What is your most facepalm-worthy moment regarding KSP?

[magnemoe]

29 minutes ago, Xurkitree said:

Today, I executed a bunch of Gravity Assists designed to reduce the relative velocity of my Tylo encounter and making my capture burn lower.

When I captured, I took my lander and ion tug and lowered myself to a low orbit with 20 burns at periapse.

Then I shut KSP and leave for class, and then when I'm cycling I realize -

I managed to capture myself into a retrogade orbit.

If you are landing it don't matter much, if you set up an gateway station its a bit awkward if you forget it for the next flight. 

[Tonka Crash]

I find designing and flying planes excessively tedious so I haven't done much more than learn I don't really care to use them. A couple weeks ago I added the Anomaly Surveyor contract pack and that kind of forced me back into building a plane to get to the anomalies around Kerbin

I flew to one of the anomalies and got the guys out for a photo op since I made it there without crashing. That's when I realized I forgot a ladder, so they couldn't get back in.

[Xurkitree]

1 hour ago, magnemoe said:

If you are landing it don't matter much, if you set up an gateway station its a bit awkward if you forget it for the next flight. 

Oh, but my lander is extremely bare bones and is nearly completely optimised for lowest mass - i could have gotten it down further, but I don't have such great levels of piloting.

[Kebab Kerman]

I built a 150m+ rocket. It had correct staging. It could get to Duna, I'm sure of it. And I forgot to turn on SAS.

Granted, I had no idea what I was doing, but still... It was face-smashed-though-the-sun-palm worthy. This was also when I was first starting KSP. Since then, I've kept to aircraft, scared of burning poor Bob alive again.

But I admit, it was fun. The aerodynamic effects broke when I went into IVA, going into the cockpit. This was done in the last version before 0.90, 0.23.5, if I remember correctly. I don't have it anymore, but it was still a majestic beast. The roar of the engines and the "Massage Chair" proved to be a very good cure for insomnia. Unfortunately, it was too good, and I ended up losing control every time. It's actually very sad, because it could have proved a great quick flag-planting mission rocket. No pics, sorry. It was at least 3 years ago.

[magnemoe]

42 minutes ago, Xurkitree said:

Oh, but my lander is extremely bare bones and is nearly completely optimised for lowest mass - i could have gotten it down further, but I don't have such great levels of piloting.

You loose out 37 m/s i think, https://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tylo 

 

[Terwin]

2 hours ago, Tonka Crash said:

I find designing and flying planes excessively tedious so I haven't done much more than learn I don't really care to use them. A couple weeks ago I added the Anomaly Surveyor contract pack and that kind of forced me back into building a plane to get to the anomalies around Kerbin

I flew to one of the anomalies and got the guys out for a photo op since I made it there without crashing. That's when I realized I forgot a ladder, so they couldn't get back in.

You know you can have a kerbal manually retract the landing gear right?

That should get the nose of your plane low enough to get back on board.

I have run into similar situations before, and retracting landing gear has been a successful fix on multiple occasions. (retracting some but not all gears may be needed to tilt the ship depending on how hard it is to get to the cockpit)

 

[Tonka Crash]

5 minutes ago, Terwin said:

You know you can have a kerbal manually retract the landing gear right?

That should get the nose of your plane low enough to get back on board.

I have run into similar situations before, and retracting landing gear has been a successful fix on multiple occasions. (retracting some but not all gears may be needed to tilt the ship depending on how hard it is to get to the cockpit)

 

I should have known that as I've done it on a Mun lander that tipped over, time for another facepalm. Thanks

[Teirdalin]

Spent about an hour+ or so getting an awkward cheap solar powered drone I tossed together carrying three kerbals across the planet for a mission to get to three points that were pretty close to each other; in hopes of saving some money.
It flipped onto its head, and everything exploded when I finally made it while trying to land.

Edited November 14, 2018 by Teirdalin

[Chel]

On 11/14/2018 at 10:37 AM, Teirdalin said:

Spent about an hour+ or so getting an awkward cheap solar powered drone I tossed together carrying three kerbals across the planet for a mission to get to three points that were pretty close to each other; in hopes of saving some money.
It flipped onto its head, and everything exploded when I finally made it while trying to land.

Quicksaving is key!

[Curveball Anders]

9 hours ago, The_Cat_In_Space said:

Quicksaving is key!

Only if you remember _what_ key.

So you don't press F5 instead of F9 to restore ...

Which has happened too many times for me ...

[Raptor42]

Full Mun landing mission with no quicksaves and capsule without parachutes (kerbals didn't have EVA chutes back then) easily does it. 1,5 hours of gameplay wasted.

[traisjames]

Well just now I have re-entered the atmosphere after a mission that took 1 year and 32 days of orbiting Kerbal and both of it's moons to test out the scansat parts.  Of 5 crewman I got 2 because I had moved a piece and a cabin was connected to it.  On reentry I realized I forgot adjustable flaps of any kind so I can't pitch or roll except with reaction wheels, and I blow off my front landing tire from overheating.  Luckly I was prepared with 5 shoots because I have yet to land an plane.

[DocMike]

Bulit a three-stage long range probe (1st liquid, 2nd NERV 3rd ion).

2nd stage worked long enough to do a Duna encounter, leaving 3rd to fine tune an orbit and further flight.

Ok, but where's the decoupler for 2nd stage?  Well, on the workbench in AB, with a DON'T FORGET tag still attached to it. So, 3rd stage's ion engine is firmly attached to the 2nd stage.

Wait, maybe the 2kN thrust of ion engine will suffice to rip the stage away? Well, nope.

Plan C for Centrifugal force: ion engine full ahead, RCS blocks on 2nd stage full astern, and SPIN IT ROUND ROUND ROUND!

(spinning, spinning, spinning, can't even look at the screen, risk of throwing up)

Finally...

2nd stage is gone!!! 

Ion engine's gone with it.

 

[SupperRobin6394]

Forgetting the crew and only realizing it when you’re already around Minmus 

[THEdragon]

3 hours ago, SupperRobin6394 said:

Forgetting the crew and only realizing it when you’re already around Minmus 

This is hilarious to imagine happening in real life. Like, NASA sends a rocket to the moon and then halfway through the mission one of the folks in mission control is like "Oh no we forgot to put the astronauts in it!"

[Superfluous J]

4 hours ago, SupperRobin6394 said:

Forgetting the crew and only realizing it when you’re already around Minmus 

I recall once doing the opposite. I sent Jeb up in a 2-person ship to rescue someone, and at about 10km saw Bob was in the passenger seat. So I told him to EVA. He held on for a surprisingly long time.

[Curveball Anders]

5 hours ago, 5thHorseman said:

I recall once doing the opposite. I sent Jeb up in a 2-person ship to rescue someone, and at about 10km saw Bob was in the passenger seat. So I told him to EVA. He held on for a surprisingly long time.

I've mangled a return from Mun and sent a rescue craft to save them, only to find Jeb and Bob already in the craft ...

I then had to send a bigger rescue craft to save the original 2 and the later morons ...

 

[Gargamel]

13 hours ago, SupperRobin6394 said:

Forgetting the crew and only realizing it when you’re already around Minmus 

I often have the opposite problem, crew is autoloaded by some mod, and I forget to remove them.  Not paying attention on the pad, and launching a couple kerbals to Duna on a mission that was a simple station expansion module.   Not enough LS to make it to minmus, let alone Duna.    Time to go get them. 

Edited November 18, 2018 by Gargamel

[Flying dutchman]

Build a single kerbal apollo style craft by mounting a probe core to the command  pod and went to the mun in science mode. Was unable to transfer the science to the command pod from the lander can so i had to take it with me. Then i realised that i didn't have any parachutes and i had to mount a mission to rescue the lander can from lko by docking another lander can with parachutes and a rocket stage to cancel uit most of my orbital velocity to prevent overheating.. ended up landing both docked together safely in the ocean :p

Edited November 19, 2018 by Flying dutchman

[Superfluous J]

That time I returned Bob from Jool to Kerbin on EVA because I miscounted the seats on the return ship, and then picked him up as he flew past Kerbin like he was an asteroid.

[LordFerret]

Built a big gigantic ion powered ship in orbit, foolishly putting the ions at the rear of the ship and having them try to push instead of pull. Fail. Made for a nice space snake.  The revamped version has the power module up front, pulling, and it's a champ on its way to Eeloo (still).

 

Biggest facepalm however is the fact I've not fired up KSP since last June** (? or thereabouts) because of real life.  I still have missions I refuse to abandon in v1.2.2 before moving on... leave no Kerbal behind.

 

**Edit:
Just checked, since July 7th.

Edited November 19, 2018 by LordFerret

[StrandedonEarth]

Built a Duna Salvage Rover w/tug (carefully checking TWR with KER), then went to my subassemblies, found the tried-and-true "Space Camp Booster," and stacked it underneath. The numbers still looked good,  although I thought this payload was heavier than the ol' Bus. What the hey, load up a crew, and launch the suckers.

Then watched as the Mammoth surrounded by Mainsail boosters roar to life as they sink down to the pad and everything explodes. Because I had been checking the pad TWR against Duna's gravity....

Back to the drawing board for a super-heavy booster. It was about time to update old designs to include the new parts anyways

[Jetpackmaniac]

Recently I decided it was time to send up the first module for a minmus mining base. I was in a hurry, so I just grabbed a premade booster from the subassembly list and launch, not bothering to check if the upper stage was made for a heavy crew module. Everything was great until the transfer burn, the transfer stage used a wolfhound, so the transfer burn was like 2 minutes and 30 seconds long. Since I’m impatient, I desided to use the capture stage to finish the burn, to speed things up a bit. Capture stage quickly ran out of fuel, leaving me to wonder if I could finish the transfer, capture at minmus, and land all with the 4 landing boosters on the sides of the base module. Only one way to find out, I pressed space to jettison the empty capture stage and ignite the landing boosters, then for some unknown reason, I pressed space again. I watched as the landing boosters flew off like missiles. Then I rage quit. 

[magnemoe]

Another one just now, just got my Jool fleet out of Kerbin SOI, as I was under time constraint I cut the standard training run, Mun orbit->Land, top up tanks and plant flag in Minmus then just out in solar orbit before returning as I knew the reserve crew would get out of Kerbin SOI fast enough.
Fast enough is the keyword, speed is so high they are at solar escape velocity so only get credit for fly by the sun and not orbiting it
Not enough to get 3 stars. 

[JonathanPerregaux]

When it finally occurred to me that aero forces during launch really only break deployed antennas and panels. Everything else is fine, even if a bit flimsy strut-wise. Angle of attack? Yeah, whatever. Oh, and nothing implodes, either. I mean, why do I even turn on the max Q setting in MechJeb? Because it works in "real life" but not "in game"?