strider3

Ladies and Gentlemen...I never fail to get more than enough info when I ask you guys a question! After years and years of dealing with other forums (Flightsim.com, subsim.com, etc.) it is amazingly fun to come hear...lost and perplexed...and walk away found and informed. THANK YOU!! And, yes, KER gave me the info I needed to burn to an equatorial orbit...I just didn't know it was there. Like so many other things KSP, KER, KIS/KAS, I'm still discovering all the "tools" they contain. Again...thank you so much, guys. Vic the Newbal

I'm dense, 5thH...could you elaborate?

Hopefully I am not, again, posting to the wrong forum? I am orbiting Minmus with the beginnings of a new orbital refueling station. I am trying to determine when I am in an equatorial orbit of Minmus, and how to get there, if not. KER "Orbital" tells me I'm off (showing 6.1). When I try to change the orbital inclination I can never get to 0.0...I get to around 4.4 and then go back the other way. This may be because I am not burning at the correct place of the orbit...but since I no longer have the Ascending / Descending node indicators, I have no idea. How does one go about getting into an equatorial orbit of a celestial body...once you are already orbiting it? TIA, Vic the Newbal

I agree that the mouse wheel acceleration is a pain when adjusting maneuvering nodes, especially when you have a burn window fast approaching and the darn wheel sends you to Proxima Centauri. Adjustability of the pointer speed and wheel acceleration "in game" would be the ideal answer IMHO. Now I go into Control Panel and reduce pointer speed to fairly slow and wheel to 1 line per roll...but that does nothing for the built-in wheel acceleration and I'm stuck with crawling pointer speeds at all times, instead of only when I need it. Having these adjustable for various "procedures" would be sweet (normal windows setting speed unless "grabbing" the maneuver node items or panning in orbital map view). I move the map view to line up my "proposed", after burn orbit with my current and use that as a visual reference to help me gauge how fast I'm approaching my goal for the burn and when to shut it down. I have seen mention of mouse software which can slow the acceleration rate on the wheel...but, again, that would affect it all the times instead of when I would like. I mean, it ain't rocket sci......wait a minute! Vic the Newbal.

Yep, that works. I was RIGHT clicking the hatch, out of habit to bring up some kind of menu. LEFT click gives you the option to EVA and a choice of Kerbals to do so with. Thanks!

Lanpont and Nabie seem mighty confused. They keep departing the MPL through the wrong hatch...and upside down to boot! The MPL is right side up and they climb up to the accessible hatch when returning, without any issues. Good thing it's Minmus or somebody is going to get hurt falling off the Gigantor!

Success! I had to make some changes...added the docking port, a large reaction wheel to make the rover more stable, got rid of the Twitches...they were...twitchy? (see what I did there?). instead I went with all RCS for the final descent, added RCS tanks (which I needed anyway, in hindsight), 8 thruster blocks for directional control and 7 Place Anywhere 7 linear thrusters along the bottom, for descent control. Balanced everything out and moved the girder/rover wheel assemblies forward and aft for extra stability. Landed it sweet as you please.

How do you get the boom to tilt up, is this a Mod or stock? Thanks!

Thanks, as always. The one thing most mentioned was the addition of a small docking port on top, at CoM, for control when going horizontal (in the famous words of Homer Simpson..."Doh!" ). I also thought about Laie's suggestion of landing vertically and letting it tip over...maybe a pair of tiny thrusters at the "top / front", to ease the fall to horizontal? So I added the small docking port on top and redistributed the twitches to align the CoT. I don't have a port on the front...I'm guessing here but, since I remapped my rover wheels to the "8, 5, 4, 6" number keys I should be fine? I use the KAS small ports with pipes for material transfer, which does mean I have to carry an engineer along (he's got a small platform at the front under the nosecone, with a KIS container, that he can ride on). Plusck, I have KER but have not even scratched it's surface, I mostly use it for flight info, rendezvous, radar altitude, etc. Can you explain how you used KER for testing in this situation? Thank yous!

I have yet to figure out how a person launches a large horizontally oriented rover...on a vertical rocket? Yes, I can hang some girders and wheels off the side of my rocket...and have done so. Two of these mining vessels are examples: And they launched...fairly well. But, what I want is a Large horizontal tanker/rover on Minmus, to move the created fuel to a lander for transfer to a Minmus orbiting station. I've made one attempt (well, several attempts using the same theory), EPIC fail: The problem is the change from vertical to horizontal. At the lower end of the Jumbo 64's I have a Mainsail (lots of bigger stuff under that but...whatever). That rig gets me to Minmus, gets my orbit "twisted" twice (Minmus from Kerbin + my mining operation is pretty far north on Minmus) and gets me retrograded to almost vertical over the mining site and slowed to 10 m/s at 2,000 meters. My "thought" was I could decouple the mainsail and all tanks except the rover's at about 2,000 meters, level this pig horizontally and use the 8 Twitches (which should be more than adequate) to softly drop this on the surface. Not so...not even close! The problem is control...nothing on the Navball works anywhere near as expected and every time I fire the Twitches the mule goes OFF. So, Failure one. My REAL question is...how would you go about getting a Horizontal fuel tanker / rover onto a planet...horizontally?? Vic the Newbal

Palaceviking: not docking, I was referring to pipe connections using KAS mod. Thanks psychogre...that's what I needed to know.

See...you guys are amazing! Thanks Leftotian! A couple more... You can see that I added a Connector Port on the Ore Tank (at top of ladder). Do connector ports have to be directly attached from Ore Container to ISDU, or can they be attached anywhere on the vessels which have these parts? I plan on dropping an ISDU lander, with a fuel tank, next to this drilling rig and I'm just wondering where I MUST put the connector ports. Will an ISDU with a fuel tank attached put it's created fuel into that tank? I also have to re-do the drilling rig, with the new info from Leftotian. Thanks guys!!!

Do the Convert-O-Trons have an available connector port (the 250 looks like it does)...or is that just a graphics thing and not a real port?

Do I not have enough cooling? I have 12 small radiators (8 where you can see them, 4 on the nosecone).

Thank you all! Let the trial and error begin

Just to be sure I understand the "flow" when mining. 1. You need drills to mine the ore. 2. Does the ore have to be "stored" before converting, or can it go directly to a Convert-O-Tron (if one is included in the drilling rig)? 3. you need a Convert-O-Tron to process the ore into fuel and oxidizer. 4. Does the Convert-O-Tron have any fuel/oxidizer storage or do you need to include tanks or pipes to separate tanks? 5. Do the drills have to be directly attached to the Convert-O-Tron (see #2), or can they be anywhere on the landed rig? I'm not sure of the mechanics involved, so I'm not sure of how to build my first mining rig. I want to do all work on Minmus and then transport fuel (of whatever type) to an orbiting station. Which brings up another question...can a mining rig production be changed from fuel/oxidizer to monofuel, or is this set at build? I'm not looking to build some huge mining/processing facility...I just want to give it a "first go". Like everything else Kerbal, once I try a small thing, I get the hang of it. Keep in mind that this is just an experiment in learning how to mine, convert and transfer. I just want to know how to do it, for now. That way if I decide I need a larger operation...I've got the "mechanics" of it down. As always, thank you for your patience and help. Vic the Newbal

Thanks Deddly, sorry about that.

Sunoco 1 is open for all your fuel and LoX needs! Coming soon...Monofuel, rooms and facilities for our long haul interplanetary truckers including showers, dining facilities and a lounge with "entertainment hostesses". Need towing? Our Sunoco 1 tug is ready to aid with docking port AND grapple capabilities! Just call at 1-8000-marooned for our towing services. In the future we will be adding fuels for ion drive and nuke! For you interplanetary RV'ers we will be adding docking and an RV dump station soon! Come to Sunoco 1 for all your interplanetary needs. Building this was a real KSP learning experience. Rendezvous (the hardest thing, IMHO), docking...what a blast it was! I know many of you have built much more complex stations...but this was my first go at it and I'm pretty proud of it. Next up...Minmus mining! Vic the Newbal

There we go, smaller separator worried me...I find they "wobble" when attaching 2 larger diameter pieces with them. I figured out what reactordrone was getting at. Thanks guys!!

How do I do that? Or, better yet, what are all the "commands" when setting a fairing? Thanks again!

Excellent...thank you!

First let me say that I have searched the forum's, but something about the search string "airstream protective shell" keeps locking up my POS IE11. I have had a heck of a time setting up the "airstream protective shells" when in the VAB...sometimes I luck out and others nothing I do makes it the way I want. Here's an example of what I need to do: I've got the fairing that far up...but I could have sworn that I could add to it to get it all the way to the separator and completely cover the girders and docking ports I'm lifting to my orbital station? Am I mistaken? If so, how would you go about making this aerodynamic?

What are the limitations of the KIS/KAS pipe? does it have to be level? How far can it go?

That's what I'm talkin' about! Excellent info on the basic understanding I was lacking. I do have KIS and KAS and will now get a chance to try them out. I'm guessing, as I see no "pipe", as a part in either mod, that it is created when 2 ports are attached to 2 vessels or tanks? But I will figure that out. I needed the very basic info to get me started. Thank you much, gang! Vic the Newbal

I am looking for a tutorial on how to set up a mining operation on Minmus with a refueling orbiter...and I don't understand most of it. Once a scan for ore concentrations are done and you have found the spot you want to mine...how do you mark it so you can return to that exact spot with the necessary equipment? How do you drop the drill, converters and tanks onto Minmus surface, and then set up a land base mining operation? I don't get how you get this stuff from Kerbin to Minmus...and I'm talking the basic "mechanics" of this part. Where do you put this equipment in the launch vessel? How do you get it out of the launch vessel and set up on Minmus? How do you get the fuel out of the storage tanks and into a transfer vessel to bring it from Minmus surface to Minmus orbit, where a refueling station will take the fuel on? I can orbit, rendezvous and dock. I can land on Minmus and the Mun (with a regular "lander"). I've been told to just keep doing this and then I will somehow, "magically" learn to do the things I'm asking about above...I seriously doubt that, however. Any help with vessel construction and procedures to accomplish this is greatly appreciated...as the "magic" osmosis has not occurred Vic the Newbal