Aerospike

Thank you! I feel humbled that one of the epic engineers likes one of my rather basic designs as I still have a lot to learn about some of the more advanced construction techniques. I followed your advice and changed the RCS to a 4 x 4-way thruster layout in 90° rotations on the edges of the tanks as you suggested. It caused a minor dip in dV (only about ~80 m/s), but the lander still has ~2.6 m/s dV so even with my poor flying skills I should be able to visit 2 spots on the surface before returning to the spacecraft and head home to Kerbin. I also finally figured out how to make a sub-assembly of 1x cubic strut + 6x Oscar-Bs + 2x legs + 2x 4-way RCS -> to attach in 2x symmetry to the sides of the Science Jr. The previous iteration had 3 tanks + leg attached 2 times with 2x symmetry because I could not get it done otherwise. That was a bit frustrating when adjusting the position of the tanks and/or legs. The trick was to attach the Oscar-Bs with mirror symmetry to a cubic strut and then rotate them 90°. Previously I had them attached with radial symmetry to the cubic strut, but then rotating one clockwise made the other one rotate counter-clockwise... and I just could not wrap my head around how to solve it. Also thanks to @He_162 for reinforcing that advice

Nothing fancy, nothing big. Just a mundane 1 Kerbal lander for my upcoming first manned mission to the Mun:

@nascarlaser1 Here ya go: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B97_OqRbLEUXS2swc2xDSlBESkk?usp=sharing (craft files + images) I reworked the craft slightly because I reconsidered my own "rules" regarding part clipping after @Carl's comment about the clipping: The cabins, tanks and engines on the orbital section are now no longer in a 2x2 config, but only in 3x symmetry -> that way the clipping is reduced to a minimum and now basically only the sidewalls overlap each other. Since that reduced the capacity from 9 to 7, I created an extended version with double the passenger cabins -> total capacity 13 (a Kerbal lucky number! ) Removed the long launch clamps. I thought they would add "realism" on the launch pad, but I don't like how close the are to the SRBs and they are actually not necessary. I renamed them in SpaceBus2 and SpaceBus2XL respectively. NOTE: if you want to land without detaching the tanks+engines on the orbital section, hit the "B" key (or whatever key you have brakes bound to) to deploy the chutes without activating/decoupling the previous stage! Enjoy!

Hmm, that is strange, you are the first to report such a problem. What operating system are you using? Unfortunately the current version does not write anything into the Log until you first open the main window - which is what isn't working for you. I have to create a Version that does more logging to find out if there is some issue that I can address.

@ SRB attachment: I haven't used any mod to adjust part placement. I just loaded your craft and had a look. The placement can also be seen in the first picture of your original post: the radial decoupler is on the bottom tank(s) of the second stage(s) and about midway the length of the SRBs. just move it up to be between the second (from bottom) tanks on the second stage(s) and the top end of the SRBs - then the SRBs separate cleanly without any parachutes. @ reaction wheels: makes sense. I guess my rockets before the "SpaceBusXL" posted above have all been a lot smaller and didn't need so much force to control them. Moving the batteries inside the bays + removing the weight (and drag) of the chutes on the boosters. And if you remove the mono propellant from the mk1 capsule, you'll get another (very small) improvement Anyway, I like how much you got out of the low tech parts. I kept using much smaller crafts and unmanned probes until I had a lot more science (and parts) available. I'm just now starting to build bigger stuff Thanks for the conversation and happy launchings!

@Carl Thanks for your reply. A few suggestion for simple improvements to your design. 1. attach the SRBs to the TT-38K radial decouplers towards the top end (you can also move the decouplers upwards on the second stage, so that the overall SRB position relative to the rest of the rocket stays the same) -> that way the top gets pushed out when separating instead of the bottom and they don't hit the rocket. I just downloaded your craft, adjusted the SRBs/decouplers and removed the chutes -> worked flawless when I tested it. 2. attach the batteries on the side of the reaction wheels inside the service bay, they fit easy wihout any clipping. that should improve aerodynamics and make the rocket more efficient. (2a. You have 6 LV-T45s on your second stage for pitch/yaw control, you only need the reaction wheels for roll control, do you really need so many reaction wheels?) 3. That is because your most heavy part is at the nose. Maybe if you could put all that stuff on the Mk1 cockpit to the back you could achieve a stable tail first reentry. Bonus1: remove the mono-propellant from the cockpit. you don't have any rcs, so that is just dead weight you are carrying Bonus2:I just flew your craft (with modifications 1 and 2) to a ~74x88 km orbit without even using the third stage (manually, no mechjeb etc involved). I think you could replace that single LV-T45 with a LV-909 for more efficiency in vacuum. So I also tried to reenter with the last stage still attached -> stable tail first reentry even with all the fuel gone at the end (I used that fuel to break, as I didn't know if the engine could take all the reentry heat.) My design requires a bit more tech, agreed and there is indeed some part clipping, but it is minimal. I too dislike excessive part clipping for vessels in career mode, but I have a few exceptions where I consider it acceptable, for example with this craft: 1. There is a very small overlap of the passenger cabins, but it hardly affects the internal volume. Similar reasoning can be used for the fuel tanks below the cabins. The craft would probably work just as well without offsetting the cabins/tanks to stay inside the 2.5 meter diameter, it would just look not as good in my opinion. However I agree that this is a "fringe case" for clipping, especially with the fuel tanks. To stay 100% true to my own "rules", I would have to remove a bit of fuel from the tanks to compensate for the lost volume. 2. There are parts clipped inside the Rockomax Brand Adapter: That thing is completely empty, so I do not consider putting parts inside as cheating. There is an Advanced Inline Stabilizer on the top (below the service bay) and 3 octagonal struts on the bottom (that are used to attach the passenger cabins) inside, but they do not overlap with each other. 3. There is a column of cubic octagonal struts running from the Rockomax Brand Adapter all the way down to attach the "orbital craft" to the upper stage of the rocket. Yes they are inside the cabins and tanks, but they hardly have any volume, so I see it as a "structural modification" (to access the center node of the Rockomax Brand Adapter at the point where LV-909 engines end). @nascarlaser1 Are you talking about Carl's craft or mine?

Fantastic little craft! I especially like the Avenger, it looks so cute!

Interesting design, but it looks like it could be made more efficient. I have a couple of questions: (I'm at the office, so I can't load your craftfile at the moment to look at it in the game myself) I see radial chutes on the SRBs, how do you recover them? (I don't see the "StageRecovery" icon on your toolbar, so I assume you don't use that mod. Can Mechjeb recover stages as well?) What is inside that small Service Bay on each of the liquid boosters, is that also for recovery (some probecore perhaps)? And why is there a battery on the outside of each one? Doesn't that produce a log of drag? Why is there a heat shield on the front? That looks also very draggy. Why not put it at the back and reenter that whole thing retrograde? If you put a probecore on the "main" craft, you could use the capsule for an 11th tourist By coincidence I tried to solve the same "problem" as you recently: shuttling a decent number of tourists at once to generate funds. Here is what I came up with, it works pretty well and is easy to fly: Some infos: 9 Kerbals ~129 t ; 132 parts Requires medium level tech (level 6: "Specialized Construction" for the Airshells/fairings and "Precision Engineering" for the HECS, (Cubic) Octagonal Struts and TR-2V decoupler) 100% Stock (with the exception of 3 surface mounted lights for visuals only, I could easily remove them if you want a craft file.) costs 53K funds to build, but thanks to StageRecovery that is reduced to ~19K funds + fuel Full album if you want more pics/infos: http://imgur.com/a/kWAI5 (don't be fooled by the first picture, that is of my old, very low tech 3 tourist craft )

Does it really take so many chutes to slow this thing down for landing? Seems a bit excessive, but I have to look up the weight of the Hitchhiker containers.

Hello @Seik, Well to check if KISS was installed properly, look into the GameData directory inside your KSP directory. There should be a "KerbalImprovedSaveSystem" directory. Inside are an "icons" and a "Plugins" directory. The "icons" directoryonly contains a small png file for the settings button image. The Plugins directory contains the main .dll file (should be Version 2.1.0.39977). Once KISS has run for the first time, there should be a "PluginData" directory next to the .dll, which contains another "KerbalImprovedSaveSystem" directory with the "config.xml". (reminds me to figure out how to fix that unnecessary nested directory...) Here is how this should look like: %pathToKSP%\GameData\KerbalImprovedSaveSystem\ ├───icons │ settings.png │ └───Plugins │ KerbalImprovedSaveSystem.dll │ └───PluginData └───KerbalImprovedSaveSystem config.xml If there is no "PluginData" directory and no config.xml, then KISS has never been able to run and possibly wasn't installed correctly.

@Tex_NL Thank you for the link! Since the thread was about Stock SSTOs, I just wanted to make sure this is not some kind of stock option that I somehow missed. Now I have to debate myself if this is an acceptable mod for a "stock parts only" career game, but this is becoming off-topic now.

Huh? How is it that your 1.25 m Passenger cabin has a door/hatch at the top? Last time I used one for (sub)orbital tourist contracts inline in a rocket, everybody was trapped until recovering the craft, because both the front and back hatch have been obstructed of course...

Fantastic work!

Thank you for your continued effort! Just a thing that I've noticed: Every class page has a piece like this one: I think the second line should be changed to "Classes that extend/implement..." or "Classes which extend/implement...

I can highly recommend both suggestions! That sounds like a good idea!

@Bluegillbronco2 It might not be exactly what you are looking for, but a small booster for Atlas V or Delta IV like rockets is available here:

Well different people have different tastes. It might not be the most efficient one, but I actually like its looks!

You don't even need a "new" computer to run KSP. Even a very cheap used one (if it isn't too old/crappy) can run KSP fine as long as you don't build huge crafts with hundreds of parts (and you don't use mods to enhance the graphics!). I think it would be totally possible to get a used computer at ~100$ that can run KSP!

Here are 3 iterations of my earliest (unmanned) mun landers (all are completely stock with the exception of a few "surface mounted lights" and/or "aviation lights" that are purely for aesthetics and/or to see in the dark ) : Minmus Bonus:

Wow, those are awesome! Oh and I don't know how you do it, but somehow you always manage to make clipped parts look like realistic clever/complex engineering! Of course you achieve densities and therefore compactness in your vehicles that were not intended in a stock game, but still your crafts never look like cheating!

I knew about a lot of the "fun" DRM stuff like blocking content in certain areas depending on who owns the distribution rights, but that the media industry is so strange that they even block it based on the device that is used to consume the content is just ... mindbogglingly silly. Thanks for letting me know! Edit: The owl looks like another fantastic craft!

Hey Cupcake! I happened to browse some of your older videos on youtube while commuting today. I wanted to watch your Grand Tour playlist, but for some reason only videos 1 and 3 are available in the Youtube App (Android), the other three videos say "content is blocked on this device" . I just checked on the web and here I can watch all 5 just fine... I have never uploaded a video to youtube myself, so I don't really know about this stuff, but maybe there is some setting to configure the availability of videos? Or maybe it is just youtube being weird and you can't do much about it. Anyway, just wanted to let you know.

I have just released KISS v2.1.0 with configurable keybinding. First post updated or get it directly on spacedock. Turns out detecting if Capslock is on seems to be impossible in Unity at the moment, so make sure you disable capslock before re-assigning the keybinding or the button might get a wrong label! Once again the known limitations: Known limitations of the keybinding feature: * you can't bind any modifier keys (Shift, Ctrl, Alt, Command,...) and you also can't have any key combinations for KISS, you can only pick a simple, single key. * you have to disable Capslock before assigning a new key if you want to make sure it is labeled correctly in the UI. Unfortunately it is currently impossible in Unity to check if Capslock is on. * on international keyboards, you have to hit special keys twice (like the accent keys " ´ " and " ^ " on the German keyboard), because they do not produce a character when hit for the first time, but I need the character to label the key correctly. * all keys that to not produce characters like backspace, arrow keys, etc. are labeled with their English names, regardless of keyboard language used. * the "Print" key is for some reason not detected by my code (although it is listed as a viable KeyCode in Unity).

Interestingly that bug doesn't even occur when using the regular KSP.exe. It only occurs when using the Unity "player_win.exe" to enable debugging with Visual Studio, as outlined here: So I guess you can probably ignore that one In any case here is the log using the normal KSP(_x64).exe when the bug does NOT occur: [LOG 22:00:56.956] ******* Log Initiated for Kerbal Space Program - 1.2.1.1604 (WindowsPlayer x64) ******* Kerbal Space Program - 1.2.1.1604 (WindowsPlayer x64) OS: Windows 10 (10.0.0) 64bit CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz (8) RAM: 16323 GPU: Radeon (TM) RX 480 Graphics (8140MB) SM: 30 (Direct3D 9.0c [aticfx64.dll 21.19.164.1]) RT Formats: ARGB32, Depth, ARGBHalf, Shadowmap, RGB565, ARGB4444, ARGB1555, Default, ARGB2101010, DefaultHDR, ARGBFloat, RGFloat, RGHalf, RFloat, RHalf, R8 Log started: Sun, Nov 20, 2016 22:00:56 [LOG 22:00:57.204] PhysicsGlobals: Loading database [LOG 22:00:57.210] AppCanvas MASK: 3458764513820540928 [LOG 22:00:57.442] Load(Assembly): KerbalImprovedSaveSystem/Plugins/KerbalImprovedSaveSystem [LOG 22:00:57.443] AssemblyLoader: Loading assembly at D:\Projects\KSP_mods\Kerbal Space Program 1.2.1\GameData\KerbalImprovedSaveSystem\Plugins\KerbalImprovedSaveSystem.dll [LOG 22:00:57.477] Load(Assembly): QuickMods/QuickExit/Plugins/QuickExit [LOG 22:00:57.477] AssemblyLoader: Loading assembly at D:\Projects\KSP_mods\Kerbal Space Program 1.2.1\GameData\QuickMods\QuickExit\Plugins\QuickExit.dll [LOG 22:00:57.478] Load(Assembly): QuickMods/QuickStart/Plugins/QuickStart [LOG 22:00:57.479] AssemblyLoader: Loading assembly at D:\Projects\KSP_mods\Kerbal Space Program 1.2.1\GameData\QuickMods\QuickStart\Plugins\QuickStart.dll [LOG 22:00:57.481] AssemblyLoader: Loading assemblies [LOG 22:00:57.515] VesselModules: Found VesselModule of type CommNetVessel with order 999 [LOG 22:00:57.517] VesselModules: Found VesselModule of type FlightIntegrator with order 0 [LOG 22:00:57.518] VesselModules: Found 2 VesselModule types [LOG 22:00:57.523] ************************************************************************ Environment Info Win32NT 7FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF Args: KSP_x64.exe Mod DLLs found: Stock assembly: Assembly-CSharp v1.0.0.0 KerbalImprovedSaveSystem v2.0.0.39402 QuickExit v2.1.0.40854 QuickStart v2.1.0.40856 Folders and files in GameData: KerbalImprovedSaveSystem QuickMods Stock folder: Squad ************************************************************************ [LOG 22:00:57.529] [AddonLoader]: Instantiating addon 'QExit' from assembly 'QuickExit' [LOG 22:00:57.533] QuickExit(QSettings)[2.10]: Settings Loaded [LOG 22:00:57.533] QuickExit(QExit)[2.10]: Awake [LOG 22:00:57.534] [AddonLoader]: Instantiating addon 'QLoading' from assembly 'QuickStart' [...] and here using the Unity "player_win.exe" (renamed to KSP_x64_Dbg.exe): [LOG 21:49:23.241] ******* Log Initiated for Kerbal Space Program - 1.2.1.1604 (WindowsPlayer x64) ******* Kerbal Space Program - 1.2.1.1604 (WindowsPlayer x64) OS: Windows 10 (10.0.0) 64bit CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz (8) RAM: 16323 GPU: Radeon (TM) RX 480 Graphics (8140MB) SM: 30 (Direct3D 9.0c [aticfx64.dll 21.19.164.1]) RT Formats: ARGB32, Depth, ARGBHalf, Shadowmap, RGB565, ARGB4444, ARGB1555, Default, ARGB2101010, DefaultHDR, ARGBFloat, RGFloat, RGHalf, RFloat, RHalf, R8 Log started: Sun, Nov 20, 2016 21:49:23 [LOG 21:49:23.513] PhysicsGlobals: Loading database [LOG 21:49:23.522] AppCanvas MASK: 3458764513820540928 [LOG 21:49:24.065] Load(Assembly): KerbalImprovedSaveSystem/Plugins/KerbalImprovedSaveSystem [LOG 21:49:24.070] AssemblyLoader: Loading assembly at D:\Projects\KSP_mods\Kerbal Space Program 1.2.1\GameData\KerbalImprovedSaveSystem\Plugins\KerbalImprovedSaveSystem.dll [LOG 21:49:24.118] Load(Assembly): QuickMods/QuickExit/Plugins/QuickExit [LOG 21:49:24.122] AssemblyLoader: Loading assembly at D:\Projects\KSP_mods\Kerbal Space Program 1.2.1\GameData\QuickMods\QuickExit\Plugins\QuickExit.dll [LOG 21:49:24.127] Load(Assembly): QuickMods/QuickStart/Plugins/QuickStart [LOG 21:49:24.131] AssemblyLoader: Loading assembly at D:\Projects\KSP_mods\Kerbal Space Program 1.2.1\GameData\QuickMods\QuickStart\Plugins\QuickStart.dll [LOG 21:49:24.138] AssemblyLoader: Loading assemblies [LOG 21:49:24.183] VesselModules: Found VesselModule of type CommNetVessel with order 999 [LOG 21:49:24.190] VesselModules: Found VesselModule of type FlightIntegrator with order 0 [LOG 21:49:24.195] VesselModules: Found 2 VesselModule types [LOG 21:49:24.206] ************************************************************************ Environment Info Win32NT 7FFFFFFFFFFFFFFF Args: KSP_x64_Dbg.exe Mod DLLs found: Stock assembly: Assembly-CSharp v1.0.0.0 KerbalImprovedSaveSystem v2.0.0.39276 QuickExit v2.1.0.40854 QuickStart v2.1.0.40856 Folders and files in GameData: KerbalImprovedSaveSystem QuickMods Stock folder: Squad ************************************************************************ [LOG 21:49:24.218] [AddonLoader]: Instantiating addon 'QExit' from assembly 'QuickExit' [ERR 21:49:24.223] get_dataPath is not allowed to be called from a MonoBehaviour constructor (or instance field initializer), call it in Awake or Start instead. Called from MonoBehaviour 'QExit' on game object 'QExit'. See "Script Serialization" page in the Unity Manual for further details. UnityEngine.Application:get_dataPath() KSPUtil:get_ApplicationRootPath() QuickExit.QuickExit:.cctor() QuickExit.QExit:.ctor() QuickExit.QExit:.ctor() UnityEngine.GameObject:AddComponent(Type) AddonLoader:StartAddon(LoadedAssembly, Type, KSPAddon, Startup) AddonLoader:StartAddons(Startup) <LoadObjects>c__Iterator4A:MoveNext() UnityEngine.MonoBehaviour:StartCoroutine(IEnumerator) <CreateDatabase>c__Iterator49:MoveNext() UnityEngine.MonoBehaviour:StartCoroutine(IEnumerator) GameDatabase:StartLoad() <LoadSystems>c__Iterator5D:MoveNext() UnityEngine.MonoBehaviour:StartCoroutine(IEnumerator) LoadingScreen:Start() [LOG 21:49:24.234] QuickExit(QSettings)[2.10]: Settings Loaded [LOG 21:49:24.239] QuickExit(QExit)[2.10]: Awake [LOG 21:49:24.244] [AddonLoader]: Instantiating addon 'QLoading' from assembly 'QuickStart' [...]

Hey Malah, first let me thank you for your nice suite of mods, I use QuickStart and QuickExit mostly during development of my own mod and it really speeds up the process of starting/exiting KSP whenever I need to change some code and try again. While using the debug player I noticed the following message that is apparently related to QuickExit and thought you might be interested: http://imgur.com/SY6Hc3A Despite this, QuickExit seems to work just fine.