RizzoTheRat

Same here, Scotts videos helped massively to get me to a rendezvous, and it then took me a while to work out the easy way to dock once I'd RV'd I also used to always burn to the prograde marker to land but I'm just starting to get the hang of the more efficient technique of low altitude approach and controlling the sink rate with the attitude. Still not got the hang of precision landings yet though. Forgot about that one, I had to revert back to launch to get out of it

Became a victim to my own stupidity yet again last night, but not the launches that were the problem! Trying to do 2 missions simultaneously: - Dock 2 vessels in Kerbin orbit - Rescue a stranded Kerbonought in an eccentric inclined orbit that reaches out to the Mun. Launched Mk1 capsule rescue vehicle with a probodyne whatever to fly it, and a docking port. Launched a small satellite with a docking port Rendezvous and docked in a low kerbin orbit. Sent the rescue vehicle on to pick up the stranded kerbonought. This is where it started to go wrong... Attempt 1 - RV'd with the stranded kerbonaught but didn't have enough fuel to get home again. Considered a second rescue ship but don't have the claw yet so couldn't refuel in orbit...sod it reload from save. Attempt 2 - Matched his orbital plane, pushed the apoapsis out to intercept, accelerate time until close, set up a node to push the periapsis out...controls not responding...no electricity...I'd put a flat solar panel either side of the capsule hatch but had managed to park it with the engine facing the sun so the panels were getting no light. D'Oh Attempt 3 - Added a 6x1 panel so I could guarantee getting some sun from any angle. RV with the kerbonought...suddenly realise Jeb was gurning at me from the capsule porthole...the numpty had decided to come along for the ride so there was no space in the capsule for the rescue. Attempt 4 - Finally got the bugger! Saved it and went to bed!

I've just tried to combine it with a Minimus flyby mission, visiting the Mun on the way home. Alexin's right, you need to be captured, ie have an apoapsis in the Mun SoI not escape plotted.

Having only recently started a game in Beta I guess I'm not going to get that far before version 1.0 comes out. Thanks to a visual/temperature/gravimetric scan mission on Mun I've made it quite a long way through the tech tree without even visiting Minimus. Currently got a scansat prone mapping minimus and am putting together a big expedition to Minimus. This is my Kerbin station in the middle, with a 16 seater tug on the right, smaller 4 kerbal transfer vehicle on the bottom, and the beginnings of the Minimus station on the top, docked via the Minimus lander. Need to add a lab and a big fuel tank and then the tug can transfer it with 20 level 1 trained kerbals to Minimus to get them to all plant a flag for extra training.

Looks like it's main use is to be lobbed at London... I've not played in ages, and came across this in my screenshots folder, not sure how Bob feels about the situation but Dudner seems to be enjoying it Started a new game and the need to train crews plus a lot of more interesting missions has led me down a different route to my usual playing style. I've built a 4 kerbal lander with twin nukes that's capable of 2 or 3 landings on the Mun before having to dock with one of the tanker I've got orbiting at 50km. This allows crews to gain experience by planting flags, and they can do some temperature or seismographic scan missions while they're at it. Just need a transfer vehicle to get new crews out to it now.

Didn't realise Elite Dangerous was due out tomorrow, that might mean me parking KSP for a while. Too young for the original Elite but loved Fronteer, also a big fan of the X series which for me carried on where Elite left off.

Started a new game with FAR, Deadly Re-entry and B9. Done a couple of science flyby's of the Mun but no landing yet. I've now managed to research enough parts to have a play with planes, and amazingly the first plane I built flies like a dream so long as I keep it subsonic (otherwise the wings fall off)). The main problem is trying to land the thing, I can't believe how slippery FAR aircraft are. I added spoilers after the first version couldn't loose enough speed to land even if I came in low over the hills at under 80m/s. Braking is a bit tricky with a tail dragger too, I moved the wheels are far forward as I could on the second version.

The space port is on the coast, its normal to have an inshore breeze. ;-)

Launched my new interplanetary tug in to a perfect orbit less than 100Km in front of my station. Waited until the point of closest approach and burned prograde until the markers reckoned they'd be less than 1km apart on the next orbit, fast forward for an orbit and I was waiting for the closest moment to to match orbits... and they collided! Annoyed at the loss of two big (Unkerballed) ships, but amazed I managed to hit something from that far away.

Finally starting to get the hang of spaceplanes After realising it's bloody hard to dock two together using clampotrons I've put a station in a 100km Kerbin orbit with 2 each of standard, large and junior docks so I can use a spaceplane tanker to refuel stuff. Tanker still needs some tweaking but on its first go it's lifted about 3/4 of an orange tank worth of fuel/oxidizer to the station. Plenty to refuel my smaller space plane that's about to go and see if I can use it plant a flag on the Mun. After that I intend to flit a Klaw to the small spaceplane and use it to remove debris from orbit. I'm finding the best way to get my space planes in to orbit is to MechJeb's Smart ASS to maintain a fixed pitch, rather than keep stabbing the W & S keys The only slight issue is I decided to build a Mk2 lander can in to the station so I could use it to transfer crews, but then forgot to take the crew out before launch, so now I've got all 6 of my Kerbals up there. I'll have to send the next couple of flights up with an empty seat.

I started by building something similar to Cruzinak's design in this video , got Jeb to orbit on it's maiden flight, and then I've been experimenting with larger and larger designs

I'm also fairly new to space planes so possibly take my advice with a pinch of salt... I'm not entirely convinced by Rapiers, they're very thirsty, if you mounted your engines side by side instead of over and under you could use 2 turbojets and 2 rapiers. The turbojets will give you more power and use less fuel, and 2 rapiers in rocket mode will be plenty once you get high enough to have to shut the jets off, my tanker aircraft is 56 tonnes on the ground and 4 turbojets and 2 rapiers do the job nicely.

Loving your work Xacktar

On that much of a slop if you retract the lower landing gear and move as much fuel as possible from the bottom tanks to the top ones, a bit of thrust from the bottom engines might be enough to flip you back up.

Also being fairly new to the forum I'd got the impression that asparagus had fallen slightly out of favour since the introduction of career mode, however there are methods/mods to allow you to recover stages that parachute back down hence making it a lot more cost effective I had to look that up, wow, it's a thing of beauty. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/55615-0-22-0-23-0-Payload-Fraction-Challenge?p=968265&viewfull=1#post968265

Not enough to get in to orbit is a pain, I've had to send a tanker out to Mun orbit to refuel but never tried it on the ground, I'm guessing you'll need a rover a Klaw on it? Might be easiest to only get enough fuel onboard to get it to orbit and then get more fuel from the rovers transfer stage. Best to think of these kind of issues as a opportunity to plan am exciting new mission

I find similar issues when trying to git elevons on angled wings, they always seem to end up in a funny position. The easiest thing I've found is build the whole wing horizontal, and then rotate the whole thing. Is that an options with your design?

The problem is your decoupler isn't on the boosters CoM, so you're pushing one end which causes it to rotate. I sometimes use 2 radial decouplers, the the booster will only be attached to one of them but if if its resting against the other, with one above and one below the CoM they'll push the whole booster away much straighter.

Good eyesight, you're pretty close, the side engine pods are Mk1 fuselage, liquid fuel only, and the tail fin is a small delta and Type E wing with an Eleveon 1 as a rudder. You can't see from the angle but it's a biplane with 4 Deltas each with an Elevon 1. Total mass according to KER is a shade of 16 tonnes, assuming it ignores the vertical wings I make the lift 10.9, so sounds like I need to add another 6 or so lift. The excess fuel is deliberate, I want to get heavier designs in to orbit to use as a tanker, it's currently carrying 840 fuel and 660 oxidiser. ETA: Added another 6 lift, and changed it to 2xturbojet and 2x909, whole thing is a bit under 16 tonnes and just put 755 fuel and 300 oxidiser in to a 115km orbit. I think I'm getting there. Now to go up a size...

Agreed, similarly with altitude, the record on earth is about 38km in a Foxbat but that was a zoom climb with his engine flaming out not level flight.

That was why I tried one of Wanderfounds designs to check if was my design skills or piloting skills that were the problem, turns out its both which is a bit embarrassing seeing as I have a degree in Aeronautical Engineering and about 8 hours solo in gliders The main problem I found was that I was getting a continuous pilot induced oscillation, and find the digital nature of keyboard controls really difficult with aircraft (I can't play driving games on a keyboard either). Plus I clearly needed to spend some time reading up on how to use the tools provided with FAR but just wanted quick gratification for a while hence went back to stock.

Comparison vid could be good. I was put off the rapiers by the fuel consumption, I'm getting to 40km and 2000+m/s on turbojets, allowing a circular orbit with under 10 seconds burn from 4 x 24-77's (or a pair of LV-909's on the smaller design). I'm guessing rapiers make more sense in NEAR/FAR where it sounds like you cant get as fast/high on jets. How much difference does shutting the intakes make? Is there really enough atmosphere at 40km for them to create a significant amount of drag? Good point on steep vs shallow climb, what sort of TWR are people aiming for in air breathing mode? Think mine was about 1.2 allowing for a very steep climb so I guess I could get a fair bit more weight on a 3 engine design, but in stock aero drag is proportional to weight, so I might struggle when I switch to 1 engine in the latter stages.

Can't download it at work but that guide could well be what I need, will have a look tonight, thanks. Bit of a red herring with the FAR discussion, I've removed it to make the game easier for now. I was spending all my time trying to get rockets in to orbit in FAR, but haven't been beyond Minimus yet. Plus I tried one of Wanderfounds spaceplane designs in FAR and couldn't even control that so I decided to simplify the game for a while until I'd explored the universe a bit and researched the whole tech tree. I will revisit NEAR/FAR again in the future, but for now I'm just looking at designs in stock.

Finally got some spaceplane in to orbit. One pretty, one less so. I ussupect it's pretty obvious which is based on someone else's design and which is my own

Sorry, failed to properly describe my relationship with FAR, I've taken it off for now and am back on the stock aerodynamics model. Ascent profile is getting my apoapsis to 100+km with high enough speed that my periapsis is about 25km, then shut off the jets, coast to apoapsis, and a few seconds burn to circularise. It sounds as if a lot more rocket fuel is needed in FAR. Just read this http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/97615-0-25-KSP-air-intakes-compared/page2 and think I should try adding some radial intakes, I'd assumed they caused a lot more drag at high speeds but it seems not in stock aero. I wanted to get an idea about what works in stock before I go back to FAR, as I was spending all my time in FAR tweaking designs to be able to get a rocket in to orbit, and not getting out exploring the universe