Zephram Kerman

So I\'ve decided to mod some parts and make a friction-less orbiter. (See this thread for why I would want to.) I\'m using Tosh\'s cart mod, and R4mon\'s MechJeb and Muon scanner, otherwise only stock parts: half fuel tanks, LFE3s, struts, hoses, parachutes. I don\'t know why, but the thing seems to have more friction than normal, and is difficult to control if airspeed is greater than terminal velocity. Has anyone made a frictionless craft for atmospheric orbital use? Any suggestions?

So we\'ve all been using the Muon detector to scan Mun and Kerbin for munoliths and other anomalies. Now that the very last one is still eluding me, I\'m getting serious about the search. So I tried to figure out the optimal orbit, and realized some of my math has rusted beyond serviceability. Could someone help me figure this out? (I swear I could do this in my head 20 years ago.) Part 1: The width of the swath of ground covered by the detector as it passes overhead is (using the good ol\' Pythagorean theorem) = 2 * ?slant range2-altitude2 For example, at minimum altitude of 70km, the path width is 264 km. ( 2 * ?1502 - 702 ) Part 2: The surface of Kerbin rotates at 175.6 m/s (according to the in-game instrument). This means that in just over 25 minutes, the 264 km swath will move far enough that the next orbit will not overlap. ( T1 = 264 km / 175.6 m/s * 60 sec/min ) Part 3: How to calculate orbital period for a given altitude? (T2) If T1 < T2 then the swaths do not overlap, and parts of Kerbin near the equator might be skipped. edit: Thanks to MechJeb orbit info, we know that a 70km circular-ish orbit has T = 1834 seconds or 30.56 minutes. Looks like I should mod some parts to make a frictionless orbiter for low altitude surveys. But I\'d still like to find a formula for orbital period, to determine the proper altitude target.

We will be watching your progress with great interest, young Jedi. >D You can also simply attach images to your forum posts. They don\'t look quite as cool, but it\'s simple and adequate for images you don\'t want to keep forever.

An easy way to check if your rocket is under- or over-powered is MechJeb\'s autothrottle. If it\'s at 100% all the time, you should add engines somewhere or remove mass. If it\'s throttling back too much, you can remove engines to save mass without any performance penalty (in atmosphere). I like to use stacks with one engine for every three fuel tanks. Depending on the payload mass, I\'ll surround it with more of those stacks.

Found #4... BTW, I keep an image of the locations with lat/long for confirmation and posterity. PM me if you want one.

So, I\'ve heard all of the Kerbin munoliths and stuff have been found. But I haven\'t seen a screenshot like this one yet. Has anyone else actually found this one? Jeez the terrain was steep in this area. I did quite a bit of rock crawling to get close-ish to this one.

One of the KMA (Kerbin Muonic Anomaly) orbital surveyors has a strange way of looking at his brethren in polar orbits around Mun.

Yikes! That base looks more like some kind of industrial equipment, about to grind up a munolith and its friend.

Looking forward to clouds, weather, and stuff like this.

Like this:

The only scenario I can think of is a ship with only one stage of solid engines. But why do that? Agreed! 8)

I\'ve gotta do this. 8) Thought about it at work after replying. Remember, unfocused ships get vaporized below 23 km.

'Don\'t worry, Jeb! It\'s probably just a glitch in the Matrix. Or we\'re all on the holodeck. Or maybe our lives are someone else\'s video game.' ~William 'Shut Up Bill' Kerman

What about the volunteer booster catchers? I suppose there would always be openings for that job.

Well said! 8) In fact, it seems the munoliths\' visibility depends on your graphics. I could only see them from about 2km, which would require a stupidly dangerous orbit. So using instruments made it actually possible, and also more interesting and methodical. For Mun, I ended up using the long range detectors on carts. I triangulated positions from two crossing polar orbits, then landed the carts to pinpoint the things. For Kerbin, I might switch to aircraft, which is a whole new world of itself.

Hey, this is way more accurate than my calibrated eyeballs. Where did you get that lovely map? Ah, found it on the wiki: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/~kerbalsp/wiki/index.php?title=Kerbin

All these techniques are winners. For what it\'s worth, my style is pretty close to Hubba\'s and Sal\'s. Sometimes I shun RCS entirely, since it tends to run out at very inconvenient times. Even with just keyboard controls, I can land safely (almost) every time now. I prefer to use at least four lander legs. That way, if one breaks, it isn\'t a disaster. (I\'ll use more if the craft is heavy.) By the way, the legs can be reinforced with two struts to make them less brittle.

I really liked that touch near the end; the most efficient way to close a small error. Burning prograde and a bit inwards to catch up makes sense to me, now, but I wouldn\'t have thought of that on my own.

Trees sold separately.* Your parents have to put it together. * Kerbal Treesâ„¢ expansion explosion pack also includes new terrain engine, more parts, lander legs, advanced mods, persistence, Easter eggs, and much, much more!

It sure gets real dark, real quick, \'round these parts.

WANT.

This has been a successful test of the booster failure flight abort pad impact inverted ground contact contingency system. Have a nice day.

Bill and Bob are annoyed at Jeb\'s juvenile reaction.Jeb, on the other hand... well... Kerbals who live in glass capsules shouldn\'t throw explosives.

Well there is that setting 'max persistent debris' or whatever. Slide that down to the minimum to delete most of the orbital junk indiscriminately. For the future, it is possible to design your ships so that the various stages fall back to Kerbin, hit Mun, or escape the Kerbol system. A variation on this is to naughtily skip Kerbin orbit and immediately go to Mun at about a 45 degree angle; there is small a fuel penalty for this, but the periapsis is within the atmosphere.

A low orbit over the canyon I call 'Jeb\'s Landing'. (Maybe next time I\'ll do a little barnstorming!)