colin_in_space

I know the devs will never read this, but you should be shamed of the game you launched and the state it is in. I jsut spend a few hours of my precious game time building a rocket to fly to Duna, and after struggling with many failed launches at least partly due to buggy physics and stages randomly reordering in the VAB I finally got to orbit, and half way to Duna KSC is floating next to me. Then one of my side mounted thrusters just spontaneously separates from my rocket. Not a couple, jsut an attached part no longer attached. Like 3 hours or more on this mission and its gone because the part jsut separated and I can't even. I'm sad, I[m frustrated, and I have NEVER in 23 years of gaming had such a non functional product, especially as this price point. These are not bugs and issues, this is a fundamentally non functioning game where even the minimally included core features do not work. I should have requested a refund but I left it idle too long and steam thinks I've played 20 hours. I have yet to have anything other than breaks and frustration, and my performance isn't even that bad. Its a hot mess in every way, it is not a functional game, and certainly not near where it should be at this stage or ESPECIALLY this price point. Shame on the developers/company for releasing this. I'm beyond frustrated at this point.

Yeah, I have charge, and motorized. Or at least it darned well should be. Using defaults of tweaking params doesn't seem to help : / for clarity my hinge settings are motorized yes, motor engages, and one power loss locked. I basically find these parts unusable now, which makes me sad, because I want to build my base constructor bots/trucks. But parts are flopping everywhere, including through my ships other parts.

Whenever I try to use a joint hinge or rotor they are crazy floppy badness. I made a simple docking arm on a base attachment rover (to move and attach base pieces) and even on minmus the joints are incapable of keeping still under any kind of motion. The arm carrying things flops and flies all over the place. Its like driving one of those wacky arm flailing inflatable things they put up at used car lots. Am I doing soemthing wrong? Heavily modded game, maybe a mod issue?

Oh thanks, I wasn't matching diameters! And thanks so much for keeping this alive and keeping the support forum going! Have one of those fancy European latte style coffee or whatnot. : )

OK, trying to better understand various aspecxts of the mod. Currently on Power and making any sort of use of electric engines. Want to carry a reactor. Want to know how to maximize my power potential. Trying for example a dusty plasma reactor with MGH and particle generators attached. KPSI helped thingy indicated 3GW potential power, getting 1.9. I can't seem to change these numbers by, for example, using larger generators. Is this jsut an effecieny max issue? What does the 'potential' power mean, is it the power if both generators were 100% efficient? Is there a way to icnrease power, such as making the generators or reactor bigger, because tweakscaling them doesn't seem to be having much effect?

OK, having trouble with electric engines. I have a power station in Kerbin orbit and a long infrared relay system. The orbital station generates 10GW, looks like it relays about 150 MW to kerbin orbit. Not entirely clear how to get more power from my relays. I'm using long infrared transmission. Can't get eelctical engines to work at all, generally. ELF with LH suggests 0.74 TWR in VAB, in space, 0.0, and 4614years worth of fuel. It's totaly non operational. My relay says I'm getting 150MW of power, I think, plus I have megajuels stored in a capacitor. Same with Attila, and Ion. I tried putting the ELF and atilla on a generator, open cycle gas with MHD, generating 1.2GW of power. Attila manages 0.25 TWR, simialr to VAB estimate, ELF still down at 0.03 (VAB estimate was like 0.5). So it seems they need an absurd amount of power, ideally by direct generators, which are prohibitively heavy? I tried doubling reactors to 2.5GW, still 0.02 TWR So electrical is total a no go as far as I can see. Help and advice appreciated : )

Chapter 8: An Interesting Finding A meeting of all crew in the command pod Bob: I messaged Gene and my grandfather back on Kerbin. They confirmed what I though. We are looking at a part of Horizons, which brought our ancestors to Kerbin from the ancient home world. More specifically, it is their main reactor. When they were in orbit of Jool, they had a reactor meltdown and they ejected the whole thing. But I've been taking radiation readings, and it looks contained. Jeb: Can be visit it?! Bill: Yes, can we? Bob: I think so. Lengun? Lengun: I looked over Bob's data and I agree. The radiation from the meltdown is barely more than the background radiation around Jool. I would allow the crew to have up to 30 days of close exposure, or 25 hours of EVA. Bob: OK, we're going to send a team. But a minimal team. Jeb, you will fly. Bill, you'll come along to inspect the reactors. And I'll join you, because I've always wanted to see a piece of Horizons. And for... errm... scientific reasons. Jeb: Old Man, that's all three command crew. Are you sure that's.. Bob: Yup. i'm going. You're flying, and Bill is gonna check that reactor. I'm going to do a scientific and historical assessment. Gwentha: But.. but... that reactor... we'd ahh.... we'd just love... Bill: Bob she raises a good point. I am a good engineer. But there are no Kerbin's alive who know more about reactors and fusion. Bob: Ok, I will allow a 4th on board. Gwen, we'll take you. Lengun: Well, Bob, we'll need to monitor the radiation. Maybe I should join with my portable kit and radiation meds. Bob: Sigh. No Len, you stay here. No more than four on the lander and four on the Excalliber. That's what we are doin. Val, when is our nearest window? Val: I've been keeping track, and you could leave in 9 1/2 hours. Bob: Ok lets load up then. Jeb, Lengun, help me get some lab gear to Lander 1. Val, plot us a course and transfer to Lander 1's CPU. Bill, Gwen, figure out whatever you need and get ready. Let's go! Jeb: Ye Haw!! .... Three days later .... Jeb: We're getting close. Braking burn to match velocities in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... burn. Jeb: Here Old Man, Lean in and take a look. Jeb: Coming in for Dock Jeb: Dock.. achieved? Wow it worked! I can't believe these ports are comparable. Bill: Jeb, we salvaged a lot of parts for Excalliber from the decommissioned remnants of Horizons. The Clamp-o-tron senior is a thousand year old standardized design. It's not surprising at all. Jeb: Hurmph! Bob: Wow, this is so exciting! can we open the docking port and go inside? Bill: Bob slow down! sigh. We need to check for rads and see if it is safe. Gwen, how is the radiation levels here? Gwentha: Umm... very low. I don't think the reactor containment failed. I am not reading above the background for this region of Jool. And the port readings show it is clear to open. There is even air on the other side of the port. It shows green to open. Bill: No, we're suiting up first. That air is over 100 years old. We need to be safe. Bob: OK, Jeb, suit up with me. We'll go inside the docking area. Bill, you'll go EVA and inspect the ship from the outside. Gwen, you man the radio. Oh by the way tell Excalliber we are fine. ... some minutes later. More than 5 but less than 500. However long it takes Kerbil's to EVA up.... Jeb: We'll, this isn't very exciting. It's just a port junction. There's some old EVA suits here, a few ports, and a couple computer terminals. Bob: YES! Terminals!!! Jeb: OK, have a blast. Can I go outside with Bill? Bob: No. Go get my portable computer and a ATXP to HVX connector. I think I can interface! Also, take one of those old EVA suits. As a keep sake Bill's EVA Report Later... Bob: Wow what a find. That reactor is huge, and the batteries and capacitor are beyond anything we could make right now. We need to take some time to inspect this thing. Gwentha: I took a look att hat computer interface. It's Kobolt, if you can believe that! Bob: I leanred to program Kobolt as a kid. I think I can make a K++ interface. We should be able to access the computer system and link it with the lander. Gwentha: There is more Bill. I was able to access the ship's system status. the lithium tanks are not empty. Not empty at all. In fact, we could fill a good amount of Excalliber's reserves from them. Jeb: Oh sweet! Old man, bring in the ship! Bob: Well.... I don't know.... Jeb: Why the hell not? Bill: Jeb, we don't know for sure it is safe yet. Jeb: If we fly the lander back to Excalliber it will be down to 14% fuel capacity. Which means when we reach Pol, we probably won't want to risk a landing. Which means we need to send down the miner, reload on LFO, and dock it before we can send the landing mission down. And first, we need to go back to Excalliber ourselves, and then transfer to Pol. In fact, it would be better for us to just meet them there. Our current orbit requires a slightly lower delta-v for Pol transfer. The ship could join us here, save us days of wasted time, and we could load up on fuel, saving us an extra 30 days of waiting for the miner. It's an all around win! Bill: But if soemthing happens we could loose the ship! Jeb: We're on a dead platform. What could happen? Old Man, it only makes sense to have them come to us. Bob: Ok Jeb, I see your point. Get on the horn with Excalliber and have them transfer here. They should be able to get here in another 5 days or so. I want them to go easy on fuel in case we have a problem with the lithium on board here. Jeb! I'm on it!!!! A few days later:

Chapter 7: Jool, and an Unexpected Finding Bob: OK Jeb, we are 20 hours from Jool intercept. This is your show. Ypu're in charge now. Jeb: Alright Old Man! Everybody listen up! We all know this is the most crucial moment in our mission. Jool's atmosphere is 300 KM of hell. And we're going to dive into it. Not to deep, we don't want to get smashed to itty bity bits. We're diving to deep right now, so in about 2 hours we'll do a small correction burn. Then we batten down the hatches and get ready. Usually when we go diving, we keep some of the crew in the landers in case of trouble. Well this time, the landers are to risky. There is a bit of risk the landers will catch atmo and drag us down. SO we are going to keep everyone in the center of the ship. Me, Bill, Bob and Val will take the command pod, Lengun and Barliana will strap down in the lab, and Gwen and Kimjorie can remain in aft reactor control. The reactors will be down while we dive, but we need to make sure they don't heat up. And, in case of emergency, we might need you guys to pull the emergency release. Gwen: How will we know?? Jeb: If we are spinning around any everyone is screaming and I yell PULL IT NOW AHHHHH! Then pull the release. Gwen: Ahh.. umm... roger? Jeb: Don't worry, we'll be fine. Val, stay here with me and we'll quintouple check the correction burn. The rest of you, get to work getting the ship ready! Crew: Roger!! ----------- 2 Hours Later -------------- Jeb: Dammit, we're backward again. The flight software auto set control to the rear docking port. BILL! Can we get a reset? Bill: Yeah yeah, here <tinkers with computer>. To reset it, jsut set the flight controol to the rear port, then back to the command pod. That should take care of it. Jeb: OK, flight to crew, rotating for burn! Val: Confirming orientation.... We're good! Jeb: Burn complete! Val: Looks like we are good. Common, lets get to work getting the ship secured. Val: Approaching! Jeb: OK everyone get ready! 4 minutes in HELL here we come!! Crew: AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! ..... Jeb: And we are clear and good. On target for Bop. Bob: Good job everyone. The hard part is over now. We'll be diving again at Laythe eventually, but that's a long way off. We have 4 other moons to visit first, and the Laythe dive will be a gentle walk through the meadow by comparison. Jeb, what is our ETA to Bop? Jeb: 2 days! We've lucked out and only need a little twitch of the engines for a few seconds to get an intercept. Bob: OK, so who's turn is it to man the Miner this time? Bill: I am going to do it. It was going to be Kimjorie, but I made some changes to te crew roster. Since Gwen is going planet side in the lander, I thought Kimjorie could stay above to watch the reactors. Bob: OK good. Let's secure from the dive and get ready for the intercept burn! < 2 days later, Bill in the miner! Bill: OK I've killed my horizontal velocity. Going down. Val: KRRT! OK looks good Bill. Your next burn is in 134 seconds. Bill: Don't worry Val I can follow a burn plan. I don't need play by play. Just let me know if you see any problems. Bill: Braking Burn ... Bill: I am down. Val: KRRT! Roger. I see you as down. OK Bill you have 30 days to fill up. Get drilling. Bill: I know my job Val. Deploying drills immediately. Editor's Note: OK, so I landed a lander on Bop as well. It landed close to the miner. Val, Bob, and Barliana had a lovely time, and occasionally Bob poopoed over for a visit. But I forgot to take any screenshots until the miner was going back to the ship : ( But I did the landing mission I promised! Bob giggled while gathering samples. Val planted a flag and sent Jeb a teasing message that Bop was her's, but he replies he gets Pol so its OK. 32.5678543 Days after landing: Bill: OK I am home. Positioning for Dock. in the command Pod, a meet. Bob, Barliana, Jeb, Bill, and Lengun. Barl: We have an unidentified contact. I thought at first it was an asteroid or something, but it is radiating a bit of heat and EM radiation, and it's to shiny. It's orbiting at an inclination of about 19 degrees, with a 117,000 by 177,000 kilometer orbit, going from inside Bop to outside Pol. I think.. I think it is not a natural object... Bill: Well then what the hell is it?? Bob: Horizons stopped at Jool before the made for Kerbin. Maybe it is a part of that ship? Barl: Well, I don;t know. It is hard to judge the size of the contact, but it's not a little peice of debris. I think it is worth checking out. Jeb: That is a lot of fuel to reach that. We could take a lander, but if we do we will need to refule it before landing on Pol. Barl: No, I have another idea. One of my micro-sat's could make it. They don't have a lot of fuel, but I could manage a fly-by. Val helped me work the numbers. It will be a bit fast, but I think we could get 3 or 4 good pictures to send back. That should give us a good idea of what it is. Bob: What about the Pol transfer tomorrow? Jeb: Bob, we have a second transfer window, for only a bit more fuel, in 12 days. Ok Barl, those sat's are valuable, but I think this is worth spending one. Our transfer fo Pol is not for 12 more days, so we can afford the time. .... Four days later.... Barl: Ok, the first pic is uploading... Jeb: What the Kell is that? It sure is no rock Barl!! Bob: Hmmnn.... Bark: Picture 2 incoming.... loaded Bob: HMMNN!! Bill: What is it Bob? It almost looks like a sattelite with a solar array? Did Horizons drop a sat around Jool? Bob: I don't think so.. Jeb: Common Old Man what is it? Barl: That's to big to be a sattelite. That pic was taken at 700 meters range. OK wait, pic 3 uploaded! Jeb: !! Val: !! Bill: What?!? Barl: Gnnck?! Gwen and Kimjorie: <look at each other confused and hold hands> Bob:I think... I think I know what it is. Val, set the transmitters, I need to send a message home to Kerbin!

Pic or it never happened : P

Chapter 8: Intermission... ARRIVAL! It's very cold... in space.... Commander's Log: Interplanetary transfer day 375. I finally finished analysis of the data we got from Duna. And now... well.. I am not sure what I should do! We are still making stellar measurements, but honestly distant stars never excited me so much as the planets and moons of our beautiful system! Well, I have more than 400 days to wait until we get another look at a planetary body. At least on Jool we'll get some atmospheric readings on the way in and while aerobraking. The crew is in good spirits I guess? They have each been dealing with the long dark in their own ways. Jeb cleared out the storage space to the fore of the command c enter and has declared it his own little sanctuary. He sits and stares into space, and occasionally checks our telemetry, over and over. Val mostly stays in Lander 2. She runs a lot of simulations. Sometimes she plays cards with Jeb and Bill. I joined them once but I had to trade 3 days of decent rations for 3 days of Koylent Green, and I'm not doing that again. Bill... is Bill. He works, constantly. The ship is in excellent shape. However, he has gotten a bit snappy with the other engineers, and seems to want to do all the work himself. Since he runs the duty roster, he mostly gets his with. Barliana tinkers his satellites, and occasionally runs tests, and on a few occasions he has launched one to zip around the ship. But then Jeb flew it too close to a solar panel and I had to put a stop to their little joy rides. Gwen and Kimjorie spend a lot of time in the aft reactor control. That is their job, they are the fusion engineers after all, but we all know they are cuddling. Ii have spoken to Bill about it, and he has suggested that when we do landing missions, we keep them separated. He thinks it will be good for them to get some time apart later. Chief Flight Officer's Log: Bored bored bored bored. Mid-course correction burn in 12 days. Reran numbers, checked telemetry. OK. Bored bored bored. Bill now owes me his good rations for 28 days. He is bad at cards. But I owe Val my good rations for 56 days because she is very good at cards. The math on that is to hard, so I'm keeping Bill's food and giving her mine. Bored bored. Mid-course correction: Jeb: Burn Initiated. WOO! Feel the gravity! 45 second! Bill: Yes Jeb we all feel it. Val: Checking Telemetry... hmmnn... Bob: What do you mean Hmmn, Val? Val: Well... according to the flight computers the burn is on course, but my Telemetry seems a bit off. But this deep in space it is hard tog et a good reading... Jeb: 20 seconds. Val: Umm... Yes, something is wrong. Bob: Well what is it?? Val: Jeb cut the.. Jeb: Burn complete. Yeah Val, I see it too. We should have decreased our periapse on Jool to a near intercept, but it looks like we drifted out. Our time to intercept went up by a good 35 days! Bob: What in the name of space happened guys? Bill, run a systems check! Bill: I show green across the board. I'm not seeing anything wrong! Val: Jeb, I'm running the numbers now... Jeb it is like we burned retro to our course! Jeb: Say what now? Bob: Oh poppy-pop. I am checking the telescopes reading. Val, what direction should we be facing? Val: 95 by -5 degrees. Bob: Well well well.... We are facing the wrong way. Jeb: The flight computer disagrees old Man. Are you sure? Bob: Yes I am sure. I can't see Duna where it should be, but the constellation Klio is visible. Bill. Why are we facing the wrong way? Bill: I really don't know Bob! Jeb: I see it. The damned flight computer has reset and has set the aft docking port as our reference node!! Bob: Why did it do that? Bill, Val, any ideas? Bill: I don't know Bob. That program has over 12,000 lines of code. And about 27 sub-routines. Bob: Well, OK, you guys have some work to do. Val, help Bill out, Bring Barl in as well. IKn the mean while, can we plot a backwards burn and get back on course? Jeb: Naaaw, it's OK Bob, I manually reset the command module. Our new course has been plotted. Val, confirm the course! Val: Confirmed Jeb, looks good. Lets turn around! Jeb: OK coming about.... Bob we're pointing at our node. Can you confirm we're pointing the right way? Bob: Yup looks like. Jeb: OK, Flight to crew, we are burning for 90 seconds! .... Val: OK we're good! Bob: OK good, finally. You guys have fun with that code : ) Chief Flight Officer's Log: Bored bored bored bored..... Commander's Log: At last... Jool!

Chapter 7: Duna's Done For 27 days the crew worked on Duna. Jeb, Bill, Barliana, and Lengun. Bill and Barliana ran experiments for Bob, giving directions from up in the mothership. Lengun ran his own set of experiments, on how the lower levels of gravity on Duna affected Kerbal physiology. He mainly experimented on Jeb, who was happy as can be since most of Lengun's studies involved going outside and doing crazy things. When lengun realized Jeb was an great shape and a bit crazy, and maybe not a very representative subject, he tried making Barl be his test subject. But EVA made Barl feel sick, and Jeb was possibly the world's worst scientist. Orders came down from above: Barliana does research, Jeb does the outside work. As the end of the 30 day mission period drew to a close, Jeb and Lengun tried to argue for an extension. The Duna to Jool transfer burn was scheduled for 135 days. Lots of time, and there was ever more studies to run, more samples to study. Jeb was a bad scientist but he was great at finding rock samples for Barl and Bill to run through the science equipment aboard. He was also a surprisingly good gardener. The greenhouse experiments were supposed to be a test of extra-kerbinary growing, to determine if a Duna colony could be sustained, but for the crew it was an excuse for fresh food. Mostly it grew different types of edible algae, but Bill and Jeb had grown some rapid-grow tomatoes. They sat in the command module while the others slept, sharing a small and under-ripe tomato. The winds of Duna howled. Jeb: I like it here.it's nice. I feel like I could stay, if only I had something to fly. I wonder how well the biplanes would fly on Duna? Bill: Not well, I'd guess. Quite the sand storm tonight. Jeb: Yup. Not much by Kerbin standards though. Flew to the desert one. A sandstorm hit while I was camping. Half burried the jet. Took me 2 days to dig it out. I thought I might need to call for help. Biil: Really? I didn't know? When was that? Jeb: About 5 years ago. After the first Duna mission, just after they cancelled Eve. I was mad.. Bill (interupting): No Jeb you were livid. Furious. Absurdly mad. Childish eve. Jeb: Yeah yeah. Well Eve was taken from me, and Gene made it clear we wouldn't be visiting any new planets soon. In fact they just wanted to put up a small station and do things like cargo runs and sat launches. Gene was focused on building the shuttle programs. A bunch of short hops. They didn't need me for that kind of work. I knew if, and Gene knew it. He had val, and she had a fine crew of eager youngsters. So I left, and flew all over Kerbin. You guys were up doing menial jobs in space, while 95% of our own planet had never been seen up close by anyone. So you guys flew around in your station, looking down, and I flew all over the planet, looking around. Bill: Jeb, those missions build for us the knowledge and expertise we needed for Excalliber. Those missions were important. Jeb: I know Bill. Important, but not very interesting for someone like me. I need to see new places, do new things. So that's what I did. If we ever get back home, maybe I should show you my picture collection. Kerbin has some amazing places. Home city pales in comparison to the beauty in the mountains, the rustling of the grass jungles, the glittering snow of the arctic... Bill: Jeb, are you waxing poetic? I never knew you had it in you. Jeb: Yeah well... on Kerbin I am restless. Here in space, I feel at peace. For now. Bill: You weren't at peace on the flight out. You paced around like a caged Kear. Jeb: Yeah, I am restless on the journey. But at least I know there is somewhere to go at the end. Its always better up here than on Kerbin. I really wish we could stay another month on Duna. It's a damned shame to waste outsives in Orbit while there is so much going on down here. Bill: Yeah, well mission specs say 30 days. And they have a point. These landers need to last us a long time, and they can suffer wear and tear down here. Jeb: I know, but I like it here, it's a nice change to go outside and feel gravity, and there is several more years of experiments we could be doing. Bob's happy, even from up top. He is getting piles and piles of data. Lenguna has complained he needs more than 30 days to really see what he wants to see, Barl seems happy enough, even you seem less grumpy down here. Bill: Yeah well it is what it is. Bob is mission commander, but Gene runs the show. Besides, at least you have the ascent to look forward to. Jeb: No Bob, I am a little scared. Its tight. Much too tight. We landed in the wrong spot. The damned calculations for the aerobrake were off. I was spot on the decent. We have enough fuel to get back up... I think.. but it needs to be perfect. And if it isn't, and we can't get our periapse above 40 KM or so, I don't know if Val will have time to bring the lander in for a rendezvous before we dip to deep. And we won't have a fuel reserve to brake on landing. So we will be chutes only. With an unknown landing spot. And we need to brake. Bill: Well, maybe you can save a bit of fuel... Jeb: No I need every drop. I am even going to have to use the RCS to get us circularized. And the TWR on the RCS system is low, which means I need to bring us higher and with a faster horizontal speed before we make our circularization burn. If I don't, we might have enough fuel to make it, but we won't have time and we'll fall back in. If we drop into atmo even a little, we're toast. Bill: Wow, I never thought I would here the mighty fearless Jeb talk like this! Jeb: Yeah, well, I think you and Bob are the only Kerbals I would admit this to, but this time I am a bit scared. Not for me, but for Barl and Len, sitting below. If we fail maybe Val can come get us in lander 2, but if we go back down... I am not sure I can keep them alive. We'll hit hard. And I won't know we're going back down until it is too late... Bill: ... Three days later .... Bill: Altitude 500 meters and rising. Jeb: Yeah I see. Starting to turn... Bill: Roger. Lander to Excalliber, we are rising from the sands of Duna! Retracting Panels. Radio: KKRT! This is Val, I am at 85 KM stable orbit, waiting to come get you. See you soon! Jeb: Ok, now at 60 degrees, holding stable. Altitude 15 KK... I am getting some buffeting on the ship. Bill: The Excalliber said the weather looked clear today. Jeb: yeah well they were wrong, a lot of wind... it's clearing up... 25 KM and rising, but we''re a bit behind... we are 2 KM behind schedule... Bill: Are we still within our mission reserve? Jeb: Ahh... Yes, we are... I think it's OK... 40 KM and rising...now at 15 degrees, apoapsis 48 KM and rising slowly... Bill: OK, our periapse is now at 2 KM and rising.. fuel almost out. Poot! Jeb: Main fuel exhausted. Burning RCS... Bill: Are we good Jeb? Jeb: ... Bil: Jeb??? Jeb:... ahh.... yeeeeeess??? Bill: Jeb, are we good or not tasn sarnit?!? Jeb: Umm..... close...... umm.... yes periapse now 48 KM... I think we're good... RCS out. Bill: Ornit now 52x50.5. Jeb: Dammit Bill, we were 6 secoonds of RCS fuel from not making it high enough. That was to damned close Bill! Bill: Well we made it, we're up and Val will be meeting up with us in about Val: miner to Lander 1, transfer burn in 13 minutes. See you in about 45 minutes. Radio: KRRT! OK Val. Bbut we are right on the edge of the precipice here, with no fuel and no RCS, so when you come in to dock, don't bump us. Nice and slow! Val: Yes father Jeb, I can see where we all are. Don't worry I know how to dock to ships. Like a gentle lover's kiss. about 43 minutes later... Val: Burning to brake! Coming in at 35 m/s... Val: Annnnnd... done. Distance 54 meters. Aligning to your docking port. Jeb: KRRT! Roger aligning to your port. Val: Comming in a 2 m/s... 10 meters... 5 meters... now at 1 m/s... gentle... DOCKED! Jeb: Welcome to lander 1 val. Begin fuel transfer. the miner had pretty small engines. They were a lot more effecient than the lander, but their low TWR meant that they were ill suited to push both the miner and lander back to Excalliber. Plus Jeb wanted to fly himself. So, it was decided that the refueled lander would fly separately, followed by the miner. Jeb: Alright everyone, we are going back home! Lander to Excalliber, Bob, I saved you a tomato. Bob: KRRT! Oh good I can see the effects of zero gravity on tomato water density! Jeb: It's to eat Old Man! Kods! Bill: OK Jeb course plotted. Jeb, OK, burning.. Weee! Its fun to fly when i am not scared to kill a bunch of my friends! editors note: Docking the landers: You may have noticed how the landers dock onto the side of Excalliber in a more upright position, and I don't use the docking indicator mod. It's a great mod, but I am sort of glad I stopped using it because I have learned to more quickly dock using the nav ball and sight. To dock the landers, I have to be careful not to bump the mothership. I target the correct docking node, and position myself next to Excalliber. I then set smartASS to the anti-parallel orientation to target. This causes my post to align in the same direction as the docking post, such that if I burning I would be going retrograde to the port. Then I rotate my ship and take a side view of the mothership. so I know which RCS keys move towards-away or back and forth. Then I carefully get it aligned to I can see that I am properly parallel to the docking port, as in the pic above. I think shift views, as to the pic below, and slowly move in. When I am close, I burn RCS retrograde into a nice clean dock. It is an unusual orientation for docking and was a bit of a challenge, but it was fun to work out the mechanics of how to dock into the side-mounted type of position, and I think I am a better pilot now. : ) Jeb: Docking complete. Welcome home everyone. Val: KRRT! Glad to hehar Jeb. Initating breaking burn! Jeb: OK Val, give me 3 minutes to get up to the command center! There i no way I am letting Bob pilot my ship! Val: Ports aligned. Coming in to dock. Docked, and back to normal operating mode. The next Day, in the command module, a meeting of Jeb, Val, Bill, and Bob: Bob: OK, lets review our status. The landers: Val: Both are great. We finished checking our Lander 1 and it is in tip top shape. Both landers are at 60% fuel capacity. We evened them out so we have a balanced load. Bob: Ok good. our lithium load? Bill: It's great! We have just over 7 KM/s of delta-V available. We are good to go. Bob: And the burn to Jool? Jeb: We reran it and Gene concurred. Departure in 97 days. We'll be burning about 1550 m/s. Its a high energy transfer burn, but Jool's atmosphere is hell. We can't go very deep in our aerobrake. And we can't be going to fast when we hit that atmo, or else... splat! So, we're rushing it as much as we can... but our estimated time to intercept Jool is 1 year, 227 days after departing from Duna. Bob: Well no surprises there. Just about according to the initial plan. Gonna be a long flight. Jeb: Yup. We're splitting the burn into three segments. Initial ejection, prograde for velocity, and then an adjustment at the end. We'll be burning for several minutes. Between all three segments, almost 10 minutes. Bob: Alright, same as usual. Me, Bill, Jeb, and Gwentha in the command pod. Val in lander 2, as backup pilot monitoring the telemetry. Kimjorie in aft reactor control. Barl and Lengun in Lander 2 with Val in case of an emergency. Everyone clar: Bill, Jeb Val: Yup! Bob: OK, well, we still have work to do while w e are in orbit. Barl is getting a microsat ready for an impactor probe for the polar ice caps. It's like Kristmas! Jeb: I get to mirco-pilot it! Gonna be fun! Barl added extra shielding and the whole point of the impactor is to go extra fast. Make a big boom when it hits. This is the first time I've ever been asked to deliberately crash something! Bill: Sigh.. 95 Days later: Jeb: Burn one complete. Confirming Telemetry. Reorienting. Val, check my numbers. Val: Confirmed... looks good Jeb. We have less than 0.0001% deviation from course. Nice! Jeb: OK, burn two in 20 seconds... Jeb: OK, burning outward to increase velocity to Jool! Jeb: Done burn in 3, 2, 1.. engines off. Gwentha: Reactors nominal. Everything looks good. We are on course for Jool. Arrival to Jool periapsis in 1 year, 227 days, 8 hours. Jeb: Goodbye Duna... I may never see you again, but I hope I will....

Thanks. The thin I most enjoyed about KSP is the ever expanding learning curve. For example I've never really made a proper return from Moho! Which I think is the hardest planet to land on and return. But I do tend these days to try to make realistic missions rather than one super rocket with a tiny pod : p I am nearly done my play through of this mission actually and some stuff will happen later on. : D

Chapter 6: Duna or Bust Jeb: Crew, this is flight, we are now in a circular orbit of Duna. Current Altitude 85 KM. Bob: GOod work Jeb. Bill, begin all system checks. Bill: Roger. System checks underway. Alright everyone get cracking. We want status updates. Barliana: Well, 300 days in space, and here we are, our friendly neighbor. I'm really excited to go down! Lengun: Even the gravity of Duna may seem strong after 300 days in zero G. And those days on Ike left you behind on your exercise regime. As chief medical officer, I am not sure I can clear you to go!! Barliana: !!!! Lengun: Tee hee hee. JUST KIDDING! I am excited as well. 30 days in gravity, what Bliss! Bill: Alright you two, calm down. We still have 5 days before we launch the lander. Get to work, we need to finish these post burn checks. Jeb: Bill, I am still worried about the delta-V budget for this. The lander will be at the redline once we get up from Duna. It's gonna be tight... Bill: Jeb, we ran the numbers and we're fine. What's wrong, don't think you can do it? We could ask Val to pilot, she's a good steady hand. Jeb: Damn you Bill, you know I can. But there is the simualtion budget the egg-heads on the ground make, then there is reality. There is a reason we aim for 15% lee-way. We only have about 5% here. Any problems, and this lander won't make it back up! For Kod's sake, we're relying on RCS to finish the burn!! Bob: OK Jeb, calm down, and watch your language. We have faith in you. If we didn't think you could do it we wouldn't be sending you down. Jeb: I know old man, but it's still to tight for even my tastes... Gwentha: Did the Horizons crew visit Duna on the way to Kerbin? Val: No Gwentha, I am surprised you don't remember your history. They did a areobraked at Sarnus and ended up orbiting Jool. And from there, they surveyed the system and made for Kerbin. It was really lucky for them they found an oxygen rich planet! They had been in space for 1000 years, and all they new was that Kerbol had planets. In fact, they didn't have the capacity to try another star! They had these big 'ol' boosters for breaking, and they ejected them on the way in. They couldn't even have really escaped Kerbol, let alone tried another star if this had been a bust for them. Gwentha: OHHH! I never liked history, I liked science. What would they have done if the system hadn't had a good planet?? Val: Well, they supposedly had a backup plan to either set up an orbital colony or land and make an enclosed colony, then slowly try and rebuild a new ship. Given that most of the kerbals on board were ins tatis, I guess the plan was to only wake up a few. Bob: You know Val, they actually considered Laythe as a home. In fact, they achieved orbit around Sarnus. But they happened to end up in a poor transfer window for Kerbin, but an optimal transfer for Jool. So they went to Jool to check out Laythe before burning for Kerbin. They even landed a crew down to Laythe. Val: Oh I didn't know that! Bob: My great grandfather was a bigwig on the ship. He passed the story down. They sent down 3 Kerbals, and apparently, they got stuck, and they never made it back to the ship. It was a sad story actually. Val: Ohh... Mission Day 305: Jeb (in Lander 1): We are away! Jeb: OK everyone, hang on, doing our injection burn... go! Bill: Steady Jeb don't get too excited.. Jeb: Shutdown in 3, 2, 1, shutdown. We are now heading for the atmosphere. Reorienting up for max aerobreaking. Jeb: Entering atmosphere. Hey Bill, remeber how scare Bob was last time? Bill: Yeah Jeb. Remember how you landed us upside down on the Mun? He had every roioight to be scared. There was no rescue for us that time. At least now we have the other lander. Jeb: You guys worry too much. How you other guys doin down there? Lengun and Barliana in the lower deck: OK! Jeb: OK we're well in in now... I think we are gonna over-shoot our target. We are on target according to the decent plan.... yeah we'Re GonNa Go OvEr ForRRr SurrRRre. <jostle jostle> Lengun and Barliana: AHahAHahAHwaHAWHA. Bill: Chutes in 15 seconds: Jeb: Pulling early, maybe we can kill some of this extra delta-v! Everyone: oof! Jeb: Drogues out... slowing down.... Val: Give me a Telemerty Readed! Radio: KRRT! Jeb, you're still too fast, gonna over-shoot! Jeb: OK, pulling main chutes! Everyone: oof! Radio: KRRT! Too late, you are over the target site by 10 kilometers already... Jeb: Damn, passed the valley. We are gonna l;and higher up. This is gonna cost us some extra fuel... Lengun: Yeah but we'll save on the way back up right? Jeb: Not by as much as we are gonna spend to slow down at a higher altitude... burning now! KRRRRRRRRowt Jeb: Engines off! Len, we need to kill extra horizontal velocity to avoid comming down sideways, AND exta vertical because the chutes don't work as well up here... comming, in! Burning! KRRRRRRRRowt! KRRt. KRT KRt Puff. Jeb! We are down! Looks like we're on a bit of a hill though. Kinda slanty don't you think? Bill: Deploying Habitats. Sigh. Lengun: So, are we gonna be OK to get back up??? Jeb: Oh sure Lengun, no prob. <whispers to Bill> it might be a problem... Jeb: I'm gonna go for a walk! Bill: Wait for me darn it! You don't get all the glory. Ahh, Lengun, Barliana, Check the lander! Barliana: Hey wait! Bill: <dissapears out hatch after Jeb> Bill: <reads plaque> Jeb was here!?! It was supposed to say "Duna landing site two, for all of Kermanity"!!! Jeb: Naaw, this was better. Now, the Kerbals will know I was here. Bill: Well we got work to do. Here, I brought you sample bags. Start grabbing Rocks. Bob wants lots of different colored ones this time. Not just the shiniest and reddest. Jeb: Well, Bob said I could have 1 for my very own as long as it was not too big! Radio in Lander: KRRT!! Hello? This is Excalliber! Did you guys land? Anyone down there????? HELLO??? The Lander 1 crew on Duna. Jeb, Bill, Barliana, and Lengun. ____________________________________________ Sorry to have not posted in so long. It's summer, and kids, work, etc. I have pics for several more posts so will try to move things along when I can. Happy flying! : )

I am having the issue that when I try to build, it is still asking for rocket parts, but MKS-lite and all the avuiilable EL parts dont make rocket parts, just material kits.

I am having an issue that ships I am leaving unattended in Sarnus seem to dissapear, and tr crew dies. Is this an issue which has popped up before? I didnt see a post on this b ut my forum search skills may be lacking : P