The Flying Kerbal

I never played BtSM, but what about Unkerballed Start, have you looked at it? There is/was another one called Probes First, an excellent mod too but I'm not sure if it runs properly in 1.10.1.

Not just today, but a few days here! Sergei and the gang over at Rusty Star Rockets have had an amazingly busy week. With launch windows opening both to and from Duna, it was lucky nobody caught a cold in the draught! First things first, and with Duna in the perfect position for the orbiter RSR sent out to the Red Planet back at the last launch window, to begin its journey home, it was time to see if the "Goodrax" engine would reignite after being shut down for so long in the icy cold space around Duna. It Did! The Duna Orbiter Performing Its Kerbin Injection Burn. After a very successful injection burn, the engine shut down as the craft began its long and lonely journey back to Kerbin. Loaded with science, the plan is to rendezvous with the Monstrosity Space Station in Kerbin orbit, to transfer it over to the science module for processing. As one window closes, another opens and so it was with a good alignment for a Kerbin-Duna transfer. Not to miss any opportunity, Sergei had planned for two launches as part of RSR's Project Geonikis, the mission to ultimately see a Kerbal plant the company rag flag on the surface of Duna. Geonikis II is virtually a carbon copy of Geonikis I, an orbiter with a small lander attached which will be dropped unto Duna to find out what the surface is made of and carry out some science experiments. The lander has been modified since the Geonikis I test dropped it unto the North Pole of Kerbin, with the landing gear having been greatly beefed up to help absorb the higher impact expected because of Duna's weak atmosphere. Geonikis II On Top Of A Rust Box Booster, Ready For Launch. The launch went without any problems, orbit around Kerbin was achieved, and a few hours later the transfer burn out to Duna was successfully completed. Geonikis II In LKO. Geonikis III was next off the pad. This launch was highly controversial, even by RSR standards, because it was rumoured some raving lunat... someone had wanted this not very reputable shower of rogues, ruffians and villains to test an "Atomic Atom" nuclear engine over Ike. Sergei immediately said no but then he heard the financial reward being offered was over three hundred grand, and suddenly we had an atomic engine on the launch pad! Geonikis III Clears The Tower. Again the launch was perfect, the Rust Box-LB3 lift vehicle pushing it up to an 80K orbit Geonikis III In LKO. Apart from the atomic engine test, Geonikis III will put a small probe into an orbit of Ike where it will take a number of temperature readings and, using the much larger relay antenna on the Geonikis II orbiter, signal them back to Kerbin. And finally, and much nearer home, "Project Skip Hoaker" was successfully completed, when a small asteroid - nothing more than a pebble really - had an even smaller probe attach to it as part of a program to learn more about these potentially dangerous objects. Project Skip Hoaker Carrying Out The Burn To Intercept The Asteroid. Just Seconds Away From Contact... Contact Light! This probe has been stuffed with science experiments because I really have no idea how KSP deals with asteroids when they leave the Kerbin system. I suspect they'll just be on rails like the planets, but hey... maybe Kerbin's gravity will fling it towards another planet, and I might get some dirt cheap science! @The Doodling Astronaut That's a super cool looking rocket you used to launch your asteroid grabber, ten time better than the pile of rubbish I used to do mine. But then again, your space agency is funded properly whereas Rusty Star Rockets has to rummage through bins and rubbish dumps to acquire their hardware! But seriously, that thing looks really classy mate.

Get back into orbit from Eve's surface.

This! A very long time ago now, but this was a screenshot I took the first time I ever reached Duna. I scrolled right out to hide the ship, so it looks like it was actually taken by a camera on it. I can't remember why I was coming in over the South Pole, nor even what the mission was, but hey... a nice image is a nice image!

Nothing's insane if it works!

I've never used MJ so can't comment on it. The maths in the video looks absolutely terrifying, I nearly ran a mile when I saw it! However it got to the stage where I had to just sit down and tackle it. It took me a little while and many mistakes were made, but I finally got the grasp of it, now I can figure out how to calculate what orbit I need for a specific reason. I highly recommend you give it a try, believe me, if I can get it, anyone can! As for the solution to reducing the power of your RCS, actually it won't be noticed unless you really go out of your way to spot it. The thrust is set so low there is almost nothing to be seen coming out of the RCS nozzle. And anyway... you're in space - there's nobody there to see it! Well that's how I would do it, but I suspect there are people here who are WAY better than me at KSP, maybe they have a more elegant solution for you.

Those are no clouds... they're dust storms! I had the same problem too, but the fix is easy enough. Open up the AVP folder in the GameData folder in you KSP install. Then open AVP_Configs, followed by the Duststorms folder. Then just delete whatever relates to the moons and planets you don't want to have affected by these. Personally I just left Duna and Moho, removing everything else. Duna - similar to Mars - would have these normally in my opinion, while I've read somewhere that the effect around Moho represents ablation as it's so close to Kerbol. Hope this helps.

I see you have Kerbal Engineer installed. You can have it set up to show you the exact period of a vessel's orbit, down to - I think - 1/1000th of a second. It's a great tool making what you're trying to do so very much easier. To calculate the correct orbits to aim for, I can't do any better than recommend a video by Mike Aben, here's a link to it on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNiFcI-fcmA. As for further reducing the power of your RCS thrusters, have you tried disabling two of them? With the thrust set to 0.5 coupled with CAPS LOCK on, there's a very good chance the reaction wheel will be able to keep your satellites pointing in the right direction.

Sigh... so it's back to the landing legs then. Thanks for answering.

I'm planning a little trip to the Eve system in my Rusty Star Rockets Career, and was thinking about a better way to land on Gilly. Usually when I try this, even creeping down at extremely slow speed, I always seem to have trouble getting the lander to settle down on the surface because of the tiny Gilly gravity. So I came up with what I thought was a good idea: remove the landing legs and have an Advanced Grabbing Unit instead! They work perfectly fine on asteroids, so why not a moon or even a planet too, right? Unfortunately in tests on Minmus, I don't seem able to get the Claw to grab the surface, is this because it won't, or because I'm not doing it right? In the screenshot you can see a little science probe I landed beside a Minmus Science Base; it looks like it has grabbed the surface, but it's just sitting there, the reaction wheel onboard is keeping it steady. Am I flogging a dead horse with this idea, or is there a way of getting this to work that I am unaware of? Thanks everyone.

Good question echpachmacc, and one that I can't answer. Unfortunately reading your post had me go check my own KSP with AVP, and I too have white clouds in the night sky over Duna.

Thanks HansAcker, I'm gonna download it now and see what happens.

OK lads and lasses, I've installed AVP into KSP 1.10 and things are going pretty good! I might have a slight issue with the clouds on the horizon when orbiting Kerbin, and the planet itself appears too white on the menu screen, but I can live with these. I'm now hoping to install the Astronomers Music Pack, but I'm being told to do this by putting the files into the 'main directory' - what the heck is that? Is there a file called Main Directory that I'm not seeing, or is it just the folder called Kerbal Space Program inside my Steam folder? I hope someone will clarify this for me, thanks all.

Excellent, thanks very much.

Quick question here guys: to install AVP do I need SVE? I'm not entirely sure about this. Thanks.

These last few days (Earth time) have buzzed with activity over at Rusty Star Rockets. You may recall that wealthy Kerbals had appeared at the base of RSR with Sergei Kerman's love of money overruling his loathing of tourists, and him agreeing to take them where they wanted to go. After several successful launches, he'd managed to weed them down from nine to two, but then another five popped up, again with bulging wallets, and again Sergei's greed securing them flights into space. These tourist flights have now came to a successful conclusion, and as the last of their unwelcome guests waved goodbye, things returned to a more normal routine at RSR. "Project Geonikis", the project which aims to see Kerbals standing on the surface of Duna, got of the ground with the launch of Geonikis I, a small lander and orbiter being placed into a polar orbit of Kerbin. One of the new Gene's Heartbreak launch vehicles was used, which was way too big for this particular mission, but it's thought this was a test flight to see if the work RSR engineers had put into sorting out the stability problems experienced when this booster was first used, had been ironed out. Unfortunately the problem hasn't gone away with even RSR admitting "Stability continues to be an issue". Nevertheless, the launch was successful, the lander detached and landed by parachute on the North Pole. Although RSR hasn't released any information as to what the goals of this mission were, observers in the space industry concluded it was some sort of communications test, a suggestion which is supported by the fact the orbiter went into a highly elliptical polar orbit, with the Ap. at the same altitude as the height of Duna's SOI. Unfortunately after pulling off a successful mission related to landing on Duna, Rusty Star Rockets then reverted back to form, pulling off what can only be considered a heist! RSR is always looking for ways, either by fair means or foul, to find out what secrets and technological breakthroughs bitter rivals the Kerbal Space Agency have hidden away from the public gaze. A three Kerballed command pod fell into their hands some time back when a KSA flight had a major malfunction, leaving one of their Kerbanauts stranded in LKO. RSR launched an immediate rescue attempt; but instead of doing it in the conventional way, they used a vehicle called the Turkey Buzzard, which not only rescued the Kerbal, but brought the capsule back to the RSR base too! This time Sergei discovered that a KSA C7 Brand Adaptor had been left in a highly inclined orbit around Minmus. RSR always has a recover package ready for launch for just such an occurrence, and sure enough within one day a mission to stea to salvage the piece of equipment was underway! Understandably, James Kerman, CEO of the KSA, went off the deep end when he heard yet another piece of equipment had fallen into the hands of "those ruffians and rogues" over at RSR. He ordered an immediate investigation into how this could happen, demanding heads roll when those responsible are found out. His red hot temper probably wasn't soothed a great deal when Sergei Kerman said if KSA keeps giving them stuff like this, RSR will be able to launch a mission to Duna for free!

Today I continued flying tourists to various destinations around Kerbin's SOI or just outside it, in my Rusty Star Rockets career. One little Kerbal decided it would be fun to hire RSR for flybys of the Mun, Minmus, and then entering a nice quick orbit of Kerbol before heading home. So the rocket took off, Kerbanaut Martrude at the helm, and just for fun, a gravity assist was used to get from the Mun to Minmus. Everything went absolutely perfectly, the assist ending with a nice Minmus encounter, which then had a very slight engine burn to get out of Kerbin's SOI for a very brief period. After this, a quick burn toward Kerbin and in no time at all, the Pe. was down to 35K, all set for reentry and landing. And no hiccups occured during any of this either, if only all my missions went this smoothly. It was only after landing on Kerbin... I realised I'd forgotten to load on the tourist!

OK, here we go... the time has come to post the launch vehicles which have become the workhorses of my Rusty Star Rockets career game. They may not be the most elegant you'll ever see, but being RSR they're different and they work - most of the time...

I'm curious, does anyone know if a comet can actually hit a planet?

If I'm reading you post correctly, and it's been a long day so I'm probably not, but are you looking up into the night sky while on the screen that gives you access to all KSC buildings? If so then, unless it was changed between the pre-release version that was sent out to some Youtubers and what we mere mortals finally got in 1.10., if you look at a video produced by Ytuber Shadow Zone, he was focused on the launchpad and looking up into the sky. a comet was easily visible in bother daylight and dark. BTW and slightly - well OK, seriously - off topic here, how do you add Hidden Content to posts on this forum? Surely you aren't going to stop posting reports about this mission now! We need to see them getting home safely.

2020 for me.

After the excitement of the two Duna vessels arriving at their destination yesterday, today was extremely quiet at Sergei Kerman's uncle's farmyard which doubles up as home to Rusty Star Rockets. However a number of potential space tourists arrived at the gate to enquire about the possibility of contracting RSR to take them on tours into orbit and beyond. Normally Sergei makes short shift of tourists, considering them a dangerous nuisance risking their own lives and the lives of professional Kerbanauts who have to fly with them on these nonsensical missions. He nearly tore the head of his deputy Vasily Kerman when he mentioned the teenagers waiting outside to see him. Sergie: NO, ABSOLUTELY NOT, WE WON'T WASTE TIME RESOURCES AND RISK LIVES PANDERING TO THESE SPOILT BRATS! Vasily: But Sergei, they're off... S: I said NO, and that's it... that's all there is to it!!! V: If we do this we'll make almost one point... S: Are you deaf... did you not hear me saying NO! V: I suspect they heard you over at the KSA, but we'll make about one and a half million if we do it... S: NO, ABSOLUTELY NOT, NEVER EV... wait, wh... what was that... how much did you say?? V: One point five million and that's after our expenses. S: Will they be giving us an advance? V: Over 100K each... S: Hmm... I mean I've always said, the youth of today are tomorrow's Kerbanauts and I feel it's our responsibility to nurture them and steer them along the right road to the stars... oh and make sure you don't let them run off with our pen when they've written their cheques! So with contracts signed and money having changed hands, RSR hopes to get the first of these tourist flights off the pad tomorrow.

I can't answer your question, but have you thought of downloading the craft file Matt posted the link to on that video, taking it into the VAB and dismantling it to see if you can learn its secrets? I've never managed an Eve ascent but I know in the current career I'm playing, it won't be too long before I'm offered a contract to "experience that pleasure". So I've actually got another game going called "Craft Dissection" into which I download the craft files for as many Eve landers as possible, pull them to pieces and see what makes them tick. This might help me build a lander which could perform the mission, but I've yet to find a way of improving my lousy piloting skills. I know this isn't much help, but it might give you some help with your Eve lander.

Apart from playing the Demo which probably doesn't really count, I've always played with mods to rearrange things so probes are unlocked first. However I do agree with your post, the stock tech tree is very poorly organised. For example and as you mentioned, ladders; even if we ignore the extendable types, why is it more complicated to screw on the basic ladder to the side of a spacecraft, than to design and build a Mk1 Command Pod or Flea SRB?

Today two Rusty Star Rockets vessels arrived at Duna! The first was designed to carry a number of different pieces of hardware to the red planet for testing. Testing the Atomic Atom Engine on a suborbital trajectory over Duna. When all tests were finished, what was left of the craft was used as a surface impactor to see if Duna was solid and could be landed on at some point in the future. First impressions are that Duna probably is quite firm... A few hours later and the second vessel was rapidly approaching Duna. Space Junk! The RSR Orbiter approaching Duna and its moon Ike. This time the mission was to test how efficiently the Dunian atmosphere would act to at least slow the vehicle, if not to capture it completely, and then establish a Low Duna Orbit where it will stay until a window opens to permit an easy transfer back to Kerbin. While reducing the apoapsis of its orbit by aerobraking during a series of orbits, onboard cameras took an image of a Duna sunrise... A blue sunrise at Duna. RSR scientists speculate this might be because of dust in the atmosphere - or the result of using cameras recovered from the skip next door! As it approached the Ap of its orbit for the last time before raising its Pe, the injection stage was discarded to fall down onto the planet below. The vessel then proceeded to put itself into a 65K circular orbit, where it will wait for the day to return to Kerbin. The orbiter in its final 65K equatorial orbit of Kerbin.