Ernst Eckert

So, I present to you the Cygnus Manned Outpost. It is designed to be launched with a rover coupled to the docking port below it - that way when you get to your destination, you have the ability to send men on reconnaissance operations...Kethane mining, refueling, whatever the case may be. The docking port was spaced so that a DEMV Ant MK-5 can fit - but now that we can design rovers, I'm sure you could design your own rover that will fit the bill. http://www./download/m358c5fb269nyh4/CygnusBase.craft

Once you have that lined up, click on the Sun to set it as the viewpoint. Then, and this is the tricky part, you want to flatten out your craft orbit and rotate the camera until the orbit of Eve flattens out as well. I typically zoom the camera in just enough to remove Duna's orbital path from the screen. Eventually I am sure we will have a way to turn on/off other orbital paths, but for now, it just looks messy. Anyway, this is what it will look like. You can see how nice the orbits look flattened out and lined up. Now timewarp until your craft just reaches where those two orbits cross. In this case, it happens to be dead center on the sun as well. This is where your perform your plane change burn. Burn at either at the N location on the gimbal, or 180, or you can use MechJeb's Normal and Anti-Normal buttons. In this case, it's Anti-Normal or 180. Now burn until the planes line up. And bang, we didn't even finish the plane change, instead we had an intercept because of the super awesome job the Planetary Calculator does at timing everything for us. Now check this out, if you look from the top-down view you can see where we are when we performed the plane change. We are well past half-way to the (original) periapsis when we burned. That is an excellent explanation Ziff. Thank you very much. Possibly the most well articulated explanation of orbital mechanics I've seen yet.

Hey guys, So I've been metaphorically banging my head against my desk trying to get an encounter with Eve. The orbital inclination is just killing me...and I feel a little defeated because of that. I was able to do it no problem with Minimus. I just can't seem to get the orbital inclination right with Eve. So I suspended my operations aimed at getting to Eve and shot for Duna. Got there no problem. I've heard it said that orbital inclination changes take less fuel as the orbit gets larger, that is there is a negative correlation between fuel usage for inclination change and parking orbit height. Is that true? Also what I've been doing to correct my inclination is I wait until I'm halfway between the periapsis and apoapsis to make the inclination change. Does anyone have any suggestions regarding this? Is there something I'm missing? Or rather am I just making it harder than it has to be? Thanks, - Eckert

I used to dabble with MMOs, then I realized that they're evil. So I just play Minecraft and KSP now.

Never have, don't really desire to. I mean I tried sips when I lived in Italy and I hated it...so its not really that I'm morally against it - some people don't like grape juice (I also happen to hate grape juice), I just happen to not like alcohol.

Right. Because I wasn't thinking. That would be the short answer.

Oh right I probably should have said that my goal is to go to Eve.

So I followed the directions for interplanetary travel to the "T" and can't seem to succeed. I parked at approximately 503 km above Kerbin, and that translates to a phase angle of -54.13 degrees and an ejection angle of 142.82 degrees. I waited until the correct phase angle, put myself at the ejection angle and burned. And as soon as I reached escape velocity I established this orbit. Suggestions?

Well I've landed on on the Mun and Minimus, and I've got the whole ISA MapSat/Exploring Special Locations thing going on right now. So I could use a good challenge. Plus it will be some interesting mechanical practice for going to other planets I would fathom. But I dont know a whole lot about rendezvous in Kerbol orbit. I wouldn't even know where to start.

So my Space Agency has run into an issue...probably the largest I've ever encountered before, and it demands the likes of a solution I don't have a whole lot of experience with. So allow me to detail what happened below. I sent a three man crew to land on Minimus, and they did land. But while one of my Kerbonauts was out exploring one of the frozen methane lakes, I decided that it would be better to move the lander to him, rather than him to the lander because of the distance. So I took the lander to just about one click north of the exploring Kerbonaut (the first man from my agency to set foot on Minimus.), Elcott Kerman. However, the lander ran out of fuel on the burn to land, and crashed - resulting in the death of two Kerbonauts, and the marooning of Elcott. So I set a rescue operation into motion immediately. Another craft landed just three clicks west of Elcott and he was able to board the crew tank of the recovering ship. I decided to leave the recovering ship there for a while just so I had an established presence on Minimus. Until yesterday. When I chose to bring Elcott and the rescue crew home. However, the rescue landing had to be precise and thus it was fuel intensive (I'm still working to perfect landing and insertion technique, I definitely have improved a lot.) So when I lifted them off, they escaped Minimus orbit on a trajectory that put them into a heliocentric orbit. I sent out two rescue crafts to try to intercept them before they were flung into orbit with the sun, but neither yielded any success as craft rendezvous is not something I've ever done before. So now Elcott and his rescue crew are orbiting the sun - and I need some guidance on how to handle the rescue operation. tl;dr 1. Craft went to Minimus 2. Craft lifted off from Minimus 3. Craft has escaped Minimus orbit and is orbiting the sun. 4. I need to rendezvous with them. 5. Suggestions?

Also, all of my replies have to be approved by a moderator - whats the deal with that?

Hey thanks for the tip! I appreciate it, it certainly would be a shame to return from a mission to another planet only to die because of faulty struts. Speaking of other planets - super excited for .17! Also - I see lots of space stations and pretty awesome looking things in the sharing forum - are those all different mods working together? Or just one or two mods? Its kind of confusing figuring out which mods to string together.

So, I've kind of creeped on these forums for the past few months...just a fly on the wall reading and learning from what people have posted. I didn't really want to introduce myself until I had something to show for my time playing KSP, and that time has come! So I'll unveil the culmination of my Space Agency's "Telemark Program" and "Perseus Program." But before I do that - allow me to introduce myself! I'm Ernst Eckert, I am from the East Coast United States, and I am currently enrolled in college - studying Biological Science/Pre-Med at a college in Delaware. KSP is the kind of game I feel like I've been searching for my entire life - just enough science, mixed with just enough exploration, mixed with just enough fantasy. Allow me to be x'th person to say "Squad, you run a tight ship. What you've done so far is beyond satisfying, and what you have planned is beyond exciting." I occassionally dabble in doing exact calculations for my missions - but generally I enjoy just kind of eyeballing it - which of course results in lots of failure. But failure is what makes the success that much better! So without further ado... The Telemark Program Telemark I - Orbit Kearth: Success Telemark II - EVA while in Kearth Orbit: Success Telemark III - Orbit the Mun: Failure (Craft Design Flaw) Telemark IV - Orbit the Mun: Failure (Overshot) Telemark V - Orbit the Mun: Success Telemark VI - EVA while in Mun Orbit: Success Telemark VII - Munar Landing: Failure (Flight Crew Error) Telemark VIII - Munar Landing: Failure (Flight Crew Error) Telemark IX - Munar Landing: Successful Failure (Flight Crew Error) Telemark X - Munar Rescue Operation: Success Telemark XI - Temporary Munar Base Camp Establishment: Success (No picture included because it looks exactly like the lander above, nothing exciting yet.) In summary - the Telemark program was a learning experience, during the process I learned orbital mechanics, landing procedures and rocket engineering techniques. Many Kerbonauts gave their lives for that knowledge. And with the Mun under our belts, we set our sights on Minimus, and the Perseus Project was born. The Perseus Program Perseus I - Orbit Minimus: Failure (Failed to orbit, but discovered how to adjust orbital inclination/Kerbonauts returned safe) Perseus II - Orbit Minimus: Success! Perseus III - Land on Minimus: Successful Failure (No Pictures, however, I landed, and took Elcott Kerman (The first Kerbonaut to set foot on Minimus) on an EVA operation to what appeared from orbit to be either liquid water or a frozen lake of some sort. Mid-EVA Elcott ran out of pack fuel and became stranded approximately 3 kilometers away from Perseus Base. So I lifted off with Perseus Base to bring it to Elcott. However, in flight the craft's main fuel tank ran out of fuel and the three auxillary tanks were not hooked up propperly with fuel lines. Thus the craft crashed to it's death. Leaving Elcott stranded. Perseus IV - Rescue Elcott and Establish Perseus Base II: Success! Here you can see Elcott Kerman, the first Kerbonaut to walk on Minimus, 24 days after his marooning, standing proudly with the rescue craft and new temporary research base. They are all due back on Kearth at the termination of their research in 90 days. Luckily the Perseus Program was less drawn out than the Telemark Program - as I was able to apply most of what I had learned from the Telemark Program. Magellan Program Magellan I - Put an ISA MapSat into orbit around Kearth and complete a full topographic map of Kearth: In Progress Magellan II - Put an ISA MapSat into orbit around the Mun and complete a full topographic map of the Mun: Launch Date TBD Magellan III - Put an ISA MapSat into orbit around Minimus and complete a full topographic map of the Mun: Launch Date TBD Magellan IV - Investigate "Artifacts" on Kearth: Planning Stage Magellan V - Investigate "Artifacts on the Mun: Planning Stage Magellan VI - Investigate "Artifacts on Minimus: Planning Stage Pegasus Program Pegasus I - Orbit foreign planet: Theorized