lowey2002

Bill volunteered for my first ever EVA but didn't read the users manual before leaving the vehicle. It resulted in him stuck in a highly elliptical and slightly eccentric orbit around Kerbin with no jet pack fuel. At the time it was deemed impossible to retrieve this brave Kerbal, but after perfecting the manual orbital rendezvous maneuver Bob and Jeb highjacked an experimental rocket designed for interplanetary travel and set out to retrieve Bill from limbo. It was a difficult and time consuming manuever but after several dozen control burns they came within range of the stranded kerbalnaught. Since Bill didn't have any EVA fuel it was up to Bob to go EVA and manually nudge Bill towards to craft. After three years in orbit Bill finally made it back to Kerbin and the original team are back together at last. NB - I took screenshots of the whole thing but can't seem to find them I guess the administrators wanted to cover up their decision to abandon Bill to his fate.

Hi Matt, just wanted to say I really enjoy your videos and I've watched them all. All the work you put into editing - time slicing, launch counters, etc are very much appreciated. Also, I like the way you post *all* missions, not just the successful ones. It makes it more exciting to watch because we never really know what to expect. I laughed like a madman at your last episode when that poor kerbal started cartwheeling into a crater on the south pole of the mun. A shame he didn't survive to continue on with the mission but it was worth it. Anyway I hope the issues with Youtube are sorted out and you can post more videos. I'd love to see a successful outcome to the Mun rover / Munolith discovery mission.

I'm kinda new to the forums, so forgive me if this is in the wrong place. I just wanted to share some a few screenshots from two missions that didn't go exactly according to plan but still count as a success for my brave kerbalnaughts. A soft-landing ballistic missile Backstory I was messing around with the aerodynamics and weight distribution for an un-manned, un-controlled ballistic missile. It was a nicely built rocket made from a single large SRB that smacked into the ground still thrusting about 5km away from the launch-pad. I was attempting to gain a bit more distance from the missile when *this* happened. Mission log 2012-09-06 - 2100 On the launchpad Ignition No control Banking Top turn Nearly spent Out of fuel Still climbing 10km Apoapsis What goes up Corkscrew Gaining lift Reducing speed Meters away Impact Sliding to a halt Not a fluke Jeb's report It was discovered that a freak combination of wing alignment and weight distribution in the latest TR-2 model ballistic missile sent the vehicle into a controlled corkscrew descent and landed softly enough that a majority of the craft was recoverable. Despite the craft failing in it's initial objective as a long range unguided missile it has proved to be a remarkable asset to out space-plane program as it provided the jet pilots with cheap, easy and casualty free target practice for bombing runs and interceptions. A failed Mun-rover Backstory Attempting to build a custom unmanned Mun rover, I discovered the location of the Mun arch Mission log Testing the rover Parking break On the Mun Immediate Breakup Second attempt on the launchpad Definitely more stable Coasting on the surface Breakup again What's that on the horizon? Jeb's report The second rover solved many of the issues that where discovered in the first design on the AR-7 unmanned Mun rover. Extra fuel was added to the injection phase, the balancing issues was resolved and the thrust was reduced in the rover itself making it more controllable. Despite these improvements, the craft broke apart after 2km of surface travel when it struck a small rock at 12m/sec, breaking the vehicle apart. Before loosing power, the debris of the rover transmitted a single, high-resolution image of a geological impossibility on the horizon. The mission was successful in providing co-ordinates for the so called Mun Arch which will be the focus of future manned missions to the surface of the Mun.

DevilDogGamer got me onto KSP. I'm returning the favor by telling everyone I can about this brilliant game.

Great success! Thanks for your help togfox and Cykyrios - I managed to pull off a successful rendezvous. I wasn't able to grapple the two vehicles together but came to the conclusion that I didn't mount the landing gears correctly and was nudging the other craft away despite being perfectly aligned. Despite this I count it as a huge success. The 'ohh!' moment came when I was watching Scott Manleys tutorial and he stressed the importance of keeping your orientation static. My mistake was that I was yawing and pitching around which made RCS translations a lot harder than it already is. I also re-designed my vehicles to the small one man capsule which balanced out the RCS thrust. It was actually pretty easy when I could confidently translate in the correct direction.

I've made a couple of serious attempts at an orbital rendezvous using stock parts and I am having problems when the two vehicles are in the 300m -> 800m range. Here is what I am doing - I send the first vehicle into a perfectly circular 250km orbit. I launch the second vehicle when the first is about 25 degrees from the launch pad so they are a near match when I get the second into orbit. I correct any variations in the inclination when the orbits cross and push the apoapsis of the leading vehicle out a little and time warp through a couple of orbits until they catch up to each other and finally return both vehicles to a matching orbit. At this stage I have two vehicles in a matching orbit, about 1km from one another each with three full RCS tanks. I've tried burning hard with the RCS towards one another but this pushes the orbit out of phase and they fall away from one other before I get close enough to attach to one another using the landing struts. I've tried burning in slowly, swapping between vehicles while keeping an eye of the orbits but then I tend to burn through all six RCS tanks before I get closer than say 300m. Obviously these kind of maneuvers take a long time and I've spent about 6 hours now trying to perform a rendezvous. I'm about ready to give up but I was wondering if anyone has some advice or tricks to make that final approach.

I've been lurking around these forums for a while and figured it was about time to say hello. I absolutely love KSP! I think I'm pretty good at it as well - I've landed on mun and minimus, gotten space planes into orbit and performed an orbital rendezvous. Can't wait till there is a real solar system and try my hand at interplanetary travel. Well anyway, It's good to meet some fellow rocket engineers and kerbal killers.