Kerbal Space Program.

Vandekyrian wrote: »

accidentlly drop a fully fuelled rrocket on them, thatll learn em

Too tempting

wait till i install a atomic reactor then they will riot :O

andy_g wrote: »

If you reinforce them they should work i have managed to do it, Although i had pollution activists called Kerbal peace blockade my launch pad today ceasing all launch activities while we upgrade security

Have just about got it up, I have to baby he throttles to keep it all from falling apart (decouplers seem to have gotten weaker in 0.19)... It picked up a spin as the outer stages came away (they were the ones with the winglets for the lower atmo) - probably due to unequal drag somewhere in the strutting, by the time I'd corrected with RCS (lot of mass for those wee thrusters) I was well past AP and coming back down :mad:

Will get there yet! Have added more inner winglets and RCS on the outmost stages to give it a bit more leverage if needed, just hop it doesn't tear it all apart!

if you use the larger sas or asas it hould correct the spin other option is sort the spin out last and get your orbit set up

Time to explore the mun and set up a space base

andy_g wrote: »

Time to explore the mun and set up a space base

Did that yesterday, launched a space station with legs and landed it on the Mun. A LOT of Kerbals died in the process. Especially when I forgot they were in the other refueller spacecraft when I jettisoned it. Splat.

Mr Benevolent wrote: »

Did that yesterday, launched a space station with legs and landed it on the Mun. A LOT of Kerbals died in the process. Especially when I forgot they were in the other refueller spacecraft when I jettisoned it. Splat.

Lol hey they knew what they signed up for im trying to fix my staging to get it right

Got it lifted and docked!

replaced all the orange tanks in my boosters with 2 grey ones and it worked first time...

Unfortunately I managed to swipe one of my solar arrays in the process so I'm having to send up a new (and improved) version.

Still, live and learn I suppose, I've started fitting brakes on my heavy tugs for moving big bits (8 small radial engines facing forwards, toggled on and off with action groups) - took a wee bit of getting used to (mainly remembering to check which engines were active before applying throttle) but it works a dream!

andy_g wrote: »

Lol hey they knew what they signed up for im trying to fix my staging to get it right

How are you building your base? One rocket at a time to the Mun, dock them all and land, or are you sending one really big rocket with everything on it?

Mr Benevolent wrote: »

How are you building your base? One rocket at a time to the Mun, dock them all and land, or are you sending one really big rocket with everything on it?

Using the H.O.M.E add on from kerbal spaceport but one ship at a time

first one is manned once that's in place i'll use unmanned to get there. plus i have the kethane mod so i can mine it

That HOME addon seems interesting, I'll give it a try. Has anyone gone to Eve yet? Thinking of sending an unkerballed probe/rover there, but I really need to improve my planning to make sure I have everything on the probe/lander beforehand and have the feckin' delta V to get there in the first place. Think a test mission in Kerbin orbit is a good idea to test lander/rover separation & controllability, aerobraking into orbit, engine suitability etc. I want to avoid the nuclear rocket option and make it fairly realistic, although the ion engine is an option.

Any ideas/advice? I use MechJeb for Munar landings but don't think that will work for Eve.

CrinkElite

Mr Benevolent wrote: »

That HOME addon seems interesting, I'll give it a try. Has anyone gone to Eve yet? Thinking of sending an unkerballed probe/rover there, but I really need to improve my planning to make sure I have everything on the probe/lander beforehand and have the feckin' delta V to get there in the first place. Think a test mission in Kerbin orbit is a good idea to test lander/rover separation & controllability, aerobraking into orbit, engine suitability etc. I want to avoid the nuclear rocket option and make it fairly realistic, although the ion engine is an option.

Any ideas/advice? I use MechJeb for Munar landings but don't think that will work for Eve.

Getting there is not the problem. Landing and returning however would require large scale planning and extra terrestrial infrastructure. Send the probe first so you know what you're dealing with.

i dont use mechjeb but then i like to fly manually or with sas

or send a probe with the isa mapsat

andy_g wrote: »

i dont use mechjeb but then i like to fly manually or with sas or send a probe with the isa mapsat

Mechjeb does make things a lot easier. Astronauts never had to do the transfer calculations, point the spacecraft or fly the rocket into orbit themselves, Kerbonauts shouldn't have to do it either. My jobs are Grand Designer, Overseer, Mission Controller and Chief Explosives Expert.

Edit:

Anyone used this KSP app for Android yet? Seems to be good for transfer orbits.

Has anyone else noticed KSP demanding a LOT more memory after installing mechjeb? It peaked at a little over 2.2GB during my last launch (which was a fairly modest Duna probe)...

In other news MAPSAT-M II is currently mapping away to get me a luvverly map of Duna, MAPSAT-M I is currently a smoking heap in the middle of a new crater on Duna after running out of fuel at a very inopportune moment... (KSP obviously borrowed NASA boffins for that one)...

Treadhead wrote: »

Has anyone else noticed KSP demanding a LOT more memory after installing mechjeb? It peaked at a little over 2.2GB during my last launch (which was a fairly modest Duna probe)...

In other news MAPSAT-M II is currently mapping away to get me a luvverly map of Duna, MAPSAT-M I is currently a smoking heap in the middle of a new crater on Duna after running out of fuel at a very inopportune moment... (KSP obviously borrowed NASA boffins for that one)...

Theres a new mapsat? oooohhhh me wanty is it in spaceport?

Nope, no new version, I'm still using the one for 0.18 - works lovely

Treadhead wrote: »

Nope, no new version, I'm still using the one for 0.18 - works lovely

The comments for MapSat say that it's have a lot of problems with 19, have you seen any slowdowns? I want to get one each around Eve and Duna prior to a rover mission.

Speaking of rovers, has anyone got a rover design they like for landing on Duna? I've downloaded a few and they tend to fall over or the descent gets screwed up (all tested suborbitally on Kerbin).

How did your MapSat hit Duna? Ran out of fuel after the aerobrake manoeuvre?

Was heading for Duna with a periapsis set to burn up my interplanetary stage in the atmosphere, decoupled and realised I'd forgotten to turn off fuel crossfeed so the sat's tanks were dry, ran out of RCS trying to boost back up

One redesign later (more RCS and a stack separator rather than a docking port - to hell with recoverable satellites!) and I've got a sat in orbit...

Hmm, I've been getting slowdown on launches until I've dropped off the first couple of stages - have been thinking it was mechjeb related as I really only noticed it after I installed that (the day after mapsat) but it could be mapsat I suppose. Once in orbit I've had not problems at all...

Treadhead wrote: »

Was heading for Duna with a periapsis set to burn up my interplanetary stage in the atmosphere, decoupled and realised I'd forgotten to turn off fuel crossfeed so the sat's tanks were dry, ran out of RCS trying to boost back up

One redesign later (more RCS and a stack separator rather than a docking port - to hell with recoverable satellites!) and I've got a sat in orbit...

Hmm, I've been getting slowdown on launches until I've dropped off the first couple of stages - have been thinking it was mechjeb related as I really only noticed it after I installed that (the day after mapsat) but it could be mapsat I suppose. Once in orbit I've had not problems at all...

Sounds like the slowdown is the MapSat problem alright. Never had any issues with Mechjeb other then when I accidentally turned off overclocking on my PC.

On the RCS issue there's a Salyut addon that has radial RCS mini engines - brilliant as a rocket engine backup as they use RCS fuel. It's saved Jeb on more than one occasion. I now take at least two big tanks of RCS fuel.

My problem with RCS is remembering to turn it off after use, on more than one occasion I've found that ASAS adjustments have drained me dry while I wasn't minding....

btw, I can't help but hear your posts in Anthony Head's voice in my head.... thanks for that! :P

My problem with RCS is remembering to turn it off after use, on more than one occasion I've found that ASAS adjustments have drained me dry while I wasn't minding....

I usually leave it off unless I really need it for docking, small orbit/transfer changes or better control. Plus if you hit CapsLock it'll reduce the consumption rate (precision mode).

Treadhead wrote: »

btw, I can't help but hear your posts in Anthony Head's voice in my head.... thanks for that! :P

'Prepare to die, Pip Bin! Huh huh huh huh...'

(I've listened to waaay too much Bleak Expectations)

Treadhead wrote: »

Nope, no new version, I'm still using the one for 0.18 - works lovely

Then i already have it

not noticed any slowdowns with it.

Been messing around with getting to Duna, still haven't made it yet. I have the interplanetary calculator and just can't get an intersect. Then again, my Mainsails have been exploding lately due to overheating.

Last night I went for Duna and ended up on the Mun! Used a downloaded skycrane(ish) rover that works very nicely. I felt bad just putting it at the top of the rocket with no protection, so I stuck a decoupler at both ends, an RCS tank at the bottom and various bits and pieces until I had a encapsulated rover with 16 chutes! I used the third stage to get to the Mun, deorbit and get to the final stage of landing, popped the decouplers, fire up the skycrane system and landed. Right at touchdown you pop the last decoupler and the rocket package flies off under it's own power to impact a few km away. Very neat. BTW, MapSat causes stutters on my PC until about 2/3 of the way into the launch.

Just realised that you can rearrange staging while running the game. Very handy!

Aye, no more problems with stuttering since I took out mapsat...

I've had no problems getting to Duna (problems stopping one probe but that was my bad!

) I just waited for the right phase angle, set up a maneuver on the opposite side of Kerbin, burning out to an intercept with Duna - about a 2million km periapsis iirc, then burn retro at the periapsis until captured....

V handy being able to rearrange staging in game if you're like me and add supports last and forget to set their staging up right!

I would have thought mainsails are rather OTT for interplanetary use (as well as having a relatively poor ISP) tried using cluster motors?

Put up the guts of my new station KSS Venture II last night - core module, 2 solar arrays, spare RCS tanks and another hab module along with a robot tug. Tonight will hopefully get a pair of lifeboats up there and maybe some more solar arrays - if I'm feeling masochistic I'll lift up a rocket fuel station too. My docking is getting good!

This time out I built the entire station in the VAB and saved out the individual parts to drop onto lifters. Might prevent this one looking like a pile of space debris!

Am loving mechjeb, it's perfect for the annoying stuff like circularising, warping to points etc. Now that I've learned to do it all I can justify myself skipping it!

Bah, still can't get to Duna, keep ending up in solar orbit. Going to try using Protractor.

I would have thought mainsails are rather OTT for interplanetary use (as well as having a relatively poor ISP) tried using cluster motors?

Yeah, I'll switch over to using them on my final stage. Seem to have the launches all squared away now, can get to the Mun and Minimus no problem.

Finally got into orbit around Duna (well, I aerobraked directly into a landing) but lost the lander at the last second. A decoupler caught on the top of the lander, tilted it in midair and the lander flew straight into the ground. Really going to have to work on the sep system.

Tip: If you run out of power during the mission (forgetting to deploy the solar panels is a pain) just open the 'persistence.sfs' file (in the Saves folder) in Notepad, search for 'Amount = 0' and change them all to 'Amount = 100'. Saved me having to start the mission again.

Edit: YES! Finally got to Duna. I solved the separation issue by adding sepatrons to the Landing Pack and configuring a custom key to jettison the LP and fire the sepatrons together.

Havent played in about a week due to work still need to get my mun base on mun lol.

God im failing at this boards space race.

Spent the weekend building a lifter to reliably get a 200tons tank module up into a 100km orbit - have to hand fly her (mechjeb gets a speed wobble) but it does the job lovely!

Sub-orbital stage runs dry with AP about 100km and PE about -10km, so it's dropped off in time to fall back to Kerbin. Relatively little dv is needed to get stable orbit, which is supplied by a detachable engine feeding from the tank module itself, barely makes a dent on the total fuel in the module. Have to sat it's more satisfying than the "strap on boosters and hoe it doesn't go bang" approach I was using....

Btw, has anyone else switched to steam? I've noticed that Kerbal Engineer Redux refuses to work in my steam copy (it was working fine) but runs grand in my old normal install of KSP - both are the same version... Am starting to regret the switch already...

Treadhead wrote: »

Spent the weekend building a lifter to reliably get a 200tons tank module up into a 100km orbit - have to hand fly her (mechjeb gets a speed wobble) but it does the job lovely!

Sub-orbital stage runs dry with AP about 100km and PE about -10km, so it's dropped off in time to fall back to Kerbin. Relatively little dv is needed to get stable orbit, which is supplied by a detachable engine feeding from the tank module itself, barely makes a dent on the total fuel in the module. Have to sat it's more satisfying than the "strap on boosters and hoe it doesn't go bang" approach I was using....

Btw, has anyone else switched to steam? I've noticed that Kerbal Engineer Redux refuses to work in my steam copy (it was working fine) but runs grand in my old normal install of KSP - both are the same version... Am starting to regret the switch already...

How many tanks is 200 tonnes? And is Engineer Redux any good?