What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Liowen]

Escape pods?

@Liowen: Nice mission! I'm yet to try taking any kerbals to Eve myself!

Thanks. It is not an easy thing to do, in fact I had my doubts doing this tonight. Now for the real test.....doing it on video. I had to ramp up testing before the aero fix becomes a thing, I want this one off my list since I am going to all the planets right now (current number completed for the series 0 LOL).

[skyfire322]

Successfully completed my first docking. After 190 hours of gameplay.....

[Liowen]

Successfully completed my first docking. After 190 hours of gameplay.....

Congrats! ....and between you me and a few thousand people you got your first one sooner than I did.

[skyfire322]

Congrats! ....and between you me and a few thousand people you got your first one sooner than I did.

Thanks! In true Kerbal fashion though, most things went "boom" when I docked. But Jeb and Bob LIVE!

[Jason Patterson]

Successfully completed my first docking. After 190 hours of gameplay.....

First one is the hardest. It's all downhill from there.

[Kowgan]

Thanks. It is not an easy thing to do, in fact I had my doubts doing this tonight. Now for the real test.....doing it on video. I had to ramp up testing before the aero fix becomes a thing, I want this one off my list since I am going to all the planets right now (current number completed for the series 0 LOL).

Ah, to do it on video... Where things get really real!

It would be a nightmare for me to do that, because I suffer from the I-forgot-to-attach-that-silly-thing syndrom, and usually have to discard the first whole launch (and lose a lot of funds!), and re-launch it. Plus, I might get psychologically unconfident to know I'm being recorded.

Haha, Do you really wanna start the series with the Eve mission? Wouldn't you save the cake's cherry to the end?

[LordFerret]

First one is the hardest. It's all downhill from there.

For the most part, I enjoy a 'vanilla' game. But, I found docking very hard - for me anyway. Then I discovered the Lazor Docking Camera; I find it a valuable mod, makes docking so much easier, and in my opinion more realistic. Check it out.

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/9923

[LordFerret]

I put a SCANsat up around Moho the other day (see picture below). I left it orbiting, scanning, mapping. I was working on (and just finished) putting another in Dres polar orbit. When I went back to check on the progress on Moho... the satellite was gone, no sign of it what-so-ever, not even debris. Kraken? Don't know. A bit disappointed because it was quite a task getting there. :/

[CatastrophicFailure]

I put a SCANsat up around Moho the other day (see picture below). I left it orbiting, scanning, mapping. I was working on (and just finished) putting another in Dres polar orbit. When I went back to check on the progress on Moho... the satellite was gone, no sign of it what-so-ever, not even debris. Kraken? Don't know. A bit disappointed because it was quite a task getting there. :/

Things in the vicinity of Moho tend to go...weird. Orbits get tweaked. What started as a perfect intercept can miss by a brazilian km's while you're off doing other stuff. Seems likely a stable orbit could end up "decaying" and hitting the planet, but you'd have to scan thru your log to be sure. Something to do with FLOP errors IIRC.

[LordFerret]

Things in the vicinity of Moho tend to go...weird. Orbits get tweaked. What started as a perfect intercept can miss by a brazilian km's while you're off doing other stuff. Seems likely a stable orbit could end up "decaying" and hitting the planet, but you'd have to scan thru your log to be sure. Something to do with FLOP errors IIRC.

Thanks for that information. I'll go hunt for the log and then through the log... dying to know what the heck happened. Does this weird stuff happen just with Moho, or am I to expect maybe the same with other low-gravity bodies - say, around Dres? I don't suppose baby-sitting the next one I put up at Moho would make a difference? Anyway... thanks again.

[CatastrophicFailure]

Took a break from station building to work with a couple of side projects, still haven't taken the plunge into .90 yet.

First up was a man-rating (Kerbal-rating?) proof flight for my medium-lift LV. With a new high-thrust upper stage, it no longer shares any components with the smaller Colossus, so I've renamed it Oracle.

Put a MUL stack on top and filled the tapered interstage with the biggest fuel tank it could lift, just to see how far it could get. Turns out it's just enough for a Münar intercept, with the MUL completing the burn. So I could get one into Münar orbit, but it couldn't get back without refuling. Hmm.

Being experimental, this flight was an unmanned, free-return. The MUL its self has also been upgraded, now fully capable of unmanned flight and featuring a new OGLE docking indicator that increases aesthetic efficiency by at least 23%.

The flight was a complete success, although the pod came down way off course in the middle of a storm in the Genn desert.

Now it was time to send Kerbals somewhere on the newly certified rocket.

The target was a large asteroid on an eccentric, slightly retrograde-polar orbit that's been stable there since the start of this save. Launching into a 138* inclined orbit used an absolutely ridiculous amount of fuel, and by the time the crew made rendezvous they were down to RCS only. But the encounter was a success, much science was collected, and at 200k km's up only a tiny deorbit burn was needed.

The real interesting part here was playing around some more with lifting re-entrys. Here, the components separate in the upper atmosphere at around 8km/s.

I was aiming for a skip reentry from the outset here, and this was my initial trajectory, thanks to the Trajectories visualizer mod:

Figured out how to use it better, so by changing the pod's roll attitude I'm able to control the final landing spot. Kinda.

My target was Pogagalas island off the coast of Eduacor, and I even surprised my self by ending up within sight of it.

That much attitude change takes alot of battery power, however, and the pod's batteries actually ran out after it skipped out of the atmosphere, but by that time the course was set. It meant the two Kerbals were in for a rough ballistic (non-lifting very spinny) entry, and while the chute was already armed, the braking rockets malfunctioned making for a hard landing as well.

The pod survived just fine, now it's back to my station and the growing lag-monster its becoming.

[CatastrophicFailure]

Thanks for that information. I'll go hunt for the log and then through the log... dying to know what the heck happened. Does this weird stuff happen just with Moho, or am I to expect maybe the same with other low-gravity bodies - say, around Dres? I don't suppose baby-sitting the next one I put up at Moho would make a difference? Anyway... thanks again.

For me, it only seems to pop up around Moho. I think maybe because it's so close to the sun. Something going way out to Jool only ever needs minor corrections. Personally, I think it's just cuz Moho is cursed and should be avoided at all costs, but hey. Baby-sitting does seem to work better, it's something in the accuracy you loose when a vessel is unfocused & "on rails."

Oh and if you've already started a new game session after closing the last one, your log will have been reset. But if not, just search thru it for the ship name. It'll say something about colliding or hitting the surface, if that is so.

[Theoderich]

You mean Vall

I wasn't sure what the Kerbal equivalent of Europa, so I just stuck to the real one.

[Kowgan]

Continuing my somehow cool* pictures of space, today a few days ago, Kerbin looked so small and fragile.

Picture taken by Bob Kerman, while in an under-construction Mun-Orbiting Lab.

*at least for me. :c

[Cuky]

I was working on my small recon plane for survey contracts. First flight ended...well not so good. I have designed this plane with one central jet engine and two rocket engines on sides for use when intake air is not enough to power the jet. It flies pretty stable in lower parts of the atmosphere (I am suing FAR) but the higher I go more it wants to deviate from prograde (it tends to rise the nose up from prograde). At about 11000-12000m it stalls and than tumbles down until I manage to recover it at about 3000-5000m. After last recovery I managed to climb up to 15000m (had to be above 17300m for contract) and when it stalled again I haven't had enough fuel to recover yet again so I used parachutes to land on the water. I have lost both wings and one nose cone, but everything else survived. Now back to drawing board and try to solve those problems

[Liowen]

Ah, to do it on video... Where things get really real!

It would be a nightmare for me to do that, because I suffer from the I-forgot-to-attach-that-silly-thing syndrom, and usually have to discard the first whole launch (and lose a lot of funds!), and re-launch it. Plus, I might get psychologically unconfident to know I'm being recorded.

Haha, Do you really wanna start the series with the Eve mission? Wouldn't you save the cake's cherry to the end?

Oh no the first one is Eeloo, as for the end well I have something bigger planned.... much bigger

[Amtrak71]

Escape pods?

Already have'em, they're connected to the Laboratory Segment, Two of them. Meant for 6 kerbals (5 onboard the station)

[Starwaster]

I tested a new heat model for Deadly Reentry.

Also, what the HECK is a 'brazillian km'? How many 'brazillian' kilometers to a metric kilometer?

[Yukon0009]

[leopardenthusiast]

I switched to FAR and built this plane.

[Jouni]

My career mode game survived the unlocking of nuclear engines. It was the first time since 0.22 that I hadn't become bored with the career mode at this point.

I started a mission to Duna and Ike with a fairly basic two-ship approach. A fuel tanker with "experimental" nuclear engines went first, and a manned ship with a lander and a crew module followed.

From left to right: fuel tanker, crew module, lander, and transfer stage.

The mission is already on the brink of becoming profitable, even though I haven't landed on Duna yet or entered Ike's SoI.

[MartGonzo]

I tested a new heat model for Deadly Reentry.

Also, what the HECK is a 'brazillian km'? How many 'brazillian' kilometers to a metric kilometer?

Like a normal kilometer but trimmed I suppose.

[LordFerret]

For me, it only seems to pop up around Moho. I think maybe because it's so close to the sun. Something going way out to Jool only ever needs minor corrections. Personally, I think it's just cuz Moho is cursed and should be avoided at all costs, but hey. Baby-sitting does seem to work better, it's something in the accuracy you loose when a vessel is unfocused & "on rails."

Oh and if you've already started a new game session after closing the last one, your log will have been reset. But if not, just search thru it for the ship name. It'll say something about colliding or hitting the surface, if that is so.

Yes, I had started a new session... should have left it running while posting. Found nothing in the log. I'll send another up today. I want Moho mapped. Just finished Dres.

[BJ Quest]

Started a standard career mode in 0.90. Pilots are needed for SAS control so created a Gemini Flyby ship to take two kerbals (Pilot & Scientist) on a mission. I am transforming the Gemini Flyby into a lander for a Mun mission (plant the flag). So far the career mode had been interesting and contracts can be challenging.

One of the interesting contracts was to place a base on the Mun that can house 12 kerbals so I came up with this design with the limited amount of researched science that I had done. Not the most beautiful design but it was the first to land on the Mun and by contract I received about 1200 science points along with substantial funds. Not bad :-) Now only if I had a Kerbal in the base I could have completed another contract by planting a flag. Will have to wait for a lander.

I have also been playing a bit with the administration part of the game.

[Cuky]

currently working on my first Mun rocket in 0.90. It flies good for first ~5500m but than just between 5500-6000m my center of mass shifts way out of the rocket and I loose control of it after few thousand meters. I first thought that it was caused by K2 capsule mod I downloaded today, but same thing happened with default Mk1 capsule. I think it has something to do with KW parts but I still have to go through the rocket part by part to see which one is causing problems. I'll post pictures of it once design is finalized.