rofltehcat

In the workshop there's a marker on the ground. Select the root part or select the whole thing which shift+click on the rocket, then move it to the center of that marker.

You can use a docking port (or a mechjeb module if you use the mod) for that. Less restrictive in placement.

Am I really the only one putting my long range relays satellites in highly eccentric polar orbits? This is my Duna expedition. The coverage is achieved by one relays satellite in a highly eccentric polar orbit and three very small satellites. Normally I'd increase the Ap of the relays even further but when I sent the expedition on their way I somehow equipped the minisats with comunotron 16s instead of 32s and my rover just with the "always on" antenna, so I was a bit limited in the eccentricity and minisat altitude achieveable.

I started with 3 satellites with communotron 16s, each 120° from each other in an altitude such that they are always in range to each other. When this got a bit asynchronous I added 2 more satellites. For Mun exploration I added 3 dish-equipped satellites in stationary higher equatorial orbits (don't do this). Later when I unlocked the communotron 32s I positioned 4 satellites with them in the same way as the starting communotron 16 satellites. For longer range communication satellites I have switched to positioning them in highly eccentric polar orbits with ap/pe over the poles. This means that they only ever get obscured by Kerbin a few times a year for less than 15 minutes or so (very fast near Kerbin), which can be covered by adding a second satellite if really necessary. However, I haven't really put much maintenance into keeping the phase angles between small satellites roughly the same recently. No matter how fine you tune the orbital periods the distances always seem to get out of whack after a while. I got sick of doing the (increase/decrease AP, fast-forward until position is ok, restore old orbital period) and have just switched to slightly accelerating/decelerating satellites based on their relative position and letting time sort it out (only check before launching "launch window expeditions"). For other planets I'm using more of a chaos approach but the small omnidirectional satellites are in equatorial (or inclinations <45° when I don't care) orbits whereas the long range relays are in highly eccentric polar orbits. Thus all of the small sats have line of sight to the relays nearly all the time. It is ugly (I should probably delete some old satellites I no longer need) but it works.

Circular orbits for: 1. Stuff you want to dock with (just don't place it in a too low orbit) 2. Remotetech: Equatorial communication satellites (short range/local) 3. Preparation for landing (circularizing into a low orbit reduces overall velocity and makes hitting targets easier) 4. ScanSat scanning satellites (polar) Non-Circular orbits: 1. Remotetech: Long range relays satellites in a polar orbit with high Ap and low Pe --> long range connection can only break off 1-2 times a year, often for less than 1 hour. 2. When I just don't care what orbit something is in. 3. For inclination changes (circularize afterwards if you want circular orbit)

How do you get the data using the "drag cube"? Maybe take a look in the .cfg files of the parts. They have many different drag modifiers but I don't really know how to use them in calculations. mk16 XL: stowedDrag = 0.22 semiDeployedDrag = 1 fullyDeployedDrag = 500 ... name = ModuleDragModifier dragCubeName = DEPLOYED dragModifier = 25

The most challenging part is probably making it slim enough to fit into the bay but still sturdy/stable enough so it survives the landng. Use a girder segment as "landing legs": It has a high crash tolerance and it is perfect for containing small engines, e.g. Spark or Twitch. Attach the engine to the bottom, then offset it into the girder (can go all the way up without problems). This makes for a very compact and sturdy lander. A small reaction wheel is more than enough to make it very stable and controllable. Here is an example, one of the rocket chairs I used to hop around Minmus and Mun (removed solar panels to make engine visible). This should easily fit into a mk2 bay. Attaching it to the main craft can sometimes be a bit tricky so you might need to add a small octo strut or similar to get an attachment point (or attach the engine via such means). I'm currently playing with colony and life support mods so I haven't done any manned flighty beyond Minmus yet but I'll soon send a colony to Duna or Dres and I'll use comparable designs there.

Wouldn't it be theoretically most efficient if you chose your departure time such that you fly right by Duna (Ike on the sun side of the Duna system? Slightly behind Duna? , though unsure about angle) and do a lot of that burn when close to Duna? The trick would probably be getting the angle right so that you don't need to establish an orbit around Duna.

You'll probably have to update the tracking station and/or the mission planning building. I think it unlocks with the "patched conics visible" upgrade.

The culprits are the 4 reaction wheels at the end of the four fuel tanks sticking out. Disable two on them (180° from each other) and maybe even use "control from here" on one of the docking ports next to one you didn't deactivate. If that doesn't help, deactivate all four of them. I can't see if there are more reaction wheels in the main shaft but that is really where you want the reaction wheels to be for such a huge station. It'll takes ages to turn the station, so just keeping it stable and flying around it to dock is usually best.

It is a gas giant. You can't land on it. This must be a glitch in the quest generator.

Let me explain the intersect with images. Others have already explained it pretty well but I think with screenshots you'll probably have an easier time understanding their instructions. It is really just based on "low orbits go fast" and "high orbits go slow" (angular velocity). Picture 1: Create a maneuvre node (fire prograde) that increases your orbit to just about touches the target orbit in one spot. As you can see your target will be ahead of you quite a bit at the closest intersect. This is exactly how you want it when approaching from a lower orbit. (If you approach from a higher orbit you want it to be a bit behind you at closest intersect). Pic 2: Execute that node, then warp to just after the closest approach. Pic 3: You now see the next closest approach. As you can see at the next closest approach you would be very far ahead of your target. Thus you have to increase your orbit. The best spot to do this is your current contact point between your orbit and the target orbit. So you point prograde and fire your rockets to increase your orbit. (Note: The tutorial bugged out on me because I did this manually, without a maneuvre node. You should probably do this with a maneuvre node designed so the outcome looks like in Pic 4, but I usually do this step without a node when not using mod auto pilots.) Pic 4: This is how your next closest approach (or maneuvre node) should look. You can still fine-tune it but arriving at roughly 2 km is okay. You can then fast-forward to about a minute or so before the closest approach. (Note: Sometimes the closest approach still shifts but if it does it'll just mean you'll have to do more correction burns later. For the beginning this will suffice.) Pic 5: This is taken near the closest approach. Note that the navball's mode is switched to target. The direction the ship is pointing in is set to retrograde. You can now fire your rockets until your relative velocity to the target is close to 0 (power down slowly when close to end). Technically, this already counts as a rendezvous for career mode quests but you'll have to still get closer before actually starting to use RCS. Instructions for small ships (doesn't work that well for large ships): So you'll be moving at roughly 0 m/s relative to the target and you'll be ~300 m - 2.5 km away. You then point your ship towards the target (on the navball, not by sight!) and accelerate towards it (green marker should be close to or inside pink marker) until your relative velocity is 8-12 m/s. Then you point your ship back to retrograde (so you can again eliminate relative velocity once needed). Wait a bit (you can do a slow warp but be prepared to abort it) and watch the distance to your target carefully. It should decrease. The instant your distance starts increasing again you gently activate your engine and eliminate relative velocity. Repeat these steps until you are just about 300 m or so from the target and moving at roughly 0 m/s relative velocity. Then it is time to switch to RCS and the actual docking.

I'm thinking about making a glider for Duna instead of the "hopper" ("rocketchairs") I use to get around on atmosphere-less bodies in lieu of rovers (rovers really suck in this game). Is there anything I need to do differently compared to Kerbin plane design? It doesn't need to be very fast nor fly very high, it just needs to be stable in the air and easy to land (also, take off). I was thinking of powering it with 1-2 Spark engines or a Terrier. Do I need more/less wing area? Do I need to change how far my CoL and CoM are from each other? More or less control surfaces?

Do you have KAS/KIS? I'd move the radar dish from the transfer stage, then cruise home with the 800 dV option.

The whole thing is designed to operate horizontally once there, right? Land it horizontally. Move the landing legs to the lower side so you land on the landing legs (wheels break easily), and can retract them to lower yourself onto the ground. Get RCS Helper and let it display your full and empty center of mass. Move them as close together as possible (e.g. reposition fuel tanks). Then attach small engines (radial engines or small strut+terrier/spark, need enough TWR) in positions that minimize the torque. Also add a small docking port (or probe core) on top that you can use to 'control from here' (not necessary but it helps). For Duna you could even adapt parachute placement so you're guaranteed to land horizontally. I landed this 71 t monstrosity on Minmus horizontally with just 5 Spark engines (~2.5 TWR). For the Mun you'd probably need more like 5 Terriers but that is also doable. A couple of Thuds or comparable could do the job as well. You could even attach them with decouplers and fuel lines if you want to get rid of them later on. The important thing is balancing the thing right. Fuel tanks in front and back help because you can pump around fuel to balance if needed.

I recommend Scott Manley's videos on rendezvous (with basic space station info) and on docking:

The problems with the rescue quests seems to be resolved after I installed the rest of the required mods. Sorry for the inconvenience, I just assumed quill's list contained all the requirements. Thanks for the help!

I'm not entirely sure what you want to do with them but I like using small and 1.5 m nose cones to attach stuff. They even conduct fuel, so you can e.g. mount two engines radially or mount three Ant engines to a 1.5 m fuel tank. They are light, you can stick them everywhere, and they don't cause a lot of drag. Of course they weight more than cubic octo struts but you don't get those until pretty late in the stock tech tree (plut having struts everywhere looks even uglier than having cones everywhere).

GameData folder: http://imgur.com/EhdiBfB I don't have the contracts part of this mod installed, though it looks pretty nice. I just assumed it was related to this mod because it first appeared with the booster. Maybe it is just a consequence of only having a limited number of crew modules, though that isn't a problem in stock either... Here is the savegame if you want to check out the stranded Kerbals: http://www.filedropper.com/savegameremotetech

I think in theory it can be boiled down to these options: 1. Have a transfer stage with a fuel-efficient engine, leave it in orbit, land with very light engines, come back up, dock, use transfer to go back or siphon the fuel then go back with the light lander engines. vs. 2. Just have a lander with a heavier engine than you require, drop empty fuel tanks along the way and on the surface. vs. 3. Pretty much exactly like 2 but have a lander with light engines, spend a little more fuel on the transfer but a bit less during landing/ascent. So I think the answer you are looking for is in engine fuel efficiency and engine weight. Basically option 1 is only better if the transfer dV is sizeable amount of the mission or if your mission is massive (engine weight negligible, need higher TWR anyways). A heavy but efficient engine would be Terrier/Poodle/NRV and a light but slightly less efficient engine would be Ant/Spark. So the fuel efficiency difference would be ~10-15%. if your lander's weight and fuel requirement fits for a Terrier or Poodle there would be even less of a reason to do the whole docking thing. In general I think most people probably just use these engines for vacuum landers (=option 2), thus foregoing all the hassle and their efficiency offsets a lot the engine weight. Are there fuel efficiency stats for the different stages used on the moon missions? I'd expect the difference to be much larger than 10-15%.

Is there a way to schedule opening parachutes etc. with the flight computer?

I have a rescue contract but when I get close to the "capsule" it is just a single hybrid rocket booster. I can switch to it but I can't EVA the Kerbal. Currently I'm considering if I should push her out of orbit or if I should let her suffocate (got TAC life support installed so she probably won't live until I unlock the claw). Is there possibly some keyword set wrong for the hybrid rocket booster or something the like? Edit: And a second rescue contract is a probe core with a Kerbal stuck inside... Edit2: and my third rescue contract is a mechjeb case with a Kerbal somehow stuck inside. This mod is pretty cool but you monsters are responsive for the death of three Kerbals! Or at least I'm assuming this mod broke the rescue contracts... I'm currently using mainly the mods quill18 is using in his newest let's play and everything worked fine before installing these: http://i.imgur.com/5atq9K1.jpg

It had power, antennas... looked perfectly fine but didn't get any connection. It seems to only affect this one spacecraft, I could launch something else. I also tested if it was related to having too many antennas or if it is related to fairings/service bays but everything else works perfectly fine even if I stick it in them.

Thanks for the help with the last post. I got my connections working again and shot up some more satellites to also get better ground coverage. However, I now have a problem: I have a rocket on the launch pad and it just can't get any connection to anything. It has an always-on antenna as well as a dish and a communotron 16... both of which I can't even switch on because I don't have any connection. Blue are two satellites for the low coverage, red circled are keosync ones. The current rocket is on the pad (red dot).

I have just started using RemoteTech today and I really like it but I can't quite seem to grasp how to set up a proper relays network. For example if you look at this screenshot I have two satellites (blue) in keosynchronous orbits. Both of them have plenty dishes and one Communotron 16 (omnidirectional base antenna). One of them has a connection targetted at ground command and the other has one of the dishes aimed at the first satellite. Each of them also has one of the dishes set to aim at the active vessel. I'm trying to get a connection with a probe in LKO (red). It has a communotron omnidirection antenna and a dish (both activated). I want to grab onto the connection from the two relay satellites but I simply don't get one. Isn't the "active vessel" targeting supposed to give me that connection? I can see the satellite cones track the active ship on the map but it simply doesn't seem to grab on. I could probably target my dish at one of the satellites but then I'd still have blank spots where I don't get any connection