M5000

This thread is actually spawning a world of different reactions I never even thought of.. Flowchart.. Brilliant...

Alright, so I think I'm not alone when I say that I spend a lot of time thinking about what missions I want to do, and building/testing for them, and actually less time /doing/ them. I think there should be a thread where we do just that. So here. Let's talk about all the things we want to do/have done in attempts to formalize our missions. I'm not saying anyone is actually going to stick to what they post here, but I think it'll be interesting to see how people want to progress through the game. Maybe you have more scattered missions in these alpha versions, and want a more structured mission plan when 1.0 hits, I don't know, but I think it would be fun to design a basic outline for what you hope to accomplish, in an ideal world. So, I'll go to give you all ideas as to what I'm talking about, in chronological order. -Design a craft that can perform a sub-orbital flight. -Design a craft that can place a satellite in some type of orbit. -Design a craft that can place a Kerbal into sub-orbital trajectory and return the Kerbal safely. -Design a craft that can place a Kerbal into an orbit and land the Kerbal safely back on Kerbin. -Design a reliable launch vehicle that can be quickly built and launched for repeatable results of similar missions. -Design a reliable launch vehicle that can be quickly built and launched for repeatable manned missions. -Perform an orbital docking. -Perform an orbital rendezvous. -Send an unmanned probe into orbit of one of the local moons. -Send an unmanned lander onto the surface of one of the local moons. -Send an unmanned rover onto the surface of one of the local moons. -Send a manned orbital-only mission to one of the local moons. -Send a manned surface landing to one of the local moons, returning all Kerbals home safely. -Construct a set of launch vehicles capable of lofting payloads of varying mass to LKO. Use these basic "skeleton" launch vehicles for all relevant missions on out, making improvements as they are realized. -Send an unmanned probe on an escape trajectory of Kerbol. -Send an unmanned probe to every subsystem in the Kerbol system. -Design and construct an orbital station in LKO. -Maintain station in LKO. -Send an Ordan Industries Telescope into high orbit and gaze upon the stars and planets. -Design a very compact single-launch station outpost with long term self-orbit-keeping ability and place it in Kerbinsychronous orbit. -Send an unmanned lander to Duna. -Send a series of unmanned rovers to Duna. -Send a series of unmanned probes to the Eve system. -Send an unmanned lander to Eve. -Design a single-stage-to-orbit craft designed for re-use during crewed missions. -Design a single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane to cut costs. -Send an atmospheric probe to Jool. -Send a manned mission to land on Duna and return safely. -Begin preliminary intense surface study of Mun and Minmus. -Construct an orbital Mun station to act as a go-between for frequent Mun surface missions. -Construct a large fuel depot in LKO. -Send parallel unmanned missions to Duna to construct an orbital station relatively quickly. -Send an unmanned rover to Laythe. -Begin long-term habitation of the Duna station. -Construct a surface scientific base on the Mun. -Construct a surface scientific base on Minmus. -Begin mining/habitation operations of Mun. -Begin mining/habitation operations of Minmus. -Send parallel manned and unmanned missions to Duna to construct a scientific surface base, while also changing out the original station crew with new members. -Send parallel unmanned missions to the whole Jool system to scan for resources. -Construct a high-capacity LKO habitation station. -Construct a high-capacity fuel depot in very high Kerbin orbit to act as a refueling station for passing missions. -Send several more unmanned rovers, landers, and probes to Laythe. -Send parallel manned and unmanned missions to Laythe to construct an orbital station with a docked single-stage-to-orbit vessel. -Use the single-stage-to-orbit vehicle to perform a manned descent to the surface of Laythe. -Take off your space helmets and breathe alien air for the first time in Kerbal history. -Send an upscaled surface base to Laythe. -Send parallel missions to Duna to create a mining and habitation base. -Begin preparations for a Grand Tour of the Kerbol system. -Send an unmanned probe as close to Kerbol as possible. -Send parallel unmanned rover missions to Eve. -Scout Eve for the highest point possible in preparation for a manned landing. -Send a manned return mission to and from Eve. -At the highest point on Eve, construct a self-sustaining very large surface colony. -Perform regular missions to visit the Eve colony. -Design a non-atmospheric lander with mining capabilities that is able to land and take off from Tylo or Moho, in preparation for the Grand Tour. -Design a very efficient SSTO to couple on to the Grand Tour vessel in order to use on Laythe and possibly other very low gravity moons. From there.....? Who knows.. Maybe interstellar if that gets implemented... As you can see I have plans. I've already done half of that in a mismatched order, but I'd really like to follow a structure. So does anyone else have a wall of text they'd like to share?

Well there's your problem.

This. As soon as I decouple my second actual stage (most of my rockets consist of radial boosters, a central booster, a smaller high-altitude/orbital tug with higher ISP thrusters, and then the payload) I prepare myself for a rolling about all over the place of my craft... Even with ASAS.. I guess the sudden change in center of mass makes it go wonky...

I agree very strongly with this. If you feel the game lacking, try downloading some mods. If you have enough, you'll probably have an update around the corner almost every week, as different mod developers are on different schedules. Like, MechJeb has been allowed a public release candidate of 2.0.something for a bit, that's regularly updated and it's always cool to see the new features. Or, my favorite DragonRider Capsule just got updated like, yesterday, after a LONG time with no updates. Kosmos SSPP receives small updates periodically with new parts that are absolutely cool. I just got B9 and it feels like a whole new flavor of the game. (They go very well as spaceplane components to the KW Rocketry pack, IMO) Seriously, getting some mods will take the edge off of that anxiety of waiting for the game to be finished. I'm still obsessed with building big stations using all these wonderful new parts I have to explore.

I don't know.. Here's some stuff I made, you tell me what you think I do... Actually, here, let's play a game. I'll list a bunch of craft I have, as they are/were named, and you try to identify what a few of them are, are they rovers? Satellites? Launch vehicles? Stations? Planes? AIRSHIPS? You try to figure it out: Embarker I Embarker II Embarker III Calla I Scius Mapping Probe Denebola-1 Medium Denebola-2 HeavyMed Betelgeuse-1 Heavy Alphard-1 UltraLight Canopus-X UltraHeavy Pollux-5 Special Stability-9 Hab Station KerbLab One KerbLab Two Budget Systems General Purpose Lifter Usable Launch Vehicle 1 X-10 Jolly Rancher ADFX Damselfly Mk I Brightstar-1 Knievel-1 ULOP Mun Base Prodigy-II Core Archernar-II Pegasus-15 Shuttle Alphard-1 Alphard-2 Alphard-3 Alphard-4 Tortuga-II/R Arcturus-I Burnstar-I Setter-I HEV-HAB MEG-HAB BAR-MEGHAB Mk III HEV-STRUCT Kitten Mk I Kitten Mk II Pioneer-1/M Pioneer-1 Pioneer-2 Pioneer-3 Pioneer-4 Polark/A NVMSS Tuxaedo IVA_Landertest Kerbuz-1 RRV Kerbuz-1 SRV Munox-II Spacebus Fetcher Unmanned Tug Drifter A-Type Rigid Zeppelin DX4 Casper MunR Construction Rover MunR Light All Purpose Rover Don't feel bad if that looks like a lot of really cool craft. About 70% of those never left the surface of Kerbin.

Whoa, just updated this mod from the old one, it's been a while. Absolutely LOVE those truss parts. Beautiful work as always CBBP. As far as requests, I really don't think there's anything else I could possibly ask for out of this entire pack, as it pretty much has all the bases covered (no pun intended). The only thing I still want is IVA's and hatches for EVA on the other modules, but I understand you can't devote every waking second to fulfilling my every desire. Though, I know you can DO IVA's, because the IVA on the VA pod is absolutely stunning, and I may actually start to use it more than the stock 3-man pod, so very good work with that. All in all, one of the (few) mods I would install in KSP 1.0. (Anything pre-1.0 I'm basically considering a "mod test" to see what I want to be in my final game. I don't plan on changing much once that happens.)

Is the IVA complete for this model yet? I remember it not having any textures.. Either way, great video... I've used this in the past but it got lost on the wayside when I slimmed down my game to trim load times, about to go re-download..

Got B9 Aerospace last night, did a test of a semi-reuseable shuttle, the Pegasus-15. I was aiming for a 100% reusable rocket SSTO for station rendezvous, but this is my start. Sent it up with 4 kerbals, dropped them at my Stability-9 station, did some shenaniganing, and used its ability to be automated to send it off for a return path with nobody inside. I ended up overshooting KSC by a few kilometers and had a water landing, but it (mostly) survived. Here are some pics.. Full imgur album: http://imgur.com/a/obrKI Highlights: On the pad. I think it's a good looking little vessel... Pegasus-15 docked with Stability-9 on one of its myriad docking ports. Stability-9 is not fully complete, a fuel module is to be added. Note the two other OTV's docked to the core, there is a 3-man OTV and a small, unmanned tug for the purpose of dragging in dead or stranded vessels, or delivering to them some small amount of fuel. Pegasus-15's solar panels are retracted. Jeb being Jeb. The beautiful IVA is from the B9 cockpit on Pegasus-15. Pegasus-15 performs an unmanned retroburn with the goal of landing near KSC, ultimately the burn goes as planned, but the targeting was off due to uh... Me. Pegasus-15 re-enters Kerbin's atmosphere after approximately two days in-game time. It uses Mechanical Jeb to keep the bottom docking port aligned prograde. Pegasus-15 splashes down via a parachute-assisted landing in the ocean, about 10 kilometers east of KSC. Note that the hard landing destroyed the KW Rocketry Vesta-VR-9D engine that was on the rear. The G-forces generated from the rapid deceleration upon full deployment of parachutes also ripped off the stored solar panels that were on the sides. Hm...

Basically what Vanamonde said. I've been playing for a month or so now, there's still some places I haven't been, and there's others that are just like second nature to me, but honestly, about 90% of my in-game time is spent designing stuff and in the VAB/SPH trying to make something that works and isn't completely ugly. I'm CONSTANTLY trying to find a better lifter, trying to go that extra mile. Am I the most efficient space launcher? CERTAINLY not. Am I improving? Most definitely. Try out every part and don't discount anything. There is always more than one way to do anything. Find the game lacking in content or parts? Try some mods or parts packs, do what makes you happy. Do it at YOUR pace.

Parachutes do not make a craft one-use-only, if it's a manned craft, the Kerbal on board can re-pack the chutes for later use...

Damn. I almost had a good entry for this one, as the impactor on the badge in my signature hit the planet at something like 7500m/s...

It's simple: You don't. Struts out the ass or you're out of luck..

This. Also, OP I don't know what kind of fiddlefarting you're doing, but I've gotten a probe to Gilly and slowed down enough on ion engines alone... Also, you probably didn't have enough Delta-V because you didn't put many Xenon containers on there. My Jool system mapping probe had something like 8000m/s of delta-V...

This, except for some reason my craft in a 100% stable 80Km orbit around Kerbin started re-entering. I rushed to see my craft in flames.

I seriously read the title as "A fire is put on your desk." I start mining on Mun, Minmus, Gilly, and Pol. Mun: Close as hell to Kerbin. High deposits of Kethane, so I imagine the other resources would be abundant there as well, and if not, whatever I COULD get from the Mun is, you know, right on my doorstep, no multi-month mining missions. Minmus: Basically the same reasons as the Mun, except the color is much more annoying. Gilly: Pretty much the lowest delta-V cost to get to interplanetary. Easy to take off and land on, though rendezvous with the huge captured asteroid is a bit tricky. Easy to map, I'm guessing. Pol: Similar reasons to Gilly, as it's the SECOND lowest gravity planet currently in the game. However, preliminary mapping shows that Kethane deposits are scarce (yet present), and if resource density is assumed to be the same for other resources, it may be limiting in the places we can mine. Duna is another viable option, as the atmosphere allows for parachute landing (shut up, it does, I've had a design fail because the skycrane touched down safely with parachutes and had to be thrown away so the rover can be deployed.) So, a parachute landing would rid a lot of delta-V, and it just seems like a friendly place to set up a base. Like, it just feels /right/.

Of course, how could I be so blind..

Large spacecraft will hover in the atmosphere using a high concentration of refined Handwavium-66 and a hyperconflagurator propulsordrive that will effectively provide artificial lift.

That is absolutely false. They get physics just like any other part. They have some mass, they have some drag (albeit small) and they most certainly can fall to the ground or be launched out into space just like any other debris. Stick some struts on to a stack separator, then some other part. Go out into orbit and detach that stack separator, the struts will fly away with some velocity. Yup, definitely no physics calculations here.

What do you mean they're too high? Speed is good... If you mean they're taking too long to get off the ground and you end up running out of runway or something, then just add more wings, your lift isn't high enough..That's the only thing that could really cause it to take too long to take off... Else if you've already spammed wings all over and it's still not acting right, add more control surfaces, or add some if you don't have any.

Are you sure that you installed it correctly? It's not like just any other mod to install it... It's a bit weird.. And for the love of god, will people stop posting help/how to things in General Discussion? It's getting REALLY annoying. There is a forum specifically designed to handle this type of stuff, so please, use it.

*cue Duck Tales The Moon theme*

Lozon Kerman, lost after the first successful SSTO spaceplane re-entered and overshot the KSC by a few (50 or so) Kilometers, with only very minimal fuel remaining... Hit the ocean at 120m/s

I think so.. There's a lot of Soyuz models that progressed over the years, starting with the 7K, of course.

Told me she wanted to go stargazing some time. I need a spot to do it, though, more than anything. Also very pretty. Are there even any girls who play this besides the "famous" ones that everyone knows?