cephalo

Really? That surprises me. I imagine that would fail if the orbits are too similar and out of phase.

No I did not know that! Thank you, that should save loads of time if I can do that. I knew that you could advance orbits, but I didn't know you can drag the node. I'm a little afraid of MechJeb. I'm having a lot of fun and I'm not sure if I can resist using autopilot for everything.

The only thing about this game that becomes drudgery for me is trying to guess where to place a maneuver node for an orbital intercept. I've been able to 'bracket' my targets so my choices are not just random, but these types of calculations are what computers are for. I don't want to automate the whole process of a rendezvous, but is there an addon that will at least choose the first available intercept node location?

Are rovers just for fun, or are they the best way to do something? For collecting science, it seems like it would be better to just hop around with thrusters. Driving to another part of a world seems like it would take forever.

I have since used multiple reaction wheels without issue. The craft where I was having problems was actually a very rigid craft, but the problem was occurring in the Kerbin's atmosphere on the way up. It must have been a problem with my aerodynamics, but it was very strange. It wasn't a wobble but a shift. I did solve that problem by removing one of my reaction wheels and just living with a slow turning craft. I don't really know what was going on I can't replicate it.

So I am getting a bit greedy and trying to land a science lab for my very first Mun landing. Since I've never really landed any type of lander before, I've been trying to practice on Kerbin, with entertaining but also worrisome results. (For one thing, you shouldn't try to land stuff on the launch pad. It's fragile.) It's possible for me to take off and land this thing on Kerbin, but very difficult to get the appropriate thrust for velocity changes. Going up is easy, but coming down requires a very precise amount of thrust. Almost more precision than I can handle. A couple of pixels on the thrust indicator is the difference between coming down at 5 m/s for a soft landing or 20 m/s which tends to break things. I'm at work thinking about what I'll try next, and I'm thinking that maybe the key is, instead of trying to land with the engines and possibly failing, I'll find a hovering thrust some distance from the ground where it's safe, and then push down with RCS. Not sure if RCS works in Kerbin's atmosphere. How does everyone else do it?

That's interesting. Would it be better to have the command pods near CoM? So let me make sure I understand, in space, you can spread reaction wheels throughout the craft and they will work together? What if, on a basic rocket, I accidentally inverted the reaction wheels during assembly, with one upside down? Maybe I'll test it later.

Good. For the large ports I was planning to make medium->large adapters later on, if that should ever become useful. Not sure how rigid a space station needs to be.

I think there is a delay between the position change of your craft and the camera so you can see these kinds of movement. The craft appeared to move sideways relative to the middle of the screen. Also there was some flexing in the middle. I suppose the whole thing could have been an optical illusion, but I wanted to see if anyone else is having issues with reaction wheel placement.

So, the science lab is one of the first techs I unlocked in my current tech tree level. I also have the cupola, and the medium sized docking port. I'm hoping to send up a really nice station hub that I can use throughout the game, and do it in such a way that advancing tech doesn't make it obsolete. Is it just a matter of plenty of attachment options, or are there some things coming up that you just can't plan for? What do I need to think about in advance?

edit first post with 'go advanced'. There's a sticky thread on this board also with screenshots.

Well, I always combine the single unit with gimbals and fins, and I haven't noticed this behavior. I should also say that I had put them rather far apart from each other, as in one just below the command module and one in front of the last stage. Trying to tip east made me translate west about ten feet before snapping back.

The first time I made a rocket with two reaction wheel modules, they seemed to either fight each other or fight with my rocket fins. I was getting a weird translation from side to side and not able to turn well. However, all the older stuff on KSP reaction wheels I'm searching on seem to suggest that it doesn't matter at all where you put reaction wheels relative to CoM or how many you use. Is that still true? I'm at the point where I need a bit more torque, but the next size reaction wheel part is a ways away on the tech tree. Can I stack these in 1.0?

I just finished it myself. The problem is that the quest has trouble keeping up with what is actually happening and when the 'next' button should light up. What you can do though, is delete any old maneuver nodes and create new ones, that seems to get things going again. It's a very important training exercise, it's a shame that it is so fiddly like that.

I recently discovered that you can destroy ships and debris from the tracking station. Useful for all those empty pods from rescue missions.

I recently discovered that you can destroy ships and debris through the tacking station. At the time the orbit around Kerbin was so cluttered I could hardly select a maneuver node.

When out on a mission, I had a lot of trouble remembering which of the Kerbals on board was my scientist. So the guy I sent out on EVA to do science tasks was my engineer... If I could tell who was who without going to KSC and losing my revert rights, I could have saved 5 minutes. Is there a way to tell like a uniform badge or something?

I'm getting a large collection of quicksaves and I'd like to clean them out. How?

I got into some trouble once like that. Pushing the craft on EVA allowed me to get back into Kerbin's atmosphere. Hopefully you still have parachutes on it. The reentry heating model is massively underpowered right now, so almost anything can survive reentry. You will want your pilot and engineer back on the craft, the pilot for stabilizing while the engineer pushes. Once your periapsis is under 70k, you'll slow down quite a lot and won't have to push any more.

I'm still a bit confused about how this works. Let's say I do most of the experiments available on Mun, after that, is there any benefit to putting a lab there?

Aha, usually my SRB's, especially the bigger ones tend to flop around a bit. Do struts come off when the boosters are jettisoned, or do I need decouplers for the struts too?

That sounds like you advocate SSTO which obviously does not include boosters. In career mode, do you need a lot of tech to achieve this? I'm almost done with the first level of science center, and I can make a big rocket, but the darn things are very heavy. If I could get it to orbit in one piece, I'd need a hundred parachutes to recover it in one piece too.

If you jettison those boosters do the fuel lines come loose without causing problems?

I see many examples from people, who know more than I do, of launch sequences that use discardable liquid boosters instead of SRB's. Why would you not want SRB's at launch? Aren't they the best way to start the ascent?

When I am getting ready to do a prograde burn on a maneuver, do I follow the prograde direction or the maneuver target direction during the burn? I'm having a bit of trouble getting accurate burns. Jeb can hold prograde, but maybe I don't want that in this case?