TLATopHat

PRAISE THE STRUT!!! Threw together this little .gif in celebration of the recent release of KSP x64! Also, my first official fanwork for the KSP Community

Been playing around with this mod the last two days, and I have to say it's working exactly as advertised. Fun things I've done with this mod so far: -Put a beacon in a circular orbit on the edge of Kerbin's SoI (60-70Mm) and warped to it for low(er) cost interplanetary transfers! -Built a self-powered Jumpspace Tug parked in LKO that can attach to a ship and jump it from Kerbin to any Beacon in my jump network! -Designed a compact, self-sustaining Beacon that I can tow with my ships to each new SoI, making return trips a cinch! Can't wait to see the surface module working!

Just handing out a show of interest! While Kethane is my current go-to system, I'm not opposed to swapping it out in the interest of cross-mod compatibility, especially if you can get SCANSat mapping support. So far, it looks like its design direction is going to overshadow Kethane in many ways. This is definitely on my watch list now.

I don't know if this is a user error on my end or not, but as of updating all of the RPM related mods, I've lost the ability to access MechJeb functions through RPM. I'm running the dev build you just linked above, along with the latest versions of MechJeb (build #213) and ScanSat (build 5), including both their RPM compatibility files. I still have ScanSat capability, but the SmartASS functions are no longer usable. I get the same message I would get if I didn't have MechJeb installed on the craft, even when I have the MechJeb component attached directly to the command pod. Any insight from your end would be appreciated.

Ah! Many thanks for the fix! I will make the edits post-haste.

Back with another question. Apologies in advance if this has been answered in the past; my search engine skills are failing me. When I recently built an unmanned SSTO, I decided to use a SABRE S engine from B9. The part functions as advertised, no problem. Except for one small, yet significant detail. As soon as I attach it to my SSTO, my CoM indicator disappears. Toggling CoM does not bring it back. CoL and CoT both remain unaffected. Only CoM disappears. Is there a quick fix for this oddity?

Thanks to this capsule and RPM with its plethora of informational displays, I've successfully performed my first completely manual IVA flight to the Mun and back (MJ installed for information, but not used for automation; No Maneuver nodes used). The aesthetics are great, and fit perfectly with the KW Rocketry parts I used to build the craft. I only had to exit IVA once, and that was to monitor the altitude of my Kerbin periapsis on my return trip, as none of the displays gave me any of that information it while I was still in the Mun's SoI. That, along with a couple things I noticed with the interior controls, befuddled me a tad. Forgive me if these questions have been answered already, but I couldn't find the relevant posts. Firstly, as regards to my problems during my all-manual test flight, is there some way to display the closest approach data for a return from a moon? That was the only thing that broke my IVA experience. No matter what screens I flipped through, I could not find any orbital data beyond the SoI of the Mun, despite having an escape trajectory; unlike my arrival, in which I could get my closest approach via several different displays. This forced me to enter Map Mode for the first time in the flight to see and adjust my return periapsis. If it's viewable, and I'm just a dummy, please explain where I can find that information IVA. If not, would it be possible to find a way to display that on one of the informational panels? Secondly, I saw that the roll orientation buttons on the rightmost panel are locked out, despite the function being present in the Auto-Pilot menu. Will these buttons be "unlocked" like the rest of MJ's SmartASS module in a future update? On a related note, I saw that MechJeb's automated ascent and node execution features have a usable switch/button, and that MJ's Auto-Dock and Auto-Descent were present, but locked out. If their implementation is dependent on future RPM versions, feel free to disregard this. If not, what's the ETA on their implementation? Thanks for all the great work! This is now on my list of necessary mods, and I look forward to all the new things you've been demoing in the thread, especially that finalized service module!

I know it's a little dated, but I downloaded and tried out the MSI Mech Pod Mk1. Unfortunately, while I love the design and the self-sufficiency of it, it's currently unflyable without MechJeb at the helm. The whole pod yaws hard to the right under thrust, and even MJ has a tough time compensating for it. I dug through the cfg files and looked for reasons why it might be doing that, but I came up empty-handed. I think I isolated the problem to the Pod's super-efficient thruster through testing, though I don't know exactly what's going wrong with it. Figured I'd give a heads-up to the problem/bug.

MechJeb, KW Rocketry, Kerbal Joint Reenforcement, Kerbal Alarm Clock, and one of the docking indicators are the only mods I run aside from B9. As I said, I know from testing that D30s are worse than the stock Turbos, but for the life of me, I can't figure out why. The numbers all tell me that the D30s should be better than the stock, but they obviously aren't. D-30F7 Mass: 1.3 Drag: 0.2 Thrust: 225 ISP: 1440 - 1625 Fuel Use: .14/sec Air Use: 3.04/sec Stock Turbojet Mass: 1.2 Drag: 0.2 Thrust: 225 ISP: 800 - 1200 Fuel Use: .36/sec Air Use: 5.37/sec See what I mean? Unless my understanding of the numbers is wrong, the D-30F7 should vastly outperform the Turbojet at the cost of .1 Mass. But it doesn't. What I'm wondering is if there's something I'm missing or not understanding, or if the numbers are wrong somehow on one of these two engines. Ah! That's what I was missing. That seems like a rather important piece of information. No wonder I couldn't figure out the problem in-game. Thanks for the heads-up on that.

Maybe someone here can help me out. I love the new B9 parts, but I'm rather confused by the performance of some of the new engines; specifically the B9 Turbo engine (I think it's the D-30F7). All the numbers on its info tab indicate that it should be a solid improvement over the stock Turbojet: same thrust, lighter weight, higher ISP, lower air requirements. It should be a shoe-in for all my SSTO Plane designs, but even on my air-hogging-13-intakes-per-engine jet, it fails to pick up enough speed to reach orbit, plateauing at just under 1000m/s before losing altitude. Meanwhile, the stock Turbojet powers through orbital velocity following the exact same ascent profile. Am I missing something, or misreading numbers? Or is this a problem with B9 itself?

The Mün has broken more ships and toppled more landers with its "that looks like a good place to land, but wait, it's actually a 40 degree incline" than any other celestial body in my playthroughs, (not including "Launch Incidents", "Unfortunate Malfunctions", and "Unexplained Failures during Testing" on Kerbin).

In my Sandbox save, after circumnavigating the globe the Aeronautics Division's Dragonfly Mk II, cruising along at 1750m/s at 27km up, Jeb's safely on the ground relaxing on Alternate Runway Island after overshooting the approach to KSC. Since I've just rebooted my Career save, that version of Jeb is lounging around the Astronaut Complex after his recent return from orbit.

I've set up for my first flight to Duna. It's gonna be a while until the transfer window, so I parked the unmanned Duna Express in a Keostationary Orbit to wait for the window. Meanwhile, my Aeronautics Division has built a stable low-atmosphere jet dubbed the Dragonfly Mk1. Here's Jebediah taking it for an endurance run aiming to make it to the North Pole. Flight is still in progress as I type, so I'll stop by later to share the final results! Made it to the polar ice cap and about 90% of the way to the actual pole before being forced to land; ran out of fuel. The Dragonfly Mk1 is marked a successful first step for the Aeronautics Division, reaching a top speed of about 512 m/s at a cruising altitude of about 13.5km. The next iteration of the Dragonfly series will attempt to double the speed, aiming for a jet that can cruise at 1000 m/s.

Over-estimated the amount of fuel I needed in my transfer stage to reach Minmus. No big deal! I'll just use it to slow my approach, then dump it once I'm low enough. Bonus fuel for the trip back! Dropping transfer stage. Stage is clear! Looking good. Firing the lander's thrusters for final appr ... The transfer stage bounced off the surface and took out one of my two LV-909s, and I just spiraled into the surface of Minmus. Crew survived, but are now stranded without any engines. Time to plan a rescue mission.

Successfully topped up all the RCS tanks on my LKO Fuelstation and docked the arm for future fuel tanks to be added on. So far the "ESEP Orbital Fuelstation" supports 6 kerbals (One in the command pod, 4 in the hitchhiker, one in the orbital tug) and can only support refueling the OTTR (Orbital Transit Tug Rocket) until I expand its fuel capacity, which is the next step. Also, I topped off the RCS tanks using the KAS mod. Something went horribly wrong the first time I attached the line and the tanker spun out and slammed into the upper solar panel array, much to the dismay of the Kerbals aboard . Quickloaded and tried again without a problem.

Docked the solar panel array module to my LKO refueling station core. Note for future modules for the station: 2x symmetry is not enough for an RCS system to function properly. The docking process took hours and used up way too much Monoprop because of that design oversight. Next step: Monoprop restocking run and primary fuel hub module design/launch.

I generally park 90% of my rockets and probes at 100km circular orbits. I tend to drop my Kerbin Satellites between 200km and 500km; except for my geosynchronous net, which is (obviously ) at 2868km, but since that's not really LKO, that doesn't count.

I both "successfully" stranded Bill, Bob, and Jeb next to the Neil Armstrong memorial on the Mun (Their lander toppled over on touchdown and the engine section broke off), and then successfully rescued them with a swift extraction mission that brought them back to Kerbin safely. Pretty good day, I'd say!