CrashTestDanny

Ok, well riddle me this Bat-Rune... will the nukes take the ring to Duna without exploding without the radiators?

I see then! Thanks for the tip! Danny

I do have a minor suggestion - kinda surprised you don't do it already... anytime you place a docking port Sr., you can place a standard docking port concentric to it. The way you do it is first surface attach the standard port, just off-center from the node where your docking port Sr. will attach. Then node attach to the node next to the std port. Then turn on angle snap and use the offset tool to move the standard port to the center. Way cool IMO... I do this every time I use a Sr. Here's another one... The ring configuration is awesome for a space station obviously, but why not a surface base? Why not build something like your VB ring that can be landed in one piece on the Mun or bodies with same or less gravity? Might be a cool layout.

I just launched my second one, which I am preparing for departure to Duna in 90d. I have been keeping mine with the Cupola pointed prograde. That way I have a normal day in the ring. Seems like pointed north would deprive the Kerbals in the ring of almost all Kerbol exposure, which might be an interesting science experiment on it's own... Anyhow, time to start delivering fuel... I gotta click on all those damned tanks! Danny

Sorry for replying to an old post like this, but how did you manage to attach the radiators to those nuclear engines?

You rock, Rune!

That is so sad... Really cool design!

Well, in the meantime, I went ahead and put your big ring on orbit! Lovely launch - flew like a dream right up to 120k x 6k before having to turn. got to 150k x 150k with 600 delta-V to spare! And wouldn't you know, that's about when I realized I was even using the OLD version and you have a new one with more goodies for 1.0!! Guess I have to put up a second one... and probably a third and fourth to follow soon after that!

Hi Cupcake. I recently downloaded your Sprite dropship - one of the coolest looking ships I have seen - but can't seem to get it even up to 15km... I followed the instructions, but I'm doing well to get her up to about 5km before I'm running on fumes... Is it broken in the newer version or am I just doing it wrong?

Thanks - tried it a few times but then was just easiest to cancel the contract and move on...

Rune! Been thinking about improving my transfer infrastructure with some space stations - boring I know... I was thinking of getting your Von Braun station, but I thought I saw a smaller version of it in a post which I can't seem to locate now... any help for me there?

Rune - I love your Heinlein VSSTO. Flying the Mark IV right now and it is a blast to run around Kerbin in. I do need to set up some proper mining/refueling operations I guess... and maybe learn how to transfer directly from Mun/Minimus to other planets... Anyhow, I digress. I downloaded your base in several boxes here and I'm trying to figure out what I've done wrong. TBH, I probably need that dumbed down version you're working on... I launched B1 and flew the ascent ok even without MechJeb (attached but I flew it manually). Had a beautiful ascent right along the planned path, but ended on orbit with about 600 delta-V left in the stage before the box. Is that expected? I kinda expected to be making Minimus orbit before dropping the booster... I like fat margins.

So after seeing some of the very sleek craft posted here, I decided that my rig needed some sleekification. I started by removing the steel plate frame and the inline fuel tank. I then expanded the drilling core to eight drills and two large ore tanks. I stuck all that into an Mk-3 long cargo bay, slapped some wheels, batteries and solar arrays on it, added a Mk-3 to 2.5m adapter/tank at the back and stuck on a docking port Sr.. So now the base rig has a low part count - 61 - and dry mass of only about 43t. The tanker trailer needed a few more struts for a total part count of 86 with dry mass of 31t. The previous rig came with an array of 72! RTGs for power, but I found even that doesn't keep up with nighttime drilling if you are running all four drills and the ISRU, so we decided not to waste the part count trying to power the rig with RTGs. Right now this is all solar with 80k of batteries and 40k batteries in each tanker. A small number of RTGs provides auxiliary power and a healthy glow to our mining engineers. We will probably add more batteries to the tankers and a small number of fuel cell arrays for nighttime power. Might be a while before I get to sticking a launch vehicle under it and a delivery system on it, but here are some pics from it's field test at the KSC:

I have this contract to retrieve component NXZN-D from "the surface of the Mun". No problem, hop in a lander, launch it, land at the coordinates specified, only no component in sight... Did I read that wrong??? Target coordinates are 50*42'43"S by 41*28'22"W. My lander landed at 50*42'38"S by 41*28'54"W. Seems like I ought to be within 50m of the thing, right? Ok, if you do the math, that really is like within 25m... So maybe it's really small... let me just take Bill out for a stroll... I have him at 50*42'43"S by 41*28'22"W (target coordinates). That should mean the target is 0m from me... where is it? There it is! 350m BELOW me. I can hear your skepticism already, so let me document this with pictures... Here's map view showing Bill's position, the lander's position, and the target position: Here's what I see at the target coordinates: Honestly, I wasn't sure how I might pick this thing up to start with, but thought I should at least get there and check it out to see what I needed, right? But I still can't even tell that... Now I did restart the game and when I went back to this position I actually saw the target much closer, but falling away, so this is a bug and I have to cancel this contract, right? Your inputs appreciated! Danny

Well, after seeing all of the brilliant designs you guys came up with, mine doesn't seem quite as impressive as I thought before I found this thread. But I did manage to launch, orbit, transfer to the Mun and then land with a landing mass of about 87t, so I guess that's nothing to be ashamed of. It's just really not anywhere near as artistic as many of these designs. It started with a quick Munar outpost mission - you know, land a station supporting 12 Kerbals and all that stuff, yeah yeah, I can throw that together easy enough and land it's 40t mass in one shot - no big deal. But it landed with only 750 delta V left. Wait a sec!?! Why are there 12 Kerbals aboard?!? What we're they thinking!!? We always launch stations and bases unmanned and then crew them in subsequent launches. But these guys, led by none other than Jeb himself, decided it would be fun to go on a little joyride. Now technically you can achieve Munar orbit from the surface with about 580 delta V, but it turns out they also took along some spirits. Good thing, cause their "mission" went from being a week-long getaway to being 2 years on the moon. That oughta teach them not to stow away, right? So with only 750 delta V left in the tanks and the only docking port being on top of the outpost, I had to come up with a way to refuel anything. Never one to under-engineer anything, I set out to build a vessel that would mine ore on the Mun, convert that ore to fuel, and then trundle that fuel off to any ship on the surface needing fuel. At the same time, I would answer Kerbal Motion's late CEO's dying question - why?! My initial design was a 6-wheeled rig with four drills, a large ore tank, an ISRU, Rockomax X200-32 rocket fuel tank, and a Mk-3 cockpit. The nose of the Mk-3 cockpit was fitted with a standard docking port and the tail of the rig was fitted with an AGU (The Klaw) on a 1.25m to girder adapter. Testing on Kerbin went well although we found we did not have sufficient power to run all of the drills and the ISRU overnight... RTGs may be long-lasting and not need fuel, but they have the downside of providing their power slowly. We also found that when all tanks were full, she had a tendency to break wheels. Some of our engineers suggested launching it like this since the loaded craft would weigh less on the Mun than the unloaded craft weighs on Kerbin, but we went ahead and squeezed an extra wheel in. We stuck a pretty standard skycrane design on that had 6 nuclear motors canted at 5-degree angle from vertical, plopped the whole thing on top of one of our heaviest launch vehicles and sent her up! Unfortunately, during Munar landing, we "discovered" that the crane was not balanced on the rig and every time the crane's engine's would fire, the tail would pitch straight up and loop it around until you shut down. Even the auto pilot couldn't compensate, though it burned through 850 units of MJ trying. WHO was responsible for that!?!? So we had extensively tested the rig on Kerbin, but had neglected the crane. Not a good idea. Back to the drawing board we went. I thought probably that the exhaust of the forward engines was being deflected by the rig, changing the final thrust vector. The 5-degree angle had been intended to eliminate this, but obviously it was not enough. So we stuck with 6 engines, moved them farther out, restored them to vertical, worked really hard at getting the COT aligned with the COM and spend long nights agonizing over every detail. We converted the nuclear engines to straight rockets with swivels so if our COM/COT alignment was off by a small amount it could be corrected with thrust vectoring (we hoped). The moment of truth arrived. We had to test this thing on Kerbin. Our changes gave us more than 2.5 empty TWR on Kerbin, so we knew it was possible, but we wanted to make sure it was flyable this time. We stuck her on the pad full of ore and fuel for a total mass in excess of 118t. WTH!?! Four hitchhikers paying kerbage to their hero - Jebediah - by stowing away for a flight test where we have no intention of actually landing... safely... Whatever... T-3, 2, 1 Ignition! Initial TWR fully loaded is 0.89. We will need to burn off some fuel before we can lift off. Mun TWR fully loaded should be just under 5 - nice. Liftoff ocurred at T+12s with the rear wheels coming off just before the front, resulting in instant forward velocity. But it was still controllable. Enable RCS to ensure control authority. Set flight computer to Surface hold up. She's holding. MJ usage is very low - almost none and she's holding attitude and climbing nicely! Hooray!! T+21s. She's still climbing nicely. Autopilot has held her vertical and almost motionless over the pad. Passing 90m. Time of flameout was not recorded on this test run. in other runs flameout occured around T+1:43 with an altitude record of 3519m (photographer was a second late). T+2:18. Flight... This is Shannon... Shouldn't we test the escape system now? Shannon, Flight. It's a rover it doesn't have an escape system. Could you guys please go off vox? Luckily, we did have the revert button, so we didn't have to watch our friends die... Maybe next time they'll think twice before climbing aboard just anything sitting on the launch pad... Launch was nothing special. 9 Rhinos on 1.5 big kerbo tanks each in a hybrid asparagus staging left 3k units LF+Ox on orbit at the Mun. I have started adding docking ports, power, reaction wheels, and command modules to the center tanks in all of my Launch vehicles so when I leave them with fuel on orbit I can go back and scavenge the fuel later on with a drone. I have plans to modify this design so that I can group these tanks up into larger refueling stations that can be resupplied. She landed 6m from target at about 1d, 3:14:18. Target was about 2km from the base where Jeb was staying, another 2km from the outpost that needed refueling (long story) so we trundled on over to Jeb to show him his new toy and get him started on his journey home! Not as pretty as some of these designs to be sure, but I'm happy to report that she was able to fulfill her mission and refuel Munar Outpost Alpha and it is on it's way home. The guys I really feel sorry for are the ones on the solar station on a 13.5Mm orbit. That may very well be a 35y mission!

All good schools. I went to Arizona (Tucson - Go Wildcats!)

Good luck in pursuing your degree! What school are you attending?

Hi guys, If you haven't guessed, my name is Dan. Currently live near St. Louis, Missouri, USA. Just discovered this game a few weeks ago and am HOOKED! I actually studied Aerospace Engineering in college (and even graduated with that degree!) This game is basically what I dreamed my life would be like as a child, but alas, after a few short years working for LMSC, I had to make the move to IT (for the $$$). This game gives me the opportunity to exercise some of my rusty math and engineering skills and I LOVE IT! I probably won't post a ton - I usually don't anyhow - but I'll probably be hanging around... Happy Flying!! Dan