yaur

Correct, only for elliptical. I was under the impression that patched conics wouldn't really matter here other than the lack of perturbations in orbits.

I'm trying to work out how to figure out the position of a planet given a time. I've googled quite a bit and so far the best I've come up with is http://www.stjarnhimlen.se/comp/ppcomp.html this has good math but requires an iterative method to work out "true anamoly" for a given time. This is obviously not what KSP does or warping at x10000 wouldn't be possible. Since my end product is tol that can answer questions like "when will eve block the view of Duna from Kerbin" I am hoping someone here knows how KSP calculates position in orbit/true anomaly.

I've landed everywhere and gotten back from everywhere but eve. Not shown are the drop tanks required to make that landing or the tug that got it into orbit. v2 is much smaller and might be able to make it without the tanks.

Was talking to a friend who is very new to KSP (and not likely to end up on the forums or ever install a mod) and would like to add: Kerbal Build Engineer as part of the stock game.

let me recommend scansat for finding biomes. As for bases/ stations biomes do kind of already do that, though rover frustrations make bases somewhat problematic. For 0.24 hopefully a more fleshed out career mode. Maybe that other gas giant...

You have the parts to go anywhere and get back. Being able to dock reliably will dramatically reduce how perfectly you have to plan you missions, so is a good skill to pick up. So either a space station or Apollo style missions in your own back yard (mun, minmus, or duna) is probably a good idea until are comfortable with it, and it does eventually get easy.

The hint for me was when I realized I wasn't going to be able to fly it without mechjeb. See this reliable test case which will always have problems with the orbital computer, but not for mechjeb. of note is that while "control from" is on the mechjeb case, either probe cores "prograde" is pointed at the horizon, and it looks like they are fighting over which prograde is correct. In case your wondering this configuration was seen on a "constellation" launcher that puts up 5 comsats in one go.

Came here to post about this. With mechjeb on an unmaned probe I am unable to get the orbital computer to successfully execute nodes. It burns for more or less the right time but has no attitude control. Note that MJ is able to execute similar burns just fine (so long as I have a connection) so its not a lack of torque or power. If it matters these are only tested in the case where I am trying to execute a node in the future where there is no connection, can test that too i suppose.

I miss the LV-N, but am happy that mainsails aren't in until you have been trained to not need them. The hardest thing for me is not crashing rovers while they are prowling the mun gathering science.

Seems like an exploit to me (not that it maters in a single player game). As an experienced player... you should be able to get a suborbital flight with an AP over 200k on your very first flight. this is 3-4 eva reports worth of science depending on how many biomes you fly over. To maximize science here you want to maximize your time between 200k and 70k, but in any case you should have enough to get decouplers, mystery goo, and the 909. That should be enough to get a mun or minmus flyby (or orbit/landing if you are really aggressive) which should net you 200+ science. With that you can buy radial decouplers and fuel lines which will get you just about anywhere.

I did notice that I had a LV-T30 that kept getting shaken off while the SRBs were burning... didn't think much of it and tweaking the staging so that it was burning with the SRBs fixed it. This is a ~20 part rocket so not kraken related.

I'm not sure how I feel about the implementation just yet. On the one hand I'm really excited about space stations and bases "having a point" on the other I have just gotten to the point in career (reset for .23) where I have unlocked it. Science in orbit around kerbin and the mun are mostly taped out and I'm at the point where I'm ready to put kerbals on the mun and minmus with the science lab unlocked. This is basically the point where I would expect to be putting a lab in munar orbit or a base on the ground. The problem... no docking ports or rover parts unlocked yet so neither one is a viable option, which means I will continue to run standard missions where I land and return. By the time I do have those parts unlocked I expect I'll be off to duna, etc where there aren't biomes yet. Also adding more physical experiments and reducing the utility of the digital experiments might be warranted. To reiterate, I like the concept but think there need to be some tech tree tweaks to make it really shine.