Norcalplanner

Dangas Kerman is one of the few Kerbals I've ever killed. With high courage, high stupidity, and a name which was 2/3 of the way to "danger" he became the test pilot for all of my crazy jet planes back when I was on a plane kick. While attempting a high G turn at low altitude, he lost control, spun the plane, and pancaked into the ground. I figured that his grave marker would serve as a warning for future pilots.

In case nobody has said it yet - tweak the opening height of your parachutes! I used to have a hard time landing on Duna, then I changed my parachutes in the VAB to fully open at 1200 meters instead of 500 meters, and everything fell into place. I'd encourage you to give it a try.

Ox-stat panel and batteries. Once you have them, you can start transmitting science reports over and over from different locations.

Laie, I don't disagree with anything you've said. My initial design this time around used Mainsails, and the big KerboDyne engines are great - they're featured on the lifter stage of my ship. The Skippers just sort of hit the sweet spot for how big my rocket ended up being. I'll know shortly whether it was a good choice or not. :-)

Speaking solely for myself, there are two reasons I'm using the Skippers. First, because I've already done the aerospike/FLT800 thing before, and I wanted to do something new. Second, the Skipper was buffed in 0.24 and is now a very decent engine. 3 tons, 650 kN thrust, a gimbaling engine, and Isp of 320/370. It equals or beats clusters of LVT30s in every category, and loses to aerospike clusters only in Isp. Part count and cost go way down, in exchange for some efficiency. My lander is 200 tons, but should be pretty dang flyable and non-laggy.

Design is almost finalized, and the Eve Rocks expedition should occur by the end of the weekend. To give you a tiny sneak peek, I offer one word - Skippers. Yes, Skippers. And no, I haven't lost my marbles. :-)

Hard mode plus Kerbal Construction Time. KCT is adding a whole new time and budgetary role-playing component that's a welcome enhancement to the game.

Have you ever run out of monoprop but still need to dock? Or are simply trying to lower the mass and part count on your docked ships? Then step right up, because I've stumbled across a technique that will help you dock quickly and easily without using any monoprop. My apologies in advance if this is common knowledge, but I haven't seen anybody else talking about it on the forums. I call it Double SmartASS. Required elements on each ship: Docking port (obviously) Sufficient ASAS for a decent turn rate (able to turn 180 degrees in 30 seconds or less) without RCS thrusters MechJeb How to do it: Rendezvous with the other ship as per usual, fairly close (50m or so) Make sure you're in target mode, and zero out the relative velocity Control your ship from the docking port, and target the other ship's docking port (standard docking procedure) Engage SmartASS on MechJeb - go into target mode, and tell it to point at the target Hit the "]" key to switch to the other ship Do the same as above, controlling it from the docking port, targeting the other docking port, and telling SmartASS to keep the ship pointed toward the other docking port The two ships will now be perfectly aligned towards each other - SmartASS will stay active on the other ship as long as it's within physics range Take the smaller ship and thrust towards the larger ship at .3 or .4 m/s Take your hands off the keyboard and watch your ships dock If your vector is a little bit off, don't worry about it - the ships will rotate as they get close to each other, will maintain correct alignment, and will still complete the docking maneuver That's it! Enjoy your newfound freedom from monoprop. Sorry about the "unanswered" status in the thread title - the board wouldn't let me post here without choosing one or the other...

I'll just do this in a save that doesn't have KJR installed to avoid any controversy. I've only started using it recently, so no biggie.

I'll second those who suggest using the big SLS SRBs for cost-effective launches. Each puts out the same thrust as a Skipper for only a few thousand funds. My medium lifter is now an 82 ton ARM tank, a mainsail, and between 6 and 14 of the big S1 SRBs. For a really heavy lifter I'll have 4 of these (with slightly fewer SRBs) asparagused around a core with a KR2 to keep the TWR up. Keep in mind that Mainsails were buffed recently, and now have an Isp of 320 / 370.

Just to clarify - would Kerbal Joint Reinforcement be considered non-stock physics? No worries either way - I just want to know how many struts I should plan on using.

Woohoo! New challenge! Starting mission planning now...

Used to use it all the time, but now I play mostly career so it's not cost-effective. I've recently gotten into Interstellar, so using thermal rockets with beamed power and big boosters to get off the pad initially seems to be the winning combination. I've got so many reactors and relays up and running that I can get 11,000 kN of thrust at an Isp over 800 on liquid fuel from a single 3.75m rocket motor once the rocket is up to a decent altitude.

I only understand half of what you all are talking about, but what I do understand has me using all my self-control to avoid squealing with delight like a little girl. Keep up all the great work!

Just keep your part count down if you don't want it to turn into Kerbal Slide Show Program. I once assembled an 800 ton station in Munar orbit, but I abandoned it because the lag was so bad.

I'm going to attempt a SSTO Eve descent and ascent, using Interstellar, beamed microwave power, a thermal receiver, and a hybrid thermal turbojet / rocket. I'm fully open to the possibility that the next thing after that may be an Eve rescue mission to recover from a botched ascent.

It's a coin flip between X Wing and King's Bounty. Yes, I'm old. :-)

Over in the Laythe Capitalism Challenge, I was able to get Kerbals to Laythe and back for 589 funds per head. Some of the guys really optimized their craft, and got it below 100 funds per Kerbal. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/86427-Laythe-Capitalism!

Do the separator engines damage the adjacent fuel tank? I had some problems a while back with separatrons blowing up the center fuel tank, and these appear to be pretty powerful units pointing their exhaust directly at the center tank.

Aha -thanks for the clarification. I just tried to make a small fast jet, but was thwarted by Interstellar currently being installed. That mod makes jet engines overheat a lot starting at 1200 m/s or so, even if there are no Interstellar parts on the plane.

Is cubic octagonal strut clipping in the VAB without using alt f12 allowed? And is the 8 intake rule per craft, or per engine? Because I have a space plane tanker that will reach more than 2,300 m with 5 ram intakes per turbojet. One of the photos shows 2,322.8 m/s at 36.5 km. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/90337-Economic-Fuel-to-Oribit?p=1428382&viewfull=1#post1428382

OP should be modified to include Maxmaps' newest information...

Agreed on the delay issue - I suggested it 20 pages ago. Unfortunately, I think it would fall into the "realistic, but not fun" category for all but the most diehard rocketeers. Putting some small level of inaccuracy into the heading might make sense - I remember in NOLF 2 that your sniper rifle target reticle would swim around a bit until you were more experienced.

Nice mission photos on the flyby, and congrats on making it to Kerbol's SOI that early in the program. If you've unlocked nukes and solar, then it's time for a multi-planet deep space probe at some point to start surveying other celestial bodies.

If you've achieved orbit, and docked successfully in orbit, and done a munar flyby, then the next step is to land somewhere (Mun or Minmus) and bring a surface sample back to Kerbin. And yes on the LKO fuel depot.