Warzouz

I agree with @Geschosskopf, the map view is nice but very hard to manipulate. Either : you focus on you starting body and can't really view the target body orbit. You're never really sure that the overlap you focus on the target body and you can't see the node, move it or grab handles. I invariably end by messing it and have to restart. you focus on Kerbol and get neither of them, or a bit of both... I don't remember who suggested to have a replicated node handle near the navball so you could always grab it whenever you are on the map.

Or you can use a SSTO rocket and recover it. It's even simpler. It's not as mass efficient, but very cash efficient.

@PLAD thanks for the input. You have indirectly answer my question : it's not easy

Well, I don't do that. As I explained before, I set a node anywhere at LKO and move it (not with the stock node feature, it's too clumsy) with a "Precise Node"-mod like tool, 10s or 100s at a time. When the ellipse is maxed out, I've the correct ejection angle, I just have to increase prograde until it touches the target orbit at the other side of the sun. Then I delay the node orbits by orbits until the target body shows-up. A secondary node at AN/DN is needed for plane change. I usually launch 2 weeks before the transfert window and prep my node immediatly, then I do other stuff while waiting for the correct time. That's why KAC is useful.

Yes, I don't SET the ejection angle, I get the most efficient burn (which is implicitly the correct ejection angle). Some explanations : Knowing your correct ejection angle is 115,7° doesn't help you because you don't have any other tool than your basic eyeballing / guestimate... First, I always use some kind of "Precise Node" mod feature (also included in MechJeb). I mostly dislike the stock "Node". It's very unfriendly for interplanetary tweaking. I set a node nearly anywhere at LKO, I set some prograde burn to escape velocity, so I get a ellipse into Kerbol SOI (anywhere, it doesn't matter). Then I delay the burn location so the ellipse will have the highest eccentricity (inward or outward depending on where you want to go). When I get this maximum, I'm around the bes ejection angle I can get even without knowing it. Then I just have to extend the burn a bit more to touch the target planetary orbit. If the tool I use has the feature, I add full orbits until I get an encounter on the other side of the sun. If there is inclination, I add a secondary node at AN/DN before burning the first one and try to get the encounter by tweaking the 2 nodes. This can be combined for more ballistic, but I must say I don't care too much about efficiency. If my ship arrive there, it's a success. I reliably go to Moho with that method, only knowing a approximative transfer window.

After rechecking, I forgot I could graze the laythe upper atmoshpere. Question : does grazing atmosphere count as FLIGHT ? or does the ship has to be on suborbital ? If it counts, that would lead us to Current option : 65xp Removing Bop orbit and flyby : -12xp Adding a Laythe flight bonus : +4xp Landing at Pol bonus : +6.4xp Total = 63.4xp (aaaarrrgh, 0.6 missing!) I could add a Mun Flyby for 2 points, but that may not be too easy to get and further more, I may not be able to aerobrake at Kerbin, so I should pack more fuel. Or : aerocapture at kerbin until Ap is on Mun orbit wait for an encounter.

I was looking at Hazard'ish video and was wondering how to plan a interplanetary transfer using Eve and Kerbin gravtity assist. I understand know how to use gravity assist to slow down at Jool using inner moons and have grossly set the orbit to match my target orbit. In doing so, I grossly hope to get an encounter. I even set a correction node so far I can slow down to "delay" the moon position. But inside the Jool system, I also postpone encounter by staying on elliptic orbits until I get something nice (with or without burn) Here is the report of what I did foe a Jool 65XP mission But what I don't even get a grasp of is how to know when to launch for a eve + kerbin kick and how to hope for a target encounter, even if Jool SOI is big... I may know how to do it by wandering into deep space for years while waiting for a near encouter. But Hazard'ish video left me clueless. Sorry I can't post the link top the video from work, but the video is somewhere in that topic :

I found that video which is quite short and show a lot of interesting things. Thx Hazardish

I'll not explaining anything about relativity. Basic orbital mechanic don't need relativity. I'll stick with Kepler and Newton.

I don't have pertinent insight about ship and architecture performance, but I have a practical insight. Porting KSP on another platform will mean that devs will work on that instead of working on the PC. To game improvement would stall. We can see it about Minecraft (even before Microsoft transaction). Even the 1.1 porting have stall the KSP content. Even if Squad says otherwise, console ports have also stall the devs for new features. But I can understand the need of increase the public a game to increase income. As for android, I'm not sure a tablet or smartphone would be a comfortable environment to play the KSP. Dealing with nodes is hard enough with a laser mouse, imagine doing that with our fat fingers on a 4" smartphone...

Well, you can't really establish a rule with only 4 items. You need much more. Let's say that if your saying your 4*engineer is not random, you have a very high chance of being wrong. Drawing 4 time in a row an engineer has around 1% chance. Not an occurrence you'll not see in your life time.

I don't build modular space station, I build space station that can be extended if needed, but I nearly always send the station in one launch except if parts don't fit (like return vehicle or landers) A many topics on space station, their design largely depends on what you want them for. Base for kerbals after interplanetary transfers Science data production Refuel for inteplanetary flights Refuel for science exploration Refining a station design to your needs is quite a long task. For my part, It takes me many prototypes to end with the Exploration Space station which perfectly fits my play style and mission I like to do.

Back beta 0.9, I did a tylo landing with a nuke powered lander. It was 14 tons with 2 LVN. The TWR before deorbiting was around 0.95 (Tylo-related). That's not an issue in the begining. You first need to reduce your horizontal speed, the gravity will pull you down to tue surface but in the begining the pull is quite manageable. When the pull start to increase, you already cancelled a good part of your horizontal speed and your ship is lighter. your TWR raise above 1 and you can land. To do that, you can't follow retrograde, you're velocity will increase too much and you won't be able to cancel it. You'll have to do an unefficient landing : you start burning retrograde but as you vertical velocity start to rise, you must conteract it by raising AoA. Vertical velocity must be kept under control (less than 200m/s) while you cancel horizontal speed. I don't have the lander precise specs, but I think that the TWR was 1.25 when I landed. When reorbiting, I burnt 6000m/s in total, way more than the 2270 x2 I should have. BTW, I also landed a TWR=3 probe using exactly 2267m/s. The issue with this design is that LVN engine weight was risen to 750kg more since 1.0. and physicless parts have mass now. Building such a LVN powerd ship is now quite hard and much more massive. It may not even be practical.

50000 fuel is about 250tons, if i'm not mistaken. That a heavy payload, but not that much. It may even be easier now. Ultra heavy payload have much less drag in regard to their mass and dV to LKO is much less since 1.0 and 1.0.4. This rocket lift 600 tons stock (even without KJR) and is a recoverable SSTO stage.

That more about greed but the "physic" seems to be the same Yes, that's about fun. I already did a basic communication security introduction (spoke about hash, cyphering, private/public keys, certificate...). But orbital mechanic will surely have no use at work. Yes, I don't intend to show too much numbers. I'll probably end with this Wednesday's video : it has a lot of features that can be commented (staging, payload weight, interplanetary navigation, gravity assist and aero capture/reentry. The only formula I'll display is the rocket equation, to let them understand why rockets uses multi-staging. I also do a lot of presentation and explanation in my work. I know how to manage attention for a quite long time, that's not an issue for me. Exercise are a good way to do it indeed. But for that presentation, I can't really le them calculate Saturn V dV. I'll rely on candid questions and pictures (even video but I don't have much time) I think I'll end doing 1h presentation by filtering the content then offer for a secondary presentation later.

Tough question. I votes Minmus, because it's quite nice. but I like many other moons. The only moons I don't like are Bop : it's a pain to land with this 24000m x1 warp ! Gilly : again, ultra long duration landing. Not that fun. Further more, the ship usually act strangely when landed.

When I've flipping issues, I just increase the size of the fins (use wings). If the rocket is too steady, I reduce them. Turning them into control surfaces is also a solution as state above, but it can induce wobble and make the rocket hard to control. Do you keep you AoA reasonable ? (less than 5°)

Haystack mod could be a start This mod is quite nicely integrated into the GUI. There is a by-name filter search and a "per SOI" optional grouping. It seems there only need to add a per node filtering and sorting.

For my part, I played Elite Dangerous and looked at Scott flyby of the solar system video, then I saw KSP videos in his channel and find it quite fun. KSP is one of the rare game you play a very long time. Only 2 other games did the same to me : Trackmania (because of building tracks), Minecraft (because of building stuff) and finally KSP (because of building rockets). Maybe I like building games

I work in a bank as a tax expert on stokes market for retail customers. I’m very far from my initial course (electronic engineer who worked quite a long time in software development). I still develop software as a hobby. I’m some kind of strange fellow at work, always figuring how to use basic tools to automate repetitive tasks for back-office. I did stuff myself that even IT developers didn’t grasp (got a promotion for that ) Playing KSP for more than a year has let me learn a great deal about orbital mechanics and rocket design. This knowledge is usually counter-intuitive for most people (including me), that’s why it’s fun. So this morning I took a leap of faith and offered my boss to do a quick introduction in orbital mechanic to the team. Here is what I plan to do : I target 1 hour, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to do it in less than 2hours. This WE, I’ll gather some illustration from the net and build a document (probably a powerpoint). Insight appreciated

Cool, that wasn't exactly what @Snark explained, but that'll do. KAC would still be needed but not mandatory anymore.

I think KAC does autobackup of persistent and quicksave.

True, KAC does that and much more. But the only thing you really need from KAC to run a real "SPACE PROGRAM" is only a list of nodes ordered by time. I use KAC, it's probably the most useful mod I use. but @Snark, got the essence of it which should be integrated into KSP is a very simple way. Remember that SQUAD doesn't like intrusive GUI windows. It's KSP not Excel.

My solution for a Moho trip is not as refined as those presented before : I send a space station to Moho with a mining capacity The station depart with only useful fuel (not RCS, no oxydizer (interplanetary stage is mainly LVN) The station is supposed to arrive there nearly dry (it has only the fuel to go mining) The miner gets to the ground, mine an return to the station which will refine the fuel Science landing can start with a light lander Crew return home with a dedicated small ship The station stays in Moho orbit so it can be used again. In my current design, Return vehicle and science lander are part of a separate flight. As I'm not too easy with multiple burns (especially for going to Moho), I prefer a medium TWR interplanetary stage at LKO. (click to enlarge) The station can refill the lander 4 times before needing to be refuels. Refueling the return vehicle drains a lot though... (click to enlarge) More here

More generally, when you have a problem, there is a better way to do than simply overcome it. You can se yourself in such a way the problem doesn't matter anymore. Instead of managing to land on flat area only, you can build your lander that it's much more resilient to slope. For my part, I also always target flat area. But you are rarely precise enough to guaranty such a perfect landing. Even on aera that looked flat you can end on a 20° slope. My lander are always designed to be slope resilient (my heavy 40 to 60 tons miner lander is 30° certified), and I always pack a good fuel margin to do an emergency hover to find a better place to land**. ** to be precise, I design the whole mission so fuel is not critical (check here)