[carbine7]

Very Sword-of-the-Stars-like design there Nuke, awesome. Reminds me, I can get to my previously mentioned project now....

[Nuke]

definitely going to be building a better designed mk2 version. il probibly keep the fuel segment, redo the propulsion segment, ditch the rcs segment and improve the ring segment, and build a better lander, and then build it engine -> ring -> fuel so i can jettison fuel segments as needed. gonna take what i have out and see what it can do, and that will give me a better idea of what needs to be done.

e:
needless to say it broke up shortly after reaching kerbin escape velocity. first the engines broke off. ripped all four quad couplers right off. right on the one module i didnt need, the rcs pod. i decided early on i would jettison it with the first fuel pod, but it didnt even make it that far. sent jeb out to disconnect the broken rcs segment from the engines so i could attempt a re-docking with the engine cluster. failing that i figured id have to toss the fuel too. in an attempt to save fuel jeb started transfering fuel from the pod to the engines, unfortunately the engine was on and the thing commenced to spinning and promptly disintegrated into a cloud of debris. fortunately i still had the lander engine. unfortunately when i tried to return to kerbin orbit i ran into said debris, and it somehow managed to disconnect my rover from the ship in a way that was not subject to the possibility of repair. but the lander was still intact so jeb and 4 of the 9 crew decided to detour for minmus instead, and are now doing donuts in the rover. the remaining 5 kerbonauts are stuck on whats left of the ring, they may not have propulsion, or electricity, but they have gravity (and plenty of fuel).

one thing i noticed is that i need to put on a pod core or a seat so i can control bits as they fall off, to prevent making things worse. i also redesigned the ring, adding more hitchiker modules, and also merging it with the engine cluster. unfortunately i was too pissed off to hit f1 a bunch of times, hopefully i can post pics of the rescue mission.

[Nuke]

new version puts everything that is a ship on the ring segment. so you only need to add fuel pods and possibly extra rcs tanks if desired. more space for kerbals, and i threw in some cockpits so i didnt have to clime ladders to get to the command pod at the hub. i wanted to use the cupolas but couldn't get it to work right, and they are also really heavy. im convinced the ring by itself can make it to duna or eve, and i figure each fuel pod you add extends you out to the next orbit.


here i am siphoning fuel off of the damaged fuel pods. i didnt use it all, and since i ejected my forward rcs pods i decided i didnt want to take it with me.

i used a lot of rcs fuel to manuver the ship, since the new version has fewer gyros. i may rectify that eventually, but for now i can just refuel from the old ring.

it was also loaded with fuel and a lot of rcs tankage. 4 tanks turned out to be enough if you are not doing a lot of docking, i only used about a third of it. but i decided i wanted to minimize my refueling process at kerbin

nother shot of the ring-ring docking. i figure the rest of this may be useful on future missions so i just leave it foating somewhere between duna and kerbin. i return the crew to kerbin space where i will pick up jeb from minmus, refuel, equip, and try again. seems it all comes down to the large docking ports being a load of suck. with shoddy tensile strength. they dont seem to like to multidock like the smaller ports do. i seriously considering using smaler ones, the would at least be somewhat easier to align.

all in all the new version worked a lot better. fixed the power issues with rtgs, i can just leave the lights on now. i put seats and solar panels on the fuel pods to make them controllable if bad things happen. im considering swapping the shileded side ports with non shielded ones, and then equip manuvering pods to them to minimize stress on the joints. i need to add more gyros though, the ship has no turning power.

[crizza]

I don't even pretend to know how you all build these impressive rockets, mine are all Saturn V things^^

[Nuke]

well this is what the ring looks like on the pad.

takes 12 large tanks and 8 mainsails to just get it part of the way to orbit. at about 2000m i also light the 12 nervas, where their isp > 400. just before the tanks run out i jettison them and they shoot off the ship because they have more twr than the nervas. i then turn under it to avoid collision. the nervas are still somewhat slow so i need to aim for a high appogee and then spend a long time burning the nervas at 45 degrees just to buy me time to complete the orbit. the ring tanks are almost completely drained in orbit, which is why i need to dock up at least one fuel pod if i want to go interplanetary.

[carbine7]

Yes, launching large scale constructions, whether they be stations or deep space vessels, is something of an art. By art, I mean something more along the lines of "finally discovering how to shove a whale into space and just barely make orbit". Coincidentally may or may not have anything to do with the axiom of "Add More Boosters!"

[Nuke]

i only ever use srbs if i have a slow initial climb. i then use them as a means to add acceleration while i wait for the tanks to drain enough to be somewhat more effective. though sometimes i will add lf tanks to the tops of the boosters for a little bit extra fuel capacity.

[Colonol Dekker]

Manouver nodes mastery +1 exp.

[pecenipicek]

Manouver nodes mastery +1 exp.

could you please not use those atrocities? there's enough e-peen competitions everywhere around already.

[Colonol Dekker]

I earned it

[Herra Tohtori]

I made a trip to the Mun with 0.22 Sandbox, using the rendezvous mission profile for the first time. All my previous missions to Mun had been direct ascent profiles, with no separate lander and orbiter vehicles.

Pictured below is the lander design I used, sitting on the surface of Mun with a proud Kerbal being photographed by the other crewman.




Incidentally I performed my first docking in space during this mission as well.

Aside from the several unplanned flips during which the pointy end of my rocket pointed towards ground and the end where fire comes out pointed to the sky, and I thought we wouldn't go to space today, everything went well. The following doesn't count:

-Landed with hardly any fuel to spare, and with way over-spec horizontal velocity, skipped a few times and skid to a halt

-had a mishap during stay on surface where accidentally docking mode engaged and, having mapped throttle to a different axis than normally, the engine ignited, skipping the lander up and when I landed it, it fell over to side - but I managed to right it with RCS and nothing was broken

-ascent module of the lander had disconnected fuel lines (missing symmetry) and I only noticed this when engines cut out in sub-orbital trajectory over Mun and I had to manually transfer fuel from one tank to another so that the engine could feed from it

-planning for the rendezvous with the command module, the MechJeb was no help since it apparently thought that I should orbit prograde when in fact the command module was orbiting retrograde due to the way I arrived to Mun (I accidentally the most perfect free return trajectory ever)


...But other than that everything went just as planned! Except the landing to Kerbin, which fell quite a bit short of MechJeb's prediction after jettisoning the service module... which means I need to install some sort of RCS for the command module so I can control my descent AFTER detaching the command module.


Here is a picture from the rendezvous with the Munar Excursion Module and separation from Stage III of my launch vehicle:



...And here is a picture of said launch vehicle during its development:



Space was not gotten to that day.


Oh by the way I made/re-made a cloudy Kerbin texture, in which the clouds have shadows if they are north or south of the equator (at equator, the sun shines from straight up at noon so I couldn't make shadows for them, and I didn't want to make sideways shadows when the light comes in odd angle - but at polar regions, it works out quite well):



The ship in this picture is one of my early unmanned Science Probes that I was using to harvest science in the campaign mode.


I planned to transfer the video from Twitch to Youtube, but turns out Twitch no longer automatically archives streams and the video is now lost to the bit space. But I hope to do more stuff with this launch vehicle, command module and lander.

[ShivanSpS]

Good enoght? lol

[Mongoose]

Any landing you walk away from.

[Nuke]

just roll it up a hill and launch off the side.

[ShivanSpS]

lol at least it ended on foot this time :P

[watsisname]

*Chhhzzzz* Eh, roger, we have a good approa-- *SPROIIING* *tumble* oh god oh geez oh crap oh god

[ShivanSpS]

it was the legs, i changed them for bigger ones and it can land now, i also created a slightly bigger version that if done right, it can launch back to space and return to Kerbin, i tested it with the mun and i maded back with 0.8/245 of fuel lol

[ShivanSpS]

"put 4 wheels and its now a rover" lol

[Phantom Hoover]

BEST MOD

[Aardwolf]

...And here is a picture of said launch vehicle during its development:



Space was not gotten to that day.

Reminds me of Ridgedog's "The Wiggler"