Markus Reese

Doing this now... Edit: You hear poof and that is about it.... Broke me out in giggles a bit I thought the plane might go out of control, but nope!

The tailstand part is the trick. Initial challenge said no tailstanding, and that is why it became impossible. I have landed space planes as well, but as apposed to tail standings, I just like to use the vectored thrust on my shown rocket. If you have the damned robotics patch, the rotators allows you to make a really awesome vtol. For now I just play with trying stock parts on challenges.

Aww, I got beaten to 4, that is what I get for sending a hotel.. Well, when I get that flight done, I will ocntinue anyways

as above, if you want smoother landing areas, aim for the craters.

The best tip is the object that is below ( closer to planetary body surface) is the one that will go faster. If you position yourself here, you will always slowly catch up usually. Else add a bit more speed. If you get going too fast, of course will fly back. If you are ahead, get above the rocket\'s plane and let it catch up to you. Just gradual commands and drift together. Use ctrl and shift to raise/lower yourself.

Aww.... And here I was going for style Well, yay for EVA, I can have some fun with the island one once I get the feel for the flight changes. Stay tuned. Going to be really fun stuff for the station ones! New collision mechanics, incomplete destruction will be unavoidable.

Chapter 3: On the rocks! During the lunar missions, signs of water on the Mun in the form of canyons lead scientists to believe there might be ice on Minmus because of the apparently level and different coloured patches. A mission was set to head to Minmus in the hopes of getting ice to help cool the oceans which were too warm in the summer to comfortably cool off. A slingshot maneuver made for efficient capture. On arrival, it became clear that there were frozen lakes and the mission was given a go for the next stage. Booster stage was jettisoned in preparations for landing. Landing was successful, and analysis was confirmed to be solid ice. Processing began immediately. Once the ice tanks were filled, the return trip lined up for an atmospheric braking over the tropical island chain. Once in position, the tanks were jettisoned and parachuted down to the surface. With mission completed, our brave Kerbonauts set down near the beach for a nice cool drink. ((Note, this was done just before .16 came out, had to wait for forums to come back. Also, ch 2 being updated now.))

My first off kerbin eva went better than I thought. Still need to bring Reyald home. Simple trip to the moon For the most part, nothing too much of interest. The images... Beware, this spoiler actually is a spoiler!!! Found this in the crater while walking around, relocated the lander!!! Awesome find for a first EVA I did have a practice EVA before I left the planet, and well...

Chapter 2: Living on the dark side of the moon With the increased facination of the Mun, an extended mission to the far side was organized. Preparation was to be able to collect a whole assortment of data from samples to surveying. A massive rocket capable of reaching Mun was readied for launch. With Jebidiah refusing to leave his jetplane and as such, kept Bill and Bob grounded. The new crew for the rocket were Mildrin, Munler, and Kirrick. Concerned about the weight of the landing system were not justified. The rocket was more than overpowered. However the heavy rocket did cause issues with maneuverability due to RCS boosters being forgotten. Despite that, an orbit was achieved, and a safe and controlled flight to capture Munar orbit went without incident. Upon reaching orbit, a grievous oversight was noticed. Launching during a scheduled full moon to see the far side meant that any landing location would be dark. This would not deter our brave Kerbonauts who were able to land successfully. however the terrain remains unknown. Fortunately they have enough supplies for an extended mission and soon should be in the light where full surveying can occur. [glow=red,2,300]Part 2![/glow] Morning revealed that the landing spot was better than expected, though unknown the the Kerbonauts was the boulders littering the surface! Survival was quite fortunate. The landing location appeared to have been a crater. But the range is broken on the horizon, very curious. But it is time to go, and the landing gears get re-deployed to help with stable takeoff. Once off the surface, a low orbit is acheived. With the survey complete, a full picture of the Mun can now be seen. An interesting surprize though just beyond the horizon. The break in the crater wall looks to be part of a massive canyon formed by water! Scientists back on Kerbin are estatic at the thought of H2O on the moons. The rest of the trip is fairly uneventful with a comfortable lunar departure, and landing right near KSC in the early hours of the morning.

Chapter 1: Big red button It is the early days of technology development of the Kerbal space program. So far only small unmanned crafts have launched into the upper atmosphere. Today, Test pilots Bill Bob and Jebidiah are preparing to test a new rocket techology. Different engines and liquid fuel that supplies it\'s own oxygen. To prevent spying cameras, a night launch is prepared. Concerns over the heavy weight of the new rocket technology was soon aleviated as a stable lift was acheived. The mission plan stated that ones at 15km altitude, the current maximun speed for jet technology, the rockets were to be ignited and see maximum available velocity and altitude by slowly increasing throttle speed.. Unfortunately, Jebediah decided that it would be better to try and really see what this baby can do, as such, he pulls back on the joystick early and pressed the big red button. Thanks to the valiant effort of Bill and Bob, they are able to turn off the engines, but reports from tracking control reveal that they left atmosphere, and do not seem to be coming back down. Hurried calculations determine a proper time for a deceleration firing of the engines. by bouncing off the walls and pressing against the ceiling, the crew is able to invert the space plane in time. The only concern is whether or not the now cooled experimental rockets and fuel will re-ignite and stop the ship. The calculations proved to be correct. And the engines re-ignited. The mood in the cockpit is tense as the command center comes into sight. Well, most are tense. The extra rocket burn has left the jet with limited fuel. Without the ability to burn engines for very long, they attempt to glide in most of the way. Success! Through skilled piloting and brave kerbal skill, the test proved to be more than successful. The plane is taxied off the runway and inspected to check for how it fared. Manned spaceflight has begun!

Challenge 6.... I have an interesting idea.... If there is unfortunate debris, is it still considered destroyed? Sounds fun overall!

For me, if I want circular, it is so exact that the AO and PO are in a fit on the map. Talking just metres of variation.

As an SSTO, I have done so as well, though my comp doesn\'t like early stage of large SSTO space planes. The difference is in the landing without doing any form of tail or nose stand. This means clever planning and spacing to come in at a few hundred m/s or steep nose in which you must pull out of to a landing position at last seconds. I will probably work on my reverse space plane more, might be able to get it to work here.

Lifting off a brand new design from Mun. This was a very enjoyable rocket to fly and to land was cool too. I look forward to doing more like this!

Like skunky said, the centre engine is the lowest point in the structure by the looks of things. This means that central nozzle is holding the entire weight of the rocket. When it loads the launchpad, you probably hear a sound as that section breaks off from some sort of initial impact/load.

actually... I have a batman marathon for movie tomorrow. I think I will set up a munar flight, and cross my fingers. Hopefully I don\'t overshoot... will have to do a decel type interception so the moon just pulls me into an orbit to extend the flight time.

Playing with the new setup, physics is extremely against this build on the mun. Minmus I was able to do it by staging decreasing my orbit height until I just glazed the surface of a lake, and was able to slow. Mun just became too much of a PITA > with the fighting of physics and the contours of the land. The only places I was able to successfully land was to time it so I would land on the downhill slope of a crater. Mun orbit speed is so high, that touchdown on a glidepath typically bounces you to a nice shattering of parts spreading into space. With only forward facing engines, an effective landing speed is equally pita because you drop too fast to the surface, or need to do a crappy bank up at last second. Working design I have been fiddling with is a reverse structure where I have wide spaced forward landing gears, and single rear reverse tri setup because of the nose down angle on landing. Still things break apart unless I get the lucky slope landing. At this point it has become more a task of luck than anything else, so I am going to have to call it quits, sorry. Takoff equally as challenging since no vertical thrust is capable. Need to gun it til I bounce off the ground (or break apart a few times)

Heh heh, I was kind of wondering that about the landing. So I have different ideas on the go now to get launched. Solves some problems, might cause others, will see. The balancing for that sort of landing is all trial and error. I build just the spaceplance section and lander in the SPH where I will move the engines forward or back, if one side is too light/heavy, I might move a part from one end to the other, just shift stuff around until it is balanced to a point the gyros can compensate any imbalance. Well time to nosedive into the surface a few times!

I know what you mean about just leaving them there. I have one landed vessel i refuse to end flight on because of the awesomeness of the finale of the challenge. Bioman issues a challenge to complete challenges from a list in one flight. I managed to do them all and on stock parts. With the spaceplane down at KSC2 I couldn\'t bring myself to end flight. It took alot of time, precise flying to get it right, and in the end was so epic, I couldn\'t end the flight. Same was with my first moonbase. I have the save files for that backed up. On a side note, the angled wings like that can make for excellent landers when combined with landing gears. It is how I do my heavy landers with stock parts.

569: The designer put the solid booster ignition in the same stage as their decouplers

First! Awesome to hear; I am patiently looking forward to it, and no hurries, a quality and mod supporting release is better than a fast one!

Well, a test flight went alright. I got to Mun, landed, and braked successfully. The landing craft does not use reverse braking. Approach speed is set up to get me on the way to the ground, then vertical boosters keep vertical drop rate from getting to low. There was fuel problems resulting in an unsuccessful landing, but the design as a whole was successful. Next stop, Minmus! The image slideshow, will video official Minmus landing when I do it (I hope) On the launch pad, ready to go! the Biomega Explorer II Successful touchdown on Mun, in excitement, forgot to get approach image A nice and safe stop Liftoff! Uh oh, out of fuel! Won\'t make the coastline, Prepare for emergency water landing! They all survive. Fortunately the isolatable cockpit break away system worked. Trial and error for this one, Well actually I did have a bit of practice with two other challenges. First, most of this rocket is based off my bioman challenge which was very interesting to get done, to say the least. I have done numerous horizontally configured vertical landers for Mun, this time it was to combine them. Get the horizontal path in, and use the thrusters to keep drop from too much. I have had other failures, getting launch path and balance on the lander right, but not interesting enough to screenshot, etc. Mostly I would just abort and re-land. I have built x-prize style aircraft before. and with clever work, I could make one to work for this, but the size can get annoying, I like to stock parts challenge. Maybe later :3

Yeah, I did a bit more research and saw that was possible and played with the claws, but not the same. I have a design philosophy that on launch, must be aerodynamic and fitting. So have shroud covers, etc. I have set up some pretty wild submodules, but for me to really enjoy this, I cannot wait until docking! Docking, IAV and interplanetary, I will be able to do some wild stuff! Carrying up boosters, ftw!

XD Wow. I think I will stick to sending out trucks to pickup my 10 stages. I need to re-think my strategy, I thought I was golden with my usual horizontal lander craft, but when I get it up, might be a bit illegal...

Question, the X-prize is a single stage craft. Now for the purpose of this, does that still carry over?