i started a new career last night and now that I know how to actually do reports, I have a lot of science..... currently working on getting from high Kerbal orbit to Mun orbit. Again, without reading any tutorial at all. I feel pretty good about this.
0
Options
Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
I have launched a rescue mission to Minmus. A specially designed craft, piloted by a probe module and carrying an empty command pod, the NKLB 1. No Kerbal Left Behind.
so yeah you don't have enough but probably not as not enough as you think.
My friend is working on a roguelike game you can play if you want to. (It has free demo)
0
Options
Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
Hopefully the rescue ship has enough, or this could get embarrassing.
Pity I can't get that last little bit out of the first rocket to add to the second when it lands. I don't think Jeb thought to pack a jerry can, hose and breath mint.
Do you have struts yet? That makes a really big difference in the size of the lifter you can create. If you can get into orbit without using any fuel on your lander, you should be good to go as far the Mun in concerned.
My Mun (and Minimus apparently) lander had about 9 engines with 4 T400 cans apiece and no solid boosters.
My lander was essentially a command pod, science junior, and three T400 cans around it using the tiniest engines I have available for reference.
The whole thing is probably overkill, but it got the job done with fuel to spare.
i only have the earliest strut thing which looks like a metal box frame
my lifter is an obscene number of solid boosters and what happens is I reach a high velocity (about 700m/s) while still in thick atmosphere and it flips end over end, because landing gear, fuel to escape Mun, etc, is just too much for it to push through the air (if I take those things off it works fine, but reducing the number of lift boosters basically doesn't work because the number it takes for it to not flip is the number that can't get it into space)
I haven't been able to design a lifter that can get anything but the most essential command module into Mun orbit... I usually have to use >50% of my lander fuel to get to Mun
My current ship of choice is pod, small fuel tank, small rocket, cylindrical detacher, 2 large fuel tanks, large rocket, pair of side detachers connecting to large fuel tanks, connected to 3-way splitters, attached to 2 more large fuel tanks and 6 rockets on the bottom, all attached by a multitude of struts.
That thing gets you places.
My friend is working on a roguelike game you can play if you want to. (It has free demo)
i only have the earliest strut thing which looks like a metal box frame
my lifter is an obscene number of solid boosters and what happens is I reach a high velocity (about 700m/s) while still in thick atmosphere and it flips end over end, because landing gear, fuel to escape Mun, etc, is just too much for it to push through the air (if I take those things off it works fine, but reducing the number of lift boosters basically doesn't work because the number it takes for it to not flip is the number that can't get it into space)
I haven't been able to design a lifter that can get anything but the most essential command module into Mun orbit... I usually have to use >50% of my lander fuel to get to Mun
I would swap some of those solid boosters out for liquid fueled engines. 700m/s isn't necessary (and is probably really inefficient due to drag) while still in the atmosphere. You only need 2-300 m/s before starting your gravity turn at ~10-11km. The nice thing about engines over boosters is you can give them more fuel, and you can throttle them back when you get further up in the atmosphere for increased efficiency.
Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
Jasc that shouldn't be too top heavy. My Mun rocket had more crap on the module than that.
Are you using any wings? Sticking four symmetrical winglets on should help. Also making sure you have a medium liquid engine in the centre of all the solid lifters. The one that has 200 thrust not 215, because it can steer. And engage SAS before you launch.
0
Options
Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
My Mun rocket was pod, chute, science junior, 2x goo, small liquid fuel tank, small liquid fuel engine, stack decoupler, medium liquid tank, small engine, stack decoupler, 4x medium liquid tanks, gymballed engine. Four symmetrical winglets, four symmetrical radial decouplers with four large SRBs.
I haven't landed on Mun yet but that is good for getting there and back. My Minmus landing was done with the same thing with four extra small SRBs for a bit of added liftoff.
0
Options
Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
This was my Minmus rocket. I don't have any shots of the Mun version but it was this minus the four little SRBs.
I wasn't sure how to prioritize liquid and solid... I did try a version where I only have five liquids at the bottom and I couldn't get off the launchpad so I figured they were just useless for low atmosphere
so liquid efficiency.... full throttle wastes fuel even in high orbit? If so I've wasted basically all fuel I've ever had
I wasn't sure how to prioritize liquid and solid... I did try a version where I only have five liquids at the bottom and I couldn't get off the launchpad so I figured they were just useless for low atmosphere
so liquid efficiency.... full throttle wastes fuel even in high orbit? If so I've wasted basically all fuel I've ever had
Full throttle will only waste fuel in atmosphere, because you are generally going to be pushing your craft way faster than the terminal velocity unless you throttle down and this causes a lot of unnecessary inefficiency due to drag. Once you get to around 20-30km you can go nuts since the atmosphere starts getting really thin.
Of course, if you drag a whole bunch of extra big unnecessary engines into space it is also inefficient just due to the extra mass you have to push around.
I wasn't sure how to prioritize liquid and solid... I did try a version where I only have five liquids at the bottom and I couldn't get off the launchpad so I figured they were just useless for low atmosphere
so liquid efficiency.... full throttle wastes fuel even in high orbit? If so I've wasted basically all fuel I've ever had
Full throttle will only waste fuel in atmosphere, because you are generally going to be pushing your craft way faster than the terminal velocity unless you throttle down and this causes a lot of unnecessary inefficiency due to drag. Once you get to around 20-30km you can go nuts since the atmosphere starts getting really thin.
Of course, if you drag a whole bunch of extra big unnecessary engines into space it is also inefficient just due to the extra mass you have to push around.
I've always throttled back once I start my gravity turn to conserve fuel. Have I been doing it wrong this whole time? Now that I'm actually looking, I don't see anything about inefficiencies from being throttled up (other than drag).
Ginger MijangoDon't you open thatTrap Door!Registered Userregular
Once you hit about 150m/s in atmosphere you can throttle it back a bit, generally i drop it back to the 2/3rds as long as you're not losing speed you should be good.
Don't drop it right down to 2/3rd do it a bit at a time and make sure you're not dropping speed.
I wasn't sure how to prioritize liquid and solid... I did try a version where I only have five liquids at the bottom and I couldn't get off the launchpad so I figured they were just useless for low atmosphere
so liquid efficiency.... full throttle wastes fuel even in high orbit? If so I've wasted basically all fuel I've ever had
Full throttle will only waste fuel in atmosphere, because you are generally going to be pushing your craft way faster than the terminal velocity unless you throttle down and this causes a lot of unnecessary inefficiency due to drag. Once you get to around 20-30km you can go nuts since the atmosphere starts getting really thin.
Of course, if you drag a whole bunch of extra big unnecessary engines into space it is also inefficient just due to the extra mass you have to push around.
I've always throttled back once I start my gravity turn to conserve fuel. Have I been doing it wrong this whole time? Now that I'm actually looking, I don't see anything about inefficiencies from being throttled up (other than drag).
I'll have to try that out here in a bit and see.
Yeah, the engines don't lose efficiency just from being at 100% throttle, it's just from the extra drag when you go too fast in atmosphere.
If you look up a planet on the KSP wiki it has a chart with the ideal upwards velocity at various heights.
It helps finely adjust your velocity without burning as much liquid fuel
0
Options
MetalbourneInside a cluster b personalityRegistered Userregular
When designing a rocket, I go for an TWR of about 1.6 to 1.8 on the launch stage to avoid having to throttle back. I try to design the first stage to have about 1200m/s and the second stage have enough to get to the apoapsis. That way I can ditch the stage and it falls back to kerbin. From there I design the rest of the ship to impact whatever body I'm flying to.
Well except for the command pod. I try not to design that to be destroyed.
0
Options
Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
It helps finely adjust your velocity without burning as much liquid fuel
I fucking wish the game told you stuff like this
I also really hope they put in keyboard controls for maneuver nodes. Trying to do it with the mouse is often an exercise in frustration because there's so many click boxes stacked right on top of each other.
Also an undo button would be good. So when I accidentally pull the radial marker instead of the prograde marker I can just cancel it.
+1
Options
Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
Adventures from Minmus
I launched a mission to rescue Jeb, using the NKLB 1. Basically the same as the rocket that got him there only more rockety.
But it turned out to be a piece of shit like all unmanned rockets I've built so far because it ran out of juice at the most annoying moment. So I launched another one exactly like it but with two normal command pods stacked, with Bill Kerman piloting.
In possibly the best bit of astronauting I've done so far I managed to land about 5k from where Jeb was sat waiting.
Jeb got out and jetpacked his way across the plains. Everything was going swimmingly. I got Bill out of the rescue rocket to take a victory picture. But he hit the ground to hard and collapsed, falling directly under the rocket. When he got back up he hit his head on an engine, resulting in a bit of an 'oh shit' moment.
"Uh, Bill. The rocket is going up."
"Yes it is, Jeb."
"Maybe you should have stayed inside."
"Maybe I should have, Jeb."
Fortunately it settled down again.
"Bill, something about this looks odd."
"It's fine, Jeb. We're in space. This is how physics works in space."
Before I can risk further cock-ups we launch and begin the journey home. But, surprising nobody we run out of fuel after achieving orbit around Kerbin. Annoying, but I remember what Dongs suggested, and Jeb and Bill take it in turns to get out and push.
It takes fucking forever but it works!
A successful (mostly. In a manner of speaking.) rescue mission. 54 days after being the first Kerbal to walk on a moon Jeb is back on Kerbin.
the only time I actually had enough fuel to get home, I ran out of battery and lost control of my craft on escape from Mun.... so that guy died.
I'm pretty much ready to go back (researched battery packs), but right now I am trying to farm science to get a better 1st/2nd stage, which is still a crap shoot for me
I have a cluster of three solids, and from each one of those I strut on a liquid booster with 3 LV45 nozzles (the ones that can steer)
At launch, I go 100% throttle until 150 m/s, then I throttle way way way way back and maintain that velocity until 20k
then I go full throttle and make my turn.
my biggest problem is fuel/mass/size inefficiency... i really need advanced fuels to make my rocket more compact. stability is no longer a problem, but mass is
So, in true kerbal fashion... I forgot to put landing gear on my most recent Mun lander. You can still land, but the ship will tip over on it's side and you don't really have any way to "pull up" if you were to start up your engine again.
Well, if anyone was wondering, should you happen to land with your communication array facing down, extending it makes for a very handy impromptu jack to get your lander pointing skyward again. Just long enough to fire the engines and get off the ground.
I needed half of my mono propellent in my RCS thrusters to make re-entry, but I did it
dat science
next phase is to do a rescue mission for the first guy I stranded there, and then build a shitload of probes while I learn to transfer long distance orbits (getting to Minmus was painful, but worthwhile)
Posts
i started a new career last night and now that I know how to actually do reports, I have a lot of science..... currently working on getting from high Kerbal orbit to Mun orbit. Again, without reading any tutorial at all. I feel pretty good about this.
so yeah you don't have enough but probably not as not enough as you think.
Pity I can't get that last little bit out of the first rocket to add to the second when it lands. I don't think Jeb thought to pack a jerry can, hose and breath mint.
while aiming for the Mun.
I might be a bit rusty at this game.
When I stick a small liquid engine on the command module to escape Mun and get back to Kerbal, it's basically too unstable/top heavy to launch
Should I just try orbiting other planets first?
My Mun (and Minimus apparently) lander had about 9 engines with 4 T400 cans apiece and no solid boosters.
My lander was essentially a command pod, science junior, and three T400 cans around it using the tiniest engines I have available for reference.
The whole thing is probably overkill, but it got the job done with fuel to spare.
my lifter is an obscene number of solid boosters and what happens is I reach a high velocity (about 700m/s) while still in thick atmosphere and it flips end over end, because landing gear, fuel to escape Mun, etc, is just too much for it to push through the air (if I take those things off it works fine, but reducing the number of lift boosters basically doesn't work because the number it takes for it to not flip is the number that can't get it into space)
I haven't been able to design a lifter that can get anything but the most essential command module into Mun orbit... I usually have to use >50% of my lander fuel to get to Mun
That thing gets you places.
I would swap some of those solid boosters out for liquid fueled engines. 700m/s isn't necessary (and is probably really inefficient due to drag) while still in the atmosphere. You only need 2-300 m/s before starting your gravity turn at ~10-11km. The nice thing about engines over boosters is you can give them more fuel, and you can throttle them back when you get further up in the atmosphere for increased efficiency.
Are you using any wings? Sticking four symmetrical winglets on should help. Also making sure you have a medium liquid engine in the centre of all the solid lifters. The one that has 200 thrust not 215, because it can steer. And engage SAS before you launch.
I haven't landed on Mun yet but that is good for getting there and back. My Minmus landing was done with the same thing with four extra small SRBs for a bit of added liftoff.
I wasn't sure how to prioritize liquid and solid... I did try a version where I only have five liquids at the bottom and I couldn't get off the launchpad so I figured they were just useless for low atmosphere
so liquid efficiency.... full throttle wastes fuel even in high orbit? If so I've wasted basically all fuel I've ever had
Full throttle will only waste fuel in atmosphere, because you are generally going to be pushing your craft way faster than the terminal velocity unless you throttle down and this causes a lot of unnecessary inefficiency due to drag. Once you get to around 20-30km you can go nuts since the atmosphere starts getting really thin.
Of course, if you drag a whole bunch of extra big unnecessary engines into space it is also inefficient just due to the extra mass you have to push around.
3DS: 1289-8447-4695
I've always throttled back once I start my gravity turn to conserve fuel. Have I been doing it wrong this whole time? Now that I'm actually looking, I don't see anything about inefficiencies from being throttled up (other than drag).
I'll have to try that out here in a bit and see.
Don't drop it right down to 2/3rd do it a bit at a time and make sure you're not dropping speed.
Yeah, the engines don't lose efficiency just from being at 100% throttle, it's just from the extra drag when you go too fast in atmosphere.
If you look up a planet on the KSP wiki it has a chart with the ideal upwards velocity at various heights.
3DS: 1289-8447-4695
3DS: 1289-8447-4695
It helps finely adjust your velocity without burning as much liquid fuel
Well except for the command pod. I try not to design that to be destroyed.
I fucking wish the game told you stuff like this
I also really hope they put in keyboard controls for maneuver nodes. Trying to do it with the mouse is often an exercise in frustration because there's so many click boxes stacked right on top of each other.
Also an undo button would be good. So when I accidentally pull the radial marker instead of the prograde marker I can just cancel it.
But it turned out to be a piece of shit like all unmanned rockets I've built so far because it ran out of juice at the most annoying moment. So I launched another one exactly like it but with two normal command pods stacked, with Bill Kerman piloting.
In possibly the best bit of astronauting I've done so far I managed to land about 5k from where Jeb was sat waiting.
Jeb got out and jetpacked his way across the plains. Everything was going swimmingly. I got Bill out of the rescue rocket to take a victory picture. But he hit the ground to hard and collapsed, falling directly under the rocket. When he got back up he hit his head on an engine, resulting in a bit of an 'oh shit' moment.
"Uh, Bill. The rocket is going up."
"Yes it is, Jeb."
"Maybe you should have stayed inside."
"Maybe I should have, Jeb."
Fortunately it settled down again.
"Bill, something about this looks odd."
"It's fine, Jeb. We're in space. This is how physics works in space."
Before I can risk further cock-ups we launch and begin the journey home. But, surprising nobody we run out of fuel after achieving orbit around Kerbin. Annoying, but I remember what Dongs suggested, and Jeb and Bill take it in turns to get out and push.
It takes fucking forever but it works!
A successful (mostly. In a manner of speaking.) rescue mission. 54 days after being the first Kerbal to walk on a moon Jeb is back on Kerbin.
the only time I actually had enough fuel to get home, I ran out of battery and lost control of my craft on escape from Mun.... so that guy died.
I'm pretty much ready to go back (researched battery packs), but right now I am trying to farm science to get a better 1st/2nd stage, which is still a crap shoot for me
I remember them basically doing jack shit on larger rockets, so I've gotten away from using them at all. That was clearly a mistake.
I have a cluster of three solids, and from each one of those I strut on a liquid booster with 3 LV45 nozzles (the ones that can steer)
At launch, I go 100% throttle until 150 m/s, then I throttle way way way way back and maintain that velocity until 20k
then I go full throttle and make my turn.
my biggest problem is fuel/mass/size inefficiency... i really need advanced fuels to make my rocket more compact. stability is no longer a problem, but mass is
sadly I don't have orbiting figured out so what goes up must come down for the moment
Yes do not go outside while the rocket is powered on.
Well, if anyone was wondering, should you happen to land with your communication array facing down, extending it makes for a very handy impromptu jack to get your lander pointing skyward again. Just long enough to fire the engines and get off the ground.
I needed half of my mono propellent in my RCS thrusters to make re-entry, but I did it
dat science
next phase is to do a rescue mission for the first guy I stranded there, and then build a shitload of probes while I learn to transfer long distance orbits (getting to Minmus was painful, but worthwhile)
Well Moho is hands down the hardest body to land on. Like, seriously, you need a lot of delta v to get an orbit around that planet.
I probably actually had enough fuel for the return trip, too
3DS: 1289-8447-4695
I miscalculated a tiny bit