Foxster

The R121 Turboshaft and R7000 Turboshaft Engines are called, well, engines. So why aren't they controlled by the normal throttle controls?

A tip for next time is to put the landing struts on the outer stacks. That would make the base size bigger and more stable. Plus you'd throw their mass away when you drop those stacks.

I think you may find any Kerbal can deploy them but you will get more science from the experiments if they are deployed by a scientist.

Due to some strangeness introduced a few builds of KSP ago almost anything else makes better landing struts than the stock landing struts.

You could download the craft file.

Sorry - I don't understand your point ot question. Can you restate?

Some of those little Eve craft are mighty fine. What's the electrical power source? It's not clear from the screenshots.

Oh, I assumed he made it but got bored before the end of the video. Seems he faced similar problems I did when I tried it. Without thinking it through, I put the final stage of one of my Eve orbit-return craft on top of a 4-prop platform. It could have made orbit with a rocket lifter from the height I could get to with props BUT I forgot that using a rocket stage to get there gave it high vertical and horizontal speed (doh!), whereas the prop craft gave none. I felt a bit silly afterwards when I realised this. I'm not saying it's impossible but it's no easy option for getting off Eve.

Good job on sticking with it and getting it to orbit! I lost the will to live with my craft after about 3 minutes.

Sure. Here ya go... Craft file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jzfjhljpivmix8v/Mun rover 2-2 with lifter.craft?dl=0

I used the middle attachment point of the rear structural panel to attach a decoupler. Just stick it on top of a rocket and small transfer stage then.

Yup. Couldn't make it work. Three problems: Engines made with rotors didn't generate enough lift to get a craft into the air that was big enough to finish making orbit from a near standing start. Couldn't store or generate enough electricity to power the rotors. Tricky getting a craft with several big rotor engines onto the surface.

Eve is deliberately a harsh mistress. It's the end-game place to land and return. Not an early or even mid-game destination and return place. It will be best to do it Apollo-style, with a transfer mothership in orbit and one or two disposable landers, maybe one with a rover and one with the crew orbit return craft. Alternatively you could abandon the crew and just return a science container to orbit with the science from collecting a rock. There is a "simulator" of the cheat menu (alt-f12 on PC) to set your craft in orbit around Eve. Practice the landing, takeoff or whatever and then revert. Check out the many threads, particularly Challenges, for inspiration for craft designs. The basics are: You have to care a lot about drag because of Eve's souposphere. Have the minimum number of slim engine+fuel stacks. After landing, drop anything not needed for the ascent to orbit: Chutes, heatshields, batteries, etc. Use the right engines. You need ones with the very best atmosphere isp for the lower stages i.e. aerospikes and vectors. You will likely need one of more heatshields to enter Eve's atmosphere.

Drive or fly into the grasslands west of the KSC and look out for the big trees. Then keep going into the mountains and look for some unique features there too.

Try putting a non-robotic part between the docking port and the last robotic part, say one of the small structural panels. It cured some funnies I was having with wheels on the end of robotic parts. Also avoid surface-attaching other parts to robotic parts, make sure you use the green blob joint nodes. Failing that, if you are transferring fuel or crew rather than building structures, use a claw instead of docking ports.

I wasn't really being awkward. I just didn't want to give spoilers you didn't ask for. Check the mountains for big pink crystals.

No.

Coupla thoughts on your craft because reducing mass will make it easier to hit the dV you need... Lander: That's a heavy pod for the crew; there are lighter. The adapters make it look nice but only add mass. Those landing gear are heavy; the gravity is low and you can likely do without them. Consider some staging to drop used tanks. Do you really need two crew? Mothership: What are all the heavy batteries for? That's a heavy probe core you chose. Looks like a lot of chutes; that 2-man capsule will re-enter and land OK with just one small chute. An unusual choice of engines; how's the isp on those? You can return directly from Jool without making Kerbin orbit if you re-enter just the capsule and a heatshield with 20% ablator.

Thanks @bewing Could have sworn they went away at some point a year or two ago with the no ground crew setting. Perhaps it was wishful thinking.

I turned off these damned vehicles that suck up CPU ages ago in the game settings but they came back and now I can't get rid of them. Anyone know how to make them go away and stay away?

I see what you mean but it does make sense from a game progression sense. You get a reduced science rate until later in the game when you progress far enough to unlock the RTG part. Also, it is only a reduction in the rate, you still get the same amount of science in the end. If you just leave the base alone to do its thing while you go off and do another mission, especially an inter-planetary one that takes years, then the science will all get done.

I wanted to find some (semi-)practical uses for robotic parts and first came up with this Munar science explorer. Here it is in de-orbit and landing configuration... Then we rotate the hinge ready for driving... and then after some science work we return the capsule to upright and the return sub-craft sets off back to Kerbin... Craft download: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9j4307021qg6gil/Mun rover 2-2.craft?dl=0

What are you bringing back that needs to go to the surface? I mean, you really only need to return the crew and maybe some science. A capsule and heatshield with 20% ablator can return directly from anywhere.

Why do you want to establish an orbit at Kerbin?

I think you can do it with about 2000dV. Obviously depends on how good a transfer you take. You'll want to go straight for re-entry rather than Kerbin orbit, right?