LoneRider

Greetings, me and a colleague at work started playing Kerbal a few weeks ago. He was the first of us to reach the moon (and some tries later to land successfully and relaunch from there), i was the first to have a station in kerbal orbit (with kerbals onboard and the ability to refuel). Until now i successfully reached duna with a manned mission, and a second to pick up the astronaut from the first landing (since his rocket got damaged ). I have a litte refuling station around the moon, and i got science probes to eve and laythe with science modules and relay satellites in orbit. I think we achieved quite something, but there are of course still plans for more. We were both playing without mods for long, but now we are sometimes using novapunch, mechjeb and KAS. All of the things mentioned above were reached without mods, i wont use mechjeb for a task i haven't done manually before. Future plans are a second refuel base around kerbin (with more fuel than for 2 orange XL tanks) in a higher orbit, and manned bases on several planets and moons. Of course we are also looking forward to career and multiplayer - if it will ever come. So far for now Markus

My trip to Jool (or Laythe, to be correct) was made using the thermonuclear engines, because you have more than enough time to burn, and they have the best fuel efficiency in space. My ship had a science lander module (just a cone with science modules attached, solar panels, batteries, antennas and a parachute) and a relay satellite (solar panels, batteries, antennas and satellite dishes for long range communication to kerbin, RCS). Not much but enough for a good science mission. The big breaking burns took 4 to 6 minutes full-throttle, but you dont even see the fuel bar move. It worked on the second try, but you have to correct your course at several points. like on 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 of the way to jool. Just watch and correct on and on with maneuver nodes, so you will get into jools area of infuence as close as possible.

I also had problems with the biggest docking ports - they just didnt connect. Now i am using a 2-on-1 adapter and 2 standard docking ports for bigger parts...