Brainlord Mesomorph

I use that chart only for a rough idea of fuel requirements during ship design. for actual mission planning I go to this webpage https://alexmoon.github.io/ksp/ and get a departure date, ejection angle and exact dV. (look at the tutorial in my sig)

and you like solar panels!

just an update: That thing can't survive reentry on KERBIN, so - back to the drawing board....

wait-a-minute doesn't YOUR Eve-Infinity thing use nukes??? edit- oh sorry that's the sister ship

I thought of this and someone pointed out its easier to refine the fuel and just recover the vehicle, the same money-wise and no launch pad refueling. (and I think someone mentioned that just mining the ore is actually more profitable)

I've had a strange issue w/ SAS lately. Sometimes the ship would start to drift off-course and the SAS wouldn't do anything about it. Not being unable to move the ship, or overcompensating (like usual) but not even trying. I was wondering if it was deliberate, to simulate low-tech unreliable SAS units and/or untrained pilots.

OK: This bad boy has 2600 m/s dV with the LFO engines, and 4600 m/s on nukes, that equals 7200. Not quite 8k, But assuming we land in the mountains, and we don't actually have to make orbit, just a sub-orbital rendezvous with the sister ship. it might be just enough.The question is: will the Mammoth get the thing to a high enough altitude for the nukes to actually work. Still have to figure out the parachutes and design that sister ship.

Thanks guys, This was helpful. I was thinking about a tail-sitter (V-SSTO) and I was thinking about leaving a big fuel tank (and the ISRU unit) in orbit. As far as sea-level is concerned, you could land on a mountain drive a rover to the beach and back.

Since new aero? and in stock? I'd love pics.

toying w/ eve lander designs, and it occurs to me: "If you make an Eve SSTO rocket, do you win this game?" its supposed to take 8km/s of dV, and if your rocket can do that (and refuel) doesn't that mean it can ANYTHING else in this game? Such a rocketship would easily take it self to LKO with plenty of fuel to land on Minmus and refuel and then it could go and land ANYWHERE. Do anything, without any help, without a fuel tender, it wouldn't even need gantries, b/c it would have to land on Eve, it would the ultimate KSP rocket!! Am i right? this begs the question: can it be done with stock parts??

That's no moon.

Mine is a random shot of the first 2 things I snapped together in the VAB. Seconds after the very first time I started the game. /I was expecting F1 to be a help screen.

I know the game engine won't let me do it. but Gilly is so cute I want to take it with me. BTW does anyone have a huge inter-dimensional rift on Gilly? I have huge crack in the polygon surface, and its actually "full of stars!" http://imgur.com/a/7yqSj

Well not MAX realism, but I do like to own my mistakes (esp, if they don't kill Jeb). I only had a few hours, not logically time to build and launch anything (didn't even think of it) And thing was that when I discovered the problem the orbit was far too eccentric for any of the dozens of things I have in LKO to intercept it, i know I could leave it up there on rails, (a) that's cheating but (B) I thought after another aerobreak pass (or another) THEN I can intercept. but no and then things started getting all exploedy very quickly it was unmanned.

Sorry for the Necro, but I figured you guy’s would want a final report on this. Which I can sum up in four words: WELL, THAT DIDN’T WORK. First the 450 tonne tanker: I’m in a career game, I couldn’t even lift that thing to orbit with the amount of money I have. So I scale it down 75%. I build a 130 tonne “AreoTanker” Replaceable heat shield on the front. Fins and airbreaks on the back. I am able to get that to orbit, get it to Minmus and get fueled up. Now I’m able to start my aerobreaking experiments. Two words: NO WAY. As dire predicted, the thing punches through the atmosphere like a bullet. Even as low as 43km I’m only getting about 100 m/s of dV per pass. And creating literally Hell’s own heat. I was guessing that the replaceable heatshield would last for 5 or 6+ flights, its GONE after the fifth pass! And then I made a fatal error. I forgot to redeploy the solar panels after one pass, and by the time I notice, batteries are gone. So now I have a 130 ton dead bird up there on a decaying orbit! I scramble to find ANYTHING I have in orbit that can intercept and dock with it and wake it up but nothing has the fuel for it – this has all the fuel I was planning for those ships! So … the thing comes down in a HUGE fireball, parts of it exploding from 30km up all the way to ground. A big chunk of it is still intact to hit the ground, and even after that a shower of debris continues for several seconds . So the take away here is that its going to be easier to send ships up with just enough fuel to get to Minmus, than to try to carry fuel from Minmus to LKO.

I don't know if this will help. I sometimes notice different bug behavior between the first time the game starts and later reloads. So ( i know this is grasping at straw) try quitting out, rebooting, and relaunch (maybe?)

An orbital tether on Gilly should be just barely possible in the game engine. (50km physics bubble and a 46km stationary orbit.) You couldn't launch ships with it, (or could you) but you certainly use it for orbital refuelling.

I have lots of experience with the spaceship shaking itself apart bug. I started this thread and this one when I had a similar problem when I undocked the last tanker from my Eve cruiser. I eventually did build by assembling things in a different order, and I got documented different results between the first time I would try a given experiment after starting the game, vs reloading. Specifically, better results the first time. Now that I’ve gotten it to Eve, when I undock a lander it starts to shake again! I undocked a different component from the front of the ship first, then I can undock the lander. But now the ship is in two parts in Eve orbit and I don’t know what I’m going to do. And then this weekend, had the exact same problem with a clump of base parts that I had docked together in orbit of Minmus in preparation of bringing them to the surface. This time, it began as I moved fuel from one tank to another. I would put the fuel back and the shaking would stop. So I’ve come to the conclusion that it has something to do with the CoM moving through the ship. Perhaps as the COM moves between two parts(?) it causes a shockwave which eventually hits the COM and moves it back, which starts another shock wave, etc etc, oh, I was having this in 1.1.2 (was hoping 1.1.3 was going to fix it)

use the inflatable heat shield? but given that its taxi service it will be the same ship and the same mass every time. My new 450 tonne "SuperTanker" regular fuel service from Minmus to LKO

That would explain why trail and error isn't working. Speed at Pe is directly relational to altitude of Ap, right? So if I use the precise same Ap and Pe every time I should get at least similar results. right? Does mass have anything to do with it? (the ships going to be about 450t)'

Trying to get regular "taxi" service from Minmus to LKO. I've been experimenting w/ aerobreak altitudes from 50 to 35 km, but I always either have to make several passes through the atmosphere to get my Ap down to a decent level, or I just go terminal in one pass and end up landing (hopefully) my goal would be an Ap of around 120km. hopefully in one or two aerobreak passes. Anyone with ideas?

how long does that take? (the cheaper the dV the longer the flight time)

yes, I've noticed some irregular behavior with that tool. IIRC quitting out (maybe it was rebooting?) and it was OK ALSO: Any time I notice any wierd behavior in the VAB/SPH I quit out and don't save the file. I THINK the VAB goes wonky and we build the kraken into our own ships and take him with us, only to pop up later in the mission. A stable experince in the VAB equals a stable .craft file

WAIT! within the game I should GET money every time I buy one! (we could mod that!) EDIT: govt kickbacks as a STRATEGY?

http://www.upi.com/Archives/1987/10/17/Defense-kickback-indictments-involve-NASA/7625561441600/