NewtSoup

The lander may get left in Duna Orbit if dV is looking a little slim. As for the Overkill - you'll have to wait and see. My plan is to record certain sections rather than just screenshot. So the launch of the core. Maybe attaching one arm ( 4 would get tedious ) I'll screenshot a refuellling trip to save the snores. Mostly I'm going to try and capture the interesting bits some of this depends on how frustrated I get with KDEnlive though It seems to be quite powerful. But also hard to use. Dammit Jim, I'm an actor, not a video editor!

Something I just learned in testing before actually launching and assembling: The arms made of a fuselage and girders and holding the solar panel array - First of all I put down a Docking Port, then I added a small adapter plate. To that I attached the structural fuselage, then another adapter plate and then 3 girders and on the end of that another docking port. The solar panels were attached to the girders. I then wanted to hide batteries and reaction wheels inside the fuselage so I plopped them onto the node available on the docking port at the end of the arm and used the movement arrows to slide them right down inside the tube. All well and good! Except, once you have done that you can no longer use the docking port as a docking port. It's node is of course occupied by the battery stack. Glad I realised/confirmed in testing before I did the actual mission launch! Time for a quick redesign.

Hooray for struts and auto struts! Hooray for Solar Panels. Hooray for docking ports! It's time to go to Duna! On this much Tech: First of all A lander was designed that would be capable of landing on Duna and getting off the surface again. Secondly a ship was designed that would be able to transport the lander to Duna ( and Ike ) and then get home again. The key to doing this is the ability to assemble the ship in space and swap parts ( I do love my engine swapping ). Though this will be trickier than usual with no RCS ability yet. Here is an Artists Impression of what the vessel will look like once it's fully assembled in LKO Features: KSS Overkill: 3800m/s dV 0.39 TWR from 5 Terriers 4 Krew - 2 Pilots, 1 Scientist, 1 Engineer Duna Lander: 2200 m/s dV 3.01 TWR from a single terrier 2 Krew - 1 Pilot, 1 Scientist ( Away team from main krew ) Because there were no extendable solar panels available I put loads of them on the arms which are made of girders and a structural fuselage. Each Arm is attached by a docking port to the core of the Overkill to facilitate assembly in orbit and provides external docking for the whole structure to allow refuelling. The structural fuselages hide batteries and reaction wheels that provide almost enough torque to pull the ship apart The ship has enough fuel to service the lander on an Ike landing ( maybe 2 ) while we're in the area and get into LDO and back to LKO with little to no air braking. The main Krew compartments are the four re-entry pods which will be used to return the Krew to safety. Thanks to the magic of auto-struts ( careful use of ) the vessel despite being made of way more tanks than it should be has some rigidity instead of flopping around like a fish on land.

So my choices were as follows: Electrics - for solar panels Miniaturization - for a docking port Flight control for fins and an inline reaction wheel General Construction for STRUTS, FINALLY SOME RIGIDITY. My tree now looks like this: Yeah.. Duna and Ike are going to be easy peasy!

So, a quick jolly to Minmus was in order as science points were in demand. The cheese containers were primed. The batteries were charged. The rocket was fuelled. Batteries were feared to be the deciding factor in mission length as once the main engines were jettisoned and the ship was on terriers only, batteries would be the only source of power and must last. After a quick "spin" through the lower atmosphere the onion was finally peeled leaving only the core. This brought tears to the Krew's eyes but not too many. An uneventful and undocumented hop through local space later Valentina settled the imaginatively named Science Ship II down on its landing tanks and then stood with Devis on the surface for the obligatory selfie. After visit to 5 of Minmus' 8 biomes fuel in the lander war running low. Battery power had lasted well however with judicious use of SAS and was at just under half capacity. Although the return vehicle was replete with go juice and some could have been transferred to the lander the mission was to return to LKO before landing so it was decided to say farewell to the great cheese planes and minty mountains of Minmus and return to Kerbin. Thanks to Valentina's fine piloting skills ( and not repeated reloads in LKO ) the ship was dropped within spitting ( well a short bus journey ) distance of the KSC. One last Selfie was in order to celebrate a safe return with no unplanned explosions. With a haul of 290 precious science points bringing the total to 305 the mission was declared a resounding success. Next stop. Duna! ( now that we can afford solar panels )

I might have been a clap which I caught out of the corner of my eye in the bottom right of the screen as their faces appeared. I've never noticed the clap before either. [snip]

Turns out those SRBs were producing some unwanted torque effects this time ( AKA rotating uncontrollably ) so It got changed to this: Same everything except the SRB's just boost together at full power whereas before the inner ones had a smaller max thrust to burn for longer and this time everything is pseudo onion staged.

Science Vessel II - The strut free version. Also features no alternators on the terriers. However, dumping the Reliant engines in favour of Terriers upped the dV by over 1000. This ship has ~8200 dV now. Also changed fuel tanks for bigger ones and fewer of them, this does not affect the dV only the rigidity of the ship, still woeful though and no struts or autostruts. Also removed the landing gear, now relying entirely on Landing Tanks! Upped the battery capacity to 700. Hopefully will be enough!. I think the next electronics box really should be next on my purchase list. Time to sample the finest cheeses of Minmus.

Just sent a ship to the launchpad and saw a behaviour in a kerbal I've never seen before. Vergar Kerman, my mission scientist, she waved at me. Is this a new animation effect with 1.5?

This is a really interesting way to play. With only 10% of the science rewards available the emphasis becomes on being able to get to more places to do what little science you can rather than maximising your science potential. I did a mun mission. I did not document it as everyone has seen a mun mission. I got 57 science whereas normally that would have been 570 and opened up a slection of around 5 6 boxes. This time I could choose just one tier 3 box and so it was Advanced Rocketry for the Terrier and Thud Engines and the larger fuel tank which will help stop "concertina" behaviour in my ships. I did not have enough science to get electrics. I could have gone aviation and scavenged further points around Kerbin but this time, that is not the efficient way. Better to extend my range and open up more space opportunity. Also - Pilots are much more useful now. I can't just slap a probe on because I don't have the comms or electrics available. So it's got to be krewed missions to keep the stability options open. So now I have 7 tech boxes and I can think about going to minmus now. Or at least exploring more biomes of the Mün. I wonder if I can do Duna on 7 boxes? Also learned. Micro Landing struts are pointless. Land on fuel tanks very gently or on girders. You do not need all that bounce even when their sliders are upped. Micro struts are really only good for probes which you can't make at this low tech.

1.5 Game - New Sandbox with my suite of mods installed - no Kraken Will copy my science game across and see what happens. No Kraken! Sorry guys for the fuss It must have been one of two mods that I updated and are not backwardly compatible to 1.45

New Test - build the same ship in sandbox hack into orbit And KRAKEN! Any time SAS is on Kerbals on EVA go really weird!. This must be mod related then and it must be because I updated a couple of mods to 1.5 when I'm on 1.45. I will update my game to 1.5 and retest ( I actually have a 1.5 game ready in steam - I just kept a copy of 1.45 as that's where I was playing and modded for at the time )

Nope it's my save file. Happens any time I press R to activate the thruster pack on a scientist. BUT... Having just Reloadsd I activated the thruster pack on a scientist and it was fine. What was different? SAS was turned off. I got the scientist back inside. Turned SAS ON then EVA the scientist Presss Space to let go. Press R and KRAKEN! So new theory - this is an SAS related bug and the reason it appeared to be just scientists was because when you EVA a pilot SAS turns off. New test - Reload and launch the ship with 2 pilots. Oh and it seems to have also bumped the Science Vessel into a solar orbit! New Theory confirmed Hacked Ship into Orbit with 2 Pilots EVA a pilot with SAS on the ship OFF. No Kraken EVA a pilot with SAS on the ship ON Kraken Present ( but hiding. did not present until I touched the ship )

I have rebuilt the ship from the ground up. Added 2 more parachutes and coaxed it into orbit with a little extra dV for over engineering's sake. Same Krew - Devis and Zelfrid. I think EVA Devis as a test.. Hit R - she gets pinged off the ship and her RCS fuel is empty! Pretty much the same bug as before just without a crash. It must be Devis. It's not the ship, it's not the game it's not the mods I apparently have a corrupt scientist. I am going to try this in the same save file with a different Krew.

I have a save just before launch. I could EVA the kerbals but for the issue I'm experiencing. It all goes horribly wrong when I press R to enable the RCS for her thruster pack.

I had also noticed that she was a crew container. A puzzlement indeed as all my Kerbals are female. Spontaneous parthenogenesis FTW!

I am playing a game with 10% science rewards and I've hit an issue. This suddenly started happening last night and I have no idea why. I am running KSP 1.45 The below save game has a ship in orbit ( of which Dr Evil would be proud! ) It has 2 Crew, A Pilot and a Scientist. When I EVA the Pilot everything is fine and works as normal. When I EVA the Scientist the game has a tendency, on pressing R to activate the RCS on her thruster pack, to crash to desktop or make the universe vanish at which point the game crashes on loading a save game. I made it to the Mün and set down on the surface. I sent Devis the Scientist on an EVA - if she bangs her head she falls to the floor VERY fast and her EVA pack is suddenly empty. Zelfrid the the Pilot is fine and everything behaves normally. I went back to a previous save game prior to launch and reloaded the ship and began the mission anew but the same thing is happening. This does not happen in my sandbox save using a similar ship and the exact same mods so I don't think it's mod related. Has anyone encountered this before and is there a way to fix it? My Save Game: https://drive.google.com/open?id=14xgDpkKj4cigwdm2u04DnIiif2ek6bS9 CKAN of my mods: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1FYGAQSqI2W4V70w3Zig54fikMptamwGy Tail of ksp.log - appears to have pertinent information:

Quick test in Sandbox and I think I will go for the nose cone. Hammer SRB 4 basic fins and an OKTO reaches 12,292 meters Hammer SRB 4 basic fins and and OKTO with an aerodynamic nose cone reaches 15,134 meters With a flea and the same setup the nose cone was detrimental to max alt, but that was because it didn't have enough power to go transonic. Once you're into transonic speeds ( and when pushing through the sound barrier ) the nose cone really pays off it seems.

Thank you for the info. I will resist looking it up though in case it turns out to be a bit of a "walkthrough" for me. I'm currently trying to work out how I can land on the Mün with just those 3 tech boxes. I'm not sure I can but I can now afford General Rocketry and have a more powerful main engine. OR I could take stability and have a radial decoupler, a nose cone and a new fin!. Choices choices! I may have to take the roller out for another spin to get both.

She's a little squirly low down, and in the mid atmosphere, and higher up to be quite honest. I gets far to boring after 3rd stage separation though. Just a bit standard really. I'm not sure I'll be able to land on the Müm with just this tech. Well, Land, yes.. get home, probably not.

I want the next bit to be a separate post and not combined with the original Aha.. and so after waiting long enough I can post the next video. Just for giggles and because I'm going to need the science I decided to see if I could get to the Mün on just 3 tech boxes. I was completely optimistic from the outset and an no point did I blow up on the launchpad, randomly deconstruct or fall out of the sky. I proudly present the "Kraken Tempter" Craft file available on request! (I'm sure she'll be very popular )

I decided to start a new game, I will continue my "Going Mostlywhere" but I've not been well again and just felt like starting over. To make things interesting I decided to turn off reverts, make Kerbals not respawn and play on 10% of the science rewards!. I decided to not make it career though. The idea is that I won't simply finish the tree on Mun, Minmus and Duna and that I'll have to work harder and more creatively to get to where I want to go and earn those oh so scrumptious science points ( this should make the lab actually useful too ). Early game though I hit a snag. Pretty much Out of Science as the title says. Time to stop being "standard" and think a way to get more science when you have no rover and just a 2 boxes along the science line.

I had indeed noticed that in the docs - "Yes, I can see the name of that, but what does it do?"

Thank you. I suspected it might be something along those lines as the fairing appeared spontaneously. But there was nothing to indicated what was going on. In time I will get through the documentation. For now I'm happy I have the functionality I wanted. In time I will get the model I want ( the terrier was not specifically what I was after either ) and the particle effects I want.

No, it's not guaranteed but I didn't want to over complicate the point and stuck with a simple example. Took me quite a time at first working out how to turn on an isru to make a specific resource. And yep code for one ship fell over in the same ship copied to a different save as the part and module orders changed