ShadowZone

[spoiler=It's not a landing but was one of my greatest achievements (probably still is): the Gigacruiser with the interior that basically broke the game. IT HAS IVA! ] [spoiler=Also I got a classic shuttle that docks with a giant space Station ... there IS a landing at the end ] I got landings on all five moons of Jool in this thread here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/109166-Journey-to-Jool-5-brave-Kerbals-besting-the-5-beastly-moons-With-a-bit-of-disco-in-between If you want screens from one of the vids, just tell me, I got plenty

Thanks, I really appreciate it

Episode 9 - Pilfering Pol It is almost time to finish this series! Jebediah completes his mission on Pol and the Joolishka is headed home.

Am I allowed to use my own shuttle? http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/112630-SKS-1-Trinity-A-space-shuttle-that-can-carry-an-orange-tank-to-orbit-and-flies-easy

I decided to finally to a Mk3 Space Shuttle that can get an orange (36 ton) Rockomax tank into LKO. The result is the SKS-1 Trinity, which is of course very much based on the NASA shuttle. One big difference: I am using liquid fuel boosters instead of SRB because the ones in KSP are not powerful enough. Also: the shifting center of mass makes it necessary to have some degree of throttle control. The parachutes for the boosters are on the exact center of mass after depleting them. If you use stage recovery or flight manager you should be able to recover them. Why am I using 3 skipper engines? Well if you take the S3 Kerbodyne cluster which is modelled after the NASA's SLS, the real world version consists of 4 RS-25 boosters, which are basically shuttle engines. So if you devide the cluster's thrust by 4, you get a thrust rating of 800 and the closest thing to that is the Skipper with its 650. For the OMS I am using Monopropellant engines. Due to the CoM issue they can't be fired at more then 50-60% throttle unless you want your shuttle to spin around like crazy. The gist of it: On Launch: Pitch up to get thrust vector straight, then ride until it tips over (around 11000 meters), throttle down to prevent catastrophe. After booster separation, throttle back up so TWR stays above 1.01 Use OMS (final stage) carefully. Don't go much over 50% throttle and use RCS to balance your trajectory. Action groups: 1 - toggle OMS 3 - open cargo bay 5 - decouple cargo Landing this thing is fairly easy once you get a good approach to the runway. You can see that in the video below. Here's the craft file: http://www./download/wir7gevo8vea0d9/SKS-1_Trinity.craft The mentioned video: And some pics:

Today I tested a new shuttle variant. Then I decided to dock it with an experimental station I happened to have in orbit. Then I realized that station does not have the docking port to accomodate the shuttle. Then I build a small rocket bringing up a docking port adapter. Then I docked the shuttle. Then I deorbited it to land perfectly on the runway. Good times

https://soundcloud.com/emil-persson-12/kerbal-space-piano/s-Gc0ve I think this is beautiful. Big props to Emil Persson.

Episode 8 - Bibbidi Bobbidi Bop On the chocalate hills of Bop, our brave Bob gets some science.

Haha! How about a Duna Ion Bike circumnavigation challenge? Thanks for reminding me! Put it in the original post. Haha, true! Thanks

Thanks! The ion bike version in the video is a little outdated. I made one with 8 1x6 solar panels (4 on each side) that mitigates the electricity problem somewhat. You could also spam it with the smallest battery since it is massless and therefore doesn't reduce TWR. The Ion Bike as it is has just an inchling more than 1.01 TWR on Duna. Maybe I get rid of one or two Xenon tanks (4800 m/s dV currently is probably overkill) so save weight so I can add more batteries or panels or RTGs.

So I got bored with the way landing usually works: Using a transfer vehicle to the target planet/moon, land a lander, get back up and rendezvous and then continue on. It made me think: why not use just one craft to do it all? And why not make this craft rather spectacular? And also give it an interior, as I did with my Gigacruiser, the K-Star Supreme? Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you: The Stingray. Oh and some Ion Bikes as well, so that the Kerbals can get around on the surface EDIT: Here's the .craft file!

Guess I have no choice... I have to repost my Gigacruiser then. And my Stock Space Shuttle with S3 cargo bay. My newest creation: The Stingray Corvette complete with Ion Bikes. And last but not least: My Jool-5 rocket, the "Joolishka"

I thought: Why the hell use landers? Let's just land the entire damn cruiser! So I made this.

I had a go at the "Excursion to Mt. Keverest challenge". I chose to do it in style, surface only

Here's my entry: a five hour (Kerbal time) surface only mission across half of the planet to reach the peak of Mt. Keverest. Skip to around 11:30 for a little surprise

Damn. I think I would have rocked this challenge if my station would have had space for just one more Kerbal - Can't add it anymore cause the save file got corrupted and I don't want to spend another 6 hours or so assembling this in orbit

once again the KSP bug hit me hard... when I looked at my watch it said 11:40pm ... "just one more test flight" ... suddenly it was 3:20am ... Do you recognize this with your play sessions? How much time do you spend in one sitting of KSP?

Would a VTOL-assisted rover fall under category 1 or 2? What I mean is this: I build a vehicle which has wheels as its main propulsion but is able to do small "hops" with a vertically mounted jet engine.

I am wondering about about two things: Will those printed models have working docking ports / decouplers? Because... you know... What do I do with just a launch stage? What about moving parts like landing gears and cargo bays? And what about monsters like my Gigacruiser? Will they be able to print the interior?

yep. that mod is gold!

What Parkaboy said. When I plan vehicles with multiples docking ports, I build both in the VAB and align the ports so it will work once in space.

Episode 7 - Double Whammy at Vall Even though I crippled the lander in the previous episode I still pull of some biome hopping.

My thoughts exactly

I don't really build spaceplanes that much, but I do like the Mk3 parts. For my Jool-5 mission, the main craft was mostly built out of them. I built my Gigagruiser (remember the monstrosity with the interior hull?) mostly with Mk3 parts and I wouldn't consider it a plane And as mentioned before, a good aero model also adds to the experience of launching any stuff into orbit.

When I did my Apollo 11 recreation, I released the CM from the rest of the ship, turned around and jettisoned a decoupler that was still hanging on the back of the CM. The force of the decoupler propelled the CM into the bay where the LM waited and the two docked instantaneously