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paul_c

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Everything posted by paul_c

  1. You'll never believe what happened again...... Fortunately, it was once again Minmus so the speeds were low. I tried the "go a thousand kilometres away" then turn then come back down, because it was a contract for a satellite at 300-400k up. I hadn't precisely matched (well....I was 179.9deg out) on the LAP, so during the turn around the periapsis dropped into the centre of the moon then curved round with no drama. I will scratch my head and read up the wiki a bit more, in the mid term. I am keen to learn how to do a "lean" mission with only just enough dV for the task, an economy rocket and equipment. So, I need to get a good grip on the delta V. LKO, TMI, orbital insertion etc are all fine but there's savings to be made in what style of insertion you choose; and if carrying 2 (or more) satellites, which is first to deploy etc.
  2. I must have read your mind; I chose 25km, although I've left it at an elliptical of 25-28km for now. I haven't done space station docking yet but will do it once my new joystick arrives (tried and failed with a keyboard many times). I already have another comms satellite at Minmus so the issue is not so bad; I will stick a relay antenna onto any satellite for Minmus which comes up in the contracts, until I have a nice collection of about 6-8; and also think about the best plan for orbital placement to ensure 100% coverage.
  3. Many thanks - I didn't think of deliberately setting the periapsis to the centre of the Mun (but it makes sense now!) I tend to prefer free return trajectory ones, although the one in the OP was a hybrid anyway (I think that's the term? It had the encounter with the mun then an escape from kerbin's influence later on). I guess its 6 and half a dozen, you have LOCV either way if the engine doesn't start for the mid-course burn!
  4. What's the best (nearest 90deg, polar) inclination you'd normally hope to achieve if going from Kerbin to the Mun? I've done it a few times, initially not deliberately because my starting orbital plane on Kerbin was no where near zero (and it was just luck or lots of excess fuel to make the trip in the first place) but I deliberately wanted one this time, and achieved it: 38.4 degrees......could I hope for more? 90??
  5. Yay success! Well....partial success. Top tip: if this ever happens to you, if you use the button next to the nav ball to do it THEN TURN IT BACK TO "STABILITY ASSIST"!!! I didn't, I left it on the retrograde setting and the nav ball toppled and went crazy as I was giving the T45 rocket motor the beans, sending it into a random crazy orbit, including at one point having an escape velocity and another point, not having a periapsis (ie...the line going into the surface of Minmus....which is never good for longevity). Fortunately I was able to recover from this, but with little fuel left I fired the probe off and let it do its own subsequent corrections to the orbital path. I got it nicely matching the orbit, the right way round this time, with 4x well controlled burns. 1x to close up the inclination difference from about 70deg to 20deg; then 2x at apoapsis to match the inclination and retrograde to match the periapsis; then a final burn at periapsis to match the apoapsis. Next brain teaser is....what's the best altitude for a space station? It also has a pair of RA15 relay antennas, so its nice to have it high up? But not too high so that its reachable for craft possibly landed at Minmus on low fuel?
  6. I just Googled bi-elliptic transfer. It looks interesting stuff, and I'll definitely try it at some point. However, it appears in real-life, this hasn't actually happened (not that we know of...) I imagine if it did, it would be something of a double-facepalm moment at the space control center and the retrograde rockets wouldn't be the only thing fired...
  7. paul_c

    Hello all

    I think it had one of those external spherical tanks fitted, which has broken off...... Just checked it, and it has the 10 units of monopropellant that comes with the command module. However, for some reason, they're not firing. I'm not 100% of what is/isn't needed for RCS to work. I thought it was just the two items - some mono fuel and at least an RCS thruster?
  8. You've got me scratching my head, I'll have to have a think about it! Its not the same as the conundrum when I landed at the North Pole of Minmus, then my little Kerbin pilot spent ages scratching their head wondering how to fly East?
  9. paul_c

    Hello all

    Alas, I never fitted RCS, or it broke off, or something like that. I tried with the reaction wheel and it moves around a bit (and the engine still works too) but not enough fuel to do anything useful anyway...so its staying there and I shall launch a rescue mission in due course. Every cloud has a silver lining though....it did inspire me to think "outside the box".....what about a horizontal lander? Amazingly, it both flies (even on top of a big rocket on launch off Kerbin, although I shudder to think what the drag is like) and drives okay. I even got it to Minmus on a rescue mission and landed on the lake beds. But then I crashed again.....
  10. Phew! I thought so. Fortunately, I'd built the thing with a bit of reserve fuel (not much though), and I did a beautiful gravity turn on the way up so probably saved about 50-100m/s on my usual calamitous flying attempts. I even got the initial trans-Minmus injection spot on, I normally do a correction about 5-10 mins afterwards; and a mid-course check and tweak but no further burns needed, just got into the encounter nicely and a nice de-orbit burn too. I shall try a retro burn, and in the middle (since I am still in the sphere of influence of Minmus) I guess I will fall (dis)gracefully towards the moon, so I'll spend another half hour tweaking the orbit until I'm happy. Thanks!
  11. paul_c

    Hello all

    Module built and flight tested - check Trans-Minmus injection planned - check Big rocket didn't blow up upon launch - check Big long trip executed perfectly...well most of it, barring the last 50m. As a percentage, its really low! Landed on Minmus......well, 70% of it has arrived safely, there's a few issues with some of the scientific instruments. The contract didn't say you wanted it upright???
  12. Hello all and I'm loving KSP so far! I've been playing fairly solidly for a few weeks now....love the career mode! I've been to Mun a few times, crash landed more than controlled...although the most recent one didn't kill the little fella. Minmus, I've had more success with, its a slower descent/landing but I NEED a joystick because I just can't do it right with the keyboard controls. Its on order...frustratingly my existing one doesn't work properly, there's loads of talk on forums etc about the issue but no solution other than a different joystick I think. I've been to Duna (and Ike) too, twice now. And 3rd trip I completely muddled it but had a ton of fuel, so flung myself out into space and randomly came across Jool, which was a bonus. Didn't have enough fuel to deorbit, tried an aerobrake but it went spectacularly wrong. Never mind. I looked more methodically into a trip to Eve, the plannnig was meticulous, I lined everything up...and had an "encounter" with the Mun! I guess any kind of encounter is going to throw you off track and thus, I scrubbed that trip. Never mind, I'll try again in another 7 years or whenever the alignment of the planets favours me!
  13. Hello all, new user on these forums but I've admired KSP for ages and finally got a decent PC and installed it a few weeks ago. Its additcive! I love the career mode, I am "enjoying the journey" and resisting the temptation to just build massive rockets, instead thinking strategically etc. So far I've been to Mun and Minmus several times, sometimes successfully.... Anyway... I had a contract to build a space station and put it in orbit around Minmus. I also had a contract to launch a probe into Polar Orbit there. So I built the space station (about 5-6 tons of payload), a big rocket underneath it (about 150 tons all in to lift itself and the payload) and then I realised, for a few kg more, I could make a minimal little automated probe to do another assignment - to put one into Polar Orbit with specific details. Its not much more than a tank of monopropellant, an automated command module and the science goo thing. So its happily piggybacking for the ride and I'm "nearly there".... Or so I thought.....look carefully at the screenshot. Look at my LAP (228 deg) vs the contract requirement of 47.9 deg.....I'm going the wrong way round the orbit I think??? I'm 95% sure that's what's going on.....and all after a "funky" angular entry into the orbit around Minmus and about an hour of tweaking the orbit to match!! Fortunately, Minmus is tiny, and the orbit is "far out" so I am only going 63m/s, albeit the wrong way. I can just "do a U turn" can't I? I have 171m/s of fuel; and a few tanks of monopropellant and RCS thrusters too I could detach the little probe and use its onboard mono; or use up the liquid fuel in the "mothership", since I have enough of it?... Or is there a better/more elegant way of getting out of the hole I've found myself in?
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