FoC400

Wow, mix this with the lunar smack down and life will be complete

one last pic, cuzz I couldn't fit em onto one post.

Yay I got it! I actually think this is the first challenge I completed, after a few failed attempts! The Saturn V really helped, that thing is a beast. And of course it looked good doing it 8)

Hmm, while you posted this I was trying to get a satellite into orbit using the Saturn V pack. Worked pretty well until my satellite spontaneously combusted during the jettison.

We'll have to move this to a PM. Sorry to everyone who had to read through the flames.

The drag vectors are not causing torque. The resultant forces are. (resultant forces are sometimes refered to as normal forces) The drag forces are parallel and both acting in the same direction. The resultant forces from the drag acting on the craft are also parallel, but not acting in the same direction and are not co-linear. Therefore, by calculating the sum of moments about a point anywhere on the craft, you'll see that you'll have an angular acceleration by using Euler's trusty equation. Now, because the torque creates an angular acceleration, and not a constant angular velocity, I would think offsetting the wings would take a lot of time to perfect the turning. But it would be interesting to see if anyone could get it to work. Also, I didn't mean to insult you, just inform you.

I don't understand how torque can be generated inwards in a planar surface. I think I understand what you're getting at, but remember to use the right hand rule when defining your torque vectors. Evo: The drag on top of the wing causes a resultant force perpendicular to drag and acting on the ship. When the two resultant forces aren't head-to-head (co-linear), they cause a moment about the center of the craft, thus creating a torque acting Into or out of the page. Used a lot of mechanical terms there. Might need to google a bit.

400k?! or do you mean 40k, because that would be much more reasonable.

you might want to limit the required parts. http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=970.0

You'd be surprised how heavy this sat is. I know I was. The rules say +/= 250m of orbit, so I assume that means you can't fly above 15,250 or below 14,750

I think the idea is that with the lander, there is no need for a parachute. If you do want to use a parachute for the landing, it might help to thrust a tad bit during approach to soften the fall a bit.

I don't think TB likes challenges too much ;P

Man, I'm getting real close. I think I have the machine to do the job, just need to work on my skills a bit!

Wow, that's a lot of parachutes.

Well what I'm saying is. I think (not sure, just a guess) is that the importer is turning your 4 legs into a pyramid, which is causing the issues. But I think we're on the same page now. Have you considered making the legs a separate part? I know there might be some wobbling at the attach nodes if you did that. Maybe you can ask CaptainSlug how he did his legs. Another cosmetic solution would be to lengthen the engine part so the edge of the engine would match with the attach node location. Essentially filling in the gap with a longer engine.

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/index.php?title=Part_Modelling_Guidelines#Collision_mesh_specifications I think this is referring to the overall shape of the mesh. Because the collision mesh in the earlier picture is 4 'L' shaped blocks for the lander legs, the convex solution to that would be a 4-sided pyramid, with a square connecting the 4 feet of the legs. Which would be why anything placed between the legs would cause a collision. It's a bit hard to explain polygons in words, so here's a webpage I found that explains it with pictures. http://regentsprep.org/Regents/math/geometry/GG3/Polygon.htm

As for the collision model for the fuel tank, because the mesh has to be convex, the importer might be converting it to a convex shape during the import process. (Not sure how the importer works, just a guess) Which would explain why collision occurs when something is placed between the legs. Maybe you could make the legs themselves a separate part, and add attachment nodes to the tank.

I found this in the repository. I don't know who uploaded it, but they go by the name 'orbiter' (Could be you for all I know : ) http://www.kerbalspacerepository.com/2011/07/17/ov-104-and-ov-104-engine/ The readme says the 'mesh' was taken from http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/. But there doesn't seem to be much of a collision mesh at all, just a surface model. You could take this, and improve the collision mesh in it. Maybe allow for radial decouplers on the underside for fuel takes, and maybe hide the command module in the surface model. The file also comes with functioning engines and top and bottom attach nodes. Once again, I don't know who made this, but because they took the model from that .uk side, I'm hoping they wouldn't mind you using it. I Really hope you get this thing working. I've always wanted to launch a shuttle!

This is for the Engine component. I'm going to look into the cfg file and see if I can change fix it and I'll let you know ;D

Just curious, what is the highest altitude orbit you've ever done? I'm orbiting at an apogee of 183km and a perigee of about 176km. It seems like a higher orbit would be easier to achieve. Is that a good guess?