SRV Ron

KSP has been setting on the back burner since Ark Survival Encountered came out. Day 170, which equals the number of hours in single player and have a variety of pets and crafted items to make life easier in that game. Waiting on version 1.05 before starting a new Career game on the new gaming computer that Ark forced me to invest in.

Best way to avoid bloatware is to have a system built instead of buying one from the Big Box store. That way, you won't have all the crap the manufacturer installs on your computer running in the background. You can also avoid a big chunk of bloatware by not using Micro$oft Office. Instead, use Open Office or WordPerfect Office. Only run stuff that you actually use or need. Your computer will boot up a lot faster as well.

Explorer One was launched from a Redstone missile that then staged a cluster of spin stabilized Solid fuel sounding rockets to place it in orbit. You can play with the concept using the FASA mod using its pre built real world craft files.

There are PC laptops that have the same issue where you need to use the Function key with F1 for screenshots, quick save, and other function key KSP commands.

I don't think that the drogue part of the MK-16 is working. The flea pod combo points down until the main opens. Speed is not slowing down much from 250 m/s until the main opens. This is likely the cause of hard landing from flights coming straight down. They hit the ground before they have slowed down fully under the main chute opening.

Had no problem flying the flea with two Goo canisters. I tweak the flea to about 33%. It reached almost 8,000 meters. The ship landed OK on flat land East of the pad. You turn it in flight slightly to do so. Beware that a single tweaked BACC will now fling you to over 160,000 meters or can burn you up on powered flight. A real scary ride.

The busy summertime doesn't leave much time for video games. Of the several projects, there are. 1. HO train club setups at the county fair. 2. Gardening. 3. Lawn mowing jobs for some extra income. 4. I am cutting up a large tree that the wind blew down. 5. The train club has purchased a 24 foot trailer that will be needing custom loading racks constructed by me. 6. The barn needs painting. 7. Am busy making hay for the mini horses. 8. Steam had their summer sale of games. KSP is one of those games on sale along with Space Engineer. 9. Ark Survival Evolved became early access last week. The game, far different from the usual survival fare, is awesome. You can play it as single player,local, but you cannot pause the game when you are running it. (You risk being eaten by a carnivore.) That leaves little time for KSP at the moment even though I have a Career game going using the latest updated KW and Novapunch Rocketry mods.

Some mod engines required a second or two to reach full power. They should be fired before releasing the launch clamps. In addition, throttle defaults to 50% until you use Shift to increase it to full. That should be done before launching your rocket. Regardless, without a picture or a Craft file, there is no way to determine what your problem is during launching.

You can launch low cost one way probes to the planets once you get solar panels, SAS, some basic instruments, and the better probe core. Send several on their way, but continue testing contracts and exploiting exploration of Kerbal, Mun, and Minmus while those probes are on their way. Place a low cost probe with thermometer in orbit around Kerbal, Mun, and Minmus to fulfill those data contracts for easy funds. An example of a low cost lander probe early in Career. Prior to KSP 0.90, this landed on Mun. Experiment in Sandbox with low cost designs to find what works best with the limited tech in KSP 1.02

Indeed. If that has changed, there would be problems in using mods, especially those that alter the KSP universe, archiving older versions of the game, and placing backup copies on portable media for the purpose of loss prevention in case of a hard drive failure or fatal malware attack.

Orient your ship prior to landing on a planet or moon to the same compass headings as you used when taking off from the launch pad. It makes landing and takeoff a lot easier.

While you can have multiple installs to your own personal computer, or computers, highly desirable when using mods or comparing upgraded versions, you are only allowed to run one licensed copy at a time. IE, no running two or more copies at once on your two or more separate computers. Example, I can legally run two copies at the same time because I have purchased the steam version for the desktop and the standalone version for the laptop. However, letting a friend run a copy on his computer, or placing a copy on the older laptop and running KSP on all three computers at once would be in violation of the EULA.

Wireless mice and keyboard are the way to go. Battery life is quite good even with heavy daily use. They will alert you when the battery gets low, usually a month for the mouse and a year on the keyboard. There is a switch on the logtech modules to turn them off when not in use. Mine are on 24-7 for the desktop. They go on sleep mode when not in use otherwise to save on battery life.

Great engine for light probes to land on moons and other planets. Under pre 0.90, this cheap rocket on the left made Mun and Duna with the Stayputnik probe.

A most common problem faced by noobs and seasoned users alike since KSP 1.x When flying model rockets or KSP ones, in the atmosphere, you want the center of pressure to be behind the center of mass. Otherwise, they can flip out of control. With the new atmospheric and parts modeling of KSP 1.x, there is a range of speed where the center of pressure gets higher on the nose then during lower speed flight. This, along with the changing center of mass as fuel gets burned, can cause your rocket to swap ends, usually when you are starting your orbital turn. That critical speed is as you approach the sound barrier evident by the white lines forming around your nose and fins. The cure, a combination of careful design, fins, vectoring engines, keeping your speed below that critical level while below 25,000 meters, and doing the turn slowly. And, the more powerful model rockets will do the same thing. I have seen them flip out or break up upon approaching the speed of sound. - - - Updated - - - Spinning is usually caused by an alignment problem on radically mounted parts. A picture of your rocket will help determine what is causing that.

For stock, play with Sandbox to get a design that works in the restriction of your career mode. Consider sending a probe first before attempting a Kerbal mission. Like Mun, straight land and return missions are possible. Also, you should have enough tech unlocked by this time to send probes to do the mission before committing to a Kerbal one. Better is to send a small fleet of ships. Have one designated for landing and returning to orbit from Duna. Have a second ship that orbits and collects crew and science from the landers. The Landers could then be left as orbiting satellites. A third could be used to land on Ike and intercept the return ship. It wouldn't have to be manned as an EVA could be used to recover the data. Leave probes behind in orbit or on the surface. Take advantage of aerobraking to save fuel for entering orbit and landing. Use Slingshot maneuvering to get an Ike intercept and orbit. And, as always, while ships are on their way to Duna, you could always be doing contracts, more exploration of Mun and Minmus, and send one way probes to Eve and the Jool system. With Mods, things can become much easier. With the Hooligan Lab mod, landing and return from Eve is possible without the need to build a massive lander.

Most burns are executed most accurately by splitting the burn time and starting using half of the total time before the node. That is assuming that the burn is short, taking place to orbit, while in orbit to intercept another celestial body, and under a couple of minutes at most. Long interplanetary burns from orbit are best split up into several shorter burns during each Periapsis. As always, some maneuvers can be more time and delta V critical then others.

As posted in numerous post, the issue is the new more realistic aerodynamics and parts drag models. There is a range of speed and altitude where drag on the nose increases dramatically. Given that all parts in line are now sheltered from that drag, the rocket can flip over when you hit a critical speed in the lower atmosphere. Fins can help as well as learning all over how to fly in the first 25,000 meters of the Kerbal atmosphere.

If you suspect overheating and have had your computer for a while, it is time to pull the cover off and blow out all of the accumulated dust and hair that collects in there. Be sure to clean any screens on the fan ports. Be careful blowing the dust out of CPU and graphic card fans. You don't want to damage them. Verify that all fans are working before putting the cover back on. Be sure that cooling ports are not being blocked by your desk or other nearby objects.

Here is an example of using the Navball for landing and the ideal descent. Practice on Minmus. Then on Kerbal with its much higher gravity. You should then find landing om Mun much easier. Note, the radical decouplers on the legs are for added stability.

Some of the mods have ejection capability built into their heat shields. It is a way to shed useless weight once the shields have done their job. Currently, such staging is not part of the stock heat shields. Most likely, it is a placeholder for some future update.

Built and tested a probe lander using early Career access parts. You have to fly carefully after burnout and staging of the SRBs. The liquid second stage, the LV-45 burns out at suborbital insertion. The fins are critical for stability at booster burnout and early second stage flight. The nose cone is then jettisoned. Third stage achieves orbit, sends the probe to Minmus and achieves high orbit using the LV-909. The probe stage finalizes orbit and lands the probe using the 48-S.

My Minotaur 5 probe can no longer reach Duna let alone orbit Mun under 1.02.

Using cap lock will reduce the response of the WSAD keys. Use only stability assist as you can quickly flip if you start ascending. Practice first on the seas of Minmus, then graduate to Mun and its uneven surface. See this probe just before touchdown on Minmus. Took a while to design a probe launcher restricted to the lower tier parts. You learn how to fly all over under the new aerodynamics. No turn under SRBs, control speed and do the turn under first stage to burnout, second stage insert to orbit and to Minmus or Mun. Probe stage to land. More then enough fuel to return even though not designed to do so. (NovaPunch mods in the liquid fuel tanks and third stage engine but doable under stock.)

If it is a one way trip, you only need a pod, three parachutes, solar panels, an FTL-100 fuel can, a 48-7S engine, and micro strut landing legs. The engine would be for maneuvering to a aerobraking window and last minute slowdown to land if needed.