Landing at KSC after returning from Minimus

[Blitz4]

Say I wanted to land at KSC (or say the Badlands to do a surface sample) on a return trip from Minimus. For the life of me, I never know what to set my Kerbin Periapsis when burning retrograde at my Kerbin Apoapsis, and once I approach Kerbin, I don't know when to start buring retrograde because the Atmosphere/Drag slows me down so much it's almost useless to use a maneuver node.

Sorry if this has been asked before, I saw a couple of tips, like setting my Kerbin Periapsis to 20km, and start burning retrograde as you approach Kerbin until your predicted orbit takes you past where you are trying to land to account for the atmosphere slowing you down. I still can't get it right.

[astropapi1]

*Minmus.

Common mistake.

[Liowen]

You could drop someone, or something, in the area you want to land and select it as a target. This should give you a time as to when you will reach it....I think. I know Mechjeb will give you an estimate as to where you will land, but even that I found is not always right on the money.

[AlamoVampire]

well, the hard way is practice practice practice until you get used to how your designs slow down and interact with atmosphere OR you could take the easier path and get the current MechJeb by r4m0n and use it to make relatively pinpoint landings with ease

[TheDarkStar]

well, the hard way is practice practice practice until you get used to how your designs slow down and interact with atmosphere OR you could take the easier path and get the current MechJeb by r4m0n and use it to make relatively pinpoint landings with ease

If you want to enjoy the game more, don't use MechJeb. You'll have a much better feeling of achievement and learn much more if you don't use it.

For landing in the right place on Kerbin, there are a few things I can say. First, either use quicksaves to check where different orbital corrections take you (F5 = quicksave, F9 = quickload). Second, you can make a few aerobraking passes (get low enough in the atmosphere that you are slowed but not low enough that you reenter completely) to get a low orbit, and then deorbit so that you look like you will go a bit past KSC. If you have the fuel, don't use parachutes until the very end; use your engines to slow yourself down and get into the right spot. There is not quite as much of a rule to do it because of Kerbin's atmosphere (and it is much harder on Kerbin than on other places).

Edit: But yes, practice is important to get the hang of landing in a certain spot.

[AlamoVampire]

If you want to enjoy the game more, don't use MechJeb. You'll have a much better feeling of achievement and learn much more if you don't use it.

For landing in the right place on Kerbin, there are a few things I can say. First, either use quicksaves to check where different orbital corrections take you (F5 = quicksave, F9 = quickload). Second, you can make a few aerobraking passes (get low enough in the atmosphere that you are slowed but not low enough that you reenter completely) to get a low orbit, and then deorbit so that you look like you will go a bit past KSC. If you have the fuel, don't use parachutes until the very end; use your engines to slow yourself down and get into the right spot. There is not quite as much of a rule to do it because of Kerbin's atmosphere (and it is much harder on Kerbin than on other places).

Edit: But yes, practice is important to get the hang of landing in a certain spot.

um.... I enjoy KSP MORE with MechJeb. I find it is invaluable for me. It gives me vital stats on my space craft and can let me find my intercepts easier than spending 2-3 hours mucking with maneuver nodes. A sense of achievement in KSP is NOT linked to MechJeb and its use or disuse. I spent nearly 1 MONTH in this game w/out mechjeb and could not master rendezvous and docking no matter HOW hard I tried or how many videos I watched. I never could figure out what I was doing wrong. oh sure I could eventually tag my target ship and link up, but by then I was sweating, swearing and nearly out of fuel both rocket AND RCS.

MechJeb is a wonderful teacher. After watching it do 2 rendezvous and dockings I saw where I was making my mistakes and LEARNED from the mod. Flatly discounting and discriminating against a mod that is infact MADE by a Developer and it looks like this mod WILL be our main source of Autopilot <I for one do NOT like making 20+ minute nerva burns by hand, mechjeb handles that work for me> because of this fact. Disregard if it you wish, but, you are cutting away a tremendous amount of data and quite frankly your left hand because of its usefulness.

[Guest Brody_Peffley]

um.... I enjoy KSP MORE with MechJeb. I find it is invaluable for me. It gives me vital stats on my space craft and can let me find my intercepts easier than spending 2-3 hours mucking with maneuver nodes. A sense of achievement in KSP is NOT linked to MechJeb and its use or disuse. I spent nearly 1 MONTH in this game w/out mechjeb and could not master rendezvous and docking no matter HOW hard I tried or how many videos I watched. I never could figure out what I was doing wrong. oh sure I could eventually tag my target ship and link up, but by then I was sweating, swearing and nearly out of fuel both rocket AND RCS.

MechJeb is a wonderful teacher. After watching it do 2 rendezvous and dockings I saw where I was making my mistakes and LEARNED from the mod. Flatly discounting and discriminating against a mod that is infact MADE by a Developer and it looks like this mod WILL be our main source of Autopilot <I for one do NOT like making 20+ minute nerva burns by hand, mechjeb handles that work for me> because of this fact. Disregard if it you wish, but, you are cutting away a tremendous amount of data and quite frankly your left hand because of its usefulness.

Actually I never heard of squad talking about autopilot ever in this game. Wondering if there deciding. But didn't the guy that made mechjeb like nova? A former dev or somethin?

[TheDarkStar]

Actually I never heard of squad talking about autopilot ever in this game. Wondering if there deciding. But didn't the guy that made mechjeb like nova? A former dev or somethin?

Nova was the guy who made most of the planets, but he had to resign due to events in his life. Second, Sqaud has said that they will definitely not include an autopilot ingame; maneuver nodes (which are actually really simple to use) are what we get. Third, the guy who made MechJeb is in fact a dev now, but he is in charge of working on the UI.

[Sirine]

Learn it the hard-way. and you will appreciate it more. not to say more satisfactory...

My 1st rendezvous took me 4 hrs real time. And I've never regret it.

Hope you sometimes will try my posted challenge. MechJeb-ker can't do it. I learn it myself.

1) Master of EVA. (Gilly version).

2) Master of EVA. (Minmus version).

3) Master of EVA. (Mun edition).

4) Master of Pinpoint Lander. (Kerbin Edition)

5) Master of Pinpoint Lander. (Mun Edition)

6) 33.1km Emergency Rescue on Jeb's Burger!

7) Christmas-is-near-Jeb-decided-to-practice-his-dancing-skill

---

[astropapi1]

Third, the guy who made MechJeb is in fact a dev now, but he is in charge of working on the UI.

Waaaaait a second. Did Romfarer make Mechjeb?! I thought it was R4m0n.

[TheDarkStar]

um.... I enjoy KSP MORE with MechJeb. I find it is invaluable for me. It gives me vital stats on my space craft and can let me find my intercepts easier than spending 2-3 hours mucking with maneuver nodes. A sense of achievement in KSP is NOT linked to MechJeb and its use or disuse. I spent nearly 1 MONTH in this game w/out mechjeb and could not master rendezvous and docking no matter HOW hard I tried or how many videos I watched. I never could figure out what I was doing wrong. oh sure I could eventually tag my target ship and link up, but by then I was sweating, swearing and nearly out of fuel both rocket AND RCS.

MechJeb is a wonderful teacher. After watching it do 2 rendezvous and dockings I saw where I was making my mistakes and LEARNED from the mod. Flatly discounting and discriminating against a mod that is infact MADE by a Developer and it looks like this mod WILL be our main source of Autopilot <I for one do NOT like making 20+ minute nerva burns by hand, mechjeb handles that work for me> because of this fact. Disregard if it you wish, but, you are cutting away a tremendous amount of data and quite frankly your left hand because of its usefulness.

Personally, I dislike it because I want to play the game and not have MechJeb pilot for me, but that's because I like the piloting. I have actually used MechJeb before, but it gets boring after a while. Also, NERVA burns very rarely take as long as 20 minutes, since that means an 80 minute real burn time (you're using 4x warp, right?) unless you're trying to move a huge multi-part station. With anything that is single-part, you can also use struts so that stability is not an issue.

It tool me months to learn to do the things I did. My first several dockings were failures because I ran out of RCS, but I got better over time. Now, I can dock two ~400 part ships with off-center (design failure) RCS or dock without RCS just fine.

Edit:

Waaaaait a second. Did Romfarer make Mechjeb?! I thought it was R4m0n.

Oops, you're right.

[astropapi1]

Oops, you're right.

[RELIEF INTENSIFIES]

I thought everything was a lie for a second.

[AlamoVampire]

Personally, I dislike it because I want to play the game and not have MechJeb pilot for me, but that's because I like the piloting. I have actually used MechJeb before, but it gets boring after a while. Also, NERVA burns very rarely take as long as 20 minutes, since that means an 80 minute real burn time (you're using 4x warp, right?) unless you're trying to move a huge multi-part station. With anything that is single-part, you can also use struts so that stability is not an issue.

It tool me months to learn to do the things I did. My first several dockings were failures because I ran out of RCS, but I got better over time. Now, I can dock two ~400 part ships with off-center (design failure) RCS or dock without RCS just fine.

Edit:

Oops, you're right.

I am a licensed RC pilot and have a few thousand hours of simulator time flying a number of single and multi engine prop/jet aircraft and have real world flight time. I love to fly is my point. But there are things one SHOULD know that you simply cannot know WITHOUT mechjeb. you are foolishly limiting your knowledge of your vital information with out mechjeb. if you want to do drone work thats YOUR problem and fault, but mechjeb is absolutely vital if you want a full picture of your vitals. i mean a 20 minute burn W/OUT physics warp. It's still brutally long WITH it. My last trip to eeloo saw some numbingly long burns even with physics warp and it would have taken me 5-6 hours to find the right angles given my eeloo is not at intersection with kerbins plane.

Your game your choice. But mechjeb is beyond useful.

[The Destroyer]

I admit, I did use mechjeb. It's a good teacher. After that, I ditched it for good. I know what my spacecraft reacts, what tanks give what delta-v, etc, so I don't need mechjeb to pilot or give stats. Also, long burns are fine- press t, and ajust as you go.

[technion]

y last trip to eeloo saw some numbingly long burns even with physics warp and it would have taken me 5-6 hours to find the right angles given my eeloo is not at intersection with kerbins plane.

Your game your choice. But mechjeb is beyond useful.

Having just been to eeloo without Mechjeb, I had no issues finding the right intersects and to say it took about five hours means it took about two hours to launch three stages and dock them in LKO, and an hour to appreciate the view on the ground. And I'm yet to build anything not ion probe driven that can remain stable during a physics warp.

[AlamoVampire]

I have a question to all of you who either refuse flat out to use mechjeb or have used it, but now do NOT use it. This is a simple question. Can you tell me, based on this picture, some vital stats? Delta V, TWR, for each stage? All mainsail engines on the lifting stages <central core lift stage + the 6 asparagus motors on the outside> and a poodle engine on the orbital ops stage. For Ease, I am showing 3 pictures. First is the entire rocket on the pad, no UI showing, 2nd is the Orbital Ops stage in the VAB as I did not wish to dig through my imageshack to find it in orbit operations, 3rd well below the other 2 is the full rocket again on the pad THIS time with its vital stats showing. also, this is not even the largest thing or the most awkward thing to be launched in my version of the game. Below all of this is THE MOST painful thing I have launched and I barely even manged it with MechJeb fighting it all the way into orbit.

For me to get THIS nasty into orbit, I had to have MechJeb, there was no other way short of an edit into orbit, which was tempting. BUT, with mechjeb fighting this out of balance <and I tried for 2 solid days to make this thing balanced> beast it made it after some 200 tries.

Edited December 30, 2013 by AlamoVampire

[Sirine]

Learn it the hard-way. and you will appreciate it more. not to say more satisfactory...

My 1st rendezvous took me 4 hrs real time. And I've never regret it.

Hope you sometimes will try my posted challenge. MechJeb-ker can't do it. I learn it myself.

1) Master of EVA. (Gilly version).

2) Master of EVA. (Minmus version).

3) Master of EVA. (Mun edition).

4) Master of Pinpoint Lander. (Kerbin Edition)

5) Master of Pinpoint Lander. (Mun Edition)

6) 33.1km Emergency Rescue on Jeb's Burger!

7) Christmas-is-near-Jeb-decided-to-practice-his-dancing-skill

---

Mechjeb or not...no one dare to accept my challenge above?

[AlamoVampire]

Sirine PM the challenge to me and I will try to give it a go when time permits, right now, I am designing and testing an Eeloo mission and its taking its toll on me lol.

[Sirine]

Sirine PM the challenge to me and I will try to give it a go when time permits, right now, I am designing and testing an Eeloo mission and its taking its toll on me lol.

PM send. Hope you enjoy the challenges.

[AlamoVampire]

I think I will will be a nice break after this Eeloo nightmare I have created for myself. I find I am treating this like NASA does its missions. Design a part, test it, design a vehicle, test it, THEN test it ALL. I want to make sure I am able to support my mission at Eeloo lol.

[technion]

I have a question to all of you who either refuse flat out to use mechjeb or have used it, but now do NOT use it. This is a simple question. Can you tell me, based on this picture, some vital stats?

You say that like you can't play the game without specific stats. I've returned from sea level on Eve, without ever knowing the stats of any part of the rocket that did so. I did that using experience. What more do think mechjeb is needed for?

For me to get THIS nasty into orbit, I had to have MechJeb,

Assuming that's a stock rocket.. I'd accept that challenge. .craft file?

http://imageshack.us/scaled/large/35/cq4g.png

[Sirine]

Version 0.18.3 DEMO

Have you ever try precision landing 5+5 Kerbal on Mun with just 2 launch?

I did this, when I don't even know what is MechJeb.

Javascript is disabled. View full album

And this... 4 kerbals Eve ascend. (Video, save file included.)

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/60331-Eve-Misison-Report-Live-update-with-persistent-file-along-the-way

[AlamoVampire]

message self redacted

Edited December 30, 2013 by AlamoVampire

[Vanamonde]

Mechjeb's foes and friends are not likely to ever convince each other to change sides, so let's please not get into that argument again and confine this discussion to OP's question about landing precision. Mechjeb has been put forth as one method, so now does anybody have other suggestions?