Evanitis

I usually fail at the design, it's more important when do I notice it. Last time I already landed a mobile-lab on Duna when I realized that I didn't connect the main fuel-tank of the return-stage to the engines. Ahh well, at least they'll provide science while the rescue-mission arrives. Hope the drilling equipment will reach down enough, as an ISRU-refueling is included in the process. Ahh, and I hope resources are nearby, as the first mission took the wrong kind of scanning equipment. Kerbals on EVA can deploy the panels when you run out of charge. That feature saved me multiple times.

Easier, visual demonstartion of the above method (with a random KSP related question). http://lmgtfy.com/?q=what+are+patched+conics That site is very educational, I can rarely resist using it, especially when my relatives ask me basic questions. Ahh, and it's multilingual for those who doesn't understand the instructions included in the OP. Invaluable for someone that wants to be a Smart Avionics Support Section - with style.

Not to mention the easiest solution: use probes!

I never ever pronounced any KSP related term. People around me play mobas and shooters and stuff. But anyways, who cares if I'd say 'Mün' with the same vovel as in 'bUreaucaracy' - mainly because that letter is pronounced that way in my native tongue. Though if I was a KSP dev, I'd find great joy in all the controversy appearing in this thread. I'd also ask my collegaues not to ruin the fun by canonizing one form in any of the above questions.

Dang man, you are tough... Jumped in to add that this thread is extremely helpful of picking my difficulty sweet-spot. I found that having limitations improves the fun-factor a lot. Normal career felt too quick and easy, even with my silly mindset that involves massive overengineering instead of math. Now I'm convinced that my next go will be 'harder than hard' with reverts and some initial rep. 'Decline-grinding' for free money isn't appealing, and sandbox-testing doesn't feel much more than the revert option with more clicks and loading times. Once the projects start involving multiple crafts and transfer windows, only quickloading could help anyways - I'm ready to drop that crutch any day. Anyways, thanks for the inspiration, keep up the good work.

After some failures and consulting with the experts, I did it too! Well, I couldn't take the payload I initially planned, but the final version of the craft will do for rescue missions. I should test how many Kerbals I can cramp into the cargobay. It was a close call though: reached a periapsis of 70.007 with 1m/s dV remaining. Though I had RCS to correct it, but I planned to use it for deorbiting, keeping stability and providing a nice CoM-placement on the way down. Not sure if my landing counts - gears touched grass first, but the inertia was enough to reach the runway. PS: Kerbals stuffed into the hold tend to escape on the slightest time acceleration. Think I should add seats or klaws or something.

I never heard about that option... You can set manuver nodes multiple orbits ahead? How?

I had such feeling too when I started 1.0.2 career, but it quickly passed. It made me learn some basics I never needed before. MJ could handle all my orbital rendezvous and manuvering needs, but I now I had to do those manually. These days I only use MechJeb for the readouts (ok, maybe burning too). Doing the same tasks (because those are your favorites or you consider those easy) is boring. So while learning to do every type of missions, I unlocked the basic but essential parts. Since than I'm having great fun of combining as many tasks as possible. Designing a rocket that takes passengers to Minmus, rescues a Kerbal who will land on two different spots to do readings is great fun. Ahh, it also carried a sat that did an orbit mission before landing for seizmic data. I could never come up with a complex task like that in sandbox, and it's even more enjoyable with the added technological and financial limitations.

One more thing that wasn't metioned in this thread: a scientist can take the data from the materials bay and the goo canister while on EVA. After that, he can reset those, so can reuse them in the same flight. The gathered data (from every science tool) could be stored in the pod, so you don't have to overwrite even an EVA report. Not to mention that the egghead increases the science yield, and having them leveled will prove beneficial later on. If you don't care about recovering the instuments, it's enough if only the pod returns to Kerbin if you load all data into it. A single can can yield thousands of sci - especially if you do some suborbital hopping on one of the bodies - it's pretty economical on Minmus as the gravity is very low. Note that unlike pilots, scientists can't use SAS to stabilize the flight. But the OCTO core can - it's pretty cheap and sits early in the tree, so you can just slap it on your manned craft.

Ahh, I thought it's the same mod that was suggested eariler in this thread. I mean Flight Manager for Reusable Stages. Now -that- will do the trick.

I can handle the landing if StageRecovery can grant me just a few minutes of flight until I put the shuttle to orbit. Got too much to do these days to test if the mod works that way. Will do in the near future I guess. Otherwise I should settle with a disposable plane as others suggested. Yeah, one of the first thing I did when I tried KSP and got bored with the standard rockets back in the 0.2 days. I'd say it's too easy. Had and still having my share of SSTO fun, but thanks anyways.

That kinda' explains why this solution looks so unviable in KSP. Though good to know that there is a mod for making it possible. I'll totally get that shuttle to orbit from a jumbo-jet... one day, on a very boring weekend. EDIT: Found a related image, thought I share it here. It feels Kerbals aren't the only silly people doing space-stuff.

How hard / silly is the following concept in KSP? Anyone did such before? I'm not really sure what are the real-life benefits of this setup (while we are at it, I don't even know how it's called, so I could google it). I'm pretty sure that launching method has no ingame benefit, but looks fun enough to try. The weighting and the generally setting the plane so it could get high and fast enough would be a nightmare in itself. But my main question is if it's possible to set MJ to handle one craft long enough until I put the other to orbit (or a stable cruise). How would you do it?

Only playing this game since 0.24... Never noticed that this isn't the correct spelling. Thanks, I guess. EDIT: Ok, that's even better.

Don't think I ever had a disappearing flag - though I don't think I ever zoomed above them at supersonic speeds either. Anyways, placing various markers at set distances with any technology is an easy enough task - compared to landing an SSTO. Tech-tree is almost done by the way - and I never even left Kerbin's SoI. I also think computer performance will be a bigger limiting factor than finances. That 'normal' difficulty is too easy. Ahh, going off topic here... Thanks again, see ya out there!

For the OP: engineers can also open solar panels when power is out - though I don't have much other reasons to bring one for the Kerbin based missions. As they can repack 'chutes too, they mostly spend their time on interplanetary operations. The most useful hint I got for 1.0 career mode is to bring an octo-core too for manned science missions. The octo has an inbuilt SAS module, so I can keep stability without having to take a pilot. That means a scientist can do the flights, so I get science bonus, he can reset experiements and he gets levels for later Mobile Lab duty.

Thanks for that habit. xD CoM shifts backwards, though not as seriously as it did with my early version SSTO designs. Added the wer-dry CoM, CoL images to the album in the OP- with included MJ readouts for the math enthusiasts. The rearranging of the remaining fuel sounds like a neat idea, and I have enough space in the cargobay to fit some small tank in for that purpose (and for an extra sip of dV for the rocket phase.) Tried to land the plane, got a flat-spin. Back than I used 'chutes to negate this effect, now it didn't feel that effective as in the earlier versions. Not that it was too reliable even than. Crew survived though, the payload is in orbit and it could finish two Sat-missions, so the experiment still turned some profit. I also got a perfect alignment of 5 Minimus missions in one go, so tech-level is maxed and I can unlock all the neat gadgets that were mentioned in this thread. Starting with aerobrakes. Think I'm good for now. My comp is from the last decade, so I tend to skip mods that I can workaround in stock. Think I got a pretty accurate dryCoM readout by removing the payload and the fuel. I didn't know about the flags trick - anything more to it than putting them there so my runaway is marked?

When two mistakes even out perfectly... I wanted to do five Minimus missions in one go: picking up a Kerbal, doing two EVA spots, one seizmic reading task, and planting a flag - hehh, free money. So I made lander with a lot of extra fuel for a lot of suborbital hopping. I also included a lander probe on the top, so it could do the seizmic part without the kerballed landing there. Thought all of those will need much-much fuel for the transfer, so the next stage was an overloaded nerv-system. First launch attempt wasn't too successful - as you might see on the recording - but the universal solution of adding 'moar boosters' did help. I had to notice on orbit that about a complete stage of the rocket was unnecessary. I didn't want to redo the design again (or wait for a transfer window to use it as an inerplanetary craft), so I accepted the extra 60-70K credits as a loss, and went on. Picked up our newest recruit and was about to detach the probe... just to notice that it's core has no torque at all, and I forgot to bring a reaction wheel. Of course, the lander itself lacked the instrument needed for measuring, so I had to leave the whole thing there. But I was like... I have an extra stage, I will use that to get my seismic readings. Didn't think it will work, but it did afterall. The trick was to -carefully- touch down the cone of the nuke, do the measuring -really quickly- while it touches the ground but before the whole lander tips over. Only had to do this three times - with an extra orbit between them, just to be safe and leave time for the parts to cool. Yes, I had -that- much extra dV. Ballpark engineering prevails! Everything went as planned after that, took like two million credits home. The moral of the story: 60-70K worth of 'moar boosters' can easily substitute for a cheap but essential part one forgot to pack. (extra info included in captions)

Thanks for all the answers again! Got the plane to orbit without changes (so I could test and feel how better are the various engine suggestions). Halfway there towards the K-Prize challenge - now I just have to figure out landing. But it looks easy, gravity is on my side. That was my initial tweaking idea too, but I didn't have the two-way separator unlocked. One more setup to test besides the single swivel or poodle. Feels perfect. I had a struggle with FAR in the earlier versions. I won, but it was a long, hard fight. I'm not sure if I learned my lessons than, or the new stock aerodynamics are that forgiving. I was told to use less wings in 1.0, so I slapped on the first sleek-looking ones. I was pretty surprized how smoothly it took off on the first try. I'm familiar with the math-basics, but I'm having more fun if I never look at any numbers. Eyeballing, ballpark estimations, lot of testing. Or doing stuff untested. Didn't look at a single TWR or dV readout since 1.0 is out. Some days I envy the expertise of the above forumers, but I love my silly designs, hilarious mistakes and the occasional gargantuan miscalculations. Normal Career still feels too forgiving, even with that mindset.

Thanks for all the replies. *tries to hide stupid expression* That may be the root of my problem. I was under the assumption that all is well until the flames don't erode the engines. Can't check the number right now, but it feels low indeed. Poodle you say? I didn't think about such bulky looking ugly engine. Swivels didn't feel much better, but I'll give both another go. In case your advanced flight advice won't be enough on it's own. CoL is bit behind CoM, stays the same when fuel and payload is out. No lift or stability problems at any point, so it feels just right on the wing department. I got as far as removing side OXes (and having as low amount of jet-fuel as the slider allows). What's the point of removing from the fuselage OX? I had the impression that the rocket stage needs all of it, while I still have excess for the jets. Will try it, thanks. Well, once technology advances a bit more. Yup, playing around with engines is on the list. It's 21 tonnes with payload, 19 without it.

Good day fellow collegaues! This is Bob Kerman of the Recreational Deaeronautics. Help a fellow out with some design and fly hints, will you? The thing is: our space program prospered really well under the aegis of the policy 'Math is for sissies, manly kerbals add moar boosters!' But lately the manager's wife moved onto our prospect, since she wanted to see the glaring lights of vast science. That she loved very much. But for some reason she couldn't extend her admiration to the sonic waves that rapid combustion of the inevitable 'moar boosters' happen. So she insited on asphalting the potatoe field where we test our rovers and presonally led the undusting of the SPH. She wants a rocket that doesn't have exploding parts. Blasphemy! But what could we do, she's the bosses wife afterall. So we started testing of such craft. Geting to space on these is haaard. Well, harder than it was in Jeb's early days he says. Anyways, let me show you the most succesful variant. Or at least the best looking one. Yeah, I know, we could have uploaded the plans, but here at the Recreational Deaeronautics, we believe in eyeballing stuff. Anyways, having trouble gettin' to orbit... or, um... even out to space for a quick sip of vacuum. Regardless how -right- it looks (and handles). Not sure if it's a design flaw or flight error. We tried adding more boosters or bigger engines with less success. Mind you, we don't have the really advanced kinda' stuff - you can see our options on the above screens. Am I just dreaming too high with our capabilities? That payload is only like 3 tonnes... well, that sounds much now that I better think of it. *note: do an empty testing too* Anyways, Jeb says that all is well until he goes fast or goes high. He heard somewhere that one sould be able to get to 25k on such with like 1200 m/s. Well, he tried fast ascension, but stuff started to explode, and the point was to avert that. It seemed better to do the acceleration above 18k but Jeb couldn't gain speed and altitude at the same time. Air is too thin I feel, but adding moar... umm, of those small intakes didn't help. Boss's wife is furious. So, fellow Kermans... what are we doing so seriously wrong? PS.: How fast is Mach-3?

MechJeb was invaluable to me when I couldn't climb the steep learning curve. It gets things done without you having to know how to do it. You can basicly ignore the hard and (initially) boring parts of the game. After a while I found that I learned the theory from it, got envious of it's flying skills, so I learned to live without it. Minor mods are OK too, though I'd keep clear of part-packs and physics altering mods. The stock game is complex enough already. My suggestion is to dabble a bit in career mode too. Yes, all those limitations make the game harder, but it's easier to learn the basics of construction and what the parts do when you only have a handful of them available. It also sets goals for you until you get full of the whackiest ideas about what to do next.

Adobe After Effects 8.0 Keyframe Data Units Per Second 29.97 Source Width 3816 Source Height 1308 Source Pixel Aspect Ratio 1 Comp Pixel Aspect Ratio 1 Transform Opacity Frame percent 1288 0 1317 100 End of Keyframe Data ... Yeah, came here for a rendering brake.

The SW guys know nothing. -That- is a proper X-wing.

Design something stupid and make it work. My plan is to get my (non gamer)GF to build me... whatever she wants, than turn it into something difficult and unfitting. Like an universal self-refueling SSTMM (single stage to mun / minimus) with included resuable scanning probes. Depending on her patience and creativity, that will occupy me for a while.