Jm419

I'm trying to upload to imageshack right now, but it's a pain. I'll give imgur a shot. Working on a solution to the problem, folks. Photos'll be back up shortly.

I dunno, I like it the way it is. You can always download the file and experiment with it! Let me know how it works!

I see that. Not quite sure why that is. I'm certainly not giving photobucket money, if that's what they want. Lol. Lemme see what I can do.

This has been around in one form or another since .19.1. It was built before the Skipper was released, but the Poodles are almost too powerful as it is - the second stage can make orbit! Maybe one day, I'll revisit it with Skippers in place of the Poodles on the 2nd and 3rd stages. Ah, the master speaks. Glad you like it - your craft are a lot of inspiration to this design, and your escape tower inspired me to build my own using the octagonal struts (before I saw Munbug, I was using the small liquid fuel tanks. ) Glad you like my flag! I thought it was classy but simple.

No problem. The action key 1 is set up to shut down gimbaling on the outside engines. It doesn't always work, so try right clicking on an outside engine, and hitting 1. You should see "lock gimbal" switch to "free gimbal," meaning that the outer engines are locked and only the central engine and the fins are used for steering. I also typically throttle up to 90 or 95% immediately after the pad; if you lock your gimbals in the first few seconds after leaving the pad, the stability really clears itself up.

Gorgeous work, folks. You're really doing the Saturn V justice. I'll be watching with bated breath until the final version is available. Full IVAs... wow.

Now, I know everyone has built one of these, but I figured it was time for me to throw my hat in the ring. With some inspiration from Sal_Vager's Apollo 15 mission, I was inspired to revisit my Duna-capable Jupiter series. The Jupiters, when built, were the tallest vehicles ever launched from the KSC (in my own game), and when I designed the lifter, I basically expanded on the Mercury VI I've built in the past. Here's the Mercury VI; my first Mun-landing-and-return capable rocket. You can see the general idea; the larger tanks drop off first, and the smaller inner tanks burned alongside the central stage. Once we drop the initial stages, we repeat the process higher up the vehicle. It's fairly stable, because of its size, and it was a good rocket at the end of the day. A variant serves as my low-Kerbin orbiter. To compare, here's the Jupiter I, older sister of (and only slightly different from) the ship that went to Duna. You can see my general design process here. See the similarities between the Jupiter and Mercury vehicle, if you ignore the payload? The Jupiter is essentially the Mercury, but stretched. This, naturally, led to some problems; while the Mercury suffered from some minor stability issues, these were amplified in the Jupiter. Don't get me wrong - the Jupiter's a good ship; you just need to baby it during launch. If anyone's interested, the craft files for these are available. (The Jupiter V is the last iteration of the Jupiter series; it's definitely Duna capable, it just has a few more bells and whistles than the I, which is pictured here, or the III which went to Duna). Mercury VI: http://www./view/1ymbv6g8a1yh164/Mercury_VI.craft Jupiter V: http://www./view/a4cyf69wymf21m5/Jupiter_V.craft The Jupiter series was my Apollo-style launcher - initially. Then, I chose to do a redesign of the launcher and lander so they were more faithful to the original Saturn V. Sal_Vager put together a phenomenal launcher, with proper engine arrangements and all, but I wanted mine to be a bit heavier, beefier. This doesn't use part clipping, mod parts, or anything like that. It's pure vanilla stock, so everyone can use it without worrying about it. It's a good looking launcher, without strut abuse, and I think it's one of the best stock Saturn V replicas available. Enough talk. On to the photos. A quick note here: these photos were taken during 3 separate flights. A demonstration launch was performed, and photographed. Then, my Apollo 11 was photographed starting about at the Mun landing. My Apollo 12 flight, completed today, filled in the rest of the gaps, so I think I have a pretty decent photographic record of how this thing stages, and how it looks in flight. Here's the vehicle and its stats on the pad. Fear not if the details are hard to see; there are plenty of photos further down in the thread of the upper stages. Note the low part count; I did that on purpose so even folks with lower end computers could use it. It runs pretty well on my own Mac, so I would think that almost everyone could use this. Some images of the vehicle in flight. I think this is an aesthetically pleasing launcher - few struts, and nice clean lines. Note the prototypical arrangement; 5 Mainsails standing in for the Saturn V's 5 F1s. The 1st stage boosts the ship to about 1100 m/s at something like 30 km altitude at a 15 degree graduated gravity turn (so 45* at 30 km). This is the second stage, powered by 5 Poodles in place of the Saturn V's 5 J-2s (Thanks, Rune!). This stage is almost capable of orbit; you could probably get it to orbit if you wanted it for an interplanetary flight, or something. We're talking, like, periapsis shows up just as this stage cuts out. It's really close - just like the real thing; I think one of the Apollo flight's second stages managed to make orbit. Firing away the escape tower a few seconds into the S-II burn, like the Saturn V. The escape tower is fully functional, and during early testing, saved the prime crew multiple times (you know how it is, testing a new heavy lifter - the first five launches are disasters until you fix the staging, balance the fuel, make sure the symmetry works, and put more struts on). It's set up to the Abort key in the Action groups - this maneuver, of discarding the escape tower once we clear the atmosphere, however, is normal staging. Discarding the second stage. Notice the Poodle on the third stage as well; the Saturn V used a single J-2 here, so I matched engines once again. The debris from the docking maneuver (which I apparently neglected to take photos of... still, it's easy enough, and all laid out in the staging) can easily be directed into a crash landing into the Mun, to dispose of it safely. (Assuming there isn't anyone under it... a four ton fuel tank at 800 m/s has some momentum behind it). Here's the actual payload for you, along with a continuing mission report. Lander has full landing and docking lights. Crew transfer. Apollo 11, you are go for undocking. The lander in all her glory. It has full science equipment, as well as probe bodies, ASAS, and power generators in case you want to leave the descent stage behind as a permanent fixture on the landscape. The CSM is a leftover from the Jupiter series, and has interplanetary fuel storage capacities. What you see is what you get, here. Three radial parachutes are mounted on the CM. The ascent stage departs the surface. The points in the background are the descent stage and the flag post. This is probably the biggest departure from the Apollo hardware with the radial rockets on the ascent stage, but it came down to fitting an ascent engine in without making the lander ridiculously tall. I think they're a fair compromise. The docking lights make even nightside docking easy. Once all the remaining fuel is transferred to the CSM, and the crew are all settled in, the RCS thrusters can bring the ship down to just under orbital velocity, where the spent ascent stage is undocked... ...and descends back to the Mun. Here, we're travelling at about 575 m/s, less than a hundred meters up. After that, all that's left is a relatively easy burn home. After passing over the KSC and waving to the folks at home, just disconnect the SM, and wait for the reentry heat. On this particular flight, we came in at just about 3200 m/s before slowing to atmospheric drag. Three chutes, just like the real thing. And splashdown. Home at last. It's a real treat to fly, and I think it's one of the best looking stock Saturn V replicas out there. It's a big powerful lifter that's nicely balanced and flies really nicely when the action key 1 is hit to stop gimbaling on the outside engines in both the first and second stages. I've not yet tested whether this is truly interplanetary or not, but that's coming up soon, once the rover variant gets tested properly. Here's a nice image of my custom flag to close the thread. The craft file, for anyone looking for an authentic Saturn V experience in KSP: http://www./view/uv29qprczqmo54j/Earth_V.craft Happy flying, everyone! Let me know what you think, and I'd love to see videos of your own flights with this rocket!

Do it! It'd be fun to see how you do a second time, if you manage to do it even better. Geesh, a quarter bar? You guys are all far better pilots than I am. Ha... probably not, no. I tell you what - I'll give you a new category - most creative solution. Sound like a plan?

Leaderboard's updated. Jenkinz, I assume you didn't have any fuel left on landing, like me. Tavert, I could edit the stage; I ditched the external tanks as soon as they were empty on my ascent burn. Interesting idea on returning the CSM, but remember, the LM couldn't survive reentry.

We've always referred to it as center of mass in classes, or the centroid.

Very cool. It's amazing how close the fuel is on this one, isn't it? Did you enjoy it?

Here's my entry: Since I was just fooling around at first, I don't have any of the early pictures from this flight. I started taking photos where it started getting awesome, as you'll see in a minute. The first part of the flight went like a typical Mun mission. Point the ship at the Mun as it rises over Kerbin's horizon, and burn. Mun orbit insertion was no big deal, but I did have to redock on separation when I realized I'd burned all the LM's fuel during the insertion. I also had no RCS left; I tried to use it for an orbit correction and ran out. Once I landed near one of the anomalies, I got out, planted a flag, and hopped right back in. I had a little less than half the lander's fuel left over, but once I dumped the drop tanks, it looked like I was going to manage orbit. After rendezvous, I realized there was no hope of docking without RCS and using only main engines when I needed all the fuel I had, I just EVA'ed over the Kerbals; something I'd only done once before. I parked next to the CM and transferred Bob from the LM to the CM and I had Bill deorbit the lander and fly back. That's where I started taking pictures. You can kinda see the lander falling back to the surface in the upper left quadrant of the image. Here, we're on an escape trajectory past the landing site and on a free-return trajectory for home. Here's the flag at Munar noon. It's the white KSP one; it just doesn't show up here because of the shadow. It was about at this point in the challenge that I realized there weren't any chutes on this CSM. Clearly, the devs didn't mean for us to bring the crew back home. After multiple aerobraking passes, I was ready to use the last of my fuel to slow myself down. The atmospere of Kerbin will actually slow almost anything to about 100 m/s when it hits the ground; that meant I only needed 100 m/s to land safely. Ideally. I'd literally never seen this before, as I don't use solar panels; the panels just exploded during reentry. Pretty darn cool. I ran out of fuel shortly after the last image was taken, resulting in a fall of about fifty meters down to the planet's surface... and this mess. But, hey, everyone made it! Mission report, for anyone who wants to see: And that is a successful mission, right there. Everyone made it back home. Good day at KSC. Now let's see your entries!

The Story As the Munshot A lifter cleared the tower, with the now famous trio of Jebediah, Bill, and Bob Kerman aboard, many a Kerbal at KSC breathed a sigh of relief. The budget cuts handed down by the Senate had forced the scrapping of the glorious heavy lifters of the past, and the smaller rockets like the Munshot series didn't have all the bells and whistles of the larger vessels. With the President pressuring KSC for a successful Mun launch, and the Senate slashing funding, the Munshot had been a rocket built more out of necessity than anything else, and the haste with which they were designed and built showed. All in all, they were lucky; now the Munshot A was in orbit, and everything was under control. Maybe if Jeb could plant a flag in the Munar surface and salute, the old patriotic fervor would return and the KSP would be a national darling again. One thing everyone at the Cape knew was how tight the mission was going to be: the fuel and RCS were bare minimums for the flight ahead. There was one major flaw lurking ahead that no-one had forseen... they would soon find out just how difficult this mission was going to be. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Challenge Your challenge is, in part, to complete the ingame tutorial "To the Mun, Part 1." It's in the Training section, under the "Start Game" menu. Now, I know what you're all thinking. "I did that, way back when I was learning how to do transfer burns!" It is, frankly, an easy tutorial. You start off in Kerbin orbit, with this spacecraft: Gene Kerman tasks you with flying this ship to low Mun orbit. Then, the tutorial ends. Though Gene says something along the lines of, "You can land this perfectly functional spacecraft if you're up to it," there is no ingame tutorial about how to land. I decided to see how true Gene's statement was, and my question creates the fundamental challenge here. "Is it possible to land this spacecraft on the Mun, rendezvous with the command module in Mun orbit, then return the crew safely to the surface of Kerbin?" It is, I discovered, a very difficult task. I like to think I'm a decent pilot. I typically overengineer my ships, true, but I like launching big rockets with plenty of fuel. My current Munship is probably Duna capable, and I have docking down to a science. This particular scenario, however, was incredibly challenging to me, and had me trying things I've not done before, just to get the crew home. It was the most fun I've had playing KSP in a while. It's recommended that this is for advanced pilots only. If you think you've got what it takes, read on. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Your challenge is as follows: --You must land on the surface of the Mun and plant a flag there. --You must return all three Kerbals safely to the surface of Kerbin. Use of the LM is not allowed for Kerbin reentry, as it would disintegrate. In order for your entry to be considered a winner, you must fulfill the above requirements. To prove it, you'll need: -An image of your landing site (or your flag... I didn't remember to take a shot before I took off, so all I have is the flag shot. Don't cheat here; it's no fun) -An image of your ship, or its remains, on Kerbin with the crew standing (or swimming) outside it. If you want to compete further, I'll grade whoever has the most fuel left at the end of the mission as the winner there. However, getting the crew home is your first priority; therefore, your spacecraft is expendable. Rules: As the whole stock vs. mods thing is moot here, considering you're not designing the spacecraft or putting it in orbit, I'll only make a brief note on this. As this is, essentially, a piloting test, Mechjeb or other auto-pilot programs are not allowed. Heck, I didn't even use maneuver nodes in my playthrough. As for the rest; no config editing, no debugs, nothing like that. Just play the stock scenario through, land on the Mun, and come back home. Sound simple enough? Why should I play this challenge? You're very limited on fuel the whole trip, you have essentially no RCS (compared to what I usually fly with, anyway), a single stage lander with droptanks... and no parachutes. It's a really tough challenge, but with a bit of talent on the piloting side of things, it's very rewarding. MISSION SUCCESSFUL (CREW RETURNED SAFELY) 1. kookoo_gr 2. tavert 3. Jenkinz 4. RocketPilot573 5. LEADERBOARD (FUEL REMAINING) 1. tavert (267 units fuel) 2. RocketPilot573 (44 units fuel, 53 units oxidizer) 3. kookoo_gr (10 units fuel, 25 units oxidizer) (Estimated) 4. 5. Most Creative Solution 1. Nao (10 hr EVA, aerobraking a Kerbal... lol) My entry coming up in the next post.

The game is much better for me. As a Mac user, I've regained the functionality of the annoying little things .19 killed, like the invisible EVA button or the invisible Apoapsis height. The load times are faster, the physics runs smoother... all in all, I couldn't be happier.

As a Mac user, this absolutely made my whole day; the load times are far better, the game performs better, the apoapsis and eva missing information is gone... I for one am very pleased with .20. .18.4 destroyed the game for me, so I know how you feel - but I want the game to stay this way, now that it works properly on my machine.

I could not for the life of me figure that out. I'll go take a look and see if I can fix it. Thanks, Kalawag. Your videos are great - better than mine, I'd say! I wish more accurate models of real rockets were put in the game - stock replicas are all well and good, and you do a better job than most, but there's something special about flying a Mercury Redstone. Also, anyone have a lead on a good Saturn V model? I've spliced together a few, but the darn thing is so wobbly it's almost impossible to fly.

Did anyone watch the new video?

Also, Kalawag - thanks for the vids, but they slow the thread load time way down. Could you un-embed and link 'em instead?

https://www.youtube.com/analytics?o=U#fi=v-LEJWcOTH9W4 Friendship 7 - John Glenn Here's my newest video. Still playing with the graphics, but I figured out the render range for Kerbin makes a big difference for my framerate.

I was going to suggest something, but... this. Just this.

Mechanical engineering student here who doesn't use Mechjeb. Still, just because I don't doesn't mean anyone else shouldn't. It just means I'm better. Ok, ok, I kid. I had you there for a second, though, right?

I've got another video uploaded: link is going in the first post. Liberty Bell 7 had a successful (mostly) flight, just like the real thing.

It's a bit annoying, but I've learned to adapt. I've flown to Duna and back on this machine, lol.

Doesn't hurt to dream, right?

But I argue that not all aliens are weather balloons, rendering your first conclusion invalid. Also, Premise 3 is unnecessary.