Kiggs, my first Munnar walker

[Vostre Roy]

Sup!

So, I finally manage to do some stuff. I'm pretty much damned to use the MechJeb autopilot because the game lags so much on the blastoff, its plainly impossible to drive it. Anyway, my fun with this game is to actually build a ship that can go somewhere, its not being a master in driving it ahaha. Anyway, decided to go back to my V-ROY-IV ship, heavily modified it, V-ROY-V was then ready for a test drive. After a woobly transfert from stage 1 to stage 2 (the ship tends to do a frontflip in this stage, pretty rad but kinda slow down my ascent lol), the ship went to orbit as planned, I was on stage 3 with almost 90% fuel. Time to try MechJeb's Mun transfert. I tried it before but set the final periapsis too far so I couldn't cath the orbit. This time, I set the periapsis to 30km, was able to circularize the ship and BAM! My first Munar orbit is done (thanks to MechJeb).

Then I wonder, there is a landing module aswell, might try it at this point. Activate it, the ship began to trust retrograde. Began the descent on Mun, I try to detach stage 3 from the SAS landing module, my separator didn't worked. Gotta land directly on the engine, in a hill. Here's the result:

Its a small step for Siggard, but a giant step for all the Kerbals dead to get to this point!

Quite sad, I got there with even less than 1/3 of the fuel of stage 3. Might had have enough to get back to Kerth, but as Kiggs is realising, an unplanned landing result to an impossible return to homland.

So Kiggs is now lost on Mun, wondering if a rescue team will ever come to get him back. Since this mission was quite a success, I decided to try again and send this ship on Minmus. Pictures got lost in my copy/pasta history, but long story short, made it to Minmus orbit, once I activate the landing module, 2 engine exploded, tried to detach the SAS pod and it failed again (I don't understand how the 3 legged detach thingy works it seems), the 2 remaining engine got destroyed while the ship was spinning out of control. So it now orbit Minmus for ever.

Here is a picture of Jebediah in space, pushing himself in a reverse orbit (for a test). The ship still has the stage 2, stage 1 is now crashed on Kerth at this point.

Edit: The title should say Siggs, dunno why my brain decided that his name was Kiggard.

Cheers, been a fun evening!

[Thiel]

Erm, from what I can see you don't have any decouplers between your transfer and lander stage.

[Vostre Roy]

Erm, from what I can see you don't have any decouplers between your transfer and lander stage.

I was using the 3 legged decoupler thingy, but seems that I can't understand how to use it properly. I now use the MechJeb 1m decoupler between the transfer and lander stage, aswell as between my transfert and orbital stage.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Plus, aren't those the nuclear engines on the upper stage? Too heavy and too low thrust for a munar landing, those are better for interplanetary maneuvering, and one will do, I think. I haven't actually used them yet, just from what I'm reading here.

[Vostre Roy]

Plus, aren't those the nuclear engines on the upper stage? Too heavy and too low thrust for a munar landing, those are better for interplanetary maneuvering, and one will do, I think. I haven't actually used them yet, just from what I'm reading here.

Actually, they landed fairly well, the ship didn't break at the landing impact but while the ship was woobling and falling on the side. That being said, it is indeed overkill for a Munnar landing, but I designed this ship to be ready to go farther than that (I tried and could match Jool's orbit with them. If it had worked properly, the 4 nuclear engines shouldn't be there though, but my decoupler didn't worked as planned and I was stuck with them.

I'm still a noob, started to play that game this weekend

[Dweller_Benthos]

OK, yeah, it looks like you're using those airplane struts on the nuclear engine pods, you need radial decouplers. I also don't see a stack decoupler between the lander and the main body of the rocket. This should help:

http://kspwiki.nexisonline.net/wiki/TT-38K_Radial_Decoupler

http://kspwiki.nexisonline.net/wiki/TR-18A_Stack_Decoupler

Then, you just have to get them in the right sequence in your staging profile so that you can use them when you want. When you add them, the game sometimes puts them in weird places and you end up ejecting your rockets before you want (like right after launch, lol)

If you want some hints, watch the videos in this thread:

http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/showthread.php/15652-Orbital-Mechanics-101-A-Kerbal-Space-Program-Tutorial

But, if you want to discover things as you go, that's always fun too.

Edited September 27, 2012 by Dweller_Benthos

[Vostre Roy]

http://kspwiki.nexisonline.net/wiki/TT-38K_Radial_Decoupler

Well thanks for that link, THAT what the probelm I had with them, I didn't knew how to use them lol. I'm aware about how to use the stack decouplers though, not pictured is my blastoff stage wich actually work well. I also understood the way sequence works, but I have to "clear" it as some fuel tanks or other structure stuff are not at the right place (every engine/decoupler are though lol).

But, if you want to discover things as you go, that's always fun too.

Actually, I do both. I try to understand the things by making mistakes by myself, but I also use all the help that I can find or that people tell me. I've watched those videos on tuesday and I also understood the physics implied to go to another planet (wich I'll try again and again until I get the hang of it). As I don't have a protractor at home, I'll use the protractor mod though

Cheers!

[Commander Zoom]

The tri-coupler does NOT include decoupler capability. You'll need to put a regular decoupler on top of it.

[Vostre Roy]

The tri-coupler does NOT include decoupler capability. You'll need to put a regular decoupler on top of it.

Yeah I saw that in the item's description, never used them, I was talking about the Radial decouplers

So, just as an update, without much modification, V-ROY-V was able to reach and orbit Eve. Problem is, it was my first successful try and I burned a lot of fuel to get there, so once I was at 120km orbit, I was fuel less. Jeb is currently orbiting Eve for ever and ever

[Lesarthois]

Aye I see what you meant by saying my Mun landing was better. It's only because it took me from 0.13 to 0.17 to land safely on Mun and return. I blasted alot of rockets before, and lithobraked alot on Mun (with and without survivors). So, you're doing better than me as you're orbiting Eve. Because I only got to orbit around the Sun; on both Eve and Duna orbits, but still, not around them.

[Vostre Roy]

Aye I see what you meant by saying my Mun landing was better. It's only because it took me from 0.13 to 0.17 to land safely on Mun and return. I blasted alot of rockets before, and lithobraked alot on Mun (with and without survivors). So, you're doing better than me as you're orbiting Eve. Because I only got to orbit around the Sun; on both Eve and Duna orbits, but still, not around them.

I don't deserve much driving credits, I'm using the Ascent autopilot and the Smart A.S.S. module on MechJeb, aswell as the Protractor Mod (since I got no protrator at home, its useful). And in all fairness, I think I got lucky, tried it 2 times after and couldn't get it at all on the first, and didn't had time to try correctly on the second. I'll try again this weekend

[Lesarthois]

I'll look how to get into planet orbits without any mods and I should be fine, then ^^ to get on them at least. To land and take off, that is gonna be another story

I'm sure you'll get to handle KSP without mods eventually ^^