Malachai

Did...did he joust a planetoid?

Alright, I'm enjoying MJ2, but I've run into a problem. When using the autoland's Land at Target, the status gets stuck at "Executing low orbit plane change of about 0m/s," and I just keep orbiting the Mun (which I'm trying to land on). Am I doing something wrong? I'm in a ~20km circular orbit around the mun, that helps. Is this a bug? Should I report it on the github page? Or is this somehow user error? EDIT: Ok, so apparently a 20km orbit is too close for MJ to handle. I tried at about 106km, and it worked. Sort of. I'm also getting the whole "spinning out of control" thing. MJ regains its senses if I do Abort and activate the autopilot. And boy, that Rover autopilot doesn't work at ALL!

Well, I've already started setting up a massive refining station. It'll be in a reasonbally low orbit around the Mun (~30km), and will serve as an all-in-one gas station for my manned (kerballed?) trip to Duna. Beyond that, I may set up a much smaller (in terms of habs pods) station around Minimus. We'll see when we get there. Right now this is all very much a learning thing. Look out for a post about the station tomorrow-ish.

I like to call my ships that have made it into space "Failed Disasters," because, to be honest, most of my ships are successful disasters.

Good eye! I'll send a probe down there to scout it out. See, kids, this is why you don't run your ground survey missions at 5am when you can't sleep! Good idea. I'll work on a refining station later, and research geosynch orbits as well. A shame, though since my mobile refinery looked badass. I guess I could just remove one of the empty fuel tanks and put another kethane tank on it, though. EDIT: Quick question: what does "nerva" mean? Is it the atomic rocket? I've seen the term thrown around a few times, but I'm still fuzzy on it. I guess I'm still a noob in that regard.

*Sighs* Fine, since illiteracy is apparently an issue on this forum, I'll edit it now.

Well, from the name of the rocket, I'd assume the destination is Jool...

EDIT: Now spoiler free! You know what they say, it's all about location. Yes, in this edition of Malachai Begs for Help, we're discussing location for a Mun base! Here's the deal: I've mapped the surface of the Mun for kethane, as well as with the ISA MapSat. Before I started sending down habs and such for my base (because I'm not putting that off due to the need for heavy planning. Not at all), I sent down a new rover to scout out the locations. I quickly learned, though, that while the maps are small, the distances are huge. Somehow traveling at ~15m/s makes traveling to a specific spot on the map an ordeal. Here's my maps: This is my kethane map, blown up to 2x This is my surface map AND kethane map merged into one (again, 2x). The little circle shows roughly where I wanted to put the base. On first glance, it seems like a good spot. Right smack in between 4 large deposits. But when I tried traveling from said spot to one of the deposits, it took forever. So I'm wondering where I should put the base. How close to a deposit is too close? How far is too far? It should be noted that I've got mobile miners and refiners waiting in the wings, so I can place the base a little out of the way. But I don't think I want to spend half an hour tapping W and B over and over, so I don't want it THAT out of the way. So what do you folks think? Wise words from those who've been there go a long way. OH! And before I forget again: I was also thinking of setting up a "science base" at the black X to "study" anomalies. This was my original location for my mining operation before the other site got totally mapped. As you can see*, there's a number of anomalies around the proposed landing site, but once again, distances are pretty harsh. So advice there would help as well. *And now you can't see. Just trust me, they're there.

Quick question: can Mechjeb (either 1.9.8 or the prerelease) handle landings when the cockpit/drone core is horizontally oriented, or will it only land at 180 degrees? And if this question has been asked, forgive me. I did a quick search, and I didn't find anything relevant. And reading through 130 pages isn't something I want to do.

I would so buy a Kerbal bobble-head. It'd sit on my computer and I'd love it forever and ever.

Wait,free DLC? I purchased on April 15th! Huzzah! *Dances and sings*

Danke. Yeah, I did some digging and found a video talking about the conversion rates with everything but xenon. Since I don't really use xenon, nor would I with anything other than an interplanetary ship, I don't really need to worry myself with that.

Well, the whole point of my mobile platforms is so I can easily transfer and store resources. I've got a mobile drilling platform, and the aim is to link it up with my mobile tanker/converter, and go on extended mining excursions. Then I return, store the resources at base camp, and go back out again. As such, I'd like to know exactly how much fuel/oxidizer/monoprop/xenon is produced by a unit of kethane so I can build accordingly. I know it's a slightly complicated affair, but this is just how I'm going about it. Besides which, knowledge is power. GI Joe and all that.

Ok, I'm a little confused. I'm building a tanker/converter rover, and I'm not entirely sure how large of a destination tank I need. I'm using the heavy converter, which lists a conversion efficiency of 99%. By that logic, a full 16000 unit tank of kethane should produce 15840L of liquid fuel/oxidizer. This seems like too much.' On the other hand, there's the kethane consumption stat. This lists a 13.5L/s for liquid fuel, and 16.5L/s for oxidizer. Do I apply the 99% conversion efficiency to these stats? This would result in an output 13.365L/s of liquid fuel a second. At this point, I'm a little unsure of how to do the math (which isn't my strong point). Then, upon further reading, I come across this several pages ago: So, according to this, and my own (shaky?) math, a 16000L tank would produce 1350.4L of fuel? And when Temeter says "oxygen," does he mean oxidizer? And this is where I get confused with this. If he does indeed mean oxidizer, then is there a ratio of fuel:oxidizer in his calculations? I mean, I know that you can only convert to one resource at a time and maintain maximum efficiency. So yeah, a little help would be greatly appreciated, as I'm a lost lamb on this one, and I'd like to get all my ducks in a row before I start firing my gear to the Mun.

Tasty. Thanks, guys!

Incredible, beautiful, inspiring. This seriously almost brought a tear to my eye. It encapsulates my dreams of being an astronaut as a kid, and exemplifies all that can be achieved in KSP. After two days of rage battling building issues, this video was a balm to my heart, and provides an impetus to push beyond my simple plans. Thank you.

Slowly but surely I'm assembling my fleet to set up a kethane mining operation on the Mun. So far I've assembled a mobile mining platform, and a mobile liquid fuel/oxidizer platform, but I'm not quite satisfied. I'd like to set up an mono-propellant converter, and a xenon converter, as well as storage towers for all of them. So here's what I'm wondering: do monoprop/xenon tanks connect and flow to each other? That is, if I have a stack of monoprop tanks with a converter linked to the top-most tank, will all the rest get filled as well? And if not, can I connect fuel lines to link them, or do fuel lines only transfer liquid fuel and oxidizer?

Here's my Mun lander/return vehicle: I don't have any return photos, and I'm much to busy getting my Mun mining operation up and running to recreate it. But as you can see, I've got more than enough fuel and thrust to get back. And that's 4 radial parachutes on the top, so I didn't 'splode when I got back home. Man, it was only two weeks ago, but it seems like months ago...

I slap on the Rovemate one the axles, then I use them as an attachment point. With that out of the way, how'd you solve the problem?

Alright, so here's the skinny: I built a (massive) kethane drilling platform that I named the SP1DR MDP (yes, I got the naming conventions from Borderlands 2). The problem is, it only has 6 wheels, thereby invalidating the name, and also, it tends to tip forward with sudden stops. So I build a base with 8 attachment points for wheels. Unfortunatly, the pod wasn't in the center of the frame, and when I tried to move it, I found out that there's issues with moving your attachment point (big thanks to astropapi1 for pointing that out to me). So I turn to those who are smarter than me (hopefully), to help me figure out a shape that can keep the cockpit in the center of the frame, but still have 4 axles. Also, it needs to be drivable and stable. Here's my failed frame: Notice how badly off-center the cockpit is. Also, for your information, I'm going to be using the Rovermax Model 3 wheels (The huge ones), so it'll have tank steering rather than standard. So, help me find shapes. Pretty please?

First off, thanks for making me bite the bullet on the B9 pack. I had DL'd it, and sat on it for awhile. The bad thing is, now my initial loading time is over a minute! Second, I'm a moron. The Radial Attachment Point is the exact part I needed, and it was right under my nose all along.

Hey guys, I've run into a little issue, and I'm wondering if there's a mod that can help me. Right now I'm trying to build a huge mobile kethane tanker/converter, but I'm having a devil of a time with the structural panels as flat mounting points. Right now, I'm running a pod, an adapter, and an I-beam backbone. But the panels are being persnickity. So I'm wondering if there are any mods out there that can provide a stable backbone, AND mounting points for the tanks. I don't want to go with a tanker-truck design, and I don't want to spend hours on end placing panels on the I-beams. So if there are any mounting points that can do both of what I want, my engineers will thank you profusely.

Funny thing is, I think you posted just a second before I did, and we were following the same logic. I'm concerned for you.

Either that or the four will meet, come into physical contact, and the resultant explosion would wipe the station out of space.

I wasn't even aware of mods when I landed on the mun. It was just the wiki for some basic info, quicksaves, grit, determination, quicksaves, and pure skill. And quicksaves.