Tw1

You can get big loops like that when flying under hack gravity. Maybe a longer encounter, a different orbit results in a more weird trajectory.

Um, not sure why this is in space lounge. Isn't that intended for off topic stuff, not KSP stuff? Perhaps mission reports is better? If not general, that is.

This should go in suggestions. It's been raised before, and I agree there are situations when it would be useful. I used to have so much stuff in LKO. But, as long the things you're flying and targeting are different types of craft to the surrounding objects, turning of other craft types in map view is a good solution most of the time.

Nicely done. Was the Rover tucked away on the bottom/? I think, if you remove the #0 from where you embedded the imgur album, it will change to the other style. Edit: Ninja'd!

This was my own go at replicating Curiosity, its flight and landing. Here are some photos to flick through: I was aiming for the buried rover easter egg, but couldn't find it. After all that careful tweaking to get the trajectory right too. Perhaps I got the coordinates wrong. But it was a cool mission in the end, despite many troubles along the way. Mechjeb's data shows just how sudden the powered deceleration was. Landing Curiosity style is pretty intense.

Weight varies. An infiniglider might have 720 parts, yet only way 20 tones. A rocket can have 120 parts, but weigh a few hundred. If the craft is going to be complex, I try to limit part count, and the number I aim to stay below depends on the type and number of other craft it's expected to be used around. I aim to limit things so there's only 500-600 parts in all vessels in an area at a time. 700 plus is alright on a good day, but does make things lag a fair bit.

I didn't get Atlas look alike? In appearance, I thought it was pretty close, apart from the staging differences, and the extra booster pair. I was expecting to get that, but not the staging one. Perhaps you could refine that in your guidelines a little. Is Atlas look alike in appearance, or in principle? Is the staging one just that your rocket works? That seems a little strange, as it would probably be that you refine the problems, and get it to work before completing the challenge. A few thoughts, but it is your challenge, and it seems to be going well so far. This logic prevented me from using stock rovers for quite a while. I had a manned rover that deployed four rover-probes, (cart mod based) in a trip from my landing site near the equator, to the edge of the pole, and back. But with this one, I can justify this launch as those rovers are long since gone, Duna has changed, and my Kerbals are devoting more funds to the Mun base and Eve Boat projects.

Welcome to the club!

This is not the thread you're looking for. Try the How To forum.

I'd be happy with both of these, (+10 on my attempt)

I just did one of these. Needed an extra set of boosters though. I focused more on looks with the LV, as you see from its staging. But everything else was pretty close to the real thing. More or less. Edit: Updated Scoring: Atlas look-alike +50 Rover look-alike +20 Proper re-entry (stays pointed with 'heatshield' prograde) +20 Winch +50 Sucessful landing +50 Nothin' broke! +20 Score: 210

Yeah, it's pretty much the only way to land things on other planets ATM I did too, for the skycrane, I wanted it to be sudden like the real thing. But I had to trigger it at the right point by hand, or else, splat.

Rather than seven minutes, of terror, it was 1.5 hours of frustration, 5 minutes of terror, and a fair few more of fun. I landed Inquisitivity on Duna. Here's a shot of the skycrane flying of to meet its grounded destiny. Link to the whole mission http://imgur.com/a/FAJCJ Nasa is so lucky, the way they landed it first time, no quicksaves.

Welcome! May all your rockets not blow up, unless you want them too!

My thoughts too, more or less. Humanity has two sides, male, and female. As the kerbals that exist already all appear male, it seems a little unfair to not have the ladies represented too. No idea what's involved in making a kerbal facel, but it must be hard enough that it's not a priority. But I would love to see more variety in the little green people we send into space.

Fair enough. This craft works without it. 10*5*782=39100 I reckon I can go for ten kerbals at this speed, if I load the rest on, and fly more carefully. I'll be back tomorrow.

Perhaps, they'd stay on if the unbreakable joints thing was on. Could we?

This would make a great rescue mission, but you're going to need something like, IDK, 27Km/s worth of Delta V to bring them home.

Well, glad I'm not where you are. Mine goes past my shoulders.

Agreed... Not often you say that, it's normally the other way around. But I'm going to add this: This: And This: One? Is that a number? These are recent, there has been so many.

I think it makes perfect sense. Unless you're launching and flying whole missions in one go, it's already pretty limited in what it can do. It's perfect for testing something again and again and again, without debris building up at the space center, that must be later cleared away. And I often do tests that last ten min or longer.

Mine will be a Mun base, where I will make and launch a one way trip to Eve, in an amphibious rover. (Using the launchpads mod.) Testing landing sequence here.

While this is a fair point, unless you're using an ancient browser, there should be a spelling error correction option. I use it all the time.

I would also appreciate stock propellers, both air and water types.