ANWRocketMan

@p3asant: I made some Service Module parts so that my batteries can be stored in the stage itself. I also added ServiceModule tank types to my command modules(in a relatively balanced way) so I could add RCS etc to them for during re-entry. It's solved my problems with using battery banks. So much so that I deleted a bunch of stock and mod parts that I don't use anymore. Especially fuel tanks. @MedievalNerd: I love flipping the occasional rocket now and having them actually explode from the G-Forces. Now we just need some big dynamic explosion effects. @Everyone else: I haven't used the engines in this pack as I have a very different scheme for them. However, I'm having some trouble with what stats I should give the engines to balance them realistically and not OP them compared to say BobCat's Soviet Engine Pack(which is great BTW). Here is a list of my engine resizes that I'm not sure what to do with: AIES Galaxy-VR [os => 1m] AIES MODC-2 [os => 0.5m] ~ This one is more or less the right size and thrust anyway though. KW Vesta VR-1 [1.25m => 2m] KW Maverick-D [1.25m => 2m] KW WildCat-V [1.25m => 2m] KW Service Propulsion System [2.5m => 3m] KW Vesta VR-9D [2.5m => 3m] KW Maverick-V [2.5m => 3m] KW Griffon G8-D [2.5m => 3m] KW WildCat-XR [3.75m => 4m] KW Titan-T1 [3.75 => 4m] KW Griffon XX [3.75 => 4m] I want these engines to be balanced out with BobCat's Soviet Engines and serve slightly different TWR and efficiency roles. I'm no expert on the mathematics behind engine thrust ratios etc in relation to their exhaust nozzles and chamber pressures. Thus I really don't know what to set the stats to on the re-sized engines. P.S. Does anyone know where I can find some J-2X or J-2 engines? Or for that matter separate Merlin 1D(in both atmospheric and vacuum configuration? in addition just some good engine parts?(how is NovaPunch on the realism scale with RSS and related mods?) Thanks for being an awesome community of realism modders and players guys!

Are stretchy tanks supported with this? Or for that matter normal tanks that use Modular Fuel System?

Finally got the time to actually land the small lander. 1850m/s dV landing from a 50x50km orbit. Mission delta-V usage/budget: Launch: 9400/9600 Munar Transfer: 3055/3100 Munar Orbital Insertion: 870/900 Orbital Maneuvers: 18/30 Landing: 1850/2200

Haha, good one!

I wanted to launch this mapping sattelite into a polar orbit over the Real-Size Kerbin... Re-entry at 7km/s!

Ok, i followed some advice and did my Munar lander launch just now. My ascent was very inefficient at around 9450m/s dV as my lift-off TWR was around 1.05(not enough variety of 2.5m engines, I was using @NathanKell's edited MFS engines). So I spent a lot of time loitering below 20m/s and wasting fuel. My landing I completed in 1854m/s dV, but it was hair raising. Ended up with 0.5L of RCS fuel(out of 5 budgeted for the descent, I removed all probe/command pod torque). This high usage was due to the lander being a little more un-centered as I designed it in the VAB and I lost all practical rotational control during the proceedings. It's back to the drawing board for now. I set my periapsis at 6km and about 5 degrees ahead of my target, I then tried to keep my time to touchdown(based on vertical speed and radar altitude) to the same amount of time it would take to burn off all my horizontal speed. It's worked quite well so far as I landed with an additional 336m/s dV still in the lander's tank right in the center of my target crater( I aimed for the edge though). *PS Ignore the Aerozine. I used it as a filler so I could auto-fill only a certain amount of the tank with the proper ratio of fuel and I just forgot to remove the Aerozine tank afterwards.

I'm having some troubles with my ascent and (zero-atmosphere) landing profiles: #1 Ascent: Currently I try to start my gravity turn relatively early at around 1-2km. However, i try to push through the thick atmosphere as fast as I can at around 1.8 TWR and below 220m/s. After which I throttle down and try to keep my apoapsis not too far from my current altitude(at a 30 to 60 second Time to Apoapsis so that, by my logic, I don't lose it again due to atmospheric drag). So far this has worked for me. But I'm not sure this is the most efficient launch. I have gotten orbit with 9100m/s dV to an equatorial LKO(350km x 350km) with my CTV(Crew Transfer Vehicle) which has RCS and an additional 500m/s dV for orbital operations afterwards. This using FAR, KW Rocketry, MFS RFRM and procedural fairings. Should I find some better profile? Thrust less/more in some places? #2 Munar/Zero-atmosphere landings: I'm struggling to adjust to the larger and longer descents in this mod. i did a Munar landing and, well, it went fine but was probably very inefficient. I set my periapsis at 10km behind my target landing site. I then tried to keep my TWR to around 1.5 whilst controlling my vertical speed with pitch. I touched down around 10 seconds after zeroing my horizontal speed(purely by chance). Is there a better method to do this? I don't want to waste fuel on keeping my vertical speed low during a 3 minute burn to burn off my horizontal speed.

REAL SIZE KERBIN FTW!! ... So, my exams finally finished yesterday so, after some golf and coffee I sat down to have a day of pleasure in the rescaled real-size Kerbal Universe mod. I infinite-fueled myself to the Moon. I failed to launch a mapping satellite. I designed my first unmanned Munar Lander. *NOTICE the RCS thrusters because I disabled all my reaction wheels/torque in all command pods(including mods' ones). I also "legitimately" visited Kerbol. Apparently it's quite big... And hot. She is beautiful, Kerbin, isn't she? So, what have you done today?

So, my exams finally finished yesterday so, after some golf and coffee I sat down to have a day of pleasure in the rescaled real-size Kerbal Universe mod. I infinite-fueled myself to the Moon. I failed to launch a mapping satellite. I designed my first unmanned Munar Lander. *NOTICE the RCS thrusters because I disabled all my reaction wheels/torque in all command pods(including mods' ones). I also "legitimately" visited Kerbol. Apparently it's quite big... And hot. She is beautiful, Kerbin, isn't she? So, what have you done today?

So, basically my history with Duna is very much like the real world: a lot of failures and no crewed landings.* The Konstellation program is the replacement for the old Duna Direct missions. THEY WERE NOT REAL!* Launching the Habitation and Cargo lander. Yes, I use Kerbal Engineer Redux in my stock part/aerodynamics install. Deal with it. Please... Seriously... The Habitation and Cargo lander is docked to its transfer stage a couple of Kerbin months ahead of the crewed vessel. The prerequisite friendly Ike encounter. My standard encounter plan for this mission. Phase #01: Powered orbital capture into a highly elliptical orbit. Phase #02: Near apoapsis inclination change to match the orbit of the other mission craft. in this case a derelict Duna Direct Lander. We decided to use this lander(which was, for all intents and purposes, never launched*) due to our low budget and the high overall cost of the first mission. Phase #03: A second burn is done to partially circularize the orbit, this is done to easily gain an encounter with the other vessel(s). Phase #04: Final particularization burn is completed to place the vessels in parking orbits near each other with minimal drift. Phase #01 orbital insertion burn. The Habitation and Cargo lander is deployed to a pre-determined location with an equatorial facing to allow the Solar Panels to properly track Kerbol. This mission was landed inside the Great Dunian Canyon. Some months later the crewed mission departs. Visible is the Port-side low-gravity habitation arm with the crew's bunk beds. Phase #01 orbital insertion burn for the crewed mission. The crew rendezvous with the Mars Direct Lander using the "Kerion" NKO-01 CTV. Once the crew is transferred, the "Kerion" CTV will remain in orbit as the lander uses the remaining fuel in the transfer stage to deorbit. Powered descent. The Mars Direct Landers were originally designed to land with drogue chutes to slow them down, these would then be cut close to the surface and the soft powered touch down would occur. The placement of the parachutes caused severe instability and two of the three test landers were destroyed in their landings. They were designed with a backup abort-from-landing procedure functionality ready. This meant the landers carried enough fuel to stop the descent in mid-air and return to Duna orbit in an emergency. Consequently some configuration changes were able to be made that allowed the lander to descend under rocket power without need for parachutes. Touchdown! The lander deploys its nsolar panels while the crew suit up for the first Duna-walk. The first Kerbal-hero o walk on the surface of Duna! What an expression! The first Duna-walker has a "short" EVA to the Habitation module. We blame the non-existent descent computer... Not our pilots! Roving! Rocing up the cany-ooOoon! Apparantly, "Wobbles the Rover" was depressed and planted his face into the dirt. Possibly expecting to grow into something better. Unfortunately, the external cameras failed to transmit the ascent video. So we're stuck with the crew rendevouzing and docking with the "Kerion" CTV in Duna orbit. Three orbits later, the "Kerion" delivers the crew to the Crew Transfer Vessel still waiting in orbit. Fun Fact: fully fuelled, the "Kerion" NKO-01 CTV has more than 900m/s dV with a full RCS load to boot! trans-Kerbin injection burn. The crew transfer Vessel encounters Kerbin's SOI and completes some final adjustments to ensure a safe re-entry. The crew transfer to the "Kerion" for Kerbin re-entry. This will be hot. 3100m/s and counting. This is... uhm... 3600m/s re-entry effects speak for themselves with dazzling displays! The Crew Transfer Vessel is still visible at 1.4km distance. The drogue chutes open at no more than 400m/s descent speed at around 10km above the surface. Splashdown as Minmus sets in the distance. We TOTALLY planned it this way! *There were several manned missions before, but we decided to not tell anyone about them. The embarrassment would be too big for Jeb himself!

As great as this mod is, there's one thing that I would really like to be able to do before I start using it for my realism savegame. I'm using the real size mod with a lot of other realism-related edits I've done myself. Namely I disabled reaction wheels on all parts, except if specifically added through the reaction wheel/SAS systems. Now, in addition, RCS is not nearly as plentiful as it usually is as I now have oxygen and CO2 to add into each pod as well. I also use RemoteTech 2(will be anyway) for proper remote controlled craft. The problem with this is the massive delay times involved in this is too much to manually control my probes. Now, here's the function I would like to be able to write: When you want to turn to a specific orientation, instead of having the craft jump around and spin and waste tons of RCS fuel, I want to be able to do a small RCS burn in a specific direction, then let the probe coast until the correct pitch/yaw or roll is reached. At that point or just before, the script burns a tiny mount of RCS in the opposite direction to stop the movement. It might be needed to do a small timewarp to fully stop the turning at this point, though. Is there a way to do this now? Or should I start modding and playing Orbiter instead?(never tried it)

I so wish Kethane/or a future resources mod or stock feature use this! It's absolutely brilliant.

Ok, well... I fixed my launcher... Finally got it right. A little too circular for my taste... Two things were wrong(thanks @capi3101): #1: My ascent profile was very wrong! I started my gravity turn much too steeply and early. This because I usually start at 1-2km with Real Size and FAR. #2: I had much too low TWR on my third stage for orbital insertion. My first stage had a TWR of around 1.6. Third stage around 1.4(a little too low, I like to have at least around 1.8 since I'm already practically 30 degrees by the time this activates). I'll try to keep in mind what you said about the stage dV next time though. Makes sense to do it that way. Sorry, I should have clarified: I consider stock as anything with stock gameplay mechanics. Considering I can and have done all those things manually anyway, it does not change the game for me. It just streamlines the experience as I don't necessarily have the time to do it all manually. I can and probably would just calculate that myself anyway if I wasn't using Kerbal Engineer. So it makes little difference to me. I'm looking for the nostalgic experience but one that does not exceed my "OCD"(not really OCD, but I like knowing stuff as they are, and they must be neat). So... For most people it's a sin punishable by Kraken but for me it's just a handy tool to make the experience more pleasurable. It's not building a capable rocket that is bothering me, I just hate all this jiggling and wobbling that I'm not used to. normally(with my mods installed, NO MechJeb) I can actually enjoy doing my launches(at least with a tested launcher). But this is just a harrowing experience. The problem is I like my rockets looking at least like a half-a***d real rocket.

I installed a stock KSP(with some essential tools: Kerbal Engineer, Enhanced Navball + Docking Indicator and Editor Tools) install. I then struggled to build a realistic looking launcher for my 50-ton Duna lander and ascent stage and struggled even more to get it into orbit that doesn't have an inclination of 30 degrees.

Hi there, I installed a stock install of KSP today(besides some essential tools such as Kerbal Engineer, Enhanced Navball + Docking Indicator and Editor Tools. Now, I usually play with FAR, KW Rocketry, AIES and MFT and recently with rescaled Kerbin. Now, however, I have some questions: Question #1: The delta-v... Oh the delta-V... I just can't get stuff into orbit. I struggle so much with adjusting my rockets to stock aerodynamics etc. What are some tips to keep my rockets looking realistic but still be able to lift my payloads? Question #2: I just built a 50 ton payload launcher(for my Duna lander and ascent vehicle). Now, I can just just get this thing into orbit. But I'm not enjoying my launches as I normally do with FAR and so on... They just wobble and flex so much. The thing is strutted so much I'm surprised it hasn't collapsed into a black hole yet. I'm out of ideas... I have struts between every single tank and decoupler and engine. I have struts between the bottom stages and the payload, I have struts on my lander engines and my capsule, I have struts. Struts... struts, struts, struts! How can I make launching a pleasurable experience as I used to have with my mods? Kind regards, ANWRocketMan

@Captain_Party: Your rockets are either unstable, or you make too large turns within the atmosphere, which when using FAR WILL cause the rocket to flip-out. Make smaller turns(do not leave the surface speed prograde marker while in the atmosphere). The second problem might be a MechJeb problem, or it is displaying your delta-v wrong. They are too powerful, especially in the atmosphere. Small and gradual movements. Place fins at the bottom of a rocket to help stabilize it into the stream. Controllable fins. Use fine controls. Do gradual gravity turns. And start them early, keep your speed in lower atmosphere low too.

@Xnerd_Bomber: A craft with about 8.8km/s dV(with a ridiculously efficient launch) or 9.5km/s dV if you're not a god. Here's an example launcher(it has a test payload of something like 50 tons or such. Can't remember). @OopsThatNotWork: Make two different installs for KSP.

I see your pojnt... Because Titan is represented by Laythe. Minmus is Uranus.

I also find that putting a couple of clamps right at the bottom of the rocket works best. With KJR the rest should be stable enough.

Does this fix the SRB's resetting to the center of the craft if you revert to VAB? I absolutely agree with @blubbermonkeys! You're doing great work @Nathan. Amazing work!

I have a lot of problems with launch clamps too. Mine just usually break loose from the launch pad and rip my rockets to shreds. I see that whenever I time warp(non-physics) and exit again, the launch clamps move position again too. Pretty sure it has something to do with floating point errors and such(maybe?) due to the large scale of Kerbin. Duna does have a blue-ish glow(taken in 5.0).

I wouldn't want real names either. On Mars' atmosphere: It depends on the scattering of light, even though it would generally be perceived as red. If you watch any of the sunset videos from the rovers, you can see the sky turning blue. Almost the reverse of what happens on Earth.

I don't think this counts...

Wow, can't wait! P.S. I'm assuming you didn't actually re-size the Saturn and Uranus replacements to the actual size of those planets?

@Damaske: I have experienced this with other mods before too. I also doubt it's KJR.