What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Tw1]

I was seeing how fast I could travel around Kerbin without flying off into space. Then I decided to charge at KSC.

When I it the thick part of the atmosphere, (at full throttle that is,) I experienced a lot of turbulence, but managed to turn myself upright.

Then I noticed I'd lost my kerbal.

I held a memorial service at airstrip island.

A distraction when launching prevented my plane form clearing the fence.

[RoboRay]

A pretty design! Does it work okay being asymmetric?

Yeah, it's almost perfectly balanced. It's close enough that you can hold is straight by hand under thrust (with a joystick, at least... keyboard would be harder), but I just keep SAS on and it's no problem. The thing has several reaction wheels installed, to help it it maneuver cargo, so there's no shortage of torque available.

The inevitable imbalance of grabbing cargo is way worse than the designed-in imbalance.

[NoPanShabuShabu]

Got the Eve Science Rover back to where it started and reviewed the science.

Stats for the mission:

Over 6000 km driven

Science Transmitted: 9,885 points

Science Stored: 9,443 points

That's with Custom Biomes, we hit 8 out of 9 biomes (skipped "Islands" for now, for reasons) and somehow missed one of the Surface Samples from the Poles.

[khyron42]

Today, I learned that FAR makes planes very much harder to design well. After finally coming up with a design that worked, including being able to take off without rapid unplanned disassembly and having enough lift to gently land at 80 m/s or below.. I hit the brakes too hard and killed Jeb. Again.

[TrooperCooper]

A couple days ago my new asteroid redirector ship was done beeing designed and lifted into orbit.

Multiple Pegasus-Tankers were needed to refuel this monster.

In the meantime, my first rudimentary space station was deployed in a low orbit above Kerbin.

Nothing special, just a few fuel- and monoprop-tanks, crew compartments and some docking bays.

When refueling was done, the asteroid redirector finally accelerated its 2,000 tons of Kerbal-might out of the orbit to intercept a target in interplanetary space.

However, as it got close to a rendevousz, mission control had to realize that the calculated approach had forced the ship into a maneuver to keep up with the asteroid which it could not perform anymore.

On top of that, when some empty fuel tanks and their engines were dropped off to reduce the mass, they collided with other, still active engines due to the ship maneuvering at the same time. The caused asymmetry made the vessel nearly uncontrolable and so I decided to abort the mission and focuss on returning the Kerbel-pilot safely. The final stage was triggered and what was ment to be used to do the last corrections of an asteroids orbit around Kerbin, now became the lifeboat for the crewman.

Thankfully he did make it back alive.

But again, besides a crewreport from interplanetary space, I didnt get any real science out of my efforts. So I decided to do something different. A probe, the LOGUSEV II was deisgned, the Low Gravity Unmanned Science and Exploration Vessel. The goal was to have a probe that could reach out to the many small moons out there, land on the surface, perform scientific experiments and even bring back the data to Kerbin (or at least do so in combination with other ships). The image below shows the probe ontop of a simple carrier during a test of its return-capabilities over Kerbin.

As a final test, the probe was to be send to Minmus. Afterall I havent been to its surface at all yet. When I was about to launch it, I noticed something strange within Kerbins vicinity. Somehow a class C asteroid got to close to the planet and without further ado, Kerbin naturally got itself a third moon.

LOGUSEV made it to Minmus without any problems and performed its experiments (please ignore the debries-like looking objects in the background, those in fact are just oddly shaped rocks).

The return to Kerbin went well too and the flawless mission will most likely lead to follow-ups to other moons in the solar system at some point.

With the science gained from the Minmus mission, I was finally able to unlock some more technology that hopefully will enable me to get Jebediah out of his misery, who is still blocked in his crashed lander on Mun.

I finnished designing the LOGEKRU, the Low Gravity Emergency Kerbel Recovery Unit. Development up till this point was on hold due to the lack of well-performing and more shock-resistant tires.

It is a flexible, self-propelled flying rover that is easy to handle, robust and with a low profile very well suited for a low gravity environment.

In combination with its hook, legs and directed thrust, it is able to lift quite some weight up. Hopefully its capabilities will be enough to unstuck our hero.

So I slapped this thing on top of a simple unmanned lander and its now on the way to the Mun.

(to be continued...)

[nli2work]

Started a Road Trip!

[soulsource]

After trying to get rid of my graphics performance issues (enabling HyperZ helps a lot, but aerodynamic effects are still not running as smooth as they should) I just played a little bit with FAR, DRE and Isp Difficulty Scaler again.

The first thing I learned were the system requirements of FAR, or more precisely, the system requirement: A gamepad or joystick.

Luckily I have a Wiimote and a Wii Classic Controller lying around, which can be connected to a PC using Bluetooth, and with that I was finally able to fly planes without having them break apart due to a too long press to the pitch control buttons on the keyboard.

I also finally managed to get a ship to orbit with the realistic preset of Isp Difficulty Scaler. Compared to stock KSP it needed an amazingly huge rocket. I'm looking forward to my next savegame, which will be with this setting. Nevertheless, first I want to accomplish a few things with stock KSP, like landing on and returning from Laythe and Eve.

[KerbMav]

Launched the first part of the Explorer II, the Mission Module, so named because I think I might reuse both the Lander-Cockpit and the nuclear Drive Stage later with another center piece.

The lifter was made from only a 3.75 m large tank with a fitting quad rocket engine and four very long boosters, a 2.5 m flat RCS tank, probe core and SAS - after a few failed simulations (built the launch clamps into the fins ...) and a tumble maneuver in the upper atmosphere, the module reached its target orbit at 125x125.

Need some help though, because I fear I might cheat myself here:

Edited May 23, 2014 by KerbMav

[TrooperCooper]

An update from my rescue mission (see background here)...

The LOGEKRU was released in a 30km orbit around the Mun above the crashsite.

It initiated its brake maneuver to descend down to the target.

The landing was easy and very stable.

But me, driving a vehicle in a low-gravity environment for the first time in KSP ever, made a critical mistake. I applied full brakes on the tires and despite its low profile, that made the LOGEKRU flipp over. I was quite shocked but soon enough realized that the undeployed legs were practicall functioning as an anti-roll bar and protection. Nothing at all was damaged, even the solar panels were still intact.

And I also figured out, that the inverted thrusters, which I intended to use as a counterweight when pulling wrecks up, could give me the ability to unflip the vehicle by itself. And indeed, after reconfiguring the engines and re-activating torque on the controlers, it was almost childs-play to turn this thing arround.

With growing confidence I continued my way to the crashsite. I also noticed that I could use the downward thrusters to avoid further flipping. Just kept my fingers hovering over the throttle controls and as soon as I noticed one set of tires starting to lift off the ground, I applied a tiny ammount of thrust and it reliably pressed the vehicle back on the ground without much fuel consumption.

Arriving at the crashsite and trying to find the best angle from where I could lift this up.

The obvious first approach to lift it at the front did not work. Even in downwards directed mode the claw would not connect (yes, the vehicle can still move forward in this position).

So I approached from the side and here I was able to grab it.

Deploying the front legs to pull the lander up however did not lead to the desired result. It was much to heavy compared to the 14-tons LOGEKRU.

But from my test-runs on Kerbin, I was expecting this and thus was prepared. I applied a bit of downward thrust on the rear-section and the wreck was easily lifted into the air.

Jebediah was freed.

The LOGEKRU released the wreck and went into hibernation mode. Jeb is now waiting for his shuttle back to Kerbin.

That was by far the most exciting mission (or part of it) in KSP so far for me. And considering how well the LOGEKRU performed, I might upload and offer it in the vessel exchange section of the forums. Maybe it can safe other Kerbelnauts, too.

[corvustech]

I also made an attempt to rescue Jeb last night, who is in a very similar situation in a tipped rocket on Mun in career mode. I don't have a rover wheel yet so I made an attempt at rescue using the same ship that got Jeb there but a second CM and a tiny Rockomax rocket on the two - cm lander.

After a great burn with tons of leftover fuel using just early game parts I got Bill in orbit around Mun and began to brake so I would land near Jeb. No lights meant waiting for the right moment to catch the crash sight during the day...Unfortunately I forgot batteries and rcs....After hours of failed attempts I now have two kerbal in need of rescue in the mun.

[Madrias]

Sorry about the night shot.

I decided to walk from the runway to the MK1 Pod Memorial Statue. Took a while, but I enjoyed doing so.

Just finished walking to the Launchpad for fun. It's impressive, how something so simple can be so much fun.

Edited May 23, 2014 by Madrias

[michaelhester07]

I built the third version of my spacedock, now with actual orbital construction capability:

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[Overfloater]

I was jumping & flying around on Minmus with my new Astro-Truck, found a big weird rock, returned to base and parked safely:

[Starwhip]

I got a new desktop background

[DunaRocketeer]

I made a cruise missile style vehicle with a science payload instead of a warhead. It'll get to any biome on kerbin and hoover up all the biome science

Also landed Bob on Gilly and sent a small unmanned probe to the surface of Eve.

[Pwnstarr]

Managed to either unlock a terrible bug or despite dozens of successful powered landings I forgot lander design 101 and stranded 2 kerbals on Minmus. Despite TWR of 13 and 55 for two designs I tried, it was like the engines weren't even there although they were burning fuel. Luckily though both pods survived and a rescue mission will be sent... Hopefully THAT lander works.

[Wabbit]

After trying to get rid of my graphics performance issues (enabling HyperZ helps a lot, but aerodynamic effects are still not running as smooth as they should) I just played a little bit with FAR, DRE and Isp Difficulty Scaler again.

The first thing I learned were the system requirements of FAR, or more precisely, the system requirement: A gamepad or joystick.

Luckily I have a Wiimote and a Wii Classic Controller lying around, which can be connected to a PC using Bluetooth, and with that I was finally able to fly planes without having them break apart due to a too long press to the pitch control buttons on the keyboard.

I also finally managed to get a ship to orbit with the realistic preset of Isp Difficulty Scaler. Compared to stock KSP it needed an amazingly huge rocket. I'm looking forward to my next savegame, which will be with this setting. Nevertheless, first I want to accomplish a few things with stock KSP, like landing on and returning from Laythe and Eve.

If it helps, you can turn on precision controls with caps lock.

[coreross]

I put up my first self officiant satellite.

[pauldbk99]

Started my First manned mission to Dres (Ship name: Tranquility 1)

[Grin]

Bill says hi from the cargo bay.

More to come!

Edited May 24, 2014 by Grin

[running]

Jeb decided to bring back a sample for the science guys. (They won't be asking him to do that for a long time I'm sure)

That's 84 parachutes

[Horn Brain]

Single Stage to Space Station! This thing can just barely get to orbit on its own, and so I made it look like Skylab. Bob enjoyed it.

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[Othuyeg]

I did this:

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[cantab]

An absolute pig of a docking, bringing the Ike lander, hab module, and transfer stage of my Duna ship (bottom middle) in one piece up to my station. Took me an hour or two, didn't time exactly.

The ship was heavy and had off-balance RCS, a problem with my modular designs when I join different modules together. Because the hab module is attached cupola-to-docking port I couldn't split it up. The station had 550 parts because of having two of the Duna lander-rovers docked to it (bottom left), making for some pretty terrible lag.

Now I just need to add one science return module (top left) and one lander-rover to the ship, then top up the tanks and prepare for rendezvousing with asteroid 2 Bob, that's already on course for Duna.

Next time I'm using a fuel tanker.

[Wabbit]

Tried shooting Bill, Bob and Jeb to the moon. Missed and got flung out of Kerbin's SOI. Change of plans, guys, we're going to Duna!