We don't need no tour guide.

[Raideur Ng]

For tourist missions, do you give them a full up capsule with a qualified kerbalnaut to watch over them, or would it be better to send a probe core?
 I've tried both and it -seems- better to send the probe to ferry them to the Mun and whatnot. What do you all think?

[regex]

I don't know, ferrying randos around to dumb situations isn't on my list of ~fun~ things to do in KSP.  Probe core is lighter on mass though, so there's that.

[StrandedonEarth]

If you get the Tourism Plus contract pack, it has missions that require a pilot. I'm still early in career; it may have other crew requirements later

[samstarman5]

I got offered a tourist contract to take four tourists for a sub-orbital flight for a lot of funds.  I pinch myself on funds more than my science in my career games, so it wasn't something I was going to pass up on.  The funny thing is I hadn't unlocked the habitat module or Mk1-2 pod.  I opted to give them four Mk1 Lander Cans stacked with an OKTO to pilot them.

The OKTO is tucked into a service bay.  What drove me wild is how solid this thing flew. I was expecting it to live up to its name, Centipede.

But, anyway, at that time I had yet to rescue a kerbal or hire new ones, so I didn't feel like risking any crew for this.  Since this mission was successful, I don't feel bad whatsoever that these tourists were AI chaperoned.  They had fun, especially the part where they were upside down after the drogues were deployed and before the mains were deployed.

[Alshain]

I decline all tourist contracts because they aren't very fun.  The only time they would be useful contracts is early game when you don't have what you need to do them (because a crew cabin under a Mk1 pod will flip and burn up)

[Choctofliatrio2.0]

I don't do them much, I do ones to orbit or whatever because they're quick, but ones that have things like landing on the Mun and then minmus are just ridiculous

 

[archenemy_6]

The one's I do I tend to do I try and have an experienced pilot ferry them around. Usually my best Pilot. I'm the sure the tourists paid a lot of money and I try to have my best men available for the job. That said I don't take them all too often unless I need some extra funds.

[Draco T stand-up guy]

7 minutes ago, Alshain said:

(because a crew cabin under a Mk1 pod will flip and burn up)

Only if you don't put a heat shield on them. For some strange reason putting a heat shield on makes them stable enough for a Level One pilot to keep the craft pointed retrograde. You don't even really need to do that but it is somewhat safer.

Edited April 27, 2016 by Draco T stand-up guy

[Kerbart]

I used two mk-1's in tandem for a moon fly-by. Picked up a contract on the TR-2C stack separator, that came in handy. Re-entry was tricky, as I'd lose the Octo to steer them (no way I was going to waste money on TWO octos. These contracts are to make money, not to waste it!). So I figured, once I'm on the return trajectory and out of the mun SOI, I'd adjust orbit to have a periapsis of 20km, release the first pod, then speed up, and once I'd be 20 minutes ahead reduce periapsis again, so the two pods would arrive 20m apart (otherwise reentry would be challenging for obvious reasons).

Turns out that it's pretty hard to get 20 minutes ahead on nearly the same trajectory by merely speeding up!

Eventually (I anticipated issues so I used the trusted "F5/F9 Trajectory Simulator" to work my way through the various scenarios) I figured out that the trick was to burn radial; that gave me a time difference of a royal one hour.

The design came in handy; barely had I set up the reentry solution or I got two contracts for rescueing Kerbals from Munar orbit...

[samstarman5]

1 minute ago, Choctofliatrio2.0 said:

I don't do them much, I do ones to orbit or whatever because they're quick, but ones that have things like landing on the Mun and then minmus are just ridiculous

 

I don't see them as ridiculous. One of the things that is getting us back into space is the tourist trade, and it being reflected in KSP is great to me.  For one thing, while you don't get an advance payment, you do get payment for each leg of their itinerary plus one more for bringing them back home.  You have until the contract expiration to bring them back home.  I seem to remember one tourist contract for going to the Mun included planting a flag, so you could actually use them for additional flag planting contracts as well, and really put them to work.

There are plenty of ways to make tourist and VIP contracts work for you. Have fun with it.

[Draco T stand-up guy]

7 minutes ago, Choctofliatrio2.0 said:

I don't do them much, I do ones to orbit or whatever because they're quick, but ones that have things like landing on the Mun and then minmus are just ridiculous

 

But pay really, really well which makes assembling those big big rockets possible.

[Choctofliatrio2.0]

2 minutes ago, Draco T stand-up guy said:

Only if you don't put a heat shield on them. For some strange reason putting a heat shield on makes them stable enough for a Level One pilot to keep the craft pointed retrograde. You don't even really need to do that but it is somewhat safer.

It's cause the heatshield is pretty heavy, keeping the center of mass lower.

[Kerbart]

57 minutes ago, Draco T stand-up guy said:

But pay really, really well which makes assembling those big big rockets possible.

This. Tourist contracts (once you get your rep up, something else tourist contracts are incredibly useful for) are ridiculously profitable. It doesn't hurt that more often than not you can have a tourist hitch a ride on a regular mission, effectively paying for the launch.

[Alshain]

1 hour ago, Draco T stand-up guy said:

Only if you don't put a heat shield on them. For some strange reason putting a heat shield on makes them stable enough for a Level One pilot to keep the craft pointed retrograde. You don't even really need to do that but it is somewhat safer.

It's never worked in the past, even with a heat shield.  I haven't tried in 1.1.

[samstarman5]

47 minutes ago, Alshain said:

It's never worked in the past, even with a heat shield.  I haven't tried in 1.1.

Try attaching a Rockomax adapter when it becomes available. I find it quite useful for re-entries. You can see it in use in my pic above.

[Alshain]

1 hour ago, samstarman5 said:

Try attaching a Rockomax adapter when it becomes available. I find it quite useful for re-entries. You can see it in use in my pic above.

ROFL, at that point it's too late, as I said. The tourist contracts are only usefull in early career. I'm not taking them beyond LKO, that's just a waste of my time.

[Fallarnon]

3 hours ago, Alshain said:

I decline all tourist contracts because they aren't very fun.  The only time they would be useful contracts is early game when you don't have what you need to do them (because a crew cabin under a Mk1 pod will flip and burn up)

This is what I saw in my head when you said best men.

Edited April 27, 2016 by Fallarnon

[Draco T stand-up guy]

1 hour ago, Alshain said:

It's never worked in the past, even with a heat shield.  I haven't tried in 1.1.

/shrug

I do it all the time and I started doing it 1.05

Start of re-entry just after using up the last of the fuel

Spoiler

Still hot

Spoiler

And with the drogue shoots newly released

Spoiler

And I've got a service bay filled with batteries between the Mk1 pod and the passenger cabin as well. Didn't flip once.

Oh, and those drogue shoots are a life saver. When I started this career with the release of 1.1 I forgot the heat-shield and it did do a flip but I'd just slowed down enough to release the drogues.

 

[Alshain]

@Draco T stand-up guy Well if it requires drouges, it has the same problem of being way too late in the tech tree.

[Renegrade]

6 minutes ago, Draco T stand-up guy said:

 

And I've got a service bay filled with batteries between the Mk1 pod and the passenger cabin as well. Didn't flip once.

Oh, and those drogue shoots are a life saver. When I started this career with the release of 1.1 I forgot the heat-shield and it did do a flip but I'd just slowed down enough to release the drogues.

I wonder if that service bay is making a difference.  My own tests with just the mk1 pod and the passenger cabin didn't work well even with a full heat shield (and a full heat shield is massive overkill, a 0-ablative shield can easily return a mk1 capsule from Minmus orbit).  I was able to construct a silly looking one with an inline cockpit, the passenger cabin and a structural fuselage (the fuselage basically acted as a tailfin), but 1.1 seems to like leaking heat past the first one or two parts of the ship (or has a very narrow safe cone).

I'm questioning about this drogues business though - those aren't effective until you're past the heat danger...

[Draco T stand-up guy]

Just now, Alshain said:

@Draco T stand-up guy Well if it requires drouges, it has the same problem of being way too late in the tech tree.

It doesn't require the drogues and they're now in the Survivability research so only takes you a minimum of 20 Science to get. 25 Science if you go for Basic Rocketry first. If you apply yourself to Sciencing then you could have them before your first launch.

[Draco T stand-up guy]

1 minute ago, Renegrade said:

I wonder if that service bay is making a difference.  My own tests with just the mk1 pod and the passenger cabin didn't work well even with a full heat shield (and a full heat shield is massive overkill, a 0-ablative shield can easily return a mk1 capsule from Minmus orbit).  I was able to construct a silly looking one with an inline cockpit, the passenger cabin and a structural fuselage (the fuselage basically acted as a tailfin), but 1.1 seems to like leaking heat past the first one or two parts of the ship (or has a very narrow safe cone).

I'm questioning about this drogues business though - those aren't effective until you're past the heat danger...

In 1.05 I had the service bay:

1. Blow up on me thus releasing the passenger cabin to free-fall
2. Definitely cause me to flip at least once
3. Blow up on me thus releasing the heat-shield which caused the rest of the ship to blow up

I've used 80% of a full heat-shield coming back from Mun once or twice.

The drogues didn't save me from burning up although the capsule had flipped while still hot I survived that bit. The flip causes the craft to become more aero-dynamic and thus reach the ground faster. I pretty much double tapped the space bar.

• 1000m Drogues available - Tap!!!
• 500m Mains risky but available - Tap!!!
• 10m Safe landing Speed!!!!

[Jart]

Early career I often combine tourists, no pilot, with a rescue operation.  Very few tourist contracts are fulfilled without another mission in mind, pilot or no.

I  often use the service bay as a "tail fin" in the final moments of a re-entry if the craft is becoming unstable and prone to a flip. If it starts to get wobbly I open the doors, they seem to make nice little wings with good drag and heat resistance.

Dampening your control by using the caps lock key is also useful

Pod - >service bay< - cabin - heat shield

Open the pod bay doors Hal

Edited April 27, 2016 by Jart

[Karyn451]

12 hours ago, Alshain said:

I decline all tourist contracts because they aren't very fun.  The only time they would be useful contracts is early game when you don't have what you need to do them (because a crew cabin under a Mk1 pod will flip and burn up)

Interesting...  I fly 2 crew cabins under a Mk1 pod and it's (almost) perfectly stable.  I use it both for tourists and rescue missions.

[Znath]

The fewer  casualties the better.