatterer wave buffets on, otherwise stock physics.

Still these things are VERY finicky without ground effect and with those wave buffets. I'm going to (re)install FAR and see how they fly with that + Ground Effect. I think I might feel better about that combo since these guys do rely on ground effect IRL. It's just so easy with it that it feels like cheating...

Edit: oh, Ground Effect isn't compatible with FAR. Too bad.

Edit 2: Tried my hand at making a jet-powered one. The wave buffets really are a PITA, this one could take off easily without them (or with them + Ground Effect), but I needed to double the engines to beat the buffets. (Or substitute them with turboprops, those things are STRONK.)

I have learned to design around the main problems with amphibious planes -- keeping them going straight when accelerating on the water, making it possible for them to rotate with the engines torqueing like they do when placed high, keeping the bits that shouldn't get wet, dry, keeping them from pitching over on landing / take-off, and that sort of thing.

Props really are way, way powerful at low speeds, so jets aren't all that well suited for amphibious planes.

Edited February 20, 2021 by Guest

[Cavscout74]

Got off a few launches this morning - a trio of comm relays into an orbit just past Minmus (175000 km Ap).  Only took 12 days to get there, then the transfer stage burned to a 91000km Pe to give a 120* resonant orbit, then ejected the first relay

Also got my Minmus Surveyor landed safely

A few aircraft tests - some great landings, some just "good" - ie the pilot survived

And finally, a rover launched to Mun ended in failure as the transfer stage failed to decouple from the rover + skycrane.  I was using a clamp-o-tron jr as a decoupler and apparently the failure to decouple bug that has existed since before I started playing KSP is still lurking around.   The entire transfer stage with rover was left to impact the Mun.  I couldn't watch - my game is setup as no quickload/no revert but I am perfectly willing to temporarily switch that rule off for game glitches.  Unfortunately, I hadn't saved in quite a while, so I just when back to KSC to redesign the decoupling mechanism and try again.

[vv3k70r]

On 2/16/2021 at 4:14 AM, Apelsin said:

Main mods used for the builds: Stockalike Project Orion, NFT, SSPXr, Mk 2 extension, Mining extension, MkIV spaceplane, KBPS, TU Recolour Depot, MissingRobotics, HeatControl+SystemHeat.

Which one do the underwater propulsion for this gigantic sub?

On 2/16/2021 at 3:50 PM, Le Lynx said:

I have put my first asteroid in high kerbin orbit.

Ye know - no screenshot = not done

Today ther are cameras on every stage even if they throw a car on Sun orbit.

On 2/16/2021 at 4:01 AM, Cavscout74 said:

The service bay doors also function as airbrakes, stabilizing the vehicle during reentry

Wow! Looks great!

On 2/15/2021 at 8:12 AM, 18Watt said:

Completed a circumnavigation of Moho

In a golden car^^

//--------------------------------------------------------//

I spend some time testing electric propulsion for short span "planes" and it turn out - small electric motor shrouded with counterrotating motro obviously, and pair of them for fashion... can easily land and take of from water even on Eve (yeah "water").

My older hydroplane is in comparision to this one a piece of crap. And this one I did and tested in like 30minutes.

 

Edited February 20, 2021 by vv3k70r

[Dinozone]

I've been trying to build a shuttle-style spacecraft for ages, but I've always had trouble with the thrust torque and asymmetry. Eventually, I said screw it and made a shuttle with two external tanks: 

Spoiler

On the pad...

Funky looking, I know

External Tank Separation

In orbit...

Reentry...

Landing on the Desert Runway. 

Landed.

 

 

 

Edited February 20, 2021 by Dinozone

[vv3k70r]

56 minutes ago, Dinozone said:

Eventually, I said screw it and made a shuttle with two external tank: 

If You try to replicate NASA epic mistake just see to the bill they paid for Shuttle - it tell all how wrong it was do build winged spacecraft so early. When Soviets realize what they are duplicating trying to stop this nonsense.

Lot of knowledge been build through this mistake, but for what cost - it froze USspaceprogram for decades. How many hours did You spend trying?

Because I did this mistake at the begining and I fly my shuttle araound da Mun and so on. But time I spend calculating how to balance it for ascent was BAD.

[Dinozone]

9 minutes ago, vv3k70r said:

If You try to replicate NASA epic mistake just see to the bill they paid for Shuttle - it tell all how wrong it was do build winged spacecraft so early. When Soviets realize what they are duplicating trying to stop this nonsense.

Lot of knowledge been build through this mistake, but for what cost - it froze USspaceprogram for decades. How many hours did You spend trying?

Because I did this mistake at the begining and I fly my shuttle araound da Mun and so on. But time I spend calculating how to balance it for ascent was BAD.

Yeah, on paper (and in KSP) the Space Shuttle is a pretty reasonable spacecraft. My shuttle costs around 10,000 funds to launch (in fuel and external tank costs), which is pretty good as it transports six kerbals into LEO.  Neverthless, it would probably cost far more in real life due to the replacing the engines,  heat shielding, etc. (all the problems which plagued the real shuttle, minus the SRBs). 

[N_Danger]

 I sent some tourist on a Mun flyby.