benschwab

There are plenty of tutorials in the Drawling Board: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/28352-The-Drawing-Board-A-library-of-tutorials-and-other-useful-information The wiki has three relevant pages: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Docking http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Basic_Maneuvers#Docking_.2F_Rendezvous http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorial:Basic_Docking I've read through the wiki and have have docked several times. The relevant speed you need to pay attention to is your speed relative to your target. The various guides can tell you what this should approximately be but once you get close enough to use RCS and have matched speeds pretty closely forget about everything else except the craft that need to dock. I don't succeed in every attempt but with practice I am getting better. Sometimes it seams that I just cannot close the last 10 meters or so but as long as fuel capacity holds out, persistence can pay off. Remember this game teaches you about rocket science, orbital mechanics, and other space junk by teaching you what not to do. Keep trying and with patience you will learn how to do what you want to do.

It's basically the same thing except I keep a battery, RCS system, and torque system attached to my command pod. I put the Sepratron I's lower on these systems. I fire them during re-entry to avoid explosion on touchdown. One could use them once one enters space to empty them as well. Unless exact timing is necessary this would, if anything, save you liquid fuel. If need be one can put radial decouplers on the sides of my system to jettison them but I find using them up to be the best solution. Also, in an unintended experiment, I've discovered that the Sepratron's can explode without damaging the Kerbal in the command pod.

Kerbin has one desert and one badlands but I doubt the game has any more specific features of these general features such as a salt pan. You can look around these and other areas for the best flat surface and build a plane to get your car there. I would try the desert first and avoid the mountains. http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Kerbin#Biomes

The escape system I use involves the use of Sepratron I solid fuel engines (http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Sepratron_I the example in the picture isn't mine but I do something slightly different) on the same stage that I have my capsule. I don't bother getting rid of them if I don't use them as they are light. Instead I use them to help slow down during landing (also to get rid of the fuel so they don't explode if I land sideways on land or on a mountain). You could put radial decouplers on your command pod stage, add your escape system, and toggle the decouplers by action group or on a specific stage.

With Respect To the escape system: I don't use the stock escape tower but I put my own escape system on my maned craft. Several players do the same. Mine aren't towers so I do not have first hand experience of designing a custom tower but other players have done so. You might also search for a mod part that is combination docking port and parachute. See http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/sdhi-service-module-system/ and http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/57988-0-23-x-RealChute-Parachute-Systems-Bugfixed-v1-0-5-18-04-14 With Respect To staging: as others have pointed out, you can set the part to stage in stage zero. This will allow you to stage everything else is sequence and not stage the past you want kp Claw has detailed instructions in the reply above mine. To set command groups you need to look for the command group icon at the top of the screen in the Vertical Assembly Building: VAB. There are three buttons which switch the display at the left of the screen in between parts, command groups, and Kerbalnauts active for the current mission. To set or change what a relevant keyboard button does you need to click on that button in the command group section, then click on the part you want it to do something with on your craft, then in the menu in the command group section under the part in question switch over the action you want that button to do. Most of the buttons towards the top already have actions associated with them but actions can be added to these. The backspace button is reserved for an abort sequence which is something that you have to set yourself. The buttons 1 through 0 correspond to the keyboard buttons 1 through zero above the letters on a QWERTY keyboard. I make frequent use of these to do things like deploy or stow all solar panels at once. You could set the decouplers you want only to be used in an emergency to stage zero and use the command group to activate the decouplers when the abort button (backspace by default) is pressed. Command grouping are saved when the craft is saved. I hope you understand this explanation. With Respect To raising one's altitude and keeping one's orbit circular: this is not physically possible. Performing a burn does not change where one is but where one is going. When a maneuver is performed the resulting orbit must pass through the location that the maneuver was preformed at. Changing from a circular orbit at one altitude to a circular orbit at a different altitude necessarily involves more then one maneuver. The Hohmann transfer and bi-elliptical transfer are the most efficient ways to do this (depending on the particular situation). Instructions on how to do these are here: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorial:_Advanced_Orbiting and you can ask for more instructions. I suppose one could burn continuously throughout an entire orbit to change from one circular orbit to another at a different altitude but this would be both inefficient and would require precise throttle and orientation control. This would not be the most efficient maneuver to achieve the desired end, there is no utility that can do this for you (I believe), and the orbit will not be circular during the transfer. I hope you enjoy the game.

Have your tied starting a new carer game and seeing if it works?

That's fine by me. I'm impressed by the program as it is. I thank whoever wrote it.

That gives more information but it still doesn't allow one to go from a moon to a body that isn't another moon in the same planetary system of the planet itself. I am quite impressed by the program never the less.

As way of troubleshooting try running a new career game, blitz where mechJeb is, and then see if it works. If it does you may have to either restart the carer game, do without mechJeb, or try and find a way to edit your save so that it works. If it doesn't work in a new career game try seeing if it works in a new sandbox game. If it does then it appears that your mechJeb won't work in career mode. Try deleting mechJeb and installing again. If it work's in sandbox but not carer then either your mechJeb is broken or your KSP program is broken. I would try re-installing mechJeb first and if that doesn't fix it, I would try re-installing KSP. If anything re-installing KSP, then re-installing mechJeb, and not using any saves should work. As mentioned above, there may be other problems with other mods. A way to troubleshoot this would be to remove them all to a dummy folder and then install them one at a time and seeing how they work or don't work together in a new game after each change. It may take some time especially if you were to very the order in which they are installed which will help deliver information if they don't work together. I hope you get it working.

According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_capture a naturally captured asteroid needs influence from a third body (like an already established moon) to provide gravity breaking to slow the asteroid down from a hyperbolic trajectory into an elliptical trajectory. Also according to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moons_of_Jupiter the captured asteroid moons of Jupiter are thought to have slowed down to orbital speed while the planet was still forming.

Keep in mind that Kerbals don't use the International Astronomical Union definitions but rather those of the Kerbal Astronomical Society which has... different standards.

In my limited experience, getting an exactly 0 degree inclination orbit from KSC isn't likely to happen. One would have to steer towards the equator then keep the craft on the equator while one finalizes the apogee. What I usually do when I want exactly 0 degree inclination is due head east as best I can and then once my orbit is finalized burn at an equatorial node to get my inclination to exactly 0. The first orbit is so close to having 0 degree inclination that it always takes just a few delta-v to perform (4 m/s seams to be above the average).

Hi All: Overview: I would like to develop and then deploy a satellite system around Kerbin. This would consist of 10 communication satellites, 6 scientific satellites, and potentially a global positioning system. I have developed ideas of what I want for the communication and scientific satellites though I have yet to do much work on the global positioning system. If anybody wants to review this proposal in whole or in part and offer advice, comment, or criticism then I would be thankful. I feel I should let you’all know that the only add-on to Kerbal Space Program I have is mechJeb. Kerbostationary Communication (Sunshine) Satellites: The communication satellites would consist of 4 on the equatorial plane and 6 in Molynia orbit (3 serving the northern hemisphere and 3 serving the southern hemisphere). The 4 in the equatorial plane would be in synchronous orbit and equally spaced. I believe this would provide adequate coverage for Kerbals who live in between 50 degrees south and 50 degrees north and would allow them to use the communication satellites without needing tracking systems. I have achieved this in the past using 4 launches (one for each satellite). I get the satellites equally spaced by first getting into a circular low Kerbin orbit with zero inclination and then doing a Hohmann transfer to get the kerbosynchornous orbit at 2868.75 km. I start the Hohmann transfer when each satellite is above a particular longitude which are spaced 90 degrees apart. Since I don’t care what points the satellites are over, I chose one of the four longitudes at random. I am thinking about using one launch vehicle to get all four satellites into orbit to save costs. The launch vehicle would be used to get four smaller rockets into LKO which would then detach and Hohmann transfer at the appropriate points. Molynia Orbit Communication (Lightning in the North and Thunder in the South) Satellites: I had a harder time figuring out how to get the 6 communication satellites into orbit to serve the polar regions. The goal is to have three satellites equally spaced in Molynia orbits. The orbits would have an inclination of 63.4 degrees (I know this isn’t important for Kerbin but I want to use it for historical reasons) with a perigee at 80 km and an apogee of 3090.36 km. From looking at a map of Kerbin I think that the Lightning Satellites achieving apogees above 63.4 degrees north, 90 degrees east and at 63.4 degrees north, 90 degrees west would provide the best coverage for the Kerbin landmass north of 50 degrees north. I also think that the Thunder Satellites achieving apogees above 63.4 degrees south, 26 degrees west and 63.4 degrees south, 154 degrees east would provide the best coverage to the small landmass south of 50 degrees south. I have considered three methods of putting one satellite into this orbit: 1: Launching to LKO with zero degrees inclination, doing an inclination maneuver at the right point to get the satellite in the correct place (63.4 degrees south 0 degrees east/west or 63.4 degrees south 180 degrees east/west) to make the desired final orbit the first time the satellite is in the southern hemisphere, and then making the final orbit at that point. 2: Launching to LKO with 63.4 degrees inclination and waiting until the southernmost point achieved is at either 63.4 degrees south 0 degrees east/west or 63.4 degrees south 180 degrees east/west and then making the final orbit at that point. 3: Launching to Kerbin orbit with 63.4 degrees inclination with an apogee after launch at a particular altitude “a†and longitude “l†and making a perigee burn to raise the perigee to 80 km. “a†and “l†would be chosen such in its first orbit the satellite passes over either 63.4 degrees south, 0 degrees east/west or 63.4 degrees south, 180 degrees east/west. At this point I would then make the final orbit. The benefit to option 1 is that the instructions can be worked out beforehand and are exact with simple calculations. Kp. diomedea pointed out to me that the inclination burn would require nearly 2,500 delta v to make making this an expensive option. In respect to option 2, from a LKO at 80 km altitude at 63.4 degrees inclination, every time the satellite passes 63.4 degrees south its longitude would be 31.25 degrees west of its previous longitude. This means that the satellite will take 288 orbits to put itself about the same longitude again (which would take 75 hours or 25 Kerbin sidereal days to happen). This would mean that if I wait long enough the satellite should be within one degree of longitude of either 63.4 degrees south, 0 degrees east/west or 63.4 degrees south, 180 degrees east/west. I believe this to be the most efficient option but requires patience. The calculations for option 3 are the hardest. Either I would have to aim for the correct point at launch (which I don’t know how to do) or to use a(n) (anti-)radial burn along with a prograde burn to get the argument of perigee at -90 degrees and the right altitude for the appogee once I launch and get into orbit. In either case since the orbit is changing while I launch to the correct perigee, the latitude the satellite will pass over once it gets to 63.4 degree north will be changing while I raise the apogee. I might be able to perform the calculations but I suspect this wouldn’t be as efficient as option 2. As I believe it to be the cheapest way to get the Molynia satellites in orbit, I prefer option 2 even though it may take up to a couple Earth days to be able to complete the orbits (Is the day counter in Universal Time 24 hours or 6 hours?). My initial thought of getting the satellites properly spaced would be to use three satellites to time how long it takes from launch to get to apogee of the final orbit and time the launches of the second and third satellites at the appropriate times after the first satellite as achieved apogee. Kp. diomedea has suggested a more efficient method of getting the three satellites in orbit of using one launch vehicle for three satellites and using maneuvers and separate separations to get the right spacing. My proposed method for getting the correct orbits and spacings is as fallows. I would launch a single launch vehicle with three separately separable smaller rockets for each individual satellite. I would launch to an inclined circular orbit of 80 km. I would wait until the launch vehicle is above 63.4 degrees south, 30n degrees east/west for some integer n. I would raise the apogee at this point for the launch vehicle to 821.05 km (a period of 1 hour). I would separate each smaller rocket every second visit to perigee and raise the apogee of the orbit to 2055.2 (a period of 2 hours). After all three rockets have been separated they should be in orbits rotated 120 degrees from each other and they should arrive at perigee simultaneously (or pretty close). Each time the satellites reach perigee, one of the satieties should be above either 63.4 degrees south 0 degrees east/west or 63.4 degrees south 180 degrees east/west. During one of these times I raise the apogee to 3090.36 km for the final Molynia orbit. Two hours latter another satellite should be in the spot the first satellite was above Kerbin and I raise that satellite’s apogee to 3090.36 km. Another two hours later the third satellite should be in position and I raise that satellite’s apogee to 3090.36 km. At this point I should have my Lightning constellation in place. When each satellite is at apogee it should be over 63.4 degrees north and either 90 degrees east or 90 degrees west. One hour after one of the satellites is above one of those two coordinates another satellite should be above the other coordinate. I will use a similar process for the Thunder constellation with the appropriate reference points. Scientific (Typhoon) Satellites: Ideally I would wish these to be in sun-synchronous orbit. Other than for Kerbostationary orbits, I believe this to be imposable for Kerbin given that Kerbin is modeled (for now) as a perfect sphere. Geocentric sun-synchronous orbits make use of the oblateness of Earth to stay synchronized to both the earth’s surface and to the position of the sun relative to the Earth. With a sidereal day of 6 hours and a solar day of 6 hours and 50.813 seconds it would require an orbit with a period of just less than a second for a satellite in an inclined orbit to cross the equatorial plane of Kerbin at the same longitude at the same time of day every day. This is imposable. I desire to have the Typhoon Satellites pass over the equatorial plane of Kerbin at the same time each day (under the belief that this would be more valuable to science than would having the satellites pass over the same point at the same time every day). I also chose for it to pass the equatorial plane 4 times each day (one time in daylight on each side of the planet) so the orbital period would be 3 hours and 25.41 seconds. A circular orbit with an altitude of 1588.60 km achieves this (actually it is off by .02 seconds). I propose to put 6 Typhoon Satellites in circular polar orbit with an altitude of 1588.60 km. I want each orbit to be separated by 60 degrees. I propose to use one launch vehicle to put all 6 satellites into orbit. At the finished orbit, Kerbin rotates 180.42 degrees each orbit (meaning that after two orbits the satellite is about .84 degrees west of where it was). An orbit with a perigee of 1588.60 km and an apogee of 1669.10 km has an orbital period of 3 hours, 5 minutes, and 25.39 seconds during which Kerbin rotates 185.42 degrees (a 5 degree difference). Thus once I get the first orbit in place, I release the first satellite retrograde when it is almost above the north pole, turn prograde and raise my apogee to 1669.10 km, wait 6 orbits, then circularize back at 1588.6 km when I’m almost at the north pole, and repeat. This should give me the desired orbital configuration though I am at a loss as to how to time it so that one of the satellites (perhaps the first released) crosses the equatorial plane at noon every other crossing. Conclusion: I would also like to set up a GPS system and while getting the right number of satellites in the right orbits is somewhat easy to work out (now that I’ve done the above work), the satellites need to be in a specific configuration in their orbits to ensure that enough satellites are visible at all times from every point on Kerbin. I could just put enough satellites in orbit so I don’t have to figure out what this configuration is but that seams expensive. The above is my proposal as it stands right now. This would put enough communication satellites up to be able to broadcast Kerbtoons to all of the Kerblets on Kerbin as well as scientific satellites for weather prediction, mapping, and other purposes. Anybody with comments, suggestions, criticism, or whatnot would be appreciated delivering them. I should also let you’all know that I am playing through KSP rather slowly and it will probably be a week (maybe two) before I finalize a plan of action and start implementing it. I am willing to provide details on calculations and delta-v budgets if asked. In Gratitude Ben Schwab

Hi all. My name is Ben and I enjoy playing Kerbals. I plan on not being very active as from past experience, I am aware that the internet tends to bring out poor behaviors from me. I have a specific difficulty: in getting a proper Molniya communication system set up. I plan on asking about this specific issue once I've felt I have done all I could do to solve the problem. Maybe I could get help and maybe my work would be valuable to others. I've searched for "Molniya" and I do not believe the topic has been extensively discussed before. I have an undergraduate physics degree and I claim to be reasonably intelligent. This is a far way away from having and real claim to expertise and I am sure there are plenty of people more skilled in the math and science relevant to the game here then me but I enjoy doing both and have little experience in orbital mathematics. I probably won't watch the forum much but I do not mind being contacted to contribute with specific technical questions. I do not believe that I would be helpful in ship/craft/rocket design as I have no engineering training but I might be able to contribute to issues relating to orbital mechanics. My second post should give a better idea of my abilities and limitations. If dealing with specific technical (in terms of the math and science, not technical in terms of the programing) issues I will maintain good behavior in either a group or individual setting. I am offering a willingness to be contacted about issues I might enjoy dealing with or could help on; I am not asking to be contacted in such situations. I may pay some attention to the relevant forum threads but not enough to prevent me from missing a topic I might be able to offer help with. If I am never contacted to contribute then that's fine, but I want to make sure that the offer exists. I want to contribute what I can to this community but I can be a bit awkward if you couldn't tell. I hope I've introduced myself well.