HalcyonSon

I have a window to Moho opening in about one Kerbal day. It's on! ... as soon as I get Richlong down in one piece from his botched Mun rescue, and get Bob refueled and heading back home from Minmus. I'm hoping to get a single launch comm net and unmanned expeditionary mission out on Day 46 with arrival around Day 93. My trusty dV map tells me that I'll need about 13,000 m/s for Moho landing (worst case including plane change + 20%). With the Science I've been able to transmit home from Minmus, I know I can unlock Nukes and might be able to unlock Ion Engines. This is the furthest I've ever progressed in the game. I've fooled around with Nukes a bit, but never Ions. Wondering which would be better for this mission. It's really going to make the most of my MicroSat design, as I'll be scattering probe droids across every biome with no intention of bringing them back. Looks like I'll have to pile on twelve probes to hit every biome. Add four Relays (three equatorial and a polar) and a Resource Scanner... This will be my most complex mission yet, and my first interplanetary, and probably my highest part count. Next question is if I have a strong enough antenna to connect Moho to KSC... Looks like the DTS-M1 and RA-2 will go on the Moho Relays. But does that mean I have to upgrade my Kerbin commnet? Much to learn.

I see two Mk 0 tanks there with the intakes. Why not two Junos? Double the thrust, double the fun!

Finally getting around to posting a few of mine. The two below work well enough on airless bodies and travel in a single large 2.5 m fairing. I'm toying with the idea of combining the two and creating a stack of 2.5 m service bays or fairings and popping them off like Pez in orbit of target body Mun Rover Mk. 1 - Meant to explore without leaving the surface. Incorporates rover wheels, small control wheel, 200 EC inline battery, solar panels, antenna, thermometer, barometer, and two goo. Faster than is perhaps reasonable, easily achieving speeds (20 m/s+) that result in broken wheels on crater hops. Not the sturdiest design, but very tolerant of damage. One plucky little rover continued its mission after losing the entire forward third of the rover (two wheels, the rocket engine, fuel tank, half the science, etc.) Minmus Biome Hopper - larger science package, meant to land and return to the mothership for Kerbals to collect science and renew experiments for another hop. Mun Biome Hopper Mothership - includes four relay satellites, four unmanned rovers, and a manned lander. The Minmus Biome Hopper Mothership is very similar, but replaces the rovers with mini science hoppers, and includes a resource scanner built into the scaffolding.

I pulled one of these contracts last night on my stock game. Just a touch frustrating, because Bob had already left the Minmus surface to refuel in orbit. In the end, it provided a decent amount of funds but slowed my science collecting ambitions. It required that I set down in the Lowlands three more times instead of hitting three different biomes. Between this and the "collect temperature reading below XX height" contracts, I ran out of fuel long before I ran out of science to collect. I've really come to hate those contracts - you can't orbit Minmus that low! I had to all but land to collect each of the four readings on that contract because they were all 5 km or lower. Each measurement point was in a valley so it required breaking and then reestablishing orbit. All Bob managed to hit was Lowlands, Greater Flats, and Flats biomes. Now I'm debating sending fuel to him vs. bringing him home.

Landing legs no longer explode from Kerbal bumps in 1.2.2. I'm grateful for that one. The smallest "module" I've had to grab so far is a Swivel. Not much larger than a Kerbal, but more massive and a more uniform shape. I've grabbed a Kerbal before, and it is very difficult. About the only thing big enough to hit is their head, and they're so light that the slightest nudge sends them somersaulting away. Alignment must be PERFECT for the Klaw to close on a Kerbal.

Grabbing something as small as a Kerbal with a Klaw is nightmarishly hard. It would fit his BadS label to a "T" though if you could bring Jeb back in a blaze of glory. My first choice is the expert pilot method - just a Mk 1 Capsule and a Probe Core with no extra ladders. It's actually not that hard with a couple RCS 4-ways. When it comes to solar panels and kerbals... the tiniest bump ends in destruction. I sent Val and a flock of trainees to play leap-ship ar Minmus, and one of them bumped a 3x2 solar panel at less than 0.1 m/s. Turned that panel into confetti.

Turn the ejection force of your decoupler down to zero in the VAB.

di di di dddii ticka ticka ticka.... !!NEWS FLASH!! This just in! At long last, BOB HAS ARRIVED at Minmus! His arrival was overshadowed by the faster path Val and Pals took, and the trainees even beat our veteran scientist to the surface. Make room for the next generation! Much fun was had as the young ones played leap-ship and stack-a-Kerbal. Not a very dignified follow-up to Val's first steps on Kerbin's most distant satellite... Slow and Steady Bob realigned his orbit over the equator, pinned his periapsis to 250 km, and placed Minmus' first comm satellite as Val and Pals gallivanted on the surface. Sir Slow then recovered his unmanned probe which (just barely) beat the first boots to ground. Much science was collected, and our lab-coated friends feel certain they will be able to develop many new components from lessons learned. Two more comm sats to go before Bob can unleash his full load of unmanned probes and set down himself. In the meantime, the Kerblings are on their way to Mun, and are hoping for a lightly closer look at Kerbol if Val manages to squeak a bit of extra dV from the tanks. The trainees couldn't be in better hands. This was your Kerbal Network News !!NEWS FLASH!! di di di dddii ticka ticka ticka....

Yikes! Religion too!!

@Mastikator That's certainly food for thought, but also problematic because countries print currency all the time. Too much currency makes it worth less. I'm thinking of Germany after WWI here, attempting to pay off / devalue debts but also causing immense inflation

From a certain point of view... Any currency's value is completely relative to what you can get for it. If the baker suddenly decides he's going to raise the cost of a loaf from 1 clam to 100 clams, your clams are worth a lot less (assuming he's the only baker in town, you don't know how to bake, etc., etc.) That 25,000 fund tourist contract to go 'round Kerbin is great when most of your rockets cost 15,000 funds. When you're going to Duna and your rocket costs 500,000 funds, you have to do LOTS more of those early tourist contracts to pay for the giant new rocket. If your bottlecap is worth one bottle of purified water, and suddenly some random scientist's son decides to purify all the water in your area for free, now your bottlecap is worthless.

I never noticed that. Will check tonight! Does it show up from any vessel, including the Tracking Station, or is it only visible when in control of that one?

di di di dddii ticka ticka ticka.... !!NEWS FLASH!! This just in! Ladies and Kerbs, the world's first Mun Tourist has returned! Jeb, Bill, and Sambro are home! Our Kerbs in (Lab)Coats score two more victories for Kerbal Kind! Those slide rules came in handy again as our boys' rescue mission was upgraded to also include a Klaw booster for that little extra kick to get the tourist home. Our little penny-pinchers designed the Klaw to re-enter right behind the tourist for another small bonus, but unfortunately it slipped out of radio range and was lost after the parachutes were already partially open. Those pocket protectors keep the black ink (and the funds) flowing, by also returning a mysterious piece of space junk from Minmus orbit. What will they find next?! In other news, darling Val and her pals have invented a new card game as they wait for their Minmus encounter. No one Kerbin-side quite understands the rules though... perhaps it has something to do with effect of micro-gravity on Kerbal brains? More geeks are working on it! The real work begins as soon as their training mission hits orbit in just a few more days. Further penny-pinching - in the greatest spirit of adventure! - has also sent a small probe that already completed its mission out from polar Kerbin orbit for a trip around Kerbol and eventually (hopefully), an encounter with Duna. Don't hold your breath though, you excitable Kerblings! We're talking YEARS before it (maybe) happens. And Bob... yeah, we're still waiting for him to get to Minmus. He's a touch dull, isn't he? Just sits around munching on noms. We'll let you know when he finally returns some actual science. This was your Kerbal Network News !!NEWS FLASH!! di di di dddii ticka ticka ticka....

Is Kerbnet Stock?

Hahaha I'm okay with "moderately wealthy due to smart management."

Why bother? The ore concentration on Kerbin is horribly low. Even in the stock game it doesn't take much to make most first stages recoverable, and that can cut the cost of every launch in half. I recover at a minimum the first stage and last stage of every launch. For routine launches that means getting about 75% back on three Orange Tanks and three Skippers five minutes into the mission, plus the lander / command pod / service module at end of mission.

Yes please. And clearer than on the Decouplers. Am I the only one that has a hard time telling which direction those fuzzy arrows point?

ECON 101 Explanation - The US Dollar was based on a gold standard in the past. Yes, the actual amount of gold (bullion/bars/coins) in the country's physical possession (like Fort Knox in the James Bond flick). Now? Just the strength of our economy. Value fluctuates based on many factors, but they're all relative to the currency of other countries and the relative trading situation. The take-away? Money doesn't actually have to be based on anything, so long as everyone accepts it in trade for other goods and services. It's just a super-convenient placeholder for trade (rather than fifteen live chickens for thirty pounds of salt, or a hundred potatoes for a wagon wheel). From a Kerbal perspective, you could use launch clamps to place a tank and engine on the runway, burn off the fuel, and compare the value on recovery to the cost of launch. This would give you a direct relationship between funds and fuel. Then you could say that one Mk 1 Capsule is worth XX Fuel. You could do the same for Xenon or Ore, with each comparison involving more steps along the way.

These are amazing. Have you posted them on KerbalX for dowload? I want! I recently found this ability. Love it.

di di di dddii ticka ticka ticka.... !!NEWS FLASH!! This just in! One lucky tourist placed a bid on a Mun landing, which KSC happily granted... albeit combined with a "Test NERV on Mun" contract. Not a bad little ship actually. Final stage is just a NERV, Mk 1 Fuselage, Service Bay with electronic goodies and Mk 1 Capsule with landing legs offset down past the engine bell. The friendly atom, taking everyman into the future! Something like 1,800 m/s in dV... which wasn't quite enough to do a Mun insertion, landing, and re-orbit, and no one noticed until she was halfway to Mun. Shame on you KSC... Our brilliant rocket scientists sent yet another Klaw out on a fast intercept before the NERV tourist made it to Mun SOI, which was a VERY expensive dV-wise. The rendezvous timing was tricky, with a closing speed of over 900 m/s, but our pals with pocket protectors pulled it off. Landing went smoothly, but the tall narrow ship slowly tipped over due to a slight grade at the landing site. Not a problem! Closing the Service Bay doors quickly was enough to pop the ship's nose up off the surface and give her a clean take-off. Things were a bit dicey for a moment, but our plucky tourist is back in Mun orbit and on her way home. In other Munar news, Jeb, Bill, and Sambro are in back in Mun orbit after a successful science and flag dance. Our boys also popped an ore Scanner into polar orbit, where preliminary results show concentrations of up to 90% in two areas at northern latitudes. They are currently sitting on their little green hands waiting for KSC to send up an RCS and command pod for their service / return module. Someone ..tsk tsk... forgot to install a probe core on the service module that remained in orbit and is meant to give them enough fuel to return home. Since the lander was built as light as possible it has no parachutes and no RCS, and insufficient fuel to complete rendezvous maneuvers and a main engine only docking. They have roughly 130 m/s remaining, and combined rendezvous and docking are estimated to cost 160 m/s. Further calculations are required to determine if they can simply wait for a cheaper rendezvous, or if it is necessary to wait a full day in parking orbit for rescue. But have no fear, our boys in orange will get home safe! On her way to Minmus, our darling Val is leading several rescues and rookies on the world's first mass training mission to Minmus, Mun, and Kerbol orbit. And Bob... Bob is set to be the first Kerbal to set foot on the minty moon. With any luck, he will bring home science from several biomes, but his landing is still several days away. Too far away to be of interest to most Kerbals, but we'll bring you all the updates as they happen. This was your Kerbal Network News !!NEWS FLASH!! di di di dddii ticka ticka ticka....

400,000 m/s would be the fastest thing I've seen in-game that wasn't glitched.

I've had stations up to around 500, which is where things get really bad. The Eos is probably closest in function to what I need, but is way prettier and higher tech level than I can access right now. Looks like a fun challenge - I think I'll try my hand at it.

Does that mean what I think it means? Does this engine use a jet engine on the main craft to blow against vanes to turn the rotors (as a second craft)? So lift is controlled by the throttle, and forward speed by pitching forward? That would mean you never have to switch to the second craft... These Azi designs look like they would kill my computer, but now I have to try a mini version. I have a need for a craft to drop some beacons.

D'oh! Forgot about that. You can still have enough thrust offset to make a craft uncontrollable even with the correct control point and a Reaction Wheel though. If changing the control point doesn't fix the issue, it is possible to rendezvous again with the main engine (no RCS), just takes some patience. Helps to fine-tune the engine thrust way down.

It really is unfortunate that efficient rocket design doesn't lend itself to Star Wars names for vessels. "Uppercase I" and "Lowercase l" don't have the same presence as "X-Wing." "Long tube full of commsats and unmanned rovers" doesn't work as well as "Star Destroyer" and "Probe Droid."