Peppe

.23 cheat sheet:

Thanks all. Looks like cheat sheat / rule of thumb will have to work... let go of min/maxing performance and just fly it kerbal style.

Did you ever get this figured out?

Thanks, Had fun trying this out. Don't think i will complete it. I think I am ~230 ton - 240 ton range. Have not used ION engines before and not running mechjeb right now.... ended up with a similar burn as you and don't want to see it through. Lander was about 3.2 tons. ION stage was docked to the lander at launch... originally planned it to be a satellite scanner, but think i need more delta-v for that. ION section was about ~1 ton. Re-used a 40 ton heavy lifter (gets 40 tons to 100k kerbin orbit) that got me a jool encounter, but would need to use the ion engine for final capture. Thought the lander looked pretty cool in the end http://imgur.com/a/Zebc7

Codepoet, I have not used KAS before. Does the kathane drill/refiner need a liquid fuel tank touching it to fill and transfer to/from through the winch (docked mode)? I see a lot of options on the winch, but not sure if one of them would save me a fuel tank on the kethane drill/refiner rig and transfer fuel a non docked way? Did some tests on the ground and only got the fuel transfered though 'docked' winch. Did not see a liquid fuel tank on you or chlues' kethane rigs.

Has there been any official squad comment on this or is it just 20+ pages of conjecture?

Coming back to vanilla gameplay and missing an acceleration readout I had in modded play. The g-force meter to the side of the navball seems to be the only tool/readout to represent acceleration. Is there a rule of thumb to read it and keep your craft on an optimal throttle for ascent? Is there an indicator you are accelerating at terminal velocity and should reduce throttle?

Repeated transmissions from the same category in the same flight should not be worth science. You can delay that play-style if you move the antenna/any remote transmission options to late in the tree. You can still do some of the gimmicky stuff through multiple EVA reports, but your science instruments only get one recording. I'd also make anything that stores an experiment heavy, expensive, or both. Logically a thermometer is not heavy, so i say make it expensive to balance it as a science generator -- requires currency to be implemented...

This mod might help? http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/treeloader/ Edit this version of treeloader includes the tree editor: http://www.kspmodders.com/forum/thread-9-post-18.html#pid18

Love this mod! Hud should be in the base game.

I recall seeing a number around ~10400?

Mod: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/void-vessel-orbital-information-display-2/ I have i been taking a look at flight information mods and stumbled across void, Vessel Orbital Information Display, a weekend or two ago. It has a hud option that puts basic orbit and surface information right next to the altimeter (also shows in orbital map view). The data is plain text and doesn't obstruct the view of the screen. No windows/borders, so all very clean. Example: The data is basically a quick summary of what you can get from one of the standard views (orbital, flight, or internal). I like it because you can spend more time in flight view and only need orbit view to setup maneuvers. Compared to mechjeb and flight engineer the VOID hud looks and feels like it should be in the game. The others with borders and extra information go well above what you as a player can access from all the available views.

.22, What does the command pod do in staging -- where should it go?

This is the planner: The feature i like is the ability to quickly set a circularize node at apoapsis. Would like to get closer to stock play, so want to remove mechjeb to avoid auto-pilot / smart ASS temptation.

Gimble on the LV-T45 is 1 degree. The difference is very slight. I setup the same test and can see a slight change in the thrust direction. center: hold "d" (see the yaw pegged): Nozzle moves a couple of pixels. I would not count on this for control of your craft. I found two things useful in my lifters: Struts to eliminate engines moving from their own thrust. And adding any of the reaction wheel type parts -- winglets might help as well, but i mainly stick to reaction wheels. In either case my lifters from 5-40 ton use only the LV-T30 (no vector range).

Compare the lift section of your rockets to these: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/33381-0-20-2-Zenith-rocket-family-%28modernised-for-0-20-x-with-perfect-subassembly%29 Or just use the Zenith lifters from the thread above. I think it is more fun to make yourself, but i learned a lot just looking at the zenith rockets. I started my own family inspired by the Zenith line that works well from 10-30 ton payloads -- optimized for cost and then part count. Worked on 50 ton the other night and seems to be time to add struts... lots of struts or orange tanks, both of which I dislike.

Glad people are finding it useful. Updated to add your use per second option.

Was tinkering with probes and wanted to min/max the battery capacity. Made a spread sheet: input - planet, circular orbit, and energy consumption. Output- orbital period, darkness period, and minimum battery capacity. Use the white boxes to input some stats on your craft and calculate how much battery capacity you will need for the orbital dark/night periods. Satellite Tab can be used to find orbital ranges and spacing for satellite relay networks (remotetech 2). Using the formula on the wiki http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Orbit_darkness_time Sample: Battery Tab Satellite Tab Google Doc (Use, File -> Make a copy, to set values in your own instance of the sheet) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkXf-77s6gmFdEdVeGFqX0xobTczYkhEaEVrVTdWV3c&usp=sharing Excel Spreadsheet http://www./download/c25qjwjidphijum/ksp.xlsx

When we left earth: The NASA Missions http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1233514/

Its information panels are worth using alone. Auto pilot can replace the manual flying portion of the game if that is not your thing, but I find that a major part of the fun of the game. Auto pilots are great for testing parts of a ship for a mission. Helps to confirm your rocket has a chance to even make orbit Also if you are new to the game watching how mechjeb controls your ship for various maneuvers can help you do it manually. the engineering redux mod has a lot of the same information plus information you can use in the VAB. With info in VAB you can know each stage is sufficient to do its part just off the delta-v calculations. I run both mods now, but may switch to just the engineer and protractor mod for all the information i should need to manually fly a mission.

Click on them on your ship. Should popup with a menu like fuel tanks do. Press the green button to extend/retract...

Every body in the system has an escape velocity. It is how fast you need to go to break out of orbit. From an encounter trajectory you are in almost all cases going much faster than the targets escape velocity. So your trajectory will be a gravity slingshot, where you may get near the planet/moon, but only end up getting pulled by the body and sent in a new direction. To orbit a body you must slow down enough for that gravity pull to form an orbit. If there is an atmosphere you can do it for free -- until we get atmosphere/heat physics. Absent an atmosphere you will have to burn retrograde ideally at the closest point to the target and turn your gravity slingshot into an orbit/capture by getting your speed below escape velocity.

Did some simple tests with a rocket capable of 100km orbit with a little fuel left over. With the left over fuel i could make the orbit 100km x 360km. Same ship with a gravity turn and no circularizing i could get ~650km. Same ship straight up i could get 1.025 million meters. So if you can time your launch from the pad for an intercept then it seem skipping the gravity turn and orbit stage will save you some delta-v. Doing same thing with a craft capable of getting to the mun though i found the gravity turn saved fuel. So it might depend on the rocket....

In the base game you fly pretty blind. You can rule of thumb / ballpark your way to moons within a system. Transfers planet to planets are small targets over large distances. I don't enjoy missing an encounter because I thought something was about 45° ahead of me and instead it was 50°. Information mods improve the game experience for me. It is easier to get an encounter, but if you still fly manual there will be plenty of challenges en-route to your goal. Missing because you didn't manually measure all the angles using an external tool or overlay outside the game is not fun to me. I also don't like to use quicksave/load, so i hate the 'ballpark' plans to just orbit kerbin and try burns at different times until you get an encounter. In the end it is a single player game, so play the way you enjoy. In the base game a mission to duna might be: wait for duna to be about a pie slice ahead of kerbin orbit kerbin at x altitude (orbit east, 90 degree, with rotation, whatever you want to call it) A little after going into the dark side of the planet burn prograde until your orbit hits duna's get an encounter? If not burn a little more to maybe get a second shot at an encounter.... if not keep an orbit that crosses duna's and eventually you will have an encounter... or re-load and launch again with duna at a different starting point With more information it is more like Launch - when a little before Duna hits 44.36° ahead of kerbin (give some time to establish kerbin orbit) Get in 100km kerbin orbit (if different orbit update angles/exit velocity) Transfer orbit - burn ship's prograde when ejection angle is at 150.91° (with reasonably TWR) Burn until velocity is 3289.2 m/s Encounter ... likely or may require some minor adjustments on the way. For full missions I fly manual, but usually have at least one information mod on at any time. During engineering phases I do like to use mechjeb auto pilots to help test stages of a craft in the background while i go off and do other things. I think more information is coming anyway, so don't feel too bad using information mods. From the planned features list: http://kspwiki.nexisonline.net/wiki/Planned_features Currently implemented in mods: Spacecraft Construction -> Spacecraft Stats: Total Weight, Loaded Fuel (per Stage?) = Engineer Redux (in the hanger) - http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/18230-0-17-Kerbal-Engineer-Redux-v0-4-3-2-%2827-Sep%29 Or part of mechjeb (on the pad) - http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/12384-PLUGIN-PART-0-16-Anatid-Robotics-MuMech-MechJeb-Autopilot- v1-9 Now that there are planets to target it seems likely in the base game we will get a little more information somewhere to plan transfer maneuvers. Both the mods above have information that helps with planet to planet transfer. The protractor mod gives you just about everything you would need in game to do planet/moon to planet/moon transfer: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/21544-Plugin-Part-17-Protractor-Planetary-Lunar-Rendezvous-Mod If you are tired of leaving kerbin at the wrong time than protractor is probably the one information mod to use. In all the mods these stats are displayed with the ship. Maybe in the base game you will have to jump to mission control to see what some/all the angles are on the ship and in the solar system. Meanwhile your ship continues to orbit/move. Docking is another planned feature, so I am taking a serious look at the two major docking mods at the moment: [http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/20604-Plugin-Parts-0-16-Orbital-Rendezvous-and-Docking-Assistant] (ORDA) [http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/20503-Plugin-Part-0-16-Erkle-Mods-Warp-Capable-Docking-Clamp-v0-3-released] (Erkle)

Things to keep in mind, On the launch pad you are in orbit of the sun. You only notice it once you break out of the kerbin SOI. Given that, you can then time your burns in the kerbin sphere to benefit your target when you enter the sun's SOI. Take notice of the direction kerbin is moving around the sun, if you want to go to an inner planet burn on the prograde side of kerbin's orbital movement to exit on the retrograde side in a lower orbit than kerbin. To go to an outer planet start your burn on the retrograde side of kerbin's orbit and you will exit kerbin's SOI in a higher orbit. Time accelerate on the launch pad until the planets are in alignment for your launch. Orbit and time your kerbin escape burn, then adjust your solar orbit to get an encounter. You can quicksave and luck into an encounter or to be more exact with the alignments before timing your kerbin exit. Several mods can help with in game measurements and help you time the transfer burn: http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/21544-Plugin-Part-17-Protractor-Planetary-Lunar-Rendezvous-Mod http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/18230-0-17-Kerbal-Engineer-Redux-v0-4-3-2-%2827-Sep%29 http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/12384-PLUGIN-PART-0-16-Anatid-Robotics-MuMech-MechJeb-Autopilot-v1-9 and you may need this transfer calculator: http://ksp.olex.biz/