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WanderingKid

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Everything posted by WanderingKid

  1. The docking port and claw attachment off the center of spin (assuming the blue arms are the traveling arms) will slightly offset Center of Mass because it's not matched on the other side. With CoM slightly off, and SAS not countering, you will get imbalance eventually, particularly with a good sized fuel tank there. To add additional minor influences, on another axis there's something hanging off the large engine's gas tank that looks like a tiny cylinder of something with a docking port on the end. KSP and rounding errors being what they are, if you're not perfect, don't spin.
  2. There's a couple of indicators you can use as you take off. First, if you've got the default skybox, there's a band of stars about level with the orbital plane. Use that as a guide for equatorial aim for prograde/retrograde. Also, you want to turn the camera so Minmus is just barely on screen, use spacebar to orient that way, then thrust forward. It's not exact but it gets you close to pro/retro. For the above, thrusting prograde basically means get a bit off the ground and then run horizontal with most of your propellant to achieve orbit with just your EVA pack. From there, you figure out your rendezvous. Don't try to rendezvous directly from ground, you'll want to do it from orbit, like any other rendezvous, just with a lot less clutter like SAS, thrust controls, etc... XD It's totally doable, but a direct intercept with your ship in orbit means that you go straight up to try to catch it, then suddenly you have to get ~180 m/s sideways speed. It's much, much easier to achieve orbit and then rendezvous.
  3. Rounding errors, offset CoM, part #'s, clipping being erratic... Lots of stuff. Pics please. Also, side note, once it goes 'on rails' when you switch away from it, the spinning will stop. Also if you time warp.
  4. This guy needs his own research center somewhere FAR FAR away. Perhaps on a low solar orbit without notification that it's a decaying one! That's just in case his experiments reach sentience or grey goo status or something. Need to be careful.
  5. It's a bugfix for some really odd things happening to orbits that was brought into play in 1.1.3. I've yet to see a solid answer to why it's toggleable other than a 'lack of hubris on the part of the devs', in case it created other problems. There's no real decay in KSP, everything's on rails when you're not driving it.
  6. So, the question is answered, but I'd like to add a note. Traveling to Minmus and the *ahem* Butterfly dribble effect is something that will heavily influence any interplanetary transfers you'll do. Mun's great as a first target. Minmus actually teaches the little bits and pieces that end up getting exponentially multiplied for interplanetary transfers. That last 10 dV is murder!
  7. Is there a good link you know of for an introduction to vis-viva equation? I've never heard the term before and would like to get acquainted.
  8. Drag from shape, convenience of a big round cylinder to stick things to with not much other purpose, fits the 2.5m rockets nicely.
  9. As of KSP 1.2.2, epic bases are not gone: This was entirely built with landing legs and a rover moving parts around and connecting them up. I have no float or kraken issues with it, but I also have no autostrutting going on.
  10. There are pros to bringing along multiple copies of the same experiment, even on a simple flyby (but only two). If you don't have a scientist on board who can grab the data and reset the experiment (Materials Bay and Goo) bringing along one for both high and low space flight can let you get a larger science recovery then doing both in the same biome. For example, the Goo Bay gets 10 units of science per experiment (leaving out biome multipliers here). Maximum value per biome is 13. Transmission efficiency is 30%. So, to expand on what Bewing said above, transmitting 30% of 10 (3 units) and then resetting the experiment with a scientist and recovering it will max out that biome in a single pass, bringing you up to 13 units. Mat Bay is similar. However, if you don't have a scientist to reset the experiment, you'll need two goos to get the full 13 units of science from the biome. Better, though, would be to use those two goos to get 10 from high, and 10 from low, and get 20 total science from the trip, instead of 13. To get full science without a scientist to reset, you'd need 4 goo canisters, 2 for each biome, for a total of 26. Usually not worth the weight.
  11. What about sticking the claw onto the carrier deck, then piloting the plane over to the claw, then lowering the landing gear on the plane to get the armed claw to grab it? No random parts on your plane, and your aircraft carrier will now look like a giant space monster if you arm them all at once!
  12. I typically put my apo on the correct orbit, periapsis as low as possible, then guesstimate with KAC when I should come back and care for circularization.
  13. TWR increases as you burn fuel and lower weight. Think of it as if you tossed a fuel tank overboard... your TWR is already better even if you're not going as far. dV isn't actually a function of thrust over time, momentum change is. dV is a measure of how much you can change overall, I misspoke above, apologies, I got caught up in the TWR vs. dV discussion in my head. Most likely the time is based on burn times, but what burn time I can't tell you (full burn, current throttle, all stages, etc), as I don't use MJ. The part that truly matters for burn time is early in your 'weight' you'll need to burn longer to achieve some amount of dV instead of later, when you're lighter and your TWR is improved.
  14. I can't speak to MechJeb, but I can help you out with Delta-V (dV for short). First off, the equations and the like I'll be referencing can most easily be found here, though there are plenty of others if you google ksp delta v calculation: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorial:Advanced_Rocket_Design dV is a function of thrust over time. It's a Delta to your velocity (or vector, depending on thought), thus V. This isn't directly equated to a burn time, as you can burn at different rates for less, or more, change per second. However, there is a max-throttle burn time and/or a at current throttle burn time, which is the time number you're seeing above. Which one it is in MJ, I'm not sure. Now, dV is calculated by your wet mass, your dry mass, and the ISP (think gas milage when starting to ease your mind around the idea) of the engine(s) involved, using the gravity of the world the ISP was rated on as a constant to determine Exhaust Velocity. It's a log equation also known as Tsiolkovsky equation to figure out how much vector you can change on your current ship as a factor of the fuel you'll burn going from wet (heaviest, worst mpg) to dry (lightest, best mpg). For our purposes, it's a plug and play function, we just need a calculator. Divide the wet mass of your ship by the dry mass (Example: 10t craft with 6t of fuel), so 10/6. Use the ln function (Natural Log) on your calculator against the result of that. Then multiply it by the ISP listed in game (we'll use 320 for the vacuum ISP for the moment) and then by 9.81, the gravity constant of where the ISP was rated from. So, 10/6 =~ 1.667. ln(1.667) = .5108. * 320 * 9.81 = 1603.58. So, roughly 1,603.58 m/s of dV. This means you can adjust your velocity by that much with that fuel and engine. So if you had an orbital speed of around 1,603 m/s, you could burn off all your fuel and fall like a brick, or use a little over half of that to transfer burn to Mun (which costs ~850). Finally, the # that's getting you during your circularization burn (achieving apoapsis and raising periapsis to NOT fall back into the atmosphere) is the TWR, or Thrust to Weight Ratio. This is done via the kN (KiloNeutons) rating on the engines you're burning. Typically a 6,000+ dV is done with Nukes, and these are notorious for not having TWR worthy of fast maneuvers. They're almost specifically used once in orbit and often over multiple burns at periapsis to get your apoapsis to the required height. The math for TWR is also relatively simple once you have all the #'s to plug into the equation, and that DOES change as you burn fuel, you'll have a higher TWR the lighter the craft overall is. I suggest you check out this wiki page for more information on understanding TWR: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Thrust-to-weight_ratio
  15. 50-100k for a first stage? What are you launching?! That's... expensive. Like, huge space station expensive.
  16. I personally find spending 20 minutes wandering around Mun playing avoid the crater to complete a crappy little contract relaxing on occasion, but I'm weird. Nope. If you're sitting at 1 mill in funds you're in a good position for any launch. It comes down to "What do I want to do". For reference: Getting to Duna, without a landing and with a decent aerobrake is about as expensive as Minmus with landings. It just requires higher precision and correct timing for the transfer. It costs 950 to transfer out to Minmus, and about 1150 to get out to Duna. Capture with Aerobrake (it takes a few revolutions) and you don't even worry too much about the cost of braking in system. Returning, however, will cost you a good clip, unlike Minmus. I forget how much offhand. So, no, you really don't need the big guns. If you're just bringing a series of satellites and probes, 1.25m parts are all you should need, though you'll want the RA-2 antennas, and the RA-10 is better for a mothership. It's only when you start needing to transport landing craft and the like that you'll be looking at really wanting to invest in a modular 2.5m build out. The 3.5 meter stuff I find to be overkill, usually, unless you're launching huge stations. For my usual games they only come out when I've just reached 'Ah, heck with it' levels of "Let's visit MOHO!.. and land in the hole!... TWICE!.... WHEEEEE!"... or I'm launching some insane rig for the joy of it.
  17. We live for the K, we die for the K.
  18. It most likely won't be practical to move it afterwards unless you're very careful in your design about where your Center of Mass for the station is... or you make it a giant noodle. 6,000 Liquid Fuel doesn't include oxidizer, it's just the LF component. That's monstrous. That's more than two of the orange tanks, the 2.5 meter long one. On the bright side, you'll be able to operate Mun missions for ages with that for landers and tourists! Battery storage isn't anywhere near as bad, thankfully, they're just heavy unless you want a lot of part count (you typically try to avoid huge part counts). My recommendation would be to send up semi-empty tanks and other components to Mun, rendezvous there to assemble the station in a cool looking way, add in some extra ports on extended I-Beams so you can dock landers and refuelers easily, toss in some RCS storage for your landers, and then finally send refueler rockets to the station. Also, you might want to check out the mod DPAI (Docking Port Alignment Indicator), I find it invaluable for those last docking maneuvers when the target ship doesn't rotate easily. On a final note for that station, though, if you *do* design it in such a way you can assemble it in LKO then move it to Mun... you can then move it anywhere you want. Once the contract completes it's still yours, so you could, for example, use it to feed your Mun landers... then transfer it to Minmus as a base, then perhaps send it off to Duna and Ike as a fuel ship.
  19. Having done just this a while back... they're not kidding about the sound. I had a decent amount of interest in my opening series, but there was just too much going on with the vocals at the time. Things to look into: A superior sound card. Don't bother with the one built into the rig, you literally won't hear what some of the other people are. Get yourself a good one. I personally use a Scarlett 2i2 these days. This is step one. Next, Free Software: Audacity. Get it and learn how to scrub your vocals for background sounds... like computer fans, A/C fans, Overhead fans, ... fans. Many fans. Kill them. I'm not sure what you're using to scrub right now, but it's modulating the heck out of your voice... if that IS your voice, you have a curious accent I'm not familiar with. Finally, the microphone: You can get them at a reasonable price at Guitar Center. Do NOT get a Condenser microphone unless you plan to build a sound booth. They're wonderful, but they pick up the echo from the kitchen when you're upstairs with the door closed. Get Dynamic. Additionally, look for a supercardioid or hypercardioid mics, or at least cardioid. Omnidirectionals (the standard) will pick up your typing heavily and all the echoes off your desktop. I own a SoundBlaster Rage with microphone and it works just fine for talking with buds on TeamSpeak, but it was complete crap for recording. I've seen some amazing sound come out of headsets though... just not the Rage's. It might be worth poking around at some streamers with inlaid pics who are obviously using a headset mic with good sound and asking for advice about what equipment they're using. My guess is they're the high end headsets, but I don't know. I've had almost no luck with any of the medium level ones. Finally: EDIT. Oh gods, edit. Timewarp. Jump Cut. Unless you're a professional comedian and you've scripted 30 minutes of banter you're going to work with, no one's that entertaining constantly. IE: So, here's my workhorse satellite, and this is going to orbit (voiceover in the NLE while you speed up the launch, point out the characteristics or interesting bits)... and *this* is 30 launches later when my comm network was built chasing a few dozen easy satellite contracts. This was my other mistake... I needed MORE editing, not less. I did a lot but simply not enough. I don't know if you did this or not, honestly. I skipped around a bit and decided I didn't want to watch it. If someone wants to watch someone play, they'll boot up streaming services (ie: twitch) and actually watch and interact. For YouTube, a straight to screen dump with a title and an end card just won't cut it for KSP unless you've built up an audience elsewhere and are doing it as filler drops for your primary series to keep the channel active. Since you have 10 subscribers and mention you're new, you want to look into NLE's (Non-Linear Editors). These allow you to heavily edit your scenes for your video(s). In general, the best one for me has been Premiere Pro from Adobe. It's $20/month subscription just for the current one. Buy and forget include Pinnacle and Sony Vegas. Pinnacle and Premiere Pro are relatively similar in their commands, Vegas was a significant departure and I really didn't like it. I found both Pinnacle and Vegas too buggy once you started to use more than 3 or 4 video channels at once, but ymmv. I had very little luck working with the free softwares out there for what I wanted it to do, but it's worth poking at them to find out if you even want to work with them at all. All that said: Good luck. It's a hobby, expect to invest time, practice, and money into it, or it's the equivalent of a newbie clay molder showing off their new ashtray. My earliest videos certainly were ashtrays, thankfully I was just doing a challenge proofing at the time so a lot of good folks helped me out.
  20. It is very doable... and I just realized I have no shots of the particular ship in question in my Imgur gallery. Sooo, I must point you to one of my older YouTube videos where I discuss methods to line it up for my ship the Ares Helm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8BM8Na3hNY From about 2:30 through 7:00 I show you how it works. I will say that they are PAINFUL to dock correctly though, and wouldn't do it again except for style points.
  21. They stay out by default. Check your mods and action groups.
  22. The particular ship in question is meant to be rendezvous friendly with plenty of extra dV, it's just not being used for that yet, but it's also newbie friendly in terms of extra fuel for adjustments and learning the efficient methods. That said, you're absolutely right in general. The iteration of removing unnecessary parts and getting better with the equipment allowing you to remove yet more... makes things more efficient in the long run. However, 200 dV extra is basically the 20% engineer's overkill when you're talking a Mun orbit, which runs ~1,500 dV all told with no mistakes from LKO 75km. Wonderful news. Something you might want to look into, specifically for tourist orbits on Mun, is free return trajectories. Basically you shoot your apoapsis up to ~14.5Mm from Kerbin, do a high altitude retrograde flyby, and you're already on your way home. While you're at the periapsis of that particular flyby, you can slow down, barely get an orbit, trigger the 'orbit the Mun' condition, then speed up again and head home.
  23. 0 degree inclination. Mun is an excellent 'equatorial' check for AN/DN to make sure you're equatorial around Kerbin, as well, by simply targeting it and getting your ascending/descending nodes to 0, then untargeting. This is absolutely normal. You're going from a basketball to a croquet ball. Minmus is almost a golf ball. Anyway, minor irregularities during your transfer burn will translate to huge differences on the far side. Luckily, as mentioned above, it's also easily corrected. About 30-45 minutes out from Kerbin put in a maneuver node and mess with it a little. Up/Down (purple) to cure your Ascending/descending concerns. Faster/slower (or radial in/out) to cure your periapsis height. To make life easier, set your maneuver node up, then focus on Mun (double click it, or tab around until it's focused) so you can see your projected path more clearly. In the background, re-click on your maneuver node to open it up and adjust while you're looking at Mun to figure out what your correction burn should be for where you want to go.
  24. Woot! Gratz. I've never bothered bringing the terrier in on the back because I usually dump it into the atmo with a 22-25km Periapsis and land hot and fast. The launch flip occurs if you come off prograde before 20km up after dumping the thumpers, even with fins. Dead into prograde for the separation, and then ride it until you're into the thinner atmosphere. Adjusting the fuel priorities to use the lower tanks on the T-45 first should also help.
  25. With a heat shield on the end you can bring it down in a single pass if you PE @30,000 or so. Some folks like heat shields, some don't, but I find them excellent for keeping a slightly rounded end down instead of ending up nosing over.
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