selfish_meme

The Graf Zeppelin had a lifting capacity of 87 tons, (did you know it made 590 flights, not bad eh) most first stages burn out by 16km (on Kerbin), I'm thinking there should be an efficiency gain there somewhere

The atmosphere and heating has been reworked. It is much more like RL now, a bit like old FAR in 0.90, also re-entry heat and parts heating each other is a thing. It's all good, takes some getting used to. Jets are no where near as powerful as they were, still way overpowered. But there are some bugs. Be careful clipping things in cargo bays and service modules. Physics timewarp in atmosphere can cause rapid disassembly, especially with MK2 parts. Some tips, with rockets don't go too fast low down and start your gravity turn early and slowly, no more blast to 10km then 45 degrees. You need nosecones, the front of the craft must be less draggier than the back. The CoM must be high, think normal rocket vs pancake. You need a shallow re-entry, I hear people are doing 45km+ degrees periapsis, I have not had to worry too much, straight down is an obvious no no. The other planets have bugs with their atmospheres, no Jool aerobrake (instant death), you need to be extra careful aerobraking on any world especially the bigger ones. Edit: you NEED Claws Stock Bug Fix Mod and to install it use CKAN these are almost mandatory.

I like the way Iain M Banks names his vessels wikipedia

Working on The Dunation and putting entirely too much effort into this Pathfinder recreation, watch the panels opening. That's not opening! That's exploding with style! Why are you forced to revolve through inanimate objects to control the nearest ship, idea for a mod, change the change vessel to behave like fly nearest motion capable vessel first.

If you left the docking ports in the panels and rotated the other ports 90 degrees, would the panel docks magnetically hook up, maybe if the seperaton was still firing? Edit: Actually that's what you are doing, but the ports are too far away to actually dock, and then you got rid of them anyway

New Pathfinder and Sojourner, panels deploy and self dock to the central unit, the Sojourner is detached from the docked panel and roves on its own. Panel deployment success currently is around 70% on the flat launch pad. Which is good enough to continue on now with other things. Will put up a gif of the deployment soon. Edit: Oh parts 139, mass 2.3t, closed longest width 3.5m

Aannnd I have been proven wrong, you can make it smaller. - - - Updated - - - Mine has a couple of Landing legs to move the Rover Panel, you could use something similar

yeah, collision FX, I like the sparks and screeching when you go sliding down the runway. I don't know how much smaller I could possibly make this stock, I have reduced a few more parts and tweaked the panels some more, it's pretty reliable now and the panels now slope. It doesn't look a whole lot like Pathfinder, though the rover could pass for Sojourner on a dark drunk night, if it was foggy.

That's not opening, that's exploding...with style!

New Pathfinder and Sojourner, panels deploy and self dock to the central unit, the Sojourner is detached from the docked panel and roves on its own. Panel deployment success currently is around 70% on the flat launch pad. Which is good enough to continue on now with other things. Will put up a gif of the deployment soon. Edit: Oh parts, down to 139, mass down to 2.3t, closed longest width down to 3.5m

Thats amazing, my current one is about that size. I will post a gif later once I fix the rover panel deployment, it's in but the deployment of that panel has a hitch because of the extra weight.

I love the plane, but I also want to know how to do the gfycat images in posts, + rep for both!

WIP on Pathfinder and Sojourner Pathfinder initial hinge testing, I have some much better ideas, the part count on this was 178! plus it's 6.6t and 4.3m wide closed! On the plus side all docking ports engaged. Sojourner, don't go down steep slopes

It is my first stock hinge and I can already see a few ways to reduce part count and size of the craft, forget the Sojourner at the start of the thread, the one I have for this is much smaller already but I don't think it can get any smaller than what I already have since the stock wheels are so big. You are more than welcome to contribute if you want, I would love it to get some craft files to start adding to the list of resources.

I'm not sure a highly detailed Delta II will work, you just cannot make sojourner small enough in stock, my current Pathfinder is 6.6t and 4.3m wide, the original Pathfinder was about half the size Edit: looking at the photo it was not that much smaller, actually mines 4.3m closed up, what am I talking about. I am probably going to need a bigger rocket as there is still the balloon and aeroshell.

Did you use the circular intakes from the Open Source Construction thread?

No it's the pathfinder lander petals opening - - - Updated - - - If you want you can contribute to this pack?

I was actually thinking of having the Hermes Hyperedited into a flyby orbit with Kerbin return. The Ascent vehicle has to rendezvous , transfer Mark Kerman and then the Hermes sails of back to Kerbin. I am not sure how doable that is, it did seem pretty far fetched in the book, but the ascent vehicle will have the required dV to dock at least.

https://imgur.com/VOEhLim Hmm how to post a gfycat gif

If you don't do any clipping its not usually a problem and attaching thingsinside with cubic structures is also a no no, they are like one way heat valves or sometthing. Also get stock bug fix mod.

Its extremely difficult to make ridiculously overpowered ones. The ones going to Laythe are on the bleeding edge of efficiency and quite small

She's a classy lady

It's not that heavy all it neds is a hat. I had thoughts of making it an interstage instead so I could put antenna on top.

Thats about the maximum width i could make it, I can run around inside, but not sure if driving would work, only one way to find out! Rocket sled testing in velodrome I assume? Actually A rocket won't work, wheels might though.

I think my Hab module is pretty neat, I can't believe it docked first time. you can EVA and wander around inside. The lights work and everything. Check out the other neat stuff being made for 'The Dunian' and help out if you want, thread here