RoboRay

I agree about the menus. Transparency looks pretty, but it's not very usable. I find myself moving windows around so that I can read them against the background.

Anyone can pick arbitrary numbers and say "that's the reasonable limit." Oddly, "the limit" usually aligns with whatever works best for them. Me? I usually use two or three. I've used as much as five. The non-abusive number, based on my knowledge of turbine engines, would probably be one.

Uh, yeah, speaking of "abuse of mechanics"...

For how long? Eventually, it's going to hit a peak. It just may take a while.

Note that you can get the Docking Cam as a standalone mod. You don't need to install the full Lazor mod to get it, but it's still included there as well, I believe.

Actually, "we all" don't. More than a few of us hated the blue glowy lights and the animated doors that clipped into other parts of the craft when opened. And I think they can handle setting their own priorities. Core functionality seems rather more important than cosmetics, anyway.

That's a very functional design, actually. I presume you keep the long axis aligned to Normal, dock all your consumables at the far end, visiting craft dock to the end with hab and control modules, and the solar panels are able to always track the sun. Nice. I've always favored a shorter but wider design that puts the solar panels out on a lateral truss so they are away from docking craft... or ...but I think I'll try something more like yours next time. Variety is good.

Not only that, but your NavBall target indicator also seems to center on the target's center of mass rather than the docking port you select. The NavBall will only give you a perfect alignment if your docking port is in-line with your cockpit and the target's docking port is in-line with its CoM (or maybe it's the target command pod, not sure). I suggest trying out the Lazor Docking Cam for precise docking.

I'm quite certain there is no great circle around the Mun where terrain height is always less than 10m above the datum.

The numbers on the delta-v charts are minimums (although the one I use shows around 2600m/sec for a Moho capture in a low circular orbit). If you're thrusting in a direction other than along your velocity vector (prograde/retrograde line), you incur losses. Did you also try to make an inclination change during the capture burn? The lower your Pe the better for capture burns as well as the transfer burns.

Are you gliding after reentry, or do you still have fuel remaining to operate the jet engines? If you've got fuel, reentry anywhere near KSC should allow you to fly to the runway. If the issue is getting properly lined up with the runway, remember that it runs due east/west. So, if you're aimed right at it and your heading is 090 or 270, you're in position and on-heading. To help you get lined up, make some little rovers with unmanned pods and park them just off each end of the runway, and drive another one or two a few km west of the runway, staying in line with it. Their location markers on the screen gives you a great visual reference for getting lined up even before you can see the pavement.

You are confusing delta-v with fuel consumption. Yes, you required a lot of delta-v, but the engines delivering that delta-v were extremely fuel-efficient jet engines. So, your actual fuel quantity consumed was considerably lower than if you have simply delivered 4.5km/sec with rockets.

Yeah, I did the rover-probe thing for runway markers, too. I've got one 100m off each end of the runway, and another 5km west of the runway, forming a line. This makes it really easy to get a returning spaceplane lined up to land from a long way out.

One of the nice things with MJ2 is that it can display the actual terminal velocity for your current altitude. This makes it very easy to stay just below it with a little throttle management.

Try imgur.com

1. Go up fast. 2. Level out and go faster. 3. Go up again. But seriously, the specific altitudes and speed vary with your craft design. Try to build something that can climb quickly to 15-20km, then accelerate to 1200-1500m/sec while reaching 25-30km before firing the rockets and resuming the steep climb. You can design craft to reach higher speeds and altitudes on jets, but I value my time more than the fuel that saves.

MechJeb 2 will give you a marker on the map at your desired target and current projected impact point, as well as (I believe) a NavBall cue aimed at the target.

This is by design, for game balance reasons. The LV-N is deliberately long and unwieldy to discourage you from using it as a landing motor. You can use it for landers, but you'll have to live with a compromised design to accommodate its length and weight. You're generally better off with an LV-909 or something instead, though.

I don't create debris in orbit.

MJ2 is shaping up very nicely. There's something from MJ1 that I miss very much, however... On the Landing Guidance, MJ1 gave you your distance north/south and east/west of the target as separate values. This made it very easy to dial in a manual approach for a precise touchdown, as you could see precisely how you needed to adjust your trajectory and in what direction. On MJ2, however, you get a single distance value, and there's no indication for what direction you need to adjust. The visible marker on the map is great for rough positioning of your touchdown point, but it's not precise enough for setting down on a specific point. If we're going to stick with a single distance value, can we add a radial direction to the information displayed? So, instead of saying "12.3km" it would say "12.3km NE" or maybe even "12.3km @ 041°". This would go a long way to eliminating the trial and error I'm having to do on the descents now, as I figure out exactly what direction I need to steer.

It sounds like your Center of Lift is too far back. You want the CoL to be a little behind the Center of Mass for positive stability, but it it's too far back then the craft becomes so stable that you can't turn. Note, however, that you can't simply yank a plane around into any arbitrarily sharp turn... there are aerodynamic limits on your rate of turn. If you try to exceed them, the craft will "weathervane" back into the limits. If this is your problem, you can try using the Avionics Package. With SAS mode on, it limits your attempted attitude changes to stay within the limits.

Put some RCS radial thrusters on your payload to get the balance you need. You can always deactivate them later, if you don't want them to continue functioning. The Bobcat FLY comes with RCS quads on extendable booms, though. You can move the quads forward and back as well as outward and inward, so you can move them into a position that surrounds your payload, so long as it's not overly large.

All of it, until you approach terminal velocity. Then, adjust to stay just below terminal velocity to minimize both drag and gravity losses. Once you're above 10km, terminal velocity increases so quickly that throttling back is no longer required.

My newly launched current station is rather limited. I haven't brought up the expendable drop-tank rack for Mun-missions or the large tanks for on-orbit refueling yet. That's my Delta Clipper-style SSTO docked on the "top" side. A pair of robotic tugs are parked on the ends of the power trusses.