Tony Swallow

We'll your're certainly no Robinson Crusoe! I've managed to do exactly the same thing where I had deploy-able solar panels, but forgot to deploy them so ended up with a tourist ship "dead in the water", heading back to Kerbin atmosphere from a Sol orbit! The suggestions above may get you out of the quicksand. However if this doesn't work then an answer may be to build a ship with high delta-V and crew it with an engineer to attach some solar panels to your ship in distress. If your ship in on the way back from the Mun you may have a limited window in which to do a rendezvous and attach the panels. If you have the issue that it will shoot out of the Kerbin Sphere of influence not all is lost, You can still make a rescue, but it may take a long time. In any case don't scrip on the Delta-V. This is the sort of thing that makes playing KSP both frustrating and rewarding! You can do this, go rescue your tourists. Note: you may end up loosing money on the mission, but at least you wont loose reputation.

Really cool telling the story, complete with facepalms and all! I know your pain. The first time I managed to dock I had spent an hour following the tutorial religiously and even then only "Just" managed to make it work. The good news is that you get better! Now I can Dock "on a dime". The two tips I'd give is take your time, and practice makes perfect! In no time at all you'll be throwing things together in orbit without a second thought.

A tidy ship. If you wanted to tweak it you could probably get away with not having the drop booster.

Nice!

I'm a bit of a purist, so I don't use Mods, at all, when playing KSP. Using the rotation adjustment with Snap on means that the minimum change in angle that can be achieved is 5 degrees. For making various spaceplanes, especially SSTO's, it is desirable to be able to pick a smaller angle. To do this I have made an Inclinometer that I use for getting precise angle with snap off. The inclinometer has been set with graduations of 0.5 degrees using small solar cells as "markers. I have saved the Inclinometer as a subassembly so I can bring it out as I need it. In this case I'm using it to se the wings for an SSTO cargo carrier. I want to set the wings at 2 percent. I attach an arm made of wing sections to the wing I'm adjusting and move it back and fourth until the arm matches with both arms on the inclinometer. Then I turn snap off and rotate to the angle I want, in this case 2 degrees. Using this I can confidently set an angle within a tenth of a degree. Then I can delete the arm and inclinometer and set the wing to where I want it! Can this be done with Mods? Absolutely, and no doubt more precisely.

Indeed, you are right, they are Mastodon's! It does the job! burning through 3000+ Delta V in about 60 seconds. I've done a couple of repeats, to make sure it's not a fluke. I've found that one of the hardest things to balance is the rate of rendezvous approach. When I have all the time I need I approach slowly, with the last 200m or so at less than 10m/s. When doing this capture maneuver time is a major factor. So I have to discipline myself to go hard for the docking. I don't even have the time to set up maneuver nodes to do an optimum burn. Real Piloting! I'm not too sure how much tourist contracts to Eve pay. Once set up I'm not disposing of parts so I can refine fuel and repeat as many times as I want. So yes, A lot of potential profit in the pot. On the other hand the way I've been playing is that I've completed a lot of Kerbin/Minimus/Mun/Sol orbit tourist contracts so I have a really deep pockets. It's been a while since I've had to "watch the cost" on any given ship

Interesting Problem. I've had to do a few "Oh dear I need to do a high Delta-V Intercept and rescue" Missions. A couple of thoughts. I don't think it's curtains yet..... But it could take a long time to get the home. One is that the longer you leave it the worse it gets, as the craft is getting ever further away. However, if you are happy time-warping deep into the future you will eventually catch up. Are you wanting to get everything back, or just the crew? If you just want the Crew then the return craft can be a lot smaller, lighter and have more Delta V. This would be lot easier. You've had 3 failed attempts, any chance of screenshots of what you have tried? and a screenshot of the orbit it's in?

Really cool lander/rover! Way more so than my recovery landers which are basically a tug with a clampatron on the bottom of them. I land next to the part and then use a small amount of throttle and RCS to get into place for the touchdown grab. I really like the idea of putting wheels on the hinges to deploy and also using struts to secure the load. Thankyou for sharing!

Good morning all, A few weeks ago I posted a challenge for myself, That is building an EVE Single Stage to SUB-orbital, and catching it with a passing capture craft. For a quick recap, I intend to use this in a Career game, with some self imposed rules: - NO mods. I'm using the full KSP1 updates including Breaking ground and Making history. - As Green as possible. Not leaving descent stages etc on the surface of visited bodies - Doing things as quickly as possible in game time. With ships with a high Delta V to do interplanetary missions so I can get there as quickly as possible without having to time-warp for days/weeks/months/years to get to optimum launch windows. Fuel is not a problem, I will have a refinery on Gilly to supply what I need. So why an SSTS Over an SSTO? Making a Ship which is forgiving and flexible is important to me. I want to have a ship that can be used for any number of missions, apart form landing and planting a flag for experience. So if, for example, I got a mission to do a scan of Basalt I want to be able to put the arm in a storage can, land near a formation, attach the arm with an Engineer and complete mission. Likewise, I want to be able to launch at sea level. I want to fly away from the equator. An SSTS will (in theory) give me that robustness. Without having to make a bespoke craft for every mission There are three craft involved in this mission. Obviously the SSTS itself, which will land. Then there is the "Catch-net" craft, which has to have a high enough Delta-V to match the velocity of the SSTS in space, and do a burn to get it into orbit as well. For this it needs a high thrust to weight ration so the matching can be done quickly. The final craft is the "Nudge" craft, which will be used to take the SSTS to Low Eve Orbit from the station (At 150km) and then retro burn to push the SSTS into the atmosphere. The "Catch-Net" craft, which has 6 mammoth engines, and lots of fuel (3740 Delta-V) It also has strong RCS and reaction wheels to enable a fast docking. It is set to orbit at 120km The "Nudge" Craft - A lot smaller! The SSTS docked to the Nudge Craft, ready to drop into Low Eve Orbit. The nudge craft allows me to burn for a steep entry into Eve Atmosphere. From a stable orbit of 91km-92km I do a burn dropping the Periapsis to 45km! In the minute or so before entering the atmosphere I undock, turn it around and do a burn to Keep the "Nudge" craft in orbit. This has the dual advantages of having full tanks on the SSTS when it lands, as well as allowing for a harder burn which helps with heat management later. The SSTS entering Eve Atmosphere, at the point where the heat load is greatest! The critical component is the FL-A215 Fuel Tank Adaptor which fails at 2,000 Kelvin. It maxed out at less than 1,950! A miss is as good as a mile. However the 1.25m to 2.5m adapter has a tolerance of 2,700K,which makes it far safer on re-entry, so the final craft may have that instead. Forgiving and flexible is the name of the game! The rest of the landing is pretty routine. I set down on the patch of land between between the Crater Lake and eastern sea. Obligatory Kerbins on the ground shot! I waited until the "Catch-Net" was approximately 180 degrees out of phase (ie, on the other side of the planet) before commencing my take-off and climb. I have used 2 rotor units (rotating opposite directions) with ducted fan blades in a 2.5m Service bay to power the craft to altitude. I have set the RMP at 400 and use the main trottle for torque and an action group ti incrementally change the fan blades. For Power I have two Z-4K Rechargeable Battery Banks for storage and 2 Fuel cell arrays (in the nose). I find that the weight of fuel used to get to altitude gives a better power to weight ratio than batteries or solar cells. However I still have solar cells that line the cargo bay (obscuring the propellers), and two batteries. This will enable me let the batteries fully charge and then do shorter "hops" across the surface. This is also why I've used two batteries instead of one, as it will more than double my rang for "hops" . The solar cells sit inside the bay, so no drag when they close(correct me if I'm wrong). The total mass of the ship is a bit over 200T full of fuel. I'm using the distance to the "catch-Net" as a "marker" for determining when I start my burn into Sub-orbital. This was my 3rd attempt. 300km was too late, 600km too early. Lets see how I go for 480km I'm a lot lower than I would like! I should be starting at 15K+ But I start the burn anyway! See how it goes! A single action group turns off the rotors, closes the bay doors, retracts the blades, activates the Vector engines, retracts the flaps (in case I'd forgotten to do that). Burning hard to get out! Note I've got the Shielded clampatron ready to open as soon as I exit the atmosphere! I'm back on the "Catch-net". It's not great, but it's "workable" The SSTS is on it's way out and will peak at over 150km. I should have started my burn a bit later, say 450km. I can make an intersect using an Anti-radial burn on the "Catch-net". I've got an intersect. But I will be docking on the downward (wrong) side of the SSTS Apoapsis. This has the dual disadvantage of needing more Delta-V to keep it in orbit and a lot less time to dock and do the burn before hitting the atmosphere! GOT IT! I have managed to dock! But now I'm in the atmosphere, no time for finesse, or to even get a decent screenshot! I turn the ship to somewhere between Anti-Radial and Prograde and open up with the engines! After some initial "by the seat of pants" flying I'm in orbit! with some fuel to spare! Conclusions This was by no means an "optimum" flight! The burn started late, I couldn't intersect on the upwards trajectory, I almost ran out of fuel and I dipped into the atmosphere. However It worked! With some adjustment in the timing I will be able to get a much "cleaner" recovery, with enough fuel to get back to the Eve Station. I'm considering having the "Catch-Net" sit in a higher orbit. The compromise is one of having more time in sub-orbital outside the atmosphere and easier to adjust the SSTS flightpath for intersect, V's the timing and also the SSTS having fuel to actually make a burn to improve the intersect. All in all proof of concept which can be refined! I will be able to use this craft in my Career game and know that I have "wiggle-room" in my flights that I wouldn't have with an SSTO. On a final note there are about 10 minutes of the mission which are really intense! from when the burn from the atmosphere starts to when you have it back in orbit. I really enjoy the challenge of "flying by the seat of your pants" that this entails!

Thankyou for sharing your story! I've had a life-long interest in space which stays with me to this day, I had my kids in front of the computer at almost midnight (Time in Eastern Australia) to watch Starship 2 launch live. I've settled into a career as a civil engineer (Municipal, roads bridges etc) but there's still a part of me that dreams of space. Follow your dreams, be part of the new generation!

Thanks QF9E for your suggestions on power. This has been a "head scratcher" for me. With this kind of mission there is the potential of having to "loiter" at altitude whilst the catch-net craft gets into the right position before the final run to sub-orbital for the catch. the idea of burning energy reserves whilst waiting is pretty unappealing as this means more batteries, more mass etc for the sake of having wiggle-room before the final run. I did a lot of experiments with solar cells, working out the balance required to maintain positive power whilst doing so. I wasn't to concerned about them burning up on re-entry as I could position them in a "safe" place. The obvious problem is drag and mass. Also solar cells work better the higher into the atmosphere you get. Which makes balancing tricky as you don't need as many solar cells to Loiter but getting to altitude in the first place either takes a long time or more batteries. I gave your suggestion re fuel cells some thought and tried that. Using fuel cells, the mass cost of the extra fuel is more than offset by the savings that are made by not having solar cells, and no drag from the solar cells is a bonus! Also less problems with energy management as they have a consistent output (as compared to Solar cells). In short it looks as though the best outcome for me will be a craft with Fuel cells. I've managed to get craft into a solid Suborbital, and managed a simulated catch. But I want to optimise it and do a full "beginning to end" run before posting pics.

Thankyou to everyone replying to the thread, but especially to Serenity The bit about removing rigid attachment and Auto-strutting to Grandparent Part has made a real difference in my experiments in making an Eve SSTS. At first I made a spaceplant that was difficult to land so I went to great efforts to tweak it, in doing so I sure that everything was strutted and rigid. This had the opposite effect and got to the point where my craft was basically unlandable! I opened the saved craft last night, removed all rigid attachments and auto-strutted everything to grandparent and Presto! I could practically throw the craft at Eve and and land it! The plus side is that my piloting skill gets better, and I learn how to make more forgiving craft!

Wow, thanks for Sharing! This is really appreciated! I've also been using propellers to "claw" as high in the atmosphere as possible! I've found that the performance of the has an abrupt ceiling, whereby they stop "working" and the speed (and nose) drop rapidly, within seconds. At I first tried a "straight up" lander which worked reasonably well, however getting it to re-enter without a heat shield (which is not 100% re-usable), proved impossible. So a spaceplane it is. How have you managed Power supply whist using props to get above the atmosphere? I have used a combination of batteries and Solar panels, where I get about 80% of the way up and then open the throttle and deplete the batteries, aiming to almost drain them as the rocket engines kick in.

Yep, that the target! I Know I CAN build a lander that has disposal of stages. But I want to get a system that can do it without! This is for two reasons... 1 - Keeping in with the "Green" concept of not throwing away components to make landings 2 - The way I'm playing it will be a long time (in realtime) between sending ships to Eve. And there will be times when I transfer from a body other than Kerbin to Eve. If I can do it with an SSTS and catch-net then I can refuel the ships in orbit and do a landing, without having to send additional stages from Kerbin to reset.

Good morning all, I'm playing a challenging Career. I have the following self-imposed Rules - NO mods. I'm using the full KSP1 updates including Breaking ground and Making history. - As Green as possible. Not leaving descent stages etc on the surface of visited bodies - Doing things as quickly as possible in game time. This makes it particularly interesting as I'm making ships that have high Delta V to do interplanetary missions so I can get there as quickly as possible without having to time-warp for days/weeks/months/years to get to optimum launch windows. - I'm allowing myself to test craft on a sandbox game before committing in the career. - I'm regularly saving and I do allow myself the luxury of reverting back to an old save if I lose some Kerbins, The fact that I have lost a week of realtime progress is the punishment for my neglect (So far I have only had to do so once). So far I'm up to day 120ish and I've made a lot of progress. Tech tree is maxed out, Fueling facilities on the Mun and Minimus, Interplanetary ships on the way to Moho, Eve and Duna and the next interplanetary launch will be to Dres. Now the challenge that I've set for myself is the Holy Grail, EVE Fuel is not a problem. I have refineries (The Eve interplanetary mission includes a refinery for Gilly) so I can burn fuel as required. The trick is getting to the Eve surface, and back, without discarding stages which is a hard task. The obvious answer is an Eve SSTO. It is possible, people have done it, but it's a very hard craft to get right. The way I'm planning to get around it is to build an Eve Single Stage to Suborbital, and then "catch" the craft as it nears the Apoapsis with another craft that is in Orbit. What makes it hard is that the orbital Velocity at LEO is 3,200 m/s. The capture craft needs to do a rendezvous burn to match the lander, where the difference in speed will be massive, and then do an orbital burn. All this has to happen in minutes whilst the lander is above Eve atmosphere. The difference in velocity is huge, which makes for a huge capture ship. Assuming Zero orbital velocity of the lander at Apoapsis you over 6K Delta V. A ship with 6K Delta V is easy enough. Liquid fuel and lots of Nerv's. But this wont work as you simply can't burn fuel quickly enough to get enough velocity change in the timeframe of minutes. So it has to be a Conventional rocket. But this has the problem of the tyranny of the rocket equation whereby you just can't get 6K and have a fast enough burn to to the catch. The obvious answer is to discard stages but anything discarded will end up in a suborbital trajectory over Eve, which defeats the point of the exercise. So now I'm working on a lander craft that is as optimised as possible to get as close to orbit as possible. So far I have managed over 1K orbital velocity with the Apoapsis at 110km. My target is 2K, If I can get that then a "catcher" with a starting Delta V of 3K should be able to do it. and this should be achievable..... WIsh me luck, If I can do It I'll post a mission report with Photo's etc.