AHHans

The only real hype train is a train full of hype. Here is one with as much hype as I could cram into it. https://kerbalx.com/AHHans/Train-of-Hype Start the engine and throttle up to get the fire burning, then press 1 to start the hype. Maybe not as fast as the other competitors, but it can bring carloads of hype to every Kerbal in the KSC.

Isn't that the point about robotic parts? But more to the point: I didn't get the impression that robotic parts are much less rigid than the normal parts. Except in the direction that they are supposed to bend. Well, you can use autostruts on the non-robotic parts and lock the robotic parts. The latter allows autostrus to go across a robotic part.

. o O (Not the most streamlined crafts to show that issue, but fine.) O.K. I spend the odd hour trying to figure out when the damn things freeze up and when they do not. The short answer seems to be that if there is no autostrut set on a robotic part then it also doesn't freeze up. I.e. if you only set autostruts on non-robotic parts, then you should be fine. (Which explains why I haven't encountered this bug earlier.) When you do set an autostrut on a robotic part then there is a chance that it freezes up: if there is another not-locked robotic part between it and the root part of the vessel, then it will freeze up. if there is no non-locked robotic part between it and the root part of the vessel, and the autostrut goes in the direction of the root part, then it will not freeze up if there is no non-locked robotic part between it and the root part of the vessel, but the autostrut goes to a "heaviest part" on the "other" (non-root) side, then it will freeze up That last part can get really complicated, because the decision which part is actually the "heaviest part" gets more complicated than I want to explain here...

Eve! Tylo is just enough delta-V and TWR. Eve is massive delta-V and TWR, inside a *bleeping* soup.

Disclaimer This is my interpretation of @Snark's Illustrated guide to docking. A lot of this will be just copy&paste from his guide, not only the text but I'll also "borrow" many of his illustrations. So you cannot really say that this is wholly my work. But I will give it some personal flavor (every one has a different way to rendezvous and dock) and will incorporate some of the new features, in particular the new orbit and approach information that was introduced in 1.7. This is work in progress! And it's taking me longer than I thought. But I'll get there... Even though I'll appreciate useful comments and suggestions and may include them into this guide. Contents I plan to group this guide into the following sections: Setting up the Rendezvous You are in orbit somewhere, your target is in orbit somewhere else, and you want to meet it. This is the part where you use maneuver nodes to arrange for your ship and the target to be in the same place at the same time, or at least as close as possible. Careful fiddling with the maneuver node will generally get you a rendezvous within a kilometer or so. Fine-tuning and Finishing the Rendezvous This involves making small burns as you approach the target, in the last few kilometers, so that your closest approach is zeroed in to a few dozen meters (from the kilometer-or-so you got in step 1). This involves close observation of the navball and light touches on the throttle. The final step is to kill your velocity relative to the target "Lazy mode" Docking You have full control of both vehicles, and can rotate both around so that their docking ports face each other. Using your RCS thrusters you make sure that the two docking ports hit each other face on at a survivable velocity. Standard Docking You cannot (or don't want to) rotate around you target. You still dock.... (Jaja, I'm not done here...) 1) Setting up the Rendezvous Navigation tool: Maneuver nodes and map view Control via: Main engine and throttle The first thing you have to do is to send your ship on a course that will put it and the target in the same place at the same time -- or, at least as close as you can get with maneuver nodes. The distance how close you need to get depends on where you are (how curved the space where you want to dock is(*)). A 5km encounter in LKO may be too far away to successfully rendezvous, while a 5 km encounter in Keostationary orbit (2863.33 km above Kerbin) will pose no particular difficulty. In general getting an encounter that is closer than 1 km should be good enough. (*) Yes, I'm a physicist, space is curved, deal with it. Well, except maybe around Gilly, you can't really call that curved. I'm assuming here that you in fact have maneuver nodes (i.e. you've unlocked them by upgrading Mission Control and the tracking station), and also that you're familiar with how to use them. Setting up a fairly good orbital rendezvous with maneuver nodes is actually a significant challenge, and if you're a new player just learning how to dock, there's a pretty good chance you may not have mastered "orbital rendezvous with maneuver nodes" as a skill yet. This guide is not really about setting up an orbital rendezvous! That is a whole complex topic in its own right, and this guide is about docking rather than general orbital navigation. Having said that, I'll still present one way how this can be done. I'll use this method a lot, and I thought it makes for a better story. In this guide we follow the voyage of AHS Minmus Big Miner. She isn't the prettiest ship in space, she doesn't have a fancy name, but she is a big piece of industrial equipment and can reliably haul 100 tons of ore into Kerbin Orbit. And here she is, in low Minmus orbit after just having filled her ore tanks on Minmus. She needs to deliver that ore to the refilling station in a 500 km orbit around Kerbin. On the way there she'll stop by a probe in orbit close to the station to practice docking. As we can see below, just burning prograde at the right time would get her into a Kerbin orbit, but with a high inclination to the refilling station. By combining the prograde with a (anti-)normal burn she can reduce the relative inclination of the orbits by a great amount, without using any extra fuel: By burning normal or anti-normal at the node (here a normal burn at the descending node) that she encounters on the way to the periapsis, she can correct the plane of her orbit around Kerbin to be in the same plane as the target station. Now that she is in an elliptical orbit in the same plane as her target that intersects the target orbit. By burning retrograde at the periapsis between the two intersection points (if you are coming from a lower orbit, burn prograde at the apoapsis) the time when she arrives a the second intersection point (after going though most of the orbit) can be changed by a large amount. So this time can be chosen so that she encounters the target at the point. Note: in order to reduce the relative speed at the intersect I first set the maneuver node to get to about the same orbit as the target, and then reduce the burn until I get that encounter. Before performing that burn I suggest to select the "Approach Info" for the current orbit in the maneuver display. This updates in real time during the burn and allows one to fine tune the burn to get the best rendezvous. 2) Fine-tuning and Finishing the Rendezvous Navigation tool: Navball and approach information Control via: Main engine and throttle Your eventual goal is to coast to a stop so that you're parked right next to the target (as in, just a couple of dozen meters apart). Chances are, however, that unless you're either super lucky or an ace at maneuver-nodes, the rendezvous that you set up in Step 1 above will only get you to within a few hundred meters at best-- perhaps a kilometer or two. You'd like to be closer than that when you match velocities, since your final approach (using RCS) will be very slow, just centimeters per second, and you don't want to have to do that for a kilometer or more. So the way to solve that is to make minor course adjustments with light touches on the throttle of your main engine, using the navball for guidance. Here's how: First things first: Make sure navball is in "target relative" mode Once you get close to the target, you don't care what your orbital velocity is. You only care about your velocity relative to the target. Chances are, the navball is probably in "Orbit" mode when you're in orbit (the game does that automatically, unless you've manually tinkered with it). Normally, when you approach your target within 60 km, the navball will switch automatically to "Target" mode instead of "Orbit": this causes your prograde/retrograde markers to indicate your target-relative velocity rather than your orbital velocity, which is what you want. It looks like this (note the "Orbit" or "Target" indicator at the top of the navball): ...Typically, it will do this automatically for you and no action is required on your part. I only bring it up because it's possible this might not happen, and you need to make sure that the navball is in "Target" mode, or nothing after this point will make any sense. You can change the mode manually by clicking on the label. This will toggle the navball between Orbit, Surface, and Target modes. Why this fine-tuning step is needed As you get within several kilometers of your target, your navball will start to look something like this (again, make sure your navball is in target mode): This looks pretty good: your target-relative-velocity retrograde marker (yellow circle) is pretty close to your target-direction retrograde marker (pink Y with dot in middle). The fact that these two are close together means that you are heading almost directly towards your target. However, the key word here is "almost". If you just coast towards your target and do nothing, you'll see the target-direction retrograde marker slide farther and farther away from the velocity retrograde marker, like this: That's because you're not heading directly at the target. Unless you got super lucky (or are an ace) with the original maneuver node, your closest approach is likely to be at least several hundred meters away from the target. This means that without any course corrections, you're going to go past it, and it'll slide off the side of your navball in the same way that someone standing beside the road slides off to the side of your windshield as you drive past them. Therefore, you need to adjust your course when you get close by, so that you are sitting right next to your target (and not a kilometer away) when you come to a stop relative to it. What to do When you get reasonably close to your rendezvous (say, when it's 1 minute away, which you can see in the map view when you mouse over the intercept marker), start the process. What you're trying to do is to move your velocity-retrograde marker so that it's precisely centered on your target-retrograde marker (i.e. so that you're heading directly at the target). To do this, start by lining up your navball so that your center-marker, velocity marker, and target marker are exactly lined up in a straight line, like this: Note that the yellow velocity-retrograde marker is exactly on a straight line in between the navball crosshairs and the pink target-retrograde marker. Why do we do this? Well, firing your engines "pushes" the velocity retrograde marker away from the center crosshairs on the navball. Since what we want to do is move the velocity marker onto the target marker, then by lining the navball up this way, it will "push" the velocity-retrograde marker in the direction we want it to go. Once you've got it lined up, gently throttle up to move the marker. How much throttle you need will depend on your ship's TWR and how big your target-relative velocity is. So just keep a careful eye on the navball, gently throttle up, and be ready to kill the throttle immediately when things line up. As your engine burns, you will see the velocity-retrograde marker drift towards the target-retrograde marker, like this: When the two markers line up perfectly, cut throttle. (Don't worry if it's not pixel-perfect; all that matters is that it's better than it was. If you're off by a smidgeon, what will happen is that as you get closer to the target, the two markers will drift apart again, and you can do this correction maneuver again. Repeat as needed.)

I believe that the "RTS-1 Resource Transfer Station" and "JS-1 Joint Socket" are part of a mod that you are using. They are definitely not parts from the Breaking Ground DLC. So I'd suggest that you ask this question in the sub-forum for that mod. But at a guess I'd say that these parts are there to move resources between two different (not-docked) vessels and that they cannot be used to move resources between different parts of the same vessel. For the latter you can use the stock resource transfer system.

Two reasons for me: 1) I don't expect KSP2 to have a Linux version at launch.(*) And 2) I want to visit every easter egg in my current career. That'll probably take me a while. (Especially if I upgrade that to "plant a flag at every easter egg".) (*) Which IMHO is a mistake by the devs. It would be a big mistake if they don't release a Linux version soon-ish after launch.

Sad, but true.

May I humbly suggest to at least check when the next transfer windows are. Compared to any activity around in Kerbin's SOI, waiting for a transfer window and the transfer itself take a looong time. You can get a lot done during that time. (That's how I got the 60+ Kerbals on my rooster, rescuing them from LKO while waiting for my ships to get to Duna.) On second thought: you do you! It's just me that I don't like time-warping for a long time in one go. Yes, I think I watched about a dozen docking tutorials, but in the end you need practice. I've also haven't seen a video that describes the method of fine-tuning the rendezvous like the Illustrated guide to docking does. (Which is essentially how I do it now.) What might also be useful for training is to use the CH-J3 Fly-By-Wire Avionics Hub so that you have the "point to target" SAS option available. I've also know about it for a long time before I actually bought it. Maybe because it sounded too much like work. That's probably because she is biding her time and waiting to hit <SPACE> at just the "right" moment.

A) Not good... B) Well, adding a posting to a thread that was started before a major patch of the issue is less likely to be noticed than either a new topic, or - even better - a new issue on the bugtracker. It would help even more if you could supply a craft that reliably shows this problem. Edit: You can find the bugtracker here: https://bugs.kerbalspaceprogram.com/

Considering that someone from SQUAD looked at the corresponding bug report: https://bugs.kerbalspaceprogram.com/issues/23190 I believe that there is a good chance that something will be done on this before the heat death of the universe.

O.K. My school-bus is on the way from Mun orbit back home with a 40km Kerbin periapsis. It has 514m/s dV left, so my guesstimate of 2km/s was nearly spot on. P.S. Yes, I did the trip in the order: Kerbin orbit -> Land on Minmus -> get out of Kerbins SOI -> orbit the Mun -> aerobrake on Kerbin. Edit: And everyone is safely - and quite a bit more experienced - back at the KSC on Kerbin.

That's actually also most of what I have done up to now. (Thus the experience with the "toggle lock vs. "set lock".) If you can do the unfolding and locking in micro-gravity in orbit, then it shouldn't be too hard to do that. Hmmm... Would I like an auto-locking mode? Hmmm... It would make things easier. But I also enjoy the challenge of having to engineer around the limitations of the parts. (Up to a limit, the jumpy landing legs are just plain annoying.) So I don't know if I really need to have it.

Yes, Minums is easier. IIRC Minmus was also my very first non-Kerbin landing. (The infamous "Who forgot the parachutes?!?" mission. ) The jumpiness is a long known (but nit fixed *grrrrr*) issue, but at least you have more time to thing and react than on high(er) gravity bodies. For the ultimate experience in low-gee jumpiness I suggest to try to dock to Gilly. Congrats on your haul of science points. So, going on interplanetary missions next? I thought so. But you kept talking about the "z/x shuffle" while for me it is more a "L-Shift/x shuffle". Only if you have unlocked the Klaw (aka Advanced Grabbing Unit). If you make a "mini module" with a docking port and the Klaw (it literally doesn't need more than this), use the Klaw to stick that to an existing station (or ship, or whatever), and decouple the docking port from the delivery craft, then you have a mostly usable docking port on the station. Disadvantages are 1) it it typically somewhat more wobbly than docking ports that are an integral part of the station, 2) the docking port is likely to be at an odd angle to the rest of the station, and 3) unless allowed in the difficulty options ("Resource Transfer Obeys Crosfeed Rules") you cannot transfer fuel through the Klaw. Issue 1) can be mitigated with autostruts, and issue 2) by "freeing the pivot" and angling the Klaw. The Klaw can also be used to tidy up any trash that you may have hanging around in orbit. Hmmm... I thought that if your station doesn't have a docking port, the the game doesn't consider it a station and you don't get station upgrade contracts. Or are you talking about contracts to build a new station?

I disagree. There is a difference between setting a servo to a position and holding it there, and locking it in place. In the first case you have a still flexible joint that can and will move if the external force gets too strong. This e.g. allows you to use them as a suspension or landing legs. In the second case you have a fixed joint that will not move, but gets damages if the forces exceed its limit.

Hi @usspeaking, a warm welcome to the forums also from me. You could also consider discussing the topics in a public thread in the forums. Just because you don't think something is of public interest doesn't mean that nobody else is interested.

There is a value in the savefiles that you can edit to fix this ("ScienceTimeDelay"), or install that:

Errr... You are aware of the existence of the left shift key? And it's effect on engine output?

Have some slots for easy mission empty and check up on your new missions every 5 days or so. They'll show up eventually even late in the game.

I don't mind doing rescue missions early in my career games. It's quick and easy cash, and the additional Kerbals don't hurt. So while Val, Bill, and Bob(*) were on my first interplanetary mission to Duna, Jeb loaded all the rookies into a big bus and took them on a tour of the Kerbin system: planting flags on the Mun and Minmus. So when the issue came up again I just re-used the same craft. I had a few new rookies, and filled the empty seats with anyone who didn't run away fast enough. No. Not again! I've been on Minmus already. Right now the bus is in transit from Minmus to the edge of Kerbin's SOI. (It had 2536 m/s dV after refueling in a 90km orbit around Kerbin. Now, after landing on Minmus and on an escape trajectory it still has 960 m/s left. Looks good so far.) P.S. (*)Bill and Bob prefer flying with Valentina and not Jeb. They mumble something about "reckless flying" and "unnecessary high-g maneuvers" when you ask them.

Well, my "let's see if 2.5km/s is indeed enough" test flight has 39 Kerbals... (But it's in my career save, going from Minmus to just across Kerbin's SOI takes 36 days, and there are other things to do in the meantime that take my time.)

Setting a lock on any of the robotic parts is notoriously unreliable. I the part is moving even a little bit, e.g. because its engine needs to work against an external force, then you typically have to try a number of times to get the lock to set. (Or if the load is too big, it just won't...) On method that helps is to put "Engage Servo Lock" (not "Toggle Locked") on an action group. Then you can just hammer that button until the lock is set, without the risk of having it released on a subsequent button press. On the plus side: once a lock is set it allows autostruts to traverse the robotic part. So strategic use of autostruts can allow for fairly sturdy and rigid craft that can still change their configuration when there is limited load. (And they obviously don't consume power when locked.) P.S. I also think this conversation fits better in the BG support subforum.

You don't need to land on the Mun, and from Minmus you are already nearly at the edge of the SOI. I haven't tried that, but looking at the dV chart I think with an optimized flight plan 2.5km/s dV should be enough. Maybe even 2km/s. Some comments: 1) When outside Kerbins SOI, make sure that you are "in orbit" around the sun. I.e. not on a trajectory that will encounter Kerbin before one orbit is completed, that way you would only get the "flyby" experience. 2) When orbiting the Mun, you don't need a circular orbit. An elliptical orbit to the edge of the SOI is fine. 3) Going from the Mun to Minmus is probably going to be nasty to schedule right. (You want to bur at the PE in the Mun's orbit, and the direction mus align with the Mun's orbit and a transfer window to Minmus.)

"Anything BG related"? Not really. But a question that is clearly abut BG content and only about BG content fits better in the BG specific subforums. But anyway, no harm done. And it is better you ask the question in a non-ideal subforum than not asking it at all.

Looks pretty impressive! A bit wasteful of delta-v, but impressive nonetheless!