Gaarst

Had my attempt at the challenge with a manual piloted rocket: achieved 61525m. The only mods I used here are KER and the Stock Bug Fix Module for 1.0.4. My ascent profile was: - Full thrust from launch to ~560 m/s - Then reduced thrust (35-40%) from then to ~10.5 km - Finally, throttle up to 60-65% until fuel runs out This having all reaction wheels on, 100% gimbal and thrust, and SAS set on prograde. 35-40%: 60-65%:

Here's what I did with my fully-SRB-powered "Ultra II Tri" vehicle (I know I'm supposed to use LF, but I still want to show my record ) 511 m/s with stock 1.0.4 aero and stock parts. Here's the .craft file for those who'd like to try it, just a warning: it is not 100% reliable. You may suddenly lose control at the very end of the acceleration (this happens more often than I'd like to admit) or the chutes may not stop the craft before the end of the runway (you should get a good run after a small dozen tries ).

What has been said above; and I'd add that, unless you already know what the object is, you should overbuild the grabbing/reentring ship. You don't want to try to bring down a full Kickback from LKO with a RCS powered tug and 2 Mk2-R Radial Chutes.

Not a bug, just KSP's building system/UI being... far from optimised. Best thing to do is rotate camera to have the attached surface so that it faces any side of your screen (top, left...) but not towards you (hope that's clear enough, I'll add pic if asked). Then approach the docking port you want to attach by above or right... You should be able to place it the way you want quite easily.

I don't know about calculating it, but it does depend on the orientation of the craft (that is the reason why some crafts will flip during ascent or reentry, to set drag forces with the aerodynamics). I don't know any mods to calculate drag, but with KER, you can look at the terminal velocity of the craft to get a quick approximation of its drag.

Settings (top right) > Edit Signature (somewhere in "my settings" on the left) Then use the text editor function to add whatever links, images, videos you want.

First, welcome to the forums You can actually use the Klaw to transfer resources (according to here); on the other hand, you could use a tug with a Klaw, fuel to deorbit and chutes, everything should be fine as stock reentry is not destructive enough to harm such a vessel. What you can try to do is left click on the crew hatch and transfer the tourist to another pod, docked to your ship (with the Klaw). I'm really not sure about that one, but still give it a try.

Nope, there is no way kerbals can have several traits, and IMO, it would be kind of OP. On a mission, taking 2 kerbals instead of 1 (pilot+another) usually doesn't have huge consequences on the mission, due to the fact that a command pod weighs less than 1 ton. On the other hand, you could replace a pilot with an advanced probe core that has several SAS settings, and just take an engineer/scientist. I personally like the trait system, it avoids having 1 kerbal managing a huge mission/station/mine/whatever on his own. And it makes sense that a scientist who does research cannot pilot a rocket on his own or repair a rocket with a single wrench. Specialisation of Kerbals makes you have a real crew for a mission, with many Kerbals having each their role. Anyway, you could probably find a mod for this, or even edit config files yourself, it you're not afraid of what's behind the curtain.

If you're playing with stock thermals and 100% heat, your shouldn't have any problem reentring, even at interplanetary speeds. As it has been said before, a screenshot of the ship would help, but lower your Pe to 40-45 km and it should be fine; you may have to do multiple passes (if you don't want to, just set your Pe lower) but you shouldn't even need to burn retrograde to survive; unless your ship is a sort of spaceplane, then, reentry becomes a bit more delicate.

What has been said above. Also, edit your rocket or fairing to remove that "bulge". It basically one of the worst things you can do with a fairing: never have a fairing wider than its base, it will ruin the behaviour of your rocket in atmosphere. EDIT: never get the heading of your rocket out of the prograde circle, just follow it gently while staying inside. EDIT2: and going >400 m/s at 6km is WAY too fast, your should be passing Mach 1 a bit before 10km (~320 m/s at this altitude)

Unless spending days declining contracts, I don't see any way to get the exact same contract; without spending even more days learning how to edit sfs files. However, if you're not afraid of using mods, the mods Contract Filter or Contract Configurator might help you.

I got quite a few songs on my "space" playlist, but my favorite one for launching rockets is Space Dementia by Muse: (Note that this only works for really dramatic launches)

And we all know how the N1 turned out... - - - Updated - - - Yep, you're totally right, my bad ^^

Oh, ok. I think I'll just read things before talking next time My apologies...

[Caution: pointless complaining incoming] Pls Squad, make the PC version stable and somewhat definitive before trying to make a PS4 port. Managing the PS4 version will take time that could be used to improve the PC version. You can just develop the PC version, finish it, and then worry about a PS4 version instead of having to manage both PC and PS4 games at the same time... :/ [Pointless complaining over]

That sounds like a very Kerbal way to build rockets ^^ But, anyway, this type of design might be interesting, though not for larger payloads... And, btw, due to the natural logarithm in the rocket equation, twice as much rockets do not mean twice the payload to orbit, unfortunately. So this might not be a very efficient design.

For me, SSTOs (never have been able to do one in any version) and large ships destroying my framerate Keep the faith ! Moho used to be my nemesis until I finally conquered it a couple weeks ago, and succesfully brang the crew back to Kerbin, with a 730t rocket at launch

There are mods adding calculators to KSP: this one (Kalculator) for example; and another one (SOC) helping you with orbital elements calculation. I don't know if KER actually displays speed at apo or peri but have a look, it is extremely useful anyway.

Please post screenshots of your lander. Though heat has changed a lot with 1.0 and later 1.0.4, it is still very feasible to reenter a ship from LKO without heatshields or radiators, even at 100% reentry heat. You don't even need to make your reentry that shallow. Did you install 1.0.4 over 0.90 or did you make a completely new game folder ? If you did the first option, then some config files may conflict and change heat behaviour.

Or Shift+Click on any part to move the whole craft.

Though I agree with you, that's maybe the 1001st post about contract balancing since they are in the game. Do a little research on the forums and you will find some solution.

Pressing R by default switches the symmetry mode

V² = GM ( 2/r - 1/a ) with: V your speed G the gravitational constant M the mass of the object you're orbiting a the semi-major axis of your orbit r your distance to the orbit focus (the body you're orbiting), (centre of gravity not altitude !) It is called the vis-viva equation.

Do not bother using LV-N for a Duna mission if it's just landing, plant a flag and go and if you're not sure about LV-N. Your burns will be longer and you can achieve the mission with LFO with a reasonable sized rocket. For your Duna mission, Kerbodyne sized engines might not be necessary; as said above, a Skipper will do the job. However, if you're going elsewhere or moving bigger payloads around, you might want to consider LV-N seriously.

As said above, TWR does not change much when you're in orbit, or in interplanetary space. The only notable consequence will be the burn time for manoeuvres. So do not worry too much about it (still avoid powering a 200t ship with a single ion engine) What you want to look at is the delta-v. Try to get it as high as you can, but do not add too much mass to your ship or it will take you 10 flights to assemble it in orbit. Kerbin escape takes roughly 950 m/s delta-v from LKO and insertion burns from interplanetary space can go up to 3500 m/s (for Moho). You can get detailed delta-v information for interplanetary transfers on this map. For burn times, it depends on your TWR. For example, with a ship having around 0.20 TWR, I did a 25 mins insertion burn at Moho (3600 m/s). If you're using ion propulsion, which is the most efficient, expect to have burn times approaching an hour unless you use dozens of ion engines on your ship. Time frames between node (interplanetary travel times, if I understood well) can range from less than 100 days for Duna or Eve to a few years for Eeloo.