Freds

41+

A long time ago (i i'm not playing ksp actually), i managed to land and return to Eve orbit a hybrid-spaceplane. Karbonite engines and fuel converters to keep the plane flying and refuel as it go through eve atmosphere. After landing, science collection, etc, i returned to orbit. The return was painful: Karbonite engines to go as fast and as high as possible, MK2 Expansion Sledgehammer to go much higher and faster (almost escaping atmosphere) and finally some small engine to archive a stable orbit. It was a hybrid spaceplane because it was a spaceplane in Eve, but parts was dropped as it became useless. In the end, only the cockpit, a small docking port, a pair of Twitch engines and a fuel tank reached orbit. Then a tug-ship towed it to the mothership, and then returned to Kerbin. Once in kerbin, a cargo spaceplane returned the spaceplane (or, what left of it...) and the kerbals back to kerbin. That mission was a big personal archivement, almost a week of planning and concept testing, especially in "how to enter Eve atmosphere".

I find it a tedious routine the mining/deliver around Kerbal. I have done it 2 or 3 times, then i just edited a part to "magically generates fuel" and installed into my 'kerbin space station'. Ships are refuelled there. Just need to imaginate that someone delivered the fuel when i was not there and it is ok. ISRU is very very very useful and essencial to the distant missions. Almost all of my Kerbaled missions to Jool use ISRU in a way or another. I usually land a large ISRU barge in Pol. When a ship in need of refuel arraives, the barge just take off, do the refuel mission and land again. Low gravity makes things easyer.

Just bought the DLC. It's time to play Kerbal Again! But first things first: I need to re-install all the mods! Especially whatever Ferram Aerospace Research mod compatible with 1.7.1.... ( I just hate stock aerodynamics, FAR is a must have in my opinion! )

I played 1974 Hours on Steam! Before buying it, i played i think 300 from a pirated version.... KSP Is the best space simulator ever developed, but, IMHO, is the mods that make it the best! !

KSP is a very bad game. It's the mods that make it a good game, but, there is a problem: After a while.... there is nothing left to do. We need something nice to do at the planets. Cave exploration? Artifact hunting? Some random lore? Dont know.... but after the challenge of reaching and landing is complete, there is nothing left to do. Why build rover if a touchdown and take off mission will yield the same results?

Shallow reentry with heat shields, or, the gliding plane. What i suggest is the installation of parachutes on front and back of the glider, so it can land even without a flat surface. (Bring it near to the destination as a parachute safe speed, open the parachute and watch it land smoothy).

SSTO are Cool, but, i think its almost useless. I use SSTO only for LKO. Lately i equiped my LKO SSTO with droptanks to increase range as a insurance againt piloting errors. (They still are SSTO if i remove the tanks) I use Space Planes (with drop tanks, they cant archive orbit without this) as crew and cargo transport for my HKO Space Station (700Km orbit). Specially designed vehicles for all other things. As a rule, all my planes designed for Kerbin operations has parachutes on the tail - it makes really easy to stop before the runway ends. I only use SSTO, with VTOL and Mining for Laythe. For EVE, planet that all my missions are non-return drone missions, a glider is nice to bring rover to a nice landing spot (its better than a ballistic landing, specially due to montains). Parachutes on front and back ensure a nice and safe landing.

FAR for 1.5.1? I think it's time to re-install Kerbal!!! Thanks!

1) No kerbal dies, no kerbal stranded (space stations does not count), no kerbal left behind. Of course something can go wrong, but, i try to minimize all risks to kerbals, even if it means a parachute landing in Eve surface..... and an almost impossible dangerous rescue mission... 2) Commnet, default signal oclusion, plasma blackout, Part G limit, part pressure limits, kerbal g force, extra ground stations.... 3) ALT F12 or Hyperedit only to solve a bug. 4) One (or more) space stations in Kerbal orbit with cheaty fuel generator - i'm more than capable to go to minmus, mine, refuel station, go back.... but it is very boring... lets just pretend that i contracted somebody else to do that for me.... 5) All mods are allowed, as long i think the game is fun and balanced.

@Snark: I arrived home and made some tests. You are right. After some tests and part changes, i realized that i get lower mass and better efficient with monoprop only because i use MPR-5R Stratus Monopropelent from a mod (dont remember which mod added this). I apologize for the wrong information i was giving In the spoiler below there is a screenshot of my sattelite. Ignore the name "Untitled Space Craft", i was testing with different kind of engines and fuels. Its a simple antena + battery + probe + monoprotank, 4 solar panels and 2 scaled down MPR-5R. It was designed to be placed in low orbit and act as an relay between a rover (or something else) in the surface and another, bigger, relay sattelite connected to Kerbin, so, that 695m/s are more than enough for me. English is not my primary language, so i ask: If you see something wrong (grammatical error, syntax error, etc... ), please correct-me.

This is why i use monopropellant in my satellites - weight saving. Small vehicles have small engines, small engines means lower thrust, which require a lighter vessel to be efficient. I follow this rule: If it is small, very light and goes to the outer planets, monoprop. If it is small,very light and goes to the inner planets and will operate almost in the sunlight, xeon. In my playstyle, a vessel going to another planet usually has a probe core, big relay antenna , battery and solar panel installed in the orbital capture stage. This way, with only a small extra weight, when decoupled the 'disposable stage' turns into a relay sattelite. If it has another 3 or 4 tiny and lightweight sattelites attached, a planetary commnet to support land operations can easily created, with a only a little deltaV cost in the main vessel. If i will made a ship like the farmerben made, i wont be using xeon - 12T is too much for xeon or monoprop... A LVN will be perfect if high ISP is required.!

No pictures because i'm not at home, but, almost all my satellites use monopropellant based engines (not the puff, but other engines provided by mods). Monoprop is light, and can give a lot of deltaV without need of electricity, which is perfect for outer planets like Jool, Eeloo, Dres (who goes to Dres anyway?)....

MechJeb are nice for space piloting - i use smartASS all the time. For atmospheric flying i use AtmosphereAutopilot mod, it really helps piloting aircraft when using a Keyboard. Just remember to disable mechjeb smartASS (or any other mechjeb functions) when you enable the mod.

Another way is to change fuel priorities Instead of tank locking - this is better because fuel just get consumed in the right order, so there is no need manually unlock the tank while in flight and also eliminates the risk of a flameout due to fuel starvation while having fuel onboard.