AlamoVampire

Im a pilot as well, licensed rc, life long simmer, and about 90 minutes as pic in a cessna. But, thats tangental to what i was talking about beyond using the fact ap is real world valid as is automation, but that does not diminish or dismiss the points i made about mechjeb here. Its not a crutch and disrespects it calling it that. Also serves a point of showing how swiftly the two sides of this get into the thick of it. As to Calvin and Hobbes: they are the best! Favorite strip to be sure. I dont understand the derision ppl have for mechjeb whether genuine or not its confusing 002202032025 005402032025

Mechjeb is not a crutch. it is a valuable tool. Cannot speak for engineer redux as its readouts are provided by stock methods and from mechjeb as well. I am going to be honest here, the fact that stock never had the functionality placed into that MechJeb provides was a huge misstep by squad, same as the attempt at stock fairings when a much superior product exists. I would not have the ability to play KSP were it not for mechjeb. Why do I say this? It taught me how to dock. Are there tutorial manuals and videos on the subject? Of course. Did they help me? Absolutely not. Why? Because they cannot do what mechjeb does. It takes what YOU built and flies it. Teaches you how what you see in your mind will actually perform in the game. I spent HOURS reading and watching tutorials on how to dock back during the way back times of 0.21KSP in 2013. I asked around here on the forums for help. Try as people might, they couldnt help me. I then spent DAYS in KSP trying to dock. Never quite getting it. I would get within a kilometer at times, other times I would come screaming into my target like CSX 8888. My poor cat was traumatized by my frustration. Then one person now lost to my memory and the sands of time mentioned mechjeb. It changed my world. It brought me the ability to play this game. I would never have earned those ribbons you see below this very post and any post I make were it not for mechjeb. Look up in this very thread directly above yours. MechJeb was flying a mission launch for me as I wrote that very post. I ask you this, same as I ask any detractor of mechjeb: Do you think its a crutch when NASA sends automated resupply missions to the ISS <no, i refuse to acknowledge space x as a valid space agency now> or when NASA sent Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity, Perseverance or Chandra, or James Webb, Hubble, Voyagers 1&2 or any other mission past present or future was using a crutch when they used autopilot and automation? Is it a crutch when I am flying a 777-300ER trans oceanic using my autopilot to keep me on course across the atlantic? Or when real world pilots do the same? You may not use mechjeb and prefer to as you put it, fly by the seat of your pants, but, there is validity in using autopilot and automation. Dismiss it not. That said, those who use it are just as correct as those who do not. 232502022025

I did a few things this evening/early morning <i mean it is early morning as i type so > in this session. I did a minmus and a mun mission, returned some good science. I also deployed my first station in science. Its nothing much, a science module, a hitchhiker module and cupola. But, its a functional orbital space station. I have it researching right now, no idea if I need to actually put experiments into it OR if it will just generate science on its own, time will tell, or you guys can kill the suspense for me lol. SO, pics? Jeb is in the cupola doing Jeb things. Mad man he is! Flying from INSIDE a fairing? That fairing is just one of many reasons I love procedural fairings. lovely mod that. Here is Station 1 on orbit. The KSC is down below, say Hi! Like I said, this station isnt really much, nor creatively named, but, its just the first generation of station for my science save. More to come! 045702022025

@mrneon i cannot recommend mechjeb highly enough! It taught me how my ships fly. Its why I was able to manually rendezvous and dock with an asteroid in my science save. Its also performing a launch as i type this! Teehee. Its a great tool and works well! Best of luck! 044202022025

I realize this thread of mine is rather old, last seeing action just over 7 years ago, but, what just happened on re-entry from the Mun just now made me think of this thread, and I decided that maybe we could start sharing our debris near misses again. So, I was coming in at a stupid fast speed of TIMEWARP <no literally was time warping back to kerbin after doing a burn to place my PE at about 35KM above the deck> ! I was doing this in map screen which is why this got so stupid so fast. By time I was out of the map screen and slowed time warp down to 1x I was already at 35km with things shedding off my lander/capsule like a winter fur coat from a cat in spring when I panic staged my capsule free as it was pointed INTO the fires of re-entry. My service stage/lander fell behind me and I thought ok, at least this things pointed correctly now with the ablator INTO the heat when that lander decided it wanted to say HI! and missed me by about 20m. It was so shocking I nearly missed shutting the UI down to grab this picture. By the time I grabbed the image the lander was streaking ahead and putting distance between us. So guys, lets get the fun rolling again, what are your near misses? As stated in the OP pictures are a bonus. 022302022025

Ok guys, I will admit, I am BEYOND rusty, but, something ive noticed since my return is that the JS-1 Joint Socket no longer works. All I get is AIM CAMERA when clicking on it. Neither the wrench nor the impact driver seem to have any effect. Its the most up to date version I can find on curse forge, but no luck. What am I missing? for clarity sake, here are 2 pictures, one with wrench, one with impact driver, both times the JS-1 Joint Socket has been RECLICKED, with NO change. Seen in hand, the wrench, and just Aim Camera as my ONLY interaction. I made this little platform for THIS purpose to see just what the heck I am screwing up, and I cant figure it out. Granted the new <to me> storage system and eva construction ability added at some point render KIS/KAS kinda obsolete, save for maybe those two pylons behind bill with built in joint sockets, or the pylon in front of him with the one attached by Bill here. It was like the one by the nav ball being cheeky trying to hide lol, where it was placed on the plate in the VAB. As you see, there is precisely zero change. I have spent the last 30 minutes googling, and other people seem to have had this problem, but NOT ONE of them bother to say what the fix is. One says "nvm seem to have figured it out" but never specifies just what was wrong. Id simply dump the mods if not for my prime save having ACTIVE missions with some of these very JS-1 Joint Sockets and other assorted KAS related items playing crucial parts in the missions. I could just dump the save, but, its a memorial save for a beloved pet, and frankly losing her once was bad enough, I will not sacrifice the save. So, anyone know just what is going on here? Please help if you can. 004502022025 derpy spelling error fixed 004802022025

This morning around 0700 local i decided to play some KSP and do a Mun mission in my science save. I did not expect what happened to happen. I went to the Northwest Crater because why not? This is on approach to the Mun and contains a hint of what was coming. Do you see what was going to happen? I sure didnt. Was caught way off guard when it happened. I legitimately for a second thought I was being attacked by Thargoids from Elite Dangerous when it happened. On the Mun doing an EVA with Bill trying an experiment with KIS/KAS <I forget how the fuel pipes work its been THAT long> when a shadow suddenly came over me. I was in FULL sun at landing, and during the start of EVA. As you see, I wound up in an eclipse!! Zoomed out as far as I could and this is what I saw. At this point it was around 0730 local and I was wanting to go to bed. I waited as long as I could for the eclipse to end, but, impatience won out lol. End of the eclipse closing in, but I was growing impatient. Sun (Kerbol) starting to peek out from behind Kerbin. I made it until it was about 3 times this exposed before impatience won and I lifted off. And mission mostly complete 235402012025

From my experience with mechjeb its a valuable tool that fills a gap left by squad way back when. I wont fly without it. Im a licensed rc pilot, have flown a real cessna and am an active sim pilot and autopilot is a wonderful tool and have the opinion if real aviation and space agencies like NASA, JAXA and, ESA use autopilot then I will too. The real issue comes from the extreme right (mechjeb is cheating) or extreme left (mechjeb is the only way) camps getting into fights over it. I cant speak to engineer redux as stock info panels and mechjeb give me information i need just fine. Both are tools to be used or not at YOUR discretion. You own YOUR copy of the game to play as YOU choose. Blaze your trail and blaze it brightly. Play YOUR way. Have YOUR fun. The only style of play that TRULY matters is what works for YOU. Will your way be the way @Bej Kerman plays or how I play? Likely no. Thats a good thing! Just look at the pictures we all upload. By most standards (ignoring parts packs) we all have identical parts yet build craft wildly different from each other. This is DOSSP (to learn more check my post in what did you do today in ksp1 on the last page) and it as pictured here is 100% stock. Did this layout of parts cross your mind? No? That make me a superior player for this design? Nope. Just a player doing my own thing. Same with Mechjeb or engineer redux or procedural fairings or outer planets or rss or any mod. Just tools to use or not. Make sense? I hope i made sense. 190502012025

Ive done many interplanetary in the past, heck just look at my ribbons in my signature, its just those were all sandbox with full access to tech. It was just surprising to do so with only tech up to the 300 sci per box with a SINGLE 550 sci box unlocked. Im used to much bigger craft doing it. My favs were a manned eeloo mission, a mission to walk on duna on the face on it and dropping jeb into the mohole. 161802012025

@boriz im being told link is invalid 051202012025

@boriz if im seeing it right, my guess is C as it looks like its centered on the nav ball. If i was flying instrument only using the nav ball id see C as target direction. But thats only a guess w/out more context. 045002012025

Ok, this I feel warrants its own post I am doing my science save and just did my first interplanetary mission to duna! Did not think i could get there on such limited tech <limited compared to sandbox, not one node over 550 science is unlocked. I have 1 or 2 at 550 at BEST right now. I give you the DOSSP Mission, or Duna Orbital Science Scanner Platform. On its way! This lifter was uh over built, carrying two of those boosters nearly into orbit lol. Gotta say, I am pleased so far with this thing. Something did disappoint me after arrival into a steady polar orbit however. Ill get to that in a moment tho. Hello Duna my old friend, I see you there! Capture underway! Over 6000km above Duna. Next stop, about 300ish KM. Stable Orbit achieved. This is just prior to kicking the lower stage off. Polar Orbit? Check. Between 35km and 1500km? Check. More comfortable with out that bulky <lol> lower stage? Check. Science and resource scans runs? Check. Enough dV to deorbit when desired? Check. DOSSP on station, doing its thing. Now, for the disappointing thing? Well, its a few things. One, I forgot a materials science device, so, yeah. Renders the docking port on this thing kinda pointless. Did I think this qualified for lower over Duna rather than high over Duna? Yup. Is it? Nope. So, no new magnetometer scan or pressure or temperature scans. Did those just prior to initial capture burn. Did the goo at this altitude and was still considered to be high over Duna. Oh well. Future missions will take care of that! 023102012025

I forgot to add this image to my post where I docked to the asteroid the other day. This was the ultimate money shot, a successful rendezvous and docking mostly by hand for the first time <mechjeb has been my go to autopilot since I took up ksp in 2013, still is, still advocate its use> but, this made me proud: Like I said in that post, this things now in a stable orbit, highly elliptical and eccentric, but stable nevertheless. 001802012025

Ah. 045001312025 also how is my post in cyrillic in your quote of me? Just curious 045101312025

Ok maybe i should already know this but while watching the critical role charity one shot live stream a thought hit me. In each of my saves, my prime save, my return to play test save and now my science save ive never seen more than 1 comet show up. I got to wondering is 1 the max number of comets per save or is it possible to have more than 1 appear? 235201302025

I respect the effort that went into it but i miss the old banner. But our tastes are our own of course. Too me it just feels too busy. But my minds always at mach 100 so im nuts maybe. 203101302025

@Eclipse 32 covered the basics, but you can launch a sentinel telescope up to actively scan for more. It wont auto track them or anything but it should reveal more. I forget which way it needs to point for best results, but it should give good science on the first scan. I think after that it passively reveals them. Fun fact it was part of a micro free add on with NASA actually working with SQUAD years ago before the Asteroid Redirect Mission was canceled. It added 2-3 parts. The sentinel telescope, a probe body and maybe a few parts. Cant recall them all. Im sure a post or three mention it in the archives. 165501302025 @Kimera Industries and those curious 170601302025

Ok stupid question. I was doing a mission earlier where I wanted to reach a different biome on kerbin for a science run. While i was going into orbit to reach the biome ive done all the eva in space science i can do for now. So eva in orbit was not required. In the VAB i stripped the EVA packs out of the inventories. To my shock at launch when i checked to see something there they were. Is it even possible to NOT have the EVA RCS MMUs with you if have no need for them? 055601302025

So here I am playing science and looking for a way to unlock about 1300ish science for some larger batteries, probe cores and other assorted things when I see something in the tracking station that grabbed my eye. I had an asteroid or something danger close to to Kerbin on a collision course. Well, that stopped me dead in my tracks because I had to redirect the asteroid. At this point I lack the rendezvous/docking portions of mechjeb's control and to date I had never really manually docked by hand. Docking is WHY I got mechjeb so many years ago, and why i still advocate for players to use it to this day. Yes, there are videos and tutorials aplenty on the subject, but, I promise there are players like me, that no matter how many videos or manuals or tutorials on a subject you read/watch you just cant pick up the skill. So, thats why I got mechjeb. It showed how MY rockets flew. What I never figured was that I was slowly absorbing what it was doing with what I built, showing me, teaching me how my craft that are birthed from my mind fly in KSP. ANYWAY long way of saying that, when it mattered just now, I was able to get into the asteroids plane and get myself a 4km encounter. That was as close as as I could wrangle with a maneuver node. When I got with in that 4km I was able to brute force my way into a good position. I actually <dont shame me for this, i am bloody proud of myself!> was able to manually rendezvous AND dock with a class D asteroid!!! I have it on a 35 dayish orbit with a PE of about 250km from the direct collision course it WAS on. I also saw the comet Ive been tracking while launching! This is the risen from the ashes of my test save, if only in name, Capture 2 launching for the class D asteroid. See that? The comet is down near Moho's orbit at the moment and gave me quite the shock when I saw it. I WILL chase that bugger down one day. One day! about 60m to go! Even now, I am grinning thinking about this moment! Just a beauty shot here. The money shot of all money shots for me, my first manual docking! Yea, I know, been playing since 0.21 back in 2013. I cant dock to save my life in a sandbox save, but, when the chips are down, the cards dealt and a space boulder is looking to punch a planet and ive minimal tech I pull this off?? Ill buy that for a dollar! I am proud. And having said that, I am now sad This a moment that id love to share with my momma, but I cant. God this moment went from sweet to bitter sweet in a nanosecond. Sorry to end this triumph on a sad note. 050201302025

Depends on the tech level of the parts and stage of your tech tree. At some point it should be a fairly decent outpost for you. But again, its tech level dependent id say. Best of luck! 184801292025

Gotcha. Ill correct it when i launch a new version when i unlock the ra-100 relays. Appreciate the clarity! 043001292025

This is just part of what Ive done today in KSP. More to do, but, this is some of it Mission on approach to a landed Probe at the Mun, this mission delivered some ground science station stuff to the Mun. More will be deployed soon. Bob being a goofball while deploying those solar arrays. No RCS pack because hey that stuff takes up space right? Mission mostly complete, just gotta get back home! The start of what I thought was a typical re-entry. The lower half of the lander races out ahead of the capsule. Watching the lower half of the lander start to climb out of the atmosphere. This was around 35-37km above the deck. It was at this point I was wondering why descent was taking soo long. Turns out, i came in about as shallow as you could possibly come in <even with PE at about 40km prior to entry interface> and wound up taking a solid 3 minutes or so to re-enter fully. I had FULL ablator on the heatshield prior to re-entry. Finally after I was nearing the end of shock heating: I couldnt help but giggle from the moment I took the picture above this one until shortly after splash down about 45 seconds later. What a ride. 234401282025 ok, i feel stupid for asking this, considering I am successfully uploading images and linking them, but, I am having to "copy image address" and use the insert image from URL thing on the bottom right of the editor. Where on imgur is the BBCode thing?? Am I just bad at imgur now or what? 234601282025 Ok, barring my imgur question, which if anyone knows why I am not seeing the BBCode thing please tell me , I am going to add some new mission stuff here, because Id rather just edit the post rather than make a full new one if that makes sense, especially since no one has posted in the 3-4 hours since this post. Onto the updates then! My on going science station on the Mun. Anyone know how to silence the alerts from the station? Im fine with it passively collecting science, but, do I need it to tell me its gathered like 18 science every time? Just work quietly and I will be ok lol. Here is my PAAS mission going up. Polar Active Anomalous Scanner <say it like this: Paws <like a kitties paw or a puppies paw > And here IS PAAS having done an orbital survey of Kerbin at 1300Km 1300km Polar Orbit. 030501292025

Doing a mun mission for some science and had a close encounter with my first com sat quite on accident. When I went to double check what the pink box I saw closing in on me was, I spotted something that kinda irked me. First, the encounter! This encounter was NOT planned. Just happened by accident! Ok, onto the thing that irked me. Game is paused as I write this, because I am that frustrated and want to see if this happens to us all or if I some how screwed up. You see my mission in progress, and the com sat I have in orbit of the Mun. But, look towards Kerbin, you see that white ring of 4 comm sats? That is SUPPOSED to be in geostationary orbit. I put them up in a rectangle formation <was the best I could do given the tech at the time> and KEO2 and KEO3 have closed in on each other. 1 and 2 are on the far side, 3 leads 4. 3 and 4 were about as far from each other as 1 and 2, but somehow this happened... I am going to tear them down when I unlock the RA-100's so its not a big issue at this time, but, did I do something wrong? I dont recall this issue in my prime save, but, there I think I have a pair or trio of RA-100s in polar orbit as well. But, this happen to you guys? 195401282025

did some more missions to both the mun and to minmus for some science. I am slowly unlocking the tech tree, but something just irritated me to no end. WHEN did the monolith by the KSC lose its own biome status???? I swear it was considered its own biome for science purposes. I just flung Bob at it with a light scanner arm and to my utter irritation after spending far too long trying to fling a rocket at it found that i cannot scan it, and being right NEXT to it is considered the shores???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? An hour of effort for NOTHING gained at that stupid monolith. 054001282025

@dok_377 i questioned that too. Time will tell if they see us asking. onto my newest headache. Im finally at a point after 3 runs at Minmus where I can put up real relays. I also unlocked mor MJ features and felt like I was having a legit stroke. Could not figure out why I suddenly couldnt launch an automated rocket via mechjeb. I set my altitude, hit engage autopilot, hit spacebar and watched more times than i want to admit as it just went NO! And fell onto the launch pad. My mistake? Failed to do a basic step. Check the staging. A decoupler was staging too soon and that was the issue. I feel stupid. Im better than that. But the old saying is true! Check your staging! 034601272025 Ok, here are some mission pictures. The launcher is roughly the same one used for the trio in LKO as well as the four in KEO. You will also see the relay itself. All 7 are the EXACT same relay set up with 1 exception. The final 1 has 6 hidden batteries buried inside the HECS. Aside from that, all 7 are identical. Just in differing orbits. When you see the relay itself, you will think im a total nutter in just how BIG that launcher is. Well, go big or disappoint Jeb! This shot is from one of the launches for the trio in LKO, but, like I said, its roughly the same launcher for both the LKO and KEO sets. Id say for not having built a relay set like this in some time other than the test save, doing 7 of these in quick order, literally the trio back to back then KEO back to back. Spoiler contains our little relay. Is this suspenseful? I think it is? I dunno Hope this was enjoyable. 051201272025