miklkit

I really don't know. The buttons themselves change. The prograde button flips the ship retrograde. And it got worse earlier tonight. I was returning from Dres to Kerbin in that crewed MK2 and it was going ok. It was about a 16 minute burn and with around 5 minute's left in the burn being controlled by MechJeb when the engines shut down, then I noticed the navball rolling. Checking the map out showed MJ had changed the target to Jool and was swinging the ship around to start burning there! Aborted everything and exited the game. Restarted and the buttons were reversed. Started over from the last save and this time it worked normally and I made it to kerbin and landed just fine. Thinking about uninstalling and reinstalling KSP.

Methinks I have found part of the problem. The game is intermittently flipping the prograde and retrograde buttons. Prograde shows as the position of the ship but it is pointed retrograde, and vice versa. Not always but just once in a while. I hired 4 new crew and am taking them around to level them up. Loaded them up into a MK2 and went to Mun, flag, Minmus, flag with no issues. Off to Ike and nothing but trouble. When doing the retro burn into Ike orbit the ship was flipped and it ended up out in solar orbit again. In the map view it looked like the earlier Jool burn with an orbit suddenly showing up and then flipping. Now I have to visually check the ship before every burn.

Jool is complicated. The high point was when prograde became retrograde right out of Bop. That made me not try to dive at Jool but just get away. Maybe next time.

I've been using that Oberth maneuver to get to Mun and Minmus. Planets? Nope, I kept missing. Hence MJ. I recently discovered "focus view" and that is a big help in getting a good intercept, but still have a lot to learn about it. How do I get from Minmus to Kerbin? I wait until just past the prograde point and burn to Kerbin orbit. It usually works well but sometimes it takes 3 burns. Accuracy is not my strong suit. I have a spaceplane at Bop now and will try this Oberth thing.

Ah, you both assume I know how to do orbital mechanics. I do not. I get into solar orbit and then let MechJeb do it. Upon arrival I know enough to eventually get to where I want to go. Jool is complicated and this was my first time exiting that system. As near as I can tell when I left Bop the game decided that I was in a retrograde orbit instead of a prograde orbit and it took forever to flip the orbit around before it would let the vessel actually leave the Jool system. That is where most of the fuel went. I need to learn more about that. I do spaceplanes because I don't like rockets. There are 70+ rovers scattered around the Mun and Minmus from the days I was using rockets to get there. They had to be left behind when returning to kerbin. Not so with spaceplanes as they can reload the rover and bring it back. Oh, they do not carry any mining equipment as that is what the gas trucks are for. For Bop, first to land was a science lab, then a gas truck, both with rockets, then this spaceplane. Round trips are now possible.

Full disclosure. The spaceplane took off and went to Minmus, refueled, took off and got into a solar orbit, then went to Jool for a cost of 2800m/s. It had plenty of fuel left as it didn't take much to get to Bop after arrival. It then refueled on Bop. It took off from Bop, circled around and burned for a solar orbit and just sat there. Once it eventually did reach a solar orbit it then set course for Kerbin but didn't have much fuel left. I hope this doesn't happen again as it was nerve wracking

I have established a base on Bop and sent a spaceplane there to transfer crew for the first round trip there. The spaceplane made it there just fine with plenty of fuel left over, refueled and took off. It then took so much fuel just getting out of the Jool system that when it got to Kerbin it had to aerobrake to slow down enough to then get an orbit, then more aerobraking was needed to slow down enough to finally land. I would think that it would take less fuel to return than to get there. Is this how it is or did I do it wrong? Also, I just installed restock and it seems to be working well, but this fiery arc on the craft is new. is this normal?

When one gets within 100 k of the target it appears visually. Then it is a matter of landing as close as possible to it. My memory says to right click on the waypoint to activate it.

No. At most there might be a few teeth. Maybe. Usually there is nothing left at all.

Heading into the Jool system now. First came the relay satellite which happily was headed for a polar orbit right from the start. I kinda overestimated how much fuel it would need. Then came a science lab to Bop. Chemical rockets all the way and it went well. This looks like a good flat place for a base.

Umm, since I was the last one to post...........It orbited Kerbin, Minmus, and Dres and it only has one stage. It did land on Minmus and Dres too. It doesn't have the range to go from Kerbin straight to Dres.

Where is the lettuce?

Don't even try anymore as it isn't worth the aggravation and time. Mostly the long time needed to do it. Used MechJeb to rescue Kerbals for a while but now just don't bother.

You don't have to go fast to have fun. 40 tons of wheee.

I will be looking into this. At this time Dres is right at the limit for my vehicles. I can easily get to Jool from Dres but it will take a long time. Probably should launch a probe to Jool to get more info.

I will be trying out a launch from Ike next time as well as looking into costs of going to the Jool system. Starting to get Dres contracts now so will be busy for a while first.

In my experience the Whiplash runs out of air too soon and I had to add a rocket engine to assist in getting to a higher altitude where the NERVs could work more efficiently. Rapiers give a lower overall weight because of this.

Made it from Minmus to Dres. The rover is out doing rover stuff.

Uh ohh, Dres is hard to get to from Jool? I had hopes of using it as a refueling base.

Ah, so there are scannable things on Dres. That makes the building of a rover carrier with that range necessary. I thought I would already be seeing contracts for Dres, so thought there might not be any after the chatter about how boring Dres is. I am finding it quite challenging in fact. Yes I have completed the tech tree and money is not an issue and I am finding out just how far I can go now. The only graphical mods I have are usual like EVE, Scatterer, and Waterfall. That is just a gas truck and is not meant for exploring. They are on Mun, Minmus, Ike, and Duna where they sit around a base until a spaceplane drops in and needs refueling. They typically weigh around 40 tons dry and 90 tons wet. This one in the VAB and launching.

I recently landed on Dres and have been setting up a science base. While wandering around I came across this oddity. Since landing I have gotten no contracts for Dress, but have already started getting some for Jool. Anyway, a Kerbal can not interact with this thing and I'm wondering if it needs to be scanned or if there are no contracts for Dres. I don't want to go to the effort of sending a rover with a scanner arm if it is not necessary.

Made it to Dres for the first time. Now have a relay/science probe and a scanner/science probe orbiting it. This is the relay. Now trying to decide if it is worth it to set up a base with refueling there.

Run them up to full stiff and see what happens, then back them off individually until it starts bouncing again. Full stiff is not recommended as then the plane can bounce on landing and crash. Been there, done that.

Neither. The Stamp-o-tron is well off the ground and I am trying to get it back on the ground. The Kerbal is standing on it with the science lab in the background.

Closed my eyes and clicked. Had a bit of trouble with that holder downer thingy on Ike.