Vanamonde

I go for the RTGs as quickly as I can. I *hate* worrying about batts and panels running out of solar power at a critical moment.

Sorry, it's not clear to me what you're asking. Currently, you must click on an instrument, Kerbal, or capsule to acquire science results, then either transmit it or recover the ship carrying it to use the points. That's two active, uh, actions, and nothing accrues passively. And by the way, there's no need to aim the antennas; the dish is just for looks.

Yup. It has a purplish tint near the poles now.

I will tell you a secret; sometimes I recreate situations to get pics I didn't think to take the first time. Who's going to know?

Yep, that is TALL lander. High center of gravity. Consider these designs as suggestions/examples:

Batteries: Not to dodge the question, but the number of batts needed is entirely dependent upon how much transmitting you're doing. You can save reports up and transmit them while the engine is running, though, so as not to drain the batts as much. Duna ascent: When I was working it out, I simply built a lander that could takeoff from Kerbin. Yes, it will be overkill when you get to Duna, but lives are at stake! You can trim the design after you've flown it a few times and seen where it's trimmable. Mun heights: Anything below a certain distance (which I do not recall) is "space near Mun." Going lower doesn't get you any more points, so don't get too barnstorm-ish with it. Launch stage: Pics are pretty much required to diagnose problems like that. Post some?

I don't know the details of the inner workings, but there seem to be several levels of increasing detail rendition as you get closer to a world. I mentioned the 160km one specifically because many players don't seem to know about it, it's right around where one tends to orbit anyway and so it comes up a lot, and it makes a big difference.

Yes, that sounds more like a design problem than a piloting issue. Post pics of your ship? Low and wide is more stable, and don't use the medium-sized legs because they LOVE to flip your ship on its head.

You only see one because 17 others were removed after AmpsterMan's first reminder to stay on-topic. If you have further questions about this, please take the matter to PMs. For now, carry on with the subject of the thread, please.

Currently, you only get science points when you actively do something: either transmitting the results of a test, or recovering ships. But I've also thought that it would be interesting if there were low-level but on-going experiments, such as a station slowly collecting data on Kerbal biology in other environs. But that would require a re-scaling of the tech tree invention costs, so you couldn't just leave a station sitting on fast-forward for a while and have an FTL drive fall out of it.

I *really* hope you meant "cramped" in a small craft. As someone who has only ever made one SSTO plane that actually TOed, I am bitterly jealous.

Hello. (and some characters)

Is that the first, um, odd thing you've found, Galileo Kerbonaut? There are others.

Spokesman: Morning all. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Wehrzon Kerman, recently appointed spokesman for the Kerbal Space Program, here to give you our first briefing of the 22nd era of spaceflight. The subject of today's briefing is the mission of KSP-12 Dres Revelation. It began with the thrilling night launch of the interplanetary vessel itself, with intrepid space legend Jebediah Kerman at the controls-- A reporter: I'm going to stop you right there. Wasn't Jebediah Kerman killed while attempting to land an experimental aircraft last week? Wehrzon: Oh yes, twice, but he keeps showing up for work anyway. The reporter: ?! Wehrzon: Look guy. To go higher in orbit you speed up, but once you get there, you're going slower than you started out. Deal with that kind of nonsense all day, and after a while semi-dead pilots don't seem so odd anymore. Anyway, the launch went perfectly and Dres Revelation was soon orbiting on station. But attaining orbit consumes a great deal of fuel, so the first order of business was several refuelling flights by robotankers. The normally routine matter of docking at the ship's rear fuelling port was rendered more interesting when it turned out that some idiot had reversed the up/down RCS control programming. But our experienced operators were able to complete the mission anyway, and soon we proceeded to docking the Mk100b Planetology Platform as the first piece of mission payload. This docking was made more difficult when it turned out the same idiot had forgotten to fix the up/down RCS control problem discovered during the tanker flights. A reporter: So was that guy fired for screwing up twice? Wehrzon: Well, he's the program director, so, no. Besides, he's pretty good at some things, such as taking the lander and parking it between the engine nacelles. Another reporter: But not everyone in your organization is so competent, are they? What about rumors that you got over-confident during rendezvous with the first rover, and it passed within 40 meters of the ship while travelling at a closing speed of 187m/s? Wehrzon: I can confirm that this happened. That reporter: Did you catch any pictures of that? Because that would be really cool. Wehrzon: Seeing as we realized there was a problem when the rover entered the ship's 2.25km rendering radius and at that speed it passed the ship 12 seconds later, no, we were too busy panicking. The first reporter again: And was that rover pilot fired? Wehrzon: Well, no, because-- First reporter: -- he's the program director. Wehrzon: That's correct. Yes? You in the back, with your hand up. Second reporter: Why did every rendezvous during the embarkation phase seem to take place in Kerbin's shadow: a situation scientifically proven to cause forum members to pitch hissyfits about dark screenshots? Wehrzon: That matter is under investigation. So the mission was ready to sally forth! Until we remembered that we would have to haul the whole lander back from Dres in order to retrieve full value of the scientific instruments and surface sample, so the lander we had on there was rubbish and we'd have to replace it. A reporter: Why couldn't you merely move those samples from the lander to the ship? Wehrzon: Kerbal science has not yet mastered the intricacies of moving dirt from one cabin to another. Smart-looking reporter smoking a pipe: This is true, gentlekerbs. I wrote an article about this matter for Scientific Kerbal. Research into soil relocation technology continues, but for the moment, has stalled. The reporter from before him: Isn't that, well, kind of stupid and weird? Smart-looking reporter smoking a pipe again: Yes, but it's not unprecedented. Remember how we flew crewed missions to the moons for months before we figured out how to put doors on the capsules, so all the crews could do was look out the windows for a while and then come home? Other reporters: Yeah. Pipe guy: It's like that. Second reporter: [Turns back to Wehrzon] Before it was attached to the mission ship, why wasn't this flaw in the lander design caught by your meticulous mission planning? All: Hahahaha! Pipe guy: Droll! Droll! Second reporter: But seriously now, isn't that a pretty serious and expensive goof? Wehrzon: Yes, but-- Second reporter: --he's the program director. Wehrzon: Indeed. So what to do with the old lander? It can't be remotely piloted, so we'd have to either leave it as a space junk potential hazard to navigation, or have a living crewman recklessly risk life and limb attempting to de-orbit and splashdown a ship not equipped to land on Kerbin. One reporter or another: You sent a dude, didn't you? Wehrzon: Brave Dudmond Kerman volunteered for the dangerous and exciting job of seeing if the vacuum lander could land on Kerbin! Some reporter: And could it? Wehrzon: Let us all raise a toast to the memory of noble Dudmond. 47th reporter: So your impatience and lack of planning cost a life. Wehrzon: Yep. 47th reporter: I don't suppose the rest of the ship outfitting went smoothly? Wehrzon: Oh, heck no. I myself was once accidentally launched on what was supposed to be an unmanned test of the replacement lander. 47th reporter: How did that happen? Wehrzon: They forgot to tell me to get out before they hit the launch button. 47th reporter, who is really on a roll now: But you survived, obviously. Wehrzon: Yes. I was either luckier or more skillful than noble Dudmond. 47th reporter: Luckier. All reporters: [murmers of assent and rhubarb] Wehrzon: At any rate, 10 hours after its launch, the ship was now fuelled, crewed, laden with a payload of a small planetology station, 4 scientific satellites, 2 roborovers, the (replacement) lander, and an orbital science module, and ready to sally forth! For reals this time! Reporters: Oooh! Aaah! Tune in next time (whenever I get around to it) for the next thrilling chapter of... some guy's mission report!

Here's one trick: if you're orbiting under 160km, Kerbin's surface is still being partially rendered, causing some lag. Also, I've heard that the number of light fixtures attached contributes to lag, but I haven't verified that one.

Congratulations. Did you take screenshots? Perhaps this might be a subject for a Mission Reports (sub-section) thread?

I don't always get the timing right, either. Welcome!

That *is* career mode, Chazsi. Your first ships can't do much, so you do what you can with them and use the science points they generate to "invent" more useful parts. I made some example ships, though, to show what can be done with the first few part sets. If you would like examples you can download, or even just look at for ideas, check out this thread.

They give black belts in rocket madness?

Something about it looks Soviet to me.

In rendezvous, matching speed and trajectory is far more difficult than matching position. (As you've discovered.) Trying to do it on solar-orbit distance and speed scales is diving into the deep end. Leave Wilson on the scenic route (he'll be fine) while you practice bringing ships together in Kerbin orbit. Check out the rendezvous/docking tutorials in the tutorials section and on Youtube, and then try to bring Wilson home.

Folks, you may have to look back a ways to find it, but there was indeed a topic to this thread. Meeting an astronaut. No, really. Go check. I'll wait. Since he was from another culture, the discussions of other alphabets at least has some informational value even if it's only semi-related. But please, this is the second notice to keep this discussion productive and on-topic. If it wanders again, we'll have to lock it. Thank you, and good day.

After the problem occurs, hit F3 to see a report of anything that might have broken due to the weight of the rocket on the pad. I suspect the upper tank of the engine that cuts out early still has fuel in it, which is not getting to the engine below because it believes it has no connection. If so, put some launch clamps on the upper orange tanks to help distribute the weight. Or, it could be something else entirely.

That's odd. This is usually a result of control part orientation, but your navball is reading properly. Oh hey, check your control settings. It might think it's a rover and be using those keymappings instead of the staging you think you're using.