Kerbal Space Program

Built a new ship, meant for duna. Didn't wait around for a launch window so just shot for a munar gravity assist and went for it.

While enroute realize I've used too much fuel to land and return so I figure I'll just do a fly by.

over shot with the fast forward. again. *sigh*

Decided to go for an Eve fly by.

did so, realize I'm almost out of fuel, and orbiting in the "wrong" direction.

I've finally just given up and parked the thing...on Gilly. did some somes and have a few hundred units of fuel left. Once I build a large cruiser I'll probably go pick them up, along with the ever-growing number of kerbals on the moon(trapped another 3 there on a test-run of some of the NASA parts I unlocked for the first time)

and now I think my save's gone corrupted. yay.

In my case I only have Jebediah "stuck" in space.

Eh, it's Jebediah. He's probably enjoying it.

Got my first rover on the Mun!It's not all that stable and it can't go very fast, but the simple fact that it drives without exploding and that it got to the Mun in one piece makes me happy nonetheless.

Now the plan is to send a Lab unit up there to collect as much science as possible, then bring it back to Kerbin. It' s...not going very well. Primary problem is: I don't have enough fuel to get it into orbit, I need to dip into my trip-fuel.

I do have a giant glorified fuel tank in orbit, so the fuel ain't as big an issue as my second problem: my current design has an infuriating tendency to explode after decoupling my stage 1 rockets. To be more precise, only one of my stage 2 rocket explodes when I decouple, turning my spaceship into an impromptu looping roller coaster.

just get it into a high orbit then send another rocket to refuel it maybe.

I already have a refuel station waiting in orbit (tho sending a smaller craft might be preferable than trying to dock these two gigantic spacecrafts).

The problem I have is that one of my rocket always blows up when I decouple.

That is quite the problem...

Also good news, my saves not corrupted!

Got back into the game recently and finished working up a prototype of a new spaceplane. Album

After all the tests I've done on it it seems to be the best spaceplane I've designed yet; not quite as long-legged in atmoshere as one of my earlier ones but fairly decent range (3/4 Kerbin's circumference). Where it really shines is flight ceiling and top speed both of which are phenomenal; this thing cruses at 32-34 kilometers altitude and speeds of up to 1.75 kilometers per second allowing it to easily achieve circular orbits up to 200 kilometers.

It's extremely steady in flight with very good maneuverability in both atmosphere and vacuum with enough RCS thrusters crammed onto it to be capable of VTOL landings on the Mun (or anything smaller).

There's also a couple shots of the first (unsuccessful) prototype of my Monster class refueling ship; at 1100 tons and more than 600 parts I think this is the largest thing I've ever gotten into space, just need to rig up some rather large boosters and it'll be capable of true orbit.

Aaand I don't think those boosters are going to work out; I keep getting them built and up to 5K delta but the game keeps crashing trying to save it. If I could get it to work it would be by far the heaviest vehicle I've launched with a ground weight of 2300 tons and close to if not more than 1000 parts (probably what's causing the crashes).

edited 28th Jun '14 8:01:36 PM by jaustin89

LOL overshot Mun horribly (because of Time Warp). I just let it glide through space...then I got close to Jool (because of Time Warp). Everything disintegrated once it reached the atmosphere. It's currently at 22km above "sea level" in Jool. Goodbye capsule. You lost your parachutes during re-entry. LOLOLOLOL

edited 29th Jun '14 2:06:57 AM by entropy13

Only way I've ever not had parachutes.tear off on jool is to.kill velocity with rockets and then pop drouge chutes

Finally I made a viable space plane...except when I was about to land (in the runway where you started), "Oops, lost the left engine. Oops, lost the other one, well I'm about to go back to base so it's not like I'd need them then...oh the cockpit split from the rest of the plane."

edited 29th Jun '14 8:36:08 AM by entropy13

those are the best landings. Usually if you've caused symmetrical damage your about to lose the rest

I've made an F-15 "Jumbo". Although the "missiles" (SR Bs) are actually huge too LOL. I tried editing the CFG values in duplicates, but in the smaller, more proportional "missile" I still can't find the ideal lift/thrust numbers for the resized SRB itself and the resized aero parts.

So I've been playing around with space planes, and decided I hate them. Why the hell do they always veer left off the runway when they leave the ground?

I also tried making a lander with the science lab that landed horizontally. That didn't work out so hot either...

I found the aerodynamically "correct" configuration for the SRB "missiles" LOL. I also made a cluster bomb made out of small mono-propellant tanks. LOL

I've found it to be easier to return all your stored science to Kerbin, instead of trying to lug around the science lab. I had a direct ascent Mün/Minmus Lander that I used to study just above every biome on both moons.

Direct Ascent is typically what I use for Mun and Minmus trips. Duna and elsewhere, I lug a separate lander - that way, I can't accidentally my interplanetary spacecraft via Lithobraking, only the lander and the "voluenteer" pilot.

For Mun and Minmus, direct ascent also edges out separate landers and orbital rendezvous for efficiency, if only barely.

I usually do separate stages for the fun of it. Though lately I've just been leaving a fuel tank in orbit instead of an actual transfer stage. I usually mount the landing legs on one of the shortest 2m fuel tanks and drain it before lift off. Burning fuel from the top helps keep the center of mass low too.

So, hey, I finally got my lab on the Mun! And I then found out that the rover I parked there didn't work for one reason or another. So I had to make another one...that turned out to be completely useless on the Mun. So I made another, much bigger one. I successfully landed it, but I got bored driving it because of how slow it was.

So I thought "Eh, I made it to the Mun, I made it to Minus, I can probably try getting to Dune now." It was a resounding failure! I didn't even get my ship on the same orbit as Duna. So halfway through my attempt, I said "Eeeh, screw it, I'm going to Eve." It was only a partial failure this time! I got within intercept range of Eve, unfortunately my ship was going too fast and my thruster weren't enough to slow me down into orbit around it.

So I now have ANOTHER Kerbal stuck in orbit around Kerbol! His orbit intersects from time to time with Kerbin's tho, so hey! Maybe one day it'll get a chance to get back home!

I'm having fun making jet fighter and fighter/bombers and bombers LOL. Then I tried landing on Mun again. NOPE. LOL

It's a pain sometimes. A radar altimeter outside the cockpit would help

That's one of the main reasons why I like Mechjeb and Flight Engineer.

I have both of them but for now I rarely use them. The most I've used Mechjeb was when I was just too annoyed with how the default SAS worked with my "jet fighter", too twitchy compared to Mechjeb and for obvious reasons the latter can maintain altitude better.