Rune

Oh sure, it must have an amazing service ceiling, and at altitude in a thin atmo, it can't help but go fast, very efficiently. It was more of a "in the same atmospheric conditions" kind of comment. And like everything with a width much bigger than it's lenght, longituduinal stability must be a challenge. The B2 and it's successors cheat with advanced fly-by-wire systems, os course. Rune. Should have written it, maybe?

Hum. Experimenting with wing loading, cupcake? By the loks of it, it must be a feather compared to your other airbreathers. I like it! Rune. Low wing loading=low speed, good fuel economy.

Hum. The Rhino, with its high vacuum Isp and TWR, should actually make a very decent engine to pair with turbojets for a SSTO... But I have a feeling it will need a bigger bird to really shine. What kind of TWR are you getting when you light it on? Rune. It's one of those part I never use. Too big!

Yep, one of this days I'll be forced to it. For now, my country is not that restrictive, actually. That's useful, thanks! 'K, now I know what to reply. Autostrut! The explosions on landing are because your cargo is flopping about through your cargo bay, and you left your nuke embedded in the ground somewhere before the runway. Autostrut can be activated mid-flight (once you have is enabled from the menu, of course), so a quick right-click or two before reentry should secure everything firmly in the bay. Rune. Most useful feature of the last updates.

Sadly, I can't watch that video because rights and stuff. Rune. But I'm sure the editing is nice.

Long time no post, right? Anyhow, I uploaded the newest version of my modular base just now. Now with a single-launch deployment method for the laziest among you! No docking or multiple launches required, but if you know how to navigate, you can still get to many interesting places. Get yours from KerbalX and start building them yourself! How, you ask? Well, I uprated the CRADLE (Container Rated for Atmospheric Descent And Landing on Eve) to fit the whole base in one go, then built a rocket under it with enough oomph to go to Mun. Turns out this was also enough to go to Duna, but pushing it to the max (using the ore it can contain as extra fuel for the transfer, for example). Of course the CRADLE is fully equipped with docking equipment to refuel it and/or tug it further. Here you can see a CRADLE on testing over the desert, so you can get an idea of how the thing gets deployed: Once landed, you get rid of the thing (more details in the craft description) to find it full of presents: If you have questions as to how all the things fit, check this thread to find more about how to assemble this kind of base. And if you are good at landing relatively close to other things, maybe using my Orca (since it was mostly designed for that), you can of course expand it to you heart's delight, like always, rearranging modules at will and conducting all manner of surface ops, including 100% stock Klaw-less refuels: Rune. Happy building!

What do you know, turns out that what I budget for Mun is perfectly fine to go to Duna, if you dare the aerocapture. I guess it's one more place we can call it tested for! Also, repurposing the descent engines to get rid of the box works like a treat: Rune. BTW, building on a steep incline is 'fun', especially if you have a custom config that limits angle offsets to 0.005º when docking. But doable!

Yup, my standard session time also. But regarding the OP's headaches, I must say I have encountered some weird cognitive effects playing KSP... I've often lost the notion of time (like, not noticing sunset after a couple of hours after the fact), and some weird "coming down" sensations after some intense sessions. Thing is, at the time I am so "in the zone", that I am pretty sure it's just me cranking up the neuron use with orbital mechanics and precise dockings. KSP can be pretty brainy! And like all videogames, it engages your visual cortex a lot, which can lead to headaches. Or you know, postural things, those can mess with blood flow and cause all manner of symptoms. I've had it happen with other games, or after intense studying sessions... pretty much the only thing that can disengage me when I'm really concentrated is hunger. And only when I'm close to missing the second meal. And of course you pay the consequences later! It's pretty much the same as a hangover, and often comes with headaches. So yeah, don't sweat it. You just like this game very much and are capable of more concentration that you thought you were, when you are really engaged. Rune. At least you don't need to set alarms to go to bed like I do.

Actually, on second thought, KIS/KAS will do for those that are bothered by the "unrealism" (like, say, me). Pick up the landing engines, and turn them into ejection engines: The experiment also shows that I need about ~150kN to make it spinny enough to break free... under 1G. Call it 250kN to be safe on Eve. That is a lot of separatrons (~20) to unbalance the thing, increase part count, and steal dV. I'm thinking no, but I will be sure to add a note or something. Rune. Yay! I can keep the simple construction and high efficiency!

That would be a lot of reaction wheels. The thing is heavy, and it's supposed to be able to be used in, say, Eve. And the ore module has a rather flimsy solar panel that likes to break. You gave me an idea involving separatrons and a leghtwise spin instead of the end-over-end tumble I used in previous CRADLEs, tough. Might be that way I won't push the corridors into smashing the thing. In any case, WiP, I might get rid of the solar panel instead. Rune. Not too happy about needing an F5 so desperately before starting unpackaging.

How much of a cheat do you guys think deleting a ship from the tracking station is? I have been faffing around with a beginner's-friendly Base-In-A-Box, and I think that is the easiest way of getting the modules out of the surprisingly simple and efficient disposable landing box. I mean, I could put thrusters that did the same thing, but it would be a real pain in the ass to make sure they worked on all gravities, and it would steal dV. As it is, the upper stage makes orbit with ~500m/s left, and the C.R.A.D.L.E. (Container Rated for Atmospheric Descents and Landings on Eve, couldn't help myself with the bacronym) has 1,2km/s, which should allow landings pretty much everywhere but Tylo with parachute assist. So yeah, I think that means Munar/Minmus missions should be a one-launch deal, and everywhere else just requires an additional docking to refuel (fully fueled, the upper stage gives 1,7km/s), or hitching a ride in a more powerful transfer stage. Rune. Because someone said making modular bases is difficult, and I had to engineer him wrong.

Hehe, yeah, I know, I might be 'a bit' more experienced than the average kerbal. But those things are just refinements of an idea I started toying with long, long time ago. They use to have kethane modules! (And be pretty cluttered and horrendous-looking). And with the tools be have nowadays (gizmos and such), modular bases are much easier to build, even going modless. Maybe grab some examples from KerbalX to figure how people sort things out (a bit of self promotion never hurt anybody), and a couple of reads or two on some nice forum threads about the subject, and you should be golden to try yourself. Rune. And here I thought I was (one of the) the SSTO guy(s).

*Whistles by* ...wait. So what kind of player am I? The contracts to build these things and expand them are also hugely profitable, in √/day. You can make millions on each calendar day by setting up big Munar bases, if the modules are cheap to deliver. Autostruts should be your new best friends. That, and disabling reaction wheels for all things landed and immobile. I've found that a combination of the two can stabilize even the most explosive builds. Rune. Not that making money doing such awesome things is the point, of course.

To summarize what everybody is saying here, and to add my two cents: go for the PC version, preferably on the KSP store. There are reasons! -Always the latest release (or the previous one, in case the latest is broken), without any extras installed, for win/mac/linux, downloadable at will anywhere once you have your license and your account. -Maximum possibilities of input/output: keyboard, mouse, joystick, controller, and display it on any monitor you can hook your computer to. -Even if you don't like them, it's always better to have the option to install mods. You might change your mind later. -You get the highest percentage of your money directly to the developers of the thing you enjoy. However good an intermediary Steam may or may not be, it's an intermediary, and they don't live off the air. Rune. So yeah, welcome to the community!

Welcome to the forums! That asteroid station is pretty impressive. For the camera to work the way I want it to, I usually just control for a docking port that I want to face 'upward', and then I just use SAS and patience to make it point normal (north). For inclined orbits, its trickier and I usually eyeball it. you could also try switching camera modes with 'v' and see if any of them suit you for a given screenie. Rune. The new SAS does wonders with humongous objects, if you give it time. I absolutely love that about it.

It is a bit complicated. But mostly because I am also trying to turn the potato into an asteroid base at the same time. See, the refinery module, the KIS container, and the cuppola tug, are meant to stay on the asteroid, docked to ports and stuff that is carried inside the KIS container, with the drills. The Klaw Pod is pretty obvious, you need a Klaw and it also moves the pieces around, with RCS and a hefty reaction wheel. And the Magdalena is basically the big buffer fuel tank that can keep the nukes happily fed during a long-ish burn, the fact that the nukes are on independent Drive Pods just means I can tailor the thrust to the mission (i.e: put more if I get too bored). Once on the asteroid, the refinery module and stuff can find their own anchors, and then I put the Klaw on the nose of the transport and push. A bit like this, which was the improvisation that led to the idea (an old unmanned miner had to be converted to manned because of the radiator bug): And yeah, aerocapture can be tricky (though aerobrake can be rather sedate, over many orbits), but capture around kerbin can be free even without it, if you use the Mun, just like any necessary plane changes if you are a good enough pilot. As I said, fancy navigation tricks. Rune. Doing this repeatedly has made me rather good at a) intuitively knowing how a gravity assist works, and b) fiddling with maneuver nodes.

Ah, ok, gotcha, 1000+200, that makes more sense. Then again, 1,200m/s to catch a rock sounds quite high. I've gotten rocks around Mun for about 500m/s... accounting for all maneuvers and without aerobraking. But of course, that takes a lot fine navigation. And yeah, you seemed to have scaled your game x10 with respect to stock. That is what I call a really heavy duty miner! By comparison, my latest is tiny: . As you can see, I carry the refinery as a module inside a bay (so I can leave it at the asteroid when I'm done and have a functional fuel depot), and the legs are provided by four drive pods with a nuke each. A whooping 240kN at a really high Isp, for maximum efficiency. I should still get ~100m/s out of each tank refill with your run-of-the-mill 1000mT class E. I like the fact that it is a repurposed general-purpose Magdalena class transport (MkII), with a few of my standard modules chucked in, plus a KIS container (which is where the drills are stowed). I'm getting all industrial-standardized on this. Rune. I'm so running out of places to park them around kerbin, I'm thinking about building a KSO constellation just for the lols.

Mmm... e^[(200m/s) * (1/9.8m/s2) * (1/350s)]=1.059997... So that means mass ratio of about 1.06 for a 200m/s maneuver on Poodles. Substitute 350 by your Isp for another engine. That means that to accelerate an object 200m/s, you need to expend 6% of its mass. Rune. Just how heavy are your tugs, compared to the rocks they push?

Only there is a bug, and untended drills overheat until they are working at <0.1% efficiency no matter the amount of radiators. So yeah, quite a bit more than 25 times faster. Hardly. Even if you use a 100% propulsive capture with chemical engines, the total dV is not going to be much over 1km/s, and at a mere 350s (i.e: a Poodle, a fine engine for this job since it also has a respectable thrust), that's works out to a mass ratio of 1.33. Meaning you might expend at most 25% of the rock's fuel, worst case, unless you really screw things up. And you can use much less, using fancy tricks like gravity assist and/or aerobraking. That used to be true, but then autrostruts happened, as you note. Solid advice if you don't use them, tough. I like to use the Mun for that. Fixing inclination is where the big dV expenditure is ('cause aerobrake), so it's always nice when you manage to make the Mun pay the energy bill for you. Rune. Note: in order to catch a rock in a solar orbit, the easiest way is to retrace its steps, leaving kerbin along the trajectory the rock will come in.

Yup, it has to be a bug. But it's the reason I said "bring a kerbal or two to mind things". The bug only happens on unmanned stuff, put an engineer in there and the radiators will suddenly start working properly (or at least at 85% efficiency with a lvl3 engineer). Otherwise, the thing overheats until you are pulling ore at <0.1% the rate. Well, you need at least a drill (the small ones will do, and putting many is counter-productive because you are limited by the converter speed), a refinery (use the big one so you don't waste reaction mass and can power the whole thing with fuel cells), an ore container of some kind, and enough radiators and electrical power (remember the asteroid will shade solar panels sometimes!) to keep things running nicely. Something like this, but attached to a manned ship that has the power to move around the big rocks: Rune. Hummm I might try the fix now that you've pointed me to it, @UnknowingTea. Thanks!

There is a point: not launching fuel ever again. And coolness, that too. Basically, they are giant flying fuel tanks (better than stock tanks at times, there are some with >90%fuel inside!), already full and in orbit. The second rock in the pictures? About 1,500mT of "free" fuel in LKO, for the price of launching a ~50mT miner that I have actually reused a couple of times already, then retired by taking it back down to kerbin (so technically, it was free fuel, I launched it on a SSTO). The trick is moving them to a usable orbit. To do so, you basically need a Klaw, good navigation skills, and a sufficient amount of thrust and/or patience. If you are smart about it, you can actually use the asteroid as reaction mass for the trip, if you pack a set of ISRU stuff (drills, refinery and radiators to keep things cool), and have a kerb up there to run things along (mining without engineers is about 100x slower these days). Rune. And afterwards you can install KAS/KIS and turn them into amazing space stations.

Good job! It may look a lot of hassle for little gain (in the future, I can kind of guarantee you will switch to single staging to LKO, since the dV is not too much and the whole thing is much more convenient), but this is one of those things everybody should try at least once. So much fun engineering it! Rune. Now the tricky question... what is the cost in √/kg?

Don't trust those too much, Tylo is murder. And even if you don't have the time to test it out on your own, I'm sure someone will be glad to take your thing for a ride... I know somebody did it for me! Rune. Credit for the 'I landed on Tylo!' image goes to @PointySideUp, with whom I had tons of fun running this test mission, and was the actual guy who did the deed.

Well, it might not be the best thing that ever took to the skies, but it's something that can be worked with. A couple of tips to turn it into a solid workhorse: - A Big Red can be taken to orbit with about four RAPIERs and some change, six at the most. You have enough power in there to lift much more, if you can make it sleek enough to go over 400m/s at about sea level. Alternatively, you could drop a lot of engine weight (at least two RAPIERs) and trade it for payload with the current fuel load. - Even with less engine weight, you might want to either move them forwards, or put a crew cabin on the nose, to bring the dry CoM frowards. It's very common in this kind of designs to want to put all the engines backwards and a lot of fuel on the nose, because it looks cool and pointy, but then your CoM will move backwards during flight, towards instability, so you need to have a lot of it at the beginning, which will hurt your handling just when you need it the most, with full tanks and the worst wing loading of the whole flight. Another option would be to put the ramp pointing forwards, and the fuel tanks onthe back, but then you would have the same problem with the payload as with the fuel. Rune. Always crucial to check how the CoM moves as you use fuel.

That reminds me that I never even got around to assembling in space for realsies my latest Grand Tour concept. The thing is, I'm pretty sure that if I started the mission, I would not end it. Certainly not in my career save with all the other stuff going on, and that's pretty much the only one I play. Still, it looks magnificent on the SPH. It's all ISRU-enabled, with the Lackluster on the back working as a universal lander, and deploying a small refinery rover, to free the lander to grab one of the ore tanks and become a tanker to refuel the mothership. You would need a dedicated lander for Eve, but everywhere else, this could grab a sample from and return it to Kerbin. 5km/s... with the kerbin-rated SSTO lander full of fuel at the end and aerobraking capabilities. Rune. Maybe I should put it out there for somebody else to use?