dodrian

A slight edit - Magellan Lite My computer was slowing to a crawl whenever I approached Magellan station, so I decided to rebuild the Station with fewer parts. In the SPH I rebuilt the station without most of the RCS tanks, probe cores, RCS blocks, and batteries (all the equipment which was needed for docking the modules) then edited it into orbit. The only major difference between the modular version and this new one is a few extra structural fuselages to extend the docking portsâ€â€having removed a number of smaller pieces the docking ports ended up too close to the solar panels. While this feels a bit like cheating (and means I can no longer make changes to the station), it has nearly halved the part count and my computer is noticeably more responsive. The 'new' station: One mission left in the Magellan Series, then onwards to the moon!

Maslow's heirarchy of needs updated for the 21st century:

Project Ocean - Stage 1 - Magellan 7 Mission Goal: Deliver final module to Magellan station. Craft: D001 Basking Shark - Baltic Crew: Lemton Kerman, Caldrin Kerman, Kenkin Kerman Status: Success - Mission Report: The final module for delivery to Magellan Station was a refueling depot. Weighing in at 40T, this module came in at the very upper limit of Baltic's carrying capacity. Thank's to Lemton's expert piloting during ascent, the Baltic made it to orbit and rendezvous with Magellan, even if the last few orbital adjustments had to be made with RCS. At this point, however, the mission took a turn for the worse. Upon opening the cargo bay, flight technician Kenkin discovered that somehow and older prototype of the refueling module had been loaded aboard. This module lacked a second docking port, battery array, solar panels and RCS translation in the Y axis. After conferring with KSC, mission control decided to proceed with and attempt to dock the less than ideal module rather than incur the extra costs, time and risks associated with re-flying the mission. Payload module was able to maneuver for a limited time using reserve batteries in the probe core, disabling the core flywheels minimized energy drain. Missing a dimension in RCS translation made steering the module very difficult, and it was only on the third attempt, down to 15% reserve power that the refueling module was able to successfully dock with Magellan Station. Missing a docking port on the other side leaves Magellan Station without a Clamp-o-Tron Sr. for future missions. Designs for refueling the station will have to be tweaked a bit. Or perhaps this module will be completely replaced when empty. Lemton was proud of being able to fly into orbit without having to siphon off the refuelling tank, though he did have to concede defeat and dock with Magellan Station and refuel for the deorbit burn. Kenkin stayed in orbit. One mission left in phase 1 - sending up the rest of the Magellan crew.

Project Ocean - Stage 1 - Magellan 6 Mission Goal: Deliver and attach secondary docking assembly. Craft: D001 Basking Shark - Atlantis Crew: Bill Kerman, Bob Kerman, Sidberry Kerman Status: Success! Atlantis docks with the newest module. Mission Report: The penultimate station piece to be assembled, Bill, Bob and Sidberry took up a second docking array to Magellan station. There were some problems with the Kerbal Attachment System, and the docking array became unattached from Atlantis during ascent and rattled around the cargo bay, destroying a few internal solar panels. Once rendezvous'd, attaching the docking array was fairly straightforward. Sidberry joined the Magellan Station crew, Bob and Bill piloted Atlantis safely back to KSC. Meanwhile, KSC engineers after much research and testing were able to lead a training session on proper Basking Shark re-entry procedures. Apparently, the secret is to pump all remaining fuel to the front of the craft. Still a bit nervous, Kerbonaut pilots insisted they add some drogue parachutes to the rear for emergency use. KSC engineers muttered under their breath and complied anyway, despite professional worries about structural integrity, air-resistance profile, or over-inflated pilot egos.

Three was the deepest I could go with B9 parts. I specifically wanted my cargoception to be a spaceplane. I bet you could go deeper using procedural fairings though, they have five different sizes of fairings. This exercise left to the reader

I've run a number of missions and have assembled quite a large space station in orbit. Unfortunately, the game now lags quite a lot whenever I switch to or approach the station. There are a lot of parts which I needed to help me dock things together, but no longer need now that the space station is armed and fully operational (probe cores, rcs tanks and thrusters, battery packs, etc), and I bet if I could remove those it would cut the part count down considerably. I've tried copying the vessel bit from the persistence file into a new craft file, but it wouldn't load in the SPH (I messed around with a few things to try and fix it, but wasn't very hopeful as the variables in the PART{} bit were different to what was in a simple ship save file). I've also tried editing the persistence file and deleting all the rcs blocks, but that just disappeared large chunks of the station. I tried searching the forums, but didn't come up with an answer either, but maybe I wasn't searching for the right thing. Does anyone know of a way I could edit my station, either with a mod, a tool or a how-to persistence edit guide?

Project Ocean - Stage 1 - Magellan 5 Mission Goal: Deliver and attach crew habitat to Magellan Station. Craft: D001 Basking Shark - Aegean Crew: Lemton Kerman, Caldrin Kerman, Calman Kerman Status: Resounding success! Aegean docked with Magellan and newly added crew habitat. Mission Report: With the Aegean and her crew finally recovered after their emergency landing site relocation, she was refueled and sent up to Magellan Station with the crew habitats. To save space and weight, only one of the two crew habitat sections was given an RCS tank and maneuvering capabilities, this section first steered and docked the other habitat section to Magellan Station, then it detached itself and maneuvered to the other side of the Station. The Aegean successfully docked with the station, and Calman was reassigned to join Jeb on board. After a few orbits waiting for daylight over KSC, the Aegean undocked, and to Lemton and Caldrin's great delight they succeeded in a fully unpowered landing on the KSC runway after the deorbit burn, the first time atmospheric engines haven't been needed on descent. More mission photos here

Project Ocean - Stage 1 - Magellan 4 Mission Goal: Deliver and assemble solar array for Magellan Station. Craft: D001 Basking Shark - Baltic Crew: Bill Kerman, Bob Kerman, Milzer Kerman Status: Partial success. The Magellan Solar array had to be carefully folded into Baltic's cargo bay: This was slightly less carefully unpacked, then painstakingly reassembled. Magellan Station is beginning to look serviceable! Mission Report: Bill, Bob and Milzer took up the disassembled solar panels to Magellan Station, however experienced some troubles during rendezvous. The Baltic ended up about a kilometer off from Magellan station with no RCS fuel left. Dumping the four truss pieces, these were painstakingly reassembled into two arrays, then attached onto the Magellan station. This was a very difficult and slow process, and by the time the arrays were set up, the Baltic had drifted several kilometers away. Original mission intent was for Milzer to remain with Jeb on Magellan Station, but this was deemed too unsafe as the Baltic was unable to dock or even maneuver closely. Still, the main mission objective was successful, and the Baltic returned safely to KSC.

Project Ocean - Stage 1 - Magellan 3 Mission Goal: Deliver and attach emergency escape pods to Magellan station. Craft: D001 Basking Shark - Atlantis Crew: Bill Kerman, Bob Kerman, Jebediah Kerman Status: Success! Watching MechJeb dock four pods at once, quite a sight: Mission Report: Bill, Bob and Jeb back in command delivering those vital escape pods to the Magellan station. Kerbonaut Regulation 17.4.b.x states that all low orbit stations must have escape vehicles for all crew members for use in event of an emergency (oxygen leak, radiation flare, loss of WiFi, etc...). After releasing the pods, our three heroes sat back and sipped space-iced-tea and watched them autodock. With Magellan officially cleared as a permanent habitat, Atlantis docked and Jeb received his first permanent assignment. Leaving Jeb behind, Bob and Bill returned to KSC, but a slight landing mishap left one of the wings damaged. After multiple re-entry problems, our brave Kerbonauts have put in a request for the engineering team to look into alternative re-entry solutions. More mission photos here

Project Ocean - Stage 1 - Magellan 2 Mission Goal: Deliver and attach docking ring to Magellan station. Craft: D001 Basking Shark - Aegean Crew: Lemton Kerman, Sidberry Kerman, Caldrin Kerman Status: Success! Magellan Station with docking ring: Mission Report: Orbit, station rendezvous and docking ring deployment proceeded as planned. Kerbonauts were given the option of docking and touring the station, but Lemtom went yellow at the thought of having to dock the Aegean, and Caldrin complained of 'queasiness'. Docking left for a later mission. Aegean stayed for several more orbits awaiting daylight re-entry window. Due to a slight re-entry miscalculation, the Aegean landed a few thousand[?] km of course on the peninsula due east of KSC. Aegean will have to sit a few missions out while they scramble the Kerbal navy. Sidberry is glad he brought extra snacks. More mission photos here

At the moment it's just B9 Aerospace, FAR and Mechjeb. Later I will add Kethane, and possibly some others :-)

Allow me to paint the story of this spacecraft through the medium of internet meme: Our intrepid Kerbal then flew and landed the cargo's cargo on Minimus (but I forgot to take pictures). Mods: B9, FAR, Mechjeb Craft File: http://www./download/1qq6pfphpvgvwpf/D002_Basking_Shark_Xzibit.craft

Project Ocean - Stage 1 - Magellan Stage Goal: Build a crewed science and refueling station in LKO Photos: Project Ocean - Stage 1 - Magellan 1 Mission Goal: Deliver the first module of Station Magellan into 80Kx80K orbit. Craft: D001 Basking Shark - Atlantis Crew: Bill Kerman, Bob Kerman, Jebediah Kerman Status: Success! Mission Report: D001 Basking Shark Atlantis, piloted by Bill, Bob and Jeb, took up the first module of the Magellan station, deploying it in a circular 80KM orbit. There were some hiccups during reentry, the runway was overshot by a considerable distance, but the atmospheric engines were restarted and the craft flown back to KSC for a successful landing. Bill commented that the Basking Shark had a surprisingly short stopping distance for such a large spaceplane.

Current Bases: Old Magellan Station: Magellan 'Lite' (Magellan, remade without the docking components, easier on the CPU)

Fleet details: D001 Basking Shark The workhorse of Project Ocean, this orbiter is capable of taking up to 40T into LKO. Crew Capacity: 3 Payload Capacity: 40T Classification: HL HTOL Status: Active Service Craft: Atlantis, Aegean D002 Great White XL lifter, for wide payloads. Entirely rocket fueled, this craft is not the most efficient lifter, but useful for those larger payloads. Crew Capacity: 2 Payload Capacity: ~30T Classification: S2-Wide VTOHL Status: Flight Testing D003 Wahoo Crew transport, for rotating station crews in LKO. Crew Capacity: 7 Payload Capacity: N/A Classification: S2 HTOL Status: Active service D004 Marlin Small Payload orbiter. Crew Capacity: 1 Payload Capacity: 7T Classification: S2 HTOL Status: Pending revisions after flight testing.

Mission Reports for Project Ocean, a reusable orbiter space program. Mission Brief: Following the successful design and maiden flight of D001 Basking Shark, the Ocean initiative was concieved. The goal of this space program is to launch all missions from 100% reusable SSTO orbiters, which return to land at KSP. Payloads released from the orbiters are not necessarily reusable, and may be left in orbit or on planetary bodies. Mission Goals: Stage 1: Assemble a permanent station and refueling depot in LKO. Stage 2: Launch a munar expedition from an orbiter. Return samples in an orbiter cargo bay. Stage 3: Establish a Kethane mining base on Minimus. Stage 4: Launch an interplanetary expedition from an orbiter.

Presenting the D001 Basking Shark, a SSTO Spaceplane which can lift cargoes of 40T to LKO! Made with B9 Aerospace Pack, flown under Ferram Aerospace Research, no clue how she flies with stock aerodynamics! Download: http://www./download/3tsckmoxttnt511/D001_Basking_Shark_Fuel_Config.craft My favorite image, reentry/sunrise/solar-eclipse:

I think it's about high time I upgraded my old (2007) PC. It's running Ubuntu, and I use it as a budget gaming machine. Motherboard: GA-P35-DS3L CPU: Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz RAM: 4GB 800 MHz DDR2 Graphics: G84 [GeForce 8600 GT] 256MB, 700MHz HDD: 500GB 7200RPM 250GB 5400RPM I'm thinking what I most need an upgrade of is the graphics card. Any suggestions as to what I should go for, considering the limitations of the rest of my system? Unfortunately I've not got much money I can spend on it. Edit: I was looking at this GT 640, but it's at the top end of my budget and I'm worried it'll be too overpowered for the rest. Is it worth trying to upgrade this old system on such a small budget?

Hi kedder, I originally had this problem (or a similar one) too, and fixed it by installing Mono. You can search 'mono-complete' in the Ubuntu software center, or follow instructions on their website http://mono-project.com/ Hope that fixes it! dodrian

I'm new to KSP Linux! I've been dual booting Ubuntu for a while, but finally gave up on my Windows partition. .20 is the first time I've tried KSP on Linux. I ran it (32bit, though my system is 64) and was having some trouble with the graphics, occasionally parts would briefly turn transparent. I was using the default nouveau graphics card driver for my NVidia GeForce 8600. I tried switching to one of the proprietary drivers, but it seemed to slow my game to a crawl (graphics were fine though). Any tips as to which one I should be using? Also any other tips for getting KSP to run well under Ubuntu would be appreciated :-)

Yeah, it is :-), mainly made from parts of the Deep Space Missions pack. It also functions as a command center for the Remote Tech pack, and has interplanetary dishes pointed at all corners of the solar system. I haven't yet sent missions to those corners, but it's good to have the infrastructure in place. I felt that Jeb, Bob, and Bill had done a good job though, so wanted to relieve them, return them to Kerbin and get them prepped for onward exciting missions!

I just rondevouz'd for my first time I used the suggestions above, but when I was about a 1~2k from my target hit -RVel and killed my relative velocity. Then I put +TGT, gently swam towards the target, then -RVel when they looked like they were no longer headed towards eachother. Repeating this several times got me within about 50m of the vessel, where I hit +PAR, and gently guided it in the final meters. I had originally wanted to grab the vessel, but my claw blew up when it touched the other one. So, I completed my crew transfer with EVA, and sent the resupply ship home :-) <img src="http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=34457&d=1349618118" />

I went for the obvious solution to polyblock suborbital. It was tricky driving it up the ramp. The next version needs to be more front heavy, and I want to see if I can make the legs support it properly as it picks up the rocket.

The first mission I've flown by hand in a very long time, Kerbonaut Neil Kerman and the Armstrong Beacon.

I managed it, it was surprisingly easy and only took me two tries. Pictures: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/album.php?albumid=15 Originally, Munzer and Scott took off from a ice lake base and set up an orbit of 5550 meters (it was still about 300m above than the highest peak it passed over). Munzer then did a descent run and landed back at base after an orbit (I forgot to record this). After refueling his pack at the crew base (see attached), he waited another orbit, and ascended to a successful rendezvous with Scott. The trick is to start slightly ahead of the orbiting capsule, spending most of the fuel on horizontal speed, and lining up the suborbital trajectory with the orbit. Within about 1k, it becomes possible to steer towards and board the capsule.