Morokth

Some of the structural truss pieces can be selected as the first piece in a ship just like a probe or cockpit. Most likely the truss ended up controlling the minmus pod instead of the other way around

He means RETROGRADE. Burning prograde will increase your orbital period. Retrograde slows you down because you're burning against your current velocity.

The large rockomaxx adapter works just fine too. As well as throttling up to something just shy of 100%. I'm not glorying to burst anyone's bubble - not everyone knows this - but maybe my random mentioning of this will help that one person who didn't know mainsails and jumbo-64's don't seem to get along

I've also had that weird bug where the nav-ball was oriented on a clearly wrong angle while sitting on the launchpad. In one particular case I had the mechjeb control part mounted above the remote guidance piece controlling the rocket, wondered if that was causing the problem and moved the MJ part to beneath the pod piece. Since then I have had no problems, but I'm really not sure if that was truly what was causing the problem in the first place.

Simple steps to arriving at the Mun based on my experiences thus far - 1.) circularize your ship at whatever altitude parking orbit. I suppose this isn't entirely necessary but I find boosting to a parking orbit makes whatever else I'm going to do much easier. For me and what I do in game, 100km parking orbit is the standard around Kerbin. 2.) Select Mun as target. At the descending or ascending node burn normal or anti-normal to get the inclination difference to 0.0 degrees. In some cases having the inclination difference "close enough" may not cause much worries but I find this just makes everything else easier. 3.) In map view, zoom out far enough to see Mun's or ital path. Swing the view so that you're looking at Kerbins polar cap, and so that Mun is in about the 2 o'clock position. Now zoom back in and place a maneuver node at about the six o'clock position and set your burn for an intercep with Mun. Some fine tuning may be needed with the exact placemen of the node, but you should end up with a delta-v of between 820 and 850 generating you an encounter with the Mun, with a Mun periapsis of anywhere between 300km and a couple thousand kilometers. 4.). Once you are in the Mun's SOI, place a node at your munar periapsis and use the retrograde arm to place yourself into orbit around the Mun. 5.) lastly, if desired, circularize your burn at your desired altitude. This is the process I go through in getting to the Mun or Minmus. I hope I wrote this out succinctly and clearly enough for any who wander by looking for answers.

TWR is thrust to weight ratio. In total vacuum this is (from my own observations at least) not so important, but as a rule you pretty much won't move / lift if you have less than 1.0 TWR. That is, a rocket on the launchpad with more weight than what the thrust can move isn't going to get lifted. So you need at least 1.0 TWR from launch. I'm sure someone can give a far better explanation of this than I can. As for thrust and kN (which I understand to be kilo-newtons, and newton being a measurement of thrust), there is an equation that can be done to "manually" determine your TWR. Of course you would also need to know your rockets weight as well but I don't know tha formula. Again there are more well informed / well spoken people that can give you a better grasp than my simplistic layman's terms I just used.

Akinesis, I hope all goes well with your daughter. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your mission reports, to the point where I've been thinking of doing something similar in a campaign series I've been tinkering with ever since finding the wiki campaign. Thanks for the inspiration / boot in the behind to stay task oriented!!

I was curious about it would work in a polar or it vs. equatorial because if the rotation of the planet. During a moments pondering, I had a vision of the satellite more or less just sitting there but I didn't think that would happen. Guess ill just have to launch one and see what happens! As for the mapsat ill have to get my laptop online and see what I can dig up insofar as a hotfix file or what have you. Thought I saw one but was just browsing and not really paying that much attention at the time (probably cuz I was wondering about the polar orbit question).

Well two really, I suppose... 1.) If I launched a satellite into geosynchronous altitude (assume 2868km for Kerbin), but along a polar orbit, what would the difference be compared to an equatorial orbit? 2.) I can't seem to get ISA MapSat to work right with .21. Anyone got a fix for this? I'm using 3.3.4 if memory serves. And my apologies if this question is out of place.

Hmm. Hadn't thought about that lol.

As an alternative, you can grab your debris and move it into a decaying orbit, release it to burn up in the atmosphere/splashdown/touchdown and then return the collector back to a stable orbit. From there, go find more trash to pick up, or jus decouple Jeb and land him and send another pilot up to track a crack at it (would require a docking port to hold the cmd module instead a decoupler, but I think you get the idea). Course, there's always that persistence debris slider too, which is my personal favorite (although I've been working on keeping detached tanks and the like out of stable orbits)

Might have to go get it. I've already thought about it just to have a variety of different names than the same dozen or so that I end up with. Just haven't thought enough about it to do it - maybe when I get around to building and populating stations and large ships I will though.

Yeah, thats what I came up with too. Bit of a pain in the ass but I made it work. Even got to take my nifty rover for a bit of a drive - nice rugged bastard of a vehicle but I can't possibly think of trying to get it into space. I think it'll work for anything based on Kerbin - at least if I don't have to dry too far with it, that is.

Ok, So I have a rover with a crew of one to operate, and a hab module looking thing to hold three kerbals. Question is, though, how do I get those three into it before I take the rover off on an easter egg hunt?? Mind you, the rover isn't leaving the planet. Its going ot go from the KSC to the nearest egg that I have a location for...

This is more or less me. I use mechjeb almost entirely for the information I can get (like the weigh of the launcher and pods I use instead of adding it up by hand) although I have once or twice used the auto ascent and orbital alignment modes a few times. My command pods have names/classes (a prince and prince II class, lately duke and baron classes as I continue to find a way to get the best one-man command pod for my projects before I move on to the three man crew variants). My missions have been Explorer 1 and 2 to validate the command modules serviceability and make orbits and the like. Then there was Salutation 1 and 2 which were my attempts to make orbital rendezvous and dock (still haven't been successful with that yet - ugh!) and just last night, working on a new launch rocket I had Sparrowhawk 1 with a second Sparrowhawk mission lined up for tonight's festivities as I continue to refine the rocket. I also use the mapsat mod cuz the idea of sending a probe to a moon or plane an let it scan for a map appeals to me. And I'm thinking of getting the kethane mod because tha might be use to me as well. I tend to role play my stuff too so that just adds to it. Beyond all that I try to stay pure and I only want to use stock parts and what not.

Wow. And in the same line as the OP was think my first thought was for all the radical vectors and how much of a PITA it would be just to get back under control and back aboard the shuttle. Pure utter wow-ness.

If you were in a Trinary star system you wouldn't necessarily need FTL capability to see what the other two star systems had (if they had anything). Granted, conventional, sub-light speeds would still make any such journeys long term missions just to get from Kerbol A's influence to get to Kerbol B or C, but I think my statement still stands

The YRSA (Yaren Republican Space Administration - or Agency as I tend to use the term interchangeably) is what I call my personal endeavors in the KSP game. In my mind the Yaren Republic is a counterpoint to the kerbals. Same race of kerbaloids, just a different nation vying for supremacy in a manner similar to the old school Cold War era experienced between the US and the USSR. I tend to get a bit creative and like a little artistic jog to the overall game experience, and therefore take and express my own little creative liscence of a sort. (Nothing legal or what not, tho. Just how I enjoy this game)

The Yaren Republican Space Administration announced today an update to the general public regarding its efforts in gaining a better, higher understanding of the universe in which we live. Direction Salizar Thorin, in a brief press conference, outlined the successes of the Alarim Project which culminated in several manned orbits of the world that ultimately validated not only its existence but also the viability of the Prince class command module. A second model, outfitted with a docking port whee the previous version had not had one, is expected to be field tested in the coming days. Additionally, a few satellites already in other are expected to be joined by four more communications satellites. This new project is believed by many outside observers of the YRSA to be the precursor to probe launchers that will be targeting the Mun. For more information, please renew your subscriptions to the Republican News Gazette, available now at your news stands and book stores.

Yeah I saw something about that when I was on the wiki. Well see soon enough what happens. Ill be sure to give an update when I finish the mission.

I've been playing more with the V30's than anything else for engines. At least I think that's wha I've been using ( at a BBQ right now and away from the lappie where KSP is installed to look and see). Maybe my next set of tests in preparation for lunar (munar?) landers and what not will include them.

No. No ion engine, though I shouldn't have known better since you just need xenon and power, so far as I know since I've never used them before. Perhaps SF II will have that set up if my present set up isn't enough.

Headed out for a BBQ. Guess ill be figuring out some stuff later or tomorrow. It's not like I don't have time - next burn is 92 days and time to periapsis is abou 112 I think.

Project: Solar Flare has been launched and has just escaped Kerbin orbit, en route, eventually for the sun. Right now I have a maneuver node set at its current apogee (or apoapsis, if you prefer) that requires a delta-v of just under 7k m/s. that will put the periapsis beneath the sun at something like 12million meters. Not sure if I have the fuel for that (in fact I'm highly doubtful) so I'm curious how low the perigee should be in order to ensure the sun will catch the probe and "sink" into the sun. Anyone know how low the periapsis should be in order to cause this effect? Thanks

I, for one, must commend you on the real world applications of this gaming system as you intend to use it in your class room. I hope that your endeavors spawn a whole new generation of physics and astrophysics majors. Good on you, mate, as the Brits and/or Aussies might toss your way!