michal.don

I had lots of free time this weekend, so I decided to watch Apollo 13. It was one of my favourite movies when I was a kid, and I haven't seen it for years. And after watching it, I couldn't resist and just had to build something apollo-ish in KSP. It's not nearly as beautiful as some of the Saturn V replicas that can be found in spacecraft exchange forum, but it works quite well, and most important, has only 70 parts, so even my potato computer can handle it. At the launchpad Third stage separation Let's go for the Mun! Michal.don

Just a little But you definitely don't need as much - I built it just so I don't ever have to deal with fuel shortage in LKO again. Michal.don

I have a pair of moving rovers at the site, they are the ones who did all the assembling (so far, the base consist of nine pieces that were landed individualy). The rover is as simple as it gets: six wheels, a few panels and batteries and a docking port jr. on the top. It was originally designed for my Minmus base, but works surprisingly well (to be honest, even better) in Mun conditions. Each of the base modules is fitted with two jr. docking ports at the bottom, so I just dock the rovers, transport it where it belongs, lower the legs, and magnetic pull from the docking ports does the rest. This is how it looks just after docking a piece to the original structure. I guess that certain mods make surface assembling much easier, but I am playing stock, so this is a way I came up with, and it works pretty well too. Hope it helps, Michal.don

Expanded my Mun base a bit, now it has housing for 26 kerbals, a lab and an ISRU unit. Later I delivered a small rover and took it for a ride. It's time to do some surface exploring!

Accepted a contract to expand my Duna Space Station 1. So I built this and sent it to dock and refuel at my LKO gas station. Now its tanks are full and it is waiting for a proper transfer window to Duna. If my calculations are correct, it should bring plenty of fuel for local probe operations.

Yeah, my computer unfortunately isn't able to play it real time, so I can't do much about that. If the distance to the tower is an issue, I can work on that a little bit more. Anyway, the challenge is really fun, thanks Hary R, Michal.don

Hi, this is my unconventional attemps at this challenge, which was able to make it in 19 seconds (about 20th try, this thing isn't easy to fly). Vector-powered (moar power), drogue chute braked thing called unoriginally "Towerbuzz". I hope I understood the rules correctly, that I am able to use drogue chutes for braking, but land like a plane. If that's not the case, sorry for wasting your time

Strollen, I'm afraid there actually isn't another way, so you'll have to do the EVA thing. On the other hand, EVAs aren't really that difficult, so it's not that much of a problem. Michal.don

Thanks Snark, your description really helps, it's clear to me now exactly what I should do to make my plan happen. Thanks again, Michal.don

Thanks, Reactordrone, this was exactly what I was wandering. I hope I'll be able to figure out the parachute settings, didn't try changing them yet. Thanks, Michal.don

Great, thanks for the info, It's going to be much easier than manouvering big a plane within 2,5 kms..... However, when I tried decoupling AND deploying parachutes simultaneously, some explosive stuff happened - I guess it was caused by a collision between the chutes and the rest of the plane. Is there a way to make sure the chutes open later after the drop? Anyways, thanks for your help guys, Michal.don

Hi guys, I have several weeks of kerbal time before my station reaches Jool system, so I decided to do an Arctic mission on Kerbin, because I didn't visit the poles yet. My plan is to build a simple lab/base with a small rover, load it in an MK3-based plane and airdrop it near the north pole. However, I'm uncertain how to make sure the parachutes open after dropping the lab from the plane. Is it possible to set an "auto-deployment" on the parachutes? Can I / Do I have to switch to the lab and deploy the chutes via staging? Is it even possible to switch between planes in atmospheric flight? If so, do I have to stay within the 2,3 kms range? Or is there another, simpler way? Thanks, Michal.don

Well, the walrus thing sounds about right, turning was hell on earth, and don't even let me start about the speed :) But I personally liked these flaps as well, Thanks to them it looks sort of like an "Airbus/WW I plane" hybrid, which I don't think I have seen yet. I'm looking forward to see your revised plane, and I expect something properly crazy :)

Hey guys, here is my entry: MK3 - based plane, with passanger capacity of 32 + 4 crew members. Flies really slow and handles just horribly, but did the job. Anyway, a question for Pds314 - Does the pilot need to be in a crew pod, or can he fly the plane from an external seat? If I could have an external pilot seat, I think I could make a plane with even bigger capacity :) [COLOR=#333333][imgur][/COLOR]Q9aV1[COLOR=#333333][/imgur][/COLOR]

Ok, it seems I am not the only one who doesn't know exactly Anyways, thank you all for your explanations, michal.don

Hi guys, recently I was trying to build a MK3 SSTO plane capable of lifting ~40 tonnes of payload to LKO. After failing miserably for quite a long time, I decided to download a plane from pro-rocket-engineers, just to see what it takes to build a succesfull SSTO plane. Apart from design differences, the main thing I noticed is using of the above mentioned nacelles and engine pre-coolers, which I didn't use yet, just because I have no idea how they work or even what they are supposed to do But since they have been on the downloaded plane, I suppose they are important in a way that I don't know, and that led me to the question - engine nacelles and pre-coolers - how do they work? Thanks, michal.don

Ah, didn't notice that part. Thanks

Just wandering - how are the "unfolding" girders made? Is a part from mods required, or is there a way to do this in stock game? thanks, michal.don

Yes, I'm aware of that But even when retracted, they tend to burn rather quickly..... Anyway, I just tested another design for the transporting purpose, and it behaves much better - I'm capable of aerobraking enough in just three orbits, which is much, MUCH better, so I might give this a go... Thank you guys very much, you helped a lot. michal.don

Yes, I should have thought of the aerobraking before putting the Gigantor panels on my vessel - my bad Ok, thanks, I'll give it another try with another tranport vessel better suited for the job. michal.don

So, I decided to make a little update for those curious about this, or even those thinking about building something similar. I placed my refueling station in 85x83 km orbit, built a nuclear-powered tug for moving the refined fuel from low minimus orbit to the station and sent the first round of fuel from surface of minimus to orbit to meet the tug. The ships docked and I managed to do the transfer burn from Minimus to Kerbin orbit with periapsis about 60 km for aerobraking just for about 250 m/s of delta-V. So far, everything went great. What I didn't expect was the ineffectiveness of aerobraking. I couldn't go too low with the periapsis so my ship didn't burn, so it took tremendous amount of time to slow down to a reasonable speed. As a matter of fact, I'm still not done - after about 15 orbits through Kerbin atmosphere my apoapsis is still above 2000 kms, and I lost one of my solar panels to heat because I got a little unpatient I know that this is probably the most efficient way of getting fuel to Kerbin orbit, but it's just too time-consuming. Considering the fact that I would have to do four trips like this one to fill my refueling station, I give up on this approach and will probably do it the expensive way and build a monstrous rocket and get the refueling station to orbit already filled. Anyway, thanks again for your advice, michal.don

I've heard about the Oberth effect, but I still don't know how important that is - does it save 1, 10, 100 or 500 delta-V on a journey to Duna? But a good point with the aerobraking - I didn't think of that, and I believe that it helps save lots of fuel. So it looks like my refueling station will float in a LKO, thanks guys, you've been really helpful, michal.don

That's the altitude that I prefer for my space stations as well - mine are at 125 and 150 km orbits. And I'm aware of the advantages of these orbits when it comes to rendezvous and docking. The thing I'm concerned about is the fuel transfering and transfer burns (when leaving Kerbin SOI) efficiency, that aren't involved whed building a space station.

Hi guys, I would appreciate your opinions on my problem. I'm currently building a refueling system for my ships and SSTOs on Kerbin orbit. The refueling ship is quite huge - about 100k capacity of LF + Ox. The fuel itself will be delivered to the ship from my mining and refining operation on Minimus, that is already operating. I have also already figured out the way to deliver the fuel to my "gas station" from Minimus. The thing that remains uncetain to me is the ideal location of the refueling ship. How high/low should the orbit be? I've figured out some of the pros and cons of hing and low orbit: LKO - pros: simplier rockets and SSTOs can reach the refueling station from surface of Kerbin, lower wastes of fuel when heading out of Kerbin SOI cons: grater distance and fuel waste when transporting the fuel from Minimus to refueling ship. I can't really decide which of the reasons above is the most important, so I have no idea whether to place the refueling ship at 75x75 orbit, or somewhere far out, for example higher than Mun. What do you guys suggest? Thanks, michal.don

Hi, is it possible to try this challenge in 1.04, or is it limited to 1.02 because of some changes in aerodynamics that happened in later versions, which make the challenge easier now? thanks, michal.don