bigcalm

I started putting together a spreadsheet to do this here - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WaJEZKcyvqzXa0oAx1tEmOYDgXKqiiwEDDSF4xuW-3k/edit?usp=sharing This should also show you the maths you need. However, the launch / landing values should be taken with a pinch of salt (should get you within 10%) -- there's a big approximation there (as the above poster mentions, it really needs calculus to do properly).

Here's what I'm trying out on Moho (which has slightly higher g but otherwise broadly similar) - figures are with a full ore tank: For Vall you probably want to throw away all the solar panels and replace them a lot of nuclear isotopes. How you get it to Vall is somewhat harder. My current system is to have 2 large shunts - one to take the lander empty of fuel (~27tons) and one to take enough fuel to make the first landing, docking them together in orbit.

> just turn off SAS. Never turned it on :-) (though obviously MechJeb is doing stuff). > The culprits are the 4 reaction wheels at the end of the four fuel tanks sticking out. Ok that's pretty good - disabling some of the outer reaction wheels has helped. It's still wobbling but not nearly as badly as before (and yes it does have a lot of reaction wheels - it's largely because it's a space station made from many different vessels all of which came with at least one reaction wheel). > how about draining them into the big centre tanks and ejecting the empty tanks? It's actually pretty full already -- (my general strategy has been to dock, shift the fuel around and then undock and delete the empty craft). > Else create two+ stations? I'm rapidly coming to this conclusion. It's simply too big (352 tons) and has too many docking ports. It's a shame because it's not currently laggy (part count hard to estimate but I'd guesstimate at 200). > I like taking one of the largest fuel tanks (Usually an orange tank or that huge SLS tank) and then putting 6 of the same tank on it radially The station currently contains enough fuel to fill eight and a bit orange tanks (and currently has space for about another ~3 + 4 big liquid fuel only tanks). > you can stabilize it with brief pushing x2 time warp Yes, this helps! Bit fiddly to do whilst docking and I do occasionally get the "cannot warp whilst under acceleration" but all good. Thanks all!

As a consequence of the 1.04 upgrades to solid boosters, my craft suddenly had lots of fuel spare after doing what they needed to do in low kerbin orbit. Instead of redesigning them all, I've started rendezvousing the spares into a fuel dump which I'm sure will come in useful later on (currently 23k liquid fuel + appropriate oxidiser). But it's all gone a bit wobbly - every time I try to dock something with it, it flollops about all over the place and is getting a little difficult to dock anything more to. Would welcome some suggestions in terms of constructing a less wobbly fuel dump but not sure quite how to go about it - more docking ports? more compact? Can I use struts somehow? (Stock + MechJeb)

It's hard to tell from the pics, but I suspect your problem is one of control, not one of power - try adding a reaction wheel, preferably somewhere around the centre of mass (but not totally essential). Try to avoid craters on the Mun when landing as some of them are pretty steep, but your craft should be squat enough to cope regardless.

> Is it possible (or feasible) to space out the transfer burns a day or so apart Oh yes, easily. You've probably got a 30 day window in most instances -- see http://alexmoon.github.io/ksp/ For other bodies it can be less, but rarely less than a week.

Duna station: Moho Station:

This is really good! Could you do something that shows how to calculate more precisely the delta-v required to lift off a body -- I had a go myself here - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WaJEZKcyvqzXa0oAx1tEmOYDgXKqiiwEDDSF4xuW-3k/edit?usp=sharing - but ended up concluding that my maths simply wasn't good enough!

You'll have to do some maths if it doesn't exist. Here's the thread you need - http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/16511-Interplanetary-How-To-Guide

It might be that it's still there (though KSP will occasionally remove bugged ships I believe - I've not had it happen to me though). In the tracking station at the top, is everything selected here?

To my cost, I've discovered that the "Terminate" button is transparent and can select craft beneath it. Be cautious when terminating vessels as if there's another craft directly underneath the "Terminate" button, that craft will be selected, and then be deleted rather than the one you wanted. Squad -- please fix - it cost me millions in Shunts waiting to go to other planets before I realised this was happening!

I'd like to reawaken this thread - as I'm not sure I understand the full range of maths I need to be able to do these calculations and I'm hoping someone can help. Ultimately the goal is be able to calculate the kind of lander I need to take for any body (which can detach itself from an orbiting space station, land, take off, and redock -- and possibly be carrying some additional weight in the form of ore). I've created a google spreadsheet here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WaJEZKcyvqzXa0oAx1tEmOYDgXKqiiwEDDSF4xuW-3k/edit?usp=sharing which attempts to allow calculations for Hohmann transfers, change of orbit height, landing and taking off each body. The numbers I get normally when compared with testing are normally within 10% or so. However, occasionally I've been quite out (my Mun landing was so out it's hard to blame MechJeb). My calculation for "fighting gravity" is simply wrong - can anyone help?

> I am going to travel to Duna and other planets such as Eve and Jool soon and I was wondering before I started designing the rocket... what could go right? Wrong? It's all about planning around "what if X happens whilst I'm there". And what you want is rockets not rocket. You'll need to decide what to take with you to another planet - and how many separate vessels it'll be. Lots of testing, lots of delta-vee calculations required before you even start to prepare in low kerbin orbit. My list normally consists of at least the following: * Space station. Needs living quarters and lots of docking ports (and whatever else you might decide you need). * Tanker - it's basically spare fuel that can be transferred once docked. * Lander - to get to the surface and return in a single stage (for Eve, you'll have to do things differently) * Rescue craft - it's hard enough desiging a craft with enough delta-vee to get there. So you'll need something to shunt you back home. And optionally: * Second lander - this is for rescue when, inevitably, your first lander has a problem. This could be a rover that can achieve orbit. * Tug - what if your lander manages to land, take-off, and then doesn't have enough delta-vee left to rendezvous back with the space station? Then you need a tug that it can dock with, and either be refuelled by it or be shunted to the space station. Happens more often than you'd think! * Moar tankers * Probe carrier - designed to carry various stuff that may be useful - small rovers, satellites, small unmanned landers. Here's my current Duna-station - note all the bits came on separate shunts, it's just been joined back up in Duna orbit You WILL make mistakes - in the above, I have no antenna or science gubbins on the main space station, Lander One had an "unfortunate" landing at Ike and no longer has any solar panels and can only be used for short duration trips now, Rover One is flawed in some basic ways and also doesn't have the delta-vee to make it back from Duna surface (it can do Ike), and I've since redesigned the interplanetary shunt to make it less, er, explodey.

I don't trust MechJeb to do the full launch from Kerbin - it rarely works except with small uncomplicated vessels. That said, MechJeb *does help immensely* but not using the "launch" thing - use Smart-ASS with "Surf-Up" and "Kill-Rot". If stability is an issue, there's several fixes. 1) Add a reaction wheel preferably somewhere near to the centre of mass of your craft. This will need power so some batteries on your craft is recommended. 2) More fins. 3) More struts. Below is my refueller for refuelling stuff in low Kerbin orbit. The payload at the top is 61.7 tons - in other words, more than sufficient for launching a full orange tank (weight: 36t). It's parallel staged (http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Stage#Parallel_Staging) rather than asparagus, so could be made more efficient. It's also relatively easy to get into orbit and is pretty stable throughout. Launch intructions: MechJeb-Smart-ASS-Surf-Up-Fire. This should take you directly up the first 10k and MechJeb will handle pointing you in the right direction. Immediately after you make the solid booster fall off, change Smart-ASS to "Kill Rot". It's then fairly simple to get into any orbit you like using the standard gravity turn. After rendezvous and docking with a craft at a 200km orbit I have around 400ms ^v remaining. Costs 140k a pop though!

*Beep* "Come in, Moho Marooner, are you there, over?" *Beep" "Come in, Moho Marooner, are you there, over?" *Beep* "Come in, Moho Marooner, are you there, over?" *Beep* *Crackle* "Over control, I've just passed over the surface of Moho at an altitude of 60 kilometres" [sound of celebrations in control room] "Roger that Sigette - and huge congratulations - what was it like, over" "Beautiful. I'm just transmitting the results of the experiments now but I'm awed to have come on this mission, over". "Overjoyed to hear that Sigette - any issues?, over" "None in the flyby, but I'm not coming home, over" "What's wrong?" "I don't have the fuel to get home. I don't even have the fuel to get myself into an orbit where you could potentially catch me, over" "Oh no - we always calculated that the fuel load would be tight on that mission but we always thought you'd have ample to return" "No dice - too much plane matching, not enough total delta-vee. No blame either way, over". "We'll get you back Sigette. We will. We have better rockets already and we'll catch you." "I'd love to believe that control but please - tell my family that I love them deeply and wouldn't have missed this trip for the world. I think the batteries have another 20 minutes in them as the solar panels haven't coped well so near to the sun, so I may not hear from you again. For the people back on Kerbin, I'd like to send a message from the Moho Marooner to all of you." "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness." "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day." "And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good." "Over and out". -- Obviously inspired by Apollo 8 - and yes, I did mean Bill earlier it was easier to write his eulogy with him as a scientist rather than an engineer

It looks like you need to have focus on the ship as it changes sphere of influence to the target body - or no completion.

I'm thinking I need to focus on the ship at a particular point - I'm ducking in and out sure, but trying to manage other ships at the same time means it's fiddly to focus concentration on a particular "flyby". Trying again with no burns at all during SOI!

What, actually, is a flyby for the purposes of tourist contracts? I've tried lots of things, sometimes I seem to get it randomly, sometimes I don't get it all! What I've tried: Intersect, then orbit, then leave: Doesn't constitute a "flyby" (tourist contracts will get the "orbit" and/or "suborbit" but not "flyby") Intersect at low periapsis, don't go into orbit, leave and go home: Doesn't consitute a "flyby" Intersect (so get SOI changes) without a periapsis at all, leave and go home: Doesn't consitute a "flyby" I really don't understand these tourist flyby contracts! Do I need focus to be on the ship as it crosses a certain point?

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are gatherered here today to mourn the passing of Bill Kerman. I had the fortune of meeting Bill at the KSP interview - we were candidates together nervously waiting for yet another round of gruelling tests, and we became firm friends from that moment on. I was a merely a test pilot - all bravado and little learning, yet he was a scientist of the highest calibre with degrees from both Karvard and Kambridge. He struck me then as a quiet, reserved man with an iron will. What I never knew at that time was how determined and how loving of his friends he was - for this, he paid the ultimate price, and we should all remember his brave sacrifice. Not just a cosmonaut, not just a scientist, he was a poet, a family man and a hero. When I got caught for trying to steal a rocket from the hangar, who covered for me? Bill. When I was stranded in space without fuel to get home, who came to rescue me despite it never having been attempted before? Bill. I was the first Kerbal sent to land on the Mun - a huge and somewhat undeserved honour - I survived but The Hephaestus, my craft tipped over upon landing. Stranded on the surface and unable to take off, mission control advised I wait for a rescue. I performed the experiments I had been asked to perform with my heart heavy as I knew that hope of rescue was remote. Then, in the middle of the Kerbin night, I got a message from mission control, but oddly not on the normal frequency - it was Bill, without the authority of his supervisors. He said if I could somehow get myself into orbit - by scraping my horizontal ship across the ground at low speed I might get airborne and be able to get some kind of orbit cobbled together - and if I managed it Bill would be there to grab me from the heavens. This I did, and thanks to Bill's guidance got myself aloft and into an orbit. But the good fortune ended there - the orbit I'd managed to establish was insanely difficult to reach with the limited craft we had on Kerbin and as the hours ticked by, my heart sank again knowing that rescue was unlikely. Then suddenly - a message from mission control - Bill was already on his way! He rescued me did Bill, stationing his craft nearby so I could jet across, and he gave me the biggest bearhug of my life when I grabbed hold of the ladder - almost making me let go! We boarded, and I waved goodbye to what remained of the good ship Hephaestus, happy I was with a friend again, and we set off together back towards Kerbin. On re-entry into Kerbin, disaster struck. The fuel Bill had remaining after he had rescued me was so little that we were forced to make an obliquely angled descent. The roar of the compression heating from outside was unbearable despite the heatshield on the base of the craft. First the solar panels exploded, then the barometers, and then finally, the capsule underneath mine -the one containing Bill exploded due to the heat. Why God spared me from the same fate I can only speculate. To many, Bill was the greatest scientist of his generation, or the greatest hero of his generation, or the greatest cosmonaut of his generation. To me, he was my friend. I will miss him always. - Jebediah Kerman