DunaRocketeer

Today I decided to do a bit of subtle photoshopping of a screenshot. This is showing a delivery to Duna of an additional base module plus other components.

In terms of contracts taken, I don't really have a cash cow because I don't always favour one contract over another based on monetary reward. My biggest hurdle to progressing in the game is finding the time to play, so I make sure I have a family of vehices that are flight proven, so no time is spent testing things before I go out and actually do the mission. The basic vehicle can put almost 15 tons into orbit in SSTO mode. Adding reusable upper stages pushes the payload mass up to 28 tons. If I add expendable SRB's and expendable second stage, 45 tons is achievable, which is good enough for anything unless I want to land on Eve or Tylo.

I think the Kraken ate my Duna Base ore refinery. It lasted years but has now disappeared . It means that one of my craft isn't going home in the coming Duna-Kerbin window.

When I was using my old machine to play KSP, I shrank the EVE cloud textures to something my computer found manageable. Granted, it was rather pixely, but with all the other graphics settings dialed back it didn't look out of place, and a lot better than no clouds at all

I think you're right that it would underperform on Eve - it's got no issues achieving over 3000m/s on Kerbin, but I get the feeling that it'd start strong and then fade quickly whilst fighting the soupy atmosphere on Eve. I'd like to avoid asparagus if possible, (I don't like fat cargo sitting awkwardly/unrealistically on the top of my rockets) and I think Eve is doable in a conventionally staged rocket, it just needs the right design - that includes putting nosecones on the top

Currently I'm wondering if this rocket has the chops to ascend from Eve. Right now I'm thinking....probably not.

Expecting Flight Simulator levels of realism is not realistic. KSP does some things superbly, many things well, and a few things not so well (where there's probably some mod to help out...) Besides, yanking out the aero elements of the game will just annoy the vast majority of players.

I can still remember my first docking - I can remember my heart pounding as the distance between the two craft diminished. It was probably an even greater feeling of accomplishment than landing on the Mun, because it meant that the rest of the solar system was now within reach. As for tips, I've got a few: - For smaller vessels, individually pointing them at each other so that you don't need to do too much translation/orientation and wasting monopropellant. - For large vessels, using the verniers is often a good way to go; more efficient, more powerful, and you have one less fuel type to worry about. - During final approach, switch camera view to 'locked', it will align the camera to the spacecraft's orientation, which avoids those confusing moments when you want to move upwards, only to find that 'up' for the ship is different than 'up' for the camera, and you float off in a completely different direction. - This is more of an assembly, rather than docking tip: In order to keep parts count under control for large stations/vehicles, think about using little 'docking drones' - essentially just a probe core, SAS module, monoprop tank, RCS thrusters and a docking port. If you stick a couple of little docking ports onto your large modules and attach docking drones to them during assembly, it'll save you from having to duplicate all that hardware for every module that you're attaching. - Lastly, keep practising!

I'm wondering if it's possible to stick small stability fins on the base of the booster, jettison the nosecone to reveal a heat shield, and parachute the booster into the ocean? It wouldn't give you the full recovery bonus, but for an early-mid game design it might be worth a try.

I'm also looking forward to future installments, as it is a very enjoyable read, but completely understand real-life issues taking precedence.

Today I realised that if I took the first stage of one of my rockets and flew it solo, it makes a really good SSTO for light payloads. I hope a satellite contract comes up now so I can use it to make some money.

Stock in ksp 1.0

I've had similar thoughts as others on this thread - even though I can recover vehicles at KSC and get a good recovery bonus, it's the fuel cost that weighs heaviest on me. The problem is that when I create refueling facilities at KSC, I spend most of my time messing around with that, rather than flying. I've realised that for me, if I have a really large vehicle to deliver into orbit, reusability and perfect recovery don't outweigh the fuel costs if I have to send up three or four flights to assemble that large vehicle. Disposable starts to look more attractive. My solution is to compromise on reusability for the heaviest payloads - keep the core booster reusable, but hitch on some cheap solids, and a disposable upper stage, and you've got a decent affordable lifter. For anything over 30 tons, I use one of these:

Finally! After nearly seven years of game time, and months of real time (there was always something happening closer to Kerbin that kept me from time warping...), I've finally returned my crew from the Jool system! They landed at KSC in the vehicle that took them to the surface of Laythe, and with a small rover that fit into the service bay, explored an island's biomes. The vehicle also mined ore from Pol so that it and its mothership could get home. Before landing, I decided to 'buzz the tower' a couple of times before landing it for the final time on the runway, not too far from where it began its journey many years ago. A fitting end to a plucky little ship!

It's a hectic time for my Kerbin Space Station. - The crew is processing science data in the lab. - A utility shuttle is making a routine resupply run. - With the Duna transfer window just a week away, a couple of interplanetary vehicles have arrived at the station for refuelling. This is their last port of call before leaving the Kerbin system for over a thousand days.

I kicked one of my latest vehicles up to an apogee beyond Minmus, to simulate how it handles interplanetary aerobraking with a heavy payload. It did very well, and should be ready for full missions now.

I was inspired by your creative use of Mk2 bicouplers to create a high performance jet: I also perfected the SSTO I started working on a week or so ago:

Been away for the past couple of weeks, but I'm all caught up now and I'm enjoying your progress. Everything is really well thought out Looking forward to more!

High angles of attack are a great way of sparing parts excess re-entry heat - in the upper atmosphere I will sometimes go fully 90 degrees AoA. My spaceplane de-orbit burns always have periapses of 0 altitude as well. Good for managing heat and landing point accuracy. Very bad for fuel efficiency...

All good things and all that... Very sad to see the majority of the team leaving, but that doesn't mean that KSP is ending - it's not like we are no longer able to play it. If 1.2 is good and stable, just mod it up to where you want the game to be and call it 'finished'. I'm still coming up with new mission ideas and new vehicle designs, and I don't think that will ever end. The devs have created an awesome platform with which I can indulge in my favourite interest, and for that I thank them.

The beginnings of career mode are some of the most fun for me, and I like your solutions to the limited capabilities of early-career components - keep it up, I'm interested where this is going

Last night, all of a sudden I decided I wanted to create an SSTO. I came up with the vehicle below which... doesn't work. I think with some tweaking it will fly nicely - mostly to do with which engine type going on which pod and their angles. Those tweaks will have to wait for a few weeks because I'm getting married soon! My partner has shown extraordinary tolerance with my KSP addiction (probably because she's just as bad with Professor Leyton/Pokemon games...) But something tells me she won't look too kindly on me tweaking spaceplanes on honeymoon! Also have been making additions to a Duna base with Kerbal Inventory System:

Hehe I've been flying versions of this for months, but that SpaceX presentation (specifically the parts showing landings on Europa and Enceladus) has given me some inspiration for sending my rockets further afield. A propellant depot around Dres for instance. This vessel is the upper stage of a reusable TSTO rocket. I use it for all sorts of things - the image I posted was of it returning from a mission to attach a 27 ton fuel tank to a depot station in a 160x160km orbit, which is pretty much the limit of its capabilities. More often it just contains crew pods, satellites, KIS containers etc. Alternatively, I sacrifice about a third of the cargo bay's internal volume to extra fuel tanks. In this configuration I send it up to a depot to refuel, and from then on to Duna. The vehicle lands vertically so cargo is offloaded via a ramp and a rover. It is refuelled via my surface mining equipment (all of this has been delivered by these vessels in previous flights.) Once fully fuelled it has the DeltaV to get from the surface of Duna to the KSC without any further fuel stops. The way the system is set up means I can get a decent sized payload into orbit, or cargo delivered to Duna with only minimum changes to the design.

Despite a hefty dose of skepticism listening to Elon Musk's Mars presentation last night, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested in using my KSP vehicles for a bit of Interplanetary Transport System style fun...

I've landed a cargo ship at my Duna Base. It was launched months ago in real-life time, and is now a outdated variant of what I'm currently using. I found myself wishing I was flying the newer design, but it got the job done, making it down to the surface with little fuss. The cargo was a series of wing and panel parts, legs and grabbing units. Most of these parts were used to widen my cargo offloading ramp/rover - making the removal of cargo from ships a much easier and less careful process.