jimmymcgoochie

Dyson Sphere Program. It looks much better than Factorio IMO and has a much greater focus on space travel, building on different planets with differing resources and building gigantic megastructures in space. Also no evil cockroaches trying to destroy everything and a great soundtrack that I added to KSP with the Soundtrack Editor mod.

Just FYI, the stock delta-V system was completely disabled in a recent version of RO since it doesn't work well for most of the propellant combinations used by RO. Next Small Step is a great series and one of the main reasons why I started playing RO/RP-1 after initially trying and hating it some time before, but it's a couple of years old now and uses outdated versions of most of the key mods as well as much older versions of KSP.

First, save the game so you have a backup to return to when/if you find the cause. Try deleting all the deployed science parts listed at the end of the logs. If that doesn't fix it, remove Waterfall; if that doesn't fix it, remove TU and so on until the game doesn't crash any more. It may take a while to get to the root cause of the problem, or there might be something else going wrong earlier on that isn't in the short section of logging that you've posted (moar logs please?). Alternatively, try creating a fresh new copy of KSP and install all the same mods in that new copy (preferably via CKAN) and load up the same save there.

The tutorials are a bit broken since some parts got updated (and the older versions hidden from the parts list) but the tutorials did not, but the mod above will fix that problem. Alternatively, if you click the arrow in the top left of the editor screen, scroll down to sort by size and pick 1.25m it should show the old version of the Swivel engine that the tutorial is looking for.

Try purchasing the tank upgrade in R&D and then building the rocket. Just finishing the research isn't enough, you have to buy the parts/upgrades in order to use them. I think being able to select any material for each tank type is an intended feature to allow testing/prototyping with upgraded tanks before you research them, similar to how engines and avionics can be assigned configs you haven't unlocked yet, though it may be a bit confusing at first when it gives you all the options and you can only use one of them.

New astronauts! They'll take almost a year to get trained up for the Gemini capsule before they can do any missions, which should allow the four existing astronauts to retrain on something new like the Apollo or D-2 capsules. Gemini is OK, but the limited delta-V in the service module is a pretty big limiting factor. With a capable 1500-ton launch rocket now available, why launch a lunar lander and lunar Gemini separately when they can go together? These tests ran into a few problems: In order for the Gemini capsule to return, it needs that upper stage, but there's no way for it to reattach to the upper stage once the lander is gone. Cue a dubious retrofit to add docking ports on the front of the upper stage and the bottom of the Gemini service module. A quick abort test... ...and Yellow Marimba is good to go. Lunar orbit and landing contracts are waiting. Meanwhile, over at Mars: Blue Guitar 2's primary prober completes a successful orbital capture at Deimos with a mildly ridiculous amount of fuel left over thanks to the efficient transfer. Orbital velocity is 3m/s here. Three. Blue Guitar 2 itself came back down to its periapsis a few days later and used up its remaining fuel to try and circularise. Background boiloff has cost it a considerable amount of delta-V even with MLI and radiators to keep that hydrogen cold, but there's just enough to reach a low and nearly circular orbit. The relatively low inclination won't cover much of the planet for scanning purposes, but it's enough to get things started. Now out of fuel, the only way to try and adjust the slightly lopsided orbit was to decouple the landers, but due to some possible part clipping issues this resulted in both the lander and the main craft spinning wildly as the lander hurtled away at considerable speed. The first lander performed a deorbit burn in the dark to land on the daylit side, dropping short of Olympus Mons to try and get some atmosphere for the parachutes to use. The probe landed at a relatively gentle 6m/s and- bounced, flipped and tumbled downhill, breaking one of the solar panels in the process. It also ended up underneath the rendered terrain, but still on top of the 'real' terrain. Three solar panels are enough to power everything even with the science experiments running and data transmitting, though the latter depends on Blue Guitar 2 being overhead as the probe only has a small transmitter and the only other probe currently in orbit, Green Banana Mars, has no way of connecting to the lander. With one successful Mars landing done, the second lander was decoupled and sent on its way. Unfortunately, the decoupling force was enough to drop its periapsis below the surface and on the night side to boot. The rate of descent was too fast to allow sufficient aerobraking, the parachute deployed but broke from the strain and the lander hit the ground at over 600m/s. That contract money was enough to pay for a tracking station upgrade, which I think installs the X-band receivers? Either way, better signals back to Earth are always good. And finally, another geostationary contract sat launch netted some additional funds. Coming soon: I'll be away for a while, but when I return there's a second Mars mission with two more landers to try and land, transfer windows to Mercury, Jupiter and Ceres in quick succession and a lunar base and station to design.

I've switched over from Spectra to AVP due to some weird graphics issues at Eve with Spectra. The skybox may look different in some images as a result, but it also means I can see the surface of Eve through the clouds which should make avoiding the oceans a little bit easier. Goodbye Dres... (eventually) And hello Eve! Another very long burn later and something resembling an orbit is established. There's a close encounter with Ike near the apoapsis, might as well use it. Ike seems lumpier than I remember... A bit more logistical shuffling around to free up the lander before Gerdorf could head to the surface. Flag number 3 planted. A few hours of waiting for the orbits to align again and Gerdorf is ready to leave just as Temerity crosses the horizon. An efficient and well-timed ascent resulted in a quick and easy rendezvous and docking. In the dark, as is right and proper. Rather than sending the entire ship down to Eve, I'll probably use one of the Ion Space Tugs to tow the heavy Eve lander down there and then return the ascent stage to Temerity in Ike orbit afterwards. Flag count so far: 3 Next time: Eve landing, the most challenging in terms of raw delta-V and thrust required to pull it off. This may take a few presses of the F9 key...

Either re-root the subassembly so the part you're going to attach it by is the root part, or use the move tool to take each part off the subassembly and stack it back up on top of the main vessel (a tedious and potentially craft-breaking process, not one I recommend unless there's no other option).

The most recent versions of RO are intended to be used in KSP 1.12.3, try using that version instead and see if that helps? If not, post a screenshot in the VAB and/or in flight and your logs please: Which engines specifically aren't showing in the staging menu, or is it all of them?

Phased orbit is a good description, more so than resonant orbit which is the other alternative I can think of.

Warp outside Eeloo’s SOI, course correction, set alarm, do a crewed Moho mission while you’re waiting.

Looney Tunes-style Kerbal-shaped holes in the ground, anyone?

I get a similar error using Parallax in KSP 1.12.3, it’s more of a “this version isn’ officially supported so if it breaks you’re on your own” rather than a “Parallax will crash and your PC will BSOD”. You’ve deleted all the ModuleManagers now but you actually need one- reinstall it through CKAN. I strongly suggest you don’t install mods in the Steam copy of KSP as this frequently leads to mod-related problems if Steam decides to corrupt the mods. It’s much better to copy KSP out of Steam’s control and then mod the new copy instead.

This is an F-14. Notice the large elevators at the back beside the engines, which your plane doesn’t have. You’re missing at least a quarter of the plane. Your fuselage is too short and the wings are right at the back of the plane, meaning a) the centre of lift is too far back compared to the centre of mass and b) you only have two relatively small pairs of elevons for pitch control, which have to try and counteract the inherent tendency to nosedive and so have little additional leverage to actually pitch up. Add at least one more fuselage section where the wings currently are and add some all-moving fins beside the engines as dedicated elevators. Drain some fuel from the tanks to lighten the plane and tweak the fuel priority so the CoM doesn’t move too far forwards or backwards as fuel is burnt and unbalance the plane. It’s also worth mentioning that the F-14 isn’t the most agile of fighters and you may have more success with a manoeuvrable fighter jet if you model it on a smaller, lighter plane such as the F-16, Saab 39 Gripen or Eurofighter Typhoon.

I think you’re forgetting something… cough crew training cough

What use is a huge new launch rocket if it doesn't have anything to launch? Enter Purple Circle, mostly built out of existing stages stacked on top of each other stacked on top of a 1500-ton rocket, throwing about 25km/s of delta-V at the question 'how do you get to Mercury orbit without a complicated series of gravity assists?' in the hopes that the answer is 'about 25km/s of delta-V'. It also turns out that the ideal parking orbit for a Mercury transfer is nowhere near the plane of the Moon's orbit and that launching correctly can knock 2km/s off the transfer burn. Green Lime, take two. Now with the revolutionary feature of 'actual power generation' so this "power module" can power itself long enough to get to the station. The station was spinning uncontrollably when Green Lime 2 arrived, but at some point between completing the rendezvous and approaching to dock, the station stopped spinning. I don't know why as the persistent rotation part of RO should have kept it tumbling, but it made docking so much easier. Docking took place in the dark. As is right and proper. And the power module contract was comple- wait... Eh? How did that happen? With one contract completed (and another fake-completed), the new propulsion system was given a brief test to recircularise the orbit. The crew, Klaus and Vera again, were next to launch. Once the crew were back aboard I discovered a bit of weirdness with the science module- it has all the Kerbalism-related science stuff in it (crew science, lab, data storage) but also has a stock-style lab and experiment too which can generate 30 science per biome and be processed in the stock lab for even more science. KSP apparently didn't like the idea of me cheesing that for massive science income though and crashed when I ran it a few times, then disintegrated after reloading the save, so I decided to leave it be and went back to a slightly earlier save. With that out of the way, it's time to look back to Mars as the Blue Guitar missions arrive. Both suffered an unexpectedly high rate of hydrogen boiloff leading to excess lox in the tanks, but by dumping that excess both probes ended up with more than enough fuel to capture into orbit and throw their respective probes at their respective moons. Blue Guitar 2 was first to arrive: Decoupling this probe accidentally bumped the main probe's orbital period from 19 to 56 days due to the high eccentricity, however this allowed a cheap transfer to Deimos for the little probe and a cheap plane change to near-polar orbit for the big one to do some scanning. Blue Guitar 1 arrived about two days later: The post-capture trajectory had a coincidental close approach with Phobos, so the moon probe was quickly decoupled and threw itself at Mars' inner moon. Contracts were completed along the way as its trajectory changed: And the first sight of a Martian eclipse came during the capture burn at Phobos: That big fuel reserve came in handy- the probe made it to polar Phobos orbit with a comfortable reserve and will be more than capable of landing on Phobos on just RCS thrust; no biome hopping though, since neither Phobos nor Deimos have biomes any more, just 'surface'. With those Martian missions working out well, I went back to the Green Kiwi rovers that had failed so spectacularly and installed a proper re-entry capsule with a heatshield to withstand an atmospheric entry from a hyperbolic trajectory. The rover's offset centre of mass resulted in a lifting re-entry, though the first test didn't have any RCS thrusters so couldn't make the most of it. This test had a poorly configured parachute, which snapped and sent the rover crashing into the surface at supersonic speeds. A few upgrades later (most notably a better parachute and some RCS thrusters to point the re-entry capsule in the right direction) and it was all going fine- until I fat-fingered the spacebar and deployed the aeroshell at somewhere around Mars orbital velocity. Rather surprisingly this did zero damage and a safe landing still ensued: The design seems solid and simulations using the booster from the Green Banana Saturn gave it enough delta-V to get to Mars with a decent margin for slowing down. Green Kiwis 3 and 4 are now on the build queue, but the next Mars window is a while away yet. Coming soon: MOAR ASTRONAUTS! Two pairs just isn't going to be enough for future missions and they'll take a while to train up on Gemini, which will then cover for the first four to retrain with something newer like Apollo or the D-2.

KSP 1.12 added an interplanetary transfer tool that can automatically set up a transfer burn to another planet. It isn’t perfect, but it’s much easier than guessing the burn timing, duration and direction yourself.

Unrealistic how? The RD-108 was used in 1957 to launch Sputnik 1, while the RD-0105 was added as an upper stage engine on the same rocket in 1958 for lunar impactor missions.

A simple transfer from Dres to Eve, around 950m/s or so, nothing too difficult. 40 minute burn time plus painfully slow FPS due to a very high part count minus 3x physics warp (as high as I dared) meant that it took the better part of an hour, with no option to split the burn since Dres' escape velocity isn't very high and its SOI is pretty small. On the plus side, the burn put the ship on a trajectory that'll go straight into Eve, with a tiny 2m/s course correction half way there to get into a more sensible position to capture. With a bit more effort the orbit can be aligned with the plane of Ike. (Yes, Ike- it orbits Eve in the Snarkiverse, while Gilly is down with Moho).

Getting a lander out of the complicated mess of parts and vessels that is Temerity requires a bit of shuffling and a bit of light rocket surgery: With the docking adapter moved to a different port and the port and decoupler removed from the lander's engine, Meg can head down to the surface of Dres. Minmus is almost directly overhead, so why not just launch straight up and intercept? There's plenty of fuel in the lander for that and I'm sure I won't need that later, right? Back to Dres orbit and back to Temerity with two flags planted and two surface samples, er, sampled. ] One painfully slow docking later (mostly due to the 3FPS) and Meg is back aboard. Cue much save hacking to put the radiation detox units and TVs back into the Hitchhiker cans, again, because they keep disappearing for some reason. This may be a recurring theme for this mission, but there's no way to complete a mission like this without the RDUs to undo radiation damage- getting to Vall or Laythe and back again got the last crew over 90% irradiated and the Snarkiverse doesn't touch those so they're equally deadly now. Flag count so far: 2 Next time: To Eve. Technically Duna is easier to get to and the window is sooner, but that Eve lander is heavy both in terms of mass and part count so the sooner I get rid of that the better.

For a plane built specifically to land on water, it’s possible but still risky as water, unlike a solid runway, tends to be uneven and produce a lot of drag which needs to be carefully countered to land safely. Seaplanes and flying boats also have the disadvantages that come from lugging around all that floatation-related stuff as well as design features intended to make taking off and landing easier but which will add drag and/or weight e.g. larger or angled wings to increase lift. Landing on water is an ‘if all else fails’ option for most planes because it’s incredibly risky: Any plane with a fixed landing gear will almost certainly flip upside down on landing as the wheels hit the water and generate huge drag on the bottom of the plane, potentially killing the occupants with the deceleration and impact forces as well as whiplash that could break your neck; Planes as a rule are as light as possible, so their fuselages tend to be pretty fragile when hitting the ground or water at any kind of speed. A forced landing or ditching also subjects the structure to extreme loads in unusual directions which can cause it to break apart, which on water will make it sink; Unless you’re landing on a lake in calm weather, water tends to be uneven and constantly moving. Trying to land a plane in an emergency is hard enough without having to deal with waves that could snag a wingtip, an engine or the fuselage and drag the plane down in an unstable way (read: wing rips off, plane rolls over and ends up upside down); People inside a plane that has just ditched will understandably panic, but this can lead to them inflating life jackets inside the plane- if the plane is sinking and the door is below the water, they can’t get to it because the life jacket makes them float and now they’re trapped in a sinking plane; Jet fuel floats on water, so in the event of a fuel leak and fire after the crash any survivors in the water are in serious danger of being covered in burning fuel, whereas on land you can get uphill and away from the fire. Water is generally colder than human body temperature so even in otherwise warm conditions hypothermia is always a danger- and the colder the water is, the worse it will be. There’s a reason that most of the Titanic’s passengers in lifeboats survived whereas those who ended up in the water did not, and it’s not drowning. Look up Ethiopian Airlines 961 to see exactly why ditching a plane in the water is A Bad Idea and only ever used as a last resort. At least with a crash-landing on land, you don’t have to worry about the plane sinking afterwards. Passengers too injured to move or trapped in the wreckage have a chance to be rescued, the wreckage (and so the survivors) can be more easily located and there are a lot more land-based emergency response vehicles and personnel than there are sea-based as well.

Alt+F12 > input locks > clear input locks, that might fix it. If not, the game might be trying to load the vessel on the pad/runway and you’ll need to wait for it to load. If you think there’s definitely something wrong, use the guide below to find and post your logs along with screenshots of the problem:

If you want to add pictures, you need to upload them to a file/image sharing site (e.g. Imgur) and then post the links here or use the ‘insert image from URL’ button to embed them in the post. Re. the orbit, are you sure you’re going the right way?

Let's launch a "power module" for the Yellow Timpani space station! Except that it doesn't actually need any more power generation since the solar panels are more than enough as it is, so instead the "power module" will be a propulsion and avionics module instead. Ta-da, launch successful. Now all that's left is to wait a few days for the orbital rendezvous and- Oh. The "power module" can't even power itself. That single small solar panel on the bottom isn't enough to run the avionics even in daylight. Serves me right for trying to cheese the contract. Meanwhile, that 1500 ton launchpad will need a 1500 ton launch rocket to go with it. My first idea was to just add some boosters to the Blue String, but that proved to be impractical due to excessive engine overburning, so I decided to just staple the "boosters" directly to the core to create a 13-engined Proton-esque first stage. The second stage is almost unchanged from the Blue String, except that it now uses two RL-200s instead of one to compensate for the heavier payload mass; a feature I may or may not keep since it manages well enough with one engine right now. Total payload to orbit is 75 tons, with a small delta-V reserve left over. So far, so good, but now comes the expensive bit: tooling. This seems like as good a time as any to upgrade to aluminium-copper fuel tanks which have a better mass ratio than ordinary aluminium, which will also allow the Blue String to be upgraded if I want to. There's also a new 1500 ton avionics unit and the unlock costs for the next level of avionics that come with that. Almost 150k funds to tool two new fuel tanks and one new avionics, ouch. However, it slashes the build time by more than half and the build cost by more than two thirds. Two launches and the tooling will have paid for itself versus not doing it. I also took a swing at making a crewed lunar rover that could be bolted to a lander for a contract, with some success. The ability to fly probably won't be needed and the fuel tanks could be made much smaller as a result, but the design shows some promise. Even if the poor Kerbal in the sim suffocated to death because she spawned in with no life support resources in that chair. Coming soon: Launching another "power module", this time actually able to generate enough power to keep itself running.

You'd think that 23km/s of delta-V (that's 23,000m/s) would be enough to go anywhere in Sol system, but it's only just enough to get from low Earth orbit directly to Mercury and capture into something vaguely resembling an orbit. Assuming all the fuel doesn't boil off that close to the Sun, and that none of the engines fail, and that there's a signal back home, and that the inevitable course correction burn from having a nearly 10 minute long escape burn doesn't eat too much of the delta-V that's needed to capture into orbit...