Pecan

Kerbal Alarm Clock - I use it so much I forgot to include it in my list!

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/84621-Paper-Space-Program-%28-a-k-a-KSP-Rocket-Parts-Papercraft%29 is brilliant

You will :-)

KOS discontinued? A pity if it is but I'd rather see a scripting language such as Lua or python used for an autopilot. Not so fussed about the pretty pictures myself but the stock data-displays should at least give us what we need for design, deltaV and TWR, rather than needing KER/VOID/MJ. Beyond that I'd want functionality rather than shiny - SCANSat/RT2 for probes, something for bases (Kethane?), anything for rovers.

Thank you too. My originals are in LibreOffice and I'm checking the formatting for picture placement and still finding more typos and grammatical errors *sigh*. Feel free to post a link to your .PDF version firegeek83, if you have it complete enough. "My way" is only one option for structuring projects/missions - other peoples' comments and alternatives are welcome.

Is the RealChute mod still going? I can't find it but, if it is available, it has gradual deployment specifically to stop things tearing apart.

A fine idea and thank you for your comments.

Chapter 3 of the tutorial in my signature deals with placing SCANSat satellites into orbit. Being mapping satellites these need to go into roughly polar orbits so they 'see' the whole world as it turns beneath them. Sample satellites and launch vehicles are included. Knock yourself out :-)

Note that my tutorial is for sandbox, not career mode. That's for two reasons; i) I think the mission structure I have makes more sense (eg; unmanned first) than current career grind-for-science, ii) career mode is about to get a BIG change in 0.24. The biggest lesson is: Start Small. Experiment and learn with smaller, easier craft and missions. You'll get experience and confidence from that and will be more willing and able to handle harder things as they come. Patience and practice. Beyond that ... Stay Small ... less is often more. Use a Kerbal on EVA to collect data from experiments so you can leave the science equipment behind, for instance, and only need to bring the Kerbal back alive (so command pod and parachute). Only take what you really need to enable that - you can drop the science stuff as a separate drone mission then get MJ to land your Kerbal next to it. At every stage don't take anything that isn't really necessary. Think through how you can use and jettison as much mass as possible as soon as possible throughout the mission - what's left is smaller so fits the lesson :-) MJ is also great for its deltaV, TWR and other data displays, by the way.

Chapter 5 of the tutorial in my signature will give you 'Fat Sally' - a low, wide lander for Mun or even Ike (Duna's moon). The preceeding section on 'Long Tom' presents a taller, thinner lander like yours and explains in some detail the things to consider; such as why Fat Sally doesn't fall over on slopes :-) Things to consider: Design backwards, with separate stages for each part of the mission: recovery, return, landing, transfer and launch. Use a deltaV map to check exactly how much deltaV you need for each stage. ONLY include the things you NEED for each stage. Mass is critical, with a huge knock-on effect on earlier mission stages. Every 100kg of payload in orbit needs a tonne of launch vehicle, for instance (roughly). For recovery (Kerbin landing) you only need a command seat or 1-man lander can and a parachute. For return you have the recovery stage + separator as payload and enough fuel and engine to get it back to Kerbin. 48-7S or LV-1® will be all the engine you need, 45 - 90 plenty of fuel. Put ONE OX-STAT solar panel on this stage and make sure it's pointing at the sun after each manoeuvre. For landing, the return stage (including recovery stage) as payload, another separator and enough fuel/engine to get it down. Three light landing legs, although you can use cubic octagonal struts to fake-it and save some mass. Transfer and launch stages are just more of the same, using the previous stages as payloads each time. Anyway, Long Tom expands on this, Fat Sally shows that building wider makes a more robust and capable lander. MJ makes a good job of precision landings when you have small, light lander like this. I'd say the learning-curve is weeks to months, depending mainly on how much you're willing to research and read, there's certainly a huge amount of information to learn from. "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard." (JFK) - if it was easy we'd all be bored in a couple of weeks and move on to something else.

Are you after a launch vehicle as well GregroxMun or just the space-based tug?

It's something I've been wanting to do with mine as well, but it's a real pain. Apart from anything you have to consider the lag from the total of all those ships' part-counts. The way it's usually done, if small enough, is just to mount several ships on some 'plinth' - like I-beams/girders with separators or without. For bigger craft you need to 'launch' one at a time and move them off the launch-pad with a rover of some sort. Either build the rover per vehicle or have a general-purpose one already launched itself.

Greetings. Yes, it is the 4th - is there any significance to that?

Chapters 7 and 8 of the tutorial in my signature. This thread should be useful: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/83368-A-reusable-transfer-stage-a-good-idea You might also like the 'checklist' mod, which is there to remind you of all the little things you might forget to add to the ship ;-0 In general, as long as you're using LV-N engines and not trying to make too huge a vehicle it should not be too hard to build a transfer vehicle for most planets. Check the delta-V requirements carefully (chapters 4/5), practice small and, if necessary, just try doing fly-bys first, without landers or other attachments. Don't be shy of taking spacestation components, spare fuel tanks, etc. to the destination as separate missions and docking them together in orbit. For an example of how little you need consider 'Fat Sally' in chapter 5. That is capable of a landing on Ike and return or a Duna flyby. The 'Tractor Light' in chapter 7 is quite capable of taking an orange tube of fuel and two medium landers (chapter 8) to Duna for multiple landings. It can then leave them there and come back alone.

Inspired by this challenge I thought a little target-practice might go down well. This challenge is simple if you keep it simple but I'm sure you'll all do far more amazing things than I have so far :-) Objective: Dock two vehicles from the greatest initial separation without controlling either of them. 'Controlling' here means applying thrust or rotation once separated from their launch vehicle(s). Range must be fixed or increasing when the second vehicle separates. Scoring: Initial range at separation from launch vehicles. Proof: Pic showing range between vehicles at second-vehicle separation. Another showing docked. Proof of concept: For the other challenge I used this vehicle at launch: Once out of the atmosphere I decoupled the docking-ports so the forward vehicle moved ahead of the rest. After a delay I then separated the rear vehicle which accelerated faster than the forward one, caught up to it and docked. My 'record' for this is only 30m, which should be no problem to beat ^^. Details, details: There is no sub-orbital or landing requirement (as in the other challenge). May be one or more launches. The range that counts is when the second vehicle separates from its launch stage. Use any mods you like, how you get the vehicles up there is your concern. Once either vehicle separates from its launch stage it may no longer be controlled. Yes, you can use the launch stage(s) to aim the vehicles at each other before separation.

The stock space station core only has standard docking ports - and yours only has large. How would it perform the mission requirements?

I pointed-out tavert's charts on page 1. From those and experience my engines of choice are: LV-1® for very light vehicles, eg; satellites. Because its tiny. 48-7S for light launch and transfer vehicles. It has great thrust for its weight and pretty good ISP. Aerospikes for launch vehicles too heavy for the 48-7S. Really good ISP. T30s when aerospikes just don't have the concentrated thrust you need. Probably the best all-round engine. LV-N for transfer vehicles when the 48-7S is too weak or the LV-N's fuel-efficiency is more important than its mass. Vacuum fuel efficiency. Turbojets, of course, for the atmospheric stage of (space)planes. Oxygen atmosphere fuel efficiency. It's always surprising how many people overlook the T30, just because it's available right from the start in career mode. However; we shall have to see what rebalancing happens in 0.24, apart from the mainsail.

Infernal Robotics is the mod for moving parts.

For the 3 - Chapter 5

I STILL haven't got a transfer window for Eve or Eeloo in my main save. There's a lot of fun to be had just in Kerbin's system and after that I tend to just go interplanetary as the windows open. That does mean I usually go to Moho first, which isn't recommended. Yes, though, when there's nothing I want to do but next interplanetary it's just time to warp.

BIG lander! Leave the lab in orbit and ditch that huge RCS tank. If you aren't confident about docking it might take you 100 units of monopropellant, if you are it shouldn't take more than 10! Use the Kerbals on EVA to collect the science from the experiments and store it in command pod, then jettison all the mass of the used science instruments. Do you really need 3 Kerbals on the surface? The 2-man lander can, or even a 1-man one, is much lighter. If you can lose as much mass as possible you'll need less fuel, and so even less mass, and therefore less powerful engines will be able to lift it (get rid of the Poodle). My preferred but still-bigger-than-it-should-be lander for Duna is in section 4 of the last campaign chapter here.

RemoteTech is fun but consider: RT2 makes things harder - you have NO control of unmanned probes while they are out of communication but can use KOS scriptable autopilot if you're into programming. Launching your first (few) Kerbin communications satellites can be particularly difficult; best done from a manned (and therefore controllable) ship. SCANSat won't change the way you have to play, will still give you a reason to use probes and will reveal 'anomalies' throughout the system (which you can then explore).

Mass is in metric tonnes. Watch out though, several small parts report a mass in VAB/SPH but are actually massless in-flight - to limit the work the physics engine has to do it just ignores them. The easiest way to check your total flight mass, without mods, is to click 'Launch' and then 'M' for map mode. The 'i'nformation button on the right of the map screen will tell you the value KSP will really use. Then just 'revert to VAB' to get back to building. Unless you're really oppossed to using any mods at all you are strongly advised to install VOID, MechJeb or Kerbal Engineer Redux as they will give you mass, TWR, deltaV and a mass of other figures for you in real-time, as you build and fly. ETA: Oh, and as Mr. Shifty Ninja'd - you can put the total tonnage straight into the rocket equation.

No, you're definitely not the only one to avoid the LV-N at launch for that reason. It takes most of us a while to catch-on to how quickly it becomes efficient, I think. My standard workhorse tractor is designed never to re-enter atmosphere once launched and so uses LV-Ns for their vacuum efficiency. As you can see in that link I fire its engines directly at launch, with the comment "Although they don't provide much thrust and this is using the payload's fuel the LV-Ns are very efficient so, overall, whatever contribution they make saves a little fuel that you can transfer back once in orbit." Yes, they'll be inefficient right on the ground but it's not worth the effort to ignite them a few seconds later ^^.

The data from "an" experiment (singular) can only be transmitted once and each science module can only be used once unless you have a science lab to clean them up after storing or transmitting the data. You may be getting confused with antennae used for RemoteTech 2 or another mod, where they are used for communications with particular targets, such as 'Mun' and you would usually want each comms satellite to be able to connect to several targets at a time. Other antennae from other mods - SCANSat, Kethane, have their own (usually mapping) purposes but are quite different parts.