Scarecrow71

That is what I needed to know. Point the shiny rings at each other. And I've got the return stage, complete with the command module and lander, in a fairing that gets blown as soon as I'm in orbit about 240km over Kerbin.

The Mandalorian is just a bad rip-off of Kung Fu.

I'm going to assume that you have multiple tanks on your ship, but instead of putting engines on all of them, you want to just use 1 engine. The easiest way to do this is to run fuel lines from the tanks with no engines to a tank with an engine. The wiki has an entry on the FTX-2 External Fuel Duct, and the wiki page gives information on the fuel line. FTX-2 External Fuel Duct - Kerbal Space Program Wiki Now, if that's NOT what you are asking, then I either direct you back to what @AHHans OR I'll ask that you provide some clarification around your question. And either way, happy spacefaring!

So, I apologize for all of the questions over the last 2 days. I'm going through some new stuff that I've never done in KSP before, thanks in large part to the Kerpollo Challenge. I mean, what's the point of playing if you don't get better, right? And, at least for me, I can't get better if I don't push myself. Anyhow, I've come to the part about using docking ports. And my question isn't how to dock; I've gone through the in-game tutorial, and I've got MJ installed to help me. No, my question is about the orientation of the docking port as it relates to both the lander and the main ship. As an example, let's use the Clamp-o-Tron Docking Port Jr., primarily because this is the one I have access to: Ok, so what you see there is the part as it looks when you click on it in the VAB. This will be easy for me to describe because this is how I see the part when I go to use it. I know I need 2 of these, one on the lander and one on the main ship. So that's not the issue. What I'm having trouble identifying is how to orient this on each piece. If we make the assumption that the lander is above the current image, what is the correct orientation for the port? Does it go into the lander the way it shows there, or do I need to rotate it so the shiny ring that is currently on top is pointed to the bottom? And then that feeds into orientation for the second port that sits on the main ship. Is the shiny ring pointing up at the lander, or pointing down towards the main ship? I know that this must seem like a basic question, and again I apologize if it is. But I can't seem to figure this out on my own, and I can't seem to find the answer anywhere else. Of course, once I get the answer it'll be all "Well, that was so simple I should have known it". But this community is great at helping people out, so I come to you all with this question. Thanks in advance!

@18Watt That is the epitome of a solid answer. No fuss, no muss, just straight to the point with the facts. Well done, and thank you, kind sir!

In a lot of the tutorials and videos I've seen, people are able to zoom in on target bodies and see where maneuvers are taking them. They are then able to edit nodes while zoomed in on the target body, which allows them to very carefully refine their line of travel; this helps people with orbiting and gravity assists and such. How is this done? When I set a celestial body as the target and try to create a node and zoom in, I am not getting the benefit of seeing the lines in the same way I see in the videos. I have to constantly guess at how close I am to the body (I know I can hover over the encounter points and see Ap/Pe/An/Dn and such). But to get a close-up visual of where I'm headed? Can't do it. What am I missing? What key binding am I not remembering here to allow me to see this?

For those of us that don't know what an inertial guidance device is: That's the technical definition from Wikipedia (the link to the article is below). I guess my first, and probably only, question on this is: What is MechJeb missing that doesn't cover this? Inertial navigation system - Wikipedia

Banned for being mostly harmless.

I always try to budget more than I need, primarily because I am not perfect. Heck, even the computer gets it wrong. But thank you for the answer! I thought that was the case, but I needed to just be sure!

I'm going to be heading to Dres soon (yes, it DOES exist), and I'm trying to build a craft to land on the surface of it. I can see on the dV map that low Dres orbit is 12km, and it takes 430 m/s of dV to land from that point. As a point of clarification, my question: Does this also mean that I would need 430 m/s of dV to get back to low Dres orbit? I'm assuming it does, but as I've never tried to planet hop in this game before, I want to make sure before I spend all that time only to have to revert. KSP Delta-V Planner (loicviennois.com)

2382: You walk into a jam session with The Cult. The play Fire Woman, and you leave.

Yeah, I may have to do that. I've never docked before, and I know there's a pretty steep learning curve with that. So I am gonna practice and do the in-game tutorial, while trying every design trick I can muster.

That movie was made in Jersey. Bada-Bing Bada-Boom Fuhgeddaboutit Bimbino Twin Craters

A mob movie is made there. Bada-bing Bimbino Twin Hills

Just checking in to say that I am still working on this. I'm having a bit of difficulty with designing a rocket right now; I've got a lander and transfer stage, but designing something to get off Kerbin is posing issues. I really don't want to have to pick up docking ports, but I might have to in order to get access to better tanks and engines. Sans that, anybody have any advice?

Muhammad Ali shows up. Pre-grilled Free Bavarian Bears Thrilla in Manilla Hill

To be honest, I don't even use the Atmospheric Autopilot, so it's not breaking me if I have to uninstall it. I'm not even sure why I have it installed, to be honest. Assuming it only impacts low-altitude flight (flight under 70km, after which point we'd be in orbit), I haven't even used it as I'm not flying planes just yet. I copied over my install into a second location so I could run both Kerpollo and Caveman at the same time without having to install/uninstall MJ every time I fire up KSP; I simply was not aware that this was game- or challenge-breaking to the point that it isn't allowed. I do see the red notice that mods that affect gameplay aren't allowed, but seeing as KER and MJ are explicitly called out, I guess I just assumed that everything else I had was cool. I'll go ahead and uninstall it just to be on the safe side; no harm, no foul. I'm not using it anyhow, so it's not like it's a major deal. But if this invalidates this entry I guess I can start over?

Well, I never learned how to parallel park. Seriously. I never learned. In fact, when I took my driver's test all those years ago, the instructor was getting ready to make me parallel park...but no spaces were available. He looked at me and said "Well, you've missed only 1 point so far, and this is the last thing, so...fudge it. You're good. Let's head inside and get your picture taken." Yep, didn't have to do it. So I never learned.

So I'm taking on multiple challenges at once, both this one and Kerpollo. Which means I end up flipping between them to do stuff. And today it's Caveman day. This career keeps giving me these gimme contracts. Test LV-909 “Terrier” Liquid Fuel Engine at the Launch Site, and Test LY-10 Small Landing Gear at the Launch Site. That’s an easy 2 science points that I can’t pass up. But now, it’s on to bigger and better science points. Need to farm all the science out of the KSC that I can, using this little doohickey: I’m basically rolling around the KSC with Bob on board so I can hit all the distinctive areas in 1 run: Administration Building, Astronaut Complex, Mission Control, R&D, SPH, Tracking Station, and the VAB. Netted myself 141.3 science, with which I was able to unlock General Construction and Advanced Construction. Only 9 nodes to go, which means I need another 810 (90 x 9) science points to finish off the challenge. Where to get that tasty science from, though. Have to look through the contracts and see what I’ve got there. And a check there shows I’ve got a contract to do a fly-by of the Mun. So it looks like it’s time to send Jeb towards the Mun and gather some science. I’m gonna need ~4000 m/s of dV in order to do this (3400 to get into orbit, and at least another 600 to do a fly-by). And without maneuver nodes and other such nonsense, I get to eyeball this. Yay me! Here’s ship on the launchpad: I know that the dV for stage 3 will go up as I ascend, so this ship should get me to the Mun and back. Not a landing, but just a fly-by for those tasty science points. And away we go. Orbit achieved: And near the Mun: And back in Kerbin’s SOI: Now, in the Kerpollo challenge, one of the statements made is to take pictures like you're on vacation. So I took this one: If you zoom in on the Mun there, that crater looks like the front of the Death Star. At least, it does to me. So no, that’s no Mun; that’s a space station. Anyhow, back to the ground game: Yeah, I forgot to take the shot of Jeb in the water before recovering the vessel, so the shot of the Mission Summary will have to do at this point. Took me 9 aerobraking rotations to get back on the surface; it’s kind of hard to slow down when you’re out of fuel. Although, I’d really only count 8 of them; the last one I barely got back out of the atmosphere. And by barely, I mean the Ap ended up being just over 70km. Anyhow, I netted 122 science points on this run, which allows me to unlock Electrics. The tech tree now looks like so, after all the science gathering and spending today: So I've now got 8 nodes to go. At 90 science points per, that's another 720 science points to go. But I now have probe cores, which mean I can now go get science in space with the SC-9001, and then do a fly-by of Minmus. I will save almost a full ton of weight by using the OKTO, which will really help. I might also have to create a plane to fly around Kerbin and see about hitting the Desert Launch Site...and maybe do some of those survey contracts. But, for now, the above is where I stand!

King of the Hill?