ClearlySane88

Spent most of the day working on and the redesigning my Mun Station, again. I've also got to figure out how to get/move some of the heavier parts to dock with the station and then, later, get them to Minmus.

I have a bad habit of losing power while on missions and leaving spaceships stranded. This seems to have been happening a lot with my Mun Space Station project lately. I've launched five probes to other planets, not a single one has reached it's destination. I seem to either be doing hilariously inefficient burns or I'm not counting my Delta V correctly. I got weeks/months without playing the game depending on how frustrated I am with myself and/or whatever projects I'm working on. I always seem to get into hilarious orbits whenever I try and transfer to one of the moons. There are a lot of times where I will end up with an extremely tilted orbit, a few times being completely North/South, or I will end up orbiting in the opposite direction of my Space Station I'm targeting. I have a habit when rendezvousing with an object of just getting a closest approach to show up on my screen, circularizing the orbit as much as I can and then waiting for a really close approach (around 10km or so) before moving on to maneuvering by hand. This can, and has, taken weeks to occur sometimes. My orbits hardly ever resemble circles.

I thought I would start work on a Mun Station today. Got the main core of the station and the tug up into Mun orbit no problem and everything was looking good. However, after that everything went downhill. Five launches and all five ended in failure. Two of the launches (a communication/power array and a Science Module) ran out of power in orbit/during Transfer burn. The third power array I sent up somehow, and I have no idea how either, had the tower separate from the rocket and get lost in space. A fourth I accidentally time warped past my Mun transfer without noticing and is now in orbit around the Sun and the fifth I ended up putting the docking port in the wrong place, since I spent an hour trying to dock the tug to it with no luck. Wasn't that great of a day today, to tell the truth. :/

I performed my first ever rendezvous and docking procedure! I literally could not be more happy with myself right now, even if it did take me a few months to do it (not to mention landing on the Mun and Minmus multiple times beforehand). I've also got a probe in route to Jool, as my other two probes to Moho and Duna ran into problems on the way there (the Moho Probe ran out of gas on the way there and I forgot to extend the Duna Probe's solar panels before sending it off and it ran out of power before I noticed so I couldn't do anything with it).

I made my first ever burn to send a probe to another planet! Just need to wait another 90 or so days to perform another and get me to an encounter with Moho. I can't wait! Other than that, just some normal science gathering missions to the Mun and Minmus. I need to figure out how to perform encounters so I can finish up the space station I started on the other day though, that and how to place Station Parts, Landers, Probes, and Base designs on a rocket with a capsule without screwing up my liftoff.

Well, let's see. Recently I was trying to do a quick flyby of the Mun to get some science (since I didn't think I had enough fuel to land, gather science and lift off again). I was coming in real low (below 10,000 m) but I didn't think it was low enough to be worried about, besides I went pretty high up again after my close fly by. I wasn't really paying as much attention as I should have when the rocket was doing the real close fly by (I think I was answering a text on my phone at the time) and I didn't notice the mountain flying into view of my shuttle until it was way too late and I had already smashed into it. Also, I just recently had a capsule get stuck in orbit around the Mun with no fuel. Poor Jeb and all that Science are stuck in orbit and I probably won't have a way to get him back for a while.

Okay, so I managed to find the case you were referring to, but it won't let me add it to the ship. Says I need to purchase something with Science first, do you know what Science item I need to buy before I can use it?

So, I downloaded the files and extracted them into my Game Data folder, but I can't find the button to turn it on anywhere. Was I supposed to put it in the Squad folder inside the Game Data folder? Any help would be much appreciated.

Okay, time for an update! To The Mun, Alice! So, I thought I would move to some satellites before attempting anything much bigger. The first satellite went up and into an orbit around Kirbin with all most no problems what so ever, besides it pitiful battery supply but even then it was able to get some science back to me before going dark. Bolstered by the fact that I could actually manage to get a satellite into orbit, I decided that I would next try and get one to the Mun. Plastering a few batteries on the command module, I launched rather quickly. While on my way to intercept the Mun, however I ended up running out of energy and the craft was lost in orbit around the Sun, about halfway between Kirbin and . I then decided to do one or two Science gathering missions to unlock the Electricity portion of the tech tree, which would help. Adding solar panels and replacing the inefficient batteries with a rechargeable one, I launched once more. I easily made it to the Mun and was about to start my burn to bring myself into orbit, however I ran out fuel this time and, once again, my satellite was lost to the reaches of space. Unsure of why I was running out of fuel, I went looking for a few tutorials and found a rocket design that should work. I quickly put it to use and launched another satellite into orbit. This time, the craft was easily able to reach the Mun and I even managed to land the thing, though there was a small explosion from coming in a little too hard. Ecstatic, I quickly begin to open the door's to my goo and Science capsules only to realize that I forgot to attach a radio antenna to the satellite! Once again, my pod was dead in Space, and this time not do to lack of technology but my own stupidity. Finally, I was able to get a satellite to the Mun with no problems. I landed in a deep crater on the Mun. The probe started to slide down the side of the crater and, hoping to correct this, I decided to use the last little bit of my fuel to hop to the center of the crater. Unfortunately, I came in a little to hard and there was another small explosion (though luckily nothing important was damaged). I quickly begin to send back a ton of Science to Kirbin. I was now confident that I could get a Kerbal to the Mun and back safely, after all both pods seemed to have plenty of fuel left before their little accident and I thought it would be enough to get the little guy home. I quickly created a lander for my needs and launched Jebediah into space. He landed on the Mun easy enough, with no explosions at all this time, and gathered samples from inside Midgar Crater. I planted my flag, jetpacked up to the Command Module (I had forgotten to add a ladder for this design) and took off. I had just finished stabilizing my orbit when the rocket went dead, I was out of fuel. Jebediah is now floating around the Mun and there isn't much I can do for him at the moment. I don't want to send another team after him, as I'm afraid they may end up getting stuck too and I'm not sure it it was my rocket design that got him stuck or I made an error with one of my burns to get into orbit/too the Mun. My first satellite in orbit, on the dark side of the planet, just before going dead from lack of electricity. My first probe to the Mun begins to make it's pass, preparing for a descent burn. My first probe after landing on the Mun! You have no idea how happy and excited I was once this thing touched down and how dumb I felt when I realized it had no radio equipment on it at all. My second probe, a few minutes away from touchdown, with a nice view of the Sun coming over the horizon. Touchdown! Jebediah begins to slow down his aircraft, preparing to be the first Kerbal on the moon. The great hero, first Kerbal on the Mun, stuck in space, awaiting rescue. Unfortunately, I have no idea when or how I'm going to be able to get to him and help him.

That's actually what the next update will be. Showing my satellite's reaching the Mun (and being shot into space on accident). Probably post it tomorrow.

Phew! A lot has been going on since my last thread. A lot of success, as well as a few failures (including a really big one) and a lot of pictures to go with both. So, I decided to restart my career mode to try and fix some mistakes I made with my research. Once again, I found myself doing a couple of short flights to gather EVA, Crew Reports and Samples from Kerbin's different biomes. Scott Manly and Operation DX on Youtube have been a boon for me, especially where rocket design is concerned. Thus the Garrett MK series of Rockets were introduced. I started out very basic, just a solid rocket booster, command capsule and parachute. This was simply to get me up into the air for a Crew Report, ETA Report and Sample from a different Biome (landed in the ocean). After a few more flights from the next series of rockets (using two fuel tanks and an LV-35 rocket engine), mainly to the Highlands and a quick attempt at the mountains which unfortunately failed (the capsule rolled over and blocked the door, not allowing me to get out and collect the samples). I decided to start trying to orbit, adding a second stage to the rocket design. I was easily able to get into orbit on my first try and actually managed to land near the mountains where my Kerbal was able to gather samples. I did one more two stage rocket flight, only I wasn't aiming to get into orbit. I decided I needed one more biome and decided to try and get one from the Ice Caps. This gave me enough Science to get into both the Fuel Systems tech option and the Electricity options on the Tech Tree. I still need a lot more science, however, and I wasn't confident enough to try and send my Kerbals to the Mun, so I decided to turn my attention to satellites to make sure I could get to the Mun safely. My first ever mission, to collect an EVA/Crew Report from the launchpad as well as samples, trying to get as much Science as I could. I also planted a flag, commemorating my new launch center, Ludvig Launch Center! My first mission that actually reached space. Just a basic rocket design, no stages. My Kerbal takes a swim after a successful mission. Coming down from an orbit, trying to land on the mountains. Managed to land on the mountains, but the capsule rolled on it's side blocking me from getting out and gathering the samples. The sun rises over the horizon as Jebediah prepares for a retrograde burn to reenter the atmosphere. Too terrified to take the chance with a jetpack after some disastrous results on my last career mode, I just have Jebediah get out long enough to generate an EVA report and then it's straight back into the capsule. I'll have more picks and updates later.

Hmm.... let's see. I got two sets of Kerbals into stable orbits and managed to launch my first satellite into a stable orbit, where the batteries promptly died after sending me back it's first packet of information. However, that's okay it did what it was supposed to do (Science Jr. kit in orbit). Now I just need to figure out how to get more science so I can get to the Fuel Systems tree...

I haven't exactly discovered docking at the moment. This was meant to be nothing more than a quick fly by mission, seeing if I could launch both rockets and have them pass relatively close to one another. Quick Update, by the way. I ended up with three flights, none of which got close to each other. The first flight, the one that ran out of fuel in my previous update (the KSS Please Don't Hit Me) didn't have a stable orbit that quickly deteriorated once I got the other space craft into space, on it's second try. Making sure that the KSS Not In the Face's orbit was stable, I quickly switched to my other manned flight and made sure it was brought down safely. Since the NIF was still in orbit, I thought I would just send up another rocket, however the same thing happened (the rocket running out of fuel and only getting one or two orbits in before falling back to Kerbin). I wonder why I'm running out of fuel so quickly on some, but not on others (though the NIF was really low on fuel once I got it up there, still enough for a burn to get it out of orbit though). Pictures with little comments: The KSS Not in the Face takes off on it's first attempt to rendezvous with the KSS Please Don't Hit Me. I like seeing if the rocket boosters slam into each other once they are jettisoned and blown away by the start of the next stage. These two I managed to bang together but, surprisingly, they didn't explode. Huh... Adjusting the NIF's orbit while checking on the other aircraft (I think I need better name's for my ships). I'll get to you eventually Mun! Just you wait and see! *shakes fist* The launching of a third satellite that went a little worse than even the other two did (the two in orbit around the sun).

Very nice! Now if only I could stop launching mine into orbit around Kirbin instead of half way between it and Duna. (I think it might be because I run out of fuel/power about half way through a planned burn that should put me into orbit, accidentally slingshot myself into space)

Ah Thanks for the help! I'll try again in a couple. Edit: Just got it up after a couple of attempts. Thanks again! Also, a quick update. I was able to get the first ship of the rendezvous, the Please Don't Hit Me, up with relatively no problems, except for running out of fuel. Hopefully I'll be able to get the Not in the Face! up with enough remaining to bring it back home as well.

I just picked up the game yesterday and have been playing all day today and yesterday. It took a while, but I've finally gotten to the point where I can get into a nice orbit somewhat regularly. Spurred on by my success, I thought I would try and send up an un-manned rocket/satellite to try and intercept my currently orbiting Kirbin. While rocketing upward, I wasn't paying as close attention to the rocket as I should and, well this happened. Gonna keep practicing though, hopefully I should be able to get the hang of it soon.