CrashTestDanny

If you ever do want to bring it home, you could dock some modules with lots of chutes and airbrakes to it... Could even bring it to Kerbin orbit and then start adding stuff like that through the docking ports. Or you can use unmanned KLAW probes to add stuff to it... possibilities abound! Danny

I've still managed to have nukes explode without radiators - just gotta burn em for about 40m straight.... Danny

Yes they stack. There is a mod that makes seats available on the top and bottom levels of the lab, expanding its capacity to six. Running this mod and six level three scientists, I am getting 15+ science per day. Danny

very nice! Danny

Moto - I think you misread. He's making it to orbit in the video after removing the bottom stage and making a few other changes. He seems to be implying that he got the rocket to LKO on less delta-V than one would expect because of the mystery component contained within his service bay... Personally, I'm not into guessing games, so I'll just wait until the movie comes out... Danny

One word... FINS... If you are losing control during atmospheric flight, fins are probably the answer. Danny

They say size doesn't matter. I don't think I can subscribe to that notion (which is why I downloaded SpaceY and SpaceY expanded, right?). To that end, I started building LKO-75, my fueling station on a 75km orbit of Kerbin. 148 parts, 200k units of LF plus the correct amount of Ox to go with it. When the lag issues with large part counts are fixed, I will undoubtedly add more capacity along with hotel, casino, and meeting facilities... and maybe I can get a contract to build a prison up there! Danny

You will find very few aircraft in the real world with CL in front of CG. At least few that fly more than once. This is true of conventional configurations, canards, and flying wings. The reason is that the moment of a wing increases with AoA. For symmetrical airfoils, including flat plate, it is 0 at 0 AoA (along with total lift) and so with a symmetrical airfoil, you can place CG at CL and have a neutrally stable (neither stable nor unstable) aircraft. This is popular in high-alpha aerobatics where you really don't want the plane to right itself. For any stable configuration, since the moment of the wing would tend to lift the nose relative to the CG, moving the CG forward slightly is a good way to offset that moment. If your CG moves aft of the CL, then when your craft pitches up, the increasing AoA will mean that the pitching moment is increasing with AoA and is causing AoA to increase - kind of a viscious cycle, often resulting in death for pilots, passengers, and aircraft. Usually, the ideal CG position is between 1/4 and 1/3 of the mean aerodynamic chord ahead of the CL. This configuration produces an aircraft with positive longitudinal stability in normal flight attitudes. A few aircraft have intentionally flown with negative longitudinal stability, but these require complex fly-by-wire systems to interpret the pilot's input and produce the correct control surface movements to keep the aircraft from tumbling. Now, I'm sure there is someone who doesn't believe this, so I'm going to tell you how to prove that what I have said is true. Go pick up a cheap balsa or foam glider at the hobby shop or toy store - something that flies well before you modify it. Measure its CG and figure out it CL. Now slowly move the CG back and record how far, how long, and how true it flies with each change. Observe how it tries to fly backwards when the CG moves behind the CL... There ya go. Same thing, BTW, happens here in KSP. Check the successful designs being put out there - All the ones that I've seen that fly well have the CG just in front of the CL and when they burn fuel off it does not move behind CL. If it does, I recommend not trying it. Danny

Excellent - thanks! Danny

You need a poll option for those of us who haven't used this mod before... This looks awesome though. Danny

hope this isn't too noob a question... if I have no RAM issues (32G ram, never seen it filled) will this mod do anything good for me? Thanks, Danny

So I'm considering getting one of the Life Support mods out there, but was hoping you guys could help me decide which one. If you are using or have used Life Support mods, would you please help me out by responding here and telling me which one you like best and what you like about it? Why is it better than others out there? Can I add it mid-career or will it kill Kerbals already in flight? And anything else you think I haven't thought of yet... Thanks! Danny

Clipping engines causes them to not thrust in some cases. I would recommend you use the offset and rotation tools to move the mains to the correct location. You could also try using cubic octagonal struts (in structural) or other structural components to build mounts for your main gear. Danny - - - Updated - - - ... more boosters would have been more fun though... personally when I have trouble with a space plane, I like to stick a pair of kickbacks on its wingtips and just open her up! Danny

Allow me to highly recommend the in-game docking tutorial/scenario led by Gene Kerman. He walks you through a no-nonsense seat-of-the-pants docking doing little more than looking out the window. It took me about 40 minutes to get it right, but it was 40 minutes well spent. Gene was very helpful and patient with my noobiness and he had good advice and helpful tricks that I can still use after having gone through his tutorial once... and now I'm applying what he taught me to docking 7.5m SpaceY tanks for a small LKO 100 fuel depot... Danny - - - Updated - - - Don't forget to right click on the docking port on the ship you are flying and select "Control From Here". That will correct the nav ball orientation so your keys match what's being displayed on the nav ball. If you are controlling from some other location you will have to mentally adjust, which is tough (for me anyhow). BTW - there are mods that add alignment indicators to ports. Danny

Send another manned mission with a spare seat for him. Terminate the other craft after he's home. That's how I handled it. I don't think a Kerbal can reach Mun orbit on their EVA pack, and 50dv left in his lander isn't going to put you there, so I would go with a precision landing 50m from his position (if you're near the equator, that's about 50 arc seconds I think... I use Mech Jeb for precision landings and usually use between 20 and 50 arc seconds delta when landing next to something else). Danny

You could attach them to the fuselage - I was using the engine as a reference, not a suggested attachment point. Your rolling moment is probably not as severe an issue as you expect and your ground track is clearly being adversely affected by the wide track. But hey - more boosters will probably fix it all, right? Danny

When ground tracking is an issue, the problem is [almost] always landing gear placement. Been there, got the T-shirt, as they say... I wish I had learned this a lot sooner than I did, but in 1989, I spent several months building a tractor canard, of all things for my senior project. The thing that proved fatal for it was lack of design work on the landing gear. Since I can't see your LG in the pics, I'll have to make a couple assumptions, but they're probably pretty spot on... The yellow arrows on your rudders show the torque that they are applying to try to correct the unwanted yaw, which looks correct for an aircraft in that situation. Your vertical surfaces will not affect this as long as you have enough and they are not rotated about the yaw axis. 1 - I'm guessing your nose gear is way far forward of the CG, expecting that to improve your command authority over the unwanted torque. Move it back. I would put it just forward of the aft end of the forward FL-T800 tank. If it's already there, then leave it - the mains are the real problem. 2 - oh wait, I do see your mains now. I was going to guess they were just inside the outside pair of engines at nearly the same station as CL. You would think (as I did in 1989) that this would give you lots of stability, and it's fine for sitting on the runway. However, when moving, any unbalanced force hitting one of those wheels produces a lot more torque about your yaw axis because of the distance. You have to find a balance. I would have the wheels hitting the ground no further out than the outside edge of the inner pair of engines. Should still be plenty stable on the ground. Next thing you need to do is check the limits of your CG. In the SPH, use the right-click menu to drop the fuel and ox level down to 0 (hopefully you already have ox at 0 in all tanks, since you are only running air breathing engines. Then slowly drain the next tank back until the CG stops going back and begins coming forward again. If you get to 0 before the CG stops moving, then continue to remove all fuel forward of the CG until the CG stops moving aft. This will show you the aft limit of the CG. If it is aft of the CL, then you need to move some wings aft or the aircraft will flip at that point in flight. After you've done that, you can worry about the engine. Someone already mentioned the Wheesley not being the greatest jet around, but you should check it's right-click menu during flight. It will show you how much thrust it is producing and when it flames out and why. I think you might improve your altitude with more intakes, but I would be surprised if you got much increase on the speed unless you switch to ramjets or rapiers. Danny

You CAN recover conventional rockets - it just takes a little work. Check out Warzouz' Cygnus Recoverable Rockets for an excellent example of recovering conventional rockets. Danny.

Warzouz, Not often do I bandy about the word perfect, but I just launched a 71t 2.5m x 5m cross-section (draggy as hell) payload on top of your RR-75, and there's no other way to describe the performance of your rocket. After dropping my payload off at 79.8km, I had 219 dV left - perfect for immediate deorbit and landing 10km E of the pad. Thanks! Danny. And have some rep!

Way cool - thanks for posting so much, Fox! I will give it a shot! No worries man - I will see if I can't imitate it until then! Love the book - keep it up! Danny

I'm guessing you must have some French influence in your background. Reading your cover of La Marseillaise was awesome and brought back a lot of cool memories (my Mom was born and raised in Paris and I grew up singing that song and speaking both French and English). Anyhow, have some rep and some more for this - awesome stuff! Danny

Kuzz - almost missed your link... that blue-grey kinda blended in. That's a nice stylish ship! Care to share the craft with us? Danny

Well, sounds like it's definitely possible... I have been working on adapting Astrobond's approach to a larger crew and cargo capacity with the idea of landing on Eve with a belly full of mining equipment, refilling fuel tanks and dropping the mining equipment and taking off with less cargo but more fuel than I came down with. So far what I am finding is that three pairs of BigS wings just isn't enough lift - even in Eve's dense air... But I'll keep at it... I'll also try to make time this week to test the other craft that have been presented here... Many thanks for all the responses! Danny

A mothership in orbit is really not an issue. I'm kind of surprised though - the delta-V map I've been using has been very accurate so far, but it says 10k for an Eve orbit from surface, yet I seem to be hearing that it can be done for 5k by some, 7.2k by others, and in AstroBond's case, with a spaceplane whose CG burns aft of it's CL in the first 3 minutes of flight. I suppose if we use fuel balancer or maybe set up hoses to make the aft tank burn first, we can change that... hold my root beer while I try something... Foxster - any chance of getting a better view of that ship? Danny

Please forgive my noobiness if this is already answered and/or beating a dead horse. The fact of the matter is that I have been looking around and can't find any posts of Eve return missions in 1.0.4. The returning from Eve tutorial on the wiki was written in 2013 and does not seem to be viable anymore... Does anyone land on Eve anymore? If so, how do you get back? Thanks, Danny