So yeah, we picked up KSP on the Steam sale last night.. Been wanting it for a long time, and just wish I had the time to sink into learning it properly.

Anyway, summoned my son Kai (3-year old who loves rockets) over and he sat on my lap and we built our first rocket. Thankfully EinsteinEP was on Steam chat and pointed us in the right direction as far as parachutes go or we would have launched a Kerbal Cannonball..

FLIGHT 001

Went with a very simple solid rocket, separation stage, module, and parachute for the first flight. Didn't realize until the second flight that we could gimble the nozzle manually, so the first one landed back at the Space Center while the second one did what I wanted and ended up in the ocean.

The overriding concern, of course, was to not harm any Kerbals lest my son bust out into tears. Mission accomplished..!













Looks like a lot of fun will be had with this program. Certainly a big upgrade from Space Agency...

FLIGHT 002

So today we built our second rocket. It definitely looks like a.....contraption. I wasn't actually sure that it would stay together because it looked a bit err...wobbly on the launch pad.

Keeping in mind that I haven't read the manual (there is one right?) and don't know anything other than the brief two tutorial flights I flew, I stumbled upon the fact that the reason my rockets weren't lighting was because: duh - the throttles were at zero. That was why I had used a solid rocket booster for the first flight. So, with the throttle issue sorted, Kai hit the spacebar and we were off..

I did notice that there was an overheating bar that you could moderate based on throttle setting. I was quite surprised that the first stage took us a good ways downrange.



Staging was a bit, uh, almost disastrous, but it happened and I was surprised to see the second stage actually light..

At one point, around 61,000 meters, I lost control of my rocket. I guess as I left the atmosphere I lost some stability and I started to get some rolling and pitching that I couldn't quite figure out how to dampen. I shut off the rocket engine and continued upward on my ballistic trajectory. Fortunately, of the course of 60 seconds or so, I was able to figure out how to get my rocket somewhat pointed in the correct direction.





With my nose pointed the right way I re-ignited our motor and we were back on our way.



Checked the orbit view or the trajectory projection and it looked like we were definitely on a suborbital flight.



I pitched over, hoping for some velocity to reach orbit, but it didn't happen. We eventually ran out of velocity and started coming back down. I was surprised that the vehicle didn't break apart on reentry - maybe the re-entry altitude/speed wasn't high enough to generate super high temperatures.



Our parachute came out, and I must have forgotten to put a staging separator between the sustainer (?) motor and the capsule, so the whole kit came down together..



The rocket exploded when it hit the ground and I feared the worst (so did Kai!)..



To my surprise, the capsule was intact.. Kai was thrilled to see the Kerbal able to get out and jump. I did fail to mention to him that the capsule might have landed in Kerbalikstan, but he didn't need to know something like that. (Next in the series - Search and Rescue Kerbal Mission?)..






Anyway - super fun stuff and maybe I'll crack the manual and figure out some of the finer points. Then again, it's pretty fun to just bolt stuff on and go for it too. Maybe we can make it to space on accident..

BeachAV8R

Next stop....... The Mun . Welcome to the KSP addiction Chris.

It's always a pleasure reading about your adventures with Kai.


Wheels

The lure and addiction of KSP........ None can resist, all will be assimilated !

8.2g on the first launch - we need Kerbal black out animations ;-)

Looks like both of you had fun.... keep posting !

KSP is amazing! Taking care not to kill any Kerbals might prove difficult though, I hope you've braced yourself!

KSP is amazing! Taking care not to kill any Kerbals might prove difficult though, I hope you've braced yourself!

It gets much more interesting with mods. Like the "deadly reentry" mod which adds part heating during reentry.

FLIGHT 003/004

So we had some initial success on sub-orbital flights (think initial Mercury capsule flights)..so we did what any enterprising rocketeer would do - built a bigger one! *

* Once again - in an attempt to preserve the discovery phase of the program, we haven't read any instructions or watched the online beginners tutorials..we are just figuring it out as we go..

So our second rocket was a two-stage affair but we had some problems with it because I forgot to put a decoupler between the first and second stages..so the second stage never lit. (NASA would probably want their money back eh?) So we ended up with another sub-orbital flight..



And here is where I made a critical mistake. While messing about I on-purposely accidentally sent one of my Kerbals on an EVA (on a sub-orbital flight..err..maybe not a great idea..)



And then..to my horror..I saw he floated away from the capsule. Kai started to get concerned at me being concerned. Well, no jet pack or any way to get him back unfortunately..



It was only a matter of time..





With our hearts heavy at our incompetence, we endeavored to carry on in the spirit that Bill Kerman would have wanted..

In a nod to the challenges ahead, and the dire consequences of failure, we decided to go forward with non-manned operations until we get some things figured out. For our next rocket we went with another two stage setup, this time with some stabilizing fins on the bottom. I went with an expendable Sputnik type satellite at the top without a parachute. I could not for the life of me figure out how to mount an aerodynamic fairing on top of the satellite, so it remained exposed to the elements..



We tried a few times to get to orbit unsuccessfully. We have the right setup (I feel), but just have to get the maneuver correct. Our initial tries ended up with the satellite going way too high and not getting enough downrange speed. Resulting in a very high trajectory (apogee?) and coming up short..







So I started pushing over during the second stage burn and found out that there has to be a happy medium. Accelerate at too low an altitude and you just expend a lot of fuel and end up as a glowing fireball as you try to push through too much atmosphere.. (Will this sim ever model heating that destroys the vehicle?)



On our last flight, it actually looked like we might pull it off..but I knew that the low point of the orbit (can't remember what it is called) was too close to the surface of the planet. I figured, correctly, that atmospheric drag would decay the orbit and we ended up just barely squeaking by the launch pad. So we technically DID make it all the way around the planet, but did not achieve a true orbit..











So my thoughts for the next flight are to push over just as I did in that last flight, but cut the rocket engine off with some fuel remaining so that I can have some left to adjust the orbit once I see how it sets up. I think I'm just burning too long and not accounting for the fact that I'll drift up. My orbits are very lopsided.

We'll get it figured out though! This thing is addictive.

BeachAV8R

Sounds familiar, Beach!

My an' my little boy have had fun messing around with the demo. He love those Kerbals!

The Mk I. pod might be more suited for Kerbcury ops. Also, the Kerbals *do* have a tiny MMU.

I love the face of the kerbal as he starts to heat up... epic picture.

Yep they do have MMU's, I can imagine him screaming, "Beach press the god damned button that activates my paaaaaaaaaaaaaaack aaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrggghhhh uuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrgggghhhh hot Hot HOT!!!!"

Re-entry heat damage is planned as stock in KSP. When, we don't rightly know at the moment. However if you do fancy it. Install the DEADLY RE-ENTRY mod that will give you that function of the game now.

One line from the mod that may or may not have been a good thing for your last flight...- Kerbals can now catch on fire and die when on EVA.


Anyways, keep the reports coming. They are great to see.

OK..but can it be proven in a court of law that he was actually wearing one??

They don't leave the capsule without one.



Guilty of Kerbalcide.


Sentence: Erect a virtual monument and cobnduct a burial with full kerbal honors.

Its a Kerbal mounted RCS system.

FLIGHT 005/006/007

Orbit has been achieved. After the last barely orbital flight, this time I got a couple to stay in orbit (they are still up there!).. I haven't read the spoilers yet, but I will today to see how to achieve a bit of a more round orbit instead of the ovals I'm getting. Nevertheless, we must have hit upon some combination of burn and pushover to result in finally getting high enough at the periapsis.. It may be in the spoiler, but what is the altitude at which atmospheric drag starts to kick in? I'm wondering if the two Kai Sputniks that I have in orbit will eventually decay and fall back to Kerbin.









It is really cool that the program keeps track of past successes (and failures)..that is a neat feature.

Unfortunately we had a burn that must have been too long and I guess we reached escaped velocity - oops! So now we have a probe headed out into deep space.. Thankfully unmanned..(!)



Also - the new graphics upgrade is pretty darn impressive. I mean, the high res textures look far less cartoonish and really look polished..



It is really cool that the program keeps track of past successes (and failures)..that is a neat feature.



Looking forward to getting these orbits straightened out. Then we'll work on an unmanned orbit with a deorbit burn and splashdown before we try another manned flight.. <g>

BeachAV8R

Expect atmospheric drag at about 60 Km.


Still haven't tested .21. I wonder if mod parts flawlessly work in it.

You are getting better Beach.


Wheels

Man, this inspired me to get this to play with my boy. But....where the heck is the manual? Today he did one that had the chute deploy at liftoff. Also, the career mode doesn't look like it can be checked on ours....

Kerbin atmosphere ends at 70km up from sea level, below which space music will halt, and time compression would be limited.

And the last time I checked, anything that is not currently displayed in the 3D world does not experience drag even when in the atmosphere - These might simply disappear below a certain height. For this precise reason my multi-kerbal skyjump adventure ended in two early deaths from getting to far from view and finally a third when the opening shock of the parachute threw the last Kerbal out of the command seat of the last rover lander.

Career mode is yet to be finished.

This is seriously fun!

This is a WIP game, so you'll neither get a career mode nor a manual - yet.