michaelvf

Had just come back from Gilly in my lander and docked at my mothership. Set up a manenouver node and just pressed Z for full speed. I thought that the nuclear engines sounded funny but didnt really pay any attention, just stayed in map mode until burn was done while reading a book. When I returned to Kerbin I undocked my lander and prepared for a prograde burn during aerocapture when I noticed that I was out of fuel.... When I pressed Z to burn for Kerbin I activated both my nukes AND my lander's engines so I was completely out of fuel.. My lander's engines were pointed retrograde to my nuclear engines so I had spent waaaay to much DV to get back to Kerbin... Didnt even notice.

Thanks! This will make it much easier

Hi, first of all - Fantastic mod! I use it a lot. I'm having a few problems getting the orbit it gives me to match an actual intercept though... I try to type in the value - i.e time of transfer, prograde/normal/radial burns into the waypoint manager but it doesnt give me the desired orbit calculated by the planner. Normally just fiddeling a small bit with the departure time and burns will give me a pretty close orbit but still... Shouldn't it be *perfect*? What am I missing here :-/

yeah, ground clearance is actually hard enough as it is on takeoff - I crash a lot..... I followed the design principles in the tutorials and I *should* have a pretty stable plane but it seems to rotate and spin a lot and SAS is actually necessary.. even then turning it is quite hard. I think I might have to fiddle with the pitch,yaw,roll settings on the control surfaces... I was thinking of just mounting the bombs on the top of the plane and spin upside down when I drop them At least I will keep the COM moving back and forth in the center of the plane which should be doable..

I LIKE this idea... any examples on the forum for this? I guess I just need a "bomb" consisting of a small probe, solar panel, antenna and science instrument... Then attach three of these to the plane via couplers and drop them near the site. Sounds relatively easy...

Thanks for the advice, glad to know I wasnt overlooking some obvious simple solution. Parachutes it is!

So I got a contract where I have to take pressure readings in 4 different locations at the surface. My tech is quite low but I can just about build a simple airplane (my first airplane which works btw) which can take me to the locations... My problem is that it is quite impossible to land in the rugged hilly terrain and I cannot get to ground level.... So what to do? One solution is to build a bigger airplane and attach a rover to it... (if that is at all possible at my current tech level) and then drop it near the targets... Another is to add parachutes to the plane and hope I can land it like that, and then maybe drive it around.. Probably not going to work since the wheels break off rather easily... Or maybe I can just fly the plane really really low and take the reading while flying? Will require some skill though since my plane is wobbly and the ground is hilly... How do you solve contracts like this? I mean, these are some of the first contracts that are offered so they *should* be easy? First time I tried the career mode - I usually just build big rockets and shoot for the stars so this kind of challenge is rather new. Br Michael

I've been trying to offset some engines for my first space plane and it seems that after trying to "move" it using the tool, I cannot get anything to work again unless I exit and enter the assembly building again. Also the move itself doesnt work. Once I presset the part I want to move nothing else happens. I cannot offset it at all. Even the other tools like place and rotate wont work once I have attempted to move things. Any ideas? edit: So I tried removing all the mods and reinstalling the game. Still the same... After pressing "Move" nothing works right in the assembly building anymore. I cannot even place new objects. edit2: Starting KSP in 64-bit mode seemed to solve the issue Br Michael

Thanks, that looks very nice. I'll try it out. Yeah, the small stuff like grabber and return stuff I can easily add myself. - - - Updated - - - You should go tell the people in the spacecraft exchange that they shouldn't share and try out other vehicles than their own, because there is no magic in that.... Trying out other people's creations is a good way to learn. Go troll somewhere else.

Hi, KSP is one of the games I keep returning to, since it is too much fun to leave behind. But it has been a loooong time since my last visit and I don't have the time I used to and my daughter is STILL not old enough to play this game with me. But there is still a lot of check marks missing on my ksp to-do list. The most important ones are building a space station, re-directing an asteroid into low orbit and mining it. But due to my lack of time I really don't have the time required to due all the proper assembly. So I am looking for the next best thing - Pre-built "plug'n'play' stuff that I can steal I skimmed the spacecraft exchange but I quickly lost my way and got sidetracked by all the good stuff in there. So maybe someone where can give me a few links to what they think would fulfill my requirements? 1) A link to a package which has everything needed for building a space station. I.e a lifter, space station parts and maybe a refueller. (Maybe even an assembler if thats required) It doesn't have to be a big station but it has to have enough fuel for all the fun "visit other planets" stuff. 2) A link to an asteroid grabber that has enough oomph to move even a big asteroid 3) A miner meant for asteroids Thanks in advance.

Landing was easy..... I landed like this with hardly any effort http://i.imgur.com/c2xeYpC.jpg

Those sepratons work as welders in this They slice up the ship when I seperate the first or second stage

Hm, having a spot of trouble with it.. First stage seems to blow up the main engine What would be the correct ascending path using this one in 1.0.2? Just a guess would be enough

Fantastic! My first base contract is going to the Mun to build a base. So it should be simple enough with all this dV at my disposal. Still new at this game so all my efforts to build a base and get it to the Mun in one go failed miserably yesterday evening at the last possible stage ...My thrust and mass distribution in the lander carrying the base was completely messed up and therefore the lander was 100% all over the place and resisted every control effort.... I know the modular approach is the way to go but designing it from scratch is something I'm not quite ready for.

THIS!! is just what I need.... for inspiration and ahem... ripping off . Does it work with 1.0.2?

Damn.... All this work for nothing... But I learned a lot. Like having an assymetrical mun station with its center of mass way off is really really really impossible to land... Invader Jim any hints on how to get a connected base down to the ground? . Or do you just land seperated modules? Does that still count in that contract?

with the thing Im building and the amount of time it is taking to get this bloody station into orbit..... Maybe I should just go for several stages...

I dont have the tech for either a MK3 or a drill yet... And since this contract pays a lot im trying to do it one launch .

ah bugga... thanks for the answer. I was hoping to save dragging a big ass tank up there...

So I have a new contract where I have to build a Mun base and have at least 2000 liquid fuel... I was wondering if I could just take 3 of the rockomax x200-8 tanks which have 360 liquid and 440 oxidiser to begin with and just fill it all with liquid fuel on my next Mun stop? So the question is, Can I fill a tank with only liquid or oxidiser if I so wish?

Nice guide, lots of inspiration . I have a questions though - Wouldn't it be easier to just have the rover have a claw like the OP does? Then you wouldn't have to worry so much about having all the docking ports completely aligned when designing them.

Thanks for all the tips. I somehow managed to actually seperate, land, do science and aaaallllmooooost return to the second stage before I ran out of monopropellant for RCS... Then I ran out of MP for the second stage... So thankfully due to some wasteful design I had both the lander and the second stage return home seperatly where they both survived reentry. I got enough science off that one mission to get all of tier 4 and some of tier 5 I thought I would need a lot more dv to get home.... but I did it with remarkably little...

It *might* be an error... Maybe the mechjeb is not properly attached in the service module or something. I will try to stick it on the outside of the lander to make 100% sure it is attached. One other thing, If I put a scientist in the lander will I be able to control the lander at all? Or do I need a pilot? I would like to send a scientist to do the ground survey and reset some experiments

So - I built this three stage monstrosity. The idea was the usual, first stage get me to orbit. Second stage get me to Minmus and then third stage would detach, land, get back up, reattach to the second stage, and then we would fly back home. My lander was built around a lander can mk1. I thought Jeb would just exit the Mk1 command pod, EVA to the lander can and then control it from there. Since I still suck at much of the docking/landing stuff, I stuck a MechJeb on the lander can. So Then I got Jeb into the lander can and used the docking port to deattach the second stage from the lander. Well.... Things went south from there.. I managed to get control of the lander can by switching into the tracking station and switching targets. But I was unable to access MechJeb even though it was attached to my service module on top of the lander can. The whole Lander was constructed as a sub-assembly and plugged into the other parts. Also I seemed to have a hard time selecting other targets. Minmus was nearly impossible to target. Second and third stage attached: http://i.imgur.com/SjAt4zV.png http://i.imgur.com/sG0aWMY.png Big monstrosity: http://i.imgur.com/HrC8kLl.jpg So my questions are: 1) Is EVA really necessary to get to the lander can? Theres no way to internally go there? 2) How to get MechJeb to work on my lander 3) Are there any smarter ways of doing this? 4) Another minor issue is that Mechjeb seemed unable to calculate the correct transfer to Minmus, It didnt get an intercept course even if inclination and proper orbit was in place... No idea why though...

Thanks for the advice again - Looking forward to launching big unwieldy constructions into orbit...