OrbitsR4Sissies

I'm a long-time desktop tech that fixed everything, but specialized in Apple support. The answer: It depends on what you need to do. Brand-name PCs often have limited upgrade options or fight what upgrades you add, beyond memory and storage. If your box is over 3 years old, I'd recommend a new buy. If you want to game, game, game, a PC with Windows is the better choice. Most games will always be available for this platform, and Windows provide the best general integration of graphics software support, hardware diversity (especially if the PC is self-built) and accessories. You can build a PC that rivals a NASA orbital calculations supercomputer if you have the cash. If you're in school, or if you do graphics or animation work, don't want to fight your computer too often but also occasionally game, you can't go wrong with a MacBook Pro 15-inch. This laptop is for professional guys with a need for superior graphics support. It has a Radeon video chip and better horsepower. You can also consider an iMac with Radeon support. Do NOT choose the 13-in MacBook Pro, any MacBook Air or any Mac without a Radeon chip. Gaming long-term will work these machines a bit too hard. Before you worry about losing Windows over a Mac...you won't. A Mac can run Windows natively as they also use Intel chips. You'll get a good gaming rig with a copy of Windows 10 (Apple provides the needed drivers), using the BootCamp utility, for a very strong game laptop with all of the gaming strengths that Windows offers. With a restart, you have two computers in one with none of the disadvantages. This ability offsets the higher cost of a typical Apple computer--but as Apple provides the best hardware support (with Lenovo very close behind) you will get a long life with its design. My iMac was built in 2013 and I'm just now upgrading it to 16GB and an SSD for another 3 years of life before I buy a new one. No matter what computer type, max out the RAM as much as possible. You'll feel a performance pinch with less than 16GB RAM if you like KSP's advanced graphics. In the case of KSP 1, you can choose to play on either platform. I do this with my iMac. While I appreciate the better overall performance of KSP1 under Windows, I prefer the convenience of KSP1 under MacOS since I want to use that operating system for other needs when not gaming. When KSP2 arrives (currently announced as only available for PC and consoles), I can still play it in Windows or just tool on KSP1 on the Mac or Windows side until Star.Theory hires some SQUAD folks who give a dang about Mac and Linux players.

That’s not so much a bug but a design issue. As you probably know, it’s the only command pod without a reaction wheel. Complicating this is that the RCS design, based on the Apollo Lunar Module, was meant for a very specific center of mass with only a specially built descent stage. So, yeah, the MEM sucks to fly only on RCS with a lower stage, but only if you try to use only the MEM RCS. Just add a descent stage RCS and match it to the craft’s center of mass in the VAB, then disable the MEM RCS for a descent/ascent two stage vehicle until you are ready to stage the MEM. A single stage craft could just keep MEM RCS enabled with secondary RCS and a lot of monopropellant with no reaction wheel.

Here you are. First time anyone's asked me for any craft, so you motivated me to get my KerbalX account set up. https://kerbalx.com/OrbitsR4Sissies/Pilgrim-Mining-Lander The miner supports the Venturer, a long-range interplanetary spacecraft with a 2400 dV lander. As noted above, I put a miner at Gilly and, later, Ike and Pol to ensure the Venturer's lander can land on most anything and return except Kerbin, Laythe, Eve, and Tylo. https://kerbalx.com/OrbitsR4Sissies/Venturer

This is a common mod incompatibility I've read and seen on several forum posts and YouTube videos. The Kopernicus mod is notorious for this based on search hits. Others that might cause the issue include: AmpYear MFI PlanetShine

I weaponized Empiro's and others' advice here to positive effect. Meet the Pioneer; a 4200-or-so delta-V spacecraft to fulfill a landing contract on Moho, Gilly, the Mun, Minmus, Duna and Ike using a single vessel: a 2200 dV lander it carries in tow. I was no stranger to Moho's challenges. I've sent many of a spacecraft there and just bulked up with ridiculous amounts of fuel from Kerbin, typically one-way probes, worse for Kerbal missions. I didn't want to do that here because I knew I would save a bit by refueling at Gilly. But I had never left for Moho from Eve before. So that's why I'm here. After Pioneer did its thing alone at the Mun and Minmus, a refueled tanker stage and a similar one with a mining ship headed to Eve. There, refueled one of the two transfer stages, reconfigured as a depot over Gilly. The lone Kerbal on Pioneer is Bill, the engineer, picked because he can improve mining and converting efficiency and repack chutes after Duna for his Kerbin return. The transfer stage had enough dV to leave Eve just before the Moho AN, ignoring the transfer window. I set the DN orbit to just reach Moho's orbit. First burn from Pioneer at Moho AN, around 1100 dV, partially corrected inclination while also setting up the first Moho encounter. Second burn, flying around 12000 m over the North Pole, again for about 1100 dV, all but fully corrected inclination and reduced Pioneer's orbital AP. Burn 3, for 331 dV, made shortly after the first flyby, sets up a new encounter... Pioneer entered Moho orbit with a very modest 461 dV burn. Now, I did have to send two tanker ships to refill Pioneer in orbit...mostly because I was lazy and panicking before I learned what I could do. I could've sent another mining ship instead instead of two ships (one that burned 10x more fuel than Pioneer to get an orbit). Returning from Moho to Eve, I generally reversed the steps, although I'm recalling this from bad memory. Used 1000 dV in the Moho tanker stage to just squeak out of Moho near its DN. Made a partial inclination burn around 1300 dv at Eve's AN, I think. A second burn at Eve's DN for an encounter at its AN left the spacecraft left even more fuel to spare on capture burn, thanks to Eve's gravity. Pioneer, refueled, now has a comparably easy trip to Duna to complete its contract. Thanks for the great information, everyone.

Using some sage advice from prior forum posts, I left Eve with about 4300 delta-V in my Pioneer six-landing contract spacecraft, using an injection that carried about 1400 dV but no more. First burn at Eve/Moho AN was around the 1100 dV range to force the first of two Moho encounters and alter the inclination by about half. The second burn over Moho's north pole, also around 1200 dV and at the planet's DN, both slowed down orbital velocity and set inclination to less than 1 degree. Just after that burn, a third burn of 331 dV set up the 2nd and last Moho encounter. I was able to enter Moho orbit at a puny 461 delta-V. Not even the awesome Matt Lowne could do this in a recent video with one of his impressive SSTO self-refuelers. But, in his defense, his craft was heavier, lands all of itself, and he self-admits to being lazy.

It will be some time after KSP2's release before some features appear in its stock game or mods that support it can be developed. Remember that KSP1 mods will not be compatible. For me, while I can play KSP2 in a native (slightly faster) Windows 10 environment on my G-Force GPU-equipped iMac (and did so from 1.5 through 1.6), I prefer working in MacOS for now, loving the fact that mods don't require a "Mac version." The lack of an initial Mac/Linux version on first release is annoying although understandable (it lets the devs focus on the central game's core and less on all things for all people). So long as one appears not very far after release, I will be happy. The fact that console releases precede any Mac/Linux version is also annoying. But the game is a business, and the sales to the larger console market pay the bills needed for support of later releases and platform support. And, as an IT specialist, I'm reticent to be a KSP2 "beta tester." I know that's the KSP way for the early adapters, but I want to hit the ground running with any significant bugs out of the way. This all reminds me of playing Diablo 1 for years while also tooling about on Diablo II. Both have, even today, enjoyable gameplay.

After getting a contract to land on Moho, Gilly, the Mun, Minmus, Duna and Ike with a single vessel, I wanted a versatile single-crew interplanetary ship. Here's the Pioneer. With about 4,000 delta-V on its own in the planetary cruise stage, it carries a small Mk1 pod with Bill Kerman, the engineer, who is happy to be flying on his own with just lots of snacks, a lot of technical manuals to read, a great view and no one to bother him. The Mk1 pod is docked to a Mk1 Crew Cabin as a simple but sufficiently spacious habitat. The lander pod has about 2200 dV on its own. Equipped with parachutes, it's more than enough to land and return from every planet and moon save Laythe, Tylo, and Eve (and Kerbin, of course).. Taking a page from some space fantasy that allowed some mystical lightsword wielder to travel about within a star system after parking his hyperspace drive, the Pioneer's two part design allows easy separation and redocking with the planetary stage. Bill was a little lazy, as a non-pilot, to make efficient courses which would use a lot of gravity assists to maximize delta-V further. And it appears he also wanted to play with all the latest ISRU toys to test their effectiveness in the field. But he also did enough back-of-the-napkin calculations to know that you should never go light in terms of delta-V to Moho. He had to strike a balance of efficiency and power. So Pioneer is supported by four refueling options with a backup. The first refueler was placed around Minmus, refilling a large 37 meter Rhino-engine kickstage to send Pioneer to Eve for use around the asteroid moon, Gilly. Pioneer made its contract landings on the Mun and Minmus on its own, then Bill met up with the refueler and made a trip or two to the surface for mining. A few days later, he was on the way to Gilly, with Pioneer hitching a ride. Also sent at the same time from Kerbin was an improved refueler spacecraft to Gilly, also with a Rhino-powered cruise stage. With both Pioneer and its refueler in Gilly orbit, the curious use of two large Rhino cruise stages becomes apparent, since Pioneer could've reached Eve on its own power. Bill commands the four items, each with probe command, to separate and redock, forming a massive orbiting fuel station. After both stages are fully refueled from the ridiculously easy mining ops at Gilly and once a transfer window opens up, Pioneer will mate up with the bottom-most Rhino stage for injection to Moho. The Rhino stage will likely be discarded there. Pioneer Lander will make its contract touchdown, and stick around a bit at the orbiting station left from a previous mission, refreshing Bill with more snacks and any tech manuals left behind or ones he can download. When the Eve transfer window opens, Pioneer should have more than enough delta-V on its own to return to the Gilly station for a refuel. A third and fourth refueler will be sent ahead of Pioneer to its next and final contracted destination, Duna. Pioneer will fly itself to the red planet, leaving the 2nd refuel spacecraft and its tank for later mission support. The larger Duna refueler, for stationing in Ike orbit and surface ops, will be essentially the same as the one at Gilly and will also support an existing Duna expedition there. But also there will be an asteroid refueling grabber that Pioneer can carry on its forward port for mining at Dres. Bill has seriously considered going beyond his contract to make a landing at Dres (refueling with the many available asteroids in its belt), and then heading to Jool, with landings at Vall, Pol and Bop and flybys of Tylo, Jool and Laythe before heading home. A large relay network spacecraft was launched to Jool already with more than enough liquid fuel to tank up Pioneer without a Jool system ISRU option. Could Bill get top bragging rights and reach Eeloo, making him the only kerbal in the astronaut corps to visit all the system planets and moons? He's thinking about it.

I've also looked into the really overworking @linuxgurugamer and his camera mod, which looks like a good interim fit and what I hope to see in stock sometime.

Thanks. While I am hoping for a stock solution sometime, I’ll take a look!

My love of rovers and other orbiters would be enhanced with an additional part series that could be incorporated as part of the wonderful Breaking Ground science. Rovers and orbiters lack cameras. They could actually take photos (effectively screenshots) but, as a per-biome credit, add science which could be transmitted or retrieved. Cosmetically, cameras could be in three sizes and be a boon for the appearance and science of any probe. A camera should be one of the earliest on the tree and could even be weaker in the image (black/white, grainy) but increase in size and science. I know mods like Probes Plus have very cool parts of the type. But if we could give rovers their tower eyes or orbiters a boom with science like Voyager, in-game, it would add to the immersion. Having Kerbals take photos of themselves would also be a hoot.

I need this. Why oh why I haven't I seen this before? Yet another fine product by you. Thanks!

Ben Feist...that's right! He also contributed work to the Apollo 11 feature film recently released.

That's exactly the "problem." The site recognizes US Daylight Saving Time and similar changes in other places. But yeah, just click on the timeline anywhere and enjoy, synching up to it later.

I was a beta tester for this website experience. Every video, audio and photo is there, synced from the second, from hours from launch to splashdown, even sleep cycles. This version (there's an older Apollo 17 version) includes the Mission Control flight controller loops. Click the "Now" button and it time warps you to the very moment (based on your time zone) today, the 50th anniversary of the launch, which is at 9:32 EDT.

OK, Foxster, while I couldn't load your particular craft to play (should've added it in a sandbox and not my career save) I was able to see what I appeared to need first: What and where to add parts for control in the action groups. So you got me from complete ineptitude to this point of joy: The little test craft does want to spin, which suggests that I should add four more rotors that are counterrotating. It also wants to drop from the sky as it begins that spin about itself, but this is a good starting point. I'm using propellers and not helicopter parts if that is important. I did map the authority limiter but, honestly, have no idea what to do with that. If I can understand that fine-tuning, I'll have a fighting chance to send something like this to Laythe. I guess that the authority stuff will help me fly it level but straight ahead as a drone truly does, rather than having to tilt the whole craft as much as some copters.

Thanks for the tips so far. I made a simple craft with four small rotors, set their props to deploy. Here’s where I’m probably wrong fundamentally because my rotors don’t even spin. I read to set the rotor RPM to the main throttle action group. The PAW shows the RPM moving with the throttle but no spin of any rotors. I haven’t felt this noob since I picked the game up over a year ago. Rockets be easy compared to this, and I’ve been everywhere with rovers or landers.

(Moderators: I likely posted this in a less desirable place, so please move to the better thread.) With Breaking Ground's latest goodie, propellers, I've been dying to develop a small quadricopter probe for Eve and especially Laythe. I've landed on both worlds (probes) only a few times because of their natural challenges that match the actual moon of Titan (high gravity, thick atmosphere; large seas). But I love rovers, and this Dragonfly-style way of navigating these worlds would be optimum for both. I have a design in mind already. But... My problem is have too little information on using the new electric-only rotors and propellers. I can put some on, I know enough to just set them to "deploy." But from there, the newer action and axis groups to learn how to throttle them up and down escape my understanding. The propeller and rotor settings are a bit perplexing. We're really missing game information on how to use and set these up, although I forgive Squad for this since they've done a lot of work in just getting these new features available in the first place. I'm searched rather extensively and am aware of older threads such as And I know of one build on KerbalX that played with the idea. I've also found a somewhat useful post that tried to explain the mechanics, as well as NASA mission discussion threads. Does anyone have some examples or resources on the fundamentals of how to set up drone-type rotors and propellers and how to configure them for VTOL flight with the usual control keys and action/axis groups if applicable or easier? I don't need lots of bells and whistles and can certainly complete the build the rest of the way. I appreciate any advice you have.

I'm a little disappointed about this, too. But when playing at maximum science, one scan is a LOT of science points. I'd prefer a per-biome science yield (with lower data as more are found, one per biome) as traditional experiments have done. Different types of collectible stones (that is, adding more to the game) would also be an alternative. I'm all for more of these things to find. Still trying to work out the Deployed Science's result, which also appear to be one-per-planet. Getting the seismometer science (by designing my cruise stages as probes and slamming them at the Mun) has been IMMENSELY SATISFYING (Chatterer and all kinds of stuff go NUTS like a jackpot payoff with the system messages flashing and I can't stop laughing when it happens). I'm playing at the lowest science (10%) throughout, but things are working out OK. I like traveling. While the surface features are one-and-done, they are generally one-and-done per rover arm type. CRSY will give some science, SPRT a bit more and OP-E will give a bit more on the same object. While sending more than one rover seems pointless, I've used several. First, I'm refining my rover tech. And they are a great help in finding collectible stones or other items far faster for Kerbals to pick up for contracts. I find one, and park the rover right next to it as a landing target. You can also use the rover this way (with an Experiments Storage Bay) to collect science along the way for a Kerbal to retrieve.

It took me a little bit of fiddling with camera, but I've had two contracts to find and retrieve Green Sandstone and a Mun Stone with no issues in completion. This was a new game save for 1.7.1. The Mun Stone was found by one of my rovers, who sat by it to mark it out for my crewed lander to find it. To pick one up with a Kerbal, you have to basically make contact with it--as in stand atop it. My Mun Stone was located in a biome outside of the contract's recommendation, which still satisfied things. My terrain scatter is set to very low, to the point where hardly any appear. Helps a great deal. Half-res on graphics settings and also bumped up ambient light. No use of the Cheats. Just my Mark One Eyeball. On Mimmus I found lots of the larger rock piles (guessing those are the Olivine). And even climbed one. It would be nice that, if you have a Kerbal atop a surface feature it cannot pick up, that there is some informational message that suggests that more specific tools may be needed to get more data. Or, at least, the Kerbal is told what the feature is, although that yields no science but gives you an option to mark it on the Map for later study.

We're all new at this, of course. I just made a test rover this morning. To activate these parts outside of Action or Axis Groups preset in the SPH/VAB, be sure to add the KAL-1000 controller part to your craft. This will allow you to play back the recorded movements you've made. I'm still learning how to make a one-time activation that doesn't loop. But that should get you to a working start.

One of the less fun elements of the game was how little activity you had on landing. Run some experiments and 3 minutes later you go home. It’s why I preferred rovers A one and done lander wasn’t worth it This DLC makes spending time on the surface far more realistic and interesting. Landers will have long-term things to do. Rovers with arms sound awesome. Does anyone think the timing works well with the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11, where a crew placed experiments on the surface? Looking very forward to this!

Looking at the 2.2.2 folder, I found Trajectories13.bin, 14, 15, and 16.bin. Didn't find a 17.bin in that or the 2.2.1 folder. Can you point us to where that 17.bin file was and where to place it again?

I just noticed this, too. When in the VAB, there's a strange error to most of my spacecraft. Something like "Unknown Trajectories Module." The mod's toolbar button doesn't appear after loading a fresh copy. I'll consider that workaround until things are updated.

Wasn't it awesome, American players, that we actually understood how far a meter was during this landing? Goodness knows that most of us were about as successful on our very first try to land on the Mun. KSP: Making the teaching of the metric system to Americans that much easier. Looking forward to another try by SpaceIL. Their country absolutely loved this! EDIT: Can't find a link, but the XPrize folks awarded the company $1 million for the effort to encourage a later try.