sephirotic

Exactly, I thought since they aren't definitive yet, building a complete launch planer application or a complete spreedshet would indeed be a waste of effort, but calculating just a couple of followed dates for missions to Mars, Jupiter and Saturn shouldn´t be such massive work like a complete 70 years spam spreedsheet and this way at least we could create a new save game to do just a single mission to each of these bodies. I've been designing and test-proving a new realistic 6 kerbal vessel to Europa for a complete mission and I've been itching to fly it all the way there without actually recurring to centuries of Timewarps until I get an encounter (or just hyperediting) . I'd do it if I were good with math, which unfortunately I ain't. Metaphors hint's have helped to at least leave orbit in the right plane, but we still need a proper date for the launch.

Thanks for the previous response, NathanKell. I really like playing RSS + (most) realism overhauls mods but it's very difficult to actually do mission with all the inclination madness and lack of a good calculator for launching windows and inclinations. How about a simple basic spreedsheet for everyone? For example: Launches for a Saturn mission with gravity assisti from JUPITER, best dates to launch: DAY 390, 1280, 2500, do the burn at inclination Xº and etc? I don´t really like using mechjeb. Anyone ever done something like that? @metaphor Would you have some dates for mars jupiter and saturn missions? And any tips on how to calculate gravity assistis?

Hello all. Sorry if this issues have been recurring discussed here, I suppose so, but I haven´t had luck with the search function. So, I've been playing with RSS since it's first days back at 0.22. I even was one of the firsts to fine tune atmosphere stats and add PF planets to represent saturns and other moons (see post #905). Back at the day however, there wasn´t any launch window planer or spreedsheet available for the best launch date and angles possible so missions beyond Mars were very limited. After the 0.23 update I stopped playing modded for a while since most of my favorite mods broke down. Anyway, now after a couple of days setting and customizing all my favorite mods back up (most of the Realism Overhaul pack and my own customized engine settings), I decided it was about that time to do some serious business RSS mission to one of Jupiter of Even Saturn's moon without automation, fuel or hundreds of years of timewarp cheatings. This thanks to the newly developed launch planer to be used with RSS: http://abrhmsanchez.github.io/ksp/ However, I'm having a hard time using it. 1s) I don´t understand why the planets aren´t aligned to the solar ecliptic plane. What is this weird orientation all about? Back on the 0.22 days, I removed most of the planet inclinations (not of the moons) to make launch less of hassle. It felt a little like cheating but without any launch planner and spreadsheet there was no way we could do a realistic mission with out some sorft of workaround anyway. Now I don´t wan´t to change anything, and neither could I, if i wanted to actually use the launch window planer that I just posted here 2nd) The launch site isn´t on the ecuator anymore and I'm also having a hard time launching with an inclination-plane on earth aligned to the ecliptic. How can I check the correct launch period aligned to the sun ecliptic and the angle I should burn to? 3rd) Even after some hard time with trial and error and guessing by eye the best I could the ejection angle, I couldn´t get an encounter on the first orbital pass to Duna with a probe mission of mine. I used the launch planer and matched the Phase angles. But KE doesn´t show the Correct EPOCH date so I could launch at the precise exact date. Which mod allows for that? Kerbal Alarm? Also: Back on stock KSP, I first did the escape burn to leave Kerbin and after leaving it's SOL and entering Kerbol's I did the insertion burn so to try and avoid floating errors from making a meneuver node out of the plane of the target body. Should I already do the insertion burn as soon as I reach escape velocity close to earth? 4th) That is most of my questions anyway, aside from that, How do I calculate gravity assists? Is it possible? Launch Window Planner doesn´t seem to allow for that so I imagine if any of you guys have a list of dates for best gravity assistis launch dates to Jupiter and Saturn. 5th) Last one: Which assistant mods are the best for navigating and checking launch and burn dates and angles? KE seens barely enough and even tough I don´t like using MJ, neither it seemed adequate. I don´t like automating but it's obviously doing things without a calculator or spreedsheet is impossible without cheating. Sorry if most of theses questions were discussed, I spend almost 1 hour reading several pages of this thread and couldn´t find most of these question. I believe a short Tutorial or FAQ in the first post for intermediate/advanced players from Stock KSP like myself would be welcome to help us in trying to make more audacious missions with RSS like I'd like to do. Cheers

Any chance of having a Tri-modal configuration for the stock NTR? :3

+1 For these two questions! If these two features were ever added, this would make this one of the most awesome and must have mods ever! Btw, AFAIK RSS use J2000 for it's start point IIRC, I always wondered if real life launch window planning would work for RSS-KSP and vice-versa.

Do like I Did, I modified my cfg's to allow a LH2 + LOX combination. Thas is a real life prossible combination for any NTR, the so called "Lox Augmented Ram injection". Just reduce the ISP a little. Real life NTRs, specially the russian design, the RD0140, had 960s of ISP, with lox augmentation, the thrust increases by 3 times (so 180 vs 60) and the ISP is reduced by about 25% (I set to 800 isp my NTR with lox augmentation, keeping in par with original stock NTR) Can´t wait for the fix of this mod, 0.23 was very disappointing, stock KSP isn´t fun anymore MFS expands the game so much more.

I'm sorry if this has already been asked, but since i can´t search for 3 words into the search function I had no luck. I have always loved your buran and Soyuz replicad and played a lot with it back into 0.21 However, now I'm also addicted to Real Solar System + FAR + Modular Fuel System and haven´t been playing without it. As a matter of fact I know lots of people that also finished carreer mode, haven´t been back to stock ksp for a good couple of months now. I haven´t been much updated with FAR lately. Is it natively compatible with the soviet pack or do we need to manualy configure drag and shapre characteristics of each part, specially for the buran wings, and rudder, etc? Is there a compatibiliy patch somewhere? The same goes for MFS: Is there any compatible patch somewhere? I have already familiarized myself with the .cfgs of it, but i wonder if just adjusting the masses of each part.cfg and the engines accordingly will be enough? I know the overall weight of the soyuz: 310~ tons, but anywhere I can find the specific weight and most important: VOLUME OF THE TANKS for each stages? Thanks in advance! Sorry if this has already been asked.

Yeah, I made it work finally, I have just some basic notions of programming language, i should have added those lines at the end of the .cfg or used the :FINAL parameter. Either way I managed to have now different fuel types for the NTRs, and most important, the LOX Augmented layout! While researching at the subject, looks like LOX Augmentation while slightly decreasing the Vacuum ISP, (witch is strange since the exhaust velocity is higher, I wonder if there is unburnt oxygen expelling out in the process, that's why) on the other hand have improved Atmospheric ISP! Since with the extra exhaust velocity, there is more pressure to fight against the Atmosphere. A LOX augmented NTR could get Atmospheric ISP almost as high as 700. with 3 times the thurst! (getting close to 50:1 TWR) SSTO may in fact be attainable with such technology! Still on the topic: Looks like the LOX Augmented mode can be actually switched on and off inflight on most of this NTR designs. Which is amazing, specially for the massive GAS CORE engines witch have very high ISP for interplanetary travel. So, I tried to copy-paste the B9's engine switch-mode configuration, the "hydramodule" and put it in one of the NTR engines. I changed the thurst, fuel types and everything accordingly and turns out, the game loaded, the part was showing the correct stats however when I launched the engine, the right-click menu actually SHOWED the correct thrust i configured but there was no exhaust sprites and the engine wasn´t actually producing any thrust at all, with is strange. EDIT: Forget my noobishness, I figured out the problem, you have also to change the " thrustVectorTransformName = " to "thrustTransform" instead of the "nozzle" parameter.

@Fractal_UK Hmmm, very nice mod, some of your models looks very cool. I think i'll grab that plasma thruster and that nuclear reactor. But for now my KSP installation is already running pretty heavy, i recently even deleted all fuel tanks parts that could be switched with theStretchy Tanks parts to save ram, even tough i personally think they look kinda ugly. so I was thinking on relying on most parts i already have and take advantage of the modularity of MFS. I'll take a look at your settings. @Nathan, Speaking of witch, I noticed the NTR's have a special .cfg file on the Realfuel folders separated from the Engines.cfg I was trying to edit it to add different fuel mixtures like I have already done sucesffuly with the Engine.cfg to some custom engines of my but this time i had no luck. I noticed this cfg does not have a "ModuleEngineConfigs" module so i just trid to add it. THe game loads but when i go to the action groups, there are no options for customizing the game. My config is like this: //Squad_NTR_modularEngines.cfg @PART[nuclearEngine] { @mass = 2.25 @maxTemp = 2200 @MODULE[ModuleEngines] { @maxThrust = 60 @heatProduction = 300 @PROPELLANT[LiquidFuel] { @name = LiquidH2 @ratio = 1.0 } @PROPELLANT[Oxidizer] { @name = nuclearFuel @ratio = 0.00000000001 } @atmosphereCurve { @key,0 = 0 1000 @key,1 = 1 430 } } //extra: these are the Lines and the module i added: MODULE { name = ModuleEngineConfigs origMass = 2.4 techLevel = 3 origTechLevel = 3 engineType = L+ configuration = LiquidFuel+LiquidOxygen modded = false CONFIG { name = LiquidH2+LiquidOxygen maxThrust = 225 heatProduction = 1000 PROPELLANT { name = LiquidH2 ratio = 0.73 DrawGauge = True } PROPELLANT { name = LiquidOxygen ratio = 0.27 } IspSL = 0.45 IspV = 0.65 } } //Extra addition end MODULE { name = ModuleAlternator (... etc) But had no luck, I can´t seen to add different fuel types to it. Starwaster configs are very nice, I wanted to add SOME of his lines, but not the whole .cfg Because i don´t use Kethane. Any clues? Can i also add 3 types of fuel Mixture this way? So i can keep the Nuclear fuel? (LH2+LOX+NuclearFuel)? Thanks

Ok, so last night i tried a probe mission to Titan using the RSS + PF extra configs. It became clear that realistic manned mission are impossible to be reproduced in the game the way it is. Maneuver nodes are very limited and any gravity assists slightly more complex (more than two bodies, ore multi-moon gravity assists inside jupiter, for example) are nearly impossible to be planned. Partly because there isn't currently a tool that lets you plan launch windows with correct planet alignments, and part simply because of the rounding errors of timewarps. Nasa only needs correction burns in the order of couple of dozens m/s. after I timewarped in some parts of my trip to titan, the trajectory was so much different that I needed over 1k d/v of burn corrections. Aerobraking in Saturn is also impossible since the realistic atmosphere cuts out abruptly, visiting any atmosphere-less moon is a no-no with conventional levels of d/v and chemical rockets. Nevertheless i managed to land on Titan (after a final 2k d/v correction witch i needed to activate infinite fuel cheat to do so, nevertheless i managed to be assisted by jupiter's gravity and a intermediate MHN stage for corrections carrying 3k of d/v could be feasible). Here is some pics about my mission: <iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="550" frameborder="0" src="http://imgur.com/a/ssgqv/embed"></iframe> EDIT: How do i add those slides from IMGUR anyway? This is all stuff related to the Real Solar System Thread, but now I want to discuss an alternate solution to theses serious limitations of the game witch comes in the scope of my previous discussion about the lack of practicality on the NTR here in this thread. More efficient near-future rocket engines: As a more enthusiastic player of kerbal, i was always interested on rockets and interplanetary travel, even before the game, so i obviously read a little about some different types of proposed engine types. After my frustrated mission to Titan revealed so many difficulties on the game mechanics that severely limited the range of Manned missions to Saturn and Jupiter with direct insertion, it became obvious if I still wanted to play RSS + MFS i would have to explore some different experimental and more efficient engine types. First I took a look at Starwaster extra mixtures and fuel types, because I also researched by myself different types of NTRs and fuel mixtures to come around the problem of limited storage of low density LH2 for more d/v interplanetary stages. I noticed Starwaster didn´t add one of the most promissing solutions for more pratical NTR: LANTR; LOX Augmented Afterburner NTRs. By adding a mixture ration of 4:1 of LOX at the exhaust of the H2 from a conventional solid core NTR, the exhaust speed is further increased thus increasing thrust by almost 4 times at the expense of slightly lessened ISP. This is an interesting solution for more efficient stage-cycled NTR's design, like the used by russia on the RD0140 witch has naturally a higher ISP but lower thrust, 35KN, 2,5tons, 960isp. The thrust would exceed 120kn with this, extra fuel could be carried and the d/v would only be decreased to about 800ish witch is already what we have with the current setting of MFS. Another option is using liquid and solid mixtures with the standard NTR like Starwaster added. I haven´t tested yet, but LOX and Water are much more denser and still delivers higher ISP than high efficiency conventional LH2/LOX chemical rockets. I would have to test witch one is the best option I also further researched about other engine options. The most obviously with we already are tired to know is the VASIMIR. But vasimir is very weak to be effectively used in a larger manned rocket and has problems of being very energy hungry and emitting too much heat. There is actually a better type of electrical engine witch is actually even more advanced in development being already tested once in the ISS almost 10 years ago. MPD; MagnetoPlasmaDynamic Thruster. It needs less energy than VASIMIR and gives much more thrust even weighting less: A 200N MPD has already being tested and proved ready for operation and only needs 600kw of energy witch is fairly reasonable for current RTG of large solar panel technologies. It works at over 3000isp and can operate with either argon or xenon. But the more interesting option I think is again, back into the NTR reign: This is still haven´t being build, but is a fairly mature concept and the favourite studied by NASA out of several subtypes of Nuclear propulsion: The Closed Quartz Gas Cycle, aka "The Lighbulb". Closed nuclear cores insulated with quartz wall. Differently from Solid core, the radioactive fuel does not enter contact with the LH2. This insulation is due to the core operating at much higher temperatures witch gives higher exhausts speeds than regular SOLID core design and thus, higher ISP. It could operate at efficiency from 1900~3000s however, the problem is that due to the insulation of the cores, it is much heavier, with a TWR barely higher than 1:1. With this weight problem allied with the issue of low density of the LH2, I wonder if they could also be further accelerated with LOX afterbuner like the solid design, or even have different fuel mixtures at all. So, i'm going to add some fuel mixtures from Starwaster, mine for the LANTR, and I'll also grab the vasimir from the "near-future" mod pack (tough i won´t install all those parts, since my game is already overflowing with too much parts) and the two nice Nuclear engines from Kommit witch I will respec as Gas cycle and MPD's. After some testing I'll report back witch option is the best. Anyone has any idea of any other near-futures high efficiency alternative engines that we could use? There is also the ORION, but i'm rather skeptical about that one. An interesting site with a huge compilation of different proposed efficient engines most of must already know: http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/enginelist.php

Of course i realize comparisons should be done by factor of mass, but volume can´t be completely disregarded since larger volumes influences in drag and balance of a rocket design. ANother VERY important factor in detrimental to NTR's is it VERY LOW TWR. (i do know nerva was the name of a solid-type, NTR, everyone keeps calling NTR nervas in the forum and i got the bad habit from then, don´t worry, i understand your feeling and the difference, specially because the NERVA was never actually put into a functional rocket, whereas the much less famous RD0410, did, witch it should receive more merit for.) I'm not completely noobish when it comes to rocket science i know more than the basics such as ISP. (tough i'm not really that great with math, i admit that much). ISP isn´t all that matters for rocket engines. In fact, the amount of d/v a REAL vessel can have is a direct relationship of the % of fuel mass vs engine weight + structural and payload weight. By having a heavier engine with higher ISP you automatically diminish it's ISP advantage. So, by changing the Engine's TWR to more realistic weights, (the poodle witch i used for comparison, previously, was configured to 0.614 tons, 266TWR) you are also affecting the amount of d/v you can achieve with the same payload and fuel. So the NTR isn´t actually 80% better than the Poodle (80% higher ISP) it is hardly 20% better. (I don´t really know if the influence ofTWR vs ISP is linear so I am only doing an aproximation here). Since you didn´t like my previous comparsion where i wanted to keep the same design AND STRUCTURAL MASS unchanged to only evaluate the influence of the engine used, here is a new comparision taking in account more pratical design´s for the NTR for a given goal of D/V: NTR: 12.79t - 9473d/v - 740ms per tonne POODLE: 13.52t - 10077m/s 745ms per tonne So the poodle has actually a HIGHER d/v per mass and payload, since it has LESS structural and ENGINE mass % than fuel! Not to mention less drag due to less volume. I can hardly see any advantage in using the NTR as it is. I guess i'll try tweaking the .cfg of the RealFuel folder to give the NTR the same d/v of the RD0410 - 910s. Maybe i'll even push it a little bit further, to 1000s to see if starts to compensate more.

I used some slightly different settings: REALSOLARSYSTEM { // Note, bodies below MUST be in precedence order. Parents before children. // So Sun, then the planets, then the moons. Sun { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 696342000 Mass = 1.9891E+30 } // Mercury = Moho Moho { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 2439700 rotationPeriod = 5067031.68 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 2.11 Mass = 3.3022E+23 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 57909100000 eccentricity = 0.20563 inclination = 7.005 meanAnomaly = 174.796 period = 7600530.24 LAN = 48.331 argumentOfPeriapsis = 29.124 } } // Venus = Eve Eve { SSTScale = 0.99868058647931 Radius = 6051800 rotationPeriod = 20996798.4 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 177.36 atmosphereScaleHeight = 15.9 maxAtmosphereAltitude = 220000 atmosphereMultiplier = 55 GeeASL = 0.905 Mass = 4.8676E+24 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 108208000000 eccentricity = 0.0067 inclination = 3.39458 meanAnomaly = 50.115 period = 19414166.4 LAN = 76.678 argumentOfPeriapsis = 55.186 } } // Earth = Kerbin Kerbin { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 6371000 rotationPeriod = 86164.1 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 23.44 atmosphereScaleHeight = 7.5 maxAtmosphereAltitude = 104000 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 149598261000 eccentricity = 0.01671123 inclination = 0 meanAnomaly = 357.51716 period = 31558149.7635456 LAN = 348.73936 argumentOfPeriapsis = 114.20783 } SSFStart = 78000 SSFEnd = 80000 PQSfadeStart = 80000 PQSfadeEnd = 100000 PQSSecfadeStart = 80000 PQSSecfadeEnd = 100000 PQSdeactivateAltitude = 105000 PQS { Kerbin { PQSMod_VertexSimplexHeightAbsolute // doubles { deformity = 1000 // 485 persistence = 0.7 // 0.60000002384185791 frequency = 36 //12 // 24 } PQSMod_VertexHeightNoiseVertHeightCurve2 // floats { deformity = 6000 // 4000 ridgedAddFrequency = 48 // 48 ridgedSubFrequency = 32 // 32 //ridgedAddOctaves = 8 // 6 INT simplexHeightStart = 400 // 800 simplexHeightEnd = 7000 // 4600 } PQSMod_VertexRidgedAltitudeCurve // floats { deformity = 1800 //1100 // 750 ridgedAddFrequency = 140 // 25 // 140 //ridgedAddOctaves = 8 // 3 INT } PQSMod_VertexHeightMap // doubles { heightMapDeformity = 7000 // 5000 } PQSMod_AltitudeAlpha // doubles { atmosphereDepth = 6000 // 4000 } PQSCity { KEYname = KSC repositionRadial = 158200.0, -220.0, -570000.0 lodvisibleRangeMult = 6 } } KerbinOcean { PQSMod_AerialPerspectiveMaterial // floats { atmosphereDepth = 7500 // 5000, scale height in m } } } //Export //{ //resolution = 8192 //maxHeight = 12000 //oceanColor = 0.1255, 0.22353, 0.35683 //} } // Moon = Mun Mun { SSTScale = 0.9832 Radius = 1737100 rotationPeriod = 2360584.68479999 tidallyLocked = true axialTilt = 1.5424 GeeASL = 0.1654 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 384399000 eccentricity = 0.0549 inclination = 5.145 //5.145 to ecliptic; 23.435 avg to Earth's equator (+-5.145) period = 2360584.68479999 } SSFStart = 170000 SSFEnd = 175000 PQSfadeStart = 170000 PQSfadeEnd = 175000 PQSdeactivateAltitude = 180000 PQS { Mun { PQSMod_VertexHeightMap { heightMapDeformity = 9500 //7500 } PQSMod_VertexSimplexHeight // doubles { deformity = 1200 // 400 persistence = 0.7 //0.5 frequency = 1 // 12 //octaves = 10 // 8 // A DOUBLE } PQSMod_VertexHeightNoiseVertHeight // floats { deformity = 1200 // 400 frequency = 12 // 12 //octaves = 7 // 6 // INT } PQSMod_VoronoiCraters { KEYvoronoiSeed = 462 deformation = 600 //200 //voronoiFrequency = 100 //50 } } } } // Mars = Duna Duna { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 3396200 rotationPeriod = 88642.6848 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 25.19 atmosphereScaleHeight = 11.1 maxAtmosphereAltitude = 154000 atmosphereMultiplier = 0.02 GeeASL = 0.379 Mass = 6.4185E+23 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 227939100000 eccentricity = 0.093315 inclination = 1.85 meanAnomaly = 19.3564 period = 59354294.4 LAN = 49.562 argumentOfPeriapsis = 286.537 } } // Phobos = Bop Bop { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 6100 tidallyLocked = true Mass = 10720000000000000 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 9377200 eccentricity = 0.0151 inclination = 26.04 period = 27553.843872 LAN = 0 referenceBody = Duna } } // Deimos = Gilly Gilly { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 4200 rotationPeriod = 109074.816 tidallyLocked = false Mass = 1480000000000000 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 23460000 eccentricity = 0.0002 inclination = 27.58 period = 109074.816 LAN = 0 referenceBody = Duna } } // Vesta = Inaccessable Inaccessable { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 223200 rotationPeriod = 19233 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 3 Mass = 2.591E+20 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 353268000000 eccentricity = 0.08862 inclination = 7.134 meanAnomaly = 307.8 period = 114553440 LAN = 103.91 argumentOfPeriapsis = 149.84 referenceBody = Sun } } // Ceres = Minmus Minmus { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 487300 rotationPeriod = 32668 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 3 Mass = 9.43E+20 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 413690604000 eccentricity = 0.079138 inclination = 10.587 meanAnomaly = 113.410 period = 145123488 LAN = 80.3932 argumentOfPeriapsis = 72.5898 referenceBody = Sun } } // Jupiter = Jool Jool { SSTScale = 0.9999 Radius = 69911000 rotationPeriod = 35730 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 3.13 atmosphereScaleHeight = 27 maxAtmosphereAltitude = 374000 atmosphereMultiplier = 0.13 Mass = 1.8986E+27 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 778547200000 eccentricity = 0.048775 inclination = 1.305 meanAnomaly = 18.818 period = 374335776 LAN = 100.492 argumentOfPeriapsis = 275.066 } } // Io = Pol Pol { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 1821300 tidallyLocked = true Mass = 8.9319E+22 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 421800000 eccentricity = 0.0041 inclination = 2.21 period = 152853.5047104 referenceBody = Jool } } // Europa = Eeloo Eeloo { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 1560800 tidallyLocked = true axialTilt = 0.1 Mass = 4.7998E+22 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 671100000 eccentricity = 0.009 inclination = 0.47 period = 306822.0384 referenceBody = Jool } } // Ganymede = Tylo Tylo { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 2634100 tidallyLocked = true axialTilt = 0.2 Mass = 1.4819E+23 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 1070400000 eccentricity = 0.0013 inclination = 0.2 period = 618153.375744 referenceBody = Jool } } // Callisto = Ike Ike { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 2410300 tidallyLocked = true Mass = 1.075938E+23 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 1882700000 eccentricity = 0.0074 inclination = 0.192 period = 1441931.18976 referenceBody = Jool } } // Saturn = Sentar Sentar { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 60268000 rotationPeriod = 38052 tidallyLocked = false atmosphereScaleHeight = 59.5 maxAtmosphereAltitude = 800000 atmosphereMultiplier = 0.16 Mass = 5.6846E+26 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 1433449370000 eccentricity = 0.055723219 inclination = 2.485 meanAnomaly = 320.34675 period = 929596608 LAN = 113.642811 argumentOfPeriapsis = 336.013862 } } // Mimas = // Enceladus = Vall Vall { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 252100 rotationPeriod = 118386 tidallyLocked = true axialTilt = 0 Mass = 1.080E+20 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 237948000 eccentricity = 0.0047 inclination = 0.019 period = 118386 LAN = 0 referenceBody = Sentar } } // Tethys = // Dione = // Rhea = // Titan = Erin Erin { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 2576000 rotationPeriod = 1377648 tidallyLocked = true atmosphereScaleHeight = 40 maxAtmosphereAltitude = 520000 atmosphereMultiplier = 4.5 Mass = 1.3452E+23 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 1221870000 eccentricity = 0.0288 inclination = 0.34854 period = 1377648 referenceBody = Sentar } } // Iapetus = Ringle Ringle { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 1492000 rotationPeriod = 6853334.4 tidallyLocked = true axialTilt = 0 Mass = 1.8056E+21 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 3560820000 eccentricity = 0.028612 inclination = 15.47 meanAnomaly = 90 period = 6853334.4 LAN = 0 argumentOfPeriapsis = 179 referenceBody = Sentar } } // Uranus = Skelton Skelton { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 25559000 rotationPeriod = 62063.712 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 97.77 atmosphereScaleHeight = 27.7 maxAtmosphereAltitude = 390000 atmosphereMultiplier = 0.34 Mass = 8.681E+25 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 2876679082000 eccentricity = 0.04440558 inclination = 0.772556 meanAnomaly = 142.955717 period = 2661041808 LAN = 73.989821 argumentOfPeriapsis = 96.541318 referenceBody = Sun } } // Puck = // Miranda = Ablate Ablate { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 235800 rotationPeriod = 122125 tidallyLocked = true axialTilt = 0 Mass = 6.59E+19 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 129390000 eccentricity = 0.0013 inclination = 93.5 meanAnomaly = 90 period = 122125 LAN = 0 argumentOfPeriapsis = 179 referenceBody = Skelton } } // Ariel = // Umbriel = // Titania = Thud Thud { Radius = 788400 rotationPeriod = 752218 tidallyLocked = true axialTilt = 0 Mass = 3.527E+21 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 435910000 eccentricity = 0.0011 inclination = 97.4 meanAnomaly = 0 period = 752218 LAN = 0 argumentOfPeriapsis = 0 referenceBody = Skelton } } // Oberon = // Neptune = Laythe Laythe { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 24764000 rotationPeriod = 58000.3 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 28.32 atmosphereScaleHeight = 19.7 maxAtmosphereAltitude = 260000 atmosphereMultiplier = 0.37 Mass = 1.0243E+26 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 4553946490000 eccentricity = 0.011214269 inclination = 1.767975 meanAnomaly = 267.767281 period = 5200418592 LAN = 131.794310 argumentOfPeriapsis = 265.646853 referenceBody = Sun } } // Triton = Ascension Ascension { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 1353400 rotationPeriod = 507760 tidallyLocked = true axialTilt = 0 Mass = 2.14E+22 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 354759000 eccentricity = 0.000016 inclination = 129.812 meanAnomaly = 156.885 period = 507760 LAN = 73.989821 argumentOfPeriapsis = 96.541318 referenceBody = Laythe } } // Pluto = Dres Dres { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 1153000 rotationPeriod = 551856.672 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 119.591 Mass = 1.305E+22 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 5874000000000 eccentricity = 0.244671664 inclination = 17.151394 meanAnomaly = 14.86012204 period = 7816176000 LAN = 110.28683 argumentOfPeriapsis = 113.76349 referenceBody = Sun } } // Charon = Pock Pock { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 603500 rotationPeriod = 551856.672 tidallyLocked = true axialTilt = 119.591 Mass = 1.52E+21 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 17536000 eccentricity = 0.00 inclination = 112.783 meanAnomaly = 0 period = 551856.672 LAN = 223 argumentOfPeriapsis = 0 referenceBody = Dres } } } I couldn't find the J2000 mean anomalies of Ceres and Vesta but I imagine they're around somewhere. Also the J2000 mean anomalies, LAN and ArP of most of the moons are hard to find. All the real planets with atmospheres are replaced by KSP planets with atmospheres, so you can use aerocapture/aerobraking anywhere you could in reality. I got a lot of textures from here. It's too bad the Universe Replacer mod doesn't work with Planet Factory. Also, adding bump maps to planets seems to mess up their lighting (the planet day/night sides are at 90 degrees to the Sun). There seems to be a bug where if you look at a planet with clouds from far away, you see flickering black specks in its atmosphere. I'm not sure if that's because the cloud textures are too low resolution (1024x512) or something else. Whoa, your sytem looks gorgeous! Would you mind sharing those bump maps and textures? Did you only overwrite then or did you make some tweaks? I'll borrow the AoP of some bodies for mine that are missing too, thanks in advance for the CODE section. I also wanted to add Miranda to Uranus but I thought prioritizing Saturn over the Ice Giants was a more reasonable thing to do since the chance of i ever doing a semi-realistic mission to the outer solar system part is very small. And why did you change Skelton witch ringle? Skelton looks A LOT lake iapteus, it has the same enormous mountain and polar caps. Also, i would love to have a realistic replica of the Pluto binary system, with the barycenter outside of charon and plutom and + the 3 extra moons of the system, but since we don´t have enough bodies for adding theses moons and pluto is so much far away and inaccessible in the first place, again it beats the purpose for having them for me. Speaking of witch, i was wondering yesterday, if by simple coping and pasting the .bin files and texture and renaming them in the PF folder and adding the relative .cfg files in the RSS folder would create new effective bodies in the game, if that works it would be amazing to add all the moons i wanted to add for saturn uranus and neptune. I wonder what is inside PF's .bin files.

I can understand the point of the much lighter and optimal ISP of LH2+LOX for upper stages and escape-burn stages. It is also very useful if you want to simulate a mining mission like one of the proposed Mars missions to send empty tanks to mars to mine LH2 +OX on ice caps for a return vehicle. I don´t see, however, any advantage in all possible designs i could come with for a interplanetary mission to Jupiter (RSS), where NERVAs would be advantageous. Yes, you gain advantage in mass per d/v unit, but the volume is so much higher than a RP1 or even LH2+LOX that to get the same d/v in a interplanetary booster module with a NERVA, you will need so much more orange rockomax 64 tanks that i simply can´t put pratically into orbit easier. I haven´t made many precise calculations, but so far: 1 Single orange rockomax 64 tank + a LH2/O2 poodle engine: 12,88t - 10065 m/s Same engine, RP1+LOX layout: 34,48t - 10133d/v A reasonably light payload in both cases with a fairly good amount of D/V for a interplanetary travel. You can clearly see the advantage of LH2+LOX, even tough less atoms are carried for the same volume(in pratice, the SAME sized vessel) they deliver pratically the same level of d/v with almost a third of the mass. Great. The much lighter layout also means you can either use a smaller lifter rocket design, or by using the same for a heavier payload, could put you in a higher orbit and in the end sending you further and giving more D/V for the overall mission. However, even the heavier RP1 per m3 version, can be launched without so many overengineering in a single launch. IT still serves it purpose without boilling off being so much of a issue. Now NERVA and LH2 is a whole different matter: For designing an interplanetary booster that even comes close of the same level of d/v (perfomance) of the previous setting, i would need something like a 5 rockomax 64 (a center tank with another 4 radially attached ones) with doen´t even come close to the LH2+LOX setting: Exact same vessel with a nerva engine and filled with LH2 (1 rockomax 64tank): 5.39tons, 4485 d/v Yes it's lighter, but mass vs D/v per see is hardly significantly better than the LOX+LH2 configuration. We are looking at 781m/s per ton of d/v for the LOX+LH2 setting, and 832m/s per ton of d/v for the NERVA+LH2 only layout. It's a gain of d/v that i hardly believe in the ends presents any advantage since it would have to have much larger palyoad vessels that would actually needs over-engineering for the lifter and gives much more drag, specially with far in the ascension to orbit stage. I love all these realism mods, but they killed the NERVAs, i wonder if they were that much impractical IRL? I am considering the idea of boost the ISP of the NERVAs to 910s, the same as the Russian RD-0410. Tough I do realize it had a worse TWR witch would imply in worsen performance.

Yeah i researched a little about Saturn moon's orbital parameters and they are kinda chaotic with no long-therm stable orbits so it figures. About Laythe, i deducted as much that mass vs radius would give density and gravity and thus the mod will calculate by itself, but what intrigued me more was the lack of any atmospheric data for Titan. I fix'd it myself and added the following: atmosphereScaleHeight = 40 maxAtmosphereAltitude = 450 atmosphereMultiplier = 1.4478 (FAR was showing 1.8 ATM when i touched down at Titan, [with hyperedit, obviously] witch was strange since i thought it should had maxed out at 1.44) Also, Maxaltitude was just to have a cut off, Titan's atmosphere spams noticeable over 1000km i tought 450km was a good arbitrary value to cut it out without subtle decelerations. I was very excited to try some propelers in Titan's with FAR mod. And this new question also came: Does FAR has compatibility with that famous props mod? ANyway, I sill need to ACTUALLY get to titan in the first place. Without any mining mods a return trip would be impossible. For now i'm in the final stages of a less audacios mission to Europa. This is what i've already managed to assemble in-orbit with FAR + RSS + RMS: Also, I've used Planet Factory's planets to create more complete replica of our solar system to anyone possibly interested: Here is a quick pick on all the orbital and physical parameters needed for doing so and my personal choice of more similar bodies available: Sun { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 696342000 Mass = 1.9891E+30 } Moho { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 2439700 rotationPeriod = 5067031.68 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 2.11 Mass = 3.3022E+23 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 57909100000 eccentricity = 0.20563 inclination = 7.005 meanAnomaly = 174.796 period = 7600530.24 LAN = 48.331 argumentOfPeriapsis = 29.124 } } Eve { SSTScale = 0.99868058647931 Radius = 6051800 rotationPeriod = 20996798.4 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 177.36 atmosphereScaleHeight = 15.9 maxAtmosphereAltitude = 220000 atmosphereMultiplier = 5 GeeASL = 0.905 Mass = 4.8676E+24 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 108208000000 eccentricity = 0.0067 inclination = 3.39458 meanAnomaly = 50.115 period = 19414166.4 LAN = 76.678 argumentOfPeriapsis = 55.186 } } Kerbin { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 6371000 rotationPeriod = 86164.1 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 23.44 atmosphereScaleHeight = 7.5 maxAtmosphereAltitude = 104000 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 149598261000 eccentricity = 0.01671123 inclination = 0 meanAnomaly = 357.51716 period = 31558149.7635456 LAN = 348.73936 argumentOfPeriapsis = 114.20783 } SSFStart = 78000 SSFEnd = 80000 PQSfadeStart = 80000 PQSfadeEnd = 100000 PQSSecfadeStart = 80000 PQSSecfadeEnd = 100000 PQSdeactivateAltitude = 105000 PQS { Kerbin { PQSMod_VertexSimplexHeightAbsolute // doubles { deformity = 1000 // 485 persistence = 0.7 // 0.60000002384185791 frequency = 36 //12 // 24 } PQSMod_VertexHeightNoiseVertHeightCurve2 // floats { deformity = 6000 // 4000 ridgedAddFrequency = 48 // 48 ridgedSubFrequency = 32 // 32 //ridgedAddOctaves = 8 // 6 INT simplexHeightStart = 400 // 800 simplexHeightEnd = 7000 // 4600 } PQSMod_VertexRidgedAltitudeCurve // floats { deformity = 1800 //1100 // 750 ridgedAddFrequency = 140 // 25 // 140 //ridgedAddOctaves = 8 // 3 INT } PQSMod_VertexHeightMap // doubles { heightMapDeformity = 7000 // 5000 } PQSMod_AltitudeAlpha // doubles { atmosphereDepth = 6000 // 4000 } PQSCity { KEYname = KSC repositionRadial = 158200.0, -220.0, -570000.0 lodvisibleRangeMult = 6 } } KerbinOcean { PQSMod_AerialPerspectiveMaterial // floats { atmosphereDepth = 7500 // 5000, scale height in m } } } //Export //{ //resolution = 8192 //maxHeight = 12000 //oceanColor = 0.1255, 0.22353, 0.35683 //} } Mun { SSTScale = 0.9832 Radius = 1737100 rotationPeriod = 2360584.68479999 tidallyLocked = true axialTilt = 1.5424 GeeASL = 0.1654 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 384399000 eccentricity = 0.0549 inclination = 23.435 //5.145 to ecliptic; 23.435 avg to Earth's equator (+-5.145) period = 2360584.68479999 } SSFStart = 170000 SSFEnd = 175000 PQSfadeStart = 170000 PQSfadeEnd = 175000 PQSdeactivateAltitude = 180000 PQS { Mun { PQSMod_VertexHeightMap { heightMapDeformity = 9500 //7500 } PQSMod_VertexSimplexHeight // doubles { deformity = 1200 // 400 persistence = 0.7 //0.5 frequency = 1 // 12 //octaves = 10 // 8 // A DOUBLE } PQSMod_VertexHeightNoiseVertHeight // floats { deformity = 1200 // 400 frequency = 12 // 12 //octaves = 7 // 6 // INT } PQSMod_VoronoiCraters { KEYvoronoiSeed = 462 deformation = 600 //200 //voronoiFrequency = 100 //50 } } } } Duna { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 3396200 rotationPeriod = 88642.6848 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 25.19 atmosphereScaleHeight = 11.1 maxAtmosphereAltitude = 154000 atmosphereMultiplier = 0.0069 GeeASL = 0.379 Mass = 6.4185E+23 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 227939100000 eccentricity = 0.093315 inclination = 1.85 meanAnomaly = 19.3564 period = 59354294.4 LAN = 49.562 argumentOfPeriapsis = 286.537 } } // Phobos = Bop (largest mars's moon) Bop { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 11100 tidallyLocked = true Mass = 10720000000000000 GeeASL = 0.02 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 9377200 eccentricity = 0.0151 inclination = 26.04 period = 27553.843872 referenceBody = Duna } } //Deimos = Gilly (smaller mars's moon, AKA: Marathon) Gilly { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 6200 tidallyLocked = true Mass = 1480000000000000 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 23460000 eccentricity = 0.0002 inclination = 27.58 period = 109074.816 referenceBody = Duna } } //4 Vesta = Inacessable Inaccessable { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 287000 rotationPeriod = 19231 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 3 GeeASL = 0.025 Mass = 1.305E+22 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 321820000000 eccentricity = 0.08862 inclination = 7.134 meanAnomaly = 307.8 period = 114553440 LAN = 103.91 argumentOfPeriapsis = 149.84 referenceBody = Sun } } //Ceres = Ascension Ascension { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 487300 rotationPeriod = 32667 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 3 Mass = 1.305E+22 GeeASL = 0.028 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 413690604000 eccentricity = 0.0791 inclination = 10.857 meanAnomaly = 113.410 period = 145123488 LAN = 25 argumentOfPeriapsis = 70 referenceBody = Sun } } //Jupiter = jool Jool { SSTScale = 0.9999 Radius = 69911000 rotationPeriod = 35730 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 3.13 atmosphereScaleHeight = 27 maxAtmosphereAltitude = 374000 atmosphereMultiplier = 10 Mass = 1.8986E+27 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 778547200000 eccentricity = 0.048775 inclination = 1.305 meanAnomaly = 18.818 period = 374335776 LAN = 100.492 argumentOfPeriapsis = 275.066 } } //pol = IO Pol { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 1821300 tidallyLocked = true Mass = 8.9319E+22 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 421800000 eccentricity = 0.0041 inclination = 2.21 period = 152853.5047104 referenceBody = Jool } } //Eeloo = europa Eeloo { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 1560800 tidallyLocked = true axialTilt = 0.1 Mass = 4.7998E+22 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 671100000 eccentricity = 0.009 inclination = 0.47 period = 306822.0384 referenceBody = Jool } } //Ganymede = Tylo Tylo { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 2634100 tidallyLocked = true axialTilt = 0.2 Mass = 1.4819E+23 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 1070400000 eccentricity = 0.0013 inclination = 0.2 period = 618153.375744 referenceBody = Jool } } //Callisto = Ike Ike { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 2410300 tidallyLocked = true Mass = 1.075938E+23 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 1882700000 eccentricity = 0.0074 inclination = 0.192 period = 1441931.18976 referenceBody = Jool } } //Saturn = Sentar (Will only load with Planet Factory nov7+) Sentar { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 60268000 rotationPeriod = 38052 tidallyLocked = false atmosphereScaleHeight = 59.5 Mass = 5.6846E+26 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 1433449370000 eccentricity = 0.055723219 inclination = 2.485 meanAnomaly = 320.34675 period = 929596608 LAN = 113.642811 argumentOfPeriapsis = 336.013862 } } //Mimas = Thud Thud { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 202000 rotationPeriod = 81389 tidallyLocked = true axialTilt = 0 GeeASL = 0.0648 Mass = 1.080E+20 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 185520000 eccentricity = 0.0196 inclination = 1.574 meanAnomaly = 90 period = 81389 LAN = 0 argumentOfPeriapsis = 179 referenceBody = Sentar } } //Enceladus = Vall Vall { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 252100 rotationPeriod = 118386 tidallyLocked = true axialTilt = 0 GeeASL = 0.011 Mass = 1.080E+20 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 237948000 eccentricity = 0.004 inclination = 0.019 period = 118386 LAN = 0 referenceBody = Sentar } } //Tethys = Dres (mid sized Saturn Moon) Dres { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 1076000 rotationPeriod = 163106 tidallyLocked = true axialTilt = 0 GeeASL = 0.0147 Mass = 6.174E+20 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 294619000 eccentricity = 0 inclination = 1.12 meanAnomaly = 43 period = 163106 LAN = 0 argumentOfPeriapsis = 50 referenceBody = Sentar } } //Titan = Erin Erin { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 2576000 tidallyLocked = true Mass = 1.3452E+23 GeeASL = 0.14 atmosphereScaleHeight = 40 maxAtmosphereAltitude = 450 atmosphereMultiplier = 1.4478 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 1221870000 eccentricity = 0.0288 inclination = 0.34854 period = 1377648 referenceBody = Sentar } } //Iapetus = Skelton Skelton { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 1492000 rotationPeriod = 6853334.4 tidallyLocked = true axialTilt = 0 atmosphereScaleHeight = 0.1 maxAtmosphereAltitude = 0.1 atmosphereMultiplier = 0.1 GeeASL = 0.023 Mass = 1.8056E+21 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 3560820000 eccentricity = 0.028612 inclination = 15.47 meanAnomaly = 90 period = 6853334.4 LAN = 0 argumentOfPeriapsis = 179 referenceBody = Sentar } } //uranus = Ringle Ringle { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 25559000 rotationPeriod = 62063.712 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 97.77 atmosphereScaleHeight = 27.7 GeeASL = 0.886 Mass = 8.681E+25 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 2876679082000 eccentricity = 0.04440558 inclination = 0.772556 meanAnomaly = 142.955717 period = 2661041808 LAN = 73.989821 argumentOfPeriapsis = 96.541318 referenceBody = Sun } } //Puck = Pock (uranus 7th largest moon) Pock { Radius = 83000 rotationPeriod = 65822 tidallyLocked = true axialTilt = 0 GeeASL = 0.023 Mass = 1.8056E+21 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 86004000 eccentricity = 0.028612 inclination = 0.31921 meanAnomaly = 0 period = 65822 LAN = 0 argumentOfPeriapsis = 0 referenceBody = Ringle } } //Titania = Ablate (largest Uranus moon) Ablate { Radius = 788400 rotationPeriod = 752218 tidallyLocked = true axialTilt = 0 GeeASL = 0.038 Mass = 3.527E+21 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 435910000 eccentricity = 0.001 inclination = 0.340 meanAnomaly = 0 period = 752218 LAN = 0 argumentOfPeriapsis = 0 referenceBody = Ringle } } //Neptune = laythe Laythe { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 24764000 rotationPeriod = 31751136 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 28.32 atmosphereScaleHeight = 19.7 GeeASL = 1.14g Mass = 1.0243+10E+26 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 4553946490000 eccentricity = 0.011214269 inclination = 1.767975 meanAnomaly = 267.767281 period = 5200418592 LAN = 225 argumentOfPeriapsis = 0 referenceBody = Sun } } //Minmus = Triton Minmus { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 1353400 rotationPeriod = 507773 tidallyLocked = true axialTilt = 0.772556 maxAtmosphereAltitude = 30 atmosphereMultiplier = 0.07 GeeASL = 0.08 Mass = 2.14E+22 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 354759000 eccentricity = 0 inclination = 129.608 meanAnomaly = 156.885 period = 507773 LAN = 73.989821 argumentOfPeriapsis = 96.541318 referenceBody = Laythe } } //pluto = not much point without a nice replica of a bi-planetary system with charon Anyway, thanks a lot for the reply

Sorry if this has already been asked but i had no luck with the search for this thread. So, I was converting Vall to Encenladus, since Pluto is not even a planet and is so far away that it felt pointless to me to have it there. Then i saw that Laythe's atmosphere data in the cfg hasn´t be changed, neither it's gravity to match titan's. Is this setting anywhere else or is it still less than 1 ATM and 0.8g? How would i configure it's atmosphere to mimic titan's? Why not add it in the config? And the second thing is: While I was configuring Enceladus data i came across this values: LAN meanAnomaly and argument of Periapsis How do i configure these? I'm obviously using wikipedia's data. Tough i believe there should be websites with more complete data, like nasa's Thanks a lot.

Eve: 20~23km Laythe: 6~8km Kerbin: 7~10km Duna: Dunno, LOL (since the air friction is already very low, probably by 2~4km) Any other body with no atmosphere: As soon as you can, just don't crash on the mountais.

I do use mechjeb sometimes when i'm lazy, but when doing such "audacious" missions, it kinda beats the point of the challenge to me. External ladders instead of pods, landing at the highest possible mountain with mechjeb so you can sub-engineer stuff... Might as well just use hyperedit to put your vessel perfectly where you want and save the trouble. But hey, if you are having fun... that's what matter. Tough i was never particularly found of the new vibe of "achievements" in modern games, i think for KSP, it would make a lot of sense.

Oh my god, i didn´t know about that and i've being playing since version 0.15! I guess there is always something new to learn! I guess is because i never used trim features since i like to play on the xbox controller and hardly touch the keyboard otherwise than for action control.

@LeadMagnet Re-read the Op's question. He objectively wants to know the most efficient possible gravity turn. Yes, of course we all know this just a game and ultimately as long as we have fun, anyone can play as they like. But you can´t CLAIM, that a 15km gravity turn is an efficient turn because that is just simply wrong. And we are not condemning you by wanting to waste fuel either, you can of course play as you want. Just like when i'm bored and just feel like wasting fuel spinning around on a rocket or over engineering things, i do it shamelessly, that's just a game, but knowing the ideal ascent curve, could be a lifesaver if we want to role-play and do difficult missions with large launches that have limited fuel and d/v, so this is a relevant matter to discuss. There is no point in being relativist on objective matters such as this.

Ah, yes, of course it is a possible design, but not on an body with thick atmosphere. I also agree, in fact in my mission to Eve i did use a rover for doing SCIENCE and exploring the surface of Eve, however, since I aerobraked without a calculation (like MJ) to do a more challenging mission, i landed quite far away from the rover, and without cruise control on stock wheels, traveling nearly 70kms manually with it was prohibitive boring, so i didn´t use the rover manned.

I think using ladders or seats is a very cheaty way to do a mission to Eve, it has some validities, tough, of course, but makes it much easier. A proper command pod mission can´t be done with less than 150 tons for a low altitude launch (less than 1000m) I think the real changes lays on lauching from sea level. Ow, 40 tons is even less with a command pod than i would expect for this height. However, i noticed you used Mechjeb with makes things much easier, since landing precisely on those mountains is a pain in the ass tough due to difficult on precise aerobraking, and having a perfect ascent trajectory is also difficult, any mistakes in the ascent profile and you may lose 50, or even 100m/s of d/v. By the way a SRB? That thing is very inefficient. I've recently made a full Eve-return mission at low altitude on video, i think all parts of the missions are challenging, the landing is particularly annoying with such a large ascent vehicle since the surface of eve is very irregular and any slope may make the thing tip over. You can check my attempt here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/46553-Full-stock-mission-to-Eve-AND-BACK! I think it currents holds the lowest altitude-launch-orbit-capable-with-eve-ascent-vehicle-with-pod ever designed since the nerf of the aerospikes. I plan making a full mission log in english for this mission, already finished it in my native language. I disagree. Recently i made stock mission to both of this bodies with one and two kerbals. I did got surprised by the very large amount of d/v needed for LANDING on tylo, and the burn all the way to jool took a while but was something i was already more than experienced. The eve mission was more complex and by far the hardest, specially the design stage. But then again, if designing a ascent vehicle from 6km altitude, then it may be even lighter than the Tylo lander. I did it! (well, actually the only test i did with it was around 150 meters high) And with a pod design, not seats! A improved variant of the ship from the previous video, here a sneak peek: By the way, i didn´t use MJ on the mission because i think it also kinda of cheats the difficult process of landing and ascending, but i used for this SS because Kerbal engineer don´t track D/V properly. Also, 12,100m/s is an conservative number, since i also use part of the remaining RCS for pushing the upper ascents further away from the surface, so i'd say it's a 12,500d/v vehicle. And for a curiosity, whiy i think switching a command pod for a seat is cheaty: A bonus of 3500m/s of D/v on the same design. In fact i think i could pretty much as well just put two ladders on the sides of the command pod of this design and transfor it in a 3-kerbal return vehicle.

@Kasuha One of the two ships i tested on, is indeed a large asparagused rocket with 6 lateral orange tank boosters and a final nerva stage. pic related. I have to go to work now, by the end of the day i organize the results and post it here.

I decided to have some empirical data after so many people just throwing they random opinions over the table. I got specially concerned about some guys recommeding starting the curve over 15km of height, in my experience that is clearly a bad choice and a waste of fuel. Doesn´t matter if your rocket is too large heavy and weak. I did over 60 launches with 2 vehicles and 3 sub settings of engines for each with mechjeb and differenc ascenting profiles. I expected a very consistent data, it was, but with some small surprises. I'll organize everything and share the full report and conclusions here by the end of the day. What i can say tough, is that the sweet spot is indeed between 8~10km of height for starting the gravity both for large and small rockets, with either high TWR low ISP, and the opposite: LOW THRUST high ISP. Another interesting fact: The Sweet spot of acceleration, is 25m/s², anything above or bellow that is a waste of fuel.

Bandicam is much better than fraps in all possible ways. Mainly because it has much more option like recording directly at h264 while being still as light and efficient. I have been using it for more than an year now and i am still surprised of how large is the portion of the game community that still haven´t heard of it, they must really suck at advertising.

If you already on orbit, the less, the better. Ideally you would only want a single nerva booster for the whole thing. Since you don´t have to fight gravity to leave the ground, any small push in microgravity will be more efficient (at the same ISP) if the % of mass in fuel is bigger. Problem is, of course, by having a very massive tug in orbit with very low acceleration (less than 1m/s²) leaving orbit could be complicated. What i usually do is just put a pair of lvt-30 with their own fuel tanks dedicated to boost to escape velocity on such a tug and jettison then later when they are already in interplanetary space. Other option, that i usually do that is efficient you can see me doing in this video: Fragment the escape burn in several smaller burns in several different orbits. At 6:44 of the video you can see the TWR and mass of the ship: 290 tons, 240kn of thrust and a ridiculous 0.09 TWR. Still i managed to leave kerbin's orbit eventually and with less fuel than i would have needed with more mas on engines. The only reason i used two nerva engines per booster instead of one was by pure laziness since i knew burns would be awfully slow with just 120kn of thrust for such a massive interplanetary ship. Tough i knew by using 4 LV-Ns isntead of two, i would be considering reducing the effective d/v of each booster by more than 500m/s in total.