You ever have one of those son of a bunny moments??

[michaelphoenix22]

Just started a new savegame so i was getting a kethane operation going on the mun. First thing to do was get a satellite in orbit to find some... easy enough.

Launched it, set up a rendezvous with the Mun no problem.

Was about to setup a circular orbit around mun when i found i couldn't control the satellite. I looked at my resources and i had no electric charge.

So i was like WTF.... Panels were out... I could see the bright side of the mun so the sun was out.

Then i look for the sun itself.

And i go son of a bunny Kerbal was eclipsing the sun blocking my solar panels. Only thing i can do is time warp until i crashed into the Mun.

Its a good thing i don't pay for these rockets.

Edited April 26, 2013 by Capt'n Skunky

[NuclearWarfare]

Always have a nuclear.... thingy (Can't think of the name :I). I just call them Infinite electricity generators.

[michaelphoenix22]

i dont use them they feel cheesy to me... just adding a tiny lil part that gives you unlimited zaps for no effort doesn't feel right.

Maybe once mining/career mode are in and you gotta do something like mine another planet in order to get the materials to make one then it might be interesting.

[rryy]

I stupidly forgot to put a power source on a ship heading to the Mun, and when I switched to it when it was time to do the orbital insertion burn, I realized it had no power.

But then, I was stupid enough to do it AGAIN, this time catching it when it still had a bit of power left, so I decided to crash it into Kerbin.

[Malaugrym]

i dont use them they feel cheesy to me... just adding a tiny lil part that gives you unlimited zaps for no effort doesn't feel right.

But but...they actually exist? For realsies? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator

[Darren9]

A while back I decided I needed kethane refuelling operations at Jool, sent a satellite and scanned Tylo and then sent a surface mining rover and tanker shuttle to take the fuel up to ships in orbit. All ready after three long treks to Tylo. When I deployed the kethane drill it pointed upwards - I didn't test it on Kerbin, I thought I new enough about kethane mining. It made me swear out loud

[(An Original Name)]

Maybe the RTG's in KSP would be better balanced if they produced less and less electricity over a very long period of time (months and years) like in real life. Hmm...

[Qumefox]

Maybe the RTG's in KSP would be better balanced if they produced less and less electricity over a very long period of time (months and years) like in real life. Hmm...

No.. One thing a lot of people forget is that KSP is a game, above all else. Lots of people clamor for more realism, such as little things like this. The result of which, even though people don't realise it, is that every time it happens, KSP becomes less of a game and more of a sim. While sim buffs love it, the general population who plays KSP as a game.. doesn't.

Though on the OP's statement.. I see nothing wrong with RTG's. They're a real technology. The other option if you still refuse to use them, is to just add more batteries. Though solar power drops off the farther you get from the sun. If you send stuff out to jool that has any significant power draw, they're really useful.

Edited April 26, 2013 by Qumefox

[wolfedg]

How about when you go switch back out of docking mode close to the target to change your ships orientation only to find out you forgot to deactivate the main engine...

[The Flying Ham]

I just built a new Mun lander to go get stranded Jeb, carefully planned out the fuel this time with 2 extra tanks (I'm a huge noob at this). I put the landing legs on the extra fuel tanks and got to the Mun with a full middle tank ..then jettisoned the side fuel tanks before landing as they were empty.

I was 9km from the surface when I figured it out.

[ThatBum]

I did that a couple times, once when using shift-tab to get to the Steam overlay. Guess what the shift key does. By the time I finished talking to the guy I was on a Munar escape trajectory.

[flightmaster]

i dont use them they feel cheesy to me... just adding a tiny lil part that gives you unlimited zaps for no effort doesn't feel right.

That's exactly how I feel, I always stack 8 of them onto my rovers to power them at night but it just feels like cheating. I try to rationalise it but it's never very rational

[ThatBum]

The RTGs do have an efficiency rating when clicked on. I've had them on a couple interplanetary missions and haven't noticed it go down, but then again I didn't look. Perhaps it goes down over a very long period like real RTGs (decades), or it doesn't now but it will be implemented at some point.

When I get home I'll do an experiment in a new save: have a RTG sit on the launchpad for some years and see if it decreases in output.

[syfyguy64]

I went to minmus for my first landing with a probe, I had solar panels, and I made my burns and all, but when I time warped, I found that nothing was responding. I thought it was just a bug, but then I realized probes needed electricity, and my solar panels where folded up, nice and tight.

[TaranisElsu]

The endless power of RTG's is balanced out by the increased weight. That's why I don't like using them on small satellites. Some of my satellites only weight .2 tons or less, so the difference between 0.08 and 0.005 (OX-STAT solar panels) matters.

[(An Original Name)]

No.. One thing a lot of people forget is that KSP is a game, above all else. Lots of people clamor for more realism, such as little things like this. The result of which, even though people don't realise it, is that every time it happens, KSP becomes less of a game and more of a sim. While sim buffs love it, the general population who plays KSP as a game.. doesn't.

I wasn't asking for the game to be more realistic, I was suggesting a solution to a potential KSP balance problem

[SkyRender]

There's nothing quite as delightful as noticing just seconds away from completing a perfect mission to send up a Kethane mining rig that you forgot to include a converter...

[Werwolf]

Flying allllll the way out to Eeloo when it was still outside Jool's orbit. Landed safely, all excited... went to EVA, but the hatch was blocked by a ladder I put to assist in getting to the ground. Son of a *****

[ROFLCopter64bit]

There's nothing quite as delightful as noticing just seconds away from completing a perfect mission to send up a Kethane mining rig that you forgot to include a converter...

Just send a module over! Assuming you have a docking port on it.

[AlternNocturn]

Finagle'd a probe into Jool orbit, folded away the solar panels for aerobraking into Laythe orbit. All was going well, and I was confident enough in what I accomplished to do a quick save. Right after I did, it was then I realized I forgot to reextend the solar panels and the probe died. I was so angry at myself for wasting 2 hours on the mission just to have it fail, that I just went into my save file and gave the probe just barely enough power to be able to extend the solar panels. No regrets.

[Merinsan]

I built a base that I sent to Laythe, with a three man crew. It came with a hitch hiker compartment for an extra 4 Kerbals.

Landed perfecty, just where I wanted.

Then I decided to EVA to go for a swim.

After that went back to the base, and decided to go into the hitch hiker compartment. All worked fine.

Sometime later, I decided to EVA again, and I get this message saying the hatch door is obstructed! My kerbals are now trapped permanently in a tin can.

[magnemoe]

Long since I had problem with this, however I have had problems with kertane mapping from low orbit as it use decent with power and the low orbit gives lots of shadow so it run out of power at the end of the shadow leaving an unmapped strip.

I always add some RTG on larger ship but don't like them on small probes, here I usualy use four small flat solar panels, a small battery and 1 or 2 larger solar panels.

Back in the beginning I launched an mun orbiter who only used two small solar panels. I lost control over it for long time as it was angeled wrong.

[Spartwo]

I was sending a small rover to duna got an encounter,warped straight through.admittedly my fault the rover is still on an intersecting orbit with plenty of fuel so time to play the waiting game.

got another encounter almost crashed into ike 10km.Nosediving towards duna I moved on to landing stage which inadvertedly separated the parachutes tumbled at 540m/s and well you can guess the rest.

Edited April 26, 2013 by Spartwo

[NeoMorph]

Sent a Kethane mining rig to Ike, and when I got there I realised I had forgot to put on Kethane tanks on the miner. I was in Ike orbit when I realised. I was NOT a happy bunny.

[longcat]

I'd just spend a while making a replica of the Saturn V (this was before docking, so the CSM doubled as the lander). The first test flight went so well that I decided to pull an Apollo 8 and go to the Mun. That worked well, I decided to land. Unlike all of my previous attempts with other ships, I finally landed on the Mun without crashing.

Since this was my first time to actually survive a landing, I immediately hit the EVA button and let Jeb have his small step for Kerbal. Since this was just a test flight, I'd forgotten to attach the ladder. So after his giant leap, he was stuck on the ground. This was my first ever EVA, so I spent almost a half hour trying to jump back into the capsule before I finally made it. I was so excited to finally get back in that I immediately hit space bar to launch the rocket. Unfortunately, that just activated the next stage, so the capsule pathetically popped off of the decopuler and the rocket stayed on the Mun.

On the upside, the rescue mission at least went well.