ODaily

That kind of humor is really what made it work for me. My favorite (don't worry I won't spoil it) is the line where he says "Look, xxxxx -> xxxxxx". Anyways, glad you enjoyed it.

So I just read a really good book that should appeal to anyone interested in KSP. It's "The Martian" by Andy Weir. Normally I don't pitch stuff like this to other people, but I enjoyed it a lot, and it should really appeal to this crowd. Basic overview is that one of six NASA astronauts is lost, presumed dead and abandoned, on Mars. He must, in the simplest terms, survive. Incredibly funny, especially if you like smart-assed humor from a guy stranded on another planet. It could almost have the names changed to be a log of Jeb stranded on Duna. I think you'll like it, maybe not, you'll just have to make up your own mind. P.s, it's on the New York Times Best Seller list if that means anything to you. Later.

Sounds to me like you have thrust limiting set on all but one engine. More thrust is more fuel burnt and a hotter engine. I bet if you click on the "hot" engine it'll be 100% thrust limit, and the others will be lower. I like to run mine around 75-80% just so they won't overheat. The good news is you can adjust it by dragging the green bar in the menu you get when you click on the engines, even while in flight. Set them all the same and you should be fine. Sometimes the VAB symmetry gets a little wonky, stuff like this happens as a result.

Click on one tank, then hold down the ALT and click the other, you'll get a fuel transfer box with IN, and OUT as options depending on which way you want it to go.

That's interesting, definitely something I didn't know. It also greatly simplifies the problem. Lining it up off the zoomed out map view might just get me there if I spend some time tweaking it. Makes me want to set up an equatorial reference probe on every place I go though. It's a lot of work to set it up, and I'd want to keep that for subsequent visits. MechJeb just isn't for me. I'm not a Mod snob, but I just want to stay vanilla for now.

So let's say I've gone to another heavenly body other than Kerbin, and I want to set my orbit to be exactly equatorial, or at least as close as my piloting skills will allow. How do I find it? On Kerbin, I built a very stable and simple probe, then launched it due east while being very careful not to deviate north/south. This probe is now in a 200K orbit, and is the standard by which I judge equatorial orbits. That won't work anywhere else because I can't start from a launch pad that is a known location.

Works like a charm, Thanks!

I've been building an in-orbit fuel depot around Kerbin. There is also a fuel supply vehicle, as the depot was drained dry getting it up there, plus I'll need to fill it as I use it up. My problem is that I want to have a centrally mounted docking port at the top of the ship, right where the command pod normally would go. I'm fine with having an off center pod, even several to maintain symmetry, but can't figure out how to build it. I can: A) Place a stayputnik, then build underneath it. But I cannot then move the stayputnik to a non-central location. Nor can I move the rocket relative to the stayputnik. It just refuses to attach anywhere but where it came from. This is also true even if extra stayputniks are attached. Neither can the original stayputnik be deleted, even if extras are attached. Build a single rocket, then attach a much taller "stalk" next to it, complete with docking port on top, then duplicate the originals around the stalk. Basically, this is a mess. It takes very little to confuse the VAB while doing this, and nothing ends up aligned the way it should. Going back to make a minor modification is pointless. You just have to start all over. C) Build a rocket with a centrally mounted stayputnik, then build a truss of sorts around and over the top of it to support the docking port. This looked goofy, and really doesn't appear to be structurally stable. D) Build what is essentially two rockets stacked with a docking port in between. The top rocket is nothing more than a stayputnik, small fuel tank, and some radial engines. After I hit orbit, I can undock and then burn this disposable unit into re-entry. Note that this does require another stayputnik on the portion I intend to keep. I am currently working with option D and it does O.K., but this seems like an unnecessary work around. Is there a better way?

Awesome. Just tried it out by randomly attaching some stayputniks all over the place. Works great, thanks for the help. I truly honestly didn't know that you could do this. I just played with button combinations till I got it to work. I'm just thinking how many times that would have been helpful when trying to get all the pieces aligned just-so. If anyone else is curious, hold down your middle mouse button and move up or down on the screen to zoom / unzoom.

Yep, it's probably a newb question, but that's where I'm at right now. For the record I've been to the Mun and Minmus on several occasions, and have a partially crashed / parked probe on Duna. I'm also playing without any mods. I just recently built a rover, but it wasn't what I wanted. My problem is that I cannot figure out how to rotate a part (like a wheel assembly) and attach it to the side of another part (like a mobile lab). Every attempt puts the wheels on the bottom, forcing my lab to roll around on it's end looking like a mobile beer can on the moon. If it helps to visualize it, this thread contains images of what I was trying to construct. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/63481-Runaway-rover-Science-Lab