Rocket Farmer

Well that might be the issue but I did break this burn into a couple of parts. This last burn is after I have already burned 800m/s on a previous pass but you still could be right. On this burn point I had a 2.5 hour orbit so I was quite near my prograde the entire time (maybe off 20 degrees to begin with tops). It still doesn't seem right that I am only getting .2m/s credit for every 1m/s I burn. This time around I have lowered my burn down to 13.5 minutes (I kicked extra engines into gear just to test) and I am seeing the same thing. I started at 6:40 minutes before and at my maneuver node it says I have 8.5 minutes left??? I appreciate all the help.

Again a really good thought but no. I always keep a close eye on my perapsis and in this case it didn't drop below 95K (this was my second burn as in my first I had pushed the first 800m/s).

That's a pretty reasonable guess but I checked and I am controlling from the right part. I have used the same part since takeoff. Per the math I had already done one burn and had 1400m/s left to push. I avg. push about 1m/s so 23.5 minutes seemed right. I have now pushed 33 minutes and it still says I am 180m/s short and the orbital graph agrees as I'm nowhere near a jool intercept yet. But I am also now at 3400m/s just off of Kerbal which seems very quick. So by the velocity meter and my math calculations I have pushed up 2000m/s but per the maneavour node it figures I've only done 1200m/s? Any other ideas?

Hi. I am totally stock with no mods at all. So I have launched probably about 2 dozen items at various planets and am very comfortable using the mapping system but I just sent my first item in .21 and I had a strange problem. I lined up on the planet of choice (jool). The one difference being this is the largest load I've ever launched and it was glitchy coming off the pad. Transit weight started at about 300 tonne. I burped the nuclear engines at full throttle to get an estimate of my required burn time. It indicated 23.5 minutes. So I set my burn to start at 11:20 before the maneuver point (you always burn shorter than the estimate as you lose weight). I aimed at the blue target and fired all engines and was watching but it hasn't worked. This time however I have now burned to +16 minutes (5 minutes passed my expectation) and I still haven't finished off the DV countdown nor the timer yet. It jumps around going up or down by 5 seconds and it seems to have stalled with 3 minutes left even though I am at full burn. Also I still haven't got out to the orbital curve I need yet for a encounter with jool. Lastly and most strangely on my velocity counter is increasing by 1m/s while my dv countdown from the maneavour node only drops by .2m/s while I am aimed directly on the blue target? Is it due to the large load, is it something different with .21 or am I just glitched?

Best comment ever!

Sorry, I should have mentioned. As I still haven't done everything in the stock game I haven't moved on to mods yet. I'm not saying they don't look fun and interesting but instead that I haven't got there yet and do everything totally stock. I am finding that a plane in the water is very ungainly (ie 10m/s max speed) but a powdered raft of panels actually can manage 20 m/s + but is more difficult to steer.

So I'm working up the final stages of a large Laythe Expedition. I've managed to design and hang all the other components on my delivery vehicle (space stations, satellites, planes, rovers, probe landers, accommodation etc) but I'm having trouble designing a decent boat and the forum search hasn't helped much. I'm thinking jet powered but my current ones lose steering above about 10m/s while in the water. Anybody have any good ideas? Ideally it would be nice if it also had wheels to drive up onto the beach.

Message Received..... Its not that we don't know you are talented and enjoy the missions. Nobody else smiles like you regardless of the situation or impending doom. Its just that well, we are getting tired of rescuing you. To date we have run over 50 manned missions to orbit and the Kerbal flag has been planted on 6 different planetoids. Of the 5 required rescue attempts you have been the Kerbal that has needed rescuing all 5 times. 1. It should have occurred to us that our first orbiter was likely to land on the far side of the planet. It was a really long ways to go get you though. 2. We also understand Bill and your early debacle and subsequent rescue from the Mun was somewhat beyond your control. We should have accounted for your inability to land within the fuel parameters as a possibility. This has lead to the development of many redundant systems which have proved useful numerous times. 3. We also understand your later career as a SSTO test pilot is a hazardous one and you have wracked up many firsts. We have an understanding of the stranding of you in space aboard the SSTO Firefly. As all previous SSTOs had been able to land with other pilots we will admit some skepticism about your inability to be able to land your first SSTO ride. We admit it was regrettable that it was also the 1st SSTO built (and last) without emergency ejection systems. 4. We must admit though to be dissatisfied that you convinced Billy-Bobbo that you should pilot down the rescue Intrepid Albatross. Billy-Bobbo had previously landed that unit 3 times flawlessly but you managed to get to try the emergency system after ripping the wings off 40km from the base. 5. But this latest debacle is painful. After recently returning to the base following our successful development and deployment (we are terming that a success) of a VTOL to rescue you from the carcass of the Intrepid Albatross we thought it good to get you back in a rocket seat (as its obvious SSTOs aren't for you). So we thought it a "good" idea to have you man the prototype Duna Science Base for its orbital checkout before putting on a full payload of scientists and heading out for Duna. Bill had already completed landing testing of the unit on Minmas with a team of scientists but this unit was to have greater transit range and enough return capable vessels to bring 8 intrepid explorers home in 2 separate detachable vessels. Basically this was a cakewalk mission. We have read the mission report and most of mission control is still crying. Everything went smashingly until you needed to try 1 of the deorbiters. We still can not believe that you separated without the engines section and drifted 4.5 km from the main ship before you noticed. While your subsequent spacewalk across 4km of open space set several records it was very poorly received. However it was your subsequent actions that are the discussion here. With a second deorbiter available we simply can't believe that at the end of your triumphant spacewalk you decided to land on 1 of the solar panels of the 2nd deorbiter. While we have a redundant solar panel for just such a contingency you also fixed that one by shearing it off as you maneuvered the 2nd orbiter away from the base. Again an immediate burn for Kerbal might have averted the impending issue and not running all the lights but you didn't even notice your poor flying until the battery was empty and you just needed to be lit up like a christmas tree. This lead to your even more monumental 5km spacewalk and your subsequent stranding in the now deorbiter-less prototype Duna Science Base. As we haven't lost a Kerbal yet and our engineering team is determined to strangle you we have decided your new mission will be to crew the newly dubbed Kerbal Rendezvous Assembled Prototype Science Base. We realize as a prototype orbiter it doesn't have any science equipment aboard so you will probably get a little bored but given it has room for 21 Kerbals you should be just fine there indefinitely.... This wasn't a decision made lightly but frankly we are tired of rescuing you. End of Message...... As mission control turns off the camera viewing the base so they can concentrate on more pressing matters last image sent is a forlorn Jeb staring out the Cupola window at Kerbal......

Hello So since the last patch I have been working on SSTOs (and relearning physics in this game again) and I recently decided for a break that I needed some bases on some of the moons & planets. Last weekend in about an hour I slapped together a 1,000 tonne rig and in the 1st launch it settled within 159m of my target on Minmas with 8 kerbals (room for 29) with return craft for the 8. Have they made the game easier? I remember with grimness my previous efforts at heavy lifters. They were all marathon builds with steady small tweaks so that they would stay together. This one stayed as one without any modifications and performed perfectly the first time out. I can't remember ever slapping that many mainsails without some rerouting themselves midflight. Anybody else have thoughts on this?

Simple... Anti laser shields....

Hi My stock SSTO program is finally at the stage where I should be able to make a return flight to Laythe with landing without refueling. The one fly in my ointment right now is if there is a flat spot on Laythe big enough to land a standard 60 tonne SSTO plane? I'm not asking for a landing strip but something about the length of Kerbal's landing strip without too many humps. Are those spots common on Laythe? Anybody with any other advice on landing on Laythe and take off to orbit? Other questions 1. How much less thrust then on Kerbal did you need (I run 6 jets on Kerbal, I'm hoping 4 will be more than sufficient to rise to altitude in laythe) 2. How high can you get in the Laythe atmosphere before running out of air for your jets? I didn't stack air intakes (just on the fronts of jets/rockets) so on Kerbal I can go to about 24K at good speed. 3. How fast do you guys get going before you hit the rockets in the ascent stage on Laythe? I aim for 1300 m/s on kerbal before I punch the rockets. 4. How was lift / air thickness at surface level on Laythe? On Kerbal I usually use a straight glider unpowered landing but I noticed on an attempt on Duna I really couldn't slow down to landing speed in the thin atmosphere. That's another ball of wax for later but I think I might try a drogue shoot there.

I got a kerbal and a rover to eeloo and got the kerbal home. Totally stock with absolutely no modes and no cheating. It was my first mission out of kerbin space (first landing other than the mun). Lets just say I had overbuilt my mun lander so much that it easily made the transit to eeloo and back. However I did fail at one part as I never bothered with doing a docking as it wasn't required. I was very lucky early in my space program to develop a lifter that could put a 150 tonne load in LKO consistently.

For me it was this weekend. I have pretty much put kerbal boots and rovers on most planets/moons (excluding eve.). I have also got a SSTO that can land on the mun, minmas and maybe next weekend Duna... All of this was accomplished through trial an error, and error and further error. But this weekend I had my best feat. I had a SSTO parked by a rover on minmas and I thought it looked like a nice place for my 1st off world base. 30 minutes later I lifted 7 hitch hikers, 1 cupola, 8 Kerbals with 4 return vehicles capable of making minmas surface to kerbal. It made it to orbit on the 1st launch without error. I then manually flew it to minmas and touched down at 1m/s at a mere 159m from my parked Spaceplane. All without saving in under an hour built from scratch totally stock. Its amazing how one can learn the mechanics if one blows up enough things.

Actually I had one of these this weekend. Jebadiah had some issues in a space plane just as it was leaving orbit. Long story short he was stranded in a 70x70 orbit with no way down. So I designed a rescue space ane that he could Eva over to. I decided to test my rescue craft before actually lining up to get him. As I was hiring orbit I noticed something ark close to me. To my absolute delight I had come up less than 10km from Jeb. A mere 10 minutes later the Planes were insight and Jeb made the trip over. All planes now come with parachutes.

So I have a totally stock SSTO that I can now orbit the mun, drop a landing probe, fly back to kerbal an land back at space command with some rocket fuel to spare. So the next step would seem to land the whole plane on the surface. But I have a couple of questions first. 1. Given the new topography of .21 is there anywhere flat enough to land? Given I am stock I don't have VTol so i need at least 1/2 a runway of flat length. I am considering trying minmas first as I know it has flat valleys. Also it needs to be at least a runway wide. 2. So when landing a plane on a zero atmosphic body does everybody else just burn retrograde while backwards to slow down and then turn around and land at the last second? Should I instead mount rockets aimed forward or should I try the entire landing backwards? Do i try to land vertically almost on my rockets before turning to land normally? Basically what has worked? 3. Braking works at 50 m/s on a rover on the mun so is it safe to assume it will also slow my space plane at about 100 m/s without explodey consequences? 4. I assume takeoff is simply building up speed and then using reaction wheel / rcs to lift the nose as the flaps will be useless? Is this possible given I will weigh around 40 tonnes on takeoff?

So I finally broke down and invested some time ad effort ino my SSTO development. I play totally stock. After relearning some physics I got to orbit and relanded at the base. Further modifications got it so I could carry up satellites. With my latest iteration I am able to orbit the moon, drop a Landing probe onto the surface within 500m of target and fly back to KSC and land. I figure I can probably do a manned SSTO lander to the moon and Minmas with returns and I can probably boost a probe to Duna, Eve, Dres etc from a high Kerbol orbit and it might even be possible to orbit Duna but return would be very tight. Basically those are my current limits. I guess I'm asking how are people getting their SSTO missions out of Kerbol space and returns to work without refueling?

I used to find it funny how every time a kerbal had to Eva from my lander can around my large dimension fuel can onto a planet he would rag doll over the side usually hitting his head on the landing gear, lights, and/or solar panel on the way down. Then I would climb back up. This was all fun and games until I recently couldn't get back in over the 90 degree lip on Tylo due to gravity. How does everybody else do it?

It's always interesting to see what everyone's average was. I just assumed that 30-45 m/s was average on the mun. It was handy on my 2nd mission when billy-Bobbo was asleep at the controls and I blew my rescue landing by 50km.

I don't actually use rcs, it was just the right size for my middle an a nice place in my design to store it on the flight out. It's empty when I drop my rover. I mount the asas on the front facing forwards so it gives me stability at high speeds. I have skidded out a couple of time but only ever at 40 m/s+ and fairly rough ground (read the poor rover is spending more time in the air than on the ground). The kerbal in the chair always seems to have a great time though).

On kerbal mine won't go above 20-22 m/s On the moon I often run 30+ m/s. I have asas on it to lock it while I go airborne so I don't drift sideways while in the air (as over 40 on the moon you get great hang time). On Moho I found out 60 m/s is max velocity before I pop a tire. My rover is a medium sized empty rcs can with a 3x strut sticking out in either direction. I have 2 more 3x struts angled down 30 degrees from the ends of those struts with the medium tires on it. It makes it light, wide, low and very fast when you get a good downhill ramp. After cracking 40 you can keep that momentum for a very long time.

As for game issues. Xenon engine - is far too slow. It will only push its own mass to 2 m/s. I like building small and would love to use it but its just too slow. Jet intakes - Jets intake spam just isn't realistic and doesn't provide game value. Mechjeb - It shouldn't do anything you haven't completed yourself at least 3-4 times and it shouldn't do it better than your best attempt. That's a personal bias I course. No multiple hookups on designs. It would be nice to secure things multiple times using standard pieces. Difficulty placing pieces on VAB designs. Ie putting a 9 tonne fuel can under 2 attached 36 tonne units. No reentry penalties.

@ ASnogatD No, I doubt many others cheat. I'm no engineer nor genius and I managed to craft a dependable (read 10 for 10 lifts and counting) 100+ tonne payload lofter in about 2 hours (totally stock, I haven't downloaded a mod yet) in my 1st week of play. Most of that was learning time. I can now recreate that in about 10 minutes and I learned how to build other craft. That seems about right. I used that exact build without tweaking to take a kerbal and rover to Eeloo, Duna, Dres and back to Kerbin. Last night I started my first SSTO. In 15 minutes I was up to 50km. After 1.5 hours I was 80km and circularizing. Please don't make the game any easier. Not all people are meant to figure out all games and it would greatly diminish the interest and challenge. It's overcoming the difficulty (let's face it the difficulty is already made much easier than actual) That makes this game. If you can't hack it try something else like bejewelled.

I vote for a submarine

They seem to have he same attitude on life (especially love of explosions), they have similar dimensions, both only seem to come in male, and both seem to have limitless quantities! Your opinions?

@ SRV Ron I agree completely. Small doesn't mean low TWR at all. My new satelite has a single ant rocket but weighs in at only .25 tonne. That's got a TWR of about .7 and has 1700 DV. My current moon ascender weighs in at under .4 tonne and has a single 24-77 motor. That's good for a TWR of 5.5 and a DV of 1100.