carazvan

For Mun/Minmus the craft is Explorer 3 - Mun Visitor (visited both Mun and minmus contracts) ... for Mun only had deltav for 1 landing and for Minmus made 4 stops at different biomes before returning; all others are just for LKO trips and science close to Kerbin. I'm making a Duna/Ike Explorer now so that'll probably go up next, and then probably I'll be making some SSTOs

Well to get this started I'd guess I posted some craft that kindof fall under these lines. Links to craft + descriptions are in Area K51's Hangar

Craft Downloads Rockets Explorer 1 - simple tech1 craft capable of reaching space with only 8200VF cost Explorer 2 - similar to explorer 1 but with extra parachutes and materials bay, 9000VF cost Recovery 1 - simple 2 capsule craft capable of LKO recovery, 12000VF cost Explorer 3 - Lander + launch system to visit Mun and minmus, 40000 VF cost Spaceplanes coming soon Career Suggestions After a few failed attempts to start under hard difficulty I've gotten some good designs that have allowed me to pass most of the hump of hard difficulty in KSP career v0.25. Have the first mission be a simple capsule that you use to get: a crew report, a surface sample from launchpad and EVA from launchpad. This gives you enough science to unlock tier 1 techs and then use those to build Explorer 1. I always picked up all part tests that had either 'landed at Kerbin' or 'orbital, sub-orbital' trajectory requirements. Doing the [simple Capsule] -> [Explorer 1] -> [Explorer 2] -> [Recovery 1] -> [Explorer 3 (Mun)] -> [Explorer 3(Minmus)] + all the part tests in between has given a nice reserve of both cash and science to allow the particularly challenging start to be aleviated.

Delivering 2 expensive satellites to orbit in style with the cargo version of the Flea SSTO Mk.IV:

Added a large cargo bay variant for easy satellite and small lander delivery to space

Added Mk.IV versions for KSP v0.25

I've stuck mainly with vanilla KSP except for Kerbal Engineering Redux mod for designing. If I do try a mod the first one I'll go for will likely be FAR + Deadly Reentry.

Yes the mono prop tanks were the bombs since they looked appropriate and dropping them from any distance other than starting makes them explode. The only real effect of the G-forces on the plane is the inability to reliably deploy the abort chute as deploying it in full-on turns causes the cockpit to separate from the main fuel tank Not familiar with NRAP test weights - which part is that?

I can imagine the best way to do this is to make a nuke with as much fuel as you want; put it in orbit normally with Pe and Ap at just under 70km and thrust at minimum to keep it there .. then do as many orbits as you want until you get low on fuel then raise to desired altitude. Since doing a slowest ascent then becomes a matter of patience not engineering I wont be submitting an entry.

Very nice ship Mesklin!

The general rule is that adding more Ion engines hurts because it makes getting to orbit harder and adds more weight needed for bateries and solar panels. However once in orbit the extra engines help you to have a higher thrust (Note the max limit is the 0.8TWR that the engines themselves have without any added fuel/electricity parts)

Ion SSTOs are a lot easier to make now since the 4x thrust boost they received; if interested check out the Flea SSTO (Ion) from my signature for multiple evolutions from 0.20-0.24

Build a Mass Effect Relay and place it on the edge of the system. Bonus points for using a ship to carry it there that looks like it could fit in the Mass Effect universe

Coming back to KSP after a break and made this a bit before 0.24 came out: The Mk.III Flea SSTO which only uses 2 air intakes and either jets or ion engines. Currently working on a 2-3t payload craft that will weight ~5t (trying to balance CoM is fun when doing >50% payload)

If you look at the albums the wings are to land on Eve without using up fuel. He ditches them and the rover wheels before starting the ascent back to orbit.

Description The KP Fly is a low-flying highly maneuvrable airplane. It's best used with fine controls and no SAS but crazier maneuvers can be attempted with fine controls off. Can reach 200+m/s at ground level and 16+Gs in a tight turn. Comes in 2 versions: KP Fly (Basic) - 28 parts, 4.195t KP Fly (Weapons) -48 parts,6.24t (with 2.045t of armament) Action Groups 1 - toggle jet 2 - toggle ladders 3 - fire rockets! (Weapons ver) 4 - drop bombs! (Weapons ver) Abort - deploy chute and cut engine

Coming back to the game after a long break and starting with a change to a non air-hogging design for my Flea SSTO's Link with description/download here http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/48822-Flea-SSTO-%28Jet-Fuel-to-LKO-or-Jet-Ion-to-anywhere-in-the-Kerbol-system%29

Added Mk.III versions that only use 2 air intakes; Versions are as basic as possible to allow for modification by others to add vertical landing legs/ RCS thrusters/ more xenon for larger deltav

Everybody's been go for the huge ones with NASA boosters ... I kept it small ... an new 4-ION powered space tugg that only weights a little under 4t:

I wonder if that is constant or depends on the size of the asteroid

I've actually changed the conics_mode option in settins.cfg to 1 which allows you to see the path it'll take in the local frame of reference and using that with tab while tracking an asteroid allows you to watch the path by Kerbin

I'd imagine the way it would work is that when you finish and 'submit' the contract the satellite/craft disappears from your map as it's now managed by whatever company you sold it to.

You definitely want to look at the SSTO challenge thread as you have many options there and ideas on how to build your own eventually: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/11214-The-K-Prize-100-reusable-spaceplane-to-orbit-and-back

I'm waiting for release because on one of the twitch livestreams I also saw their ISP go down from 4200 to 2100 besides the other changes which makes requirements be (16.7 electricity/sec; 0.89 xenon /sec) I've played around with both setting and the deltaV for ion probes and ARM pushers can be pretty ridiculous now with the 4200ISP (had a 20k deltaV rocket with 0.15TWR at ~5t and a 7k deltaV 0.13TWR Ion/Jet SSTO at ~6t) I say lets wait for a few more days and then we can see just how great Ions are now. (Either way the extra Thrust makes them very useful for ships under 10t)

I'm going to be interested to see if I can create a miniprobe with claw and Ion engine to move an asteroid (A or B sized) ... think with the new thrust it might be possible but we'll have to see because: thrust = 4x old energy consumption = 1.15x old xenon consumption = 8x old So while we'll save a large amount on batteries and solar panels ion craft will require 2*xenon and for same deltav.