jimmymcgoochie

MechJeb > ascent guidance > launch to LAN.

Space is hard enough without the game arbitrarily RNGing you with duff data. Let's just assume that Kerbals' electronics industry is deceptively advanced considering the general appearance of the rest of their technology and that they never break...

That depends how many crew you want to move at a time. If you want something that can move lots of Kerbals at once then the Mk3 spaceplane passenger cabin would be my first port of call, followed by enough propulsion to get it there, docking gubbins, power gubbins and a heatshield on the front to aerobrake back down to LKO and save fuel.

You can mount almost any inline part radially by surface attaching it. Parts that can’t do so are the exception rather than the rule.

Solid fuel rocket engines just produce thrust when staged until they run out of fuel. Liquid fuel engines, whether jet or rocket, are throttle controlled and so you need to use the throttle controls to get thrust- by default it’s X for no throttle, Z for full throttle, left shift to throttle up gradually and left control to throttle down gradually. The in-game tutorials cover this, have you tried them? When launching a rocket you’ll probably want to press T to turn SAS on, Z for full throttle and then space bar to activate your engines.

Obligatory Terminal Velocity reference: Not entirely nuclear, but nuclear from the ground to TLI.

You've modded the Steam copy of KSP, which is a bad idea because it can cause exactly this sort of issue. Try the same mods in a fresh copy of KSP:

There is a mod called ReCoupler which claims to be able to attach many-to-one for this exact use case, though I've never really tried to use it. I would recommend using larger LF-only fuel tanks like the Mk3 spaceplane tanks in a stack, or a mod that allows you to choose which resources go in your tanks to make the really large LF/Ox tanks hold just LF.

Put the Castors in the same stage as the launch clamps so they ignite when the clamps release.

I don’t think you need a GCRC kick stage, a few separation/spin motors would probably do the job if all you’re aiming for is a 300km periapsis. Re. TWR, anything from 1.2 to 1.8 is pretty reasonable- any lower and you’ll lose a lot of delta-V just fighting gravity, any higher and atmospheric drag will do the same. Two Castor 1s would probably be enough.

So one magic ship has two thousand torch-drive missiles that can somehow sustain 30g thrust for hours and pack a kilo of metallic hydrogen into an object the size of a 3 year old? Sure, pal, whatever you say… As for “how would Earth stop it?”, the answer is: throw literally everything- ballistic, semi-ballistic and cruise missiles, drones, planes, guided and unguided rocket artillery, Starships, Arc Light bombing runs, howitzers, Karl Gustavs, Davy Crocketts, Hiluxes with .50-cals on the back, airliners, attack helicopters, Iowa-class battleships- at it in a sustained attack from every direction until its defences were depleted, and then nuke it. Obviously this depends on where it is on Earth, but the alien ship would be heavily limited by line of sight and a stationary target is much easier to hit. There’s also the problem of getting roasted by your own missile plumes since fantasy 30g-for-hours missiles probably have some spicy exhaust that you don’t want to be sitting right under in an atmosphere that can conduct that energy back into your ship both in an oops-we-cooked-our-own-ship way and an oops-we-can’t-see-anything-outside-any-more way. This is assuming the magic spaceship arrived on its own and didn’t deploy any satellites or launch preemtptive strikes against military bases or other priority targets, just plopped itself down on the ground and turtled up under its shields.

That’s how it works in KSP1. If you want to merge another saved vessel into the one you already have loaded in, it can only be attached by the new vessel’s root part. You should re-root rocket stages so the topmost part is the root if you want to merge it into another craft, then start from the top and work your way down when merging so that each newly loaded stage can be attached to the one above right away.

You’ve just described exactly what precision control mode is supposed to do. It’s meant to reduce RCS thrust to make more precise manoeuvring easier e.g. docking. It greatly reduces the visual effects too, so it can look like you’re getting no thrust.

It’s not compatible and breaks a lot of things if you try. The RO devs disabled it for a reason.

A few hints for you: Put a single large solar panel on the top of your satellite, or rotate the four you have to be angled forwards. Only one panel will get sunlight at a time in your current design, but if they all face the same way then you can get much more power. When launching to a periapsis insertion (which is the default), your apoapsis will be on the opposite side of the Earth to your launchsite. Since you’ll need to burn prograde there to boost your orbit, if you launch just as the sun is setting and go east, you’ll be pointing roughly towards the sun when you reach your apoapsis and your solar panels will be facing the sun if you put them on the top. For a polar orbit it’s a bit harder, but you could try putting a single large solar panel on the top, facing to one side and positioned to prevent torque on the unguided stage, and then launch north or south at sunrise or sunset; use roll control to point the solar panel at the sun before doing the final boost burn, however this means you won’t get any spin stabilisation. I don’t remember the specific orbital requirements for this contract. Do you need such a high apoapsis? There will always be some element of manual input required, especially with unguided stages, however you can use PVG to launch to the parking orbit and then use maneuver planner to do the rest in a mostly automated manner. Your delta-V doesn’t seem that far off considering you’re launching to a high inclination orbit with a relatively short burning rocket and a relatively low TWR off the pad. You might be able to launch to that parking orbit with a much lighter probe and/or kick stage.

Cheats > set orbit > make them all exactly the same that way but change the LAN by 90 degrees each time to space them out?

Logs please? I'm going to guess you're running out of RAM, so try removing the extra mods beyond just RP-1 and FAK and if that doesn't fix it you may need to try lower graphics options in the RP-1/RO express install and/or remove some of the decorative stuff like RSSCanaveral.

Stay on target!

So THAT’S what “MechJeb” is supposed to look like!

This thread tells you all you need to know- how to get your log files and what to do with them to share them (note- don't just copy and paste it into the forums, it's almost impossible to read even on a PC, let alone a tablet/phone). Which version of KSP are you using? Did you use CKAN to install your mods and if not, why not? Are the mods all compatible with your version of KSP? Did you forget any dependencies? Did you put mods into the Steam copy of KSP instead of creating a new copy of KSP and putting your mods in that instead?

As above, slight variations in the orbital periods that are a rounding error over a single orbit, will add up over time- especially when the orbital period is relatively short. The orbital period can also change slightly due to how a vessel's position is calculated- IIRC it bases the position on the centre of the root part but will rotate around the centre of mass, so unless they're perfectly aligned (which due to the big relay dish your satellites are not) rotating the vessel can subtly change the orbital parameters. KER (Kerbal Engineer Redux) can display orbital periods down to milliseconds, which will keep your satellites several orders of magnitude more stable. You could also try putting your relays in a much higher orbit where the combination of longer orbital periods and greater distances will reduce the impact of orbital drift.

How odd, my CKAN was on 1.33.2 and when I updated it to 1.35.2 there Firefly was, along with a load of updates to other mods that had just never been picked up. Weird…

I can't find this mod on CKAN for some reason, am I missing something?

Try quick saving and quick loading (F5 + F9)? Sometimes that can help reset the physics system.

There’s nothing wrong with using MechJeb et al, or not using them. I use them all the time, but then again I spend nearly all my KSP hours doing RP-1 and it’s more or less required. They make things easier and are worth the time it takes to learn how to use them, but nobody can force you to- it’s your game, play it how you want.