RocketPropelledGiraffe

You can already change the drawn conics limit in the config-file, why would you need it in the MM?

Jep, I know that physics in software terms basically is reduced to "mechanical interactions" and most other spects of physics are done separately. I was merely commenting on the weird wording you get as a result from time to time...

Welcome Hootenanny, it seems you have your work cut out for you. Learning to dock and rendez-vous is never easy, and your situation is certainly not ideal. First a question for you: Do you know what to do to get matching orbits in theory and you are having trouble doing the actual burns correctly? Or do you need some help to learn the basic ideas of rendez-vous in space? For now, I'll assume the latter. :) To get your two objects to matching orbits, you have to adjust the inclination, periaps and apoaps, and the relative argument of periaps to match. Inclination is the relative angle between the planes of both orbits - they intersect along one common line. If you set your target space station as target in map mode the line will be displayed, along with two markers "ascending node" and "descending node". It will also tell you the relative angle. You can match the angles by doing a normal or antinormal burn in one of these nodes. You have to do the maneuver in those points, otherwise you will never get matched inclination. Periaps and apoaps are the points closest and furthest to the parent body in orbit. You can adjust your periapsis by burning prograde or retrograde at apoapsis, and you can similarly change your apoapsis when burning at periaps. Argument of periapsis (AoP) is the position of the periapsis points of your ship and your target relative to each other. For example, if you imagine the target orbit as (stretched) clock face with the periapsis at 12 and the periapsis of your spaceship at 3, then the relative AoP is -90°. To match the AoP you want to burn radial or antiradial at the intersection of both orbits. If you are in a circular orbit, this value is meaningless because periaps and apoaps are the same. That's why it is easier to dock in circular orbits. If this is new information for you, then I would advice to turn on infinite fuel and do some tests, until you get a feeling for the effects that the indicated maneuvers have on your orbit. These are the basics, and doing as described is usually not the most efficient way, but it will get you there and help to understand what the maneuvers do. You can combine several burns into one, there are tricks to make inclination changes cheaper, and so on. Anyway, you should worry about efficiency as a second step.

[quote name='TheTom'] ...What makes KSP slow are: * The non-physics simulations (heat mostly)... [/QUOTE] How heat calculations can be considered "non-physics" is incomprehensible to me... Software development really IS a world of its own. :)

Did you compare to using no cones at all - You save some mass and increase drag, depending on the launch profile and the atmosphere it can be a good option? It's certainly not helping on Eve, and propably the better option on Duna. Do you have data for Kerbin or Laythe?

[quote name='Tatonf']Dres is further than Duna, is inclined by 5° and have no atmosphere for aerocapture/aerobreaking. Even the Jool system is a friendlier place, despite being further than Dres.[/QUOTE] As officially sanctioned Dres Supporter (R), I have to disagree - respectfully, but forcefully! The views are increadible, watching the solar system from high up in the inclined Dres orbit! :) Of course, getting there requires some work, but that only makes it so much more rewarding. On a reply to the OP, try to get to Duna and Ike first (even before going to Dres). It requires the least delta-v, has almost no inclination difference, and it feels like doing a Mars mission, which is rewarding in itself vis-a-vis real life.

The situation is only problematic when you have a probe with no power left at all. For manned flights you can always push the spaceship into rotation with an EVA Kerbal. To prevent these cases I usually disable the electricity of the probe core. Normally there are additional batteries anyway, so these 10 units of charge are not relevant. But it's always enough to rotate the craft properly, when the solar panels are in the shadows.

Hmm, I guess I have to think about it some more and do some actual calculations. [URL="https://xkcd.com/1356/"]Orbital Mechanics[/URL] are difficult...

Hey Slash, I did add the relative velocity in my example, no? Where did I go wrong? Are you saying when going to the inner solar system I am better off to burn prograde in LKO to escape (1000 m/s delta-v at 9200+2200 m/s relative solar velocity), then wait to escape Kerbin and then burn retrograde the rest of the way at 9200 m/s in solar orbit? That means always do two burns, not one, to get to the inner planets? I never tried it like that...

Well, let me expand on this discussion and add a question of reference frame: The gain in kinetic energy is proportional to the velocity, that's the basic idea and that's why you usually want to do pro/retro burns at periaps. So far so good. Now we think about going interplanetary, to the outer solar system. This is easy mode, because you burn prograde in LKO, which is also prograde relative to the sun. Ideally my orbital velocity relative to Kerbin adds to the orbital velocity of Kerbin around the sun (~9200 + 2200 m/s). Do everything in one burn and you are better off, simple. Now let's go to the inner solar system. We burn retrograde in LKO to escape Kerbin's gravity. This is done retrograde to the sun as well, which means the velocity relative to the sun is minimal, because we have to substract our velocity relative to Kerbin ( ~9200 - 2200 m/s). What is the tradeoff here? Is it better to burn to escape Kerbin in LKO, with good relative velocity to Kerbin, and then do another burn afterwards, because we travel at the full 9200 m/s in solar orbit then? Think about appliying 2000 m/s delta-v in two instantaneous burns of 1000 m/s each (One to escape Kerbin, one to get to the destination): If we do everything in LKO we get 1000 m/s applied at 9200-2200 = 7000 m/s relative solar velocity, and the second one at 9200-2200-1000= 6000 m/s, which is even slower relative to the sun. If we do 1000 m/s in LKO just to escape we apply it at the same 7000 m/s. The second 1000 m/s burn occurs after escape from Kerbin, with 9200 m/s relative solar velocity. With regard to the Oberth effect the second one sounds better. And, at least after three wheat beers tonight, it also seems very reasonable. :huh:

I just landed on Duna (still there, getting back is tonights project), and actually got flaming effects for the first time I can remember. I was getting down from an 80 km orbit with about 8 km periapsis. However, a heat shield was not necessary. I got scared when I was still going very fast at 10 km down, and used the engine to slow down and safely deploy the drogue chutes. Drogue chutes then easily slow you down enough to safely deploy the normal chutes. 4 radial drogue chutes and 4 radial normal chutes managed to bring my 14 t lander down to 18 m/s at 4500 m. A little thrust was almost always necessary, so no real change there.

[quote name='MaxwellsDemon']I noticed that, until I installed 1.05, I never saw the Jeb on the Moon screen anymore... one or more of the mods must have done something to prevent it showing up. After 1.05, it pops up sometimes. The other day, I saw the castle! :D What cracked me up is that Jeb (why do I assume it's Jeb?) was actually sort of chuckling...[/QUOTE] Since 1.0 the title screen is always the EVA Kerbals in orbit, I think. I thought that was intentional? When I go back to the main menu after being in a game I always get the Mun scene.

That's why I think they should be made repeatable, but more specific. See above, or for the "Explore" contracts more like "Explore the Duna Lowlands with barometric scans and EVA missions. Be sure to bring back a sample."

But the overlap is already there because the World First contracts like "Fly by the Mun" are still available, as well as the explore contracts. If you are lucky and get one of those, you get double reward. The passive system alone is very nice, but I think it means that those non-repeatable contracts should disappear. Or become repeatable with more specifics, like the tour contracts are. "Fly by the Mun as close as 15 km above the Twin craters and get a temperature scan from it" Something like that?

I am glad that drogue chutes finally have a use, I feel a lot safer with those attached for reentry. The only problem is that they are not available in early career, especially for first suborbital flights where the angles are steep. The radial drogue chute should propably just be moved to the tech node with the normal radial chute, and there won't be any problem?

Electric propellers please! At the moment, the most fun part on Eve is getting away from it. Give me propellers to fly around and explore! Oh, and maybe balloons to explore dense atmospheres. Oh, and maybe something like air-cushions, something that can be used for boats as well as to soften lithobreaking of your probes on Tylo...

Just bring a Klaw and carry the pod down with you?

LV-1R "Spider" 38 24-77 "Twitch" 38 Mk-55 "Thud" 40 LV-1 "Ant" 41 48-7S "Spark" 41 (+1) LV-909 "Terrier" 40 LV-T30 "Reliant" 40 LV-T45 "Swivel" 40 S3 KS-25 "Vector" 40 T-1 Toroidal "Aerospike" 40 LV-N "Nerv" 39 (-2) Rockomax "Poodle" 40 Rockomax "Skipper" 40 Rockomax "Mainsail" 40 LFB KR-1x2 "Twin-Boar" 39 Kerbodyne KR-2L+ "Rhino" 40 S3 KS-25x4 "Mammoth" 40

Can you clarify please: Is this about having as much velocity as possible at the moment of going into the atmosphere, or is it about getting down to the ground as fast as possible and walk away from it?

I think DLC and microtransactions are the original sin of 21st century gaming. Give me a complete, fully-fledged add-on and I will gladly pay good money for it. Especially if it comes with a nice theme: 35-40 bucks for KSP: Humans on Duna!, or KSP: Explore the Oort Cloud, or KSP: Generation Ships to Kerbin 2? Any time, count me in! 5$ for 10 new spaceplane parts? No thank you. I really hope Squad will go the first route...

Well, the other day I measured the pressure in-game while ascending and did not find a difference to 1.0.4 - but I stopped at around 45 km altitude because everything seemed identical this far. Anyway, it seems to me the atmospheric model is still the same, but the speed-dependency of drag has been increased. Thats why I get a lot of flaming effects while launching my rockets and going at relatively high speed between 35-50 km up, and at the same time the reentry almost doesn't decelerate the pod enough to open the chutes when falling down the last 10 km, making drogue chutes a very nice addition to any capsule. I actually like the change, I can easily adjust my launch profile to be a little steeper and I really think it makes drogue chutes more useful, which is a good thing. The beginning of career is a bit dangerous though, drogue chutes are located deep down in the tech tree...

Well, I stopped my attempt in frustration yesterday... Almost like a rage-quit. To get the "final" 900 science points you basically have the decision between monotonously collecting everything in 15 different Mun landings (meh...) or to try something more interesting (yay!!) - so I went for the Jool system. After launching 5 different probes to finally get an encounter (Caveman not need launch window, caveman just send MOAR PROBES!) I realized that the small solar panels do not yield enough energy to power the Okto probe core at 70 Gm distance from the sun... No chance to collect and transmit the science... soooo frustrating. Maybe I will start another attempt when the frustration is gone. Let's see... Good luck to all you caveman, and be sure to stay in the inner solar system!

I also just discovered this. As an additional note, you can activate the chute again via staging after you disarmed it.

That's so nice, finally no more trouble using those in-line ports. Thanks a bunch! For some reason I never really came to terms with the Docking Port Alignment mod, and the inline ports were just too tedious to bother without...

Pfft, you don't do something like that for a medal anyway. It is all for Dres after all, n'est-ce pas?