csanders

I labeled this thread badly. I meant from kerbin to mun back to kerbin again. I forgot there was a "challenges" forum. This topic is probably more suited for there. Checking out the ".24 cost effective lifters" threat at the moment.

Curious what people could come up with. Or how little someone could make work with a good launch profile/landing/return. EDIT: I labeled this terribly. Cheapest ship to take off from Kerbin, land a Kerbal, then go back to Kerbin.

What's it's TWR on Eve? It doesn't look like it will be high enough.

Yeah, when you're coasting downhill with the engine in gear, the momentum turns the engine, and the injectors shutoff. If you put it in neutral, the engine needs to burn gas to keep it idling. I'm not sure if it makes much of a difference one way or the other though.

With the new version, inside the VAB, one could also accidentally click on an engine and reduce its thrust. Another thing to keep an eye out for.

You can also try to use Duna's moon (Ike) to slingshot you to a better inclination. For insance: aerobreak the AP to around Ike's altitude, if you're not in its SOI this time round, raise PE to above Duna's atmosphere and wait a few orbits. When you get into it's SOI, play around.

Thanks. It's most certainly an "alt-click" problem for me. I always do that.

They could easily have an "easy mode" that doesn't use money, and a "hard mode" that does.

Does anyone have a bug where the fuel lines get "cut" when loading a saved sub-assembly?

How do you propose we build smaller more efficient fueling stations? When moving large amounts of fuel, multiple LV-Ns makes sense. For other craft a lighter less efficient engine might get more dV. Some just like the look. Like all things Kerbal, the answer is "it depends."

Just the other day I was working on a ship, and moved some stuff around, and forgot to re-add the parachutes. Landing back on Kerbin without them, using only thrust, was a challenge and fun in its own right. It's a feature not a bug, or something.

The questions people should be asking is "will this feature likely change in the future? Will any craft that uses this feature be broken beyond repair? Am I willing to live with that?" Personally, I don't want to get used to something that will likely change drastically in the future. So I don't stack intakes.

My SSTO

I get that. I hope they fix it. They've done a wonderful job with the maneuver node interface, but it's hard to see the result without fine mouse pointing. Often, I set up a maneuver node in the right direction I know it should be. Then I point my craft in that direction, stop rotation and kill the maneuver node. Then I burn with my mouse pointer over the periapsis (it's almost always the periapsis I'm interested in. It could be something else, in which case I hover over that). Then I kill thrust when it hits the value I want. UI wise, I find that to be easier. If you don't know where you should be pointing, and you have RCS, you can try this: You know the -v- pointer that shows where your craft is pointing? I typed that out with two minus signs, and a 'v'. Have the direction the minus signs are pointing perpendicular to the horizon on the nave ball (if that's possible). That way you know forward/back thrust is prograde antigrade. Left and right thrust are radial-in, radial-out, and up is normal (if the ground in your navball is to the left) and down is anti-normal. That was a bit technical, here's picture: Ok, orient your craft that way. Fire up the RCS. Put your mouse pointer on the node you want to monitor. Fire ikjlhn, see which one gets you closer the easiest. Take note. Setup a maneuver in that direction (not to large, say 10m/s), then point craft at maneuver node, remove maneuver node, burn and watch with your mouse hovering over the node of interest. Also, with midcourse corrections, sometimes RCS alone can do the trick. EDIT: Also, sometimes you can only correct things so much. For instance, if you want to align planes, and your not at an ascending (an) or descending node (dn), you can only correct it so much. However, you can try to make either the an or dn align with closest approach.

http://growlersoftware.com/users/kerbal/Phalanx%20System%20II.craft Here's the craft file for the landing craft. If I recall, the launcher is a bit finicky. Sometimes an SRB will strip off the thing. NOTE: With the landing legs being changed in .22, I'm not sure how well it will land. I'm guessing it might knock off the center engine, but I'm not sure.