Ozzah

Sorry if this has been covered before. I build two ships to launch up into orbit and dock together. I'm not super-experienced with the game, but I did manage to get both ships into perfect 100Km 0° orbit, but this docking thing appears to be WELL beyond my abilities at this stage. I remember in 0.20 that MechJeb had a docking autopilot, however I built these two ships and launched them right after 0.21 came out, when my MechJeb plugin stopped working. In other words, the two ships are currently orbiting Kerbal a few hundred metres from one another, neither one with a MechJeb computer attached. I opened up the persistent.sfs file, and noticed it largely appears to have a similar format to the .craft files. What is the safest and easiest way to hack on a MechJeb module? Or, is there another way to get MechJeb to dock these two for me without editing files? Thanks so much!

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I really don't think the issue is "too much thrust". With respect, I've built a few dozen crafts now and I know that certain joins are significantly weaker than others. Thanks to some of the tips in this thread I've learnt a lot about specific ways of using struts that overcome the "tanks flying off the others" problem. This problem seems to be something entirely different, and I'm seriously leaning towards either a bug or a problem with my craft file. The craft sits on the launchpad stationary, without any wobble, and after about 10-20 seconds, the A-SAS module (or just the command module if there is no A-SAS) has a structural failure from the tank below. This makes no sense. There is no thrust to speak of as I haven't even engaged my engines yet. Despite all previous evidence suggesting that struts are not needed between the command module and the tank underneath, I added a bunch of struts. I "stitched" the A-SAS module to the orange tank underneath. Something that I still believe to be unnecessary. Even with the struts and stitching, the module experiences a structural failure with the tank below, while the craft is stationary on the launchpad or even when taking off with low acceleration. I really think there is something wrong with the game or with my craft file.

In general, I have good success recently with tanks not falling off during take-off. Here and there, I have a failure, and I can either fix it by adding or removing struts. I'm having a really, really weird problem with this craft I put together today. The A-SAS module separates from the orange fuel tank just below it. The only weight above it is the command module, mechjeb, protractor, and the sensors. I've even added struts to the A-SAS module (not that I believe I should have to), but it still has a structural failure. In fact, the ship doesn't even need to be moving! Just sitting on the launch pad, about 10 seconds after the model is fully initialised, it has a structural failure and I lose all ability to launch. What is going on here? Edit: When I remove the A-SAS module, I get the same structural failure between the command pod and the fuel tank blow. Even when I limit my acceleration to about 15m/s^2, I still have a structural failure.

Thanks for tips and suggestions! I've put together a monster ship with plenty of orange tanks and it didn't fall apart at all, even at full throttle in atmosphere with gimbals enabled. I did have a lot of struts before. The problem wasn't the quantity of struts, it was the placement. I've got a lot more criss-cross struts and that seems to make all the difference.

(There are lots of struts you can't see behind the tanks)

Here is an example:

Hello everyone, I'm new to the forums and only about a week into the game so please be nice. I've been trying to build increasingly larger, multi-stage rockets for interplanetary travel and return. My bottom stage (the bit that gets me most of the way into orbit) is usually 12-16x radially symmetric Rockomax Jumbo64 fuel tanks (the 1440L ones) in asparagus configuration in two or so concentric layers with the Mainsail engines. The tanks are held on by the TT-70 radial decouplers that have a bit of extra space. I've also tried the Structural Pylon for attachment/decoupling. The problem is, they always break before I can even get into orbit. One or more of the tanks come loose and fly up into the higher sections of my craft and blow it to pieces. Different tanks come off at different times. Sometimes they come off quite early, sometimes they come off late. I usually end up trying to re-enforce the design with several EAS-4 struts. As I keep experimenting, and rockets inevitably keep coming off, I add more and more strut connectors. In the end, I have a giant web (read: mess) of struts going every which way, but it doesn't make the rocket any more structurally stable. I once even saw a Jumbo 64 tank just fall off while the craft was docked, before I'd engaged the engines. It was one of the outer ones, so no extra weight on it, and there were several struts connected between it and the inner tanks. Another on-going problem is with TR-XL Stack Separators dropping the connection between the upper modules (with my command pod) and the lower modules with the engines. I add struts to try and hold the two sections steady, but this only works sometimes. I absolutely love this game. I am a little obsessed with it. However, the fun part is up in space; not necessarily spending days and days trying to get my rocket up into orbit. I'm starting to get quite frustrated. I don't know if it's a bug or if it's a problem with my designs. I'm running the latest version at this moment via Steam: 0.20.2.