king of nowhere

i don't have a dedicated relay network, but i do have a fair numbers of crafts zipping around mun with high gain antennas, so it should have found a way to transmit science. on the other hand, i now realize that i placed the whole thing in a narrow valley at the south pole where a mountain blocks visual to kerbin, and probably to other satellites. i will try a better location

One of my current contracts says "collect superficial observations on mistery goo on Mun" (may not be literally exact because i am translating from my language), and I can't seem to figure out how to trigger it. Another thing written in bold is "we want you to send us science data from Mun surface". Well, I landed on Mun with a mistery goo container and a Go-ob analyzer. I looked at my mistery goo container, and i tried both transmitting the data or bringing the data back on kerbin. I tried observing the container from the ship, or with a scientist on EVA. I also deployed the Go-ob analyzer (with solar panels and command unit) and waited a few days for it (the science indicator went to 7%), and still the objective says 0% completed. what the hell am I supposed to do to fulfill this contract???

3000 hours is over 8 hours, every day, for a full year. if that's rookie numbers, i don't want to be a pro at this game

ok, got it.

It's not laggy, it's sluggish. the rocket is big and the control wheel aren't very powerful, so the rocket will respond slowly to your attempts to turn it. and once it responds, when it gains enough momentum, it will alos take time to slow it down. You can fix this by adding reaction wheels, they aren't too heavy and they make a rocket much more manueverable. those velocities are accelerations that you plan to make. From the way you talk, I assume you don't know much about orbital mechanics, so I'll make a flash course. when you are in orbit, you stay in that orbit indefinitely if nothing disturbs you. when you give yourself a push, you change your orbit. So, you need a rocket burn of a certain delta-V to change your orbit to a different one. But there are rules. The first, most important rule is that, the moment your rocket stops firing, your current position will be part of the new orbit. because once you stop your rocket, you are in an orbit, and you are going to go round and round without changes. so, in order to change something about your orbit, you much give yourself a push on the opposite side of your orbit, in a place where the old and new orbit intersect. You want to change your apoapsis? you must burn your engine at periapsis, and viceversa. You want to move to an orbit with a different inclination? you must do so in the point where your orbit intersects the new inclination you want to achieve. Second, know your direction. you have prograde and retrograde, the greenish-yellow ones. those are the most important, they increase or decrease your orbital speed. burning in those directions you can move your orbit lower or higher. i don't remember the names of the other directions, but the purple ones change your orbital inclination, so that an orbit going around the equator may pass over the poles instead. those are very expensive manuevers, it's better to not make them if possible - barring small corrections when you need to set up an orbital rendez-vous. the blue ones change an orbit's eccentricity, they turn a circular orbit elliptical, or an elliptical orbit into a different ellipse. they are seldom used, because they are of limited scope; but sometimes you get a mission to bring a satellyte into a specific orbit, and you will need those to move your periapsis around, because that's one thing they can do: move your periapsis and apoapsis from one part of your orbit to another part. I can't tell what's wrong on your attempts to circularize the orbit, but the only way you can achieve that is by going on periapsis and burn retrograde until you lower your apoapsis to your current level, or go on apoapsis and burn prograde until you raise the periapsis to the current level. You burn in any other place of the orbit, or with any other direction, you are going to change both apoapsis and periapsis in ways that can only be predicted by an elaborator. And after you set up the nodes, you have to actually make the burns. and of course, you are exactly at the apoapsis/periapsis only for one second, so your burn is never going to be perfect. but getting a circular orbit, barring a few kilometers of difference, is very easy. be sure to burn very slowly when you are close to the end of the manuever

I have figured out that you have to put other machines inside it. SO now my rocket has this SEQ-3 unit with some impressive-sounding instruments inside. Except, I can't make them do anything. I click on them, I get nothing to do. I land on Mun, take the astronaut on an EVA and move on top of the unit, but I am unable to deply the instruments, or do whatever else they are supposed to do. So, what am I supposed to do with this thing?

Today I did drive my rover on Mun extensively for the first time. I tested it on the ground, but there were a few glitches I missed. One was, the wheels were not perfectly aligned (comes from being low in the tech tree and having to make a rover with parts never intended for a rover, attached at angles never meant to be attached). the rover would pull to the right, so that continuous course correction was needed. While driving I hit a bump at high speed. the front left wheel exploded. I was about to reload the game, when I realized that this actually improved control. Now it pulls slightly to the left, but it requires less course corrections than it did before. And I still have 9 wheels left, so the rover is still as stable as before. I also put some mechanic hinges to help the wheels. Two on the sides to right the rover when it flips, and they work fine assuming the rover does not explode. And one I put on the back underneath, I assumed it would help me climb over small obstacles. i figured I could extend it, move it over a small bump, and retract it, so it would pull the rover up over the obstacle. Turns out it's not all that effective for the intended use. However, I also discovered that the wheels won't stay braking once you abandon the rover for an EVA, and the rover will start slipping downhill (perhaps there is a command, but I missed it). Turns out, the robotic hinge opened at 90 degrees lifts the back wheels, and it ensures the rover stays still on a slope. I now think of it as the hand-brake. Finally, I decided to move across half of Mun to reach some areas for a mission. I will have to rove for several hours. I won't take any such missions again in the future, but for now I'm having fun pretending I'm mark watney. It does get boring driving all the time, though... well, I discovered that if I stopped accelerating i still keep the speed up for a while, so I can safely reduce the game to icon and browse on the internet for half a minute or so before i need to get back to the game, accelerate and make course corrections. One of those times, I reopened the game to discover that the rover was moving faster than it ever did... I realized that the wheels are not braking at all if I don't give commands, so when moving downhill I keep accelerating. while instead, when I was manually accelerating, the wheels were trying to move at a fixed speed, and thus were braking. this has increased my cruise speed by some 50% what are the things that you did by accident but turned out better than intended?

my solutiion to flipping has been to put some robotic arms that can overturn a flipped rover. unless the rover explodes, of course. my solution to the rover problem has been to stop accepting contracts that require roving to a position. or flying to a position. the pay is low, the trip is long, and they are more boring than fun. I mean, I took two contracts and I have to bring my rover to the opposite sides of Mun, in a trip to rival that of Mark Watney. however, now that I know those massive wheels, i may start roving on kerbin again after i unlock them.

great, very helpful. Knowing that, I checked all the parts for fuel transfer, and i discovered that the only part stopping fuel transfer was the stage separator. which I can set to enable fuel transfer. once I enabled fuel transfer on the stage separator, I was able to transfer fuel between the tanks.

alas, that's not happening. I took a screenshot, sorry for the different language but there definitely are not in and out options. unless they are the arrows and the flux priority buttons, but i tried to do stuff with them, it never changed anything. Oh, and i do have the tech center at level 2, and it says resource transfer available https://imgur.com/a/ECs0A6N edit: by the way, i also discovered that i can change the fuel level on the stage panel on the left by clicking on it, but it has no apparent effect. certainly if i move to 0 the fuel in the stage i want to empty and to max in the stage i want to full, nothing happens

I have built a reusable lander to assemble a base on Mun. I called it the sky crane. the sky crane attaches to pieces in orbit, then it brings them on the surface and it goes to orbit again, ready to bring down another piece. Of course, the sky crane needs refueling. here the troubles begin. I launched a rocket with a new part to bring to Mun surface, and I connected it with the sky crane in orbit. Now I want to transfer the leftover fuel from the rocket to the skycrane before deattaching the parts I don't need anymore. And I'm finding out I can't. I can't find any way to transfer fuel from the rocket tanks to the sky crane tanks. Nothing is stopping fuel transfer, if i use the engines on the sky crane I consume fuel on rocket tanks, so that's not the problem. furthermore, I also can't figure out how to transfer fuel from one tank to another on the same ship, so it's definitely something to do with my ability to figure out how to tell the game that it needs to transfer fuel. how do I give the commands to transfer fuel between different tanks on docked vehicles? thanks

communications actually takes up a lot of battery power if you transmit science data. normal communication to keep track of the ship instead is free as far as i can tell. I also had your same problem when i unlocked stuff that consumes power faster than i unlocked stuff that restores it. right now, assuming you're stuck in orbit without control, your best bet is to use your rocket at a low burn to generate power and turn the ship. if you still have enough propellant left, you should still be able to salvage the mission and land safely.

yes, "control from here" was the answer. the probe core was aligned right, but the clamp-o-tron that released the rover was oriented downward (not surprising, since the rover was attached underneat), and when i deattached the rover, control was transferred authomatically to the clamp-o-tron. setting control to the probe core fixed the issue. thanks. as for the reentry module, its issue got fixed when i selected "interact with vehicle: yes". funny thing is, even after i revert it back to no, it still keeps working. i 'm not sure what that option even means.

As part of my plant to make a Mun base, I started building a "sky crane": it is a lander made of 4 rockets on the sides at a few meters from each other, and in the center there is the space to attach whatever part i want to land on Mun. I attach the sky crane and the lander in orbit, then I land the sky crane, I lower the module on the ground, then the sky crane can go back to orbit and bring down more pieces. The whole thing is authomatically controlled by a probodobodyne. On top of it there is a detacheable manned module with a bit of fuel to bring back astronauts to kerbin. I brought down the first piece, a rover, and the whole thing worked like a dream. Perfect landing with excellent control and stability, I landed on Mun without a glitch. I decoupled the rover, did a bit of science. the problem was coming back. the sky crane capsized on launch almost immediately. It became unstable already at a speed of 10 m/s. And I can't figure out how. It's not a stability problem, as the thing worked just fine on landing. Furthermore, I see two more glitches that may or may not be related. First, my navsphere shows the ground. as if, when i start, the ship was pointed downwards. which is clearly ridiculous. and again, it didn't do that on landing. Thinking that perhaps i inverted the control module, I tried to put the atronaut inside the manned module, but again, no change. the navsphere is inverted over what is should be. Second, when I deattach the manned reentry module (with the astronut inside, of course), it won't start. I can control it, I can select it normally, but the engine won't work. I checked, fuel is ok. I made a few experiments and found out that the only real problem was with the navsphere inversion. if i deactivate the assisted stability, I can take off. It's quite difficult to achieve orbit without assisted stability and with the commands inverted, but doable. in fact, the problem is likely that when the navsphere gets inverted, the authomatic stability sysem gets all commands inverted too, and all its attempts to compensate only make things wrong. I activated it a couple of times after launch, but i have to point it to retrograde to get it to prograde and viceversa. furthermore, i was able to determine that this inversion happens when i detach the rover, and it happens because the rover is recognized as the command center of the vehicle. which makes sense, because i devised the sky crane as something completely automated, while I wanted a pilot in the rover. so, i had a pilot in the rover, when i uncoupled the rover the sky crane inverted its navsphere. And when I designed the ship I started from the rover, because I then spaced the rockets to ensure that the rover would fit between them. if I put my pilot inside the manned reentry module, instead, i can detach the rover and the configuration stays fine, and i can takeoff afterwards. but just because i found out how to tackle the problem, it does not mean there is no problem. in fact, future flights may not have a manned reentry stage at all (i plan to deattach it and leave it in orbit if I don't need to bring back astronauts), so i will not be able to take this solution in the future. What should I do about this annoying inversion of configuration? I also have a suspect for the second problem, reentry module engine not working: I have put a SC-9001 Science Jr. between the rocket and the fuel tank. I didn't think this was a problem because I know fuel can get transferred through other spaces, and at least I can transfer crew through it. but perhaps it's not the case here? perhaps the SC-9001 Science Jr. does not allow fuel transfer? if that's the case, I will need to reload the save before I launched the whole thing, to fix the reentry module. Since I am making questions, I take the chance for another, related one. I plan the sky crane to go back and forth from surface to orbit carrying modules, but of course it will need refueling. I plan to send a resupply rocket to it in the future (in the far future I plan to produce fuel directly on Mun and resupply it on landing), but how does fuel transfer work? once I attach the two ships through a clamp-o-tron cna i just right-click somewhere to manually transfer fuel from one tank to the other? Or do I need some special parts included?

and here i was making all my tests on the launch pad, deattaching the pieces and trying to reattach them back immediately. I tried to move around first, and the pieces recoupled as soon as they were close enough.

i tried that too. i had two clamp-o-tron, i detached them, and then i could not reattach. I just tried again, just in case. the clamp-o-tron were touching each other. I right-clicked on both sides, but could not find any command. is it another case of having to press a special key that is not written anywhere else?

more questions about controls: - the orbital scanner scans for resources. it takes a lot of energy to transmit data, though, and my first satellite will stop downlink halfway. i thought it would start back where it stopped when the batteries are full, but instead it restars from 0. is there any way to transmit the data if I don't have enough battery power to do it in one go? - my second satellyte did a good orbital scan for resources. now i see the whole planet covered in purple lines. what does that mean? what am I supposed to do with that? - the clamp-o-tron is supposed to be able to detach and reattach pieces. it is needed for anything that i want to assemble on orbit. i experimented with it, and i could not find how to reattach the pieces after i decoupled them. how do i reattach pieces through a clamp-o-tron? - I'm trying to use the science machines in the payload section (not sure on the translation because i have the game in a different language, but it's the second-to-last on the build menu on the left), and there is this Go-ob analyzator, and metereologic analyzator, and a few other tools that look really cool. So far I figured that I must first put the SEQ-3 unit, and then i can put the other stuff inside it. But then i can't seem to do anything with them. How are they used? thanks again

would it work if i put a contol pod on each booster? they'd fit very nicely between the booster and the parachute. otherwise i don't need the money, it was just for the sake of doing something nice. I just started to use a rover, and i discovered a problem: I cannot brake. the wheels can brake by their description (rovemax S2, the only one i have unlocked so far), but the vehicle just won't. when i'm moving i can adapt by accelerating backwards, but as soon as i go on EVA, if there is even a slight incline the rover will start sliding away. And yet another problem: I'm trying to use the science machines in the payload section (not sure on the translation because i have the game in a different language, but it's the second-to-last on the build menu on the left), and there is this Go-ob analyzator, and metereologic analyzator, and a few other tools that look really cool. So far I figured that I must first put the SEQ-3 unit, and then i can put the other stuff inside it. But then i can't seem to do anything with them. How are they used? thanks again

ok, new question: i have tried to attach parachutes to my boosters to be able to recover them (not that i really need it, my program is funded by tourists paying hefty prices to tag along on missions I was going to undertake anyway; but it feels better if i can make my exploration more sustainable). booster is the BACC, which has 1.5 tons of mass when empty. i used the MK-16-XL parachute, which is designed to handle bigger loads. I told it to deploy when risky, because i noticed otherwise sometimes it wait too much to deploy. stages were set up fine, the parachutes had to activate when the boosters were detached. looking back from the rockets, i even saw at least one paracute deploy. and yet i couldn't find any booster to recover, anywhere. what am i doing wrong? is it even possible to attach a parachute to a booster and recover it after launch? i read somewhere that debris in the atmosphere more than 25 km from the main spacecraft are authomatically deleted EDIT: building rovers in the spaceplane hangars didn't help. it still tried to put the wheels in the wrong direction. but with a lot of painstaking manual alignment I managed my first working rover! I was so happy, I started using it as a racing car around the space center until I managed to capsize it by turning at a particularly high speed . I needed to restart it anyway, because i forgot to put a ladder for the crew to get back in

ok, thanks for the answers! 1) i found it and collected the stone all right. for a while i thought there was a bug because i didn't got a message of mission parameter complete, but i got the objective fulfilled when i got back to kerbin. 2) i still miss many of those pieces. anyway, will try later. now i have a lot of other things that i should do. 3) damn, i saw that command on the tutorial but forgot about it. I hope for the second game they implement a help panel with a list of command 4) will try to install that

A few miscellaneous questions from a new user. I am pretty knowledgeable about rocketry and orbital mechanics, but I realized that there is a vast gulf between knowing what I want to do and figuring out how to get the game to do it. Especially since the one big flaw of this game is the lack of explanations about controls. So, let's start 1) I am currently trying to recover a stone from Mun. After realizing that just collecting a sample won't do, I discovered by looking on the internet that there are stones scattered on the terrain, and you should be able to pick them up with your astronauts. I have found one such stone. I have my astronaut on top of it. But I cannot figure out how I am supposed to pick up the stone. Is this something that I can only do with a rover and appropriate robotic parts? 2) i would like to make a rover. I know I want a big flat surface on top of which I can attach parts. Too bad I can't find any such part among everything I unlocked (which includes all technologies with a cost less than 90). I tried to look up tutorials on the internet, but they all either give basic tips that I already know [yes, I know I want to keep my rover low and flat to keep a stable baricenter, I would be happy to oblige if only I could find appropriate parts] or they start with pieces that I can't seem to find. I even tried to use regular rocket parts and rotate them horizontally, but the wheels won't align correctly after that. What are some good flat surfaces that I can use as a base for a rover to strap things on top? 3) I tried to make a plane. Unfortunately, it won't keep a radial simmetry if i attach one single piece. specifically, a plane needs one tail rudder (is this the proper term? anyway, the sort of fin that goes upwards from the back of the fuselage) that's perpendicular to the fuselage. but i can't place one. the game insists in placing it leaning on one side or the other. I tried to fix it by rotating it manually, but clearly I can't get enough accuracy there, as the plane keeps capsizing. Same problem with the front wheel, or any other part that must be aligned carefully. How do I fix this? 4) orbital rendez-vous. getting close enough is simple, if time-consuming. rescuing a stranded astronaut is a long, difficult process. I would like to make space stations, or to leave part of the ship in orbit to make landing more efficient. But then I'd need to make an orbital rendez-vous with the various parts, every single time, and the idea is putting me off. Is there a simpler way to do it? thanks to everyone who will contribute. I will probably have more questions in the future.