Wayfare

Nice work! I remember the immense feeling of accomplishment when I first set down on the Mun, it's a rare game that can make you feel that

I've used a radial attachment point and a clampotron docking port on my Mun Mammoth so a crane could set it down on its wheels, like so: If you know the CoM of your rover, it's easy enough to get a radial attachment point centered over it. It won't significantly affect its balance during vertical launch and transit.

Well then, you're in luck I've just deployed the space cann... Er, Ballistic Launch Assistance Module to Minmus and I'll be firing... Er, launching payloads from it shortly. Expect a new report soonish!

That space theater is awesome

There are few things as satisfying in KSP as pulling off an Apollo-style Mun landing. Well done sir! Someone ought to go back for that wedding ring though...

Folks, these things take quite a bit of time to write up and the response seems to be lukewarm. What would you like me to do differently? More focus on the technical bits? Less funny accents? Bigger space cannons? You name it, I aim to please

The Improbably Dangerous Experiments Agency - IDEA. "Hold my beer and watch this."

Like Ben said, that is the correct facing. While the Seniors are not very forgiving when it comes to alignment, I've had no real issues with them as long as I come in straight and slow. You could try it with MechJeb just to make sure?

The only trouble I've had with them was when I put one on backwards It's an easy mistake to make in the VAB because they have no obvious top or bottom when seen from the side.

Make sure you put them on your craft correctly, it's a bit hard to see in the VAB whether you've put the docking side pointing out.

I love my cubic octagonal struts. They're like space Legos!

The previous episode, covering the Munbase and hosted by foul-mouthed space trucker Herbo Kerman, can be found here.A Tour of the Kerbin-Mun Orbital Infrastructure with Gunter Kerman Or “I vonder vere Gunter vent?†Hallo! I am Gunter Kerman und I am ze head of experimental design at ze KSP. Vell, I vill be for vone more day. Tomorrow I begin as ze head of experimental and dangerous design at ze Improbably Dangerous Experiments Agency, ze IDEA. I am so excited! Right now I am testing a mock-up for ze Minmus research facility. Ze launch pad guys bolted ze clamp over ze door. Oh, zey are so funny these guys! Vell, vile I try to find a way out of zis thing, let me show you ze pictures of ze orbital infrastructure ve built for ze munbase, ya? Zat strapping young man in ze spacesuit is Burlin, und he is inspecting ze bottom of ze Muncrane. It is vot brings ze heavy things down to ze munbase. Ya ya, zey dropped ze Munlab on it's side zat vone time. But zey also delivered ze contraption that put it back on it's legs, ya? So zey cool. Burlin sent me zis lovely picture from his pilot seat. Ya, zat is ze Low Munar Orbit fuel depot, vis ze fuel tank, ze habitat module, und ze additional monopropellant tanks ve sent up a few months ago. Ya, zey like to burn zeir RCS, zose Kerbonauts. Zey are just about to dock. Und now zey are docked! Ze depot vill refuel ze crane und zen it vill be ready for anozer cargo. It is beautiful, ya? Ah, und here ve have ze Muntug burning back to Kerbin after delivering it's latest cargo. It makes ze trips between ze Mun und Kerbin, carrying all ze stuff ve send up. You know ze crew – it is zose magnificent spacemen Jeb, Bill und Bob! But zey are angry viz ze space program because zey only get to be tug pilots. So zey von't come on TV. Nein, zey are not happy. Und velcome back to Kerbin! Zis is ze Low Kerbin Orbit fuel depot. It is much ze same as ze vone above ze Mun, ya, but is very much more easy to bring up ze fuel for this. Ze Muntug can bring a cargo to ze Mun und make it back here vit a bit of fuel to spare. It makes ze whole operation very manageable. Vot you say? Oh, zat siren? Ya ya, you are in luck! Ve are about to test ze Kerbin-Assembled Ballistic Launch Assistance Module to Minmus Orbit! It is vone of ze expirments I vill be running vit IDEA. I can just see it from ze vindow! You go over and have a look, ya? Ya, spectacular! It vill have more vays to adjust ze trajectory of course. Ve vant to test out multiple solid booster-propelled payloads at various angles to see vat makes it to orbit und vat does not. In Minmus' low gravity it... KRRRRSSSSSHHHH... also test RCS-powered rov... KRRRSHHHHHHH... KRRSH... KRRRRRSSSSSSSSSH... you [bLEEP] hear that?... KRRRSSSSH... a [bLEEP] cannon! Oh come on, our transmitter is way more powerful than theirs... KRRRRRRRRRSSSSSSHHHH... “Helloooo spacefans, it's me! Jeb! Gunter you old dog, how ya been?†“Ah, Jeb my boy! Vonderful ya, just vonderful.†“You're rolling with IDEA now? They still killin' test pilots by the bucket? Haha!†“Oh Jeb you joke, you joke! Not by ze bucket. Mostly by ze crashes und ze explosions.†“You're a heartless old bastard Gunter. The Kerbal Aerospace Widow's Association wants to have a word with you. Haha! I'm kidding, you're OK old man. Hey! I want to shoot your space cannon!†“Vell it is not a cannon, it is a Ballistic Launch Assistance...†“It even spells KABLAMMO! You might as well have painted my name on the side! In fact, do that. We're joining IDEA, Gunter! The Muntug is yours! Bill is already on the radio with KSC and Bob's writing up his will. It'll be like old times! Remember when we broke the sound barrier? On water? Man we must have burned through a whole generation of test pilots on that one, haha!†“Ach Jeb zat is vonderful! Ve cannot afford ze Muntug, of course, it so nice of you to give us...†Well, uhm, sorry to interrupt the program folks. As the legal battle between KSC and IDEA breaks out over use of the orbital infrastructure, please stay tuned for a twelve hour live feed marathon of Truckin' With Herbo on the [bLEEP] Mun. Yep. We still truckin'. [bLEEP]

I've seen minimalistic rover designs before but that, sir, takes the cake. Great work!

Neither was the Kerbal Family Association The Mun Mammoth is currently on a long, long drive towards "something sparkly way over there" and the network has decided that covering the entire trip live is too boring even for them. Right now they're prodding some of the Kerbonauts in orbit to host the next episode. Stay tuned...

Hey, I read back a few pages but couldn't find if this issue had been brought up yet. Would it be possible to have a toggle to disable landing gear deployment during auto-land? I've been bringing some pretty convoluted payloads down to my Mun base recently, often encased in shipping rigs, and when all the landing legs deploy at once things get... Messy I'd like the option to manually deploy only those landing legs that I need.

Herbo was trying to be nice. He really was.

Maybe Bob will host the next episode then. He only says "YEEEAAARGH!"

Landing a ridiculous Munar exploration rover via re-usable skycrane. The rover was launched nose-up, towed to LMO with a re-usable tug and finally landed as shown. Given the complexity of the design and the mission (the rover's center of mass was off-center during the launch and tug stages) I was amazed at how well things went. It landed in one piece and nobody got killed.

A Tour of the Mun Arch Research Base with Herbo Kerman Or “What, You Can't Say [bLEEP] on National TV?†Hey folks! Herbo Kerman here, talking to you over this fancy live-feed camera they sent up on the latest delivery. I'm the Chief Utility Rover Inspector, Operator and Utility Sanitator here at the Munbase. CURIOUS, for short. They put “utility†in there twice just for that reason. Gotta love flight directors! What's that son? Yeah, you could say that I'm a truck driver. But I drive a truck on the [bLEEP] Mun. It was either that or being a [bLEEP] two-bit television host. Bam! That beauty behind me is Betsy, my pride and joy. She's got a more boring name on paper. She's been with the Munbase since the first crew came down and she moved pretty much everything into position that couldn't move itself. More on that later. We got some new buggies sent down for daily stuff, but there'll always be someone wanting Betsy's ample power generators and big, solid wheelbase. Heh. Well, let's take a look around before I get too carried away. This is the Close-up Habitat Arch Observatory Station, or CHAOS. I swear. They pay people to make this [bLEEP] up. It's got a multispectral thingamabob projector pointed towards the Arch that makes those pictures in funny colors that don't mean nothing to anyone. The fella inspecting the new buggy over there is Cordorf, and that would be Ribcan smiling at the camera. Hey Rib! Did that rock move yet? Heh. We put up these light masts around the Arch so they can see it sitting still even when it's dark. That was a few hours of my time well spent. So, time to move back to base and show you the rest. They won't let us drive under the Arch because the scientists back home think it might be a portal to a different dimension. I kinda hope it is. I hope it has trucks. And blackjack. And [bLEEP]. In fact, [bLEEP] the trucks and the blackjack. Anyway, the recommended speed limit on the Mun is seven meters per second, so I kinda try to keep her under thirty. Wheeeeee! I'd like to see you try that with a loaded truck on Kerbin! I'm carrying the crew cab behind me which we use to move people around. Now that we got the buggies we won't be doing much of that anymore I guess. On front is the lifting fork. It slides right under the docking ports underneath each module, and then the little wheels lift it up so the thing docks. We call those ports [bLEEP] around here. Heh. Alrighty, it's not far to the base, just about six clicks as the duck flies. Not that ducks would fly very far on the Mun. Someone tried that. Home! These are the hab modules. They house four Kerbonauts each. We got three habs and twelve Kerbonauts manning the base. It works out perfectly. Who would have thunk? And that's the main Munlab, with the command observatory on top. Malemone is the boss around here. Yo Male! Stop breathing through your mouth, you're on TV! Heh. The fella coming down the ladder is Gerton. Sorry, doctor Gerton. He's the finest scientist that's ever been paid tons to look at a funny rock on the Mun. Here, lemme show you his view. Move it Doc, I'm coming up! Yep, that is one fine piece of truck right there! Figured you'd like this shot. This is one of the two Mun Buses we got parked at the base right now. They can hold seven guys each but we only use them for six at a time. Makes the math easier I guess. It's what you come down in and what takes you back up once your rotation is up. Not that that's ever happened, but it's the thought that counts. They're strong enough ships to take you all the way back to the Kerbin Fuel Depot. Now, we should probably take a look at... OH [bLEEP] WHAT'S THAT FALLING FROM THE SKY? Haha, gotcha! This is a picture I took earlier. That, sir, is the latest and greatest in Mun-roving truckery around. The Mun Mammoth. It's a mobile lab with all the bells and whistles. See, every time we bring something down here, the Muncrane guys say they see stuff twinkling in a big crater a ways East of here. So we're going to check it out. And who's the most experienced driver on the Mun? Yessir. That would be me. Herbo Kerman. Ain't it something? I heard they had a lot of fun testing this at KSC. They say it runs over everything smaller than it. And most things are smaller than it. Heh. Tends to flip if you brake too hard they say, so I guess I'll just keep her going! Alright, enough of that. I'm dying to try out one of these buggies they delivered. It's hang-on-for-life driving, but they put on some nifty rollbars to keep you in your seat. Seems they're working on actual chairs with seat belts back home. Will wonders never cease? Let's get going. Yo, Billy-Bobbro! Wanna take this buggy for a spin? Heh. I swear that's his real name. Wheeee! Alrighty folks, this is Herbo [bLEEP] Kerman signing out from the Munbase! Hope you enjoyed the show and check back later with the Mun Tug boys for a tour of the orbital facilities. I hear they don't flush well. Heh.

About 0.3g (1/3rd of Kerbin) at sea level according to the wiki. And, congratulations on fixing your rocket!

Of course, there's also a difference between "forum new" and "KSP new"

A 10% launch to orbit mass effiency is not bad. The question then becomes whether you need 120 tons to make it to Duna and back. Start from the top. You'll notice that a lighter lander stage (which might even drop some tanks to be lighter for the return stage) requires a lighter interplanetary stage, which requires an even lighter orbital stage, which requires an even lighter launch stage. I don't know if the effect is exponential or not (guess it might be) but it shakes down your rocket fast.

Mother of God... Your rocket might be a bit too big. For, well, anything really. It seems like you're using a lot of rocket to push up a lot of rocket just to push up a lot of rocket. How much of that is supposed to make it to orbit? The thing about big rockets is that they tend to have both a lot of thrust and a really long distance between the center of thrust and the center of gravity. Now, in theory, this is a good thing. Like the old "balancing a broom on your fingertip with the brush up"-analogue. But what tends to happen is that any course correction overshoots its mark by so much that the counter-correction just makes things worse, and things go downhill from there. The high thrust also multiplies any minor asymmetry issues your design might have. I know Jeb will be displeased but I think you need a smaller boat.

Turning your craft 180 degrees in the SPH also has the advantage of tricking KSPs weird lift calculator into making your wings produce downforce. Useful! And going fast is easy - it's keeping your pilot alive that's the problem

It may seem trivial, but I really appreciate the use of aerodynamic nosecones in these designs. I know they're only for aesthetic purposes at this point in the game (in fact, all they do is add mass an drag), but hell - they sexy!