mattssheep4

I personally prefer somewhere between an 80x80 and 100x100 km orbit, because there is room above and below its orbit for easier rendezvous. You can use aerobraking to save dV for deceleration from Minmus or other destinations. Usually SSTO's and other vehicles requiring refueling need fuel sooner after achieving orbit rather than later, so a lower orbit is better for that in my opinion. It also takes less time to rendezvous in a lower orbit because the vessels are moving faster closer to the planet.

If you change the order of the staging in the SPH or VAB so that the rocket engines are first, KER will give the rocket dV you would have if you were still full of liquid fuel. You'll actually have more dV than that, because some or maybe most of the liquid fuel will be burned off while in atmo. You can also empty the liquid fuel tanks that will be used up in atmo to simulate what the mass of the craft will be in space. Just don't forget to put the staging back the right way before launch!

Try time warping a week or so ahead and see if any more pop up.

I have found for missions to the Mun/Minmus that this is the more efficient route.

In career mode you now have to upgrade the VAB or SPH to use more parts and the launchpad or runway to launch heavier vehicles.

It is, but docking actually ended up being critical for several of my missions, especially the probe I sent to Jool. I'm proud to say that I've gotten extremely good at rendezvous without all the fancy stuff.

Finally got it done! Here's my proof: http://imgur.com/a/0kVjd

This is true. I'm most of the way through it by now, and I never actually took the effort to do it first in another install. Mostly because its a challenge, and challenges are fun.

I figure I'll do tests in an install with KER to figure stuff out, then try it in a vanilla.

Sounds fun. I think I'll try it. I'll let you know how it goes.

Did this in career mode 1.0.2. Had Bob as pilot, didn't have probe cores yet or RCS. I got over 1500 science from that mission. Don't have pics, I guess I could go do it again...

I'll check it out, thanks.

You can edit the action groups in the save file instead of using a mod, but I suggest making a list of your ten custom action groups and always using those same groups. For example, Custom 1 is always toggle solar panels for me, and now that we have radiators, Custom 8 always toggles radiators.

I haven't tested this extensively, but I figure placing radiators nearer to engines would be more effective than farther away. I put them on the fuel tanks nearest my engine stage. I'm no expert on, say, the difference between skin and part temps, but that's what makes sense to me.

I don't know if this is possible or not, but it might be worth looking into if, for example, two fuel tanks that are attached could be merged in such a way that the physics engine would consider them one part with the dimensions and capacity of both parts. Ditto for things like girder segments or hitchhiker modules or maybe even wings and fuselages. Like I said, I don't know enough about how these things work, but it would be cool it did to reduce part count and strengthen joints and the like.

I agree completely. The interplanetary launchpads mod might suffice for this, though.

I'm a biologist, as it happens.

Jeb ran out of Monoprop once, and I tried (and failed) to get Valentina to push him close enough to a capsule to get him home.

In career mode (1.0.2) I had designed a more than one science gathering vessel that did not have parachutes. And then Jeb decided to get out of his capsule... and it started spinning too fast for him to get back in. And, of course, my Minmus base that didn't have an antenna. So I landed a small science vessel on top of it to dock before I realized that didn't have an antenna either.