OhioBob

Since upgrading to 0.90 my SCANsat mod doesn't seem to be working. The device still scans to the 'small map' but the 'big map' option doesn't work. Clicking on 'big map' opens a small blank window that doesn't include any of the previous display and save buttons. The 'analyze data' option is also broken, as clicking on it on it does nothing. These problems make the mod pretty much useless. Has anybody else experienced these problems, or is it just me?

The Moon's sidereal period is 27.3 days, but it's synodic period is 29.5 days. Sidereal period is referenced to the stars while synodic period is referenced to the Sun. The synodic period is the time between phases of the moon and is much closer to the duration of a month on Earth.

After unsuccessfully trying #2 and #3, I eventually got #1 to work.

I just had this happen to me earlier today. The screen when black so I just restarted the game. I just now noticed that one of my ships has disappeared without a trace. Coincidentally the ship that disappeared had two command pods, though neither was manned. One part of the ship was a SCANsat and the other a lander.

Late 40's, early 50's. Quickly moving on to late 50's, early 60's tech after successfully completing some early milestones.

My Jebediah is currently somewhere between Kerbin and Duna with Bill and Bob in a lone Mk1-2 command pod. They were merrily cruising along on a trip to Duna when I decided to check up on them. I went to the tracking station, selected their mission, and as soon as their spacecraft appeared on the screen it inexplicably exploded into bits and pieces. Fortunately the command pod survived, but that's all. A rescue mission is currently in route, but it will probably be at least a couple years before I can bring them back home. A replacement mission is scheduled for the next launch window with a brave new crew.

I managed to complete my first course correction without a maneuver node, so I at least have an acceptable encounter. I've tried creating a maneuver node all along my current trajectory without success. Oddly I can create a node on the purple post-encounter trajectory but not on the blue current trajectory. I've tried saving and reloading (even rebooting) but that didn't fix the problem. Hopefully I'll be able to create maneuver nodes once I've passed into the planet SOI. The mission is actually two payloads that will separate and fly different approach trajectories once I hit the SOI. It won't be impossible, but it will certainly be much more difficult if I have to make two critical and time sensitive course corrections without maneuver nodes.

This is the first time I've heard of Alt+F12, so no, I've never used it.

I'm experiencing a problem that I've occasionally seen in the past. This has nothing to do with not having upgraded my facilities in 0.90. I have a ship on an interplanetary trajectory and I can't place a maneuver node on its orbit. I'm moving the pointer around everywhere and clicking and it's just ignoring me. I was able to create a node when I was in Kerbin orbit, but now that I've left Kerbin's SOI, I can't do it anymore. I can focus on other ships and create nodes, I just can't do it on the one I just launched. As I said, I've had this happen to me in the past long before the upgrade, but I can't remember if or what I did to fix it. Does anybody know what's causing this and how to correct it?

I just made an observation that might be helpful regarding wobble, though the particular case that I observed was not a large ship. When I set the SAS to maintain orientation to one of the direction indicators, such as prograde, this induced a wobble. However, when I set it to "Stability Assist" the wobble immediately went away. With stability assist the ship is simply holding its current attitude. However, when you set it to one of the direction indicators, the ship is constantly making minute corrections as it orbits the planet, which produces the wobble. It appears the SAS needs a bigger deadband to eliminate the rapid oscillations. My advise would be to use the directions for initial alignment and then switch to stability assist.

There was definitely a learning curve, but for me it was mostly learning about the game tools. I already had the knowledge needed to design reasonably effective rockets and spacecraft, calculate delta-v, and compute maneuvers. After playing for a while it became apparent that there had to be an easier way to execute transfers then doing a bunch of manual math and holding a protractor up to the screen to measure phase and ejection angles. I finally started watching some tutorials on YouTube and it was like, "Wow, that's way easier than what I've been doing."

For the first month I played KSP I didn't know that maneuver nodes existed. I still managed to get quite a bit done. It was a relief when I learned about them because they certainly made life easier.

Another way to find Minmus' nodes without using a satellite is... (1) Go to the map and zoom out until you see Mun's orbit. (2) Rotate the view top to bottom until Mun's orbit is seen edge on. (3) Zoom out until you see Minmus' orbit. (4) Rotate the view side to side until you see Minmus' orbit edge on (make sure to keep Mun's orbit also edge on). (5) Where the orbits appear to cross is Minmus' line of nodes, which, in the current orientation, is perpendicular to the monitor screen. (6) Rotate the view down until you are looking down on Kerbin's north pole (do not rotate side to side). (7) Minmus' line of nodes now forms a vertical line on your screen.

If the inclination is less than 90-degrees then the orbit is prograde. If the inclination is greater than 90 degrees then it's retrograde.

Another way to get a rough idea of the direction of 0-degrees celestial longitude is to zoom out on the big map a look at the orbit of Eeloo. Since Eeloo's orbit is so eccentric, it's not too hard to estimate the orientation of its major axis. Eeloo's apoapsis is at 130o longitude and its periapsis is 310o longitude. You can find 0o from that easy enough.

The rules of thumb are, 1. Stages with higher Isp should be above stages with lower Isp. 2. More ÃŽâ€V should be provided by the stages with the higher Isp. 3. Each succeeding stage should be smaller than its predecessor. 4. Similar stages should provide the same ÃŽâ€V.

The GRAVMAX is supposed to work in space, but not while flying in an atmosphere.

The calculated delta-v of a vehicle is what it would produce in the absence of gravity and drag. When you launch from Kerbin you are experiencing gravity and drag losses, so the actual velocity attained by your vehicle will be considerably lower than your calculated delta-v. For instance, if you are accelerating off the launch pad with a thrust-to-weight ratio of 1.5, then 2/3rd of you thrust is simply cancelling out gravity. You'll lift off the pad with an apparent acceleration of only 0.5 g. Does this sound like your problem? (edited to add) The solution is to over design you delta-v to account for the expected losses. For example, it is generally accepted that in the stock game it takes about 4500 m/s delta-v to reach low Kerbin orbit. However, actual orbital velocity is a little less than 2300 m/s. The difference is the gravity and drag losses.

One more thing about Eve vs. Duna. Eve has a synodic orbital period of 680 Kerbin days while Duna has a synodic orbital period of 910 Kerbin days. These means that Kerbin>Eve and Eve>Kerbin launch windows come up more frequently than Kerbin>Duna and Duna>Kerbin launch windows.

Huh? Eve has a 2.1 degree orbital inclination. Duna is only 0.06 degrees (almost negligible). I usually find that it can be harder to get a good intercept with Eve than I do with Duna.

Minmus is fairly easy to get to, but it's 6-degree inclination does add a challenge that you don't have to worry about with Mun. I think Duna is next easiest. It has an orbital inclination of only 0.06 degree, so it's pretty easy to set up a maneuver node. Eve, with an inclination of 2.1 degrees, is a bit trickier to get a good intercept. The delta-v needed to get to Duna and Eve is about the same. If you plan to make a propulsive orbit insertion, Duna has a much lower delta-v requirement. Eve, however, has a nice thick atmosphere that makes for easy aerocapture. If you plan to land, Eve is easy with parachutes. Duna's atmosphere is really thin, so parachutes will slow you down but you'll likely need a small amount propulsion to perform the final breaking. Landing on Duna is more of a challenge than Eve. If you plan to liftoff from the planet, then there is absolutely no comparison. Duna is easy while Eve is the most challenging launch in the system. It also requires much less delta-v to return to Kerbin from Duna than from Eve.

That's not entirely correct. What you call the mass flow rate is actually the weight of the mass ejected, measured in kN. Dividing by g0 then gives you the mass flow rate, measured in t. To get the volume flow rate you then have to divide by the propellant density.

Any pictures to share?

This happens to me quite a bit with Minmus. Halfway there the encounter appears to disappear. I always just continue on and when I cross the SOI it comes back.

I prefer a high-efficiency, minimalistic approach. Determine the minimum requirements needed to complete the mission, add a reasonable margin, then custom design a spacecraft that can perform the mission using the least parts/mass/cost as possible. I tend to get more fun out of squeezing the most out of the least then I do in building big hulking behemoths. I try to make my spacecraft look as good as possible, but not at the expense of efficiency. At this point I have no interest in aircraft or spaceplanes, though that may come latter. I like simple expendable rockets, usually two-stage or two-stage with SRBs. Although I usually custom design my payload for the specific mission, I have a fleet of pre-designed launch vehicles saved as subassemblies and named according to their lift capacity. I designed my launchers to optimize TWR and give me the biggest payload fraction. After I complete construction of a payload, I'll attached the smallest launch vehicle that can deliver it to orbit. The launch vehicle just gets me to orbit, all the delta-v needed to complete the mission from that point is designed into the payload. So far I haven't performed any missions that have required huge massive payloads (though I'm planning some), but when I get there I'll probably favor a multi-launch/Kerbin orbit rendezvous approach. I think designing for and performing orbital assembly would be more fun than building some asparagus-staged monstrosity of a launch vehicle. The biggest launch vehicle in my current fleet can deliver 80 tonnes.