pseudochicken

Ha ha seems like VTOL spaceplane is the way to go. I have a few other projects (including recovering my now stranded dude from my first space plane) before I attempt that. Cool, thanks for the tips guys.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Lenovo+-+15.6%26%2334%3B+Laptop+-+4GB+Memory+-+500GB+Hard+Drive/9130065.p?id=1218990135826&skuId=9130065 ^^ This is an A6 4GB laptop running on Windows 8. I can run KSP on an A4 4GB laptop running on Windows 7.

It's funny too, thinking about this spaceplane stuff. The only reason I started to do it was because my brother plays this game just occasionally, but when he does he just makes high altitude jets and doesn't give a damn about getting into space or orbit, let a lone Laythe. I was looking at his fleet and watched him fly some of his designs. It dawned on us that we could make a few modifications to his existing designs (adding a docking port being the major modification) and get this thing to Laythe. But I wanted to start my own project. He is excellent at flying the planes in KSP. He lands them in his sleep. He just has difficulty docking and getting nice pretty circulized orbits and has a hell of a time doing interplanetary missions. Our efforts combined would probably result in more success! Perhaps we should go back to collaborative efforts only for spaceplanes.

Yeah, I was considering using parachutes for future space planes. And more wings is another option. However, after this experience, I may stick to traditional rockets for now.

How about new destinations? How about a gas giant with an axial tilt with some moons?

Yeah, I am trying to land on that island. I've landed there twice with traditional VTOL rockets. I am currently trying to land on the western shore right at the equator, due south of those three large lakes, on the peninsula. I landed a 3-man VTOL ship there and I want to have them meet up. There is some flat ground near by, but maybe I should scrap that and land on the eastern shore. I've landed to the east before with a probe and saw that it was pretty flat. The problem is that what looks like pretty flat ground from several km away ends up having minor undulations in the terrain that flip my spaceplane about upon landing. Or make me smack down way harder than I anticipated. I will try landing slower at around 50-60m/s. I was reading somewhere else that if I could not land at 100m/s I should just give up (aka I suck). I do not deny that I am a noob at landing spaceplanes, but maybe that person was talking out of their ***. Ha ha, thanks for the advice. I thought I was about to fall in love with SSTO spaceplanes, but after this experience I am going back to traditional VTOL rockets.

Hello all, I recently sent my first SSTO spaceplane to Laythe. It flies around Kerbin fine, gets to orbit fine, and with the assistance with a little extra boost after an orbit refueling my spaceplane can make it to Laythe with fuel to spare. I am have lots of difficulties, however, trying to land the blasted thing on Laythe. I am sure I could go back to the drawing board and try to make a more stable lander, but this plane is at Laythe now so I want to do it with this one. Some of the biggest difficulty I am having is finding flat ground to land. I have tested landing on this thing multiple times on Kerbin (areas near the runway), and while not the easiest craft to land I can manage it. Granted I am probably a piss poor pilot when it comes to spaceplanes. I have tried well over 25 times (each time requiring me to load from a save far back). So needless to say I have spent many frustrated hours trying to land this spaceplane. Do you guys have any tips? I come in for landing under 100m/s total. I try to keep my vertical descent less than 10m/s if not 5m/s. But every time I touch down, an engine falls off, or a wing, or a wheel, and before I know it the plane is tumbling and exploding into tiny bits on Laythe's sandy surface. I don't get it because I land fine on Kerbin (flatter ground though). My roommate can testify that my cursing has ramped up in the last few hours. We are starting to consider starting a thread called "Things my roommate says (or screams) while playing KSP." Cheers

Update: OK. I am dumb, I suppose, and I should have been patient. Turns out the issue was not that I could not select Jool. Hiding the other craft, or tabbing through the planets, allowed me to highlight Jool but not actually set it as my target. I checked other craft that were not on a trajectory to intercept Jool, and they COULD set Jool as a target. So that got me thinking that it had something to do with my crafts' predicted encounter with Jool. I just so happened to still be in Kerbin's SoI, and thought that might have something to do with it. Basically, that meant I had the orange predicted path for once I was in orbit around Kerbol, and the purple predicted path for my encounter with Jool. Once I left Kerbin's SoI and enter Kerbol's SoI, I was then able to set Jool as my target. And now everything is fine. Argh, it is a weird quirk but not too much of a problem. Thank you everyone for your patience and advice! How do I set this thread as [Answered]?

Alright, thanks for the tips guys! At work now, but when I get the chance I will give all of these a try (well, until I find one that works). I will let you know!

Also, I am having difficulties "selecting" anything by clicking the orbit. Nothing pops up when I click Jool's orbit.

OK, a little clarification: This is in Map Mode of ship that is in mid-flight. I am unaware of any way to "remove" or "hide" other vessel icons while in the mode. I am able to select other planets that have space clutter, including Kerbal itself. Correction to earlier assumption that I would not be able to select any planet with clutter. This seems specific to Jool. Let me be clear, I do not have a lot of stuff around Jool. If I zoom in close enough to Jool (where I can see its moon's orbits and the like), I can Focus on Jool, but not select it as a Target. If zoomed out, I can only select one of my probes/satelites (and occasionally the choice to select one of the moons pops up). Does this make sense? Perhaps screen shots would help...

I am trying to do my first interplanetary mission since 0.21 update, which involves several manned crafts and several orbital fueling stations on their way to Laythe. I want to adjust the orbit to match Jool's inclination mid-flight, however I am unable to set Jool as a target (so I know how many degrees I need to change my inclination) . I can only select one of the previous probes I sent to Laythe long ago, which gives me no information on inclination. I have done several missions to Jool, and I do not remember this being a problem before. How do I actually select JOOL as my target without terminating my current missions around Jool and its moons?? * Has anyone else had this problem? I'm banging my head against the desk trying to figure it out. As for mods, I only have the most up to date Protractor installed. Any help will be appreciated! *Edit: Removed sentence about other planet's space-clutter. I can set other planets with space-clutter (Kerbal, Eve, Duna) as target. This seems to be a specific problem with Jool. And by clutter, I could mean a total of two probes (like on Eve), or dozens of satelites/stations (around Kerbal).

I knew it was going to be something boneheaded on my end! I did not know it required a physical part attached to the vessel. Got it working! Thanks!

Briefly: First time I've tried installing a mod. Extracted the latest Protractor mod file to the GAMEDATA folder, but I do not see the Mod during game play at all. Tried doing it the old way, still nothing. What do I do? Does it require me to activate it in game or something? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.