HansBlix

Career mode for me, i like to set my own challenges with all available parts . I tried to keep mine along the same mission profile as the real Apollo missions, so 2 stages to get into orbit (plus a little of the third stage), third stage to transfer to mun on a direct intercept (read: crash course), drop third stage and leave it on crash course to the mun, use the CSM/SM to get a 20k pe intercept and do the circularisation, LM 1st stage to land, LM second stage back to the CM, CM back to Kerbin. Only things left in space after the mission is the LM second stage in munar orbit (might adjust this to be able to crash it back into the mun surface). For looks i highly recommend procedural fairings, KW Rocketry and Novapunch (for the 5M tanks and engines). Interestingly it was amazing how well the whole thing translated to the skylab mission without the need to change anything except the skylab to replace the 3rd stage, guess that's why they built it that way in RL! Love it when a plan comes together Hans

I've got a couple scattered around the forum so will add them here for reference.. My first attempt at an Apollo style mission using KW rocketry... Then i found NOVAPUNCH and procedural fairings! Just had to turn it into a skylab mission.... And to round things out... had to have a crack at the Russian Space Program and the monster N1 Rocket (WIP)! Currently working on an ISS series. Have the station set up in VAB (600 odd parts?!), first three pieces in orbit and a number of service vehicles (Soyuz, ATV) and launch systems (SOYUZ, Arian V) done and tested. Will update the thread as it progresses (read: when i get time). If anyone needs tips/advice on getting these things built/flying ask away Hans

So i finally got my act together and decided to spend the day getting a Skylab replica up and going (got distracted by building a Russian N-1 rocket for a bit there http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/55542-N-1-Russian-Space-Race%21). Uses the same parts from my original Apollo rocket (as seen previously in the thread). Stage 1 and 2 from the original rocket with stage 3 minus the engine and with the docking attachment on top to form the lab. Put the telescope up front, and once in orbit, undocked it and redocked it to one of the side attachment points. Unfortunately there are not yet any electric motors in game to achieve this like real life, so best i could do . Regards the question previously they mounted it in front of the skylab, then used an electric motor and tracks to wheel it round to it's final position. Second step was getting a command module up there. Created a Saturn IB replica with just 2 stages (3rd stage from Saturn V as second stage and new smaller first stage). Couldn't quite get the engines right for the first stage as the only options that where 1.25m and that would have looked anatomically correct just didn't have enough grunt to get the thing into the air. Took 2 attempts to get the lab looking and performing the way I wanted, other than that it was a pretty easy build. First time for me that... it... just... worked Anyway, enough blabbering, see below shots. Enjoy, Hans

Well after my success with an Apollo analogue, and after being inspired by another post here, i thought i would give the Russian N1 and associated lander a go. As it turns out, it worked out much better than i expected. Naturally however, there where a number of mishaps and missteps along the way, in true Soviet form. Basic specs to start: 4 stage rocket (2 ascent, 1 circularize, 1 transfer) with lander module and command module sitting on top. Total Delta V is a little shady, as is the final weight, courtesy of procedural fairings and kerbal engineer not playing well. Delta V at best guess is in the 7000 range. Mission to mun left me with 1000m/s in the transfer stage, and on arrival back at kerbin still had another 1000m/s or so in the tank. Plus the lander had plenty of fuel to get down and back to orbit. 482 parts, gets a little choppy at launch but not overly so (gotta love having a good processor ) KE thinks the final weight is about 330 tonnes, although that seems a little on the light side so there may be a stage or 2 not included (the only way to see weight/delta V is on the launch pad for some reason and it just doesn't "feel" right). Mission profile: Little wobbly on launch, its a hell of big fat rocket and the top half being unsupported by launch towers tends to let it get a sway on before launch. Once physics settle down and during launch though it seems to sort itself out, although taking off some of the gimbals is essential to stop it getting a pendulum effect on. I got lucky with the launch supports, they literally scrape the sides of the first stage, but it doesn't seem to cause any issues at launch :S Interesting little note, my first attempt actually got a POGO effect going on pretty good, just like the real thing (saw it mentioned as i was researching N1 design/mission profile). Obviously the cause was not enough struts and too much power as apposed to fuel movement, but i'll take it! Ended up with a shade under 2000m/s deltaV left on orbit so some interplanetary stuff is not out of the question. The angled stages are curious. It means lots of space for engines so more power, and a lot of fuel in a shorter package. Overall i would say the design is actually more efficient than my Apollo analogue even taking into account the lighter payload. Requires more testing!! Until clear of atmo, it runs at about 2/3 throttle to keep under terminal velocity. At open throttle this thing really hustles!! I got to the Mun, but realised after EVA and decoupling that i had left the damn RGU off the command section. The lander has no rcs (to keep weight down) so docking from there is a no go. I carried on regardless and planned to get close, eva back to the command section, and dock from there. The landing went well as did the ascent, unfortunately I ran out of fuel for the final intercept burn (assumed i would use the command section to do the final intercept and dock) so promptly eva'd thinking i could just leave the lander floating. Only problem was i had intercepted the spent third stage rather than the command section! I found it about 20km away and had no option but to try to eva all the way too it. Grabbed the ladder with under 1.5% fuel left in my jet pack ! \o/. Easy trip back to Kerbin with plenty of fuel to spare. Build notes: Just like the real thing, this thing is full of struts and fuel lines making it tricky to put together and susceptible to mistakes. Each of the first 3 stages has between 24 and 32 fuel lines in it, as well as internal strutting to keep everything solid. Add to that the obvious weak points between the stages and keeping this thing together was tough! Have used procedural fairings, KW rocketry and Novapunch mods to get the right engines (in terms of power, not looks unfortunately) and for the fuel tanks to keep part counts down/fit the fairings on each stage (just realised i probably could have used procedural tanks... damn!). Lander and Command Modules are 1.25m as apposed to my Apollo using 2.5m parts, figure that lines up with the real design which is about 1/2 the weight of the Apollo gear. The angled sections are procedural fairings with different sized base plates at each end as caps, and filled to the brim with as many tanks as i could squeeze in within the fairing outline. The first stage is slightly different. Proc fairings does not have a base wide enough (5m max) so used the procedural base plate at the bottom to get the desired width. At i guess i would put the base at around 7.5-8m or so. After that it was just add as many engines as possible and strut the hell out of the stages Still some playing to do to get something bigger than a 1 man capsule on it, and see if i can get the engines more realistic in terms of numbers/layout. As always feedback/suggestions welcome! Hans

booo... everyone on is asleep, was looking forward to some ksp chatter

Count me in! I'll start with the basic Saturn V/apollo analogue that will be used as the basis: Standard Apollo/Saturn V: Launch Weight: 491,570kg Launch Part Count: 251 Launch Delta V: Around 7000, although Engineer may be off somewhat due to some funky designs to get it to work. 1st Stage: 5 - Bearcat Engines. 2nd Stage: 5 - J2-X Rockets encased in a 5M procedural fairing 3rd Stage: 1 - J2-X Rocket, enough Delta V to do Munar Intercept burn and circularization. Engines encased in a 3.75m-5M procedural fairing CM: 3 man CM as close as possible to real dimensions plus has escape tower and CM cover. LM: 2 stage just like the real thing, and includes 2 mun buggy's (couldn't balance a single one out) but only room for 1 kerbal. Fits in a 3.75m tapered to 2.5M procedural fairing. Next Gen Saturn/Apollo Vehicle: Don't have the stats for it, will add later, but it gets to 150k orbit with about 7000 deltaV left. The lifter components are the same as the Saturn V just with extra fuel and the addition of boosters. The command module payload is an orion analogy, and uses the same lander as the original version. Note that these are test launches at this stage, still lots of tweaking. Beyond this, will start putting together other designs using the same sub-assemblies with different payloads and see what i can achieve, will keep u all updated. Hans

Oh god yes, have had this problem many times in the past, and previous posters are correct it seems to be the physics kicking in. Couple of things you can do: Add more clamps, and have them at different levels of the rocket (MOST IMPORTANT) 5m fuel tanks are definitely dodgy, especially their joint with the engine... moar struts! The above got me to a point whereby the rocket wouldn't shake itself to pieces completely, however, on occasion parts would still break. The final thing that got this sorted for me was immediately turning off gimballing when the physics loads. Not sure why but i found doing this via an action group reduced the duration of any shaking/swaying. See below latest creation, took a lot of playing with struts and supports, but can get it up 100% of the time now. http://i.imgur.com/45N4AAl.png Good luck, Hans

Afternoon all! So helped someone with an Apollo style rocket, and KSP once again sucked away 3 days of my life! Decided to redo my Kapollo mission but with a greater degree of accuracy. Worked better than i ever imagined, with a rocket that is in all respects as close as the real thing as i could get (only thing that still requires work is the lander which currently only seats 1 instead of 2 kerbanauts and which needs more work to look like the RL lander). By pure chance, happened to land within 8km of the Neil Armstrong memorial. Wasn't until i was looking on kerbal maps for interesting features to check out that i noticed. Specs for those interested... Launch Weight: 491,570kg Launch Part Count: 251 Launch Delta V: Around 7000, although Engineer may be off somewhat due to some funky designs to get it to work. 1st Stage: 5 - Bearcat Engines. 2nd Stage: 5 - J2-X Rockets encased in a 5M procedural fairing 3rd Stage: 1 - J2-X Rocket, enough Delta V to do Munar Intercept burn and circularization. Engines encased in a 3.75m-5M procedural fairing CM: 3 man CM as close as possible to real dimensions plus has escape tower and CM cover. LM: 2 stage just like the real thing, and includes 2 mun buggy's (couldn't balance a single one out) but only room for 1 kerbal. Fits in a 3.75m tapered to 2.5M procedural fairing. See below mission pics. Big ups to Squad and all the awesome modders, in particular the authors of the following mods without which this would not have been possible: KW Rocketry Nova Punch American Pack Mechjeb Kerbal Engineer Procedural Fairings I dun wanna go back to work!!! Hans.

Ok couldn't find an old one, so created a quick one from scratch, similar to yours. Note used procedural fairings, which i highly recommend Was nice and stable, plenty of juice to get to the mun, only issue is some rotation in the first stage (sees to be an issue with that first stage engine every time i use it). I changed it a bit and forgot to put the rcs back on which should be able to address that little issue but mechjeb got it to orbit easily even so. Had the engine gimbal for the first stage locked, and limit to terminal velocity set in mechjeb (although it didn't seem to matter). Left the gravity turn at 5k start and it handled it no problem. Added some pics of the strut-work on it. De-couplers and reaction wheels tend to be weak points, but strut every joint to be on the safe side. Reaction wheel on each stage. Was quick and dirty, so excuse the couple of dodgy strut jobs... and there may be some KW Rocketry parts in there inadvertently. Also remember lots of Launch Stability enhancers, spread them around the circumference. The physic engine tends to break stuff when it kicks in when you don't have enough of them to hold it steady. Hans

Hey Alamo! Been there done that and can point you in the right direction. Firstly, watch the engine. You will need struts between the 1st stage engine and tank or the engine semi-detach's and will wobble your rocket all over the shop (even though it looks attached and still feeds fuel correctly). These Struts are tricky at best due to the way the engine connections work so may take a few attempts to get right. Secondly, before launch lock the thrust vectoring on the main engine. The engine is so powerful, and the rocket so high that thrust vectoring will do you in badly. If needed you can add some rcs to the main body of the rocket to provide better control to replace what the vectoring would normally provide. Thirdly, moar reaction control wheels. I'm pretty sure there is 5M reaction control wheels in the pack, use one in each stage (remembering to strut), especially between the main engine and the tank at the bottom, makes a big difference. Fourthly, adjust you ascent profile in mechjeb, set the gravity turn to start after the first stage is done, makes the gravity turn a whole lot easier on the structure. Fifthly (?), adjust your max acceleration in mechjeb lower and activate. This reduces the thrust the engine produces and makes the whole thing a lot smoother. In some instances you can even then leave the thrust vectoring unlocked as the power being pumped out is a lot less. Note that most of the above all impact each other, so no one option will work but a nice combination of each of them should do the trick. I'll load up the game now, and get some pics of one that works shortly, and my launch settings for you. Plus any other tips i happened across as i was building it and have forgotten Good Luck, Hans.

See below... made to fit in a 3.75M fairing. Requires procedural fairings, and a parts mod with 3.7m rockets

Ah sorry Whack, was directed at OP. But as usual your designs are awesome! I just can't bring myself to limit to stock, I like sleek and clean launches

Nice Job. Just been trying to do the same, i assume you have robotics installed? Managed to build 2 similar designs without the articulation, single rover in a 3.5M fairing, and one with 2 rovers in a 5M fairing. The rovers themselves I've had up to 40m/s on the mun (rcs assisted), talk about hairy but pretty stable, just don't make any fast turns or adjust direction when your about to get airborne... RIP Mr Kerbil. Plus with the rcs if they do roll you can right them easily. Note that on the 5M assembly it also has 2 rcs refuelling tanks, but need to adjust them as it's 50/50 whether they actually land on their feet. 5M dual rover assembly 3.75M single rover assembly Comments/suggestions welcome. Now to get advanced robotics... MOAR MODS!! Hans

Rocket, I use the novapunch mod (highly recommend it) and the procedural fairings mods (as per novapunch) the rover base and the little yellow rcs tanks on the rover are nova punch, but easily replaceable with parts out of stock. The housing is procedural fairings, and the rest of the rocket is a combo of novapunch 5m parts and KW rocketry 3.75m parts with some stock. Mods take this game to a whole new level, you trade off ram for cpu with the lower part count, plus they look perty http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/images/smilies/k_cool.gif

Rocket, I use the novapunch mod (highly recommend it) and the procedural fairings mods (as per novapunch) the rover base and the little yellow rcs tanks on the rover are nova punch, but easily replaceable with parts out of stock. The housing is procedural fairings, and the rest of the rocket is a combo of novapunch 5m parts and KW rocketry 3.75m parts with some stock. Mods take this game to a whole new level, you trade off ram for cpu with the lower part count, plus they look perty http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/images/smilies/k_cool.gif