Why does it take so long to realize you forgot something?

[kBob]

This is why I use checklists:

 

[Artheus]

2 minutes ago, magnemoe said:

This is very common, it was also an major issue with kertane back in the days.
Two solutions, first is the small docking ports or USB ports as I call them, simply send an probe with an ore tank, and dock at the port, probe decoples. 
Other is KIS/KAS, who make enginers essential. 
Even with KIS/ KAS the small ports are very useful especially on unmanned stuff, standard on all my satelites who is designed for more than contract or landing and forget. 

I pretty much forgot about that mission until this post, and I have plans (that are delayed due to a Moho probe+lander closing in) using a klaw probe, as I did with my first Asteroid mission to add the newly installed mechjeb, for making the base worth the money. But I'm rich, so even the 1.5 Million fund loss on my krakened manned moho mission did not hurt at all. I repaired the wheels on MSOB too, so, as of now, everything works good again. I have to process all the stored science first, of course, so that will take some time too. KIS/KAS adds too much to install during a running save, but thats just my opinion.

[kiwi1960]

11 hours ago, Veeltch said:

And that's why I always check the engineer's report before launching anything.

Yeah, like we bother with the obvious...

[Red Iron Crown]

19 hours ago, Tex_NL said:

Trust me, it is very unlikely you will ever make this same mistake again.

How I wish that were so. I've lost a ton of missions to omission of electrical systems. Half the planes I make fail the first flight test due to lack of intakes. Heatshields get forgotten a lot, too. I even have a crew transfer SSTO that has no hatch for the Kerbals to EVA out of.

Maybe I'm just a slow learner.

[adsii1970]

3 minutes ago, Red Iron Crown said:

How I wish that were so. I've lost a ton of missions to omission of electrical systems. Half the planes I make fail the first flight test due to lack of intakes. Heatshields get forgotten a lot, too. I even have a crew transfer SSTO that has no hatch for the Kerbals to EVA out of.

Maybe I'm just a slow learner.

And I thought I was bad! I've forgotten to put scanners and antennae on satellites and probes, ladders on craft, landing legs on Munar landers, batteries, and one time, parachutes!

[Terwin]

 

21 hours ago, Tex_NL said:

I've said it before and I will keep saying it again: Sooner or later everybody cocks-up big time! Everybody does it and as long as you are smart enough to learn from it there is no shame in failure.

Trust me, it is very unlikely you will ever make this same mistake again.

That may be true, but I am great at inventing new ways to mess up a craft/mission.

1 hour ago, Red Iron Crown said:

How I wish that were so. I've lost a ton of missions to omission of electrical systems. Half the planes I make fail the first flight test due to lack of intakes. Heatshields get forgotten a lot, too. I even have a crew transfer SSTO that has no hatch for the Kerbals to EVA out of.

Maybe I'm just a slow learner.

Nah, just inventive.  (or perhpas forgetful, like myself)

[Andem]

You wouldn't believe the amount of times I've forgotten to put on air intakes or even [*cringe*] engines.

[foamyesque]

23 hours ago, kiwi1960 said:

Yeah, like we bother with the obvious...

 

I've had an engineer's report say that a vessel with no probe core, no reaction wheels, no batteries, no parachutes, and no pod was A-OK. :v

[something]

Ariane 501 ended up as a 200M Eur firework show as a piece of software from Ariane IV was reused. During ascend the computer decided to be 90deg off course corrected that error and by turning the rocket in flight reading some strangely high g-rates the self destruction was correctly triggered. ###BOOM###

The most Kerbal of failures at the esa...

 

https://www.youtube.com/embed/PK_yguLapgA?vnddnc=1&vndapp=youtube_mobile&vndclient=mv-google&vndel=watch

 

[jbham]

I haven't tried it yet but, if you have upgraded to Windows 10, there is a Kerbal checklist app in the store.

[Snark]

On 7/22/2016 at 6:29 AM, Red Iron Crown said:

Maybe I'm just a slow learner.

As are we all, sigh.

I got bitten by "forgot to take the pilot out of the damn LKO rescue vehicle, and only discover there's no empty seat when the rescuee is on the ladder hammering on the door wanting to get in" so many times that I finally concluded that I'm genetically incapable of learning.  

I ended up having to write code to solve the problem for me so that my feeble brain didn't have to.

...

Here's a fun one.  Sent my massive, painstakingly engineered, laboriously assembled-in-orbit mothership-with-multiple-landers mission to Jool.  The whole thing critically depends on the mining ship that will refuel everything when we get there.  After an epic journey, and arriving, and prospecting, and finding a good ore-rich spot, and sending the miner down to land... only then do I realize that I forgot to put any radiators on the darn thing.  Drills and refinery promptly overheat themselves into near-zero productivity; it's going to take freakin' years to refuel at that rate.  Argh.

[Archgeek]

On 7/23/2016 at 10:09 AM, Snark said:

[...] I forgot to put any radiators on the darn thing.  Drills and refinery promptly overheat themselves into near-zero productivity; it's going to take freakin' years to refuel at that rate.  Argh.

Easy-mode solution if you've got a spare docking port on the miner: send a special radiator module on an express, non honhman transfer, lift the miner back into a low orbit when it gets there, dock 'em, then head back down and mine away.  If the miner's not got the gas to get back down, send some fuel with the radiators -- you'll only need to wait to refine enough to get up to where the mission rescue package can meet up and dock.

[nosirrbro]

I find that I usually realize I've forgotten something while suborbital, close to reaching orbit but not quite.

[KamenRiderzero1]

Igntion and Liff....oh frak...

[CobraA1]

I'd definitely create some checklists.

Doesn't have to be super-detailed or anything. Mostly just stuff you often forget.

[GluttonyReaper]

It's slightly less of a problem nowadays because of the whole 50% thing, but adjusting throttle before launch is something I frequently forget. Hit spacebar, launch clamps release ... and watch as the rocket falls and flops over onto the ground. *revert to launch*

Of course, it's a lot worse when solid rockets are involved. Rocket sledges are fun, but it'd be nice to actually use them on the runway.

Edited July 27, 2016 by GluttonyReaper

[magnemoe]

On 25.7.2016 at 6:53 PM, Archgeek said:

Easy-mode solution if you've got a spare docking port on the miner: send a special radiator module on an express, non honhman transfer, lift the miner back into a low orbit when it gets there, dock 'em, then head back down and mine away.  If the miner's not got the gas to get back down, send some fuel with the radiators -- you'll only need to wait to refine enough to get up to where the mission rescue package can meet up and dock.

As said small docking ports == usb ports, with kis /kas its no space junk outside LKO its resources. 
Test stuff on Mun/ minmus first, standard bases is another good ida, 

[azander]

I spent several hours watching NASA TV before the last shuttle launch.  They have multiple 3 inch binders of checklists.  Each for a specific job.  The one for closing the hatch was 2 binders.  I saw several binders worth of checklists for just strapping the astronauts into their seats.  I can imagine the "oops we forgot X" situations that led to such complex, and detailed checklists.

 

So, I follow the professional's method.  Checklist, check list, checklist.  Then when something still gets missed, I add it to the checklist.

 

 

[kspboiwholikesspace]

I also did an apollo style mission but left one of my kerbals on the mun who was on eva.

[xendelaar]

1 hour ago, kspboiwholikesspace said:

I also did an apollo style mission but left one of my kerbals on the mun who was on eva.

did you pull a "the martian" on a kerbal? how did you find this 2 year old post btw? necroing is apparently frowned upon. 

[Superfluous J]

I once posted an entire reply to a thread before I realized it was 4 years old.

 

 

But seriously, the reason here is obvious. You don't need a parachute until you're re-entering so you don't realize it's missing until you try to use it. Same thing for opening solar panels that don't exist, transmitting science through a nonexistent antenna, or failing to rotate because the OCTO-2 doesn't have those reaction wheels you're so used to being installed in every command unit.

The only reason we notice staging problems right away is because the launch clamps drop our ship onto the launch pad without igniting the engines first. If that didn't affect us until we got to Jool we'd not notice it until we got to Jool

Edited April 16, 2020 by Superfluous J

[purpleivan]

As soon as I saw the thread title I thought... "this is about parachutes isn't it".

[RealKerbal3x]

I've only ever forgotten parachutes once, back on my first mission to the Mun in 1.3.1.

However, I regularly forget other things, including but not limited to:

• batteries
• solar panels
• reaction wheels
• RCS
• removing Jeb from the pod before launch

[AHHans]

9 hours ago, Superfluous J said:

The only reason we notice staging problems right away is because the launch clamps drop our ship onto the launch pad without igniting the engines first.

That's not true! These devious launch clamps hold onto my rockets even when I start the engines and want to lift off. And when I then want to convince them to let go of my rocket, they release the SRBs - which go skyward on their own - while dumping the remainder of the rocket onto the launch pad.

Edited April 16, 2020 by AHHans
fixed typo

[HansonKerman]

Launching a mission to Duna for science, then driving around and only getting low reward science from only biomes that I already visited. That’s why I need [x] Science

5 hours ago, RealKerbal3x said:

• batteries
• solar panels

CANNOT COUNT HOW MANY TIMES, like, JEEZ. I have a problem.

dont forget heat shields, I forget those at the same frequency.

THE ULTIMATE MISHMASH OF MISHAPS would probably have (and be a mission to Duna) (based on my common forgetfulness)

Forgetting any photovoltaic solar cells

Forgetting a heat shield

Bringing only a pilot AND USING THE PARACHUTES ON DUNA

 

i also regularly forget RCS and instinctively drain the monopropellant on Apollo style missions

 

2 hours ago, AHHans said:

That's not true! Those devious launch clamps hold onto my rockets even when I start the engines and want to lift off. And when I then want to convince them to let go of my rocket, they release the SRBs - which go skyward on their own - while dumping the remainder of the rocket onto the launch pad.

ah rip. I only do this sometimes, but when it happens it is infinitely annoying