wibou

Unless I missed something, SSTO for Eve is mathematically impossible (You can meet the TWR requirement OR the Delta-V requirement but not both). Tylo is probably possible but it would be hell of a challenge. Edited: Goddamit, Nefrums actually made it : http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/132211-Eve-SSTO-Limbo Okay, my mistake...

Do you have an Nvidia card? If not, the game probably won't run well (or at all) due to the sorry state of the ATI/AMD drivers in Linux. For Nvidia, as long as you use the propretary driver (the one from Nvidia), it should run just fine... Stay away from "Nouveau" (Open Source driver for Nvidia cards), it is full of bugs, plus the performance sucks.

The default white lights are WAAAAAY too blinding for me. It's hard to distinguish anything in complete dark with those. I use blue or purple lights for descent, so the ground details will show up nicely.

Another hints is to avoid the poles! The mun and minmus (and most celestial bodies?) have very accidented terrains near poles, with sudden edges and high slopes. However it WILL give you the most spectacular views... just make sure to pack enough delta-v to hover during the descent to some nicer ground. And having a good TWR will make it easier to react instantly.

If it is still relevant, I had to do the exact same thing recently : http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/108563-Landing-an-asteroid-on-collision-course?p=1707003&viewfull=1#post1707003

Screenshot would definetly help... But if I understand the situation correctly, my advice would be to turn on the engine of the probe PRIOR to decoupling it. Just make sure you throtle enough so that the probe would start going up as soon as it is decoupled BUT not enough so that the whole lander start flying. That way, the probe won't recouple itself as soon as you switch to it. A little dangerous sure, but Jeb would be proud

Did you even checked the images he posted? The probe has 4030 ElectricCharge and 2 gigantor XL solar panel correctly deployed. The problem is NOT about electricity, most likely a bug.

Is it requesting a _space station_ or a _land station_? In any case, it means you need to build your station AROUND an asteroid. So you need to dock your stuff using ships with Klaw (AGU) that would grab onto the asteroid. A class E asteroid is VERY massive. This would be a very challenging contract, especially if you need to land it on the Mun. (But orbit would be challenging as well!). And keep in mind the Klaw is very buggy at the moment... expect ANYTHING. Save often.

I wish we could have ONE thread that doesn't end with a flamewar PRO-MechJeb VS CON-MechJeb... It's a mod for god's sake! You need to MANUALLY install it. If you did install it, I'm assuming you still have fun playing the game that (totally different and probably easier) way, otherwise you wouldn't have installed it, right? New players learning only with MechJeb may find it difficult to do it manually then, but that's quite another debate, isn't it?

True. But even then, I try to keep as far away as possible from the Cubic Octagonal Strut as well, as it is buggy as hell. I had several perfectly good (and stable!) designs ruined by that part randomly causing explosive wobbles... running mission in ships that can randomly explode for no reason at the worst possible time is BEYOND frustrating. Down with that damn Krakennite-steel made strut! (Seriously, try it: stack 3 Octagonal on top of each other, then put 8 long girders radially on each stack... it will wobble-explode within 5 seconds on launchpad. Using less girders does make it somewhat stable but even so the wobble-explode bug will hit at any time without warning...)

The Klaw acts like a docking port, except that it can "dock" (or grab if you prefer) any surface. As such, you COULD use the Klaw to grab a rover and drop it once you reach destination. However, unlike docking port, I don't think it is possible "grab" onto something in VAB, so it will be tricky to get something into orbit that way. You could design some kind of a "ramp" that your rover would use to get at the correct heigh to grab/be grabbed... but that sound like totally overkill. Decoupler/docking ports would do a much better/easier job than Klaw to attach/drop a rover IMHO.

"Kraken Bait" It was a very large probe composed of 4 different parts that would dock using Klaw... I had a contract to get a C class asteroid into Moho orbit, you see. From what I had experimented/read about the Klaw, I had the feeling my design would summon the Kraken a few times. And it did. Numerous time.

That's actually quite an interesting question. Considering that the tallest summit in the solar system is on Mars (Olympus Mons), that Mars has a very thin atmosphere (and that said atmosphere is probably close to 0 on top of Olympus) and that the martian gravity is about 1/3 of Earth's gravity (and probably somewhat less on top of Olympus)... what kind of force would you need to achieve orbit if your starting point is the very summit? I don't have the math required to give an answer but I am very curious about this...

Yes, Vernor engine count as RCS, although they are only going 1 direction (so you would need at least 6 to cover all translation direction). And RCS engines really are LESS efficient than liquid fuel engine. If you look at their specific impulse (or Isp, simply "efficiency of an engine"), you will notice it is way less than most liquid fuel engine and way WAY less than ION engines or LV-N nuclear engine. As such, powering a vehicle, even a small one, with only RCS would be less efficient than powering it using the same amount of liquid fuel or Xenon gas. The wiki might help here: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/RV-105_RCS_Thruster_Block http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Place-Anywhere_7_Linear_RCS_Port http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Vernor_Engine

So I did it! Operation Mammoth Feather was a resounding success! It wasn't easy, toying with asteroid is _VERY_ buggy (hence, dangerous). I experimented all sort of weird bugs, from being accelerated to near lightspeed to becoming perfectly still while the universe keep on moving. I had to restart KSP several times. The notoriously buggy manoeuver nodes around asteroid were also quite a pain. Especially since 90% of the rendezvous it was giving me were AFTER the asteroid would have crashed on Kerbin (geee that's very helpful, thanks). I had to perform SEVERAL "simulation" (AKA "F5-F9") but in the end I made it Here is a photo album of the whole operation. Sorry to wake up an old thread like this... It's not just because I am damn proud of it, I ALSO felt it could help others to do the same Ps: Jeb INSISTED on coming, I couldn't help it.