What did you do in KSP1 today?

[zuuhis79]

Broke 600 hours of gameplay...

[curson]

The day proceeded well around Kerbin. Which is to say, that nothing went up in flames and, while there was plenty of F5ing, all catastrophes were avoided.

The first of the Life Support modules reached the station. The docking didn't go quite as planned (who would have guessed? ). The final decision was taken to park it at around 160 meters off the port of the station, and stop wrestling with a clearly underpowered SAS system and a just barely adequate RCS one, to call for reinforcements from AKS (Alpha Kerbin Station). The resident WorkBee was activated, moved to intercept, and captured the module. This time, mindful of their previous mistakes (see: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/29533-What-did-you-do-in-KSP-today?p=1693137#post1693137), the guys at Kerbal Space Centre were careful. The module had balanced RCS that, well, ended up balanced as well once the WorkBee docked.

Here they are, on the way to AKS.

Weirdly enough, this second docking went way smoother than planned. With the F5 key able to rest a bit, and the Life Support module docked (the WorkBee still docked to it, its RCS tanks refuelled), another day of work was declared a success in the process of shaping up the station.

Next step?

Habitable modules, a "life boat" module for any emergency, and more structural trusses to start accepting some fuel tanks. Also: Kerbals. Recruitment is open. Quarters will be cramped, but the view is stunning

[Skorpychan]

Tested a Mainsail on an escape trajectory from Minimus.

Then fiddled around with a plane, which didn't work out. Wouldn't fly for some reason.

Then I accepted a contract that I have no intention of completing any time soon. 7-kerbal outpost on Eve with a cupola. Why did I take it? Because the half a million kerbucks advance was enough to get my Duna mission off the ground. Now I just need to start making launches in aid of that.

[Frank_G]

That contract... build a spacestation with laboratory and space for 15 kerbals in orbit around Ike... i did and i missed the point that said... Build the facility into a newly discovered Class D Asteroid... Well... i finally did, but the 700k of funds threw out a bargain of 800 bucks in total... ok... it was worth the adventure... curse you contracts... curse you!

[Draemora]

I like to pretend that at some point it will be viable to have multiplayer battles in space with BD armory so I keep designing and tweaking ships to have more armor and firepower with relatively small part counts.

As for what I did today... I built a 100t long range laser cruiser and tested it against a heavily armoured 50t destroyer. Cruiser wins at 1.5K+ metres while the destroyer wrecks the cruiser inside that range.

Edited January 25, 2015 by Draemora

[Finnan]

I installed Remote Tech and I got 6 satellites in geostationary orbit around Kerbal. The thing is that I forgot to activate the antennas after I got them into space.

[Srpadget]

I did a textbook-perfect suicide burn onto Mun. First time it's ever worked out QUITE that perfectly.

As is so often the case, it was a total accident. I had already done a deorbit burn, and had set up the landing burn (nominally similar to a suicide burn, but mine always seem to end up with the lander reaching safe-landing speeds while still a km or more above the surface, so the actual landing goes in fits and starts of "burn to slow down, kill throttle and drop some more, burn again when the velocity reaches 30-40 m/sec, lather-rinse-repeat until landing). And then ... I don't even recall what the distraction was--my wife showing me something online, a cat demanding attention, could be anything.

I swear I had plenty of time before the landing burn when I looked away from my screen...and I only looked away for a second...but somehow when I looked back to the screen I was OMG NEARLY 15 SEC LATE FOR THE LANDING BURN OMG OMG I JUST KILLED BOB!! So I smacked 'Z' for full throttle and stared at the velocity readout, trying to force it down below 12 by pure force of will, while the surface came zooming up toward me like the Kraken's own flyswatter. OMG THERE'S MY SHADOW!! TOO FAST TOO FAST!! And then...a miracle happened...and the velocity dropped below 15...below 12...dropped to single digits...and just as my finger hit the "Ctrl" key to reduce throttle, the lander hit the surface on the outer slope of a crater wall at around 8 m/s, bounced once as I killed the throttle, then touched down again a bit downslope and settled. HUZZAH! BOB LIVES!

After lifting off again, I discovered that the uphill landing leg got damaged from taking the full brunt of that first impact all by its lonesome, and no way to fix it. The lander is a single stage for landing, re-orbit, return to Kerbin, re-entry, and final landing, so I need that landing leg to survive one more impact. (Stock aero, so I don't have to worry about FAR and DRE destroying it on the way down.)

So, yeah. Textbook suicide burn, close enough. Yay me. But I'm going to try really hard NOT to have to do that again....

[Cuky]

I am still not ready to risk Kerbal lives to fulfill a contract for landing on the Mun. So, I have worked around the KSC to get a little science that I missed for to unlock solar panels so that I can send probe to do the landing. But before that I still have to do that costly and tedious job of putting up RT satellite network so that I can communicate with said probe.

[Liowen]

Today I started up the Kerbal Tour bus company again, but I wanted something lighter than I had before but still able to carry nearly 40 Kerbals to space. I give to you the prototype of the Kerbal Tour Bus MkII.... using the MK3 parts

It currently can reach an 80km orbit with about 200m/s left in the tank, and it is a SSTO rocket. Currently I do not have it configured for landing so its SSTO nature might change some, but I think it shouldn't effect it too much. I was also thinking of adding a dockable "economy class" section as well, and if this ever goes to Mun or Minmus only those in the "first class" section would be allowed to land on its surface. Hey at least they would get to say they went to space .

[LameLefty]

This past week, having completed my current 0.90 Tech Tree and just sort of messing around, I started a new Sandbox save and installed RoverDude's suite of Umbra Space Industries mods. Yesterday and today I've been building a big surface base on Minmus.

[Draconiator]

Figured out that I do not need a piece of my interstellar ship, and trying to figure out how I can undock both ends and then fly it safely out of the way. Really I'm not sure why I felt I needed some drive engines in the middle of the thing...

[Endersmens]

Nothing. Because my computer has been down since mid .24. Yay.

[Norpo]

Made a "stayputnik mk 3" probe core as a mod concept, the solution for "I want a probe core that looks like the stayputnik but can actually be used with SAS"

Obviously not done, but i'm getting there.

[zekes]

Twice corrupted the craft file, twice replaced the weaponry, three times replaced engine layout. But it's done. Nuclear Stealth Destroyer ZNS Reed.

[Louella]

I played 12 hours of Kerbal space program today, and all I accomplished was redirecting a couple of satellites. One had a gravioli detector, and was put into orbit of Minmus for a contract. I have moved it into a polar low orbit, in order to use its grav detector to fulfil some contract parameters for measuring the gravity of Minmus.

I deorbited another satellite to crash into the Mun, as it only had a thermometer on it, and without parachutes, I wouldn't be able to return it to Kerbin anyway. In a stroke of luck, when it hit the Mun surface, the probe core survived, and after rolling end over end for a few kilometers, it came to rest on what seems to be a patch of level ground. Well, that's one way to find a landing site for future missions

I need to send some more satellites to the Mun and Minmus for contracts, have to work out the most economical way to do this. Might be able to do 2 Mun contracts with one satellite, and then I can drop it into a low polar orbit, to do more Mun surveys.

Also need to send a couple rovers to the Mun and Minmus, for some ground survey contracts. And another crewed mission to the Mun.

I've got all the tech unlocked, and nothing has been launched beyond Minmus. vOv

[inigma]

Today.

[Liowen]

I went back to the Kerbal Tour Bus and made a chute landing system and also a launch stage, the launch stage was semi successful but may need some tweeks. After getting into orbit I had a ton of fuel left so I decided to go to Mun for a low passby.

After a lockup of controls, and a quick reload, I decided I would venture out to Minmus as well....

Still having a lot of fuel I headed back to Kerbin, because I had forgotten I had not tested the parachute system yet.

Happy to report the chutes were over kill, and I also landed just north of KSC as well. Next up is landing this beast on Mun or Minmus and returning.....or maybe Duna LOL

[CatastrophicFailure]

This hideous thing is a new heavy-lift launcher based on the second & third stages from my massive Isfjell superheavy LV. It worked, but not gracefully. Within that enormous fairing is the cargo lander that will be responsible for ferrying components to & from a new Mün outpost.

The lander is completely automated, and has enough fuel to bring a good sized cargo to the surface of the Mün and then return to orbit. Hopefully.

Approaching the complex brought up on Isfjell 3 earlier. Docking will be delicate...

Steady as she goes....

...and contact! The complex is now complete, but a serous flaw has been revealed. Even with struts & QuantumStruts, the mass of that lander causes and unacceptable wobble. A solution needs to be found quickly.

That solution will be the S8 crew currently at the Highlab. Edmund, Edgas, & Billy-Bobrim will have their tour cut short, but get the chance to visit the orbiting Münbase before it departs, and get extra consideration as part of the first crew. Some special preparations are in order. Here, Edgas attaches several spare QuantumStruts to the hull of their MUL.

Then, with some fresh snacks from the recently arrived Tenacity 5, they depart their temporary home.

Their first task is to retrieve this Node, brought up by the S9 crew, and bring it to the Mün base assembling in orbit. It will be the eventual hub for a fueling station in Münar orbit to support the base.

With the Node secured to the top of the cargo lander, Edmund deploys the QuantumStruts around the exterior to control the wobbles. He the takes the chance for a good look around the massive complex.

...and spots an uncatalogued piece of debris passing only a few kilometers away (that little white dot over the ocean). Some quick calculations show that's in range, so with their work on the Münbase wrapped up, they maneuver a rendezvous to investigate.

But unfortunately it turns out to be a rather uninteresting discarded fairing. Nothing else to do but wait a few hours for the landing window.

It's a bumpy ride down, and a trajectory miscalculation lands them several kilometers EAST of KSC, making for a rough landing on land.

A week later, the S10 crew blasts off to replace S8 at the station. This is the tenth station crew in 6.4, and the seventh to visit Highlab II

Finally got a good shot of the LES tower/shroud jettisoning shortly after core stage separation.

They carry a small tag-along payload for fun & profit. Well, profit anyway.

Harmon, Shepbur, & Sherhat of S8 approaching the Highlab.

A few days later, the uncrewed Münbase burns for the Mün. With the low-thrust NERVA engine, it takes two burns to get the right transfer orbit...

..but 15 uneventful hours later, the complex settles into orbit above the Mün to await the next phase.

Edited January 26, 2015 by CatastrophicFailure

[Raven.]

Got a working spaceplane with Mk3 parts. It need quite a bit more work (aka thrust) since it can barely bring any cargo. Maybe I should just strap it onto a rocket...

http://i.imgur.com/AsG24E1.png

http://i.imgur.com/mYszuJl.png

That's why I very strongly prefer STS/Buran style shuttles more than space planes. Most of the SSTO space planes I build only have payloads of maybe 5 tons, and can only get to LKO without refueling. In fact, I have a fuel depot in low orbit just for space planes.

My shuttle fleet however, can launch directly to very high orbit. In fact, if I really wanted to, my shuttles can launch directly to sun orbit in two stages. In addition, one of those shuttles can deliver 45 tons to high orbit, without refueling. So yes, I prefer shuttles by far.

I got tired of hauling RocketParts up to my shipyard, troubleshooting the latest incarnation of the FRX expendable booster, and trying to build an airplane that can take off at less than 40m/s in NEAR.

So I decided to practice flying VTOLs. Many, many explosions and dead Bob & Hadski clones later:

http://i.imgur.com/Wl9J4Lu.png

Yup, I remember building and flying VTOLs. They are finicky at times. Usually with VTOLs, I dig out the joystick. I usually map the B9 engines to action groups 2 and 3 (decrease hover altitude and increase hover altitude) and map the toggle hover to action group 4.

I installed Remote Tech and I got 6 satellites in geostationary orbit around Kerbal. The thing is that I forgot to activate the antennas after I got them into space.

http://i.imgur.com/Wv9dSNs.png

It happens to the best of us. I have plenty of dead probes that are the result of negligence to activate the comms link. Especially the deep space probes.

[inigma]

STS-1 Space Shuttle ferrying a station core and orbital tug to 120km orbit. See my sig for the shuttle (not cargo) craft file.

[problemecium]

Today I added the final modules, the two portable stations, to my Jool-5 mothership, "Julia":

[curson]

Today I added the final modules, the two portable stations, to my Jool-5 mothership, "Julia":

http://i.imgur.com/Qur6Z0N.jpg

Holy cows that is a thing of sci-fi beauty. Love your design just as much as I appreciate your nickname, I think

[soulsource]

When I switched on my computer yesterday around noon, I was planning to design a return mission for the Moon (RSS). Nevertheless two days ago I stumbled across an issue with kOS regarding ships without reaction wheels, that I simply couldn't get out of my head. So, instead of actually building a monstrous ship, I decided to get cracking on the kOS source code first. 12 hours and 3 commits later I now consider this particular issue fixed. I'd say that's not so bad for someone who has never used the Unity or KSP APIs before and just had an approximate idea about C#. Wish me luck that the kOS developers accept my suggested changes.

[alphamone]

Set up a ship in a synchronous orbit around Minmus so that during periapsis, it would be a few metres above the surface. Some time later I might try and set it up again so that I can get ground based view of a similar orbit.

Also, as I was doing it on an install with NEAR installed (to try it out before putting it on my main install), I tried coming in with a near vertical decent, and was only saved from becoming a crater by the fact that the parachutes seem to be made from superman hair.

[soulsource]

Wait. Isn't the ship really fast at periapsis in this case (if I'm not mistaken 420 m/s - surface rotation speed)? How did you prevent the ship from crashing into the next best hill?