Cavscout74

I just noticed the like button is back, so congrats Triop, you got my first new like

I only got a little bit done in my career today - a trip to the dentist took priority. Ugh. But I did get the Moho-Pioneer sent off. And it went at the absolute perfect time, requiring only a 24 m/s course correction maneuver after leaving Kerbin's SoI. I think that might be the cheapest Moho correction burn I've ever done. Then Vall took up the second Falcon II spaceplane from the desert airfield for a quick atmospheric trip to KSC. I still had the Whiplash test contract to do, so I kept it low to complete that then just finished the trip to KSC. That burned nearly as much fuel as the previous orbital trip. That Whiplash is incredibly thirsty at 5000m. Night takeoff into a Munrise Approaching KSC just as the sky is brightening on the horizon Parking with the first Falcon II. Now that the test contract is completed, I can't build any more, but I really shouldn't need more than 2 of these anyway. I don't even know when I'll use them again, but they are fueled and ready to go. I'm not crazy about leaving the solar panels deployed, but I don't want to show up to a dead battery when it is time to fly one again. Finally, a load of 5 tourists and a new pilot departed on a tour of Minmus & Mun. No pictures, but my second Minmus station crew arrived to relieve the vets. Since the new crew came in a 5-seat craft and there just happened to be two orbital rescue contracts around Minmus, Jeb commandeered the new ship & picked up the two stranded kerbals before returning home. I don't think I actually made any money on Minmus station (the contract was only like a 20k advance & ~50k for completion), but the two rescues put the whole project in the black.

Sorry to hear about this. I did some weekend volunteering with the Houston branch of Collings Foundation back when I was in A&P school, mostly on their T-33. I couldn't get off of work & missed out on a free ride on their B-17 when it came to Houston back then. This was 2001 or so.

My career continued to progress - I've mostly finished my Minmus station and made the first successful spaceplane flight to orbit. A second crew attempted to launch to Minmus Station, but the SRB's collided with the core during staging, resulting in a launch failure. I can't even call it an abort - the radial LFO boosters broke free after the collision & destroyed the LES as they shot past the crew section. By some miracle, they missed the actual crew section though, so the crew were recovered successfully in the highlands east of the Desert launch site. They are currently preparing for a second launch in a few days. Two of the trails are from the radial boosters, I'm not certain on the third one The Mini-Min lander arrived & docked with Minmus Station. It is purely monoprop powered, and provides landing and escape capabilities to the station crew. I'm hoping the "ladders as landing legs" will work ok - they should have enough impact tolerance for Minmus, but I haven't actually tried them yet. The second fuel/power module arrived & was added as well. Now I'm just waiting to unlock greenhouse modules to add a life support module which will finish the station. The biggest announcement was - due solely to a lucky part test contract (Test Whiplash in flight above Kerbin) combined with just last night unlocking nuclear propulsion, I was able to roll out the CS-01B Falcon spaceplane. The -01A version uses a single Panther while the -01B upgrades to the Whiplash and is a little easier to get up to speed in the atmosphere. Since Jeb was off lounging on Minmus Station, Vall drew the honors of taking the Falcon up on it's maiden flight. Climbing over the ocean Once in LKO, she made less than one full orbit before deorbiting to return to KSC One more good thing - the Falcon's old habit of going nuts (stall/spin/other) near the end of reentry seems to be fixed, it was rock steady the whole way down. On the down side, it overshot KSC by almost 300 km and had to fly back. Vall was down to <50 units of LF on touchdown Since the Whiplash is still an experimental part, I didn't want to recover the Falcon, so I parked it near the SPH & sent a fuel truck to refill it for future missions. The engineer who brought the fuel also kindly added a ladder to the cockpit (Oops...)

I started assembling my Minmus station and got the first crew on board to finish assembly & start research in low Minmus orbit. Starting off with fuel/power module 1 arriving & docking. After it is docked, the two transfer stages are jettisoned and set to crash into Minmus after draining most of the LF/O & monoprop - the fuel module was sent up mostly empty to make it easier to launch, although I haven't unlocked ISRU yet so any fuel will have to come from Kerbin at the moment. Next came Jeb with Kelrik the senior engineer & Ambera the senior scientist to bring the station on line. In addition to transferring over a lot of assorted equipment - I totally forgot to stock the KIS containers on the station with tools, spare solar panels & antennas, KAS attachments, etc - Kelrik then welded the docking ports for the fuel module Then it was time for the science module to arrive & dock, requiring a second EVA by Kelrik to weld those ports as well. Minmus Station is now in (partial) operation. Another fuel/power module is on the way, along with a new lander design (the Mini-Minmus lander) to give landing capabilities as well as a limited crew escape craft. Once I unlock greenhouses (requiring another 300-point node), I'll add a life support module to complete the station. I also have a replacement crew getting ready to launch in a few days to take over for the vets now that the station is on line. The science gathered so far (apparently I hadn't used the DMagic MultiSpectrum Imager around Minmus yet, so I got a load of science transmitted back to KSC) allowed me to unlock nuclear propulsion. I've been intentionally waiting to unlock it, and I've managed to send probes to every body except Dres with just conventional rocket engines which is unusual for me - usually nuclear propulsion is one of the first 300-point nodes I unlock. My Moho Pioneer probe hasn't actually departed yet, but it is in orbit waiting for the transfer window with just a Cheetah to fling it across the vast emptiness of space.

Just to be sure, the 2G antennas you have on the relays are relay antennas, not direct antennas? For stock KSP, that is the RA-2 relay antenna that looks like a small dish. The DTS-M1 folding antenna is 2G also, but it is a direct antenna only.

That almost sounds like an input lock is stuck. Can you open the alt-F12 menu? If you can, go to item labelled "input Locks" and there should be a white bar across the menu "Clear input locks" Click that & see if you can do things normally. Its not a permanent fix - something is causing it to lock, but it may get you going again.

I'm not sure what happened when I installed 1.23.1, but 1.23.2 loaded up just fine with no warnings.

I wish I could claim credit, but I just reverse engineered a design I saw on KerbalX. I've never actually built a non-NERV/non-Rapier spaceplane before, and my first attempt resulted in Val parachuting to safety, so I did some browsing on KerbalX for inspiration. It was for an older version of KSP. I haven't actually tried that one, I just made an attempt to recreate it. https://kerbalx.com/Mesklin/SSTO-Panther-LT-112

I started work on a large (for me) Minmus station. The core I launched was enough to complete the contract, but I have a fuel/power segment nearing Minmus now and a science segment a few days behind. The first crew will be launching in a few days to get everything set up & the docking ports welded together. Another fuel/power segment will need to be sent and I'll probably send a greenhouse segment to finish it once the parts are available. I also had my Eve Pioneer probe arrive & enter a polar orbit to perform double duty as a comm relay followed by the Eve Vorona probe & lander. I'm not sure what happened exactly, but the can lander and remote rover arrived nearly a month before the two orbital probes. Once the Vorona probe was in a stable orbit, it dropped off its "Formalhaut" lander. I designed a new low-tech spaceplane attempt based on a KerbalX design. Jeb failed to make orbit - only got up to about 45 km in fact - but I think I can tweak the design & my climb profile enough to actually make orbit. At least it doesn't stall & spin in level flight like the last one. Finally, I spent some time experimenting with SRB orbital launchers. This was done in sandbox rather than career. It worked surprisingly well except for a few catastrophic failures. I didn't actually look at how the prices worked out compared to the normal LFO launchers, which was kinda dumb on my part since that was the reason for the experiments. There are a bunch of screenshots, so I'm sticking them in a spoiler

I started off in sandbox & got spoiled by all the choices of parts available. Then I tried science & couldn't get into it. Finally, after I was comfortable with the basics I jumped to career and it was quite a shock - after the huge choices of parts, realizing I can't even make orbit with what is available to start. Then that hard fought grind to unlock enough parts to get something into orbit. Then I started thinking, ok this should be easy from here, I'll start getting tons of science once I can get to Mun & Minmus. Followed by, "Is my game broken? Why can't I set maneuver nodes?" Eventually, I figured out I had to upgrade buildings to get the "luxury" of maneuver nodes so I learned how to get to Mun without them. At that time, I wasn't about to impose any restrictions on myself, quickload & revert were my friends. Parts require funds to unlock? No thank you. G-forces? Nope. Easy settings all around. I had loads of fun with it, but it started getting boring after clearing the tech tree & amassing tens of millions of funds. Once I had sent kerbals on Laythe & back, I started trying harder & harder settings for each new career. Since then, other than a sandbox save for testing, all my game time has been in career.

I had a few big milestones in my 20% science career, plus 2 failures. First up, the Eeloo Voyager departed Kerbin for its long trip. Here, it take a quick look back at Kerbin as it's leaving the SoI Next, my Eve Can Lander arrived & was the first craft to enter Eve orbit in this career Followed by a successful landing Safely on the surface with solar panels & experiments deployed After the Can Lander worked so well, it was time for the Eve Remote Rover to attempt it's landing. It started off good, but I kept the transfer stage on too long - to use it's remaining fuel - and as it emptied, the CoM shifted too far back & the entire craft flipped & almost immediately started exploding parts due to overheating before I could stage & attempt to recover the rover The remains of the rover did splashdown on Eve - I actually got credit for that milestone despite it just being debris The I tested out a new 4-seat Mun lander. It's slightly cheaper & faster to build than my 6-seat Heavy Lander with somewhat less dV. The test flight went well, with 2 scientists getting their Mun landing experience and a pair of tourists to fund the trip. Finally, it was time to attempt a medium-tech spaceplane. Vall got the honors as Jeb was hauling a load of tourists to Minmus. Initially, everything was going well. Above about 10km, however, the plane kept developing a strong roll to the left regardless of airspeed, which would be followed by a stall & spin. The first time it happened passing mach 1 & I thought it was just my flying, but the second one occurred at between 700-800 m/s despite being very careful on the controls. Both of those were successfully recovered, but on the third try to make orbit, Vall was unable to recover & had to bail out. She splashed into the ocean just a few dozen meters from the remains of the spaceplane. In theory, she didn't need to bail out, but what are the chances the cockpit would have survived if she'd stayed on board?

I had forgotten about this, but I meant to bring it to your attention. Last week while launching a Mun lander with 3 crew on board, Kerbal Launch Failure activated and failed the Pomegranate pod that the kerbals were in. When it happened, the kerbal portraits all disappeared but the rocket continued flying (it had a probe core as well). It was a night launch & the pod was inside a fairing, so I'm not sure but I think the pod separated from the rocket & passed through it. The only fix was to go into settings, reactivate reverts and revert to launch. Is there something that controls which parts can be failed?

I didn't get much done in career yesterday. My quartet of Jool probes headed off to the green planet, then I tried to get my science drone jet working better - only partially successfully, and finally added a bomb bay underneath my Mallard seaplane and test flew it with an unguided rocket. The last of the Jool probes, Jooldiver departing Kerbin orbit. To reduce costs, it uses solar panels on the transfer stage to keep the batteries charged on the trip and a monoprop power unit to ensure all the science can be transmitted once it enters Jool's atmosphere. The fairing is not staged, and is there to protect the large relay antenna while in Jool's atmosphere Science drone test flight after changing to a conventional tail instead of the original V-tail and dropping the reaction wheel module. Overall performance is much better... but landings still need work Finally, Jeb took up the Mallard with the rocket in the bomb bay. After performing a quick water landing with no problems, he took back off, lined up on the VAB and fired off the rocket, scoring a direct hit

Had a little extra time tonight & knocked out a few other things - my Heavy Minmus Lander returned home, then I tinkered some more with helicopters, tested a science drone for possible use on Laythe and finally had Jeb buzz the island airfield hangars. Heavy Lander during reentry - it should have enough dV to complete Mun & Minmus landings. Just going to Minmus & back didn't even drain the drop tanks, so I just staged everything at once during reentry rather than risk the radial tanks slamming into anything vital Val next to another crashed helicopter. I'm really not sure what is going on - this basic design has flown reasonably well in the past. I've tried it with helo blades & the old version with elevons as blades, neither ones flies worth a darn in this save Since I don't quite have the tech needed for my old Laythe science drone, I tried designing a new one. It flew "ok" at best, but it needs some work before it's worth trying to send to Laythe. Unfortunately, the Jool window is too close to build a rocket to get it there before the transfer window. In its place, I'm building a Jooldiver (based on my Eve lander can), and even that is going to catch the end of the transfer window. I did have one milestone - my crew on board Kerbinport station came home after 180 days in orbit After getting used to gravity again, Jeb set out to defy it. No pics of the actual buzzing - I had my hands full - and the contract didn't register buzzing the hangars either.

I had mostly successes in my career except for my brief foray back into the world of helicopters. I should've just copied the one I knew worked over from a different career instead of building from scratch. First up, the Heavy Minmus Lander arrived and made the first crewed landed in Minmus' north polar region. It is currently on its way home with a quick fly-by of Mun on the way to satisfy one of the tourists Then there was an LKO rescue contract that I completed with the first operational flight of the new Dawngrazer Recovery Klaw. It went well despite forgetting to install the lower set of RCS thrusters and not having any emergency snacks for the rescued Kerbal. The probe core was in control anyway, it didn't matter too much if he passed out from starvation. Coasting towards rendezvous After capture & reentry burn. The rescuee is still being interrogated to find out how his vintage airplane cockpit ended up in LKO. He claims he saw a bright light while his squadron was lost on a training flight then woke up in orbit Then Val performed successful test flights of the CSP-02 Mallard seaplane, completing the "Build a seaplane" contract I've had floating around for a while. Approach to landing on the water. The large wings allow for a very low stall speed, somewhere under 40 m/s, and a nice smooth water landing Val floating on the water, watching the sun rise before taking back off Safely landed back at KSC, completing the contract Encouraged with the success of the seaplane, Val took up an experimental helicopter. One drawback to the "Giving Aircraft a Purpose" contract pack is if you crash a plane (or anything with a pilot & lifting surfaces) you tend to fail any contracts that are active even if you aren't attempting them. In this case, I "failed" the contract to fly a spaceplane to the edge of space because the experimental helicopter smashed the runway. Val did appreciate the nearly indestructible crew seat

I got my Eve probes sent on their journey and got the first Jool probe (a Voyager-like design) sent into orbit. After getting another trio of junior kerbonauts landed on Minmus for experience, I put in a little work on building a seaplane for a contract. Eve can lander starting it's transfer Jool Voyager in orbit, waiting on the next transfer window Minmus lander skimming some hills before landing CSP-02 sea plane after successful water landing. It still needs some work, but I was able to take off, land safely in the water then take off from the water & land mostly safely on the runway, so it already does what it was built for. Due to the CoM sitting pretty high, it has a strong tendency to bury the nose in the water on landing. I haven't broken anything yet, but that is one of the things that needs work.

I'll take a look. It's the latest version that has the issue though. I'll see if I lost the whitelist somehow

I do

Is there any reason the newest version of Snacks wouldn't be compatible with craft built under an older version? Specifically, I have a couple craft in career with the radial snack tin mounted on them. I've been using an older version of Snacks (1.15 I think, but I'm away from my game computer at the moment) and yesterday I finally installed the newest version of Snacks. When I tried to load my career save, it gave a list of several craft it couldn't load due to the radial snack. I messed with it a little bit, but finally just went back to the older version.

Had another day of mixed missions, and Kerbal Launch Failure reared its ugly head again and for the third time in this career failed a radial decoupler. I don't know what its issue with radial decouplers is - I've had one engine failure and 3 radial decoupler failures in this career. You are NOT going to space today - landed safely in the desert after aborting at ~25km. This was a crew of three 1-star kerbals heading for a Minmus landing, flag planting & promotion to 2-star. Second attempt went better and they are on their way finally. In addition to the cost, each of these landers takes 11 days & change to build. More successful was a combined soil moisture scanner (DMagic) and resource scanner launched into a polar orbit I also launched a can lander to Eve. The lander is just a 2.5m service bay with a heatshield on the bottom, parachutes on the top and everything important stuffed inside the service bay. For reasons I'm a little uncertain of, this is one of the first times I've used Kickbacks in ages, but they were just right for this launch. Finally, I got another Mun & Minmus rescue completed. Mun rescue pictured here

I made a little progress yesterday in career, although most was getting things ready for an upcoming Eve window. I did finally get my Heavy Mun Lander into action, with a quick trip to Mun & back with several tourists. It actually has too much dV in the lander core. I guess you can't have too much, but it was excessive, so I've since redesigned with a smaller core fuel tank. The landing gear/drop tanks still had a little fuel remaining when I staged them, and the core vessel had >1200 m/s dV remaining after circularizing around the Mun. That was when I realized I could get away with a smaller tank on the core Kelrik finished the dual Minmus rescue contracts, grabbing another engineer & a scientist from a pair of wrecks in high Minmus orbit before returning home safely. The "little solar panel that could" managed to keep the mission going despite the lack of fuel cells. I had to be careful to keep it facing the sun during time warps, but otherwise everything went smooth. The design flaw has also been addressed to prevent this happening in the future. Finally, my Duna polar lander arrived and landed safely. It actually tipped over when I deflated the airbags, but it had enough reaction wheel strength to right itself & send back a load of data about the Duna polar highlands.

Either plan works (rescue crew or attach new stage), so it comes down to what you have to work with. Does the hab module have docking ports on both ends? If it does, launching a new stage will be easy. If it doesn't, it becomes more difficult in stock since the only option is the Klaw. If you don't have docking ports on both ends, do you use KIS & KAS mods? If you do, adding a new stage is still easy since you can either add a docking port or just have an engineer directly attach the new stage - although adding the docking port is the more flexible option. If you don't have KAS & only have a single docking port to dock with the station, your only option to salvage the mission will be docking to the hab module with a klaw equipped craft - and then alignment becomes an issue unless you dock perfectly centered & lined up. For me at least, I prefer to salvage the existing mission if possible. And if adding a new stage doesn't work, you can always launch a rescue craft later.

Yeah I don't either. The hex to round adapter truss makes it a perfect fit to 2.5m parts (or 3.75 for the larger hub), but even without the adapter the size is right on. I added the second addition to Kerbinport station - this one is a mix of Snacks & monoprop, with a little LFO in the adapter piece on the end. It also carried up a second docking port because I forgot the docking port on the fuel addon. Greghat Kerman on EVA to weld the new addon into place after moving the spare docking port into position on the fuel addon The only other progress I managed was my Pioneer-Duna probe arriving in orbit (no pics of course), a trio of tourists heading to Minmus for a landing (no pics), and the first asteroid detection satellite headed out towards Kerbol orbit (and again, no pics) Update: I had a little more time & got a little more done. The Duna-Vorona probe entered orbit & dropped it's Formalhaut lander Then my chief engineer Kelrik Kerman launched on the first operational use* of the Girroc MPV, heading for a double orbital rescue around Minmus. Almost had to abort the whole mission in LKO - I totally forgot to add LH/LOx tanks for the Universal Storage fuel cell. The only thing saving the mission are the two little solar panels & hibernating the probe core. Finally, my load of Minmus tourists splashed down near KSC and were recovered for a nice little chunk of funds. *There have been several test launches - first was an abort test with the MPV mounted atop a cluster of SRB's (which was a lot of fun), then full vehicle flight tests to LKO without then with crew. Then the game crashed when I tried to launch a load of 5 tourists & a pilot in a new lander to the Mun - and I was already out of time for KSP, but was pushing it just to get the lander into orbit, so I didn't have time to reload the game & see where the lander was saved at - hopefully it saved on the pad & I can just redo the whole launch.

I was wondering about that yesterday when I saw a new post about the broken like button had like 6 likes I love it. Until the like button is fixed, here you go: +1