redneon

Did it! I utilised the_bT's design and it was easy. Apart from the docking. I'm still having trouble with that. I always end up pressing the traslation for up when I mean down etc. Very frustrating but I'm sure I'll get used to it. Maybe I should try using the docking mode... Here's a docking I just completed: I do have one more question, however. I'm sure it's an incredibly stupid one that I should know the answer to but when the final stage is in space like this: I can't rotate the craft unless I have RCS turned on or I'm using the engine. Why is this? I thought with the reaction wheels I'd be able to turn the ship in space? Or could it be that the remote controlled pod has run out of electricity, maybe? I do have a rechargeable battery on the ship, though, and that must be powering the RCS.

Thanks everyone. I'll give some of these a try later and see how I get on. I'm still learning so much about this game so it's all helpful I don't really know why I'm against having RCS thrusters on the delivery tank. As you say, deorbiting would be much simpler with them, should I need to.

Yeah, I know about the CoM thing. I mentioned it in the original post. The reason I was asking about the reaction wheels is because SpaceGremlin said I don't need to counterweight, I can use unbalanced RCS with reaction wheels.

I'm confused. According to the Wiki, the command modules automatically have reaction wheels now. So why do I need to add them? At the minute, if I go up with one bank of four RCS thrusters around the delivery tank then when attempting to translate it ends up rotating around the centre of mass.

Ah, reaction wheels. I'm not familiar with them. I'll have to do a bit of reading. I was under the impression that to keep the ship balanced when translating using RCS you had to position them evenly around the centre of mass.

I'm building a refuelling space station. The space station is in orbit (design shamelessly stolen from someone on here)... ...and now I'm building a rocket to deliver and dock the fuel tanks to it. The problem I'm having is that I don't want to put RCS rockets on the delivery tank itself which means I need to balance the final stage of the rocket so the centre of mass isn't on the delivery tank. That way I can position RCS rockets around the heavy end. Currently I've been looking at something like this: This will work, I'm sure, but it's major overkill to use two orange tanks with a poodle on it just to counterweight the delivery tank at the end. I did preliminary tests launching like this... ..and it does look like it'll work but it required a metric-ton of struts to stop the "shaft" from destabilising. I can't help thinking there'd be a better way.

Yes, this does sound like something I'd do... and probably did. What happens to Bob if I end the flight? Can I not resume it?

I did a little mission to Minmus last night and successfully completed my first moon landing (thanks to Scott Manley). I had Bob leave his capsule and bounce around on the surface for a few minutes and then I quit the game, ready to do the return journey today... ...Only I've loaded up the game, the lander is still on Minmus, but Bob is nowhere to be found. Should I have put him back is his capsule? Did he run out of air (is that possible)? Where could Bob have gone?