georgTF

Going to Minmus would require quite a bit of Delta-V (1000 approx.), and you would require a fuel station up there as well so that's 2 complications. Another complication is Minmus' position in relation to Kerbin which could be a minor annoyance or a big problem. Then there's the chance of the Mun also getting in the way of your vessel as it drops "down" to Kerbin and altering your trajectory. And the final problem is inclination. Mun is not a problem but Minmus is in an inclined orbit and boy can that mess up your slingshot. The only positive is that you would get a nice boost as Kerbin accelerated you to about +3000 m/s before doing the ejection burn (and i guess the slingshot as well but that might not even work). That's not really enough to outweight the negatives. At least not for Duna which is fairly easy to reach (again around about 1000 m/s in my experience). -fuel/getting to Minmus -logistics (Minmus base setup & supply) -Minmus position -Mun position -inclination +Oberth effect +Kerbin slingshot I've done it, liked it, but i've also done it from a low orbit around Kerbin and that is preferable. A Duna bound ejection burn does not benefit much from the Oberth effect, although Jool or Eloooo might, idk.

Unfortunately lots of parts refuse to connect radially at first. Like Tw1 mentioned, the solution is to attach them to something else, then grab and connect radially. It will work normally after the part has been connected once. Using this should save you from pulling your hair out.

i5 3570k 3,4 GHz (using onboard HD4000 gfx chip) GIGABYTE Z77X-UD3H motheboard 8 Gb ram GSKILL something (ripjaws maybe) 1 Gb WD HDD Bought it last July so it's fairly new. The CPU & mobo were pricy, but worth it. Esp. since i saved ~100E not buying a gfx card. I'm not a heavy gamer so the hD4000 is good enough. I'm also slightly surprised with loading times over a minute but mods are probaly the reason for it. Even if some can load the game faster, the part counts are the equaliser. Anything over 400 is only sensible if it's a heavy lifter and will drop tanks and struts as it ascends. My stations are fairly basic because i like to keep the part count really low. Most other craft i try to keep <100 if possible.

You're right. I timed it and it took 27 seconds. I exaggerated because it really felt like no time at all. Interesting you mention the logo, it was on for only 3s. I have almost no programs running so i guess the system can devote more to KSP. The only active apps are driver utilities and firewall, nothing else.

3 seconds from a regular HDD. I have an Intel i5 and 8 Gb of RAM, but the only mods i like are Subassembly and Alarm Clock. That is loading a save game, main KSP takes around 10 seconds to load. However the highest part counts i can lift without serious lag is about 300-400. The highest ever was ~700 and it was hideously slow until i dropped enough stages. It's pretty meaningless though as the game is in alpha and un-optimised and all that. The main thing is that it's very stable and great fun to play.

Two ways around it are to switch to another craft that isnt restricted and warp time from there. Or better yet, go up into a higher orbit. 120k is all it takes to warp faster than 50x Personally i dislike LKO and find the athmosphere to close for maneuvering. Plus there's a bit of debris here and there from succesfull stress-tests around 100-250k orbits and map targeting is annoying. So i refuel in 450k orbit although some may find that too high for a space station.

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Looks nice. Minmus is so much prettier than the Mun, even if it takes more dV to reach, and the gravity can be tricky sometimes. I'm building a few settlements there myself, but am currently figuring out a re-fueling orbital station. In fact i'd suggest you try landing "pods" with a resuable skycrane. Fewer parts (engines n tanks mostly) are needed. And if you have wheeled pods, you can tow them with a heavier rover.

It happens sometimes for no good reson. Try: Quicksave, Quickload, Esc to ksc. That usually works.

I would suggest redesigning the rover. It's fine as is but if you moved the cockpit forward and placed a docking port in the middle (facing up), you could attach the rover to a skycrane. A fairly simple one could lower it to the Mun, and if you assigned the docking port to an action group, you could detach the rover when hovering close to the ground without losing control of the crane. That makes delivery easier and possibly saves you the crane for future use. And it's pretty cool too. For the main ascent i'd build the rover+crane, flip it upside down, add a decoupler or docking port to detach the crane once you orbit the Mun, and the main rocket would be beneath. - Docking port, ASAS, OCTO2 probecore, battery ring, RCS fual tank, and some solar panels. The fuel and engines fit below. - Two big orange tanks, one medium with a Mainsail beneath. Strut up the connections between tanks to add strength. Add RCS thrusters to the rocket or you wont be able to turn it. - 6-way symmetry enabled for 6 radial decouplers, then attach to each the same tanks and engine as the main rocket. Strut up the tanks or else they fall apart, and also add conections between the rockets because radial decouplers are not very strong. - Take any pair of oposite rad. decouplers and put them together in one stage. Place a fuel line between the bottom tank and it's neighbour tank. Do this on both sides. Then find the decouplers for this pair of rockets and put them together in one stage, set above the previous pair. Again connect the bottom tank to it's neighbour with a fuel line. Place the remaining pair of decouplers in a stage, again set to stage after the previous pair and connect the bottom tanks to the main rocket bottom tank this time. This will ensure that fuel allways flows to your main rocket, and the outer rockets run out of fuel in pairs. You can drop empty rocket pairs by staging the decouplers. Depending on payload, you should be circularising your orbit shortly after dropping the last pair and can complete the rest of your trip on the main rocket. - Once the whole thing is built you should stabilise the skycrane+rover by adding plenty of struts. They will be gone as you drop tanks, and also once you decouple the main rocket. Don't forget a probe core for your skycrane, and give it some batteries or solar panels. Skycranes also benefit from having lights pointing downwards for night landings. Balance is crucial, you want the docking port/decoupler to be on the CoM of both vehicles, otherwise you will lose stability. Here is my first succesfull rover delivery. It's not the best by a parsec or two, but it did the job. I crashed the rover within two minutes though... sadly. And here is a later, more refined variant of rover+skycrane. I totally stole the skycrane from someone. Thanks, great design. Here is an example of the rocket i described. It's already ditched all tanks and delivered payload so it's about to deorbit itself.

Don't be ashamed to study and copy the Nova 100+ t lifter design. I have built a slightly weaker lifter along those lines and it's the best behaved rocket design i have, and there's not a thing it can't lift (well there IS a limit but normally my payloads do not weigh too much). An excellent design, highly recommended. (Although when fully strutted up with a payload it can reach a high part count) The MOLAB itself looks fantastic. Scary stuff if you hit 30 m/s with it i imagine...