Warzouz

@Edax : Thanks, but the point wasn't this one. I'm not converting ore during the trip. I'm just carrying it.

Here is the profile I use fo land recoverable launch stage from 12T to 600T from LKO. - Aim PE at 5-10km - Use airbrakes (I use 2 to 24) - Use 1 or 2 drogue chutes : Min pressure = 0.4, deploy 5000m - Use chutes (I use 6 to 24 radials) : Min pressure = 0.65, deploy 1000m When deorbiting in space, stage everything and wait, nothing to do. Beware of mountains though, you'll crash on them... This configuration limit is my 600T return stage, but with a 12T is ultra safe (I could tweak it down a lot). I'm used to land 20-100km East of KSC Airbrakes helps slowing down, if you don't have them, aim for 20-25PE Drogue helps to slowdown fast from 700 to 250m/s before opening your real chutes. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/123195 For my usual landers (return ships from space stations), I usually use airbrakes and regular chutes and aim for 30km. Moho return require a burn to slowdown (1000m/s out of 5000) before entering Kerbine atmosphere.

True. Try to build more vertically. It might wobble a bit, but you'll gain in stability. You even have fins quite high, which is not too good either. I'm used to build rockets I can't even grab the top of it in the VAB. PS : Looking at you design, you want to go to LKO, not farther (or maybe doing some Mun flyby ?). In that case, your ship is overbuilt. Use smaller boosters which pushes a stacked 2 stage rocket. Your heat shield is misplaced and unusefull, and I don't know why you added some heat management parts on you command pod. It's only needed when using Nukes. If you can EVA, put the stack decoupler right under the command pod (and EVA to grab your science). If you can't, add 2 radial chutes to help landing your science equipement safely. You also may need a battery EDIT : Ascent profile is also important. SAS may be doing worse then without. There ar many videos which explains how todo it. It's quite hard to do, but when you get it, flying is easy. SAS shouldn't be activated before 30km, especially if ship is wobbleing. But on light ships like yours it's less important than on big ones. Also remember that flying small ships can be harder than bigger ones. Light ships tends to flip quickly on first trouble as bigger ones turn slowly so you have time to compensate before it's too late.

OK, with my design, a 4000m/s empty miner ship can do a round trip from 1140m/s (*2 + 250m/s safety) with ore shipment = 120% of the dry mass. So I can easily refuel : - a Duna LO station from Ike (even starting with less fuel) - an Eve station from Gilly if the station is on high and inclined orbit (2000km, Gilly plane) But it's not possible to refuel a Tylo or Laythe Space Station from Pol with this design. I need a dedicated station on Pol to refuel the miner. Better, I'll use a simple tanker ship from those station. The Tylo and Laythe station won't have any miner. Refueling from Vall could be cheaper in tranfert dV, but I'll loose on landing dV since I'll ned 2.5 landings t refill an orange tank instead of 1.2 for a Pol landing.

dV = g*ISP*ln(Mstart/Mend) Round trip : dV1 = dv2 Going there (dV1) MStart = DryM + FuelM MEnd = DryM + FuelM - BurntM Coming back (dV2) MStart = DryM + OreM + FuelM - BurntM MEnd = DryM + OreM Instead of solving that, I can do it by iteration until I get dV1 = dV2 (I can even keep a safety margin for docking) I'll try that.

I'm working on a miner which bring ore back to a mothership with a refinery. The ship is a SSTO powered by 4 LVN and 3200 units of liquid fuel. Fully fuelled it's around 40T. dV = 4000m/s. It lands on a body (all except atmo and Tylo), fill 3000 Ore and get back to the station. dV lowers as the dead weight of the ship increase with Ore (+30T iirc). dV is nearly halved, but this depends on how much fuel I expended to land. Moho is very different from Pol For now, I validated the concpet by trial and got this How can I calculate the real dV of a round trip ? DryM = dry mass of the ship OreM = Ore mass added during trip FuelM = Liquid Fuel mass Engine = 4 * LVN (800) from this formula : http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Cheat_Sheet#Basic_calculation

Yes, I also had this problem. I never had any succcess with the "merge" feature. Sub assemblies works fine though. Surely I misuse it. Even sub-assemblies are sometime hard to use : they usually have only ONE node (even it had multiples before creating the sub-assembly). This mabe related to multi-part selection, but that's very uneasy. In any case the "Root part" concept should be hidden in the game. A real construction doesn't have a root part. It's a technical (developer code) concept, not a gameplay one.

I'd like to have size 2 to 3 flat adapters for space stations. This big aerodynamic adapters are too big. But a "fuelled" version of those adapter could be nice for more compact size 3 launchers.

The main question hasn't been asked : "What do you want to use ISRU for ?" - Do you want to use it to reduce the cost of your LKO stages ? Refuelling from minmus and bringing fuel to a space station / fuel depot at LKO - Do you want to build bases for fun ? - Do you want to make bodies exporations last much longer ? I needed ISRU for the later. In build a lot of space stations and I managed to bring refueling tank from Kerbin. in 1.0, I looked at Drill + ISRU. After some testing in sandbox, I came with a station + miner solution. A space station is moslty a research and refuel facility. It has an ISRU on board. It stays around bodies. Science Landers visit and explore the body. A dedicated miner gathers Ore from the body and bring it back to the station. The 4*LVN miner is about 64tons went loaded with 3000 ore. It's able to drill from most worlds (except Eve, Tylo, Laythe and Kerbin) As the Miner is LVN powered, I can't refine on ground and bring the fuel to the station. So I don't have oxydizer and I can't use fuel cells. So it is gigantor up to Duna and RTG outward. The Miner's engines is also the engines of the station to get to it's location, so I can burn the reserve fuel during interplanetary flight. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/132464 (I'm simplifying it...)

And BTW, about flipping over, I noticed that if you "lock suspension" of the lowest strut (on the slope), it reduces the "bouncing" effect that make you flip even you CoM isn't outside your landing aera (I don't know how to explain that more clearly). You still have to touch down gently on your higher landing strut. It's not magical, but it helps. I landed on bulky lander on a 27° slope that way. If your CoM is too high, there is no salvation though.

Yes, your lander is not stable enough. Flatter is better, especially for you first landing which might be a litte bumpy. If your lander is too tall, you : - need to be luck to get a less than 5° landing spot - flip on the side right after touch down - need to burn a lot of fuel to rapidly take off and find anohter spot. Your additional reaction wheel is not needed. Both you pods already have torque. Too much torque may even be unproductive. You'll burn your electricity and never achieve stability. My advice for a lander : Use the flatest rockamax fuel tank with 1 terrier, stick medium landing struts, add a landing can, all the science you want (put the lab on top your can to keep your CoM as low as possible. You should be around 3200m/s, enough to get to the Mun, land and get back. Add one or 2 toroidal tank if you want to be more comfortable. It should looks like that. Vaccum lander on Dres / Aero lander on Duna Vacuum lander safely landed on Eve (PS.: no airbrakes, no drogue, no chutes… only Ker-balls:D) And as other says : don't consider yourself an idot because you fail to get to the Mun. The first time I got there, I even didn't landed, just orbiting and said myself : "How the hell I'm going back to Kerbin ?"

It depends on what you mean by "KID". Over 11 year old, sure, they can read, learn an play mostly as we do. But for younger (6 - 10) it's very hard, especially when you can't read english. Even many of us didn't get how to fly a rocket to orbit on their own (remember the floor of "I can't get to space" topics...). A Kid mode (or mod ) is worth it for young kids.

True, I forgot about satellites. I take them early on and when I target a body. As for Space stations, I build them everywhere : http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/132464 Perfect for exploring many bodies very quickly. I've got kerbals ready to land or refuel nearly everywhere.

And BACKUP your setting.cfg. Mine has disapeared more than once.

Well, I don't like too much "big parts". I prefer "small parts you can create big parts from". The only drawback is part count. Maybe KSP should integrate some way of reducing part count after design by welding some of them.

4- When I have very tall ships, I have a VERY HARD time to set long fairings. The editor refuses to climb higher even the camera can. I usually manage to get it done but I'm fighting it... -> A "auto" fairing feature could be nice. 5- Sometimes I can't select parts on my ship. I have to quit and return. I think this is related to KER though... 6- Accessing to parts which are covered by others (tanks surounded by other tanks) is hard (even more in flight...). -> There should be a menu of some kind to access any part (as some mods do). 7- Sub-assemblies can't be reaffected to another category. You have to delete/recreate them and retype name and descirption. 8- "Utility" tab is too big and too various. There should be more categorization. More generaly, no tab should have more than 30 parts. Why reactions wheels have their own tab and decoupler and docking don't ? 9- Tanks and other tabs should not be simply sorted by names by also by type (all 1.25 tanks in order, all 2.5, all 3.75...) finding parts would be much easier. Same for engines : air breather should be around each others, decouplers, docking, adapters... 10- Craft files listing should have subfolders, should display more data and should be sortable on criteria. Finding ships is hard if you don't delete old creations. Again, there are mods... Maybe integration such a sub assemblies would be better and more coherent. 11- Editor should allow different symmetry. When you do a 4x symmetry, you can't do x2 afterwards. 12- I would like to have x5 and maybe x7 symetry.

After playing my first game with contract, I noticed there are missions I NEVER take. Explore body (always) : A nice mission when you usually have to get somewhere for the first time. They are unique and quite rare. But, they didn't showed for many bodies I visited (I only got Mun, Ike, Laythe and Tylo). Could be systematic on all bodies like altitude/speed contracts As being unique, those missions could get a high science return. "Journey" (often) : When you have to fly-by or land on several bodies. They are too rare. Those missions should be the "golden" missions. They should be more rewarding. Rescue Kerbals (often) : I did it a lot around Kerbin to get Kerbals. I do it quite often around other bodies since I have space stations quite everywhere. The only downside is you have to get them back to Kerbin to end the contract, so you're limited to the empty seats you have in your mission. Contracts could be validated when rescued Kerbals board a space station (such as defined in "build space station" missions) It's a too easy way to get Kerbals. You should get a discount only (50% ?). Rescuing Kerbals around Kerbin should have a much lower cash value (or lower discount). Recover part or kerbal with ship (never) : They are more complexe to handle : you have to send a "claw" ship to grab that stuff and to make renetry. Usually not worth the effort since it's always ONE part an not a ship. Recovering a whole ship could be more fun (refueling it, docking with it, towing it, adding a pilot...) Tourists (never, except early game around Kerbin) : Except Kerbin/Mun/Minmus, those are VERY boring. They have low cash value and too random flight path. All kerbals want different things. You'll be stuck with those missions for years and the cash return in not worth it (compare to mining or Journey. This could be vastly improoved. All kerbals should be going on the same planets. And that should be coherent. Not Gilly and Ike, but Duna and Ike...). Landing on Eve, Tylo and maybe Moho for example should get a huge cash bonus. No "Tourist" mission should be set to a place before a "Journey" mission. Build base (never, except rare opportunism) : I find very little use in bases. I had several, I even "terminate" them because I found unuseful stuff wouldn't have been sent in a real space program. Build stations (once per useful body only) : Expensive at start, very little cash return. But nice in middle/late game to explore the system. Hopefully the 1.1 contextual contracts will improove this part. Plant flag (usually) : Easy when you have space stations with landers - or crewed bases... Good to combine with XP grinding. Science landed or in space (often) : Low cash value but very easy. Could be improved by requiring a specific biome. Could have a distinct cash return for transmited or returned science Mine Ore (usually) : Again, usually easy, when you have a design of a miner. The cash value seems too high comparing to other mision types. Even bringing ore to parent SOI is not too hard. Only Eve mining is ultra hard. Cash return could decrease with iteration Asteroid missions (never, my bad) : Cash reurn seems high, but I never did it. I should, though Part testing (often early game, never afterwards) : Cash return is usually low and parts are usually strange to test. Test around Kerbin (maybe Mun) make sens, but I don't feel it's logical to test parts around far world. Science survey at target (only on Kerbin early game. never afterwards) : Cash return is low and visit points are usually far away, need a lot of fuel and time. Every time I took them I regreted it a lot. Those should be combined to "curiosities" / eastern eggs or have a much higher cash value How do you play contracts in you career game ?

Sadly, they never come with a real ship. It's always one part. If they came with a real ship, we could have to decide if it's worth bringing back (refueling it, towing it, make it go trhough atmo. That would be a nicer chalenge than bringing back ONE part (which is usually not worth the effort).

That's a VERY good idea. I'll do that this evening.

I mostly use the keyboard. I've a Joystick (an old Logitech Wingman) I use for planes and for docking in space. But my joystick is quite buggy even I use it with plane, I usually use keyboard too. But landing with a joystick is quite cool. Docking too.

Well I must say my kid can't read english ; even if he remembers well where to click to come back to KSC. We hope he could remember as well to hook up his pijamas in his bedroom every morning... He'll start learning multiplication this year. So : - contracts are not possible - parts are mostly undistinctive except for their shape. I'll see what he's built when I'll be back from work.

My kid is 7. He sees me playing KSP a lot (maybe too much...). 2 days ago, he wanted to try flying planes. I helped him flying one. He had fun "kerbaling" some planes into the ground (he blew the VAB trying to land - who didn't ! ). I put him in sandbox, not to manage science and funds which complicates things even more. But sandbox is quite overwhelming too. I explained that rockets are easier than planes. We flew "Kerbal X" to space using MJ for ascending and letting him managing the staging and I explained how chutes works (not before 250m/s !) I suspect most of us aren't teenagers , so there should be many dads whom kids are interested in KSP. How do you manage that ? A real "kid game mode" could be very nice too in KSP.

I did som tests in1.0.2 and didn't notice any real difference on a 15min burn with 8 LVN. With the 1.0.4, event if it was usefull, I think it's not anymore. I hope that part will be improved

I'm also interested in this topic. I think pre-cooler has air intake that is still available even if you plug a another air intake (ram, cone or regular) in front of it. It has also a litle bit of fuel (which hasn't been upgraded since the regular fuel tank was modified from 150 to 400). Last it is supposed to have a hugh thermal capacity for its mass, which is not usefull since 1.0.4 and the radiators. I never noticed any effect on that matter.

I successfully did some on these when transfering to Jool, Duna or Eve. But when I tried for Moho, I never found the encounter. So I changed my interplanetary stage to add huge chemical boosters to help the LVN. Success.