Claw

I also use the thrust limiter when calculating dV for space planes using plugins like MechJeb or Engineer. Plugins often assume you are using all engines that are activated in that stage, which isn't always the case for space planes.

And there are no dumb questions. (Well, maybe but we won't say..) Feel free to ask anytime.

What parts and in what way did you remove them? The files? From the ship in the VAB/SPH? Are you talking about loading in the VAB? Loading in-game?

This is probably the one you want. I don't know why editing your settings.cfg didn't work, unless you did it while KSP was running. It's the same option, but you can do it in game as per Starstrider.

It might be worth downloading and checking out both. I prefer MechJeb's readouts because of the layout, although KER is a bright green and pretty easy to read. Also, I have found that MJ becomes less confused about some of my designs than KER. Especially when it comes to space planes. That might be because I'm not using it right, but they both have their pluses and minuses.

If he is coming straight back down, a vertical rendezvous would be very difficult because you don't have offset orbits to sit through while things align themselves. If he's only going up to 1M, then there might not even be enough time to launch a rocket to rejoin with him. I've never tried, but my guess is you'll need a rocket with descent dV because not only will you have to really move your orbit around to catch him, but you'll also have to have enough dV to get into a reasonable orbit after that so you don't burn up the rescue ship. What I can guess at is to launch the rescue ship. You'll have to wait till you're on the opposite side of the planet from your Kerbal and move your AP up high enough to catch up with him, although you'll have to aim below him to ensure your ship is below him when it arrives at his ballistic trajectory. As it approaches his descent path, fire retrograde to stop your orbital velocity so that your rescue ship is dropping straight down on the same descent path as the kerbal. Now you'll have to thrust up/down against gravity to adjust your height and speed to meet up with the kerbal. Might be worth switching back and forth between the kerbal (to use EVA fuel) and the ship (to save dV). After the join up, your rescue ship will have to have enough dV to reenter an orbit that will prevent burnup. Again, I've never tried that, but it would be my first attempt. I think the time involved is going to be a big problem depending on where your kerbal is in his trajectory at the save point. Easy as pi. EDIT: Maybe make a copy of your current quicksave.sfs or persistent.sfs to allow you more quicksaves while trying to get all this aligned. I just went back and looked, with only 16 minutes you won't have enough time for all that. Unless he happens to be over the launch pad (or very near it) I don't think 16 minutes is enough time to get another rocket up. If he is over the launch pad, then you could try launching another rocket straight up and adjust the AP to meet up with him. You'll still need a lot of dV to flatten out the approach after intercept.

Oh boy, I hope this meets the intent of all your rules. I've actually been wanting to see if this design was possible for a while, and your challenge gave me a reason to try. I took liberal interpretation of "must be 4 ibeams high." The rocket isn't that tall, but the capsule is that high into the air. I can make the rocket longer if you want, but I thought this looked more Rube-Kerberg. Introducing "The Catapult." Borne from a top secret clown cannon program, The Catapult had to be launched on a night mission to conceal its true purpose. Takes a bit of staging, so I don't know if that qualifies as "parts breaking."

You don't need to do most of the 860 to go from Mun intercept to LKO unless you plan to circularize and don't want to aerobrake at all. Ignoring the 4550 can be done because that's if you want to land. Reentry and parachutes/landing devices take care of that.

You burn on the far side when going clockwise, and on the near side when counterclockwise (when viewed from above). This has the result that you are burning prograde in your orbit when traveling retro compared to the Mun's orbit. (Effectively slowing down your orbit around Kerbin when compared to the Mun.)

Mystery Goo is in Basic Rocketry. Assuming you've already checked for a tech-rearranging mod, check the /GameData/Squad/Parts/Science/GooExperiment/part.cfg file for this line (should be just a few lines down): TechRequired = basicRocketry I have from time to time noticed parts randomly not showing up during unlock, but they come back when I quit and restarted the game.

You probably don't have the permissions set correctly for your KSP directory. I don't know about mac, but if you're using Windows, there's a couple things to check. Right click on your settings.cfg file and select properties. Somewhere in there (depending on your windows version) is an "attributes" section that says "Read Only". Make sure "Read Only" is NOT check marked. If that doesn't work, go to your KSP directory, right click and go to properties. Exactly where you need to go will depend on your version of windows, but you're looking for a "security" tab. Click on that and edit the permissions for all users. You can allow all users "full access" to the files (or whatever level you deem appropriate for each user). It might take a couple minutes to apply those properties. I don't think KSP locks the file when you launch, but you might also want to make sure you close out KSP before saving.

I agree with running MechJeb or Engineer. I don't let MJ land, but I use the data readouts. I find it too tedious and laggy to constantly switch between ship view, IVA, and the map when trying to navigate. Plus IVA doesn't help when landing a probe because there is no IVA. And I find the stock vertical readout isn't very fine when moving heavy ships. I also built a wide lander base when first learning the layout I prefered when using extra instrumentation. Either way, I recommend picking one and sticking with it for a while. Roung through a lot of crashes and eventually you'll find a method or mod you like.

AHhhhhhhhhhhhhh, wait. I see now you said "If I test it on the ground...." If you want to test RCS on the ground, then get your craft out onto the pad. Then press F-12. The debug window will pop up. On this debug window, select the big button that says "Hack Gravity." Now you can test your RCS without having to launch into space. Just make sure you don't have other craft sitting on the ground nearby. Hopefully that answers one of your questions. EDIT: Also, all that other stuff still applies. You might have to go to your settings page and see what the docking keys are bound to. They may be set up differently than your EVA keys.

Your statement here is slightly confusing to me. If you just want to move in and out, use H & N. Shift and Control run the throttle. RCS doesn't have a throttle. You use it in bursts. Check your settings to see for sure what your docking thrusters are set to, but the default keys are as previously described. IJKL for translation, H & N for in/out translation. Also, if you have a docking port (which it looks like) you can right click on it and select "Control From Here." That will change your navball orientation and might be more useful for docking operations. My suggestion is to not use docking mode, but the "normal" staging mode. Then rotation and translations will all work as we've been describing. EDIT2: And now I am thinking you want your ship to auto rotate with the camera like a kerbal does. Ships do not have that behavior like an EVA. You must manually rotate them around and sometimes your "up/down" won't be aligned with the up/down view of your camera. In that case, you have to rotate the ship or rotate the camera to match and be less confusing. Or follow the navball. (There is no "Space Bar" equivalent for a docking ship like there is for EVA.)

There is a lot of information buried in this forum and in the Tutorials subforum. Unfortunately it isn't really organized in any way so it takes a while to wade through. I would also say when you post in this forum, it's pretty hard to get a straight forward answer unless you have a straight forward question. General questions such as "I need help" will get a variety (or lack) of response. For example, since you mentioned reaction wheels, I can point you to this thread. If you read it (most of anyway, especially starting page 2), it will explain why placement of reaction wheels doesn't matter for maneuverability. It does, however, matter for structural integrity. If you have questions about particular mods (such as interstellar or things like FAR and deadly reentry), your best bet is usually to go to those specific mod threads. You'll get a faster and more consistent response. If you're confused about the usefulness of the stock parts, sometimes running a career game can help. It forces you through the parts slowly so you can play with them and test them out. Here is a good example of a probe only career that you can follow through. It helps you to get familiar with the science and probe parts while skipping over some of the complexities/concerns of manned operations. Science collection is way faster with kerbals, but doing probe only will force you to learn a particular branch of the science tree. There's lots of ways to get familiar with the game. Everyone likes to play the game in different ways, so the probe only science path may be completely uninteresting to you. If you want to do interstellar ships, that's cool. But there's so much to talk about in this game and your question is general enough that we're not sure where to help you get started.

You should be able to revert the flight still as long as you didn't switch to another craft or press F9 and load the quicksave. In any case, based on your description I would agree with others that firing the engines and jumping ship to EVA is your best bet. Rendezvous in this position is a bit tough since you're probably not going to have the time to match downward velocities for the intercept. But after you jump ship and get on orbit, you should be able to get a rescue craft up there. Just remember to save some EVA propellant if you can to make the pickup easier. Even if he dips a bit into the atmosphere, leaving your kerbal "on-rails" (i.e. not your game focus) will allow him to stay in orbit without aerobraking. You'll be able to join on him and rescue while outside of the atmosphere.

Here's a place to start. Read the post from vexx32 (a few posts in). Vexx describes graphics options in detail. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/65130-Graphic-setting-and-what-they-means?highlight=graphics+settings You can also modify the .cfg to change ocean rendering distance. That helps some people. Look for this. PLANET { name = KerbinOcean minDistance = 4 minSubdivision = 1 maxSubdivision = 6 And change it to something like this... PLANET { name = KerbinOcean minDistance = 2 minSubdivision = 1 maxSubdivision = 6 You can play with the numbers and find a good visual/performance compromise.

Make sure you aren't time warping too fast through SOI changes. Sometimes the errors when that happens can cause your trajectory to change. High warp just approaching the moon can change you to an impact or sometime launch you interplanetary.

Thanks Martian! I'm going to have to check that out.

If you were able to fly backward, then awesome job! For background info: KSP allows you to control craft from many different locations including capsules, probe cores, and docking ports. The "control from here" option (as pointed out above) sets your nav ball orientation based on the orientation of the part. So for example, if you have a probe core on sideways, the nav ball will be sideways. It's helpful if you have rovers, landers, space planes, etc that dock in odd directions other than off the front or back.

Then how are you going to apply this dV to stop your orbital motion if you aren't going to fire retro? If you are pointing at the surface, then this is a different question.

Marvin, nice job. I love minimalist designs.

I have to agree with Jouni. Which is why I find it difficult to give blanket advice to "I need help with SSTOs." It helps a lot to know what people have in mind. As I said in my original post, SSTO means different things to different people. Teaching someone how to design is a very different prospect than teaching someone how I design.

Also, this thread is nearly three weeks old. It isn't nice to necro a thread then make a poke at the OP.

All stock. 29 parts, not including the capsule and monopro. MechJeb claims weight at 74.260t. This flight was to a 78x78km orbit and landed in the rim of the crater.