Daveroski

You have two ships in orbit and you want to bring them close enough together that a kerbal can jetpack over from one to the other. A ship you are going to. 'The Target' A ship going to meet it. 'Your Ship' When you are getting two ships together it is much easier to do it if they both have close to the same 'inclination.' The further apart their inclinations, the further apart will the ships be on 'closest approach' It is better if the target is in the lower orbit. This gives Your Ship a little more room to manoeuvre. I suggest that you always endeavour to have your target in the lower orbit. The Higher Ship will be travelling more slowly than the Lower Ship. This means that the Lower Ship is ALWAYS getting closer to the Higher Ship. It will get to 'closest approach' and once it passes the Higher Ship, it will eventually catch up again and again... When you set the ship you are going to as 'Target Vessel' you will be able to see a lot of useful information. Its lowest point or periapsis. (Pe) Its highest point or apoapsis.(Ap) Its ascending node (AN) Its descending node (DN) The AN and DN are where the ships inclinations cross each other and from either of these two points you can make your inclinations the same by using either Normal or Anti-Normal directions in a course correction burn. Now we assume you have made your inclinations the same. (it takes a little practice and you may feel you need the hands of a surgeon) Prograde points in the direction your ship is travelling. Retrograde points in the opposite direction to the one your ship is travelling. As you pass your targets' Ap point your ship Prograde and fire the engines until your Ap is about 50km higher than the target's Pe. Your Pe should be close to the target's Ap. Your Ap should be about 50km higher than the targets Pe. At your Ap burn Retrograde until your Pe overlaps the target's Ap. Making your Pe the same as your targets Ap. It is ok if your Pe is a couple of Km lower than your targets Ap Now place a manoeuvre node a little behind Your Ship. Just having a node will show you the closest you get to your target in this orbit. At this point Right Click the one that gives you 'closest approach' distance and relative velocity at 'closest approach. When you look at the node marker, you will see just below it a greyed out - and an available + button. Without changing any of the directions advance the orbit with the + button and watch the 'closest approach' marker.click the + as many times as you need to get the 'closest approach' as close to '0' as possible. If you overshoot use the now ungreyed - button to go back an orbit. The closer you can get it to '0', the better. Now you can slightly adjust the direction markers to bring you closer. On the map gizmo very slowly rotate the mouse-wheel and see what affects it has on your 'closest approach' using a little ,,,, and can refine your approach. You are aiming for a figure between 0 and 5km. Again closer to '0' is always better. '0' itself is brilliant but not always quickly attainable in Kerbins' orbit. While you are doing all this Your Ship is still going around Kerbin and could pass the node where you are working and throw out your plot. Knowing about the + and - buttons is a good thing now you need one less orbit. So you have your course plotted and it is a number of orbits in the future. Point your ship at the manoeuvre node in your Nav-ball. You can use the 'warp to node' feature and it will eat up the time for you. It is a good idea to have the time to burn percentage set to 50% so that when you start your burn at '0' seconds, you will do half of the burn before the node and half of it after giving balance to the overall burn. Now that you are on your way to the rendezvous you might want to give yourself a braking node. Make sure your Nav-ball is set for Target and not Orbit or Surface Click exactly on the closest approach or very slightly before (a hair) and create a node. When you use retrograde, you should see that your 'relative velocity' decreases. Again as close to '0' as possible is good but getting '0' is unlikely. Once you have it 'close enough' (a popular engineer's phrase) aim for the node in the navball and you can safely warp to the node but once the warp ends set your SAS to retrograde and concentrate more on bringing your relative velocity to '0' Once your relative velocity is 0 you will possibly be close enough for your crew transfer. If not. Aim at your target and give a full burn until the Retrograde marker on the SAS becomes available. Should be just a second or two. Then select retrograde on the SAS and wait until you are close enough and gently come to a stop. Perform your crew transfer. I would like a reply to this post even if it is just to inform me I have wasted an hour of what little life I have left. D.

The guys are taking a tour of their favourite place in the Kerbol System D.

Fatter fairings at a given angle to prograde produce more drag than thinner ones at the same angle to prograde. That drag is at the top of your ship and can easily cause a flip. Fairings don't eliminate all drag. The contents of the fairing are shielded from drag but the fairing itself still is a solid wall for the oncoming windshear to hit. The more you drift from prograde, the more drag you get but on the side which is closest to prograde. On a day without wind the wind-speed at the front of the ship is as fast as the ship is travelling. D.

Crew rotation. Vanilla Game Crew Transport leaving Ike Station. D.

My comsat reached Jool (Vanilla Game) Here it is using Tylo to brake and assume a Jool Orbit. Then We made the orbit Polar and BIG. It is so high that it can't see Jool anymore . Now I have to prepare a new miner for Ike. D.

Ahhhh sheeple being taught their new histories of how things were and they are buying that too. I remember when for many companies, the customer was always right. It was a phrase used by companies to try to get their staff to try to not have a single customer dissatisfied. Companies used to feel that their customers were important. But Americans taught the world that there is "One born every minute" and how to "mass produce" rubbish. One used to tip for good service now they just put it on the bill. One used to own a game one bought, now one is merely paying to use it and the producers can take away your ability to play it at a whim. Things used to be "Built to Last" now they actually have "Built-in Obsolescence" where a part of a product is designed to fail after a given time to force the sheeple to buy a new ("More up-to-date") one. I remember when "Made In Britain" was a label that most foreign countries relied upon. (Back when Britain was allowed to make things and have industries and such) People used to care. Some still do. It's the monsters that keep taking your money for things that really should last a lifetime that aren't human any more. A boiler used to go behind the fireplace and would last a lifetime, sometimes several lifetimes. Now it goes in a cupboard to make it easier to replace every few years. Remember when the first TV remotes came out and you could change the channel from another room? Could even change the neighbour's TV channel? Now, even though you replaced the batteries a week ago, it still takes three or more clicks to get the thing to respond. It's not about ingenuity any more. It's about money. The Russian space program was awesome. They got the first satellite to orbit. The first Man (and woman) in space. They didn't just throw money at things to make them work. They used genius and tight nuts. The Americans spent a fortune designing a pen that could write in Zero G. The Russians took a pencil. If I had my way, perhaps we would all be going around on horseback or travelling to other countries in sailing ships. But I would try to find that Genius that was Russia and have them get us to Mars. D.

Kerbals have the little known capability of momentarily pulling their head back into their chest cavity like a tortoise. It's a bit of a taboo subject because for a while they swell up in the chest and abdomen alarmingly and the space suit has to stretch accordingly, so I doubt we will get it on camera. D.

I have thought about dispatching Val in a different and complicated way for each game but I never actually carried it out. I stick her in the command pod of the first space station and leave her there until the end of the game. Alone... for years... I dunno, maybe I haven't gone soft after all. D.

Back before I had ever used a mod. The image through the little window of the lander pod as I touched down on The Mun for the first time after flying a whole mission in IVA. (and the map screen of course.) D.

Because despite the fact that the ship has a (probe core) auto-pilot, I still have to prize Jeb out of any control seat on the craft with a crow-bar before launch. Such fond memories of all the times I have had to 'revert to assembly' Just because I have noticed his insane grin as the ship begins it's ascent. Bless his cotton socks. I know I can't blame Jeb. I should have made the probe core the root part. Then it would automatically put the sign on the command pod door, "Keep Out (Jeb)" D.

That you have to wonder that proves you didn't get the point. Bored now. not talking to you any more. D.

Are you actually trying to argue my point? Not difficult for who? You? Me? Someone just getting ready to leave Kerbin SOI for the first time? You did get the point. Didn't you? [snip] D.

One thing that the game will not tell you is when to leave for another planet. They designed all of these worlds and the ability to make vehicles to visit them all but neglected to give the player a transfer window for any of them. They left it to the player to do it the hard way. Build a ship add the crew, blast into Kerbol (the Sun) orbit and then wait maybe a year or so for a burn to even begin your journey. Either that or you must use an external reference source or a mod to get the windows. I think that the devs never got out of Kerbin's SOI while testing and so it didn't even occur to them that a method was needed. They will have cheated practically every craft to the other world to test them without thinking about how the player was going to get there. Having said that, out of all the people who have played KSP only a very small percentage will have actually left the Kerbin SOI even once. You can bet that they will have a widget for Transfer Windows in KSP2. D.

I just did a test for you. The method is sound. The variable is the couple of taps eastward at the start. I made a 3.5m single hull with nothing but a nose cone, Large probe core, Large Reaction Wheel (2.5) Large battery (A circle of little solar panels around the Reaction wheel Couldn't help myself.) Two large 3.5 stock tanks. (Told the bottom tank to drain first) and the Big 3.5 Thrusters on the bottom. No Wings, tail fins or any other gubbins. But with this big lad, a couple of taps still takes it almost vertical all the way. So not enough taps methinks. So I turned it east about 7 degrees right after launch. While it's speed was still too slow for shear to matter. At 155mps (same as with Little Squark) I told the SAS to go prograde. When It got higher than 70K I cut throttle and plotted the orbit. Had plenty of time to do it. When I was done with the map I still had 40s left before the burn. Got it to orbit with an inclination error of 0.3 degrees. If you turn it so that it can still ascend after the turn even though there is still a little shear, once it hits 155mps It is going for prograde and very little drag all the way to orbit. D.

I just took her up again manually. She flies herself. https://imgur.com/gYLecFA At launch tap east a couple of times just to move prograde in the right direction. At 150mps set SAS to prograde. Activate staging as required. Wait until Pe is over 70K Done. And look at how much fuel remains. D.

Seriously? 10 deg flight through atmosphere? My ghast is flabbered. Very flabbered indeed. Shear pushing the nose down. It made me feel that so much of the energy was wasted fighting the atmosphere. With such a low ISP in atmosphere making it drain fuel faster and over a longer period of time. When I tried it at around 5 deg I ran out of fuel at around 23K. I felt that the atmosphere didn't provide any lift, indeed quite the opposite with the nose below prograde. Having the nose even 1 degree below prograde starts to produce drag because of shear. The air speed on the belly being so different from that on the dorsal surface. I thought it was always in danger of producing a cascade effect that could only end up pushing the nose beyond recovery, presenting too much of the dorsal surface to the atmosphere causing it to 'flip'. I was rather pleased with myself when I eventually got it to 100k orbit at around 2-3 deg. I was still sort of impressed when MJ managed to get there at 2 deg. It certainly couldn't manage it at 5 deg. My hat, were, I currently wearing one, would most certainly be off to you. I am humbled. D. Oh I almost forgot. There was something else I wanted to discuss with you. I don't like not being able to add your autopilot to existing craft. Installing your mod in a mid-late game where many other ships are on the play-field, I tend to forget which ship had the mod and which doesn't. Far easier if I could just update the software of any ship on the fly. I am not too happy that it saves the craft with the modules installed. It gives errors to people who might want one of my craft. Telling some that these errors are harmless does not seem to pacify as it should. I have tried the 'profile' part of your autopilot but I can't seem to get it to save a profile so that I can 'one-click' it for craft that I build. Which, if it worked , would negate having to have them saved as part of the file. Regards, D.

Ah No... 71km.. I never go to orbit at less than 100km unless I am doing a launch-to-intercept. I took Little Squawk to 100km. I said so in my post, except that I missed a 'k' so it looked like a hundred meters. I can't understand the obsession with people wanting to put things on the edge of Kerbin's atmosphere. It means battling atmosphere ALL the way to Ap. Those little thruters are designed for vacuum so it makes sense to me to get them where they need to be as soon as possible. The higher Ap gives time to burn to bring the Pe up to get the orbit. You don't need a video and I don't pretend I can teach you a thing... except maybe patience. D.

I have found that sometimes it will and sometimes it won't allow me to transfer fuel. When it doesn't I have to close the transfer windows and try again, sometimes starting with the other tank. Usually after a few frustrating attempts it goes ahead and starts the transfer. D.

True, but if pioneers like myself don't take the lead and try it, it will never get fixed. I just tested a stock version using the mk16 chute and a stock heat shield. My experiments all made it safely back down. That test was from further than Mimnus. It was from the very edge of Kerbin Space and It came in with a Pe of only 30K. Nothing took heat other than the shield and it used around 20 ablator I am testing for an Eve flyby. Don't stop, just fly by and grab the data and come right home again. It will need to take the heat of atmospheric braking. I think the craft I sent should do the job. The heat shield and chute are stock but several of the parts are from your mod. Yesterday, I rescued a kerbal from the surface of The Mun and returned him home in a singe flight using only your mod. D.

I can't honestly speak for the stock version of the heat shield. I have never had the need for one until I started using your mod. I was comparing it with the experience I have had with the 1.25 stock heat shield. Just because something is 'stock' doesn't mean it works as it should. If yours works but stock's doesn't then hurrah! for you The problem may not even be down to the heat shield. It may be a fault with the parachute. I figure that either the heat shield is transferring heat to a connected item, which it shouldn't do unless it is out of ablator or the in-line-parachute is catching re-entry heat when it should be protected by the shield in front of it. The decoupler for the in-line-parachute still does not show up in staging. Only the parachute shows in staging and firing it triggers the decoupler. This can have disastrous results on some builds. Yes I am on 1.10 D.

Thinking of using this mod again. Hasn't been a post here since June. CKAN lists it as incompatible with 1.10. Anyone having any problems with this mod on KSP 1.10?

The Goliath barely lost any ablator during Atmo braking at 40k from Mimnus. It also failed to protect the Walking Leaf mounted behind it which was destroyed by over heating. I had to reload a save, and then return at 50K. The Walking Leaf got overheated but managed to survive, after 4 times through the atmosphere during which time only a couple of units of ablator were used I managed to recover the craft. I expected 40K atmospheric entry from Mimnus orbit to be easily survivable. I expected to use a whole lot of ablator in the process. Heat is being transfered to the item behind the heat shield because the heat shield is not shedding heat with the ablator. Please fix this at your convenience. D.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/drprgkoalkmn532/quicksave %235.loadmeta?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/7nfw11p2gtcp0er/quicksave %235.sfs?dl=0 Done. It's on the Lauchpad. D.

Oh.. BTW.. I can't seem to get Launch to Rendezvous to work at all. It goes through a few days of trying to find the best window, warps to the time, launches and immediately turns groundward and spreads itself liberally over the ground D.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/5p5vye6rvb0ib16/Rescue Casket 2M.craft?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/w9tflgdjdjzoowm/Little Squawk.loadmeta?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/o5o507z0u75sbiu/Little Squawk.craft?dl=0 Got Access now? D.