annikk.exe

I think I've been given an impossible mission. The mission is to take gravity readings from 11,900m above Duna's surface in a specific spot. The problem is that the game won't allow me to take gravity readings in the upper atmosphere, which is everywhere between 41,446m (according to the wiki) and about 5,000m (from experimentation). If I try to take a gravity reading anywhere within this range, the game tells me "Gravity scan can't be done right now." Screenshot: My save file: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzsgpelyP3DITGo3QWxra1BrNW8/view?usp=sharing (There's a "download" button in the bar at the top. You may need to mouse-over the bar before it appears.) I'm using the 32 bit version of KSP 0.90. Windows 7 x64 Pro i7-3770K cpu 8GB RAM Nvidia Geforce GTX 680 Hopefully this isn't just me doing the mission wrong.. that would be embarrassing..

Omfg guys i hef been h4xd! Pls help ;_;

I believe Kerbals have a mass of 0.05 tons, however I'm not sure if they still have that mass when onboard a vessel. The main difference is that you would need to take a heavier pod than the mk1 pod. In fact, you'd be at least double the payload weight.

I undertook and completed a task very similar to this back during Alpha 0.24. The mission requirements were as follows: 1. Manned return journey to Eve 2. No stages/junk to be left in orbit anywhere 3. No refuelling 4. No docking/undocking 5. Kerbal must be able to get out and walk around on the surface of Eve. 6. Kerbal must return home alive in the same ship. 7. Stock parts only From my experience, the hardest part of all is getting the landing stage right. I spent weeks (in real life) testing it on Kerbin to make as sure as possible that it would perform as expected upon arrival at Eve. The asparagus was so intense during takeoff from Eve that I was advancing a stage every 1.5 seconds. A few notes on things I learned during the experience. You can't afford anything extra. No science, no legs, no parachutes... all of that stuff is too heavy, and will need to be detached before you begin Eve liftoff. Also, 48-7S is the only viable engine imho. Toroidal Aerospike is too heavy. TWR is king here. With so much fuel and complexity, the landing is very dangerous, so I used a huge number of parachutes. The design is like this: Fuel Tank > Cube > Decoupler > XL Parachute > Cube > Drogue Parachute > Sepatrons The drogue chutes deploy first, then the XL chutes... this is to slow the craft down more gently during descent, to prevent damage. Once landed, the decouplers and sepatrons fire and the parachutes are detached and thrown safely away from the craft. The landing legs are also on decouplers, fired during liftoff from Eve at the same time as the engines. The weight of the legs is more than zero, so they have to go. The whole thing was about 70 stages in total. Enough for a single Kerbal in a Mark 1 pod to go to Eve, then go home. I didn't take any science modules or anything else whatsoever - the only "payload" was the pod with 1 kerbal inside. I made it home with a very small amount of fuel to spare in my final fuel tank. Getting 3 Kerbals home would not have been possible with my design, it would require a much bigger rocket or breaking the docking or refuelling rules. Or three seperate journeys. Hope that this gives you some ideas to optimize your rocket. Good luck. :>

Here's a very fast aircraft I made, it uses the Interstellar power receivers and Thermal Turbojet, and requires an orbiting power transmitter to operate. DemonCraft It behaves like a gentle glider with the power turned off. With the power turned on, it's crazy fast. I built a similar, even faster craft: Hurricane It sacrifices some handling ability for a great deal of extra power. As I recall, with a suitable amount of input power, it can produce 10,000kn of thrust. Note that neither of these aircraft is designed for high-altitude flying. The engine will overheat and explode if you attempt to take them into the upper atmosphere.

I think I've noticed an AWESOME bug... Last night, I downloaded 0.25 and started playing. First mission, I did the typical Scott-Manley-Style 3-solid-boosters-with-no-decouplers to get into space to complete the first 3 contracts. On the way back down, I got an EVA report from the upper atmosphere. I then right-clicked the capsule and chose Take Data, with the intention of getting back inside then doing a second Crew Report from the upper atmosphere. Then the atmosphere burn began. The rocket went shooting upwards and Jeb's jetpack wasn't even close to powerful enough to get back to it. Oh dear, I thought - my first mission and I've just shafted it. Then something strange happened... I hit the ground, and Jeb bounced! I couldn't believe it. He bounced something like 200 metres into the air, then fell back down again. I hit spacebar, and he stood up and shook himself off! I was then able to recover him, and received a whole bunch of science that by rights should really have been a bloody puddle somewhere in Kerbin's grasslands... In summary, although I can't be sure without further testing, it seems as though taking data might make kerbals invincible.. Can anyone confirm ? :>

"The Financial Frontier" gets my vote!

Could it be because the Spaceplane Hanger is in the way? Microwave Power Transmission is based off line of sight. You should also be right-clicking the receiver that is pointing towards the generators. The ones facing away won't receive any power because they aren't pointing in the right direction. Another thing to check is that your engine is using the correct fuel mode (right click while on the launch pad). If it's a plasma thruster, I believe they default to Quantum Vacuum mode, which doesn't work for take-off.

Near sea level. This is using the Interstellar mod.

With a sufficient number of intakes (6-7 per turbojet engine) I've found I can keep firing my turbojet very gently all the way up to 70km. Above 50km the turbojet provides perhaps 0.5kn, but the drag is so low up there that even such a small thrust as that is often enough to maintain the apoapsis. Using that technique I've been able to get a periapsis with turbojets and come within about 50m/s delta v of a low kerbin orbit. So this is why I made the thread.. I'm wondering why everyone is in the business of closing intakes..

Thanks. Can anyone suggest a test where I could verify this? Small rocket engine at 30,000m perhaps?

I've heard that closing air intakes reduces drag. This was news to me. Excited by the possibility, I set up an aircraft with about a dozen intakes then went for a test flight. I flew straight at about 2000m altitude, then tried toggling most of the intakes off. I expected to see a minor speed increase due to reduced drag. However, I was not able to observe and change at all in the craft's speed. What is the deal here? How does closing intakes help? What test can I perform to verify that closing intakes does something?

Thanks Zuni :>

Still very impressive. It's clearly meant to be a replica/work of art rather than a form-follows-function speedboat. :>

You should be able to land it manually without much difficulty. (I disapprove of MechJeb, HyperEdit, etc... so ignore me if you want) Landing on Eve with thrust alone is easier than you might think, as the terminal velocity at sea level is only 50m/s. The trick will be trying to land quickly, so as not to burn too much fuel.

Wow, that's awesome! :> Able to answer above questions about it? :>

Hello, I was a bit disillusioned at how quickly my boat thread got buried in this extremely busy forum. I had somewhat been hoping to exchange design tips with other experienced builders. That didn't really happen... ergo, this thread. I have questions: Have you built a boat out of stock parts? Did it work? How did you get it into the water? What is the top speed and handling like? How long does the fuel supply last? What guiding principles do you follow for building a boat? Please, KSP community... share with me your knowledge and screenshots, such that I might improve my own crafts.. :>

Thanks for the kind words. Water Strider sounds good. Done! :>

Hi folks, this is the first craft I've submitted on these forums (excluding challenges). Be gentle please ! This is my current Boat design. Water Strider Features - 200m/s straight line speed - Stable at this speed even with gradual steering - Stable during hard steering at up to 50m/s - Kerbal has nice IVA view, and ladders available to enter and exit the craft should swimming be deemed necessary - Fast launch system - no need for trundling over to the water on wheels Instructions 1. Goto launch 2. Enable SAS (T) 3. Space bar to fire first stage. Now just wait. 4. Once solid motor has finished, press space to jettison it. 5. Wait a few seconds, then hit space a third time for parachutes. 6. Disable SAS (T) while descending on parachutes. It's fine to speed up time to x4, it won't break things. Go x1 for chute opening and water landing, though. 7. Once landed, press space repeatedly to jettison parachutes. 8. After landing, wait about 30 seconds for the boat to stabilise before enabling SAS (T) and gunning the engines, otherwise the boat will be unstable. https://www.dropbox.com/s/4o0ilbfdpjz2jmo/Water%20Strider.craft Feedback and suggestions welcome! :>

All chutes stay attached, even when another chute opens beneath the first ones. :>

Here is my entry, the unimaginitively titled "SSTO". It weighs 3.22 tons only, so I think this should be a contender for the minimalist design? The current best in this category seems to be just under 5 tons. Click for gallery I'll edit this post and add the craft file when I'm allowed to attach files! :> EDIT: for now, here's a dropbox link instead. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ya0bra5iyb7toro/SSTO.craft Also just realised someone has done it in 1.14 tons... Ohh well

Thanks for the kind words guys. :> I will search for some of Whackjob's designs.. The parachutes were sufficient. The legs and parachutes both have detachment systems so I don't have to carry them with me during the Eve ascent. Note the drogue chutes have XL's stacked beneath them via cubes. :>

Another what? Am I a walking cliché but don't realise it or something? :>

Hi all, I have played KSP for a long time. I focus mostly on design, although I have been to various distant worlds such as Duna, Laythe, etc. I mostly like to design aircraft, SSTO's, boats, and other unusual things. I exclusively play with stock parts. I have never used mod parts, although I certainly agree some of them are very cool. :> I recently completed a longtime goal which was to perform a manned return journey to Eve using a single rocket, with no refuelling on the way, no undocking and leaving parts in orbit, no space junk... and of course, the kerbal had to walk around on Eve then ultimately return home in the same craft that brought him there. It was an incredible challenge as anyone who has attempted a takeoff from Eve will know, however after about 2 months and several complete redesigns, I managed to nail it. :> Here's a screenshot of the design that finally did it: So yea hi, just checking in. :> Hopefully I gain the ability to post attachments soon, I have crafts to share.. :>

Thanks for this! Omg, so many new crafts to design...