Goomblah

RAPIERs tend to struggle near the sound barrier; it's fairly common for builds using only RAPIERs to have some difficulty going supersonic. I would suggest staying subsonic and climbing to a little under 10km before going for your speed run; you'll encounter much less drag at that altitude than your 4200m screenshot. If necessary (though with 1.5TWR I don't think it should be) you can actually pitch down slightly as you begin your speed run to break the sound barrier, at which point the RAPIERs will start producing much more thrust and you can pitch up again. You may also save a little mass and drag by removing your surface-mounted intakes and replacing the fuselage tail pieces in the wing with shock cone intakes, as well as removing the 4-way RCS ports on the top and bottom and instead using single RCS ports on the sides. You'll end up with more IntakeAir than you need, but AFAIK shock cones are still probably the best nosecone option out there.

When you Klaw to an asteroid, it becomes classified as a docked ship. You can't get landed science, sadly.

[quote name='r4pt0r']Thats well said. It's like "Congrats! You turned gameplay into essentially a cutscene, way to go!"[/QUOTE] The problem is that you're defining "gameplay" as "piloting spacecraft". KSP is about much more than just the piloting challenges - there's the engineering of the spacecraft themselves, setup and management of any infrastructure you may want/need (i.e. life support, EPL, RemoteTech, or any of the colonization mods), the actual exploration when you finally get to your destination, and for Career and Science modes, some management decisions over contracts and R&D. I would compare playing with MechJeb to playing a RTS game - You're controlling your units and telling them where to go (and how to get there), but the decisions of what to do and how you do it are entirely up to you. I wouldn't ever brag about, say, completing a suicide burn safely that, in reality, was done by MechJeb, or abuse MechJeb to complete piloting contests. I design and test the craft I build, oversee production of individual units, and monitor them as they move to their objectives. Once there, I complete whatever task I set out to do, then recall that mission back to its home base. This isn't to say I don't enjoy piloting - in particular, I love flying atmospheric craft and I find orbital rendezvous and docking (which I do without MJ's assistance) to be really fun. If you enjoy the challenge of piloting ascents and executing maneuvers manually, by all means go ahead. But I'm not interested in manually following the exact same ascent profile for every single launch like some mechanical pilot, so I have an actual mechanical pilot do it for me.

SSTOs are handy for Laythe exploration and cargo missions - you really don't want to have to send a new lifter all the way to Jool every time you want to move something around.

I accidentally EVA'd Jeb during re-entry once - he fell from 10km and survived the landing. Later that day, Bill stood up underneath an aircraft, hit his head, and was turned into a fine mist. I actually now attempt to land Kerbals on EVA if I forget parachutes for some reason XD It's actually saved several kerbals, with no fatalities thus far.

Honestly, the most "cheaty" part about MJ is the MechJeb core itself. It's a ridiculously lightweight surface-mount probe core that uses power incredibly slowly, and provides full SAS before you unlock the more advanced cores. IMO, the autopilot isn't the problem. There isn't anything MJ can do that I can't match or even do better, given time and proper tools - launch window calculators and KER readouts mostly, which could all even be done on paper if you [I]really[/I] want to. The only thing "cheaty" about it is that I don't have to babysit every single one of my burns or constantly make manual course corrections with stock SAS. To me, MJ represents several utility mods wrapped up in one (KER, Precise Node, Trajectories) plus better stability control. It doesn't magically enable me to do things that I couldn't do on a stock install, so I don't see how it's cheating at all.

Screenshots would help immensely. Three Junos should be plenty for small aircraft. What kinds of speeds are you getting up to without liftoff? Adding more wings or adjusting the angle of the wings to gain more lift will reduce your takeoff speed to manageable levels (50m/s is a good benchmark to shoot for, but anything <100m/s is generally survivable on landing). It's also possible that you don't have enough control authority. More/larger control surfaces further from the CoM/CoL will help.

;_;7 What a great ending to a great story "You must spread some reputation around before you can give it to Kuzzter again." Dangit!

I've been having the same issue. I've been topping out at about 800-900m/s @ 15km using Panthers. I've fiddled with multiple designs and just can't get anywhere hear the speeds and altitudes the Whiplash is capable of.

Radiator spam could probably fix or at least mitigate this. It also makes thruster melters actually viable against BDA and kinetic weapons. Adding a big cooling system in addition to your usual armor plates is probably a good idea anyways.

I don't think it's the cockpit so much as nose cones in general. I've found my spaceplane noses (regardless of if it's an intake, cockpit, or structural part) get much closer to the explodey zone than they did in 1.0.4.

Just finished re-certifying my Peregrine XL for SSTO duty. It behaves more or less the same as it did in 1.0.4, actually; ascent was toastier than normal and required a slightly less aggressive ascent profile, but otherwise it's just effective as it always has been. However, with the intake reworks, I think a new design is in order. The Peregrine XL's already generous intake capacity is ridiculously overkill in 1.0.5; I can easily make a much less draggy spaceplane with similar (or preferably better) capabilities than the old model. Also, this was my first time flying without a MechJeb core aboard in several months. Fortunately, my piloting skills have not atrophied, despite our robot overlord's interference

I smacked into one of the VAB fuel tanks during a landing a few days ago, destroying it and much of my right-side wing. It was a disappointing end to an otherwise perfect mission.

I launched the Eeloo probes and rover: Sadly, the Eeloo window would require me to burn way out to Eeloo's apoapsis, so I've decided that the mission will be delayed a few years to wait for a less costly window. I also did a crew transfer mission over to Exogenesis, which I used as a trial run to properly write out a tutorial for using the Peregrine XL. Poking around Exogenesis on the night side of a planet is pretty creepy: (being in an unlit cargo bay also helps) Looking inside the Klaw tug holding bay: Sadly, there was a problem during landing which damaged the SSTO, through no fault of its own - I got the pesky "collided into launchpad/VAB" bug while I was slowing down on the runway. It knocked off one of the wing strakes and part of the right-side engine column, but the rest of the plane was just fine.

Dres is actually the head of its own chapter of the awareness group Space Potatoes United (aka SPU-D) Why else would all the asteroids hang out with Dres?

MOARRRRR BOOOSTERS Is that for the Mach 10 in 10s challenge? EDIT: Oh, yes it is. Hadn't gotten to that thread yet

I've been running very low on funds lately, due mostly to the extremely expensive spaceships I've launched lately (Exogenesis alone cost over 1m funds) and the crew I need to run all the mining equipment and EPL workshops. However, that same EPL and mining hardware gives me an easy way to get absurd amounts of funds with relative ease. I told my engineers to build lots and lots of RTGs, then ship them back to Kerbin for tons of money. Each one of these pods is worth 900k, and I built three. Sadly, only one actually survived landing; the design only has enough parachutes to land safely in water if the fuel tank is completely empty; the first pod had half its tank left upon crashing. The second one splashed down without a hitch: The third one was set to land, but got cut in half by the Kraken about 450m above the surface. Explosions ensued The one pod that made it was still a LOT of money, though, so I now have quite a bit of wiggle room if I need to launch a few emergency missions. The main reason I needed so much money quickly, though, is because an Eeloo window is in 45 days, with the Jool window coming fairly soon afterwards. I would like to send off an Eeloo mission as soon as possible, since I have a contract for exploring Eeloo taking up space, and the extremely long travel time will then be broken up by several other missions reaching their destination. Crucible also finished up a shiny new fuel lifter - the old model didn't carry enough LF or monoprop to keep up with demand, so a bigger version with much stronger RCS (another problem with the old one) was commissioned to replace it. Pink exhaust, pretty! Leti Kerman hooks up the fuel hauler to the mining base: Next up: Expand the mining base's power generation capacity, add more drills, and launch the Eeloo mission!

Thanks! The new thread for my career save is over here - I will probably make a new post with some new stuff over there later today.

If you don't already, using a life support mod will make later-game missions more difficult and expensive, because visiting other planets will require lots of additional life support, while missions in Kerbin's SOI (early game) generally don't need so much extra mass. It also makes time management much more important, as opposed to stock where it's more or less irrelevant.

Yeah, I can provide downloads. My launchers are garbage, though, and I tend to do things rather haphazardly, so the save and .crafts will need some tidying up before I show the world how bad I am at building heavy-lift rockets... I'm actually just about to start up the Jool missions, which is why I made this thread to show off my progress; I'll probably start things off by covering my final preparations for the mission - mostly shuffling kerbals around and topping off fuel tanks.

A few months back, the sandbox save I was playing on suffered a series of problems that led to me abandoning it. I had realized that my rocket-building skills had grown far beyond what I had accomplished during that sandbox save, and after installing MechJeb and KER, I found that all of my spacecraft were hopelessly outclassed by the newer, better vehicles that I was now creating. There also really wasn't any challenge to sandbox now that I actually knew what I was doing, so after a series of kraken attacks obliterated much of my fleet, I decided to move on to a new career save. Skipping ahead to the present, Tangent Aerospace Unlimited has reached endgame, with the entire tech tree unlocked. I've sent probes to almost every body in the Kerbol system, but I've only sent manned missions to Duna, Minmus, and the Mun. Most of my kerbals are poorly trained, and only a handful have even left Kerbin's SOI. Naturally, I'm going to fix these problems with several big missions to thoroughly explore the Kerbol system with manned spacecraft. The mods I am using for this save: KER MechJeb KIS KAS Chatterer KAC Tweakscale Extraplanetary Launchpads Firespitter KAX Mk2 Expansion Mk IV Spaceplane System USI Nuclear Propulsion Crowd Sourced Science Extraplanetary Launchpads But I'm sure that you are here for cool spaceships, not walls of text, so here are some pictures and stats: Space Stations Kerbin Gateway Station My primary base of operations, the Kerbin Gateway Station provides refueling services for outbound spacecraft, and provides living quarters for crew awaiting their next mission. C-class asteroid Tuktuk is docked to the station, and has been completely mined out for fuel. Crucible An orbital shipyard, courtesy of Extraplanetary Launchpads. It gets its ore mostly from the captured E-class asteroid Slobad, which is then converted into spacecraft and fuel. Slobad An E-class asteroid, put into a rather sloppy orbit around Minmus. Slobad originally weighed over 3000 tons, but has been slowly whittled away by the tugs that brought it to Minmus and Crucible operations. At present it still weighs over 2200 tons. Large Spacecraft Emerald Originally intended for Grand Tour operations, Emerald was repurposed and renamed for Joolian exploration. Emerald weighs 420t and has 393 parts; it consists of a core module with a science lab, passenger module, and ISRU; an engine module with 18 NERVs and one Rhino; a docking module with two Klaw tugs and a Tylo lander, as well as two mining units to refuel the ship while landed. Yes, that's right - the whole thing can safely land on any airless body but Tylo, detach the miners, refuel, and then reach orbit again. dV numbers vary a bit based on payload and fuel mix (the Rhino provides a nice TWR boost when needed, at the cost of dV), but my calculations put the range at about 5.2km/s max. ISRU allows for refueling on any airless body but Tylo, though, so as long as Emerald can make it to a suitable moon, its range is infinite. ICT-03 Exogenesis The spiritual successor to the Atlas and Heron from my Sandbox save, Exogenesis is a big cargo carrier made mostly out of spaceplane parts, courtesy of Nertea's Mk IV Spaceplane System. The idea is to allow for safer aerobraking and reduced payload wobbling by holding everything internally rather than using exposed trusses and such. Exogenesis uses 20 nuclear engines - 16 NERVs and 4 Pluto engines (pretty much NERV * 1.33) from SuicidalInsanity's Mk2 Expansion. TWR is pretty good for nukes, and everything is geared towards a 120t payload, though it's probably capable of hauling around 250t. With 120t and full tanks, TWR is about .25g, which is my standard for nuclear interplanetary craft. dV is "a lot" - I would have work it out myself because some of the fuel tanks are kind of buggy and screw up the KER and MJ readings. It should be in the 5.5km/s range, though. SSTO Spaceplanes Peregrine XL The Peregrine XL is the result of me realizing that you really don't need 2 RAPIERs to get a single Kerbal to orbit. I took the tried-and-true Peregrine platform from my Sandbox save and started tweaking it to make it more practical, with more payload, while still keeping it easy and fun to fly. The end product has been the workhorse of my space program since the moment I unlocked RAPIERs (which was surprisingly early, because I focused on spaceplane research). It only carries four kerbals and about 3-4 tons to orbit, but thanks to miniaturization efforts by R&D, I can get a lot done with that. A good flight profile will get it to orbit without touching the forward LF+OX tank at all, giving the Peregrine XL 560m/s dV in an 80x80 orbit. Standard payload for the Peregrine XL consists of a small satellite with some science experiments and 3km/s dV, and a Duna-capable 4-kerbal lander (External command seats, yay!). To extend its range beyond LKO, the Peregrine can dock with a booster module (basically a LF tank with 2 NERVs on it) that gives it 4.5km/s extra dV. The Peregrine XL is really useful for transferring crew, completing kerbal rescue contracts, and deploying satellites and small probes for contracts. It's also very safe on descent - all heating issues have been worked out, it glides nicely, is stable with or without fuel and payload, glides well, and, in an emergency, has airbrakes and drogue chutes that ensure that the payload and crew survive the landing. The nose may get smashed up, but that's preferable to losing expensive science equipment or personnel. I do have other SSTOs (including some heavy lifters and a SSTM), but I'm having kraken issues and technical difficulties with some of them, so I won't post them here until I can figure out what's wrong.

I haven't touched this save file in a while - the kraken ate a bunch of ships, sadly, and I've since moved on. However, I plan on doing a mission log of a big Jool mission for my career save, so keep your eyes peeled

Does it fly? (It looks really good though!)

If you get a flat tire, just go on EVA to fix it instantly

The problem is that your ion engine is stuck on. The engine depleted your electricity, and when you throttled down, it didn't actually shut down the engine because the engine drains the electric charge before the probe core gets it. Note how your Xenon is still being consumed - the engine is consuming all the electric charge coming from the panels, and he probe core doesn't get any, so it can't shut down the engine. The only way to stop it is by sending a kerbal to shut down the engine on EVA. However, you probably won't be able to switch vehicles because the probe may be still accelerating from the ion thrust. Edit: Or, you could disable the Xenon tank, if possible. Looks like I got ninja'd, haha.