AlexinTokyo

Built and orbited my first SSTO, using Cruzanak's tutorial design. Then built, orbited and docked one of my own design, and return both safely to KSC

Finally made it! Bob, his rover and the North Pole Spot on Craft Files: The rover itself The rover, delivery platform, and crew module <-- Uses KER Notes: Press 'G' or click the Gear button to toggle between 4-wheel drive/4-wheel steering and rear-wheel drive/front-wheel steering. Crew module landing legs are mapped to '4' to free the Gear group for the rover. Brakes are enabled only on the rear wheels, as front-wheel brakes tended to cause a flip when applied hard at speed. Action Group 10 (press '0') will disable torque on the rover probe core. Action Group 2 does a science package sensor run (Thermo, Baro, Seismic, Grav). The Lights group ('U') controls the inner standard lights only, the fog lights are group 1. The rover will run on RTG power in 2WD mode, but will draw down the batteries slowly in 4WD. You have to jump to reach the ladders. KER won't tell you because of the staging, but the crew module has about 478 m/s of ÃŽâ€v at a Kerbin TWR of 1.45. You can land on the rover's wheels quite happily with the 'chutes only under Kerbin gravity, then stage to detach the crew module, power up and land nearby.

OK, so from 81 to 90 degrees north is more than 'a bit' of a drive Anyway, I promised pics, so here they are: Launch of the Polar Explorer. Burning in hot over the polar ice. This is the updated version that actually managed to land properly. Landed and personnel carrier detached. Manned up and ready to go. Scooting North. Looks like he's having fun Pole pic to be added when I arrive.

Thanks all for the awesome advice. It has definitely got my head in the right place. Managed to drop a rover at about 81 degrees north, so it's only a bit of a drive to place a flag at the pole. Oh, and thanks SO MUCH for the trick of moving a craft from the SPH to the VAB. That is beyond helpful. One thing; the axis of symetry in VAB after loading the craft was really wonky; is this a known problem, or did I screw something up? <pics tomorrow, or when I get round to it.>

That makes a lot of sense, it's basically the direct opposite of the ascent profile - thrust sideways as soon as you're clear of terrain. Now I just have to practise doing it I had already seen the rescue tutorial (and used it to rescue some stranded Kerbals), but thanks for the reminder.

OK, so I see a lot of posts/threads here about efficient ascent profiles (speed, timing and extent of gravity turn, etc.). But what does a fuel efficient descent profile look like? Assume a body with no atmo, so a fully powered landing with no drag and, of course, no 'chutes. I have a feeling that the extremes would be something like: Retrograde burn to 0 horizontal velocty, freefall, braking burn at minimum altitude required to slow to landing speed with a full-thrust burn. Retrograde burn until the predicted trajectory just intersects the ground, then burn the absolute minimum required to reach landing velocity over the entire distance remaining. But that is only a gut feeling, so what in fact is an efficient way to land?

This. So very much this. I have a tiny ion-engine-powered probe with a small science package that's headed to Kebol, either as a sun skimmer or a sun diver, depending what I feel like. I'd really love to be able to set up a long burn and then either time warp or switch away, because sitting there and watching it do basically nothing for a two-hour burn is not really fun. Current solution: YouTube videos while the game is on in the background.

Thanks for the responses. I'll see what I can do about a skycrane for my polar expedition this evening. I'll try and put up some pics, so it'll be easier to see what I may be doing wrong

I'm playing about with rovers, and I've pretty much managed to get to the stage where I can build them and drive them around KSC without blowing them up or crashing them into anything important. I'd now like to try driving them elsewhere, but I cannot get a good handle on how to 'deliver' the rovers to where I need them. Basically, I need to know: How to design a rocket that can deliver a rover. How to attach a rover (pre-designed, most likely) to the rocket. How to detach the rover in a drivable state. My first goal is to drop a rover and a Kerbal onto the northern ice sheet, drive to the pole and place a flag there. Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Japan: JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) Off the top of my head, some of their recent missions. IKAROS - world's first successful solar-sail ship Hayabusa - world's first successful asteroid sample-return mission Kibo - Science module (JEM) of the ISS. IIRC the largest module currently. Of course, they've also had some pretty Kerbalesque failures with the H-II rocket program - I'll have to see if I can find any videos of them.

I have never used the docking mode. Does it give you anything other than the ability to switch wasd between rotation and translation?

Conversation overheard at a Ukrainian border control point: Border Guard: Nationality? Visitor: Russian. BG: Occupation? V: No, just visiting. What does a rocket scientist put on a bagel? Lox. Have you noticed that Kerbals have no noses? - I hadn't. I wonder how they smell. Terrible! There are 10 kinds of people in the world, those who understand binary notation and those who don't. Come back tomorrow, I'm here all week

AFAIK you can only add parts in stock using docking ports. With KAS I know you can attach stuff otherwise in flight, but I've not used it so I can't comment further. So, as I see it, you can either send a dockable science module, as you suggest, or you can send a new lander with the new science parts on it, and relegate the old lander to a spare/emergency vessel. Personally, I'd go with a new lander if you have improved tech, assuming the refuelling ship has the wherewithal to get it there. YMMV, though

My thoughts: Adjusting the SRB thrust in the VAB is done by opening up the engine (popping off panels, etc.) and tinkering with the settings on valves; it's not possible to do this in flight. (Maybe you could do this on an EVA, for enhanced reality) Adjusting the liquid engine thrust is done with the throttle handle, and you can limit the maximum throttle either by physically limiting the travel of the handle or by tweaking the fly-by-wire control code, both of which could be done in flight.

Second (or third, or fourth) all the great advice in this thread. Most important thing: Practice. I taught myself to dock after watching a bunch of videos (especially Scott Manley), but I still needed to practise (a lot) to do it. I recommend practicing something like this: Launch target Put target in 150 km circular, equatorial orbit (eccentricity and inclination as close to 0 as possible) Ensure target is pointing north, SAS on Launch docker Put into 80~100 km circular, equatorial orbit Set target as target Quicksave Rendezvous - use manoeuvre node to burn up to target's altitude slightly ahead of target, use navball and main engine to equalise velocity. Quickload either when successful (separation < 50 m, relative velocity < 0.3 m/s) or unrecoverable (de-orbiting, escape velocity exceeded, crashed into target, out of fuel, etc.) Repeat until you get 3~5 (up to you, really) successful rendezvous in a row Put docker into 200~250 km circular, equatorial orbit Quicksave Rendezvous - use manoeuvre node to burn down to target's altitude slightly behind target, use navball and main engine to equalise velocity. Quickload either when successful (separation < 50 m, relative velocity < 0.3 m/s) or unrecoverable (de-orbiting, escape velocity exceeded, crashed into target, out of fuel, etc.) Repeat until you get 3~5 (up to you, really) successful rendezvous in a row Now you can rendezvous, you can start practising to dock! Start from a good rendezvous (separation < 50 m, relative velocity < 0.3 m/s [preferably 0]) Set the target's docking port as target Orient docker to point south, SAS on Deactivate main engine Quicksave Activate RCS and use translation (IK JL HN or docking mode) to manoeuvre until you're directly in front of the target - precision control (Caps-Lock) helps SAS off, thrust forward slowly to dock Quickload either when successful (docked) or unrecoverable (probably either crashed or nudged target off alignment badly) Repeat until you get 3~5 (up to you, really) successful docks in a row I prefer to use quicksave/quickload to repeat, but you can just jet off into another orbit if you like. Some things I find it helpful to bear in mind: If you start in a lower orbit than the target, you're going faster (catching up) but will be travelling slower when you burn up to the higher orbit (you'll be at apoapsis) - you want to intercept just in front of the target and let it catch up. If you start in a higher orbit than the target, you're going slower (falling behind) but will be travelling faster when you burn down to the lower orbit (you'll be at periapsis) - you want to intercept just behind the target and catch up to it. (These are both massively counter-intuitive, because (in example one) you're going faster and speed up (burn prograde) but end up going slower than the target.) When using RCS translation to dock, there's no slowing force - if you keep thrusting until you're in line you will overshoot - a couple of short thrusts to move in the right direction and a couple of counter-thrusts to stop when you arrive. If you're using the shielded docking port, remember to open the shield My pet hate with docking - trying to dock with an unpowered, unmanned or otherwise uncontrollable target where you can't ensure it's pointing in a favourable direction.

Alt-L (Lock Staging) is your friend If I had a dollar for every time I've botched a flight by pressing space instead of x, I'd have .. about 12 dollars actually. Still, my current rule is Alt-L as soon as time between stages goes above about 2 minutes.

Thanks very much. Shall definitely be making use of that down the track.

Supplementary question (here so as not to clog up the board with tiny threads): If I pre-dock two ships as described and want to use struts to strengthen the joint - to protect against launch stresses, e.g. - will I still be able to undock the ships after launch? Or will the struts hold them together?

You mean you selected lithobraking as your deceleration method?