FlyingPete

That's basically it. I tend to use either the flat 'trashcan lid' with differently-sized ports on either side, or the rockomax adapter with two types of docking port for when more clearance is needed. I usually build stations using the larger 2.5m ports to connect modules, and the small ports for docking spacecraft, so the adapters are useful for when you only have the 'wrong' size available. My big stations to date have had a little RCS-powered minitug present for moving parts around, so no real need to give them their own thrusters and probe core.

I'd leave the heavy ISRU converter on the station, so you're not burning fuel needlessly to bring it up and down from the surface. I'd put the station at a fairly low altitude around Duna- you can use aerobraking to help when bringing the mining lander from Ike to the station, and Ike's relatively large SOI combined with the empty mining ship will limit the fuel used in getting back to Ike. A low orbit also reduces the dV needed by landers headed for Duna's surface. Things I tend to forget: Batteries, power generation, monopropellant storage, antenna. Also useful if you're using more than one type of docking port is to bring along a couple of docking adapters. They don't really weigh anything significant and allow you to convert one type of docking port to the other.

I think it sums up very well what KSP (and space exploration in general) is about. Huge alien landscapes out there waiting to be discovered, and using your ingenuity to design and build means to explore the Mun and the planets beyond- for science, for profit or simply because it is there.

Behold, the Kerbal Flyer spaceplane on its way to orbit. In this case, it's carrying a small rover for eventual forwarding to Minmus. From the days of being able to get an atmospheric periapsis while still running on the jet engine. I built a couple of the same basic design, including the KF-F unmanned fuel drone and the KF-C cargo ship:

Run a bare-bones Mun mission where the Kerbal pilot forms the upper stage of the Mun lander to compensate for lack of delta-V (bail out and complete the orbit insertion by EVA)

"Carrying out mining operations without a permit" (JB) "Abandonment (second count, of Billmobile)" (JB) and probably a few more Eve-based transgressions.

Either that or the option to run a reversed-cycle jet engine- drawing in combustible gases from the atmosphere of Eve (and Jool) and burning it with onboard oxidiser. Currently Ion engines can be made to work, but of course you need to ship xenon fuel supplies from Kerbin.

I recommend having some abort mechanism on the spaceplane. With planes built around circular fuselages, you can just use a decoupler to separate the cockpit from the rest of the plane and have that parachute to splashdown. On anything else, fit radial parachutes to several points around the plane and tie them into the abort action group. Deploy them high enough and they should bring the entire plane to a survivable splashdown.

If your mission includes a heavy fuel load due to a large delta-V budget, you also now have the advantage of being able to launch with the tanks nearly empty (just enough to get to the Mun) and refuel there using Munar ISRU. You can be constantly running mining excursions to keep the fuel station supplied.

Ion engines work well on Eve for small aircraft, though it's conceivable that a rover will be quicker. I've built a couple of planes with rover wheels so you can retract the landing gear (putting the rover wheels on the ground) and drive around without wasting fuel. If you have ISRU it makes sense to use that to refuel the plane so, landing in the right spot, you can do multiple excursions from the landing site to gather science. If you're going for maximum science from the surface, bring a research lab with you. You can research the scientific data on the surface (going on in the background during exploration trips) and transmit that to Kerbin, as well as bringing back the data itself.

Blue Danube- Strauss Outro- M83 (as seen in 'Build Fly Dream') https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDoEqBas4Y0 Ride of the Valkyries- Wagner (when launching something huge) And of course, anything from The Dark Side of the Moon (Mun)- Pink Floyd. Listen to this particular one with headphones..

It seems that on Kerbin, the ruff never went out of style, at least for formal wear

Given the presence of oxygen and liquid water on Laythe, I think it should be placed under quarantine and studied from nearby Vall or Tylo for potential life. We don't want Jeb's leftover sandwich contaminating the data Tylo would be an interesting target for colonisation. Unless there's subsurface water, you'd probably need to dig ice from Vall and ship that over to the Tylosians. The high gravity also makes constructing the colony a more difficult task, but no doubt this could be overcome. Experiments on the VAB roof would be useful. Duna is probably the best place for a colony, due to its (thin) atmosphere which could yield useful things, and large quantities of polar ice- assuming it is ice. With those two raw materials, The Dunans could probably manufacture most of what they'd need to survive on the surface. To me, the only viable way to explore Eve is with a one-way colonisation mission. Realistically, they aren't coming back anywhen soon, so they might as well live there. Also, my logic would be that any permanent residents of another planet would change their name. So you'd have Jebediah Tyloman of Tylo, Bill Duman of Duna, and Bob Layman of Laythe (who would obviously be ridiculed- another reason not to settle Laythe.)

There's also the somewhat amusing method of 'get out and push' if you're just a few m/s short of getting a re-entry trajectory. Point the ship prograde, then EVA a Kerbal, get behind and use the EVA pack to thrust forward. Theoretically this gives you infinite dV (since the EVA pack is refuelled when you return to the ship) but it's not really practical for anything more than those last few m/s. Once the Pe is inside the atmosphere, you'll go back to Kerbin eventually even if it takes a few passes.

Spaceplane SSTOs are all well and good if you like them, but personally I find them somewhat tedious to get into orbit effectively. In the old aero model I managed to build a couple of short, fat jet-assisted rockets that were 100% reusable. I'm not sure whether it's design, piloting or a bit of both, but I can't seem to get this sort of thing to work in 1.0. Anyone had success with reusable rockets?

Reminds me of a bit from The Titfield Thunderbolt (funny Ealing comedy made in the 1950s). Two railwaymen have got drunk, stolen a steam locomotive and driven it off the rails and through a town: Policeman (completely deadpan): Drunk and disorderly, taking away a locomotive without owner's permission, driving under the influence of alcohol, driving an unlicensed vehicle, careless driving, ignoring pedestrian crossing, failing to observe traffic sign, causing ash and/or sparks to be emitted on highway, driving the wrong side of road, failing to report accident, malicious damage, excessive noise, inadequate lights, defective tyres...

Back in version 0.25, I set up a permanent colony on Eve. (The kerbonauts knew it was a one-way trip.) The need to send refuelling missions, and the limited science data available back then, meant there wasn't a great deal to do on the surface. Now though, we have the ability to refine fuel locally, distinct biomes, and useful research to be done in the mobile lab, so there's even less of a need to return experiments to Kerbin. However, there's also different aerodynamics and reentry heating to consider, and I suspect that my existing designs would be useless. So, a few questions: 1. My old base used four 2.5m stacks of components. If I built this sort of structure again, would a central 2.5m heat shield, with perhaps 3.75m shields (to protect the landing legs) under the outer stacks be sufficient for an Eve entry? 2. Precision landing- I'd most likely have a mining facility separate from the main base module. Obviously, they need to be landed fairly close to each other. Is it actually possible to do an accurate landing on Eve? Or should I think about putting wheels on the mining facility to move it closer to the base. 3. Rocketplanes and large electric rovers- can these be safely landed on Eve and used as a viable means of exploration. With no means to power Ion engines other than shipments from Kerbin, I guess they are out. 4. Crew- My old colony was established before specialisms existed. I guess I need some high-level scientists to carry out research, plus some engineers to run the mining operation efficiently. Pilots don't have to be at a particularly high level as they'll only be needed to fly planes. I'll probably establish a space station in orbit and go and visit Gilly, so some higher-level pilots could go and return to Kerbin without landing on Eve itself.

We were concerned that we weren't sure if Eve's surface was as completely uninhabitable as predicted, and that we'd spent a lot of time figuring out that we really didn't know anything at all. Admittedly, times where there would be a rapid unplanned disassembly was a big part of why. So, if you're willing, we now need your help. Objectives: - Construct a new outpost that has an antenna and can generate power. --- Have a Research Lab at the outpost. --- Have a facility supporting 5 Kerbals. - Land your outpost on Eve. - Carry out research on the surface and transmit processed data from at least two biomes back to Kerbin. Rewards: Advance: √0 Completion: √0 Failure: √0

Here's my Manta Ray SSTO making its fiery way into orbit. In its current incarnation, the Manta Ray carries a crew of two, and can deliver small satellites and other parts into LKO. On this test flight, it just brought a basic docking adapter for the space station I'm constructing. The spaceplane docks its upper docking port to the extension module, then brings it over to one of the station's docking ports. It gives improved clearance for docking spaceplanes, and will be left behind for future use. On the way back. Jeb seems to be enjoying the fireworks outside. Back at KSC safely. There's usually some liquid fuel remaining, so that (as in this case) a powered descent can be made to compensate for piloting errors- an overshoot led to a westward landing on runway 27. The plan now is to rebuild a passenger-carrying version to ferry crews to and from LKO. The cargo bay will be replaced by two Mk2 passenger cabins.

Rovers useful in practical terms for doing contract missions where you have to run an experiment on the surface at two or three different points. They're usually close enough together that it pays to land near one, then rover from one site to the next. They're also good for when you're doing actual exploration of the place for the purposes of seeing what's around. In practice it's only on Minmus where you're likely to be in the vicinity of several biomes that you can drive between. However Minmus presents its own difficulties in actually controlling the thing due to the low gravity.

That's the plan- I've sent the original three (Bill's really just along as a passenger for the experience) to fly out of Kerbin SOI and gather science. The data needs returning to Kerbin anyway, and it lets all three level up at KSC. I believe it may have been changed fairly recently to allow operation with just 1 scientist- at least, that's what I have manning my lab at the moment and it's working.

If that's not possible for whatever reason (station size, power requirements, drunken design etc) standard practice should be to retract any offending solar arrays before attempting to dock a spacecraft to the station. You can always extend them again once the docking is complete (and if there's room to do so.)

In which case, you've now got the beginnings of an orbital fuel depot! I like to build reusable Mun transports that shuttle between stations in LKO and Munar orbit. The spacecraft that bring crews to and from Kerbin can bring along some extra fuel to keep the station's tank topped up, or you can just use it until it's empty.

This was my understanding as well, both from pilot training and engineering at university. It means that a conventional tailplane is more often than not producing a downwards force to correct the pitch-down moment of the main wing. It's the reason canards are always of interest as their pitch-up moment produces positive lift (but with other stability and control issues to contend with.) It has to be balanced by differing lift coefficient slopes of the main wing and canard- an increase in AoA should result in a greater change of lift coefficient on the main wing compared to the canard. Remember that the first powered flight was in an aircraft with a canard configuration.

So I've just landed a research base on Minmus, within easy access of the Greater Flats, Slopes, Lowlands and Midlands biomes. Plenty of data to be had there. Kimdie Kerman (Scientist level 1) is busy aboard the lab, while her colleague, Agagie Kerman (Pilot, level 1) does all the running around collecting results. Once Bob Kerman reports back from his excursion into Kerbol orbit, I guess he'll have reached level 2, so I'll probably be sending him off to Minmus Base to help. The question is, what happens to the research rate/efficiency? Does having two scientists (of differing levels) have any effect on the science generated? Or should I just bring Kimdie home once Bob's arrived.