Pappus

It feels quite strange that so many people say they would pay more if they could and comparable yada. Wanna pay more? Take a letter, put in dollares and send it on the way to the KSP producers or simply purchase several copies and give them away or let them rot.

Thanks for the help so far, I am still cycling through stuff and I mean I am not far off orbit just like maybe 10s of thrusting away and since most of my changes make no difference I am gonna wait until I have the wings with fuel, because I tried adding more fuel on the sides and that went worse because of the additional drag all around, I tried making the plane a bit longer to add fuel and it also didn't work because then I think the lift wasn't enough for that long plane anymore. So what I think I need for that design is wings that can hold fuel. See I added like 2x spark with something like 5x of those miniscule tanks in a row and slapped that additionally on the wings. In total I added maybe a ton if even and I couldn't get the plane to 20k anymore with the rocket and could hardly steer so that led me to beleive that if I want to succeed I need to optimize my drag in terms of adding either more fuel without more drag or reduce drag somewhere, but the design choices are really slim for me to even go with less drag. There are only 2 wings, 2 intakes, 2 engines that are outside the "mainstream". I tried putting a air protective shell around those outer engines but it wouldn't let me for whatever reason.

Also a quick question: How to fix that the turbojets eat fuel of the rockets, but the rockets can't do the same with the fuel attached to the turbos. - - - Updated - - - Just a question on those calculations: If I want 5 terries, why not 2x LV-T30? Those could deliver more thrust for the same weight or the same thrust if I don't full throttle them. 5 terries weight 2.5 afterall, b ut mainly when I put in the data you gave me I am getting mostly reliant and skipper

The problem is if I add that fuel, then the plane will not make mach 2 anymore. With 1000 units more I capped at not even mach 2 but more like 700m/s. For example I tried incorporating your advice and double my rocket thrust and added another fuel tank mk2 long and it is definitely worse than 1x 215 thrust and 1x less fuel.

I simply dont understand why your craft makes LKO while mine looks pretty similar through the interations and doesn't make it. I tried 215 thrust, 200 and dual terrier. Nothing breaks orbit. More rocket fuel & wings was tested too.

How do you guys measure peak airspeed in stock? With the first comment Kerik made I assumed he meant to engage rockets when my AP isn't increasing anymore, which pretty much coincides with their burn out for me or do you click your intakes and start the rockets when their airspeed intake starts decreasing?

Shut up are you seriously getting spaceplanes done with basic jet engines? What is this madness. I am struggling to do it with turbojets

Are you sure that it is processing science on kerbins surface or rather kerbins stuff itself yields little data? - - - Updated - - - Why don't you just play sandbox? I don't get your logic at all. In simpler terms: There is no progression anymore once the science tree is done. You can now design rockets without anything remotely resembling science stuff, because why would you. All missions before always try to pack what they can to get at least some science out of it. The game is more enjoyable as long as there are tradeoffs you need to make. I can design a rocket that lands once on mun, gather science and come back. I cannot design it in a fashion that also allows for 4 tourists to be sight-seeing at the same time. Most beginners will likely be in the same shoes as me and I like the seperation that having the science tree not fully unlocked brings. I was doing science only mission for a purpose, be it turbojet to start spaceplaning, to go further or simply cheaper. There is no exploring as far as I can see. There is nothing to see on those planets, you mostly need to click on some science stuff to even check if you are actually in another biome. The career mode should be all about being limited, because if I don't want to play it THAT way I can just press sandbox where it really is about exploration. Career mode should be about establishing bases with rudimentary stuff you have.

Is there something preventing just parking the lab next to the KSC and take the data of any returning vessel there first for data collection purposses? I mean I get it should be rewarding to orbit this stuff etc, but I see no reason why I just couldn't place it next to KSC and build a small plane to collect the data around the globe should I gravely missaim my re-entry

So I read somewhere that the best results are to wait for launchpad and AN/DN to be aligned with it. However I tried but I have no luck being well off-mark so I start to think that my launchpad should actually align with pe/ap if I want to "remake" the same orbit just smaller yet. I don't need to nail it 100%, but I want at least for my efforts to account to something and right now I think I would do better just heading east and doing 2 burns to finish the job, but it pokes at me being unable to launch roughly how I want to. It is also really hard to align the launchpad with those nodes for satellite contracts because I have no target, I can't aim for it and if the desired orbit is huge aligning those points becomes hard for me. I know I could just slap more engines and fuel to the thing, but that wouldn't teach me anything so this is the situation: I already aligned the thing as best as I could with the AN and tried launching 135°, but the result weren't that great. At first the ascending node was decreasing and then increasing massively and since I don't understand the whole concept it was like magic. http://imgur.com/a/WESql#3

I am on my first playthrough and some things bother me: Mun gives too much, not even landing there with careful equipment like the lab, but simply orbitting it is already several hundred science. On another note some things are too far in the tech-tree I think the game should actually emphasize more on the plane part of the game and graduate to mun and stuff from there. Like getting your first plane done, then fly a bit do a couple missions and save up actual credits to even pay for the rocket trials and then slowly go to kerbin orbit, kerbin space, mun, minmus really needing to explore it to advance further in the techtree. So planestuff should come earlier except rapier of course, but the turbojet could come early, then you unlock the first rockets. It doesn't even need to be gated by science exclusively. They could slow down the process by increasing rocket prices a big margin. I mean 500-1000 for a booster isn't exactly a lot so check the missions and make sure their payment isn't too far ahead of the "do" cost. Especially looking at those orbital tourists and it gets even worse. If I would bother to do one of those deluxe mun/mimum/kerbin missions of ~4 tourists I think that would net me more than half a million and then you got the rocket booster price.... 2k a piece - dafuq?

For testing purposes I put a 4.5 T fuel container into the cargo bay to mimic any form of additional weight. I also wonder how am I supposed to avoid adjusting my pitch below 35km when you say that the turbos will give out at 20km. Do you mean go steadily and then just start the rocket? The problem I have is that the swivel or whatever the correct name for the 215 thrust engine is, that it is a bit too weak I will lose out huge margins of speed, which I think is not the way to go so maybe I should double the rocketry power to not lose too much to gravity? Kerik so you think the plane itself should be able to orbit as is? I feel the transition to the rocket part is definitely the weakest about it. It doesn't feel like having real power

I mean it could simply always have autosave 1-5 and always overwrites the last one and the problem would mostly be solved, because there is little chances to behave in a way that leads to triggering autosave 5 times before you do something.

Mechjab and that one that helps with ascension profile look really interesting, but I feel I would be moving away from the spirit of the game. It also doesn't help me that much since I specifically do not want to calculate while designing and so those numbers would only lead for me to check if I have them or not. I also don't want to follow up closely on mod upgrades, with kerbal in steam I know it is always up-to-date whenever I press play. If I start modding the game it might not be the case. Also I found myself so often at mun in a situation where I thought: Can I land one more time or do I need to go back, my fuel looks good, but.... I don't know, but regardless you go forward knowing full well that if it fails it means rescue mission so you get ready for the next landing, but then you decide .... it - back home it is

I am currently working on my first SSTO Spaceplane with Mk 2 parts. I already tried it with the basic jet engines but those didn't have enough power so I postponed my try until I unlocked the turbo engine. However my craft doesn't make orbit and while I technically know that more fuel for my rocket thruster attached to it would eventually lead for it to orbit it would also be wrong for me to design it that way, because it would go more towards rocket than to spaceplane. So I try different stuff, more turbo engines, more wings, less wings, more intakes and switching it up, but the results stay the same and I have no clue as to where to begin to push the craft in the right direction and if I don't know that (since obviously how am I supposed to know what I am really doing I don't have a spaceplane degree after all) I can't finish the plane. I also don't want to see too many different finished planes as that defeats the purpose of building your own craft - I just want to know what the key problems are to solve them. So here is an orbit try with the little craft and obviously I lose control because of overeager steering, but it doesn't really make a difference that 215 thrust engine doesn't get me into orbit from that position since I tried it numerous times - at least not with a 45° angle I run out of fuel too early. Also remember since this is career mode and I don't have everything unlocked more intakes is a problem because I manually need to close them all. Personally I think I need to reach ~30k AP on the turbo engines alone to have a shot, but maybe I am wrong. http://youtu.be/q6FNpw0cG-o

Hello could you elaborate a bit more concerning the wall? I am working on my first SSTO and well it isn't a heavy thing its weight is ~ 21t and it has 2 turbo engines. I tried it with more rocket fuel, tried it with more intakes, slapped a couple of extra wings on it but I can't do the ascension profiles because I don't reach them. I didn't try too long for today, but my engines would go out at 21km and it largely didn't matter how I went there although the best tries where when I accelerated more in the lower spheres while burning. Lost a couple of wheels to those. I also have a problem to get my center of mass forward enough so I can reasonly have my delta wings behind that (including center of lift). I don't have all possible parts yet so my "rocket" part is a swivel. So how are you guys transferring the gravity forward without the whole thing looking dumb? I mean literally the only things I have at the end are the engines. The heaviest stuff (crew transport) and my fuel is on the sides/front as much as I can, but it simply doesn't weigh enough. How is lift helping me in the higher regions roughly? I thought lift is enough when you have no troubles maneuvering, which I don't I can ascend like 90° at the start if I want to, but that doesn't change the fact that I can't climb to 32 with 2 turbo engines alone

I managed to increase the bug a notch and increase my actual altitude while aerobraking and I don't have any wings or anything. At the same time of course my PE would sink somewhere below 20k

I lost my autosave for the second time and I am getting very tired of it. I started quicksaving after it happened the last time, but when I am designing a new plane, driving it several times, switching to the tracker (which also triggers autosave just like everything else I mentioned before), landing a plane and afterwards something goes wrong I don't want to hit load to see I am reverted 3 hours in game time, because my autosave disappeared magically. You could start by auto-backupping since the persistant slot gets overwritten so fast or sometimes is so old it doesn't work as a failsave. From my view my plane crashlanded and since I was at the tracking station after my first landing I couldn't revert the flight after my second landing anymore and I loaded persistent and it was something massively old (like 10 hours old). It is especially dumb since I couldn't quicksave midflight this time.

So I built a rocket and throw a couple of jet engines on to create a kerbin ferry for those contracts that keep popping up and didn't want to waste anything so since I only have jet engines it obviously isn't a SSTO, but still I am wondering while de-orbiting this think as to how simple it is to avoid entry heating. When I reach roughly 55km the ship will start to show those "burn" effects all around and all I need to do is nose up and my wings will de-accelerate me from ~1800ms to <1000ms in matters of seconds and obviously I won't heat up again nor did it last long ~5-6 seconds. I feel like lift might be too effective at slowing a craft down at high altitudes or is it really meant to be this easy to avoid feary death? I play on moderate difficulty and didn't touch anything so I don't know if the re-entry heat is lower than 100%, but I suppose even 200% wouldn't matter when re-entry heating effect lasts a couple of seconds never to be seen again.

Hello just wanted to report a bug swiftly: I am in Orbit around Kerbin with my Periapsis at ~60279m and AP at 2.6kk m. Obviously I am trying to get home and have no fuel left but thankfully air will bring me home, but I noticed that when I leave the physical warp on longer than I have to (e.g. 70k+m), then my apoapsis starts increasing for a good while and my periapsis decreases although again: I am at 70k+m and either both should decrease or nothing should happen, but certainly not pe decreasing and ap increasing. It also only happens if I leave the physical warp on, if I go to transwarp or however that less-calculated warp is called it doesn't happen.

So that means that if I am landed on the absolute southpole and I chose to ascent in a nothern trajectory I will end up in an orbit that goes north/south without any inclination? How would I go about for example if I was neither on the equator nor the exact pole to get as cheaply as possible into such "perfect" orbits without inclination? I feel like I am lacking the tools to do that properly. Would it be sufficent from wherever I start onthe moon to head for e.g. 90° navball and wait until my prograde circle lies nicely alligned on that 90° aswell?

I thought about like parking a science lab in low mun Orbit and create a re-useable lander, but I have no idea how I would even get close to plot a course to that station. To be honest I already fail launching from mun in a fashion that would get me in an orbit pointing directly to kerbin. So enlighten me. I have no problems getting to the mun and I made it back (with a bit of luck and catapulting), but for me it seems impossible to plan a return correctly, because the maneuver markers aren't accessible at all until the damage is already done. My rockets, although asparagus staged, aren't that efficient nor are my landing skills in terms of conserving fuel so I am hoping, that I could try and brush up my plotting skills. For example I was on the southern pole of mun, no problem since course plotting works. Now I am sitting there and I want to make the orbit directly in a fashion that would keep me out of any inclination so that I could launch myself to kerbin. I failed and ended up with a strong inclination and it killed my return. So playing stock, how would the ascent look? How do I correctly use that navball is probably the real problem. Thanks for helping a beginner out