Old Foxboy

did you actually build the rapiers + turbojets in line behind each other? Remove a lot of fuel (click on the tanks and drag down on the sliders to balance weight + centre of mass. Use Turbojets only, not rapiers. A SR-71 can't go to orbit in real life.

LOL, first of all, you gotta make them work with all the stuff you plan to build into them. For example: The heavy ISRU converter is a burden for every SSTO. The electric propulsion isn't for spaceplanes though it looks cool. The more "fancy" stuff you add to the plane, the less efficient it will become up to the point where it won't make it to orbit anymore. So try to approach the SSTO's from a minimalistic point of view.

Hello, just in case you didn't do it already: Make sure you enter the Jool system PROGRADE (counterclockwise), so you don't fly the other way round Jool than all the moons. If you can hit it in the first run, don't aerobrake at Jool but at Laythe. Much safer. As for Pol, treat it like Minimus. Pol won't help you much with it's gravity (because there isn't much), so try to encounter it at your Jool orbit apoapsis where you are as slow as possible. As for the porkchop: Are you sure you selected the minimum Delta V option?

It totally depends on the type of craft you fly. With a real Spaceplane, you might get better results coasting in the upper parts of the atmosphere. With a Spaceshuttle type of craft this isn't possible because it is designed to perform a controlled "stall" at high AOA through these layers and only transition to a real glide when all the braking and heating has subsided. If your craft can't hold this high AOA to brake in a way like this, you must of course follow a much shallower flight path because you are actually gliding it down all the way. However, you'll encounter much more heating this way, because you spend much more time in the heating airstream, because you don't brake enough. Remember: A) Gliding in the upper parts of the atmosphere = longer braking phase, less heating, but a longer duration of the heating phase. Stalling into "lower" parts of the upper atmosphere (~25-30km) = shorter braking phase with higher intensity of heat but a shorter heating phase. You have to find the equilibrium between those two solutions according to the design of your craft. However, i prefer the low periapsis reentries for precision purposes. I can almost always nail a landing at KSC with my Spaceplanes, and the capsules come down just west of the coast of it. If you have a longer aerobraking phase, it's very difficult to predict the landing site.

If you don't have the Delta-V to lower your orbit first (to a 100x100 orbit for instance), you might as well perform a mini-aerobrake reentry. This is done by setting the periapsis to about 40.000 metres instead of 25.000. The lower density upper atmosphere will break you just a little bit without the whole barbecue effect Your mileage may vary, depending on your craft and angle of attack. If you have a high AOA like the real space shuttle, you are braking much more than you would if you fly perfectly prograde (streamlined) through the atmosphere. The missing tilt (AOA) might as well be the problem with your reentry, because your craft won't brake enough in the upper atmosphere and will roar down into the lower, burning up. Try to pull the nose up (with reaction wheels and/or RCS and SAS) to use as much aerobrake in the upper atmopsphere as you can. If you want to see how the real thing flies, take a look at the "Orbiter" space sim by Martin Schweiger. It's Kerbal Space Program without Kerbal.

As for Spaceplanes, the Mechjeb Autopilot is VERY useful to say the least. Also, the advanced planetary transfer porkchop selection is very useful with Mechjeb. Besides these two things, KER is sleeker and has less bugs.

One big problem the games still has that it doesn't let you switch vessels in a convenient way and doesn't provide autopilot capabilities for a second vessel. If they implement this in a next version, the "Sänger" approach might be the way to go: Have one atmosphere bound supersonic carrier plane lift a smaller "SSTO" into upper atmosphere where it will be able to reach the orbit. It's basically a split stage approach, but both stages would be fully reusable.

Put all Parts that can explode behind shields, doors, fairings and behind the airstream. That's how they do it in real life, too, i guess, maybe, probably.

Srsly: Fly to another biome or planet. It's really not worth recovering data twice, except if you get it for free while accidentally passing by. Better research the seismic and when available the gravimetric scans ASAP and harvest all biomes on Minimus or other low gravity bodies. Don't make excessive or repetitive goo or minilab experiments without a scientist to reset them. You can fill the R&D tree rather quick with a handful of thoroughly crafted missions if you don't waste your time with "small numbers xperiments".

I once made a Rover drop craft to fulfill a contract that needed me to go to 4 different locations on the opposite side of Kerbin. Would love to have some droguechutes on the fairing to make them droppable as capsules to shield a complex craft from reentry aerodynamics. But the current fairing don't allow parts to be attached to it. Any solutions?

Get ready to go to jail for nuclear pollution of Kerbin's atmosphere...

Better read some science fiction classics: Arthur C. Clarke: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010:_Odyssey_Two The Leonov featured a heat shield for aerobraking in Jupiter's atmosphere. Clarke was very exact in describing his spacecraft and the maneuvers needed to accomplish the mission. Entering Jools atmosphere just a little bit at those incredibly high speeds without a heat shield WILL kill you for a good reason.

I had some serious yaw issues with Spaceplanes. They suddenly started to yaw to the right for no obvious reason. Torque?

http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2 Look what earthlings are trying to do. Do we have balloons to lift off from Eve yet?

Basically, KSP should feature a monthly cost in the higher difficulty levels. This means, you have to run a strategy that provides you with a monthly income, and setting up a lab and selling the science through a strategy would be a good way to maintain the equilibrium.

rather than using a tricoupler with 3 smaller engines, i would go with a mainsail on the back. The tricoupler adds a lot of drag, and part count matters, too.

I have this BUG too, once in a while. Fuel is drained asymmetrically from twin stacks of attached fuel tanks or constructions on lateral separators or things like that. In a weird way, the program prioritizes some fuel tanks over others, draining some and leaving the rest. This might lead to a premature shutdown of engines that are attached to the drained tanks, because they obviously can't get fuel from the rest of the ship while the other engines can drain this tank. Not fuel pipes attached, but there are some one-way fuel flowing mechanisms that definitely shouldn't be there.

Hello, I would try to make a direct ascend from Minimus into retrograde Kerbin orbit direction. And i won't wait for leaving Minimus' SOI, because this means higher delta V needed to lower your Kerbin periapsis. The main problem is to find the perfect launch direction to make all the needed delta V in one big burn from Minimus launch. Else you'll need to orbit Minimus and plan a good ejection burn. This might be safer, but however, plan your ejection burn in a way that you don't need a big delta V later to lower your Kerbin periapsis. If you are already near Kerbin (about 2/3 between apoapsis and periapsis) and want to lower your periapsis, it might be better to burn anti-radial instead of retrograde. You won't lose much speed, but your flight path with change significantly, allowing for a much bigger atmospheric drag. Coming in with almost 3000 m/s, you want to aim at 25.000 m periapsis to land at Kerbin. Above 30.000, and you'll probably only get an aerobrake. For aerobraking, don't aim at anything above 40.000 - it won't brake you enough to make up for the risk of stacking heat damage. So, if you fear the full reentry will toast you to pieces, aim at 35.000 and do a one-orbit aerobrake. This should be sufficient. Make sure you have a little extra fuel left to fine tune your second reentry at 25.000 periapsis. Good luck, may the force be with you.

Squad, add more Engines: We definitely need bigger jets, turboramjets and reapers that fit a Mk III design and have enough power. It's not that nice having to stack rows of reapers if you want to haul a huge craft into orbit.

Yeah that's about my idea, but i used the big wings and a MK III cockpit Did you clip the wings? And is the craft stable during reentry and landing without the heavy payload? Also good you mentioned closing the ram air intake. Important to save some drag between mode switching and 35.000 metres.

Hi, yes, it's hard. I kinda stacked 12 or 14 (can't remember) Reapers together. I used as few parts as possible to reduce drag and part count (my cpu...). I used the big wings as fuel reserves to reduce fuselage fuel tank count. In the end, i had a craft with a big cargo bay that could deliver a brown fuel tank equipped with RCS and docking port to be used as a refuelling station. I made it barely to orbit and back to KSC, but i am yet to touch down safely. Almost made it yesterday, but the balancing of the COG is very tricky once the very heavy payload is missing. Here's the basic build: I use the Big-S Delta wings instead of horizontal stabilizers at the back with a big elevon as control surface, the big Boeing-Style main wings right in front of them, and an assembly of basic wing parts to balance centre of lift. One of these basic wings was tilted a little bit to provide extra front lift (like a fixed pitch elevon). So you need 8-10 main wing sections, 4-5 on each side. Your milage may vary. The most important thing is to balance the lift in such a way so you don't have to pull a lot back to pitch up. Pulling up means your back elevons provide negative lift, your AOA will rise and so will your drag. you want to face all parts as straight as possible in the airflow. Now for the flight profile, and that's as important as everything else: The main trick is to break the sound barrier and to get the Rapiers to run at their optimum efficiency. After liftoff, which should occur after 2/3 of the runway or before, pull up to 40° pitch. You should accelerate to about 280+ m/s while climbing to 10.000 metres. At 10.000 metres, enable PROGRADE SAS. That's very important, because by doing so, you minimize drag. Your craft now should fly ballistic and pitch down. At 0°, or maybe -5°, enable attitude hold SAS so you don't lose too much altitude. If your Reapers are not able to push you beyond the sound barrier now and accelerate further, go back to the drawing board. Once the sound barrier lies behind you, gently (!) pull back to pitch up to around 15-20° and raising, maybe a little more (depends). Climb to 20.000, controlling throttle so you don't risk a flameout. Try to achieve at least 20-25° pitch at 25.000 metres, when the Rapiers start to fade out. Make sure your have plenty of speed right now, at least 1200 m/s. If you have less than 1000, your climb was too steep. If you melt before your reach 25.000, your climb was too shallow. Your fuel should balanced in a way that you have slightly more liquid fuel that oxidizer left when you switch Rapier modes. Switch modes at 25.000, pitch 20°+ and 1200 m/s+, when the Rapiers fall below 50kN thrust or when your craft starts to decelerate. Try not to pull too much AOA between 25.000 and 35.000 to minimize drag, but don't let your nose fall below 10° pitch. Your goal is to raise apoapsis to 80.000, cruise through the atmosphere and circularize as usual. Good luck!

Okay, as for the physics: Nice try, but it becomes incredibly slooow motion, like using 2 seconds for every simulated second, so i put the slider back to about the middle where it becomes playable. Seems i have to pull back on the "fancyness" sliders a big time

thanks, the delta physics maybe an option. I'll try that. The mods seems to be great, too. (Didn't knew that there was a welding mod - great!) Too bad that Squad didn't include real big wings. The bigger stock ones are simply too limited and don't leave enough room for building alternatives. You're basically thrown back to the 0.9 wing building blocks in many cases.

Hello, does anyone know how to balance my game settings to be able to fly high part count crafts through the atmosphere? I can build them (i know the physics and how to build a craft that can perform the task), but the flight itself is a stuttering intricate maneuvering. And often, the physics snippets have such great gaps in between that the craft will disintegrate for whatever reason. 2GHz i7 8GB Macbook Pro here. Dedicated GPU. Built in 2011.

Thanks.