Daveroski

I often use it to attach 5 engines with just one part. D.

Put a narrow band scanner on a rover and head for the mountains. The display does not change from biome to biome. It gives an average for the biome one is in. The average it gives is incorrect when compared to the surface scanner average. I seem to remember it changing from moment to moment depending on the concentration of ore under the vehicle. D.

Today I have been working on my new Mimnus miner. It will carry just an engineer and uses fly-by-wire. It has an RTG so that it only has to use the solar panels while drilling. It's fuel costs around 300 ore round trip. It carries 1500 ore. The RTG and the Fly-By-Wire can make a ship unbalanced but I have managed to get the torque down to virtually nil. I'm playing in stock (vanilla) so I had to turn gravity off and set up the weight with micro-thrusting and eye. The two small drills are not as efficient as the larger drill in terms of speed but in terms of weight carried to and from orbit they are ideal. It takes about a Kerbin day to fill the tank with my three star engineer. Better than I suspect real life would be RCS is balanced both empty and full. Showing RTG placement. Showing Fly-by-wire placement. The basic design should work on any of the low G worlds with only minor changes. D.

Sets it to root? please read my post again and then perhaps you will say something that I can reply to in the spirit of conversation. I already know that autostrutting everything to root is bad because the root changes for parts when ships dock. The new root can be a long way from some parts and can cause problems.

I use Grandparent AS on a docking port all the time. So far I have experienced no problems. Please enlighten me. What is this trouble that I am asking for but apparently not receiving? D.

I have linux mint too. But I don't have MH so sorry, can't help you.

It's all experimental right now but here's the idea. Have a science vessel SSTO which can be used for Interplanetary transport of people and equipment. The equipment should be almost anything between two large docking ports. In this case I have designed a mining module which I launched on a rocket into a parking orbit. Now my SV-SSTO (Science Vessel) is going to try it out. First separate the command module. Dock onto the Mining module Then re-acquire the drive/science section It's a tight squeeze. I think I will call this particular experiment a success. Fits like a glove. (although it should fit like a mining module) I hope you like it. D.

Nothing for me, or you apparently. I and probably many others nailed landing on our first attempt. As I mentioned earlier, I and probably many others can land from orbit onto an upturned docking port on a base on the ground. Some of us have even done it on Tylo. The largest proportion of KSP owners have never even been out of the Kerbin System. This is NOT about what I can do or you can do. There are still a greater number of players who try several times (Using F9) and still are unable to achieve it. Most of those never even make it into these forums. By making it possible for others there would be more players, more people in these forums where I dare say that some of those who can't would be lorded over by some of those who can. Some of us have better control over our bodies than others. I can belch and fart at will, does that mean that there is something wrong with those who can't? No. It certainly does not. The reason that landing is harder is that in real time is that it is time limited and there is little room for error. Get it right or they die. With docking one has all the time in the world. Once one has learned that a pssssst in one direction requires and equal pssssst in the opposite direction to cancel out the first pssssst. Docking becomes much easier. Docking can take as long as you need it to. With intercepts, if you miss and go sailing past, no one has to die. It's recoverable. There is a chance one could get it wrong and go sailing into the atmosphere without enough fuel for a safety net. There is a chance that you aim on intercept could be such that one ends up ramming the target. While I agree that having the pilot be able to perform node executions would make things easier for us, that is only because for us it's routine and for some of us a bit boring. But it wouldn't be as big a help to a noob without our 3D spacial awareness and motor skills as having the pilot be able to perform a basic landing at (or close to) a target location. It's all about getting bums on seats. D.

Today I designed an SSTO miner. I deliberately avoided using Mk2 Parts. Bill,Bob and Jeb took it for a test flight to Mimnus. As bill was needed at Duna Station and the pilot there needed rotating. They all went off to Duna, Jeb changed places with the pilot and Bill went with him. The pilot and Bob returned back to Kerbin. This is the craft just as it was leaving for Mimnus. More pics on request. D.

I could have used less wing. It is possible to launch a rocket from the runway if you can get it's nose up. Getting the payload to orbit is the easy bit. Getting the craft to respond well to re-entry and then landing on the runway, that is in my humble opinion, more difficult.

This is my usual crew transport work horse. It will take a crew to orbit or as far as Mimnus and back. I saw your post and as I hadn't yet done so in 1.6, I had a go at the Orange tank to orbit craft. This craft took the tank to orbit and landed again. Full picture series and flight/ship details available on request. D.

A couple of clarifications. Scientists can activate scientific equipment and work in the lab. Doing productive automated stuff depending on their skill. Engineers can mend broken bits, repack chutes and depending on their skill, improve mining and refining. Pilots are luggage. Once you have a probe core that can lock on to a node, you never need a pilot. My original post was more aimed at letting pilots be able to do targeted landings. some of the noobs which quit can with some persistence land with retrograde all the way. But targeted landings, for dropping rovers, building bases and even landing in the sweet-spot of an ore rich area can be too much for many. Many do not possess the same level of 3D spacial awareness of some of us. Many noobs and even many of us actually prefer to play a game in it's vanilla state. Some of us feel that if we can't play a game without mods that we are cheating ourselves. I feel much the same. Currently I am playing a vanilla career. But this does serve to show what the game is actually lacking. It is still early in my career, I have completed the tech tree and have a station around Duna and make frequent trips to Ike for Ore which is then processed at the Duna station. I have communications set up to cover most of the system. In my previous vanilla career I had bases on every body (except the obvious) and stations around every planet. I have explored everywhere explorable with a space-plane I have of course played with mods. Most to add challenge to my game such as TAC life support With a goal to simply have a 12 man base on Tylo and 12 kerbals on Kerbin which had been to the base on Tylo. Using only the Hitch-hiker for transporting kerbals. I have used some beautification mods such as EVE. It really does enhance the feel of the game. I have used some utility mods just to see what all the fuss was about, such as KER, Mechjeb and Docking assistant. Docking assistant changed the way I dock vessels and even without it, I tend to dock the same way even now. I enjoyed being able to do things more efficiently than Mechjeb. It made me feel superior. Which was really out of order because for many mechjeb makes the game playable and an amazing amount of work and effort has gone into producing the mod. That someone has written software that can do all these things is beyond marvellous. Ker provided me with the DeltaV information I lacked in vanilla. I always knew what biome i was flying over. I always knew just how far above the ground I was (not sea level on The Mun.) It helped with everything from intercepts to synchronising satellite networks. A real game changer. Throughout all my games one thing as been constant. Pilots are luggage. I used them instead of robots just so that I could use them at all. For appearances sake. That doesn't mean that I didn't use Fly-by-wire too. I started doing landings through IVA. which was fun. Especially in vanilla. Not so much for targeted landings. My conclusion was general landings are easy for me. Aim for the ground and land. Targeted landings require a bit more spacial awareness. I need to keep an eye on my lateral speed and altitude. I may need a shot of radial-in or radial out. So I suppose what I was thinking was that as I found Aim-for-the-ground landings easy and know that some noobs struggle with it, that targeted landings could be an area where the Pilot could come into their own. So getting the tech to advance a pilot to be able to (attempt to read the warnings) do a targeted landing would be something to aim for. It could even only be part of the 'easy' level (toggleable?) It isn't as though giving others the ability to do so would in any way demean my own abilities. D.

I know... wow... too much... people have to learn... you can use a mod.. whinge whine moan... Personally I can land on to an upturned docking port on Tylo. This isn't about me. Try not to let it be about you. The single hardest thing to learn in this game is landing. Landing anywhere near a target is even more difficult. Many new players get to The Mun or Mimnus, crash a few times, then quit playing. Some eventually succeed landing on The Mun or Mimnus and play a while longer but the dread of having to land anywhere puts them off and so eventually they give up too. Some feel that if they can't play the game in vanilla that a mod would be cheating. Some of us, myself included, practice until we master it. Landings for some of us are routine. If a pilot once having attained a degree of skill, could then land the vessel and depending on the skill of the pilot would give a chance of failure to hit a target or even to land below safe speed. It would however increase the odds for many players. If the highest skilled pilot could land safely but still have a 500m margin of error on targeting. then those of us who can land on target land would still be able to feel superior and have bragging rights in forums etc. The end result would be more players and perhaps more people in the forums too. Perhaps something as simple as a "Pilot-land" button which attempts to bring the craft to a landing if the craft is below 500m(radar altitude) which for some, taking pilot skill and ship design into account would still provide an element of risk and danger. Either way, I feel that such an implementation would help to get bums on seats which from a sales aspect can only be good. D.

It was time to go to Duna as the Satellites were about to arrive there. This is the station and lander Ready to depart, departing and in space waiting for intercept. Com Sats for Duna and Ike and a Scan Sat were about to arrive there. This is the Com Sat for Ike about to enter the SOI Passing Duna on the way to Ike Ike Orbital Insertion burn. Duna Com Sat Entering SOI Duna Orbital Insertion Burn Both Sats Have Highly Elliptical orbits This is the orbit of the Duna Sat Scan Sat arrives in the SOI Ike Orbital Insertion Burn Most of the ore at Ike is near the pole. Off to duna. Some or almost at the equator.. close enough... 88 days for the station and lander to arrive. Time to plan a miner. D.

I used the lander can and the first round nose cone. It's heat tolerance is higher. Not starting my gravity turn until 30k was key. I ended up with fuel to spare and wished I had kept the mono and RCS. Could have done the whole thing differently. Perhaps i will have another go at some point. D.

I start my descent at the far edge of the western desert. I aim for the water before the landmass with KSC. Without using engines for the entire descent. I try to just get over the western mountains. Then apply airbrakes as needed (not always depends on the craft) while aiming for the start of the runway. I generally touch down well before the hangar. Apply brakes/airbrakes and pop the chutes. I try to come to rest parallel with the hangar. You have to keep in mind that the drag will vary wildly. On spaceplanes you try to reduce it as much as possible for getting into orbit. Then you feel you wish you had more as you pass over the Western mountains. D.

If your ship has enough fuel to go to Mimnus Orbit and return to Low Kerbin Orbit. (75K) It should have plenty to reach Duna with spare for your lander/return vehicle to refuel. If your return stage can go from Low Kerbin Orbit to Low Mun Orbit (12K) and back to Low Kerbin Orbit. It should have more than enough to go from Duna Back To Kerbin. A rough generous estimation.

Looks like a tutorial to me so it's in the right place. Could have used pics to demonstrate it though.

Do this test, it might surprise you. In the VAB take a small bay. and add a command seat. Add any batteries that your EVE ascent vehicle would need. Check the mass. Look at the 1 man lander can. take out the Mono-propellant. It already has batteries. Check the Mass. Still think it's worth it?

And here's how I do it. First I don't worry about the difference in inclination. I'll work with anything upto 5.0 degrees difference. Then I will set my Pe to be a tiny bit less than my target's Pe. Anything less will do no matter how small so I go tiny difference. This will ensure that at some point our orbits pass each other very closely. I will ensure that I have the Target set as "Target." but that my Navball is set for "Orbit" Not Target or surface. I will then make a node at my pe and make my Ap roughly the same as my target's. Before closing the node I will Right click it and using the plus symbol increase the number of orbits until I get either an encounter or in the ballpark. Then I will right click the node again and make adjustments with radial in/out and Normal and Anti-normal and with a little work I should be able to get an encounter at 0m or at least pretty close to it. Once I have the node plotted I action it as carefully as possible. For me, that means if the burn is only a few seconds, I will reduce the thrust power of my engine by as much as 90% so that I have a nice long burn at the node. I will work out from the duration of the burn when I should start my burn and begin at full throttle so that I am halfway through my burn at the time of reaching the node. As I approach the end of the burn I will stop at around 1 second of burn left and then use SHIFT and X to get the burn to 0 Then I will close the node. I will look at the map and see that my closest approach is pretty close to 0. I will reset my engine to full power and use the sticky pin for my engine so that I can make it softer should I need to. I hate having to be fast on the buttons, I like to be able to take it steady. Warp at this point is optional, but I try not to overshoot the point where my navball automatically switches to target. Because sometimes, it doesn't. I like to end up 2-3 KM away. to give myself time to be sure I am ready for the encounter. If it is not already, I will make my navball set for "Target" not orbit or surface. I will aim Retrograde. Ideally I want to come to a gentle stop as close as possible to the target. At 1000m I will do a full power engine burst. Ready to hit X immediately if braking is too fast. I will want to finish the braking with the shift key so after the initial burst, I will reduce the power to my engine again and use the shift key and X as required until My relative velocity is 0. I will then set my navball back to "Orbit" not target or surface. If I am taking someone on board via EVA I will orient my ship using just SAS not RCS I will point the entry door towards the other ship. For simple EVA I just remember the golden rules. I Use space to make the kerbal face away from me. 1. Only travel in one direction at a time. 2. Only use burst of 1 second. 3 Three seconds of thrust to move need three seconds of thrust in the opposite direction to stop. 4. Go up or down then stop. 5 Go left or right then stop. 6 Go forward and prepare to stop or grab. Repeat as required. D.

ahhh you must love this then. D.

When you took all the fuel out to check it's COM fro the RCS did you remember to put it back? D.

Oh that's a shame. I quite like it. I have to come up with a new nickname for it now though.. I can't keep calling it 'The Nipple' D.

Ok so you are going to Mimnus. It doesn't matter if your orbit is 0 degrees. From the posts above you have found out about the AN and DN points in your orbit. What they mean is that if you make your AN bigger than that of the orbit of Mimnus, eventually Mimnus will cross your orbit. So you will be starting from the AN or DN you will be looking at both to start with. Plot a course from the AN and extend it past the orbit of Mimnus, only slightly, until you can see the white markers showing you where your ship will be relative to Mimnus at it's closest approach. Right click the node you created and see the + and - symbols. Click the + symbol and count how many times it has to be clicked until the course shows that you have an intercept with Mimnus. If the white markers vanish on any click , right click your node again and extend the AP a little more until you see them again. The number of times you clicked it is the number of orbits you will have to make around Kerbin before you reach the point where you have to leave orbit. Now look at the same thing with the DN. You will find, depending on the Position of Mimnus, that one of them will take far fewer orbits than the other. After a couple of times, you will pick the right one just by seeing where mimnus is. Once you have a course plotted which gives you an encounter. Right click the node again and right click the pe of Mimnus. Hover over the Prograde symbol and using the mouse wheel and watching the Pe on Mimnus you can refine your course. Ideally, you want to be passing Mimnus on the right hand side as you look at it. This will make sure that you will be going the right way around when you get there. I say ideally because in all likelihood you will seem to be passing at an angle. At this point you can click on Mimnus itself and select to Focus the camera on Mimnus. When you do this, the camera will centre on Mimnus and you will be able to zoom in and see just how your course takes you past Mimnus. From this view, if the periapsis is not showing hover the mouse over the pe and it will show you the altitude.Rght click it to make it stay visible. It will be tempting at this point to play with the Normals to see if you can improve it and end up losing it and having to start over from the beginning. So you have a course plotted to take you into a flyby of Mimnus. the next trick is to see how long the burn is going to be and remember half that number. That is the amount of time you will start your burn before you reach the node. SO for example, if the burn time is 1 minute and 30 seconds, you will start your burn 45 seconds before the node and burn until the burn reaches 1 and then use the shift key to slow burn the last little bit. Don't worry if it goes over a fraction of a second. Click the little x and cancel the node. Now look at the map. If you timed it correctly and had enough fuel you will now be seeing your periapsis around Mimnus. If you don't there is still probably no reason to panic. A course correction just to get you back in the vicinity using prograde or retrograde (probably retrograde) be enough. so you can plot a course using either to find which gets you back in the ballpark. Don't try to perform the node. Cancel it. If it was retrograde, point that way, if prograde point that way. then use shift and just tap it once and wait until your Encounter is back and then press X. Now you can wait until you are in the Sphere Of Influence (SOI) of Mimnus before making orbit at the peripasis. From there you can change you orbit as needed. This is not the most efficient way of doing it but it's not far off. Don't let others complicate these instructions. True you might be able to save a little fuel here and there but not that much and the easiest solution is usually the best one. If you follow these instructions and after a few attempts you are still not getting it, feel free to call me an idiot and I will take you through it step by step in private messaging. D.

Make them heavier and people who enjoy the use of ion engines will NOT be happy. D.