RizzoTheRat

How long ago did this come in? I've been playing on and off for years and never heard of it.

This may not look like much, but it's the product of several evenings head scratching and experimenting. My kOS launch script launches me to within about 0.6 degrees of Minmus's orbit, which is good but in theory I should be able to improve on it. However my plane matching scrip now gets me to about 0.0075 degrees out from Minmus's orbit.

My kOS driven precision Mun landing ETA: In fact I was pretty damn proud of that entire mission and plan to repeat it in my current game once I finish rejigging and updating all my kOS scripts https://imgur.com/gallery/Zv7OU9J

The term Deprecate is used a lot in software development to describe exactly this situation, you put in a new feature or way of doing something, but leave the old one in place so any old code that used it still works, but you discourage people from using the old method deliberately.

Good point, if you're sending a probe and don't plan to bring it back, definitely go to the Mun first.

Both take a similar amount of dV, you need more to get to Minmus but less to land and take off, so if you have the technology to go tone you can go to both. Landing is easier on Minmus as there's big obvious flat places and less gravity to contend with. It's easier to get to the Mun though as it's a simple transfer without the need for a plane change or launching in to an inclined orbit. Personally I always go to the Mun first in a new game but that's only really because it's become a habit.

But Vis-Viva is based on the amount of kinetic energy and gravitational potential energy at given points, so doesn't take in to account the Oberth effect does it? Oberth effects the amount of energy you gain from a given quantity of fuel doesn't? So does a burn from 100 to 200m/s use more fuel than a burn from 500 to 600 m/s? If so this would push the altitude of the gate orbit up a bit.

What mod is the linear aerospike engine from? I've not seen that before. Lovely looking plane but by why the choice to use the aerospike rather than electric props? Is the plan to develop it for use on other bodies too?

I find multiple Vectors on an engine plate seems to be the best way to do it, I never have any problem with overheating whereas every other engine configuration I've tried tends to explode. Unless you use FMRS,l doing a SpaceX style return means you need to have good timing to boost the upper stage, switched back to the first stage and land it, then switch back to the second stage to circularise. Personally I prefer to build a VTOL SSTO, and either bring it down on the next orbit, or dock a returning module to it for it to bring back down. I do something a bit closer to Blue Origin, with small wings to help the glide on re-rentry, and with Trajectories and kOS I can put them down on the runway reliably but getting them to land on the pad is a lot harder.

You know when you slightly over do the payload and then realise you can't actually launch it efficiently with your current level of technology? Built a Mun lander to my usual early game design, and then realised there's some new ScanSat sensors since last time I played which are available a lot earlier than the old one, so I figured a transfer stage could then go in to a polar Mun orbit with the sensors while the lander heads for an equatorial orbit and landing. But that meant the whole think was a bit too heavy for a sensible first stage. Ended up going back to my previous save and taking a slightly different research route to get the skipper and some bigger tanks Now I just need to finish my Mun transfer and landing kOS scripts.

Been working on a kOS script for altitude changes, boosting the Ap or Pe to a given value. It's taken a bit of fiddling and a lot of debugging but but I'm very happy with the result. From an 80x80 ish orbit I told it to raise the Apoapsis to 110km, and then raise the current Periapsis to 120km. The end result: I think I can live with that. then tried raising the Ap to 5000km and the current Pe to 6000km I make that a 0.0016% error on the semi major axis :

I do love a good Kommunications Satellite network. Number 4 just about to boost from it's resonant orbit in to it's final orbit. Unfortunately due to limited parts so far, number 4 was a little bit bigger than idea... Being somewhat over powered it only managed to get within about 2 seconds of the targeted 75 minutes orbit, while the other three were all within 0.1 seconds. I'll probably de-orbit it and put a better network up once I've got some better equipment, but this will handle comms to the mun and Minmus for now.

One day I should have a go with a tech tree reordering mod as I find it a little silly that I send a crewed orbiter to the mun before I get any communications satellites up, and when I do they're far larger than they need to be because the smallest engine I have is the Terrier. First attempt didn't quite go according to plan... If version 1 was a bit too flacid, version 2 is definitely a bit too phallic On the plus side I've got my "Test Script" kOS code up and running, which lets me run test scripts as part of my main code, meaning all my common functions are available, and I'm now working on updating my Resonant Orbit script to the new code structure to let me deploy this set of 4 RemoteTech Kommsats in LKO. In previous careers the satellite deployment stuff was a standalone bit of code I had to manually paste in to the kOS module and run. Now it will run from my menu structure, so run once to get the whole vessel in to the resonant orbit, and then run it again on each successive orbit on a different satellite to boost them in to their final orbits. So far the calculations work so just need to add i the manouvres.

I really enjoy the early game, after a polar orbit mission for some EVA science, and some tourist missions for cash, it was time for that first Mun flyby for some sweet, sweet science

After 2 evenings trying to relearn my kOS scrips and chase down a bug in my task sequencer module, I finally got my tourist orbit mission working properly. Launch to 80km, circularise, do half an orbit, deorbit and splash down about 500km from the KSC (not looked at the precision deoribit and landing script yet). Making the most of it with 3 quad tourist launches for 125k each from a <15k rocket. I guess it's time for a Mun flyby next.

Multiple contracts in a single launch always lead to some interesting design. Test a Kickback on the launch pad. Recover science from orbit of Kerbin. Test a flea in orbit between 240 and 250km. 2 tourist contracts for suborbital and orbital flight on Kerbin. So the Flea is my deorbit engine, the whole thing is a bit wobbly as I haven't got struts unlocked yet, and my kOS script can't really handle quite such a long burn from a solid first stage so launches in a steeper trajectory than necessary meaning an overpowered second stage is needed. Annoyingly I seem to be getting the occasional crash to desktop when going from the VAB to the launchpad. Only got both DLCs, KER, ScanSat, RemoteTech and kOS running, all of which are pretty well developed and usually stable.

Download 1.9.1 and a few a mods and got stuck in for the first time in months. First flight got me enough science to unlock the kOS module and I've been trying to figure out my kOS scripts that I've not touched in months ever since

Picked up Witcher 3 and both DLCs in a bundle on steam. Enjoying it a lot, but there's a lot of back story...which has led me to start reading the original books. So far I can't make up my mind if they're not that well written or if the translation from the original Polish isn't great. This week I started Kenshi. It's an open world RPG/RTS ish game with no story line or main plot, but I'm loving it so far. My first 2 or 3 starts died pretty quickly but I'm up to a team of 6 who can fight off small groups of starving bandits and are starting to build their own base, but still having to run away from the better equipped bandits.

I occasionally test stuff in sandbox but unless it's parts I've not unlocked yet, usually it actually easier to test in my main career game because i'll have the communication satellites in place .

Probably Kerbal Engineer, then I'd guess at SCANsat and RemoteTech. they've then continued to be my standard mods until my current game wich my my fist try without RemoteTech since before KerbNet was introduced

I have a folding base core with multiple docking ports that face upwards, that way I can use the hinges on the base to make sure it's horizontal and then plonk the next module down on top. A set of standard modules means I can tailor the base to whatever need without having to design new bits. It does mean getting good at precision landings though. In a previous game I had a rover with a docking port on a short rotating arm, so it could be set at a range of heights. Looked ugly but worked well.

If you're going to fold it lose the struts and either rely on Autostruts (carefully, I just attach the tip of each module to the core with an autostrut) or use KAS/KIS struts that can be placed and removed by a Kerbonaut. Once you start folding it you'll see where it can be easily modularised and launched/landed in separate parts, but you then either need mobile modules, a separate crane/rover to move them around, or get very good at precision landings. What mods are you using? There's a few parts there I don't recognise.

I find the Skipper is a really useful first stage engine in the earlyish game, wither with an adaptor to connect to 1.25m upper stage, or with a faring as you've done. As for Mun landings, I find drop tanks work really well in the early game. A capsule with a smallish fuel tank (FL-T200) and a Terrier has enough dV to get from the surface of the Mun back to Kerbin, and enough thrust that it can carry 3 extra fuel tanks on radial decouplers to get to the Mun and land. you can also leave the science payload on the Mun to save fuel on the return journey, Sticking the landing gear on the radial tanks means it copes well with slopes too, but is a wide payload to launch so the wider first stage and a faring make sense.

After the Mun flyby of my 1.9.1 career, I decided to do some tourist flybys for extra cash, so uprated MunFlyBy1 to a new triple podded and extra boostered MunFlyBy2, and sent Bob back to the Mun with a couple of passengers. I'm glad I went for a free return trajectory, that 37m/s dV remaining! Dropping the Kerbin periapsis from the initial 57km to my usual approach of 40km used a further 4m/s so they got back with 33m/s to spare. That's plenty right?

The UK have asked other industries to start making ventilators. There's some kind of generic design already out there, but a UK company that makes ventilators, Smiths Group, have provided the design of their ventilators with the idea that lots of other companies can manufacture the components for them. People seemed a bit sceptical when first proposed, but it seems to be gaining traction, with some big companies like Rolls Royce, Airbus, McClaren and Vauxhall getting behind it. They reckon they can double the amount of ventilators the NHS has in 2 weeks.