The close calls we all have from time to time.

[KerbMav]

Landing on the nightside of Mun during my anomaly hunt, misplaced lights earned me nothing, so I was only using a zoomed in SCANsat map, the navball and speed/height readouts of KER - true instrument landing - got me closer than the all daylight landings before ... so close that the arch I was landing next to was illuminated by said misplaced lights ... from below!

Takeoff killed my craft because I thought of the arch as terrain scatter and rocketed right into it - twice.

[warmarrer]

Yeah... control surfaces are a good thing.

[Red Iron Crown]

Yeah... control surfaces are a good thing.

Nice save, that was really close.

[warmarrer]

Nice save, that was really close.

Oddly enough I've had closer calls. I've had stages jettisoned while still active do a full loop de loop and knock the engine off my current stage without destroying the capsule. I've even had an old space craft in a highly elliptical orbit that was apparently losing the tiniest amount of velocity to atmosphere each pass re-enter atmosphere for the final time and crash only ~3k off my launch pad as I was preparing to take off. I don't even want to imagine the odds on that one.

I'm more of a "experimental" rocketeer than one that uses "math" and "orbital physics calculations". I only recently started recording my exploits so some of my more outlandish experiments are lost to mankind.

[J4CKAL2014]

Burrowing through the top of Jool's mid-lower atmosphere (the lowest I got was around 118,000m) doing almost 9,500m/s in a 65-tonne spacecraft with 5 Kerbals on board and the Deadly Reentry Continued mod installed, praying that I would lose enough delta V to slow myself into a Jool orbit and that Odyssey III would survive the areaobrake.

Words cannot express how relieved I felt that I'd added a 6.25m inflatable heat shield to the nose of the craft "just in case" even so, was possibly the hairiest 5 minutes of my time in KSP

(while this was technically not a "close call" - this wasn't an accident, it was in my flight plan - it was definitely very hair-raising!)

[Werwolf]

Oddly enough I've had closer calls. I've had stages jettisoned while still active do a full loop de loop and knock the engine off my current stage without destroying the capsule. I've even had an old space craft in a highly elliptical orbit that was apparently losing the tiniest amount of velocity to atmosphere each pass re-enter atmosphere for the final time and crash only ~3k off my launch pad as I was preparing to take off. I don't even want to imagine the odds on that one.

I'm more of a "experimental" rocketeer than one that uses "math" and "orbital physics calculations". I only recently started recording my exploits so some of my more outlandish experiments are lost to mankind.

Calling you out on that one... Said craft, even on orbits that dip into the atmosphere, don't lose a single meter of d/v because if you aren't currently "focused/playing" that craft, it doesn't do physics calculations on it. Test it yourself... put a satellite in a 75 by 30km orbit, and watch from tracking station. Won't lose a single meter.

[technicalfool]

Okay, time to take off from Mün. No atmosphere so just flip right over after take-off, right?

Oh my, that's a mountain.

Oh my, that's a mountain!

Quick, point up. No, I said up you stupid pile of junk! Dammit, I should have put more reaction wheels on this thing. More thrust, henson! More thrust! Come on, come ooooooooon....

*SKIM*

Whew.

(And I reckon I'm not the only one who's done that)

Edited June 11, 2014 by technicalfool

[warmarrer]

Calling you out on that one... Said craft, even on orbits that dip into the atmosphere, don't lose a single meter of d/v because if you aren't currently "focused/playing" that craft, it doesn't do physics calculations on it. Test it yourself... put a satellite in a 75 by 30km orbit, and watch from tracking station. Won't lose a single meter.

Hmm.... I just tried it out and it looks like you're right. Is there any other factor that could cause a ship in an apparently stable orbit to crash?

[SelectHalfling0]

I was testing a space plane capable of reaching an 80 by 80 km orbit. I set its course well above that, leaving no fuel for orbital insertion (I wanted to see how high it could go). Then, as im watching from the map view, I notice it will be passing by a Duna Transport waiting for its window. I watched from regular view as the icon got closer, and closer, and closer, and I watched as the transport flew by at an insane orbital velocity. I was only 500 meters from the transport. I could see solar panels, fuel tanks, engines, everything. It's exterior lights even shone on the spaceplane for a split second.

[warmarrer]

Calling you out on that one... Said craft, even on orbits that dip into the atmosphere, don't lose a single meter of d/v because if you aren't currently "focused/playing" that craft, it doesn't do physics calculations on it. Test it yourself... put a satellite in a 75 by 30km orbit, and watch from tracking station. Won't lose a single meter.

Hmm.... I just tried it out and it looks like you're right. Is there any other factor that could cause a ship in an apparently stable orbit to crash?

Actually I was attempting to rendezvous with the test craft to see if being in near space to it makes it susceptible to physics when it lost orbital speed and crashed into the planet. Maybe physics doesn't work on craft from the tracking station but will work if you're currently piloting some other craft?

[Taki117]

Actually I was attempting to rendezvous with the test craft to see if being in near space to it makes it susceptible to physics when it lost orbital speed and crashed into the planet. Maybe physics doesn't work on craft from the tracking station but will work if you're currently piloting some other craft?

If you are within 2.5km of a craft Physics gets calculated for both craft.

[warmarrer]

If you are within 2.5km of a craft Physics gets calculated for both craft.

That's odd because the other craft crashed while I was about 1/4 the way around the planet still, I was on my way up into orbit on the map screen and it just nosedived when it brushed the atmosphere. This is after several hundred full orbits from the tracking station to ensure it wasn't just going to crash on its own

[cantab]

Hmm.... I just tried it out and it looks like you're right. Is there any other factor that could cause a ship in an apparently stable orbit to crash?

A game bug, or a mod that either extends the physics range (Lazor?) or keeps physics running for a ship (TT Never Unload?)