Wild Card

The boys are home! My first there-and-back interplanetary mission is a success! [ATTACH=CONFIG]33468[/ATTACH] Here is an updated Intrasolar 4, I had placed some of the landing-stage struts wrong, which will NOT enable your Kerbal to use the ladders to get up and down the lander. On Duna, it's not a big problem, as they can jump and RCS up the landing stage, but if you want to use this anywhere else, like Eve, you need those ladders functional. [ATTACH]33469[/ATTACH]

Kerbin reentry speed and Pe. Things were going a little fast right here, due to a direct insertion from Duna. [ATTACH=CONFIG]33462[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]33463[/ATTACH] The G-forces were rather high, high enough to light up the warning light! [ATTACH=CONFIG]33464[/ATTACH] Coming in for a soft landing [ATTACH=CONFIG]33465[/ATTACH] The IntraSolar 4, ready to launch [ATTACH=CONFIG]33467[/ATTACH]

Well, I managed to get a 3-man lander to and from Duna, although it was a little tight with the fuel budget. The craft's name is IntraSolar 3. IntraSolar 1, well...her pieces are in a polar-solar, highly eccentric orbit. IntraSolar 2 couldn't escape atmosphere without breaking up. IntraSolar 3 is my first successful interplanetary design. She lags quite badly on take off, which is why I use MechJeb to help with that, as there is no possible way that I can ascend it properly with all of the lag. After the second stage, ALL of the struts on the third stage will automagically become decoupled (I thought it would be a huge problem, but, if you take your gravity turn and orbital maneuvers nice and light, the big fuel tanks will stay together just fine. I also thought I'd like to do some surface mapping, and try to find some anomalies, so I brought along the ISA mapping dish, as well. Never know when it might come in handy. Now, I'm uploading IntraSolar 4, it has a couple of small tweaks, a little bit reduced mass, and a slightly improved fuel-flow in the later stages. [ATTACH]33457[/ATTACH] So, the ONLY two mods you need to run this are MechJeb and ISA Satmap thingy. And, if you don't want the ISA thing, I'll upload a version without it. It's a PITA to launch and ascend, but once you ascend and break atmosphere, then circularize, you will switch to your NERVA's and use them to raise your orbit to about 605 km or so (so the high-speed warp can kick in, aiding with planetary alignment). Once you are ready to launch, I recommend doing your Dunar-Injection-Burn about 6 degrees BEFORE your predicted ejection angle, as those NERVA's are still pushing a fair amount of mass around at that point. Here's the secret: Get your Dunar Pe to the smallest amount possible. I was able to hit about 20km from Kerbin orbit. As I got closer to Duna, I would keep making small corrections, about 4 total in the entire trip to Duna. The closer you are, the more precise you can make your Pe. I planned on saving a crapload of fuel and using an extreme aerobraking maneuver. I got my Pe to around 3km when I hit atmosphere, so even that tiny little thin atmosphere completely slowed down my craft and killed my lateral velocity. I then deployed chutes, and did a rocket assisted landing. [ATTACH=CONFIG]33460[/ATTACH] Unfortunately, at this point, I had landed very close to the South Pole, which later killed my fuel budget. Before you ascend, decouple the landing parachutes. They'll hang on a little while, due to their placement, but they'll leave eventually. When I ascended (heading 270), I circularized my orbit to about 800 km (for maximum warp and less Delta-V wasted on an inclination change), and then I burned a fair amount of fuel changing my orbit to an equatorial one. I was getting worried at this point about having enough fuel to make it back to Kerbin. [ATTACH=CONFIG]33459[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]33461[/ATTACH] I accelerated time until the planets, and then my ejection angle matched what I needed, and I started a VERY CAREFUL burn to Kerbin. Well, I had JUST enough fuel to make it. I set my Pe to be an extreme aerocapture (about 4.5km Pe), and the reason was very simple. After all was said and done, I entered the Kerbin SOI with about 8.0L of fuel left, and no RCS. So, even if I wanted to, I couldn't make any drastic course corrections. [ATTACH=CONFIG]33458[/ATTACH] After that, it's a cakewalk. Use what little fuel you have to slow down your descent and keep your Pe very close to the ground, then seperate, let the atmosphere do the work, and deploy your last parachute.

The sweet music of LFE's and SRB's is enough for me...

Actually, degree or radians work well for trig. I prefer radians. 2pi equals 360 deg. pi equals 180 deg. Etc. Has to do with the circumference of a circle with a radius of 1, the size of the arc you are using for a certain angle will equal a radian measurement. If you really like trig, you'll prefer radians to degrees, they make much more sense.

Okay, so I've been doing pretty well with the new large parts. Gotten a 3-man pod, 1 large full fuel tank, 1 large half-engine, 4-radial engines, and 4 large landing legs landing on the mun and minmus. The only large issue that I'm having with these extremely large parts is getting them to orient properly in orbit. I have attached ridiculous amounts of both linear-port and regular RCS thrusters to these things, always at the top and bottom of the craft, and on the areas furthest from center (both of which should exert more leverage). Fins do nothing in orbit, so I won't bother with those, as while under full-thrust, the large LFE's offer enough control while ascending. The problem comes first when I try to circularize my orbit. I just CAN'T get her to point prograde, or to point pro-grade reliably without giving some throttle on the main engines. Usually, at this point I have my lander stage, and my injection stage (4 full Large fuel tanks, 1 large LFE, and 4 radial engines) up there. The problem with giving throttle to the main engines to maneuver is that it also completely messes up my orbital paths. Onwards, when it comes time to do an injection burn to either Mun or Minmus, I have the same problem, with the additional problem of timing. By the time I get the craft lined up and ready to fire for injection, I almost always miss my window. I know, I should start earlier, but it seriously is taking 5-10 minutes to wrestle the craft into orienting prograde, and without the main boosters, it's not gonna happen. I was considering using one of the larger, half-LFE's as my injection engine of choice, due to their more efficient vacuum operation, larger gimball range, and less amount of thrust, but I am still using the injection stage to also circularize my orbit, so I still need a decent amount of thrust for that. Any thoughts or ideas on this dilemma?

Looks fine to me. But, there's a nice Suggestions subthread in the development section if you feel you must make one....

There\'s always the Kerbal way to find out....

Now that\'s impressive!

Didn\'t realize she was that nice.....but, if you guys want to muck around and test the 'might' of your computers, I\'ll post the craft file here. It is attached. It went through many, many iterations, and I\'m sure it doesn\'t have the most efficient ascent profile. Struts like crazy to hold everything together, although it still likes to self-destruct whenever your computer hits a bad lag spike. Uses an asparagus style, quad-engine second, third, and fourth stage. First stage is ALL engines going except for the station\'s. SRB\'s should seperate around 5000m. First 'pack' of LFE\'s should seperate rather early in the flight, but don\'t be worried, as her speed REALLY picks up at that point. You should be out of the thick atmosphere at that point, too. You NEED Damned Aerospace 'Crew Tank' part (you don\'t need the whole DA pack, but, whatever, if you have it, it\'s not used). You also need the newest iteration of Mechjeb. Have fun, let me know if any of you try it. And, if you still can\'t get her into orbit, I could post my persistence file. So far, it\'s minimal, a little debris in orbit, SS Kiir in orbit at 125km. Jeb\'s 'Space Ferry' floating relatively nearby. Oh, and a larger size lander near the nearside Mun arch, with a single Kerbalnaught 'Kerby' standing all alone at the peak of the Mun Arch. That was over a 5km walk for the guy, and he lost his two crew members enroute. EDIT: Oh yes, before I forget, some of the ladders don\'t seem to be working as intended. It\'s possible that the problem may lie with the 'Snap-to-angles' feature, as I placed some of them with it 'on' and some of them with it 'off'. So, I may correct the issue at some point.....

So, I\'ve been playing this since .13. Never actually got serious about a rendezvous. Tried several times, but didn\'t quite grasp that brute force didn\'t accomplish the feat. Would always end up WAY overshooting the target, or never even coming close. I have done multiple Mun and Minmus landings (even both on the same flight), and I have become rather decent at basic orbital flight mechanics. So, with the .16 parts and EVA-ing, I finally decided to build a Space Station in orbit around Kerbal. I made it with all stock parts (except a tiny little MechJeb module on its underside and the crew tank). She\'s big, weighs in at quite a bit. Got it into orbit (that was difficult, my computer would spontaneously disassemble the entire craft at various spots in atmosphere). Raised its orbit to 125km, circular. She has plenty of SAS, an ASAS, way too much RCS (thrusters and fuel), and a heap of fuel for her half-size LFE. Also has the Mk2 command pod and the 5-Kerbal crew tank. She is ringed with several ladders, going in many directions, making it a space-jungle-gym of sorts. So, I decided after I put this into orbit, that I would make a small space-ferry to ferry the first extra crew member aboard Kirr (I know...not original). Lo-and-behold, it was good ol\' Jebediah! I fashioned a single-seat, throw-away intercept craft, launched it, and proceeded to use the awesome intercept table available on the forums here. First try, and I got to within 1.5km of Kiir. A little RCS maneuvering, and I was on top of her. Within about 20m, I EVA\'d Jeb and hopped on over to the station. Jeb meandered about and then boarded the station. First 2 attachments are the Space Station, last is Jeb\'s personal ride arriving. So, I really do feel that .16 is a helluva improvement. Actual incentive to rendezvous!

I\'ve done that once. An atmospheric 'AWAC' style plane, for munolith hunting North of KSC. Ran out of fuel when making a long, eastward turn, had to ditch it into the ocean. Came in as slow and as shallow of an angle as I could. Flared it right before hitting, and, lost a few components (including wings), but everyone made it out alive, and the thing floated.

And yet, you didn\'t post the ascent profile?