Catbus

Yeah, someone else pointed out to me that the crazy angular momentum seems to be caused by the wheel suspension propelling the rover upward. So what kind of workaround for that exists? A rover with the Talon wheel base -- which you need in low gravity to keep from rolling -- doesn't fit in a Mk. 3 cargo bay. But I can't use the extendible docking port, because Lynx docking ports have no attachment points on the docking side.

I think the Lynx Structural Decoupler may be a bit overpowered. https://gfycat.com/NiftyHighlevelKronosaurus In all seriousness, I would have chosen to use a docking decoupler rather than the structural decoupler, but the trouble is, FUR's docking decouplers don't have attachment points on their docking sides, so I can't attach them to each other in craft construction. The only way I can dock a rover to a larger craft is by building them separately, then driving the rover into the larger craft. Which is fine for cargo planes, but not for vertical rockets. So either the docking ports need to be mutually attachable, or the ejection force of the structural decoupler needs to be adjustable. I love the mod overall and have been having great fun with it (including building a gosh-darn nearly functional shuttlecraft!). But this . . . yeah, this isn't gonna work.

Not that one. I'm using . . . let's see . . . MechJeb, K&K Planetary Bases, Outer Planets Mod (w/Kopernicus), KAC, Transfer Window Planner, Chatter, Kramax Autopilot, Engineer, KSPI-E, Feline Utility Rovers and Konstruction. Added roughly in that order. ETA: Oh, and also something that gave me a couple of extra science devices, like a gamma ray detector. ETAA: OH, I FIGURED IT OUT! While trying to figure out which mod it was that gave me the gamma ray detector, I discovered that (a) it came from KSPI-E, and (b) it was the gamma ray detector on board my Lynx science rover that created the pink domes. Apparently they're meant to signify the existence of thorium on the surface. I had no idea it did that. https://github.com/FractalUK/KSPInterstellar/wiki/Gamma-Ray-Spectrometer

What in the world happened here? (I tried flying directly into one of the domes, bracing for a crash. Nothing happened, though.) These don't appear to be navigational zones. Nothing corresponding to them appeared in the Tracking Station. They did appear on the planetary map, though, as pink dots. I haven't encountered this issue before, ever. It was the first time I ever carried a rover with Lynx parts aboard a stock cargo plane. It may also have been my first airplane flight since installing KSP Interstellar, but it doesn't use any KSPI parts, nor did I see any pink domes when launching a rocket that did use KSPI parts.

Yep. I used liquid fuel, and it worked like a dream! I was surprised that ammonia and methane weren't more effective, though, based on their Isp and thrust multipliers. I thought they'd be better than liquid fuel, but nope.

What is hydrazine? Is that the plain liquid fuel normally used by jet engines and the Nerv? ETA: Never mind, I found out how to fill a tank with hydrazine. But when I circulate through the Tory's propellant choices, these are the only choices it gives me: atmospheric (ramjet), hydrogen, liquid fuel, water, CO2, CO, nitrogen and compressed air. Hydrazine doesn't appear to be an option.

I'm trying to use the Tory on an interplanetary craft for the first time, and I'm totally stumped. It says it's rated for vacuum (300 kN thrust), but I can't figure out how to get it to function out of atmosphere, even though the KSPI intro says I'm supposed to be able to use it in vacuum "by changing propellant." Is there some propellant I should be using with it other than enriched uranium?

So I've been using this mod flawlessly with craft that take off from the ground, but I've been having trouble making it work with drones launched from the cargo bays of other craft. When I transfer control back to the command unit (in the current case, an OKTO2), it gets its bearings screwed up somehow. Throttle control works fine, but roll and pitch go haywire. Any suggestions how to normalize the autopilot's behavior for this situation?

I seem to do OK with heat -- it's stability I have a problem with. My spaceplanes always go into an uncontrolled spin between 30,000 and 35,000 m, and I can never gain control of them again, because if they stabilize at all, they do so tail-first rather than cockpit-first owing to the mass of the engines.

No, what Kryten meant is that the Messerschmitt replica craft file includes a MechJeb unit, which I didn't think to remove before uploading it. It has nothing to do with the autopilot mod I linked to.

Oh . . . the only MechJeb part on it is MechJeb. Can you load the craft without it? If not, I'll upload an all-stock version.

I just want to call everyone's attention to this mod: Kramax Autopilot 1.3 If you have a plane that will fly, this mod will land it, 10 times out of 10. I'd put it in the must-have category along with MechJeb and Kerbal Alarm Clock. Speaking of planes that will fly, I decided to try making some Kerbal planes based on the real planes that used the engines that Kerbal engines are based on. My first one, using a Juno engine, is a replica of the Messerschmitt Me-262. Oh, man. It flies like butta. Like butta.

This is a magnificent mod. All my aircraft-landing woes are ended. Praise be.

It just costs money they don't have. Remember, they bootstrapped this space program using supplies they found behind a dumpster.

Totally disagree. As I mentioned, I've been successfully using the rocket equation and delta-v maps to design multistage rockets that go exactly where they need to with just enough fuel to get there, if not on the first try then on the second or (at most) third. (Usually the fault isn't in the basic design but rather is because I forget to put on solar panels or RCS thrusters.) Maybe I'm spoiled by the predictability, but the amount of sheer guesswork involved in designing planes, compared with the near-total absence of guesswork in designing rockets, has been frustrating to me.

And here's the one that works! https://www.dropbox.com/s/u52pz3z0r2qbh92/Konkorde New and Improved Mk1A.craft?dl=0 OK, I think I'm starting to get the hang of this finally. Thanks for the pointers. Though I'd still like to see an equation for how much lift is needed per ton of mass, or how much fuel it takes to circumnavigate Kerbin . . .

I made my own modifications based on your reply. Behold: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yvzl3j6knadd28k/Konkorde New and Improved Mk1.craft?dl=0 It flies! It even lands! (Though sometimes at the cost of a wing or two. That may be more a reflection on my piloting skills than on my design skills.) Here's the next one that needs fixing, using parts from the Landing and Aerodynamics techs: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fcuapqk4rtzzoug/Konkorde Mk1A.craft?dl=0 I originally had swept wings on it, but they screwed up the functioning of the elevons, because KSP thought they were in front of the CoM when in fact they were behind it. :-\

OK, I managed to answer the first question. Here's my most successful recent Aviation-only plane: https://www.dropbox.com/s/eeo5hv89wlds9tm/Konkorde Mk1.craft It takes off only at the end of the runway, never before. It handles a little too responsively (enviable yaw, though), and I can't get it to slow down enough to land without faceplanting before I reach the runway.

Forgive my density, but . . . craft files? Stock craft? I don't know where the former are stored, and I didn't know that the latter exist.

To begin with: Yes, I've read this. And read it again. And again. And again. And then I build planes that, according to that guide, should fly. And they don't. They veer off the runway (despite being perfectly symmetrical), or nosedive into the sea, or suddenly climb at 60 degrees and flame out, or fly straight but won't turn, or fly straight and (eventually) turn but lawn-dart into the ground when I try to land them. ARRRRRGH. On the premise that every unlockable aeronautic tech in the game ought to allow me to produce a workable plane, I've been going through each one, one tech level at a time, trying my darnedest to make a plane I can take off in, fly around and land. After several hours of struggle on the second level yesterday (having already fudged the first -- I never did successfully land my Aviation-only plane), I finally gave up. Here's one thing I'm sure is contributing to the difficulty: I think any amount of fuel in the main fuselage makes an Aviation-only plane too heavy to take off. The plane I finally succeeded with carries fuel only in its two wing-mounted Mk 0 tanks. But I can't be certain, because unlike the handy-dandy rocket formula (Δv = ln (Mstart/Mend) · Isp · 9.81m/s2), which I've used successfully to choose the right engines and amounts of fuel to send craft all over the Kerbolar System, I don't know of any formula that tells you how much thrust and wing area you need to lift a plane of a certain mass. Is there any way, any way at all, to design a decent plane, other than changing a bit here, a bob there, then crashing them into the ground again and again and again for hours at a time? I just want to make planes that work [collapses into fetal position, sobbing].

Well, that would require computing Δv's for all the OP satellites as well, and I'm not there yet. But here's what I've calculated for the planets themselves (rounded up to the nearest 10 m/s): Kerbin Escape Δv (m/s) Transfer Δv (m/s) Max Inclination Change Δv (m/s) Capture Δv (m/s) Circularization Δv (m/s) Sarnus 960 1,300 440 270 1,550 Urlum 960 1,530 150 340 910 Neidon 960 1,620 290 230 1,010 Plock 960 1,660 1,400 650 210

Aw, shucks. :-) BTW, while under other circumstances I might be up for the challenge, I'm not sure I still have the math chops to determine the gate orbit equation. I had a hard enough time with calculus the second time I took it, and that was 30 years ago. (Don't ask me about the first.)

OK . . . so now I'm computing a capture Δv of 246.7 for Duna and a circularizing Δv of 368.8, both of which are pretty close to the figures on the Δv map (250 and 360, respectively). I think I have most of what everything I need now to calculate Δv's for the outer planets. Thanks for the help. ETA: My max inclination change Δv formula worked right the first time. :-)

100 km above Jool is halfway down into its atmosphere :-)

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