Elmun

I haven't read the entire thread, so I apologize if someone has said this already. I would love to see resources in the game, I think it adds a substantial reason to continue with career mode beyond what is currently in place (0.22 release). Having said that, I think it needs to be balanced delicately with other aspects of the game so that this doesn't become a single minded space mining game. As some of the posts I've read have stated, it takes a good deal of experience and knowledge to run a mining operation in this game. I've given Kethane a try, and I have had trouble with it. I'm more the kind of player who slaps together a rocket and lights the fuse with hopes of landing somewhere on the Mun and return for science points. But I would like to see resources brought in, with or after they implement an economy into the game, and use mining as a supplement to mission rewards and science. For example, there could be simple mining missions because Kerbin is low on a particular resource. Or mining could be used while not on a mission to boost funds for future missions. Or it could even be used as a science boost, adding a particular mineral to the goo tubes and seeing what happens.

Buddy in the US Navy sent me this. Pretty sure it isn't official.

I was experimenting with a device to capture debris / pods needing rescue. My inspiration came from James Bond: I'm at work and dont have any pictures of how I did it, but essentially its a infernal robotics hinge, with a I-beam and a third of a fairing on top. Works well for capturing something, then just burning to have an orbit that re-enters the atmosphere.

What you could do is instead of having your lift stages directly under the payload, move them so you have 3 or 4 mounted laterally around the fuel tank above the RCS, and stage them down that way. You avoid having issues with the docking port being the weak point in the vehicle, just don't forget the strut the lifting stages together to keep everything rigid.

I am by no means good at math. In fact, in my job as a fire fighter I use simple equations on a day to day basis for calculating the friction generated by water flowing through a hose so I know what pressure to set the pump on the fire truck at, and it's all pretty much been calculated before hand. I just sort of guess first then calculate after when things have slowed down. A quick Google search did find this though, a whole lot of maths involved using Apollo 11 and the translunar insertion: http://www.braeunig.us/apollo/apollo11-TLI.htm On that page are links to other pages that deal with orbital mechanics, and have math that make me go cross eyed. http://www.braeunig.us/space/orbmech.htm Good luck with your project!

Once I learned that the space center can destroy any debris at the click of a button, I stopped worrying about it. As for landing style, I've done both a whole lander liftoff and Apollo style lander. Both worked pretty well after some tinkering. The whole landers are simpler, where as my Apollo style lander had staging issues (mostly from how I launched the whole bit into orbit and docked the lander and command module after launch) and had to carry RCS fuel for docking. Here's the Apollo style CSM/Lander I did after docking them together: One thing I have found is that I'm using laterally mounted nuclear engines more and more on landers simply because they are so efficient. From the highest point you can on you lander, throw a standard girder, then attach a small fuel tank, a fuel line from your main fuel tank to the small outboard tanks, then your nuclear engines. Like so: That style of lander is very easy to work with and never runs out of fuel on Mun/Minmus missions. The added struts are from hard lessons learned after having parachutes rip it all apart. This type of lander will also leave very little debris depending on how you deal with your transfer stages (crashing them into the Mun etc)

I did mine in sandbox, mostly because I follow a much more realistic approach to my missions in career mode and I don't yet have all the big stuff unlocked. I used mechjeb, KWRocketry and NovaPunch for my mods... but outside of the lifting stage most of it is stock. I had actually way too much fuel... 3rd stage would have about 1/8th a tank left, lander would end up with 1/2 tanks in both the ascent and descent stages, and command module would have around 1/2. I could go to Minmus easily if I wanted to.

Nothing fancy, just wanted to give an Apollo style mission a go. Vessel weight: 653.55 tons Part count: 124 Stage 1 - Lift stage, separates @ ~21 km Stage 2 - Orbital insertion, separates prior to circularize burn Stage 3 - Circularize burn and Munar insertion, separates after burn, crashes into Mun. I still need to work on it a little, adding action groups to shut down the lander ascent engines and lowering the ladder. I missed the service module jettison picture because I waited too long to jettison the lander. Did it first without MechJeb assistance, but then took photos while using MechJeb to keep everything pretty. I also had an issue with the stage separation part between the lander and the third stage not actually separating, and being permanent, meaning I had to manually separate the lander's descent and ascent stages. <iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="550" frameborder="0" src="http://imgur.com/a/cAA6X/embed"></iframe> Flag I use... because I could not find an angle where it was illuminated.

I often find myself making small tweaks to my trajectory when aiming for another planet, which means I have to get my fingers to do the control and shift key dance. Often this ends in skewed flight paths and me wasting fuel to correct, re-correct, then sort of just make do with what ends up being free ticket on the ever lasting roller coast ride around Kerbal. Ok it's not that bad, but having the ability to map a key that would "bump" the throttle would be nice. By bump I mean starting from 0% throttle, hitting a key bumps the throttle to 5%, but then back to 0% once the key is released.

So I've logged over 50 hours of KSP and realized I hadn't actually built a space station. I had tried a few times, but could never really find a solid reason to build one. But earlier today I did, with the Bio-Fuels mod. It's not finished, and I'm thinking I may have planned a big too big. In any case, here we are 8 launches later: And all light up on the darkside: At present it sits at 79 tons with 14 Kerbals in the station. Didn't keep track of part count but wish I had, my frame rate drops considerably. The plan is (was) to have a mono-prop and liquid fuel reactors running and docked perpendicular to the struts leading to the solar panels, and have a set of fuel tanks docked up at the bottom of the station. Given the current part count not so sure how well this plan will work, but only one way to find out. I used Infernal Robotics for the powered hinges to open the ends of the solar panel sections to get more panels in, and while opening things got laggy, I pressed the button just a little too much and broke two of the panels off. The station is also VERY wobbly, and I have since locked the rotating rings I had planned to use to rotate the ship docking ports around so I could avoid having to turn the whole station when making docking easier. I tried them once, before the solar panel sections when in place, and the torque almost ripped the station apart.