IncongruousGoat

It depends on the mission. Some things (planes, LKO rockets, etc.) I can slap together in 5 to 10 minutes by eyeballing and rule of thumb. Bigger designs, especially ones where I have to do all the delta-V calculations by hand due to problems with KER, and where I have to do extensive testing, can take me days or weeks, and often will involve at least one complete redesign. But once something's done I don't really touch it. If it works, it works.

Don't use it until you understand how to do everything by hand. Using MechJeb to do interplanetary transfers for you from the getgo removes a lot of the challenge of going interplanetary. Use it once they become routine, if you feel it's necessary (I don't, but that;s beside the point). Using MechJeb isn't bad... as long as it's automating tasks you could do by hand as well as, or better than, the autopilot. If it's doing things you don't know how to do, you've deprived yourself of part of the continual learning opportunity KSP represents, and if you're doing something in KSP without learning something then it defeats the point of playing KSP in the first place. But that's just my opinion. This is a very heated issue in the community, with opinions ranging all over. So take everyone's opinion (including mine) with a huge grain of salt, and reach your own conclusions.

Wait... link field? You should just be pasting the link directly into the text of your post. So, for example, say I want to put the image at this link: http://imgur.com/AhdF3ii into my post. To do that, I put this link: http://i.imgur.com/AhdF3ii.png into the text. I displayed that link as a link for the purposes of clarity; here it is as an image:

What? Is the forum rejecting your image, or the hosting site?

In order to embed an image in a post, you first need to upload it to an image hosting site (Imgur is popular). Then, paste the direct link to the image (gotten from the hosting site) into your post.

I see you're taking the send-the-landers-individually approach. It's nice to see someone else do it, it always makes missions more... interesting. Make sure to set lots of KAC alarms. Good luck!

For an immediate solution, try turning off fuel flow from the tanks you don't want drained, then turning it back on when you need them. In the long run, though... I ran some quick experiments to make sure RCS obeys fuel flow, and it would appear that it does, draining from higher-priority tanks first on my little mock-up ship. So it seems there's something strange going on with the fuel flow on your ship.

Nice! Interplanetary missions are always fun. However, I do have one question: Why the mucking around with propulsive braking and the 10m heatshield at Kerbin? It's not like interplanetary re-entry isn't survivable in a Mk1-2 capsule with a 2.5m heatshield on it.

Oh, I'm well aware. It's just that someone mentioned the possibility of roving around Minmus on the 18 t/30 part limit, and I felt compelled to present evidence of the feasibility of such a mission.

What kind of engine (air-breathing or rocket)? And what do you mean by "not starting"? Is it refusing to start at all? Or is it instantly flaming out? Also, could you provide a screenshot of your craft?

So... what's the verdict as far as parts mods go? I'd like to use Ven's Stock Revamp for aesthetic reasons, but it adds a couple of engines (which I don't intend to use).

For reference, it's possible to land on Minmus, rove around, take readings from 4 biomes, AND return all the science to Kerbin within the 18/30 limit, without patched conics. It looks something like this: Not that I would ever recommend doing this; it's tedious and nerve-wracking. But it's certainly possible.

What sets games apart from other media? Well, the way I see it is that traditional media (books, theater, film) have one fundamental aim in mind: telling a story. There are a number of ways they approach this, and a myriad of kinds of stories, but fundamentally, they are media for conveying stories. Games, on the other hand, are a horse of another color. Games seek to convey an experience of some kind. That experience could be a story, it could be cathartic amusement, it could be intellectual challenge, or it could be something else entirely, but fundamentally it's an experience.

You see the little Kerbin icon in the top right corner? Click on that. That opens the planet/moon selection menu.

Aw, poor Gregmore... I'm willing to bet he's going to save the day, since even the Kermulans have (presumably) forgotten that he's there, allowing him to act without interference. Plus, he's had his hero moment coming after being ignored for so long.

It's not the probe that's the problem here. If the vessel you're trying to use as a relay doesn't have any relay antennae on it (i.e. an HG-5, RA-2, RA-15, or RA-100), it can't be used as a relay.

Close to failure? Nah. Close to failure is getting out and pushing. Also, welcome to the forums.

Ah, that explains it. Thank you-that should make things much easier.

For some reason, my install doesn't actually give me the option to change the parachute material (or anything else, for that matter) on the RealChute parachutes. It might have something to do with RP-0. Either way, I don't have that choice. Plus, that parachute is a bit big for my 1/2 ton lander. What I meant by the FASA Mercury parachute was the probe chute, the one that barely weighs 100kg.

That's the idea. The problem is, Venus's atmosphere's ambient temperature exceeds the temperature limits of all the parachutes I have at my disposal. I'm currently trying to get around the problem by changing the RealChute config for the FASA Mercury probe chute to use Kevlar as the material instead of silk (it seems reasonable to me that NASA would be able to manufacture a Kevlar parachute if the need arose).

So, electric propellers? Dunno how useful those are going to be, since (if they were designed with physics in mind) they don't really work in the transonic and supersonic regimes due to aerodynamic weirdness connected with the sound barrier.

I don't think it came all of a sudden. Rather, it's been gradually dawning on me as I stop and look around at the kinds of things I've been doing. There's too many facets to KSP to nail down a definitive "getting it" moment, too many things you need to have a grasp of in order to think yourself competent. The more you do, the more you realize lies left to be done. Even now, I hesitate to call myself good, all too conscious of my failings as a KSP player. I could write out my milestones, but I don't think any one of them qualifies as the most important.

Try going to Duna instead. Delta-V requirements for Moho are ridiculously high, especially if you're using an autopilot to plot your burns. Even if you're doing it manually and finding the best transfer possible, it's still really expensive. So, yeah. Duna. Of all the planets, it's arguably the easiest to go to and return from. It might help in general to learn how to plot these kinds of burns by hand, but that's just a staunch manual pilot's opinion.

Does anybody know where I could find a small Kevlar drogue chute part? I'm working on a Venus lander in RP-0, and need such a chute to slow my descent without simultaneously catching on fire. However, my current install doesn't appear to have one.

Mod list and log files please?