Norcalplanner

Going interplanetary requires a level of motivation and time investment that many people simply don't have for a game. Also, the forum suffers from self-selection bias and is therefore not a statistically valid sample of the KSP player base.

Here's an album. Not the most efficient, but it gets the point across. A little bit bigger burn during the initial transfer cuts the travel time down significantly. And for the record, I'm running SpaceY, Fuel Tanks Plus, and SMURFF at 0.5 lever. Makes for some higher delta V than stock.

I'm going to play later tonight - I'll take some pics.

I'm doing higher energy transfers to and from Minmus these days, but it's largely because I'm running a 6.4x game with Kerbalism. There are both life support and radiation considerations that encourage a swifter transit, especially if you've kept the craft light with minimal shielding.

Still really enjoying this mod - it's much better than the stock strategies. I did discover a small bug today with the Eve Probes strategy. I successfully landed three probes in different biomes, but it wouldn't complete the contract because two of my probes were splashed down in the Explodium Sea and Poles biomes. I was able to edit the persistence file and change the two probes from SPLASHED to LANDED, and then the contract completed after I switched to each of the probes. Anyway, it may be worthwhile to change things so that probes which have either landed or splashed down still complete the probes missions.

I've found that things work better when you have both a probe core and a reaction wheel to join them together directly. I'd lose the service bay and mount the core directly to the reaction wheel and see if that helps.

I just reviewed the numbers for the Falcon FT, and I am officially impressed. In the expendable configurstion, they're able to put 22.8 metric tons into orbit using a 549.05 ton rocket, for a payload mass fraction of 4.15 percent. All while only using kerolox engines.

I rely almost exclusively on the monoprop stored in capsules and cans for my docking of small to medium craft. Once one gets good at docking technique, it's possible to dock and undock 5 or more times with the built-in tanks. Edit - The Kerbalism mod does borrow monoptop from the craft to put in EVA suits, then returns any unused monoptop when reentering the craft.

Please keep in mind cost and tech tree node when balancing this or any other part. When using community tech tree, it takes a lot of time and science to unlock some of these advanced panels. I'd be a bit upset if they were no more efficient than cheaper, lower tech solar arrays.

Correct. I found the same thing while designing a space station. Be sure to put the number of crew you plan to have in the ship in it while you're in the VAB, and then deploy any rotating rings. I'd also note that these entertainment values multiply one another, so adding another habitat ring will have a huge impact on the length of time to instability.

This is what I do, whatever label happens to be applied to it. It's nearly as efficient as a true horizontal landing, generally only requiring small adjustments of +5 or +10 degrees of radial compared to the true retrograde surface vector. Furthermore, by having the craft on a suborbital trajectory, you can access helpful information from mods like MechJeb, Trajectories, or Better Burn Time which show you where youre going to land, time to impact, and a suicide burn timer.

In my guide (link in sig) I recommend an initial TWR between 3 and 5 for the body you're landing on. For the Mun specifically, a Rockomax 16 and a Terrier makes a great power section for a manned lander. This combination has a wide base, low part count, and lots of Delta V for biome hopping.

They're handy for skycranes and in situations where you want an unobstructed end of the craft (such as having a large docking port). Other than that, not much use for Mr. Thud.

Just another report to say that I'm really enjoying this mod. I just sent four lander probes, six commsats, and a probe "mothership" to Duna/Ike in my 6.4x game with Kerbalism .9.9.5 installed. Several solar panels and engines malfunctioned on the way out, but I built a bit of redundancy into the system and we were able to still complete the mission and the lucrative contracts. With the combination of this mod and the 6.4x system, I haven't felt this challenged since I did my first Jool-5. Lots of fun! Keep up the great work!

Thanks for the quick reply and fix in the new version!

Really enjoying the pre-release version of the next build. Once I recreated some of my older craft so that the food and oxygen would update correctly, I haven't had any problems with dead Kerbals. What I did have a problem with is trying to add the geiger counter part or the thermometer part to a craft in the VAB. I have Exception Detector installed, and it started throwing dozens of errors per second with the following message: [EXC 21:22:46.521] NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object KERBALISM.Cache.VesselInfo (.Vessel v) KERBALISM.Sensor.Update () [EXC 21:22:46.538] NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object KERBALISM.Cache.VesselInfo (.Vessel v) KERBALISM.Sensor.Update () [EXC 21:22:46.556] NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object KERBALISM.Cache.VesselInfo (.Vessel v) KERBALISM.Sensor.Update () [LOG 21:22:46.573] deleting part GeigerCounter The errors wouldn't stop coming until I had removed and thrown away the part. Didn't try to launch - I got nervous with so many errors being thrown. Other than this tiny thing, I'm loving this mod. Keep up the great work!

Or you can remove the Poodle and put on a Terrier. The combo of a rockomax 16 plus a terrier is a great power section for a Munar lander. Gives lots of extra delta v for biome hops and a nice wide base for landing. In the OP example, I'd echo those who suggest removing the adapter to save mass and lower the CoM for the lander.

After playing with this for a few weeks, I'm still really liking it. However, I do think that the solar panels, especially the deployable ones, are nerfed too much when other mods are taken into account. For example, I had a satellite in polar orbit doing a biome survey of Kerbin using the appropriate Scansat part. Even though I had six deployable solar arrays on this satellite, and had oriented the satellite so that all panels were receiving full sunlight, it still wasn't enough. The scanner part used 1.6 ec/s, which is more than the panels could provide. It seemed out of whack to have the satellite running out of power in full sunlight with that many arrays.

I'd also suggest playing around with Meithan's engine app. It's a good tool for comparing options for a particular mission profile. http://meithan.net/KSP/engines/

I've been using SMURFF with my 6.4x Sigma Dimensions game with a 0.5 lever. It helps a lot with everything, but reentry in particular because it reduces the weight of both capsules and heatshields. With less weight to slow down, heating isn't as bad. I will note that I've adjusted heating with the stock slider down to 80 or 90%, and the combination of the slider and SMURFF means you don't have to worry about Real Heat or anything else which is more in depth.

ShotgunNinja has already said that the next version of Kerbalism will disable its own antenna/control mechanic if it detects that RT is installed.

Pathfinder also has some really good parts, including extendable tube to link modules together.

+1 for the ASL reference.

I love the way that there are literally millions of different ways to build a craft to accomplish a particular goal.

In case anyone wasn't aware, Necrobones has included a handful of ETS craft in his Real Scale Boosters mod, including the Carrack and Saturn multi-body.