Warzouz

I find heat shipd useless, even on Eve, they don't do much. Using airbrakes is much much more efficient to control temperature. I even had ship explosions while cooling down...

I did it once from 1200m and used 6500m/s. BUT, I trying to sized down my vehicle and fails at 7000m/s since... I think 7500m/s should be a safe value. But the variation might be very high, depending on your ship aerodynamics.

I use recoverable SSTO maunchers I created for that purpose. They are also easier to fly than staged launchers.... http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/123195

I already landed non-returning probes on Eve. I want a Kerbal landing there : 1- I took a plant flag mission too 2- It's cooler, isn't it ? I was wondering how can a player lands on Eve without testing it with Hyperedit. I'm already around my 15th try. One ship succeeded but it's way overweighted. Scaling it down is harder than I thought... If I don't add fins on upper stage, it flips around 30km. If I add small ones, they blow (and the whole ship with it). If I add regular ones, the rocket is very unstable at take-off. I'll try to add more fine at the bottom. There are already, I could add more. If I played the game without cheating, I would have ruined my career game (42 millions funds...) and depleat my stock of trained pilots (and ruined myself even faster). Even in sand box, sending ships there would take forever. Creating your own ship without copying tutorial require using Hyperedit, or already having a working ship. Even though, It takes forever to land and take-off. Landing is secured now, even I don't time warp because I'm not too trustful about the heating stuff. Experience return so far : On Eve - Secure drogue deploy = 400m/s (could be a bit higher) - Secure chute deploy = 200m/s Due to atmo pressure, drogues aren't usefull. You can go straight to regular chutes. Airbrakes are only useful to control temperature. Without them and ignoring heating effect, you woun't crash into the ground before deploying chutes. But you will probably explode in atmo around 40 to 50km. Heat shields do nearly nothing (they don't depleat ablator much, and don't prevent overheating and explosions). Tested on from 70 to 180 tons ships. Lighter ships can even land wirthout chutes. I did it with a 3T lander (dry mass). I only blew the engine hitting ground at 30m/s. On Duna Regular chutes can be open arount 700m/s, so drogues and even airbrakes aren't useful as orbital speed is 850m/s iirc. Once chutes are open you'll slow fast enough. Tested with non streamlined 7T lander

I agree with Claw. I would like to see that. I accidentally EVA in Eve atmo. Milwell exploded at 88.9km out of 90km. Atmo is ultra thin there.

Ok, - Landing = success - First stage = success - Second stage = success - Third stage = flipping + not enough TWR (oh, I hate non SSTO rockets...) - Forth stage = not tested -> Test with basic fins added to third stage = explodes th whole rocket -> Testing now regular fins... I'm removing the Terrier (not enough TWR at 25km) to a Swivel + bit more fuel. I dropped the VAC dv to 7000m/s - - - Updated - - - Arf, the front fins make the first 2 stages unstable now. The rocket is hard to fly but manage to get to space. I'm 250m/s short for dV My huge launcher did it with 6500m/s, and my optimizer ascent can't do it with 7000m/s ...

Thx a lot ! It is designed to be efficient for exploration. BTW, I've run some tests on refueling. - Any Duna station can be refuelled by sending its miner to Ike - A 2000km Eve station on Gilly plane can be refueled by sending it's miner to Gilly - It's not possible to do the same for stations around Laythe or Tylo which would go to Pol. Any Miner would have to be refuelef by a Pol station. Even then, it would better to manage tanker and not miners. I'll deal with Tylo and Laythe strategy later.

It's not really hard to pack some fuel. Here is the design I had to return with 2900m/s at 140km. Landing a heavy ship is hard because of renetry heat. I managed to keep it under 98%. But sometimes the ship blows even if the heat of the hotest part is lower. I add more airbrakes. At one try, I landed this ship on a 21° slope... I didn't thought it would survive straight, but it did. (click to enlarge) The latest ship is not tested yet. If I do the same ascent, I should be in orbit with 600m/s left.

Even I built my computer myself few years ago, I don't even remember how much RAM I have. My answer would be : enough for playing any game I have ad doing everything I'm doing. I think it's 8GB (Win 7 64bits)

I think XP come very late in comparaison of the tech tree. You can easily onlock the whole tech tree by visiting only Mun and Minmus (probably twice). It's easy, and resonably low budjet. Once you get that, your kerbaks aren't even 3 level. You have to take a peek into Kerbol SOI. Going to level 5 is a very long trip if you want to get some siginificant part of your crew at level 4 or more. Level 5 engineers are nice for Mining. But you have to send them to Jool's moons and back. THEN only you are level 5 and you can send them into efficient action. I have recenlty many level 5 Kerbals, but I already have explored all bodies, and I don't need any level 5 kerbals to land on Eve or Tylo. It's really sad that XP doesn't increase immediatly when landing somewhere. Returning to Kerbin makes nearly no sense and high level comes too late in the game. But maybe the problem isn't XP, but the tech tree you can unlock too fast without going to Duna and Eve.

Yes I've seen that Kerbals EVA bears 800°C, but I don't remeber where I saw that. Maybe in KER new "Heat" feature.

I think it's about a control pod or probe core. I don't even have to send a Kerbal there, but I want to. BTW, I remeber I had some kind of bug. - I took a "journey" Land on Minus Mun, Duna and finish on Ike. I created a small ship boldly called "Voyager 1" and did it - The ship and pilot was docked at the Duna orbital station, waiting to the correct window to return home with honors. - The I got a new Journey mission : land on Gilly, Mun and something else (i don't remember too well). - I sent Voyager 1 to the Eve station to refuel. As soon as I landed on Gilly, the whole contract validated itself. So if you manage to get a ship on many bodies, you could validate contracts of that sort even without returning on those bodies. You just have to keep this ship in space.

Why ? - Moho has the thightest window, MJ can't even get any encounter right. - SOI is small, low TWR is harder to manage than all other bodies. - Many encounters result in very high capturing dV cost - Intercept time is short (45min), again, low TWR have to be very careful - Overall dV is the highest - And more marginally, Moho is a little bit harder to land on than Eeloo. Quicker ? true ! Around 60 days to get there iirc. But easier ? you'll have to argue a bit more !

I'm simplifying the concept around 4 pre-built space stations. Space station : - Small Inward : powered by Gigantors and half orange tank (4 regular docking rings) + Solar Miner - Large Inward : powered by Gigantors and full orange tank (8 regular docking rings) + Solar Miner - Small Outward : powered by RTG and half orange tank (4 regular docking rings) + RTG Miner - Large Outward : powered by RTG and full orange tank (8 regular docking rings) + RTG Miner The space stations are done but I'm still working on the miner. I'm making it asymmetrical to save mass, which is not that ieasy in KSP.

No, I didn't take off from sea level because I failed to land on shores. Landing a 180tons in water always end badly As I said I startd from 1200m in midlands (as is most of the dry land mass on the equatorial plane) The ship isn't even optimized, It's my first successful attempt.As my boosters tends to crash on the main core, I had to fly straight up until they where empty, ditch them and turn east (around 15km). As I overheated the command pod, I had to turn the ship up to cool it a little. I have to work on my ascent vehicle, I'll post you some pictures. I'll keep track of my expended dV, but I may have a hard time starting from sea level. (I fail to have Hyperedit do that) I have to landit manually, and I must say that I'm more focued on having the critical temp under 98% than choosing my landing site... PS : I could aim for exploding sea and ignite engines before touching water, that would be possible.

Only the last one seems to be mandatory. I already tested a low orbit lander/ascent vehicle. It (finally) works fine but it's overfueled and I have 2900m/s left into Eve orbit. I would better leave partial ship into orbit and return only with the "head" from Eve and plug it to my generic Duna Lander (which I could stip down from its science equipement). I'm not too bothered with this part of the trip. Duna Landing is easy with only chutes and my lander doesnt flip even it's not aerodynamic, have no fins and has a low gravity center... I've quickly sized down the "Eve ascent", but this last ship isn't stable enough even with fins (not enough mass at the front). I use a simple 4 mainsail design. Then I have to plug everything and add some transfert stage. Kerbin/Eve/Duna/Kerbin are easy windows.

There is no order, except for Mun (last). Your proposition is exactly what I'm planing. I've a generic lander

SSTO (plane) on Eve ???

Never been to Eve, I thought this one could be bold ! - Land on Eve - Land on Gilly - Land on Duna - Land on Mun (last) (click to enlarge) I'm already working on my Eve lander/return vehicle. I'm testing it with Hyper in sandbox. Doing well, over-fueled, I'm sizing down... Obviously I'll have to do some modular ship where I plug a return stage to a command pod. I also have a network of refueling space stations everywhere (except some Jool's moons).

About EVE, I just succeed reorbiting to 140km, and I spend 6500m/s (VAC). The listed 10000m/s is off. My ship had 9400 m/s VAC and I had 2900 left at 140km. I started from 1250m (Midlands) I think 7000 m/s VAC for Eve would be sufficient, no ?

Don't forget you can discard contracts for free if not accepted yet. You won't get any penalty. Do don't hesitate to remove uninteresting ones to get better ones you can do quickly.

I do very simple naming Space stations: Duna Station Two Lander (from the station) : Duna Light/heavy Lander (1, 2 if multiple) Refuel system : Duna Miner Return ships : Moho Return General Ship missions : Duna Mission Three (usually have multiple ships inside) For planes, as missions are usually very quick, it's just it's function : Passenger SSTO or Science One.

After exploring Duna and setting a space station around Eve, I just launched missions to Moho, Eeloo, Dres and Jool around the same time. That way, waiting for Eeloo encounter is quite active For Moho, I just bought a miner to refuel the station. But the interstellar stage was... big.

True, I use this technique to evaluate my available dV if I fill every tank. The issue is the TWR though. My miner is well powered for itself. It can also push the space station, even interplanetary, but if the station is fully loaded and filled with ore, the TWR is very low (0.15 to Kerbin VAC iirc). It's a pain for traveling. I prefer traveling with empty ore tanks and add a early interplanetary stage to push it out of Kerbin SOI quicker. It's heavier, less efficient, but easier. And my recoverable rocket SSTO is very cheap so, I don't care too much.

Yep nice ship. That would have been a pain to launch, no ?