Your Unusual Tricks of the Trade

[HvP]

Continuing the love for service bays, the larger one makes excellent light crew compartments for multiple rescue missions.

Once I've sufficiently upgraded Mission Control to allow me enough contracts I'll spam 6 or 8 LKO rescue contracts and then send up one rescue ship with 8 command chairs around a small probe core and batteries inside of the large service bay. You can even mount some radial parachutes to the ceiling of it since they will deploy fine even from inside the bay.

It may be a bit tedious to rendezvous with so many craft in one mission but once you are up there most of the orbits are so similar that fuel use is minimal. It just takes some patience but is worth the payoff.

Oh, and don't forget to "control from probe core" after putting each rescued Kerbal into a command seat or you're going to be burning 90 degrees from your pro-grade, boo.

[Madrias]

If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing.  My little rule with parachutes.  After all, it makes sense that the slower you fall, the safer your landing will be.  So, why not put 8 parachutes on as cheap insurance against losing your science data and your pilot?

Probes are a good friend for non-pilots.  Always hide one in your ship somewhere.  Then when you accidentally put two engineers and a scientist in your three-kerbal ship, you still have all the pilot controls, like SAS.

A locked fuel tank is a great way to save yourself a few extra delta-v.  I don't mind carrying up one or two of the donut tanks as 'spare fuel.'

Ant engines are great precision orbital LFO engines.  I've done plenty of dockings with Ant + Reaction Wheel combinations.

Put your solar panels on in 3 or 6 symmetry.  You'll almost always have at least one peeking into the sun.

Always put at least 3 of the little fixed-mount solar panels on your ship.  They don't require deploying and they might just save your hide if you find yourself dangerously low on power and needing to deploy solar panels.

[kBob]

There are a lot of mentions about using alt-f5 or f5 quick saves and such.  However, I've found not using them has sped up my re-learning curve.  The only time I use them is when practicing something new (usually in sandbox mode not my current career).  If something goes badly wrong in my mission, I either live with it or have to revert to the beginning.  This tends to make me think about everything, from planning my mission to building something for it to executing all the maneuvers etc., a little bit more and maybe researching something I can't remember or never did before tying it (which helps me learn more about it and retain the learning better). 

So if you feel you're using quick saves a lot and feel maybe you aren't learning things fast enough you might try this.  Now it does have a few drawbacks: if your ship blows up or goes out of control for no earthly...er kerbaly...reason (i.e. the Kraken gets you); it reduces spontaneity of trying things a little (if you like that style);  you may tend to overbuild a bit (larger safety margin); you may end up swearing at the computer.

[Blaarkies]

13 minutes ago, Madrias said:

Ant engines are great precision orbital LFO engines.  I've done plenty of dockings with Ant + Reaction Wheel combinations.

Put your solar panels on in 3 or 6 symmetry.  You'll almost always have at least one peeking into the sun.

Always put at least 3 of the little fixed-mount solar panels on your ship.  They don't require deploying and they might just save your hide if you find yourself dangerously low on power and needing to deploy solar panels.

The probe trick is excellent! 

For the precision Ant engines...have you tried Right-clicking the main engines(even if it is a Mamoth engine), setting the "engine throttle" slide bar down to 5. Now whenever you try to thrust it will only do 5% of that.
An extra step is to press CONTROL(throttle down) and hold down that button on the keyboard...now tap SHIFT(throttle up) to give yourself a mini-burst forward: The throttle will constantly go back to zero, only being at minimum thrust for half-a-second

I do something similar with static solar panels, except I use 2 sets of dual symmetry. View the craft from atop, then add 2-way-radial-symmetry static solar panels to the top and bottom, BUT use the rotate gizmo to point them slightly upwards(so they look prograde...5' or 10' degrees should be enough).
Now add the left-right solar panel set(same symmetry options), but this time gizmo rotate them to slightly point downward(retrograde).
As long a the craft itself is not blocking those solar panel, now you have garenteed solar power generation with only 4 small panels(maybe not much generation at certain angles though, but something to bring it out of hibernation at least)

[Madrias]

I knew about the right-click and reduce the main engines, actually.  I'd rather bind two different action groups, because otherwise I'll forget to turn up one of my two, three, or six engines, then spend half the trip wondering why I keep going sideways.  Instead, I can press 2, then 3 and disable my main engines, enable my ant maneuvering thrusters, and make a careful adjustment to my orbit.

Another trick I like to use on smaller ships is to carry a set of sepratrons up with me as deorbiting retro-rockets.  It's heavy, but they're a great last-resort when you've used up all of your monopropellant, all of your LFO, and you're not willing to play 'get out and push' for the next half hour.  Point yourself retrograde, press stage, and you'll usually end up deorbiting yourself rather easily.

I'm also fond of deploying airbrakes on my spent boosters.  Less burning of my ship with sepratrons, more overall control over where the silly things go, and less gratuitous explosions from smashing the boosters together.

Also, airbrakes make great drag-fins for slowing your reentry speed.  I've found them useful for deceleration to speeds my drogue chutes can deploy safely at, which allows me to deploy my over-abundance of parachutes to actually land the rest of the ship.

[AbacusWizard]

4 hours ago, Stratzenblitz75 said:

its 100% reliable

There's a fellow named Finagle on the phone who wants to talk to you.

[msasterisk]

Airbrakes = non-glitchy, futuristic-looking landing gear. No suspension system, but that's actually helpful for modular base building.

[ajburges]

On 6/13/2016 at 10:13 AM, fourfa said:

Mk2 cockpit exploding from heat on launch or reentry?  Stick an antenna on the nose.  (The Communotron-16).  You'll have to stick it on at an odd angle and use the rotate/offset gizmo to put it precisely on the tip of the nose.  Presto chango, never worry about heat again.  This trick is so OP it will probably get nerfed at some point.

I hope not. Aerospikes are a proven mechanism IRL. They even work in the hypersonic regime.

[klesh]

Quick RCS build tip:

 

On the clean bottom of a vertical fuel tank, place the small spherical RCS tanks with symmetry applied.  2 or 3 is plenty.  Then slap whatever engine you're going to use on the usual fuel tank node.   Your RCE tanks will be clipped into the tank butt and with proper application of the gizmos, you can ensure that everything fits in an interstage fairing.  You'll see this kind of thing somewhat irl, so I dont consider it too cheaty.  Your milage may vary.  

[SSgt Baloo]

When I use the inflatable heat-shield, I like roof-mounting it with an inverted decoupler, That way I can jettison it after it's slowed me down enough to suit me, but before I deploy the main chutes. Mounting it beneath the pod can make for an unstable reentry machine that can sometimes start tumbling uncontrollably before you're ready to deploy the main chutes.

[Grenartia]

On 6/13/2016 at 2:55 AM, magnemoe said:

Two other less know things, an 1.25 meter service bay on top of an MK1-2 pod or MK3 cockpit work as an small airbrake while is nice to store probe core, mechjeb, batteries, life support and an kas winch. 

The low attitude/ ground resource scanner shows the biome you are over in real time, also in high orbit and during time warp. 
Pin it and use it to know then you fly over biomes you want science from. 

I've found those 1.25 service bays are also very good at keeping you from roasting your chutes during reentry.

On 6/13/2016 at 4:25 AM, mk1980 said:

- you can adjust the "thrust limiter" of rocket engines during flight. this can be very useful for doing small burns that require high precision (like correction burns to adjust your periapsis location in the target SOI).

with some practice, you can use the same technique (combined with a lot of reaction wheel torque) for rendezvous and docking maneuvers without RCS thrusters.

 

- one of the aircraft tech nodes contains the "small hardpoint". this part is essentially the same as a radial decoupler, but costs only 60 funds rather than 600. this is especially useful for small-ish rockets. using the cheap, small "hammer" or "thumper" boosters is a lot more economic when the decoupler to mount the booster isn't more expensive (or almost as expensive) as the booster itself.

 

- structural pylons or girder segments can be used as very sturdy "static" landing gear for spacecraft. this avoids the problems with the relative fragility of retractable landing legs. note that they are also quite a bit heavier than the landing struts, so it's not recommended to use them on small-ish craft like a one seat mun lander. they are better suited for larger craft like mining rigs or science outposts.

 

- structural aircraft wings can be used to widen the "base" of landers without adding a lot of extra weight (especially the long and thin structural wing type C). it's a bit of a hassle to get such craft to space, though, as the additional drag near the top of the rocket makes it much more likely to flip over.

 

 

 

The drag can be offset by adding some larger wings at the bottom, in my experience, at least. If you're that concerned about losing delta-v, you could attach some jet boosters and minimal jet fuel (I find the Big-S wing strakes are good for this).

[AviosAdku]

On ‎15‎/‎06‎/‎2016 at 0:25 PM, cantab said:

Be warned that as of KSP 1.1 you can no longer unlock batteries on a craft you cannot control. This means the old loophole of a locked backup battery on a probe doesn't work any more.

Well, I don't have a lot of uncrewed spacecraft, it's mostly to run the reaction wheels, but thanks anyhow, I forgot that fact. Will keep it in mind.

Edited July 5, 2016 by AkuAerospace
Removed "sign off"

[Biff Space]

2 hours ago, AkuAerospace said:

Well, I don't have a lot of uncrewed spacecraft, it's mostly to run the reaction wheels, but thanks anyhow, I forgot that fact. Will keep it in mind.

Aku

I prefer the old behaviour, so I wrote a tiny mod to restore it, here: Battery Activator. If the active vessel has no available electric charge, but a charged, locked battery on board, a button appears which unlocks the battery.

Edited June 16, 2016 by Biff Space
sp

[magnemoe]

4 hours ago, AkuAerospace said:

Well, I don't have a lot of uncrewed spacecraft, it's mostly to run the reaction wheels, but thanks anyhow, I forgot that fact. Will keep it in mind.

Aku

For manned crafts its should still work, another tricks for manned crafts with an larger engine than the 505 is simply to do an very small burn to give you a bit power. 

[Vaporized Steel]

The craft in the album is not stock. But all the elements involved can be completely stock made, I had a similar stock design on a older version and never rebuild it.
I teached myself a way to make a 1st stage recovery that involves heavy strap one boosters by connecting the strap ons to the underside of the center core booster. This disables the use of a center core as a first stage. The design usually requires atleast 4 strap ons to accomodate enough fuel and TWR to leave the atmosphere in order to switch between 1st and 2nd stage, in this case I used 6 strap ons. 2 Strap ons will not work, unless you make them so large your eyes starts bleeding.

It allows me to create very heavy cargo rockets and still allows full stage recovery.
 The 2nd picture shows part clipped landing gears on each strap on to allow impact between the stages center core without exploding the rocket when staging.

Album

This rocket can put 100Tons into LKO and the center stage is also fully recoverable. Although I have to admit, landing takes practice. The 1st stage is the easiest to recover because of it's wide base.

Edited June 16, 2016 by Vaporized Steel

[Corona688]

21 hours ago, ajburges said:

I hope not. Aerospikes are a proven mechanism IRL. They even work in the hypersonic regime.

Sure, but does an unshielded antenna work as one?

[autumnalequinox]

I discovered the way to get large vertical-launched spaceplanes up without tumbling is to place two liquid fueled boosters far above the spaceplane using struts/structural components.  It puts the center of lift far below the mass, so essentially the spaceplane is the launcher's "fins".  It looks weird as hell.  I feed fuel from the boosters into the spaceplane's engine as well and by the time they detach the spaceplane can finish the burn.  I wish I had a pic but I haven't tried this since a few versions ago.

 

[magnemoe]

4 hours ago, Corona688 said:

Sure, but does an unshielded antenna work as one?

Pretty much, I did not know about the dish on top but its telescoping. 
This is an submarine icbm so length is limited. 

Falcon 9 on the other hand has an rounded nose. They could make an pointed fairing if they wanted but it would be a bit heavier.

On 13.6.2016 at 6:13 PM, fourfa said:

Mk2 cockpit exploding from heat on launch or reentry?  Stick an antenna on the nose.  (The Communotron-16).  You'll have to stick it on at an odd angle and use the rotate/offset gizmo to put it precisely on the tip of the nose.  Presto chango, never worry about heat again.  This trick is so OP it will probably get nerfed at some point.

This is interesting, does it work for everything? will it protect the bottom of something from reentry too ? 

[SchwinnTropius]

Quick revert to service bays, I've used them as shielding for solar panels in my current career. An OKTO with symmetry-2 panels inside the bay with the panels facing out of the doors provides flight controls and rechargeability. Some of the small radial mount batteries mounted inside provides power storage with the same protection. Once I get better probe cores I can fit a .625m reaction wheel inside for a complete package.

[moogoob]

I do shuttles with tanks and boosters in dorsal/ventral symmetry. It avoids the off-centre CoM inherent in traditional ventral-only shuttle designs, and the only real downsides that I've seen so far is 1) can't really use a central vertical stabilizer so you need to have two (more mass) and 2) I think it wouldn't work that well in real life as the plumbing would be twice as complicated.  It works for me, though!

 

[numerobis]

To land a tall spacecraft in an atmosphere, turn off SAS and tilt just slightly as you touch down. If your speed falls below 0.5 m/s, the parachutes are cut and if you tip over you explode -- but by tilting slightly you keep the parachute and you tip over gently.

[The Flame Cat]

On 6/12/2016 at 10:53 PM, Overland said:

"Radial ant engines make really good airhorns with both shutdown and startup sound replaced...modded to have no fuel"

That could be made into a full on mod!

Also: Overpowered BDArmory planes.

Edited June 18, 2016 by The Flame Cat

[pandaman]

On 18/06/2016 at 2:05 AM, moogoob said:

I do shuttles with tanks and boosters in dorsal/ventral symmetry. It avoids the off-centre CoM inherent in traditional ventral-only shuttle designs, and the only real downsides that I've seen so far is 1) can't really use a central vertical stabilizer so you need to have two (more mass) and 2) I think it wouldn't work that well in real life as the plumbing would be twice as complicated.  It works for me, though!

 

Yes, I do this too.  Makes launching a much more controllable afair.

Edited June 19, 2016 by pandaman
sloppy spelling now corrected

[The Thyroid Man]

When using LVNs, 

*ahem*

 

ALWAYS REMOVE THE OXIDIZER OR ELSE YOU SHIP'S DELTA-V WON'T GET ABOVE 3000!!!!

 

 

 

 

[Corona688]

You can definitely fit Jeb inside one 1.25m service bay.  I once managed it by accident while spacewalking around the island airport and trying to get him back in the craft.  3 minutes of desperate searching for Jeb and randomly clicking everything and suddenly I get the popup, "store experiments?"

He was in the freaking service bay.  And I guess, when attached to the command pod, you can store experiments from there.