Margaul

I love Minmus! So much fun. And the station looks awesome! Great job!

Your best bet is the nuclear engine with the big tanks (Rockomax) attached. They have a high Specific Impulse which is the rocketry version of fuel efficiency. (I believe the ISP in a vacuum is like 800). The downside of them is that they aren't very powerful. This isn't a problem in space, but it can test your patience. You may have to make multiple burns to transfer orbits. Edit: Stupid_chris nailed it right on the head. The nuclear engine is the way to go for interplanetary travel, the poodle is your friend for orbital transportation. That's exactly what I do with my "Skycrosser IA" which was become the workhorse of my fleet. I can make it just about anywhere and back with this little ship. It has the LV-N system for long range trips, with the poodle for when I need a bit more power for faster maneuvers.

Also, you have to remember that as your station orbits, it's not moving in a straight line, its moving in a circle around the planet. So if you are approaching it from a distance with your ships ASAS on focused on a specific point, the ASAS will keep your ship pointed in a particular direction in space, so your ship will stay linear. Your station, on the other hand, will be moving in an arc, so it will be basically be slowly rotating as it moves around the planet. This isn't a problem over the course of 1-3 minutes, but in a standard 30-40 minute orbit, after 5-10 minutes it can be an irritant. This is some of the reason I keep my station in a relatively higher orbit (~185,000m) than the standard 100,000m orbit. When I was still fairly new to docking, I had a total of 8 docking ports so I could approach the station from any direction and dock. It's not a big deal now because I approach at a pretty fast speed and move right toward the docking port before the rotation can affect to much. The moral of the story is that the longer you take to dock, the more the slow rotation can cause a problem.

Easiest way to stop the drifting...switch to your station, turn ASAS off, warp to 2X for like 3 seconds. The game should stabalize the movement if you don't have anything on (RCS, engives, etc). As you get close to the docking port, if you miss at the last second the magnetic attraction of the docking ports will cause the station to move a bit, so try not to miss Also, if you are moving straight toward your station, and you use the main engine (pointed in the direction of your station) to close to the station, the rocket exhaust from your engine can cause your station to move. For this reason I try to approach my station and get along side it before using my main engine to brake. Then I switch to RCS. In Kerbal, the RCS engines won't cause blowback on the station. In the real world, even with RCS, astronauts have to be very careful which RCS thrusters they use when they are docking or they will blow the target away from them. They actually used the shuttle's RCS to blow broken parts of the ISS away! So be careful where you use your main engine.

Not only did he pack a toaster, but he can use all nine engines on the Eve lander as a BBQ.....seeing as the lander isn't strong enough to get off the surface. Mission failed? Hardly....Permanent colony established.

Well there's this: http://www.kerbalcomics.com/2012/06/22/episode-ten-stranded-squared/ and this http://www.kerbalcomics.com/2013/05/20/episode-26-predictable/

The new Laurel III resupply vessel docked with Olympus Station and let Kerbin see the Eden Lander and the Skycrosser III which will be leaving soon to visit, study, and hopefully return from Eve. The "Great Experiment" or "Grape Experiment" will test kerbal engineering in Eve's harsh environment. Will the daring crew survive the trip? Will the make it back in one piece? Did Jebidah pack a toaster to make toast with just in case Eve really is made from grape jelly? The resupply and crew rotation proceeded without incident and the Laurel III brought 5 brave(?) kerbalnauts home.

Hooray! That's awesome! That will make your dockings a little safer. Docking does open up the possibilities for sure. I just docked a monstrosity of a lander and an improved interplanetary ship to my fueling station. Next stop: Eve, and if fuel permits, an extreme EVA to Gilly.

Haha. You got it, mate. I don't get a lot of chances to try Gaelic living in the deserts of New Mexico. Besides, I'm better at launching kerbals into orbit than I am with the Irish language.

Thanks. I probably will turn it into a full tutorial. I'll probably refine it a little bit. I didn't put a lot of the "basics" into the beginning that some people would need since you were already pretty experienced with spaceflight. Hope we fix/fixed your RCS issues.

Here we go: 1. On the main screen (The one that comes up when you load the game) select settings 2. Click "Input" 3. Since you (like me) dock from staging select the "Staging button" 4. Scroll down to the "Translation" keybinds 5. See what the game has for "Translate Forward" and "Translate Backward" 6. If they are currently set to "H" and "N" try setting them to something else that isn't being used See if that helps

Yeah. I think one of your mods must be interfering. I think you can check to see what your key binds are for RCS or change them in the settings from the load screen. My wife is looking now. Maybe we can help you fix it.

yeah...you have to reset the docking by getting about 5-10 meters away. Usually I just back off using RCS and then back forward again with RCS. I have to do that with some of my ships to make sure the center of gravity doesn't get weird. undock, backoff, rotate, back in.

Looks like you are already becoming a pro at docking. Station looks great!

Yeah. I would pop a quick post on the support forum or the How To forum and see if anyone can help figure out why your RCS wasn't working to thrust you forward and backward. Good luck on the station! Post a thread with pics soon!