The joy of small vessels

[Noticeably FAT]

I've been building big for so long, I'd completely forgotten just how satisfying a small vessel can be to fly. I just landed a tiny (for my standards) probe on the mun as a target for an eventual base, and man was it easy to fly. Turned when I wanted it to turn, never even thought about shaking itself apart (with 2 struts), more dV than I knew what to do with, I turned my head to sneeze and it was in orbit...

I may have to do this more often.

[KSK]

Small vessels are great. I designed a minimalist orbital launcher the other day to test some ideas for a story I'm working on. Worked like a charm, even with the first stage engine deliberately operating at half thrust to simulate an older, less efficient model.

[tntristan12]

I like small craft too but man, sometimes they can be hard to balance: like if you're making a mini rover and skycrane combo. If your CoM and CoT are off by even a hair then it'll want to spin at anything more than 10% thrust capacity.

For that reason, I prefer mid-sized vessels. I have a corvette craft that I take from planet to planet, sometimes with a module attached for delivery, and it is a dream to fly!

[Fel]

Small Rockets really are a class of their own.

I kept trying to make the smallest multi-stage rocket I could to launch a series of probes into a 1.5Mm kerbal orbit... and then ended up just having a two stage thing, way over built... but it was basically just two tanks + decoupler + engines... and it actually weighed less than the rocket I was building XD.

Small is crazy.

[Tokay Gris]

Those are fun... I actually placed a bunch of seats on my probes, just as an emergency return vessel for my deep space missions... Well, I hope the Kerbals are comfortable in their suits...

The probes are basically a big tank, some science stuff, an SAS and a MapSat-dish. Oh, and an engine of course. Nuclear.

10.000 delta-V? They can go ANYWHERE!

[ThePsuedoMonkey]

The best part of small vessels are the realtime flights I've been downsizing all of my ships recently since they are much more fun to use, though I really wish there was a smaller monopropellant tank in the stock catalogue.

[tntristan12]

Those are fun... I actually placed a bunch of seats on my probes, just as an emergency return vessel for my deep space missions... Well, I hope the Kerbals are comfortable in their suits...

The probes are basically a big tank, some science stuff, an SAS and a MapSat-dish. Oh, and an engine of course. Nuclear.

10.000 delta-V? They can go ANYWHERE!

No parachutes? You sadistic hooligan you!

[Tokay Gris]

No parachutes? You sadistic hooligan you!

Hehe... no worries there.

All my deep space vessels lack parachutes, unless they are meant to land on a planet with athmosphere.

I keep a shuttleservice active in orbit. My small tank vessels all have the capability to get four additional Kerbals safely back to the surface.

[Vanamonde]

I've also recently gone back to playing around with small ships, and things have really changed since I last dabbled in this. The various kinds of SAS seem much weaker, and as tntristan12 observed, it's now quite challenging to keep a small ship flying straight. It's almost like learning the game over again.

[nhnifong]

It makes me wonder if the physics would play nicer if the scale of the whole game were opaquely made 10 times smaller.

[dimovski]

Its already 11 times tinier then RL, 110 times wont make it easier for modders AT ALL...