Starhawk

I'm certainly not anticipating a 'burn vertical' trajectory at all. I'm imagining a curve between 'burn vertically' and 'circularize' that would provide the necessary escape velocity while keeping the periapsis inside Kerbin. Maybe there is not such a trajectory which is more efficient than circularization, but it seems intuitively that it is likely to exist.

I'm saying that you don't need a trajectory which raises your periapsis outside of Kerbin. You can certainly set up a highly elliptical 'orbit' which has an apoapsis of 82000 km and a periapsis which is still inside the planet Kerbin. If you keep burning, that apoapsis becomes an escape from Kerbin's SOI, and eventually, a transfer to wherever. The point is that it's not necessary to expend any energy on raising your periapsis outside the atmosphere, or even the planet's surface. That is (a tiny amount of) energy you save compared to if you circularize and then start increasing your apo until it becomes your escape. Happy landings!

Check out this thread. Hope this helps. Happy landings!

That's what I had been thinking. Then, I realized that this is not the case. The most efficient IP transfer trajectory from launch will leave your periapsis inside Kerbin. You save the delta-v of working on your periapsis at all, this way. Happy landings!

Yup, that it is. That record sure took some dedication. Over 6 hours of play time! You can sure see the diminishing returns clearly, though. 6000 m/s 35 days 10000 m/s 23 days 60000 m/s 7 days The pictures for my second attempt have been up for a while back on page 3. Not that it really matters now. I certainly don't have the patience/KSP time to try beating the new record. Thanks for the challenge, and happy landings!

I don't see them in there anywhere. There was a mod(app?) I saw mentioned recently that allowed one to extract craft files from saved game files. Maybe that's the way to go. Happy landings!

'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.' It is subjective, transitory, illusory even. There is only function. Form follows function. When I'm in the VAB or SPH, I feel much more like an engineer than a sculptor. Happy landings!

As I said in the post for my first entry, it's really all about delta-v. Well, that and transfer windows. You have to burn at the right moment, of course. And as far as delta-v goes, the diminishing returns begin to hit pretty hard past 10000 m/s. Still, as long as the atmo at your destination can capture you, even higher velocities, and shorter trips are definitely possible. How big a rocket do you want to make? Happy landings!

I just made Duna's surface in 23d 4:35:16. So, I started in about a 96km orbit to avoid burning into Kerbin's atmo. I had a lower TWR and 40% more delta-v to achieve than on my first attempt. The burn took about 10000 m/s delta-v. I had to make a correction burn during the IP phase once again, and another small correction inside Duna's SOI. Had an Ike flyby to add some interest, and hit Duna's atmo doing over 13km/s. As in my first attempt, I didn't even consider making orbit at Duna, just went straight into aerobraking and landing. @Slashy - I guess we'll need a cheater's scoreboard now. Happy landings!

Max seemed to indicate that the feature (one of the features?) they are thinking of out of 1.0 is the delta-v display. That's the only thing I can recall other than the IVA's. Happy landings!

I used pure aerocapture. Thrust was just for the last few seconds of landing. I found the transfer window I wanted, launched, set up a maneuver node and tweaked it until I had an encounter. One correction burn early in the IP phase, and one small correction just after entering Duna's SOI. I'll have to start warming up my next Duna entry. I hope to retake top spot on the Duna leaderboard later today. Happy landings!

Hi Telesto and welcome to the forums! The first few posts have to be checked by a mod to prevent spambots and such. After three posts, I believe, you can choose an avatar and post images. Happy landings!

I just made Duna's surface in 34d 4:51:08. It's really all about delta-v. With 10000 m/s delta-v rather than 6000, the trip could be cut to about 23 days. Even going that fast, I imagine Duna's atmo could still capture you. I got pretty worried over Duna's south polar area since I was coming in so low. It looked like I was going to smack into one of those mountains. It probably wasn't as close as it looked, but it seemed like I missed it by only a couple of hundred metres. Happy landings!

The only thing I can recall is that he indicated that the feature (one of the features?) that the devs are thinking of leaving out of 1.0 is delta-v display. Happy landings!

This is one of the problems with the UI. It's often difficult to select the Pe/Ap marker rather than the orbit line. If you click the orbit line, then you get the maneuver node dialogue instead. I use it all the time, but it's much too fiddly. Also, why can't you click for persistence on target encounter/rendezvous markers? Happy landings!

With difficulty. I almost never fly without it. Early in my first 0.90 career I did manage to complete a satellite contract without SAS. Very fiddly. Happy landings!

Max seemed to indicate last night that delta-v display is the feature (one of the features?) that they are thinking of leaving out of 1.0. It seems to me that this thread would have a lot less fud and a lot more constructive feedback if that had been mentioned in the OP. Max, if you really want feedback, please give us enough context to provide it. Ditch the delta-v display. Balance, bugfix, polish, repeat. Happy landings!

Wow! Just wow.

Welcome to the forums! Good to have you here. Happy landings!

Where are your intakes? Intakes have an enormous amount of drag and can cause craft to flip around. Just a wild guess. Happy landings!

I reported Kasper's post to the mods for 'intolerable cruelty'. Oh, wait...

I just reported Kasper's post to the mods for 'intolerable cruelty'. Oh, wait...

Hello, getlicked, and welcome to the forums! I look forward to seeing your stream. As far as help and tips go, the Gameplay Questions and Tutorials section has a wealth of valuable information for both the new player and the seasoned pro. If you want to know how to do some common task you will probably find a tutorial for it in the Tutorials subsection. If you have a specific question about how to accomplish a task, post a thread in the Gameplay Questions section that I linked to. There are also numerous useful resources in the Wiki. That should help get you started. See you around and happy landings!

Welcome, Starchaser. I'm still climbing the 'learning wall' myself. There are tonnes of helpful people in the community here and a great deal of resources for the both the new player and the seasoned pro. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask them in the Gameplay Questions section of the forum. Happy landings!

I still have trouble with gravity assists to some extent. Also precision landing a heatshield/parachute type craft in atmosphere. To land at/near KSC, I use a fixed reference that I've found to work by trial and error. I establish a 75x75 equatorial prograde orbit. When 1/4 orbit before being directly over KSC, I point retrograde and burn until the orbit trajectory enters the surface of Kerbin and moves until it touches the next spit of land that lies directly to the east of KSC. That usually brings me down quite close to KSC, but there is some error due to eyeballing it. Using this method with a spaceplane, I'm always close enough to angle for a landing or turn around after slowing and come back west to the runway if I overshoot by a bit. For precision landing on airless bodies, Slashy's Reverse Gravity Turn method seems to work quite well. Happy landings!