Pope_Gregory_IX

Fantastic! Thanks, both.

Hi! I have created a shuttle-like craft which I can successfully get in to orbit and glide in to land back at KSC. The issue I'm having is with adding payloads to the bay. I've created a test payload (basic satellite with solar panels, probe core, ion drive engine and RCS...), which I'm trying to attach to docking ports inside the cargo bay. I saved the satellite itself as a subassembly. The problem is, when I load the satellite from the subassembly menu, I have a node on the RCS fuel tank, but not on the docking port (see picture), so I'm unable to load the satellite in to the bay in a way that I can later undock in space. The picture below is a result of some fiddling where I was trying to do it without the probe core on the subassembly. Is this a bug, or am I missing something obvious? Cheers, Adam

Ah - OK. So the moon adds to the velocity and as J002E3 exits the moon's SOI on the opposite side to the earth, that's enough energy to escape. I guess if it exited the moon's SOI towards the Earth, it would still remain in orbit. Got it (I think)!

I wish I understood this - once a satellite has been captured by a body and made a couple of orbits, how does that satellite then gain enough kinetic energy to reach escape velocity without input from some external energy source? With J002E3 is the additional energy just provided by crossing the moon's orbit? Cheers, Adam

Hi, As a fairly "casual" player playing in normal difficulty mode, I find the new career mode much better balanced than before. Until now, I've played career for a bit, got bored and switched over to sandbox. I think with the new crew experience and KSC upgrades, it feels like career will keep me entertained for much longer and has a better learning curve. Cheers, Adam

First spaceplane to my space station! Now to give it a function...

Hi, Yes - in the second image you can see an "adrift" SS. That's actually a station around Minmus which is also in that direction. Having said that, there's still the strange flickering and I'm not getting the little sphere that you can hover over that you normally get with planets and moons (muns?). Cheers, Adam - - - Updated - - - Just got Tex_NL's reply too. Looks like it was probably Minmus, then Thanks for the replies!

Hi All, I'm using stock KSP apart from FAR and am currently playing with SSTO planes. I was gaining some altitude when i noticed a small white dot in the sky, to the top right of Kerbol (about 1 o'clock): The dot was rapidly flicking on and off and sometimes appeared as two dots as shown above (clicky for higher res). The image below shows that the dot is in approximately the right location for my space centre: As mentioned above, I only have FAR, but thought that stock KSP did not show space stations (don't you need the distant objects mod?). Is this a rendering glitch, or does stock KSP show orbital objects from within the atmosphere? My space station is at about 150k. I was unable to click on this spot to set it as target and no label was shown. I'm running 64 bit KSP. Just interested, really... Cheers, Adam

Very, very happy! After several disasters with SSTO planes, I went back to basics and built something with a couple of RAPIERs and a TJ. Took of, got it on to a steady 10 degree incline and switched on SAS. I got called away from the PC and came back 20 minutes later expecting a crash. I found this: As I say - very, very happy. Now to add a docking port and get the thing to dock with one of my space stations having got it up manually and in to a sensible orbit, but if SAS can do it, I know I can! Cheers, Adam Edit: Hadn't even got as far as raising the gear when I left KSP running...

Hi, I'm hoping to use contracts to generally improve my designs / gameplay. Pre-0.24, I've built munstations, spacestations and so on, but my general attitude when things don't go well has been to add more dV (Moar boosters, as I think the youngsters call it nowadays ). I'd like to gradually go through the career mode now, being tight with budgets and going for a more minimalist approach. The aim is that by the end of it, I'll be much better at everything I do in my sandbox mode games. Cheers, Adam

Hi, I've now come up with a Mk II design which uses LV-909's, has less Monopropellant and does not cart around any converters. The result was much better, but I still feel I now need to look at on-surface transfers with a semi-permanent mining Munbase. I'll have a look at KAS to make this simpler. The only slight issue with MkII is that I mounted the drills too high compared to the landing legs, so have to collapse a couple of legs to be able to mine! Back to the drawing board! Cheers, Adam

Thanks for your thoughts. I did think about leaving the miner on the surface of the Mun, but it was the ideas of transfers that put me off. I agree about the lack of need for kethane this close to kerbin, but this is the first stage (and a sort of test run) of something that I hope to extend across the system. There's a big converter at the Munstation, but I do also have conversion on the lander - perhaps with a lighter, more efficient vehicle I can ditch that - at the moment, I have been converting on the surface of the Mun in order to get me back up to orbit. Something that should not be necessary if I go back to the drawing board with the weight of the thing! Next step: reduce weight and improve engine efficiency. After that, we'll look at on-ground transfers and leaving a permanent drilling rig on the surface. Thanks again, Adam

Hi, I'm currently enjoying playing in sandbox with Kethane mining. The aim is to build space stations around planets and moons, top them up with kethane and so have refuelling stations scattered around the system. So far, I just have stations around Kerbin and Mun, and have a mining vehicle which also transports the kethane up to the munstation. An ion-powered transport vessel is waiting at my Kerbin station to move the kethane around. Here's the Mk I lander/miner (with radial and ion engines) docked to the station: The problem is currently the weight / efficiency of my Munlander. I've made some changes since the screenshot (a single Monopropellant tank, for example - docking has been much easier than I thought!) and am also working out a good way to mount nuclear engines without smashing them on landing. Is anyone else playing in this style and I'm just wondering what efficient vehicles people have come up with for the munlanders, so that you don't spend half your mined kethane on renewing your fuel supply? Cheers, Adam

Hi, In that case, you need to look at gravity turns. There are some great tutorial videos on YouTube for KSP beginners that you may like to look at. If you have reached and landed on the Mun without a gravity turn and are stranded, you're not doing badly! Doing the gravity turn may give you enough fuel to get back with the same rocket... Cheers, Adam

Hi, One solution is to set up a junction. KSP will think that your persistent file is in the normal directory tree, but you can edit it in its' actual location (which could be in My Documents, for example). I've done the same with my save files. Because this gets synced to SkyDrive, I have instant Cloud synchronisation with my KSP saves Cheers, Adam