Xiphos

I would like to humbly request for the default throttle to be reset to 0%. Jet engines and other small VTOL craft need to roll the throttle on from 0% smoothly. My point is the optimum throttle position for all craft is not 50% at start. I also believe the basis that new players get stuck with figuring out the throttle is largely unfounded. Unless there is a large thread somewhere about it that I haven't seen then I apologize. When I started playing this game in v0.18 I had no problem with the throttle.

I would send a probe to the mun with some science equipment to find out what the gravity is relative to kerbin. Then design your lander accordingly. I believe the 'hack gravity' option sets the gravity to null.

This is why all my rovers still use the 'landing gear' wheels. I have the front ones set to raise, allowing standard rover wheels to make contact when sharp turns need to be made. Also no wheels currently can haul as much a$$ as these can. heh.

When you first enter the SOI of Eve, do all of your inclination/aerobrake there. With just your eyeball you can get pretty close to horizontal. Also, at this point it should cost very little Dv to do so....

Be careful setting up an encounter 'behind' the orbit of the mun, because the gravity of the mun can slingshot you into solar orbit very easily. Especially if you accidentally time warp through the encounter....*cough* I speak from experience.

haha! I was trying to find that one to add to the post! Glad you did!

Well, that *could* work, but it would be very tiresome. Here's a link to a webpage someone made and posted to the forums a while ago. http://ksp.olex.biz/ Get a protractor and put it up to the screen. I have a clear one so it works pretty well. Good luck!

Here's how I made my first duna return craft. First I built a craft that can lift off kerbin and make low kerbin orbit. (Since I knew duna was similar to kerbin, but didn't have as dense of an atmosphere, I knew(hoped) I would have fuel left over for the transfer burn back to kerbin) This craft should have small fuel tanks and small engines, use asparagus staging, and have a one man capsule. If you create a craft that can do that, you will have plenty of fuel to take off from duna and return to kerbin. That is your landing and return stage. Second, you must build your transfer stage. This stage can be smaller than expected, maybe 4 small engines and a medium tank. Thirdly, you must build a lift-off stage to get the entire thing into LKO. This will require some experimentation, but I'm sure you'll get it. Also, you should know how to aerobrake when you arrive at duna and use F5 to quicksave to get the perfect maneuver. Even when you enter the landing sequence of your mission, it's easy to hit the wrong parachute or the structure of your craft could fail, etc, so use F5 and F9 to reload. Another trick I learned is when you first enter the SOI of another planet, put a node down and drag the blue circle so your Pe drops to the desired altitude above the planet. At this point in time, it should cost you VERY little Dv to do this. Your Pe now should be at your desired aerobraking altitude.

Just don't use timewarp or the part will 'ghost' right through your ship!

I still think the average user pc isn't powerful enough to run the game smoothly as it is. Adding a game engine that supports a much much higher level of detail and physics will just hurt current users more than help. I hope in the future people will realize consoles are terrible and invest their hard earned money into a machine that can do more than just run a disk. (sadly more people just want to buy something 'out of the box' than build it themselves) I like your thought process here but it will never happen for KSP.

If you need a video example, click the link in my sig. I show you how to fly a ship to orbit and where to turn, what to do, etc.

I know how you feel, In my career mode, jeb is in solar orbit from accidental mun slingshot when I warped past it by accident. Ooops. Anyway, to answer your original question, make sure you are canceling your relative velocity to your OWN retrograde marker, not the targets retrograde marker. (The green one with the X inside) If you try and cancel relative velocity by burning to the target retrograde, you'll never reach the target. I have made a docking tutorial back in .19, link in my sig if you're interested. Even though it's a earlier version of the game, the basic principles apply. I wish you luck in your missions!

Launch to the east (because you get a free speed boost from the rotation of kerbin). Do your rendezvous with the mun as normal. When you first enter the SOI of the mun, set a maneuver node down and change your inclination there. At this point it should be very cheap (Low DeltaV maneuver.) Hope this helps.

Does anyone use the skipper engine for interplanetary transfers? Since it came out, I haven't used a NERVA since. I made a ship that went to jool, and used a skipper to transfer. (Skipper used equivalent of an orange tank, +- a few hundred L I don't remember 100%) lander and return portion of the ship equaled an orange tank.

I think a station in high kerbin orbit will be the most useful. That way, your ships going there won't always have to make an inclination change. Especially if their destination is to a planet that is on the same inclination as kerbin. Since you will be visiting it a lot, the simpler you can make the rendezvous, the easer you make it on yourself, and the mission as a whole. (All my stations are usually 300km above the surface or whichever altitude allows 1000x warp) EDIT: Ooops, I didn't see the above post from the OP. Gratz on your decision, and be sure to post up some pics of your station when completed!

Check out the post I made here. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/54504-Turns-out-the-Mun-is-quite-large-or-getting-around-on-the-Mun-how?p=719634#post719634 The Rover doesn't use the new rover wheels (For Low-G, they cause too much problems). This is by far the best design I've come up with. Also, by the time the new update comes, we will have tweakable parts(steerable landing gear) so this model can be used then in higher G worlds with a better turning radius. The RCS turns it quite well on minimus. Also, the RCS helps control it while it's airborne. (It's easy to drive this thing really fast) PM me if you would like to try it I'll send you the craft file.

I would suggest practicing landings on minimus. One of the large, flat frozen lakes ought to serve you well. The gravity is so low you should have plenty of time to learn the fine tuning required for landing in higher G. Since it takes such little fuel, you can land, take off, make orbit, and land again many many times with the same ship you used to get to the mun. I aim for the lowest Pe possible when adjusting my orbit for landings, then I do the rest by eye when I am over a spot I want to land, I full burn on the horizon, then it's just little adjustments from there. Eventually you can land within a couple hundred meters of your target each time. Good luck, let us know how you are progressing.

The Kerbal should also show up in the tracking station if he is still alive..... Also, if you get really far away from the ship, just turn on his RCS pack and look straight at the ship and press W. Pick up some speed and remember to slow down with S or turn around and use W. I have returned a kerbal from a ship that collided with a station, he was 20km away, he made it safely. It is definitely faster to return the kerbal to the ship rather than deorbit him...I can't imagine how long that took you. Good luck!

I would rather play stock as well. K.R.A.K. missions haven't even begun to tap into the difficulties of the kerbol system and we're using mods now? If fuel is an issue, fuel depots can be set up at different points in the system. I don't see the kethane mod as much of a challenge as playing stock. Ultimately it is your decision, Kaelen

I'm with Spartwo on this one, if kethane is added to the mission save, I will have to withdraw from the challenge.

The answer is simple. Pre version .21, sas was a rotational lock(kill rotation) and asas was a heading hold. But like others have said, the parts were kept so as to not break saves.

Here's a rover I built in .19, which was the final result of many many revisions for balance, speed, and range. It is capable of speeds well over 50m/s, but I usually keep it around 40m/s depending on terrain. The rocket engines will boost you up over any hill. It is built pretty well and can withstand some good sized jumps but not too big on the mun. What I've noticed is if you're going downhill and you hit a few jumps you'll start going faster and faster so watch your speed doesn't get too high. Also, you can 'hop' with this vehicle as well since the engines are powerful enough for a sub orbital trajectory. This rover is still my Go-to when I need to cover ground fast. Especially since the rover wheels are just too slow. I have tried many rover designs that include the new rover wheels but they just aren't the same. There is even a docking port on the end for refueling ops. You could easily adopt the science parts on there and have yourself a nice little buggy. PM me for the craft file.

Ok, Here's my time, 12d, 20h, 15m, 28s. I missed a few key rendezvous windows so I could have shaved more time off. Plus I took my time with maneuvers because I didn't want to use quicksaves. **Note with the pics: click to go to photobucket, where the full size version can be viewed.** Pic of all 3 next to the VAB memorial: Pic with the Remote KSC crew shuttle in the tracking station: You guys can view the full mission pics there on photobucket, but something DID happen on this mission in which I had to compensate for! The mission was going pretty smoothly, but when I did my retro burn to land on the mun with the provided lander....THIS happened: I thought I didn't need to check my clearance with the Mun station before I made my burn in map view! So, on to plan B, I took Jeb and Bob on EVA back to the mun station, and used the transit ship from the Minimus station to attempt a Mun landing. The Mun was dark (I was planning on having lights on the provided lander) so I had to land using the instrument panel only and both fingers were crossed! Upon landing, the engine exploded, and a few RCS cans, but my brave kerbals survived! I took both of them on a 2.5km EVA flight to the landing site. Rest of the mission went pretty good. No real hitches. Scarecrow, I can say this has been the most fun I've had KSP for a long time! Thanks a ton for setting it up! If you're thinking about making more please do, this has been great!

I will be trying this as soon as I get home from work today. Look for my submission later. I'm very excited to start! It looks like you've put together a really well planned and thought out mission. I will also pledge to use 0 quicksave reloads, so if I fail I fail. I will post the result regardless.

HOLY CRAP that plane looks freaking awesome! My jaw dropped haha. Excellent work there. Makes my VTOL look like 1st grade haha.