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Best ways to explore Kerbin.


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Badlands and pole biomes by early-career jet is not really feasible: it takes ages to fly there. So for these ones you could build a rocket, maybe even one with a small jet strapped on top. But to be honest I have not bothered for the few science points that this would net me. Much better by then to fly to the mun or minmus.

But the whole flight turns into such an adventure...

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3. Rovers/Road trips!

+Fun adventure

+Get to see beautiful Kerbin scenery

+Adventure!

+Can visit many, many locations

+Only electricity required for rover wheels

-Require good handling skills depending on terrain

-Improper designs can be destroyed easily

-Quite slow

Hope H30 to go (terrible guess at name) happens.

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Oh, you can actually land planes with parachutes. Just make sure to have an engineer in your crew (and ladders!). Put ~2 chutes on top of a plane, make sure the center of mass is directly between them. To land just slow down by turning, and then activate parachutes. Then just repack them with an engineer before the next take off.

It's a true VTHL.

Don't need ladders. Just need a low enough part they can grab. EVA jet pack + jumping + climbing (press and hold till up on flat surface) ablilty gets rid of the ladder need most times. But, yeah. Need a two seater plane for that.

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Curious how this is working with the re-jigged physics bubble - probe core on the drop pod, parachute triggered on the decouple stage? Assuming basic jet engine I'm guessing ~5km altitude and ~250m/s velocity? Which *trigonometry* should give us ~35 seconds flight time to keep the package within an arbitrary 10km range (assuming pod kills off horizontal velocity sharpish).

Yep, lateral decoupler + chutes. Releasing package from low speed, low altitude flight. Main catch is to fly around in circles to prevent pod from falling off 2.5 km "physical sphere". Once it touches down I'am free to fly further.

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I have, the main design problem early on is figuring out how to carry multiple pods, drop them 1 at a time, and still have a stable aircraft. I ended up going with a design that dropped 2 pods at a time to maintain balance. Later in the game with more part options it becomes a lot easier to design something but by then the science you get will not have much effect on getting that next node.

I'am worknig on that matter. My idea is to attach pods linearly under fuselage and use some empty tanks for rebalancing craft by pumping fuel between them.

- - - Updated - - -

Launch a rocket with multiple command modules with minimal RCS and deorbit them at appropriate intervals. No I have not tried this myself...

MIRV scientific ballistic missile?

Nice idea!

(expendable scientists included :) )

- - - Updated - - -

physical range is 22.5 km in atmosphere now, AFAIK

Wow, good news!

Need to check this out.

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MIRV scientific ballistic missile?

Nice idea!

(expendable scientists included :) )

I did something like this in sandbox: 1 larger rocket piggybacked 4 lander probes to duna into a polar orbit. Once the orbit was above the landing site, i de-orbited the whole thing, decoupled one lander and then burned prograde again so the main rocket stays in space. The landers where then on a trajectory which brought them down to duna.

Why didn't i thought of that in my current science mode game for kerbin!?!?!

Jeb would have much fun with that, waving the fellow kerbal scientist goodbye as he throws them into re-entry :D

Problem could be the required technology for that ship. And this needs to repeated after new science parts where unlocked (1 thing that really bugs me with the experiments is the early grinding phase)

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Ok, landing part is solved, what about taking off again? ;)

Put the parachute on the nose so that the plane lands vertically, tail first preferably on landing legs but not essential. Takeoff vertically into normal flight again...

If you don't have an engineer to repack the chute just use multiple pairs of radials round the nose of the craft and you can achieve several landings this way.

I used this technique to build a craft for one of my friends who had a similar problem compounded by the fact that his survey required him to land in the mountains to take a reading. I made a small X-Wing style craft with the landing legs on each wing tip, this gave the craft a very wide footprint in one direction so that it could land on very steep slopes, all that you needed to do was make sure that the wingspan of the plane was aligned correctly with the slope of the hill and you were good to go.

I can try and find a picture of the craft later if you like...

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Put the parachute on the nose so that the plane lands vertically, tail first preferably on landing legs but not essential. Takeoff vertically into normal flight again...

I like that idea!

Parachute solves problem of lateral movement that plagues VTOLs and "horizontal to vertical" transition and reorientation.

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I like that idea!

Parachute solves problem of lateral movement that plagues VTOLs and "horizontal to vertical" transition and reorientation.

It's best with proper landing legs on the rear of the craft but not essential, you can slow your decent with the jet engine if you are using the wings or tail surfaces to land on. I'll knock up a quick craft over lunch to show the sort of thing I made (can't find a picture of the old one st the moment).

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It's best with proper landing legs on the rear of the craft but not essential, you can slow your decent with the jet engine if you are using the wings or tail surfaces to land on. I'll knock up a quick craft over lunch to show the sort of thing I made (can't find a picture of the old one st the moment).

I get the point. It is craft that is launched and landed vertically like planetary lander, but with wing for horizontal flight.

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Depending on your reasons for gathering the science from Kerbin... Perhaps there's a fourth way.

4. Gather science on return flights from Orbit+Solar System

+ More cost effective

+ More time effective

- No dedicated Kerbin adventures

- Funds loss due to recovery distance (although this is arbitrary because let's face it a command pod is cheap as chips)

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Here's a craft I knocked up quickly over lunch...

Horizontal takeoff and landing...

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And vertical takeoff landing, even on steep slopes (provided you position it correctly with the wingspan pointing down the slope)...

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Multiple parachutes so that you don't need to repack them.

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Go big or go home! VTOL space plane! Use it as the proving for your Lathy design.

Seriously, most Kerbin science is a stone's throw from launchpad anyway. Save the rest for survey missions that bring you there anyway and proving a Lathy lander.

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Hmm... expendable scientists as payload?

This is *exactly* what I'm working on building right now. Standard fighter bomber, with two science bombs mounted on under-wing rails. Each science bomb contains science gear, a Mk 25 parachute on the back, and an EAS-1 Command Seat on the front containing one regulation kerbal scientist. Parachutes auto-deploy when released, and the bombs drop helmet first to protect the delicate science gear.

It's hilarious and fun. I'm working on a video.

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Launch a rocket with multiple command modules with minimal RCS and deorbit them at appropriate intervals. No I have not tried this myself...

That's the smartest idea ever! A cluster bomb of Kerbals!

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keep it on the air and launch planes from it

Its actually Interesting now. You could do that with the new 22km load distance. But once the carrier got passed that point it'd disappear. However if you somehow could have MechJeb or KoS have the carrier do circles above an area then a second vtol craft could go down to the ground then back up.

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