jimmymcgoochie

Not all parts can be used for EVA construction- large parts such as the NERV are simply too big and bulky. It's also quite common to have strange forces applied to your vessels when EVA constructing, if your engineer is moving relative to either vessel then clicking to attach a part can clip it slightly inside it, potentially allowing it to briefly exert a force on the vessel it's being attached to before the game realises it's attached; though 24m/s seems pretty excessive for that. It's a good idea to have your engineer grab on to something like a pod or ladder to stop this from happening, and to dock/grab the two vessels together to stop them drifting relative to each other.

The newest version of PlanetShine is to blame, go back two versions to (I think) 0.2.6.3 and it should be fine.

You could just delete the Kerbalism config that changes the EVA jetpacks, which should solve this problem while keeping Kerbalism science.

Check the module manager logs and search for KerbalEVA and EVAJetpack (I think) to find all the patches that were applied to them. Jetpacks being separate parts was added in 1.11 so any mods that haven’t been updated to that yet are prime suspects.

Autostruts are unlocked with the same tech node that unlocks real struts, and fuel crossfeed through decouplers is unlocked with fuel ducts. If you’re in sandbox mode, make sure you turn on the setting to apply all upgrades to see them.

I believe the UT counter is counting up from the start time with a zero index, but the calendar is date-based and starts on the first day of the first year (what's the 0th day of a month?) so T + 0 years, 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes and 1 second is the same as Y1, D1, 00:00:01.

I think this is either Cryo Engines + Near Future Aero or KSPIE- but either way, we need more information: log files and screenshots most of all.

I got distracted by Dyson Sphere Program again, so posts here will be a bit slower for a little while. With the Tracking Station upgrade already started (see last post), I also added a Mission Control upgrade to the list to unlock mission planning (a.k.a. maneuver manoeuvre nodes) to go with the patched conics. As you can see from the orange dots on the tech list, I'm running right at the ragged edge of the research slowdown system of RP-1 and consequently the research nodes are taking longer than normal. It's not an issue right now, but it could become one later. Those upgrades were expensive, but there are plenty of contracts available to make up the money. First on the agenda was a weather sat, which was an Orange Cornet with a dinky little service module tank stuck on it to hold the necessary payload. A 300km circular orbit with a moderate inclination was well within the Orange Cornet's capabilities and the contract paid out a tidy sum: The final flight of the AR-2(.5) also took place as hypersonic flight has now been unlocked and the X-15 cockpit is now available. I looked at refitting the existing plane with the new tech, but the cockpit swap alone meant it would take the same amount of time as building a brand new plane instead, so I made a new one instead. The new AR-3 is powered by two XLR-25 engines, each producing double the thrust of the XLR-11s used on the AR-2, and combined with stretched fuel tanks they allow this plane to reach speeds and altitudes that the old one could only dream of. Its first flight pushed to a speed of over 2km/s and an altitude of over 100km, breaking the Karman line and bagging two contracts in one go for a combined payout of nearly 100k funds. Unfortunately the flight also ran into some problems: the pointy bit on the nose melted from the heat as it came back down and the pilot had to make an emergency landing as a chronic lack of batteries meant the power ran out mere seconds after touchdown, rendering the plane completely uncontrollable and no doubt dooming it to a fiery crash if it was still airborne at the time. The second flight was more successful, pushing even higher and faster before landing safely on the runway. I forgot to add the nose spike back, but it didn't seem to cause any problems. In between the real rocket launches and rocketplane flights, I also put some work into designing some new rockets- sticking an Aerobee stage swiped from the Red Recorder and stacking it on top of an Orange Cornet was enough to make a lunar impactor, while a more experimental design proved to be capable of throwing 1000 units of satellite payload into a high and/or inclined orbit, assuming MechJeb doesn't waste the second stage engine's ignition as it did in the simulation. The four AJ10-27 boosters were added as a single RD-108 struggles to launch 60+ ton rockets on its own, hence the next design: Twin RD-108s on the first stage are more than enough to loft a 100 ton rocket, then a Gamma-301 second stage which had to have its tank utilisation reduced to avoid an excessively long burn time but which is still more than sufficient to launch that red nose tank full of 1000 units of payload into space. It probably won't be needed just yet, but this could be a useful rocket in the near future for launching lunar orbiter missions once deep-space avionics are available. The lunar impactor design has now been named Orange Trumpet and the first is on the production queue. It's now January 1957, so it might still be possible to hit the Moon with a rocket before the launch date of Sputnik 1. Coming soon: Deliberately crashing a rocket into the Moon.

Can you record a video and upload it? 7.5km/s seems a little on the low side for an orbital re-entry from 200km, what’s your periapsis? Did you try uninstalling Deadly Re-entry and/or uninstalling and reinstalling FAR like I said before? And how about those logs?

Fuel ducts need to be researched to allow decoupler crossfeed, and struts need to be researched to use autostruts.

I'm seeing a d3d11 error right before the game crashes, so this may be a GPU related issue. Try reinstalling your GPU driver and see if that helps?

No errors in that log file, try uploading the more detailed Player.log instead: I did notice that you're putting mods in the Steam copy of KSP, which always seems to go wrong and cause mysterious crashes. I suggest you try the following and see if the issue is fixed: 1. Right click KSP in Steam library > browse local files. 2. Copy KSP/saves/<your save name> and paste that on the desktop. 3. If you used CKAN to install your mods (and you should!), click File > export modpack and save that to your desktop too. Screenshot your GameData folder with mods installed (even if you use CKAN) so you can check that you’ve reinstalled them all later. 4. Uninstall all mods from KSP. 5. Right click KSP in Steam library > properties, disable Steam cloud. 6. Completely uninstall KSP through Steam. 7. Reinstall KSP through Steam, right click > Properties > local files > verify integrity of game files. If you want to play a version other than the current release (1.12.3), pick that version in the Betas tab and verify the files once Steam has installed that version. 8. Run KSP and make sure it loads properly without mods. 9. Browse local files again, then go up one level (to Steam/steamapps/common) and copy the Kerbal Space Program directory, then paste it where you want to keep it- make sure it’s outside Steam’s folders so it can’t meddle with it in future. 10. Rename the KSP folder so you know what mods you’re using in it (e.g. 1.10.1 RO/RP-1, 1.12.3 JNSQ), then add this new copy to CKAN and use the modpack created in step 3 to reinstall all your mods; or reinstall them by hand if you don’t use CKAN. Double-check that all files and folders you had in GameData before uninstalling/reinstalling everything are there again, if not then you’re probably missing some mods. 11. Move your saves from your desktop into your new KSP copy’s saves folder, run KSP, load save. A warning about vessels having missing parts is usually because a mod is missing or wasn’t installed correctly. You can make as many copies of KSP as you want, have several copies on different versions and with different sets of mods in each- CKAN makes this much easier to keep track of, but it’s still possible to do it all yourself.

Are you re-entering from orbit? What speed are you going when you hit the surface? I'm surprised you managed to get all the way to the surface at Earth orbital velocity as you'd get incinerated in the lower atmosphere. Try uninstalling Deadly Re-entry and updating or reinstalling FAR? Also post screenshots and your log files if you can: https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/83212-how-to-get-support-read-first/

Try reinstalling Scatterer, and if that doesn't fix it go back to the previous version.

Red Clarinet 8 launched an advanced biological sample capsule on a suborbital trajectory, gaining a tiny trickle of science and a reasonable contract payout. The experiment takes a whole day to run and only works in space, so lobbing one up there on a suborbital trajectory isn't a viable long term strategy to complete it. Next launch was the first of a brand new line of rockets- Orange Brass, with an RD-108 first stage and a Gamma-201 second stage. Weighing in at just under 40 tons, it's vastly more capable than the Red Recorder: fully guided right up to orbit, RCS for orbital adjustment and the added bonus that the second stage uses HTP as its oxidiser, so HTP powered RCS can tap into that reserve so long as there's enough pressurised helium. This rocket had to be rushed a bit as the deadline for first solar powered satellite was fast approaching. Both engines performed nominally and the vessel was positioned with its solar panels facing the sun, spun up to stabilise it, then the near-Earth avionics were detached to reduce the power drain and give the science core on top a chance to generate useful science without running out of battery power. Orange Cornet 2 was next, once again aiming to do two contracts in one launch- sun-synchronous orbit and atmospheric analysis satellite. Initial orbital insertion worked for the sun-synchronous orbit contract, however the atmospheric analysis contract wanted a slightly higher orbit than I ended up with. HTP RCS to the rescue, providing more than enough extra oomph to boost the apoapsis and periapsis to the required altitudes for the second contract to complete. Double contract rewards totalling nearly 90k meant there was enough to upgrade the Tracking Station, unlocking patched conics at last! Upgraded ground stations will allow future missions to the Moon to communicate back to Earth, but the main benefit is patched conics and the ability to actually see where you're going for a lunar flyby/impactor/orbit mission. Though possibly not all three at once... In between rocket launches I gave the AR-2 rocketplane a small refit, adjusting the science experiments and making some engine tweaks. This gave it the designation bump to AR-2.5, as AR-3 is reserved for the X-15 cockpit when that gets unlocked in the near future. Coming soon: Crew across the Kármán Line (or is that the Kérmán Line?) and preparations for a Moonshot!

I’m not a pheasant plucker, I’m a pheasant plucker’s son; And I’ll keep on plucking pheasants ‘til the pheasant plucking’s done. (Say that one out loud at your own risk!)

I'm not sure that the "Edwin" telescope works with Kerbalism installed- it said it was generating some data, but no data appeared in Kerbalism's data panel and despite some lengthy time-warping ahead it never seemed to end. Unless I'm doing something wrong, using the LF and Ox detectors pointing at JNSQ Minmus.

I’ve been using rainbow codes for my rockets for a while now, however unlike the original system mine aren’t entirely random- instead I use the colour to denote a particular size or family of rockets and then a noun for the specific design. In my most recent RP-1 game I’ve been launching a series of Red Woodwind rockets (Red Piccolo, Clarinet and Recorder, with Red Oboe and Red Bassoon as designs I didn’t take forward) and now I’ve started on Orange Brass, which so far has just one design- Orange Cornet. My previous playthrough also used his system, such as Green Bird (60t), Grey Shape (150t) and White Cloud (1500-3000t depending on how many boosters I used)m each of which had several rockets within it- Green Sparrow, Swallow, Eagle, Condor, Seagull and Albatross; Grey Sphere, Cube, Toroid, Tokamak, Cuboid and Prism; White Nimbus, Stratus and Cirrus. Running out of names was an issue a couple of times (hence Grey Mobius and Grey Tokamak, for example) and remembering which of the various similar names was which mission was also a perennial problem, but other than that it’s a pretty versatile system that allows for iterating on the same design and avoids having to think of a proper name for everything.

JNSQ's own configs don't work with the latest versions of scatterer. However, I didn't realise JNSQ had its own EVE/scatterer configs and since Ad Astra just won't work for me it looks like I'm going to be sticking with those, with a version downgrade to 0.0723 for scatterer since I know that one works.

There are a few mods that I'd consider to be worth adding on top of the RP-1 express install: Internal RCS. Instead of having RCS ports stuck on the outside of your vessels, these allow you to fit them on the inside so they sit flush with the exterior skin. Near Future Solar. Almost all the different solar panels in this mod are options for procedural hinged or folding solar panels, giving you a lot of options for both (and IMO they look better than the others too). Probes Plus. It has a good number of probe cores that match real life missions, but I mention it specifically for the little 500N generic thruster that is unique among the generic thrusters in that it has a gimbal on it- in time you'll realise how useful it is to not have to use RCS for attitude control during your engine burns. (Also I recently sent a pull request to RP-1 to fix the ProbesPlus antenna and dish prices so I'm a little bit biased). The version on CKAN is pretty outdated, so visit the GitHub and directly download the repository then put the mod GameData into your KSP GameData: https://github.com/raveloda/Coatl-Aerospace. Custom Parachute Message. Adds Perseverance-style encoded parachutes for RealChutes, but more impressively the patterns are fully customisable and vastly better looking than the decidedly bland alternatives. Maneuver Node Splitter. Does exactly what it says in the name, handy for particularly long burns where you'd get huge cosine losses from burning far away from prograde/retrograde for long periods.

The failure of Red Recorder 1 stung a bit, but the backup rocket was already under construction and three months later Red Recorder 2 was ready to launch. The first stage performed nominally, throwing the two upper stages and detachable avionics out of the atmosphere. All five engines on stage two burned nominally to depletion and the single engine on stage 3 also performed according to expectations, putting the satellite into a very elliptical orbit. It's not a great orbit by any means, with a periapsis that's only just outside the atmosphere, but still- FIRST ORBIT! It's 1955-02-22, still over two years ahead of Sputnik 1. The probe stayed active for a few hours, transmitting all the mass spectrometry data from space low around Earth before its batteries eventually died. With that first success in the bag, the next Red Recorder was tasked with a more difficult launch into a polar orbit. It carried a cosmic ray detector as that's the lightest experiment I had available. Red Recorder 4 was next to launch. It's carrying some solar panels and science experiments, so got a pair of AJ10-27 boosters to help it off the pad as its TWR was a bit low. The aim was to do first scientific satellite and first solar-powered satellite in one go, however solar sat requires a 300km periapsis which this design just can't do- the first stage can barely make it to 200km apoapsis and it's next to impossible to get a 300km periapsis when you don't even reach 300km... On the plus side, the scientific satellite contract was completed after a day in orbit (helped in part by the polar orbit satellite getting some data for the experiment that the contract requires) and paid out 200k funds! Coming soon: A new and much more capable launch rocket called Orange Cornet: full guidance into orbit, RCS for orbital fine-tuning, far greater payload capacity and scope for higher and more demanding orbits. Sneak peek:

Designed a new orbital launch rocket and ran a couple of tests. Stepping up from the 20-25 ton rockets I've been launching up until now, the Orange Cornet is not only bigger- nearly 40 tons in total- but also much more capable: fully guided up to orbit, capable of launching to sun-synchronous orbit or to a less inclined orbit with all the available science experiments and solar panels to power them, in both cases with a periapsis above 300km and fine control over the final orbit with RCS. With a few minor tweaks, it might even be able to throw a small probe at the Moon.

What do people use for visual mods in JNSQ? I've tried Ad Astra but it seems to be out of date and doesn't work correctly in 1.12.3 (no clouds, Lindor's rings are thick translucent lumps instead of the proper textures), I believe the configs are correct but it may be the recent changes to scatterer and EVE have made it no longer compatible?

Just use PVG, save yourself a lot of trouble. When using hydrolox it’s usually a good idea to put a single MLI layer on the tank, even for a single orbit of Earth the reduced boiloff should compensate for the increased mass (and reduced delta-V as a result) without needing to add extra fuel.

Mod update: RSSVE is out, replaced by REO (Realism Environmental Overhaul) which looks substantially better than even the high-res RSSVE, but without that "eating up all my PC's RAM and then crashing the whole thing unless I click off KSP and mute PC sound when it reaches the main menu" thing EVO did. (Yeah, when I put it like that, EVO doesn't sound too great... but it looked good and I just got used to the weird workaround). These clouds are particularly good, catching the sunlight (from behind the plane in this shot) with subtle hints of colour so it isn't just bland white everywhere. It's just a shame that they don't spawn in until you're close to them, but that's probably just a limitation of EVE (slash to not make your GPU melt). A few more flights of the AR-2 went without incident, however it then suffered an engine failure on ignition that apparently knocked the right engine out completely; later in the flight the unbalanced thrust became too much for it to handle so I switched off the left engine- which inexplicably managed to relight the failed right engine and sent the plane into a tumbling spin at over 50km altitude. It took a combination of falling to below 10km for thicker air, deploying the airbrakes and even popping open the drogue chute to finally regain control and the pilot made an emergency landing shortly after. The plane was taken in for an engine refurbishment, during which time another Red Clarinet could launch to complete another downrange contract. A couple more AR-2 flights went without incident before this one, which nearly ended in disaster when the plane drifted off the runway and bounced over the berm where the SPH terrain meets the runway, jumping into the air at well below stall speed. Fortunately no damage was done. As these flights are getting a bit boring for me and doing nothing for the pilots' retirement dates, I tried my hand at building* an orbital rocket (*stealing off Discord and tweaking a bit to use tech I already have). It didn't make it all the way to orbit, but the design shows a lot of promise and with a better ascent trajectory it should be up to the task. A few launches of Red Piccolos for altitude SR contracts and Red Clarinets for film return and downrange SR contracts ensued as I sent the pilots off for X-15 proficiency training to give myself a break from all those repetitive rocketplane flights. Although not all of them went according to plan... And now, the big one: it's the fifth of December 1954 and Red Recorder 1 sits on the pad ready to launch for orbit! The first stage performs as expected, though the trajectory is a mite low and the apoapsis is slightly below 140km. Not too much of a problem, I can pitch up slightly for the final burns and burn a bit earlier to push it up into space. One of the RCS thrusters didn't fire on the avionics after it had decoupled from stage 1, even though it worked fine in the simulations- an issue eerily similar to one which I encountered doing TSP- but the four solid motors provided ample ullaging and spin stabilisation before the second stage lit. Five AJ10-27s is a tactical risk- if one fails early in the burn then it has no chance of staying straight. Unfortunately, an engine DID fail; fortunately, it failed near the end of the burn and didn't affect the stability to any great extent. Second stage burnout, stage three ignition and- *fzzt* Stage 3 failed to ignite. The ignition chance was about 97%, but still it failed. And as I've said before, no reverts on engine failures (otherwise why use an engine failure mod at all?) so this launch is a bust. The upper stage fell back into the atmosphere, gathering a little bit of science data right up until it disintegrated over the Atlantic. Trying very hard to find a silver lining to this failure, at least now the AJ10-27 config has maximum data units so its failure rate is as low as it can be. The second Red Recorder will be ready in February 1955 so I can try again. Coming soon: ORBIT! And this time I mean it!