capi3101

Last night I successfully put a probe into orbit around Eeloo - rounding out my salad bar at last. Nothing for it now than to try and get some better devices. Rovers should arrive at Eeloo in about another seventy days or so. Still trying to figure out what happened there - the probe traveled for nearly two years before it arrived. I'm hoping the rovers don't get there going so fast that I don't have enough delta-V for braking. Launched the new Ranger Fox mission towards Jool. Already not looking good. Dres window is coming up in two days; I'll be redesigning the Ranger Able mission to correct what went wrong the last time and probably launching it tonight. 0.23 reportedly comes out today; I think I'll take my usual leisurely approach to updates and grab it on Thursday, once the server's had a chance to recover a bit from the mad onslaught.

Let's see your rocket and let's see your rover. Really, your option is to pick a different part of the rover as the root bit - this will be the part that attaches to your rocket. Take off as much as you can from the current core bit, pick the smallest assembly of what's left and rebuild it using the topmost piece as the new root, then reattach what's left. For example: My Hellhound 7 rover. The original root bit was an OKTO2 core located under a structural plate, which was under that Modular Girder Adapter you see up top. That was a natural place to make an attachment point when I wanted to start sending it off to other worlds. To do that, I took the rest of the rover off the bottom of the probe core, ditched the probe core to select a new root part, and started rebuilding the top of the rover starting with the Girder Adapter. That went Adapter - Structural Plate - OKTO2 - the rest of the rover. That's all it took to make it to where I could attach it to anything I wanted to: Hopefully your root part isn't buried too deeply.

Might I suggest you build a rover with drop probes? Land it on Laythe, find a suitable piece of dirt and have it drop probes to a) demark the boundaries of the strip and mark out the approach path - a probe at the end of the runway, the next at 1 k, the next at 5 k and then one every five k after that until the rover runs out of probes (then park the rover itself another 5 k downrange). Then re-designate each one as a base; those will be visible from orbit. Label the ones on the approach path with the distance from the edge of the runway and you even have an ILS for your runway strip (line up the beacons to guide you in on a straight course and have your altitude above ground 100 meters for each kilometer from the edge of the runway). I've got a setup like this for the KSC runway and it works very well.

How "early" is early in your career (what techs have you unlocked)? First off, Jeb will stay alive forever barring a big fiery ball that's visible from the surface of Kerbin, so if you want to defer a rescue until after you've unlocked more tech, it's no big deal. Now, a rescue rendezvous will be a lot easier once you have access to RCS - that happens with Fuel Systems on Tier 4 (unlock Advanced Rocketry and General Construction to get there - for those you'll need General Rocketry and Stability, which both require Basic Rocketry on Tier 1 only - 240 Science Points in aggregate). RCS is not essential, but it makes things a lot easier. You'll need two command pods in your craft and one of them will need to be launched empty. Shoot for 5500 m/s of delta-V. Launch when Jeb is 450,000-500,000 m downrange of KSC as normal and try to put your altitude at the same level as Jeb's craft. Next, target Jeb's craft. Assuming an eastward launch, you may need to either burn northward at the descending node or southward at the ascending node - go at whichever node is coming up next and burn slow until the value becomes zero. Once that's zero, your orbital planes are aligned. Next, set up a maneuver node at the next upcoming apsis. You should have the intercept chevrons, note the distance of closest approach. Pull prograde a little bit on the node and see what the distance is - if the distance decreased, continue pulling prograde until it starts going back up again. If the distance increased instead, start pulling retrograde instead. When pulling retrograde, make sure your periapsis stays above 70,000 (otherwise you'll drag atmo). Go ahead and burn according to resultant node. If you don't have an approach within 2 kilometers as a result, set up another maneuver node at the opposite apsis and do the same thing again. If necessary, you may want to wait a few orbits for the distance to close a bit before doing any further maneuvering. Eventually though, you'll get within 2 kilometers. You can begin following the close approach pattern for docking at that point - zero out your relative velocity to the target craft, aim at it, then burn to close. At 1 kilometer, zero out, aim at the target, then burn towards it. Do it again at 500 meters, 200 meters, 100 meters, 50 meters, 20 meters and ten meters. Once you're zeroed out at ten meters, it's time for Jeb to go EVA - jetpack him over to the empty pod and have him climb in. Then you just have to burn the rescue craft retrograde until your periapsis is 30,000 or lower and pop the chutes when ready. Definitely incorporate two or three radial chutes in the design (if you've got Survivability on Tier 2) to be on the safe side.

Rough day yesterday - Ranger Fox got eaten by the Hell Kraken, Ranger Able ran out of delta-V (it looked a bit anemic from the get go, though), and the redesigned Storax Sedan failed to make an Eve encounter due to lousy piloting on my part. I've relaunched the Ranger Fox mission so far; will need to get the rest of the missions back up when possible.

Okay...so are you saying designs must include the listed parts, or that they can include the listed parts? I ask because this challenge becomes pretty easy if it's the latter.

45 degrees isn't what you always want (that's specifically for Duna, and even then there's a slight difference)... If you're heading to a destination closer to Kerbol, plan your ejection burn some time around local sunrise, and vice versa. Other than that, treat it like golf -you make a long drive to get as close as you can when you tee-off, you make one or more smaller drives to correct and get closer to the hole, and then put to get it there. Same principle: make a long burn to get as close to the target as you can manage, make one or two correction burns en route to lower that further, then make any final corrections once you've arrived at the target's SOI (if you can manage it though, you want to get to your desired periapsis while still a fair ways off - you'll save delta-V in the long run). That's interplanetary flight planning in a nutshell. As far as design goes, it becomes a question of where you want to go and what you want to do when you get there. Let's start with the ship you've got - what is its mass prior to leaving Kerbin and can you give me the number/size of all the fuel tanks aboard? Also, what kind of propulsion do you have on each stage (I'm assuming nukes but that's not 100% clear from the pic). Is that an asparagus-staged or serial-staged payload? I'm trying to gauge the actual delta-V of the ship you've got already.

There are some science parts that cannot be used in certain areas (try taking a pressure reading in space any time). This could be an extension of that, or it could be a genuine bug; I've never tried to do an upper atmospheric reading with a materials bay myself, so I couldn't tell you either/or without getting into the game itself (which probably won't happen for at least another eighteen hours). Hopefully somebody around here can be of more help.

Didn't have a lot of time to play the game today; launched the Ranger Able 7 mission towards Dres and the Ranger Fox 7 mission towards Tylo. I'm not entirely sure that I didn't accidentally launch the Ranger Able mission towards Eeloo by mistake. In fact I'm positive I'm way short on delta-V for that mission... The Ranger Fox mission has not been particularly encouraging so far either. I'm sure it'll make it to Vall, it's just the delta-V requirements for a round trip that have me worried.

Since you are reluctant to provide us with the location of the secret Rebel Base, I have decided to test this game's destructive power on your home planet of Alderaan...... (I'm sorry - for some reason I took a look at that pic and saw the Death Star).

Installed Enhanced Nav Ball. Haven't had the opportunity to give it a proper shakedown yet but so far I'm liking it. With missions headed for Eve, Jool/Vall, Dres and Eeloo already up, I decided to go ahead and get up some stuff to head to Duna and Moho as well. Decided to launch a Constipation XIII-C probe to Moho; with close to 14,000 m/s of delta-V, the damn thing had better make it. Did go ahead and swap out the Thanatos Heavy booster with a Zenith IX; damn thing never really was very reliable. I just plan to send a Sandstone Zebra probe to Duna; the Sandstone X-Ray I already sent to Ike had too much delta-V when it finally got there. Sent the Ranger Baker Two 7 mission off towards Eeloo. I'll need to do correction burns there; still haven't figured out why Protractor and KAC give different launch window times, but I've been more apt to go with KAC's as they're generally closer to the alexmoon calculator.

...oh I hate to ask. Glad you liked the read-through. This was definitely a fun challenge; looking forward to more like it in the future.

Turned my attention back to Operation Outland since I had finished up the Constellation Challenge. I'm starting to move into phase two of the operation - putting a pair of Hellhound rovers on every body in the Kerbol system - even though phase one (probe satellites around every body in the system) is still incomplete (I'm lacking probes around Moho, Eve, Duna, Bop and Eeloo at this point - Eeloo is currently en route and I simply haven't done Eve and Duna yet). Designed the rover deployment landers and launched three missions yesterday - one bound for Vall (Ranger Fox 7), one for Dres (Ranger Able 7) and one for Eeloo (Ranger Baker Two 7). The redesigned Storax Sedan 7 headed for Eve is already up and I plan on sending all four missions off to their various destinations at the earliest opportunity. Still haven't adequately planned phase three (a space station around every body in the system); might be time to get started on that. Still making plans for the Vall Exploration Challenge - I might see how the Ranger Fox mission goes first. Something tells me I've over-planned that one.

Just took four tries to get it right - ultimately had to do a redesign for moar fuel. This took a fair amount of time to write up and I'm exhausted now, so I'll just launch into the report. PREVIOUS SCORES: Design 68, Mission 36, Science 3 NEW POINTS CLAIMED: Design +2 (70), Mission +23 (59), Science +4 (7) All Points Previously Achieved in the Following Categories: Crew Launch Vehicle (Thanatos 7) Heavy Cargo Lift Vehicle (Thanatos Heavy 7) Crew Vehicle (Scorpio 7) Space Station - Scorpio/Thanatos Munar Lander (Katapugon 7 Series): Mun - Scorpio/Thantatos/Thantatos Heavy/Katapugon Series: DESIGN POINTS Duna Lander (Katapugon 7 Series): +2 pts. Develop a rover that can seat at least two crew in a pressurized pod. This rover can be delivered with either the Kerbin Return Vehicle or the Duna lander (+2) MISSION POINTS R&D: +3 pts Use an Ares I in at least one Duna mission (flyby or landing) (+1) Use an Ares V in at least one Duna mission (flyby or landing) (+2) Duna - Scorpio/Thantatos/Thantatos Heavy/Katapugon Series: +20 pts Land an un-Kerballed Kerbin Return Vehicle on Duna. Can be either Duna-Kerbin direct ascent capable or dock with an orbiting Duna-Kerbin return stage (+4) At least 4 Kerbals pass withing 5000km of Duna (+2) Land at least four Kerbals on Duna within 10 km (100 km if by rover) of the above Duna lander. To earn these points, the un-Kerballed lander above must be landed and remain powered. Successful landing must take place before the landing crew has committed to Duna re-entry (+5) Duna Outpost: The Duna lander uses the Duna Outpost Variant which stays on the surface and includes a pressurized rover. (+3) Each landing crew over 4, up to 6 crew maximum (+1 each; max +2) Return the Duna landing crew and any remaining Duna orbiting crew to Kerbin (+4) SCIENCE POINTS +4 pts Advanced Technology Large-Aperture Space Telescope: Using an Ares V/EDS, deploy a science package to Kerbol synchronous orbit (Pe and Ap at 1 508 045.29 km +/- 1000km) (+2) Kerbin Return Vehicle: Pre-landed Kerbin return vehicle on the Duna mission contains a science package (+1) Duna Lander: Lander on the Duna mission contains a science package (+1) No other mission objectives remaining. And I'm done; only took me two months. See you all on Vall.

Today I finally finished up my entry for the Constellation Program challenge. Only took four attempts to put a probe in to a heliosynchronous orbit - and required a few minor tweaks to the probe design. Still took RCS to get it there, but I finally got it done. Also redesigned the Storax Sedan design to include four drogues. The re-launch did not go so well (had to cannibalize fuel from the payload) but it is in orbit at this point and awaiting the next Eve transfer window. Put a Sandstone probe in orbit of Ike. Next up: the Vall Exploration Challenge...

Finished! I'd like to have never gotten that stupid probe around the sun...mission report will be forthcoming tomorrow with any kind of luck.

For the record, the mission utilized 16 radial chutes which I deployed at 15k, and the whole craft was around 15 tonnes. So I'll try the drogues and let y'all know how that works out.

Short answer - the Oberth effect off of Kerbin isn't really that significant to begin with. I did the calculations on another thread not too long ago. IIRC, even at 70k (as low as you can go without hitting Kerbin's atmosphere), the Oberth effect only saves you about 300 m/s of delta-V. I'll have to find that thread again and see what you get at 605k.

I'm still in!! My guys are headed back now; the polar orbit turned out to be not much of an issue. Alas that the Constipation XIII mission has failed due to insufficient delta-V for the final burn of the bi-elliptic; debating whether to try again or throw in the towel at this point. Hoping to finish up today and have a mission report on Monday.

Mixed success last night. Made my first attempt to land something on Eve, in this case a Storax Sedan mission to land a pair of Hellhounds on its surface. Learned that 50 m/s is fast enough on Eve to rip off your chutes. I wound up with two bifurcated 'hounds. Next time I'll be firing the rockets around 500 even if they don't look like they're going to do much good at all. Got the Constipation XI crew on a course for home. I handled it the way I would've handled a Protractor flight - from the polar orbit, I waited for Kerbin to get into phase, then burned just enough to get out of Duna's SOI (got an Ike encounter on the way out). Once out of Duna's SOI, I set up a maneuver node that got me the encounter. I'm planning to do further corrections halfway to Kerbin just to see if I can get a lower periapsis; at the moment it's about 53 million klicks out and I couldn't get that down further without losing the encounter. Mission's still got about 1400 m/d of delta-V so I should be in good shape for a return in any case. Constipation XIII, a mission to put a science probe in heliosynchronous orbit, failed. Insufficient delta-V available for the final part of the bi-elliptic; came up 400,000 kilometers short of the target apoapsis. Might try a Hohmann if I do it again. Launched another Sandstone probe heading towards Ike.

I'ma gonna suggest you hack gravity, just like J. J. Abrams did (except in reverse...). That's pretty sweet lookin'... EDIT: Ninja'd by the Deadweasel. Myself, last night I finished up the Sandstoke Yoke mission to put a probe around every moon in the Jool system. With one exception, the mission was a resounding success. Laythe gave me a few headaches but I finally figured out what I was doing.

Set up an alarm for the Constipation XI flight for the next Duna->Kerbin window. Then switched focus over to the Sandstone Yoke probe carrier at Jool. After I got it into a stable Jool orbit, I started launching probes. Lost one in an attempt to go to Bop; burned my Jool periapsis too low - so the impactor mission was a success (just leaves me without a spare if I screw something else up at this point). Followed it all the way in. Got a probe on a really inefficient Laythe intercept course and another one on a Bop intercept course. Those should fill up the time between now and when Constipation XI is supposed to return from Duna nicely. Oh, and then there was the probe I successfully got into orbit around Tylo...

There was a good site at http://ksp.freeiz.com/ that would calculate the number of chutes you would need for a certain set of parameters. It appears to be non-functional today (either that or Chrome's just being persnickety). You need to hit the button to deploy your chutes early on Duna and burn like mad to get your speed below 100 m/s before they deploy (otherwise they'll rip right off 500 meters above the ground just like they'd do on Kerbin).

1) Go to CSM and note its prograde heading. Assuming it's still passing overhead, that'll be the direction in which you want to take off. If it's not in an exact equatorial orbit, expect to be off (the alternative is to make sure you don't launch until you know it's going to pass directly overhead; that can take a few Münar rotations). 2) Target the CSM. Launch when the CSM is about 150,000 m downrange or so. Circularize at roughly its same altitude. 3) Make a plane change correction at either the ascending node or descending node. This will be along either the normal or anti-normal heading to your prograde vector (set up a maneuver node and use the little purple triangles to set it up; assuming an eastward launch, north at the descending node, south at the ascending node). Get it to zero (or as close as you can manage and be prepared to try again the next time you hit a node). 4) Look at your close approach chevrons. Set up a maneuver node to burn prograde at the next -apsis (doesn't matter which). If the chevrons get further away when you pull prograde, stop and pull retrograde. Make sure when you're doing this that you don't send your periapsis below 10,000 m; if that happens, trash the maneuver and set it up at the other apsis instead. 5) Ideally you want to get those approach chevrons down to 0.0 kilometers, but anywhere below 1.0 kilometers is good and below 2.3 kilometers is good enough for a rendezvous. That should get you your rendezvous. Have you ever done a docking maneuver before? If not, say so and we can walk you through that too. Incidentally, add RCS to your CSM and LM; I can't stress that enough. You have to do fine maneuvering and you don't want to be doing that with main engines only. I wouldn't worry too much about the need for extra delta-V for rendezvous and docking; if you've got a little extra in your LM's ascent stage, you should be just fine. If you need design hints, check out the Doing It Apollo Style Challenge and look at people's designs. You can definitely get some good ideas there. I'd link you directly to my entry, but my attempt had a few problems and it was mostly done in the dark anyway. One last resource for you: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorial:_Apollo_11

...do you mean to tell me I haven't got ONE decent daylight image of where the Memorial is? Sheesh. Well, there's the coordinates for you at least (the "Bullseye" flag is literally on the Memorial; Jeb flew up and put it there). Look it up on kerbalmaps.com and you should be able to find the spot okay.