Zephram Kerman

Jeb Botâ„¢! "All the awesome, without any mistakes." And the whole time it pumps 200W of the latest hit tunes. Get your Jeb Botâ„¢ today! Or, is that a bipedal MechJeb? If so, we're all doomed.

For interplanetary stuff, the high ISP of the LV-N makes it the popular favorite. The quantity doesn't matter much, except for how patient you feel. Tavert has made a nifty chart of optimal engine types vs dV, payload, and TWR: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/45155-Mass-optimal-engine-type-vs-delta-V-payload-and-min-TWR?p=579323&viewfull=1#post579323 It basically says LV-N for large payloads in vacuum, unless you need TWR higher than 0.9. Interestingly, small payloads on shorter trips should use Rockomax 48-7S.

That's very cool. I'm liking this "outside the box" style event. If it's only low altitude and duration, well that sounds like anything with jets and wings. So there should be more rules, just to narrow down enough to make this fun. I presume this is intended for rockets with parachutes only?

So, if I'm reading this correctly, since optimal TWR for launch from Kerbin is 2.0, my launchers should start with aerospikes. Except very small payloads get the 48-7S. I never would have thought of it this way. Would it be possible to alter the legend slightly, so that each engine has a discrete color. The color gradient makes it slightly confusing, especially between the orange-ish aerospike and slightly more orange-ish LV-T30. I've been wondering about a tool like this for about a year, but lacked the math to figure it out. Congratulations! Was it a lot of effort? I don't even know. If Squad ever changes the engine performance figures, would it be hard to update these graphs?

As you get going along the runway, "pull up" (hold S). This takes weight away from the nose wheel and helps you go straight. Going really fast (>60 m/s) with three wheels on the ground tends to be unstable.

Nice one! Could've sworn I did exactly the same thing, but obviously I missed something somewhere. You've fixed it.

Here's an example; hopefully you find it helpful. Intrepid has been scouting kethane fields on Laythe for a while now. (This video is of an older version, from 0.19 and 0.20. The updated one replaced solar panels with the new kethoelectric generator, and has other improvements.) It features Brotoro's "Bird Dog" rover design, two docking ports for compatibility, kethane drills and a converter for refueling, and one extra jet engine for VTOL. With this design, I've been all over Laythe and found some really beautiful spots. Terrain on Laythe is usually steep and rolling, but there are small spots flat enough to land. However, above 80°N and below 80°S latitudes, the ground is perfectly flat and smooth! So if you get very desperate, follow your compass to the nearest polar area. The trick is to get your touchdown speed as low as possible. With one VTOL engine, a craft as big as this can slow down to less than 40 m/s and do feather-soft landings if you're patient. Just beware to never go backwards! Wings "don't like" negative airspeed.

For the stock game, your station already has everything "needed". Perhaps add some kind of docking area, so that multiple vessels could dock at the same time. (Mine was just a six-way node with structural fuselages to project four docking ports out away from the rest of the structure.) Since your basically done with practical things, the next options are fictional (roleplay stuff like the mass relay, comm array, and science modules already suggested), and/or modules inspired by your favorite mods.

I did the same thing, but only looking at the part.cfg files directly. The attachment rules haven't changed since the part was introduced. However, the mass and output changed back and forth for some reason.So I tried hacking the part.cfg, but couldn't get the node to actually attach. Any suggestions?

You could "modulate" the thrusters by switching the action group off and on really fast. That seems kerbal enough.

I think it's because adding light sources slows down the renderer. They don't want to inflict any lag on us where it can be avoided. However, little point lights that don't actually brighten anything (such as red and green nav beacons) wouldn't cause this problem.

I usually attach them radially to a tail fin or something. But when I need them on the end of a skinny part, it's really hard to get them straight without that end node. Pressing "C" helps, but dang.

Wow, the video really helps understand the situation. So here's what's going on: you did your burn near Apoapsis, like everyone says to do, but we all assumed you were already in a nearly circular orbit. Because your trajectory is very sub-orbital, Apoapsis is way behind you by the time your burn is completed. See that moment moment right around 4:15, where both Pe and Ap are coming up, the music has stopped, and Ap is actually moving the other direction. As it moves farther away, the effect of your burn changes too, so that it's boosting Ap more and more, and Pe less and less. The cure is to avoid this situation by making your gravity turn lower. The last minute or so should be nearly horizontal. This will boost Pe earlier, and make everything more efficient. Also, start that Ap burn sooner. (Some of my rockets have very low-power payloads, so they don't even have a coast phase.) You might find it helpful to use MechJeb as a tutor. Do a couple of flights using MJ's Ascent Guidance, to see how an ideal gravity turn should look. Then imitate that in the future. By the way, for recording, I like MSI Afterburner. It's mainly an overclocking tool, but the video capture feature works very well.

*heavy sigh* I could tell you why, but you wouldn't like it. *groan*

Tiniest asparagus I've ever seen. And that music.... what the...

I like to put drop tanks on the wing tips. You can rotate them up or down for trim purposes, and they're not likely to impact anything during release. The thing I notice about your plane is the two small rocket fuel tanks will mess with your trim. When full, they will make it pitch up more and more as speed increases. But when empty, they will make it pitch down (or at least, less up). I think you could simply remove them, and use the reduced weight to get higher/faster before ignition.

In addition to the above: I think you can right-click on the RCS fuel tank to disable flow. Also, be aware the action groups on each module carry over after assembly in orbit. So it's prudent to plan ahead for how you want them to work in the long run.

I clicked into this thread because I was curious how the simple question could generate seventeen replies. I don't regret it. The floating base idea is cool, too.

A lot of weird problems simply go away if you reinstall KSP. Last time I had to do that, the load button wouldn't work at all, and that fixed it.

Search for the phrase "debris mitigation" for more threads like this one. The main idea is to design the launcher stages so that they don't finish in a stable orbit. The launcher should end up re-entering the atmosphere, while your payload can start on its own with just a little kick to circularize. For example, let's assume your goal is a circular orbit of 125km altitude. The last booster should run out of fuel when your AP is 125, and your PE is about 15-20. Then run a tiny engine to raise PE from 20 up to 125. It won't take much.

Wow, Bob, that looks cool. Not even Kerbal, just.... real.

Non-skycrane rover delivery? Neh. Yeh can't get there from here. Well, I suppose you could mount rockets on radial decouplers around the sides, so that they jettison after landing. Or, in low-gravity worlds, just put the rover on top of the rocket, then gently tip it down to the surface. (What could possibly go wrong there?)

I do multiple launches of small components, but assemble them in LKO. Then I send those assembled groups in two or three transfer windows.

Well, there is this idea. Basically, use a combination of DropBox and symbolic links to share the /saves directory. It's not quite multiplayer, but it makes turn-based play-by-mail type games very easy. The only down side is if two people use a file simultaneously, the second instance becomes a "conflicted copy" and basically destroyed. edit: No need to download the tool. If you prefer, you can make symlinks from the command prompt. Run CMD as administrator, then mklink.

To get a polar orbit from space, simply mess up the inclination a bit during the transfer orbit. Roughly 1/2 to 2/3 of the way from Kerbin to your destination, burn Normal or Antinormal (North or South) a bit, so that your encounter happens to be north or south of the destination.