Scarecrow71

So, I've been having a problem with my Drespollo rocket when staging in that boosters and empty fuel tanks aren't being ejected far enough away from the main ship when activating the radial decouplers. I've done a bit of searching on this. And the common answer im seeing is to place the boosters so that their dray center of mass is just a hair below the middle of the decoupler. So what is the problem? Well, I can't seem to figure out how to display the dry CoM on a given fuel tank. There is no option in the VAB or SPH to show this on a given part, only on the ship as a whole. And at that, it shows current CoM; to show dry CoM on the ship, I have to drain the tanks. How does one display the dry CoM on a tank? I'd like to get this sorted so I can eject boosters properly without them crashing into the rest of my ship and blowing it up.

Banya was funnier than Seinfeld.

Banned for the evil laugh

MISSION III: MUNPOLLO And so here we are attempting to land on the Mun. I know for a fact that the last ship I built will get us there and back, but that’s kind of overkill. I might update it so that we aren’t dealing with all that leftover fuel…but maybe not. It ain’t like we gotta worry about funds, right? As always, the opening shot of the tech tree: I am starting here with 65.2 science, and only 3 nodes on tier 5 to unlock. I am not going to unlock miniaturization unless I absolutely have to; I don’t want to deal with docking just yet. Maybe on the multiple-body missions where I gotta save fuel to get home. Maybe. Anyhow, the ship on the launchpad: I did make a few changes to this thing. For starters, I added 4 solar panels. Secondly, I changed out the landing legs for sturdier ones, and I upgraded from 4 to 6 of them. Finally, I added an Advanced Inline Stablizer so I can get better control of the ship during flight. The rest of it is just like the one I used to go to Minmus. And now, off we go! The maneuver to get me to the Mun, followed by the stable orbit: That’s a stable of orbit of 1.53998Mm for the Ap and 17.7185km for the Pe. And now to collect some science…and then a quicksave before I put this puppy on the surface. Even MechJeb lands like garbage sometimes. On a hill, so I had to spin and spin until I righted this ship. That was a pain in the ass. Thank goodness I put the solar panels on there! Anyhow, collecting science, and then back to Kerbin. Now, before I post the rest of the images on this mission and state I’ve completed and all that, I want to talk about this: I know that there are asteroids and stuff floating out in the vastness of space, and I’m ok with that. I’m also aware that these objects are going to come close to Kerbin, and I’m ok with that. But Class E (Huge)? This is an apocalyptic event just waiting to happen to our poor Kerbals. Thankfully it’s so far away from me that I’ve got time to prepare. And it’s giving me ideas on how to complete the later missions (capture an asteroid and use it to refuel, perhaps). But Huge? I now feel so…tiny. Anyhow, we now return you to the arts. Or, rather, to Kerbin. That middle shot there was something I didn’t expect to see. When I’m coming back in to Kerbin, I like to keep the vehicle dead center of my screen, on a nice horizontal axis; for some reason, this helps me orient where I’m at and where I’m headed. Now, sometimes, I’ll do a quick spin around the ship to see what’s coming up, but in this case, I spun the camera the opposite direction. Which showed me the cool effects of the Atmospheric thing-a-ma-jig with the trailing flame and all. But I also caught the Mun in that shot; I was not expecting to see it so clearly while in flight over Kerbin during the day. I ended up collecting another 537 total science from my travels, which allowed me to unlock Aerodynamics and Propulsion Systems on Tier 5: Notice that, even though I’ve got the science points to do so, I have not unlocked Miniaturization. I do not want docking ports in this game just yet. I want to hit at least 1 other planet and return before I deal with that. No sense in rushing off to get stuff you don’t really need just yet, is there? And that should complete Munpollo. Next stop…Moho? Duna/Ike? Eeloo? Dres? I’m not quite sure at this point. I do know that I’m saving Eve/Gilly and the Jool-5 for last.

MISSION II: MINPOLLO I should have stated when I started this that there is a specific reason I never get anywhere beyond Minmus: I suck at rocket design. I know that the general rule is “moar boosters”, but I don’t want to do that. I need to get better at efficiency, otherwise I end up playing for a month or so and then put the game away for several months because I can’t do anything. Challenges like this are a good way to either force me to get better…or to uninstall the game. Anyhow, I know I need a lot of dV. I’m not good at the math of all of this, so I find that I use old threads and youtube videos on what needs to be done. I need 3 distinct stages: liftoff/orbit, transfer, lander/return. The parts I currently have don’t have enough juice to do all of that, so thankfully, we can farm the KSC, which I’ve done with this nifty little roller: I found this in the Caveman thread where people were talking about how to get any science on the harder levels when you start with no cash. And a design similar to this came up, and so in true fashion, I stealed it. I was able to farm 89 net science from the SPH, R&D, VAB, and the Administration Building, and I think I may have forgotten to do the EVA report at the SPH. But hey, I can always use this one again to farm more science if I need to. Spent 45 on Advanced Rocketry, and then spent 45 on General Construction. I should now have enough things unlocked to do a decent Mun landing mission. The current tech tree: And a quick-save so I don’t lose any of that science. Anyhow, I’m semi-following the design from an early career Mun landing thread. The thing here is that while Minmus is harder (technically) to get to, it is easier to land on and return home from. And the same basic rocket design for going to the Mun should work to get to Minmus. Which gives me this sitting on the launchpad: 4665 m/s of dV sitting on the launchpad. I believe the term everybody uses when things don’t work is “moar boosters”, which is what I’ve done here. I’ve got 2 stages each with 6 Thumpers; I’m hoping I can use these to get to a decent orbit over Kerbin before transferring to Minmus. So let’s see how this goes. Stable orbit of 164.689 km Ap and 89.4119 km Pe. Definitely not circular, and I’m sure I could have done better on this. But it leaves me with 3665 m/s dV to get to Minmus, land, and back. As we launched this thing with Bob on board, we’re gonna take some science readings in several places: in orbit high over Kerbin, in orbit high over Minmus, in orbit low over Minmus, and on the surface of Minmus. Man, I never appreciated having a Scientist on board before. Why am I not using Bob more? Anyhow, the orbit of Minmus eventually comes out to this: Stable Ap of 1.55623Mm, and a stable Pe of 14.3835km. Leaves me with 2524 m/s of dV, which should be more than enough to land and get home. Take some science readings as I mentioned before landing, though; I don’t want to miss out on those tasty points. I ended up having to circularize the orbit prior to landing, mainly because I didn’t want to come in at a really bad angle. But guess who manually landed for the first time in…well, I think forever? This guy. Right here. Gather some science data, quicksave, and then heading back to Kerbin. A shot after having escaped Minmus’ SOI and re-entering Kerbin’s: Now I just gotta burn appropriately and put this thing back on the ground. Like so: And I landed in the desert, which means more science gathering. I netted 768.4 science. Holy. Crap. Wow. That’s more science in one run than I’ve ever done before. My goodness. Have I said how under-utilized Bob has been in my games previously? Being able to collect and capture that much science in one run is ridiculous. I was able to unlock Aviation and Flight Control, which kills the 4th tier. On the 5th tier, I was able to unlock Advanced Construction, Advanced Flight Control, Electrics, Fuel Systems, Heavy Rocketry, Landing, and Space Exploration. My tech tree now looks like this: That leaves me with 65.2 science. You’ll notice I’m avoiding docking ports right now. I know I’ll need them at some point, but for now I’d like to just not have to leave something in orbit when I hit the ground. This should, if I’m correct, complete Minpollo. The Mun is next!

Granted, but you can now no longer handle basic graphics. I wish I had the ability to view things down to the individual pixel. A super-sight kind of power, but with the ability to zoom way in on something to view 1 individual pixel if necessary.

Banned for wasting stars.

I'm trying to move some posts into a new thread, but the forum keeps merging all of my replies into one large post. WHICH I DO NOT WANT. I want all of the individual posts to remain individual. What do I need to do to keep this from happening? Why is the forum auto-merging replies?

Starting a Mission Report thread here for my entry into the Kerpollo Challenge. The challenge consists of 9 launches, one to each of the 9 distinct areas of the Kerbol system. Up first...LKO. MISSION I: KERPOLLO Well, here goes nothing. Going to attempt to do the Kerpollo Challenge…even though I’ve never gotten any farther than Minmus. And I’ve never even attempted to dock objects in space, which means I’ll probably end up doing most of this prior to getting any docking ports. ManEatingApe showed it’s possible to get to orbit with a ship before even unlocking any of the tech tree, so this gives me hope. Then again, he’s far better at this than I am, so I’ll probably end up rebooting multiple times during each mission. Screen shots are needed, eh? Ok, so here’s the settings I’m using: All normal settings; nothing is out of the ordinary here. I thought about doing some custom things with the settings, like turning on requiring a connection for control, but seeing as probe cores aren’t a thing I don’t need to worry about that. MISSION I: KERPOLLO (Kerbin Orbit) According to the rules, we are allowed to put stuff on the launchpad and runway to farm science at the KSC. So I did that with this: Goo container, crew report, eva report, and soil sample, which nets 31.8 science. Which gives me this for the tech tree before even launching the first ship: Oh look, a thermometer and barometer are unlocked. More farming at the launchpad and runway, netting another 12 scient points. Now the tech tree, before launching my first ship, looks thusly: Time to quick-save so as to not lose any progress (because that whole 5 minutes will just set me so far back), and then work on my first ship to get up into orbit. Not having to worry about funds, part count, or tonnage will help…although my frame-rate might get a bit miffed. The ship I crafted for this mission: She’s got 4139 dV sitting on the launch pad, with 7 stages. The first 3 stages comprise 4 Hammers, 4 decouplers, and then 4 more Hammers; this is designed to get off the ground and get partially into the atmosphere. Once these 8 engines die out, it’s on the Swivel (yes, I said Swivel, so no laughing) to get me the rest of the way into orbit and then back to Kerbin. I have only the science gadgets that I’ll use while in orbit to collect science. I am aware that I could put double the number of gadgets on the thing and then take science when I land. I plan on taking a surface sample from whichever biome I land in, and I may very well be shorting myself on science here. Que sera, and all. While I plan on trying to finish this challenge, I’ll be surprised and happy if I can get anywhere past Minmus in the latter stages. Anyhow, shots from orbit: Certainly not the most elegant or efficient launch, but I’m up there. 500k Ap, 104k Pe. And yes, as you can see, I am most assuredly using MechJeb to help. I’ve got 1015 dV remaining for this trip, which is more than enough to get back on the ground. Were I smart enough to have added multiple science gadgets, I could very easily have made it to a fly-by of the Mun and back this trip. But I don’t have to worry about orbiters until I unlock docking ports, so I don’t want to gain too much science too fast lest I have to learn how to dock as well. My guess is it’s possible to hit every planet without docking ports, so I may try going that route and just not unlock them. We’ll see. Anyhow, science gathering in space, followed by a surface sample upon landing, which nets 65 total science. Proof that Jeb didn’t die on re-entry, followed by the tech tree after spending some of that tasty science I just earned: A billion-billion gallons of water, and not a drop to drink. I always seem to land in the water when coming back from space. I had to choose between Basic Science and General construction here. Do I go with batteries so I don’t run out of juice on my next trip, or do I need struts to make sure those boosters don’t wobble too much? I decided it is easier to deal with wobbling than it is to deal with no power. Besides – now I can farm more science from the launchpad and runway with the Science Jr. SC-9001. Which nets me a whopping 15 more science points. Not enough to open any more nodes, but it’s something. And, according to John Madden, some yards is better than none yards. That completes the Kerbin Orbit requirement. 1 Launch, 1 Mission. 1 down, 8 to go.

And, once again, back to lander design. I landed on Dres and had ~600 m/s of dV remaining, and I was able to get back to ~7,000m circularized. Unfortunately, I needed about 500 m/s of dV more than I had at that point to rendezvous and dock. This is odd, considering I allocated 1.5x the amount the dV map shows I should have needed to do the entire landing and docking. I think my issue is with the engines I used; not enough TWR, which means I burned far more upon landing than I should have, and then the same upon return to orbit. Either way, I am still working on getting to and returning from Dres. I haven't even attempted docking yet; I have to get to a point where I can get to and land on Dres, and then get back into orbit and rendezvous with the mothership before I try docking. One small step for Kerbals...

All the videos I've seen indicate to orbit at about 240km when transferring to another planet. If I can just get away with 100km, that will truly save some dV with the transfer.

Yeah, I use MechJeb to do the transfer planning for everything beyond Mun. But even MJ has issues with Dres; PorkChop selection errors due to ejection calculation, and sometimes it won't plot right until you are within days of the window. But I have learned how to use it to do the planning, so there is that. I always do course corrections, primarily because I have seen MJ give me one value for Pe on an encounter only to see something totally different when I get close. Today, for example, I did one halfway to Dres to pull myself within 4 million meters, and then a second one at the 90% mark to pull within 100,000m. The oddest thing about my attempt today is that I still have 109 m/s of dV in my transfer stage, which I want to use to at least start the transfer home. But I'm not sure I can get the lander off Dres and into a rendezvous with the mother ship. The lander has ~700 m/s of dV left, but I'm not sure that pair of Ant engines will do the trick. Which means another restart, but this time all the way back to lander design.

@18Watt And this is why I get frustrated. I've been at this for more than 2 weeks now with Dres, and I can't even get there and back. You've done it in a couple days. Congrats, but it doesn't give me much hope that I'm gonna complete this anytime soon. Speaking of not enough fuel, I landed on Dres this afternoon...and burned through more than half the fuel I brought with me to do the landing. I over-engineered to have more dV than needed, and yet here I am now wondering if I can get back into space and re-dock...or do I have to go all the way back to the VAB and redesign the whole ship? I hope it's not the second part there; I'm not sure I can take much more of having to revert all the way back to the beginning.

Granted. There it is, in all its glory, floating high in the sky. You, on the other hand, are chained to the ground, unable to get to said Zeppelin. I wish Led Zeppelin had never been.

Oh look, a cat. Chateau de Parfum avec un chat

Granted, but it doesn't make them actually have fun. I wish daylight savings time would be done away with in Nevada.

2/10, because you are advertising to the masses much like that popular social media site does. I am human because I have no ability to block pop up ads automatically.

@18Watt That is exactly what I needed to hear. I keep forgetting that vets have these same issues, and I get frustrated thinking I'm just doing it wrong. I shall be back at this in the morning!

Banned for not being Kerbaloid.

And once again, I have to start over with Drespollo. This is like the 5th or 6th time I've had to revert all the way back to the pre-launch save. Every time I get within a few meters of Dres something else throws the whole thing off. I've experienced: Running out of battery power even though the solar panels are pointing directly at the sun Having the docking ports facing the wrong way Running out of fuel for the return trip My ship not being able to turn. AT ALL. And this continues to plague me; the ship turns extremely slow. Explosions on the launchpad because, even with struts, the craft decides to start rotating as it sits on the pad. I'm getting really frustrated here. I know this isn't supposed to be easy, but has anyone else experienced any of this? If so, how do I correct this? I can, at times, launch, get to Dres, orbit the planet, and in one case I even landed. But something always happens, and I can't figure out what it is I'm doing wrong.

If it's a chateau? Whither Chateau d'If

Wet hill. Hills Moist.