Warzouz

I must say I deorbit them after fulfilling the contract I don't like having useless elipses on my map.

Thanks a lot. I won't try very soon (I'm still building some reliant and cheap but heavy launchers). Yes I know how to dock, even I'm not too good at rendez-vous (final approach is quite hard). A for transfert, there seems to be quite a difference with regular planetary transfert. Usually you change orbit to get you periaps (outer planets) or apoapsis (inner planets) at Kerbin location and get you apoapsis or perapsis at the target body on the other side of Kerbol. With asteroids, it's not the same, you usually can't wait half on aorbit to meet it. As for aero capture so a "around 50km" should get a reasonable hyperbolic trajectory on an eliptic orbit under the moon SOI ?

After some dirty calculations, the first stage has a 13% efficiency in mass (wet payload mass / wet total mass). This is quite low, but I hope to recover 100% of the dry mass and funds (except discount for distance to KSC). As the first stage is not only on suborbital but taken into orbit, you can land it anywhere and not only on the other side of Kerbin, where recover rate is around 20%. 80% refund on dry mass should be reasonnable. The effective funds / payload ton should be quite low.

The docking node is really end-game. In early-mid game, you ahev to do it yourself with radial attachement node + docking port. Those "structural fuselage" are light weight and quite nice on a space station. As for the OP question, It's quite strange to associate space stations and satelites. Those are totally different structures with different purpose ? On satellite, stuff all the science you can, antenna and power production ? Transmit everything you can. Except for "gravity" science you get from each biome in low and high space, they are usually not worthwile, except for contracts. Space stations are very usefull for refuelling around other bodies (I still have a lot of doubts for Kerbin). They also can be usefull as an emergicency recover station to handle miss designed ships (I dit once or twice). A mobile lab is usually a good ideal. Orbit is also significant if you want to explore a body, a refuel + science station / mothership is more efficient on a polar orbit (I did that on Eeloo, that was very easy). On the other hand, a purely refuelling station around kerbin should be much better on equatorial plane (cheaper rendez-vous and good inclination for simple interplanetary trips).

I'm thinking on a mission to catch and orbit an asteroid (C, D or E) around Kerbin to dig fuel out of it. There are quite few tutorials but I'm not sure how to do it. Here is wnat I under stood Asteroid - Go to tracking station and choose one with the best peripasis and orientation with Kerbin (I failed to see the Kerbin SOI, how ?) Ship - Add a Claw - Add lots of reaction wheels or RCS - Pack lot of fuel depending on what to do with the asteroid. - Pulling won't work (it'll push the asteroid back so no acceleration) Get there - Asteroid is on a hyperbolic trajectory inside Kerbin SOI, but on an elipitc in Kerbol SOI - escape Kerbin SOI on the reverse course of the asteroid. How do you do that exactly ? - Slow down to match its velocity. This seem a waist of fuel Catch it - Use the grapple grossly in the middle of it. - When grappled, use the pivot to align the CoM Change orbit - Avoid Kerbin collision is easy, the sooner the deviation is, the less costly it is. - Is it possible to aerobrake, which altitude do you recommend ? - Is it reasonnable to change inclination of a C, D or E ? Thx for the tips.

Well, those mission usualy tell you to go at a precise location. The "above" missions usually have to be made with plane equiped with Tubojets (which come mi-game). The "Below" missions can be fulfilled with basic jet engines. Scott Manley built a very cheap and simple plane which is very stable and easy to fly. It can be expanded easily for science and/or range.

Did you change the root part ? I noticed once or twice that changing the root part can mess the staging.

I'll test that as soon as possible. Other question : How to use drogue chutes ? For now I only use regular radial chutes (I have 24 of them, probably not enough, but that's easy to fix afterwards). Can I use drogue chute to deploy in upper atmoshere to slow down (until they burn). If not, how do you use them ?

When I did my Jool mission (in beta 0.9 - science game mode) I had a space station to be assembled around Laythe. The 13 parts had to be shipped separatly for a total of more than 400T and 900 parts (payload). I had a launch stage and a interplanetarly stage. I ditched the remains of the launch stage of some of the parts (well, the lighter ones) in Laythe orbit... If I had been in Carrer game mode, I would had paid nearly 7 000 000 funds for this mission. I explored all moons twice (+ a flyby). I even had 2 landers for Tylo, no knowing if my SSTO would succeed, I had a backup (lander and pilot ). When the crew went back in the return vehicle with 41000 science points, I had 3 orange tanks left out of 6 at the station.

Basically the error lies between the CHAIR and keyboard.

Keep on trying. I struggled a lot at first, then finally found how to do it. Event my lightest rocket was flipping. Now I have a steady small rocket (I don't event touch the steering). Heavier rockets seem to be easy to take to orbit. They are more forgiving in angle of attack. Don't use SAS except when rocket goes slightly off course (usually on tacke-off) As many have told : add fins far back then try and retry. Try different thrust limitation on boosters. MJ is no helping a lot. You must ensure the rocket to fly manually before attempting to use MJ.

I don't know exatly. I made a 120m/s retrograde at 75km and then, when starting heating, an additionnal 250m/s (all the fuel left) to slow down a bit. My goal is to land as near as KSC as possible.

Does this occlusion apply if parts aren't totally connected. For example : I have a Rockamax tank then a small probe core, then a rockamax size heatshield. Does the heatshield protect the tank as it would do it it have been fixed on the tank itself ?

I like big rocket (don't ask me why ) In carreer mode, big rockets are costly. I have a space station in LKO, I would like to refuel it but I only have a 22T launcher partially reusable. I want to build something bigger and scalable (50 /10 / 150T) As my 22T launcher is very stable and easy to fly rocket (both manually and with MJ), I wanted to start from there (Sorry I can't post screenshot now, I'll try this evening) Basic design It's a 3 or 4 S3-720 extra large fuel tanks (I don't have the biggest yet) on to of a mamoth. It's helped by 2 or 4 biggest SRB. I've added 4 wings at the bottom and 4 winglets in the middle to help control. This stage can go to space, circularize the payload and deorbit itself. As I only have the smallest flat probe core, I put it on top of the stage under the payload decoupler. I only need 4 struct to get it stable, even with tall payloads under fairing. It's quite ugly, but it works. The 2 renetry I did got different results, but successful. The first one went head first until the chute was open. The second one went sideways and didn't even burn in atmosphere (nearly no flame effect). In both cas, landing (in water) let me salvaged ALL the stage (except SRB which were ditch after take-off). The new design I go for the heaviest first (able to lift off nearly 150T). I have a central 4 * S3-720 tanks with no engines at the bottom and 6 lateral 3 * S3-720 tanks with mamoth at the bottom. Each engin has one wing at the bottom. winglets is added at the bas of the stage nose cone). Fuel lines feed the lateral tank with the central tank. No SRB are needed. With 145T / 4 orange tanks (stacked and fuel locked), I get a dV of 3700m/s. I only use 6 struts to fix the first stage. Yes, it's a big rocket... I succeeded in orbiting at LKO (manually and with MJ). It's quite stable except in the first few seconds seconds, but I suspect it's due to the very tall payload. I get 400m/s (without payload) to deorbit the first stage. Now the tricky part : I need a probe core, and some batteries. I don't want to put them at the top because they are too small. So I put them in a bay at the bottom of the central tank (the one without engine). I add some adapters (the very large one and the rockamax). Then the small bay and a small heat shield. And my problemOn reentry, the rocket always come bottom first. The rockamax adapter overheats quickly and blast. The bay is deconnected from the rocket (which don't have battery and probe controle). I'm unable to open the chutes in low atmosphere. And an non important thing : I also loose my 6 winglets, which is strange because on the basic stage reentry I didn't loose anything. - How can I organise the central bottom of my craft to add that stuff and survive reentry ? NB : I'll add some screen this evening

Le LM has to "hover" because it had a low TWR. It's the same deal with Tylo. You can land with brute force and high TWR with a suicide burn at a cheap DV (the higher the TWR, cheaper it is in delta-V [not in fuel...]. But if you TWR is too low, you'll simply crash. Killing (reducing) horizontal first while keeping vertical under control is doable with low TWR ships, until the TWR goes higher and you can counteract vertical force. This manoeuver has a delta-V price. But the ship (SSTO) I designed for Tylo wasn't able to do the suicid burn. I did the "hovering" manoeuver easily and take off for 6000m/s. PS : in beta 0.9. Now, only math can confirm it.

OK, I managed to play with main stage recovering... I can send 22T payload to LKO for a 87k funds (not including payload). but I can recover the mammoth stage for 56k funds (66k max at KSC). 1k to 1.4k funds / ton to 75km LKO. I think I could increase that, because it's the main stage that orbit the whole rocket. I can deorbit it as close as I want. Strange thing, the main stage resisted very well reentry. It didn't turn in flame. I lost control every time (one time it when upfront, one time backward...). I think it could be better if the pusher stage would do the orbiting, but I wouldn't control where the main stage would go down, that you reduce the return value of the stage. Apart from the main stage, only 2 very tall solid fuel boosters. The rocket is very steady (bigger rocket are easier to fly, it seems).

Well 4000 Liquid fuel (not oxydizer) is 3 X200-32, 54T of fuel + crew accommodations. For now, my launcher is able to send to orbit 22T for 88k funds. I would have to get 4 launches. I could work better on reusability...

The only use of a station around kerbin is to get some kind of emergency rally point. but space stations are really useful around OTHER bodies. I sent some kind of refueling station around minmus (basically a tank with docking...) I managed to strip munmus science for a 4500 points in one mission... And if you want ton convert your "Creat new space station" in "upgrade you space station", simply edit you save file and change the launchID parameter on your Contract. Set it to 1 PARAM { ... launchID = 1

On the Save file there is as "launchID" parameter in the contract section. This number has to be smaller or equal to any part of you ship. For example : - You build a mission to anywhere, a return ship is due to come back - You take the space station is mission - you partially build it - You return ship dock top the partial space station - you finish the station You don't succeed the mission until you undock the return ship.

Hmmm, until you have a asteroid in orbit to mine, I don't see the need of a refueling space station around Kerbin. The price of sending tanks to the station will be the same as sending this fuel at it's destination. Plus you'll need to dock, add some RCS stuff... I tested to dock a "station" to another station. It works until you dock. You loose the "build new station" item. I don't see the point of building another station from scratch... Upgrading station could have been fun.

Dishes don't offer the "Extend" option, only "Transfert Data" (and close when done)

I filled a contract to send a space station into LKO. Done Now, I get another one with - Build new station (antenna, dock, power) - Must support 11 kerbals - must have Lab - must have 4000 liquid fuel - must have 1000 monoprop 50k in advance, 130k on completion I have 2 questions : - How is it worth it ? 180k funds for such a mass in orbit ? - Can I make a very small "new station" part and dock it to my existing station to get the existing lab and 7 crew seats ?

Well, I'm 99% sure. You should verify that 1% before attempting though EDIT, oh, you did it. Wonderful !

The klaw has a limitation : how to get past the atmosphere. Tourists can't EVA, but I think you can "transfert" them. So : - Create a ship with empty seats, designed for reentry. - Add a klaw (detachable) - catch the brocken ship - transfert the tourists to empty seats - detach claw - return Kerbin. Sounds easy,but I bet not.

Cool. I had a 6050m/s SSTO lander (not plane) for Tylo (with all science) starting at 30km with TWR = 1.02. It was for 0.9 and it had 2 LVN. What is your beast weight ?