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Starhawk

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  1. Starhawk's post in Looking for tips to land on Tylo was marked as the answer   
    Hello @Kirian and welcome to the KSP Forum.
    I have not landed on Tylo in KSP2, but I did a number of Tylo landings in KSP1.  Since the Kerbolar system remains largely unchanged, the information I have to impart should still be relevant.
    First, there are several quite different strategies for landing on a body which has no atmosphere.  One of the common ones I have seen is what I will call 'stop and drop'.  Starting from a basically circular orbit around the target body one simply points retrograde and burns until the lander is basically motionless with regard to the surface (orbital velocity zero).  With the lander now falling straight down, the engine is pointed at the ground and the craft is slowed as needed to result in a gentle landing.  The lower the gravity of the target body, the easier this is.  However, it is not efficient.  The orbital velocity is completely removed while the lander is still far above the surface and all further burning is simply to remove the velocity accumulated while falling.  Pretty much all of this is wasted.
    To land efficiently, the periapsis is lowered as close to the surface as possible and the retrograde burn to remove orbital velocity happens near the periapsis.  Ultimately, you want to finish the burn and bring your lander to zero orbital velocity just as you finish falling and touch down.  In practice this is quite easy on low gravity bodies.  Of course, on low gravity bodies the inefficiency of 'stop and drop' is much lower and so less fuel is saved.  On higher gravity bodies, this is not only difficult to achieve, but is a rather hair-raising experience.  On Tylo it is downright terrifying.  But the amount of fuel saved versus 'stop and drop' is dramatic.
    One of things necessary to make this work is a sufficiently high TWR.  It is necessary to remove all orbital velocity in as short a time as possible so that the periapsis can start as low as possible and gravity has as little time as possible to accelerate your lander into the ground.  The less vertical component to your landing burn, the less fuel is wasted.  I don't remember the exact figures I have used, but it seems to me that you want a TWR comfortably over 2 as you complete the removal of orbital velocity and prevent Tylo's gravity from smashing your lander into the surface.
    With an efficient landing trajectory and sufficient TWR, it should be possible to design a lander with something like 5300 to 5500 m/s dV and successfully pull off landing and return to orbit.  It will take careful design of the lander and probably quite a bit of trial and error to get the periapsis and the landing zone just right.
    It has been said in KSP1 that there are three big boss missions.  Getting to Moho, landing on Tylo, and returning from the surface of Eve.  The same should more or less be true for KSP2.  I wish you the best of luck and I hope this is somewhat helpful.

    Happy landings!
  2. Starhawk's post in KSP doesn't see any crafts in VAB. was marked as the answer   
    When I've seen this behaviour before it's always been due to a single corrupted craft file in the directory.
    The craft files are just text files and can easily be opened and viewed.
    When I've experienced this, it has been easy to tell just by looking at the various craft files which one was corrupt.  I had to delete the corrupted craft, but all the others were fine.
    Hope this helps.

    Happy landings!
  3. Starhawk's post in Satellite in designated orbit was marked as the answer   
    Hello wardogjohn and welcome to the forum!
    In almost every one of these cases, the satellite has been put into orbit moving in exactly the wrong direction.
    If you look at the target orbit in map view, you should be able to see an animation within the orbit line moving around to show you which way the satellite must move in the orbit.
    Also, the markers which indicate inclination when viewed from the satellite in question should be very near to zero.  If they are near to 180 then you are going the wrong way.
    Hope this helps.

    Happy landings!
  4. Starhawk's post in How to pin orbit markers? was marked as the answer   
    Right clicking any marker in map mode should make it stay displayed.
    Happy landings!
  5. Starhawk's post in Naming docking ports was marked as the answer   
    I believe that it's Docking Port Alignment Indicator which adds that feature.
    Happy landings!
  6. Starhawk's post in How to use Tylo to get an assist into Jool orbit? was marked as the answer   
    If you change that setting I mentioned, you should be able to see the resulting orbit.  The trajectory shown in the OP does not look like it will result in a good capture.  As I indicated, I try for a trajectory that just touches the circle of Tylo's orbit in one place and then adjust my trajectory in and out a bit using the maneuver node handles until I have an encounter and then adjust that until I have a good capture.  I like to do this about halfway between Kerbin and Jool.
    This is five Tylo gravity captures - one for each of the original ships in my KRRAKC Jool flotilla.  All but the middle one are pretty much encountering Tylo just at the tangent to its orbit.  And the middle one, which cuts across a bit, results in the most eccentric capture.  It is definitely a bit fiddly.  But very satisfying to get.
    edit: Actually, the fourth one cuts across quite sharply as well.  Anyway - once you can see the resulting orbit line - red in this case - you can adjust it until you have a good capture.

     
    Hope this helps.
    Happy landings!
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