Shadow dream

Your craft seems to have slight imbalance in your fuel setup, but you seem to have great control over it. I stopped building VTOLs because I had issues with balancing. How do you focus on building with CoM shifts? RWs only have so much power.

A new day has begun and the politicians of Kerbin have decided that the KSP has to get more efficient. Too many rockets have tossed their engines into the ocean, too many tanks scattered on the grasslands after staging, to many factories are producing toxic waste during the process of producing Oxidiser. Therefore a new law was passed and starting from today, all rockets, launchers, rovers, planes, SSTOs, etc. are required to only use Liquid Fuel as their main propellant. Also all the bits and pieces have to be recoverable. Also, another law has been passed after President Krump has visited KSC and decided that colonizing Duna would be the perfect PR stunt to get him re-elected second term. However he was not that generous with the budget raise, which many scientists would badly need to accomplish the new challenge. RULES: 1) No mods, No cheating F12, Hyperedit, Kraken etc.. Cosmetic parts, DLC and info screens are allowed as well as Fuel Switch. 2) No Oxidiser at any stage 3) All staged parts must be able to land safely. (Recovery as "behind the scenes" accepted) Shells are allowed bc reasons 4) Monoprop and Batteries are allowed - Xenon is tolerated 5) ISRU is allowed. However no Oxidiser! 6) No excessive clipping: You may clip structual parts, as they could have been built that way. i.e a fuel tank however can not be clipped. Further rules may be added as necessary The Challenge: - You have to build a Launcher that runs off LF only while costing less than 350.000$. - Your Launcher-payload is limited to max. 30t and 60.000$ - Each payload must be a self sustained vehicle, eg. probe, solar panel, some dV for deorbiting, etc. (You may dock a lander for safe landing). Colony-Parts don't have to apply to this, however they are required to be docked to something applying for this rule at all times, until landed! - You have to build a transfer vehicle to get to Duna and back. - You have to build a lander to get some payload down to the surface of Duna. All non-colony items have to be able to return into LDO. - You have to build a base at Duna. These are the parts that may stay on Duna. This base has to have the following: Living Space for at least 35 Kerbals. (Labs and cockpits don't count) A rover with space for 4 Kerbals (does not count to base req.!), all the science and a Experiment Storage unit. A garage for the rover, as protection from storms that kill beloved rovers (R.I.P Opportunity) ISRU platform inkl. tanks to store LF and power generators. (You may use that LF for future missions - I accept fuel pipe mods for this specific use only!) A Science Lab inkl. Antena to transmit data. (You may use a small dish with relay-sats in orbit, as long as 24/7 signal coverage is in place) An emergency Launcher that is able to bring Kerbals into LDO. You may place several, but at the very least every landed Kerbal has to be backed up! Light poles to keep the streets safe Note: The base does NOT have to be docked or one big thing. However it should be placed close together, within 1km or less, edge to edge. Lightpoles may be used to mark the area, therefore they are allowed to be slightly out of the limits. For those of you familiar with colonizing Duna, or too bored with this challenge: There are several twists to make it more interesting for you! Replace Duna with Laythe No S2 or S3 parts, no Mk2 or Mk3 parts. Just 1.25m tanks, engines, crew cabins, etc as payload Launcher has to be SSTO No fuel pipe mods for base-refueling - docking like a pro! Additional Sea-Plane, same rule as the rover Additional U-Boat, same rule as rover Frontier-Base at the bottom of DeGrasse Sea, housing 4 Kerbals + Science Lab (not sure if boyancy allowes that - if not, just palce 4 Kerbals down there) Optional: Build the base as much as possible floating on water Be creative!

I proposed one in another simjlar thread recently, where the author gave a rough estimate of what he is comfortable with. This place is full of nice challenges like K-Prize, Jool-5, or even STS. Have you tried them? What kind of missions do you expect? If you feel brave, try this one: Build a rocket that A) launches from Kerbin B) lands at Duna (1) C) returns to Kerbin(1) D) lands on Duna (2) E) returns to Kerbin (2) F) lands on Duna (3) G) returns to Kerbin (3) Rules: No refueling, no mods (info screens are ok). Bring a Kerbal to plant flags. Staging allowed. It's possible, you can find it on Youtube.

So, have you tried any of our submitted missions yet? I would love to see some progress in form of screenshots! Threads like this are quite useful to new members that want to *do something new* but don't now how to. "Classic" missions like Jool-5 are quite high in demand, so your set falls perfectly in place!

Rockets are easy. That's why I stopped making them. Their only use is to build stations and bases, maybe refueling imo. (Hm, ssto base builder?............) Anyway, here is my challenge: Build a rocket that is able to bring a rover to duna. The rover has to have the 2.5m science lab inkl. all the science gadgets and antenas to transmit science home (you may use the rocket as relay in orbit). The Rover has to be brought back to Kerbin afterwards.

I am happy to see the open hands of the community on this. But I can't stop scratching my head on.... What's going on??? If you need that craft, but obviously have no way to run KSP to build it yourself, what do you need the craft file for so urgently?

I am working on my newest SSTO which is supposed to get me anywhere (orbit at least) and also be functional. I still have to sort out some issues, especialy TWR in space and other details, but so far it's nice to travel with her. She is well built for atmospheric flight so far and has all means necessary to do a successful ISRU drilling. Her CoM is well balanced at all stages into the rear cargo bay. So if you want you can turn that bay into a rover-bay or something. I am especialy proud of the rudder design, because it is compact and has great surface control! Current version link: https://kerbalx.com/Shadow_dream/Retaliator-ISRU As Mods she needs " Mk2 Stockalike Expansion " and " Orbit Portal Technology [OPT] Spaceplane Parts (Legacy) ". I know, OPT is quite OP when it comes to engines, but her design needed slick engines to not overcrowd her rear. I limited myself to using two SCRAMJET engines for atmospheric flight to help her accieve orbit, from there on it's NERVs only. As mentioned earlier her TWR in space is pretty bad yet, so landing on Ike was a challenge, but doable. In her Cargo Bays she carries a converter unit, two small ore tanks, drills and a Survey Scanner. The drills and the Survey Scanner are two independent crafts, that way she is quite compact to handle. The drills can be docked on the docking port, which faces downwards (as seen on picture). It gives just enough ground clearence - but do NOT attempt do do atmospheric landings that way! ;-) Survey Scanner can remain in Orbit, if needed. There is no benedit in doing so though. Action Groups are listet at KerbalX. Edit: As Mod I also reccomend Interstellar Fuel Switch in order to alter LFO tanks into LF tanks. Gives you extra dV.

Exactly that: Full breakes first, decouple, switch to engine(s), alt+q/e depending on which way it should spin, switch to the actual craft and fly. Advantage: Using RTGs it has infinite power and will run forever. Also it is relatively simple to build and therefore easy to adapt and expand. Disadvantage: missing control authority. You can only change pareters when switching to the engine(s) as slow down or change deploy of the prop for better efficiency. ---- OT: The prefered way is a turbo-prop due to its ability to alter thrust on the go. It's not perfect though, also it's less stable because it's build in a noticeably more complicated way. Also it still does not allow full control, so the gain is small compared to the added complexity and unrelyability.

Is it too much to ask for screenshots in which the vessel can actualy be seen? I regularly stumble over proud engineers that can't wait for nighttime to post a series of pictures in which almost nothing can be seen. Kerbol is your friend!

You can end fairings on other parts. As an example you can put a MK2 pod on top, some octagonal struts as extension (and clamp small satelites to it) and at the end the fairing plate. Then when building the fairing, you don't end it in a cone, but on the Mk2 pod. Another idea is to use fairings to close engines from upper stages. You don't need to stage the fairing, just leave it there.

I haven't used this technique of propulsion often. I think the best I could do was download a working motor and try to copy it. What I did was experimenting with the deploy function hotkey, but my tests didn't go well. Do you have experience with such engines and would you reccomend using that technique to optimize thrust on low-speed and high-speed? I'm just thinking because you said it's important to lower pitch here.

From the looks of it the craft looks a bit tail heavy. You should check CoM and CoL, if you haven't yet. Lift can be compensated with speed, which should not be the issue here. Also you could try and tweak the fuel flow / empty the rear tanks in order to help push the weight towards the nose.

When I ran into this problem I realized that I could not build crafts with lots of engines at the rear (where I thought they would make sense and construction easier). Engines are heavy. They are always heavy (opposed to fuel tanks), so they pull your CoM far behind and ultimately behind your CoL. What you could try is to palce your engines closer to the middle of your craft and/or build a BIG tailwing behind your current engines. Even though MK2 parts are pretty drag heavy, when I use them I usualy put a MK2 fuel tank on the side of the center tank. There I can mount engines (onto bicoupler) and intakes (also on bicouplers), which helps keeping the CoM where it starts. That way it's easier to control the changes during flight. tldr; get your engines further forwards, as centric as possible, then get bigger tail wings.

Horribly designed craft it is. It sounds evil, but what you did is to build a very tail heavy plane. You know what people say: A nose heavy plane flies poorly, a tail heavy plane flies once. You can notice that by the yellow ball (center of mass) being behind the blue ball (center of lift). It HAS to be the other way round. Edit: Just for your information, the exact position of CoM and CoL are much about trial end error, but ultimately depends on how fast your craft is supposed to fly. I.e if you build a WW1 type of plane, flying at less than 100 m/s allowes for CoM and CoL to be very close, with CoL being slightly behind CoM. It improves maneuverability. If you want to get faster (e.g. SSTOs) those two need a stronger distance in order to improve stability. However, if they are too far appart, your maneuverability will be poor or non-existent ( = nose heavy plane). Also you have to look at wet mass and dry mass. The way you place your fuel tanks arround CoM will more or less make CoM shift, which WILL affect your stability and maneuverability. An empty fuel tank has less influence on your CoM which can lead to significant movement of balance. Worst case is when you start with a stable plane, but shifting CoM ends up making your plane tail heavy, which means crashing.

6k dV is not an easy task, especialy for a SSTO. Even with NERVs, which are mandatory at that point, the amount of fuel is hefty to get up on wings. So your best bet is loads of TWR (Rapiers) which are dead weight in the end, unless you plan on Tylo. I think your best option here is to build a SSTO which can get onto Minmus, then use ISRU to refuel. From that point on you can get pretty much anywhere you want, except EVE and Tylo. It's what worked out best for me and still was manageable. My attempts on SSTA-ing (O = Orbit; A = Anywhere) have only succeeded with overpowered mod parts (I used OPT space parts). Oh and feel free to post some screenshots of your steps here ;-)

Horten!

Actualy ... I never wrote that. Looks like an auto-filter. I also never wrote "I got liquided", but I got "the liquid you pour into a toilet after drinking lots of water"

Currently I'm playing in a Science Save where I have Alt-F12ed me up to the 1K science tree. Yes it's cheating, but I'm ok with it because I generaly start a new save every patch and I got liquided. That way I can still go collect science without re-doing everything all over again and keep sandbox building for ease of experiments. I have found a small rover design I am pretty happy with and basicly re-create it every patch with minor changes. It allowes me to be quite mobile, take (almost) everything I need and still am able to stow it into a MK2 bay! https://imgur.com/F1Pj4ol Here I'm sitting next to a Monolith. I'm not sure anymore if it was on Mt. Keverest. I went there too but maybe I found the Monolith somewhere else. Oh, and there is a KAS docking port on the back. On a later iteration I swapped it for a Docking Port Jr. so I could automate loading and unloading of the rover verticaly using KAS hinge. (automate = hotkeys) Usualy I stay away from bigger rovers because I can't get a nice design. If I want to go bigger I just take a Malemut.

Huh? Less fuel? Where have you learned to play KSP? The answer is MOAR BOOSTERS! (And occasionaly moar wings)

I like how you placed the cockpit inside the cargo bay. It's not cheaty and still gives you room for utility - gotta try one like that myself!

If it helps you next time, the setup I am currently using is a combination of RCS and reaction wheels. The trick is: On RCS thrusters, deselect Yaw, Pitch, Roll. Only use the strafe controls! Let the RW do the rest. It's WAY easier to steer because you can let SAS maintain your heading without burning your Monprop. Also you don't lose control that easily. Provided your RWs are strong enough (which shouldn't be an issue here) you kind of have "unlocked control" since everything is independent and not wasting something you might need to save up. I love it especialy for docking my ships since it saves me from panicing "RCS on! No! RCS off! Cr*p I'm too fast! RCS on again! sh*t my ship is spinning and burning all my Monoprop, RCS off again!" -- kinda have to smile now =) The dificult part may be to switch the muscle memory. But I'm sure you'll figure it out, it helped me a lot. (BTW here's my STS 3 )

Koenig!

OP, you need to try the "how fast can I get to the Airfield island?" challenge. Build something with insane TWR and just enough fuel to reach the island. And don't forget the heat protection ;-) I watched the one Scott Manley did a few years ago, he did it in 54 seconds. ( I optimized the design down to 52 lol ). Recently, on 1.2 I think, I tried it again and had huge heat issues and by no means got close to that time with a similar rocket. If crazy means of transport are your thing you absolutely should dig into that!