Drethon

Completed my, somewhat, low tech Kerbin station: The base was designed to support ferry missions to the Mun, Minmus and other planets. Starting with the Mun I built my Mun station core to use as a base to drop landers to explore the Mun. I didn't honestly think it would make it but it reached 25Km orbit with a couple seconds of fuel to spare. Next to attach the fuel and life support so I can send out some Kerbals.

This is Walter Kerman reporting on the great day when we finally blow, er blast, er launch a Kerbal off the ground in a rocket. As of yet life support is untested so the rocket will remain in the atmosphere for its entire flight. When we arrive at the launch pad we are surprised to see the same rocket that was being used for ground tests setup on the pad. When asked about the lack of landing gear or larger parachutes we received the following quote from Gene Kerman. "Additional parachutes and landing gear would increase the weight of the rocket which would require more fuel to reach the target altitude. Jebediah has assured us that the rocket engines have sufficient strength for landing." It is most fortunate this project is being led by the greatest engineering minds of our time. At the 10 minute countdown we began setting up out cameras to record the launch but at 5 minutes to launch the rocket left the pad with a tremendous roar. Our crew rushed to complete setting up the cameras but were only in time to record the aftermath of the launch. In conversations with Jebediah afterward he revealed that the calculations used to determine the strength of the rocket engine used data from engine tests. In these tests the forces were spread across the entire bell of the nozzle. When the force of touchdown was concentrated on the bottom edge of the nozzle the engine collapsed and detonated the remaining fuel vapor in the fuel tank. Fortunately the command pod was strong enough to withstand the explosion. The goo container also survived, giving researchers interesting data about the goo's use as an explosion absorbing material. Our inside sources tell us that the next launch will be delayed for some time while Jebediah ponders landing gear and better parachutes. As this flight did not produce enough data for automated space flight the next launch will bring Jebediah to the edge of space.

This is Walter Kerman returning with updates on Project Icarus. The first Kerbal rocket has been built and is undergoing ground tests. As you can see it is a very simple design, simply meant to give Project Icarus a chance to see how rockets go up and to make sure they keep going that direction. We have little information on the ongoing progress as all communications have been hard wired with the rocket. We are told this is to perform testing without worrying about EMI effects. However our directional microphones picked up Gene Kerman muttering something about keeping Jebediah from saying something dumb. We did spot Jebediah performing some ground experiments outside of the rocket. It seems he has found a way to make his voice heard.

Welcome to the first Project Icarus report, this is Walter Kerman. After decades of testing, experimentation and massive explosions the Kermanity has finally conquered flight and proven it it can be safe. Thousands of Kerbals daily are flying to distant parts of the globe and fewer than a dozen a day at killed in accidents. This great advancement was not without cost however. Thousand of test pilots perished in the pursuit for higher and faster flight. Today we are left with one single surviving test pilot Jebediah Kerman. Jebediah seen posing in front of the aftermath of escaping a nuclear powered airplane when its reactor lost containment. The test facility the explosion occurred over was lost but Jebediah survived to test a larger nuclear powered craft. The explosion also launched radios being produced into space, providing a global disco broadcast. This event inspired Jebediah to launch other things into space. Thanks to the great wealth accumulated by Jebediah as the only surviving test pilot, and his vast repository of knowledge of building Lego spaceships, Jebediah has chosen to lead the Kerbal people to space. While Jebediah is providing the funding and skills, he has been named a global treasure. As such the Kerbal people have unanimously decided to protect Jerbediah, and his fellow Kerbalnauts, against themselves. Thus Project Icarus was born. The story of Icarus tells us of how the first Kerbal to fly created wings out of feathers and ice cream sandwiches. With his wings Icarus traveled the lands meeting other Kerbals and helping us to learn the world was much larger than was once thought. However Icarus continued to fly after winter ended and in the warmth of summer his wings melted and he plummeted to Kerbin. Though many benefited from learning that a melted ice cream ale is a might tasty beverage. Project Icarus well see Kermanity reach the stars while reminding us not to fly when it might melt our ice cream. To this end, no Kerbal will be risked flying a rocket that has not already been fully tested in automated spaceflight, where possible. As no Kerbal rocket has flown to date there is not enough data to create an automated system so the first few flights will be braved by Jebediah. Though attempts are being made to limit the power of the rocket to do no more than lightly toast Jebediah should an accident occur. The work has already begun on the ground. Jebediah has recruited pilot trainee Bill Kerman and stuntman Bob Kerman. They work tirelessly to discover the secrets of spaceflight. Bill Kerman learns to control a spaceship in a centrifuge simulator. Experiments were also performed to determine if a martini is shaken or stirred in a centrifuge. Bob Kerman makes first flight with an experimental jet pack designed by himself and Jebediah. Unfortunately shortly after this picture was taken, Bob was rushed to the hospital with a broken collar bone and three broken ribs. Worst of all was the loss of the martini experiment in the crash. Soon we hope to bring you news of the first flight of Jebediah's Artemis I rocket design. Until next time, this was a Walter Kerman report. (BTW, how do I set the size of images rather than editing their size and uploading again. Yes I'm borrowing some official artwork, I thought it fit to nicely.)

I have in mind to set up a complete solar network. A station at each SOI with dedicated rockets for travelling between the stations and a separate one for travelling between the station and the planet/moon. Once setup the only time a new rocket will ever be built is to launch from Kerbin to its station. All other travel will always use the same dedicated ships. Not so sure this is possible on a couple of moon/planets but should work for most.

Tried hitting other islands with infinite fuel and same thing regardless of where I land. Well splashdown and return it is, wanted to plant a flag but I'm good with this.

Same place each time, this rocket has limited fuel for adjustments so I haven't gone into orbit but maybe I should just aerobrake for a different attempt (too used to landing on non-atmospheric bodies). I think it is the large western body at the central latitudes (no access to KSP at the moment).

I'm taking a shot at my first Jool 5 attempt and got everything lined up for a landing at Laythe. Unfortunately every time I get over land the planet disappears, all I see is space and Jool and my lander splatters itself all over on touch down. I'm also kind of stuck with the current approach due to a quick save (and a fortuitous alignment that intercepted Laythe with no adjustments). The lander can survive a water landing though my first liftoff attempt resulted in a backflip. Maybe I should just try the water landing again but I'd like to know what do do with the surface vanishing if I can.

And here I thought the complaint with Asparagus was its too wide and ugly. Here is the answer, just stick the whole thing in orbit. Well done

I was browsing back through this thread for something to do during a repetitive task and made it as far as this post. I decided to go nuke my lunch so I hit Win-L to lock my machine, which takes about five seconds or so. Right about then the motion of the animation caught my eye and I glanced over for the first four frames. Just as the fourth frame came up my machine locked and my screen went black. Ebbeh!!!

Works well when there is minimal interaction in the code base but the more interfaces there are, the harder it is to keep everything consistent. Worse when there are more people working on the project the integration between individuals and groups gets more complex with the larger project. Its hard for a good process to compensate for humans.

I go with whatever seems interesting at the time: "One small tumble for a Kerbal, one giant noseplant for Kerbalkind." "Kerbal Space Program, putting the suicide in suicide burn."

Never too early to start to learn to code but it is your choice.

Oh, the goo can was only unbalanced in this version. I had one on each side in other versions that did the same thing, just messed up trying to pull everything off to try with less drag. That didn't help much either. Seems to be an overall rocket thing.

Without the fins if I turned earlier and slower the rocket flipped backward instead of continuing the turn and started tumbling. However if I leave the fins on and turn at 100ms (I was typically turning as late as 10km or as early as 5km) and then follow the prograde down until the rocket is at 45 degrees it seems pretty stable. I bet the control surfaces or gimbals would have helped but I think I'l leave them off to work with the physics rather than trying to fight it. I know building out doesn't work well with FAR but I'm trying to strike a balance between not being too wide but still having a wide lander for stability. Seeing how far I can take things. Thanks for the input from both of you!

I've been playing for about three months now and everything I send up with stock KSP runs without a hitch, so I decided to start playing with mods. I'm trying to create a somewhat basic science Mun lander but I'm having stability problems. I'm trying to launch this: My initial design was this rocket: But during my gravity turn, also about the time the rocket broke the speed of sound, the rocket would tip over and start tumbling. So I tried this(initially without the fins): Obviously I don't know as much as I thought as this rocket had similar issues. By adding the fins I was able to successfully get the rocket into orbit and to the Mun but the rocket will only go straight up until about 20k altitude. This makes the gravity turn rather less efficient. I suspect something is missing in my knowledge of FAR or Kerbal rocketry in general. I've searched on the topic but failed miserably at finding answers so I'm coming here for assistance. Thanks in advance!

I can dock pretty reliably now but it did take some learning. The main part for me is rendezvous. I usually go to a higher orbit since I can get more time warp and wait until the projected distance on the next pass reverses (target will go ahead of me). Then I boost orbit retrograde until I've minimized the next intercept. Then I go all three axes and use thrusters to further narrow the next intercept. If I'm not close enough (less than 0.05 km) I'll orbit a little and try all three axes again. Finally when I'm within 0.5 km I zero relative velocity and use thrusters to dock. Usually approach 1 m/s or less and try to keep my prograde on the target with regular updates. The fun ones are when docking requires a particular orientation. Like a red tank with two docking ports.

Mine so far would be the duna round trip with only small parts (and nuke rockets). My recent Moho round trip makes me pretty happy but I dont think I really needed five orange tanks(or even three) in Kerbin orbit but I'm not that good at efficient flight yet.

Hmm, I had not found this ability before (sticks up a sign that says "I suck at searching forums"). Perhaps I should do more release note reading. I will try this out.

Being my first post here I want to qualify I'm not really posting just to gripe. I love this game and will keep playing regardless. That being said... After starting a couple careers to get a hang of this game, I decided I wanted to set up a science pipeline in Kerbin space. The idea being a refueling station over Kerbin and one over the Mun. The Mun station would have a lander and the Kerbin station would have a tug. Then the only launches from Kerbin would be a minimal personnel lifter and a tanker (combined if one didnt happen more than the other). But then I realized how much science I would be losing because the lander can only transmit back results. Now there is plenty of science out there and maybe I should just shut up and do it my way but I just feel like it would be nice if the game better supported this style of gathering science. Maybe I'm the only one. Anyway, Kerbal on!