Ogre

I always use ASAS when docking, I don't know why you wouldn't! I've been building 3-port docking rigs and though it's more work than single port docking, it's not that hard with well balanced ships. Sometimes it takes two or three tries, but the second and third tries are usually just undock whichever ones stuck (maybe undock the ones that stick immediately afterwards, sometimes the ones that didn't work dock as soon as you undock the others, there's some kind of time or distance check that prevents recently undocked ports from redocking) press n for a second to back away, press h to go forward again, and see if they stick. I've just started some 4-port rigs, but I haven't actually docked one yet. I've learned 4 (or more) -way designs are better than 3-way because if an engine fails for some reason, you can disable the opposite member and limp around on two engines. I could build a 4-engine ship with a 3-port docking rig, and keep it compatible with all my old stuff, but it simplifies things (and makes for prettier ships) if the docking matches the rest of the ship. At least that's the theory since I haven't tried to dock any yet The other theory is that if 3 out of 4 ports dock, that's good enough, and it might take less tries to get 3 of 4 than it is to get 3 of 3.

Installed the Kethane mod. Built a few landers and started mining Minmus. Miner #3 seems like a winner except one of my 4 engines went all wonky. It looks fine when shut off, but when I light it up, it shoots up INTO the tank it's attached to and kind of wobbles around. My whole ship spins as a result. Luckily since it's 4 engines, I can shut it and the opposite engine down and still land safely on Minmus with plenty of power to spare. But... after filling up all my Kethane and fuel tanks, my TWR on Minmus is 0.97. D'oh! It was 1.9 when I landed even on just two engines. So anyway... I throttled her up, and hit the RCS to just barely nudge it up, and held the RCS on until I hit 1.0. I am currently inching my way into space and letting the SAS burn MonoProp as much as it wants. I'm at 3km about 10+ minutes of this, but it's speeding up now.

I think I landed on the Mun on my second day playing, but I played an awful lot those two days, and didn't go again for another week. I tried a simple lander as soon as I was able to get stuff to orbit, and it worked fine. Unfortunately I didn't get a screenshot (I tried - the built-in screenshot key doesn't work on Mac, it seems, and the system screenshot key involves the shift key... which throttled my lander back up and up I went ) But I started focusing on building bigger ships and docking stuff early on. I didn't really go back to the Mun until I was starting to plan for interplanetary missions. My first trip to Duna took about three weeks with a big elaborate ship, part of which was a big lander with a rover slung underneath, and another separate small lander. I think I could build a smaller, no on-orbit-assembly required, manned mission with what I know now, but building those giant ships is a big part of the fun for me. Still, I'll probably try some smaller ships eventually. I've been trying to build low kerbin orbit to Mun and back to Kerbin self contained landing rovers right now, but the idea is to take one of those on my next Duna run, or wherever I go.

I've been building reusable rovers capable of landing and taking off from the Mun with no staging (not SSTOs, there's a heavy lifter to get them off Kerbin). That program is going pretty well, I've landed two safely. The second one I didn't think had enough fuel to get back to Mun orbit, but I tried anyway. And didn't pay attention to the nav view. Wound up sending him on not just a Mun escape, but a Kerbin escape too. So now I've got one guy in a sweet rover, with room for 8 more Kerbals, with no fuel in a Sun orbit. Someday I will go rescue all my stranded Kerbals. That's what I keep telling them anyway. These very rovers should be great for rescue missions, and I was actually trying to land the third one near some of my guys who are stranded on the Mun. The third one was the best design yet. Possibly enough fuel to get back to Kerbin, certainly if I refueled in Mun orbit on the way back. But I got cocky on the landing and didn't cancel enough speed. They have wheels, they can land with some motion, it's nice! But here's what's left of that one. Poor Hans Kerman is still alive in there. And even more stranded than the guys he was trying to land near.

That's a good idea. I have two sets of three engines (different types) on there. I could easily put both sets on decouplers in case this happens again. I did land my small lander on Duna, so it wasn't a total loss. Then on the next ship I sent, with the same lander except (of course) MORE STRUTS, the rover had gone missing by the time I got to Duna. I don't know why. But I'd copied a quicksave off before I made my transfer burn, and the rover is intact in that one, so I'm trying again right now. I'm about halfway through my transfer burn as I post this and the rover is still there. I'll save another one off once the burn is done and keep trying. These ships are actually the first time I've even reloaded saves at all. I've been playing on "hardcore" mode until now (Except I'm using Mechjeb, so Hardcore Easy Mode I guess )

This is my first manned mission to Duna, yesterday. (And my first post here. Hi!) I have two landers with me, but only the big one at the lower right has a rover. I had assembled this ship in orbit in two large pieces + the small lander. When I got to Duna and started the undocking, it split the ships after only two of my three ports were undocked. All three were docked when I left Kerbin, so I immediately knew something was wrong. Turns out this was wrong: Gah! That engine pod is broken off in my quicksave, I tried a bunch of times. The ship won't fly straight on the three other engines either. So there's no way to get my rover down to the surface. I did manage to land the small lander down, so it wasn't a total loss. On my next try, I got all the way to Duna... and then noticed my rover was missing. This time, however, I copied off a quicksave right after assembling and fueling the ship, so I've reloaded that and am waiting for a transfer window again now. Then I'll watch and see if I see the rover fall off during any burns. (Edit: Actually it's my second post here. I thought the first one, a new thread with this same story, never showed up due to moderator approval or something, but apparently it did. Sorry about that then!)

My first manned mission to Duna. Everything has been tested on the Mun and worked fine (well, I drove the rover too fast and it exploded when I flipped it... but it got there fine!). I have two landers, one small one at the upper left, one big one at the bottom right. The big one carries a manned rover underneath. The ship was assembled in orbit from two big sections (plus the small lander). I used a 3-port docking scheme for the big pieces for great stability. Got all the way to Duna. Filled up the big lander. Undocked one port. Undocked the next one, at which point it split the ship in two, which is bad because it was docked on all three ports when I left. Backed away from the command module and saw the problem... #!&$@# That engine pod at a weird angle is broken off its I-beam in my quicksave, I loaded several times to try again, the same engine winds up this way every time. I can't fly it straight even if I switch off the other two atomic engines (it has 3 atomic and 3 liquid, I can usually use it with either set burning, or both). I don't know when it broke, it was fine when I docked 'em up, but it's clearly broken before I undock it, I can't right click to check the fuel on that pod either. I'm about to take my small lander down, but I have no way to get my rover down