Tw1

I made a very simple, rocket based SSTO for my first attempt. Apart from sending a guy to space, it doesn't do much. Danfrod looks baffled that he even made it to orbit. I had about 77 m/s left to return. I then decided to stick it on my 50 ton launcher, despite it only being half that, and attempt the fastest flight to the Mun challenge, which hasn't been remade yet. Tail first, (as you did) is probably better:http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blunt_body_reentry_shapes.png You don't want that hot pressure wave touching your rocket.

Is this a question about capture, rather than landing? I had a probe in these situation, and read somewhere that aerobreaking at Laythe, then doing a holman to your target saves a fair bit of delta V, as you're not climbing out of Jool's gravity well. However, aerobreaking at Jool is safer, as it's more gradual. I wouldn't pass the opportunity to save fuel if you're good to aerobrake. I say choose based on what your craft can take. (As long as Laythe is on the right side Jool to give you a Prograde orbit after aerobraking.) An option you could consider is aerobraking at Jool, but only enough to put your vessel in an orbit where the Apoapsis meets the orbit of Vall. Then you wait till intercept is near, and tweek your orbit. This is fine if you're able to wait. However, I have not yet tested this, only read about it. So I'll be interested to hear how it goes.

It is a terribly awesome craft that. Nasa's probably jealous. I love the way the plane is a fancy shape, with just the regular old command pod sticking out the front.

Sad. Makes me think of my first Jool probe. Still on its way to Jool, (I like to take things slowly) but it contains a part I really want to delete. So I'm probably going to have to crash it into Bop or Pol, or Jool itself, once the second probe takes over. Maybe Jool, it might make a good display too.

Hahaha. The poor kerbals.

Hey, for a while I've been wanting someone to make a new model for the hybrid ions. I'm not liking this look of the in the mod, but it doesn't seem the guy that made them is updating. My idea is for a few small changes, if you're willing I'll post a pic of the idea in a few days? Edit: Actually, looks like you've got a lot already. Maybe I just need to find out how to load things from KSP into Blender, and vise versa. And how to use Blender.

Debris is sometimes awesome. Tried to land on my transfer stage. It didn't work, but: It survived intact. Cheeky Camrod Kerman just had to go and pose. He then found the crew he was meant to be rescuing seemed frozen. Probably how they survived, having been forgotten for 3 years on the Mun. The rocket was a remnant of the earliest Mun visits. Camrod involved them in an involuntary game of leapfrog. Meanwhile, on the Munar North pole: There just seems to be something about a pile of atomic rocket engines that says climbing frame. What the photo doesn't show is how Danble almost got stuck between that X200-32 and an LV-N, almost ending his Duna mission early. (These last two are some of my favorites.) :cool:

The most I've attempted to periapse kick at the same time was two. That didn't go too well, but it may have been lack of experience. With just the one to manage, the technique works well for me. I used protractor, watching how much the phase angle changed each orbit, so I knew when it was time to just floor it and get all the way to escape velocity.

My asparaguses tend to have the components fairly spread, on that radial decoupler with the extended frame. I do this in hope that it will be like flying a collection of aerodynamic rockets when proper drag is implemented.

You could go and download the more powerful ion engine pack from spaceport, but what would be the fun in that! That is an impressive craft, Psycho! What was the thrust/mass ratio on that? The "best" craft I made with the stock ion engines: I cut down on weight as much as possible, choosing the lightest components. I lined the stayputnic with the smallest batteries, as they had the best charge to weight ratio. I needed the OX-4B panels to get enough charge. Got it to the Mun by raising the orbit a couple of times. Launching it with Jet engines was fun. I felt so efficient, and unconventional.

I love how the engines actually cause pressure, not just force on the vessel they're part of. Things like this make KSP so awesome.

Luxury. We didn't have no tree, or cardboard box. We had to turn on the computer and run a program to pretend we were launching rockets.... Wait, what? I too learnt the hard way, that tall landers just aren't the way to go. The Z3 was supposed to rescue the crew of Soprano Three. Supposed to. Fortunately, the range of fuel tanks are balanced, so instead of stacking two big grey tanks, I used one and put four thinner tanks around it. This gave me the same delta V in a shorter, wider package. The Z4 then rescued the crew of the Z3. And pretty much every other Kerbal who's been stuck on the Mun since. Until the one man "Little Zed" came around. Here it is: A welcome sight for stranded kerbals. That's the capsule from the Soprano, which tended to land like that. Compare the much longer lander of the Z3, shown with transfer stage. Yes, this was before I learnt about F1... The Z4 then inspired the W, which made it to Duna! And will come home eventually... So keep going OP! You'll get far eventually!

Yep, you can do a lot with a few SRBs. This seems a particularly good flight. Was it repeatable?

I read somewhere you might be able to see how the CoM moves as fuel depletes when they make the tweakables system. Also, I made this thread suggesting extra tools to guide precise placement of things like RCS. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/25485-An-idea-to-make-the-centre-of-X-system-more-useful-in-craft-design

Got to say it: Strut it up! (Sorry. I liek puns.)

Use the Mun! It's right there, and is about average gravity when compared to many other bodies. You'll need more thrust on hever ones. I have lots of Rovers on the Mun from when I was testing RCS landers for an unmanned Jool mission.

Nice Job landing on the VAB! Sure, you lost a few things, but it looks awesome.

The great thing about custom towers is you can move them away! And Kerbals placed on top don't need to be cleared away before you launch. Designing ladders to get them up and down can be tricky though.

Is there going to be a fix one day? That's the only drawback of the system.

While not directly a ruler, I came up with this idea to assist with placement in complex designs. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/25485-An-idea-to-make-the-centre-of-X-system-more-useful-in-craft-design It's more sophisticated than a ruler. It would give you measurements in all three axis. It'd be a handy guide for placing everything from RCS thrusters to VTOL jets.

It's MechJeb Really what should we expect? Smart ASS is pretty simple, it steers your ship in a certain direction for you. You can set it to prograde or retrograde, etc, or program in a heading and a pitch for it to point your ship to.

I like the idea of merch. Imagine a physical set of rocket parts, that can be snapped together magnetically. Magnets would go where attachment nodes are, or on the side that likes to attach radially. Decouplers could have clasps and springs. Build your fave rocket, and sit it on your desk!

I made something not unlike that tower with the old cart mod. It's an observation platform for the media kerbals, and paying guests. A box office seat if you like.

I don't let Mechjeb handle anything but the vertical accent and most of the gravity turn. I take a risk reduction approach and attempt to achieve orbit with the same burn as lift off. I've lost too many ships because they fell back into the atmosphere before accelerating enough to achieve orbit, when waiting till the apoapsis. Does the problem only happen with the accent autopilot? Try using the Smart ASS. If that keeps oscillating, perhaps you could turn it off when the ship's pointed in the right direction, and use regular ASAS instead. Sometimes it works better. Mechjeb makes a good copilot, but I like to leave it at that.

These are my current stations, mostly built ages ago. They were inspired by the ISS Kerbin Space Station one: In kerbosynchronous orbit, it suffers from a lot of lag. It's simpler to have a Kerbal leave on eva, move to a different orbit and have a ship rendezvous with them there than to dock with the station. KSS2 In a semi-kerbosynchronous orbit. And the more high tech KSS3 My first ever station was lost after an accident made it ignore gravity. I think they were doing warp experiments. (In reality, it was the hack gravity cheat.) Now known as The Hermitage, it is the third furthest artificial object from the sun. Oh, and also this: It's the Space Opera House!