agrasyuk

Thanks guys. I guess now I don't feel too bad to fast-forward the time

it looked like your ship was simply jiving to the music you put . and i must say it was looking awesome doing it i hope this gets resolved for you

Hi, fellas, I'm on my very first career playthrough. so far its been a blast juggling contracted satellites, tourists, Labs and science between kerbin, mun and minmus. I don't think I ever enjoyed the sanbox game as much. at the moment the situation with funds and rep is great, as far as science pretty much all nodes of community tree unlocked (that pertain to my mods installed). at this point any additional planetary bases or stations that might came up as contract i can complete with proven SSTO craft that can later land at KSC for a full refund. i have a 8-pack of relay/survey sattelites heading towards Duna (~180 days ETA), they should be there few month ahead of crewed station exploration vessel (with fuel production). another 8-pack heading towards Jool with ETA of about a year, and i just launched a probe towards Eeloo a bit ahead of trandfer window. I accepted a contract to bring class D asteroid to Ike orbit so i have a pair of IR observatories en route to survey for candidates to capture. the question is - do you at this point stop taking Kerbin system contractrs? time accelerating for more then a few days just doesn't seem right, i always have this feeling "i can be doing something else..." and the contracts offered are still "test juno engine in flight over kerbin"...

Relatively to other creations here my Minmus station is simple. Played in career so every thing here grew as part of some sort of contract. started off with Science-1 module (solar truss is not visible, sorry). as base expansions contracts came in i did not want to repeat the disaster that my Mun orbital station turned out and started it "right" - brought in center hub and the berthing sides. later it grew with Habitat module, KAS parts container, another science lab (not used , but contract for some reason wanted another one), Refinery + Ore storage. station houses science lander with full array of instruments, ore lifter (as shown the second iteration) and Tug that is used to lower base modules to the surface and move the orange fuel containers around (as shown- visiting with container in tow). pictured with My OPT "Tavor" SSTO craft stopping by for refuel before embarking to capture and bring back stranded kerbal with his craft from polar orbit of minmus back to kerbin.

with speed of 3000 it sounds like you getting back from one of the moons. it was already noted that you can send another craft to recover data (and with some pain the module). but if you have the time I'm thinking it is possible to slow your craft down enough in upper layers of atmo before going all in. it will take more then few orbits though . I'm currently working to stabilize oddly shaped craft coming from minmus to LKO. craft is not rated for reentry, no heat shield on it at all and not enough fuel to circularize without aerobrake . in my case at Pe of 54Km things are heating violently, but not blowing up, I do rotate the craft to expose different areas. now after revolution 3 AP dropped way past mun (I'm in the realm of ~3 hour orbits), I anticipate many more but I have the time. Kerbal alarm clock helps tremendously to plan activity around the aerobraking sessions.

sorry of topic but this is some awesome stuff right there. 4 YO elusive bug reproduced and documented. as someone who does software QA for a living this story almost brings tears to my eyes. you guys made my day today. Prestige:

I had several instances of bases go shaky shakes and tear themselves apart. It woldnt happen until third or forth time switching to them from map/tracking statuon.until it happened on almost stock station I mistakenly attributed it to infernal robotic mod - my 6x gigantor solar panel array is mounted on rotating telescoping boom to lift it above the structure and rotate for E-W orientation. Upon switch on aND physics set in the panels started shaking then flapping then the entire base jumps above and pieces spread everywhere. the Solution or rather workaround I found is as folows: switch to base and be ready on that "." Key. If things start twiching note which ones, set time compression x5 quickly before any damage. Rigt click on affected part/s (pin menu as needed), resume time to normal and quickly change auto strutting mode before physics fully kick in. In my case it required several slow fast transitions to get all 6 panels. Ot didn't matter which autostrut was set in factory, before launching second base I updated to autostrut that fixed the issue and still eventually got shakes when on surface.

Shadow dream suggested more thrust to brute force and use the cargo-ramp that trades fuel capacity for mk2 hardpoint (yep there is such thing) and stick pair of engines. this will create config such as below. the downside would be ISP, 340 for the ARI vs 380 for the B9 Saber + there is that dead weight of nebulas, my attempt with sabers was mainly to try and avoid that. but the proposed setup looks well balanced, pretty much x2 scale of my J setup. i guess i'll try it too and see how it reenters. thanks! as presented before. nothing scaled as i don't like the scaling mods. pointy things are drop tanks made of B9 parts

OPT is to draggy? well, I guess I can see that somewhat. Below are 3 of my Career OPT machines. Nothing to special performance wise - all 3 are SSTO's but will not go to far further without refueling, depending on ascending profile leftower DV is at 600-800m/s. Retriever rev.4(J - fuselage) deltawing Purpouse - as the name suggests retrieving stuff from orbit. o Crew: Pilot and Engineer (the latter can attach KAS ports to whatever is contracted to be retrieved and winch it into cargohold) Propulsion: 4 X B9 Saber S (small) engines. looks awesome with about 500Dv left after reaching to 80x80Km orbit. enough to rendezvous with whatever needs to go back to KSP . after refuel was also used during "Bring Ore from Minmus to Kerbin orbit" contract (Ore was lifted from surface by dedicated lifter craft) Tavor SP5 (J - fuselage) V tail. Purpose - Fulfill "New Orbital Station " contracts. I had no need in yet another station around moon, landing the plane after bagging the ontract recovered all the funds. cargohold can be reconfigured before flight to fulfill contract requirement. Crew: seating for 13. additional accommodation in cargohold as needed (as flown contains 4 X mk1 passenger modules) Propulsion: atmospheric - OPT "J92 Nebula scramjet", vacum ARI-75b. I know ARI works (and works well) in atmo as well, but i'm using it purely for vacuum because frankly, it is best-looking engine to fit that hull and 340isp is not balance breaking. Tubas Jumbo (K- fuselage) Purpose - Fulfill "New Surface outpost on minmus" contracts. same story here, had no need for yet another base especially with accomodations for 20, so I built it in form of plane to bring it all home for refund. 2 aerospikes on the belly (which doesn't help drag at all) Propulsion: 2 x B9 Saber M (medium) main engines, 2 aerospikes on the belly for landing (which doesn't help drag at all) on minmus. with TWR of 3 on mun probably could get there too. Crew - seating for 10. outfitted with aditional crew compartment in cargohold to fulfill capacity of 20 + other outpost requirements (ISRU and cupola). during the mission it delivered construction rover (feline) and ISRU module to existing outpost, so the trip was not entirely useless also perfectly able to reenter, but i had no patience to screenshot the entire flight this time amount if fuel used up flying that thing is just crazy Flying with those B9 Sabers is quite touchy. my requirement for crafts in career is easy handling and those 2 saber planes are very short of blowing that. at around 5000m attitude cannot be more then 4 or so degrees nose up, otherwise speed and thrust stop building up and it just can't greak Mach1 . which makes for longer ascend phase where I'm sitting and constantly adjusting AoA monitoring that engine thrust keeps increasing. luckily its just few minutes after which things get fast really fast.

"Boomerang" . Add version, rev. mk. or block designations as needed.

I'm running with "Money -> Science" Strategy at 50%. cash flow is sufficient, I feel even at reduced rate almost every launch brings income if one bundles several contracts at once: I like the "Tourist Bus" ones especially or launching single satellite and then repositioning to complete several contracts. will cancel if I ever unlock the entire community tree. I was doing "Rep-> Science" but stopped since at 50% commit reputation stayed completely stagnant (was expecting slower but still gain). overall as was said above, I feel that indeed I get close to nothing.

those are 4 full ore tanks, sheesh, That's some awesome flying Aerogav. good comment on controlling via trim (alt W-S) , I need to use it more. You obviously have a working design but those patchwork wings! also, do I see no incidence on your wings at all? all the flames though and heating makes me very nervous watching this . what is your idea of "maximum mach at given altitude" table? OP, some good advice above, good luck on your build. Space-planes are so more exciting then rockets. Can't post my design at the moment (and it doesn't really beat AGav's efficiency monster, with 600Dv will not go anywhere before refuel at the depot) , but for some extra fuel saving perhaps consider using staged drop tanks. it's done IRL, since only tanks are dropped I think it still can be considered SSTO. if you keep tanks modest (for your plane perhaps pair of size 0) you should not have problem lifting them to at least 5000m , basically its like you get to start already in air. All that said, what will be more so exciting then the launch is the reentry keep us posted on how that is going .

Partially agree - excellent answer as far as retro marker but instead of turning retrograde again at "99% there" I suggest to fine-tune the course with RCS (IJKL) so the green pro-grade mark and Pink direction mark coincide one in another, slowing down with "N" as needed in case approach from 200m was impatiently fast. If docking ports were selected as target and as control point (this one is obvious I think) this means it will be a "kiss" between ports every time . ADD: "kiss" maybe at angle of course if one doesn't position his craft aligned with target docking port for the final approach at 200m. which brings me to related question (hope OP doesn't mind a piggy back): what Indicators on stock Navball can one use to make sure docking ports are on exactly parallel planes ? I'm aware of align indicator Mod, but somehow to lazy to install.

this. plus there were several times I was out of fuel and used RCS for the final push into Kerbin Atmo to get captured or complete refueling station rendezvous

preparing for Duna mission right now with 65Days before the transfer window as I collected a nice string of Contracts. as much as I hate locked technology I'm really enjoying the Career aspect of the game in that it tells you what needs to happen and you need to figure out how to do it with least expenditure. Contracts stipulate visit and return from Duna, station with laboratory in orbit, outpost with lab and Personnel on surface of Ike with various equipment and data return. ISRU module launched as part of Kerbin orbital station Contract will join the trip and used with Ore lifter craft will provide ample fuel for all maneuver and return needs. scientists, pilot and engineer will stay behind, while main crew heads home ("just-in-case" emergency return vehicle will stay with station). crew will operate biome science lander-hopper craft to gather science (hopefully contracts come up for that too). I'm not yet sure if both laboratories will be manned and operating as hiring crew became very expensive, hope to rescue some more scientists from orbit before departure. First unmanned craft loaded with 8 satellites was launched 5 days ago: 2 scanners with all the radar , ore and biome stuff, 6 RA-15 relay Sats . since its left early took about 500dv more then ideal. fulfills 0 contracts but by the time the main expedition gets there both Duna and ike will be scanned and relay network established. so to answer your question - send them as Contract stipulates. or here is an idea for you if you don' play Career.