Specula

Wow, nice work on this... I rarely see people going to such extents to catalog their work and show proper readouts and the like. I'll keep an eye out on your thread for more!

They were given to the KSP community to name. They are KSP rovers. Nor does anyone appreciate you making an account just to pick flights.

Wow, I'm really surprised to see how many people are submitting to Macey. He's going to need at least one full time staff member to help him wade through all of these and pick from them.

I'm so glad Buzz and Neil is now second. Honestly, what corny names to call them... These are KSP rovers and people DON'T want to call them Jeb and Bob? Pfffft.

After mucking around with rockets, and only paying trivial attention to planes, Wildcat Industries has decided it's time to expand their borders. True to W.I. attitude, they decided to bite off far more than they could chew. They decided, as always 'go big or go home'. And so, after many small tweaks on their ultra secret prototype, they unveiled their hard work and labour of love and took it for a test fly out over the nearby ocean. Wildcat Industries presents the first iteration of: Fat Cat 1 v1. The first version barely even hit 7,000m before failing (partially due to ineptitude of the pilot's training) But none the less! Wildcat Industries has never been about giving up! They will try: And try: No matter the odds: No matter how close they get before failing: Until FINALLY: They succeed: The Fat Cat 1 (v3) is now on station in a 90,000m orbit, piloted by the ever hardy Jebidiah Kermin! And not a drop of fuel to spare. This 14 passenger, 1 pilot craft stands testament to Wildcat Industry's progress and aptitude.

Well done, very nice. Unassisted takeoffs sound fantastic too. Nice little story as well, keep it up!

My Wildcat Duna Lander: Which after using up all the fuel in the bottom lander stage splits off, flips over and uses the top engine to fly home, as seen here:

O_o Wow, you can actually mount air intakes ontop of each other? Awesome! Either way, nicely done overall!

Very nice! I love the design, simple, sleek, functional and well made videos! I did have a few questions though if you don't mind: I noticed there were only three struts on top in the first video for the most part making it asymmetrical (and I 'assume' lopsided)... Can you explain the reasoning behind just three struts and not an equal four? Or did something happen that snapped it for the first video? Also: What are the parts of the wings between the two ram air intakes? The things that look sort of like black solid rocket boosters?

It would, but being able to do this manually is extremely difficult. It flies in a purely straight line and it's trajectory can only be changed by impacts or the gravity well of a black hole. Actually perfectly lining up to hit something by predicting it's orbit and launching when Kerbin is facing the exact right direction is going to be very, very hard.

LOL. Any chance of getting the craft file to play with?

... You sir, deserve a medal. And from the looks of it... What happened to the Mun after impact? Did it just... Vanish?

That's an awesome little one manner, I really like the look of it.

I got good at building completely self contained, multiple redundancy rockets that could get where I need to go and back no matter how wrong a mission went. Why? Because I suck at docking and constructing multiple parts of a rocket together in orbit or docking later to get more fuel.

lol that sucks. I'm not afraid to admit that my parachute placement wasn't that crash hot the first attempt of this mission I made. They parachutes deployed and ripped off about 700 meters up. So yeah, they crashed and burned too. And Umlüx... Genius idea.

They're not bad really, especially if you're trying to push something with a lot of mass. LVN's have limits for heavy/bulky loads. Aerospikes are the next best thing. Less fuel efficient. More powerful. It's a tradeoff.

Thanks for the comments guys. Odo, I've thought about using nuclear engines and for missions that don't involve landing, I do. But for missions where I have to land safely, they're a total nightmare, hence why I didn't use them here. I'm not creative enough to find simple and effective workarounds for using landing struts with LV-Ns and still use my own rocket designs.

After many months of playing this game, goofing off and only putting satellites in orbit, I decided it was time to get serious. It was time to get two lucky victims (my legal representative reminds me I'm supposed to call them Kerbinauts...) Take then to Duna and then bring them back to Kerbin safely. And so, brave sirs Rodgun Kermin and Joewell Kermin boarded the next flight to Duna, unsure if they would ever return. So, here's the Wildcat IX Rocket they took: Half way through the trans-orbital burn above Kerbin: Careful maneuver node fishing: There she blows! Aerobreaking the rest of the way in (Kerbworks were too cheap to stock extra fuel): 'chutes deployed, a quick tap of the engine...: Touchdown! First Kerbal on another world and he's happy about it! Obligatory "Wish you were here" postcard shot of Ike almost hidden in the glare of Kerbol: Heading home: Saying goodbye to Duna: (All the controls and the navball indicators after separating and flipping over are reversed! This will make getting home interesting...) 6,200m Kerbin Periapse at 9,000m/s and speeding up? Prepare your rear ends, gentlemen. The ride's about to get real... A real sight for sore eyes! Extreme aerobreaking. From 11,000m/s to 200m/s in 45 seconds: Parachutes deployed: Made it! Two and three quarter years round trip! Now, just have to wait for their friends to come and pick them up: Sorry for the long post and many pictures. I hope you enjoyed it all anyway! I've also included the Wildcat IX rocket in a dropbox file if anyone wants to play with it. Find the craft file here

Much appreciated, thank you. Yeah... I got to Duna only to have every parachute rip off 500 meters off the ground. Things didn't go too well from there over the next few seconds...

Much appreciated, thank you. And yes I had the outer mainsails and tanks on 2x symmetry and did two pairs of them, same for the fuel lines. Couldn't figure out why they weren't behaving... Anyway, yes the SRBs are supposed to run out just seconds before the first two mainsails get dumped. Either way, thanks again!

I've made a rocket to take 2 Kerbals to Duna, land and come back safely. However, this rocket shakes itself apart constantly and despite the fuel lines feeding symmetrically through the bottom stage, the fuel does not, which sends my rocket into an insane spin when one of the final mainsails suddenly has half a tank of fuel left and the other doesn't. The connected large fuel tanks also like to sometimes fail. No idea why it's only sometimes though... I've done what I can, but it's now beyond what I'm capable of fixing. Can anyone look at this rocket and tell me what it's problem is? https://www.dropbox.com/s/ptpjteowmg4ie40/Wildcat%20Lander%20%2B%20Launcher.craft

Rofl, taking thread ratings seriously... Have fun with that you lot.

Sorry, my last message was for Michael Kim not you.

... No, he's saying you're completely wrong. just like I am. He's going so far as to say that Kerbol HAS no gravitational influence at ALL over ANYTHING. Not even the planets. I'm also a programmer, I understand some basic physics kiddo. This game is not an accurate representation of RL physics concerning multiple gravitational influences. You're acted upon by the gravitational pull of one thing in game at a time and nothing else. The point's been reiterated enough. If it hasn't sunk in yet for you, it never will. /argument.

You could... Try playing stock KSP for a while?