RoboRay

You can work around this in the VAB/SPH by switching the staging order around so that the rockets are fired first. You'll need to undo that to go flying, of course, and so the in-flight dV displays will still be wrong, but at least you can see what you'll get our of your rockets for planning purposes. And when designing, include fuel lines from the jet tanks to the rocket tanks. This allows the rockets to scavenge any unused LF from the jet tanks if the jets were stealing from the rocket tanks.

Sure! I want to make some de-modded versions for people who don't use ScanSat or RemoteTech, though. I'll post them tonight. Either way, though, Ven's Stock Revamp will be required. All three of the probes depend on some of Ven's parts and I can't easily replace them. As a teaser, here's the payload package mounted on the trans-stage: Figuring out how to mount it with a folded dish antenna directly underneath was fun.

I probed Ike and Duna and saw some serious &#|!

I pride myself on the beauty and grace of the craft I design! But... ...there was this thing: It's a rocket, and an airship, and a rover. Full mission album: http://imgur.com/a/k9ng3#0

In addition to Ven's Stock-Parts Revamp, I also have Stock Visual Enhancements (which bundles EVE and Scatterer), Stock Visual Terrain, PlanetShine, RealPlume, and PAPI Plugin.

I made something so stupid that it works beautifully: Thread: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/147025-dynamaks/

I keep seeing Dyna-Soar and MAKS references on Reddit, which inspired me to create... something. I call it DynaMAKS, since it's basically their love-child: -- Full album, including passenger version: http://imgur.com/a/yBnkI/layout/horizontal#0 The craft glides extremely well and can sustain flight down to around 30 m/sec. It can glide a very long distance at low speeds, below 100 m/sec. The nose is naturally pitched up by the bow ramp below the cockpit in atmospheric flight, so little to no trim is required. However, when launching, this pitch effect should be compensated for. Start the gravity turn in a traditional heads-down space-shuttle style, using the pitch effect to help steer you into the turn. When the ascent angle reaches about 45 degrees, roll upright so that the pitch effect is now resisting the turn, though very weakly due to the thinning air. Open the air brakes for reentry! Start the descent with the nose pitched up about 45 degrees and keep it pitched up as high as you can, using RCS for assistance. It will be gradually forced down as the air pressure increases, but you need maximum possible drag to slow down as quickly as possible, or you will burn up. Craft files: DynaMAKS - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14176520/DynaMAKS.craft DynaPAKS - https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14176520/DynaPAKS.craft Ven's Stock Revamp is a required mod! Action Groups: 1 - Toggle engine. 2 - Toggle radiators and cabin lighting. 3 - Toggle cargo bay, omni antenna, docking port and docking port light. Extending the landing gear also disables cockpit reaction wheels, so roll-control isn't as touchy during landing. It's still kind of touchy.

New crew, arriving...

Isp of 515 seconds and 10 kN of thrust is unbalancing? Could you describe some mission scenarios that would be significantly harder without it?

Oh, I use the same docking alignment indicator mod myself. I just think putting an indication on the docking port itself would also be useful. In night-time dockings, I'm often pretty close to the target before I select the docking port and target it (bringing the alignment indicator up on the NavBall). The lights would let me orient the craft before closing in.

Suggestion: For docking ports, please consider making the one light at the top of the port yellow (maybe blinking). This way, you could see from a distance in the dark which way to roll your craft when approaching to be able to dock in the desired orientation.

(Content deleted, but Squad deleted the forum "Delete" button so you get to look at this.)

Using the Map view is cheating. You can determine your orbit by your speed and altitude.

It's efficient enough, but it's more about looking good! [imgur]fanIU[/imgur] This was 1.04, though... I guess I need a new one!

Any Winged Gemini fans? I'm doing flight-testing on Winged Corvus! Here's some more pictures of the first runway landing after returning from orbit: http://imgur.com/a/AFY09

Mine sank through the ocean floor and kept right on going.

I think this craft got more "I don't even..." replies than anything else I ever built: Mission album: http://imgur.com/a/k9ng3#0

I'm sending an SSTO PBY Catalina to Laythe.

A non-nuclear, no aerobraking, twin-landing mission to Duna, featuring a somewhat unconventional lander design.

Well, it was actually a couple of days ago, but I went to Duna...

My refuelling craft are typically just a control/propulsion module that docks to tanks and pushes them around. When the tank is empty, discard it and launch a new one to use. Think "tugboat and barge" relationship instead of "tanker". Either way, you're ending up with empty tanks to get rid of, so why worry about keeping the one you started with?

There's a huge range of possible values, all driven by the mass of the lander. So, design the LM first. Then design a CSM that can capture the lander into orbit around the Mun and fly back to Kerbin without the LM. Then design a third stage that can go from a suborbital Kerbin trajectory into LKO with the CSM/LM and push them both to the Mun. Then, last, design a first/second stage combo that get all that into a suborbital trajectory. Only once all that's done will you know the mass. Because if you've got a tiny, lightweight lander, your 1st stage may be a tenth the size of what it would be for a big, heavy lander.

You can't do atmospheric studies while on a hyperbolic pass through the planet's SOI.

Roll reversal (as well as yaw and pitch reversal) is something that can occur naturally with certain wing shapes at higher mach numbers. I'm not an expert on aerodynamics (just a pilot), but I wouldn't be at all surprised if FAR models it fairly accurately. It's also perfectly normal for control surfaces to lose a lot of their effectiveness in the transonic region. You want to get established at the desired course and attitude, then punch through as fast as possible to regain effective control when supersonic.

I kept seeing people making Dreamchaser knock-offs, so I made one... Sort of. Test flight album: http://imgur.com/a/RXkkn#0