Ehco Corrallo

The ore containers do have a "Jettison Contents" option. And they're heavy. Submarine Ballast solved! I would like the option to drain fuel if necessary. It does't seem like it would be difficult to add considering it's a feature on the ore tanks. Maybe if we complain loudly enough, SQUAD will listen and throw a "Dump Fuel" option in 1.1.

I started working on the Elcano Challenge. I was going to circumnavigate Kerbin with the Aquanaut 2003: But a desire to conquer the Mun made me change my mind. I don't know why... Oh that's right: I hate the Mun. It taunts me; it hangs in the sky and laughs at me... [cue hysteria/paranoia/lunacy]

I was going to circumnavigate Kerbin, but you reminded me of my deep hatred and contradictory love of Munar missions. Mun Buggy, here we come!

The "Amsy" Ion Drive Scout Probe. My last mission in 0.90, and first to reach Duna. I've only built a few probes, but this one worked admirably. KSP updated to 1.0 only a few days after this picture was taken. I would have mentioned my first line of Mün rockets, the Vaca series, but I can't find pictures of them.

Exactly. I'm going ahead with the challenge speculation or no speculation. I don't know if I'll succeed, but how hard could it be? From now on, everything in italics is ironic.

You don't always need to be at full throttle when launching a ship. As you get higher in the atmosphere, it's sometimes possible to ease off the throttle. It saves fuel and can massively increase the range of your ship. If you put EAS-1 seats in a Service Bay, you can make an inexpensive, ultralight lander can. Landing lights are useful even if you aren't coming down on the dark side of a planet. They work even better if you make them a contrasting color to the ground.

Well, a bugged out "resume saved" button just remedied the problem. I was forced to delete the troublesome save. Jeb, Bill, Bob, the lander, and my problem are completely gone. Forever (a long time). You're invaluable advice however, is immortal. In honor of my poor, poor savegame I'm going to go to Duna again, but correctly this time. Thanks for the support! Ehco

I've been having this issue too. I have Chatterer, KER, Hyperedit, and Kerbal Joint Reinforcement installed. What's the fix?

I was think of using airbrakes to slow down enough to deploy the drogues. I could use few parachutes because of the brakes (I'll check the mass difference between drogues and airbrakes) and actually slow down while in high atmosphere at high speed. The last few landers I've tested weren't able to slow down soon for parachutes to be 100% efficient. If I use airbrakes I can slow down earlier, deploy the drogue earlier, and make the most of the drag. It's actually a good thing that airbrakes aren't always on, at least in this case it might be: I can use them to get a better degree of control on entry. Who knows, maybe this is just a huge rationalization and I just want to use them. I feel guilty that I haven't used the airbrakes a whole lot, even though they're one of my favorite parts. I had a revelation about the crew compartment. I'm pretty sure I can use a Service Bay and rotate three EAS-1 seats inside of it, and send my crew into space Martian-style. The Service Bay has a nice flat profile, ideal for generating large amounts of drag and landing on hills. My two biggest enemies in landing on Duna have been, incidentally, a lack of drag, and hills. I'm figuring I'll launch the lander inside of the cargo bay of a nuclear mothership and decouple it from the mothership when I reach Duna so I can land and pick up the crew. After that, I'll rendezvous the lander with the mothership and head home. I don't think I'll try landing the main ship; I'll send up a ship to bring the crew down from LKO. I don't have to bother about heat shields and radiators that way. As always, thank you for taking the time to hash this out.

I don't have the faintest clue of how to do 3D modeling. The I-beam model actually looks totally okay besides.

BDArmory is awesome and totally worth checking out. It can be distracting however; you don't go into space for a while after installing it. Hyperedit is incredibly helpful for testing landers and rovers and suchlike on other planets before you bother dragging them there. Kerbal Joint Reinforcement is good if you're tired of wobbly craft. Chatterer adds a very nice audio layer to your missions, and it's totally customizable. I played with KIS (Kerbal Inventory System) and KAS (Kerbal Attachment System) for a short time; they're definitely worth a look. KER (Kerbal Engineer Redux) is a godsend if you don't feel like doing math. It basically gives you more information than you could ever need or want about your rocket and your orbit.

I ran a test, and the pod survived. The breaking strength is lower than the impact tolerance, so the lithosticks fell off and dropped the pod safely to the ground. I was worried on the decent because the velocity was far higher than the lithosticks could withstand, but I ended up landing at 160 m/s, well within safe limits. I was pretty stoked that the proof of concept worked. Now, so that I stay within the confines of the thread: I planned a rescue mission to Duna and decided that Aerobrakes are my friend, no matter how much I neglect them.

I have a three man crew stuck on Duna. I thought a dropship might be ideal for getting them unstuck. Do you have anything with a larger crew capacity? Never mind.

I have to say thank you again. I didn't expect to get so this much feedback, and I'm incredibly grateful that you took time out of your lives to remedy a badly planned mission. I agree, the Mk 1-2 Command Pod is awful. I'm planning on using a Mk 1 Pod/Mk1 Crew Cabin combo to get them back, and I'll probably have a ship in orbit to rendezvous with. Is the hitchhiker pod mass efficient enough to bother with for three kerbals, or would the Mk1 Combo be better? I'll ditch the wing idea, but I'll probably throw on some canards or something. I think my mistake with previous rescue attempts is that I approached Duna as though it were Kerbin or Eve: enter atmosphere, pop chutes, wait. I might look into dropships as well. Having a more mobile lander or one capable of deploying a rover would be really helpful. I'm also thinking of using airbrakes in lieu of extra drogues.

I managed to get to the mün in the demo. And it's my favorite destination in 1.0.5. How hard could this be? Besides wanting to go the mün, I'm curious to see just how the KSP alpha was. I started playing only a few months before 1.0 released. And you've made an awesome badge.

I was flying a ship to Duna. The Mün was kind enough to offer a gravity assist. I took up on its offer, made the burn, and started time warp. Three Kerbals went splat against the Münar surface only a short time afterward. It wasn't the most horrible way for a crew of brave Kerbonauts to meet their end. But it was the most traumatizing. Getting to Duna for the first time, when everything was said and done, cost the lives of nine Kerbals.

I used config editing to invent something called the lithostick. It's an I-beam, but with 1000 m/s impact velocity. It's capable of landing a command pod on Kerbin without parachutes. It's an excellent way of getting things home safely, not stably.

Thank you so much. This was exactly what I was looking for.

So... I think you all know the premise: "It wasn't supposed to be a colony." Well, in my desperation to land something on Duna, I sent a one way mission, and landed it on the surface. I feel obligated to get my crew of the surface because I've already killed three similar crews in botched capture burns (I failed to capture around Duna because I designed a terrible ship, and the kerbonauts were flung into frigid, interplanetary space). Considering I managed to save Jeb, Bill, and Bob from a horribly protracted death, and I actually have a chance to bring them home, I figure I should send a rescue party. I barely managed to get a one way mission down to the surface however, and though I designed a perfectly functional interplanetary shuttle for transport, I'm still not sure how to manage the landing. Here's where things stand: I'm playing in stock sandbox mode. I know how to fly interplanetary missions and build launch vehicles. Landers are not my forte. Three kerbals are stranded in a Mk 1-2 Command Pod. They're landed well below the equator. That's the entirety of my assets on the Dunatian surface. The biggest issue I've found in ship design is crew capacity. I haven't been having trouble building something simultaneously light enough to reach Duna and big enough to carry three crew and a pilot for the trip out. Any advice as to procedure, Duna landings, and actual plausibility would be greatly appreciated (and I don't use the word appreciated lightly, least of all in bold font). I've been thinking of getting a rover down to the surface to help with transport in case the landing sites of the postulated rescue ship and the stranded lander are too far apart. Is this a necessary step? Are wings a good way of landing a ship on Duna? They didn't seem to help my shuttle (I sent a shuttle mission, but after numerous failed landings and quickloads, I abandoned the mission, and flew back to Kerbin. The shuttle is now stuck in retrograde orbit around Kerbin). TL;DR: The original three are trapped on the surface of Duna with no provisions for return. How do I bring them home?