Release your stress here. Whats the worst thing/fail that you faced in ksp???

[fulgur]

The first time I landed on the Mun, I had plenty of fuel left to return to Kerbin, because I didn't want to run out of fuel. But I packed all that fuel in FLT-800 tanks and so I fell over in the middle of a crater. Eventually that crater became the site of a thriving base due to all the failed rescue attempts. 

Also all the times I don't check how my spaceplanes fly with only a few units of fuel, and so I have the COL on/in front of the COM and I flip out and die within sight of the KSC. I've killed hundreds of tourists that way. (I do revert, as it is career mode and I only fly tourists when I am bankrupt.)

[Space boy]

2 hours ago, Zarkov2 said:

Had a pretty bad fail yesterday when I was deploying my first satellite ever, around Minmus.

Everything worked like a charm on the first try until the escape burn from Minmus. I was pretty far zoomed out in map view when I did a big radial-in change to get a good Kerbin periapsis. I didn't notice that the trajectory was through Minmus until the time warp unexpectedly was cancelled. No quick saves, reverted to launch.

Oh, I know I can relate

Guys, is there an award for de -orbiting a mk2 lander can from 3 million metres orbit around kerbin using only eva jetpacks?? 

[magnemoe]

I say my first mission to Eve was an pretty epic fail, this was back in 0.18 something. I had this mod rovers so I put 3 and an probe with the science instruments to drop on Eve and Gilly.


Some remember these guys? This was the followup mission. 

An LV-N transfer stage. One rover on top and two others and the probe on bottom. Only issue is that I put the bottom decoplers the wrong way and the spark engine was not able to blow them so first rover was in Eve orbit. found I could go suborbital and drop stuff but did this inefficient and wasted a lot of fuel, rover splashed and was useless, probe landed. 
Of to Gilly, top rover should work. Transfer stage was a bit short of getting into Gilly orbit but the fuel tank on the landing stage for the rover should let me orbit and land easy. 
I set transfer stage on an impact trajectory with the last of its fuel, staged once to release the lander, staged again for some reason, then quicksave. planed to raise PE but my rover had no engines, the decent stage had no probe core and the transfer stage was out of fuel. All 3 parts entered Gilly SOI and impacted

 

[cantab]

The most crushing moment: At the end of a long and fraught mission that had already killed some Kerbals, the re-entry vehicle re-entered fine and gently came down under chutes onto a nice gentle beach. I fired the braking rockets - a moment too late. The lander touched ground, cut the chutes, then skidded sideways and boom. RIP two more Kerbals. EDIT: And that is why I never land on Kerbin in lander cans or hitchhikers any more.

The most facepalm moment: Did a perfect probe landing first time, ran the sciencey doos, went to transmit and ... no antenna. That's not the real fail. The real fail is I had nine more identical probe landers on the mission, all destined for different celestial bodies, and all without antennas.

And the dumbest bit of bad planning: I had a Minmus lander using ion engines and the kethane mod. It had a generator that uses kethane to make power to run the ion engines to land on Minmus to mine kethane. (Kethane can also be turned into more xenon). A self-sustaining cycle! But it needs kethane to start, and the stuff cannot be loaded in the vab. So the lander decoupled from its transfer stage, came in to land, and promptly drained its batteries flat leaving it doomed to crash. D'oh!

But I suppose the true question is the worst thing I've faced, and the answer to that is simple: VAB lag. Ugh.

Edited September 12, 2019 by cantab

[Space boy]

On 9/11/2019 at 4:35 PM, Atkara said:

The worst thing I've faced in KSP, has been myself -specifically, my own ambition. Imagine prepping, sending off and managing multiple flights, while completing local and non-local contracts. This, through a system of 90% reusable infrastructure in the form of outposts, miners, rovers, landers, spaceplanes and other spacecraft -a system that eventually encompassed the whole solar system. And it was as taxing, as much as it was glorious

You seem like a player like me. But I still do play on easy mode, but yeah, sometimes I do think of being realistic and not using game  mechanics to my advantage. 

7 minutes ago, cantab said:

The most crushing moment: At the end of a long and fraught mission that had already killed some Kerbals, the re-entry vehicle re-entered fine and gently came down under chutes onto a nice gentle beach. I fired the braking rockets - a moment too late. The lander touched ground, cut the chutes, then skidded sideways and boom. RIP two more Kerbals. EDIT: And that is why I never land on Kerbin in lander cans or hitchhikers any more.

The most facepalm moment: Did a perfect probe landing first time, ran the sciencey doos, went to transmit and ... no antenna. That's not the real fail. The real fail is I had nine more identical probe landers on the mission, all destined for different celestial bodies, and all without antennas.

And the dumbest bit of bad planning: I had a Minmus lander using ion engines and the kethane mod. It had a generator that uses kethane to make power to run the ion engines to land on Minmus to mine kethane. (Kethane can also be turned into more xenon). A self-sustaining cycle! But it needs kethane to start, and the stuff cannot be loaded in the vab. So the lander decoupled from its transfer stage, came in to land, and promptly drained its batteries flat leaving it doomed to crash. D'oh!

But I suppose the true question is the worst thing I've faced, and the answer to that is simple: VAB lag. Ugh.

Thanks for letting me know I am not the only one who realizes that I put the ladders on the wrong side of where the crew will exit..... After I already have landed. 

[Cavscout74]

I cut my fuel planning a little too close on a polar Mun lander today - I had 19 m/s remaining when I finally got my Kerbin Pe inside the atmosphere.  I was starting to think I was going to have to get out & push for the first time in ages.

[magnemoe]

Had an close encounter with Ike some time ago. 

This was taken after I past Pe who was 160 meter something. 

The science lander was returning from an Duna mission and was very low on fuel. Not much of an issue, just refuel from the transfer stage tug in Ike orbit.
Found I did not have enough fuel to circulate into the tugs orbit so I rather match the tugs orbit to the lander. 
One small problem, the adjust orbit to 200 meter distance intercept with mechjeb had put the landers Pe below the ground. 
Not much an problem if I had circulated but now it was, once I discovered this I switched back to the lander, did an emergency burn up emptying fuel and monoprop. 
Tug was lost. 

Later I found I had 150 m/s more fuel in the LEM module who would let me circulate without issues. I used this to circulate with the other tug, had one for the Ike base and one for Duna. 
 

[RocketSimplicity]

I had a very tall Mun lander and I quicksaved at a point where I couldn't change the landing zone. Took me 20 attempts to land it safely. That was so frustrating.

[Tw1]

I would not know there to start. Every mission I complete is the result of dozens of tests, many failures which must be quicksaved around, and glitches which must be fought. When attempting some stunt  with unconventional vehiles, it's not unheard of that I'll end up cheating a kerbal with spare parts in for a repair job,  or should something I never imagined go wrong goes wrong.  

[GearsNSuch]

I usually know that my rockets will fail long in advance due to some error discovered in the post-critical-burn-checkup, so that’s not stressful, just sad. 

Probably the most stressful moment I’ve had was while docking back in the early days of my KSPing. I had the rendezvous down pretty okay, but when it came to actually maneuvering to the port I could be shaky. So I built a space station. As I was bringing the first crew in, however, I ran out of  monoprop. The docking port was gliding by... A tap of the engines... Capture, but just barely. That thing wobbled like a door sproingy. 

Edited September 13, 2019 by GearsNSuch

[Fierce Wolf]

It would be my first attempt at a manned (1 scientist) mission to Duna. My ship: 1st stage to kerbin orbit, 2nd a space taxi from-and-to Duna, 3rd a (absurdly anti-aerodynamical) manned rover, and finally a 4rd stage for kerbin reentry. Everything went south.

 

1) As i reach Duna, my space taxi gets eaten by the Kraken. It started wobblying uncontrolably and every reload ended in the same: an explosion. I had to relaunch.

2) I re-reach Duna, decouple the rover and try to couple the reentry vehicle to the Taxi...and can't. There's not enough room for the 2 ot them to couple, for a palm or so. Relaunch.

3) I re-re-reach Duna, decouple the rover and...i didn't pack enough parachutes. No reaload this time, take it like a man. I had to burn too much just to stay in one piece.

4) As i finished the science shennanigans, I burn to duna orbit....and fall short. The rover was obviously not made for ANY atmosphere, it was a wheeled brick. It took me like 5-6 attempts to reach JUSSSSST THEREEEE in orbit, burning every molecule of monopropellant and fuel.

4) I rendezvouz using the Taxi-reentry, and shoot towards home. The Taxi only had enough fuel to get close-but-not-that-close to Kerbin. Braking around it would be imposible, so I leave it behind. As i leave it behind I understand the fact that not including a drone core to the reentry-V is actually a terrible decision. No, I wont relaunch this.

5) Use the reentry vehicle to brake and graciously land on the Launchpad. Nah just kidding. I had to do every maneuver by eye since I had no pilot and no drone core. I ended in a F***ing high and eliptical orbit. I had to send a rescue mission.

6) I launch my go-to rescuer. Silly me, it wasn't made for that F***ing high and eliptical orbit. Relaunch with moar boosters.

7) Finally rescued the poor fella, after like 6 years in space. You are nothing Matt Damon.

[Delay]

There's always something I forget. Sometimes it's an antenna, sometimes it's a solar panel and other times a specific contract-required part. Imagine going to Duna only to discover mid-capture that you forgot the thermometer the contract required you to take with you!

Okay, I never had things go that wrong, but it's annoying nonetheless. Let's wait some 300 or so days for the next launch window...

Edited September 13, 2019 by Delay

[Space boy]

19 hours ago, RocketSimplicity said:

I had a very tall Mun lander and I quicksaved at a point where I couldn't change the landing zone. Took me 20 attempts to land it safely. That was so frustrating

Sorry to hear

13 hours ago, Fierce Wolf said:

It would be my first attempt at a manned (1 scientist) mission to Duna. My ship: 1st stage to kerbin orbit, 2nd a space taxi from-and-to Duna, 3rd a (absurdly anti-aerodynamical) manned rover, and finally a 4rd stage for kerbin reentry. Everything went south.

 

1) As i reach Duna, my space taxi gets eaten by the Kraken. It started wobblying uncontrolably and every reload ended in the same: an explosion. I had to relaunch.

2) I re-reach Duna, decouple the rover and try to couple the reentry vehicle to the Taxi...and can't. There's not enough room for the 2 ot them to couple, for a palm or so. Relaunch.

3) I re-re-reach Duna, decouple the rover and...i didn't pack enough parachutes. No reaload this time, take it like a man. I had to burn too much just to stay in one piece.

4) As i finished the science shennanigans, I burn to duna orbit....and fall short. The rover was obviously not made for ANY atmosphere, it was a wheeled brick. It took me like 5-6 attempts to reach JUSSSSST THEREEEE in orbit, burning every molecule of monopropellant and fuel.

4) I rendezvouz using the Taxi-reentry, and shoot towards home. The Taxi only had enough fuel to get close-but-not-that-close to Kerbin. Braking around it would be imposible, so I leave it behind. As i leave it behind I understand the fact that not including a drone core to the reentry-V is actually a terrible decision. No, I wont relaunch this.

5) Use the reentry vehicle to brake and graciously land on the Launchpad. Nah just kidding. I had to do every maneuver by eye since I had no pilot and no drone core. I ended in a F***ing high and eliptical orbit. I had to send a rescue mission.

6) I launch my go-to rescuer. Silly me, it wasn't made for that F***ing high and eliptical orbit. Relaunch with moar boosters.

7) Finally rescued the poor fella, after like 6 years in space. You are nothing Matt Damon.

On 9/12/2019 at 10:35 PM, cantab said:

 

Holy moly, you know I can relate to the 'I won't re-launch this rocket' part. 

[Piper]

So I just had a good one the other day.  I had launched a duel mission consisting of an unmanned orbiter and rover to Moho, and the mission went from bad, to good, to "well this is a total loss".  The design was basically a clone of another mission already on its way to Eeloo, where the rover is attached upside down above the satellite with a sky-crane type landing module, and a whole ton of deltaV behind it to launch it to its destination.  I cloned that design since the total deltaV requirements for going to Eeloo are usually close enough to Moho so if it works for going to Eeloo it should work fine for going to Moho.  The only real change I made was to the power sources, since I don't need as many, or as large solar panels for Moho, and a little extra fuel to the transfer stage.

The launch started ok, but when I separated the fairings, I realized I must have clipped some of the wheels during design because two of the wheels of the rover blew apart.  I can't see any way of roving around in this configuration, but it should still be able to stand, so I figured my rover just turned into a stationary lander.  Not terrible, not great.  The transfer and capture to Moho go just fine, and I decide to map the planet first before landing on it, so with the rover/lander still attached, I turn on the ScanSAT devices and go do other things.  I come back to it some time later, and the planet is fully mapped.  "Excellent!" I think, and decide to commence with landing.  I separated the landing portion, and pick an appropriate landing site.  Everything is going all hunky-dory (missing rover wheels not withstanding), so I initiate my landing.  I slow the spacecraft down, and begin my approach to my landing site.  This is about where I realize I have completely messed up as I'm looking at how much fuel I have.  As I mentioned before, this mission is basically a carbon-copy of a mission on its way to Eeloo (which still hasn't arrived).  The deltaV landing requirements for Eeloo is 620 m/s, the deltaV landing requirements for Moho is 870 m/s.  Now, I always add in an extra margin (usually about 15% to 25% extra deltaV), but 25% extra of the landing requirement for Eeloo is still only 775 m/s.  Sure, the total deltaV requirements for the two missions were the same (or close enough), but I had completely failed to pay attention to the deltaV requirements of the individual decent stages.  To make things worse, the slow acceleration of the ants I choose to use for this means I'm also loosing a bunch to gravity-drag as I descend downwards.  I give it all I can, and perform the most efficient suicide-burn I can muster, but without the needed deltaV, it ends up being more suicide then burn and I missile into the ground at about 200 m/s.

[Cavscout74]

11 minutes ago, Piper said:

I give it all I can, and perform the most efficient suicide-burn I can muster, but without the needed deltaV, it ends up being more suicide then burn and I missile into the ground at about 200 m/s

That sounds like half of my Tylo missions and at least one of my previous Moho missions.  I definitely feel your pain!! 

The Moho one actually was slow enough for almost everything to survive EXCEPT the antennas - lost one on the first impact & the other on one of the bounces.

[magnemoe]

On 9/14/2019 at 1:03 AM, Delay said:

There's always something I forget. Sometimes it's an antenna, sometimes it's a solar panel and other times a specific contract-required part. Imagine going to Duna only to discover mid-capture that you forgot the thermometer the contract required you to take with you!

Okay, I never had things go that wrong, but it's annoying nonetheless. Let's wait some 300 or so days for the next launch window...

Forgetting probe core is my favorite. Remember one asteroid interceptor without antenna I managed to get to work with sending an separate relay to intercept it. 

Planned to do science in upper atmosphere of Eve with an science ship who operates out of Gilly. Refuel ship at Gilly base and down to low orbit around Eve, found I could not transfer science, thought had no antenna so return to Gilly, after reaching Gilly orbit again I found the antennas was just retracted and apparently did not extract automatically for some reason.
Refuel and return. Dip into Eve atmosphere just to find I did not have the atmospheric analyzer, its on the base and not the science ship. Back again, uses KAS so will move it but this is second failed trip  

[Space boy]

I just lost my mun data because ksp crashed right after recovery. 

[Space boy]

I just did a sin here. 

I crashed Bob at 70 m/s during an eva jetpack 'return to the the rescue vehicle'. He just vanished vapourised. 

[fulgur]

Just did a biome-hopping Duna mission in science mode. Then I got back to LKO and realised that I had neither docking ports on the vessel nor the Klaw unlocked. I had to spend a frustrating ten minutes ferrying Bob around my lander to get out all the Science! and then getting into a KV-3 Pomegranate re-entry module which didn't have reaction wheels. Plus, I accidentally gave myself [ALT+E] persistent rotation.

[Space boy]

On 9/22/2019 at 3:38 PM, fulgur said:

Just did a biome-hopping Duna mission in science mode. Then I got back to LKO and realised that I had neither docking ports on the vessel nor the Klaw unlocked. I had to spend a frustrating ten minutes ferrying Bob around my lander to get out all the Science! and then getting into a KV-3 Pomegranate re-entry module which didn't have reaction wheels. Plus, I accidentally gave myself [ALT+E] persistent rotation.

That's some work huh? 

[Xavven]

I've done 2-stage landers for Tylo before, so the moon is nothing new to me, but last night I tried for the first time to do a single-stage land & return unmanned drone mission.

My intuitive sense was that since I needed a lot of dV in vacuum, that the NERV engine would fit the bill. As it turns out, the poor TWR of this engine led to my doom.

Counter-intuitively, conventional chemical propulsion might be the way to go, so I've put together a triple-Terrier engine lander with 5400 dV. I'm going to try to land it later this week. Wish me luck.

What hurts more than the crash is my pride. You think you're so smart and then gravity really gets you down (hah).

On 9/10/2019 at 1:08 AM, Brikoleur said:

The most unpleasant one was when I tried a hardcore (no quickloads, no reverts) career, and had gotten as far as to send a craft on a polar orbit to Ike. As it passed over the south pole, the Kraken... ate it. Parts of the craft just straight-up disappeared with the rest continuing, uncontrollable, in a constellation of parts locked together by invisible struts. That was so unpleasant I ended the career and decided just not to do a no-quickload one, instead just self-restricting quickloads to whatever extent I find enjoyable.

No-reload saves are good. Just make an exception for bugs.

On 9/10/2019 at 1:08 AM, Brikoleur said:

The most embarrassing and facepalm-worthy one was when I sent a single-pilot lander mission to Duna, and upon arrival discovered that my hatch was blocked and I couldn't exit the craft. 

This reminds me of the time I landed on Tylo and realized I couldn't put my science in the ascent stage because I failed to put ladders up to the science jr. I was so used to low gravity moons and just jet-packing up to it.

[FahmiRBLX]

Three times in total.

1. After bringing my Skylab-M down. The reentry only took the recovery vehicle's solar panels at first (I got two RTGs on it already). Upon splashdown, what's destroyed is the four polar panels on the sensor/telescope thing I failed to remember.
2. When my Fr-40MA failed to takeoff despite hours of work. Available on KerbalX and consulting expert players in progress.
3. When my launch vehicle carrying both my Space Shuttle & Buran replica didn't make it to orbit using MechJeb (i.e Gravity Turn started too early that the whole rocket ended up 'circularizing' orbit within Kerbin's atmo.)

[H2OFroster]

My most recent Mun mission, I had just completed TMI and I was about to complete transposition and docking. I accidentally decoupled service module from the main command pod, and I had no autosaves yet so I docked with the lander and used the descent engine to get back to Kerbin.

[Ogberi]

I sent a 10 wheeled bohemoth of a Rover to Duna. 7 Kerbals aboard.  

And forgot to move the ladder a touch so the poor kerbal could climb back on board. She just hits her head on the ladder. KAS time...

All 7 times I tried and failed to stick the landing and had to revert to the vab to fix it. At least the 8th time was the charm, and now I'm scienceing and researching the heck out of duna. BG makes it much more interesting.

[rocketbuilder]

Not that bad, but yesterday I launched an unkerballed capsule towards Minmus and I set the fuel cells to use the wrong type of fuel ( in Kerbalism you can set between LF/O2 and Mono/O2) and I turned my entire minmus capsule and hopper into a giant chunk of debris.