mellojoe

I've just been doing small missions. Nothing grand scale at all. A little orbiting base around Minmus, a few planes, etc. I'm really trying to get a decent plane built. I'd like to have a Pegasus style plane that launches an orbital rocket, but those keep seeming to fail for me. But, since I have not real objectives at this point, I feel fine just trying out crap and seeing where it takes me. I love the idea of 5-minute rockets. That's basically what I'm doing, except I usually waste and hour or two in the process.

In honor of the brave men who first and finally discovered, sadly, that the Moon is most definitely not made of cheese, the Kerbal Science Team of Jebediah, Bill and Bob have decided to send their own lander to the Mun. This was an all new mission using a never before tested launch craft. What follows is their journey in memory of that first giant leap for mankind. We knew that this mission was to be unique. As such, we wanted a new craft. One with a more iconic design and not the traditional (and costly) asparagus staging. It was soon discovered that the core lifter needed some more thrust. Side boosters were added very late in development. It hinders the view of the craft on the launch pad, but it also serves to highlight the differences in this flight vs any of our previous missions. The lander will hold all three of our brave Kerbalnauts. This mission is not going to be a simple recreation of the Apollo 11 lander. Jebediah, Bill and Bob will all three get the opportunity to walk on the Mun, and all three were excited about the journey. We have liftoff! Iconic image number 1. Booster Stage Seperation. Like peeling away wrapping paper at holiday time, we drop the outer shell to reveal our rocket. And here she is! The 44th Anniversary Rocket was built to evoke the memory of the original while using its own modern spin. She is gorgeous in her own right but a true reflection of what the original meant to us. One of the most stable crafts we have ever had the privilege to pilot. She flew straight and true, and turned with precision that was unexpected. The specialness of this craft cannot be overstated, as this is her maiden and only flight. She is a tribute and will be immediately retired after this trip. And here we begin our 3rd leg of the journey, and where we encounter our first problem. Our intermediary pusher stage for this trip was supposed to get us out of Kerbin orbit and on our way to the Mun before seperating. However, Jeb's design philosophy of "launch it first, discover the problems later" has proven to not be as sound as we originally thought. Using the poodle engine as a pusher stage has proven to be too weak. We fixed this easily by firing up the lander's engines. Jeb was more than pleased with the in-flight fix. Bill and Bob are starting to show signs of concern. And on our way! The Mun rises above Kerbin. The sun is at our back. It is a beautiful day to fly rockets. Finally on escape path headed for the Mun. Bill and Bob specifically named this flight. This is not the Apollo 11. This is only a Tribute. We have seperated again, and we are now piloting our lander stage. The next design flaw has been discovered. This one is a big one. JEB FORGOT THE FUEL LINES!! Oops. So, Bill and Bob are now at this point regulated to manually transferring fuel out of the main tank into the smaller side tanks, as there is no crossfeed between the two. This is a major problem that is going to potentially jepordize this historic mission. Our brave Kerbalnauts had an opportunity to ditch the mission and return to Kerbin, but with the deadlines vast approaching, they knew this might be their only shot. They took it. They have stayed the course, and are rewarded with one of the most majestic approaches to the Mun we have ever seen. This is the point where a major decision had to be made. With the fuel lines causing major troubles, Jeb Bill and Bob have done the calculations and realized they might not have as much fuel as originally intended. The initial transfer stage using the wrong engine has left them with a major problem. Originally this flight was intended to land near the memorial, as perfect a fitting tribute. However, with the fuel situation unknown, we didn't know if we would be able to make the appropriate plane change. Did I mention Jeb and Bill completely forgot to do so while in transit? Yep. Bob reminded the team just as we were approaching oribt. Except that orbit was way out of inclination with the memorial landing site. Would we have enough fuel to make the plane change? At this point we didn't want to risk it. The executive decision was made, as we are skipping the memorial. We will find our own landing site. Another minor flaw was discovered as our intrepid team began decent to the Munar surface. The SAS decision was left to Bill. He went with the asthetic decision to use the avionics package instead of the traditional ASAS. This worked fine. For a while. It does not have very good correction, so its ability to hold a heading is very lackluster. The landing pod would move slightly in every direction even with SAS turned to the on position. This required much more manual input from our pilots than previously intended. Success! This trip was planned to be unique in that all three pilots decended from the same lander to the surface. All three got the experience of dancing, hopping, and just plain galavanting on the surface of the Mun. This was a celebration trip. The science took a backseat today. Today was about doing this simply for the sake of doing it. To land on the Mun only because it is there. To fly a rocket across the sky simply because we can. And now our return. This trip home was all manually flown by Bob. In his first fully manual flight, he nailed it. Return trip with KSC in the background. (sidenote: this is the first time I've ever gotten an approach to KSC without having to reload saves a thousand times. I think I finally learned something. I cannot tell you how proud I was to watch KSC load as pixels in the background.) We pointed our heatshields retrograde, and held on for the ride. Bob and Bill were correct in outvoting Jeb earlier in the mission. Our fuel ran out just as we made our final decent burn. We literally ran out of fuel just as Bob was pointing north in order to better line up with KSC. Jeb was ecstatic. Bob was a bit concerned because he was hoping to squeeze a bit more out of it. Their faces tell the story. Not quite a perfect landing, but damn close. Jeb Bill and Bob piloted an amazing mission. Development time was at an all time low. This was a brand new craft, never before tested, and it flew brilliantly. Some major decision making on the part of our experienced crew was the deciding factor in this mission suceeding versus failing. At multiple points this tribute mission could have been nothing but wasted time and money, but Jeb Bill and Bob proved their talent and training paid off yet again. Great work, boys. And then Jeb shouted, "I am a Space Cowboy! Ride 'em home!" and did this: Champagne all around. ((edit)) All stock except for Crew Manifest. I wanted to ensure that the original 3 were on this trip. I brought them out of retirement specifically for it.

((EDIT)) WHOOPS! Just realized you were looking at rocket designs, not plane designs. Forget what I said. But since I already typed it, I'll leave it here. ______________________________________ Jet engines with multiple intakes per engine can get you to 20km altitude and 1,000 m/s or faster. From there it is ensuring you have action groups mapped to switch off the jet engines and turn on the rocket engine. It takes a little bit because you have to sort of dance in the upper atmosphere to keep your air intake above the stall threshold, and a lot of trial and error to tell you exactly what that is for each vehicle design. I finally had my first successful SSTO plane launch not too terribly long ago. Elliptical orbit but success nonetheless. And made it back to Kerbin and landed safely as well. I missed KSC since I can never seem to pick it out from space, but the theory was successful and the design worked. GOOD LUCK!

ANGLE EVERTHING! Angle your tail fins. Use double tail fins. Angle your main wings slightly up or slightly down. For some reason, having a slight angle balances the left//right forces and keeps everything mostly level. I was having huge, huge problems with planes for the longest time. Someone gave me this advice to angle stuff, and I haven't had nearly as many problems. Most of my plane designs now work, as opposed to nearly always failing. And finally, angle the entire craft on the runway. Make sure the rear landing gear is slightly lower than the front. Do this by either angling the rear landing gear slightly outward or add them to the wings instead of fusealage. GOOD LUCK!

Kerbin Maximum Security Prison: Eve O.W.T. Maximum Security Phase 1 - Feasibility Test of the One Way Trip security center. Can we start a prison colony on EVE that is fully self-sustaining, requiring no input from guards or wardens other than resupply drops? Phase 1 is set to test just that. We have the first of the guard stations in orbit around EVE. Eventually we will have multiple guard stations in orbit using rotations of guard officers and wardens. The first station is in polar orbit in order to source out the most appropriate location for the cell blocks. Each guard station can hold 4 guards plus 1 warden and has a docking port in order to facilitate shift changes. The stations themselves have no propulsion in order to prevent a hijacking / hostage situation. Everything on Eve is designed for safety. The second part of Phase 1 is to drop a Prison Unit on the face of Eve to test sustainability as well as security. It is a self-contained prison cell that can house 2 prisoners at once (technically 4 at a time, however for security concerns, we will only allow 1 per cell, 2 per unit). Each unit has locking bars on doors, so that each prisoner can be securely locked inside the unit for transfer to Eve as well as lockdown at night. None of the on-Eve units have any propulsion of any kind. They are dropped in place using detachable side-boosters which jettison off miles away and destroyed, leaving no debris. Plus, each prisoner is only allotted minimal survival gear, meaning a walk across Eve is extremely deadly for more than a few moments. Our business model is such: Prisoners on Eve will live out the remainders of their days in modest comfort. Each will have all the trappings of daily life. Prisoners are to remain in their cell blocks throughout the majority of the day, with short exercise trips daily. Each outing on Eve's surface is automated, with doors from one block opening allowing those who wish to move freely on the surface wearing their safety gear. After a certain amount of time, reminder bells alert them to return to their bunk. The doors automatically shut, and anyone left outside will shortly run out of oxygen. Prison cells are staggered so that no more than one cell block is open at any time with enough time between excursions to safely ensure no prisoner can survive the wait between openings. Maintenance can be scheduled through guard stations above. Each prisoner is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the cell blocks. Should one unit fail beyond repair, and empty cell block will be dropped and those prisoners instructed to move to the new habitat. Nothing that is sent to Eve will ever return. This is a one way trip. End of Phase 1. ((Edit)) Here is our landing mechanism. The side boosters have about 1/3 fuel remaining, or about as much fuel in the bottom pod. While they are 500 meters above Eve, they are jettisoned at full throttle to blast away and be destroyed.

There was a plan at one time to try to laser etch something on the moon, wasn't there? Like using laser light shows? Or shadow art or something?

I'm entering this. I normally don't do challenges because I suck at Kerbal Space Program. However, I've got an idea that seems to be working and it will fit perfectly with this challenge. I'm mostly putting this here to bookmark it as I'll be gone for the weekend with no hope of completing anything.

Don't forget the CAPS LOCK button. This makes your inputs less sensitive so that your corrections don't become over corrections. You'll notice the pitch/yaw/roll controls turning from orange to blue.

You can use the large remote guidance unit + a hitchiker can to give you 4 crew at a weight of 3 tonnes. This is slightly more weight than the 2 man lander-can, but two more crewmembers. It is also less weight than the 3 man command pod, by a full tonne. And still gives you that 4th crew member. No internal views, though. The Mk1 single-seat command pod plus the Mk1 single-seat lander pod is the lightest way to get 2 kerbals on a ship. You can (and I have) add an empty structural fuselage and called it a habitat module. It isn't exactly correct, but a little imagination goes a long way. This setup is still less than 2 tonnes, which is less weight than is required for the 2-man lander-can. However, it is taller and bulkier, requiring a little more thought in ship layout. It is easy to pretend that the connected tunnels are living spaces and/or useable space. Needs crew manifest plugin to get most effective, but rumors are we should have this stock functionality in 0.21.

I asked this once, as well: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/35465-How-to-eyeball-interplanetary-transfer The answer I've come up with is using a website http://ksp.olex.biz Read the info. Trust me, it helps. And it isn't a mod or a cheat or anything. It simply does the math for you, instead of you doing it by hand. And it gives you some basic pictures to follow. From there, I eyeball the angle instead of using a ruler or protractor or mod. Once you know what alignment the planets need to be, it simplifies things. And yes, sometimes this means time-warping for years and years to get a launch window for Duna or Jool. Go to the website, give it a read through.

Jet engines compare similarly to SRB's as a first stage. Except require 4x the part count, plus a bit more manual planning and piloting. SRB's keep the part count low and the potential for horrible-Kerbal-ending crashes.

This! I'm looking forward to being able to add RCS to my heavy lifter in order to give it better handling. Right now, I don't dare add anything because the SAS would waste it all in the first minute. But now, hopefully, I can safely add a few RCS thrusters and actually be able to turn my heavy-pig of a launcher.

Would the energy required to dock with an elliptical orbiter be the same as required to reach that same elliptical orbit? meaning, does it save you any fuel?

my initial thought was fuel balance. Right click through your fuel tanks and make sure you don't have a weird fuel line problem. I had a rocket that for whatever reason considered a random tank on a stack as debris and wasn't using the fuel out of it. All the other tanks worked, and they were all placed in 4x symmetry. But only that one tank was borked. Check fuel balance. Transfer things around if necessary. Also, you may have to use a combination of front engines AND rear engines to keep it from cartwheeling. If the front end is massive enough, inertia might play a factor. The back end getting pushed and the front end not wanting to move can cause a rotational element. Play around with using 2 or 4 of the front engines to help balance out the thrust. Good luck.

Wow. Slightly angling things works! I'm an engineer by background. I'm very left-brained by nature. I love straight lines and square blocks and mirror symmetry. In planes, and spaceplanes, having wings slightly angled downward (or upward) seems to help. And having the landing gear slightly angled outward also helps. Plus having two tailfins, also slightly angled. Having everything slightly angled, plus using lots of intakes, I have managed to successfully launch a SSTO Spaceplane. I got into a 400k by 400k orbit. I deorbited and landed. WOOT! Thank you all. Use angled everything. Thats the trick.

I've tried so many different designs. The only ones that work, are stupid things that have ten thousand wing parts in every which way. Nothing that even resembles a plane. And those usually don't even work that well anyway. I've tried putting center of mass in front of center of lift. I've tried putting engines on the front, engines on the back. I've tried struts. Half of them pull hard to the left before they even get off the runway, the other half blow up. I'm at my wits end. Gallery of most recent fail attempts: The last one mostly flew. But it was the ugliest thing I had ever created. How do you guys do it? How do you make it look so easy?

PS: I don't recommend this for any sort of practical use. The period is about 35 years or so. Even at 100,000x time acceleration, that's about 3 hours of real life time. I can not imagine trying to sync up multiple trips to this thing. My game is all stock, no mods. I would DEFINITELY have to have kerbal alarm clock installed, I think, to make this really worthwhile. However, I love the look and spirit of this restaurant, so I might make it the core of a fully functioning space station. Maybe in a higher Kerbin orbit or something, in order to easily reach and return.

That tiny star, that little dot, powers all life as we know it. Pondering the the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything over a plate of some Kraken Kalimari

AHA! New and IMPROVED! in a 400 billion meter circular orbit, with inclination in order to provide the most stunning of views, I present to you the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Parking garage is there at the bottom. Entrance into the grand foyer, including stunning views of the great beyond. Grand elevator up to the sky lounge. Restaurant and lounge with the greatest view in the 'Verse.

I think I broke the game. 335B meters looks like the upper limit. Everytime I try to go farther, the ship stops moving and the game crashes. ((EDIT)) maybe not ... 395 Bil and still moving... aiming for 400 billion meters

"Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "The Universe as we know it has now been in existence for over one hundred and seventy thousand million billion years and will be ending in a little over half an hour. So, welcome one and all to Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe!" ~~ The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Douglas Adams [notes] This was my first attempt. Hugely successful. I'm very happy with it now. As a first pass, it worked exactly as I had hoped. Now, I'm looking to gear up and go bigger. In case it is hard to read, periapsis is at 150B meters and apoapsis is at 281B meters. Also, here's a link to the full-sized images: http://imgur.com/a/sAeo0#0 All stock. No mods. v20.2

Put your A.S.A.S (or regular SAS) module in the center of your craft. I'm finding this to be more stable and more reliable than when I was sticking it on the top or bottom of a craft. As my dad would say, "it's more better". Anyone else experience this?

Absolutely, freakin' briliant. I'm in awe. I've barely managed to get satellites around Eve, using a returnning interplanetary stage. My Duna mission was nearly a catastrophic failure, requiring 4 redesigns and 3 trips to rescue two pilots. And that one barely can be called a success, if only because the two pilots survived. There were parts scattered everywhere. And I've only just now made a craft I'm happy with that can launch reasonable amounts of fuel into LKO. This is brilliant. And the solar power generator is beautiful. I stared at it for like an hour. Very well done.

I returned some Kerbals from the Mun. I built a new core for a new space station (my old one was eaten by the instant-exploding kraken).

Can you guys take a look at my lander/rover design and tell me what is wrong? I've got this lander that uses two arms to hold two mini rovers. I've deployed them on Minmus and the Mun. The idea is that they have little RCS jump jets in order to drive back under the lander and re-attach. Everything works perfectly, except the clamps won't actually clamp. They sort of hover and hold the rover an inch or two away from actually clamping. I've jiggled the rover, pushed it up into the clamp, turned it 180 degrees, etc, everything I can think of to wiggle the rover into position. But the clamps won't actually grab. You can see the magnet doing its thing and holding it in place. Even when I release all the RCS, the little rover just hovers being held by the docking magnets. But no clamp. Here is the lander with two rovers attached: Here is an up close shot of the docking port holding the rover but not actually clamping. Can you see that tiny air gap between the docking ports? I can decouple them, drive them around, but when I go to re-attach, I get this hovering but no clamping. ???