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What did you do in KSP1 today?


Xeldrak

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I had time for a quick kethane mining trip to Pol. This time I landed in darkness, so I had no idea what kind of terrain to expect. Landing wasn't too bad, as the slope was only about 15 degrees. When the Sun rose, I found that I had had a bit of luck.

pol_kethane_mining.jpg

On the way to Tylo, I tested my idea of a kethane-powered transfer stage. It turned out that a single heavy converter is just a bit too weak to feed four nuclear engines, so the transfer stage will need a medium-sized fuel tank in addition to the kethane tanks. The engines, on the other hand, easily provide enough power for the converter.

Now the tanker is waiting for my Tylo lander to arrive in about 110 days.

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Sometimes I think I need more part packs!

Going slow these days, only managed to decide on a few more mods (DistantObjects, TweakableEverything) and started designing a space station after all. Amazing how the part count goes up after you realize that lights and antennas are still missing - but managed to stay way under 60 parts - If I will be able to lift the modules ... time will tell.

The Duna Explorer is still waiting for its transfer window back home in 160+ days, 5 days to launch my Eve lander probe and still to lazy for that screenshot blog of my Duna mission. (Still itches me that I forgot to pick my landing site near an anomaly ... :P )

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I finished work on my newest "space train" : HKS Fat Duna II

585 parts (stock only), total of 11 separate modules that have been launched and docked, 1071 tons before it left for Duna.

Intended as resupply for fuel and mono and brings some landers, rovers and a krew shuttle to Duna using technologies that weren't available when the first space train to Duna left. Also brings my standard space station there which was actually designed after seeing that a lot of parts can be saved if the station is not made up of different modules as it was in the my first space train to Duna. Despite it's 14 nukes it accelerates only with like 0.5m/s², but i like the setup with the new "Pusher" module at the rear end. The total amount of fuel is 22 red can's (63K fuel), not counting the other vehicles fuel.

fat_duna_2.jpg

I actually had to set this space train up as replacement for it's predecessor. Already had a space train with fuel supplies and stuff going, but the Kraken came and ATE IT!

Here is a photo right from inside the Kraken's stomach:

kraken_stomach.jpg

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Took my first SSTO spaceplane attempt to 70,000 meters on its first flight, but didn't have enough oxidizer to complete the orbit.*snaps fingers*

On second flight, with only slight tweaks and the same flight profile, I entered a supersonic flat spin at 18,000 meters and watched as she disintegrated in rather spectacular fashion. On the other hand, my cockpit jettison/parachute system worked well, and Bill can surely buy a new pair of pants.

I also had a difficult time explaining to the woman why I yelled 'Talk to me, Goose!' at the computer during that incident.

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Took my first SSTO spaceplane attempt to 70,000 meters on its first flight, but didn't have enough oxidizer to complete the orbit.*snaps fingers*

On second flight, with only slight tweaks and the same flight profile, I entered a supersonic flat spin at 18,000 meters and watched as she disintegrated in rather spectacular fashion. On the other hand, my cockpit jettison/parachute system worked well, and Bill can surely buy a new pair of pants.

I also had a difficult time explaining to the woman why I yelled 'Talk to me, Goose!' at the computer during that incident.

Shoot, you like your Kerbals way more than me; I'd yell at the bugger for causing the flat spin in the first place.

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Found this. My highest speed with a SSTO plane while still considered on a crash course into Kerbin:

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Yeah. I know it is hard to see. But, at least the speed, altitude, and direction is easy to read.

Today. Played around with the more advanced get engines and 1 aerospike and achieved a nice circular orbit of 14 km up with this SSTO plane:

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Tried to fly my most recent spaceplane to orbit, but ran out of fuel a little way before getting a periapsis to appear. Tried to finish circularisation with RCS, got periapsis to 12km before hitting the atmosphere. I noticed that some of my RCS thrusters were not firing, despite having a nozzle pointed in the right direction. Then reverted the 24 ingame minutes to the hanger.

Think I'll be designing a new spaceplane from scratch again. I guess it took a few iterations before I could make an SSTO spaceplane on basic jets, LV-T30, swept wings and radials - the conversion to turbos, nukes and rams may take equally many attempts. Also, I need to stop underestimating the fuel requirements of the LV-N.

Edited by Concentric
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Shoot, you like your Kerbals way more than me; I'd yell at the bugger for causing the flat spin in the first place.

I think it was poor control surface layout on my part, actually. So Bill's in the clear on that one. I also freely admit I get attached to the little fellas.

Had serious problems replicating my 70,000 meter ascent after repeated follow-up test flights and concluded I'd done something different the first time. Figured out I wasn't adjusting my climb angle with altitude and so I kept losing lift near the 'fire the rocket!' point. Made some modifications for better air intake (ie, slapped two more intakes on), and adjusted my flight profile, which helped immensely.

If I'd had a little more fuel, I could've got a periapsis, I think, but as it was she flew halfway around the world. Ran out of oxidizer before she ran out of fuel...I may have to ditch the stock-craft style fuel lines from the jets to the rocket...though that actually doesn't seem like it'd do any good, thinking about it.;)

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My alarm clock told me I had a Jool transfer window coming up, so I decided to send a Jool System Probe Ship to hit Jool and its moons.

I built and launched this, to dock with one of the heavy interplanetary tugs I have in LKO waiting for these opportunities.

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Got this into a good parking orbit and brought the tug in for a rendezvous, then realised (and you're probably ahead of me here) that neither vessel has RCS, and the probe doesn't even have an available maneuvering engine.

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Nailed it, though :D

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Modified my Kerturn X Mun/Minmus rocket.

Launched a deep space probe to ablate (Planet factory mod.)

So, yea not really much to talk about.

However I have been planning a landing in the munar poles, which should be interesting and should rack me up some science.

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After launching my last "space train" yesterday from Kerbin orbit to Duna with supplies, i decided to start work on a new space train for Jool. So i brought a new tug into orbit first. This time i use an assembly orbit at 110km above Kerbin. The image shows the tug and the first fuel supplies (with it's "fork lift" still docked). I have a feeling that this might get my heaviest space train so far.

HKS Fat Jool:

hks_fat_jool_01.jpg

Actually improved the tug a little bit from previous one. Now the engine nacelles are on longer arms which allows to add the fuel supplies now also in the main axis. And lighting improved. Now the tug alone can illuminate the whole space train once it's finished.

Edited by DocMoriarty
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Aerocaptured my ion kerboldive probe returning from with near-kerbol science to kerbin at 9500 m/s. Pulled it into a parking orbit and sent another probe up to attach chutes for decent and recovery. Also did my first rendezvous with a probe in interplanetary space that ran out of fuel so I could tug it back to kerbin. It's reminding me to build these things modularly so Ive got more mission flexibility.

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Tried to launch the core piece of my new space station. (Built it in full in the VAB, added docking ports, took it apart into subassemblies and of course started redesigning the first module while building the launcher for it. :P )

Structural failure at the decouplers of the solid boosters - might need moar struts, although that was not needed for long time ... maybe the whole thing is to heavy and the boosters are trying to hard?

Also it might be not a good idea to glue a small probe core to the top of a high rocket - although I strutted that one against to much wobbling ...

And somehow the engine FX is gone - I may have to remember what I did when installing HotRockets last time?

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