Helpful 1.0 observations

[Batz_10K]

Don't clip the 1.25m utility bays. Your craft will fall apart.

[ImperialistPigDog]

The staging bar in the editor doesn't scroll far enough down to not block the exit button.

[Geschosskopf]

3.4 Km/s is shaping into the new LKO Delta V well let's start making maps

3400 is way too high, the result of inefficient launch profiles. You should easily be able to do it with just 3000m/s, and even less if you try hard enough. My best is 2789m/s to 100km circularized. See this thread.

[M-G]

Thx for those information GoSlash27 , referenced by EladDv

[EladDv]

3400 is way too high, the result of inefficient launch profiles. You should easily be able to do it with just 3000m/s, and even less if you try hard enough. My best is 2789m/s to 100km circularized. See this thread.

yeah i took a look at it and it seems positive i was saying that on the available info but it's really promising (about 2.5-2.7 looks as the current sea level Delta V) i am not a good mapper so....yeah...well i would love if squad could do it once and for all and tell us what average Delta V is enough and give us some readouts. until then i have KER...i want it stock'd

[Starhawk]

wow ISP curves are all over the place huh?

Definitely verrry interesting.

Happy landings!

[GoSlash27]

3400 is way too high, the result of inefficient launch profiles. You should easily be able to do it with just 3000m/s, and even less if you try hard enough. My best is 2789m/s to 100km circularized. See this thread.

Geschosskopf,

Thanks for the info and rigorous testing.

I'll get the OP updated.

Best,

-Slashy

[WOODY01]

I skimmed through this thread so not sure if anybody added this:

The basic jet engine seems to have an operating ceiling around 10-12k, you start to lose thrust and hence your speed at that those altitudes, you can push it higher with certain designs but not by much.

Air hogging is no longer effective, tried it to complete a contract I thought I would have no problem completing with a simple plane. Turned out it was a challenge getting to 16.5 k, did not manage the 17.5 and 18.5 temp readings I needed with jets alone.

[Red Iron Crown]

Don't use the NCS Nose Adapter fuel tank on a hypersonic plane, it overheats pretty easily.

[Geschosskopf]

If your Kerbal is on a ladder and somehow gets tangled with some nearby part, either keep on using W/S or let go. Trying the "Climb out" option is not a good idea. Kerbals clipping into parts of the ship can tear things apart.

OTOH, this is nice for those "Hulk SMASH" rage moments

[Robotengineer]

Sometimes it's cheaper to rescue kerbals via contracts rather than hire them for money in the Astronaut Complex.

[LordFerret]

Would a Mod please sticky this thread? Thank you.

[arkie87]

Sometimes it's cheaper to rescue kerbals via contracts rather than hire them for money in the Astronaut Complex.

I do that all the time!

[A_name]

Physics:

I have found so far that if I keep my velocity below terminal, the SAS is adequate to keep me on course without fins. This also seems to be very efficient in terms of DV.

How do you know what the terminal velocity is?

[Dodgey]

Dont forget that even after you stop your engines they continue to pump heart into the connected parts, possibly overheating them after you had finished your burn.

[federicoaa]

Dont forget that even after you stop your engines they continue to pump heart into the connected parts, possibly overheating them after you had finished your burn.

Just a small correction, they pump heat, not love

[Wanderfound]

* NuStock spaceplanes reenter without difficulty so long as you use AoA and S-turns to wash off most of your speed at high altitude. No airbrakes required.

* Heating is not a problem during ascent so long as you gain sufficient altitude (25,000m+) before cracking Mach 4.

* Unshielded solar panels are no longer retractable.

* Default brake torque on landing gear is very very low.

* Stock aero planes can casually pull 15+G manouevres, but will lose a lot of speed in doing so.

* Stock aero planes lose speed very rapidly with engines off; if you run out of fuel, you're unlikely to be able to glide home.

[Frank_G]

The airbrakes act as yaw control when horizontal! It's a blessing for flying wing designers.

E: And it seems I am first to notice that!

That airbrakes can be used as flaps was already mentioned in the early youtube videos before release of 1.0

[Emilio]

Struts seem to have a much greater impact on ships now - be careful when securing heavy payloads. Also, not sure if that's new, but I've had ships literally explode by activating a decoupler that was strutted to the next stage.

Watch out with the "warp to maneuver" function, from my experience it tends to overshoot the node or, more rarely, fail to return to normal time. I recommend canceling early and warping manually when near the node.

Re-entry :

It _seems_ to be a good idea to tilt your capsule apollo style while re-entering the atmosphere to fine tune your landing site location. Lifting bodies are now modeled ingame ! (what i suggested has nothing to do with the re-entry bugs everyone seems to have, its just a way to land a spacecraft that already re enters fine)

Could you detail the process a bit more ? I've been reading a lot about controlled reentries from Gemini and Apollo but I'm having trouble applying all of it to KSP to reliably land at the space center.

[Farex]

Dres, the lonely spacepotatoe and home to the secret bases of the blue suits, has now actually a meaning in visiting! It has astros in orbit! AWESOME!

[DaMichel]

Don't use the NCS Nose Adapter fuel tank on a hypersonic plane, it overheats pretty easily.

I'd like to add: Don't put a Tail Connector on a hypersonic plane. You'll regret it.

[Starhawk]

Parts

I have a few data points for the Mammoth at Eve.

Altitude (m)     ISP (s)
30 000           313
20 000           309
10 000           293
 3 000           246
     0           193

Fired at sea level, the output was about 2500 kN.

Happy landings!

[panzer1b]

A few thinsg ive learned:

Anything placed inside a cargo/service bay has all drag/heat/aero forced disabled for it. So place stuff like RTGs, batteries, heck even fuel tanks can be placed into cargo bays to disable the drag on them completely. Personally ive already made some ion SSTOs that store ion tanks (lots of drag normally) inside the cargo bays.

Radially placed parts do not have any occlusion enabled and will ALWAYS suffer maximum drag penalties for a given orientation into airstream. This means that placing something externally and moving it inside the hull via gizmos (clipping in other words) does not lower the drag experienced at all, and that part is still just asd subject to overheat as it was externally.

Occlusion works for parts in a straight line (attached to the nodes in front/rear). Only the front part suffers maximum drag/heat penalties, and every part behind it regardless of size/shape is occluded and only suffers minor drag when angled. I know this is most likely a bug/exploit, but its how the game curently works so nice to let people know.

basic jets die off at roughly mach 1, turbojets around mach 3, and rapiers do not technically have a limit except at a certain point drag or heat ends up stopping you going to infinity (usually mach4-5 is the max you can achieve without cheats or exploits).

Rapiers are the best for SSTO/spaceplanes as they can eject ships at excess of 1500m/s from the atmosphere, and if you can get above 40ishkm, the drag becomes negligible unless you are going interplanetary velocities. Turbojets can eject at like 1200m/s, which is 300m/s more rocket fuel dV you need.

Basic jets have incredibale ISP, but are useless at higher altitudes and mach numbers.

Reentry without heat shields is very dangerous especially when going interplanetary, but can be countered with a very shallow angle. Almost all situations allow you to aerobrake into a stable orbit on the 1st pass with a aeroplane (2000 K temp limit parts exposed). For beginners its recomended to have heat shields though, as they make a masisve difference and allow some rather rapid slowdown (especially when coupled with the currently broken parachutes that cant be torn off or burned off for some reason).

[A_name]

* NuStock spaceplanes reenter without difficulty so long as you use AoA and S-turns to wash off most of your speed at high altitude. No airbrakes required.

Maybe this has changed since 1.0, but in .90 stock aero trying S-turns at high altitude was useless (for me at least) because the air wasn't thick enough to cause my changes in attitude (i.e. banking) to have any effect on the trajectory of the plane. Is there any particular way you have to do the S-turns so that the plane actually turns when flying through thin atmosphere?

[rodion_herrera]

Maybe this has changed since 1.0, but in .90 stock aero trying S-turns at high altitude was useless (for me at least) because the air wasn't thick enough to cause my changes in attitude (i.e. banking) to have any effect on the trajectory of the plane. Is there any particular way you have to do the S-turns so that the plane actually turns when flying through thin atmosphere?

To perform an S-turn, you don't only need to bank--you have to pull on the stick while in that bank--it is this pitching (albeit sideways) that should cause the change in the vector.