Captain Sierra

My mission as at a dead end. The Kraken keeps grabbing me and holding me down every time i try to launch. My TWR is over 1 and my engine is fireballed. No liftoff!

I have tried a saturn style rocket so far (didn't look like it but the function was pretty accurate) but the TWR just didnt work for me so I will not be replicating that true to life. My lander/CM is pretty accurate. Will have pics soon as I actually get my launcher stages working ;P Then I can show off my awesome tribute mission.

Yes, you can reach orbital altitudes in 90 secs. I'ts a lot like the 30 second altitude challenge, but with higher tiers that involve more required payload. Yes, I have tried it. I can in fact do tier 1 just fine. Still working on the rocket for Tier 3 (It keeps exploding cuz its a pile of fuel).

What mods are you using? I recognize the cylindrified fuel and oxidizer tanks from KSPX but where did you get the roundified ones?

Quick, that warehouse full of nuclear engines is going critical, evacuate!!! You have 90 seconds to evacuate kerbals from KSC. The nuclear explosion will be to big to escape in the ground so go up. The Challenge, should you choose to accept it: Build a rocket that can break Kerbin atmosphere in 90 seconds. To count, you must have an apoaps of at least 70km to be out of the atmosphere. There are three tiers: Breaking the atmosphere, reaching stable orbit, and rendezvous with a space station. Don't worry, not all in 90 seconds. Tier 1 involves getting to orbit and then not having the fuel to circularize. Tier 2 involves getting your apoaps over 70km in 90 seconds and then being able to circularize to a stable orbit. Tier 3 involves getting apoaps over 70km in 90 seconds, then having enough fuel to circularize and rendezvous and dock with a space station. The rules: Your craft may use mods (but nothing like light speed engines, these, and other 'cheat' mods will not count if used). Your craft must break a 70km apoaps in 90 sec to count. You may not use and cheats, debug menus, hyperedit, or anything else that otherwise allows you to circumvent physics or instantly create an orbit. Scoring: The challenge is time based. You must complete the first step in 90 seconds. Faster times will go higher on the leaderboard. Leaderboard: Tier 3: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Tier 2: 1)Jodo42 - 74 seconds 2) 3) 4) 5) Tier 1: 1)SkyRender - 80 seconds 2) 3) 4) 5) Any questions? Get launching!

I have to vote for Spartwo's first design (with the two Gigantor panels). For sake of simplicity and effectiveness but PsuedoMonkey's HybrIon probe has to rank a close second for "[giving] ideas to new players on building craft without just handing out a perfect one".

KSPX is my favorite and it is slowly getting integrated into the stock game (wut wut!). I wonder if the designer of it (now with Squad) will go back and remove some of the KSPX parts that are going stock or if I have to clean those parts out myself. Favorite KSPX part (going stock as of .21): 2.5m to 4x 1.25m adapter, the ultimate cluster staging tool.

Just found this pack. Modular goodness! Can't wait to start building some rovers and modules with it. These look cool.

I'm using ion probes, which are pretty slow. For going out to Duna, thats another 10 minutes just to set up the encounter and go. That and I am using the smaller (shorter range) detector so it takes me longer to make good maps. And quite frankly, I really don't want to use hyperedit to cut out that fisrt 10 min. I try to only use that for testing or If I've already done it before (aerobrake on duna, lose all solar panels, need to restart)

OKay, I have a problem. The debugger won't work. I grabbed that part (mainly because I'm too lazy to do the tedious scanning process for every planet I visit), slapped it on an ion probe, and shot it off to Minmus. Once there, I right clicked and hit open debugger console. Nothing happened. Even with the main KSP debugger open, nothing. Solutions? I really don't feel like sending probes to every world and then time warping for half an hour to get my kethane maps.

Here is what I think the docking port issue is (because I have seen ships dock with self before). The magnetic force of the docking ports is not enough to stop the main rocket from dropping past them due to gravity. What you need is something to stop the rocket body at the level of the docking ports long enough for them to link up. (this is ordinarily where quantum struts come in).

This would be very interesting to see as a physics expansion. It would definitely create interesting orbital mechanics. I wonder, with the barycenter basically being a Lagrange point (where two object's gravitys cancel to zero), could I thread the needle and use that as a gravitational slingshot? Double power?

I wanted to get the first of my three main kethane bases on the Mun going but with .21 being a save breaker, I've not launched anything other than scanning probes. I should probably actually de-orbit my probes and the space dock I put up to build off of in hopes that I won't then lose my kethane maps as I got a really good setup with three major deposits right on the munar equator.

Banned for recovering from the Great April Derp.

Welcome sir! I strongly advise you to not start with space stations. Those are pretty hard to get the rendezvous down but once you do, you can disregard this because it gets easier with practice. Holding shift and right clicking and dragging does something do the camera. Holding shift and scrolling zooms. As for space stations, here is the basic procedure. THis is of course under the assumption you know how to do a hohmann transfer rendzvous. For that, watch this. Scott Manley does great KSP tutorials and this explains it better than I can. My guide to station assembly: 1) build station core 2) put core in orbit (I suggest over 120km) 3) assemble module(s) 4) put module(s) in orbit 5) Rendezvous and dock with station 6) de-orbit (or end flight) the docking stage used to attach module(s) 7) ignore step 6 if it is a re-usable tug you are using; instead, dock it with the station. I suggest a fuel module (with some liquid and PLENTY of RCS to refill the tug(s)) and a habitation module as your first. These are fairly simple to build and the basic necessities. For ideas on the station core, there is a stock one (though I don't like it a whole lot).

Update the leaderboards. I win. In case you don't believe it, it does say 61,235 meters. Look at that beauty. I had some REALLY cool designs earlier but none of them actually worked right.

1) where do I go to alpha test the new version pre-release, which I hear so many people doing. 2) my plan is to put my space dock back up and start assembly on the massive craft that will then turn itself into my Munar Kethane base. It shall be the first of 3.

I was preparing to start construction of one of three major Kethane facilities on the mun but with all the rumors of .21 being a save breaker I will just be building the modules. I may as well try to de-orbit my space dock and recover the kerbals before (for the record, that thing was a b***h to put in orbit, massively cumbersome). If the next update is gonna be save breaking anyways, I was considering starting fresh and doing a youtube series ^.^

Here's a challenge. Build a rotary stabilizing rocket that can reach low orbit. The rocket must stabilize itself by spinning and can contain no SAS at all. To do this, slant your engines like shown in the picture below: The rocket must be able to reach a minimum altitude above the Kerbin atmosphere. The ability to execute a gravity burn is unimportant. You must be crewed by at least one kerbal and that kerbal must be safely returned to the ground near KSC. The highest altitude wins. The rocket must contain a minimum of 2 stages and may use liquid fuel or solid fuel. -Sierra

No please!!!!! I've used that before and it is unbelievably difficult.

I whipped one up and it can get into Minmus orbit no problem with 3/4 xenon tanks. (a better probe pilot probably could do it a lot more efficiently). Expect pics tomorrow ASAP. EDIT: Here are some pics of the probe both in the VAB and in space. It has enough solar panels to power the craft indefinitely in sun. In shade it has 6 battery packs and 2 RTGs to maintain some power. It only uses a single engine and carries all the scientific equipment. Fair to note that this image is slightly dated. I added the RTGs in place of two additional solar panels and two battery packs only after this was taken.

KSPX parts pack. Best mod I have. Favorite part from it is the 2.5 to 1.25 4x adapter. It's the ultimate cluster staging tool!

Harv, what's next on the list of things you want for the base? I'm sure I can cook something up (even though I can't use my favorite mod, KSPX).

Hmmmmm. I guess I'm not allowed to use MechJeb. That can put me at the doorstep of KSC. Oh well. Challenge accepted. I should have something in a day or two.

Sucess is optional, failure is a constant. You will blow stuff up a LOT! Don't let that discourage you. After ending flight, look back and try to find out what broke first. Remember, SPACE TAPE FIXES EVERYTHING. Struts are your friend. People like me, who have gone for more ambitious stuff, call it space tape because it's about as good as duct tape. It can fix ANYTHING. Don't be afraid to use it liberally. I suggest going for the moon again rather than space station. Orbital rendezvous and docking are two of the hardest things in the game to do. Here is a checklist if you want one. Essential parts: RCS thrusters & fuel (control in orbit) Winglets/fins (control in atmosphere) ASAS unit (essential to not spin) fuel and motors (I can give a brief lesson on asparagus staging, but later) Launching: step 1: activate ASAS (T key by default) Step 2: throttle up (shift) Step 3: Ignite first stage (space) Step 4: climb to ~10,000 meters, dropping empty stages Step 5: turn to ~ 10* angle at either 90* or 270* heading for gravity turn Step 6: continue to slowly lean over until you reach horozontal and your apoaps is above 75,000 meters. Recomended to get it over 100k. Step 7: proceed to apoaps and burn prograde to circularize orbit. Hope this helps you. -Sierra