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Post by jenburdoo on Feb 7, 2014 19:17:57 GMT -5
Yesterday Circle IV made a high flyby of Minmus and Circle V ducked out of Kerbin's SOI to do science high over the sun. Made enough science points to pick up the Skipper engine, Rockomax tanks and unmanned tech, which nets me the ability to use MechJeb for launch and landing. So after Circle VI does low polar orbit of Minmus to collect EVA biome science, I'll build a heavier ship and try for a Minmus landing on Circle VII.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Feb 8, 2014 1:54:22 GMT -5
Due to an unexpected bout of employment today, I now have a suborbital kerbal about five minutes away from spreading himself and his lander all over the Minmus Highlands. I'm confident that I can accomplish his mission in spite of this little snag.
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Post by jenburdoo on Feb 12, 2014 20:41:22 GMT -5
Circle VI, carrying Bill Kerman, orbited Minmus and picked up ALL the biomes on EVA. Unfortunately lost the temperature gauges and materials lab on landing back at Kerbin. I'm torn now between using my new Skippers and Rockomaxes to attempt a landing on Minmus, or train up my non-orange-suited Kerbalnauts with a series of suborbital hops to various Kerbin biomes to do science.
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Post by jenburdoo on Feb 13, 2014 20:04:13 GMT -5
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Post by Julian Sharps on Feb 14, 2014 0:41:37 GMT -5
You seem to have switched from Jeb to Bill between the first and third pics. Other than that, your lander design looks familiar. Have you been following Scott Manley's career mode tutorial videos?
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Post by jenburdoo on Feb 14, 2014 19:40:03 GMT -5
The first shot was from the botched Touchdown I; Touchdown II was a (much more successful) do-over. I have seen some Scott Manley, but it was mostly that I wanted three science packages and I understand the tri-coupler is slightly off balance.
Currently I'm watching kurtjmac vids.
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Post by jenburdoo on Feb 26, 2014 21:12:23 GMT -5
Made a second three-biome landing on Minmus, but landed back in Kerbin's ocean and all the science mechanisms broke off. While they survived, I still couldn't recover them as they were classed as debris... errgh. I still got enough science to pick up the rest of the science-collecting devices, so I'll do some quiet orbital flights for a while to try out the new gravity detector and sensor nosecone.
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Post by jenburdoo on Apr 2, 2014 23:30:17 GMT -5
The 23.5 version is out, with freakin' asteroids, humongous rocket parts and (most importantly for my space program) an escape system. I've been playing my career game a lot less recently, as I've gotten most of the science without even getting away from Kerbin, but this might drag me back in. With the new rocket bits I might be able to finally try a launch to other planets.
I'm seriously thinking of bringing a copy of the demo to work and trying to get teens to play it. I've applied to test the educational version of the game, dunno if they'll accept it since I don't technically work at a school.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Apr 2, 2014 23:52:10 GMT -5
I need to get back into this game.
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Post by jenburdoo on Apr 4, 2014 23:28:21 GMT -5
Now that the new pieces and asteroids have been added, I'm seriously thinking about doing a mission-report series on the KSP forums, covering the fictional history of my next career playthrough. Edit 4/22: Flew this ship, the Jool I, into orbit and then on a free-return to the Mun. Nice and simple, using one of the new bigger engines and tanks. www.dropbox.com/s/9367mv06d5amwpz/Screenshot%202014-04-22%2000.35.12.pngI forgot to add batteries or solar panels, so had some trial and error learning to reduce my power usage (turns out you can deactivate the power when you don't want to use it). It became the payload for the 6x-sized, 11,875 m/s Delta-V Jool V: www.dropbox.com/s/pio0lfv1phksl0d/Screenshot%202014-04-22%2001.37.29.pngBut the launch failed because I forgot to look at the TWR, which in the lower stages turned out to be significantly under 1.0. A little flailing later, though, and the crew successfully aborted back into the ocean. Will have to rework tomorrow. Edit 4/23: Visiting Duna for the first time: www.dropbox.com/s/sukdspawwxbwzmr/Screenshot%202014-04-23%2000.38.32.png
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Post by jenburdoo on Apr 27, 2014 12:58:03 GMT -5
Tried to rendezvous and flyby an asteroid that was coming into Kerbin SOI, with no success. Even MechJeb wasn't much help catching up with it.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Apr 27, 2014 13:53:34 GMT -5
Something I want to try is to use Kerbal Attachment System to strap a seat and about a hundred parachutes to an asteroid, then have Jeb try to soft-land it on Kerbin. I think it can be done.
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Post by jenburdoo on May 1, 2014 0:23:32 GMT -5
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Post by jenburdoo on May 8, 2014 21:10:53 GMT -5
Have asked my bosses both at the library and the air museum about using KSP for programs, and have gotten positive feelers in return. I'm thinking to run it on a nice big projector screen and seeing if the kids can tell me what I need to get into orbit.
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Post by Trooper One-Nine-Seven-Four on May 8, 2014 21:16:15 GMT -5
Have asked my bosses both at the library and the air museum about using KSP for programs, and have gotten positive feelers in return. I'm thinking to run it on a nice big projector screen and seeing if the kids can tell me what I need to get into orbit. That is an awesome idea! Great way to get kids interested in STEM...
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Post by Adkenpachi on May 9, 2014 2:58:56 GMT -5
A bit like getting kids to play minecraft to teach them masonry though
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Post by Julian Sharps on May 9, 2014 6:42:06 GMT -5
Yes, but your creations in Minecraft don't get to explode when you screw up. At least, not right away.
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Post by Adkenpachi on May 9, 2014 14:29:06 GMT -5
Frakking creepers be creepin
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Post by jenburdoo on May 9, 2014 19:22:14 GMT -5
Besides, I'm not expecting them to learn anything specific. I won't be testing anyone. But after playing KSP for an hour, if they just happen to pass by a table stacked with books about the space program, I can hope for results.
After all, KSP has gotten me stargazing and reading again. That's a good end result for any educator.
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Post by jenburdoo on May 17, 2014 19:37:16 GMT -5
Deleted my saves and basically started over. Right now trying to get orbital rendezvous down, which even with MJ seems pretty fething difficult. After rereading Carrying the Fire, I want to recreate Gemini-Agena -- it would be a good way of getting smaller ships to farther planets.
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Post by Julian Sharps on May 17, 2014 23:12:58 GMT -5
MechJeb gets confused easily when it comes to orbital rendezvous; your best bet would be to learn to rendezvous and dock manually.
Rendezvous is all about the timing, and getting your orbits to mostly match your target's until you have a close approach of only a few kilometers, then wait until you're near closest approach and switch to target mode. Once in target mode, point yourself retrograde (this is retrograde relative to the target, not your orbit) and burn until your relative velocity is near zero (or, if you're a stickler for it, at zero), then turn to face the target and burn towards it. I try to allow ~100 seconds of deceleration time when I'm making my rendezvous, eventually coming in to dock at ~5 m/s. I found that trying to build large modular space stations helped immensely with learning to rendezvous properly (that, and my numerous rescue missions in the process of doing so).
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Post by jenburdoo on May 18, 2014 8:21:37 GMT -5
Hm, Julian, those instructions are actually clear and no-nonsense compared to what I've been getting elsewhere. Thanks! I'm pretty sure MJ can do it because I have done it before, it's programming it that's the problem. But knowing how to do it myself will help me figure out what instructions to give...
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Post by Julian Sharps on May 30, 2014 23:15:01 GMT -5
So, decided to try out my epic KSP game, Commercial Space Program, without the Interstellar Pack, and so far, it's working.
Right off the bat, I discovered a couple of sizable impactor asteroids (a C and D-class), the first of which will impact in less than 100 days (all times are given in Kerbal units). Considering that I have not yet figured out how to insert massive claw-like things into rocks, this could be problematic, since I would kinda like to avoid an asteroid impact if at all possible.
The first few missions went well enough, although my first two attempts to get to orbit ended up as suborbital flights. Fortunately, no one died, and I managed to gather quite a bit of science for early flights.
Now, however, I face a new challenge: my first Munar flyby mission is in trouble. Specifically, I accidentally underspeced the mission and stranded the pilot on an escape trajectory to Sunar orbit. This is a problem because I'm using the TAC Life Support mod, and while this guy has about a month and a half of oxygen, water, and snacks, he only has about 16 days of electricity, and I haven't invented solar panels yet. I've been getting out and pushing for a while, but even my patience has limits, and I can't send a rescue mission because the biggest rockets I can build fly themselves apart at around 6-7 kilometers.
I suppose if the pilot dies, then it'll be a recovery mission for when I have Kerbal space salvagers. There's still a lot of life support supplies in that thing.
Pics to come when I can get around to retrieving them.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Jun 2, 2014 20:14:11 GMT -5
Turns out that there's no way I can save him without getting out and pushing, and frankly, firing the EVA pack long enough to cancel out several hundred meters/second of velocity is far too tedious for my tastes. So, I've decided to start anew.
First few launches went well, although Jeb apparently kidnapped Bob and took his place on the first launch to orbit (I kid you not, I distinctly selected Bob, only to discover that Jeb was in the pilot's seat. It was amusing). I also sent up a satellite to orbit the Mun and collect materials bay data from high munar orbit and low munar orbit, although it'll run out of power eventually, since I haven't invented solar panels yet.
Anyway, my latest mission was a twofer: a manned munar flyby, with a kethane probe strapped to the top. However, it ended up a bust. The probe screwed up on its plane change maneuver and shot out into deep space, and Jeb's parachutes tore off on landing, causing him to splash down at ~80 m/s. Hopefully, the TAC permadeath settings don't apply to Bob, Jeb, and Bill, because otherwise it makes it possible to lose at KSP. I'll give Jeb a couple weeks before declaring him dead. Who knows? Maybe he'll turn up as if nothing had happened.
Now, I'm beginning to worry about the sheer number of NKO asteroids I've spotted that are on impact trajectories, including a class E one. I have a ground pylon part from KW Rocketry that supposedly can dock onto other parts; maybe I can use that as a poor man's Advanced Grabbing Unit.
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Post by Julian Sharps on Jun 4, 2014 0:35:46 GMT -5
Apparently, even permadeath can't stop Jeb from coming back for more. He just showed up while Bill was out on his Minmus mission.
Yeah, Bill went to Minmus. He landed and returned safely, despite accidentally jettisoning his descent stage while landing. He brought back a bounty of science. Now, I can start scanning for kethane in earnest. I need to land on the Mun. It occurred to me that I have not done that yet. I need to go to Eve, Moho, Eeloo, Jool, Dres, and any moons they may have. I need to make a manned landing on Ike and Gilly. I need to go to the Sun, as well. I also need to make a manned landing on Duna. I should probably get to intercepting those asteroids before they hit Kerbin.
Yeah, there's a lot of stuff I haven't gotten around to yet in KSP, mostly because I focused on building infrastructure than sending individual missions.
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