capi3101

A couple of weeks back there was a discussion about how to re-scale the landing gear size to address this very issue - you're going to need the Small Gear Bays to do what you want to do and the Small Gear Bays kinda suck at the job when it comes to Mk3 Spaceplanes on account of the fact that they're, well, small. Here's the procedure: 1) Find the folder "GameData\Squad\Parts\Wheel\SmallGearBay\" in your KSP directory. 2) Copy \SmallGearBay\ and its contents into "GameData\mycustomparts\" or some other directory of your choosing (under Gamedata). 3) Open "smallGearBay.cfg" with any text editor (Notepad is fine). 5) Change the line that says "name = SmallGearBay" to any other name that isn't used by the game, ie "name = LargeGearBay" 4) Underneath the line that says "scale = 1" add a line that says "rescaleFactor = 2.5" 5) Change the line "title = ..." to some other name. This is the name that will appear in the VAB, so it is useful to be able to identify your new part (it will have the same icon as the old one). Though this isn't technically necessary. You may also tweak the "cost = ..." field, if you care about that. You could change the "mass = ..." and other parameters too. 6) Save your changes and load up the game. I've done this myself and I can verify that it does work as advertised. Doesn't require any official "mods" either. Just remember to unlock the steering and disable the brakes on the nose wheel in the VAB and you're good to go.

'>Claw has a tutorial for making an asteroidal rendezvous outside of Kerbin's SOI. If you've got the tech, you can catch the tater. Class Cs range from a little over 40 tonnes up to about 165 tonnes; 90 tonnes is a good planning average. Claw's probe design is good for Class A and Class B, so your craft will need a little bit more oomph. The good news is that it won't take a good deal of delta-V to put it into low Kerbin orbit. Once it is in orbit you've got time to do some planning; send up whatever packages you like to the tater to help bring it down - nothing more complicated there than normal rendezvous and docking. You'll know what kind of mass you're dealing with at that point, so the '>parachute calculator can give you an idea of exactly how many chutes you'll need for the final de-orbit.

Posted a thread that got locked down. First time that's happened; at least I got the information I wanted out of it first. Earned two points of rep in the process... Yesterday I landed Jeb and Bob on the Mun to fulfill the Mun exploration contract. Used a modified Geschosskopf Sci Lander design to do the job; since I didn't have Mk1 Lander Cans yet I just stuck Bob up in the front seat (A Mk1 Capsule) with Jeb in the pilot's chair (A Mk1 Inline Cockpit) with two side chutes added. Got the Minmus exploration contract upon return, so I'll be sending them up again in the same ship. Also got a contract to test a RAPIER engine landed at Kerbin, which I did...in a spaceplane that made orbit, for the purposes of additional orbital parts testing. Switched over at 32k going 1900 m/s - made orbit easily with less than 150 m/s delta-v. I'll be bringing that craft back down tonight in all likelihood. All facilities are Level 2 now and I'm working towards unlocking the Level 3 R&D at the moment. Not sure which other facilities I want at level 3 just yet.

...or rather, the wiki appears to be non-functional at the moment. I would hope that the powers that be are already aware of the problem and working to fix it. In the meantime, I'm looking for some information that, I know is ordinarily on the wiki - namely the formula that helps to determine the range of values for the mass of asteroids. I know it's a function of e, but there are some other factors that I've since forgotten. Any help here would be appreciated. As would the wiki being fixed, incidentally. But...

Spent last night on a pair of satellite deployment missions. Made over √300,000, enough to unlock the Level 2 VAB. Redesigned the booster for the second satellite launch - the asparagus design turned out to be less expensive than the single-stage booster I'd built for the initial mission, so I was pretty happy about that. Finished the night up with an atmospheric test of the Mk-55 engine (mainly to free up that contract spot). The speed requirements were so low and the altitude requirements were high enough that it made more sense to use a recoverable sounding rocket rig than an airplane for the test. Got all my facilities to Level 2 now except for the SPH and R&D. Thinking about heading to the Mun now.

Claw's tutorial will give you some good guidelines, though since you're up against a class E you're going to need a craft with a lot more oomph. I'd give you the exact range of masses for Class E rocks - the information is on the wiki - but the wiki is spazzing out at the moment. It's definitely up there though.

For asteroid rendezvous, I suggest Claw's tutorial. Class A rocks are really light as a rule - no more than about 2.5 tonnes, tops - so the little five-part probe design he suggests is very sound. I might recommend using an LV-N if you've got access to that level of technology (one of the rare cases where you'll wind up with more thrust AND more delta-V), but the 909 does a fair enough job on its own. You might have to use OX-STATs and batts in place of the PB-NUK; that's fine. RCS would help with the actual "making contact with the rock" part, but it's not essential.

I would suggest moving the Elevon 1s you've got on the wings out to the outer edge of the outboard Wing Connector Bs you're using to try and improve your roll authority. Might not solve the underlying problem but you might be able to at least trim it out. Maybe try that in conjunction with what everybody else has suggested to this point.

More funding grinding last night. Sent Jeb on a survey mission in Buzzard 7 to collect temperature readings from the region around KSC. Didn't notice that two of them had to be above 17500 (Basic Jet Equipped plane, see), but was able to get them okay. The final one was a surface reading right along a shoreline. Let's just say that for a short time last night Jeb was piloting a float-plane at 5 m/s (and for the record, that's something the Buzzard was most definitely not designed to be). Actually had no problems or breakage, until the damn plane hit terra firma and proceeded to take off without me realizing it. Clipped a wing on the second landing. Still got my temperature reading and finished the contract, but I definitely wasn't flying the plane back to KSC. Still, the site was within 100 klicks of KSC so I got 93% return on the parts, so it wasn't that big of a hit to my pocketbook. I have three high-paying satellite contracts lined up now and I think after the first of them I should be able to upgrade the VAB to Level 2 and think doing a proper Mun mission. Looking forward to not having to deal with the 30 part cap anymore.

None that I'm aware of. You probably could just try declining the offending contracts in Mission Control - there's no penalty for refusing to take a contract. Of course, if the offending contract is one you've accepted, that's another story.

Still waiting for my memory chips to arrive from Canada. Couldn't play last night on account of being on parental watch - my kid was a royal turd at school yesterday, apparently - but I did get a second to tweak KSP's configuration file ala pre 0.24 for low-end boxes. I'll try it out tonight (with luck) to see if I can eke out enough performance from it to land a plane safely. Next week needs to hurry up and get here.

Oh crap, it's full of Zima!!! Anybody remember Zima? Anybody at all? Yeah, me neither...

For future reference, you just have to go and edit the initial post, go into advanced mode and flip the little pull-down menu option to set the thread as answered. Do you use TAC Fuel Balancer or something similar? If not, I'd recommend grabbing it and installing it, and then seeing how the fuel drains in flight (don't necessarily have to keep it afterwards if you don't want to; I'm just suggesting using it to run a diagnostic). If that's the underlying cause, you can set TAC to balance all tanks and you're good to go. If not, at least you eliminated fuel imbalance as a cause. Or you can just let SAS handle it; nothing wrong with that.

Which part is your root? Grab it, move the whole structure around until the CoM, CoT and CoL are aligned and see if that sorts out the problem. I've seen this sort of thing before, but not since 0.19.

Got a whole slew of landed parts tests done last night, intermixed with occasional "science from kerbin" contracts. Made enough science to finish out what can be done with the Level 1 R&D building, and enough money to upgrade the Astronaut Complex, Tracking Station, Launch Pad and Runway to Level 2. VAB, R&D and SPH are my only structures still at Level 1 and I've got a couple of contracts that pay out over √100k. The 30 part limit for the Level 1 craft structures is starting to grate on my nerves a bit. On the other hand, I should have the tech I need at this point to do a manned Mun mission - if I can figure out how to do it in under thirty parts...

In 0.24 after I installed LoadOnDemand for the first time, the Munar Sand Castle would come up every time. I was rather disillusioned when 0.25 came along and whatever had caused that to happen was corrected. I still get the castle every now and again...

Been taking a hiatus from the game awaiting a pair of new memory chips for my box, which should give me enough memory to play the game without texture mods. Last night I flew a couple of parts testing missions using airplanes; I've got a big survey contract that's come up, which I'll probably attend to sometime in the near future. Hoping that it gives me enough funding to unlock the Level 2 R&D facility so I can build some planes with a little more firepower. Unlocking the Level 2 Runway has also become a priority - don't get me wrong, the bumpy runway is nice in that it helps my planes get into the air. Landing is another story...

I'm still a fan of asparagus, despite changes over the years that make such designs more expensive and aerodynamically less practical. In career I'll use standard single or dual-stage boosters until Fuel Lines are unlocked, at which point I'll switch over. '>Temstar's guidelines, despite their age, still give me a reliable booster every time, though in this day and age I'm liable to just pick a single engine that gives me more thrust than I need and then use the thrust limiter to set it to where it needs to be. I've only used engine clusters once since the thrust limiters became available - and that was with a mega booster for a 450 tonne test payload.

Going to point you to '>this tutorial; the guidelines in it worked well for me when I did the exact same thing for the exact same reason... You can get more delta-V and more thrust out of the probe that Claw (his tutorial) proposed if you use an LV-N instead of an LV-909 despite the increase in mass. You might give some consideration to adding rudimentary RCS capabilities but it isn't necessary, strictly speaking. Mass of a class A rock will be somewhere between 1.11-2.50 tonnes.

If the fuel is draining symmetrically, it may simply be that you don't have sufficient yaw authority in the upper atmosphere. I still think you need more rudder, or to put back that torque wheel that you took out and see what happens.

Same craft working okay in x64 but not in x32? Hmm...can't say I've ever come across that particular problem before. My first suggestion is an "is it plugged in" question - have you tried getting out of the game and getting back into it (in both versions), and has the problem persisted? Pics would make diagnosing any problems with the craft themselves easier (better still, the craft files themselves). I don't know what else to suggest; I have no experience with x64 KSP - though I've heard it's buggy.

Er, thanks......I guess........... I do have a tendency to favor function over form. Not just in KSP either.

Quick question regarding B9 - is there a list of the part stats anywhere? I'm debating whether or not I want to install it (I've got a pretty hefty mod list as it is).

Necessary, no. But it sure does come in handy.

The question I never got answered as far as macollo's approach to getting to Moho is on what day it's properly aligned for a transfer. I mean, yeah it happens twice during a Kerbin year, but what's the initial day and how often is the period between windows? Better yet, how could I calculate that information for myself?