Signo

@Brikoleur: that Vampire is really cool and I second you suggestion regarding practice. @AHHans: Manley's markers are the best suggestion after eyeball practice.

Well, to be back on topic, it is better to disable gimbal on that rapiers to avoid them "pushing around" instead of pushing through CoM.

KSP loves "leverage": you need to apply forces in line with the CoM depending on the command you want to input and obviously the longer your "arm" the lesser the force you need to apply.

This one below was my best effort at a k-drive. It was really fun, but alas pretty unpredictable. Oh, well, above. Really unpredictable...

You can simply "walk" around if you land at the right place. You can easily gather the surface samples and the reports for "midlands", "Highlands", "east farside crater" and "canyons" with a single landing, they are well within a reasonable jetpack trip. Less risky, maybe sometimes a little boring.

These are amazing replicas. Wonderful job.

I checked my pic "archives" and I found this pretty low tech "hopper" - it was meant to visit at least 3 different biomes in a single trip. It was 1.3 something but I am pretty sure the concept still works perfectly. You do not really need solars, just keep a full battery "closed" for your maneuver needs, Jeb does not need heating because he laughs at outer space. You can substitute "sparks" on the lander with a single terrier. You do not really need maneuver nodes to go to Mun, just burn prograde 800 to 900 m/s when you see Mun rising during your orbit so you may save the tracking station upgrade for later. No legs to save on weight, but you need to be careful during landings, of course. The smaller ones will however be enough for such a small weight.

Hard to say w/o trying "first hand" a lift off. There are many Eve peculiar "design" issues I can spot at first glance. I could guess your ship is not "rigid" enough to keep its attitude; then your fins are not "control surfaces"; on top of that you have a lot of drag coming from all the stuff you can not detach before lift off like chutes, solars, "legs" etc. Lat but not least, Eve atmo is a b***h and you may want to take off at full thrust, then slow down and patiently ascend above the 12k-25k belt that may fry you rocket if you are too fast. From what you say I could guess it is a matter of drag in the wrong place and lack of control; but as I wrote it is hard to say w/o a first hand test. BTW, you have got a very kerbal design. Could you provide more data about the situation? Could you tell us at least your take off altitude and the altitude where you experience your loss of control? PS: do you stay on a straight ascend route for a while or are you trying an early gravitational turn (that imo could be bad advised with a craft like this)?

I second this request.

The center of mass may be to high and you need to apply "downforce" if you want it to stick to the ground. I did not check lately but there were components with a naturally offset center of mass so if they are still there you may be able to build a rover with an actual center of mass that is under the ground. Here in the pic there is an example of what I mean with "downforce". Try experimenting with different angles of the deployed control surfaces. This is not a "jet" rover but I hope you can get some hints. I had a jet scientific rover but it was not exactly "sporty".

You are right and I second your rant, however if you are an old times player you should know that the best instrument you have available is "eyeball Mk1". This is one of the main reasons I love this game, you always need a few "art and instinct" coupled with knowledge. Isn't it?

Maverick supersonic, I'll be there in thirthy seconds.

I think that rover may be too light for a low G environment: however you may want to try a 2WD/2WS config to have better control but if you increase weight you will have better results. The rovemate is not exactly the best part I tried to build rovers like that, I used to build a "core" with batteries, probe core, docking Jr. and a small SAS.

Then I would name the ship "Git Gud".

I see. Well, I like shuttles that can more or less launch as IRL replicas. I clearly remember the first Columbia launch and that is what I expect from a shuttle. It's been a while since I built one and from what I can remember you can build an "auto-turning" one exploiting their intrinsical unbalance. So I would go for a build that "flies by itself" to make it "client-proof".

I think it must have at least two main conditions: 1) Does it fly and it works as intended? 2) Did you have fun?

@paul23: it is 13k in airbreathing mode as far as I can see. I do not even look at the readings of KER/MJ when building stuff like this but just at the actual amount of fuel I am carrying.

I watched your video and I will try to write what I do "different": mind that it is just the way I do it and we may surely find there is a better way. First of all, try to maximize the speed you can reach with the ramjets in their "sweetspot" around 10k meters. Do not be in a hurry to reach your desired Ap and do not be scared of the heat gauges popping, that is the way it should be. You should not be too fast either: if you are over 1400m/s the ramjets can not push you so much further so you will not have enough kinetic energy to transform your horizontal speed in the vertical speed you need to overtake your "bitter spot" that comes from 15000 to at least 25000. Turn on the nervs as soon as you decide to go for your "jump" above that spot and of course do not turn off the ramjets to exploit whatever they may provide until they flame out. Do not pitch too much or your wings will be airbrakes instead of helping you with their lift. Try to push prograde instead of "up" and to always gain speed: it will be slow at first but the more you go up the better it will be. The angle of attack of your wings will push you up even if your craft is flying a 0° pitch course. Do not look for you Ap in the usual place you look for it: with the craft I pictured in this thread I reached my actual Pe when I stopped the engines - flying an "airplane" like this really makes you go "ballistic" so your real objective here is to fill up your Pe on the other side of Kerbin; you will then end up your ascent being more or less at the Pe of your orbit and you will ascend out of the atmosphere to your desired Ap. Usually it takes me almost a full orbit to circularize. About the craft, it seems to me that nobody mentioned but I do lock the gimbal of the airbreathers to avoid the thrust "going around" instead of perfectly prograde and through the CoM. You have an airplane and not a rocket so you should have plenty of control surfaces to move wherever and whenever you want. You just do not really need an active yaw control because there is no side wind on Kerbin. Keep up your flights and enjoy, this is maybe the best game ever because you can learn new ways of flying even after thousands of hour of play.

You must deploy the static goo stuff and place It there, then wait for it to gather enough science. With Just One static goo It Will take ages, more or less.

I built a version of mine of the craft and actually it is a tough craft to fly, worth a "Go West" challenge. There are issues starting when you reach 15000 because the ramjets are "spent". They actually flameout at 21k but you are left with a -400Km Pe to fill. It was however fun to fly: I tried to stay as much low tech as possible. Craft file available on request. Cheers.

Try switching your airbreathers with rapiers, give some angle of attack to your wings, 5 degrees should be good and easy, try moving your command surfaces to the back to reduce drag. Rapiers Will work till 27/28k meters. Try to push prograde as much as you can while only nuke propelled from 28k to 38k. I usually stay at 5°/6° until my Pe goes positive then I level to 0°/1°. Rapiers will push you at their best from 6k to 15k, try to gain as much airbreathing Speed as you can in that range and then try to maximize your vertical Speed from 15k to 19k before powering nukes. Good luck. Edit: I am a big fan of LF-only designs.

Jebediah King stands alone.

It really depends on the settings you are playing with. However the answer Is yes. If you Land at KSC you recover 100% of the parts value. Nevertheless with the default settings, if you pick the right contracts you do not really Need It. There is the "transponder" strategy that could be applied too to increase the recovered parts value if they Land far from KSC but It Is not really your best shot.

@R-T-B I will gladly be a specimen.

@Laie I forgive you just because it is you. Moreover with 1.8 you have a lot more d/v to spare but you almost can not re enter. So now this craft of mine is a piece of "you know what" at least until next patch. @Robdjee Lovely quote. I am currently puking pearls. @swjr-swis Sorry for being rude, I brought to space some IRL stress.