Kerbal Space Program

[Kerberos42 0]

Care to post a pic of the launch vehicle? I find there is a lack of parts to use the larger components. I'd like an adapter to nicely mate the larger and smaller diameter components.

[RoboRay 126]

Sure thing. I'm using all 1m "small" parts right now, except for the command capsule.

 

The LV is kind of a beast, though. The whole system is pretty marginal for Munar operations. My next design will be using the bigger 2m parts. I had something that worked well for the 1-man capsule, so I wanted to see if I could beef up the LV for the bigger version.

 

Here we are on the pad:

 

 

 

 

 

A variety of size adapters are supposed to be in the next 0.17 patch, which also adds four planets and their moons.

 

Launching:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This thing needs a lot of struts to brace all these columns of parts and prevent things from twisting around, especially in the lower stages. It ends up being three motors in each of the lower two stages for each of the three motors in the upper stages. They are all the big stock 1m motors with gimbal control, except for the little ones on the lander itself.

 

[HiFlyer 9,359]

That is............

 

Severely over-engineered!! :blink:

 

I would have to be in a bunker 100 miles away when it took off. (BOOM!!!)

 

Glad to see it worked, though.

[RoboRay 126]

Yeah, it grew out like that from trying to upgrade the smaller launcher I had used for the smaller lander. Next ships will be simpler, using the bigger parts.

 

I find the lander itself and the uppermost launcher stage to be quite elegant designs, however.

 

[RoboRay 126]

Here's my next Mun mission, and my first attempt at a precision landing at a designated touch-down point.

 

Just after the TMI burn:

 

 

Upon arrival in lunar orbit, I adjusted my orbital inclination to bring me directly over my previous landing spot, where the crew is still on the ground:

 

 

One more lap around the Mun and I'll make my landing. I did pretty good, I guess, setting down 250m away from the other lander. That's almost as good as Pete Conrad managed on Apollo 12, setting down 200m from one of the old Surveyor probes so they could bring back some parts off it.

 

Meanwhile, on the Mun, each crew sent a member to exchange gossip half way in between:

 

 

Oh, and just in case you're wondering where the command capsules parachute is, if you position them carefully, it's possible to arrange three small chutes on the nose of the 3-man capsule and still fit a small decoupler over them to hang more stuff off the nose of the spacecraft. I did this to lower the center of gravity, but the thing still tries to tip over if you have any horizontal drift when you touch.

[xplanery 250]

Discovered this game yesterday when I was looking some random gaming videos in Youtube, bought it and I like it really much, one of the best games I've ever bought.

 

So far I have just created some unstable rockers and launched some Kerbals to outer space, next I will probably try fly to moon.

 

 

This is my first flyable "spaceplane" although it really can't go anywhere near space, but at least it's flyable and also can land like a helicopter thanks to several parachutes on it.

 

And image quality is bad because I resized this image in paint, in game it all looks nice.

 

[RoboRay 126]

I haven't messed with spaceplanes much, as I've been focused on getting to the Mun. I'll probably play with them some more now, though.

 

In any case, the interior views coming in 0.17 are looking pretty good!

 

[RoboRay 126]

My first successful orbital rendezvous:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn't quite get them into perfectly matched orbits suitable for docking (whenever we get docking), but did swap a couple of crewmembers via EVA.

[HiFlyer 9,359]

Funny how these games can sort of grab ya' :lol:

[Kerberos42 0]

That's awesome! I have no problem achieving orbit, the trick I'm facing is achieving my "desired" orbit. I need to spend more time with the orbital tutorials.

[RoboRay 126]

I was in a low orbit, only 100km, which makes it harder. That deep in the gravity-well, the slightest altitude change creates significant drift.

 

My next attempt will be up around 400km, which should make it much easier to get the two craft locked into matching orbits for some formation-flying.

[xplanery 250]

Got to the Mun although I failed to reduce enough speed and hit the surface with high speed.

 

Anyway this is promising, my next target will be getting some kerbals there so that they stay alive.

[RoboRay 126]

I'm looking forward to the next update, due to the new planets with atmospheres. Parachute-assisted landings will be much easier than vertical powered descents. Actually getting to those planets will be a bit harder, though. The delta-V requirements will actually be less than munar flights (if you take advantage of aerobraking to capture into orbit and bleed off speed on your descent), but the transfer orbits will require more precision.

 

I've been working on a lander for Duna (the Mars-like planet) that looks a bit like the Hornet lander I showed earlier, but with four "outrigger" side-pods instead of two, and a single aerospike motor under the center tank. I'll post a picture later, as I'm at work right now. But anyway, it uses a single parachute atop the tower on the nose as a drogue to stabilize the decent in a nose-up attitude, then I deploy four more big chutes, one from each outrigger, for the actual landing.

 

It can handle landings on Kerbin without damage, so I think it will be OK on Duna (assuming the thin atmosphere doesn't reduce the effectiveness of the chutes too much. But the gravity will be lower too, which will help, and I can fire the motor while hanging in the chutes too, if my final descent rate is too high. If not, it should reach the ground fully fueled

 

The lander can take off from Kerbin, too, but not reach orbit there. I'm hoping the much easier ascent on Duna will make a return to orbit possible, although actually bringing the crew home may require docking with another craft (or my trans-Duna stage) to take on fuel, which appears to be getting really close thanks to this upcoming mod: http://kerbalspacepr...110-Docking-mod

 

An alternative, if the docking mod doesn't work out, would be to simply fly a second orbiter-only ship to Duna with room to take the lander's crew on board (using the Crew Tank mod, maybe), rendezvous in Duna-orbit, and EVA them over to the orbiter for the trip home.

[Kerberos42 0]

I need more time with this program. It would be great if it ever came to the iPad, this is becoming my go to device replacing my desktop for pretty much everything except actual development work. I think the touch interface would be phenomenal for working with Kerbals.

[Kerberos42 0]

Just found this, pretty cool what can be done with this software.