Jebediah Kerman Jr.

Well, the savefile I'm taking about is on my son's XBox (We got him KSP for his 11th birthday, and I decided to not bother buying it on my laptop, to save money), but I will modify my profile pic. Laythe, and by extension Jool, with its five very interesting moons, (save Bop maybe, since it's just a bigger Gilly, except for the kraken) is my favorite KSP planet. How would I add props to Laythe? Don't know how much dv in orbit exactly, about 1300 needed to eject from Jool/Laythe, ~1200-1350 DV left after that. How's 2500-2650 for a rough estimate?

Will my plane explode?

See, the main problem is that I need to get back to Kerbin in 8-9 years or less. I have a "science from surface of Laythe" contract, Ribfrod Kerman accidentally stepped on and broke the communications aerial, so I have to recover the data. Also, how can I do a Kerbin gravity assist anyways in minimal time, starting at a Jool-Kerbin transfer window?

I'm using a spaceplane. Single stage from Laythe's surface to Kerbin. Last time I visited Laythe with a spaceplane, I had to abort the landing. I used my engines to capture around Kerbin, but my initial velocity that time was more like 4500 M/S. Also, my craft does not have a good thrust to weight ratio (one Nerv for 20ish tons of plane), and I probably don't have enough DV to capture, at least at 6000 m/s. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I had a worse transfer last time, at least from what I could see.

I've ascended back to Laythe orbit, and ejected back to Kerbin. I don't think I did anything wrong, but my Kerbin entry velocity was ~ 6000 m/s. From Jool I think everything was optimal, so what could I have done wrong? I quickloaded back to Laythe orbit, of course.

Oh yeah, I think it was a CoL issue. In my first attempt, the plane kept tumbling out of control in the upper atmosphere.

Sure. I'd love to see that!

This mission idea involves making all sorts of partially/fully reusable spaceplanes. Some ideas I've had: A cargo shuttle launched on top of an expendable booster A VTOL SSTO plane that takes off from the launchpad A spaceplane to Laythe (of course) launched with 2 side boosters and nuclear tug Etc. Now show me your designs! Have fun!

My second Laythe landing attempt is underway. Larger wings, bigger landing gear, and CoM/CoL issues fixed. Crew: Commander: Malin Kerman "Pilot" (copilot): Linlee Kerman Senior scientist: Burrey Kerman Junior Scientist: Ribfrod Kerman Head Engineer: Nataliana Kerman Junior Engineer: ? (I forgot his name)

I can't maintain level flight and keep it going at less than 70 m/s. It probably needs bigger wings.

Update: I had plenty of DV for my return to Kerbin, but I still had to abort the mission. I tried to land the spaceplane about 20 times. Every time I tried to land it, it exploded. It could not get under 50 m/s as it hit the ground. I am so furious right now. Next time I'll use bigger wheels.

So, 1270 m/s to Minmus surface, 1270 m/s back. But wait, it doesn't take 1270 m/s to get back from Minmus, the 1270 figure includes a deceleration burn at Kerbin periapsis. I am not the most efficient player of the game, so I'd say when I use the Minmus SSTO, I spend ~300 excess DV. That gives me ~3500 m/s, plus the ~3500 m/s I use to get to Kerbin orbit. My spaceplane/SSTO has 4 Rapiers and 1 Nerv. I probably won't need much oxidiser to get to Laythe orbit. So ~3000 m/s needed to get to Laythe orbit, I probably have about 3150 m/s left in orbit of Laythe, taking into account the higher ISP of the Rapier on jet mode as compared to the Nerv. What am I going to do? I do have some "emergency procedures" 1) Do a chain of gravity assists off of Jool's moons, but I am terrible at gravity assists. 2) Rendezvous with the tug in orbit, line up the Nerv and 1.25 meter decoupler, switch to the other vessel (the tug), and puuuuusssshhh the spaceplane out of Laythe's SOI to gain some extra D/V. 3) Don't land on Laythe at all. I could do the alternate mission instead, a Bop landing, but I could go to Bop any old time. Laythe is the favored destination. This is a worst-case scenario, I do not want to abort the mission.

Oh no, the SSTO was originally designed to get from surface of Kerbin, to Minmus, and back. I didn't mean SSTO from Minmus surface to orbit, I meant all the way from Kerbin to Minmus. Sorry for the confusion. Wait, did you say around 4400 m/s from surface of Laythe all the way to Kerbin?

I'm in orbit of Laythe with 6 Kerbals! My craft is a spaceplane with a nuclear tug. The tug will insert the spaceplane into a suborbital trajectory and then detach. The spaceplane is just a Minmus SSTO. I used the tug to bring it to Laythe. It has quite a bit of fuel left over when returning from Minmus, enough to render any aerobrakes unnecessary. The question is, will it be able to get from Laythe's surface to Kerbin? I don't want to do any unnecessary gravity assists, either. Can anyone help me with the DV? I am too incompetent to work it out myself.

Thanks!

I am using a console, XBox 1 to be specific.

I was trying to land my ssto at the runway, but something was wrong with the SAS. While in space, I turned off SAS and the craft started pitching down violently. When SAS was back on, I tried to pitch up, but the craft didn't want to. Only down. It's definitely not a problem with the craft. I looked at the gauges on the left of my control interface, and on the pitch gauge, there was not only the yellowish marker that shows my SAS usage, but at the bottom of the gauge, there was also a lavender marker. Other than the color, it looked the same as the yellow-orange one. I turned off SAS again, and the orangey-yellow marker shot down and covered up the purple one. Like I predicted, the craft pitched down. Can someone tell me how to stop this? I clicked on the cockpit and it said: SAS Locked. Help!

I got everything down but the craft design. About three weeks ago I sent Valentina to Pol. My rocket was quite overkill, being able to come back to Kerbin with no aerobraking. I could make a capture burn at Kerbin Pe. This might be the basis for a one-Kerbal manned mission to the seas of Laythe. However, I have been using my Brutus class VTOL SSTO rockets to build a four-module craft in LKO. Modules: #1) Command module with space for three Kerbals, and 8 MK1 liquid fuel fuselages #2) 8 more liquid fuel fuselages #3) Three Nerv atomic rocket motors and a single Rockomax X200-8 fuel tank with oxidizer drained #4) Lander (still being designed) The two main problems I have include: I cannot for the life of me figure out how to build a Laythe lander. I don't know if the ship I'm constructing will be able to reach Laythe with a heavy lander attached. I also don't know if my lander should be a seaplane, a spaceplane, or just a generic land lander. The spaceplane/seaplane design would have a higher range for more science, but those wings would be dead weight on the way to Laythe, reducing ΔV. What do you think? Should I first send an orbit-only mission like Apollo 8? I'm pretty sure the mothership has enough ΔV for an orbital mission. If I should send the orbiter/lander combo, can anyone help me with the lander design?

I need help with going to Laythe. Can anyone help me?

Yes, both designs are acceptable, the only specifications are: The rocket closely resembles the R7, has a Sputnik as a payload, is launched from Baikerbanur (KSC 2), and enters orbit. (And no cheating) (or DLC parts, because those were designed to look like historic rockets)

Phew. My challenge is still challenging.

Wait, you can set the launch site to Baikerbanur from the VAB?

Hannand Kerman was visiting Baikurbanur yesterday and a thought popped into my head. The Challenge: Build a fully stock Sputnik/R7 replica (no DLC parts either). Transport the rocket from the KSC to the Baikerbanur Launchpad. You can do this in any way you like, as long as no Hyperedit/cheats are used. Be creative. Launch the rocket into orbit!

Thanks!

how about radial preset?