Edax

The best way to combat separating your boosters is to just make your launch vehicle simpler. Just make the LF+O boosters x-large enough to take you into LKO without any staging, and use solid rocket boosters to get the TWR so that you can lift that extra fuel off the ground (but of course dump the solid rockets when their empty). Separating boosters is a lot simpler when you do it in orbit. I also use TT-70 Radial Decouplers attached to the payload plus a strut on that to put distance between the payload and boosters, and I'll place the LF+O boosters symmetrically around the payload. They'll simply put me in space and once there, I drain the extra fuel from the boosters and have low-power sepratrons detached the boosters safely away. That'll usually be enough to at least get me to Minmus. This is my heavy booster system using only size 2 fuel tanks and engines. The payload is very tall, and has 8 engines, none of which are used on the assent.

The great thing about spaceplanes is how cheaply they can be used. I managed to strap a non-SSTO spaceplane to a larger SSTO, and use the combination to complete Mun and Minmus orbits, and a Minmus landing (in 1.0.2). And all it cost me was fuel, a single nose cone and decoupler, since I got both spaceplanes back to KSC for the 100% refund. (since 1.0.4, the non-SSTO needs to stop at a refueling station but the system is still costing my space program very little).

My first attempt at a KSP movie without the UI. Still trying to wrap my head around the camera tool controls, so some of the camera angles are a little repetitive. Comments and constructive criticism are welcome. I don't exactly have a plot with this one. My first trip to Duna and Ike, aboard the Spaceplane Carrier Nyx One (totally not the previous Kerbin Orbital Refueling Station because Mortimer can't spare the funds) and the Spaceplanes: Diabolus X (SSTO for Duna) and Valkyria III (Ike Mission and Direct Kerbin return). This Duna mission was crewed by Valentina Kerman, star pilot, and Jagie Kerman, scientist and first-time kerbonaut. Mission Plan: Valentina flies Nyx One into Duna Orbit, takes both spaceplanes to Duna and Nyx, and uses Valkyria III as the direct return vehicle bring all scientific data with her, while Jagie remains aboard Nyx One to study the data on-board laboratory and wait for low-consumption route home.

Almost reminds me of the "Cause and Effect" timeloop episode from TNG.

Because most of my long-range Spaceships use mostly Liquid Fuel, and the fact Space Station components are size 2 and that there are no size 2 LF tanks, I ran a simple experiment to see if I could use a large ore tank in place of a size 2 LF+O tank and realized that ore tanks can produce more fuel than can fit in an equal sized fuel tank, and thus ore tanks contain more potential energy then fuel tanks. So I designed my next-gen space plane carrier to use mostly ore tanks, with only enough fuel to last a lengthy burn or landing, since inbetween burns meant plenty of time to convert that dense ore back into fuel. With this method, I could keep the size of the space ship down so it wouldn't need any large docked parts so it'd be structurally sound enough to land on low-g moons.

#kerbalhipster

I guess you have no choice now but to attempt a Mun landing using nothing but solid boosters to keep yourself amused.

Mutiport connection are possible, but they require exacting placement, which is why is best to use bi/tri/quad-couplers to make sure the docking ports are always equidistant on any spaceship you build. I still use tri-docks even though I have the large docking port so that all my new ships will be compatible with my old ones. The station on the right is in fact two separate pieces tri-docked together, designed back when I had a 140t launch limit. The plus side, the connection is secure, the downside, the front end of your spaceships will look like electric razors.

Cause I'm really lazy, I don't bother with dedicated miners or refiners, too much docking involved. So I just made a hyprid Spaceplane Carrier, refueling station, refinery, miner, capable of sending itself long distances to where it's needed. (So far I have it rated at 8420 Delta V without the Spaceplanes and 7468 Delta V with them). Hopefully when I'm done testing this thing, I can send a expedition to Jool and gain some sweet medals for my signature. Basic stats: 760 Monopropellent 6900 Ore 11940 Liquid Fuel 1760 Oxidizer 4 LV-N Engines for main propulsion, 4 aerospikes for emergency thrust and 4 drills. Crew capacity 7 + 2.

This might be the wrong place to ask, and a rather newbish question, but how do you get that Kerbstation 2 label and distance marker? I've seen those kind of markers on Manley docking tutorials, but I haven't figured out how to toggle them.

It's not just the weight, but a giant relay dish would act like a giant air scoop on takeoff which would make it a real challenge to get into space.

Solar Panels are wacky. You can travel 2200m/s at 33000m on Kerbin, have them still deployed and blasted by reentry heat, and they still remain intact.

I suppose I wouldn't really want to put up a dish heavier then 100t into LKO...

The way I did it was straight up delete the old tanks and put in new ones. It was very time consuming to reattaching everything, but it had to be done cause the old tanks have the new dry mass, which makes them awful to use.

I'm wondering if "soft" occlusion will be optional though. Even for players putting in a few thousand hours, I think just right clicking on a building and spending some money is equally tedious, cause gameplay wise, all you've done is click the mouse twice. I think it's more fun to gain more functionally out of our creations we send into space and beyond.

Although as I understand it, the uplink rate for New Horizons is 1/kbps. I do wonder if this new update would justify building a Mun base on the farside so that interplanetary transmissions will always be received, and a pilot always ready to take manual control if signal is lost with Kerbin. Though it sounds like the Mun blocking Kerbin wont effect signals so I wonder if it'll be toggle-able via difficulty. I wonder if I'm the only one not thrilled with the idea of a land-based relay network. Upgrading buildings isn't the most thrilling gameplay KSP has to offer. I'd rather built and attach a giant relay system on my Kerbin Orbital Space Station so that the station has more of a use then as a gas station and bus stop.

Just wait until you get the extract 1000 ore from Eve and deliver it to Gilly; it's the ultimate contract/challenge of the game.

I pronounce it Drace cause I can.

I've had this happen a few times now. First was a probe I was going to send to Duna. It was small, and had 8 parachutes, but it exploded suddenly from "overheating" while still docked. I also built a spaceship in which one of the large SAS wheels kept exploding, severing the ship in two and dooming all on-board. I have a suspect that the bug involves parts mounted on others. I had a survey scanner and docking port on the SAS wheel, and the parachutes were mounted right on the probe core. Save scumming seem to encourage their spontaneous explosions, so that there seems to be no solution other then going back to the VAH and moving attachment points off the troubled part and relaunching the ship.

Since there is no way to refuel solid fuel in orbit, that booster becomes totally worthless once it's been used right? Which means your better off with a chem/lf fuel tank and engine assuming you have some kind of refueling station around Kerbin.

Sticking some radiators on the underside of the cockpit couldn't hurt. If your pointed prograde, that's going to be the hottest part of the craft during reentry. You may also want to stick a small heatshield in the front slot on the cockpit to further absorb extra heat.

My experience with docking fuel tanks was to use a tri-coupler with 3 docking ports and both ends of an orange tank, and that no more then 3 orange tanks could be strung together length wise before the wobbling got to be worrying. The culprit is the docking ports, they bend under stress. The more docking points in the ship, the more "floppy" it gets. Probably the most you can get away with is a 3 orange tank by 3 orange tank configuration centered around the hubmax. It'll sway a little, but so long as your not firing off a Mainsail engine on the station, it should all hold together.

If you have the delta V to slow down, it shouldn't be a problem. You can always stop by Gilly to get some gas. If you need to do any significant aerobraking in Eve's atmosphere though, then I fear this story is going to quickly become like Apollo 13. Or worse, Apollo One.

If you watch my video, you'll see that I approached the ground pretty fast, about 140m/s with gear down and airbrakes deployed. I had to do a crazy rocket parachute landing to kill all the velocity and I probably strained the landing gear tolerance doing it. I recommend plenty of twitch engines, both pointed down and forward so you can both hover and slow down. Maybe bigger wings will help, but I think it's the lack of drag that makes landing so dangerous. - - - Updated - - - As seen in my video, taking off is a breeze if you have a nice smooth hill. You can expect to find the flattest terrain in craters, which is where my landing site was.

I'd definitely use monoprop thrusters more if they had the same soundeffects as the rcs from Apollo 13.