paul_c

2nd docking! I've proved it wasn't a fluke! This time my guess on shooting at the Mun was way off, I ended up with Pe of about 1.3Mm. So I burnt a lot of fuel circularising etc. Once I'd reached more-less the station's orbit, I had about 50m/s left but since docking only needs tiny adjustments at very low engine power, it was enough. Another tip I can offer. As you maneouvre towards the target, observe the Ap and Pe. In this case my target is 1500x100, the approaching vehicle should be around about that range too. If its very different, your approach speed is high! The more similar the orbits, the slower/more controlled the approach can be. Note I've now fitted lights to the front - they're not heavy and the aerodynamics aren't great anyway so no real worries. And here's a screenshot of the 2nd craft to dock, nearly there: Thanks to the science jr results too, my orbit-returner has 191.6 science on it (if I return it safely)....nearly there with the challenge

I decided on an eccentric orbit 1) its slow at the top! 2) it minimises comms blackouts All the orbital adjustments need to be done by eye and observing if the distance increases-decreases, etc After about an hour of tweaking and tweaking the orbit; and resetting the 'station's' orbit to an easy-to-remember 1500km x 100km, I got within 24.1km. : Now its a case of pointing at the other vehicle and applying a little throttle to increase the closing speed. Note that, it won't "go straight" but curve around, influenced by orbital mechanics. But at smaller distances, 'flying' is significant and the 'orbital' aspects are less significant: Eventually I reached a good approach. The principle of, "if its not moving but just getting bigger, you're on a collision course" is handy, I minimised these movements to get on target. And at some point, point backwards to reduce the closing speed etc. I also switched to the station to align it straight on Its worth getting fairly accurate by ~250m or so, because.....the handy square with the distance disappears once closer! The "aiming at a black dot in the sky" was very nerve-wracking! But out of the darkness eventually appears the station! Thankfully daylight arose, and I was able to continue to get closer and closer. At some point, you'll want to point away from, then get a GOOD handle on the closing speed. Then from that point, make direction changes only perpendicular to the target, to retain your desired closing speed. Another tweak on station alignment and a slow, controlled targeting at a very slow approach speed and its coming together (no pun intended): Not long now! Final alignment was done more by waving the nose than sideways (no RCS) so the mini docking ports can align. Fortunately, they are magnetic and will help you the last few metres. Science being transferred! I will keep the lander-docker craft docked for now, to hopefully increase visibility of the orbiter-returner.

There is no facility to "set target" and no target markers! However, if you match the orbits closely and do a rendezvous, nearer than (I think?) 30km it will draw a square box around other vehicles, at which you can aim. No target speed readout either. Screenshots coming soon, I just did my first docking!

Going high does not an orbit make. The key is to go fast - horizontally. The screenshot doesn't really give enough info (what is the Ap?) but if you are going 2165m/s with 57m/s left, you (probably - can't remember the exact number) won't get into orbit. And if you do, you won't get back out again for re-entry so you'll be stuck there for ever. So the whole rocket might need a minor redesign to give it more performance, or you just didn't fly it efficiently (or a bit of both).

Aaaah so no fuel transfer....but the science can be, once docked?

Would this work/be allowed: 1. Send a "Mun orbiter-returner" equipped with a docking port and a science storage box, to orbit the Mun 2. Send a number of "Mun lander-reorbit" vessels to go to the surface (different biomes), retrieve the science, then take off, orbit, rendezvous and dock with (1). They can also transfer what fuel they have left, to (1) 3. Vessel 1 returns to Kerbin and the science (box) is retrieved

Another try, this time with a smoother ascent and ~3200m/s left. Blind lunging at the Mun achieved 50km Pe: Science gathered (and temp/pressure transmitted), on the way home: The burn to Kerbin was good, just needed a tweak, then the remaining 200m/s used to slow the re-entry but not much! The OCTO has done its job, and is now performing its short but spectacular second career as an ablative heatshield: You know when you fire up a hardware monitor and see your SSD is 67degC in your computer? Should I be worried when its reading 2000K? It made it through the fire! Not long now: An Albanian farmer has found this, while herding his cows: Safely recovered, all for 42.5 science! (How many biomes are on the Mun?)

In theory, if you set the angle right at the start, you can turn SAS off and not touch any controls and the thing should balance all the way up in its gravity turn. (In practice I've never done it but I've seen others). This also means, the closer you are to ideal gravity turn trajectory, the less the control forces needed to keep precisely on it. Its possible, and I have done it a few times. I think you might have jinxed it though! I flew my version 6 okay. Version 7 was okay too - but still not enough delta V. I did a bunch of tweaks for version 8 and its even worse! It did a loop-the-loop through ascent but I shut the engine off and waited, and amazingly recovered (probably wasted a bit of fuel/energy in doing so though). Its now in LKO with 2747m/s of delta V left.....hoping it makes it to the Mun and back. Hmmmm, I have a Mun collision! I think I'll try a direct-to-land approach, rather than waste fuel burning to try avoid, then establishing orbit, etc etc. I have comms, daylight, fuel, why not?

Very carefully! There is a small reaction wheel underneath the OCTO controller but control is still very marginal. It definitely feels like balancing a broom on your fingertip when doing stage 2 ascent - I don't make harsh control inputs in that phase of flight. Once its clear of the atmosphere and much lighter, control authority returns and its not too bad.

It has enough battery to transmit one piece of science at a time; and enough solar (3x panels) to recharge okay, its just I didn't wait! Anyway, a redesign and a further stage separation for re-entry was tried. The heatshield and a few other bits weighs it down too much, so it never had enough performance to reach the surface of the Mun & return, but I did gather near and far Mun space science: So, another design iteration was done and it looks like enough performance. So let's try again: Go for a landing: Nailed it! Not enough fuel left to get back to Kerbin, but I was able to transmit its data: This one uses the science storage module, hopefully it will survive reentry without a 300kg heatshield. A few more tweaks to follow...

Docking and 'constructing' by joining craft and/or refulling in orbit is allowed? Is "rescue Kerbal from orbit of ....." style contract allowed, since they can't EVA in space? (Or would the contract system never generate such a contract?)

Yay I made it! The guessed-at burn produced a Mun Pe of 18km, so it was easy to get the orbit. And with enough fuel, go for a landing: I nailed the landing, even though there's no landing gear and a slope: However it ran out of battery transmitting the science, SAS turned off and it fell over! I will know next time to let the battery charge to full for each transmission. And I need to do a few adaptions to get it home (like a parachute....)

I twigged it - previously I had burnt until my Kerbin Ap touched the orbit of the Mun's line. This time I burnt until just before it, and got a nice intercept. Also my re-working all the staging etc worked out, because I built something with about 7100m/s dV too - albeit the payload is nothing more than a controller/reaction wheel/instruments. I will timewarp until a full Mun and try a landing. I already have near and far science so nothing to lose really.

The 18t limit is getting awkward when you want to carry more than just the basics, so I have been playing around with different designs. My first was a traditional 3 stage using 1.25m parts but I "sold out" on a strategy to convert money into science (I can always make money on the easier contracts) so I tried reusability. Now, in KSP if it goes out of a certain range and is debris, it will disappear, so recovery means staying within range, so it means single stage then letting it fall, then deploying chutes (and I chose to separate the parts for safety too). The different chute config means the command module always lands first, then I can easily switch to the other to supervise its landing too. It works suborbital but after a bit of tweaking, couldn't make it work for orbital trips unfortunately. Flying to the Mun is hard when the info you're given is like this: I have made 2 Mun trips, the first was far away about 500km Pe so I burnt all my fuel trying to lower it to get some gravity turn off of the Mun - it got flung into a wide orbit of Kerbin but I did transmit some Mun data. The next was a direct hit on the Mun, so I burned all my fuel avoiding the collision with it, and it got sent into a solar orbit (and is out of comms range to return any solar science!) but it did beam back some near-Mun science. I have no idea how I'm going to earn the rest of the science, I guess I'll fire some more probes at the Mun and see if I can suss out a reliable way to do it. Then I can think of actually returning something. No idea how I'm going to get the extra fuel for a landing etc. I need to send just probe+fuel+engine and not much more I guess...

I just do one mission at a time (or, if I can combine missions, one launch for 2-3 missions) and if its time to go interplanetary, I'll just timewarp to the point in time.

Well yeah.....normally there is at least one contract which you can do reliably. I like variety, so I never stick to the same kind too long though. And sometimes I use the hard contracts for a challenge or to give direction. I'll also "bank" my money and science points, rather than spending it immediately. Some upgrades are a high price too, is it $3,000,000+ for the tracking station upgrade to level 3?

Yes that's definitely true - there is some kind of algorithm which takes into account parts available, milestones done and previous contracts done to determine contracts, however there is no filter or logic to prevent very difficult/near impossible ones from generating; or it might be that while the contract is theoretically possible with the current constraint, pragmatically it makes a lot of sense to do an upgrade of parts/facilities to take on some of them sensibly.

1. You can't control 2 things at once - if you're 'controlling' the Kerbal, that RCS thruster won't fire anyway 2. Don't fly Kerbals (at high speed) into spaceships 3. I've honestly never had a Kerbal topple over or interfere with a spaceship anyway. Occasionally, they'll go into a solar panel and smash it (but you put more than 1 solar panel on it, right?) but never move or topple it. Even if trying to, a lot.

I made this contraption to "harvest" science from around KSC: With the 30 parts limit, it can do 3x biomes (science jr, temp, pressure, goo, transmit crew and EVA report) but only has one battery..... This has to be world's most inefficient way to charge batteries....by running a jet-engine powered vehicle butting against a solid wall.... But it opened up a bit more tech and the little Terrier engine, by virtue of weight and better Isp, means more delta V in my final stage: Hmmmmm ....... I have enough delta V for Mun (and Minmus) now! I will try to gather a good chunk of the remaining science from Kerbin though, I've already made a trip to the mountains. Still to do the poles and probably a few more.

I'm not sure why you're asking this.....turn RCS on with R key, then the WASD controls and/or QE to move it. If it isn't strong enough, then unless you're lucky with the slope or using throttle too....

I stopped fitting RCS to landers, it was useless......let me guess, its not powerful enough to right the vehicle?

Its hard unless you designed it to. A horizontal landing leg at the top, and/or a sideways engine at the top are good ways. Occasionally I've done it with firing 1/3 engines if they're placed on the edge, together with the reaction wheel, but its dicey.

I did the "baguette tanks on the side, then landing legs on the bags" design too. It helps to not take the kitchen sink with you too, and have the previous stage do most of the knocking off the horizontal speed (you can get speed to 0 with about 500-1000m to go, then decouple it), then you can be low and wide. Once you have opened up the tech to include aerodynamic fairings, its not so hard to design a lander capable of slopes. And there's always self-righting (normally you can roll around with Q and E, so one landing leg at the top would probably do it)

So I started the "hard" (Topaz) a little while ago, and caught up a bit today. After a bunch of little test rockets into the sea testing some components for science, I tried to go orbital. I'd forgotten how much of a struggle it is initially with hardly anything and the 18t weight limit. But I think this should do it if flown properly: Nearly there..... And yes, made it including enough fuel to de-orbit and return safely. I have only one pilot left and I'm too stingy to hire another one, so I said Val can have the evening off. Except what with orbiting and stuff at 2400m/s, the "night" only lasts about 20 minutes long......

Enjoy!