Kerbal Space Program

[vean]

KSP is indeed a fantastic game

I wish they added some challenge mode or something where you have a mission with specific constraints, like time, money or mass, etc.

 

[Drax]

 

[Prime Junta]

Been playing around with gravity assists. Starting to figure them out. Did a double rescue mission just now, from LKO and Minmus orbit. Used the Mun to align my orbit with Minmus's as well as giving a bit of a leg-up, then, when my tanks were running pretty damn dry, did a gravity-brake on the Mun again. Managed to pull off a perfect re-entry trajectory with almost no juice left. It was p. intense, and there's no way I could've done that with the brute-force orbits I was using just a few days ago.

I also sent Jebediah on his merry way to Ike. The gravity assist studying has helped him too; he left months after the previous probes, and will arrive months ahead of them. Although his rocket is nuclear-powered, I know the science investment there was kind of dumb but I can never resist atomics when on offer.

I hope the science bonanza on its way back from Eve, Ike, and Duna will be enough to buy me the prospecting/mining/refining techs so I can start building serious bases.

 

[Prime Junta]

Landed the rovers Courage and Stupidity on Duna. They transmit back scads of Science! Also landed Jebediah on Ike but unfortunately some of the pointy-head slide rule types misplaced a decimal point and he doesn't have enough go-juice to get back. So there's gonna be a serious rescue mission somewhere along the line.

Pictures related.

Spoiler

Poor Jeb. I think he went a bit mad in that little Lander Can Mk 1 for a few years, when he planted the flag he claimed Ike all for himself.

 

[vean]

It used to be that you could get from LKO to Duna and back with about 3km/s, same as the mun and back.

Now with the new atmosphere it's more though. Learnt that when my kerbal got stuck and starved to death

 

[Prime Junta]

It used to be that you could get from LKO to Duna and back with about 3km/s, same as the mun and back.

Now with the new atmosphere it's more though. Learnt that when my kerbal got stuck and starved to death

I suspect I might be able to get back if the planets were in juuust the right conjunction and I used all the gravity assists I can get, but that's a bit beyond my abilities at this point. Maybe later.

Today I've been designing a Mun base. I tried a bunch of different things until I settled on a modular design based on mobile, dockable platforms. I'm testing it on Kerbin and it seems to be working well. The big problem -- how to get it there -- remains unsolved as yet; I'm thinking some type of skycrane, which probably means the roof-mounted solar panels will have to go. I tried one and it worked, sort of, but it was seriously squirrelly to fly, I mostly just made big fireballs and just one or two soft landings. Gotta learn to pilot better I guess, but I think there's something off about the design also. But that's for later...

Spoiler

 

[Drax]

You should try Roverdude's Kolonization mod: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/72032-113-usi-kolonization-systems-mksoks-0404/ it's perfect for what you're building.
Check it out.

 

[Data4]

I'd start with the MKS light version, though. The full mod has all sorts of features that are poorly documented, due to Roverdude's tendency to revamp it every other month. Or, if you like figuring these things out go for the full blown modpack.

 

[Drax]

Yeah that's probably better.

 

[Prime Junta]

I prefer to play with vanillla until I've got it, as it were, figured out. (Okay I did install the Leonardo re-skin, because it looks sooo good, but I don't want any gameplay changes at this point.

Work on Mun base continues. I think I've got most of the hard problems solved. My current iteration features numerous improvements and refinements, notably --

• Made everything skycrane-capable with a docking port at top and centre.
• Turned my fuel storage unit into a tanker/skycrane. It got some serious lifting power, a better command pod (the others use Cubes), a heavy reaction wheel, and other stuff. A complete redesign in other words.
• Put landing struts on my command module, which will naturally be the bottom-most module in the lander stack. I'm now planning on landing the whole shebang in one go; I'll have to do some arithmetic to make sure I have sufficient TTW to do that on the Mun (on Kerbin, no way). If not, I'll have to do two launches; I want two tankers in any case, with one fueling up and the other docked on my space station, so I'd have made one anyway.
• Switch to a shorter but wider wheelbase rover base. This only slightly overlaps the biggest rocket modules which ought to make for an easier launch, as well as makes the modules much stabler and less likely to topple over.
• Switched the drill module from lengthwise to crosswise. With one radial tank of ore (full) on the opposite side, I get a near-perfect centre of gravity. I tried skycraning the previous setup and the off-balance drill module made it really hard; now it should drop as easily as the others.
• Moved a lot of the fiddly bits -- batteries, command pods, small fuel tanks where applicable -- inside the rover chassis instead of dangling outside.

Some minor tuning remains -- another ring of solar panels on the refinery unit, some adjusting of them on the command unit, tuning the springs and dampers on the wheels etc. -- then I'll be able to give another shot at stacking them into a rocket, or two, as the case may be. By far my most complex project so far.

Image related.

Spoiler

 

[vean]

One way to make a base is to put legs/wheels on the side, land it upright then tip it over onto the legs/wheels.

 

[Prime Junta]

How would you tip it over? In a controlled manner I mean, I'm all too good at tipping things over without intending.

I, however, have created a monster. Tomorrow we see if it will fly, and how far.

Spoiler

Payload all stacked, strutted, and ready to go.

And... the rocket, as yet in initial testing. My first of this size, or even close. I figure they work more or less the same way regardless of the size, fire comes out one end, it flies in the opposite direction.

 

[Data4]

RCS and or strong SAS will work on low grav planets and moons for tipping. You can also use sepratrons with reduced fuel to fire a short burst.

 

[Drax]

Or land it at a slight angle and let gravity do the rest.

 

[vean]

Nice lighting

 

[Prime Junta]

Mun Village has landed. Fuck me but was it a difficult drop. There were two problems: the payload flexed due to insufficient struts, which made it really hard to control, and my brlliant choice to use a mix of fuel+ox and monoprop engines on the skycrane stage made resource management really fiddly. Moreover, I kind of fucked up my launch which meant I had to burn most of my delta-V getting to low polar Mun orbit, and didn't have any left on my orbital stage to kill the orbital velocity, which was my plan, which meant that I was also on a very tight margin for the landing.

But, well, I did it. Eventually. Pictures related.

Spoiler

 

[vean]

Turns out you can have a kerbal grab the winch and carry it around.

Next I decided to activate the winch and bring Bill back. He hit the ship and started bouncing wildly until he disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving behind a eerily floating EVA tank and drill.

Lesson learned, I decided to head back. After landing the game wouldn't let me recover, or load, or save, or go to the space center. I had to force quit.

After restarting the last save the game successfully made was when Bill was still alive.

Weird.

 

[Prime Junta]

I've been learning to design space planes. Those things are hard. All stock parts and unmodded game.

It took me quite some days to get from this (my first one that made orbit and back):

Spoiler

... to this, which flies like an angel and can rock a take-off weight of well over a hundred tons. I have three variants -- passenger, seating 40, fuel, capable of taking ~2500 units of fuel + ox to LKO, and cargo, which rocks a big Mk 3 cargo bay and two Mk 2 ones:

Spoiler

It's still the same basic design, just scaled up like nuts.

It's not quite perfected yet -- I still want to tweak the tail section for, I hope, even better handling and perhaps better looks.

And then maybe I'll install my first gameplay-affecting mod -- one that does aerodynamics more realistically <gulp>.

 

[Drax]

Those are nice, I could never master spaceplanes.
You should try B9, it has all kinds of cool spaceplane parts.

 

[VladimirK]

And then maybe I'll install my first gameplay-affecting mod -- one that does aerodynamics more realistically <gulp>.

Good luck and have fun.

FAR will it make much harder to control your atmospheric flight vehicles. If you get tired of trying to make your SSTOs passively stable, check out AtmosphereAutopilot.

 

[Ashery]

I always found FAR makes the game easier as it makes the aerodynamics more intuitive.

 

[Yaar Podshipnik]

My "spaceplanes" generally crash shortly after takeoff. Never could get hang of it.

 

[Drax]

 

[Burning Bridges]

What? Still no clouds?

 

[Drax]

The fuck you want clouds for?