Anrui

Thanks a lot for this explanation. I thought that "aerobraking" was something only done with aerobrakes. I've done this maneuver before but didn't know that it was aerobraking.

I haven't unlocked Aerobraking in the tech tree yet. So do you think I should plan my approach and rentry so that I 'skim' the atmosphere in order to slow down instead? Or bring some more dv with me to help myself slow down?

How much delta V do you recommend for landing on the mun and landing back on Kerbin?

I'm still having some trouble with rendezvous. The closest I can get the nodes is about 1.4k so I start burning to slow down and everything is going dandy at first and I'm closing in on the stranded kerbal but then a bit before the pink circle reaches my retrograde marker my the target begins moving away from me despite me moving faster. Then I end up burning to correct it etc etc but it keeps overshooting till I can't get back. I can't seem to get the speed down to 0.0 relative to the targets before the target is gone. The orbit of the target is a little inclined from the usual however and I only have a little over 1300 delta V left (and I need enough to get back down to Kerbin, which shouldn't take much). This is my first time rendezvousing technically since the in-game tutorial was kinda meh. Your tutorial was helpful malkuth, as well as Das who went over some rendezvousing last night but I kinda gotten myself into a hard spot with mine. If I can complete the contract on this flight it would be great, if not I can always deorbit and launch another craft which will cost some more funds. EDIT: I finally got it. I instead lined up the orbits, which I should've done in the first place and managed to get a very close encounter at 0.1-0.2km and through trial and error on my precise burns I finally manged to get close enough to complete the contract. The hard part was that I did the entire maneuver on the dark side of Kerbin on stock lighting so I could barely see the ships or the kerbal as I EVA'd him over.

I accepted a contract to test the Skipper engine between a certain range of altitudes above Kerbin at a certain speed, ya know the usual. I figured easy enough and I ride the rocket all the way to the set altitude at the right speed with all parameters filled. All got checks on it. Sweet! Nope. Somehow still didn't complete. As soon as I went out of the altitude it acted as if I hadn't just completed the contract. I landed successfully later thinking that it might give me the completion but nope. Still marks as incomplete. Do you have to start up the engine at that altitude? Or is it ok to just ride the engine up and through said altitude while completing the parameters?

The same thing is happening to me. I completed a tourist contract and it still shows in my contract list. It shows as complete but will not go away.

Adjusting my staging worked out for me, turned out that's what was happening. The chutes were deploying automatically though staging or something like that. I didn't know they were capable of deploying by themselves. Thanks for the help peeps!

I think I understand now. So I should have a stage before my parachute deploy stage so they stay in stage 1 during reentry? Before I had my decoupler for my little terrier engine and fuel tank set to decouple while the chute's launched, which was probably a poor way of staging. Staged but not deployed is the stage where the chutes are basically the next stage to come right? I have noticed my parachute icons in staging being a blue color a bit before reentry, is this an indication of the second phase for the chutes?

Once again, my chutes burn off while closed before I get to the point where I can safely deploy them. Like, right as I'm leaving reentry my chutes always go out. Chutes were working fine for me a few days ago, now they are burning up a lot suddenly. And no, I don't have any mods that affect how chutes behave. No deadly reentry, FAR, or anything game changing like that. I'm playing with the stock atmosphere.

No, they burn up while still closed.

I've had this issue recently with parachutes burning up a lot during my reentries. Regardless of what I try to do in order to reduce speed and protect them, they still somehow manage to burn up right before reentry ends. I have 2 parachutes on the side of the command module and a Mk16 on the nose. Both are rated for 2000 degrees but they never survive reentry, even when I have my pod positioned with the heat shield down and away from the chutes. I've even tried a more gradual approach but they still burn up. I added a terrier with a small fuel tank in one of my stages in order to help reduce my speed, and no I am not going straight up and straight down. I am just trying do some tourist contracts right now but I've been having this issue. I wasn't having this problem a couple days ago. Can anyone help me? I'm at my wit's end at the moment. Maybe I should try sticking a parachute in the little storage thing? Does that even work? Thanks for the help.

I just installed this mod to help me know about what experiments I need to do, and where and does things to bring it to my attention when there is new science to be had. It's called ScienceAlert. I can't really give a review about it or anything since I just recently found it and downloaded it (like earlier today) and I want to talk about it's effectiveness and whatnot before I've had a lot of experience with it. Here's the mod: ScienceAlert

Ok gotcha. Solar panels it is. Thanks for the help guys!

What's the difference between the Computer Flight System and the Kerbal Engineer system? You know, the things that you can put on your ship. I haven't noticed a difference between them. Both seem to give you access to your engineering stats

I am completely stumped on what part of the tree would be the best to take at this point. R&D costs are getting pretty expensive and I feel like making a wrong decision here would be bad. Here's a pic showing my tree thus fat: http://i.imgur.com/ifXjtJg.png Also, any tips on generating science at this point in the game? I've just recently gotten into orbit and did various experiments there (you know the usual host of stuff). I guess next is to do some contracts and plan a trip to the Mun?