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Post by Adkenpachi on Oct 22, 2013 18:54:18 GMT -5
I find re aligning a real pain, I'm probably doing it wrong so I'll have to go back through tutorials :/ I didn't really do them in the first place
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Post by Julian Sharps on Oct 24, 2013 0:56:26 GMT -5
I successfully got a control module attached to my space station, and put it into a higher orbit to make time warping easier.
However, the shot that I literally spent hours on was an unmanned Duna landing attempt. It took me four tries to get the damn thing to stay in Duna's SOI (I kept forgetting important things like batteries and more fuel), and the last attempt got me an aerobraking orbit. However, my periapsis was pretty high up in Duna's atmosphere, and I was just about out of fuel in my lander, so I decided to wait for the drag from the atmosphere to gradually slow me down over the course of many orbits. On the final orbit, I popped the parachutes, aligned my landing legs with the retrograde vector, I even burned the last of my fuel to drop my horizontal speed even further, but I still spread that probe across a wide swath of the Dunaian landscape.
Ah, well. I still got a lot of Science off of that one. Time to build a better lander.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Oct 24, 2013 13:58:14 GMT -5
In other news, my better lander made it to the ground in one piece. However, it tipped over shortly after touchdown, and my attempts to right it and get its solar panels aligned with the motion of the Sun caused one of the panels to break off while stowed. Still, it's upright now, and transmitting Science.
On a not-so-happy note, Patlorf Kerman was killed after returning from the Ansel Station Docking Adapter Installation mission. Apparently, a manufacturing defect put the shaped charges that deploy the radial parachutes facing the wrong way, causing all three parachute housings to be blown off during deployment. Although the mission was a resounding success (Patlorf also realigned the science module so that there'd be more room for other modules), Patlorf was reported killed on impact.
Anyway, I'm going to have to send up another docking adapter so I can put up an array of large fuel tanks so that Ansel Station becomes a fuel depot for better-run manned interplanetary missions.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Oct 30, 2013 17:07:44 GMT -5
A sad fate has befallen my Career Mode save file. Specifically, every spacecraft that I have ever launched has suddenly ceased to be.
This happened because I was trying to install the B9 Aerospace parts pack mod, but I screwed it up and accidentally deleted the Squad parts files from the game, and when I tried to load a new tech tree (one that's supposed to be compatible with the B9 pack), the game erased all of my spacecraft that did not have B9 parts on them (so, all of them). To rub salt in the wound, my computer apparently can't run the game using the B9 pack, period.
However, I have not let this unfortunate happenstance deter me, for I have yet another brilliant plan for a KSP project: The Kerbin Kethane Mining Company. The idea is this: the Kerbal Space Program has fallen upon hard times. Budget cuts have forced the program to all but shut down space operations, and they've had to let most of their kerbonauts go. However, they were given an opportunity to keep going. Peak kethane has already been reached on Kerbin, and an energy crisis is imminent. So, the Kerbal Space Program has been repurposed into the Kerbin Kethane Mining Company, tasked with finding off-world sources of kethane and bringing it back to Kerbin so that civilization can continue.
So, beginning with the veterans Bob, Jeb, and Bill, the KKMC is currently assembling a space station in low Kerbin orbit (altitude ~120 km), mapping the surface of Minmus for kethane deposits, and training a new corps of kerbonauts who will explore strange, new worlds, and seek out new sources of kethane, and new ways of getting at them, and to boldly go where few kerbals have gone before.
Now that the intro's out of the way, here's the juicy stuff: the station in LKO is currently composed of a space station C&C core, two solar power modules, a control systems module (a large SAS module and two fat RCS tanks), and a new docking array for up to six fuel and/or kethane tanks. Next up will be another docking array for some ships, I'll put up a habitat expansion module, and possibly some escape pods.
My heavy lift rocket is a good one; a total of six stages (not counting payload), composed of eight asparagus-staged 1-meter liquid fuel boosters surrounding a 2-meter main column (Mainsail-powered), and an in-line booster stage made from a quad-coupled 1-meter stack. The only trouble I've had with it recently was when I tried to get the docking array up to the station (it turns out that the problem was the fact that two of the docking pylons were aligned with the C/SM's main engines, interfering with the rocket's exhaust flow and reducing the amount of thrust I was getting to not much better than my RCS).
Future missions will include a second docking adapter for ships (I'll probably repurpose the descent profile so that I can rescue Bill, who ran out of fuel while deorbiting, leaving his periapsis just above the edge of the atmosphere (even his decoupler won't give him enough delta-v to get him into an aerocapture encounter with Kerbin)), some fuel tanks for the station's fuel array, and a manned mission to Minmus, to start looking for a good place to set up a spaceport.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Nov 12, 2013 13:07:56 GMT -5
So, after my copy of KSP accidentally got deleted during a purge of the family computer's hard drive, I'm in the process of reconstructing my Kerbin Kethane Mining Company save file. I decided to design my space station in the VAB (which also got me designing the two modules I had planned but never built; an expanded habitat module with a couple cupolas, and a bank of escape pods. I also got my lighting set up properly), save each module as its own subassembly, and then ship them up on rockets that way.
However, in the process of redesigning my Mk. 2 heavy lift vehicle (one which was capable of lifting a full orange fuel tank plus a probe tug to dock it with the station to orbit with half of the core stage's fuel capacity remaining), I somehow managed to make it even more powerful. When putting my space station core up, the core stage was left almost fully fueled (I have since decided that I will send up multiple modules on the thing per launch).
Still, I will complete this space station like I did the previous one, and I will then go to Minmus to start hunting for that sweet, sweet kethane.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Nov 18, 2013 18:53:19 GMT -5
Yesterday, I think I discovered the payload limit on my heavy lift vehicle; a full orange tank, two fat RCS tanks, two Cupolas, and a crew tank. They almost didn't get into orbit; I had to start siphoning off fuel from the payload tank just to make my orbital burn. However, that tank is now safely docked with the station.
What is not safely docked with the station is an orange tank I sent up along with Dudnard Station's Emergency Escape System. The EES is safely docked to the station, but it took all of my remaining RCS to get it docked. So, I sent out my RCS construction probe out to retrieve it, only to run out of RCS fuel while attempting the docking. So, after I docked it to the station and transferred over its excess fuel, I sent my shiny new kethane miner out after it. Unfortunately, that too ran out of fuel while attempting to dock with the station, so now I'm going to have to come up with a cunning plan to successfully retrieve them, perhaps by separating them into the kethane rig/construction probe and fuel tank.
That said, Dudnard Station is officially the largest space station I have ever assembled. Due to the complexity of the project, as well as the ludicrously slow frame rate due to lag, I will probably never build another like it again.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Nov 25, 2013 21:54:58 GMT -5
Here, Jebediah Kerman plants a flag marking where he first struck green on Minmus, with the lander doing its thing behind him, and off in the distance Kerbin and the Mun hang in the sky with the galactic disc as a backdrop.
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Post by Adkenpachi on Nov 26, 2013 16:18:39 GMT -5
Very nice looking lander
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Post by Julian Sharps on Nov 26, 2013 18:02:29 GMT -5
Thank you. However, it has a few design flaws (the legs are too long for the kethane drills to reach the ground, the lighting rig should be a permanent component rather than a module docked at the bottom because I forgot to attach it, and it doesn't have enough power storage or generation capacity to run all four drills and the kethane converter without draining its power supply. It also lacks a ladder, although you don't really need one on Minmus), although I can live with them. Here's a shot of Dudnard Station (with the Space Train docked, preparing for its first run to Minmus): And here, the Space Train has docked with Macford Station, in orbit around Minmus: While mining kethane, Jensey and Haddo Kerman had a jumping contest on the surface of Minmus. While both of them cleared the 10+ meter tall lander, Haddo still thinks that Jensey cheated by using his thruster pack when he wasn't looking.
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Post by Trooper One-Nine-Seven-Four on Nov 26, 2013 18:07:50 GMT -5
Beautiful screen shots! Now that I am done with class, Kerbal is calling to me... Sounds like you need to stick some nuclear reactors and MOAR solar panels on the lander. See what I did to the LandDerpy rover on page 2... I did a round trip rescue of stranded Kerbalnauts at night, and the rover never went below about 75% power while the sun was down.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Nov 26, 2013 18:42:37 GMT -5
Believe me, the Mk. 1A kethane lander will have a small battery of RTGs in addition to the other modifications the design needs. After all, that one will be going to the Mun, and possibly to Moho, Gilly, Ike, Dres, Vall, Bop, Pol, and Eeloo. If I mount some parachutes, it'll even be able to go to Duna and Laythe.
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Post by jenburdoo on Dec 23, 2013 0:27:16 GMT -5
I've been messing with KSP recently, have recently succeeded in my first orbital flight, albeit by using a precreated spacecraft. All I've achieved with my own designs so far are some impressive suborbital hops. My biggest problem is that my computer is crappy and virus ridden, leading to choppy animation and slow command response. My second biggest is that I haven't quite got the hang of all the controls yet. But watching Youtube vids has inadvertently helped a bit with that, as I am seeing some commonly used ones.
Edit: I just achieved solar (Kerbolian?) orbit with a mere five SRBs and a Stayputnik probe. Was NOT expecting that; I guess Stayputniks are really freaking light compared to the one-Kerbal capsules I could never get far with SRBs.
One thing I can't figure out is whether it's possible to see a mission log from a successful mission. Crashes result in a timeline and a bunch of interesting statistics, but landings don't for some reason. Dunno why -- I'd love to review my past flights.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Dec 23, 2013 10:49:49 GMT -5
F3 should solve that one for you.
In the meantime, I've established Thomemone Base on Minmus (no screenshots yet), and successfully landed my first rover on the moon: a truck with a ton of RTGs with which to power my mobile kethane mining rig. Unfortunately, I accidentally rolled it over when trying to drive it over to the base, and I'm still trying to figure out a way flip it upright again. I might just have to send another truck and be careful not to drive it in flight mode.
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Post by jenburdoo on Dec 24, 2013 2:13:16 GMT -5
F3 works during the flight, but not, apparently, after it's over.
Just tried a sub-sub-orbital hop on career mode; put Jebediah Kerman on EVA for the science benefit but he let go almost immediately (around 8,000 meters up). I hastily looked for and learned the jetpack controls (nothing like urgency to teach you something new), but despite constant downward thrusting he became a splat on the landscape.
But he was grinning all the way down.
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Post by Adkenpachi on Dec 24, 2013 4:22:04 GMT -5
It's fun to do glados style science on the kerbins
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Post by jenburdoo on Dec 31, 2013 19:34:27 GMT -5
Finally made it into orbit on my own. Didn't last long as the periapsis was under 70km, so after two orbits the Stayputnik I launched was dragged back down. But still! Now to fit an engine and fuel to the Stayputnik so I can circularize the orbit and stay up. Either that or add a parachute...
Edit: And now I've achieved permanent orbit -- but without battery power left to maneuver with the fuel I had left over. Good thing it was unmanned, huh?
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Post by Adkenpachi on Jan 1, 2014 4:14:55 GMT -5
I'm bad, I used kerbals as test pilots
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Post by jenburdoo on Jan 3, 2014 9:16:43 GMT -5
Finally got a Kerbal into orbit (and back) on my own. In the process, learned the pitfalls of the staging system. I had to manually click on the engine to start it, for example, since as it turned out it had ended up in the wrong stage. Afterwards I went into a chatroom and learned how to read the list of stages and move things around within it, so my next missions should work a little better without stages coming apart at the wrong times. Nothing like accidentally separating the engine you needed to get home while in deep space to frustrate you.
I also made my first RCS flight with a Kerbal on EVA. A little easier than I expected, and he made it back to the ship after a little trial and error. Now to learn about rendezvous.
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Post by jenburdoo on Jan 10, 2014 13:37:12 GMT -5
My second RCS attempt was disastrous; I kept overcompensating and quickly lost track of the ship. Poor Jeb entered atmo by himself.
I'm now using MechJeb to do some of the harder stuff, like rendezvous. It's inefficient, but it works better if you reset some of the parameters (like to terminal velocity during launch so that it doesn't waste fuel going faster than necessary. I really like how it takes the aiming out of things, because my computer is slow and laggy.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Jan 11, 2014 0:42:27 GMT -5
Trust me, it's worth it to learn how to fly manually. MechJeb is useful (especially if you're using ion-powered probes, or are doing anything that requires burn times lasting longer than ten minutes), but is no replacement for a competent pilot.
Also, if you think docking is hard, try landing. At least with docking, your target isn't pulling you towards it at ridiculously fast speeds. And when I say "try landing," I mean landing somewhere that isn't Gilly or has an atmosphere. I suggest you try Minmus; the surface gravity is easier to compensate for, and there are wide expanses of landing sites at sea level.
You know what would be nice? A radar altimeter that doesn't require you to be in IVA mode to use it.
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Post by yvain on Jan 11, 2014 11:06:28 GMT -5
I second what Julian is saying. I had to watch 4 hours of videos on piloting, maneuvers, and instrument reading. However, doing do let me accomplish most of my goals much more efficiently.
The crowning achievement was when I rescued Gilbert, who let go of his craft and was orbiting Kerbin for three years at low altitude thanks to my new found knowledge.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Jan 11, 2014 12:16:30 GMT -5
Additionally, MechJeb is really bad at rescuing stranded Kerbals. That one time where I successfully retrieved Alkin Kerman after he ran out of fuel? Couldn't be done with MechJeb.
However, I have considered using MechJeb for the improved instrumentation. For one thing, it has a usable radar altimeter.
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Post by Adkenpachi on Jan 11, 2014 14:00:51 GMT -5
You need instruments? Have they done an overhaul on the game in the last couple of months?
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Post by yvain on Jan 12, 2014 8:33:09 GMT -5
I mean the navball, the screen markers, etc etc. There is nothing new.
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Post by Adkenpachi on Jan 12, 2014 10:51:40 GMT -5
Oh right, I wish they'd put s N, E, S and W on the navball.
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