HalcyonSon

Reaction Wheels or RCS on your Klaw. Without that, the best you can do is try to eyeball it. If you made the grab at all straight, you should be able to point your engine centerline at the middle of the lander can and be okay. To align your thrust with the center of mass, first right-click on the Klaw and unlock the pivot, then maneuver using [W][A][S ][D] to where you think the mess will go straight, lock the pivot, and give it gas. Repeat as needed.

I'm surprised anyone NEEDED to test it. I've burned up many a first stage decoupler with second stage engine exhaust. The exhaust appeared to through the middle, but the heat definitely transferred. Cool! Didn't know that! Yes. There's always someone interested. If you have the know-how, go for it!

Planes usually get "Kerb-" and something related to the engine. "Jet" for the Juno, "fan" for the Wheasley, etc. Then a descriptor such as "Science," "LD" for Long Distance, "HI" for HIgh Altitude, etc. Satellites are simple descriptors of the body they orbit and their function. "Kerbin Polar Surveyor," "Mun CommSat 1," "Early 180 Incline Contract," "Kerbin Far Out Comms." The last two actually apply to an early satellite contract that I re-purposed into a test platform for a comm relay in a polar orbit (around 83Mm) at the edge of the Kerbin system. Early rocket designs that I know I'll improve later on say so "Early 1.25m Mun Tourism," "Early 2.5m Lander," etc. More complicated missions have more descriptive names such as "Mun Biome Hopper Carrier" and their multi-part payloads get simplified "MBH Rover 1." Unhappily, one of the more common names in my career is "Klaw." "Minmus Science Return Klaw," "Early Polar Commsat Klaw," "Minmus Scrap Return Klaw," "Mun Rescue Klaw 3." These all refer to a basic design that gets slight tweaks depending on the mission requirement. My "Klaw Return Vessel 2" gets a lot of use and called a lot of different names and I could practically launch it in my sleep.

Launched a MicroSat M700 Survey Scanner... well the satellite is micro, not the payload. The Scanner is enormous compared to anything attached to it. Turns out Kerbin is an awful place to test ISRU - the highest ore concentration I saw was around 3.5%. I also designed and partially tested a new 2.5m Mun lander to drop another M700 MicroSat in orbit over Mun, grab a bit more science, and complete a "plant flag on Mun" contract. 1,750 m/s of dV in the Lander alone should ensure that it can get home safely without a Klaw rendezvous. I am hoping to remove the M700 in the future and use this Lander for crew training. The dV gained from removing the M700 should be enough to upgrade the design from "Mun landing and return" to "Mun and Minmus landing and return." Why use landing gear though? Why not use the spots and floods provided? It would be a nothing job to drop a dozen of them (with a battery and solar panel) around KSC using a small rover. Come to think of it, I really like that idea. I'm going to illuminate the monolith tonight. Maybe I'll add a beacon on the mountains too! ... What would it take to make it rotate... hmmm.

Played KSP a small amount yesterday, and have an entry that I hope to get posted tonight. It won't score terribly high, but it is the smallest package I've managed with the M700 Survey Scanner. It's quite difficult to cram enough EC onto a MicroSat for that large a data dump. Funny looking thing, what with that huge Scanner dish dwarfing all the other components. This one is only a single MicroSat in a 250 km polar orbit around Kerbin, but I have one built into a carrier that's on its way to Minmus now.

Maybe it's a difficulty setting, but I haven't been able to transfer fuel or monoprop through the Klaw in 1.2.2. It would have made my life much easier on several missions, such as my first Kerbal and Capsule rescue from Mun surface and my 180 inclination satellite reboost. I now have a useless Klaw permanently attached to a satellite in a high retrograde orbit for no other reason than it decreases clutter. If I could have transferred fuel, the satellite on its own could easily have made the correct orbit, and the Klaw could have returned to Kerbin. I don't have a problem suspending disbelief for Klaw fuel transfer. Who's to say that Kerbals don't have something like a super-strong mushroom patch and some fix-a-flat? Or even a small automated ultrasonic welder? It's not outside the realm of possibility. I once used Thuds to hover a Munbase expansion, with a Terrier to push it closer to the first section. Absolute nightmare to maneuver and align because everything worked off the same throttle. Required constant right-click menu fine-tuning of thrust. Horrendous Kraken bait trying to quickload a hovering base section within 1m of a section sitting on landing legs. I plan to use Docking Port equipped mini lander/rover tugs to assemble my next base.

That's exactly what I had in mind. It looks like it will be more successful than some of early attempts too. My first probe to Minmus didn't carry as much Science or dV - in fact, it may still be waiting for a Klaw to grab the return container and make the Kerbin reentry burn. 147!? My computer would go up in smoke if I tried that! Very nicely done.

Splitting off from NotAgain's thread. What's the smallest STOCK satellite you can manage that is still useful? How many can you launch at once for new exploration? Forgive me for not posting my designs until I get back from a quick trip. No TweakScale, no Parts Packs, no MechJeb, no KOS, just plain old KSP. We all know it's stupid easy to pop a probe core with a solar panel into orbit and call it a satellite, so none of that. I want to see actual, interesting exploration designs. Probes to go where no Kerbal has. I play on Career, so my plan is to experiment on Mun and Minmun with various manned and unmanned designs, before launching a large carrier with as many small probes as I can to other bodies. Each MicroSat must be able to communicate and transmit science back to KSC... how they do that is up to you. Below are suggestions for science packages - innovative packaging is a plus, as is ease of use. Ideally, A Carrier should arrive in system, pop it's cargo bay or fairing, and then KSC just has to take command of each probe briefly to slurp up that delicious science. Keep in mind that this is exploration at its best - the only place with a communications network is Kerbin. Points will be awarded for most MicroSats in a single carrier rather than outright mass. More science returned gives more points. Identifying specific landing locations for future manned missions earns more points. Setting up a full commnet around the new body / system in the same launch earns more points. If you can do everything in one launch with a bunch of little probes, you win the internet for the day. Call it 25 points per probe attached to the carrier, 5 points for each science experiment on a representative probe (one probe each representing comms, orbital science, and landed science), 50 points for setting a full commnet, and 10 points for each degree of ease-of-use. The lowest being full user control of each probe, next being high-level control (like put SAS in retrograde and hit the throttle) and best being zero user input needed (or at least just a few action groups). We have thousands of probe droids searching the galaxy. I want proof, not leads!" ―Admiral Kendal Ozzel

I'll double-check, but I recall getting a message that "Warp is not available while moving across the surface."

I think the uncovered 1x6 panels would be more efficient and weigh less But enough of that here. I don't have pics of an entry, but I can start the thread and throw mine up when I get back next week.

Very cool. I already launched that ship with a bit of clipping, but this knowledge will come in handy. I assume this trick could also be used to stretch a 2.5m Service Bay's height to fit a larger rover.

How did you do that? I can't seem to time warp while I'm driving a rover.

Obviously, "functional satellite" will need to be revised lol. Can't have somebody just pop a probe core and a basic solar panel in orbit and call it good. This will take some thought. Expect to see something around Wednesday next week. I didn't realize there were so many mods with small satellite parts out there. Very cool.

Is it really that easy? I might have a use for a slimmer Modular Girder. The normal size is the right length, but a bit wide and deep for mounting the Survey Scanner inside a 2.5m Fairing. A smaller one could also be useful for rover construction.

I didn't notice a lack of acceleration- drove about the same as full grav and Mun grav tests at the KSC. No problem getting up slopes either - the steepest crater walls I attempted just required a small amount of tacking across the slope. My biggest issue with them was remembering to brake to a stop for quicksaves every few minutes. I drove the same distance several times due to breakages, and quicksaving during a crater rim leap was almost physically painful because the rover repeatedly quickloaded into a fireball. Each rover was only meant to hit two or three biomes, and were outfitted and landed accordingly. The most ambitious made it from the northern Highlands Craters to Highlands, Poles, and Polar Lowlands. By the time I parked it on a peak above the odd looking northern canyon, it was down to two wheels from four. Not the sturdiest design, but very persistent little guys. Managed to pick up about 600 science with just two each of the Barometer, Thermometer, and Goo on four little rovers. I played a bit this morning and came up with a small biome hopper that includes Barometer, Thermometer, Goo, Science Jr, Atmosphere Sampler, and Surface Scanner. I crammed four on a carrier (replacing the rovers), along with the Survey Scanner and a lander with a Scientist. I'm sort of testing different approaches to exploration. This one goes to Minmus. The hoppers should be capable of returning to the carrier, rather than merely transmitting their science back. The Minmus lander will have a docking port connection to the carrier, rather than the Mun version's decoupler. This should allow it to refuel and have enough dV to get home without launching another Klaw rescue.

This challenge would be more interesting to me if you had different stock categories... I might have to start a stock satellite challenge. Anyone know if one already exists?

I like the alternate uniform color. Where is that from? I also landed some disposable unmanned rovers on Mun. Great fun for a bit, but they are AWFUL for covering long distances between biomes. Top speed on basic rover wheels was about 20 m/s, and then I was very thankful for the Reaction Wheels I installed. Rover wheels go "poof" fast at that speed.

Everything @p1t1o said is spot on. If you keep dicking around the way you're going, you're in for a world of hurt. You can get some nasty (DANGEROUS, HARMFUL, POISONOUS, EXPLOSIVE) stuff by zapping random mixtures of chemicals. If all you want is small amounts of H2 and O2, all you need is very basic stuff from the grocery store: distilled water (about $1 / gallon) and replacement mechanical pencil lead (about $5 for a dozen) and some cheap tupperware (about $3).

What are you trying to do? What's the end goal? Do you simply want small amounts of Hydrogen and Oxygen? Are you trying to measure the difference in conductivity of various solutions?

"Control from Here" only works when you're in command of the vehicle. I've found that re-mapping the rover controls makes a HUGE difference in stability. My rovers are so small that a Small Reaction Wheel can stand them on one wheel and are gyro-stabilized when they jump off crater rims (great for aligning fixed solar panels - or driving after losing multiple wheels). By default, Wheel Control is set to the normal rocket / plane control keys (WASD), so trying to drive a rover also engages the RCS and Reaction Wheels. You'll have to go into Settings from the main menu to change it, but I suggest setting Wheel Control to the Number Pad (8426).

Oh no, I got that. Just thinking that the same problems may apply - specifically, getting antennas and solar panels to clear obstacles between components. A five degree misalignment means nothing when they're retracted, but could cause major problems extended. What is that, the size of a shoebox!? I don't think it's possible to build anything that small in stock. I don't have any mods yet that add parts - my computer struggles with stock game at times.

I like the sound of that. It can be a pain to get station ring components lined up perfectly when the stock docking ports allow mating at any orientation.

Pics? How do you manage anything smaller than Mk0 that includes a probe core? Ant engines and the RCS thruster are smaller, but none of the fuel tanks are smaller than Mk0 scale.

I think the distance is 2.3 km.

It may be possible, but I'm no modder. I did notice though, that the in-flight portraits show a small log if you hover over the right place. That log could probably be useful with the right skills.