bobcook

You can strut between stages directly in most circumstances, no need for the extra scaffolding. Start a strut on one part and extend it directly vertically. Works most of the time for me. Another technique is to avoid maximum throttle. Most of my heavy launches use half throttle at most. Seems to reduce the wobble quite a bit.

Did anyone else notice that he was skimming the surface pretty closely while decelerating? Watch the "Altitude (true)" value in the left-hand status display. Around 4:23 he is at 180m going 210m/s. At 5:36 he is at 80m going 125m/s. Either he knows the terrain very well, or was exceptionally lucky on this descent. Wow.

I found when I was trying to make mine. It was pretty educational although it didn't work exactly like that for me. I couldn't get the "final link" to connect together in any way that was stable enough to fly. Instead, I built this station with rings, using similar techniques, using all stock parts: I launched each ring separately then linked them together with other pieces. That particular station took something like eight or ten separate launches. I actually find using multiple launches to build things in LKO an interesting and fun exercise.

Cool, thanks for the tip about the fine controls, I didn't know about this. Jeb's been manually docking all sorts of stuff lately, and its not always very pretty. So with this new knowledge his training is now improved, hopefully decreasing his Stupidity score somewhat.

Do you have SAS enabled when doing the RCS translation? If you are playing 0.21 then all command pods have it included (just need to turn it on with the T key). If playing older versions then add an ASAS module to your ship.

This. My initial stage gets jettisoned no later than when periapsis is 30km, and (in general) everything else comes back to Kerbin with the Kerbals, to get dropped into the nearest ocean. I have designed parts from my station construction to be detachable, with docking ports, picked up by return ships at a future time.

Spare struts.

I watched video then spent a lot of time practicing. A lot of time. Now I am pretty good at it, can rendezvous and dock every time I try with a minimum of fuss.I never learned to use the Docking Mode though, just do it with the regular Staging Mode controls and RCS controls. Do others use Docking Mode?

I picked Resources and More celestial bodies, it we be great to have Resources built into the game.

Want to have something like this? Start with something like this: I build my landers + rovers upside down, on top of a launch vehicle capable of getting into Mun orbit. Mine are built to be robotic but have seats for Kerbals brave enough to land in the thing. So far there has been few volunteers willing to make the trip. It has happened, just not caught on camera. For the record, in case any purists are viewing, this is 100% stock. Note: these are screen shots from 0.20.2, I haven't recreated this in 0.21 yet.

My first rocket with 0.21.0 rolled quite a bit as it approached orbit. With 0.21.1 it rolls far less. And its easier to steer during the gravity turn. Doesn't seem to detract from the playing experience and it makes flying generally-stable rockets easier. I haven't tried (yet) to fly really crazy stuff, but I gotta believe the update will help with that.

That is really amazing! Very creative way to deliver a rover. Nice work.

Mun lander destined to burn up during return to Kerbin, after a successful landing and rendezvous.

Might not be obvious, but I think you need to have SAS enabled to make this work. And it works very well for me. I've docked many things this way. My first docking (and several more after that for more practice) was using two identical rockets topped with Mk3 capsules and docking ports. My first Kerbin rendezvous. That got me to be very comfortable with docking. Then I started docking bigger things, including station components with multiple docking ports. Basically the same process, just takes a lot of patience and practice. For larger things, I find that heavier objects are easier to dock because they wobble less. And also heavy things react less to subtle RCS bursts.

You should be able to join parts on the top or bottom, as long as you are using the right parts. I build mine starting with the CM, and build up from there. I put a docking port or decoupler on top of the CM then build my lander & rover upside down. Once in orbit I separate the two vehicles and then proceed with landing. To keep things stable during launch I use a lot of struts.

Sure, I have another version of this craft with the two-man capsule inserted above the fuel tank, but I haven't flown it yet. This particular mission was a "trial run" with automated controls for both the rover and the lander. I really hate sacrificing Kerbals when a robot can crash just as efficiently.

Thank you! I've been wanting to build and fly stuff that is reasonably realistic just the stock parts. This is such a fun game, endless possibilities. Here is what the lander and rover look like after separation:

This is my first rover delivery to the Mun. Not really an actual skycrane design, although I suppose its might not be as different from a skycrane as it could be.

A friend mentioned "hey this game is kicking my a$$ I can't get into a stable orbit" and I said "what game? rockets? orbit?" and checked it out online. Bought it within the hour. That was version 0.19 and I've been having a great time playing since!

My stations are 100% stock, no plug-ins or add-ons, built with multiple launches. Sort of my own challenge to myself about building large and interesting structures while keeping to the basic game. But I admit to being a bit envious of the beautiful rings and habitats shown in this thread. My sixth station, a fuel depot, currently in orbit at 100km around Kerbin: My seventh station, a research station, at 200km is still under construction: The previous five generations of stations where of mixed success. Version four is still in orbit around the Mun, but the others have since been "retired" into the seas of Kerbin.