Frank_G

I have indeed. I really like FAR, just because of the unguided gravity turns and those nice supersonic effects, but i want to play KSP as it is meant to be played until release. I use only 4 mods at this time... which are Procedural Fairings, ScanSAT, RasterPropMonitors and Kerbal Engineer Redux. There are lots of awesome mods out there, but with each update KSP got closer to what i expect of a game like this, so with .25 i decided to go as stock as it works for me. @CatastrophicFailure - You have some very nice station stuff going on there. Looks pretty impressive.

The space shuttle was so ridiculously expensive, that it nearly blew the space program completely... a classic von Braun style rocket ship is still far more efficient. Foxter, the wing parts could still use some care, but it looks great already.

Yes, the ship was only scratching the atmosphere. And i dont use FAR, Deadly Reentry or any other aerodynamic mod. I just want to make things look right. I would have put the orange tank behind the shield too, but that would have forced another launch, which is one hell of expensive in career mode.

Hudgun Kerman is currently assigned to my Laythe Mission...

Its a heat shield to protect the cargo. The ship goes into Jools atmosphere rear first, so the heat effects will only affect the engines. You can see the protected cargo in the lower right of the first screen shot. While the engine section and the shield glows, the rest of the craft remains safe. The shield was constructed, using the procedural fairings mod.

I still like to use the decouplers, that stick to one side of the stage. They are lighter and dont create any floating debris... made some bad experiences with them myself...

Continued from here, here and here ... As promised, here are the pictures of the robotic ship, that left prior to the colony ships. The ship left Kerbin and after a clean Hohmann Transfer, it arrived in the joolian system in preparation for aerobraking. The maneuver went well, and soon the ship was on its way to its target destination, Laythe. The ship was disassembled (controlled and unspontanious) into the orbital refueling relay, the rover lander and the 3 satellites, which instantly moved to their designated orbit on their own to begin scanning operations. Once the surface was scanned, the robotic lander descended to the designated landing point to deploy a rover and check for the best possible landing site. The lander descended as planned, but during final descent disaster struck... One of the fuel lines, connecting to the outer engines was not in place anymore, putting the ship into an uncontrolled spin. And if that wasn´t enough, when the robotic AI deployed the emergency chutes one of them was torn loose. It to land using the de-orbit-engines as a little help, but the impact was rough. The rover deployed as desired and seemed to be unaffected by the crash landing, but only 3 km later it lost three of its six wheels, just by driving gently at 10 m/s. Maybe it was the kraken playing its evil game, or a hungry technician that gnawed on the kables back in the VAB before launch... who knows... However, i count this mission as a success. The spaceplanes have been delivered (i double checked the fuel lines...), the planets surface is mapped in all its detail, the landing zone looks promising of what the rover could manage to see and the orbital refueling relay is in place. Hopefully, the colonists will have more luck than the rover... we will see shortly. Top to bottom: Departing Kerbin - Arriving in the joolian system, lowering periapsis in preparation for aerobraking - Aerobraking around Jool Top to bottom: Separating the robotic lander - Deploying satellites - Descending to the designated landing zone - Disaster struck, descending on a single parachute - Touch... äh Slamdown! - The crippled rover on the surface of Laythe

Before going to Jool for the first time, i watched lots of space docus (BBCs Journey to the planets f.e.), sci fi movies like 2010 and read some stuff on wikipedia. There i got some basic idea, what i would need. Going to Jool was the most fun mission i ever flew and designing the craft was a great part of that. You can take a look at my voyage diary in my signature if you need some inspiration.

Its simple... each light needs its own render pass... we have sunlight (1 render pass) and for each light you add, the game engine needs to perform another render pass for any object it hits. As KSP ships and scenes are made out of many single objects instead of large optimized mesh structures, the use of additional lights can kill performance pretty easy. [edit] i just saw that nli2work explained it pretty decent... sorry for the double post.

Thank you for sharing! Besides giving me a good laugh here and there, there are lots of words here, that will keep me thinking.

Continued from here and here ... I finally made some progress on my Laythe colony mission. I completed lander 3 which carries the jetboat and will now also serve as a vehicle bay. I also designed and completed the station core lander, where all other landers will be docked to, once they arrive on Laythe. After last weeks launch marathon to bring all four transfer stages up into orbit, i launched all four landers today and docked them to their transfer-stages. The complete colony is now ready for departure and Mission Commander Gregster Kerman, accompanied by Gilbart, Danwell, Hudgun, Fermund and Derely Kerman, now awaits launch orders from ground control, as the transfer window moves closer and closer. While waiting, a fifth ship, later serving as an orbital relay and fuel storage, already departed on a Laythe cartography mission. It also delivers 2 small spaceplanes into Laythe orbit prior to the arrival of the colony. Pictures of the cartography mission will follow soon.

I think it is about time, we continue to serious topics, when it comes to space travel... We have been on the Moon. And i dont need to "want" to believe. [edit] And yes, this is the best community i have encountered so far. I am glad to be part of it

Ok, i'm on... \m/ lets rock

Welcome aboard Sir! You can be sure to find more people your age, like me for example, as i can recall coding and playing on the ZX-81, Sinclair Spectrum and C64 as well. So... Enjoy this awesome community and Godspeed on your missions! Frank

Ähem... Sir? Yes it will be BETA than ever, if you haven´t heard the goode ole news.

Thanks for the info. I did a quick search, but obviously i haven´t searched enough.

This small 4 minute movie, made by artist Erik Wernquist and narrated by Carl Sagan, is probably the most beautiful space short movie i have ever seen... dim the lights, turn the sound up, stream it to the biggest screen you have, lean back, enjoy... replay... replay... awesome. Visit the creators website here: http://www.erikwernquist.com/wanderers

I have tried FAR which works awesome, but i returned to KSP aerodynamics because i want to play like the game is meant to be played. However, i really miss the nice unguided throttle-controlled gravity turns that are possible in FAR, so my hope is with Squad.

Welcome to the forums! One of the nicest places to be online for sure. There is many stuff to see here. And yes, there is nothing more rewarding, than actually getting your own mission to work perfectly in KSP. I play KSP for about a year now, almost every day. I still havent visited all planets and i still have lots of visions for future missions... so be sure to have less time to spare in the future. See you around

Seems like good construction principle for a free-return-to-orbit-dropship... Let me think... Hmmmmmmm

Doing that in stock KSP on Kerbin will be a real challenge. On Laythe it will be easier for sure. Nice challenge though, as i am currently launching my first Laythe colony missions. And a spaceplane Still needs to be designed. I would like a design that can transfer some kerbals or deliver a ton of cargo by using a modular system. I love the ideas pointed out by cantab. I will try some designs this week.

They would be overpowered. You can reach everything you want with 2.5m parts or less. The 3.75m parts are a nice addition, especially when bringing up modules for space stations or heavy landers. 5m parts would be too much for the game.

I havent used them frequently since the fine monopropellant engine came out. Having that extra push of fuel stored in the capsule makes all the difference when it comes to small and efficient landers. But i still consider and use them on probes and satellites.

With a bit of patience we will see all the shiny Mk. III parts with cargo bays, landing gear and all that stuff that Squad imagined for us in full and complete beauty. Take your time guys

Thanks for putting that right!