mellojoe

yes. I was confusing the two. Delta Heavy uses the launchprofile I described. the Falcon Heavy is supposedly using true fuel crossfeeding. My bad.

The Falcon Heavy does not use fuel crossfeeding, I don't believe. Going from memory here, so don't flay me, but I think it simply uses independent throttle control reducing thrust in the central stalk to 50% or less during ascent. It lifts off initially using 100% thrust from all 3 engines. Then part-way it reduces the central engine to 50% thrust, conserving fuel in the central stalk. The outer two engines/boosters run at full throttle until fuel is spent in those stages. They are dropped off, and then the central stalk is fired back up to 100% for the rest of the ascent. This is a fuel-saving measure for the central booster / main engine, but it is not fuel crossfeeding as we would call it. There may be plans to work out fuel crossfeeding, but I don't think they are working at this time, or are even intended to be working by the full scale tests later this year. ((edit)) or wait ... is that the Delta V Heavy? I've confused myself. I might have to go look it up again.

If I can reduce the part count of my heavy lifter and still get the same payload to orbit, I'll be happy enough. But that won't stop me from trying to go bigger and bigger. I mean, whats a few extra thousand struts, anyway?

Here's my current modular layout. it incorporates three crafts in one. A small refinery, a 2-man lander-can, and a rover. I am of the mindset to drill and refine as needed, and not have giant storage tanks. This makes for a very compact kit.

IJKL mode for me. It allows me to easily rotate the craft using WASD and translate using IJKL. Full freedom of movement without having to click back and forth.

Sorry to go too far off topic, however: A friend of my father's did that whole "row across the atlantic" challenge a few years back. 2 people in a rowboat. I think the winners completed in around 70 days. He and his mate took closer to 80, I think. The documentary about it included a story of a young husband + wife team who were in their first year of marriage. He got sick and quit about 2 weeks into it. She continued on without him and finished in about 90 days. They did not stay married. I can't imagine being locked up with only one other person for a week or more. 30 days is right out. Anyone who can do these long term missions (boating, space, whatever) is a better person than I.

When I build a plane and it suddenly takes a left turn in the middle of the runway? Yeah, thats when I wish I had put some struts on it. When I watch my craft load on the launchpad and pieces start immediatly falling off? Yeah, thats when I wish I had put some struts on it.

When it comes to parachutes on a large object, I've found "drogue" chutes to be invaluable. If you have regular and drogue chutes, you can land just about anything from nearly any speed. Well, within reason. Give yourself a shallow approach to scrub off speed in the high atmosphere, and drogues + chutes = safe landing. Without drogues? You may have to do the small 1-man pod system you were originally thinking.

I don't know what my specialty IS, but I think I could list out what it ISN'T. Things I am NOT good at: SSTO planes Planes Small rockets small lifters Big lifters Effecient rockets enormous fps-lag inducing rockets rovers landing softly on things landing at KSC keeping kerbals safe playing without quicksave effecient interplanetary transfers interplanetary transfers gravity assists planning ahead remembering to put parachutes on things remembering to put landing legs on things remembering to put solar panels on things making things look pretty remembering to put Kerbals in things before you launch remembering to fix staging before you launch .... god, I LOVE THIS GAME

Too many ideas, not enough time. And then .... and then .... and then there were MODS! GOODBYE SLEEP! My poor wife has realized that if she wants to spend any quality time, she brings her iPad into the computer room and watches TV while I KSP. I think she's developing a crush on Jebediah, though. She keeps calling him "My little buddy" and asking how he's doing. My Eve mission almost stranded him, and she yelled at me. Actually yelled at me, "NO! YOU BRING MY LITTLE BUDDY HOME!" She still doesn't care about the game at all. But I think she found out the only way to communicate with me.

Ah, I was thinking ion engines plus attaching a boatload of parachutes. Ions to divert to collision trajectory, and parachutes for the actual landing. I didn't think about using the ions as landing thrusters. That would indeed be a challenge.

Now the challege becomes ... how MANY kerbals can you rescue at one time? I like the idea of a space bus. I'd start with the 2-man lander can as my command pod. Then stick any number of hitchhiker cans immedietly below as your passenger area. For a bus, each Kerbal has their own seat. For a luxury cruiser, a maximum of 2 kerbals per 4-man hitchhiker-can. For long term living, 1 kerbal per hitchhiker. But for your bus, command pod on top: and again, either the 2-man lander can or even the 3-man pod, but only have 2 drivers. Or a pilot + co-pilot with a little room to stretch their legs. Then 2 hitchhiker pods would mean 8 passengers. Thats a pretty good bus at that point. Docking port on top, cause you never know when that will come in handy. Batteries and solar panels (no RTG's) for clean living. No nuke motors either: there are people present. But those LV-909 engines are pretty good. And a boat-load of parachutes for a safe landing. When you get good at deorbiting at Kerbin, you should be able to get them close enough to the KSC to pretend there is a ground crew awaiting to bring them back to the KSC. Go nuts with it. Have fun!! Now it makes me want to put a bus in orbit around Kerbin as a rescue craft on permanent stand-by.

Whats the power differnce between an ion engine and shooting an asteroid with lasers? Isn't there a proposed asteroid "defense" system that suggests parking a craft next to an asteroid and then bombarding it with lasers? This should theoretically nudge it enough to slightly adjust its orbit. Would ion engines not provide a STOCK similar solution? You'd have to have something like MechJeb auto-pilot to be able to leave the engine burning while you switch to other crafts and do other things like time warp and continue with the rest of the game. Stick on an ion engine, set it and forget it.

This sounds like a great plan!! Do you use mods? You should look at Crew Manifest (not mine, but i'm a huge fan of it). It allows you to control the amount of crew on a vessel while it is on the launchpad. So you can put a ton of command pods and/or hitchiker cans, and then only put a single kerbal onboard. It allows you to name them, too, so you could have Busdriver Kerman if you wanted. It also makes it easier transfering crew inside of a craft or between two craft once they are docked.

Correct. I was over-exaggerating for the sake of kerballing. It is interesting to think about putting my main craft into a crashing suborbital trajectory before jettisoning the lander-can, and then re circularize the main craft. I hadn't considered that, honestly. I think I will drop my main orbit to about 8km or 9km. And I think my lander has sufficentient thrust to handle the rest. But, I will quicksave ... just in case. You know ... in case my first attempt is merely a simulation run on computers before I attempt the "real" landing.

Hooligan Labs i believe makes an Airship. I think if you search for Hooligan Labs and Eve you might see some examples. In fact ... hang on .... actually .... so apparently "Eve" is too short a word for the forums to search for. You are on your own. But I bet if you look up the Hooligan Labs stuff, you'll find examples. Scott Manley took a reverse airship to Eve, turning one into a Submarine. I can't remember the results, but I don't think he used it for ascent.

Wait ... you are suggesting: Burn retro into a stall. Detach lander. Switch back to main craft. Burn prograde to get back into safe orbit. Switch BACK to lander. Control lander decent. ..... thats crazy .... like Kebal krazy .... so crazy it just might work .....

Real life uses unmanned crafts ALL the time. I think you are free to send unmanned craft to any celestial body you choose. China has an unmanned craft at the Moon right now. So, sending an unmanned craft to orbit the Mun? Not cheating at all. In fact, more realistic than sending 20 kerbals to the Mun. Send that unmanned craft, rendezvous with your Kerbals, and bring those men home!

Decoupled a stage using the blue stack seperator. Except, the decoupler got caught on one of the legs of the craft. It was enough weight to imbalance the small craft. I had to play around with time warp to try to get it to glitch through so that it would come loose and leave my craft alone.

How low can one orbit Moho before things start to crash? Thanks to you all, I'm successfully in orbit around Moho. Used less than 6k delta-v getting there and adjusting orbit. I'm currently in a low 13,000m orbit, and I think I want to go lower before I detach my lander-can. If I were to sneak down to just 9km, am I going to start bumping into things? Are there mountainous peaks that go very high? I have so much fuel left in my transfer stage, that I want to keep using it as much as possible to make my landing/ascending easier.

((Update)) We did it!!! Thanks to all your help!! ----------------------------- I've assembled a craft in orbit around Kerbin. It is currently sitting on 13,000 delta-v. Will this be sufficient to arrive at Moho, and then return? I think so, but I've never done Moho before. It scares the bejeebus out of me. I have two brave Kerbal men aboard .... Jebediah and Bob. Please tell me they aren't signing up for their last missions. My game plan: Push to Moho when it is at periapsis with Kerbin at its apoapsis. Orbit sun until encounter. Encounter Moho orbit, as low as I can get. Map for Kethane. Drop a small lander can for Jeb and Bob to explore the surface. Mine and refine kethane to refuel lander can. Leave Moho and rendezvous with rest of ship. Go home. This is my big plan. Kethane on every planet. Moho is my last stop, and I think I can do it. But out of all of them, Moho scares me the most. We've done Eve successfully. We've done Eeloo succesfully. We've even got a massive mission in Jool, that has been hugely successful. But Moho? Moho? Yeesh. I don't know. 13,000 delta-V in orbit around Kerbin. Enough? Or do I need to rethink my design? Also, any last minute tips?

I try to leave little debris. I leave the slider on full during the mission, and try to plan accordingly. But for bits and pieces that didn't get crashed (whether they survived impact, or are decouplers floating aimlessly), I'll nuke them in the tracking station. My large stages usually contain a probe core and at least 1 of the flat solar panels so that I can steer them after seperation. But if I miscalculate and don't leave enough fuel, I'll nuke from the tracking station. For me, I like the orbit lines to be uncluttered, and I'll roleplay that I've cleaned up debris, but I just don't have time to do it in real life.

OP, done anything fun?

I'll say it a 3rd time, adding SAS or Reaction Wheels to a craft can make a WORLD of difference. In your craft, I'd stick 4 of the small reaction wheels right on top of your inline batteries. That will make a massive change in maneuverability. I try to find ways to put 2, 3, or 4 reaction wheels on every craft I design. Sometimes I'll go so far as to turn on part-clipping and hide one inside a tank somewhere just to ensure I've got the control I want.

First off: sucks to hear. Next drink is on me. I knew plenty who went over in Desert Storm, and thankfully they came home. I'm sorry you had to say goodbye to mates there. Secondly: I, too, love the A-10. And comparing that majestic beast to a battle-axe is about the most appropriate analogy I've heard in a while. yeah, its old, yeah its outdated, but she gets the job done, and by-god she's good at it.