AlamoVampire

there was a raging debate at the Kerbal Space Center as to whether or not you could build a rocket with an external seat on the top. They decided to build it. Then, a crazy Kerbal by the name of Kelner Kerman came in and said he would ride the thing. well, ride he did! landed safely too! his look on landing was akin to thinking: why did I volunteer again?

Randall Kerman radioed into KSC about a sudden bang and dramatic drop in throttle. He was very hard to hear over all the alarms blaring in the cockpit. KSC radioed back: Randall, your Engine Number One and support tank fell OFF. I THINK this is bad: those last 2 images are about a second or so apart in time... shockingly that thing did NOT tear apart!!!!! oh, and yeah, I lifted that tank up the HARD WAY! it is docked on top of a 3 man module, which, is hidden under all that struttage!

it isnt control issues, it was more of: having never actually used those exact engines so i was unsure of how fast theyd purge the tanks and wanted to have some sort of backup in the RCS system to handle slowing things down if I accidentally drained the main fuel source and had to go RCS. After having robo landed it, I know it was over kill now.

i do agree that it should be an option to disable the auto swap or to have options to fine tune the auto swapping. barring that, some sort of audio cue that the change has happened.

I got chills when me and Bob got here. Neil Armstrong, August 5, 1930 - August 25, 2012. Rest in Peace good Sir, you are a not only a National Treasure, but a Hero to all mankind. In his immortal words: Houston, Tranquility Base here. The EAGLE has landed. That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.

as someone who is still learning docking with the help of MechJeb 2.0 <it does work, you just kinda have to baby sit it as you close into the target> I have learned something valuable: on what ever you are trying to dock, make absolutely certain you have it balanced and have your RCS placed as close to said objects center of gravity as you can, it will make a HUGE difference. Also, with out knowing what exactly the issue is, are you failing to at least rendezvous with your intended docking target or are you getting to the rendezvous and then cant dock? It honestly does take a supreme effort to learn to do. Also, make sure you launch into the right window, say for example you have a ship on orbit at 200km up and its on the Equator and you are prepping a launch. You have 2 choices here. 1 is easy, the other, is not. 1. wait for the target to be about 20-30 degrees to your west and then launch, at which point, take your AP HIGHER than your target so your sub-orbital path crosses twice, at some point in that arc, if you timed it right and held the same inclination and so forth, you should cross into your object and can go for rendezvous then <this can be the hard way if you fail to time it right, or can be easy depending on luck> 2. Do the same as above, with a bit of a change, instead of going for a direct intercept while sub orbital, you take it to a full orbit either above your target, which makes you SLOWER than it, or below, which makes you quicker, and then, set up a node to either raise up into or descend down into the targets path. either way, once you have an intercept set up, get to about 1.5 to 2km from the target and 0 your relative speed and move in for the docking at 1 m/s closing rate until you are say 10-20 meters out then slow to .5 m/s to take it to about 2 meters then drop to .2 m/s and dock. BUT, above all: practice!!

I agree it can be jarring. Worse is when you are trying to fine tune an approach to say the Mun and you get the SOI camera swap - which can be worse if everything decides it wants to take a frames per second holiday for a moment :S - I think, and this just me, if you had 2 distinct Prograde and Retrograde markers that differed in color, one color showing your Prograde and Retro with regards to the actual orbit you are on and one that is a diff color that showed Pro/Retro with regards to your target, that may help - or may make it even more confusing - just an idea lol.

Skorpy: I put that much RCS fuel because I was unsure of my burn time on those radial engines having had never used them, and wanted to augment delta-V with RCS for retro burns, turned out that after just giving up on that launcher and robo launching the rover things got easier. I am not sure if I still have that particular launcher on file any more, if I do, I will adjust the struts and so forth per suggestions.

Bob Kerman and his crew between their Munar Lander and Rover One after having landed and then repaired the Rover.

this is NOT a pretty rover, nor did it land intact, the first team to arrive will repair it, but, for my first manned rover to survive launch, even if it has a probe core, its pretty enough I suppose.

Not the prettiest Rover by ANY means, nor was this an IDEAL landing, as you see, the automated systems the Kerbal Engineers back at KSC used doinked it hard blowing out 2 tires.

Okay, this is what I have managed so far, and this thing is an unholy disaster. The lander, in THEORY works, I have a near duplicate stationed on the Mun, just a few tweaks to stick that 'rover' under it. Namely the Radial Liquid Motors. The Rover, in THEORY works. It has a 50-50% history on Kerbin at the KSC working and NOT killing itself. Below is closer on the rover itself. Okay, below the rover and that skinny nuclear engine for its cruise stage is my STANDARD heavy lifter. which, minus those horrid fins works just fine. I placed those fins in the HOPES that it would help stabilize the bloody thing, but no, no good. This thing is a HANDFUL even for mechjeb. I do not know what is going on, I have launched a bunch of heavy crap with the heavy lifter, it stages fine normally, but now? its tearing itself apart during the gravity turn.... what am I missing? I really would love to go drive on other worlds. edit: I just tested again with Canards, and while it was MORE stable, it made it down to the final 2 boosters with almost no issue. BUT, when it was on the 2 final boosters + the central mainsail <all 3 mainsails, actually, all 7 lift stage motors <boosters and core motor> all mainsails> it developed this wicked oscillation that tore it apart. edit 2: more struts do nothing to help it only gets HIGHER before it suffers some form of catastrophic failure

General Design issues really. Have not figured out how to scale up from robotic remote rovers. BUT, seeing Scott's video and the various other pictures are giving me wonderful ideas. I cannot thank you all enough!

Scott Manley is a wonderful 'tutor' of sorts, funny as all get out too. will check out said video.

Okay, I know there is something I am missing here, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out how to make a manned rover. I can make robo rovers until the Kerbals come home, but a manned one that I can stick to a lander so I can Apollo 17 it so to speak eludes me.

okay, how did you manage the panarama?

Jebediah's point of view from the newly installed Cupola on the Kerbal International Space Station.

I found the change of prefix under the advanced thingy in the edit post. As to the 'asparagus' staging, I found the little sepratrons work just fine, even if I strut the snot outta them. I use a huge heavy lifter with 6 mainsails under the orange tanks as my boosters with a central lift stage of yet another mainsail and orange tank. its freaky to watch them peal away now rather than slide down.

I would consider this now answered but have no idea how to change the prefix so, um yeah lol

Synchronized Precision Atmospheric Interface with Bob and Jebediah Kerman. These two know how to deorbit and land in style! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Kerbal International Space Station, which is my first try at making one. This thing was a WHALE to fly, almost could not get it into orbit at all. Once all stages were kicked loose including the nuclear engine it was more agile, but only barely. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Station to Control on Three. Go For Control. Control, Station, it would seem we just lost a part up here. Can you task ground tracking to scan about 400 to 500 meters ahead of us in our orbit please? Station, Control: It would appear a docking port is orbiting just ahead of you. What are you guys doing up there? center of the final image is a Clamp o tron with the Station just starting to 'set' 'below' the planet'

stop giving Jebediah ideas! He has cost the Kerbals enough money already

now I look all official like I know what I am doing!

SUCCESS!!!! THANK YOU ALL!!

will take a look, thanks guys!

to enhance what SQUAD has yet to give us or in some cases to make it so we can actually do things we other wise could not do. like for me, I use mechjeb to dock, other wise i would just be a fuel wasting ballistic missile sending poor kerbonauts to orbit eternally