miklkit

I watch youtube to learn things that I can use. Watching the experts is mildly entertaining, but i learn almost nothing from them. Too advanced for me. I also learn new things here in the SSTO thread.

In my opinion it is the wheels. load that thing up with pistons and lift the wheels off the ground and see what happens. Half of the rovers around my small base simply exploded before I built "carports" for them to lift them off the ground. No problems since then.

Yeah, I have given up on that thingy. Mechjeb does a better job, but not by much.

Hinges. I stick hinges on them and turn them up, then attach wheels to the hinges. Turn the hinges down and drive away. And gotta turn fuel cells on.

Yeah, this works fine.

The hinges are just too buggy and no longer work at all. The cargo ramp works but the rover has to be so small that it can only do basic science, while I need a truck to haul stuff around. Maybe an elevator could be made to work.

CKAN messed up on me last night. It has been working well since a new install for KSP Ver. 1.12. It got stuck on the black DOS box. I tried a new CKAN.exe and it was the same, then tried the autoupdate.exe and nothing changed. Then came here and read the last 2 pages. Went into the steam - KSP folder and deleted the CKAN folder, then started KSP. Looked around and then left. CKAN started working and asked for permission to install a bunch of stuff that had been "installed manually", except I use CKAN for all mods. Started KSP again and it seems like all mods are working except EVE, even the ones that CKAN now says are not installed. Played for a while and there were some oddities like the grabbers not grabbing until an engineer tried to hook up a hose. Then suddenly they worked again. Exited the game and now CKAN is taking a very long time to get past the black screen and start working. I'm a humble end user so if you need more, please tell me how to get it.

The runway is really glitchy in the first place. I might take it somewhere else to test it. Half the time the brakes don't work either. The brake light doesn't come on.

The docking port does work better, but now another problem has come up. The upper hinge has stopped working. The lower hinge still works fine and they are set to the same action group. It's like the upper hinge tries to work but is stuck at about 3.5 degrees.

I already had a spaceplane with an inverted cargo bay built, so have been trying out that hinge idea. First it catches the rover too soon, but it seems to work ok. So far so good. The dismount needs some work. Thinking a docking port might work better.

After over 2000 hours into KSP I finally made the first round trip to Duna! For those that don't like the crew, it was likely to fail so if they were lost it would be no loss. Started from Minmus and got into Kerbin orbit, then took off to Duna. MechJeb did all the navigating. Made it with no drama and got a little science. Then burned out for the return trip. It was actually easier that the trip out there. The plane had plenty of fuel to come in at a slow speed and almost flew itself all the way in. The trip took 4304 m/s and almost 12 years. Don't even want to think about going to Jool.

Weight is not an issue. This one weighs 203 tons. My lightest MK3 weighs 165 tons and the heaviest weighs 241 tons. If it can make a round trip to the Mun it will be doing its job. I have almost no experience with robotics, so that is going to be the biggest challenge. That and how to mount it into the cargo bay.

I managed to get a docking port on the floor to work to hold it in place. Without the rover being locked down it was destroyed when flying into orbit. This one was in the bay and I was able to roll it in and out a few times before the wheel broke. It actually broke when backing out slowly. Maybe turning the cargo bay upside down and hanging the rover from a claw would work.

I'm trying to build a rover transporter. Get there, let the rover out to do its roverish thing, load it up and go back to base. The cargo ramp looked like a good idea until I tried to use it. This is as good as it gets.

Has anyone been able to do anything useful with the cargo ramp? I've spent 2 days trying to get it to let a rover get in and out without getting destroyed in the process. Or getting destroyed in flight. It is extremely hard to work with.

The built in planner and MechJeb agreed it was the way to go. I expected to have a lot of fuel left over but instead it had just enough. I would be thrilled if the next flight does better. Oh it gets into orbit just fine. It is sitting on Minmus now waiting for a window to Duna to open.

That particular craft weighed 221 tons and 4 NERVs just aren't enough. It now weighs 241 tons and flies much better. It was actually slowing down when heading out. I guess the only way I can find out if it has the range is to just send it out when a window to Duna opens. There is a relay satellite in orbit there now and it took 2300 m/s to get it there. That is the M/s goal i need to achieve and methinks this one can do it.

Crash! Big badda boom!

I carry enough oxidizer to get to orbit and have some left over for landing assists if needed. My spaceplanes can't get to orbit on NERVs alone. What I meant by saying the NERVs were just barely stronger than the Mun's gravity is that when coming down vertically at full throttle it was slowing down by a tenth every once in a while. The Rapiers prevented a crash. It does fine at Minmus though.

Yeah, the biggest problem I have figuring Delta V now is how it changes as fuel burns off. In my heavier MK3s it can actually go up as fuel burns off. That rule of thumb on engines is situational. I'm running the Rapiers in the 20-35 ton range. Just had a scare as I landed one of the heaviest ones on the Mun and found that 4 NERVs were just barely stronger than the Mun's gravity and the Rapiers are what slowed it down and landed it. So now one has 5 NERVs and another has 6.

Thanks for the replies. Since I have a gas station on Minmus methinks the best way to find the true m/s is to go there, refuel, and then check it after takeoff. I have already done that and get readings close to 6000 m/s. Since I am a lousy pilot it will take more fuel than that for a round trip with any safety margins, and I don't want to strand any Kerbals. I am finding that Delta V chart to be wildly optimistic. Why spaceplanes? Rockets offend my sensibilities. I send this big giant machine out there and only a tiny capsule comes back. With spaceplanes what I send out comes back. This one is my attempt to break out of the Kerbin system and go interplanetary. Hopefully. I need to find out what KER and MJ are.

Ack! I was not notified that there were replies. Apologies. @18watt - 1) All my spaceplanes are staged like that, and there is a reason. The Rapiers and NERVs must be separated or the burn times given will be waaay off. I place the NERVs in the 1st stage to get accurate burn time readings in space, and the Rapiers are in the 2nd stage because they have to go somewhere. 2) The Rapiers are toggled on and off with action group 1, mode is toggled in AG 2, and the NERVs are toggled on and off with AG 3. The Rapiers are set to air breathing by default. I should not have posted that 2nd screenie as it shows the m/s of the air breathing Rapiers. Perhaps this one illustrates my issue better. It is the same spaceplane heading out under NERV power. @splashboom - I have never built a spaceplane with just one type of engine. What a novel idea. @FleshJeb - Adjusting 8 engines sounds clumsy. What I am trying to find out is the actual m/s of these spaceplanes to see if they have the range to do a round trip to Eve and Duna. They should be able to get there, but I don't know if they can make it back. The m/s readings vary from around 1400m/s to almost 6000 m/s with full tanks.

In a fit of whimsy I built a spaceplane using that odd MK2 cockpit. It turns out to be my current favorite. It carries passengers and cargo, gets up out of the atmosphere very well, and has good range too.

I've been building spaceplanes and have a problem figuring out how to get their range in m/s to show correctly. The numbers are just all over the place! I know about putting each type of engine in its own stage, but that is no help. This is one in the hangar and it is showing 1356 m/s. Here it is taking off and showing 11474 m/s. The numbers are different again when in space, even after refueling on Minmus so the tanks are almost full. Is there any way to get consistent readings so I know what kind of range they have?

Around here the clouds turn brown and rain ash from May to November every year.