Burke112

So, in that case, wouldn't it be a question of whether or not the Oberth effect outweighs the advantage of starting from a "high point" where you've already gotten an advantage from your previous burn? (i.e. your craft's effective delta-V is the 2100 needed to get to Eeloo plus the value it actually has after it is refueled) Now that I think about it, though, would the fact that you had to slow down so significantly to get into orbit around Eeloo nullify the advantage of expending so much delta-V to get into that high an orbit? Or would the high orbit (in relation to Kerbol) you'd be starting off from still outweigh the Oberth effect you'd get from the sun if you left from Moho?

I'm trying to do it on Eeloo. There's no atmosphere, so a winged design is out. Does anyone have any experience on how accurate the MechJeb auto-landing system is, and whether or not it accounts for rotation etc. and could land someone on a deposit? My experience has been pretty mixed -- one time, it got me down to just eight meters away from my specified landing point. Another time, it was almost ten kilometers off. BTW, I remember reading somewhere that, in future versions, KSP would have interstellar, not just interplanetary, space travel. In that case, it would seem that a base around Eeloo (or whatever planet is the furthest out from Kerbol on future KSP versions) would be pretty useful, since it could act as a final pit stop to refuel spacecraft on their way to targets much further out. Has anyone else heard any information on whether or not interstellar travel will be implemented?

I know this is kind of a nooby question, and it isn't directly related to tankers, but how do you guys manage to land your Kethane miners exactly on the deposits? It seems difficult to get the landing point correct, because of the rotation of the planet/moon you're landing on. Also, how exact do you have to be?

Yeah, it tends to absolutely destroy my graphics card, though. I was originally planning on putting five of the behemoths around a central docking node, and having incoming ships dock to the central node, but since that would probably give me about a frame rate of one frame per ten seconds, I guess it's not that feasible a plan... That, and I'd probably have to drain half the Kethane on Eeloo to fill it up. Surprisingly, I didn't have to spend an inordinate amount of time waiting during my injection burn. I was expecting it to take much longer, especially since I had seen several of Scott Manley's videos where he mentions the nuclear engine's low thrust and slow acceleration. Unfortunately, my Kethane miner didn't have as high a TWR, so I'm currently waiting for it to complete its almost forty minute long injection burn. Still, it's definitely better than an ion drive...

So I was experimenting on launching large refueling tankers, to see just how large I could make them, without using cheats or modded engines, of course. My largest was almost 80,000 units of fuel -- I had to use a fuel-emptying mod to drain the fuel out of most of the tanks to get it into orbit; only leaving enough fuel to get the tanker to its orbit around its intended destination (Eeloo) using its nine nuclear engines. I experimented with larger units, but gave up after they all collapsed under their own weight, even when I used multiple modded struts to strap them together. My whole plan is to get the tanker to Eeloo, and refill it with liquid fuel converted from Kethane on the planet's surface. So, what's the largest tanker you guys have managed to get into space without cheats or specially modded engines (unusually high thrust or isp)? I'm pretty new to the game (only been playing for a few weeks), so I'd be willing to bet the more experienced players out there have managed to kludge together some REALLY crazy designs that manage to work better than mine.