Oggula

I haven't seen anyone mention Jool yet. When I first went to planets in 0.17 I went to Duna first, thinking it would be easy, but all three of my ships missed. It was only my second expedition to Jool that 'succeeded' (if you call smashing into Tylo at 8km/s a success). The thing is that unless you're a complete moron you can easily design a ship with the dv to reach any planet on the outward journey, getting a large intercept window is the real problem for a newbie.

Hey guys, experienced (I hope) player here with a few quick questions. Firstly, is the order that 'Explore' contracts appear in always the same each career? So I guess the Mun always comes first, then Minmus, Duna and Ike? And secondly, what 'Explore' contracts come after Minmus, Duna and Ike? Which planets are next? Lastly, does it change which contracts are unlocked depending on which planets have been explored already? So if I explore Duna in a previous contract and received an 'Explore' contract for Jool, would it have still concerned Jool even if I had only explored Ike instead? Thanks for helping guys, any info appreciated.

Yeah, back in the heady days of 0.8.5 getting into orbit- without the map and with 35km atmosphere- was a lot more difficult and involved more exploding

Probably Gilly, because if I go to Eve, I go to land on Eve. Then I take off, crash, and try again in a few weeks time. But I haven't really visited Dres, Eeloo or Moho in a while either

So far my Size E capture is 'Asteroid of Doom' and my size A capture is 'My Little Asteroid'...

Just failed on my 10th attempt at Eve return, and now the launcher won't work. Its actually so routine I've come to expect it tbh

OMG just found the most amazing post guys. Remember when Squad used to do updates? Those were the days.

Yeah the fairings broke all my designs when they were added in 0.18, luckily they don't blow up big stuff like engines any more

It is the same phase angles in both versions. And I use the phase angle tool on Mechjeb when I need to, but I find I can usually do it visually for all transfers except Moho, as the outer planets have much wider transfer windows

Here is my early tech Duna and Ike double lander. Quite simple to control and figure out, but can be tough to handle on the low ascent. Has 3 Science jr, 3 mystery goo, and 3 thermometers. Its designed to land on Ike too in one launch so there should be plenty of fuel if you aerobrake, even if you do a partially powered descent. Also, its much simpler than any I've seen on here so please choose it, it really kicks ass https://www.dropbox.com/s/jpcg46nj99k066e/Tech%205%20Duna%20Lander.craft

If I were you I would set a maneuver node to get an intercept from Kerbin itself, not from outside its sphere of influence when you may be on a divergent path. Then start your burn so that half falls before maneuver node and half after; do not start at the node, start before. Of course this is quite time consuming. It took me 15 minutes to do a node perfectly the first time I tried, but now it takes around 5. You should be getting to Duna with around 1030-50m/s of dv. It also helps when you know from experience when the transfer window is (around 40 days for Duna) as it can be difficult to tell phase angles from looking.

My first docking SSTO had the tail fin right next to the docking port, needless to say I was trying for a while

Breaking news! Jet engines now work on Laythe! Flock there in droves to taste this new novelty experience, newly discovered by the right honorable deadelitezealot, knight of the Kerbal realm!

Actually I get this all the time with my designs, I usually just learn to cope with it. The main influence I've noticed is how far out you place your asparagus boosters; try to keep them close to the centre of the ship in the VAB. Two other influences I've noticed are: 1) Struts. If you don't strut the bottom AND top of boosters directly to each other, they will wobble to correct pitch and yaw, and your spin will slowly increase. 2) Too many boosters. Sounds silly but if you place 4 boosters on an asparagus ring, it is less likely to spin than with 6. I'd recommend you try a few of these things, but in order to achieve optimal performance your craft will have to spin a bit. Remember the auto SAS is awful with spin and you may have to correct it manually if it gets out of control.

Its always been on the scenario since it was made, I think it was meant as a refueling station for the puny spaceplane on Station One.

In my experience, connections between orange tanks are always comparatively weak. Try these (in no order): 1) I've seen some designs that solve this by replacing them with grey tanks, though I'm not sure if this works too well 2) Strutting does sometimes work 3) Many designs also distribute the payload around the top of many orange tanks, because if you put 200T on top of one orange tank the link is very likely to break. 4) Some designs also attach launch clamps (and struts) to girders extending from the payload to hold it more steady 5) I personally find optimising/reducing the size of the payload and fitting it on a 1M launcher is the most reliable option. The only reason I currently field orange tank launchers is for missions landing on all the Joolian moons in one round trip.

Unless it has a docking port on it to transfer fuel, that ship is a lost cause. However, you can still rescue the kerbonaut aboard. Try rendezvous like in this video:

To clarify, the blue marker starts to drift as you have moved so far in your orbit, your destination has also moved significantly on the horizon relative to the direction of your orbit, so you must change your direction of thrust to compensate. When the required maneuver thrust stops dropping, that means you are so far removed from the original maneuver course that it is now unachievable. In my opinion you should clearly be achieving your maneuvers in less time, but if you don't want to add more engines, try executing the maneuver over 2 or three orbits like Scott Manley does here at around 5 minutes.

In order to best follow the maneuver node course, you should begin your maneuver to carry out half of the delta-v change before the maneuver, and half after. For example a 10 minute burn should start 5 minutes before and finish 5 minutes after. If you are not doing this (correct me if I'm wrong) then most of your Delta-v change will be taking place in a position far removed from the maneuver node. It is also likely that your long burn times have the same effect; you are not burning where the maneuver node actually is. Try using more nuke engines; I usually assign 1 to every 1600l of fuel. This way, you will also achieve a fuel saving from the Oberth effect, as most of your burn will occur deeper in Kerbin's gravity well.

Yeah, does it include landing? Pretty important distinction in Eve's case.

Interesting that Tylo is the least popular, it was the first planet/moon other than Minmus and the Mun that I 'reached', when my impactor crashed into it at 8km/s

Yeah, my first flag was "I like cheese". It got more random from there.

Can you actually get all the science by transmitting? I was of the opinion that the first transmission is of the first experiment, then you must do another one at a lower science value to transmit again?

So, to confirm, you can only store one surface sample per pod? I just sent a lovely double landing mission to Duna and I'll have to rethink the Ike landing if that is the case...

2 of the legs and the engine fell off. Standard.