Kerbin vonKerbal

I was curious about other people's perspectives on fairings, either stock or addon. I personally only use KW Procedural Fairings, because the stock ones horrify me with the lack of smoothness and the way they basically implode upon jettison, not to mention the current bug they have. KW is a go-to with every install. If I do anything unmanned, the payload absolutely has to be under an Egg-Shaped clamshell fairing. This is all personal taste, and has to do with my love for aesthetically-pleasing rockets. Sorry if this is on the wrong topic, I just figured it's not about any specific addon. What's everybody else's take on fairings?

-Jeb was stuck in orbit -tried to rendezvous in orbit -ran out of fuel with the closest approach at ~30km -EVA'd Jeb to rescue ship from 30km -RCS'd the rescue ship into suborbital trajectory -safely landed everybody Never had I been so tense in KSP before. Felt so proud of myself afterwards.

Nice. I'm primarily hydraulics.

You actively work on aircraft as a career right now, or are you a student? I work on heavies right now in the Air Force. I always like coming across fellow maintainers.

The stock fairings are bugged. Next time you try launching it, turn on your aerodynamic forces display (F12) and you'll see the drag for the fairing actually starts above the top of it.

The "go vertical until 10km up then pitch 45 degrees" method no longer works. I do a gravity turn starting at about 50-100m/s. Avoid fairings as well, they're bugged in that their drag point is forward of the actual nose tip. My go-to mods every time is KW Rocketry, Tarsier Space Tech, Chatterer, and EVE. RemoteTech even, if I'm feeling squirrely.

This makes me feel the feels. I fix these for a living and this is very well designed. If you want an extra touch of realism, add a strut coming from the vertical stab to the top of the fuselage just aft of the cockpit. That's the HF long-wire. Safe flying!

It's a fictitious solar system. Therefore Kerbol is the right size.

Not really, no. It all boils down to player preference I guess. I COULD use it for that, I just choose not to.

Ehhhhhh, I suppose you could justify that. I use it primarily before I switch screens, because kraken.

I think the forum community should pitch in for a large Whackjob ship...

I feel as though, especially with a modded install, quick save is more of insurance rather than cheating/making easier. Especially when you've switched screens multiple times, and the only way to save would be on the Space Center screen. I like to play with no reverts/missing kerbal a stay missing for the difficulty and real consequences of flawed designs, but I couldn't do without quick saves simply because the game gets unstable with mods. Just my two cents.

I second this.

This. This is the spirit of KSP - implementing a unique fix Sesso thought was interesting. Every single player, regardless of acquired knowledge, started out by trial and error mostly because KSP's physics don't 100% match those of real life. If you want to implement aerobrakes on your rocket, and it gets you to space while fixing KSP's broken physics, then by all means your rocket is a good rocket. Whether or not they induce more drag than desired doesn't matter. They'll provide control at the very least, and I can't remember off the top of my head if you can reduce the amount of braking they actually do, but if you can then that's something worth trying to reduce the drag they produce. Your rockets, your ideas, your game. You play it how you want. Edit/addon: Design, explode, redesign. That's the formula for getting to space.

Rule #1 of KSP: If you constantly redesign your rockets and experiment with different components to see what works and what doesn't, that's okay. Rule #2 of KSP: See rule #1.

Forgot to add parachutes to my suborbital tourist module.

See this page for all your science telescope wants and desires.

Also this doesn't make much sense. RSS as in Real Solar Systems mod, but then Jool and Eve don't exist.

Sounds like a fun challenge, however pictures or videos of your own attempts and/or completion would be nice.

My attempt... I couldn't get a single m/s over 1,141 meaning I didn't quite beat the record, but matched it with Aloha above me. But here's my craft. Her name is "REALLY FAST". The elevation aspect of the challenge didn't become a problem until about 1,000m/s. That's when the nose would start forcing itself up, but until then I could hold steady and it wouldn't raise at all. There's 8 Whiplashes mounted to the jet in total. Good luck anyone else who tries.

Cost efficiency = space planes. No regard for cost, size, safety, etc = rockets all day.

The true Jeb way. On a side note, you probably could in this plane if you had a flat enough mountain top... it slows down pretty quick.

I've recently built a very stable, low atmosphere plane that I use primarily for Kerbin observation contracts in career mode. It flies like a dream and can pull almost max-G force turns. The turn radius isn't very good, however it'll get you where you're going fairly quick. I attach science instruments based on the contracts I accept, however they can be removed without any effects towards the flying capabilities. The design of the plane makes it take off on it's own, based on the higher wheel base up front and the amount of lift it has. Getting off the runway, it already reaches almost 300m/s and can climb vertically under acceleration up to about 12,000m. I usually cruise at that altitude at 260-300m/s easily. It's fully capable of landing itself very easily. In the event that an abort is required, I've set up action groups to deploy drogue chutes and kill the engines at the same time. Should an abort be required, the drogues deploy and when speeds reach 250m/s or lower, you can manually deploy the main parachutes and safely splash down or touch down on land. Default engine mode is dry, however I prefer to take off with wet/afterburner, which I've also created an action group for. You can outfit with whatever science instruments you need, or with none at all. Craft file: download S-04 Let me know what you guys think. Fly safe.

The only two visual mods I have installed are EVE and Scatterer. I'd say it's probably Scatterer, I've never seen EVE alter the look of the water. Hopefully this helps, and thanks.

So I haven't really done anything worth mentioning in a long time, due to lack of time. But my first thought out, planned mission was to land on the Mun as per my recently acquired contract. In sequential order, here's the pictures. Launching of the lander payload, controlled by a probe for now. Launching of the tug/return payload with Jeb in it. I rendezvoused in a sort of circular 85x85 orbit. Docking the tug/return module to the lander module. Hooked up and ready to burn towards the Mun. After separation of the modules, the lander is on its descent burn with Jeb inside. The return module is still in a 35x65 orbit, mostly because I was unsure of how much fuel I would have left and wanted to make it home. On board camera taking a picture of Jeb planting Kerberica's flag on the surface, and Jeb's EVA camera taking a picture of the whole scene. After Jeb had his fun, rendezvous of the two modules in Mun's orbit and docking in progress. Back in Kerbin's orbit, re-entry on the sunrise side of Kerbin, and finally a safe splashdown. I know it's a bit long and there might be too many pictures, but it was my first mission after not having enough time to commit to anything serious and I was pretty proud of it. Hope you all enjoyed, and feel free to leave any pointers and advice on different ways to do a landing mission. Fly safe.