What did you do in KSP1 today?

[goldenpeach]

I took a modified version of my VTOL(just added a horizontal jet engine) to fly to

KSC2.

At take-off, I saw that the added fuel and the added engine made the plane too heavy, forcing me to do a short take-off instead of vertical take-off.

I thought it was not a problem since that, by the way I reach my destination, I would have burned enough fuel to make a vertical landing possible.

The problem?

I installed dang-it, which made the vertical engine placed at the back of the plane(*) fail(as well as the cargo bay shielding it). I also have a failed battery, but that wasn't a problem at all: I didn't need the battery.

(*) My VTOL use three engine for vertical take-off: one placed at the front, one in the middle of the plane and another one at the back

[Aragosnat]

Welp. Got a SSTO Plane in orbit after long tries and long time since doing such. Here it is sitting pretty in orbit minus pilot:

Here it is landing rump first with rescued pilot:

Lived with nothing breaking off:

33 some days till my first of 13? vesssels will reach Duna. First time in many moons since I left Kerbin's KOS as well as first time with so many craft.

[Hotaru]

Put my first Kerbals on the Mun in 64K!

The launch vehicle (found a good use for those SpaceY 7.5-meter Emu engines). Surprisingly, it worked very smoothly and put the 100-ton lander in a 170x170km orbit on the first try.

Direct ascent, single-stage, three-Kerbal nuclear lander--none of this "munar orbit rendezvous" or "efficient design" silliness. TWR is about 0.5 on Kerbin but a reasonably comfortable 3 on the Mun, and it has about 12,000 m/sec of delta-v. No reaction wheels--I'm trying to get out of the habit of relying on them constantly. Attitude control is via RCS and (while under power) gimballing the main engine only. It's pretty sluggish but it does work. (Most of the time.)

Valentina, Hayna, and Hayenna--about to become the first Kerbals on the 64K Mun! Is this a bad time to mention that every single one of Val's missions in this save has ended in an abort?

Success!

I didn't say anything about getting them BACK from the Mun, did I?

[RCgothic]

Retrod the Gemini Program, then Munar flyby followed my Munar low orbit trial. Designed a low-tech launcher that could lift 6s relays into Kerbin polar orbits at once.

[More Boosters]

Put my first Kerbals on the Mun in 64K!

http://i.imgur.com/5Rf4GFV.jpg?1

The launch vehicle (found a good use for those SpaceY 7.5-meter Emu engines). Surprisingly, it worked very smoothly and put the 100-ton lander in a 170x170km orbit on the first try.

http://i.imgur.com/gjSjaj8.jpg?1

Direct ascent, single-stage, three-Kerbal nuclear lander--none of this "munar orbit rendezvous" or "efficient design" silliness. TWR is about 0.5 on Kerbin but a reasonably comfortable 3 on the Mun, and it has about 12,000 m/sec of delta-v. No reaction wheels--I'm trying to get out of the habit of relying on them constantly. Attitude control is via RCS and (while under power) gimballing the main engine only. It's pretty sluggish but it does work. (Most of the time.)

http://i.imgur.com/rLGzmOt.jpg?1

Valentina, Hayna, and Hayenna--about to become the first Kerbals on the 64K Mun! Is this a bad time to mention that every single one of Val's missions in this save has ended in an abort?

http://i.imgur.com/pyAKWLR.jpg?1

Success!

I didn't say anything about getting them BACK from the Mun, did I?

Woah! What kind of system requires that much hardware just to get to the Mun? And RSS is even harder than x6.4 no?

I mean, if you need modded 7.5m stacks just to get there without even being able to come back, what good are any of the other engines?

[Robotengineer]

Yesterday I began working on Constellation style DAV.

[cantab]

Sent the new solar array for my station towards the Mun. Got my sums a bit wrong and ran out of fuel. I suppose that's what I get for going RCS-only on the little tug that was delivering it.

https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5706/21533531041_f786ec6355_h.jpg

Now how am I going to rendezvous with that? This will be interesting.

I pulled off that rendezvous and delivered the new solar array to my Harvester Station.

Did a routine Mun landing from the station to get some more science and data.

Then set up the manoeuvres for my initial gravicaptures into the Jool and Titanus systems. I can refine them more with a second course correction. It's gonna be a long time before these arrive, I reckon I'll have an Asclepius mission run by then, and maybe another visit to Serran.

[Hotaru]

Woah! What kind of system requires that much hardware just to get to the Mun? And RSS is even harder than x6.4 no?

I mean, if you need modded 7.5m stacks just to get there without even being able to come back, what good are any of the other engines?

Well, bear in mind that that was a direct-ascent mission, and not a very efficient one at that--the lander had so much excess delta-v, the original mission plan was for it to land on both the Mun and Minmus before returning to Kerbin for a rendezvous with a space station (the lander was never intended to land back on Kerbin, it was meant to be refueled and reused--hence no parachute or heat shield). The result was a rocket about the size of a real-life Saturn V (90 meters tall, 5000 tons on the pad, 100 tons to LKO).

An Apollo-style munar orbit rendezvous mission could probably put two Kerbals on the Mun in 64K with a rocket about half that size, not a problem with 5m modded parts (i.e. KW) and still perfectly doable with stock parts if you don't mind a high part count.

[DocMoriarty]

I designed my first arc-class space transporter for bulky payload in KSP 1.0.x. The arc space transporters are named like that because their center is under an arc and free for any type of payload. After several tries and modifications it was finally able to deliver a new rover for an Eve mission into space and dock it to the 'space train' which is being assembled in LKO.

Here short after launch:

Docked at the 'space train':

Successful landing, just a few units of fuel left (still needs improvement). Thanks to the sub-mod-worthy new medium and large landing gears it's not possible to taxi to the hangar due to the missing steering option. Hope these wheels get fixed in some version and get steering, lights and actually turning wheels like the small landing gears though knowing SQUAD and their policy to not fix non gamebreaking bugs I don't have much hope. I just hope that this type of 'love' for airplanes is terminated soon and replaced by some pro.

[mike9606]

If you're looking for some good landing gear I'd recommend BahamutoD's Adjustable Landing Gear. Has three different sizes, with only the largest size (four wheel setup) not having steering. They are also customizable, so the same part can fit a variety of roles.

[Fr8monkey]

That plane looks like something out of 'Wacky Races'.

[DocMoriarty]

If you're looking for some good landing gear I'd recommend BahamutoD's Adjustable Landing Gear. Has three different sizes, with only the largest size (four wheel setup) not having steering. They are also customizable, so the same part can fit a variety of roles.

Thanks but I really prefer stock KSP being in release quality and not pre-alpha quality.

[xebx]

Sent 3 new ComRelaySurvey LFOProbes to Jool (for Vall, Bop, Pol), Laythe and Tylo allready have one.

Sent a big very fast Xenon Probe to Kerbol low orbit to check data, energy flow, sunflares, etc

Sent another big fast Xenon ship (manned this one) to Eeloo for a 1+1year trip (to and back).

Corrected the trajectory of the ComRelaySurvey LFOProbe for Eeloo, because the fast xenon ship launched 2years and half after was going to reach it before.

Sent to Duna Valentina team without Valentina to complete missions, collect science data and gain exp.

All went smoothly, except two Kraken NaN attacks that destroyed the universe.

Edited September 20, 2015 by xebx

[Kyrt Malthorn]

My 'Joolbraker' probe has completed its operational tour of Jool's moons, giving me my first look at all these places, sending back all that sweet fly-by science...

At one point my little running lights were illuminating a huge swath of Pol. They're from Aviation Lights mod, I'm not sure where the fault lies, but I thought it was amusing.

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It was a great day (well, several months in-game) in the history books for exploration! And it was decided the Joolbraker would end its long journey in a stable orbit around Laythe for further study. Dare I say Laythe looks habitable? We must investigate further.

[Mister Kerman]

Thanks but I really prefer stock KSP being in release quality and not pre-alpha quality.

Can of worms right there. I hate not being able to steer without the use of reaction wheels too though. :[

[-M-TheDoctor]

Sent a shuttle up with the first section of my Kerbal Space Station. Got the shuttle into a stable orbit at 100 Km with only some cosmetic damage to the wings. My engineers went to work and over the course of 5 orbits, they successfully attached the solar arrays, the comms antenna, lights, and new docking ports, as well as a hitchhiker can (needed a pilot to help move the behemoth.) The crew returned to the shuttle, and left one engineer and two scientists in the station to begin their studies. The shuttle proceeded to re-entry, but came up short of the runway. Not to worry though, as the fantastic engineers that built the shuttle knew it was going to be flown by Kerbals, and the emergency landing systems were activated. The crew survived, but the shuttle did not. No problem though. The tracking station will send out recovery crews. Unfortunately the recovery teams got a little overzelous apparently, and successfully recovered the space station, WHILE IN ORBIT!!! I didn't think that was possible! So, long story short, i wasted 3 hours on that space station, and now it has vanished. At least it was a recovered ship and not a lost crew.

[Bangstry]

Reached Ike

and landed.

Also reached Gilly at the same time.

And finally got round to building an ore miner.

[Goddess Bhavani]

Docking in Tight Places

Yes they all fit with inches to spare.

[sewerbird]

I did my first manned mission to the Mun in my new save with Kerbal Construction Time. Not really a big deal, but did a full set of Surveyor and Gemini missions before going thanks to the incentives of the time constraints. Been having good time!

[Hagen von Tronje]

Did my first Mun flyby in an "extra hard" career game, using TAC LS, FAR, etc, and done entirely from IVA/EVA. No getting out for a view, I fly from the inside only unless something in the interface utterly requires that I go to outside view. All piloting is done with RPM props (and huge "props" to RPM, B9, ASET, etc, for making this not only possible but fun).

Val almost died in the attempt, I was stuck on science, having harvested everything on Kerbin I had reasonable access to (greatly reduced science rewards), and just barely unlocked solar panels (needed to stay alive without bringing a rocket full of batteries), so this was pretty much a do or die situation for my career. She got back to Kerbin with less than 1% on all life support and reentered going nearly 3km/s with no heat shield (good ol' service bays!). The materials bay unfortunately broke up on splashdown, wasting maybe half the science I gained, but I considered that an acceptable sacrifice to get her home alive. Fortunately I finished two lucrative contracts and still got most of the other data home safe, so it was a mostly-success, and apparently at the limit of what constitutes a plausible munshot.

Never been so tense as watching the speed bleed off on reentry, hoping it's just enough to not lose my favorite pilot and probably tank my career (most of my remaining funds had been spent on upgrades and the ship necessary to make this trip). What a relief!

[pandaman]

Technically 'today' is after midnight - so 2:30am counts right ?

Designed a lander for my plant a flag and return trip to the Moholes.

Now I just need to work on the transfer and return stage(s), and then work out how to launch it all. Will almost certainly refuel in LKO before departure, and may need to do final assembly in LKO too.

[Just Jim]

Started a new career, this time trying it on hard.

But first I thought I'd make a new flag:

[Mister Kerman]

Hagen: I fly IVA whenever possible as well. There's definitely an an added level of satisfaction when you land using your instruments alone. (Especially vertical landings!) Although there's definitely a few limitations when you attempt stuff like that though. Some of the plane cockpits aren't very suitable for runway landings, there's also no "DV change necessary" maneuver node meter which sucks a lot.

[manek22]

Hi manek

I also love your PIP ship !!!

Here is the craft:

ISRU Mammoth SSTO Explorer.craft

There is no fuel in the tanks of the Drill o-matic pod to be under 300t. but you can add fuel if you want a little more Dv in LKO to go Minmus

(but that's doable as is)

Fly safe with valentina

Do you find that you have enough power to continually drill and process the ore? or is it a drill then refine kind of method?

[Hagen von Tronje]

Hagen: I fly IVA whenever possible as well. There's definitely an an added level of satisfaction when you land using your instruments alone. (Especially vertical landings!) Although there's definitely a few limitations when you attempt stuff like that though. Some of the plane cockpits aren't very suitable for runway landings, there's also no "DV change necessary" maneuver node meter which sucks a lot.

I'm using Raster Prop Manager, ASET, and B9 cockpit props, and some custom edits to put more functional instrumentation into all cockpits/pods. When I fly planes in this career, I typically stick a JSI basic camera into the nose so I have a takeoff/landing cam. Some advanced cockpits like B9 and QuizTech have integrated landing cams, but I haven't unlocked those goodies yet. Trying to land on a runway in a stock Mk2 cockpit is awful, clearly not made with IVA flight in mind. I've got a few cockpits installed with no MFD panels, but if they don't have great visibility or some other redeeming quality I cut them from this install.

But I completely agree, it's not only satisfying, I have learned a lot by doing it this way! If there's one thing KSP "realism" mods and IVA flying teach you, it's that astronauts/cosmonauts are stone cold badS to do what they do.