Cunjo Carl

Something I've been curious to ask for a while: What mass ratio do you like to use between your stages? There's often a hundred critical decisions for designing each rocket, but this one always seems to be the most fundamental for me when making the framework for a design. Just for show, in the spoiler is a couple craft with a 3:1 and a 5:1 mass ratio. They both have decent specs and can get up to some serious mischief, but do so in quite different ways. You could alternatively have multiple stages firing at once to get into 2:1 territory at the cost of added complexity.... or even a 1.15:1 asparagus? This isn't so much about raw efficiency (it's KSP, we can min/max 'till we're blue in the face). This is more about preference. What do you like?

Along those lines, I'm rather pleased with this use of ore Jettisoning from the Kerbal Atlantis challenge. http://imgur.com/a/CQrzm As for why they have the jettison option, if your spaceship has its own ISRU facilities onboard, it's indispensable to be able to dump leftover ore once the fuel tanks are topped up and it's time to launch. I kinda figured that was the devs original intent, but as with anything in KSP we make all kinds of silly use beyond the initial intent! Speaking of which, good luck with your ISRU ship, @Foxster! If you happen to be new to them, the ISRUs and drills will warm up while in rails-time-warp after you turn them on, which is also downright indispensable.

First off, welcome, @DareDemon666! You're not crazy. If you have a version prior to the latest release (1.2), individual components tend not to fall in sensible ways. My favorite was single airplane wings on the ground in v1.1- would flip themselves upright like bopbags rather than lay flat. This seems to have been fixed in v 1.2- Thanks Devs! You mentioned this happening on jettisoned parts with multiple components, though. It's not uncommon for decoupled things to briefly turn sideways due to the torque of decoupling + aerodynamic forces if it's bottom heavy. This is normally followed by random tumbling though, and it sounds like your case isn't. Maybe, are you describing something like a 'flat spin'? I have to admit, I've only ever noticed my ejected junk peel away and slow-tumble erratically like you might expect (or for something particularly aerodynamically inclined, eventually flip around and nosedive like a dart). If you post a picture I'd be happy to hm and haw some more, but otherwise we can leave it as you're physics understanding sounds good! If you're curious to see a real world example, check out these videos of the the space shuttles SRBs decoupling: https://youtu.be/uuYoYl5kyVE?list=PLe8qRS4LwO8mYtQEFcjh8S0xT1nM3VaQ4&t=123 https://youtu.be/2aCOyOvOw5c?t=110

@Darren9 Goodness gravy you made a stable craft given how many draggy kerbals were sitting on it! Also, the airplane landing gear was going over the moguls like nothing, good pick. Super solid run! I couldn't help but notice your marker was *ahem* Jeb. Well, I'm sure he'll be fine- Given he survived my first career mode, he's been through much worse. I had forgotten how much the F3 distance differed from reality. I based the balance of the challenge on the F3 values, so let's stick with it despite the silliness. Plus, as you say, it's numbers are a lot more flattering. Do you have a preference for craft name? Otherwise, I'll word around it.

You know, surprisingly not. I've found in practice that even if you're not planning on aerobraking at Duna, it's better to just use Duna's gravity well than Ike's. I had a craft heading out that way so I snapped a picture of a trajectory just off the surface of Ike (literally scraping), and you can see by the lack of deflection that unfortunately not much happens gravity-assist-wise. Also, Ike's SOI stretches out far enough that you can't put yourself into a low Duna orbit directly from a low Ike orbit... If you're familiar with the effect from the inner Joolean moons, it's the same sort of thing. Pics within. They gotta be big to be visible, and I'd rather not hog the space!

Had this problem with quite a few rockets over the years. I found one thing that helped was swapping out the main pod (which always happened to be the root part). Just replacing it with an identical copy would help (or would at least pick a new direction. ) Edit: Given it's a bug, I suppose it pays to be more specific. 1. Remove things from root-part-pod. 2. Delete said pod. 3. Put in a new one. 4. Reattach. A much more mundane possibility, if you ever rotate a part (like your tailfin) without having snap on, it can be nearly impossible to get it precisely realigned without using the uncommon space bar to reset its rotation. Finally, if your wheels are attached to an uneven surface they can occasionally pick up a bit of skew. The easiest way to see this is to select the part in rotate mode and press 'f' to swap quickly between relative and absolute. It'll make sense when you do it. Just get the two modes aligned. There used to be a button to do this automatically, but I think it got depricated. In any case, Good luck with your SSTOs, @Numerlor!

Thud... That TWR... why!?

@Rocketscience101, If you're asking for general opinion, I'm all for comedy. It's much easier to enjoy in small bites. I suppose it's also harder to make in large droves, but there ya go! I wonder if a day-in-the-life format would work well? Examples: http://www.marycagle.com/ & http://wastedtalent.ca/

We've been building Juno SSTO spaceplanes for a while now, but Juno SSTOs became a serious possibility since v1.2 rolled out thanks to less draggy Oscar Bs. The holy grail is to make a nice one that'll lift a Kerbal up to orbit, and it's totally in reach! @Thernos has a big one that'll do the job, and here's an example of a wee-little light one. Somewhere in between will be magic! Adorable SSTO Why? 'Cause it's so cute!

Good call, the circumnavigation challenges are classic. Downright heritage material, even! In the fine print though, it turns out out they're for airbreathers only, which caps speed ~1750m/s and makes it a quite different challenge.. I think the only close duplicate to this is the Escape Velocity: The Hypersonic Race challenge, The primary difference comes with the ever-important requirement for puns in the name for this challenge. Unfortunately, that old thread is at the limit where the forum says 'no necro, plz' on the bottom. I had gotten my version-2 ship up and running, but never decided to spend the 20minutes to actually circumnavigate... it just kinda petered after that. Maybe would be good to dust off the old plane and see how hypersonic flight is in 1.2... Aero forces just got an update (specifically body drag), I'm not sure for easier or harder. As for the name? Hm... It uses the wings to hold it down to Kerbin, so I'm gonna go with "Pull up Resistor". The ground crew don't look very amped, but say it has high potential as the logical bridge between avionics and space flight. A little fast and loose with those puns, but I felt in the spirit! May or may not give a swing at this, we'll have to see how it goes with the new drag model. If I do, I'll bug you for some clarifications, @RedPandaz. Test flight going fast enough the wings had to hold it down!

Welcome, @BXWRX! I like the spying filter. Looks eerily realistic. Also, good use of the sputnik + Goliath engine as the front 'pod', it's a good look. If you have any questions about the forums, feel free to ask.

Oh that picture! Maybe it shouldn't be as funny as I think it is, but it totally caught me off guard. edit: And I'll haul it up in a couple days. Since it's a .craft file, I may add my own section, too.

I like it! That moment at 2:10 where you were careening toward the water gave me one of these moments: . I made you a sub category for your swimming Kerbals. Glad you had fun!

Just starting to give a go at a large ISRU version. It's a bit of an abomination at the moment, but I finally hit resource neutral, and was excited so I figured to post. I think removing some wings will do it well, and swapping the fuel cells for solar panels. Pretilted wings allow it to fly at silly slow speeds.

Put a homestead on another planet? That actually sounds pretty cool.

We have a station! It was designed and launched by @HobbitJack, and I just hauled it out to Laythe. It appears to have one Sr. docking ring (presently occupied by the tug), so perhaps a section with plenty of docking rings would go well next. It looks like most of my LKO tugs were lost to the void, but I put a few more up there, and will probably be making some design improvements and relaunching next week. For now, here's the current file, and the mission recap: http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=22363988612199114035

@SlabGizor117, the OP, suggests using an SRB with just enough fuel to get to orbit.

@The Optimist Pretty! Close-up of mechanism please?

Sorry, that one's been done once by the prolific @hazard-ish. Yours is the first in 1.2 though . I think it goes without saying though it's a rare and difficult accomplishment, and I like your setup! um... If you'd like to keep pushing it down, I can show you a "developer unintended strategy" (glitch) to reenter kerbals from interstellar speeds in jetpack mode. Should buy you an extra 500m/s while pushing down the launch weight. I haven't tested it in 1.2, but I've been keeping up with the changelogs (I'm a glitch hunter) and it should still work. I mean... I'm a developer unintended strategy hunter! Anyway, your mission's an awesome one in it's own right, so just if you want! Edit: Woops, that was the low mass Eeloo mission thread... where was the low mass Moho mission thread. Uh. I'll do you a quick novelty search and be right back. Moho's a bit harder than Eeloo traditionally, so you may be in business! Edit Edit: I was remembering the low deltaV moho thread. For mass, I'm getting nothing lower than this. Good job!

6 Minutes to Critical 5:59 ... 5:58 ... ... KSC interns thought they could turn the pool into a spa by collecting all the RTGs and tossing them in. This bad situation will get a lot worse in 6 minutes when the water finishes evaporating. Build a car and get out of there! The farther the better. Time ticks down while you build (use a stopwatch or similar). Then when you launch, you can use the ingame timer to continue tracking the time while you drive maniacally away. At/Before the 6 minute mark, come to a complete stop and use F3 to find the distance with which you escaped. 10km should be a safe distance, but why not go for better? I'll write a 1-liner for each entry for the Hall of Fame, and order them by distance escaped. Good luck! Playing KSP on a toaster? No problem. If you want, apply these multipliers to your building time based on your system's memory (proxy for power): 16+GB 1.0x 8GB 0.8x 4GB 0.7x 2GB 0.6x Literally a toaster 0.5x Nitty Gritty: Sample Entry My sample entry. I was timing by the music, and may have found the challenge enhanced through Splashdown's rocking bass. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hall of Fame 61.2 km @xendelaar brought it back to basics and blasted by the competition with a manueverable whiplash one-seater. The craft wanted to do a surprising amount of flying given it had I-beams for "wings", but Xendelaar kept it firmly planted when not blasting off the backsides of moguls. The experience kept Jeb in "cackle maniacally" mode the entire trip, a good sign it went well. 51.5 km @Ragingdonut shot forward with an exquisitely pared down tricycle design which managed stability, to my amazement, at up to 175m/s with only a single rudder and pair of reaction wheels! 26.2 km @Darren9 rescued the interns, the purchasing department, and even the entire KSC Accidents Investigation Board with a panther powered rocket bus. This party bus did surprisingly little rocking as it eased its way through the foothills, a testament to its solid I-beam construction, enormous wheels and careful aerodynamic balance. 24.6 km w/mods@Tidus Klein proved once and for all that fasty pone is best pone with a zippy fire gouting behemoth, which rescued the entire KSC staff by combining the passenger carrying ability of a 747 with the ground covering ability of a rocket powered monster truck. When asked by reporters how they came up with the brilliant design that saved all KSC from the eminent disaster, Jeb and Bob reportedly looked at each other and asked "what disaster?" 23.5 km @tsgaerospace wore sunglasses at night with a solar powered night-time run utilizing the challenge's first active motorized wheels to give an extra kick to the Juno engine. The low-slung car is especially impressive with its concept and design work occurring _during the 6 minute challenge_! That's style. XX.X km Cunjo Carl escaped by flexing the muscles of Untitled Space Craft's mighty Juno engine and only lost a few little bits along the way. (How far did it go? It's a total secret . Wow us with your design!) Amphibeous Kerbals (They were having so much fun, nobody had the heart to tell them they were going the wrong way) 73.3 km With a devilishly simple design, @Numerlor dashed to the open waters and made wakes with Kerbals Safety Nightmare's twin whiplash powerhouse. The moment of contact was a tour-de-force of Kerbal engineering mastery, combining staging, emergency braking and pyrotechnic display into a single moment. Sunday Drivers (They were heading out for a drive anyways. What's all this fuss about? Crafts built off the clock) 17.1 km @aerodis enjoyed the classiest ride of all, making the mad dash away from KSC as part of a leisurely morning sprint in an enviable Jaguar mkIV. The attractive automobile jaunted at a realistic 30m/s, but managed the escape all in good time! Good show for Degrid Kerman and her outing of 4.

I'm right there with you, it took me a long time to learn landing, and the Mun is a surprisingly hard one. You know we don't have any bases yet (orbital, landed or floating). Would you like to try your hand at a small one of those? If you keep it under 45 tons and pop it into LKO with a Sr. docking ring in-line with its COM, I'll haul it out to Laythe. Might be a fun way to stretch your design muscles while staying close to home . Also, for quotes, you can type your reply into the whitespace underneath the quote box. When it's a long quote it doesn't look like it's there, but you can throw in a few carriage returns and it'll open up. In other news, I tossed together my free-to-use transfer stages this evening and I'll grab a slot on the calendar to launch a few sets into LKO soon. Each one can do 50tons to LLO if you pilot carefully, or 40tons if you pilot like me . They come joined together in sets of 5, so you can use 1 for 50 tons, 3 for 150tons or 5 for 250 tons (= 40, 120 or 200tons for folks in a hurry). The same launcher also hauls up 5 little refueler ships with 16tons (1440) fuel each, that are quite manueverable and have deorbiting SRBs. The idea is, if you want to top off a small ship (like a space plane) on its way out to Laythe, you can just call on one of these little fellows, and then crash them back down to Kerbin. SPACE PROGRAM EFFICIENCY! Edit: They're up there! I launched up 3 of the sets of 5. The only oddity to know is that the long-range antenna are bound to action group 1, which may be handy if you wind up out of range of @HobbitJack's network. The 15 little ones are called probes in the tracking station, while the big sets are just called "xfer ship". They're super easy to put up there, so please use them wantonly. Latest: http://s000.tinyupload.com/?file_id=32449404121897084317

If I'm remembering right, the burn from interplanetary transfer to LLO is only like 1-1.5km/s right? I'm an old hat at megarockets and 1.2 has made them a breeze- would it be handy for people if I put a big (~1kton) fuel depot in LKO so you could just refuel and burn rockets rather than burn up aerobraking? Laythe is a surprisingly burny place. I've also learned that the hard way very many times! In fact, I think it's all my bad experiences trying to get to Laythe that makes this challenge compelling to me! Huh. I could even put a bunch of gigantic transfer stages in LKO, so you could just bring up a Sr. Docking Ring, and hitch a ride from it to LLO. Sorry about the plane, @53miner53, I've been there before! KSP is like darksouls for engineers . Nice colony ship, @Windchild, It'd be the first big influx of Kerbals, which seems kindof momentous. Edit: Just noticed the second page . I'll toss some rockets for making transfers up to LKO this weekend. In the meantime, I was thinking here maybe?:

Nah, gotta stay grounded (jumps naturally ok). Having the rover be aerodynamically stable is a huge advantage though, so if you already have an flyable rover perhaps try throwing some extra wheels on and see how it does! Alternatively, there was a challenge just a few months back for flying to the north pole. We could probably necromance it back to being if you were gunning for making the trip by air.

@dundun92 Even if they didn't work, they sure look good. Good luck on your next iterations if you keep at it- was it just the squirliness that got you?

Oh gosh, this thing.It's from an old challenge, but how could I not repost it. I think I'll let the video speak for itself, but "breath fire" should be at the start of the video, and "rocket tail" at 1:00. @Tyr Anasazi Nice stock rocket pack!