What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Mars-Bound Hokie]

I made an all-electric small passenger plane and flew it around Kerbin.

 

• The E-40 Impulse on display in the SPH
  • It has "PLANE ONLY" in the name since I have plans to take it to Laythe later. In the meantime, I would have to test its capabilities here on Kerbin
• Its cargo bay is loaded with science station equipment, EVA kits, and repair kits
  • Although I personally don't really know how to operate the science stations. I just placed them close together and hit "Interact" (more on that later)

 

• Jeb hit the "Reverse thrust" button during takeoff by mistake, explaining why the plane was going backwards
• He had to get the plane back into position and restart the test flight all over again

 

• As soon as Jeb was airborne, he turned west in order to maximize the plane's exposure to sunlight
  • If he flew east, he would inevitably enter a dark zone and lose electric charge

 

• Nice shot of the E-40 flying over the desert
  • This was taken before I installed nav lights and rear robot arms in the next prototype
• I really need to start an album devoted specifically to cool background pictures

 

• Jeb looking at Engine One from the cockpit, as well as the mountains to the south
  • Engines are numbered starting with the furthest left (looking forward from the cockpit)
• Another great shot worthy of being some laptop's background picture

 

• 100 km away from the KSC, and the mountains to the west of it are in sight
• Under Engine 1, you can barely see the abandoned island airfield

 

• 1 km ASL and ~8 km away from the runway
• I'm so glad I disabled pitch and roll for the swept control surfaces (not the ones at the wingtips), since they were so counterproductive in previous test runs.
  • So now all they're good for is roll and flaps.

 

• 5 HOURS, 11 MINUTES, 30 SECONDS
• Since I was flying faster than the planet's rotation about its axis, I launched mid-late afternoon so I wouldn't outrun the sunny spot and therefore lose a constant power source.

 

• Final test run complete

 

E-40 Test Run Performance Stats
Cruising Altitude		7 km
Cruising Surface Velocity		200 m/s
Minimum Throttle Required		2/3
Blade Angle		38 degrees (45 is optimal)
Optimum Takeoff Time	Westward Flight	Mid-late afternoon
	Eastward Flight	Early in the morning (NOT recommended for long flights)

 

But I did not stop there:

Spoiler

• Using MJ Rover Autopilot to point me in the right direction, I flew to the Temple of Tut-Un Jeb-Ahn a few minutes after landing at the KSC

 

• Another successful landing
• Jeb got the science station equipment out (one by one) and set up shop near the temple 
  • Like I said earlier, I have no idea how they're supposed to work
    • Please help

 

Craft file: https://kerbalx.com/Mars-Bound_Hokie/E-40-Impulse-PLANE-ONLY

[Pipcard]

2047-08-16 - The Inari crew transport leaves Ceres

2048-12-20 - Returning to Earth

[N_Danger]

Val and Bill go to Minmus for some exp.

Spoiler

NOTHING HAPPENED! Like Bill taking a selfe and bumping the abort button. 

The second try to orbit went better.

On the way to Minmus.

In orbit around Minmus.

And re-entry at Kerbin

 

[eddiew]

On 2/16/2023 at 6:05 AM, Krazy1 said:

I started JNSQ and am proud to say I got Jeb to orbit with a 2 stage 30 part rocket (using Better SRB mod suggested and upgraded launch pad >20t weight). He got a bunch of science and tried to re-enter. Ha, ha, ha! No way. He's going to be up there a while. He's orbiting at 3860 m/s. Stock is about 2300 m/s. Kenetic energy is v^2 so it's 2.8x as much in JNSQ. It's like trying to come back directly from Duna and aerobrake in stock...with early tech parts. I'm going to be rolling around KSC gathering science for a while: 

This is no small achievement however and don't feel bad about it! I remember messing with JNSQ a while back and had to do a few config tweaks to get things to survive coming home. And that was on the back of about a week's try-and-retry for something that could do the ascent.

Admittedly I was bloody minded enough to make an SSTO. Which did fulfil it's purpose and get there, but it had at least as many issues coming down as it did going up 

[L0ck0n]

Naval operations, also new CWA version released (BlackHawk update).

[AuddieD2015]

3 hours ago, L0ck0n said:

Naval operations, also new CWA version released (BlackHawk update).

I love this mod. I just need to figure out how to assemble the aircraft. Thanks for the update!

[L0ck0n]

1 hour ago, AuddieD2015 said:

I love this mod. I just need to figure out how to assemble the aircraft. Thanks for the update!

Thx, already uploaded craft files to kerbalx

https://kerbalx.com/ColdWarAerospace

[Mars-Bound Hokie]

I sent the E-40 Impulse to Laythe.

 

• When my nuclear-powered delivery rocket first entered Jool's SOI, I set Laythe as the target and flew directly there (as opposed to setting up a parking orbit around Jool and going to Laythe).
• Out of curiosity, I wonder how many kerbalnauts here go for the direct moon approach.

 

• I’m not sure this is what people mean when they use the expression going down in flames.
• Either way, as predicted, the plane survived re-entry - but now I had to get the plane under control before it crashed in the water.

 

• A couple of things I had to do between re-entry and when I finally regained controls:
  • The blade angle was still at 0 degrees the entire trip (I didn’t change it when I mounted the plane itself to the rocket), so I had to press and hold H to adjust it before I could hope for those engines to be of any use.
  • I was nosediving at quite a concerning rate, and my attempt to pitch up wasn’t doing anything. So, I hit the reverse thrust button in order to increase the rate that my vertical velocity rose (as in got closer to zero from a negative value). Of course, I switched the engine direction back to normal before my vertical velocity hit 0 - and even then, I needed a bit more time to regain control.
• In the end, I managed to fly in a somewhat more stable manner.

 

• After landing in one piece, I extended the solar panels to speed up solar power recharge. 

[Krazy1]

4 hours ago, eddiew said:

This is no small achievement however and don't feel bad about it! I remember messing with JNSQ a while back and had to do a few config tweaks to get things to survive coming home. And that was on the back of about a week's try-and-retry for something that could do the ascent.

Admittedly I was bloody minded enough to make an SSTO. Which did fulfil it's purpose and get there, but it had at least as many issues coming down as it did going up 

Wow... SSTO is another level in JNSQ. I got more parts unlocked and I not only got Jeb and the science home, I rescued 3 other kerbonauts stranded in LKO too. I made a 6-crew rocket with 4 stages total. Like all things in KSP with 3 fins in symmetry, it has horrible yaw to roll coupling so the first 90 seconds are like riding a snake. But the 3-1 coupler and 3 Terriers worked great for 3rd stage, which takes it from 1200 to 3800 m/s with 900 m/s left in orbit. 

Yeah... I wasn't exactly prograde when decoupling the first boosters so they smashed into the core... reverting:

Spoiler

Better but the angle was too shallow... need higher AP >150 km so Terriers have time to push it:

Spoiler

Made it. Wow you can barely see the Mun in the photo from 92 Mm away. That's the edge of Kerbin SOI in stock.

Spoiler

LKO rendezvous with Principia. It looks strange at  first but I like the target-centered reference frame now:

Spoiler

I didn't get a reentry photo! Oops. I'll be returning the second ship tomorrow. 

I also upgraded my KSC science rover with "biome feelers" for the ones you need to touch. I can get surface samples now. It's kinda dumb... there shouldn't be this much grind at KSC. Imagine NASA digging a surface sample out of their flag pole? I suppose I could ignore it but it's right there and Stategia makes it worth more.

Spoiler

Nice view from a little probe in polar orbit

Spoiler

And a not nice view of KSC crashing...

Spoiler

[Cavscout74]

Had a wide range of missions going on in my career the last few days.

Jeb was stuck test flying a new patrol plane

Spoiler

 

 

 

While Val got to test fly a prototype spaceplane.  Currently she only had it up to  mach 3 for a contract.  Mach 4 & 35km altitude are next.  It's performance is marginal with the panther engine but should improve whenever I get the whiplash unlocked.

While the pilots were off flight testing, Kelrik & Ambera were up at Woomerang testing a newly developed scanning arm, along with a new rover design

My Eve probes also started arriving.  The first was the Eve Pancake Lander, which ended poorly - it lost orientation, turned sideways during atmospheric entry & mostly broke up.  The tough lander can survived entry but the parachutes did not.   Surprisingly, the can absorbed most of the landing impact, allowing the contents to survive, including the probe core and several science experiments.  But with no antennas and no power source, it is just an expensive piece of debris on the surface.

Oh, yeah, the floats for ocean landings survived as well.

The Verona-Formalhaut probe/lander combo faired better, with the Formalhaut making it through a hot but survivable entry and safely landing

I did have to wait for dawn to start sending back science to preserve battery life.

Edited February 20 by Cavscout74

[Martian Emigrant]

Hello all.

 

Today a few little guys left for a grand tour. Wish them luck.

Spoiler

 

 

ME

[TheOrios]

Finally remade my giant desert planet

[Mahnarch]

You'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

But, the snacks are good!

 

Does the shadow from the rings show on the surface?

Edited February 21 by Mahnarch
Follow up

[TheOrios]

yup

I dont have a pic of the shadow but enjoy this pic from the surface

[Cavscout74]

Val took the CF-01A Falcon up to 65km and circularized at that altitude (I didn't want to get ahead of my aircraft contracts) before returning to land safely at the Desert space center runway

I actually overshot DSC and had to fly back about 150km, landing with a very small fuel reserve

Then KSP struck again, and at this point I'm done with 1.12.  If I play any more KSP at all, I'll go back to my old 1.8 save.  Repeatedly had rover wheels crash into terrain when switching back to this rover or quickloading to go back to before I switched away.  After half a dozen times, my patience is gone.

[Hotel26]

1 hour ago, Cavscout74 said:

at this point I'm done with 1.12

I am (instinctively) still on 1.11.2.  (I think there was nothing in 1.12 I wanted, nor that would justify the trouble of upgrading my Orbit world.)  "Change is good!", but change can also be bad. 

[JcoolTheShipbuilder]

Discovered how easy it is to just... add scatterer configs to my planets and did it for the Estrela Dobre system! I will not use it on other systems that arent at least nearly complete (like.. one or two missing vacuum bodies or something), and just... I will make sure it looks good with stock atmorim n stuff before applying scatterer.
Also, apparently modulemanager spits out nyan cats when its national cat day in japan, which got me good thinking that my game was dying for almost an hour lol.
Oh and I added scatterer config to Tumidam (already worked on it a lot) and.. yea its a puffy boi

the effect extends about 2400km.. which will be around its final atmosphere height

also, I dove to 50km above the surface and wow everything is merging into each other,

 

Oh and I also made a short video of orbiting Hados and Ichor

Ichor's atmosphere barely extends higher than its terrain by about 2km. the atmosphere is only 20km thick, so it is pooled into certain parts of the planet. I may make Anos a bit more titan-like, very foggy n stuff.

 

 

 

Edited February 22 by JcoolTheShipbuilder

[AuddieD2015]

It was over the past few days but I put 9 comms satellites in orbit around Kerbin, Mun, and Minmos.  If you put them high enough, evenly spaced is not a problem, which is a good thing because isosceles was totally my outcome. I think I will use 4 over Duna to spread that out into a trapezoid.  heh

[Akagi]

Recreating 096 (short film) in KSP

Currently working on building the main two sets of the first five minutes: the interrogation cell and 096's Stage II containment. Does anyone know how to make it look like the stage I containment (basically a big block of wings) can explode open without killing the Kerbal playing 096?

[Nazalassa]

23 minutes ago, Akagi said:

Recreating 096 (short film) in KSP

Currently working on building the main two sets of the first five minutes: the interrogation cell and 096's Stage II containment. Does anyone know how to make it look like the stage I containment (basically a big block of wings) can explode open without killing the Kerbal playing 096?

Maybe have like a spark (or similar small thruster), which you attach by the nozzle (so that they will thrust into it when activated) to some fuel tank (like the Oscar-B). Attach all the wing segments to said fuel tank. Then move the wing segments (or whatever you're using) to their positions, and make sure they don't clip into each other. Then add one fuel tank to each spark. To make the thing explode, set the throttle to max and fire the spark! Normally the fuel tank should explode, releasing all the wing segments.

Or just use decouplers.

[Nazalassa]

Today I tried to go as low as possible without dying.

This is the plane I'm using. The smoke trails are from fireworks (idea from @HB Stratos' Thunderbird Aerobatic Smoke, https://kerbalx.com/HB_Stratos/Thunderbird-Aerobatic-Smoke).
 

We're there!
 

That's the lowest I could go, not bad at all... At least Jeb is happy :)
 

Another pass...
 

Going back home.
 

aaaah
 

At least Jeb survived :P

Edited February 22 by Nazalassa
Fixed image tags

[Akagi]

20 minutes ago, Nazalassa said:

Maybe have like a spark (or similar small thruster), which you attach by the nozzle (so that they will thrust into it when activated) to some fuel tank (like the Oscar-B). Attach all the wing segments to said fuel tank. Then move the wing segments (or whatever you're using) to their positions, and make sure they don't clip into each other. Then add one fuel tank to each spark. To make the thing explode, set the throttle to max and fire the spark! Normally the fuel tank should explode, releasing all the wing segments.

Or just use decouplers.

I believe this would work if you only needed a small hole, too? There are going to be a lot of holes in the film.

[Nazalassa]

1 minute ago, Akagi said:

I believe this would work if you only needed a small hole, too? There are going to be a lot of holes in the film.

Tes it could... I mean if you have something that will act as a base (that won't move) then you can attach a separator to it, offset it somewhere where you won't see it, then build the stage I containment with holes in it, then attach whatever will fill the holes to the separator and offset them to their final positions. I recommand several separator/panel combinations so that you can have the panels fall each after another.

Also I suggest using separators as radially attached stuff will not decouple from a decoupler (but it will from a separator).

[Cavscout74]

7 hours ago, Nazalassa said:

That's the lowest I could go, not bad at all... At least Jeb is happy

That is the lowest anyone could go and still be an airplane.  Nicely done!

I took it a little safer, jumping back to my 1.8 career and finally got around to flying @swjr-swis's Blackwood on a speed run from DSC to KSC.  I did make a few little tweaks to personalize it, but the basic airframe remained the same.  Even with four external tanks, I had to cut burners halfway through the trip to make sure I would make it.  Very fun plane to fly, both responsive when needed yet still stable to fly.   I was also just in time for my Laythe station to arrive as well, now I just need the crew to arrive.  Between starting a few different careers and breaks from KSP, I haven't landed on Laythe in years, so I'm looking forward to it.

 

Edited February 22 by Cavscout74

[Mahnarch]

15 hours ago, JcoolTheShipbuilder said:

~I may make Anos a bit more titan-like, very foggy n stuff.~

 

If it's a Titan Anos I hope it's not too windy!

7 hours ago, Nazalassa said:

That's the lowest I could go, not bad at all... At least Jeb is happy

That's incredible!

Is that with a yoke or the keyboard?