Kerbal Space Program

My main use for MJ has always been the landing prediction system. I only actually used the landing autopilot to control the throttle on my Tylo lander, but being able to avoid water landings on every other planet and moon has been a major benefit.

Standing on the edge of the crater...

Finally downloaded a mod with proper missiles. The ones I customized are barely 6kms in range and only have small explosions. lol

edited 2nd Jul '14 9:37:59 AM by entropy13

I'm reading this because it's interesting. I think. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, over.

You can make pretty good kinetic missiles with the vanilla stuff, but those are more suited for space.

When you have atmosphere, it's best to take advantage of it and make fuel-air explosives.

Standing on the edge of the crater...

Customizing them took a lot of effort though. I had to resize the tail fin, delta winglet, and that other winglet, AV-8 or something, (i.e. three vanilla parts), as well as the radial decoupler. The SRB I used is from the KW Rocketry mod though, but it's just like the long vanilla SRB, except it looks more sleek (and thus "nicer" as a missile) and has less thrust.

Then I had to attach the first three I mentioned in an aerodynamic arrangement on the "missile". LOL

I had to change thrust, lift, and weight values too. Too much thrust and no amount of lift would suffice, too little thrust and it would just fall down. Too heavy, and it would be weird because they're resized already but weighs the same as their original version, too light and its interaction with various forces is more erratic.

I'm reading this because it's interesting. I think. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, over.

Dammit! I stranded a kerbal in Eve's ocean by hitting F5 when I meant to hit F9!

Perfect excuse to build a sea launch rocket!

I'm baaaaaaack

Sounds like a good idea, but I'm not sure how to go about doing that. What sort of design considerations does that entail?

I'm pretty sure it involves intakes at some point- the stock ones have very hydrophobic properties.

Direct all enquiries to Jamie B Good

You'll need to have fuel tanks or structural fuselages attached to the bottom of it to act as floats. Intakes on the bottom might help as well, those things are pretty much crash proof on water.

I'm baaaaaaack

And now I've finally made a real, non-destructive landing on Eve! It only took me like thirty tries with the quicksave, but I did it!

And now I've got another kerbal stuck on Eve because I don't have nearly enough fuel to get back into orbit! How the hell am I supposed to make a lander that can carry that much fuel!

Apollo style. Only bring enough fuel to de-orbit and get back to orbit, and have a vessel for the return trip up there waiting for you. You're using parachutes to land right?

I'm baaaaaaack

Yeah, I am. I still had 90% of my fuel left when I landed. I was using the Rockomax X200-16 Fuel Tank—the largest I could use without making my lander top-heavy—to lift just itself and a capsule. I had a lower thrust engine on it, which in hindsight was a mistake, but I don't think a more powerful one would have been enough to get back into orbit either.

edited 9th Jul '14 1:02:52 PM by CDRW

I'd say Build a rocket capable of getting into a high kerbal orbit on it's own, and then make that the lander. I usually test all my landers on Kerbin before sending them off. I'll use extra engines then reduce it based on the gravity of the body. IE, mun landers will have about 1/5th the thrust of a test lander. It's more than the math says I need(Mun gravity's around 1/6th kerbin's), but when you over shoot it's nice to be able to kill velocity quickly.

I'm baaaaaaack

I still use pretty much the same heavy lander I came up with as soon as docking was implemented; a 2m command pod with the large grey tank and a poodle underneath with 4 more tanks and poodles around it with RCS. SAS, chutes and what not on top of the outer fuel pods. It can land (and take off) from everywhere including Tylo, I don't bother taking engines off for lower gravity bodies though; just use lower throttle settings and have the rest in reserve for emergencies.

There's also nothing like kicking off from the Mun at full thrust with a really low gravity turn, 2Kps at <100m is a rush (It's also just about suicide but Jeb likes it).

Mine end up with a convergent evolution thing anyway. Mk1-2 command pod, sitting atop the "swimming pool" tank with varying thrusters, then decoupler, then another pool tank with landing legs and such. I burn the top fuel so it becomes less top heavy as it burns, then transfer the fuel back to the top when it's time for lift off, then leave the legs behind.

Plus I've only done 1 manned landing outside the kerbin system. It was on gilly though, and it wasn't a lander, it was a nearly out of fuel orbital stage intended for landing on duna. Couldn't make it back to kerbin so I figured I'd find somewhere to park it. got a screenshot around somewhere...

edited 9th Jul '14 3:39:59 PM by Joesolo

I'm baaaaaaack

I really need to get back into KSP. Has anyone tried the Asteroid Redirect Mission?

It's not over. Not yet.

yup. If you're lucky one will capture itself into a stable-ish orbit and you can just fly out and grab it.

I'm baaaaaaack

Natural captures are very temporary, as they can only occur without n-body physics as a result of interactions with the Mun or Minmus provided a gravity assist. Eventually the asteroids will encounter Kerbin's moons again and either be ejected from the system or put on a collision course with Kerbin.

This is a signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

My first asteroid was captured by gravity with my notice abs spent at least 2 years in its obit before I finally grabbed it. That's why.I said stable ish. Won't be eternal but it can be for a good.amount of time

edited 10th Jul '14 3:50:04 AM by joesolo

I'm baaaaaaack

I've seen Eve via rocket-chair and six-way aymmetry parallel staging, so you have three pairs of engines and a center core. All with dinky FL-T200 tanks and 48-7S engines. Parachutes to land the thing without having to touch fuel, and then you take off when you're ready to zip up into orbit.

Happiness is zero-gee with a sinus cold.

I made it to Duna!◊

Jeb and Bob are on the surface in Landing Module 'Riker'. Bill is orbiting the planet in Command/Service Module 'Picard/LaForge'. In about a year and a half, they'll head back into space and return to the main spacecraft, heading back to Kerbin.

Direct all enquiries to Jamie B Good

Congrats. Duna is one of my favorite planets to visit, as it is a comfortable mix of challenge and fun, and it doesn't take FOREVER to get to or from. Basically, if you have a Mun-rated lander, it should be enough to handle Duna, provided you slap some chutes onto it in order to save fuel on the descent.

Happiness is zero-gee with a sinus cold.

First Contract playthrough.

Direct all enquiries to Jamie B Good

Awesome. Maybe the 0.24 update will finally give me the motivation to get back into KSP.

It's not over. Not yet.

Another .24 preview, this time by Scott Manley for the Mittani.

Direct all enquiries to Jamie B Good