Gods315Pawn

Today, I tried my first attempt at another planet. I prepared a probe with a few science-y bits and set it off. Everything went to plan really. I did make it to space just fine, but I miscalculated on two things. Firstly, I was not correct on my estimation on the timing for the Duna trip window. I was behind schedule. I burned a lot of fuel trying to recover from that. Secondly, I severely overestimated the size of Duna's gravity well (I think I got within 1000k or so, but I don't remember exactly). I expected it to be comparable to Kerbal's. I did not do my research. As such my probe ran out of fuel, is now on a severely skewed Kerbin orbit that takes it within Moho's orbit and just outside Duna's orbit. All for nothing.

I'm still working through the tech tree in career so I haven't unlocked the mainsail engines and largest tanks yet. Because of this I haven't bothered locking in on a lifter design. I've got a base that I typically use, but depending on the payload I add different solid fuel boosters or different styles of asparagus staging. This tends to result in 5 test flights to figure out all the issues that I didn't consider. *sigh* The worst part about KSP is when you can't play it. I just keep mulling over possibles designs and concepts when I'm supposed to be working.

Wow, yeah. It took me a little bit of looking at the picture trying to follow fuel lines and figure out where everything was and went. That is definitely complicated. How far could you get that thing? I just built my second attempt at a rover depositor about five minutes ago, but I don't have time to test it because I have to go to work. My first attempt resulted in two rovers and the landing stage as debris in the Farside Crater (one of the Rovers did still mostly work but I realized the decoupler was still attached and was obstructing the piloting seat). I decided to scrap the design and start over entirely. That thing seriously worked? That's impressive. Well done.

I'm wondering what the most complicated craft/mission you ever managed to build/complete was. Without needing any revert launches or loading from a quicksave. Most of the time my (and I'm guessing the community in general) build process requires quite a bit of trial and error (or prayer) before it works. Personally, the one time the maiden attempt was successful was with my "Faramir" probe, a Kerbal border explorer and negative gravioli detector. It entered orbit with both the Mun, Minmun, and circularized a Kerbal orbit outside of Minmun before returning home. The entire first attempt at launch went perfectly to plan. My deltaV calculations on the later stages had been spot on and I had about a third of a tank (my safety net) left over when I got back. The biggest issue was that I had a lot more sensory equipment than was necessary. *It was more successful than this post which took multiple tries to get the picture included.

I stranded two Kerbals on the Mun (accidentally) and so I'm trying to mount a rescue operation. On take 1 I had the landing clamps attached to the wrong stage. No big deal, whatever. On take 2, everything went smoothly until I decoupled my large solid boosters at 15k. One of them hit my currently in use liquid tank and they exploded. I was able to save the pilot and bring him down safely and so I made some adjustments and tried again. Take 3 went great, I burned through my small solid boosters, my large solid boosters (which decoupled successfully), burned through my large liquid engines, decoupled them, and moved on to my asparagus stage. 80k up, burning to set my orbit, and the first asparagus stage runs dry. I decouple and find out I had the decoupling of my asparagus staging set wrong. The two dry tanks stay where they are, and two fully ignited engines fly forward, catch on another part of my ship, spin it around, and then explode. This was the result. Amazingly, since I hadn't circularized my orbit yet, I was again able to return the pilot safely. His command pod had managed to escape the devastation. I am ready to begin take 4 now.

In my career mode I tried to build my first two man Mun lander/returner fully decked out with science gathering things to land in the Farside Crater (and maybe canyons). It took me a lot of trial and error to even get a build that could circularize the orbit. I finally got it to the Mun and as I was descending for my landing I realized I wouldn't have enough fuel to get my Kerbals back. I was able to land the craft safely and easily. This is the first time this is happened for me (the stranded bit, not the safe landing bit). A rescue operation is currently in the building stage. Although, I'm experimenting with a new design (three individual command pods on an upside down tri-adapter). "Experimenting" will almost inevitably lead to failure... er... a more fully developed "Mun base." The rescue will probably be my job for tomorrow morning.

I think a planetary base is probably the most difficult to achieve and so should gain the highest honor in general.

My mother likes to ask how my Kerbals are coming along and I told her about my prelaunch checklist fairly early on. Now she likes to ask if I fully covered my checklist. Every time she asks I have to add a new item. It started with just three things. SAS enabled, engines throttled up, epic music playlist started. 1. "Did you cover your checklist?" "Yeah, the launch is great so far." *add "confirm staging configuration." 2. "Did you cover your checklist?" "Yeah, everything is properly staged and I'm about to launch." *add "is ship adequately strutted?" 3. "Is your ship falling apart again?" "No, no. I'm just about into orbit and... everything exploded." *add "test launch with probe before losing a brave kerbonaut* 4. "Did you cover your checklist?" "Yes! Everything is great, I'm circularizing, Everything looks great." *add "confirm placement of batteries and solar panels." For the test probe. 5. "Have you actually finished that checklist?" "I don't know. I hope so." * add "docking parts should be facing outward." (Note: this was my first attempt at docking and I figured the different sides would connect [like magnets] and not the same sides. Since those early days (last week) I've since added landing gear, parachutes, extra SAS components, RCS components, and science equipment (because I once had a completely successful launch with nothing to show for it). I've become very nervous whenever she asks me about my checklist. I develop a sense of impending doom.

Like many have already stated, the first reason is that I have a great passion for astronomy and space travel/exploration. I am not really good enough with math or science to do it professionally and ksp allows me to do it as a hobby. Secondly, while I really enjoy reading about recent discoveries, ksp (and its forums) has really helped and encouraged me to learn some things. Simple things like what apoapsis, periapsis, and the Kessler effect are to more complicated things like Tsiolkovsky's rocket equation (which I finally learned yesterday). Thirdly, it is very rewarding to spend hours on a project, making a series of small adjustments after each new failure, and finally getting it right. Currently, that is trying to send my heaviest Mun lander yet for a science run.

"Victory! We have victory!" So, that is my Faramir explorer ship sent out to get gravity readings. It is currently at an orbit just beyond Minmun. I liked the shot because you can see Kerbal, Mun, and Minmun, each a location it spent some time orbiting to do some negative Gravioli detection. Thanks for all of your help guys!

Alright, trying to see if I can successfully upload an image.

I had the same basic idea. I've been naming mine after Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (and Hobbit and Silmarillion and his other works). I was kind of jumping around randomly at first, but I have started to specify on some things. My space stations are named after the Valar or Maiar, the planetary bases are named after locations, and then my rovers, landers, orbiters, or satellites are named after whatever character I think is fitting. The "Bilbo" is obviously only for round trip manned missions ("There and Back Again"). After that basic name I throw in the model number with minor updates as well. Instead of Mk I I tend towards more of a software model and say 1.1 or 1.2 for the minor overhauls. If I have to redo it entirely I switch to 2.1 and so on.

You are a Jeb among Kerbals. Thank you, good sir.

I only have two week's worth ksp experience and I spent the morning failing to design a successful airplane before ending up with my first ever successful take off and landing (landed at the dirt strip). It still tends strongly upward though. I then spent a solid portion of the day failing new rocket designs. I was trying to build a design to get both Mun orbiter/shuttle AND Mun lander up into orbit at the same time. After hours of failure I finally decided to send them up seperately on my old reliable. Worked brilliantly. Extra fuel from lighter load was transferred over before being dumped and now I'm ready to do my proof of concept run tomorrow. On Kerbal, trial and error is less of a process and more of a prayer.

Anything by Explosions in the Sky. I like the nonlyrical background music and the name is perfectly fitting.

... Posting a photo will be an issue for another day I guess. Anyway, thank you for the help.

Thanks, I'm using the Steam. I was able to get my photos that way.

I am having a lot of trouble (i.e. making no progress) in taking screenshots in Kerbal. My laptop has a specific key for screenshots, but it just acts as if KSP is not there at all. I typically end up with a capture of my desktop (or whatever other programs I have open). I tried using the KSP screenshot capture with F1, but I don't know if they are being saved somewhere or what? Anybody know what is going on? I appreciate the help.

Thanks. One of the best parts was that I was listening to ES Posthumus (they did music for movie trailers) so it was really intense and dramatic. I may need to rethink my maneuver checklist but getting the epic playlist going is an integral part of mission success. I may someday make a memorial to commemorate the event. Bob Kerman is officially an EVA legend in my space program.

I have only been playing for two weeks or so, so my greatest achievement is less amazing in terms of monumental endeavour and is more about recovering, on the spot, from a series of failures and lacks of foresight. I'm playing career mode and I'm working on building a solid space station for refueling. Today, I decided to bring down my old space station because I have some new parts and better experience building. It only has two parts. the central hub with a manned piloting module and the habitation module that I had docked with it using a computer piloting module. I decided to do the re-entry burn together and separate upon entering atmosphere so I only have to do it once. I only need to get the single pilot down safely after all. The drone doesn't even have reentry safety chutes built in. It was intended to crash down. It all seems to be going according to plan up to this point. Upon entering atmosphere, I detach the two parts and lose control of the piloting module. I had left my kerbal in the housing section. Panicking, I immediately determine I'm going to have to do an EVA and safely guide him over. Not a problem. I can do that. At 65k I go to initiate an EVA. The solar panels are blocking the hatch. I hadn't bothered to retract them. Again, why bother? They are just going to crash anyway. I sit and wait as these things slooooooowwwwly retract. By the time I'm able to open the hatch I've dropped below 60k. The piloting module is only about 10m away though. I let go of the ship, drift a lot faster than I expected, bounce off the safety of the piloting module and start gyrating away. I can't get the spinning to stop. I can't even get the EVA suit controls out. The still-thin atmosphere helped me a bit here by slowing down the spinning enough for me to get control though. I have drifted 60-70 meters away from the ship I need to reach though and I'm still falling through the atmosphere. I think I'm at about 50k at this point. I'm more distracted and panicked at this point so I wasn't checking as closely. I slowly direct my way over to the shuttle. The hatch is on the other side of course. As I go up to come around the other side I see the other module is getting closer again. It is only about 7 meters away. Apparently, the weight and aerodynamics were causing it slow (it was ahead) a little faster than my other one. It is slowly moving to block my entry hatch. I propel myself down. Guide my Kerbal in towards the hatch, grab on, and enter at slightly over 40k. I'm cruising at over 2300m/s relative to the surface. I reorient my ship, burn retrograde to slow myself, and get away from the other module. From there I land safely. Bob Kerman even took some soil samples of the highlands for me. I learned a lot of things about the importance of premaneuver checklists though. Sorry for the mammoth post, but I'm really proud of this.