Galane

I have a 16,000 unit Kethane mining lander mostly built, but the stock heavy landing legs just aren't up to snuff, not even with the spring stiffness jacked up to 10. They just don't go out far enough to make the lander stable on anything but fairly gentle Munscape slopes. I'd rather not stick bits of girder all around to have the legs spread out farther. It has two 16K Kethane tanks side by side under a ReStock Bigger, Badder BiCoupler and will have the booster built down from two more of those under the tanks. Trying to keep it as slim as possible and avoid asparagus if I can on this one. Benefit of what I have so far is I'll be able to use half of the booster on its own as a separate booster subassembly for other launches. Performance of the lander so far is a bit iffy. MechJeb wavers the throttle up and down during landing and after filling the tanks with hyperedit it can barely make it to a 15K Mun orbit and MechJeb won't shut the engines off completely at the end of circularizing. A sign it needs moar boosters . Will probably have to find somewhere to stick on more fuel tanks, which will mean the (completely untested) booster will likely need more... But first, it needs better legs.

And here too.

What are the coordinates for the highest locations on the equator for each body it's possible to land on? Leveling some hill or mountain tops and setting up launchpads in those locations would be a Really Good Thing. For launching into polar orbits, the highest points at 45 degrees north or south latitude would be of interest. Best compromise between rotation boost and ease of reaching the orbit.

Something not critical but since Sarbian has been working hard on MechJeb, I've been using Corrective Steering. It never worked too well in the 2.0.9 release. There's a bit of a bobble in it where when a rocket begins the gravity turn it'll pitch over onto the uncorrected trajectory then turn back up to as needed angle to keep on the path. Not really a problem but with large and somewhat low TWR rockets it looks like it's first going over then "Oh, wait, I don't have enough thrust to aim my nose right down the flight path!" then it tips up to correct. Is it waiting to engage corrective steering until after the initial pitch over is complete? It's nothing that needs fixed, haven't had problems from it. It just looks odd. If you have a rocket that struggles to reach orbit, try corrective steering. Could be that spending some of the available fuel thrusting in a more upward direction starting as soon as it completes pitch over will get it there. 'Course if your upper stages have a TWR or 1 or less, you will not go to space today no matter how hard you point the nose up. I do like how the pitch over seems to be much less abrupt, which with the 2.0.9 release caused no end of problems with rockets coming apart, especially when being pushed by a lot of Mainsails. 'Course figuring out that locking the Mainsails' gimbals, at least during pitchover, makes rockets tend to hang together in a single tight collection of parts also helped with reducing failures. IIRC, the Space Shuttle throttled down some for its pitch over, then after completing it (by which time it was above the thickest part of the atmo) they'd throttle back up to full blast. "Roger, go at throttle up." If MechJeb could have a way to fire the engines then wait to release the clamps until full thrust was reached (with a settable delay for engines that need time to reach full thrust) and a settable throttle reduction for starting the gravity turn, it could help many more delicate rockets or ones that are a bit iffy turning at full throttle make it to orbit. Even a fraction of a second delay would reduce the abuse because instead of the thrust meeting the instantaneous downward fall of the rocket, the rocket would already be supported by the thrust and be released to gently begin to rise, or crumble in an exploding pile if the TWR <1. Sure this can be done manually by putting all the launch clamps by themselves in the second stage*, but more automation is nicer for those who want more automation. Another one for the wish list. Suborbital hop guidance. Click on a target and have MechJeb launch, maneuver and land all in one control. Could have the island runway, the KSC runway, old KSC in a list of presets for Kerbin. *I wonder why KSP has the stages numbered top down, starting from 0? Actual rockets number from the bottom up, usually starting at 1. Ordinal VS cardinal numbers.

Some pics http://www.flickr.com/photos/27748767@N08/sets/72157635319720861/

Kethane mining rovers on the Mun. Craft file for the large one with a 16,000 unit Kethane tank. http://pastebin.com/MfDqLqTr Mods it uses Stretchy Tanks http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/stretchytanks/ KSPX x0.2.3 http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/30472-0-21-x-KSPX-Kerbal-Stock-Part-eXpansion-mod-reposted-v0-2-3 Kommit Stockalike Struts and Truss Bits http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/stockalikestruts/ Quantum Struts. http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/quantum-strut/ (Has four strut guns on top for wobble free docking and for launching I use an adapter and six angled Quantum struts to brace the rover.) Kethane mod. I don't recall but it may have some bits from ReStock http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/0-21-restock-parts/ It lands on Mun fine from 15KM. Don't worry if it's low on RCS fuel when you start the landing. It only needs it for docking. Likewise, empty the small fuel tanks on top of the drills to save some landing weight. Fill everything with the converter on the surface. If you're launching from below 2,000M surface altitude you'll very likely have to convert some Kethane after getting back to orbit to ensure you have rendezvous fuel. Also a good idea to put the four little engines into an action group or completely remove them. It can lift completely full on just the two larger engines but gets going a bit quicker with all six. Toggle the small ones as needed to economize on fuel.

Lots more ships in there now, with updated file listing what mods are used.

Nope, not checked, and in the instance of KSP just launched, the meters aren't pegging to the right with the same rocket, which I left on the pad when I quit last night. Edit: Missed this part in the mod list file in the zip. Kommit Stockalike Struts and Truss Bits http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/stockalikestruts/ Large Rover uses this. The square, six node girder block needs a bit of debugging. Try rotating it before attempting to stick it to things.

LADEE sets data transmission record from lunar orbit Operating from the LADEE lunar orbiter, the LLCD used lasers to transmit data to Earth at 622 megabits per second (Mbps) as a demonstration of a technology that NASA hopes will one day not only keep up with the communications demands of future missions, but also greatly enhance their capabilities. Looks like good inspiration for higher tech nodes in KSP career mode.

Link to the KW one?

See the circle at the end of the blue orbit path? That's the point where you enter Mun Sphere Of Influence. Fine tune closest approach should be used some time before you get to that point. That will keep you from slamming into the Mun, but you'll still have to circularize after you enter Mun SOI or you'll fly past. If the Hohmann transfer puts you on a collision course with the Mun, that's a great time to dump any pieces of the ship that you won't need later, such as extra engines and fuel tanks emptied after the burn. Pop them loose before doing other maneuvers and they'll continue on to self-disposal by Mun impact. If you don't intend on an inclined and/or retrograde Mun orbit it's best to circularize somewhat higher than your final orbit. Seems to be easier to adjust the inclination at higher altitudes.

When you select the target for landing guidance, you can directly target a ship on the surface. At least on airless bodies it's now so accurate you'll need to interrupt the autopilot and either manually take over the landing or poke Land Somewhere so it'll just plot the fastest place to land, which if you do it at the right altitude will be pretty close. What I'd like to see is a function to "Miss target by" with a box to enter in how many meters to miss it. Should only be available if the target chosen is a ship or other thing that is "live" and controllable. It would also be nice if in the pre-programmed landing target list was the old KSC and the island runway, and for KSC a second spot that's not trying to hit the launchpad.

For the first time, with the 2.1 release version, I'm having the issue where roll gets pegged all the way to the right and yaw almost all the way to the right while sitting on the pad with the ascent guidance autopilot engaged. I launched a few rockets tonight, no problems. Did rendezvous and dockings in Kerbin and Mun orbit, no problem. Everything built before switching in the new MechJeb. I decided to finish the evening's work by launching another Large Rover to replace the smallest one I'd disposed of on Mun. Launched it and off course it went. "WTH?" I thought. Not the most stable rocket anyway so I tried again and let it twirl. After making a full rotation it stood upright and continued with the program, but with too much fuel burned off the first stage to make it to orbit.* So I reverted again and watched the indicators. Yup, it's that bug again. Another issue (that I've noticed through the last few dev builds but never reported) is that Smart A.S.S. and Docking Autopilot have their degrees for force roll 180 degrees out of phase. This is easy to demonstrate. Rendezvous with another ship and get lined up for docking. With the ships tgt+ at each other's docking ports, enable force roll on one. When it stops turning, disable force roll and turn off Smart A.S.S. then turn on docking autopilot on the same ship and enable DA's force roll. The ship will roll 180 degrees instead of staying in the same zero degree alignment Smart A.S.S. put it in. Large Rover launch in this zip file. Large Rover and its launcher require Kethane mod, ReStock, Stretchy Tanks and inline reaction wheels from KSPX. I stuck a small one on the bottom of the rover because with just the large one on top, away from COM, it was too sluggish at rotating in orbit. ZIP file size is about 776K, includes a text file with some notes and links to all mods used. If you don't have MechJeb or don't want to use it, none of these rockets have the AR-202, I use the stock control pods with cfgs edited to integrate it and only have the MechJeb2.dll in the Plugins folder under the main game folder. Until the 2.1 release version I haven't had any serious issues with MechJeb, other than problems with the automatic adjusting ascent path in KSP .21. But that's the past. Deleted KSP .21 tonight. No need to go back to it after using KSP .22. *Well, probably could make orbit but it'd have to dump the 2nd stage to get there and that's needed for Trans-Munar-Injection with this heavy rover. It gets to 71KM with stage 2 on and I launch a tanker built of ReStock parts to fill it up for the Mun trip.

Doesn't say *why* the change.

Why was the KE-X130 drill's category set to -1 so it couldn't be added to new craft, without editing its cfg to Utility? I tried to find the post in this thread with the announcement of Kethane 0.8 but the search only returns threads, not individual posts. Not much help when there's 322 pages in the thread. Needle, meet haystack.

I figured it would flip it or rip the drill off. What I haven't tried is driving a rover around with the drills deployed. Most likely nothing out of the ordinary would happen. What is nice is the drills radially attach very firmly to Kethane tanks. On one of my rovers I have rocket stacks coupled to the bottom of two of the large drills, alongside the main stack coupled to the bottom of the Kethane tank. No struts or other attachments from the drills to the tank.

The Armed Guard system can also be quickly adapted to a single purpose satellite launch. Remove the I-beam and reaction wheel then add two more batteries and a Kethane scanner or other sensor. That was how I launched my first Kethane scan of Kerbin... swords into plowshares etc. The AG rocket stack has also worked well for a wide variety of small payloads to LKO. Is MechJeb 2.1 fixed so it won't fire engines higher up the stack - if they don't have a decoupler or separator in their stage - when it calculates it needs more thrust? In other words, will it never light up more than one stage at a time? Can the DLL just be dropped in place of the previous one and still work with integrated MJ mods to control pods?

Search the forum for KETM. I've been too busy with Kethane extraction to pursue orbit to surface high yield energy transfer utility. The S-KETM V4 does a fair job of decommissioning medium size and larger space vehicles.

There's one thing the Kethane drills are no good at all for. They don't work as emergency brakes! I tested that once on Minmus with a rover rolling downhill, deployed the drill and it just sliced along like the ground wasn't there.

There's an even narrower passage between the wind tunnel and the building next to it. Try flying through that one. Another tricky trip would be buzzing the front of the astronaut building. Fly as close as possible, fast as possible, along the concave curved front.

Back up-thread a ways is the fix. There's a small edit to a .cfg file you have to make, then you can replace that file in the zip so it'll be fixed should you need to extract the mod again. Fixes and info like this should be edited into the first post.

Someone should do an Invader Zim meets Jebediah Kerman drawing.

I haven't had a problem with it, except for it being a bit too accurate. These recent builds do have serious issues if used in .21, IIRC since the automatic adjusting ascent path was added. Doesn't work right even with that turned off.

My Kethane program depends on the Rockomax sized bi and quad couplers and other ReStock parts.

And with the changes, MechJeb can't land on it, and it lands beside the KSC runway instead of on it. "What?! They've gone metric again without telling us?"