Swifty

Thanks Jandor for posting these scripts. They are very useful for getting me started. I look forward to possible seeing more code snippets. I'd also be interested in any links toy useful resources you've found. So far I've found: Reusable Launch System Scripts Reddit Universal Script Orbital Mechanics Related: Orbital Mechanics Basics

The problem is not with the reuseable system. It works perfectly. It's with problems such as modules attached to kas winches disappearing. Crash to desktop on removing kas connection ports. And most importantly FAR aerodynamics breaking I.e. It stops calculating to forces on the aircraft making it completely unflyable - it just spins out of control.... If after fighting through KAS bugs (I've kind of worked out exactly what to do to avoid some of the crashes.) I the. Am faced with an aircraft that can no longer fly. So I have to respawn the aircraft with payload attached exactly as I'd done it with KAS everything is fine. But it just seems like a futile waste of effort bring and aircraft back, refuel, load cargo, recover aircraft with cargo, make new one in SPH fly mission, repeat. I've flown 4 modules up now and every time I've had to recover the aircraft and make it again due the FAR bug, and usually I've had to load the cargo twice due to crash to desktop during the loading the cargo.... If it went for all the bugs I'd have finished by now. I'm pleased with my reusable system, but disappointed it's not really reusable due to game bugs :-( I'm going to finish building the station but don't really feel it will qualify as an entry due to the above. Edit: in summary avoid using KAS FAR combination whilst doing this challenge.

I have stopped my attempt at this challenge - theres just so many bugs. Things attached to KAS winches disappear, random oscillations on the KAS payload and FAR suddenly stops calculating the forces on the aircraft.

I've Started this challenge using my B9-FAR VTOL SSTO the "Firefly" Here is a screen shot of the Firefly with the crew transfer shuttle (if its allowed) the "Morgan", Several trucks loaded with the station module payloads to be taken into orbit, the crane and the fuel truck. Imgur Album of the filght After docking the next payload into the Firefly the game crashed whilst removing the KAS attachment points (I think it was because i grabbed one whilst also having a cable attached to the kerbal. After reloading the game I was presented with this: Payload gone along with the mission impossible kerbal Oh well, I'll refuel the craft and respawn the payload tomorrow Great challenge by the way - something I've not done before in KSP. Though this isnt going to be a high scoring one - im going for the elusive style points for a VTOL SSTO and ISS inspired station instead :-)

I use unity… once I've finished this project I'll be using Unreal, its down to games engine quality and licensing terms/price - unreal wins on both. I hope they migrate KSP into Unreal, though maybe thats an idea for KSP2.

Thanks for the link. That was a really interesting read. I'm going to go back to my Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy designs and check the masses and mass ratios against those in that thread. I wonder how these rockets stack up against those figures. And the Raptor engine, I did look into that for some reason the significance of it did click with me until just now.. On the Falcon X and above I'm going to change out the space shuttle engines for a Methane engine. I'm also going yo need to work on the textures... Get them to look like real spaceX rockets Ooo and resize a sort out the stats for cbbp dragon capsule. So much to do - still not done anything other than launch rockets in RSS. @Woopert: It looks awesome especially the Orion Capsule setup in the last screenshot.

Thanks. My guess is the SLS

5000tn...... I'm stunned! Anyway, Here are my SpaceX Launchers I've made The Falcon 9 is matches the real thing almost exactly The Falcon Heavy matches what were told it will be - falcon 9 center with to cross-feeding falcon 9 first stages. However, I can only get about 35tn into orbit, a far cry from the 53tn SpaceX has announced The Falcon X and X Heavy use Saturn V F1 Engines as that is the closet engine available that matches the expected Merlin 2 Engine Specs and the space shuttle engine in space of the the Merlin 2 vacum - both put a slightly higher payload into orbit than expected - 40tn (38tn) and 134tn (125tn) respectively The Falcon XX uses the same engines as the Flacon X and delivers a slightly large payload compared to the expected amount 150tn (140tn) Craft Files Note has some re-sized KW Fairing cfgs for 6m expanded fairing and 10m fairing

First 1000tn to Orbit proof of concept launcher! More details, refinements and cosmetics to follow later White Bit on top is 1001tn Payload with the 4m Mk1-2 Command Pod at the very tip. Orange Tank Radius 15m - 17 Space Shuttle Engines White Tank Radius 35m - 9 Saturn V engine Clusters

Some real nice launchers here. After hearing the rumors of a 1000tn to orbit rocket. I've been having a go myself this evening. I think I've finally worked out how to do it - Very large radius tanks. So far I have a 500tn to orbit launcher, if instead of only having a huge bottom stage I have a second stage of similar radius I think I can get 1000tn up easily. But just why??

Yep, you guessed it, just having fun. No need worry I've finished with making VTOLs for now

FAR doesn't really increase the load on your machine. It tends to be part mods that I've found cause issues. It does make designing stable aircraft a lot more difficult though (until you get the nack of it) As for fairness my be have separate scores for FAR and Stock Aero. I personally just like seeing other peoples approaches to challenges.

Simply put I achieved the Harrier Distinction at about 30km by switching to rockets (jet power runs out for me at about 1700m/s) and burning just as if I was doing an insertion to obit burn. However, I control the AoA of the aircraft to ensure the apoapsis (or however you spell it) stays below 40km. It is pretty trivial if you can get your aircraft into orbit - All my SSTO's finish there burns well below 40km, so really its just a question of keeping your nosedown whilst burning. I'll post the craft file if you'd like to give it a go. Remember I'm using FAR...

Doh! I'll have to check these can do that. Reading fail....

After many, many iterations! I present V-STS-C-Firefly (VTOL Space Transport System - Cargo). It is a confirmed Pogo stick winner capable of achieving all the tasks with only minor modification. The main one being swapping out Jet VTOL engines for Rocket VTOL engines for the MLRV award and an addition of an internal tank for the Moller Distinction. Drop tanks seen in some of the following pictures are there to balance out the internal payloads.

I think its Tesla fanatic. But really thats up to the OP to decided. Regardless I look forward to seeing it

Mechjeb for me was pretty much the tutorial system. It's not as good as a human at some stuff such as docking (uses loads of RCS) and atmospheric flight when you have FAR installed. I do still have mechjeb and install it on all my craft and use it for the boring stuff ( keeping aligned during a 5 min burn for example). I don't feel Mechjeb has hindered my understanding the game or prevented my from slowly accumulating the skills to fly and land all my designs. Furthermore I think it should be recommended to new plays as a method learn how orbital manoeuvres are done For me KSP is 90% a game of designing stuff, flying things is just to prove my designs meet there performance objectives, this if an autopilot can do I'm happy to let it. (However, it is stratifying knowing you can do it on your own) But as a lot of people have already said the number 1 piece of advice is: Learn how to read the Navball!!!

Darren9 that is really impressive. M1sz I'm sure you can get it to 2km/s under 40k if you can get it into orbit. When you switch to rocket mode just pitch down a little so you hit 2km/s while keeping your apoapse just below the alt limit

I have come across a bug / pressed something that makes my control surface stop deflecting. Summary - a) developed aircraft - aircraft working fine add payload from sub-assembly into cargo bay (inside B9 HL cargo bay) c) control surfaces no longer respond to inputs Have pressed a button to turn of control surfaces? If this is a bug I'll start trying to narrow down whats caused it. Thanks Link to craft file if anyone wants to have a play ( its awesome when the control surfaces work!) B9 and FAR only i think

Thought I'd share my in development V-STS-C-Firefly, a cargo STS. Designed to land a tbd base on Kerbin or Laythe and should be another Pogo Stick award wining VTOL. Unfortunately it is incredibly unstable during the transition between vertical and horizontal flight. Here it is with a test payload.

I'd name it Splat

BATVTOL looks seriously cool!

Presenting a Pogo Stick contestant the: V-STS-P-Hummingbird weighing in at 15.6tn The Bedstead Award: Check The Airgeep Distinction & The DARPA VTOL-X Award: Check and Check (Playload weighed in at 7.41tn (47.5%)) The Harrier Distinction: Check The Mollar Distinction: Check (I flew up to 60km and the circlrised my orbit to be ~60x60, kept my speed up until i did a retrograde burn to come down and land on top of the VAB) The Dornier Award and Osprey Award: Check ( Base aircraft only capable of holding 4 so I carried an additional 6 in the payload... - The payload weighed in art 4.51tn(28%)) The Delta Clipper Award: Check (This craft was originally designed to transfer crew to a station at 120km) The MLRV Award: Check ( Landed on the Mun, Planter "Landing Zone Alpha" Flag - Craft modication: Jet VTOL Engines changed to rocket VTOL engines) The Pogo Stick Award: Check! If all the above is within the rules. Mods: FAR, B9, Kebral Engineer and Kethane for a handy 1tn exactly tank

Thanks Ferram. I'll reduce the dihedral, remove the über cool bi-plane bit and sort out intakes under the cockpit and see if that sorts the problem. One none related question does negative Xw translate to "aircaft decelerates when there is vertical velocity component"? Thank you

Hi I could do with some advice on how to make this aircraft more stable at high speeds - mach 1.8+ Upon getting to mach 1.4 I begin to get bad Mw, Zu and N_beta values. I think i also get pitch-roll and roll-yaw coupling. But I'm unsure on how to fix this intelligently. In have tried brute forcing it by adding every combination of surfaces I can think of but I have thus far not had any look. Anyway any advice will be greatly appreciated. This is the link to the imgur gallery Imgur Gallery Thanks P.S. How do you embed Imgur gallery's correctly[--Imgur]http://imgur.com/a/hSC69/embed[/imgur--]