mellojoe

I've got a space station in oribt. I'm trying to attach a 4th arm to it that includes fuel tanks in order to refuel deep space missions. It currently has a large satellite array and 2 habitat modules. I had the fuel tanks orbiting and ready to dock. And then I switched camera control to the existing space station .... and everything instantly exploded. What do I do? I've tried reloading. But every time I switch camera control to the space station it instantly and voilently explodes. Is there any way to salvage this? Can I save my save game? Do I have to start all over on my space station?

This was done with all Stock parts. I ran out of RCS propellent at the top because I left SAS on, and it was constantly correcting. But, I have the tiny orange (ant?) thrusters still on the billboard, and some tiny fuel tanks (all full) to re-position it if ever necessary. Not a whole lot of Delta-V onboard the billboard, but enough for small maneuvers, I think.

Unfortunately, Maynard Kerman has not quite figured out geostationary orbit. So, the Billboard lights up the sky of a different place every night. And sometimes during the day. But, at least it is a step in the right direction. Funding is pouring in, however. Jim Kremer of Mad Money is screaming BUY, BUY, BUY for this type of investment. Maynard has begun to look for new partners to try new projects. The next lofty goal is advertising on the Mun, but of course, who would be crazy enough to try something like that? These launch photos were part of the press release. Of course, being taken at night only added to the mystique.

Maynard Kerman is smart. Kerbin Smart. His idea to monetize the Kerbal Space Program could revolutionize the way all of Kerbinkind thinks of space travel. He has implemented STAGE ONE of his brilliant Kerbin plan. BILLBOARDS. IN. SPAAAAAAAACE!

Here's the Enterprise Menorah. It was a test bed for proving that building sideways is sometimes better than building vertical. This was a proof-of-concept launch and successfully hit orbit on the first try. The darn thing was very stable on launch, but the final stage has extremely hard to control once all the other tanks had been dropped. The kerbin science team learned quite a bit and are looking forward to a Menorah 2.0

Looks like the Bonneville Salt Flats. I approve!

Steam is always having sales. One of the reasons they are so popular. And a Steam sale usually drives up visibility of indie games.

Launching first piece: With 2nd piece docked in orbit: Orbiting and Operational: Nighttime:

I've successfully launched it. I added a TON more bracing, and then just took the gravity turn as slow as humanly possible. Really went little by little. That did the trick. Here are some screenshots: Here is my heavy lifter base, with a Minmus lander on top. This thing was a piece of cake to launch, and everything was perfecto. Here is the habitat module with arms and docking tug that I have been trying to launch. Nothing too extreme I thought. Here's a shot of my success so far. You can see the rib-cage of struts I put around the central stalk. It kept breaking on my near-successes, so this rib-cage tied everything together. So, it is sort of working. Just looks REAL UGLY doing it.

I'm at work currently (shhhhhhhh, don't tell anyone I'm looking at spaceships at my desk). But when I get home, I'll snap a screenshot. I tried using MechJeb, but that kept failling, so I've been attempting to launch manually. My main idea was to get a decent launch system, save it into Subassembly, and then just pull it out and strap anything to it. I finally got a launch system that did well (I thought) and had it all stitched together with struts for stability, parachutes on the stages, and even a probe body on the main seperator so that I could always deorbit it to return to Kerbin. I mean I had FINALLY built something with some sense of realism. And now it looks like it won't work. I'll grab some screenies at home and post them up tonight.

Every attempt I've made to launch a habitat arm for my space station attempt has failed. I cannot seem to make a long arm get into orbit. Essentially what is happening is that as I go for gravity turn, the whole thing goes arse-over-teakettle. I've tried putting more RCS thrusters near the top. I've even put small actual thrusters near the top. I've stabilized the thing with girders and struts, so it doesn't wobble. I can fly the thing straight up no problem. As soon as the engines go a little sidways for a turn, however, spinning ball of death. I've tried an early, gradual turn at around 5k meters. I've tried waiting until 25k meters, dropping 2nd stage, and relying only on 3 of the 7 (asparagus staged) mainsails. Is there a trick to launching these long parts? Seems like everyone else has managed it. I guess I can split it in half and use docking clams to connect it in space. But that means double the launches and double the docking...

Wait ... do you mean you end up in a huge elliptical orbit around Kerbin where the Apoapsis hits the orbit of the planet, and then just wait a bunch of orbits for them to get close?

Random question: If you are OK using an oribatal plane (like the SSTO's mentioned), why not simply oribt your lander before you land? If you can successfully take a plane from runway, to orbit, to Kerbal rescue point and return, wouldn't that be the same as going from deep space, into orbit, and then land? Or are your return landers just a space pod with no fuel? I guess the question is more: Are you having trouble landing your Kerbals after a mission due to aim? or fuel?

So, Putting things in orbit is easy. I've sort of figured out how to get to the Mun and Minmus and back. Eyeballing these are fairly straight-forward. And the manuever nodes make it pretty easy. However, I am failing all over the place trying to get interplanetary orbits. RIght now I'm having to use MechJeb to plot a manuever node for me. But I hate that idea. And I know there are other add-ons that will do it for you, but is there not a simple eyeball test for the planets?

Exceptionally well done! Lots of useful info.

I guess just F5 and F9 for the quicksaves. Is there a way to copy Save files, in order to make true save states? This way if in the process of doing a mission it becomes un-survivable, or stranded, I can always revert to a different save-point in the past. Or is that too far from realism for KSP? I love the realism, but I SUCK at planning. So too often I find I make it most of the way to where I'm going and run out of fuel, or I forgot the electronics, or batteries, or struts, or docking ports, or the wrong sized docking ports.... you get the idea. Most of my planning stage is just "Here, I want to try this and see what happens." But I don't want to destroy all my hardwork (ie: my space station or existing missions) by moving them to a different orbit only to strand it completely. This way, if I have to use QuickSave for the small errors, I still have a good save-state for big errors.

Doing some searches shows that I'm not the only one with trouble with ASAS, so MajorNr01 it might be a VERY good idea if you have a fix. Or a tutorial to do the fix ourselves. THANKS!

Is there a way to reverse time? for silly time warp errors where you go too far, and you wish you had a WHOOPS button to reverse a few moments...

GRATS! Thats an epic feat. I have barely got docking, and I'm still learning proper rendezvous techniques. And all my spaceplanes crash in massive explosions. So you, my friend, are doing very well. Keep it up.

So why is it that as soon as you turn on SAS, everything goes wobbly. It is as if the physics engine continually overcompensates. Sometimes I don't use it at all because the system is more stable without it. But as soon as I turn it on, any control surfaces I have are wobbling back and forth, RCS is shooting out everywhere ... even on a stable ship. It also seems to introduce a rotational element more often than not, too. What causes this? Is there a solution?

Inspired by some other research being done (ie: you guys!), the Kerbal Radio Array Program has launched successfully! K.R.A.P. is now in orbit. We are in the process of rebuilding a new and improved Science Orbital and Aeronautical Platform, since the original S.O.A.P. died miserably in a horrific accident (ie: crashed game save). This was an unmanned mission to get K.R.A.P. into orbit, and now our fantastic Kerbal science team is designing and redesigning a habitat / science modual to launch and dock with the radio array.

S.O.A.P. phase 3 is underway. Kerbal Scientists everywhere have determined that they don't know what they don't know. So a mandate has gone up: WE DON'T KNOW ENOUGH! The Science Obital & Aeronautics Platform will be getting a healthy dose of Science during this phase. We begin with construction of the Kerbin Radio Array for Scientific Studies. K.R.A.S.S. begins with a large central radio antennea. . And this was done with a successful crew refresh as well. Bob Kerman has joined Jebediah and Bill in the S.O.A.P. while Dysell Kerman returned home safely, after having served a brief tour in orbit. Here he is awaiting pickup from coast guard rescue, and dozens of admiring fans.

For docking with other vessels in space, is it better to have fewer RCS thrusters? or more? I've gone with the more is more philosophy, but I struggle so much docking. I've even tried MechJeb docking assist, and it just seems that it dances all over the place. I'm going to attemt to build a docking vessel with as few RCS thrusters as possible and see if that helps or hinders. What do you guys think? What have you found?