FullMetalMachinist

From v 1.2.1 change log: It was changed to the back quote key. If you want to change it back it's in the keybindings setting. Sorry, I forget exactly which category, but it's there somewhere.

True, or you could set it to an action group. But I loath having to click on parts to perform actions during flight if I can assign a keypress to do it instead. That's why in my career games I set the difficulty option to allow actions groups from the start.

I wasn't sure if just the heat shield would be enough, so I just did some tests. I made a simple craft that was just a Mk16 parachute -> Mk1 command pod -> Mk1 crew cabin -> heat shield. That was the reentry vehicle. Under that I put a decoupler, a fuel tank, and a terrier engine. Then I put it in orbit using the debug window. Ap was 85 km, I burned to get a 25 km Pe, then decoupled the tank & engine. As soon as I hit the atmosphere I set SAS to hold retrograde. Worked like a charm. Only issue was that once the 'chute fully deployed all the weight made splash down a little harder than I normally like. So I tried setting the heat shield to jettison when the 'chute deploys. Nice, gentle 8 m/s touchdown. In case you're not familiar with that last bit, you first have to go to the settings menu and turn on Advanced Tweakables (pause menu -> settings -> toward the bottom, right above the UI section). Then in the VAB right click on the heat shield and click on "HS Jettison Not Staged" to change it to "HS Jettison Staged". This will add a decoupler icon in the staging list on the right. Then just drag that so that it's in the same stage as your parachute.

I'm guessing that you're trying to reenter with the Mk1 pod on top of the Mk1 crew cabin? Let me guess, it wants to fall with the pointy end first? If that's what you're seeing, it's a pretty common problem. What happens is that the pod is heavier than the crew cabin, so it wants to fall first. Think of a throwing dart or arrow. The heavy bit is at the front, and the light draggy feathers/fins are at the back. Which means that for reentry your ship has it's pointy end first, allowing you to cut through the atmosphere easily. That's the opposite of what you want. You want to reenter back first, so that the blunt bottom of your ship slows you down more. One way around this is to put some fins on the side of the pod towards the top, next to where you (probably) have your parachute. That combined with the reaction wheels in the pod is usually enough to keep you pointed retrograde during reentry. Just make sure that the pod has electric charge when you start to reenter. Also, from low orbit most people set their periapsis to something around 20-35 km. The reason is that reentry heat is cumulative. It's better to endure higher heat for a shorter time than it is to bake at low temps for a long time at 65 km without slowing down much. Also, if none of that sounds like it is the problem that you're seeing, a screenshot of your ship during reentry (and maybe one of it in the VAB with the CoM marker showing) will help to diagnose problems better.

A few questions: 1. Could you please post a screenshot of the offending rocket? 2. Are you using SAS? If so, which mode (stability assist, prograde lock, etc.)? 3. If you are not using SAS, have you tried canceling any trim that might have been set? (Press alt-x)

Historically (with a very few exceptions), Squad hasn't given timetables for any update. However, I have a serious question. If they were to say 'we hope to release in 3 months', how would you feel if for whatever reason that didn't happen? And they said 'oh, it'll be another 2 months', and then that gets pushed back again, and again. Would you be more upset about the constant changing of deadlines, or would you rather to be told 'we're working on it, it'll be ready when it's done'? Personally, I'd prefer the latter option. Better that than constantly getting hopes up just to be let down later. And make no mistake, no matter how clearly and politely Squad says "we're aiming for such-and-such time frame, but no promises", there will be those who read that as a commitment, and will then come on the forum and stir up as much resentment as possible because of the 'promise' that wasn't delivered.

Both the Tracking Station and Mission Control need to be upgraded to level 2 for Maneuver Nodes.

Press 'c' to toggle angle snap on and off. With it on hold 'shift' to get finer snap increments.

Quoted for truth. @ArmchairPhysicistthis is perhaps the most important lesson to learn about designing rocket stages. Every gram of extra mass in your top stage propagates down the rocket and exponentially increases the amount of total fuel needed. Design the rocket for the mission in reverse. And try to make it so that each stage has just enough fuel/supplies to do the part of the mission it's designed for.

You need to upload the picture to an image hosting site (lots of people use imgur) and then post the link to it here. As @bewing said, make the thing that fully returns to Kerbin as small as possible. You don't have to return your science instruments to Kerbin. Take readings on the way to the Mun, then send a kerbal on EVA, get close to each one and right click it, click on 'take data', and then board the command pod. That will store the experiment results in the command pod and free up the instrument to be used again (except the mystery goo and science jr, those have to be reset by a scientist kerbal to be used again). Do that over and again all the way until you've landed on the Mun. Then (if your ship design has a stage that you're already leaving behind) ditch the science instruments, and return only with the command pod.

It sounds like you stop adding dV to the node when you see it re-encounter Mun's SoI. If it is what I'm thinking, then it shouldn't be a problem, and it's actually pretty common. What can happen is this: if you burn prograde (compared to Mun's orbit around Kerbin) and just barely escape it's SoI, what happens? You leave the Mun ahead of it and with roughly the same orbit as the Mun, just with a slightly higher AP due to leaving prograde. This puts you in a higher orbit, which means your orbit is slower. Which means that before long the Mun will catch up with you and you'll get pulled into it's SoI again, without having to do any additional burns. Same thing happens if you escape retrograde. You'll exit behind the Mun, but will have a slightly lower and therefore faster orbit and will catch up to it and encounter it's SoI again. These 're-encounters' should go away once you put enough dV into the burn so that your orbit after leaving Mun's SoI is different enough that it won't happen.

If you're in career mode you need to upgrade both the tracking station and Mission control to use maneuver nodes.

@HammyTheHamster the concept you're looking for is called a gate orbit. If you're interested in an explanation of the math, there is this thread: The other thing to worry about if you want to refuel at one of the moons is timing. Say you eject from Mun and now have an elliptical orbit with your AP pointing to where the Mun was when you left. When you get to PE to finish your burn, you need that angle to match the ejection angle that you need for your transfer burn, and you need to reach that PE to do your burn at the right time for the transfer window. Not a trivial problem to figure out. The other option is to have a refueling station in Kerbin orbit that you can move to the different gate orbit altitudes. Then when you're going to Jool, put the station in that gate orbit. Then dock your interplanetary ship and refuel it. Now you're in a circular orbit at the correct gate orbit altitude, and can plan and execute your ejection burn like normal.

Hi there, welcome to the forums. I'm afraid that we can't really help without some more information. A screenshot of what happens when you deploy your parachute will be very helpful. Also, what are you doing when you are having problems? Reentry from orbit? What are your AP and PE set at when you deploy? What parachute are you using? How many? What is the mass of your ship? Another thing to consider is if you are using any mods, that's most likely to be the cause. Try reproducing the problem in a stock game.

Well that's....odd. Do you have KSP through Steam? You could try verifying the game files. (In case you don't know how, right click on KSP in Steam, click 'properties', click the 'local files' tab, then click 'verify integrity of game files'.) If you don't have it through Steam, you could try downloading it again, in case something got messed up. Then copy and paste your save game into the new install, and try again.

Hi @fas, welcome to the forums! At first glance, as long as that ship was launched after accepting the contract, then it looks like it definitely should work. My first thought would be to blame one of your mods. Try and reproduce the problem in a stock game first.

I'm not saying that this is the best or preferred way, just that that's the way it is currently. Sorry, but I have to disagree. During design, you know where your probe is going. Which means that you can fairly easily figure out the furthest possible distance that it will be from Kerbin. And in the 'more info' panel of the part list during construction, there are 3 values given for each antenna, for each of the levels of the tracking station.

Unfortunately not, because whether two antennas can talk depends on the power of both antennas. The formula for that is: sqrt(ant1 * ant2). This means that a probe talking to the space center will have a larger max range than when talking to another ship, because the tracking station antennas are so powerful. You don't really need to 'measure' anything. Just know that the furthest apart two planets will ever be is: (solar AP of planet 1 + sun radius) + (solar AP of planet 2 + sun radius). All that information is available in the Wiki, and in the game by looking at the details of each planet in the tracking station. I know that having to do a bunch of math just to figure out if you have enough antenna range might not be fun. But IMO, it should require a little work and forward planning. This is rocket science after all.

Minor nitpick. A stationary orbit's period needs to match the sidereal rotation period of the planet. On Kerbin's surface a day is exactly 6 hours. However it's sidereal rotation is slightly less, 5h 59m 9.4s.

@Ncog Nito klaw entry in the Wiki.

Nope, that's called a circular orbit. Or if you prefer it's an orbit with 0 eccentricity. An orbit that's elliptical will have an eccentricity somewhere between 0 and 1. And an orbit with eccentricity of 1 or greater is an escape trajectory.

@juvilado on a related note, depending on how you attach them the Strut Connectors that you use to strengthen your ship do leave their mass and drag behind after separation. It depends on which end you attach first. So if you go from main ship -> radial stuff, then the mass/drag stays with the center part. If you go from radial stuff -> main ship, then it gets left behind.

These two points seem to contradict each other. Unless Kerbin's water is also unnaturally dense as well.

Note that 1.2 made it so that you don't have to change this in the settings anymore. Just toggle SAS on/off with 't' while on EVA.

It depends on what you want to use them for. They act a little like wing control surfaces. You can have them respond to control input or not, or just deploy them and have them create lots of drag. Or a combination of both. I would put something together and use the set orbit function to put it above Eve, then play around with it and see what works.