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I've been exploring a lot of new things like the payload devices and Xenon engines, struts and using group actions. Got those things running pretty nice. My rocket is moving much more smoothly, higher speeds, lower, faster orbits. I've circularized orbits within a couple hundred kilometers, got my RCS working pretty well. I even matched my orbit somewhat to Eve's orbit and at no point did Eve's orbit cross my orbit. I had to tip my orbit pretty radically to be able to touch Eve's. Then I tried to get it even closer but I'm working from such a tiny circle compared with the distance and I'm just lining things up by eye with the sun in my eyes. This is from Kerbin orbit. Is it possible to go from Kerbin orbit to Eve orbit? Or is it required to hit all the objects in between? The orbital lines don't reach. I always get stuck orbiting the sun if I can't get an orbit with a node, but it seems like it should be possible with enough fuel to go from sun orbit to orbit another planet or at least make a tighter sun orbit. I've got quite a bit of Xenon fuel and 26 gigantor solar units for my 26 xenon engines. They can run for a very long time without running out of electricity. I did manage to get a descending or ascending node with Eve. Is that the point where I put another node and... I don't know. Sometimes with this game my brain just freezes up. Am I nuts to be trying to orbit these outer planets just by eyeballing things? Can I go from Kerbin to Eve or even further? If not what should I do first? I'm proficient at going to Mun and Minimus and back. Is there a way to make those orbital lines stretch out further or is there some other trick to know if you've got a chance to rendevous? What do you think of my long range space traveler with 26 xenon engines and 26 gigantor solar? Got rid of struts and am using the strut system that comes with SRBs. Attaching to grandparent. Does this method cause less lag or am I imagining? Which mods should I use and where are the best tutorials for those mods? I'm using Xenon for the phenomenal ISP. I think I managed to lift off from Minimus and get back to Kerbin but Minimus is very low gravity. I might have problems lifting off from bigger bodies like Eve and so I might have to complicate my landing vehicle eventually with stages or docking devices. I might even have to take things apart and put them back together again in space but that sounds like quite a formidable but attractive task. On the other hand getting to Eve and fiddling with the nodes just turns me off sometimes. Too much to go wrong and when you fail you have to go way back to the beginning.

[Stock] Extremely long range glider. This is a stock glider that is able to traverse the planet with ease and let you explore the wonders of Kerbin. _________________________________________________________________________________________ Specs: Parts: 42 Dry Mass: 8.501t Wet Mass: 14.502t (Not Incl. Monoprop. 14.532t with it ) Height: 3.9m Width: 31.6m (Wingspan) Length: 10.4m _________________________________________________________________________________________ Manoeuvrability: Slow on the roll and yaw but very stable. Structure: Due to the flapping (and breaking) of the wings I referenced the Kerbal term. and that is what i did. What do you know, the wings don't flap (or break)! This is my first craft btw. Enjoy! https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B34aBprlvKOWbEsyM3ZGMEtIWVk ^^^Link for craft file here^^^

Thanks for all your help guys. I've managed to build the craft i was looking for. Thanks for explaining the fundamentals so well. I've been building fast crafts of all shapes and sizes now. Hi, I'm having trouble building the plane i want. I've not much experience with planes at all, only ever built a couple of ssto's and even then i cheated the .cfg's . So i've started with the stock Mk4 Revenspear. None of my design attempts could reach more than 300m/s and this stock craft can reach 820m/s so i went with it. I need it to do as close to 1000m/s and have a range of 800km. This is the distance to my second base where i plan to eventually launch all my Kerbin rockets from and for shuttling crew and small payloads i need the speed, my big cargo plane takes 1hr10min to get there and that's far too long to do often. I also need a small cargo bay for the payloads. I've unlocked all plane science nodes. Here's the craft. The problem i'm running into is the range, every time i add more fuel and gain range, i need more thrust, i add more thrust and I've lost the gained range. I find i need a certain amount of thrust to get to around 360m/s before it seems to just run away with itself up to 800ish if i can't get to 360m/s it's a long slow journey. If i get the 360 i always then quickly get to 800 but fall short on the range every time. I've tried all sorts of different altitudes but not been able to squeeze out more than a few minutes extra flight time. This has a range of about 550km and can just about get the to the 360 tip over point. The ultimate goal would be to have a range of 1600km so i could air drop supply payloads instead of needing to land and refuel for the return journey. I also tried drop tanks but any side tank made reaching any sort of speed immpossible. If you can help me i'd really appreciate it.