RexKramer

There are markers on the surface from Tracking Station. In map mode, you can see the markers as well. If you click on a marker, you are able to 'activate navigation' to the marker you selected. The targeted marker will show up on your NavBall.

1. Is it a new probe? 2. Is it an unmanned probe? 3. Does it have power? A battery and solar panel will do here. 4. Does it have an antenna? 5. Keep in mind some contracts also require goo cans or other science items. If you met all those requirements, the contract should have a green check next to it, even before you launch. If you are sitting on the launch pad, and don't see a green check beside vessel requirements, don't launch. You have left something important off. If you indeed had a green check while on the launchpad, but it is no longer there when you get to orbit, check to make sure you haven't staged away something important like a battery or antenna.

Although I'm not sure, I do not think they are exactly the same multipliers as science. Eeloo appears to have the highest multiplier for experience.

No, experience is not awarded that way. You get the experience for the highest category you have completed on each body, per Kerbal. It is not cumulative. If you fly over Kermit, you get the flight experience, which is 1. If you then orbit Kerbin with the same Kerbal, you get the orbit experience, 2. That Kerbals total experience is now 2. Not 3. So regarding experience, there is no benefit to doing missions in small steps to get each experience credit. Once you have orbited Kerbin, your experience from Kerbin has reached a maximum of 2. If you want more exp for that Kerbal, you now need to visit other bodies, such as Mun, Minmus, etc..

Double check you are going the right direction. The target orbits have dots which indicate their rotation direction. Make sure your ship is going the same direction as the dots.

On Kerbin, the highest experience is awarded for Orbit. Flight = 1 Fly By = 1.5 Orbit = 2 On bodies other than Kerbin, the highest exp return is for Flag Planting. Note that these are base values, a multiplier is applied depending on the body: Fly By = 1 Orbit = 1.5 Flight = 2 Land = 2.3 Plant Flag = 2.5

On Kerbin, the highest experience is awarded for Orbit. Flight = 1 Fly By = 1.5 Orbit = 2 On bodies other than Kerbin, the highest exp return is for Flag Planting. Note that these are base values, a multiplier is applied depending on the body: Fly By = 1 Orbit = 1.5 Flight = 2 Land = 2.3 Plant Flag = 2.5

Both need to plant a flag to get the Flag Plant credit. A landing counts no matter how you got there, parachute, glider, powered landing..

No, I don't think you get the XP for each category, you only get the XP for the highest category completed. So, Jeb completes a flight, his XP is 1. Jeb then orbits next. His XP is now 2. (Not 3) At that point, Jeb has collected all the XP he is ever going to get from Kerbin. For Jeb to get additional XP, he now needs to orbit another body, plant a flag there, etc.

The rescue missions are quite challenging without Tracking Station upgrades. It is possible to complete them, but the difficulty certainly is motivation to upgrade the Tracking Station. This is intended, so that upgrading the Tracking Station is not just to make it look better, but also to give it added functionality.

On Kerbin, the highest experience is awarded for Orbit. Flight = 1 Fly By = 1.5 Orbit = 2 On bodies other than Kerbin, the highest exp return is for Flag Planting. Note that these are base values, a multiplier is applied depending on the body: Fly By = 1 Orbit = 1.5 Flight = 2 Land = 2.3 Plant Flag = 2.5

You gain experience by doing something you haven't done yet with that Kerbal. Around Kerbin, you get experience for Flight, Fly By, and Orbit. If Bill has already gained experience for Flight on Kerbin, he next will need to either Fly By or Orbit to gain more experience. So, take him on an orbital flight, that should get him some more experience.

Ok, if you are using the 64 bit version, it is recommended you switch to the 32 bit version. The buildings upgrade at career start is a known issue with 64 bit. It has been investigated, and unfortunately it has proven very difficult to correct. At this point, the best fix is to switch to the 32 bit version. purpletarget posted a possible workaround you might want to try: Load your saved game in the 32 bit version, and upgrade your buildings while in 32 bit. Then, you should be able to use the 64 bit version. Once you have upgraded in 32 bit, the 64 bit apparently works ok, at least regarding the building upgrade.

We may need more information on this. At the start of a new career, your buildings should not be upgraded at all. Are you using a 64 bit version? If so, there is a known issue with building upgrades at career start.

See this post for more information, I think it contains exactly what you are looking for. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/103034

You can determine SAS capabilities by right clicking on the probe icon in the VAB, bringing up additional information. The Stayputnik has no SAS capability, all the other probes have some form of it, which will be listed. I believe the OKTO has only basic SAS (hold attitude) while more advanced cores may have things like Hold Prograde listed.

There are actually two upgrades for action groups. At the base level of the VAB, you have no action groups. At your first upgrade, to level 2, you have basic action groups - lights, gear,... On full upgrade, level 3, you have basic and custom action groups available.

My advice is start small. And don't worry if you don't make orbit on your first try. With spaceplanes, every change you make to one part potentially affects how you need to place other parts. That's one reason to start small. Large planes have lots of parts, making changes becomes tedious quickly. With smaller planes, you can very quickly see how different parts produce different results. And it can be simpler to adjust the locations of your COM and COL- center of mass and center of lift. Their relationship is critical to a plane which flies well. Although air-hogging may benefit you eventually, I don't recommend immediately jumping to put 10 intakes on a plane with one engine. One or two intakes for your first single engine jet should be plenty. Again, keep it simple at first. If your goal is to reach orbit, you will need to make a plane fly really high and really fast before switching to a rocket. You'll probably want to reach 30,000 meters if possible, and speeds of over 1800 m/s. If you can reach those goals, one or two tiny 48-7S engines and a little rocket fuel should be enough to get to orbit. By the way, that is absolutely possible without air hogging. It's a little easier with 2 intakes per engine however. I normally try to get to about 42,000 meters at 2300 m/s on jets, at that point a little nudge from a rocket gets me to orbit. Anyway, my advice is start small. Once you get to orbit, you can start scaling things up if needed.

I've had issues with docking ports with nearby/clipped parts. So, yes, the landing gear could be the issue.

I sometimes rescue Kerbals with the external seat. This does not fulfill the requirement to 'get aboard a vessel'. However, while the 'board vessel' part never is completed, I never get a notice that the contract failed. Instead, I get a notice that the recovery was completed. Near as I can tell, at that point the game just ignores the 'board a vessel' part of the contract. You dont get credit for completing that part, but you also don't get a failure message.

The above post is to a thread which offers some fixes for this. It's a known issue- actually two separate issues, which have popped up in recent versions. One is that Kerbals are sometimes ejected from certain command pods, they normally should stick to the command pod when you EVA them. The other issue is that Kerbals sometimes slide off ladders and pods, even though you are not commanding them to. Some consider those two issues to be a single issue. Regardless, the issue is known, and likely to be fixed in a future release. Meanwhile, the link posted above by ExavierMacbeth should help you out. Otherwise- you get to practice your EVA skills! Yay! Good luck!

1. Use parachutes to prevent the booster from exploding when splashing down. 2. Land the booster with little or no fuel to make it lighter, requiring less parachutes. There is currently no requirement to have any actual fuel to successfully test an engine. It just has to be staged or 'run test' activated when the conditions are met.

I have a Kerbal on every body in the game, except for Jool and Eve. Basically just for flag duty. Didn't send a feller to Eve, because I don't like sending Kerbals to places I can't get them back from. Even though I have no real intention of bringing my flag-planters home. I'll be the first to admit this is really spamming funds. However, I never before was motivated to perform a manned landing on every body, so some good is coming from the venture. I even provided a rover to all the flag-planters, although not very useful on Gilly..

As Rocketeer said, objects you targeted while inside the ship are targeted by the ship, not by the Kerbal. When you EVA you will need to re-target the ship from map view. You can get to map view while on EVA by pressing the M key (unless you have re-mapped that to a different key..). Otherwise, you could do it without targeting also. Get a bearing to your rescue ship, and start walking that direction.. I like setting targets personally, easy to lose your bearing while on EVA. Finally, I suggest conserving your EVA monopropellant, don't be tempted to use it all up during the hike to make it go faster. That's just in case you forgot to put a ladder on your rescue ship, or in case it doesn't extend as planned. Speaking from experience here..

This is exactly how I maneuver large asteroids. Even very large asteroids are fairly easy to manage this way. Create a node, maneuver around the asteroid so the maneuver node and asteroid COM are aligned, attach, and thrust as required. Here's a suggestion to get rid of unwanted rotation you induce as you thrust. Reduce thrust to zero, turn off RCS and SAS, and time warp briefly. Time warp stops rotation magically. It helps to stop rotation before you detach to maneuver around the asteroid, trying to reattach to asteroids which are rotating can be a challenge.