moogoob

A self-destruct button would be nice. Though me? I'd use it for de-orbiting transfer stages that are no longer needed. That, or this:

I designed the "Angrybird" mini shuttle on paper before building it in KSP. Didn't go so far as to do Delta-v calculations but was going more for aesthetics.

Thanks you two! I'll give it a shot - the mission just launched and I was going to do some Mimnus grinding and other near-Kerbin infrastructure upkeep while it works its way out to Jool. Thank goodness for Kerbal Alarm Clock!

Question regarding Tylo/Laythe slingshot - what if it's on the wrong side of Jool? How would that work? EDIT: and you're all correct in thinking I don't want to aerocapture - I certainly didn't bring any heat shields.

Okay, long story short is I've just launched, in career mode, my second Jool lander probe. This one is supposed to complete Explore contracts for Pol and Bop. Now, I've done the approach to Jool many times before, but this time I'm curious - what is the best way to approach the system's outer moons? I see two options: 1. Bi-elliptical-style transfer, where you fly in close to Jool to maximize Oberth effect and fire your engine until your periapsis is near where your target orbit (I think I'll do Pol first) is, then do what you have to do to reach the moon in question. 2. The "Casual approach", where you put your approach periapsis near your target moon's orbit (or so), then burn to circularize. This seems easier, at least at first glance. So, does anyone know? Also, would a high-speed (al-la New Horizons) trajectory have an impact on how you capture?

There's lots of water on Duna already, only it's frozen.

I can't see DLC working for a game like KSP, unless it was en entirely new solar system, or a different (wartime?) career/campaign mode. And I bought the mission packs (what we USED to call DLC bigger than just horse armour back in the day) for Skyrim - I love them, they both add lots to the game once you're starting to get to the end of the stock content. I still have an install. Rarely boot it up, though. KSP's my current space flight itch scratcher.

I went on that tour when I was ten and they still had the Saturn V outside.

Don't worry, it took me a while, too.

I've had Kerbals on Minmus flung downward at speed from the hatch upon letting go of their ladder. The physics of Kerbals can be wonky some times.

Good thread - answering many of my own questions. My own attempts (first time doing career in a while!) keep getting hit by Kraken attacks. I blame the service bay. I'll get my Minmus station working some day! EDIT: Good tip with crew rotations for experience.

Did your design by any chance involve structural fuselages or 2.whatever meter service bays? It seems like we're having the same issues.

Maybe you had too much power flowing through the flux capacitor?

It seems as though she has a channel called "Vintage Space". I'll have to check it out.

Sent a lander to my career Minmus station... and the station's docking fuselage suddenly exploded as I got within physics range. Again. Sigh. So, Kernne (who should have gone to the lab on the station) is now in the lander on the surface of the moon, and Valentina is still in the station awaiting a new one, or a rescue, or something. I think she was smoking in the docking tube, which being next to the monopropellant wasn't such a good idea. At least she's OK. You have any idea how much it costs to hire new Kerbonauts?

I forget where exactly in, but there a bunch of options to specify exactly how MJ does SAS. You can even have it use the default stock one. One of the options fixed this wobble for me in light spacecraft when mechjeb's SAS was freaking out but stock wasn't.

There are settings in Mechjeb (if you're using that) where you can customize the amount of damping that the stability assist uses.

Crew reports from space near aren't biome specific. EVA reports are, for some reason. As to overheat, I've had this happen near Minmus of all places - a structural fuselage that held the docking port collection on a new station just up and poofed at a 35km periapsis (capture, not landing as it's an orbital station). It might have involved struts, as in a subsequent attempt after disconnecting and reconnecting went fine, without overheat.

No matter how bad the TWR of a nuke-powered vehicle is, it's worlds beyond an ion-powered one. I tried it once. Took a Nastybird 3, added twin ion engines (both for symmetry and so I could call it Nastybird TIE) and a big Xenon tank and took it for a spin. Let's just say that something simple like getting to the Mun was a three-pass sort of maneuver. Capturing at the Mun was a two-pass thing. Never again.

Career mode: 1. Sent a small single-unit lab station to Minmus. Took three tries - first two times the structural fuselage exploded due to sudden and unexplained overheating. This is a piece that both A) had all my docking ports and more importantly connected the station to my transfer stage through one of the aforementioned docking ports. I F9'd back to my customary "entering a moon's SOI" quicksave and tried again. Same thing. Did it a third time, this time decoupling the two and re-docking. This also snapped the struts that connected the two halves. Either this or the fact I tried circularizing at a higher altitude ended up fixing the issue, and now Val is keeping the station running until I can get some scientists and a lander (for Val to pilot) out there. No contracts or science scored, but hey, now I have station out at Minmus that can collect mucho science in the future and maybe be sent to Duna once I'm done with that. 2. Slightly related, I had a mun mission sitting on the surface for a bit, and the scientist in the lander, Kernne, was needed on the Minmus station but her collected science (temperature readings, mun rocks, goo samples etc.) was needed back at Kerbin first, so back to Kerbin we went. That's OK, she didn't have any docking ports anyways. First try: took two passes to aerobrake. Second pass accidentally deployed chutes early. Foof. Reload. Second try, worked like a charm. Made 1400 science, plus whatever profit the flag-planting mission (which paid for the endeavor) had left over. Nice! I don't know how anyone plays iron man style. Seriously, new recruits must get expensive.

In my opinion, Mechjeb (Kerbal engineer works too) for readouts at the very least. It's amazing how much easier things are with just apoapsis and periapsis readouts visible in flight. Mechjeb's autopilot and manouver planner are just bonuses. Visually, I like EVE and Planetshine. The first is great (so long as you disable city lights) for its clouds (makes landing on Eve much harder due to the thick clouds!) and Planetshine adds a great deal when in orbit, particularly around strikingly-coloured planets like Duna or Jool. And other than the asteroid day mod, that's all I usually install.

I just want an engine in between the Swivel and Reliant for medium-weight upper stages. Maybe some fixed landing legs so we don't have to use airplane landing gear in early career mode. Of course, more fuel-filled adapters would be nice.

Schools are wretched places, where dreams die, freedoms are squashed and trust in adults gives say to cynicsm. From what I understand, it's gotten even worse since I was in high school in the late 90s (just pre-columbine). I was one of those weird kids, but I knew enough to not trust the system. Don't show anything out of the ordinary and the system would have no reason to single you out capriciously or unfairly. If I had been him, I would have kept my clock at home, unless a teacher requested (and vouched for me!) to bring it in. Yes, I'm terribly cynical and many of you probably disagree with me, but that was my experience.

I don't often use them any more, but if I do, I'll consider your method. Wouldn't work for the boosters on my Nastybird shuttle though, as I don't want to keep separatrons attached after booster separation for aesthetic reasons. I also use the "Energia" method, with the separatron attached on the outer edge of the booster's nosecone and pointing up and in. My most common use for separatrons? Solid-rocket deorbit systems. The Hermit-US upper stage for satellite launches has two pointed retrograde to deorbit the circularization engine and fuel tanks once the satellite gets in position.