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"The Evil Daystar" works for me. Oh, you meant the one in game. Usually "the sun" if I need to, maybe Kerbol. I usually don't talk about it, so I don't have a usual name for it.

Actually, I'm counting this as research. Both for writing tech-talk and writing humour. Because it's hilarious.

Wall of text alert.. Well, the tricky part is that because the wheels hang so much lower than the vehicle, just a simple decoupler on the bottom wont work, so what I do, is I put a node connector part in the cargo bay then attach the rover and the decoupler on the bottom to that node, which gives you the extra height you need to accomodate the wheels. Bear in mind, the rover was not really resigned for the WT-51, but its about the only ships I have created capable of taking something that big into orbit. Also, it looks like yes the game project im working on with some friends is going ahead, but at the moment my only job for it is to make a few basic models for the initial engine to be worked on, as I won't be doing much coding at the moment for it, I really need to scrub up on my python, the last time I seriously got into coding was Pascal and fortran, sure Ive made a tonne of crap in vb.net, but really who can't? drag and drop programming while easy doesnt teach you anything unfortunately and it's those years of relying on quick and easy ways that basically got me out of practice. I'm not by nature a mathematic person. I'm good with figures and percentages, profit margins etc.. but when it actually comes to complicates physics, it's just out of my ball park - luckily have people to help with that part. We've made 2D multiplayer games before (and our own engine) so we have some clue as to what we are doing So, all the work I need to do for the first few months of that project is actually almost done, so ironically im almost back to having some free time. So I spent a few hours last night designing something new (yes I actually got some pen and paper out! ) I thought to myself, what do I actually want to build? Once you start looking at Sci fi ships, you go nuts.. I mean how many things are there out there that would be cool to put into KSP? But... really, the game is neither designed for that type of ship and also it just doesn't fit the over all feel of KSP. I started making mods originally after seeing Bobcat's and Tiberions stuff. Sure, there were other modders around at the time but they had probably the most neat stuff you could download (we're going back a bit here.. not that things have changed ) Only once you start making mods, can you have any appreciation really at all what goes into actually making a massive pack (like HOME or KW Rocketry) , I can't say I could accomplish anything as great as the B9 pack, but If I was unemployed, didnt have kids, and didnt have to worry about mortgages and life in general, I think I might actually have the chance (and time) to try and do something as professional looking as that - it takes alot of time :/ Hand painting textures etc etc.. So I often cheap out to save time. Last night I asked myself (I talk to myself alot lol...) Why do I cheap out? Why am I rushing? do I really feel obligated to churn something out because 40 people are hounding my inbox for it? Would it be worth actually making a serious effort and putting 100 percent into it? I don't know, mainly because I never have.. The WT-51 and the PegasusX1/X2 are the most popular downloads I have at the moment. There are about 10,000 of each floating around out there in someones space, hopefully being flown. That's one thing about the Spaceport, it does give you a pretty good general indicator of the types of mods people want. So my two most popular mods, are the ones I spent the least amount of time on! No plan, not idea just started making stuff. The pegasus was of course a modification of the original, but still we are talking a day or two. I did the WT-51 in the time the forum was down in april from start to finish, I think it was done even before the forums came back up.. Anyway the point I'm trying to make while I sit here and type this wall of text, it's clear that If I just stopped, sat back and concentrated on one thing, like the new large pack Im working on, then it probably would be all for the best and the finished mod would be alot more polished. I love making 3D models of sci fi ships, but so do a million other people, and most of them do it better than me! At the end of the day, you are not re-creating the wheel, you are simply sprucing it up, cutting it apart and giving it a paintjob. Also, with the new PNG optimised KSP, I will probably be going .PNG for all my textures from now on too, so you wil be able to edit them as you see fit. The next pack (and really the only pack I am working on) is going to be very large, all original and hopefully fits with the style of KSP alot more. @Khaos yes the KAS hooks work well on it

Now, now, crasher. That it equally uncalled for. I'm sure we can talk this out with him over a cup of tea.

Is this game being marketed to schools? I'm 35 years old, and I've been HUGELY educated in a short amount of time. You want to talk about inspiring the future generations ... what better way than with this game? It is a phenomenal interractive education experience!

Odd. Then again I'm at the point where I'll take what I can get. So I'm not a good person to talk to about this. @mercy. Oh wow.

Oh if I would be able to do this... Right now I have around 10 pages Stuctural Parts and my games takes 10! minutes to load... Talk about a lot of mods.

Because it was originally made by r4m0n using mechjeb.dll as a framework, before the library came out for all those mods that relied on features that it was moving away from. It became somewhat neglected, and now I have no idea whether or not r4m0n has even touched it in months. It definitely needs a rewrite. If you go for it see if you can make more control modes possible, such as preset toggles numerical inputs and maybe even set torque values, in addition to imprecise manual controls. It'd be really interesting if you managed something that piggybacked on the control surface code to manipulate the joints. I know there had been talk about landing legs that adjusted their position to level out your lander. If you managed to tack this functionality on, one could use it to land on just about any surface. (I imagine the legs drop to full extent, and then go limp. As the lander comes down, each leg is pushed up again. When the code detects that all legs are in contact it locks them in place, and the user then uses pitch and yaw to adjust their attitude in relation to the ground. This could also make the lander capable of "kneeling", maybe using h/n to keep the control inputs standardised in terms of motion, in case you are trying to dock a rover or what not.)

Something is up with your installation. B9 3.0 takes less time to load than the stock parts. Please check that you have the correct KSP version, installed correctly, etc. If you have a 32-bit machine, sorry, you're out of luck. We reduced the memory load of B9 from 1.8Gb to under 800Mb, but if you're running under a 2GB per-process limit there's no way you're going to load this, or any other large packs. I'm not sure what's going on for you. Either you simply do not enough ram to run B9 (we optimized as much as possible but it is still a LOT of parts), you did not follow the installation instructions, or you're not using 0.20.2. We're using it everywhere. Have you noticed how many things can be toggles in VAB? However, you can't get around a KSP limitation with 2 animations affecting the same GameObject. I'll have a talk with ferram about it, to check if there's any other things which need a special name as well. You did not follow the installation instructions. Please follow the installation instructions. They are there for a reason.

You wanna talk family curses? Everyone in my family except one of my sisters has broken at least one bone. And that sister seems determined to do everythign up to breaking a bone!

actually you can use a dish to talk to omni directional antennas. The dish has a longer distance transmit/recieve ability so it can hear the omni from much farther away, and the omni can pick up signals sent to it from a directional antenna just as easly as from a omnidirectional antenna. This doesn't actually increase the range of the omni but it does allow for communication at a much longer range then between just to omnidirectional antennas. you will note that remote tech models this by increasing the range of the omni but only for the dish thats pointed at it. its range is not increased globaly

Nice, taking some initiative, but I think BlazingAngel is working on one of the delta's, you should talk to him.

Not sure yet. The more detail we add, the more polygons it needs, and thus the overall framerate of your game decreases. I'll talk to aphazael about it. I want to add those, but at the moment I can't spare the polygons.

Thanks Devo, for all your work and I promise to keep crashing your Eagle for a long time to come. Drop us a line when you are ready to talk about your game.

That's me--all day today I've been distracted by how to get my interplanetary mission to Moho. On paper I have enough delta-v, but I'm worried that there won't be enough to circularize after the inclination change. I was debating on whether to send up a refueling tanker along with the interplanetary ship, swap out drive stages, etc... Needless to say, I'm not one for small talk at the moment

All this talk about the "Tsar Bomba", but no Tsar Cannon?! No silly bomb made when the Tsars weren't around, this is a real cannon made during the Tsardom of Russia!

Khrissetti, you're not a bad person. You were putting your brain to better use than trying to keep up with party small talk of how much a @%$!*^@# Justin Beiber really is.

This is a thread to talk about SSTOs we have the technology for today.... Here's one I really like, the SASSTO: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_SASSTO It's VTVL, but I think things like this are really worthwhile. Another Idea I have is that we could use a reusable discarded 1st stage, that might fly to another continent to land (the biggest problem right now is that the 1st stage would need to turn around and fly back as it would be too far downrange to land, but we could instead say have a 1st stage from Kennedy Space Center land in Europe or Africa, eliminating the problem of an ocean landing. We would necessarily need much larger first stages to ensure it could make it, but the reusability would make it more cost-effective over many launches.

So I'm at a party for a friend of my girlfriend and I find my mind drifting from the endless small talk to wondering how to build my next kerbal space station? Has anybody else experienced this or am I just a bad person?

If you take the ElectricCharge unit literally and we believe that the devs didn't call it "electric charge" just because then it should be measured in Coulombs, that translates nicely all the sources and sinks of electricity into Amperes (1A is 1C/s, ie, the small solar panel gives 0.75A or 750mA, the spotlights consume 40mA, etc) but then the batteries ratings get awfully low like Z-400 getting 0.111Ah or 111mAh, which is like 10 times worse than a typical AA alkaline battery. Also "electric charge per sec" isn't energy, you can't compare it with joules, for talk about energy we need to know the potential or voltage involved. I suppose that electricity in KSP is so disconnected from reality that we can't say what it is

Okay. Lets talk about the KYOOT BUNNEH picture that Redwolfy (I think) posted. You know, the .gif one?

Text talk video of a concept of a chair re-entry escape thingy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uZILquino0

Hey folks, This thread has grown quite a bit since the original First Flight short story. To make things a little easier (and thank you to those who suggested this), here are the links to the various chapters for ease of reading. Cheers, KSK Contents Prologue: First Flight Part 1: The Interplanetary Society 1: Space Program Rising (Part I) 2: Space Program Rising (Part II) 3: New Directions 4: Satellite 5: Two's Company 6: These New Engines 7: The Courage of Conviction 8: The Other Side 9: Kerbal in Space Soonest 10: Project Moho 11: The Seed 12: Poyekhali 13: All the Proof They Needed Part 2: Secrets of the Kerm 14: Decisions 15: New Homes 16: Mun Or Bust 17: We all build them - We all fly them 18: MarkusA380 Fanart 19: Reunion 20: Beached 21: Beyond Kerbin 22: Far Side 23: The Dish 24: Dreams 25: A Journey Around the World. 26: Circles. 27: Docking - Part I. 28: Docking - Part II. 29: And Rendezvous. 30: The Cords That Bind. 31: Echoes of Time. Part 3: Kerbal Space Program 32: Right of Conclave. 33: Project Eve. 34: Uncharted. 35: Dewdrops. 36: Preparations. 37: Pioneering Spirit. 38: With a little help... 39: Stormclouds. 40: Second Mün. 41: Training Days. 42: The Best Laid Plans. 43: A Voyage for the Ages. 44: Mün. 45: Priorities. 46: Pre-emptive. 47: Diplomacy. 48: Pilgrims. 49: Lightning. 50: Through the Eyes of a Child. 51: Under Pressure. 52: Halfway Point. 53: Craters. 54: If you cut us... 55: One Small Step. 56: The Days the World Stood Still. 57: Starseed. Part 4: The Age of Fire. 58: Engines and Engineers. 59: A Thin Red Line. 60: Children of Kerbin. 61: Shrinking the Ellipse. 62: Journeys. 63: Hopes. 64: And Fears. 65: Black Stripes 66: Prospecting 67: For Kerm and Kerbal. 68: A Time for Love. 69: Shaking the Pillars. 70: Crossroads. 71: A Grove for a Grove. 72: No Borders. 73: Hot and Cold. 74: Politics. 75: Blue and Grey. 76: The Skies of Minmus. 77: A Few Good Kerbals. 78: Names. 79: Instincts. 80: The Straw and the Mallek. 81: Darkness Falls. 82: Shattered. 83: The Two Jebediahs. 84: Special Order 42. 85: More Boosters. 86: Family Tree. 87: White Cross. 88: Grass Roots. 89: Bridging the Gap. 90: A Helping Hand. 91: Lab Coats and Lapel Badges. 92: Laying the Keel. 93: Through the Gate. 94: Every Kerbonaut's Friend. 95: Humilisia Falls. 96: Last Flight from Barkton 97: Written in the Starlight 98: The Needs of the Many 99: Remembrance 100: A is for Acorn 101: Telegraph Road 102: Coming Home 103: Shoulders to the Wheel 104: Knuckling Down 105: The Sage of Barkton 106: Starflower 107: Leviathan 108: The Rough and the Smooth 109: New Trajectories 110: Twenty-Five 111: To Walk Amongst Them 112: Legacy 113: We Will not Seek 114: Blackout 115: Now - and Forever Epilogue: Founding Father Artwork and Crafts I'm absolutely thrilled (and more than a bit humbled) to be adding this section to the contents list. Here are links to various illustrations, screenshots, in-game vehicles and (unbelievably) a mod, from First Flight created by readers of this thread. Enjoy - I know I did! "Those Trashcans definitely made it happen." The Kerbal 1 blasts off on its pioneering first flight. "It's Kerbin... just Kerbin." The Kerbal 1 crew get their first glimpse of their world from high altitude. By Yukon0009. "Four green hands clasped in quiet triumph as Kerbin's very first artificial satellite soared through the void." The Kerbin 1's broadcast from the KIS to kerbals around the world inspires the Speciality Fireworks Company's transformation into the Rockomax Corporation. By minepagan. "Moho 1 has cleared the tower!" Jebediah Kerman rockets into orbit - and history. By Yukon0009. "I think we've just got a very happy kerbal up there." Wilford Kerman notches up his own spaceflight firsts aboard Moho 3. By MarkusA380. "There's parking space to the left as you go through the gates, Ornie." Whether you need to pick up supplies for a morale raising barbecue or tow rocket stages to the VAB, Ornie is your kerbal. By Mr. Pseudonym. "Why don't you just do that, Jonton Kermol." Seen here in typical working garb, the kermol are the vital, rural half of kerbal society. By Krevsin. ------------------- Before the Space Program, before Mainsails and Mun rovers, before there was even such a thing as a probe core, there was just a group of friends with a shared dream who refused to let that dream go. This is part of their story. It was a bright sunlit afternoon as Geneney walked out to the launch pad. He could see the rocket in his minds eye. A gleaming tower of sculptured metal rising into the sky with a cluster of the latest generation engines at the base and the newest, most spacious capsule sitting proudly at the top. Ready to take him to the Mun, to Minmus or anywhere else he cared to go. He sighed. The reality of course was rather different. A rusty launch tower constructed from old scaffolding. A bunker full of worn out monitors and other abandoned electronic gear. And a last ditch attempt at a rocket that they had built from whatever junk they could scavenge up and weld together. Wernher's original LV-1 engine had proven far far more difficult to scale up than any of them had imagined. Getting the stability augmentation system to work had eventually been an exercise in stubbornness rather than elegant engineering. And as for the decouplers. Geneney shook his head. Best not to think about the wretched decouplers. He reached the first of the launch clamps and inspected it carefully. The rocket loomed above him, a battered metal cylinder with a tangle of plumbing at the base, connected to the familiar ribbed shape of the LV-15 engine bell. Four RT-5 solid fuel boosters attached to the sides by explosive bolts and a simple capsule secured to the top with more explosive bolts completed this most unlikely looking spacecraft. In Geneney's opinion 'booster' was an optimistic name for a squat drum of firework propellant with a cone attached to the bottom. As for sticking them on with explosive bolts... No - best not to think about the decouplers. Besides they had worked well enough in testing and none of them had been able to get the hydraulic pusher system to work reliably. Geneney could hear voices far above him as Lucan helped the three cosmonauts into the capsule. An occasional mumbled comment from Bill, Bob's nervous chatter and Jeb, talking up a storm in his enthusiasm. Geneney smiled to himself. Bill was still a believer, Bob... well Bob was loyal. If his best friends were risking themselves in a home-brewed rocket, then Bob would be there alongside them. And as for Jeb, he had never given up, despite all the difficulties, frustrations and exploded prototypes. He'd kept them going, with his permanent grin and irrepressible enthusiasm, even as the other members of the Kerbin Interplanetary Society had gradually drifted away. It helped that the grin hid a surprisingly competent engineer, otherwise Geneney was fairly sure that Wernher would have stuffed Jeb headfirst into the engine bell of the LV-10 test model and probably fired it too. His smile faded. The LV-10 test had been a definite low point and they still hadn't figured out exactly what went wrong. The LV-15 worked, although it wasn't close to being powerful enough and all their attempts to cluster multiple LV-15s together had failed. Eventually even Jeb had conceded that the multiple LV-15 design was just too prone to overheating and suggested using a set of RT-5 'Trashcan' engines instead. All the launch clamps seemed to be in order and a loud clang from above announced that Lucan had finally closed the hatch of the Kerbal 1. Geneney waited as Lucan clambered down the launch tower and the two kerbals hurried back to the control bunker. ------------- Geneney tapped his microphone. "Kerbal 1, this is Control. How are you guys doing up there?" Jeb's voice crackled from the speakers. "Cool, calm and collected, Genie. How's that telemetry looking?" If Geneney knew Bill and Bob, then calm was most probably a lie, let alone collected. No point in breaking the facade though. "Wernher's just running the last tests on the decouplers now Jeb. Five minutes to launch." Wernher pressed a button on his console and grunted in satisfaction as a set of indicator lights winked out. He flicked a switch and all five lights flickered briefly then lit up with a reassuring green glow. "All rocket systems check out. Guidance control and launch sequencing transferred to booster. Ready when you are, Gene." "OK then. We all know what we're doing. LV-15 engine start on my mark, 3 second hold down at full power as a last check, then we release the clamps and light up the Trashcans. That last bit is probably going to be a bit bouncy guys, so as soon as the LV-15 lights you'll probably want to hold on to something." "Gotcha, Genie." Geneney took a deep breath. "LV-15 ignition in five...four...three...two...one.. Mark!" Lucan and Geneney turned towards the main monitor screen. Behind them they could hear Wernher rattling through the ignition checklist. "Firing gas generator, turbopumps powering up and IGNITION!" Fire erupted from the base of the Kerbal 1, rapidly focusing into a single hard bright flame. A steadily increasing rumble could be heard outside as the LV-15 throttled up to full power. "Holding for three...two...one..." The bunker shook to a thunderous roar as all four RT-5s ignited, sending sheets of flame washing across the launch pad. The image on the monitor flared brightly. Spots danced in front of Geneney's eyes as he stared at the screen trying desperately to spot the Kerbal 1 amongst all the static. As the image came back into focus, all Geneney could see was a badly scorched launch pad. The noise in his headphones suggested that this was due to a successful launch rather than a catastrophic explosion but the faint screams didn't sound at all good. The static on monitor 2 didn't look promising either. "Wernher - talk to me!" "LV-15 performing well, all four RT-5s are running. All decouplers intact," came the calm response. "Capsule telemetry and sensors offline." Geneney gripped the arms of his chair tightly. "Which means?" "We have no way of telling how high the capsule is travelling, how fast or at what angle." Lucan interrupted him "If the decouplers haven't fired...I can still hear the engines in my headset, so the rocket should still be in one piece." He snapped his fingers. "The main data cable - it probably just came loose during the launch. Wernher, try SCE to Aux." Geneney's knuckles turned white as Wernher searched for the switch on his console. Then, with a click, monitor 2 lit up, as telemetry suddenly flooded in from the Kerbal 1. A slow smile spread across Geneney's face as he got to his feet and slapped Lucan on the back. Above his head, the numbers for altitude and velocity of the Kerbal 1 were both steadily increasing. ------------ "10 seconds till burnout." Geneney kept his fingers firmly crossed as he waited for the Trashcans to shut down. Five seconds to go, two, one... and nothing. The roar of the engines still filled his headphones. Five more seconds, ten more seconds. He was just turning towards Wernher, when everything went quiet. There was a series of muffled explosions and four lights on Wernher's console winked out. He grabbed the microphone. "Kerbal 1, this is Control. Come in Kerbal 1! Jeb, Bill, Bob - can you hear me!" Jeb chuckled. "Hearing you loud and clear, Genie if you'd let us get a word in edgewise!" "Jeb - thank the Kerm! Are you guys OK up there?" "The Bobcat here is looking a bit blue but we're all good. Nothing but Class A Badasses on this rocket ship!" Jeb paused to savour the moment. "Yeah, this rocket ship...", his voice trailed away. "Dammit guys we did it! Faster than any kerbal has ever travelled, higher than any kerbal has ever travelled and way way noisier than any kerbal has ever travelled! I told you those Trashcans would do the trick!" "Well we've still got a couple of things left to do, Jeb but yeah - those Trashcans definitely made it happen. Thirty seconds of fuel left for the LV-15." Lucan was keeping a close eye on the telemetry. The Kerbal 1 was actually accelerating slightly now as the last litres of fuel drained away, until at last the engines shut down. The last light flickered out on Wernher's console accompanied by a final muffled bang from the speakers. "Shutdown and booster separation confirmed, Jeb. We figure you should top out at around thirty to thirty five thousand metres." "Thanks, Luco. Not bad for a first flight, not bad at all! Looks like I won that bet with the Bobcat too - he reckoned we'd get to twenty five thousand at best!" Bob laughed nervously. "Are you sure they were just the standard Trashcans, Jeb? If we get down from here in one piece, I'm not sure I'll be able to get out of this seat, I got mashed into it so hard." "Didn't touch them, Bobcat. They sure did make for one heck of a ride though. What did you think, Bill? Hey - are you OK there, Bill? That window isn't coming loose is it?" "Oh... Oh wow... Guys you need to see this." Bill silently reached out a hand and Jeb wordlessly passed him the camera. Geneney blinked. He'd never heard Jeb sound like that before. Almost awestruck. "What is it, Jeb?" "It's Kerbin... just Kerbin. Only not quite and all of it at once. And the sky - it's full of more stars than you can believe. Greens and blues and brilliant white clouds and then black and stars." "You're not making any sense, Jeb." "No, no I don't think I am. You're gonna have to see this for yourself, Genie." Geneney sighed. "You know we're never going to get another shot at this. The Kerbal 1 was all we had left," he said sadly. "Actually, Genie, if even half of Bill's photos come out, I think you're going to get to see this quicker than you can imagine and in a bigger and better rocket than you can imagine too. Hey, Bill, if you're done with that camera, pass it over here. Genie, I'm taking off my helmet, sticking the camera into it and wedging it under the control panel for safekeeping." Geneney's jaw dropped. "What, why, what are you doing? What happens if you get an air leak?!" Jeb's voice was uncharacteristically serious. "I'll just have to hold my breath, Genie. Whatever happens to Bill, Bob and me, you need this camera. It's all the proof that the Kerbin Interplanetary Society needs and it's going to change everything." --------- Two small green figures stood on the roof of a makeshift concrete bunker, anxiously peering out to sea. Geneney glanced at his watch and then scanned the horizon again, too nervous to look away for more than a moment. He knew that he probably wouldn't see the capsule from this distance but the parachute should be visible. And it should be visible any moment now. Beside him, Wernher suddenly stiffened and pointed at the sky. An orange streamer popped into view, plunged towards the ground and then fluttered skywards. Geneney's heart was in his mouth. If that was the drogue chute then... YES! Two orange discs burst into the sky and then unfurled into the welcome, welcome sight of two fully opened parachutes. Geneney and Wernher looked at each other, grinned in triumph and then threw themselves down the stairs as fast as they could. "Lucan, Wernher - boat. Now! We've got three kerbonauts to pick up! Epilogue - two days later Four members of the Kerbin Interplanetary Society were lounging about at the Jebediah Kerman Junkyard and Spare Parts Company. Bill was in Jeb's office working on his camera, whilst Jeb was out with a pair of customers, helping them rummage through a pile of old engine parts. As the three of them strolled back towards the office, Geneney overhead snatches of conversation. "Were you boys anything to do with a mighty lot of noise out by that old rusty tower the other day?" Jeb nodded, "Yup, that was us, sir. Testing some bits and pieces from the junkyard." The older of the two customers chuckled. "People back in town reckon they saw one of those rockets flying into the sky." He snorted. "Load of nonsense if you ask me, never mind what those crazy interplanetary characters keep talking about. Although I have to admit, they do make some mighty fine explosions." Genneny stifled a grin as Jeb tried his best to keep a straight face. Just then Bill popped his head around the office door. "Hey guys - photo's came out nicely. You want to take a look?" Jeb smiled. "Love to, Bill." He turned towards his customers politely, "and would you good kerbals care to join us?" Geneney stared at Jeb's office wall. Most of Bill's photographs were blurry views of not very much, taken out of what was obviously a very small window. Several more showed what looked like maps. But none of the eight kerbals crammed into the room had eyes for anything other than the largest picture in the middle. This too was clearly a view through a window but beautifully sharp. A very obviously curved line down the middle separated inky blackness from brilliant blue, dusky brown and lush green. Far away in the distance, the familiar battered grey ball of the Mün rose over Kerbin. Geneney blinked back tears. Jeb was right. They had really done it. They could do it again. And there would be a Space Program. Chapter 1. >>

The figures you see are ideal numbers that assume you didn't do anything wrong, but there are lots of ways to use more fuel than the minimum and run over those numbers. For example, if you descend very slowly to Mun's surface, you will burn a lot of fuel hovering even though you're covering the same distance that the ideal figures talk about. Landing at higher lattitudes on Mun can also cost more fuel than landing near the equator (depending on how you get there), and so on. If you'd like an example, I made a rocket that should have enough dV for the job, and wrote out a flight path that is not ideal, but should be reasonably close to a minimal fuel method. You can find it here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/25029-A-moon-rocket-for-newbies

Yeah telescopic hatches are not really that tricky, just gotta make the hatch a child of the door and have it move with it. TBH Tommy, getting pretty over it, might talk to you in PM's about it not here.