Terwin

When flying 1.25m craft, I would have them tumble so as to keep as much surface as possible in the air-flow. This was usually able to save craft for which I did not save enough fuel for a retro-burn( or at the very least slow me down enough that my remaining fuel would get me slow enough for chutes). Now that I have drogue chutes unlocked, atmospheric braking burns are much more optional. I thought the current placement of Drogue chutes high enough that you need to solve the deceleration problem first was deliberate, that way you appreciate their value once you get them.

[quote name='KerikBalm'] I'm not even complaining that the mass of radial drills went up by half a ton in the latest update, I'm complaining because the entire craft is getting heavily penalized because it doesn't have a fraction of a ton devoted to radiators.[/QUOTE] The fact that ISRU would need radiators in 1.0.5 was mentioned repeatedly, so you had time to prepare. Generally I use Nukes on ships where I am using ISRU, so I already have the radiators on-board to allow longer thrusts, I just keep them extended/powered while refining and I'm good. Note: there is also the (rather small) power requirement for the radiators, so there may be a reason to disable the radiators when you do not have enough power to run all your drills(swapping between drills as they heat up/cool down until your primary power source is available again/when too far from the sun) As someone who had plenty of ships with radiators in 1.0.4(most of which also had ISRU) I prefer RoverDude's approach of letting me choose how to do my head management. (there is also the issue of what happens if your radiators/solar panels get damaged during the mission and managing heat and power thereafter)

After deploying a 'science pod'(1.25m bay with core, antenna, thermometer, battery, palenls and reaction wheel) on the Mun I was asked to check out temp reading 'near by' Did not realize I would need to go to 4-5 different sites(generally 2-4 km from last measurement) Lost a number of solar panels and the decoupler doing all that travel.(it was even worse on Minmus due to the long wait to get back down to the surface... and it being night time). I was also asked to adjust a couple satellites to different orbits.(one was in transit to Minmus at the time so I ignored it) No real bases as of yet, so no expansions on those so far(the world firsts did say I built my first bases in orbit and on the surface of the mun due to some refueling docking activities)

[quote name='Xuixien']I don't even bother with rovers in KSP. The Apollo rover was folded up and tucked into a tiny compartment in the LEM. Is there any way to do this in KSP, or with any mod? Nope. Instead you have to "poverty rig" it and make some ridiculous looking craft. I don't even bother landing on planets anymore as there's nothing to do and walking around in low G sucks. I just design and launch rockets and it's getting... old.[/QUOTE] You could always use KAS to assemble a rover out of pieces you stowed piece-meal in bins. Alternately you could put together a 'core' that is stowed somewhere in the structure, then put on things like wheels and other projecting pieces using KAS.

Since the release of 1.0.5 I have come to realize just how much I depend on KER(a Mun rocket that had to be 'pushed' from a periapps of > 500km down to ~55km and another mun rocket that did not have enough fuel to get back to munar orbit, followed by a Minmus rocket that performed several biome hops and eventually landed on kerbin with hundreds of m/s left after thrusting all the way down from orbit) As such I would like to thank Padishar for all his efforts on this mod. (and I'm refreshing my ckan listing before and after every play session, I really miss those TWR and d-v readouts)

I think the explosions just add to the Kerbal aesthetic. It seems somehow appropriate that even perfectly working Kerbal rockets may have large explosions as part of the normal ascent process. And it would be tragic if we did not have adequately large explosions for when thins *DO* go horribly wrong... Just remember: Kerbal rocket components are generally much heavier and less performant than real life rocket systems, this lets them have the robustness needed to escape peripheral explosions unscathed.

Looks like he is using FlexiTubes from RoverDude's UKS mod(USI Kolonozation systems). Put one on each module(possibly using KAS) and then carry the 'link' from one to the other, and they will then be linked and count as part of the same vessel.

I noticed that whatever you have on the front tends to get the brunt of the heating(wetted surface and all), I saw this with 3 Mk1 pods and only the one on the nose exploded during reentries. Tumbling tends to help distribute the heat better, also going engines-first puts most of the heat on a part designed to get very hot anyway. been a while since my last post... Before 1.0.5: Determined that Long-Shot 1 would not be able to lift off from Duna with enough d-v to get to orbit, so I redirected it to Gilly after it's fuel stop on Minmus. As my original refueling station on Kerbin was having traction problems on the hill-side and losing solar panels, I made a second(this time with action groups to deploy and activate the drills, and a UKS nuclear power plant to back-up the solar panels). Can send up ~4500 ore to kerbin orbit every 3 hours(or a slightly smaller amount of fuel) making it very useful.(even if it costs ~1M funds) Built the Long-Shot 2 with enough engines to lift off of Duna with plenty of d-v and sent it off to the Mun for data and contracts, then launched a refueling station into lko with the intent of taking it to either Ike or Gilly as a fuel depot(unmanned but with a substantial stock of life support supplies in addition to the refueling capability. Powered by RCS and a up-scaled nuclear engine(should have > 5km/s with LF+ore full and o2 empty)) And then 1.0.5 came out. Started New career, adding in mods as they get completed, planning to copy over my old save once my mods are updated. The new tiny jet engines go really well with the Mk1 cockpit, slinging them under the wings so it looks like a small jet-liner. The new 2 passenger crew compartment does great things for my tourist contracts as well, At one point I had 3 linked together for some highly profitable tourist contracts(I had crew cans but no large engines/fuel tanks to go with them so the Mk1 crew cabins dramatically cut my launch count) Was a bit slower getting to orbit this game as my first few attempts burned up on re-entry, so I reverted and tried again after getting a bit more tech unlocked(and hauling up more fuel for braking) Remembering the trepidation of missions without KER, got a ship to the Mun to collect science and complete the Explore contract, had Bob hanging on the outside of the landing pod door for almost then entire first orbit of the Mun to collect biome-specific eva reports, then managed a landing with no 'go retrograde' and managed to plant my first Munar flag. Finally I was able to return to orbit and then burn for a kerbin periapps of 50km(without a node as I did not know how much d-v I have left) Still have plenty of fuel, so hopefully I can get a nice safe landing(used transmitted Munar data to unlock drogue chutes, so bob will still need to rely on engines to get slow enough for chutes to open...) Also managed to get my first rescue of the career in, the new scientist was greeted in his crew can by Bill(getting his first star) and a couple tourists Now that I have drogue chutes unlocked, I am expecting much more efficient/profitable tourism contracts and more cost-effective non-tourism missions as I will not need to haul along the final stage braking fuel to let me slow down enough for normal chutes. (the stock chute indicators are also much appreciated and have let me drop the chute safety mod) Tonight I am planning to take a bevy of tourists to the Mun for yet more science! Then on to Minmus!

You also have increased launch lag for all the additional parts near the lauching vessel. I have, however found that I can save quite a bit of time using the UKS logistics module coupled with a refinery, lots of drills, and large fuel tanks(with a power supply). This lets me refuel any ship in orbit of Kerbin at a rate of ~ 9K units of fuel+oxidizer(or 4.5K ore) twice per day(with a 7 hour delivery delay). I just have it set up ~3km from KSC Works great for those times I had a poor launch or underestimated my fuel needs. I also built an automated refueling station for use on either Ike or Gilly depending on which one is easier to get to after I refuel on Minmus(costs ~1M funds each, plus another half mil to get it to LKO, so it may take a while for me to get enough of them to be able to forego ISRU on my main ships, but it should greatly improve the utility of my probes.) (of course starting over in 1.0.5 will delay that even further...)

I was able to get both splashed and landed samples from every biome except mountains and water in 1.0.4 if I remember correctly(there was a highlands near the water over by the bad lands), so I see no reason you could not get landed in Water, you just need to have a Kerbal who sinks...(KIS perhaps?)

I completed the Long-shot-1 and Minmus base crew exchange(multiple times until I remembered to save afterwards) and took the newly delivered tools around to the various landed vessels to remove the protruding engines and fuel tanks(slightly longer than the landing legs in some cases). Then I took the Long-shot-1 up to collect the kerbal+pod in high minmus orbit. While trying to rendezvous with the pod to be rescued, I discovered that the circularization burn for one of my last two minmus-base components was now outside the Minmus SOI for some reason, so I had to plot a new rendezvous and orbital insertion. Sooner than later as this vessel had my Fabricator and stock ISRU and I wanted to get those started as soon as I could. I managed to get it in a fairly circular orbit of Minmus before running out of fuel, fortunately I already had the UKS refinery and logistics depot on Minmus and I could requisition a partial refuel from Minmus base to get fuel for landing. While waiting for the fuel, I landed my replacement Pioneer pod and a separate minerals mining rig with it's own power and storage next to my Minmus base so that it could be inside the Slopes biome where there are actually minerals present. After deployment and starting the drills, I placed my pilot in the logistics rover and was finally able to start refining all three refined materials(the pioneer module also had refined materials storage which I somehow managed to forget on the other pods). Once I also landed my fabricator with the stock ISRU attached, I was finally able to make good use of the 6 ore drills on Minmus station and shut off the water to fuel refinery(which was stunting the growth of my life support supplies) After the Long-Shot-1 collected the drifting kerbal in a Mk3 passenger module, I landed back on Minmus to send them to the academy for some quick training and then headed back to Kerbin. Due to the surprisingly low fuel cost to refuel the refinery at Minmus, I went ahead and refueled my Minmus scansat as well. Once the Long Shot gets back to Minmus, I think I'll klaw my scansat and take it to Duna with me... Realizing the age and low uility of my Scansat-A orbiting kerbin(only the first scanner on board, no resource scanner), I sent up a replacement to scout out a good place for a refueling base on Kerbin. With the utility of the Minmus base already proven, and the failure of the testing base, I went ahead and recovered the testing base(I intended to leave the logistics module in place, but oops), and replaced it with a simplified Logistics Refinery, consisting of: lots of drills, ISRU, and plenty of ore/fuel/electrical storage(along with solar power, and landing gear+jet engine to get to the grasslands a few KM from KSC where I have ~7% ore, and radiators for 1.0.5) As 14 drills were only managing ~1/20 of the ISRU, I sent an expansion with a lander can with a 3-star engineer and another 14 drills to get everything topped up and ready for use. A quick rendezvous with the recovery klaw and the passenger module, with all 6 tourists and the rescuee on board made a safe landing on Kerbin(looking at the specs of the Mk3 passenger module(max temp ~2.3K, max collision 60m/s) I am not entirely certain it needed anything more than a nudge to get sub-orbital, but better safe than sorry(landed at ~6m/s). The single copy of everything collected on the Mun that was transferred to the passenger module provided a nice 5K research, letting me unlock most of the community tech tree nodes with parts I expected to need(ion engines, larger fuel tank, more probe cores, Narrow band scanner) Tonight I am expecting to take the Long Shot back to Minmus to top off fuel and supplies before heading to Duna/Ike. (may or may not also send 1-2 unmanned scan/refuel ships as well)

Consider that as of 1.0.4 there are: 18 liquid fueled rocket engines (including the LV-N) 6 solid fueled rocket engines 1 Xenon fueled low-thrust engine(generally hard to use inside the atmosphere) 3 jet engines(one of which doubles as a liquid fueled rocket engine) 29 rocket fuel tanks 12 liquid fuel tanks 4 electrically powered rover wheels(note: more types of rover wheel motors than jet engines!) That sounds to me like Squad has already done as much as they can with rocket parts without pushing the game too close to the memory cap, and now they are going back to give a bit of attention to other parts of the program that have been neglected in the past(like airplanes). Even with the two additional jet engines in 1.0.5 there are still more than three times as many liquid fueled rocket engines as there are jet engines(five times as many if you include other rocket engine types). If anything is being neglected here, I do not think that it is rockets.

This thread is not about 'greatest things ever done in KSP' it is about 'what you did today' be it a KSC science rover, biome hopping on the Mun, refueling a space station, or designing a series of airplanes that never even got past the end of the runway. Also, we have all be at the point of early career fly-bys, and at least once it was our first time.(at least for those of us that have gotten that far) Feel free to be inspired by neat things you see on this thread, but do not become discouraged because others have spent more time playing this game than you have, just consider it a pre-view of things you may be doing in the future if you continue to play this game. Speaking of Biome hopping... I spent a good bit of time over the weekend visiting the 12 Mun biomes I had not yet landed on using my new Long-shot 1 ship, intended to be the first ship to Duna. When full, the LS will support 12 Kerbals for nearly 2 years, assuming the LS recycler is turned off. With the recycler/green house turned on, it should substantially extend that. Of course half of those kerbals are tourists and will be returned to Kerbin before the trip to Duna, and two more are destined for the Munmus Base, giving the 4 kerbals on their way to Duna more than 6 years of LS supplies, 12 years if I use the recycler(assuming I top-off from Minmus base before my departure). Before that, I landed the Minmus pusher on the Mun yet again to plant a flag for a contract on it's way back to Kerbin, then took them all home. While the Long-Shot-1 was refueling on the Mun, I managed to land the Minmus-pusher between end of the KSC runway and the ocean, closest rocket reentry landing to the KSC yet. After hopping all over the Mun, Long-shot 1 set out for Minmus to finish tourism contracts and deliver fresh personel and science data(got at least 1 extra copy of each experiment to drop them all off at the Academy(lab) on Minmus) During the transit, I used the transmitted data from the Mun to unlock the last component for a self-sufficient Minmus base and launched it off towards Minmus. Then I sent along a 'Slopes harvesting pod' and a replacement for the vanished pioneer module so that the base should have everything it needs long-term(it already seems to be producing more supplies than it is using) so when those components are installed, it should be highly productive and able to re-supply any ships/stations in the Minmus SOI, along with the potential to build entirely new craft(assuming I can figure that part out) The Long-shot-1 managed to land ~1.5km from Minmus base and is scheduled to start transferring personnel and data this evening, followed by the recovery of a kerbal+pod in high minmus orbit that, according to it's size and mass, should be large enough to hold all the tourists for return to Kerbin once it is towed to LKO and the Rescue-klaw is attached(already waiting in LKO)

Some suggestions: * radial attachments cause lots of drag * Thud engines(those radial engines on your 3rd stage) are not nearly as efficient as your other 3rd stage engine, you would probably have more fuel left if you just removed them.(you do not need nearly as much thrust once you leave the atmosphere, you just need enough to raise your periapps above 70km before you reenter) * Early thrust is your friend, consider starting your second stage engine at launch and shutting it down after you get over 200-300m/s, this may actually save fuel on your current design(it would be even better if you added more fuel for that engine and your second stage merely consisted of discarding spent boosters (I will often add solid boosters to get my initial TWR up to about 1.5, but I am still firing my main liquid engines starting at launch. If you adjust the alignment, you might even add some small liquid tanks to the tops of your boosters to feed your liquid engine, letting it be nearly full when you discard the boosters(assuming you have fuel pipes)) * drop-tanks and asparagus staging can make it much easier to add delta-v to your ships On to my own activities: I connected up all of my colony modules on Minmus and discovered: a) my pioneer module vanished without a trace 2-3 connected components would bounce(especially with deployed drills) but several radially connected modules not so much. c) Once everything was connected, the entire base was counted as being on the Greater flats, so those careful landings on the slopes to get Minerals did not do me any good.(I think I'll edit the persistence file to give Slope minerals to the Greater flats, as the base *should* be able to harvest minerals d) a single component 'dancing' on a deactivated engine will shut down drills across the entire base as 'moving' (I hope disabling gimbling can stop that until I get some tools up there to remove them) I launched a replacement Pioneer module and a base component with the stock IRSU, but my command authority was not enough to counter a phantom torque once I got outside the atmosphere, making anything more precise than a periapps boost impossible, so I reverted. After that Bill flew over to the Minmus base to give the 2-star engineer there some academy training, before heading back to the Pusher. Pusher launched up and grabbed one of the Kerbal+ship from Minmus, with a stop on the Mun for science and flag planting. Not sure if I want to land/recover the pusher and launch a new vessel(probably one with science instruments so I can load up the academy on Minmus) to get a couple new base contracts, or use the Pusher to grab the last Kerbal+ship in orbit of Minmus first...

Lots of missions in parallel. (including one or more in the kerbin system that you pick up on your way out) ISRU(to make it feasible to do all those extra missions, expect to leave your mining gear on Eve, probably with a thermometer, antenna and power supply to pick up future data from eve missions) This is what I generally do for any manned inter-planetary missions(except I keep the ISRU), and it is not usually difficult to turn a profit.(not that I have landed any Kerbals on Eve, mind you) (2-3 station contracts should pay for an eve mission, especially with a 'landed on Eve' station. My first Duna mission landed on Mun then Minmus for contracts before ever leaving the Kerbin SOI) If you want to recover expended stages, then switching focus to each piece after they jettison can help them stick around after they leave the physics bubble, you can also get the Stage Recovery mod which will credit you for any bits that fall out of the physics bubble with parachutes/etc that will let them land safely(reduced by expected impact velocity and distance from KSC)

I am looking forward to the revamped firsts contracts, I have never yet gotten a contract for 'return from' in spite of having orbited every body and landed on (then returned from) everything except Tylo/Lathe/Eve. Not sure if I should start a new game or continue my colony building game though... Probably depends on if my first Minmus colony suffers from random bounces/explosions when coming into focus like my testing base on Kerbin does... Never been on a hype-train before, is this the ticket booth?

Don't forget all that jet-pack d-v, you can save a fair bit of fuel if your Kerbal grabs the data and uses half their fuel to match speeds with each new pod(saving half(or less) for actual rendezvous). As for my activities, I finished refueling my pusher rocket on the Mun and went back to Kerbin to push my Minmus Colony Part A ship to Minmus orbit(UKS PDU and Pioneer pod turned out to be too heavy for my included transit stage). (had an ore from Mun contract that did not complete until I was in LKO for some reason, but at least it completed) Separated and got the last couple pieces(until I unlock that Fabricator) of my Minmus Colony in place.(grabbing a station contract on the way) So now all my pieces are within 50m of another piece and ready for an engineer to come and connect all the FlexoTubes. I had hoped to connect my pusher ship to use it's on-board ISRU to generate liquid fuel(my UKS fuel refinery will only make LKO and I apparently have lots of oxidizer for some reason), but I forgot to bring any tools, so I can't move any parts, just do 'snap-on' connections like the tubes. (Currently my pusher is landed about 4km away and refueling, but I sent an engineer jet-packing over last night before calling it quits. This base sure does lag a lot, hopefully it will get a little better once I remove/recycle the extraneous bits(like fairing holders and landing engines) I am a bit worried that once it is all connected that it will only recognize drills as being either on the greater flats or on the slopes, but I have a logistics rover if I need to transfer between separate pieces. (or I may just look up how to copy the minerals value from the slopes to the greater flats for this save and call it good)

Seems like a rover with an external seat should be all you need to transport as much data as you like, as Kerbals can carry any amount of data on their persons. Failing that any rover with 2 pods should be able to hold anything you are able to store in a pod+crew can. Once you get to the launch pad you can just lift your crewman carrying the data up to a pod on your launcher and transfer it manually... Personally, I did not get much done, I got tired mining with a 1-star engineer on the Mun, so I brought back my 'rescue Kerbal + pod' with a 6 ton pod to LKO where I swapped out Bob(3 stars) with the pilot I rescued on the deorbiter and used my Minmus Pusher to give them a periapps of 40km(the deorbiter had very little fuel left due to the additional landing can and life support resources. Too bad I forgot to transfer the LS to my pusher as it is down to ~26 days + the 15 day grace period). I was starting to align with my under-fueled colony transport when I realized I probably did not have enough fuel to safely get to Minmus pushing a ship that weighs more than my pusher, so I went back to Mun to get more fuel(this time with a 3-star engineer). I landed on a nice rich patch of ore just east of the sunny part of the Mun before realizing I had landed just after the local evening instead of just before local morning... (with roughly 60m/s d-v left when I shut off my engines, nothing to do for it but wait for local morning)

Roverdude's UKS has an academy part that will let you train Kerbals based on the XP of the highest ranked kerbal of their classification on the ship.(ie pilots train pilots, engineers train engineers, etc) Max training is based on location: Kerbin: 1 star Space: 2 stars Non-kerbin body: 3 stars It gives the trained Kerbal the same experience as the training kerbal subject to the above cap(except flags, it will only give 'landed' XP) I have one landed on Minmus as part of a colony, so now I should only need to stop by with newly rescued Kerbals instead of taking them through the entire training process(Mun flag, Minmus flag, Kerbol fly-by).

I did an analysis of resourced on Minmus for my planned colony and discovered that 0.95 substrate was actually above average for Minmus in this game so, with everything else present in either the Greater Flats or the Slopes(Minerals and a bit more substrate than GF), I started bringing down the pieces of my first of-world colony: So now I have everything landed on Minmus except: Pioneer/PDU(LKO awaiting Minmus pusher to get it to Minmus), and Fabrication Module(not yet researched)/Stock ISRU. Once my pusher gets there I will string them all together with flexotubes and see how well it all works. Note: Minmus Pusher is currently orbiting Mun and ready for descent to LKO to drop off the first rescuee and his pod, next stop Minmus with Minmus Colony B in tow.

I have collected most of the components for my first off-world base in minmus orbit(well, almost, still need to unlock the fabricator; using Roverdude's USI kolonization system) My prospective landing site(intersection of Greater flats + midlands) turns out to have everything at 3%+ except substrate, so I need to bring my 'Minmus pusher' vehicle in to prospect for a better site(currently landed on Mun with a 'Rescue + pod' klawed, refueling and loading ore for a contract; planning to drop the pod off in LKO where I have a klaw-pod which will recover it, then push a set of colony components which had to use too much LF to circularize and can't get to Minmus on it's own). I had forgotten what a drag it is to mine ore with only a 1 star engineer. One problem I am really worried about is bouncing. My test-base on Kerbin(rather a failure as only water and uranium are above 1% at the test-site) will usually jump into the air whenever it comes within focus causing all the drills to stop working and often breaking things. As I am planning on connecting all my components on Minmus the same way(flexotubes), I am rather expecting that my base will loose critical components any time I try to access it. Hopefully Joint reinforcement will alleviate this issue(it will supposedly gradually ramp up forces when coming into focus, and that sounds like a probable fix, will need to try it out tonight)

I believe the plan is for 64 bit in 1.1, 1.0.5 is just parts and a few tweaks. (not 100% sure about tweaks, might just be parts)

I was rather surprised you staged all 6 boosters at once instead of staging them off in pairs via asparagus staging. Might have saved you quite a bit of d-v, especially on Eve. Personally I have been trying to design self sufficient colonies using Rover Dude's UKS. Had a bunch of stuff I was taking out to my trial base when KSP crashed, taking the unsaved vessel with it, then I designed a starter-base for Minmus (4 large pods with affiliated attachments, drills, etc), but I had to run off to bed before finishing my launcher. (a bit confused how the total ship price was negative, must have some negative priced resources or something) With luck I can drop off the pods at the intersection of the Greater Flats, Slopes and Midlands after determining which drills should go where.(Greater flats seem to have most of what I need, but no substrate).

Sounds like what had Val so upset was not part of 'the plan' but special instructions from Mort. I wonder if this will lead to Mort being voted out as chairman/CEO when it becomes known that he clapped Jeb and Bill in irons for their daring rescue.

I have at least half a dozen install directories for KSP in my games folder. One with Interstellar on 0.90(not yet started, but perhaps some day) A couple that I managed to mess up with manually adding/removing mods(before I found CKAN) a 1.0.2 career upgraded to 1.0.4(returned from Gilly/Eve upper atmosphere, Moho and Duna/Ike with one craft, then Vall, Pol, Bop, Dres, Duna/Ike, and Eeloo with another, lots of Atmic Age and Near Future engines used to accomplish this) A stock 1.0.4 where I did my Caveman Challenge A copy of the caveman challenge game where I added in Rover Dude's Colonization and life support mods, along with Extraplanetary launch pads (currently taking a bunch of Kerbals on a training mission where I leave the Kerbin SOI for the first time, no super engines to make things more interesting) Probably one or two others I have forgotten. Just copy your game directory before you attempt to update it to a new version so you always have a working version with all your favorite mods.