BDelacroix

I have what should be a thriving economic build up in the Jool system. Just getting fuel out there is a pain. Laythe has a large base and I have a large station as a transfer point nearby. I have the parts of small stations at each of the moons. Again, though, that fuel is a problem.

Perhaps you can build a wormhole that can toss chunks of star around..... Oh wait, that was Farscape.

Was going to say minmus as well. I notice it every so often.

I managed to fix the screenshot issue and so here is a picture of the Kerbal Empire's most recent large station design. It currently has one old design fuel pod attached to it as I don't want to waste any precious fuel. The two things in hanging off the station in the foreground are 1 old style construction tug and 1 new style construction tug (with the grappling claw facing outward, it came in handy wrangling the new style fuel pod into position). The new fuel pod is not very visible as it is behind the docking control tower on the right. The power station has an jettison system in case of overload, but it is still much more compact than the old one (IE: fewer parts). The ring of lights is on the science station. The T shaped structure is a docking terminal. This station will house 16 Kerbals in comfort. Nobody has to sleep in their workstations. I sent this all up in cargo cage structures. I don't know how that will work with the new aerodynamic system. I hope I can still find a way to bring them up.

You are not alone in having a difficult time with SSTOs. Though I'm sure you can find someone to say "it's easy!".

Was? I still only have 2 space planes that can actually get out to orbit, dock and make it back. The docking is important because I require a refuel just to get back. The second success is really just a barely expanded design based on the only other success I had.

After a long hiatus in space missions, the kerbal empire has returned to space. They have redesigned just about everything. No longer do we send cargo into orbit fighting the reverse pendulum problem. The standard large permanent station has been redesigned and Eilat Station is now the first to be rebuilt using the new parts. More space for more kerbals, less wasted material. Much more stable in orbit. A new feature of the construction tug came in handy just before posting. I needed to dock the large fuel storage tank to the fueling port of the station docking section but had no extra docking ports to use as a hitch. I used the claw to move a space craft part for the first time and it held steady. Previously this had only been used to grab those roughly spherical lumps of grey that sometimes come close to kerbin. I'd take some screenshots but for some reason nothing is working. F12, F1 none of the usual suspects.

The changes seem interesting. I ran into an issue with my small station designs in that apparently there are is no SAS on some objects that used to have it OR my old version kerbals are all not able to activate stability. I suspect they were assigned duties that weren't a pilot so that makes it a bit tough, they were already out there in space. They'll have to just make due until I can get a professional there. On the subject of the contracts. I like that there is more variety, what perplexes me is I have to delete many of them because they ask for the impossible. Not just the "place yet another station/structure around/on a far off planet" which is annoying, but things like, send a probe to eve with a time limit of 1 day, or test this device on some moon of jool, in 5 days. None of that is going to happen unless I just keep a collection of parts hanging around in orbits to assemble just in case I need them.

Parked my large station transports around Eeloo anticipating that one day we will find that it is actually a moon of another gas giant. I also have 4 smaller stations in transit to Jool to park one around each moon. I started a space plane on its way but burned too much fuel and it will not be able to correct to hit the Joolian system. I'll need to send a refueler if I can catch it.

I think this is a verboten question, you might want to duck.

I use them when I find one on accident. I don't plan them. Too much like a real job, which I have. When I swapped station models at Duna, I noticed my older station was in a retrograde orbit. I had attached a tug to it to transfer the old crew and deorbit it, however, it would take a lot of fuel to "turn around" so when I was playing with maneuver nodes, I noticed I could cross into Ike's SOI in such a way that I ended up with a sort of figure 8 that took me around Ike, then back into a prograde orbit at Duna for a lot less fuel then trying to turn around or even land and take off again.

Yes. My big stations that I put around planets (I put small ones around moons) are put together on two transports. Out of the set I had ready to take to Duna, one of the transports just disappeared. I believe that is why my Jeb is dead, he was in it. There were no scattered parts, no messages in the log, just one of the two transports disappeared. (There were a number of NULL reference messages in the log but I don't remember the exact wording now). I have one I can repeat at will right now. On the same station (now build after redoing the missing transport) there is a seperator on the top of the conning tower. Next to it is a small antenna array. It was used to connect the tower to the transport to be removed once in place. However, if I ever click it to activate the seperator, it will accelerate at a very fast pace straight up (relative to the tower). It never stops and because it is in motion, I can't ever change to another ship or anything else. I have to reload to a spot before attempted disassembly.

Kerban is the easiest planet to reach, of course.

I know so little arabic that I wouldn't be able to carry on a conversation. About all I can do is say hello.

I haven't the foggiest idea. Those big luxury stations I have are the only things that slow down my computer (timer turns yellow). I don't know how many parts they are.

Thanks for the suggestions. I tweaked it a bit. Removed some of the intakes. Changed the top wings for a sturdier version and added elevons to them. Moved the landing gear so I could rotate before having to be flung off the end of the runway. Added some more RCS jets (was missing one DOF, making docking very painful). I added two more tail/wing structures to push the lift vector back a little more. Now, it works much better. Actually, I find I have a lot more LFO when I reach orbit now that I am getting the hang of getting a space plane to space. Perhaps enough to get to duna once I refuel at the station, but I'm not planning on trying that yet.

I, too, prefer the rockets. However, as one of my goals I wanted to make a space plane for transfering stuff to my orbiting stations. Today I finished an entire series of tests of my first viable space plane. I was able to get it to orbit with enough LFO to get to the station, refuel, pick up a wayward kerbal at 100km and land. the strange thing is it became unstable on landing. I had to fight the controls to keep it relatively nose down for the landing. I did not have this problem taking off. Apparently the wayward kerbal has negative mass as the plane acted tail heavy. The design needs some tweaks, and for me to find out why it became unbalanced but it worked and I'm happy. Now to see if I can get a picture of it up here. The space plane on approach to Eliat Station. Since it is the first successful one, I need to come up with a name for it. It will come to me. A close-up of whatever it is I'm going to eventually call it.

Only time I went there, I RCSd down, jumped out and had to work at not walking at escape velocity.

Really? I was under the impression from before this last patch and with experiments that the sabre wasn't that great. It ate LFO like a kid sucks down candy once I was out of the atmosphere.

I am not an idiot by any means but I do not have an easy time with SSTOs. In fact, I have gotten exactly one barely to orbit and circularized but only at 90km altitude. Might have had enough to come back down but it ran out of power and so the wheels were useless for getting it to point anywhere. Once I added more power generation, it was too heavy and didn't get it to orbit anymore. I do not want to have to "cheat" by stacking parts in the same space as you once had to do. I came fairly close with adding the new conformal air intakes so that my jet engines would take me to ~35k and then use the rockets. Close was the same as not doing it, but it was closer. I am sure there is something fundamental I am missing out on.

It is all I've played except for the brief period of trying the demo.

I find if I can do multiples on one launch it is much better than a one off. Unless I happen to be doing the one off for some other reason anyway. Also, on the ground or even splashed down are ok.

While I may not be able to get a plane to do much other than eat oxygen out of atmosphere like a candy starved kid eats pixie stix, I have not noticed that flying them is much different in the atmosphere.

I have had instances where the lift vector (blue arrow) is just point off in some odd direction. Seems to occur when I put delta wings on rockets. They are symmetrical and all works anyway but that blue arrow just points off at 90 degrees anyway.

Built a rover out of the new plane parts. Tested it for turnover factor at the runway. Passed. Had to build a launcher for it since it does not fit inside cargo bays. Ended up finding I didn't think it all the way through, so left it in orbit while I built a special skycrane for it. That worked. On the Mun, the wheels seem to skid a lot. Seems it has no traction in that grey regolith. I may change it for the better treaded wheels. I wanted the suspension, though. Used the giant wheels first, but the center of mass was too high and it is nearly uncontrollable on the Mun due to it just sliding around with no traction.