700NitroXpress

Very nice, I'm just finishing up my Jool V challenge mission and then I'll draw up the new mission. Waiting to see your mission report since I still haven't fully executed Mission 2 myself ever since the Kraken attack.

Yeah, he's safe, now I just have to rescue Bob when I exit the system. I'm going to do Bop and Pol today so that will finish it. Then I just have to land them on the KSC runway.

You also might want to add struts to the body and make the planes more ridged. If the aircraft is flexing then that is tilting the landing gear, or if you don't have landing gear supporting the center of the plane, then it can also flex a little and this tends to cause the problem. If these solutions don't work, you might also have control surfaces that aren't aligned properly with symmetry. You can check this by having the breaks on, on the runway, then push the WASD keys and see how the control surfaces react. If any of them bend in the opposite direction of the other one, then that's also an issue. Here's an example of the strut solution: Here's an example of perfect landing gear for this plane:

Here's my Vall and Tylo landing, also the rescue mission to get Charlie off of Tylo. I'll retry this challenge again with a new setup later.

I've run into this issue with some of my subassemblies. However, I've found that "it" decides when it wants to work so it doesn't always work every time. One thing that you might want to try is saving it as a ship first. Then close the game. Then reopen the game and quickly drag the desired part into the subassembly area. Then close the game and reopen it again. See if it loads properly. Oddly enough, I can get the 400+ part count things to work just fine every time, but the 100 or less part count ships don't know how to work with the subassemblies. Also, you'll want to check the orientation of the parts, it looks like your fuel lines are rotated 90 degrees on the Y axis. As for the struts, I'm not sure.

You'll be fine as long as you don't pilot the station while refueling it. After it's fueled, you might have issues trying to move it. As long as this is a stationary station that isn't going anywhere, there should be no problem. Everything looks symmetrical, when refueling it, try to refuel it symmetrically to avoid potential issues. The SAS systems may cause a Kraken issue otherwise.

You would have to reverse the orbit of one of them so you're orbiting in the same direction. This is best done at AP. I would have the rover change orbit at AP and reverse since it's the furthest orbit. Other than that, you have a lot of maneuvers you'll have to do in order to get an intercept. Which ever one has the least mass and the most TWR, that's the one you should pilot to get the intercept. You'll also have to get your ship to match the same orbital shape as the rover in order to help matters.

If the core is launched and has an orbit within 1 hour, then we wouldn't be able to launch anything else? According to this, after the first launch we won't be able to launch anything else. So an SSTO launch and dock would be impossible, as well as docking multiple modules. Clarify.

Ok, I'm back after the holiday break. I can send the rescue lander out to Tylo in one launch from Kerbin and it will get my man back into orbit. Right now I just want to see if I can finish the mission after the rescue, and then I'll try it again after some redesigning. As for the videos, I think I'll keep doing these long ones to finish out the series and then for the next attempt, I'll cut a real short one together for a submission.

So I have a man trapped on the surface of Tylo. Can I send out a lander to save him?

I believe it's the maximum research value you can get out of an experiment. An experiment done in different conditions can be worth a higher or lower value. If the bar is full then that means that you've reached the maximum value for the experiment.

The goal of this challenge is to build one or multiple bases of operations on or around other planets. These bases need to be able to service craft and kerbals that pass through on their missions. You just need to pick an base LZ and an orbit for a space station and start setting up your constructions wherever you want. These bases and stations need to be able to house kerbals, refuel craft, have sustainable power, have backup ships, have crew transfer systems, and anything else that would improve the operational performance of your base of operations. How to do the challenge: Pick the planet or moon you want to build on. Then select what that base or station will be used for (the more the better). Then send out your constructions and show their usefulness. To win this challenge, you should have bases and stations that can service and be used for a variety of tasks on every planet and moon. However, just tackling one is good enough. I'll use my current Duna Command Center and Gagarin Station as an example. My Duna Command Center and Gagarin Station can be used for: Rover missions, orbital refueling, crew transfer, crew housing, ship storage. Improvements would be: satellite storage, rover storage, planetside refueling, Duna SSTO landing strip, ship hangar, science gear. All of these things serve a purpose and would make the base and station more efficient. When you max out the efficiency of a base or station, then you're done and can move on to the next planet. My Duna base would be a good mid way point between the Kerbin planet and a transfer out to Jool, so having bases and stations out in the Jool system would be my next move. You move up on the leaderboards based on how much your base or station can do, and how many planets or moons you have them on. This challenge is an engineering challenge mainly, so you are free to use mods of your choice, just no use of the debug menu. Doing this in career mode earns you a career mode tag next to your name. For submissions, just post the launch vehicle and the final result on the planet or moon, then tell us what it can be used for. Also tell us what mods you used if any and if it's in career mode or not. Examples are below, minus the launch vehicles. Leaderboards: 1. 700NitroXpress - 2 bases, 3 stations (Duna, Kerbin) Gagarin Station (Crew transfer, crew storage, ship storage, orbital refueling) Big H.O.S.S. (Ship storage, orbital refueling, crew storage) Helios V (Orbital refueling, crew storage) Duna Command Center (Crew storage) Duna Command Center, Duna Control Tower, Duna Rover Garage (Crew storage, rover storage)

I have to fully agree with this. Moho should be worth more points than Laythe or Vall. Moho has a higher inclination burn and often much more DV to achieve orbit and land. Laythe has atmosphere so landing is easy and doesn't require powered landing. Vall requires powered landing, but using other planets and moons in the system makes achieving orbit very easy to do with much less delta V than is required for Moho since Moho is all alone. Pol, Bop, and Vall should all be within 100 points of each other. I would swap out the Moho points for the Vall points. Also, landing on every moon in the Jool system is worth more than Eeloo, so what's the point in going to Eeloo?

To everyone, leaderboards are updated. If I missed anything or anyone, let me know.

1. Yes, launch the rover out to Duna, then come back to Kerbin to refuel and get the recovery vehicle. The first trip to deliver the rover doesn't count for any points. Your just setting up the mission with the first launch. Everything after that is worth points. 2. Yes, the rovers data is highly valuable and needs to be protected from re-entry damage. 3. Technically no, since I don't think this will generate heat. Just keep the G forces under the red line.

What about the use of SRB's?

Here's a mission to Mun and back to Kerbin. Orbits and burn techniques are explained.

Got it, thanks for the update.

I'm recording my mission as a video and taking screenshots along the way. I have a few special things that I'll do too during the mission that aren't part of the original mission parameters, just for fun stuff. Here is the first part of my Jool V mission. I finally launched out to Jool and did an epic landing on Laythe, barely balancing out at the end. Second video is the rescue of Jeb at Laythe. Not a whole lot happens, but it's good docking and intercept reference.

Sirine: I see your post and I'll get to it either really late tonight or really late tomorrow night. I'm super busy right now. Hodo: I didn't forget about your Moho mission report, I should get caught up here before the weekend. Finwen: Those mods are fine, I also see your mission report. You'll get added to the leaderboards by this weekend as well. On a side note: I did a mission out to Duna to test some of the ideas from the Duna mission. I made a rover garage that a rover on the surface can dock to. For the mission, it would just need to get back into orbit after the rover had been dropped. So I would have to drop the rover first, drive around, then drop the retrieval container and dock on the surface, then send it back into orbit. In these pictures, I have my rover garage on the surface of Duna. There's also a mission video if you guys are interested in ideas.

For this challenge, your goal is to land and get back to Kerbin from all planets and moons in the solar system. You can attack these one at a time or go for multiples, it doesn't matter. To do this, you are only allowed to use the Rapier engines, and RCS for docking. You are forbidden from using any other engines at all, no ion or solid fuel rockets either. This is also an all stock challenge, you cannot use modded parts, debug options, editing files. You may only use the engineer mod, mech jeb, and deadly re-entry. All other mods are forbidden. Your craft that is used to land must be a manned lander, 1 kerbal minimum requirement. You are only allowed to refuel at Kerbin, maximum altitude of 250 km orbit. For submissions, post screenshots of the launch vehicles, orbital assemblies, the landings, and the return to Kerbin. You will then be added to the board below. There is also a master class for those who land and return from all planets and moons. Good Luck Planets and Moons Successful Landings and return Master Class Moho: Eve: Gilly: Minmus: Mun: Kerbin: Duna: Ike: Dres: Pol: Bop: Tylo: Vall: Laythe: Eeloo:

I don't have this problem in an all stock game, so uninstall the mods, then try.

The new engines self toggle from air breathing mode to rocket mode. They use a liquid fuel oxidizer combo and seem to have a little less power than the turbo jets, until you get to high altitude, then they open up and you get to orbit with ease. This design would need to be refueled in orbit otherwise the center mass and center lift cause problems when you return to the ground. So I'll put up an SSTO refueling station and that will solve this problem.

So I just took my old SSTO design and added the new engines to it. These things have very low power at sea level, but once you're at high altitude and use them, they're nice. SSTO's are now made easy. This is my first design with the new engines and I like it. Action groups are in the vehicle descriptions in the SPH. Download it here: SSTO Here's the test flight video: