bakanando

This. Even if only the total mass of the vessel was displayed, it would help a lot.

Even though I got no more feedback, I present the Diaspora MK2! I forgot to plant a flag :'(

Do you want to connect a booster to two decouplers to improve stability when staging or wobble while they are active? Then it's not possible, it will only connect to one but not both. For decoupling you can either use sepratons or Claw's decoupling fix mod. I've noticed that subassemblies will only connect through one of its nodes, the one you used to separate it from the ship when saving the subassembly(the one you are holding) or the root part if you made the subassembly by itself. It's annoying. When adding parts, the camera affects how you will attach the part. If you want to attach to a node, try pressing the mod key (alt key in windows) while attaching said part. This way it will only attach to nodes, which is useful when adding parts to a mk2 cargo bay. Hope it helps.

But then you have thrust to _mass_ proportion if you divide it, which will confuse you more than helping. Unless you know the local gravity, which is not mentioned either. And you can't measure it precisely before finishing half the science tree. By that time, you already know well enough how to shoot things to space without crashing them most of the time. All in all, the lack of (or oversight of) different values that would be useful for the users is mostly by design (I can't remember where I read them, but the developers have mentioned it in various places). Whether or not that is a good choice, is an altogether different thing.

Presenting the Diaspora: Disclaimer: AV-T1 winglets not included in final product. Science tech required: -Basic Rocketry -Survibability (for LV-909) -Stability (for radial decouplers) -Science Tech (for the Science Jr. modules and batteries) Optional: -All other science techs -Electrics (for OX-STAT panels) Grey area (not really sure if required or simply a comfort option): -Advanced Rocketry (for FL-T800 and opening fuel lines) -Fuel systems (for mini-asparagus) Haven't decoupled the pods yet, but with normal maneuvering it can drop in mountains(with some luck), highlands, plains, desert, and water/shore for the five pods' use. I don't know where the badlands are located so I don't include them. The Diaspora is currently on a 80x85 orbit (with 100 units of oxi left on the main section), just waiting for pod deployment. I was going to shoot it in a highly inclinated orbit to drop at the poles, but I wanted to first test whether it would be able to achieve orbit or not. Edit: I just realized that if you unlock the Fuel lines, you can replace the LV-909(each basic pod has around 1000 vacuum delta-v, less if you use the in the pic as include the sensor array which with the radial chutes adds about 0.3t) with the Rockomax 48-7S (each pod would have around 1200 delta-v, again same logic) Edit2: I was creating a more advanced version for polar dropping with proper landing legs, and I overwrote the ship file Update: First pod drop was done yesterday. The pod landing was rough. Had to lower the landing speed to less than 6m/s with the engine. It still buckled because I forgot to turn SAS on before landing and I was distracted to cut thrust just as he landed. The pod dropped in a highly inclined slope and fell Goo-side(?). I was surprised that nothing broke even though the thing did a full roll before stopping. I already had done to death the science from kerbin higlands so I basically got no new science for it. Still three pods to launch. Two will drop to kerbin and one will attempt a Mun Flyby. I don't think it has enough d-v to return though.

I'd rather thrash the boosters, than spend real time landing them for virtual monies. The better solution would be to fix the physics loading bubble, but that basically means rewriting the physics engine... I wonder what would happen if you were to hit your main ship with your booster in the second time iteration. Time travelling sheanigans!

Those wings just generate lift when the thicker edge is pointing towards (and against, maybe?) the air speed vector. The flat edge is for attaching more wing sections. If it werent like that, the Structural A and B would be only one section (as they are the same, but rotated 90 degrees) of wing. I don't know the design reasons for that (it seems it has to do with stock aerodynamics handling), but if the leading edges were removed we would have a lot of styrofoam planks lying around (visually, at least). On the other hand, the leading edges visually help to know what direction should they face to generate lift. They look nice for spaceplanes when used normally, so I don't complain on their looks. The attachment points in the wings for non-wing parts on the other hand...

I normally have engine toggle/shutdown in my action groups (mostly spaceplanes), these help in situations like uneven engine cutoff. With quick reflexes you can also cut all throtle with x before activating the abort sequence. but I've seen that with a good escape pod design you don't need to turn them off. Also, often times were having an emergency needed mission abort was while using solid boosters that unbalanced the rocket. And you can't shut those down, which leads to focusing on better escape sequences. Or just watch the fireworks. I agree with the stage lock being somewhat clunky. I haven't had problems when locking as I normally have RCS off so SAS won't drain it. I think that having a more obvious stage lock display would be nice though. The little purple blinking light is a good start, but it's too far from normal focus to work efficiently. Adding a display in the navball might help. As for the double key staging, I don't think it's a good solution. Staging is so critical to the game that having it on the most reachable (and natural) key is a good idea. It could be enter, but it's too far away from normal control keys to be effective. Having a stage lock bypass with the mod+spacebar combination might be something else though. Using mod+key to do an similar/alternate action is somewhat intuitive design. Try remapping your stage key to mod+space and see how it works.

Thanks for your replies. At this point I don't mind if the docking port is just a reskin of the size 1.25 one, but some kind of roll alignment indication would be nice to have.

You don't need to kill it in air to air, just outrun it and wait for it to break by itself. Back on topic, that's a really nice replica you got there. Btw, what is its point of no return fuel percentage after dropping the (drop) tanks?

I'd love to see some Long Range Science Exploration vessels, with a couple of probes as cargo. Even though I don't use FAR (yet) I always like to read this thread to see what you've come up in the meantime.

Do you need to drop all rovers in one go? Or is it one separate category per rover para-drop?

If you have landed him, save first and then try to recover him. As AlexinTokyo mentioned, the fact that you don't get him inside a ship before you recover him doesn't need to be done for fulfilling the contract. You could try to bring him a ship and get him inside and see if it works.

I have to say thanks to wanderfound for all SSTOs here, even though I don't use FAR/NEAR and have only used stock the spaceplanes here have given so many ideas and the tutorials have made spaceplane construction my first means of exploring the kerbol system. Last week I hit a milestone: my first spaceplane to munar orbit (but not yet back). Keep up the great work you've been doing.

After you change to him with [ or ], press 'r' to activate its jetpack. Then with w, a, s, d, shift, and control you can move your kerbal towards the pod's hatch and get him inside (with 'f').

I don't know if there's even a way to disable the hud buttons selectively, but F2 disables the whole hud. Is anything else information-wise(altimeter, navball, etc) displayed? What happens if you go to map mode and back? Do you use any mods? Finally, could you upload a picture? It's always helpful to pinpoint problems.

With the addition of the sp+ mk2 parts spaceplane STTOs have been my main way of getting stuff to space and back with little expense. I have the problem though that there is no good way to make separation of parts that blends with the mk2 parts. Decoupler and/or separators are needed if you want to create an emergency escape off the ship, and could be useful for non single stage spaceships with mk2 parts. In-stack (contrary to in-line) docking ports are also missing. Being able to detach and reattach from your main ship a probe for different missions can increase the usefulness of spaceplanes without breaking the center of mass/thrust alignment. (I use these mostly for fuel transportation without the need to dock the whole ship to the depot, better maneuverability). I tried using the mk2 to double mk1 adapter to accomplish this, and this happened:

Congrats to Tsevion for achieving the (almost) impossible! Also kudos to Slash, MabDeno and The Rocketeer for their achievements and efforts in pushing this forward to the realm of the possible!

Is there any plans for MK2 decoupler and/or docking ports? And I don't mean the inline decoupler already in 0.25, but MK2 size decoupler/docking port parts. The 1.25m size ones have some wobble and break the smoothness of the parts.

I thought the rendez-vous and eating of an stranded kerbin would guarantee me a 1st class distinction :/ I'll have to try harder next time then. For now, a mission in progress: Munar explorer Suzume Bachi, on it's way towards mun. Whether it'll be a success or not is still unknown. Munar transfer maneuver Maneuver finished, with 40% of its fuel left.

You can shut it down and activate it again, even in 0.24. What you need to do is add an empty stage below your engine (which has been turned off) and hit the staging button. I haven't tried this with a SRB, but it works with normal engines. Edit: Oops, Krixal mentioned it beforehand. Sorry, didn't read it completely.

Do you have RCS? It doesn't look like it... You could try launching just like that, but retract the panels first. The rocket will slide for a while but thanks to Duna's low gravity it might take off before something breaks. Just retract the landing gear first and use push try to get lifted as quick as possible with SAS (as you are facing down, you should push 'w' to lift the ship). There's a second idea I have, but I don't know if it works. Turn off the top two engines and retract the landing legs. Then start engines and try to lift the ship upwards (again, w). This will rotate your ship up. As soon as you get close to vertical shut down the engines, reactivate the two engines, lower the landing gear, and attempt landing again. Try to remove as much horizontal speed as you can before landing again. If possible try to land further up so you don't need to waste more fuel to return to that height (and you'll need to brake less).

That's a very nice minimalist spaceplane. Great use of the radial engines. And now for a spaceplane of my own, the Emergency Retrieval Spaceplane Hayato MK1. This is my first successful mission to LKO and back with a spaceplane, also my first time landing in the runway. I designed this one for rescueing stranded kerbals in orbit (the contract ones). The ascent wasn't very efficient but it got there with a little less than half of its fuel left. (Bigger pic here) Approach Capture A very stressful landing @65m/s

You might want to read this article from xkcd: http://what-if.xkcd.com/20/ Found the one I was looking for: http://what-if.xkcd.com/92/

I leave for a weekend and you achieve orbit! Congratulations to MabDeno and Slash for reaching orbit. I'll try to shave some more weight off to see if that get's me further with my ship.