petrichorAM

Lol that's put the image into my head of the scene in Serenity during the 'end battle' when the Reaver ship grapples the Alliance fighter and flings around like a shotput!

I was fiddling around on KSP last night and after a few tests I got an escape tower design to work the way I wanted. As I will now be using this on my next few mission programs I was just wondering, when you launch normally and nothing breaks what would be the minimum 'safe' altitude to decouple the tower when it's no longer required?

Well I downloaded the B9 mod (plus Mk3 Fuselage Expansion Pacl and H.O.M.E for other projects) and had a go fiddling around with a design and this is how it turned out. Pretty much what I intended and is built with docking ports in certain areas so it can be built in orbit in 3 sections - cockpit section, hab/science section (including the girder with 2x gigantors and 4x RTGs and the first grey/yellow RCS tank) and engine section. Obviously its not fully finished as I need to add a few minor parts to it such as RCS thrusters, a docking port for station docking, docking ports on the 'bottom' for two landers but all in all this is what I pictured in my head. My next question is: are the fuel tanks enough for transfer to Duna, retrograde into Duna orbit and then return home again or should I add more?

OMFGBBQ! Good sir, that is incredible!

Not today but a couple of shots from my recent accomplishments. Bob Kerman became the third Kerbal to walk on the Mun during the Aquarius IV mission, though he reported back he didn't like it and wants his mummy Kerbal (smile is fake and for the camera): Finally launched Kerberos III and IIIA and succesfully completed my first orbital rendezvous and docking maneouvres trial:

I'm not planning a spaceplane, more a 'realisic' looking ship that I'll build in orbit, design is inspired by the ship from the Mission to Mars film - just trying to make it work visually, maybe I'll give the B9 pack a go and see if there's anything suitable in there

I've been playing around with parts in the VAB to fiddle around with a design for a future long term Duna mission and noticed that when using the Mk3 parts (cockpit and fuselage) the connector nodes are not central to the parts so unless you use the Mk3 to Mk2 part anything added is offset. Is there a way to correct this with a mod?

Assign all your legs to an action group (one of the three blue tabs to the left of the craft name in the VAB) and when you press the corresponding number key (number keys along the top on the keyboard not the number pad) then all the legs should lower together Edit: gah! Ninja'd!

What's even more amazing is that everything was calculated and run using a computer with less power than a basic smartphone!

Practice, practice, practice! A lot of KSP is trial and error, an awful lot of trial and error to be exact so patience is your best friend. Saying that if you're truly stuck I'd personally recommend a trip to YouTube and watch the tutorial videos people have created, my two top picks are Pebblegarden and Scott Manley.

Also make sure your landing legs aren't too high up your lander otherwise you'll be coming down on your engine nozzle

Finally completed my first manned (kerbaled?) Mun landing! Bill Kerman deftly set Aquarius II down on the Mun despite a potential crater-forming design flaw on my part. Landing legs appeared to be slightly too short on descent but thankfully they must've been longer than the rocket nozzle by millimetres as nothing broke! Next its time to bring him home (for which I have plenty of fuel thankfully!). I'm a bit annoyed though as I took what I thought were some nice pics but they haven't saved for some reason

I use KAS, Crew Mainfest & Procedural Fairings to add the minor things missing from vanilla KSP that I personally want to use. Other than that I'm stock as I want the challenge and fun of the vanilla game without something like MechJeb doing everything for me. I want to work out my own interplanetary transfers so when it goes wrong I'll go back to the drawing board and fix it and when it goes right I can feel some pride in the fact I've accomplished something on my own merit. I do understand and respect the choice of people who want to play KSP with mods coming out of it's ears, I'm just not one of them.

On the subject of G turns I've always performed mine to the east (this was how I learnt it from tutorial videos) - do you HAVE to turn east or could you perform the turn to the west, north or south and suffer no detrimental effects (other than your orbit path being different)?

Just started the Aquarius Project, the first manned (Kerbaled?) missions to the Mun. Aquarius I crewed by Bob Kerman is currently about 370K above the Mun preparing to retrograde into an stable orbit for a few fly-bys before coming home again (I'll post pics tonight when I'm home and on KSP). Following this Jeb will be launched with Aquarius II to actually land on the Mun (previously landed a probe in preparation) so I'm trying to convince myself that I can do it without smearing him across the surface!

Best tip I was given is once you've built your rocket in the VAB disconnect the orbiter/lander section and turn the CoM marker on. You then want to place the RCS thrusters in a 4x placement (symmetry button) and make sure the centre of the thruster block is aligned with the CoM marker and it should then be perfectly balanced.

Sorry to bump this thread, just want to know how did you get that into orbit without it being unstable, did you send it up in separate parts?

Did your station core have any command module parts in it as (please correct me if I'm wrong here) that may mark it as debris and if your max debris slider isn't set high enough/set at unlimited that's why it may have been deleted.

Thanks, I seriously had a brain fart on that one! The instructions on SpacePort said to move each sub folder which is what confused me. Edit: Tex it does have the GameData folder, it's inside the folder you mentioned.

I've downloaded the crew manifest mod but am having trouble installing it as the installation instructions seem a bit vague to me, can anyone please let me know the correct locations to place each part of the mod file so it works. Thanks.

Advanced edit your original first post and use the drop down menu to change it

Thanks guys, was leaning towards a two pod station and your advice has helped cement my decision! Another quick question, I've noticed a 'crawl tubes' mod for stations mentioned on the forum a few times but can't find it on the SpacePort - does anyone know where I can get it?

I'm still a beginner at KSP but I'm gradually learning and gaining experience. Obviously I have milestone goals like most people and one of these is to eventually put space stations in orbit. Now I consider myself reasonably organised and have already planned out several of my milestones and my first space station is no exception. I'm being sensible with the plans for my first station and I'm going for something small that's inspired by the Skylab. My question therefore is this: I want to use the Hitchhiker Pod for the main 'living/work' area and was wondering if one would be enough to make it close to the size of Skylab or would two be better? Thanks in advance

Pebblegarden's videos taught me the basics and now I've turned to Mr Manley for advanced concepts, mainly phase angles and interplanetary transfer burns & course vectors. And his style is wholly friendly and informative and doesn't make you feel stupid or 'unworthy' to play KSP, plus he can be funny sometimes too which is always a good thing!

Depends on whether the craft is going to be a lander or not. If it is a lander then I'm with Skorpy and would say position A.