Stupid things you noticed too late in a Mission

[Javster]

TAC life support: Kerbals need electricity to survive. I have yet to unlock power generation, and I can't get to the Mun in time. And to top it all off, the VAB only supports 30 parts

[Cuky]

I like to use OX-4L 1x6 Photovoltaic Panels because for me they look better than their shielded companion (SP-L 1x6) but I was caught few times with not being able to retract them once they are deployed. Latest mission to fail because of that was mission to land a probe on Eve. Aerobraking with panels out is not something I would recommend.

[Skorpychan]

Fairly often, I forget solar panels, batteries, fuel lines, FUEL, etc.

Worst has to be having something up there WITH everything, but manoeuvring itself so the OX-stats were all blocked. And no power to extend the extendables.

[MrWolf83]

Had a full capsule on a rescue mission. Yup one Kerbanaunt attempted to pull a Felix Baumgartner without a chute, and no chance of survival.

Edited June 21, 2015 by MrWolf83
Accidental post without finishing sentence.

[Yellowburn10]

I was rescuing some kerbals stranded on the mun after a malfunction with their engine. And by that I mean it exploded. Anyway, the rescue went smoothly and there were no problems. After they re-entered, I staged the chutes... Only there were none. I desparately tried to slow down with the engine, but it ran out of fuel in about 5 seconds slowing down, then *SPLOOSH.* Rest in peace little guys...

[trevorpage]

Attempting to gain some science by low polar-orbit Munar EVA. carefully circularised orbit and checked to see there was no clipping of the blue orbit track with the surface in map view. This was going to be close. God that surface is speeding past at some rate of knots. Does the Mun have some miniscule atmosphere or are my Kerbals obese? either way after a few succesful orbits - with in space near 'biome' science points, I'm thinking god that surface looks close. Board the ship; set the SAS on; line up prograde ready to burn and raise the orbit a little when 'BANG' ....

[Sharpy]

Eh, my return craft for my Minmus mission - no command module, just a crew cabin. It was supposed to have a probe core to guide it home - lots of scientists, not a single pilot. There was a plenty of spare room in the cargo bay (MK3 small) after I installed the inertia wheel, the batteries and *thought* I installed the core, so I put a little nice speeder craft so they could fly around and collect science say "above" given location, or check how far until next biome, performing a recon before the lab would move in.

Well, the speeder is out of the game, its probe core controlling the return craft.

[Sharpy]

So, I've been stealing from various checklists and adding my own. Here's mine.

-Struts

-Fuel crossfeed/pipes

-Parachutes

-Lights

-Ladder

-Reaction wheels

-Wheels/Legs

-Canards

-Intakes

-CoM/CoT

-Batteries

-Solar panels

-Antenna

-Science

-One Emergency Unshielded Solar

-RCS

-Crew

-Cores

-Docking

-Action Groups

-Staging

-cooling

-Check symmetry

Some explanations:

One Emergency Unshielded Solar - one or two smallest "single" solar panels, for when you forgot to extend the folded panels and don't have the electricity to do so.

Cooling for LV-N.

Check symmetry - KSP likes to change your symmetry settings. Things like one wing missing from a plane are easy to spot, but one of RCS ports (when you install 14 of them) is easy to miss - my earlier design of a fuel truck had a horrible time "translating left" because the editor choose not to place the rear right RCS port on one side. Only one port on the left and totally off-center.

[Beowolf]

"that one single stupid mistake you make and realise too late"

So, you want me to list like 1,000 launches here? I've been playing for two years. I think I've forgotten to prep every part at some time, from ships without a working pod to once a complex asparagus-staged ship where I forgot to put the central booster engine on!

When I started playing with Real Fuels, it got even more fun because now I can fill a tank with the wrong fuel.

As for the little stuff like missing solar panels, docking ports, or RCS, I'm a huge KIS fan. I always keep a full spare-parts kit in orbit full of that stuff, and my Kerbals get lots of EVA time improvising repairs on my poor designs.

Edited June 22, 2015 by Beowolf

[xrayfishx]

When I started playing with Real Fuels, it got even more fun because now I can fill a tank with the wrong fuel.

Try the full set of RO

I have:

forgotten to deploy antennas during launch which results in a loss of connection halfway through final stage burn (to eliminate this problem I often use solid rocket upper stages now when I don't have a communication network up yet);

forgotten to set up RealChutes correctly;

forgotten to add probe cores/antennas to that last stage that's supposed to deorbit itself;

forgotten to add rotation controls (RCS/reaction wheels) to upper stages that don't have thrust vectoring;

etc

etc

etc

I have never filled a tank with wrong fuel, though. I use the auto fill option and I always check if I got the correct ration. Oh yeah, different engines use the same fuels in different ratios in RO. Keeping track of fuels is easy, eventually you'll remember which engine uses which fuel anyway. Keeping track of ratios takes a bit more effort.

[Jon144]

They only wanted me to test the part on the launchpad

[Landwalker]

The 1.0.3 updated heating/drag mechanics do not play well with my automatic parachute deployment systems. Must remember to set auto-deployment at 0.5 atmospheres instead of 0.35 in order to avoid parachute annihilation. And to aim for a non-mountainous landing (because 0.5 atmospheres is well below the highest point on Kerbin)...

[Fenris]

They only wanted me to test the part on the launchpad

I can't count the number of times I've done that

I can add not reading other contracts correctly also, I took one in early career mode that paid a lot (for early in the game anyway) that was to test a separatron while landed, I thought "easy money" till I went to test it and realized it was supposed to be tested on Minmus .... I was nowhere close to being able to make it to Minmus at the time.

[SkyRender]

Forgot to add life support to a Munar orbit mission early in Career mode (using TAC Life Support). It was a pretty tense return to Kerbin. Landed with no food or water left and literally a minute and a half of air left.

[Triop]

I still forget to stage my chutes...

Keep popping up when pressing spacebar to start my mission....

[annallia]

My first attempt at a Mun science station.

Got a lab up there, habitat module, two rovers and a dozen kerbals.

Not a single piece of equipment had an antenna on it....

[AbacusWizard]

My first attempt at a Mun science station.

Got a lab up there, habitat module, two rovers and a dozen kerbals.

Not a single piece of equipment had an antenna on it....

Sounds like a job for... Kerbal Inventory System!

[CaptainApollo]

I forgot to add a ladder to my lander, so I am now very very grateful to RCS. Thank you.

[Goddess Bhavani]

Forgot to add life support to a Munar orbit mission early in Career mode (using TAC Life Support). It was a pretty tense return to Kerbin. Landed with no food or water left and literally a minute and a half of air left.

Did this on a low tech micro shuttle Munar flyby mission.

Nearly ran out of shipboard life support during the slow part of a free-return trajectory, hitched a ride on the outside of the cockpit to use EVA supplies. Full burn towards Kerbin to reduce return time. Nearly suffocated to death.

There was also a sub-orbital mission where I plain forgot to add a solar panel to the same micro-shuttle (early prototype version, haven't even unlocked solar panels yet). Hypersonic re-entry was with air conditioning off, no SAS, manual flight controls. At least I know its flyable on manual

[2001kraft]

I sent a VTOL to Eeloo but when I got there I realized that I don't know how to fly VTOLs. I crashed and killed my two fav kerbals. FML.

[Aidan likes minmus]

I made a space tour ship that could go to kerbin and its moons except land on them. since I like to get a bunch of contracts that look "possible" I ended up having a lot need to clear, this ferry 8 kerbals to the moons and kerbin. after the mun wouldent let me go to minmus (like 3 times). eventally I did my flyby and stuff im about one timewarp away from going into kerbins atmosphere. and boom I look around and realize I have no parechutes ! my podle wasn't enough to slow it down. my vessel crashed ruining that contract and a bunch of time. 2 kerbals became M.I.A.

always ALWAYS check for parachutes JUST DO IT

[Pixel of Life]

I was going to send a manned ship to Hale (one of the moons of Sarnus, from the Outer Planets mod) and was already in interplanetary space when I noticed my heatshield had no ablator left. Apparently I forgot to put an insulator between the shield and the rest of the ship, and the engines consumed all the ablator since they ran quite hot during the several long burns required just to get out of Kerbin's SOI.

[Aidan likes minmus]

that's possibly survivable I landed in the ocean with no parachutes and a poddle= no chance

[MrWolf83]

Launched two probes at same time in order to satisfy two contracts at once that way, didn't realize that the last probe I was getting into position didn't have an SAS, so had to manually aim, but forgot to deploy solar panels to power the RCS.

[Green Baron]

That happened today when racing through career in 1.03. Jeb grins, he knows its not the first nor the last time ... :-)