Cavscout74

The Mk 2 body is probably the worst possible choice for a low to mid tech spaceplane. I don't have any other helpful advice - my closest spaceplane design to your requirement is a Panther/NERV 1.25m fuselage with only 2 passengers plus pilot. And it doesn't have enough dV to even get a Mun fly-by after making orbit - only 300 or so dV once in LKO. Maybe 400 if I flew extra carefully

I had seen Simplex, just not Tetrix. I've tried Simplex before, but that was quite a while ago and IIRC some (most?) of the mods I was using weren't supported and I just didn't want to deal with writing all the patches for them at the time. Tetrix looks very intriguing - I'm probably going to plug it into a test save I have and see how it works later this week.

This looks interesting, may have to try this in my next career. I'm really not sure how I missed it before now.

I love the idea!!! And if I had a dollar for every time I've had those two thoughts back to back in KSP, I think I could retire & just play KSP full time

I finished my Mun drive & posted a career update here. As mentioned earlier, paint drying: More paint drying Finally reaching the end was nice:

Update 03:143 One foot on the brake and one on the gas, hey! Ongoing Missions: Mun Outpost A - Demolished on 03:133 Minmus Outpast A - Since the surface scanner showed the ore concentration was only about 2%, and having gone over 100 days on the surface, the fourth crew demolished the base & returned to Kerbin on 03:143 Pioneer-Jool - Expected to arrive in Jool's SoI on 04:249 Kerbinport Station - Pheobe, Johnny & Samdas have 50 days remaining on their 6 month stay. KIRO-1 - Arrived at Ap on 03:094 & established a 14.1 Gm by 13.9 Gm orbit as required by contract and began scanning for Kerbin-threatening asteroids. It is planned once the contract is complete to move it to a lower orbit closer to the other two KIRO craft. Moho Surveyor - Departed Kerbin on 03:083, course correction planned for 03:191 Dres Surveyor - Finally departed on 03:122, course correction planned for 03:314 Girrok MultiComm - Inserted relay "C" on 03:126, completing the outer Kerbin equatorial comm network. Manned Launches: DSC Dawngrazer MRL2-2 03:090 - Val & Ambera launched on another MRL2 to investigate reports of an unusual object on the Mun - possibly related to the object found by Jeb in Kerbin's arctic ice caps. Once again, a direct landing without entering orbit first was the simplest and they set down a few hundred meters from the objective. Ambera jetted over to investigate, then returned & they departed after just a few minutes on the surface. DSC Dawngrazer MPV-2ER-6 03:114 - Rescue contract for Jim Kermin around Minmus. Engineer Barnie Kerman was assigned the rescue to give Kelrik a break. Upon arriving around Minmus, Barnie set up a maneuver that put her less than 1 km from the derelict after swinging around Minmus. A small course correction brought that down to just 18.5m. Rescue went off without a hitch and they returned to Kerbin safely, landing in the desert between DSC & KSC KSC Dawngrazer ML3-3 03:132 - Lodzon, Johnny & Kathberry launched to the Mun to test out the new Buffalo-Mun rover and decommission the old Mun outpost. Landing & base decommissioning went well but they decided to wait for dawn to explore further with the Buffalo-Mun rover. Once dawn arrived, the refueled ML3 was launched north to land next to the old Mun Remote Rover, roughly 100km away. Once it was safely down, the crew headed out in the Buffalo to explore the terrain & see how a large rover handled in low g. Getting out of the east crater - the first few km of the journey - was the hardest. Despite not seeing a single crater to date, both a small & large mun crater were found & scanned with the scanning arm on the trip out of the east crater. Once at the crater rim, they stopped for a few hours to rest & recharge batteries. Upon continuing, it took less than two hours to make the trip, but it felt like much longer. Due to a series of impact craters, the course was a zig-zag that was substantially longer than the 95km the map showed. A few areas got a little dicey, but the initial climb out of the east crater remained the most difficult part. Upon arriving at the Mun Remote Rover, they took some pics, grabbed the science from the trip and headed for home, landing safely in the desert east of DSC. WSC SOTV-4-1 03:140 - First flight of tourists on the (redesigned) SOTV-4. All went well and the cost-cutting changes didn't adversely affect the flight characteristics. Unmanned Launches: DSC Steamglider RSS-Mun 03:097 - Since Mun was the last "local" body that hadn't been scanned for resources, a new Resource Survey Scanner was built & launched. It will also supplement the aging MRCO-2 relay for far-side & polar communications. Everything went well, and we got our first resource scans of Mun. KSC Girrok Buffalo-Mun Rover 03:111 - Advances in technology have unlocked the means to create a self-contained surface exploration rover. The initial version was launched to Mun and landed safely near the old Mun Outpost A. The one slight drawback is the TWR is fairly low and I misjudged the how long the suicide burn would take with the skycrane. Only by quickly repurposing the Sepratrons (intended to pull the skycrane up & away from the rover after landing) was I able to shed enough velocity to land safely. Happily, there was plenty of fuel remaining in the skycrane, so its engines were able to perform the eject & self-destruct sequence without the sepratrons. I think I'm going to upgrade the design to use Cub engines in place of the two Twitch engines. WSC SOTV-4-T 03:131 - Flight test of a new low-cost LKO tourist vehicle SRB Orbital Tourist Vehicle (SOTV)-4. Primarily SRB powered - 4 Thumpers to launch, a fifth Thumper as second stage, then a Hammer third stage and finally a Pug engine to circularize & deorbit. Flight test went well - the second stage thrust is a little low and the third stage Hammer overshot the target Ap (105km vs 85km), but the cost is actually higher than the Dawngrazer OTV-4 by 1000 funds. Going over the design item by item was able to reduce cost, down to 18,799 funds which is about 900 less than the current OTV-4. This does result in a craft without a proper LES, relying instead on the third stage Hammer to ignite & hopefully push the crew cabin to safety, which isn't viable though the entire flight. Aircraft: None Debris: Skydiver-Min-01 2nd Stage - 03:060 - 124x4331km, 6.5* inclination Other: Admin upgrade started on 03:094, and completed on 03:111. The prototype Buffalo-Mun rover was built & tested near KSC by Kelrik & Ambera for several days. Also tested was an autonomous underwater drone - based off a torpedo design - for exploration on planets with liquid bodies like Eve & possibly Laythe. Finally, MRCO-2 was deorbited as it was no longer needed with the completion of the comm network.

I watched paint dry. No wait, I drove a rover 100km on Mun. Roughly the same if you do it at safe speeds - and since my career is no revert/no quickload, that's the only way to do it.

Pretty much how I found my first Mun arch

Another option - either as a mod (KVASS) or just using a calculator - which has been my approach the last few careers - works also.

Posted another update for my career Highlights include: A rocket attack on Minmus Tried my hand at hauling orbital debris And tested out a seaplane - Jeb says its a great platform for fishing

Update 03:082 Yeah, we got a little convoy, Ain't she a beautiful sight? Ongoing Missions: Mun Outpost A - Mothballed Minmus Outpast A - The fourth & final crew is at the outpost for a 90 day stay. Pioneer-Jool - Expected to arrive in Jool's SoI on 04:249 Kerbinport Station - Pheobe, Johnny & Samdas have 112 days remaining on their 6 month stay. KIRO-1 - Will arrive at Ap on 03:094 KIRO-2 - Arrived at Pe & established a 10.5 Gm by 11 Gm orbit around Kerbol to begin tracking asteroids. KIRO-3 - Arrived at Pe & established a 10 Gm by 10.5 Gm orbit around Kerbol and began asteroid tracking duties. Moho Surveyor - Will depart 03:083 Dres Surveyor - Will depart 03:122 Girrok MultiComm - Inserted relay "B" into its 62500km orbit on 03:073, and relay "C" will be inserted on 03:126 Manned Launches: KSC Gi MMV-XR-1 03:034 - In a repeat of the last multi-rescue, another is planned. The first will be in LKO, then a Minmus orbit and finally a Mun orbit rescue. To ensure sufficient dV, a stretched version of the MMV is being built - the XR (eXtreme Range) with an up-sized launch vehicle to get it into orbit. Since it will launch unmanned, the LES is again replaced by a simple aerodynamic nosecone. The first rescue, of engineer Arbin, went smoothly. The transfer to Minmus occurred just a few minutes after the her rescue. The second rescue of Nicole - another engineer - in very low Minmus orbit went quickly & the boosted up to a safer orbit to plot the trip to Mun. It worked out they were able to depart Minmus almost immediately straight to a Mun intercept on the return to Kerbin. In fact, it put them passing just 208km from the final rescuee. No course corrections were performed until entering Mun's SoI, when a 56 m/s course correction put them on a direct intercept. Velocity difference was substantial - 480 m/s - but there was plenty of fuel left in the MMV and they ended up just 268m apart on the initial velocity matching maneuver. Two quick burns later, they were sitting just 20m apart & Nellan was rescued. The return to Kerbin was smooth & they splashed down just 25km from KSC. DSC DG MPV-2ER-5 03:068 - An attempt at catching & deorbiting a spent rocket stage. Kelrik is assigned the mission with Val as pilot. Equipment for several different recovery plans was loaded on board - from cables & winches to a docking port to a probe core & set of several sepratrons. Launched into a matching inclination, Val was able to set up an intercept for about 2 hours after reaching orbit. After rendezvous, Kelrik performed an EVA to attach a cable to the debris stage to allow Val to use RCS to lower the Pe. While that system worked, it was extremely slow so they made an attempt to fire the main engine on low power but that caused the cable to snap & the debris to fly off spinning after slamming into the MPV - somehow missing both solar panels & the antenna. After closing back with the debris, Kelrik performed another EVA to attach a small docking port to the side, which Val promptly docked with. The solid connection allowed a full-power burn to drop Pe, then they undocked and performed a small RCS maneuver to provide separation from the debris and raise their own Pe slightly for a safer reentry. Landed safely just over 100km from DSC and the debris burned up in the atmosphere. During the post-mission debriefing, Kelrik commented "What we really need is just a big claw on the front the ship so we can grab the debris & haul it back to Kerbin" DSC DG MRL2-1 03:078 - In order to handle a surface rescue well south of the Munar equator, the old ML2 lander was modified with extra fuel tanks. Kelrik was assigned the mission to recover pilot Haigan Kerman & demolish her wrecked pod. On entering Mun's SoI, it was decided to go straight to a landing rather than enter orbit first. Landing was just over 200m from the wrecked pod which Kelrik destroyed with a self-destruct charge while Haigan hopped to the rescue lander. Once Kelrik was back on board, they launched into Mun orbit then back to Kerbin and a nice afternoon splashdown Unmanned Launches: DSC SG RSS-Minmus 03:031 - A resource survey satellite launched to Minmus to begin searching for valuable resource deposits for future ISRU operations. It entered a polar Minmus orbit on 03:039 and sent the first resource data back to KSC. DSC Gi LRR-M-1 03:044 - Large Remote Rover-Mun was launched both to satisfy a contract and further our exploration of our closest neighbor with a new scanning arm & other experiments. All systems worked as intended and LRR-M-1 touched down safely in the Twin Craters where it gathered data on the new biome before going into standby mode. KSC Gi Simpactor-1-Min 03:045 - Seismic Impactor-1 launched to Minmus. Carries 4 Mite SRB impactors plus the transfer stage as a finalle. Upon reaching Minmus, it established a flight path that would take it over the outpost at just 2km and commenced firing the 4 impactors - none of which were enough to get a seismic reading on, but at least the transfer stage - which fired its engine to slam into the surface near the base - was big enough for a seismic reading, so the plan wasn't a total loss. Overall though, this plan was a failure. DSC DG Skydiver-Min-1 03:060 - Since the Simpactor design didn't work as hoped, R&D switched to a smaller core while making entire craft a dedicated impactor - starting with lead ballast in the nose to increase mass (total wet mass of impactor is nearly 18t). Launch & Minmus transfer went smoothly except the second stage had no self-destruct charges, creating another piece of large debris in orbit. Upon arrival at Minmus, it plotted a maneuver to directly impact just a few hundred meters from the outpost without entering orbit first. A few seconds before impact, the engines were switched on for the final time, increasing impact velocity to nearly 600 m/s - which (coupled with the nearly 14.7t mass at impact) provided plenty of energy for seismic readings. KSC DG Skydiver-Min-2 03:061 - Second Skydiver, launched from KSC to impact Minmus for additional seismic readings. The forgotten self-destruct issue was corrected, and one more pair of Shrimp SRB's was added. About a day after Skydiver 1 impacted, Skydiver 2 arrived and plotted a similar impact, but it ended up coming in retrograde and impacted the reverse slope of the ridge east of the outpost - at well over 600 m/s. Unfortunately, Skydiver 1 had already provided enough energy to gather all necessary seismic readings, so Skydiver 2 was just wasted. Aircraft: DSC 03:054 - Jeb took up a redesigned CP-04 Voyager jetliner for testing at DSC. The handling is much better than before, but something is off with the drag - max speed was only about 240 m/s at 7700m. Turning on aero data showed the cockpit, passenger cabins and tail connector (all Airplane Plus 1.875m parts) having drag values of >9 while the wings components and nose cone (all stock) were much less (~0.23). KSC 03:058 - It was recently realized that no one has built an aircraft capable of landing on water, so a design was commissioned to study this concept. Jeb eagerly awaited the completion of the first CSP-02 Mallard - his eagerness was probably related to the afterburning Panther engine on the back of it. Takeoff, water landing, water takeoff & runway landing all went well, completing the contract. Debris: Pioneer-Jool 2nd Stage - 02:234 - 142x392km, 6.5* inclination MPV2-ER-5 mission lowered debris into a reentering trajectory, allowing it to burn up in atmosphere. Skydiver-Min-01 2nd Stage - 03:060 - 124x4331km, 6.5* inclination Other: Tested an unguided rocket for potential as a seismic impactor on Mun or Minmus. Using a Mite SRB with spin-stabilization provided by 4 Sepratrons. It flew remarkably straight up to nearly 17km and impacted between the tracking center & VAB. Interestingly - but totally unrelated to its intended use - the spent Sepratrons acted as fins and started spinning the rocket the opposite direction on the way down, reducing velocity to around 75 m/s at impact.

Congrats!

I haven't played enough to post another update to my career, but I do have a shot from a failed attempt to gather more seismic sensor science on Minmus by firing a series of unguided rockets at the surface (from ~2km altitude) before crashing the carrier into the surface While performing a rocket attack on Minmus was fun, it was pointless - only the carrier had enough mass to trigger the seismic sensors.

In the video, it's showing "output cap 95%" when you turn on the engine. Is it set up like a fuel cell where it doesn't turn on until the batteries are below 95%?

I've started tinkering with mobile bases again after a while of just having fixed bases with rovers and/or aircraft to explore the area. It started with just putting wheels on my standard small outpost to find more suitable terrain (and because the landing legs kept exploding for no reason) and morphed into full-fledged mobile bases. I'm not there yet in my current career, but my abandoned 1.7 career had a large mobile base get tested on Mun & was getting ready to send to Duna As an alternate idea on Laythe, you could use electric props, either to fly or for propulsion across the water.

Pictures and specs of the rocket always help for giving advice. With that many Vectors, I suspect your rocket is seriously over powered (unless its huge) and getting too much speed at too low an altitude where the atmosphere is thick & creates lots of drag. What is your thrust to weight ratio (TWR) at launch?

I finished out the second year in my career, full details in the mission report. The biggest event was the arrival of my Dres Sojourner in orbit around Dres: First crew on Kerbinport Station splashed down safely & eagerly climbed out to enjoy the fresh ocean air: And started setting up another set of relays near the edge of Kerbin's SoI:

Update 03:026 Right into the great unknown Ongoing Missions: Mun Outpost A - Mothballed Minmus Outpast A - Third crew finished their stint on the surface & returned home safely after a fly-by of Mun. They were the last crew still using the old EVA suits. A new crew arrived on 03:024 Dres Sojourner - Arrived at Dres on 03:025 and entered orbit, transmitting substantial amounts of scientific data from both low & high orbit back to KSC. With the mission effectively complete, it will remain in orbit to provide a comm relay back to Kerbin for future missions. Pioneer-Jool - Course correction completed on 03:018, ETA to Jool's SoI is 04:249 Kerbinport Station - Once STV4-2 docked, the old crew quickly boarded it for their return home while Pheobe, Johnny & Samdas got ready for their 6-month mission. Also, in honor of Chadney Kerman, Kerbinport is officially renamed Chadney Kerman Memorial Station. KIRO-1 - Will arrive at Ap on 03:094 KIRO-2 - Will arrive at Pe on 03:033 KIRO-3 - Will arrive at Pe on 03:040 MMV-ER-1 - Arrived at Minmus on 02:405 for the last rescue of this mission. The timing of their entry into Minmus' SoI was excellent and they were able to achieve a direct rendezvous with just a 56 m/s course correction. Pilot Mirwise was recovered and the entire crew returned safely to Kerbin on 02:412, 88km north of DSC. Moho Surveyor - Will depart 03:083 Dres Surveyor - Will depart 03:122 Manned Launches: DSC Girrok MiL6-2 02:407 - Launched with a load of 4 tourists and two new scientists. The trip to Minmus was uneventful and they performed a landing in Minmus' Midlands before taking off & plotting a return to Kerbin with a stop at the Mun. Coincidently, they were passing near another magnetic anomaly - TMA-5 - which we just happened to have a contract to investigate. That accomplished another mission, then they were back to orbit and heading for home. Splashed down safely on 02:426 KSC Girrok ML4-1 02:409 - Launched with a pilot & 3 tourists for a Mun landing. Fairing separation destroyed the decoupler between first & second stages and the LES was activated. They were actually high enough that the LES put them into a suborbital trajectory. Splashed down safely. KSC Girrok ML4-2 02:419 - Second attempt to land 3 tourists on Mun plus a new pilot, Mirwise. Launch went smoothly and they landed in the Farside crater, planted a flag, gathered scientific data & return safely to Kerbin. KSC Dawngrazer STV4-2 03:013 - Redesigned for Kerbinport & its higher orbit, STV4-2 carries the replacement crew of Phoebe, Samdas & Johnny plus a supply of fresh snacks. This crew is slated to stay for a full 6 months before returning home. Also, STV4-2 is used to bring back the existing crew while the MMV remains docked. DSC Dawngrazer MiL3-6 03:014 - Replacement crew for Minmus Outpost. They are carrying a new experiment plus a surface resource scanner, arrived 03:02 Unmanned Launches: KSC Girrok MultiComm 03:008 - To further improve communications around Kerbin & beyond, another set of three relays was launched to a Ap of 62500 km. Each relay is based on the Voyager satellite bus and carries a 100G relay antenna. Relay "A" was inserted into its orbit on 03:020 and the next insertion will be on 03:073 Aircraft: Following the death of Chadney, a thorough review of all aircraft testing programs was ordered. Debris: Pioneer-Jool 2nd Stage - 02:234 - 142x392km, 6.5* inclination Other: For the second year, we had 22 manned and 24 unmanned rocket launches plus a single spaceplane to orbit and two manned pad abort tests. Eight of those launches were interplanetary probes and three more were launched into solar orbits. A single unmanned launch and two manned launches failed, with both crews safely recovered. There was one casualty for the year.

Continued on my career, and suffered my first casualty so far - testing an obsolete prop plane of all things. Report here Highlights: Did several rescue missions Took up some tourists Got a Moho lander into orbit - should have the dV to get there and land. No ions or nukes, just chemical rockets. Of course it has 3 stages in orbit (not counting the core & 4 radial boosters to get to orbit) - first a Poodle, then a Cheetah and finally a Terrier. Then the lander itself Tested several aircraft before my mishap Ended with placing a memorial to my (first) lost kerbal in this career:

Update 02:400 Did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts? Ongoing Missions: Mun Outpost A - Mothballed Minmus Outpast A - Third crew arrived & set up for a 90-day stay on the surface. Dres Sojourner - Should arrive at Dres' SoI on 03:025 Pioneer-Jool - Course correction planned for 03:018. Kerbinport Station - Val, Kelrik & Ambera remain aboard for a 90-day rotation. To improve power production, Kelrik performed an EVA to move the forward pair of solar panels out of line with the aft pair, allowing both to produce power even when the sun is forward or aft of the station. KIRO-1 - Will arrive at Ap on 03:094 KIRO-2 - Will arrive at Pe on 03:033 KIRO-3 - Will arrive at Pe on 03:040 Manned Launches: KSC Girrok MMV-2 02:358 - MMV-2 was a combined mission to take a VIP to orbit, deliver a second scientist to Kerbinport Station and rescue Chadney from LKO. Kathberry was dropped off at Kerbinport first along with some snacks then Johnny (engineer) & Lisdo (VIP) undocked & maneuvered to rendezvous with Chadney's wreck. The rescue went smoothly, then they deorbited after just over half an orbit, landing in the grasslands 6.9 km west of KSC. KSC Dawngrazer KRV-3 02:376 - Although not used in quite a while, the old KRV design remains the cheapest option for LKO rescues and once again another space agency has stranded someone in orbit - in this case, scientist Lodmon Kerman. Johnny Kerman gets to try is hand at another rescue and is the first to try out the new EVA suits on an actual mission. The launch was well timed, and all went smoothly. The entire mission lasted only one hour and twenty one minutes, and splashed down just 8400m east of KSC. KSC Girrok MMV-ER-1 02:384 - In order to minimize costs, another rescue mission - to recover 2 kerbals in Mun orbit and a third in Minmus orbit - is launched uncrewed, with the LES removed to reduce mass. Engineer Sheremy Kerman was the first rescue around Mun and once recovered, he disposed of his own wrecked pod, then became the mission engineer for the remaining rescues. The second Mun rescue went well, although it took 2 days of waiting to minimize dV costs. Following the rescue of Danory, a course was plotted for Minmus & just over two hours later, they were on their way for a fifteen day trip. WSC Dawngrazer OTV-4-8 02:390 - Although not used for months, the OTV-4 is being rolled out again to hop a small group of tourists to orbit & back. Advances in technology have allows some improvements to the basic design - purpose desgined grid fins have replaced re-purposed elevons & a large drogue chute has replaced the nose cone. The redesigned OTV-4 flew perfectly & splashed 4 happy tourists down southeast of DSC. KSC Dawngrazer KRV-4 02:397 - While the long range rescue was in progress, another urgent rescue call came in for LKO. Catdon was tapped to handle the rescue - her first since being rescued herself. Launch and rendezvous went smoothly, and soon Catdon & scientist Tangor were safely splashed down on Kerbin an hour & fifteen minutes after launch. Unmanned Launches: DSC Girrok Moho Surveyor 02:370 - Since we don't have access to another experimental NERV, a chemical rocket had to be developed with sufficient dV to get a small lander to Moho. It quickly turned into the largest rocket launched to date, based on the Girrok Heavy core with a quartet of Dawngrazer boosters feeding the core asparagus-style, then a Poodle orbital stage to circularize orbit & begin the transfer, a Cheetah transfer/braking stage to finish the transfer, perform the course correction and hopefully begin the braking maneuver and finally a Terrier stage to finish Moho orbital insertion. The probe - a venerable Surveyor lander - has sufficient dV to land entirely on its own from a reasonably low orbit of Moho. Launch went remarkably smoothly and Moho-Surveyor was inserted into a 150x145km 6.5 degree orbit. Once again, the transfer window calculated on the ground is nowhere close to what was calculated from orbit - we were expecting to depart around 22 days after the launch but it turns out the window isn't for 138 days. Interestingly, I followed the Girrok Heavy on the way down since Pe was over 40km and the engine almost survived - it impacted decoupler first, exploded the decoupler & fuel tank & sent the Twin Boar bouncing across the landscape. It survived the first 5 or 6 bounces before finally exploding, leaving a pile of fins to recover. It did indicate to the administration that it might be possible to recover boosters rather than just let them crash back into Kerbin. DSC Girrok Dres Surveyor 02:388 - Adapted from the Moho-Surveyor, the Dres Surveyor traded radiators for extra solar panels. It also drained some fuel from one pair of radial boosters and replaced the Skipper engines with Kodiaks. Launch went smoothly but yet again the planning for the launch window was flawed. Even though we knew this launch was early for a Dres window (>90 days), it turned out to be even further out, just over 150 days. Aircraft: With a gap in the launch schedule, several new and modified aircraft designs were tested: 02:382 - CD-01 Light science drone - based on cruise missile technology, the CD-01 was adapted to remote science gathering. A canard-configuration airframe powered by a single Juno engine, it's max speed is around 316 m/s at 1500m. In place of a warhead, a payload bay was fitted with a large battery bank, temp, pressure & seismic sensors as well as a surface survey unit. Additionally, an atmospheric sampling unit is fitted at the base of the vertical stabilizer. A retractable solar panel is also fitted in the payload bay to recharge the batteries without running the engine. Communications are maintained by a pair of fixed conic antennas fitted to the veritcal stabilizer with an additional folding 2G antenna fitted to the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer but is only usable to send data when parked on the surface.. A short missions was flown from KSC to the deserts to the west, where it landed and gathered data then took back off & landed at KSC. In addition for use on Kerbin, it is being considered for a mission to Laythe, as long range sensors seem to indicate an oxygen atmosphere on that moon. 02:388 - CB-01 Redeye - Testing of the bomber variant of the CR-04 Redeye was conducted at DSC. New pilot Chadney put the aircraft through a series of tests - high & low altitude speed tests, stall tests, practice bomb drop on some rocket debris just east of DSC. All was going well until the right engine suffered an inadvertant thrust reverser deployment at full power. The aircraft snapped into a flat spin until the cause was recognized and the right engine shut down. Chadney recovered the spin & proceeded to land safely at DSC on the remaining engine. 02:389 - CF-05 Raptor - New design of forward-swept wing fighter. Jeb got the honors of putting it through its paces. Roll rate was a little low, but pitch & yaw control were excellent. Top speed down low was around mach 1.08, and up at 10km it climbed to almost 2.8. With the engine in dry mode, it could sustain just under mach 1 at altitude. Handling was surprisingly tame. After the test flight, Jeb's reaction was "Meh... It looks hotter than it really is" 02:390 - CFP-01T Turbo-Bison - In an attempt to breathe new life into the old Bison design, it was retrofitted with a KT6A "Kitty" turboprop and Chadney again got the job of testing it. Although long past its prime as a fighter, the Bison airframe was solid and could still be useful for surveillance and operations in low intensity enviorments. First flight did not go as planned.... 02:392 - CFP-01T Turbo-Bison - After some changes - primarily adding ballast to the nose to better compensate for the lighter turboprop engine, Chadney Kerman took it up again. Handling was much better - roughly the same as the original Bison's, as was performance. Still, Chadney had entered the program long after the early days at DSC, so he was enjoying the Turbo-Bison after hearing stories from the senior pilots. He made a few low passes over the base, then a trip to the hills. Several of his maneuvers caused him to black out, although he always regained consciousness in time to recover the aircraft. While returning to base, skimming a hill at minimal altitude, Chadney apparently misjudged the height of the hill and slammed into the crest at 157 m/s and was killed instantly. This marks the first casualty of the space program, even though it occured during testing unrelated to space flight. Debris: Pioneer-Jool 2nd Stage - 02:234 - 142x392km, 6.5* inclination Other: The Astronaut Complex was upgraded on 02:374 and during the grand opening, a new space suit design was unveiled to replace the existing suits. After the death of Chadney Kerman, a memorial was commissioned, to be placed in front of the astronaut complex flag pole. Jeb was given the honor of driving the statue and placing it, with Johnny Kerman providing engineering assistance.

Do you have same-vessel interactions turned on? I haven't tried since they added that, but maybe that could improved stability? Or it might provoke massive, game destroying kraken attacks. I give it a 50/50 chance either way

I posted the career report last night, but forgot to post here. My career continued to progress. The most significant accomplishment was a larger Kerbinport Station in HKO, plus some tourists to Minmus, Mun & a brief hop into interstellar space. Science is becoming an issue to advancement, but I should get a nice boost once the Dres probe arrives in orbit. Kerbinport station with its first crew and first expansion - an crew module with quarters for 8 6-seat MiL-6 Mun/Minmus lander Interplanetary tourists returning home, near the already splashed-down NERV stage. I'm really surprised that a NERV floats - the empty fuel tank sure, but the NERV itself?

Update 02:354 And I think it's gonna be a long long time Till touch down brings me round again This turned into a very long update since I kept having little things that I wanted to finish before I posted an update. After having that happen five or six times, it's a pretty big collection of missions bringing me close to the end of year two. I almost stretched it out, but decided to get this update done & a separate one for the end of the year, with maybe a few weeks into the next year. Ongoing Missions: Mun Outpost A - Mothballed Minmus Outpast A - Second crew at the station, scheduled 60 day stat was completed on 02:338, at which time they boarded their lander & returned to Kerbin, arriving home a few hours before the replacement crew arrived at Minmus. Dres Sojourner - Should arrive at Dres' SoI on 03:025 Pioneer-Jool - Course correction planned for 03:018. Manned Launches: KSC Girrok MiL6-1 02:298 - Launch of a new 6-seat Minmus/Mun lander, carrying pilot Magas & engineer Catdon, with 4 tourists. Launch went smoothly, as did the Minmus transfer. The Poodle transfer stage engine is a little underpowered for the mass of the lander - there are hopes of building a more powerful & more efficient vacuum engine going forward - but for now it's is the best choice. Landing on Minmus was perfect, and both Magas & Catdon EVA'd to plant a flag & gather some science before returning to the lander & planning the course for home with a slight detour to get an orbit around Mun. To intercept Mun, they waited about 2 days in Minmus orbit before the transfer. After entering Mun orbit, Magas performed another transfer just 2 minutes later to return to Kerbin, splashing down safely on 02:325 DSC Dawngrazer Triple Core "Sunseeker" 02:332 - In order to wrap up 2 contracts (test NERV around Mun and fly two tourists into orbit of the Sun) I designed a special purpose craft to handle both. Using a NERV as its primary in-orbit power plant, with a 2-seat passenger compartment and complete probe control. The NERV stage also has gridfins & recovery chutes to (hopefully) recover the NERV rather than irradiate some unfortunate spot on Kerbin. To get it into orbit, it used a Dawngrazer Triple Core launcher. Mun orbit & engine test went well, then the Sunseeker departed Mun orbit for interplanetary space, which was reached on 02:339. After a few minutes free of Kerbin, the probe core plotted the return maneuver & fired the NERV again. Kerbin reentry & recovery was successful for both the crew compartment and the engine module, with them floating barely 2m apart after splashdown 115km from KSC on 02:353. KSC Girrok MMV-1 02:336 - Val, Kelrik & Ambera launched from KSC to begin operations at Kerbinport Station. Rendezvous & docking went smoothly & the crew is currently onboard engaged in research, with plans for a 90-day stay. DSC Dawngrazer MiL3-5 02:339 - Third crew for the Minmus outpost. The spent transfer stage was allowed to impact the surface near the outpost for the passive seismometer deployed by the last crew, yielding a double impact - the first worth ~1.7 science, then the main impact a few seconds later yielding just over 5 more. Unmanned Launches: DSC Steamglider MiSP-1 02:287 - Minmus Supply Probe (MiSP) launched to our Minmus outpost, carrying missing surface experiments and some extra snacks & monoprop. The design uses the old Surveyor lander bus as its core, moving the antenna/solar array on top of a double height 4-slot universal storage rack. Arrived at the outpost on 02:296. After topping off the monoprop & snacks at the outpost and getting the new surface experiments deployed, the MiSP-1 was used as the first test of the passive seismometer. WSC Steamglider KRS-1 02:291 - Kerbin Resource Surveyor-1 was launched into polar orbit with the new orbital survey scanner to advance our knowledge of our home planet and take our first steps to sustainable surface bases on the moons & possibly even other planets. KSC Dawngrazer KIRO-1 02:303 - Kerbin IR Observer probe, launched into Kerbol orbit to scan for life-threatening asteroids. Apparently, several corporations on Kerbin are really concerned about asteroid impacts, because there is no shortage of lucrative contracts to scan for them. Departed Kerbin's SoI on 02:317, should arrive at its Ap on 03:094 to establish the orbit specified by the contract. KSC Dawngrazer KIRO-2 02:307 - Second IR observer, launched into a lower orbit around Kerbol to improve both asteroid scanning & provide another deep space comm relay. Departed Kerbin on 02:312, expected to arrive at its Pe on 03:033. KSC Dawngrazer KIRO-3 02:312 - Third IR observer, launched into an even lower orbit. Departed Kerbin on 02:317 and is expected to arrive at Pe on 03:040. KSC Girrok Kerbinport Core 02:330 - A new, larger & more capable station launched into high orbit around Kerbin. The core includes a viewing cupola, research lab & quarters for 4, with an ample supply of snacks. In addition to a single standard docking port, it mounts 4 Hexport docking ports around the core Hex Truss to allow expandsions to the station. To get this large of a station into orbit, a new engine was needed - the 2.5m Twin Boar. The single-mount Boar has been a staple of our expanding space program, so integrating two of them into a single launcher wasn't too difficult and it performed well for the launch. KSC Girrok Kerbinport Crew Expansion 02:344 - To fulfill a contract to expand Kerbinport Station to a minimum crew capacity of 15 kerbals, a crew module was launched. Rendezvous & docking were flawless, and after transfering most of its fuel to the station, the upper stage deorbited safely. Kelrik was able to weld the hexports, making the crew module a permanent addition to Kerbinport. This gives living quarters for 12, plus workspace for 2 in the lab & another in the viewing cupola. Aircraft: None Debris: Pioneer-Jool 2nd Stage - 02:234 - 142x392km, 6.5* inclination Other: Mission control upgraded to level 3 on 02:341 & the Astronaut Complex is expected to upgrade on 02:374.

I usually haven't had any issues like that on Mun - Minmus is bad about it, and I don't even attempt anything with wheels on Gilly any more, but Mun and similar gravity planets/moons usually aren't too bad other than rollovers. Pics might be useful. Was it one particular area of Mun or multiple areas all do the same?

@Sad+Lonely there is already some demand for what you are asking about: