Aegeas

Out of curiosity does the target craft have a science module? I noticed a bug with a space station the other day where it was doing a weird oscillation. After some detective work checking my other stations and then sending it back up each time deleting some parts I narrowed it down to the science module. Been meaning to report this or check forums if this is a known bug? Has anyone else encountered this? If you use the science module as the core of a station oscillations can be amplified as you start adding mass and leverage, I was noticing some flickering with my apoapsis and periapsis - is how it first became apparent that something was up. Launched just the science module to fully check this out and the oscillation was still there, it was too small to be seen on the orbital map but the heads up from Kerbal Engineer gives finer detail and I could see an oscillation there. Not sure if this is causing your problem? The only solution I could give you would be to make a 3rd craft with a Grabbing Unit (the thing you grab asteroids with) and Sufficient RCS/Reaction Torque to hold the spinning craft still while you dock the other one to it.

This doesn't break the laws of Physics in terms of what fuel mass the engine can push but it does break the laws of clipping. The old me used to heavily clip things inside but then it was a nightmare to refuel later - requiring funny internal camera angles to click on tanks. The new me tries to leave a part of each tank protruding the surface, as can be seen here the 6 fuel tanks and 2 RCS tanks are able to be clicked on. (The new new me now skips all this going straight to editing the craft file and adds extra resources to adapters/command pods to lower the part count and so there are less things to click on when refueling, but that's another story) It was made for a rescue/escape pod for a space station that has enough DV to be able to land on a small planet/moon. It can be docked in series with other things and the engine is positioned such that it doesn't interfere with docking nor does the dock effect its thrust. Throw a Parachute on it and it should land then return to orbit on Duna, and has enough DV/TWR to land on most moons. I think with how the solar panels ened up being arranged it looks a bit like R2D2. Here is the craft file if anyone wants to use it (designed to be put in subassemblies): Micro_Lander.craft Action Group 7: Top Docking Light Action Group 8: Bottom Docking Light

I'm guessing they will add lights and steering to the new wheels in coming updates, as for a work around for the steering problems for now - if you have two engines you can disable one and steer it like a tank, or just reduce the thrust on one.

The decoupler is actually attached to the cockpit and not the engine, this can be done by enabling 'part clipping' in the f12 menu so you can attached two things to the same node. Then I used the translate tool to move it to the end of the engine. As for the "energy issue" there are solar panels for the second stage as seen in the below pic. It just has to rely on battery power for the time between separation for re-entry and until it gets back below 20k meters to fire the jet engine at which point the alternator gives power. I did add a battery though after you raised this point, it also has an internal probe core (so it can be sent up pilot-less for the rescue missions) as well as a parachute in case of emergency. Obviously a space plane is a more cost effective way of doing rescue missions, this was more a fact of mucking around making a miniature plane then finding a use for it after. The small wing strakes blend really well to the mk1 cockpit I think. I've uploaded the craft file if you want to use it: rC.craft

Five, Four, Three, Two, One, Kraken!

Emergency Orbiter - Capable of landing/Orbiting Mun etc... 6 Fuel cells provide enough electricity per second to run ion at 100% throttle - has enough LF/LOX to run the fuel cells for as long as the xenon will last. - - - Updated - - - A little fuel cell rover... - - - Updated - - - Re-entry Glider, Made this for the rescue missions, instead of just parachuting back to kerbin you can instead land in style on the runway at KSC... has a small amount of liquid fuel for landing but glides pretty well so I can do a dead stick landing if need be.

So I only get six words?

Tom Cruise

Roger Kerman - We have clearance, Clarence. Clarence Kerman - Roger, Roger. What's our vector, Victor? Victor Kerman - ? In homage to the movie Airplane http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080339/quotes (called Flying High here in Australia) I use these 3 as my second crew. KSP seems to use a random generator based on the name as a seed to assign a specialization, and these three conveniently work out to be one of each - from memory they are... Victor Kerman - Pilot Clarence Kerman - Engineer Roger Kerman - Scientist

OP's plane reminds me of this... (Hawker P1214)

Sorry for not getting back to this sooner, haven't had time until now... had a quick look last night, just doing some aerobatic/stall tests.... haven't taken it into space yet. One thing I did notice though is that it rolls when I try and yaw, and to the opposite side. I used the probe core as the 'control from here' point so it all seemed to be in line with the control surfaces. I disabled yaw on the rudders and it stopped doing it but not much yaw was capable from just the cabin reaction wheel. I tried lowering the tail plane to be more in line with com but still basically the same problem. Basically had to revert to roll & pitch to turn rather than yaw... was using a keyboard though, not sure if you are using a joystick? Anyway had you found this too or is there something I'm missing that I should have done? Not really sure what to suggest at this point as to the cause, seems maybe to do with drag causing the roll as it moves away from prograde. I'll be able to do some more testing this weekend and let you know how it goes.

Yeah there have been somethings I made which I miss but on the whole I like the extra stuff 1.0 brings. Anyway I still have an old version of kerbal to play that stuff. The following was probably my favourite micro creation thus far which is totally irrelevant now, but in its day flew so well, slient and graceful. - - - Updated - - - Thanks mate, I can remember laughing when I made that kinda happened by accident.

Cheers mate, was actually one of the days that blew my mind about how sandbox kerbal really is cos you can make stuff you shouldn't really be expected to make and it looks hilarious. The limit with this game is really only peoples imagination and these forums are a constant source of amazement. I've had a look through your craft repository too, impressive.

I've downloaded your craft, will give it a spin and let you know what I think but I'm only just getting a grip on the best accent strategies since reading these forums. What I had worked out myself seems to not be correct judging by the success I've seen some ppl achieve. I was under the impression that the best average vertical speed possible until high altitude was what I was after at which point it was a case of getting the most mach for the least fuel used. But from seeing all the experts on low TWR accent profiles achieve ridiculous orbital DV I see I have a lot to learn. I also have only just recently been clued into AOI. As for my bird, well that's purely about aesthetics over performance. For some reason I hate the look of tails on my planes, maybe I think it looks old fashion or something, I like the modern flying wing look. For this plane to be what I'm after it merely needs to get the 10 kerbal version to LKO so it can dock and refuel at a station. The 2 kerbal version can capture orbit around mun/minmus to likewise dock and refuel so it has met its design goals. It handles really well at speed and on empty landing and it looks really sleek when you see the cross section. You always have to sacrifice some things for style, but I ok with that.

Still a WIP but it was designed to be able to swap out the two central crew cabins for fuel or cargo bays without the COM changing drastically and able to fly well in any configuration. Kind of a one plane does all. I'm also showing the trick I came up with for stability sake that can't be seen once its moved inside the adapter tanks. - - - Updated - - - I like the middle one Rune, reminds me of an A-6 Intruder.

F_cking awesome! I love mini crafts, take a lot of imagination to come up with I reckon. Here are some I posted a while back and were already on my IMGUR account: The rocket bike hit mach 1.4 on the runway, no idea what it would do now given the aerodynamics update - might have to dust it off and test it out. I'll have to screen shot some more of my current things since 1.0 now I've found this thread.

My current nightmare... I started out making a small 4 engine tanker but it didn't send up enough fuel to LKO so this eventually happened... It uses basically a mid engine design so that the COM doesn't shift much as the tanks empty. Still needs a lot of tweaking and polish before it is stable though and I don't really have the time or inclination at the moment to finish it. Just wondering if anyone else has already made a monster reusable tanker that they could share a craft file for me to save me the headache?

While we are on the topic of blended looks I found that this setup blends nicely together.

I'm a big fan of the look of blended wing / flying wing planes. I was playing around with what wings would merge into the mk2 cockpit (like you have been) and at one point it started looking a bit like a Horten 229 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horten_Ho_229) so I ended up trying to make one: The real Ho 229 is still one of the most beautiful planes and so ahead of its time, I think it is probably my personal favourite. For me it is like the spitfire, sheer elegance of design as well as incredible performance for its time. One thing I did find though when trying to get flying wings to fly well is that roll can be a headache. The big-s elevon 2 gives too much roll and anything less seems to give too little. A few things I have found that help are: • put engines as far apart as possible (gives more torque for the thrust vectored engines - like a longer lever around the COM) • use mk1 fuel tanks or any of the intake size 1 parts as a spacer between adapter parts and engines - this allows you to move them in and out of the adapter with the translate tool to fine tune COM/COL. • clip advanced canards into fuel tanks (a bit cheaty but definitely improves stability) which will hide them to keep the lines of your plane. Here is an example of my current WIP SSTO which is designed to be a sort of modular plane: The two passenger cabins can be replaced by fuel tanks or cargo bays and it has enough DV to get into a 125k LKO from memory. It uses advanced canards and two reaction wheels to assist with stability. It will fly level or on a 20 degree incline on x4 time accelerate, if it stalls it will naturally point nose down in free fall, it allows for a fair amount of deviation from pro-grade as well as being able to hold 45 degree pitch on re-entry without flipping out or flying backwards. Those are my current three test I put any new plane through, I'm all ears if someone has suggestions on any other practical tests for a space plane to pass. On this plane I have deactivate the roll on the elevons, yaw and pitch are still active. I ended up adding 4 canards to each engine (8 total for the plane). This may sacrifice performance and be a bit cheaty in some peoples eyes but for me it about getting a plane I like the look of to fly well. If there was a way to limit the power of elevons similar to how you can limit engine thrust to fine tune stability then that would be cool but there isn't so this is my compromise.

I did a quick test tonight, docked with a station and then did some time acceleration tests and a few reloads, all worked fine. I did however get it to blow up once, this happened when it was docked and I lowered/raised the gear that holds tension on the dock. But I couldn't get this to happen again after several tries. So yeah any time a part has collision surfaces and is animated there is a chance of kerbal physics making things explode but I don't think the risk is any greater with this particular setup than with a cargo bay mishap.

That's interesting about using wheels for bearings, guess you could make revolving space stations that way... I'll have to keep that in mind. I've seen quite a few post of people using landing gear as a sort of linear actuator, well I was trying to get a small docking port to stick out of a mk2 cockpit with the least amount of parts to save weight as it was for a small space plane. I found to get the most movement its best to push the lightest part possible using landing gear that is held in place by a strut so the gear can't move back. The 'structural intake' is perfect as it is fairly long and will accept radial attachments and only weights .0044T The closer you put the part to the base of the gear the more tension and push you get. Also the more landing legs pushing the same part the more movement again. Here are some examples of what I mean including the finished cockpit (craft file attached) that uses 2 legs to fully retract the dock (action group 5). In the last pic the gear is pushing on a structural intake inside the cockpit angled at about 45 degrees. mk2_cockpit_dock.craft

Just a quick bit to add on strut behavior in the vab/sph, I've noticed that when you undo (ctrl+z) in the vab/sph it recalculates the strut (most of the time), so if you have changed a part and it has broken the struts (eg the no longer have the second node) try deleting any part on your ship then doing an 'undo' and it should redo all your struts.

Is there a category for fastest bike? ^^Jeb on the way to mach 1.4 I've also made an RCS version of this bike I'd like to test out on Duna. I got about 770 m/s in a car earlier but couldn't put more boosters on without it exploding at launch, might wait till I download the new game update with the better joints till I try again. All this is in stock btw, I'm not using FAR. Separtrons are definately the way to go, the car that got 770m/s had 600 sepatrons on it lol. Power to weight!

Thanks for the comments, I like how the gold turned out too, overall this has been my most satisfying build so far. Yeah it really is, after the rocket started to become stable and I was doing some test runs I started looking into at what points the stages actually fired in RL. I was supprized to see that my rocket was pretty similar in performance. Took me a while to find out but looks like the 3rd stage was shot off past the moon in an escape orbit, then the LM burns to get captured by the moon/mun. So I try and keep true to this. It actually made me a bit of a temporary Apollo nut for a few weeks, I was reading up on everything - another way Kerbal inspires you to want to find out about things. No its actually a green version of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_Flag Its an Aussie protest flag of sorts, some greenies change the colour and protest environmental things now, I'm not concerned with that I just wanted a green flag to match the green kerbals but one that still had a link to Australia.

Enjoyed seeing the two stock Apollo's being made from MJ and Gus, seems like with the new bigger parts that are the same colour as the Saturn V rockets, everyone will be having to remake thier stock Apollo's, the new parts just look so much better. sgt_flyer's mini apollo is just mind boggling. Here is a stock Apollo I made a while ago, it all started around the LM, I wanted to make it using toroid tanks for the same foil look of the original. That mean't in the end it was really over weight with a ridiculous amount of LM fuel, I was going more for aesthetics so I used the right number to get it in proportion. Anyway, it luckily turned out ok, was able to use 5 Mail sails and then 5 skippers with just enough length in stage 1 and 2 to keep the Saturn V feel. I was actually really suprised how much I liked flying this in the correct apollo style, and how much satisfaction I got from making a replica. Kinda changed my outlook from making monster asparagus machines to now being more keen on making things realistic. Was the first time I made an escape tower too. The launch and the second stage some times fail (the exploding kind), which I actually like, means there is a genuine chance to need to use the escape tower. So I guess this is now a work in progress with the new stock parts available, I might just have to borrow MJ's design and fit my LM into it if that's ok?