Dave Kerbin

One other thought is that I think the science lab comes a bit too early and that leads to confusion over what it is for. It should be a part you get when you are in interplanetary phase of the game, either in the 160 or 300 cost tier. It's really something you bring with you to Jool so that you can refurbish goo and material science pods instead of bringing dozens of them along with you. As other planets get biomes it will become more important. I also think that there is room for a few more instruments. I think there is a gap suitable for another 0.005t instrument that can be used from space (the grav meter is rather lonely). One choice would be a gamma ray detector, something like NASA's GRaND which is used from orbit to help determine the composition of rocky bodies by measuring the cosmic rays passing through it. The other type of instrument I'd be interested in is a heavier experiment that requires a kerbal to operate. When .22 came out I initially thought you needed a kerbal to go out on EVA to use the material lab (it was only when I right clicked that I found my kerbal could do nothing). Something like a 'Science Sr' to match the Science Jr, it would fit the large radial size and require a kerbal on EVA to operate. Alternatively this spot could be rolled into the lab module - in addition to its other functions the lab could perform some kind of life science experiment when a kerbal is aboard. The science gains would have to be suitably scaled up to account for the labs weight.

I'd disagree that the loss on transmission is that great, once you go to other planets (which is when you'll get probe tech anyway) the return is still pretty good (planning my mission to Eve and it looks like a very cheap probe could bring in 2000 science). At Kerbalcon there was discussion about the last 2 major elements that will be added to the game, reputation and budget. Together with science these 3 things are supposed to put restraints on your missions - the cost of each part is actually used, so sending out a few cheap probes may be a good way to earn science if you are short on cash. Reputation is also a factor - losing kerbals or failing contracts lowers your reputation which makes some things harder to get (I don't know if it was said but it may cost more to hire Kerbals if you've lost several). An unmanned probe carries far less risk since there is no Kerbal to lose. I'm actually quite happy with the mechanics of science in .23, it is more balanced (less spam) and has less busy work - even though I found my recovery systems in .22 interesting it got really time consuming when I went to Duna. The only thing I think that still needs major work is that the science costs need to be adjusted to account for all the available biomes being added. If you check out my .23 career you'll see that even with 4 completely normal missions you can earn an insane amount of science compared to the tech tree costs. I think the first few tiers, up to the 45 cost items, are well balanced for the science you can earn at that stage. I might be inclined to see the 90 science items increased just a little, maybe to 135. But I think the items that really need a cost increase are the 160 and above - instead of 160, 300 and 550 I think those tiers might work better at something like 300, 600 and 1200 or more. You want there to be some reason to go beyond the Mun and Minmus for science, and your first interplanetary mission should have at least some challenge (keeping things like nuclear engines out of play until you've at least visited another planet with a probe should be a definite goal here).

I don't know if the mods you are using would make a difference, but in stock there will be no change in the amount of science you receive.

I'm pulling this from memory and sort of figuring it out as I write, anyone feel free to point out if I've incorrectly inverted the delta-v equation or screwed up how to determine the correct average TWR. For a fast estimate which is useful for burns of a minute or two using efficient engines, but less accurate for longer burns or big fuel guzzlers you can just divide the Delta-v by TWR * 9.8 to get the rough number of seconds for the burn. You can divide that by 2 to figure out how many seconds before the node to start burning for best results. To calculate the exact time you'll need to know more then just the TWR, you'll need enough information to know what ratio of the ship's mass (fuel) will be burned since as mass is reduced the TWR will increase (you'll be accelerating faster near the end of the burn then at the beginning). Start with a couple of figures, The ISP and total thrust of the engine(s). Let's assume we have a LV-N atomic rocket so those figures are 800 ISP and 60 kN thrust The current mass of the ship Let's assume 10 tons The delta-v you need Let's assume 2000m/s From here we can calculate what the final mass of the ship will be. We determine this with Mass / EXP(deltaV / ISP / 9.8). In the example it's 10 / EXP(2000 / 800 / 9.8) which gives us a final mass of 7.75 tons. From there we can find the average TWR for the burn, which is Thrust / ((Initial_Mass + Final_Mass) / 2). In our example that's 60 / ((10 + 7.75) / 2) or 6.76. Plug the average TWR into our original equation and we get 2000 / (6.76 * 9.8) and we get 30.19 seconds.

You can't shut off probe cores. What you shut off was the reaction wheel in the probe core, which only draws power if it is being used to change heading. Remember that with the probe core off you can't do anything with the ship, not even extend solar panels or turn back on the batteries - all those operations where carried out by the probe core. There are only two situations where a probe core can shutdown and be brought back to life. One is if another ship docks to give it a power boost and the other is if the ship has solar panels extended and it passes into sunlight - if they are already extended the panels will charge the batteries and reawaken the probe core.

Cheese Sidenote I'm getting a lot of science and blowing through the tech tree much faster then I expected. I created this mission list so that I'd be forced to use limited parts for missions (but without just making an arbitrary list of allowed items) specifically after seeing a forum post asking if you could land on Duna without LV-N's or Mainsails. But even with me spending on just about everything else it's going to get real tough to find an excuse not to unlock the LV-N before Project Martian. Project Mint is practically ready to launch, since Cheese 1 only needs minor alterations to the science loadout to become Mint 1 (and will have even more spare delta-v), and promises to bring in even more science (probably close to 1500). I can spend a lot of that on probe parts, maybe ion drives, but then I'll have the science from Project Berry. I'm not going to abandon this career but maybe I should forget about trying to do a low tech Duna run on this file and play it as normal (with LV-Ns if they get unlocked). I can then start a seperate career, perhaps run in parallel, with a tigher mission structure where each mission is a manned mission to orbit and land on a different body and safely return to Kerbin: First is orbit and land back on Kerbin, then go to Mun, then go to Minmus, and for mission 4 go to Duna without nukes or other advanced stuff.

Cheese 1 The first mission in phase 2 is to land on the Mun. Since Rayfrod flew all the phase 1 missions new recruit Gregfield is going to handle the manned missions in phase 2. In phase 3 I think there might be good reason to need them both to fly. The ship doesn't have as much complex staging as Gander 1. One area I was concerned about was using solid boosters, I have this idea in my head of the little reaction wheel in the Mk1 pod being too little to keep the ship from tipping over in flight. To get around that I reused the center LV909 engine that worked on Gander 1, only this time it won't be carrying much fuel because I will be using it for stabilization instead of added thrust. So instead of figuring out the delta-v I just added its wet weight as payload for the solid booster portion of the flight and its dry weight as payload on the main liquid booster. The stablizer carries a T200 fuel tank (90L) for operation and I can throttle it as needed to maintain control during the solid boost phase before the throttle is turned up to 100% for the liquid booster stage (which should quickly use up its fuel and leave it as dead weight until the orbital stage takes over). While this is his first mission Gregfield does have a mission checklist to follow so he should be ok. Unlike previous flights Gregfield will be an active pilot during the first part of the launch since he will need to figure out how much throttle is needed to get the stabilizer engine running strong enough to counter any imbalance from the solid boosters, and if needed adjust his pitch and yaw to bring it back to center. He also has two brand new instruments that he will be testing on this mission, the 2HOT Thermometer and Double-C Seismic Accelerometer. Both of these instruments are calibrated before launch. Lift off goes smoothly, meaning there where no explosions, but the solid boosters do flex the body work a bit, causing the top of the liquid stacks to angle inward and the bottom to stick out. The more pressing concern is that there is quite a bit of spin. Gregfield is getting dizzy and the ship is starting to list to the side. Incrementing the throttle slowing doesn't seem to be correcting so while Gregfield can still see straight he jams the throttle to 100% which regains control of the ships attitude. 32 seconds into the flight at an altitude of 2km the solid boosters are ejected and the liquid boosters take over. This greatly increases the level of control leaving only a little spin and lining up the navball correctly. Learning from the explosion that almost destroyed Gander 1 the checklist is very careful with how the booster stages are discarded. The center stabilizer tank is kept on and will only be released after the radial tanks. The 6 engines running at full throttle put out a huge cone of fire that must be visible for a hundred kilometers. As Gregfield passes 50km on his gravity turn the booster stage fuel is almost exhausted and he is getting ready to cut it loose and coast toward his final burn. There is still some spin but since attitude is functioning correctly no correction attempt is made. This time there is no third stage center booster, only an orbital engine that we don't need to figure up for a few minutes. The radial stacks are ejected first, then when it is confirmed they are clear the stabilizer is kicked off to clear the orbital engine. This time the problem with Gander's seperation is more apparent, as the radial tanks flip end over end, coming dangerously close to hitting the center section. These observations by Gregfield will be important in designing future missions. The orbital burn and the munar insertion are done using the orbital engine and are pretty straight forward by this point. The orbital engine has one last official use, which is to perform the capture burn at the Mun. Gregfield arrives and establishes a 30km orbit above the Mun with about 90L of fuel left in the orbital stage. He begins searching the surface for a good landing site for this mission which will involve two landings - one landing in a crater and one landing outside for a sample comparison. On the side of the Mun facing the sun there is one rather prominent crater and he begins descending into it. Gregfield is trying to land close to that dark gash thing in the center right. From this angle it seems he will miss it but from a different perspective it is clear his descent path is a fraction north of the gash rather then a big miss south. The orbital section has done most of the work in slowing down the lander, it is nearly a straight drop from here. With all the fuel Gregfield can be very careful with his landing and stay slow during the descent. Touchdown is at 3.6m/s. The lander actually has two sets of landing gear. The regular landing gear provide some cushioning, but the goo containers provide a secondary set of landing gear to protect the engine. In the event that the science modules couldn't easily be accessed there was a procedure for folding up the landing legs to bring the ship closer to the ground. Gregfield gets out to explore the crater. His EVA includes the classic flag planting and taking of surface samples. It also involves using one of the access ladders to collect samples from the science bays. Something that is learned is that the small science instruments can be reset for free (Gregfield can take the data and the instrument can be used again), so we didn't need to carry as many as we did. The next phase of the mission involves a suborbital hop to the outside of the crater. I've never done this before (except for on Gilly where the gravity makes any thrust nearly orbital) but I have a good idea of what forces will be involved and what Gregfield should watch for. It begins with a regular lift off and a turn 45 degrees east, but once the AP hits 5km Gregfield follows his instructions to turns all the way horizontal and puts on speed until his suborbital trajectory puts him outside of the crater. As we coast along we get a good look at what that gash was - a narrow mountain about 3.5-4km high. Fortunately Gregfield is flying parallel to it so he doesn't need to gain altitude to avoid the cliff face. The next step is the landing. Gregfield is already aware that most of his velocity is horizontal and he needs to kill that before touching down. However he also needs to avoid losing too much altitude while he does it. Passing the final lip of the crater (after the main cliff face there are 2 smaller depressions to avoid) thrust is put on. We are traveling 200m/s and above 500m from the surface, the crater was almost 2km deep so we are coming up on the ground much faster then we left it. Gregfield is following the procedure and trying to angle his braking maneuver to keep his vertical speed dial at zero. Gregfield manages to zero out his velocity a short distance from the next crater (the cliff edge is a little difficult to see but it is a steep drop off). It is another smooth landing but with one small problem. On landing Gregfield discovers he has just 10L of liquid fuel left in the tank (the hop burned 42L). He's not in danger of being unable to get home, but that landing was very risky with that much fuel, if the orbiter hadn't done so much of the work during the first landing he would have run out of fuel while traveling 720 km/h just a short distance over the Munar surface. The problem was the checklist which accidently omitted a crucial step after the first landing, transfering the 90L of fuel stored in the side tanks to the center tank (the engineers haven't invented fuel lines yet). The fuel is transfered and similar science and EVA operations are done as the first landing. Gregfield uses his jetpack to return to the command pod. In his frustration over the checklist he makes a spelling mistake on his field report. The lander lifts off and immediately discards most of the science equipment and the empty reserve tanks. Gregfield is following the mission plan to enter a polar orbit around the Mun, with the intention of coming back into polar orbit around Kerbin and landing on the ice. You can see Gregfield coasting to AP with a good view of the two landing zones, giving a better sense of the geography. However once Gregfield is in orbit I realized this plan wasn't going to work and what it is that I had overlooked when thinking it up. I made the mistake of only thinking in terms of the Mun's frame of reference. In that frame I was moving north to south which I assumed I could use to get into the same orbit around Kerbin. But the Mun is also moving in relation to Kerbin, east to west, and moving much faster then my little Mun orbit. As a result the only way I could manage a polar Kerbin orbit would be with an enormous amount of delta-v (almost the entire velocity needed to maintain such an orbit). So a straight forward return to Kerbin is made resulting in a landing in some boring grassland (object in the upper right is the discard service module) east of some mountains and west of the big crater gulf. A seismic and temperature scan are done but there is no point in a surface sample or EVA. It was a good science haul, with 947 science earned in total. All of the remaining science instruments where unlocked and the tech leading up to and including fuel lines where unlocked. Project Cheese completed. Landed on the Mun in two places. Collected 947 science. Unlocked Advanced Science Tech, Advanced Rocketry, Fuel Systems, General Construction, Flight Control and Advanced Exploration. 40 science saved.

Gravity on Minmus is very low. With 4 RCS thrusters you could use them to precisely and carefully land 8t, though I would go with less, a Minmus hopping lander is certainly possible in less then 5 tons and you'd use most of the fuel up during operations before you came back to dock. You might also use some of the I-Beams if you have them to create angled guides (like a bowl) to guide in the lander and create a fence around the docking port so the lander can't tip over onto your base. A Rockomax Brand Adapter 02 under the docking port could also provide a blast shield.

It would actually be nice to be able to select them as retracted or not. First for consistency with the landing legs, which are shown in the position they will be on the pad (ladders are shown deployed in the VAB but will be packed up when they appear on the pad). Second is that there are a few cases where you want the ladder initially deployed, for example if you are role playing a mission and have your kerbal actually walk out to the pad and board the ship.

Hopping works if you need to move a short distance. I actually just did this in project Cheese (not yet posted on my mission log). I lifted off then put on a lot of horizontal velocity to get me quickly to my destination (it's not just about speed, the more time it takes to more fuel you use keeping altitude). As you near your destination the big thing you need to do is brake your horizontal velocity, but keep an eye on the vertical velocity indicator (the little dial to the right of altitude). You want to keep it at around 0 or +1 so that you don't crash. Once you've slowed your horizontal velocity so that the retrograde indicator moves to the top/bottom of the navball you can safely land.

The other ships will continue on rails (and so they won't brake and could be deleted if they pass within a defined distance from the 'surface') unless they are within 2.5km of the ship you are controlling. If they are within 2.5km when you start but they drift away while you are still in Jool's atmosphere then they will be deleted the same way 2nd or 3rd stage boosters are when you are taking off from Kerbin's atmosphere.

Yes you can. This is how I did it using those techs in .22 http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/53159-Science-leads-to-wonderful-things-%28PIC-HEAVY%29?p=707046&viewfull=1#post707046 The only difference in .22 is you had to bring back all your science parts, so I needed to bring extra parachutes. In .23 you can use your kerbal to move everything to the little command pod and land just that. I would say the hardest part in using those techs to get to the Mun is building a safe booster rocket to get you into orbit. Once you are in orbit you should be using the LV909 engine and some fuel tanks to get yourself to the Mun, then landing using another LV909 engine and probably a single T400 fuel tank and the landing gear. If you've never landed on the Mun before I might suggest leaving out the Science Jr for your first attempt, that will reduce the weight (fuel will last longer) and make the lander shorter which makes it easier to land without tipping over.

And here is your Gander side note. While I don't use mechjeb or any other mods to help fly, I did use Excel to plan and old fashion pen and paper to track things. With all the staging on this flight and the danger of losing an experiment before it was recovered I went so far as to make a quick checklist for the mission. The bit scrawled at the bottom is telling me I need to keep at least 15L of liquid fuel so that I can break Munar orbit and return home safely (it can be done for less but I wanted a good margin of safety since I've got a live Kerbal and there is no quicksaving to bring him back).

Gander 1 Orbiting the Mun is our next objective, a mission profile very similar to the one flown by Apollo 8 almost 45 years ago to the day. We also have one new instrument to test, the materials labs (Science Jr) and we have batteries now. Part of the planning that goes into these missions is determining what experiments will be run during the mission. In Leap the goo experiment was a bit of a stab in the dark and I ended up with a lot more canisters then I needed. On this mission my failed estimate was crew reports, I thought I might be able to file crew reports about various possible landing sites on the Mun. Without solar panels that meant I would need a power reserve to send them all. I initially determined that 4 batteries would be enough, and then because they where so light I doubled that to 8. The actual number of crew reports from the Mun was 2 - one from high orbit and one from low orbit. The size of the lifter is getting bigger, I'll want to start using fuel lines soon to keep it under control. Bigger fuel tanks like the T800 would also help since right now I've got engines dangling off a stack of 4x T400s attached by a single radial decoupler. The staging is a bit strange for this one starting with the first 'stage' which consists of a materials bay which is exposed on the launchpad as our control sample. Since there is no point in bringing it into space it is dropped onto the launchpad for later recovery before we even ignite the engines. I used landing gear to cushion the short fall. The second stage consists mainly of the four T45 engines, but since I was a bit concerned about overall delta-v and some too-close to call TWR figures I added a small center LV909 engine with a single T400 tank to provide extra thrust. I calculated the fuel consumption based on thrust and set it so that the center engine would run out with a little time to spare before the outer 4 engines where exhausted. The reason for this was that the center engine wouldn't be able to support the mass of the ship at all, and without being able to predict the exact fuel consumption ascending through the atmosphere I didn't want to try matching their burn times exactly. My launch checklist indicates that if the center engine cuts out before the gravity turn I can drop it immediately. Since I had to start my gravity turn before it ran out I kept it on. The radial stacks did sway a bit but the thrust vectoring kept everything flying straight. Ultimately the center engine had a tiny bit of fuel left so I just cut the throttle and ejected it with the stage key, then throttled up and ejected the radial keys by tapping the stage key again. This resulted in an explosion as the exhaust plume seemed to ignite the discarded center fuel tank and the debris ripped apart most of the radial tanks. I thought something would be damaged on the main rocket but a full check showed the upper stage had cleared the explosion and an abort wasn't required. The center engine has two T400 tanks to burn before it gives way to the orbital stage. As we've been ascending I've also been taking observations with the material bays. The lower part of the main spacecraft contains 3 material bays which have been used to observe the upper and lower atmosphere and low orbit conditions. We've got a tiny amount of fuel in the booster stage so we'll be burning that before the main orbit stage comes online to complete our orbit. In orbit an EVA is performed to collect the data from all 3 bays, since the orbit stage they are attached to will be discarded shortly. The orbit stage still has about 30% fuel left - this was planned since we didn't want to run out of fuel and eject that stage before reaching stable orbit (losing our material bays before we could collect the results). The injection burn to the Mun is planned out and the orbit stage is burned off before being discarded for the final Mun engine. However that stage won't be the last thing we discard. As we reach high orbit around Kerbin on the way to the Mun we use one of the radially attached material bays and the other one is used once we've entered the Mun's SOI in high orbit. An EVA collects the results and then both of these bays are discarded to reduce weight before our capture burn. In hindsight I should have also attached the two lower goo containers to the material bays as well, since they are used in the same manner. We capture into a deliberately inclined Mun orbit. In low orbit the last material bay is used and one of the goo containers. Here we discover that you can't see much from inside the pod making crew reports from Mun orbit rather limited. However much more detailed reporting can be done from outside the cockpit, so a number of EVAs are done to collect information about the Mun's craters and terrain for a future landing. Apart from my mistake with the power requirement for crew reports I also overlooked the way the Mun is tidally locked to Kerbin, which if my observations and understanding of orbits are correct meant that my inclined orbit didn't seem to help me at all in covering more of the Mun's surface. Return to Kerbin was straight forward, I successfully aimed for a water landing so the last goo container could be exposed there. Recovery of everything yielded 594 science in total. I seemed to do ok without fuel lines so I put them off for one more mission, instead going for more sensors by unlocking Electrics (solar panel), Advanced Electrics (solar arrays) and Electronics (Double-C Seismic Accelerometer) along with Space Exploration (2HOT Thermometer). I also discovered that with the save file edited to turn off the ability to delete items from the observatory it also seems you can't recover directly from there either, I had to 'fly' the debris I left on the launchpad in order to recover the materials bay. Project Gander completed. Orbited Mun. Collected 594 science. Unlocked Electrics, Advanced Electrics, Electronics and Space Exploration. 28 science saved.

I haven't yet flown my .23 career Mun rocket (and while I have it designed it might not be the best for a beginner). But you can see the career rocket I used in .22 to land on the Mun which I believe was built using the same technology that you have now http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/53159-Science-leads-to-wonderful-things-%28PIC-HEAVY%29?p=707046&viewfull=1#post707046 The only change for .23 is that now you don't need to return things like the Science Jr or the Goo containers anymore. Because you had to return the entire science experiment in .22 I had a more complex parachute system to bring it all back safely (and some extra fuel to bring it back). If you take your kerbal on EVA, get close to the experiment after it has been run and right click you can remove it and bring it back to the command pod (I would do this on the Mun or in Mun orbit before burning to return to Kerbin). Then you just need a decoupler and parachutes for your command pod, the rest can be dumped before you open the parachute.

The default maximum physics delta thing setting was changed. If you go into settings and change it from 0.04 back to the original 0.1 you should see an improvement (you can see if the system is bogging down if the mission time changes to yellow or red). However I think the reason for the change was to try and reduce the number of physics glitches (when things seem to explode or come apart for no reason) by trading time for accuracy when the physics system was under high load and making time move slower instead of the game becoming really laggy. If you change it back to 0.1 you will face the same risk of glitches that you did in .22. If you build big rockets that seem to explode at lot you might want to leave it at 0.04.

Pressing F3 will show you a log of events, including things like parts blowing up or colliding. My guess is that a connector snapped or a part decoupled and then immediately collided with the slower moving parachute part causing them to both explode. Physical timewarp (2x-4x) can increase the likelyhood of this for even minor bumps.

As a side note the first time played through career in .22 I did so without any spoilers - I was discovering the tech tree as I went along so when it came to parts I could only see one step ahead. For .23 the tech tree is (as far as I know) the same with the exception of the new lab being added. With knowledge of the tech tree my scientists have been working with a roadmap this time. Items marked in red are consider high importance, orange are medium and white is low. The green is what I've already unlocked. My most immediate goals solar panels and fuel ducts which will let me engineer much more efficient spaceships instead of using a lot of redundent components. After I'll be focusing on more advanced science instruments, but I'll need the Stayputnick for Project Berry (that's not for a while so I'm not worried) and I'd probably like to have the Mk1 Lander Can and docking ports by the time I get to Project Martian.

Leap 1 Our mission is to orbit Kerbin. We have new tools including decouplers and better engines, we also have our first experiment the goo canister. With staging the rocket can be bigger and I've stacked goo containers all around just to be sure I have enough. One thing that is new with this career is that with revert disabled entirely I can't just put a rocket on the pad to check weight or spacing or anything like that. I had to be really careful and hope that I wasn't blocking the hatch and that I'd gotten all my calculations right, because when I put the rocket on the pad that's the launch for real. Leap 1 is also going to use some tweakables - I've calculated my burn rates so that I can put the throttle at 100% the whole way and not worry about terminal velocity or TWR. I did mess up with my center engine, setting it to 94% when my calculations said 95% but this results in less then 3 seconds where my acceleration stalled before fuel use leveled things out. I also removed the monopropellent from the command pod. Without RCS thrusters available yet it doesn't make sense to carry the extra weight. Leap 1 is a basic 3 stage design. It burns 4 outer engines first, then those drop away and the center engine takes over before finally it is dropped and the smaller orbital engine completes the burn. After the deorbit burn the command pod detaches from the rest of the rocket for reentry. On the launch pad things appear stable, I've tried to keep the rocket as short as possible to reduce the risk of tip over and ensure it is balanced on the 4 rocket nozzles. Rayfrod is our pilot again and he takes a reference reading for the goo so we have something to compare the other samples to. The moment of truth comes and we activate the engines. The calculations appear to be correct and we smoothly lift off the pad. As the rocket ascends more goo data is collected and at around 12km we begin a gravity turn and eject the first stage, lighting up the next. We are aiming for a heavily inclined orbit so that we can cover a large amount of Kerbin's surface area. Goo containers continue to be exposed as we ascend. With a strong suborbital trajectory the depleted second stage is released and the orbital vehicle begins to coast toward AP. Along the way more goo observations are made. For our AP burn we are going to alter our course a little more, in order to bring the ice caps under our orbital path. From here it seems we've exhausted the applications for our goo modules, perhaps we brought too many. Rayfrod looks up at the tiny window in his pod and decides that it is too small, if he is going to travel over Kerbin he wants a view. After 2 orbits Rayfrod collects the samples from the goo containers and returns them to the command pod. A plan to return is made and the orbital section burns for reentry and then detaches. The pod returns for a safe landing. With the data from crew reports Leap 1 has returned 115 science. Most of the science came from EVA reports observing the various biomes of Kerbin from space. Science Tech is unlocked giving us the Science Jr materials bay and batteries. The rest is being saved to pursue Electrics later. Project Leap completed. Orbited Kerbin twice Collected 115 science. Unlocked Science Tech. 74 science saved.

There is no part for flags, you get an unlimited supply of them for free. To choose the flag for your mission (if you don't want to use the one you selected when you created your game) click the flag icon to the right of your spaceship name. To plant a flag you'll need a kerbal and solid ground. Get your kerbal and right click on him. You'll see a Plant Flag option with a [1] which means he is carrying 1 flag with him. Once you click the button he will plant the flag and then a window will appear to let you add a title and description. If you want to plant another flag you'll notice that your kerbal has 0 and can't do it. You'll either need to get another kerbal, or walk your kerbal back to a spaceship and get him to board it. He will automatically take a fresh flag from the infinite supply stored in the ship (probably in the same compartment where the EVA jetpack fuel is).

Three things to consider: Fuel ducts have no mass or drag (they are one of a few special small parts that don't have any effect on the simulation to help with performance) If you drain from a fuel tank on one side of your ship you must drain equally from a tank on the other side, otherwise your rocket will weigh more on one side then the other and tip over. Your SAS system can only compensate for very small imbalances. Fuel makes up most of the mass of your ship so it is never small. Sometimes when placing fuel ducts (especially using symmetry) one of them might be blocked. Check to see that all your fuel lines actually go where you wanted them to, there might be a blocked line that prevents one of the tanks from draining.

In the save file it will be listed ROSTER { CREW { name = Jebediah Kerman brave = 0.5 dumb = 0.5 [COLOR="#FF0000"][B]badS = True[/B][/COLOR] state = 1 ToD = 0 idx = 0 } CREW { name = Bill Kerman brave = 0.5 dumb = 0.8 [COLOR="#FF0000"][B]badS = False[/B][/COLOR] state = 0 ToD = 0 idx = -1 }

This is the end of my career .22 log. Comments or questions are still welcome but no future missions will be flown on this save file. My career .23 log is here

Reach 1 Our goal is escape Kerbin's atmosphere with the limited technology at our disposal. Based on the work of Ksiolkovsky Kerman 3 fuel tanks would just enough to pass into space, but we want some margin of safety and an opportunity to look around so we will use 4. More then 4 brings into questions whether our parachute system will be enough. The rocket is assembled and our first pilot Rayfrod Kerman is loaded in and wheeled out to the launchpad. He opens up the hatch to make an inspection of his rocket before takeoff - he is not really sure this will work but he will try. Rayfrod contacts mission control and tells them he is ready to go. After the engine is lit Rayfrod slowly eases up the throttle, lifting off at about 25% and holding steady at 30%. At 20km he reports the the flight is stable and he is gaining speed and altitude, now traveling 560m/s. At 36km the engine stops with velocity at 1175m/s. Rayfrod steps outside to see if he can determine what has caused the engine to stop. After determining the fuel tanks are empty he gets back into the cabin and performs some navigational checks. In a few moments he is in space and quickly reports these findings to mission control. Mission control says he should run out of momentum at around 125km. With some time to spare Rayfrod decides to spend some time checking it out. After boarding the ship eventually starts to fall back to Kerbin. Rayfrod observes something burning outside the window, followed by a loud whipping sound before he opened his parachutes. Just before landing there is a loud bang followed by some cabin movement and another bang. Rayfrod gets out to investigate and finds the engine and one fuel tank missing. Maybe the engineers should look into that. He takes a souvenir and declares the mission over. Including the data from the reports sent to mission control Reach 1 has produced 62 science. All but 4 of that is invested into new technology for the next mission. Project Reach completed. Flew into space. Collected 62 science. Unlocked Basic Rocketry, General Rocketry, Stability and Survivability. 4 science saved.

You can launch multiple ships from the same launcher however there are two important restrictions to keep in mind: Each ship will need a probe core or manned pod to control it. Probe cores will also need power, if they run out you won't even be able to deploy solar panels. While in Kerbin's atmosphere objects must remain within about 2.2km of the ship you are controlling to stay 'active'. If they go outside this bubble while in the atmosphere they will be destroyed (even if they had parachutes opened or where on a trajectory into orbit) You can actually go one step further and perform multiple launches at the same time, as long as they all stay within a 2.2km box while in Kerbin's atmosphere. For example here I show how to dock two ships in just over 4 minutes from lift off. You can quickly switch between ships inside the 'active' area by pressing [ and ].