ripvanlemon

But you were able to EVA while hovering in place, so that's pretty awesome. I don't think I would be able to do that without Kerbal death happening.

Can someone try to explain this to me please? Techniques 2 and 3 make perfect sense because I'm arriving at the asteroid with roughly matched velocity. The only downside I can think of is that I can't rendezvous until it's in Kerbin's SOI. If I run straight out in the opposite direction like LethalDose suggests, how do I then set up a rendezvous?

I posted the same question a while back, and based on the advice I was given, I messed around and figured out I can reliably place a maneuver node out beyond the solar periapsis and then drag it back to wherever I want it. I've done this dozens of times in the same situation you are showing in your screen shot. It hasn't ever not worked. That's my only-slightly-annoying workaround.

I tried it one time before I had any idea how jets work in KSP. Success!

If you're wondering if it can be exploited, the answer is yes! Just a couple of examples off the top of my head: (by the end of the vid, he settles on a design that is driven only by reaction wheels) (using pod torque in conjunction with fuel transfer)Is that what you were looking for?

So... option 3 is out because you won't have any control over the probe at apoapsis. Option 2 seems honestly kind of boring, because there's nothing out there. Option 1, as written, might not work due to solar panels not working that far out... BUT if what you want to do is crash your probe into the sun at near-plaid velocity (which sounds awesome)... you wouldn't necessarily have to make the burn at apoapsis. That would just be the most efficient place to do it. In fact, I bet you could set up that trajectory right now if you wanted, then ride out to apoapsis and come back in. Maybe even kick your speed up a little on the return trip once you've regained control.

For me, sandbox is the heart of the game. I don't know where they're going with career mode, and maybe the ugly duckling will become a beautiful swan one day *sniff* -- but right now it's a bit of a grind. Maybe if I could go back and approach it as a new player? .22 science was really boring, granted. Transmission spam felt like playing Diablo 2 or something. People probably wore out mice on that. But for me it's almost as bad in .23+ having to repeatedly visit the same bodies and do the same thing (or biome-hop on Kerbin, which I couldn't even bring myself to do because the idea of it is so boring). I don't think career adds anything to the game at this point -- except science! -- but instead takes away a lot of options until you land on the Mun and Minmus a million times. The challenge of the game was always in learning how to do things. If somebody approached it with total understanding of orbital physics and maneuvering, then they'd just have the small hurdle of learning the keybinds and HUD, and they could get straight into building rockets. That's the way it should be! You shouldn't be grinding for XP, you should be able to jump in at your skill level and have fun! If science was available in sandbox, that would be perfect IMO. It wouldn't count for anything, it would just be another fun thing to do.

Why build anything at all in KSP? We didn't even have career/science until .22, and people built lots of stuff anyway. Practical reasons for sats? None really, unless you're using mods that require them for comms. Practical reasons for probes? I dunno -- I like to use a probe to drag an asteroid into orbit then send a manned mission to rendezvous. That's not really practical I guess, but it makes sense to me.

I just wanted to add -- although I think this is probably a VERY minor part of your problem -- you may want to toggle torque on the lander's capsule. If it's enabled, that can make wiggle problems a lot worse.

YESSSS! Thank you, my new best friend. Edit: both my new best friends.

First: When I leave a planet's SOI, I don't seem to be able to place another maneuver node for a correction burn before the solar periapsis. Is that normal? If not, how do I fix it? Second: Once I've set focus on the target body to see where I'm ending up and what direction I need to make my correction burn point, is there an easy way to switch focus back to my ship without going back to the tracking station? I think this is just a keybind question, but I haven't found the right button to press.

I totally agree about most of that, but I must be some kind of genius, because I figured out lithobraking in the first five minutes

I hope the new joints don't mess with sproing.

They'll look exactly like Jesse Ventura and Alex Trebek. "No other object has been misidentified as a flying saucer more often than the planet Eve."

You know what I just noticed? Look at how those boosters are attached. One little radial decoupler (new part?) and two struts on each side. AND IT'S ALL STILL IN ONE PIECE