Merandix

Ok, my 1.0 entry. Maybe some of you remember the Svadilvari, my 0.90 entry. While it could haul more, this does what it needs to do. Put loads in space. Not high, but it puts them up. Meet the MA-HSP 02 'Sleipnir' while not particularly massive, it gets the job done, and I think being able to lift some of the other entries will qualify it as sort of a heavy lifter, but I don't think it'll hold any size related titles for long If you put a few (a lot of) buckets below her, and drain her of all her fluids and gasses and other boomy stuff, she has a 38,1 tonne dry weight. Fully fuelled and ready to fly, she gains a 'few' kgs, and thus should avoid rolling over your toes at 80,3 tonnes. Obviously, such a thirsty lady is quite prepared to do some work, so give her a 10,7 tonne space station in her belly, and she'll merrily tip the scales at 91 tonnes, fully loaded on the runway. In this state, she can still power her way through the clouds, with a thrust to weight ratio of 1,63. Sleipnir measures in at 9,6 meters tall, 18,3 meters wide and 26,2 meters long. She has a spacious cargo hold, and seats four in the cockpit. Astute buyers may note that ladders are not fitted to the base version shown here, Meridian Aerospace would gladly install ladders as an option for only €963,38 (per ladder). Meridian Aerospace Industries does not accept any responsibility for any Rapid Unplanned Disassemblies, falling injuries, lost property or any sort of damages of what kind one may think off. Product can be gift-wrapped if so desired (though the responsible employee will be begging you to reconsider). edit: excuse the main crew being out of image for the first part of the series, there were seven Kerbals aboard that thing only mods used are Intake build aid and RCS build aid. Non intrusive on parts or flight mechanics.

I simply want too much I guess. Performs ok with only 10t cargo. Will use it for a 1.0 K-prize entry. Still, if anyone knows the key to heavy lifting with space planes in orbits a bit higher than 75-80 ish km, please let yourself be known

It says in the screenshot. It's not Kerbal Engineer, but RCS-build-aid works fine for me too. no load = TWR of 1,92 18 tonne load = TWR of 1,64 36 tonne load = TWR of 1,43 Just did a testflight without cargo... Holy crap that thing gets off planet quick... faster than most rockets <.< I believe I had circularised in under 4 minutes. Has plenty of manoeuvring fuel left. Not a lot, but enough to get from 75 to 150 km circular orbit, and back, plus a powered landing. That's the sort of difference you expect from an 18 tonne weight difference. Though admittedly, going from 75 km to 150 and back was about 300 dV... so I may be underestimating the difference 300 dV makes. So that answers part of my question... @Blu_C I usually have to grab the fuel from the cargo-tank to finish circularisation. Though admittedly with 36 tonnes it was true suborbital before I grabbed the fuel from the orange can to get there, and ended up with 2/3rds of said fuel left... Which obviously does not take into account that I would otherwise also need to get back to kerbin I honestly think I've been underestimating the difference a rather small dV number makes. Now, for part two of the question, can this thing ferry the intended 18 tonnes up? Or do I need a full redesign?

Dear fellow Kerbonauts, I'm on my way back to where I was when I built spaceplanes back in 0.90 (ok-ish at building and flying them). But not quite. But what is happening now, is puzzling me to no end. Take one spaceplane. Load it up with 36 tonnes of ballast fuel tank to simulate heavy cargo. Won't quite make it. No sweat, I won't often be launching loads that heavy anyway. Let's be generous, I had to use slightly less than one third of the orange tank's fuel supply to circularise at 75km. So, if I take an 18 tonne tank, it should get up there no problem right? Well, erm... no... Despite me dropping 18 tonnes of cargo... this thing flies almost the same?! I don't get this. Sure, the orange tank flight was one of my better flights, and I'm still learning on how to exactly put spaceplanes in orbit on the piloting bit, but still, that margin should be caught easily with EIGHTEEN tonnes of cargo weight dropped. I would have thought that with the cargo reduction, I'd be putting it up there, and then merrily flying back. I've been tweaking this thing for hours, and while there definitely are differences in behaviour, the differences maybe amount to a 200-400 m/s difference in dV. That's not what you would expect of a 15% weight reduction <.< Clearly I'm missing something, any Spaceplane guru's here with brilliant ideas on how to make this thing haul it's cargo up there? I would like it to be able to take at least 18 tonnes up, and get back down while in powered flight. It's 'almost there' but that almost bit is a brain-cracker. ((note, CoL is a little bit behind the CoM, almost touching it)

The ascent profile I eventually got up with was remarkably similar, though my plane has only 2 RAPIERS, which obviously makes me skip that fase . Next objective is making a space plane that can do the same with cargo.

I think for practice reasons it's a good idea to avoid canards. They stick out into the airstream, and heat up A LOT. Heat is your new main enemy in this game when it comes to space-planes or so it seems. Main thing seems to be to not go too fast in the 15-20 km altitude region. If your craft starts glowing, it's time to throttle back. Glowing is a prelude to exploding. Also, I've found that I consume a lot more rocketfuel nowadays Though I am by no means an expert at this yet. The way I get up there is probably still horrifyingly inefficient. But hey, I got there and back again without missing bits. Shows that it's at least possible And from how stuff handles, there's definitely huge room for improvement

I'm doing something wrong on ascent, but I don't know what. I remember this feeling of utter helplessness from when I first learnt spaceplanes... me likey! I don't know why people complain about this being 'impossible' so much... Once I'll figure it out... ooooh that sweet feeling of victory For now, anyone willing to share some additional information on their ascent profile? I've been to space occasionally, even at near orbital speeds... honestly, reentry seems to be the easy part. Managed to go subsonic without reentry effects or airbrakes at 25+ km. It's getting there (preferably with some portion of fuel left) that is the problem for now. edit: Made it into orbit. It wasn't pretty, but it was an orbit, and a runway landing after it, with no parts lost.

Ok, first up, take a deep breath. 1.0 didn't ruin the game, it just changed it, and humans happen to dislike change... especially if it means you have to relearn stuff It took me a little extra effort to get the first rockets up into space. And I love spaceplanes, but I've yet to get one into space Everyone, even the biggest KSP-pros have to experiment a little to get things going What Claw says is important, stay near that prograde marker. Also, I see a lot of people still trying to limit their speed in the first 10 km... this is MUCH less of an issue, the atmosphere isn't nearly as thick. Also, try to keep your rockets smooth, putting stuff on your rocket on the front really means extra drag. And the draggiest parts always want to hangout on the back of the rocket.

They're under aerodynamic, and they are really there. Right up in the default menu near some nose-cones... first few lines. If you can't find them, they LOOK like nose-cones They are procedural, so you only need one part.

Put them in a service bay. You don't have to land at night, you just need to protect them from the rigours of re-entry. Basically, friction made them overheat and be ripped off (= boom).

We all need to relearn... but out of curiosity, how quick does that thing accelerate in the lower atmosphere? You want to go quick. Judging by the cross-section of your rocket, my guess is that it's held back by drag-problems. Maybe try making it more aerodynamic? Also, if using fins, you might want to consider putting them at the back of your craft. Good luck!

This usually means rescue mission. And yes, manned. If you want unmanned, this is one of the downsides, and you'll just have to take that into account. The game isn't expecting you to magically make a Kerbal appear, the game is expecting you not to break it in the first place, just like reality. The Mars Rover Spirit has functioned with a broken (stalled) wheel from 2006 to 2011 (when it ceased functioning completely). NASA didn't expect a repairman to suddenly pop up on Mars either. If something breaks on an robotic vehicle, that's a shame, but you'll either have to try to cope with the faulty part, abandon the mission completely, or send a rescue mission. And that last one is an option that isn't very realistic actually, but we still have it in KSP. From experience, rescue missions like that are actually a big charm of KSP. When something goes wrong, and you fix it... that's awesome! Self repair would be boring as heck. It's actually a perk of having an engineer aboard; if something breaks, you fix it

What level is your tracking centre?

Note that you can also transfer Kerbals directly after docking. Left click on the crew hatch of the part the Kerbal currently is in, click transfer in the popup window, then click the module you want to move the Kerbal to. You probably already knew this, but just to be sure

You don't need to click anything to dock once the magnetics kick in... Can it be that you are oscillating a bit? Because if so, the docking ports will take a few seconds (and sometimes more) to align themselves correctly before actually connecting. To solve that, turn off both RCS and SAS just before (or immediately when) the docking ports are magnetically drawing towards each other. RCS and SAS on on both vessels will actually have both systems 'fighting' each other, this can sometimes lead to oscillations that may last up to a minute or more. Two vessels become one instantly upon docking. I think the main problem is that you aren't yet docked when you assume you are. But that's just an assumption on my part That's a whole lot of assumptions in one post. TL;DR: Once you are connected you can transfer fuel and Kerbals immediately, and the entirety of everything docked together behaves as one ship.

Works fine, though a bit tricky in the SPH Problem is that not all parts are fully symmetrical, so the SPH has a bit of a mind of it's own in terms of symmetry settings.

No. You can select ALL fueltanks by clicking on the bars in the resources tab though... not that it helps much. Because transferring is still annoying.

They already were... I actually think low orbit rescue missions miss that sense of urgency that I had today

Ok, I managed to get jeb off the ship by docking to it with my spaceplane... I made an elliptical orbit half the size of the ship's orbit, on the same inclination, and in the end I only had to shed a little over 200 m/s in speed difference when the encounter happened. Jeb's safe... ...the only bummer? The experiment is still in his capsule... oops... Also been dewingsed again at landing. Put it down safely anyway. The most awesome thing about this game? When something goes horribly wrong, and you make it right again! Thanks for all the suggestions!

Daring rescue plan: I rebuilt a spaceplane from my sandbox game. I realised I had the tech. So why not try it? It's capable of landing on the Mun, and getting back again on a single tank of gas. If anything's going to get Jeb back, it's this thing... edit: makes me wonder why I didn't use this thing in the first place <.< In case of emergency and I do need Jeb to use his little jetpack to save his bum from an unfortunate encounter with the Mun... how do I tell which way to go without a navball?

*cough* I can now confirm that it is INCORRECT, at least, when looking at it from the Tracking station, or a Kerbin based 'base' (runway marker). Jeb basically flew off into outer space when viewed from the tracking station, and crashed into the moon when looking from my base at Kerbin.... Two very rash F9's later, I'm now in a situation where I literally have a single orbit to catch up with him, and get him away from that blasted Mun... Oh dear...

Well, capturing it when I'm near isn't an issue... I designed it to dock with a munar space station that is in another save *facepalm* (why would I even check? <.<) So it actually has a docking port. The problem is synching such a huge orbit... I know how to synch small circular orbits... but yikes... Also, if I leave it unfocussed, do I understand correctly that it will NOT be slingshotted into deep space by the Mun's gravity? Orbit's inclination is around 45 degrees relative to the Mun's... That large inclination was necessary to fly over the lot where I needed to do a crew report... then I discovered I had too little fuel to make it back home... no biggy, I just need to -hit- Kerbin... and that's exactly what the Mun prevented when it caught up with me... I had enough fuel to get home initially, but not when I got that unintended gravity assist XD

I kind of sent Jeb up to do my first manned Munar reconnaissance mission... it all went fine... until I discovered I exited the Mun's orbit on the wrong side... the Mun caught up with me, and gave me a nice unwanted gravity assist... I only had enough fuel to burn off a tiny little bit of speed, and I discovered I forgot to instal RCS thrusters... Yet I was still carrying RCS fuel in the pod... woops... So yeah, now poor Jeb basically is in a highly elliptical orbit around Kerbin. Dangerously close to the orbit of the Mun... Not so much at risk of hitting it, but I fear another 'gravity assist' will sling Jeb out of Kerbin's SOI eventually. I still need a lot of practice with orbital manoeuvring.... clearly. However, I still want Jeb safely back home... I tried to follow in the footsteps of Scot Manley by instructing Jeb to 'get out and push'. However my skill at this seems appalling... I just manage to get the capsule to spin... while the capsule actually is the only reference point I have... so I no longer know where to push... I tried a drone rescue mission, but the timing required really is over my head and I had to revert. I dove headfirst into spaceplanes, and I love it... but I seem to have skipped the basics in doing so... So yeah... suggestions and tips and stuff on this nooby mistake would be much appreciated. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back on the radio to crack jokes with Jeb, he's starting to get bored up there

Ok, this is good... I've got a save (see below for download) where I can consistently reproduce. I sincerely hope this still works after transfer. I think I've got it down to the following criteria: - Damaged launchpad - Long duration flights with high time warp (other SOI's are NOT necessary apparently). - If I don't timewarp, it doesn't happen. - Only triangular wings seem to poof into nonexistence. I haven't tested TOO thoroughly, since I don't really know what I'm looking for, but at least I managed to get it to reproduce when I want. How to reproduce in the below save: - Take either Munshot 1 or Munshot 2 from the SPH (I prefer the last one, since it has non-triangular wings as well, meaning there's possibility of safe landing, probably any other plane will do as well). - take it up into space, last time I brought it up to 300 km... timewarped for 3 days, then landed. Usually happens when I go to the Mun (because timewarp obviously). - Land at the runway... I've usually had wing poofage happen very near or even ON the runway. - On one occasion I had a part of the VAB exploding, while the report did not state anything on it was hit. I only have two mods installed, they shouldn't matter, but for the sake of completeness: - RCS Build aid - Intake Build aid Download save -here- (download link will only stay valid for seven days!) I hope it'll trigger the bug on dev systems as well. My setup: Windows 8.1, 64 bit. Running 32 bit KSP i5-4670 MSI Radeon 7870 8 GB RAM SSD present, but game runs off steam folder on disk drive. If you want to know anything more, please do ask, because like many people, I could bloody well do without this bug edit: fixing the launchpad doesn't seem to help. edit2: Ok... slightly less amusing... It's also happening in my other saves... narrowly averted a crash in my careermode just after saving Jeb <.<

Thanks, that's answered then. I'll look into it!