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Hey guys, so I am looking for some tips on how to efficiently rendezvous with asteroids in interplanetary space, as I've heard that it would be more fuel efficient in the end, when dealing with bigger asteroids (starting of with C-Class and then going bigger). I want it to be fuel efficient too, as I am planning on mining them in my career mode. Rendezvous with them, when they are in Kerbin's sphere of influence, I've got pretty much nailed down, as all that need is some "basic" rendezvous. I did do a few quick searches, but they didn't help me out much, so sorry if there if there is a topic with it (link then maybe?) All tips help, as it is always good to refresh some old knowledge too (been playing it for almost 4 years I think)

Recently I have been playing Kerbal Space Program and I was surprised by the random placement of asteroids. This annoyed me slightly as I liked to think of the ksp solar system being like ours. If a large concentration of asteroids were between Duna and Jool it could make navigating space craft to Jool more interesting. Also you could have asteroids of different sizes so you could catch small ones in cargo bays.

I'm working on redirecting a class E asteroid into LKO and have observed that my tug (pusher, actually) is subject to shock heating even though it's on the "shielded" side of the asteroid. I had assumed that the asteroid body would act as a heat shield during aerobraking, but that doesn't seem to be true in this instance. Is this a result of using FAR or is it due to more fundamental KSP physics? Thanks in advance for any guidance you can offer!

I attempted to capture a Class-E asteroid (HSJ-227) using an ion-powered pusher, it actually worked, but I need to make some adjustments and learn how to aerobrake better. the system was designed to be fully recoverable, which is just as well, due to the cost of the whole thing. perhaps my next attempt will be successful.

During my Omega 7 Project I got to witness a near miss with an Asteroid, it would have been nice to see it hit my station! (Note: This is a GIF Animation and it may take a while to load) Video added below

So back a few weeks ago I put a mining station on an E-Class Asteroid around Dres. Now I returned and wanted to refuel, but nothing happened. The drill animations are there (including the dust clouds), and they "work", but the ore tank isn't filling up and the ISRU says it is missing ore. The asteroid itself is also not losing any of its resources (90t left apparently). What is actually going on over here?! I thought this may be something that is caused by 1.1.3, but after trying it out in 1.1.2 it still showed the same behavior. Is this a bug or am I missing something? Edit: I have tried mining a new asteroid on a completely fresh savegame (same install, same mods). That worked without a hitch.

Hi all, I've got a bit of an odd question regarding engine thrust. I'm designing an asteroid "puller" to bring in a Class E. I have my nuclear engines out on 4 radially-symmetrical nacelles, which were angled at about 45 degrees to try to clear the asteroid for unimpeded thrust. On my first attempt, the angle was not sufficient, and I had some of the engines (but not all) obstructed by the asteroid, leading to more asteroid-spinning and less asteroid-moving. So to address this, I tried to increase the angle of the engines (i.e., make them closer to perpendicular to the main axis of the ship). I tested out the new design on the launchpad, with gravity hacked and with just the core ship, not the orbital-launch rig. Results were not good- I was barely getting any thrust! In other words, it seems there's a thrust penalty for having your engines angled. I've looked on the forums for info on this and not seen much, but one person suggested the end-thrust is a function of the cosine of the engine angle. My question, I guess, is why. My (probably wrong) understanding was that, if you have two symmetrically balanced engines, as long as there was SOME angle in one direction, they would put full thrust forward regardless of the angle. Those engines' energy has got to go somewhere, and I presume it's not being lost to deformation or heating of the ship in between. If not, the only place the energy could go was forward. The analogy that comes to mind is: squeeze a wet bar of soap between your hands, it will shoot out straight up or in some direction. Not because you pushed it in that specific, but because it's got nowhere else to go when you apply a squeezing force. Can anyone explain what's causing the observed thrust loss? Is there just extra heat generation? Is the specific impulse of the engine affected somehow? Is it just something else? (By the way, if major engine angling is not the answer, I will probably fix my rig by either extending the "tail" so the ship is further in front of the asteroid, or putting the engines out on longer pylons). Thanks for any info you might have!

Is there a mod that lets you collide asteroids to make planets? (I know the "Kopernicus" mod)

I'm building a reusable craft that can capture asteroids in the Dres SOI. I've done this with small (class A & B) asteroids at Kerbin, but never elsewhere. What advice do you have for me about the construction of the craft?

Do asteroids with modules clawed on still count as stations for fulfilling contracts? I have a class D in orbit of Minmus, and a new contract for a station with 3100 ore, ISRU, 4000 LF, science lab, and 8 Kerbals. I would be able to build a much more "useful" design if I could do mining, refueling, habitat, and fuel modules which would allow for upgrades along the way, but I don't know if I want to accept the contract if it is just another contract required structure that won't have any utilitarian value. I did some searching and was unable to find a definitive answer for 1.1 and a Convert-o-Tron 125 has not fulfilled contrasts that asked for ISRU in the past. Thanks!

CHALLENGE: collide two asteroids together at extremely high velocities danny2462 style! specifics A: relative velocity at moment of impact is greater than 1500 m/s as measured by the "target" velocity on the navball B: At least one asteroid must have an escape trajectory from its relative body Hardmode: both asteroids must be E class and collision velocity is greater than 2000 m/s danny2462's video (actual idea came from around 1:30) :

KSP version including Windows, Mac, or Linux, 32 or 64-bit, and if it's Steam v1.1.1.1250 build id = 01250 2016.04.28 at 20:12:12 CEST Branch: master Windows 7 SP1, 64-bit, Steam A detailed explanation of what happened and what you were trying to accomplish Trying to complete "Bring a newly discovered Class D asteroid into an orbit around Gilly." "Have a newly discovered Class D asteroid in tow" and "Maintain stability for ten seconds" are checked, but "Have your vessel near Gilly" doesn't seem to want to clear. I've tried orbits at different altitudes and even landing on Gilly. Also tried in both 32 bit and 64 bit versions of KSP. I tried searching for this issue but I didn't see it, so I don't know if I'm just doing something wrong. I imagine if it were a bug, someone else would have mentioned it? A screenshot of your craft or any relevant screens http://imgur.com/a/4jLyl A .craft file or save files if relevant Can provide if necessary The ouput_log.txt or player.log file KSP creates when it launches and, if applicable, the crash log KSP has generated when the program crashed Can provide if necessary A detailed list of system specifications Thinkpad T530 i7-3520M 2.9Ghz 8 GB NVIDIA NVS 5400M Are you running a clean installation, or have you updated and some of your persistence or craft files might be older versions, if so which version(s) Updated through Steam. Not sure what the previous version was...

This is a group of challenges all involving asteroids, with each mission getting harder. easy: land on a asteroid/colonize it medium: put an asteroid in orbit around kerbin hard: crash a asteroid into the KSC extreme: crash an asteroid into the kraken Some mods are O.K. such as: Mathy ones (i.e mechjeb) visual effect mods are fine (i.e texture replacer) basicly no mods that add parts, or change gameplay

Kerbalized version of the ship Sidonia from Knight of Sidonia Anime converted in a Heavy Asteroid recycler Ship THIS UPDATE IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH OLDER VERSIONS Kidonia is a heavy ship-carrier that relies on asteroid resource extraction The package include cap with Grappler-Drill, Sas, Command module, Cargo Bay, Science Lab with integrated Nuclear Reactor and Recycler for depletedfuel (nuclear waste), Huge Tank, 3.75m ISRU, Thermal section and Engine Patch inside for Snacks, SimpleConstruction and for increase mass of asteroids Dependencies InterstellarFuelSwitch Kerbal Joint Reinforcement ? (not a dependency but highly recommended) Recommended mods Custom Asteroid SimpleConstruction Suggestions For Place the Grappler inside the cap bay hold ALT+Shift Cap Bay Doors and Grappler Arm animations are Delayed on this way you can use them in the same ActionGroup LICENSE: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 Changelog Download ; GitHub SpaceDock Regards Luca

I'm sure others have done really silly things with asteroids. I mean, Hazard-ish is years ahead of me in this field. Share your stories and failures!

If you fly out to an asteroid and bring home a sample, you get some science points. But today I brought back an entire asteroid, actually landing it gently right in the middle of the Research and Development Department, and when I recovered the craft I got nothing extra! I just got 60 points from the sample I took, but nothing for bringing home the actual asteroid. Surely lots of science can be done with an entire asteroid brought back from space? If you can't give any science points for the asteroid itself for some reason, at the very least increase the multiplier for taking a sample at any of the Kerbal Space Center biomes! The same 60 points as for a sample in orbit was kind of a let-down. Thanks!

Now, before you ask, "What in the world is Fredinno even talking about?" Let me explain to you what a Vulcanoid Asteroid is: A Vulcanoid is a Asteroid group that is theorized to exist between 0.08-0.21 AU from the Sun- a dynamically stable zone around the Sun, its inner limit being where the Sun's intense radiation does not de-stabilize the asteroid's rotation, and its outer limit being where Mercury's gravity would de-stabilize Asteroids. Despite not known to have any asteroids, it is thought to- Mercury's surface scars, and the existence of many Asteroids in other stable regions, such as the Asteroid Belt, Centaurs (a group of asteroids in between Jupiter and Saturn), and even Trojan (L4 and L5) points are indications that the Vulcanoid Zone is likely scattered with Asteroids. However, finding and studying them is difficult due to the fact that they can only be observed currently during eclipses, where the Sun's glare is cancelled out- though we have determined an upper limit to their mass. Studying these objects would reveal information about the inner-most zone of the Early Solar System's "accretion disk" during its formation- which is relatively unknown, and is thought to be more concentrated in metals than the other regions of the disk. Additionally, such as mission is proven to be possible by using a powerful sun-shield, as Solar Probe Plus, slated for launch in 2018 on a Delta IV Heavy, will be inserted into an orbit that is at approx. 0.3 AU, or the innermost edge of the Vulcanoid Zone. However, such a mission requires a LOT of Delta-V, as indicated by the fact Solar Probe Plus will make 7 gravity assist flybys of Venus for the 610 kg probe to reach its intended orbit. However, keep in mind this probe is only within the Vulcanoid Zone for part of its orbit, meaning Delta-Vs will be even higher than for Solar Probe Plus. Jupiter Gravity assists + SLS are recommended. For this thought experiment, the total Delta-V requirement is 34.95 km/s, or 20km/s higher than Mercury Transfer. The Vulcanian Asteroid is about the size (mass) of Phobos, and is an M-type Asteroid 0.19 AU from the Sun. Good luck!

Sometimes I get a timely reminder that things don't always go to plan, and this is one of those cases. A Class E asteroid was spotted heading right for KSC so I threw something together in about half an hour based on total guesswork and launched. See how far I got on my second ever asteroid mission in 1.05: Now clearly the international community wouldn't put together a mission quite like this, and we sure as hell wouldn't send a crew of 8 to ride the thing through the atmosphere, but you get the point - It did get me thinking about the difficulty that we would all face should a "Class E" come barreling at us out of the darkness. Would we stand up and be counted against the odds? I was actually amazed how close I came to success here. I think given a little more notice in spotting the asteroid I could have flown a better trajectory instead of just "melting it upwards" and possibly met it early enough to deflect into an aero-brake. Whether the parachutes would have slowed it down (32 drogue and 32 main) I have no idea, but it would have been a sight! SM

So I decided to do asteroids. Never had much luck before but after watching about 200 videos, and buoyed by the recent success of the Buran 11F35 Kerbal 1 I decided to try and land an asteroid...On Kerbin....From interplanetary space....Using my Buran replica shuttle. Oh and Patcan Kerman would try and become the first Kerbal ever to re-enter from interplanetary space while riding an asteroid attached to a shuttle. Let's see how the crew got on: Now I'm hesitantly claiming a couple of firsts here, but happy to be corrected. I think I might be: First to land an asteroid on Kerbin using a shuttle replica. First ever chair riding asteroid aerobrake from interplanetary space. If I'm this, then I'm also the First ever chair riding asteroid aerobrake from interplanetary space using a shuttle replica haha! Firsts or not I had a blast doing this mission, learnt all about intercepting asteroids, and learnt that my shuttle replica was way more capable than I thought. as a result I thought it worth sharing! SM

A little thing I drew on my iPad, in the end came out pretty well! You can view some of my other drawings on Behance!