Elmetian

Heh, I never even bothered to try that. Figured it would be more efficient to have the Canary's engine burning during at least some of the ascent. Thanks for the info

Horizon Heavy Industries presents the Spider-class interplanetary tug. This compact ship is comprised of only 55 parts (85 parts on the pad). The booster provided with the tug can place it comfortably into a circular 80km orbit and then deorbit itself. The Spider's nuclear engines are carefully angled to avoid damage to its payload while maximising the available thrust. In order for it to move large masses between Kerbin and other planetary bodies, the Spider has two Clamp 'O' Tron Juniors acting as fuel expansion slots. Drop tanks docked to these ports will automatically drain into the main fuel tank. When equipped with these extra tanks the Spider can haul over a hundred tons between Kerbin and the Mun, or haul an E-class asteroid into LKO! Action groups: 1 toggles the atomic engines 2 toggles the solar panels 3 toggles the nose docking port Flight Notes: Remember that it uses traditional staging to reach orbit rather than action groups, and make sure to 'control from here' using the nose docking port as the capsule is mounted upside down for enhanced visibility. Because the new S3 KS-25x4 Engine Cluster is less efficient than the Skippers, you need to take a steeper ascent than with previous versions. • Launch at max throttle and with SAS engaged. • Begin a gravity turn at 10km to approx 75° and throttle down two notches. • Gradually reduce pitch so that you begin following the orbital velocity marker on the navball at 27km up. Aim to place your apoapsis above the atmosphere with the 1st stage by reducing the throttle accordingly. • After staging, immediately throttle up to max and begin circularising your orbit. Ideally you should have at least 1 min to apoapsis when you stage. If you're using the fuel expansion slots, please ensure that the fuel tanks are balanced. Also, if you don't want the tug to draw fuel from the payload, make sure to click on the aft docking port and 'disable crossfeed'. Change Log: Replaced Kumo booster with large parts from the ARM update Reduced monopropellant from 175 units to 150 Reduced size of the fuel expansion slots to Clamp 'o' Tron Juniors to save mass Replaced Inline Advanced Stabilizer with Inline Reaction Wheel to save mass Part count on the pad reduced from 72 parts (85 on the pad) Changed the colour balance on the lights to green and red Updated the action groups

Glad you like it I'm currently experimenting with an extended version of the Canary that includes an inline clamp-o-tron. I feel like it's a bit gimmicky at the moment and I'd like to give people more reasons to download it than how cute it looks, though don't get me wrong, that's a major consideration

Err, it's there already isn't it? Just click on the button that says 'download' next to the screenshot in the first post. Starting to think my pretty buttons are more confusing for people than they are helpful...

No worries. For what it's worth, I was doing the exact same thing for a short time back in 0.16. I tried replicating what someone did in a youtube vid without actually thinking about it... ended up attempting to reach Eve from a retrograde orbit around Kerbin. So much for having a physics degree

I think you're making a common mistake. It's a lot less efficient to put the rocket into a retrograde orbit by flying west, and you're probably wasting a lot of delta v. You should put it into a prograde orbit by flying east, then time your departure burn to sling you off in the correct direction. Use this calculator to find the correct ejection angle.

Are you trying to put it into a retrograde orbit? If not, then you need to be burning towards the 90° marker. You'll need more ÃŽâ€v to get into a retrograde orbit because you have to negate the velocity imparted by Kerbin's rotation.

This is my Distant Horizons Munar rover which you can download as part of the Distant Horizons Lander found here.

If you click on the button that says 'Imgur craft album' on my first post there's a gallery with a lot more pics

Thanks The shiny new buttons are the product of my holiday. I reckon I used my time productively. Well... Those delta-deluxe winglets stack nicely and I have two pairs on it. Unfortunately you can't attach anything to them though, so there's a pair of AV-T1 winglets there as well to hold the rear landing gear (though it flew perfectly well without these). Canting them all up slightly raises the centre of lift making it stable enough to turn and land. You may just be able to remove one pair of the delta-deluxe and still be able to land this. If you're averse to stacking and clipping, then the Canary might not be the plane for you. I did it as an aesthetic choice. Otherwise I would have needed to use structural wings, which would in turn have made the booster wider and uglier.

Horizon Heavy Industries presents the extended version of the Caged Canary. This craft is a very Kerbal solution to a particular problem: mounting the orbiter asymmetrically as with the real shuttle requires careful engine placement and often several reaction wheels, while placing the orbiter on top of the booster causes instability due to a high centre of pressure. The answer of course is to place the shuttle towards the rear! Never mind that Jeb now sits in a cage constructed of steel tubes filled with highly combustible rocket fuel, with precisely zero chance of escape should the unthinkable happen The Extended Canary comes with an enlarged Mk2 cage booster, docking port, internal drone AI and hidden boarding ladder, thus we have converted the original Canary from a curiosity into a working, pointful vehicle. This comes at the cost of an increased part count, but not by much. It weighs in at 130 on the pad, and only 32 parts once detached from the booster. Action groups: 1 toggles the Canary's engine 2 toggles the docking port and spotlight 3 toggles the solar panels 4 toggles the boarding ladder Flight Notes Make sure to watch the fuel in the large orange tank. As soon as it runs out, press 1 to cut the Canary's engine so that you don't use the internal supply. Begin a gradual gravity turn at around 10km (minimum 8km) and reduce the throttle as you climb past 25km to conserve fuel. The Mk2 Cage should can reach a 70km orbit comfortably without using any of the Canary's fuel. Change Log: Solved overheating problem caused by changes to Rockomax 48-7S engines in 0.23 Reduced part count of the Cage booster from 166 parts to 130 Used 'tweakables' introduced in 0.23 to retract landing gear for launch

Thanks! Note also that the rover has balanced RCS, allowing it to fly over obstacles on the Munar surface.

This is a craft I've been working on for a while. It adheres to an 'all-in-one' design philosophy for a manned Munar landing. I know there have been similar projects in the past, but SkyRender's recent Science Comsat Launcher post has prompted me to release this a little ahead of schedule. Kudos where it's due to SkyRender. Action groups: 1 toggles atomic rockets 2 toggles the lander engines 3 toggles the individual satellite motors, as well as the Munar departure engine on the Lander Can 4 deploys the parachute Flight Notes: • Take off at full throttle and then reduce by two notches before it overheats. • Begin a gradual gravity turn at 8km. Aim for 45° by 15km, and 25° by 20km and then follow the prograde marker on the navball's orbital reference. Your parking orbit should be at 90 - 100km. • Once the central Skipper engine has burnt out, advance the stages and manually jettison the shrouds around the atomic rockets. DO NOT decouple the capsule from the lander until all the comsats have been deployed. Due to a bug in KSP, as soon as you decouple from the rest of the ship it will tear itself apart. To deploy the sats so they're in the same orbital plane but out of phase by 60°, make your apoapsis around the Mun whatever your target altitude is and adjust the periapsis so that your orbital period is 5/6 of what it would be if circularised. Release a satellite every time you reach apoapsis and use the on-board engine to circularise its orbit. • When you are in Munar orbit and ready to deploy the lander, remember to manually decouple the stage with the atomic engines on, otherwise you're going nowhere! • Control the rover from the probe visible on the upper surface behind the seats. To self-right first make sure RCS is on, SAS is off, and you're in stage mode (not docking), then press S. It is best driven using docking mode with SAS on. • Remember to manually decouple the junior docking port before releasing the Munar ascent stage. Follow the craft screenshot album if you're unsure how to use this, or just post your questions here

I have watched your videos and the second one especially intrigues me... pray tell, what sort of amine do you use 'for float in water'? I imagine something suitably Sci Fi like Planetes, or perhaps Cowboy Bebop?

Mine: X-Wing vs Tie Fighter and the Balance of Power expansion (Just an amazingly fun game. Decent graphics, a good musical score, and you get to fly your favourite fighters) Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos (gotta love a Newtonian physics engine, even if the game was bugged to hell. There was one mission where you protect a convoy, but a bug caused it to not only double the number of hostiles but also double the number of freighters to protect... still beat them even if it did take 20 or so attempts ) Homeworld and Cataclysm (Epic storylines and cut scenes, not to mention the fact that the Beast made my brother poop bricks. Being able to command hundreds of ships from tiny scouts to huge carriers and dreadnoughts was awesome even if the stories were very linear. I've since played HW2, and also Sins of a Solar Empire which was touted as a spiritual successor to Homeworld, but neither were particularly good.)

You're not Though it'd be hard to discuss the show without some spoilers, especially since spoiler tags are still missing I haven't read the manga so I'm in the dark about a few things, such as why titans are hot when they don't have skin, why the intelligent ones don't have skin, why they're so light (I think squad leader Hanji said they may be made out of air?), and whether Shingeki no Kyojin is set in the same universe as our own? Is it possible to discuss/explain these without spoilers?

Since I'm on holiday and have nothing better to do this late, I'll show you some of my pics. Here are some paintings from my A-levels: [a diptych of my arm without skin] [something that I told my art teacher was an abstract representation of DNA] Some drawings from a long time ago when I was obsessed with Star Wars done with a mechanical pencil and rule: And some other doodles, mostly from work... I love my whiteboard:

Was playing around with these last week. They're meant for the Ioncross Crew Support Plugin and they behave weirdly for me without the mod installed, draining power from whatever I add them to. Does anyone have a version that has the Ioncross stuff removed?

Designing something that faithfully recreates a RL plane probably won't mean you get something that handles the same. KSP's physics is a little off whack. With a VTOL, you want to have the direction of thrust passing straight through the centre of mass. You should also design it so that fuel flow doesn't irreparably unbalance the craft. It also helps having the lift engines quite widely separated I think. I'm quite proud of my Springbok, and I'm relatively certain that it was the first to use that style of engine pod, something that I've seen a lot since on other people's aircraft. Sadly my original post from January was lost in the forum catastrophe, but I'm sure someone can vouch for me

Click the image below to see more pictures. Most of them were taken back in January with 0.18, but the craft has had only minor tweaks since then. And here's a demo vid I put together: Because I know it's a long video, the best bits are at 2:40, 8:40 and 11:10 I flew this entirely without RCS, though the Springbok is equipped with enough monopropellant for less subtle manoeuvres. Thanks to its turbojets it has a respectable service ceiling of 25km, a top speed of about 1350m/s and a range of 3300km. For the final landing, I moved some of the fuel from the central rear tank to the front one to rebalance the craft. And just to be clear, that last landing took 4 attempts I was flying with an Xbox controller, but you can get similar results with just a keyboard. To download this craft and others please see my thread here.

With 0.21 just around the corner I figured it's time to release all my working 0.20 craft in one megathread. RL has intervened on more than one occasion over the last 2 months (stupid business trips, women, working overtime etc) but I've finally returned to my happy place sitting in the lotus position outside the VAB on a pleasant summer's day. Sometimes I think I can actually smell the neatly-cut grass and liquid fuel fumes! Some of these craft have been continually updated and tweaked since 0.18, and several have already been posted in the past but were lost in the forum catastrophe. I've also included a lot of new designs that I hope you'll enjoy. I've sorted them roughly into categories and listed and linked the mods for those that require them, but since those lovely spoiler tags are still missing you'll have to scroll down a fair bit. Though my craft are designed for ease of use, some of them assume the pilot is experienced doing efficient gravity turns and airhogging. I've written down simplified flight instructions for the rockets and SSTOs, but I've learned how to fly these by trial and error and it's a bit difficult to put hours of tinkering into words, so expect the instructions to be tweaked in the future if I decide they're not accurate enough. MEDIAFIRE DOWLOAD (all craft are bundled together in a zipped file) Aircraft: Drone UAV (Requires the Telescoping hull camera mod) 1 Toggles engines 2 Activates cameras 3 Switches between the cameras 4 Zooms in on the ventral spy camera 4 Zooms out on the ventral spy camera This craft is designed to loiter over a target for SAR missions and observing launches. Its party-piece is being able to fly at low altitude at approximately 40m/s on only 6kN of thrust. Under these conditions fuel consumption is at 0.0038 units per second, giving it a theoretical flight time of about 10 hours and a range of 1500km, though I haven't had chance to test this because I get bored after the first 30mins... Max altitude 7km Max speed 330m/s Cruising speed 240m/s Cruising altitude 5km Swift Microplane 1 Toggles the engine 2 Toggles the ladder This plane is tiny! The Swift needs a little bit of trim for best results (press alt and W or S) and I recommend leaving the SAS on most of the time. Due to the way the intake is clipped through the cockpit, it tends to 'eject' the pilot when you go on EVA. To get back in, press A and D when on the ladder and the Kerbal will get past the intake which otherwise blocks his progress a bit. Cruising altitude 15km Cruising speed 600m/s Kanard Light Fighter 1 Toggles engines 2 Toggles extra intakes for higher altitude flight 3 Toggles sepatron RATOs 4 Toggles ladder Press 1 to start engines and 2 to close the extra intakes for take off. Pitches up at 100m/s. Press 2 when you get above 13km so that the engines don't flameout. The plane needs trimming a little at higher altitudes and speeds by pressing Alt and S. Max altitude 17km Cruising speed 600m/s Approx range 700km Taktical Fighter 1 Toggles the engine 2 Toggles the extra intake for high altitude flight 3 Toggles the ladder This one is a real . I recommend flying with the SAS on most of the time, but it can pull a sustained 7g turn without it. Close the extra intakes for take off by pressing 2.Take off speed 120m/s Cruising altitude 22km Cruising speed 1100m/s Approx range 3500km Vanguard Long Range Bomber 1 Toggles the engines 2 Toggles the extra intakes for supersonic flight 3 Toggles the ladder This plane requires some 'active' trimming during the flight as the CoM moves. I've set up the fuel lines to minimise this, but without a fuel balancing mod you will need to correct the trim every few minutes to ensure level flight. Otherwise it's very nice to fly. Good for sight-seeing or carpet bombing! Take off speed 120m/s Cruising altitude 22km Cruising speed 1100m/s Approx range 3500km Springbok VTOL Remember that excellent stock SSTO VTOL that could even land on water? Well, I figure this VTOL I made back in 0.18 influenced Levelord's design quite heavily. I posted this in January and included a section describing how the Springbok could land and take off from water. Similar, no? His even used the same wing-mounted engine pods as mine 1 Toggles lift engines 2 Toggles turbojets 3 Toggles extra intake for fast flight 4 Toggles ladder Press 1 and put throttle at 1/3. It will lift off at 64.5kN. Make sure ASAS and RCS are engaged for best results, but can be flown without if using a stick/pad. Some minor trimming is necessary as fuel is used during level flight. Max altitude 25km Cruising speed 1350m/s Approx range 3300km Hypersonic Test Vehicle 1 Activates engines and toggles extra intakes 2 Toggles engines and all intakes • Press 1 to start the engines and turn the SAS on. The plane naturally leaves the ground at 150m/s. • Pull up gently and fly at about 25° pitch until you reach 10km. Level off and allow for a very gentle increase in altitude. • Press 1 again at 12km to activate the extra intakes. • Increase altitude, setting the nose at about 5° until you reach 35km. Gradually reduce the throttle whilst doing so. You should begin reducing the throttle at 0.20 intake air, and aim for 1/2 throttle when it is at 0.10. Try and maintain an altitude of 33-35km and a throttle setting between the 2nd and 3rd notch as intake air increases and decreases. If the plane begins to yaw due to a thrust imbalance, reduce the throttle slightly. Max altitude 37km Max speed 2200m/s Hybrid SSTOs: Sanzuwu SSTO 1 Activates turbojets and closes the extra intakes 2 Toggles extra intakes 3 Toggles all intakes and the turbojets 4 Toggles the rocket engine 5 Toggles solar panels 6 Toggles ion engine 7 Toggles the docking port 8 Toggles the ladder The action groups are designed to be used sequentially during the ascent for easy use. • Engage ASAS, throttle to max, press 1 to start turbojets and close extra intakes. Be gentle pulling up as it can flip at this point. • Climb at a 45° angle until you reach 10km, then begin levelling off to about between 5° and 10°. Press 2 to open the extra intakes when intake air drops to 0.20. • Ensure that you decrease the throttle so that at intake air is 0.15 you are at 3/4 throttle, at intake air = 0.10 you are at 1/2 throttle, and at intake air = 0.5 you are at 1/4 throttle. • If you experience a high-altitude flameout, cut the engines by pressing 3, then turn ASAS off and on to reorient your aircraft before turning the engines on again with 3. • To achieve orbit, increase surface speed to about 1900m/s and altitude above 35km. Press 3 to turn off the turbojets and intakes, then 4 to ignite the rocket. Pitch up to at least 20° and increase your apoapsis to 80km before cutting the engines. This will be reduced to 70km by drag losses. • Burn prograde at apoapsis to circularise orbit. • Before reentry, remember to move all the liquid fuel into the front tank. This will make it aerodynamically stable. Spacebus 1 Toggles turbojets 2 Releases launch clamps and toggles extra intakes 3 Toggles the rocket engine 4 Toggles all intakes and turbojets 5 Toggles the ladder 6 Deploys the parachutes This is my go-to rocket for shuttling kerbals around. It can carry 6 to orbit, and the ladder is neatly placed to allow for boarding on the pad. I tend to fly this in the orbital or chase view like I would a plane. • Press 1 and wait until the thrust from each turbojet reaches 100kN or more. • Press 2 to release launch clamps and close the extra intakes. • Fly vertically until you reach 10km, then begin a gravity turn. You're aiming to put the nose at 15° by the time you're at 20km. • Press 2 to open the extra intakes when the intake air drops below 0.40. Full throttle until intake air drops below 0.30, 1/2 throttle at 0.15 and so on. If you flame out, reduce the throttle and allow the ship to reorient itself before throttling up again. • Air hog to about 30km altitude and 1700m/s surface speed before pressing 3 to ignite the rocket. • Press 4 to turn the turbojets off and close the intakes, and then pitch up to 55° to raise the apoapsis before burning at apogee. Traditional Rockets: Orbital Refuelling Station 1 Toggles the gimbal on the outer engines 2 Toggles the orbital insertion engines This station was inspired by Temstar's excellent Orbital Propellant Depot Olympus II. I wanted a similar mission profile, but I figured the Olympus had far too much monopropellent and not nearly enough rocket fuel. I also chose to drop the Clamp-O-Tron Juniors in favour of a Senior. I place these into 75km circular orbits and then align them North for easy docking. • Press 1 toggle the gimbal and set throttle to max before launch. • Advance asparagus stages as tanks empty. • Begin gravity turn to 40° at 15km. • After the final asparagus stage has been jettisoned, decrease pitch to 15° and burn whilst gradually reducing the pitch further. You should be able to place this station into an 80km orbit and have full tanks (5040 liquid fuel and 6160 oxidiser), just remember to transfer fuel from the orbital insertion stage before de-orbitting it. Large Tanker 1 Toggles the gimbal on the outer engines 2 Toggles the orbital insertion engines 3 Toggles the shielded docking port 4 Deploys the parachutes 5 Toggles the ladder I use this tanker for everything. Not only does it help refuel my ORSs and interplanetary ships while simultaneously allowing crew rotation, it can easily be reconfigured to launch other payloads by removing everything above the capsule. • Press 1 toggle the gimbal and set throttle to max before launch. • Advance asparagus stages as tanks empty. • Begin gravity turn to 40° at 15km. • After the final asparagus stage has been jettisoned, decrease pitch to 15° and burn whilst gradually reducing the pitch further. It can reach 250km orbit without using any of the cargo fuel, just remember to transfer over fuel from the orbital insertion module before undocking. You should also transfer the fuel before docking with a target station to ensure that the RCS is balanced. Kethane Spherig (Requires Kethane, spherical tanks (stock appearance tanks and kethane tanks) and Aviation Lights) 1 Toggles the nuclear rockets 2 Toggles the solar panels 3 Toggles the detector 4 Toggles the drills 5 Toggles the ladder 6 Deploys the parachutes 10 toggles the gimbal on the asparagus outer staging • Press 10 toggle the gimbal and set throttle to max before launch. • Advance asparagus stages as tanks empty and throttle down two notches when the engines begin to overheat. • Start a gradual gravity turn to 30° at 15km. • After the final asparagus stage has been jettisoned, decrease pitch to 15°. With an efficient ascent it can reach a 70km orbit without using any of the rig's fuel, but it has more than enough thrust to finish circularising the orbit if necessary. Refuel the rig in orbit using your tanker of choice and then head out to the Mun or Minmus. It is recommended that you send a small kethane mapsat into a highly inclined orbit around the target body before sending the rig. If you can, place the satellite into a polar orbit aligned with the day and night terminators because the kethane detectors drain batteries quickly.

This has got to be one of the coolest stations I've seen yet. Reminds a lot of some of the concept art for X Rebirth, or maybe the last Homeworld game. Would you mind listing the mods you used? I recognise some (Spherical Tanks, Kosmos, B9 Aerospace, Large Structural/Station Components, Spacetech's escape pods) but I think I need those structural elements orbiting my own version of Kerbin What mods are the fuel storage, habitation module and electricity storage module made with in particular?

Tried the debug menu at first to clip the atomic rocket engines through the spherical tanks but it messed up the fuel flow. Eventually I just decided to use the octagonal strut and clipped it inside. I'm chuffed with the way it just pokes out the other end of the tank and looks almost like a single object

The design of my Kethane Spherig is a little derivative, but what the hell, those spherical tanks are just too cool not to use! The rig is launched in one piece with most of the tanks empty. It needs refuelling before heading out to the Mun or Minmus, but after the initial investment this thing pays for itself. All told, it can bring back 4200 units of liquid fuel and 5100 units of oxidiser back from Minmus if you do the inclination changes at the right time and aerobrake around Kerbin.

三足烠(Sanzuwu) Based on a hypersonic test vehicle I built for the old maching bird thread, I figured it could be easily converted into a thoroughbred SSTO. Well, I can now tell you that it wasn't easy. I'm not sure if it was because of the low wing profile or having the CoM and CoL too far back, but it took a long time to make this thing stable. The good news is that it's now very flyable. With a TWR that would make a grown man giddy, the Sanzuwu gets to altitude faster than Jeb can say "Sloof ouy tiurfeparg erom tae!", and laughs in the face of atmospheric drag. Once in orbit, it switches to its ion engine to make hyper-efficient manoeuvres. It has decent cross range capability as well; a good ascent to an 80km circular orbit will leave you with about 200 litres of liquid fuel and 120 of oxidiser, meaning at least 100 units of fuel left for atmospheric flight after reentry.