I was trying to orbit the mun and it smashed into me
I miscalculated a tiny bit
You can adjust your orbit as you approach a body. North and sout are the same no matter where you go. When you enter that body's sphere of influence, burning at 90 or 270 will increase or decrease the periapsis. It takes less fuel to make these corrections the farther out you are, which is why I wish you could set the navball according to your target.
my biggest Mun mistake was leaving SAS on while I was landed, which seems to drain the battery like crazy... so when I got back into the command module I had just enough electricity to fire my rocket and then I tumbled across the surface of the mun for a few moments before exploding due to lack of control
always turn SAS off when landed. Or invest in solar panels. (this was before I had panels)
i can use SAS while landing, that's obvious. but when you are actually touched down, engines cut, sometimes my SAS would just chirp constantly while I was sitting still, which killed my battery
no special modules installed, just the command module SAS
So I built a very rockety rocket
(Yes, those are jet engines firing up)
I get into space with a 'fair' amount of fuel left.
Bill shows no fear as he drifts out of Kerbin's orbit, probably never to return
At this point I realise that I forgot the fuel hoses to connect the extra fuel tanks to the engine on my planetary transfer stage. I get to spend the rest of this stage carefully transferring fuel around manually with the alt+lmb transfer screen.
I line up a transfer to Moho. I should just skim the surface, giving me lots of time to lose the ~4000m/s of extra velocity and get into an orbit.
Moho is just barely visible in the distance(up and left a bit from center). Bill is overjoyed.
After doing an incredibly long burn to decelerate, Bill gets ready to make his landing.
A surprisingly uneventful landing! Bill celebrates by pretending to fly the rocket from the extra seat we brought for Jeb. Unfortunately, we landed on the wrong side of the planet to complete the rescue mission. Maybe another time, Jeb!
We do our science and leave Moho behind, for now.
To save fuel, I line up a very tricky transfer without adjusting my tilt. I have to wait 7 years for the proper alignment to pull off the transfer. Bill gets really good at solitaire.
My aim from Moho was good! We are on a direct intercept course with Kerbin, and the parachutes should do the rest of the work for me.
Just to show off a little, Bill uses the rest of his fuel to land the rocket perfectly upright. Good show, Bill!
I was trying to orbit the mun and it smashed into me
I miscalculated a tiny bit
You can adjust your orbit as you approach a body. North and sout are the same no matter where you go. When you enter that body's sphere of influence, burning at 90 or 270 will increase or decrease the periapsis. It takes less fuel to make these corrections the farther out you are, which is why I wish you could set the navball according to your target.
hmmm ok yeah that would explain what I did wrong
I didn't really "orbit" the moon instead I got slung into its gravity and popped out in a really weird way, but I got all my high atmosphere and low mun science done so I just headed home but somethings gone wrong and now Jebidiah is stuck ina weird orbit that I can't seem to match from launch so I'm thinking I have to do another shoot off the mun
what do wings actually do for a rocket? I've tried them before and never saw any appreciable difference. I don't see how "lift" ratings can apply to rockets.
Also... space planes... I don't get it. What can you do with a space plane that you can't do with an appropriately sized rocket?
what do wings actually do for a rocket? I've tried them before and never saw any appreciable difference. I don't see how "lift" ratings can apply to rockets.
Also... space planes... I don't get it. What can you do with a space plane that you can't do with an appropriately sized rocket?
Space planes are much more efficient as a "single stage to orbit" vehicle. So if you get a space station set up, they make good taxis for fuel and kerbals.
Also, they are a lot of fun to fly in the atmosphere.
so then Space Planes can be fitted with docking mechanisms?
haven't yet fitted a docking collar to anything. I haven't experienced that pain yet.
so would you do something like make a Kerbal orbiting station, dump a whole bunch of stage-2/3 materials there and then spaceplane your kerbals up to hop in them and go to other planets?
You can put a docking mechanism on any thing. But yea, that's the general gist. You can design your interplanetary vehicles to dock with the station and replace all the fuel they burned getting into orbit so that you have more delta-V to work with for long trips.
But really, until they implement cost, there isn't a major advantage to using planes over rockets. Just something to try for fun.
Once costs are there, it will be significantly cheaper to put a plane in orbit since all/almost all it's parts are reusable (as opposed to all those solid boosters and extra stages you jettison with your average rocket).
Is there any practical way to use stack bi-tri-quad couplers?
They can't be used for a mid or late stage engine because you can't put any larger fuel tanks underneath them, and they aren't practical for a first stage engine because you can only fit small-size engines and tanks on them...
E: similarly, I keep trying to find a use for the Atomic Engine but they're so weak I can't fit them anywhere but the highest-stage (which won't have to escape heavy gravity) engines, and and they're so ridiculously long they make the upper tower too unstable
I used a Tri-Coupler for my first Mun first-stage designs and found it to be more effective than eye-balling my SRB's into proper alignment
My last successful SRB configuration was a tri-coupler, with each SRB having one SRB sticking off the side of it to form a larger triangle shape (like a pool table rack), for six total SRB with a very tight mass
a few struts in the right place and you have a pretty decent stage-1. you can extend it with one extra rack of SRB's for just a little extra oomph once you get more flight stability pieces
but now that I have the big ass liquid stage 1 rocket, I'll probably never use it again
I've tried to use them in the past to feed multiple tanks into a single engine, but there is a bug with fuel crossfeed in those couplers where it only works if you got from 1 to many instead of many to 1. You can get around it with fuel lines, but at that point the couplers are completely unnecessary.
The tri-coupler is OK for first stage in early career mode, but their real value is for docking large pieces together in orbit. You can use the bi or tri couplers to "double/triple dock" for added stability. I've not attempted it, but from what I understand it's much much harder to accomplish than even normal docking with a single port.
damn. i know those are heavy space station pieces, but I'm surprised he tried to dock then using four liquid boosters... i would be stacking RCSs for very fine movement
it would be so fucking badass if this games ends up having private online servers (like Minecraft) where people can work on different projects. people setting up space stations, people farming science, people designing new ships, trading one another, etc, etc
it would be so fucking badass if this games ends up having private online servers (like Minecraft) where people can work on different projects. people setting up space stations, people farming science, people designing new ships, trading one another, etc, etc
it would be so fucking badass if this games ends up having private online servers (like Minecraft) where people can work on different projects. people setting up space stations, people farming science, people designing new ships, trading one another, etc, etc
well I landed on Minmus. Didn't even plan on going there. But I got to the moon and realized Minmus was perfectly positioned for a quick burn using Mun's slingshot.
Couldn't get back though. Wasted a ton of fuel on minmus escape because I way way way over judged how much power you needed to break free... ended up hurtling to nothingness and not enough fuel to correct
now I can't get back there because I can't figure out how to deal with the inclination properly
Just got back from Minmus on what was easily and by far my most fuel efficient stage 2 and 3 ever. My first stage was good enough to get me almost to stable orbit, which is a major improvement, and stage 2 was enough to get me to Minmus *and* slowed down with fuel to spare. Similarly, my stage 3 was enough to land and return to Kerbin with over 50% to fuel remaining.
Invested the assload of science in probe technology (solar/ion engines).
I got a science lab in orbit around the mun with a bunch of goo chambres and science jr's. I have three kerbals on it, 2 in the lab. I have transmitters but they arent directly attached to the lab (not sure if that matters).
When i do experiments with the science jrs it asks if i want to use the science lab for it. I say yes. Then things seem to break down. It keeps saying i would get some science if i recovered, but the transmit value is zero. Not sure what i am dong wrong or how to actually get science using this lab.
I got a science lab in orbit around the mun with a bunch of goo chambres and science jr's. I have three kerbals on it, 2 in the lab. I have transmitters but they arent directly attached to the lab (not sure if that matters).
When i do experiments with the science jrs it asks if i want to use the science lab for it. I say yes. Then things seem to break down. It keeps saying i would get some science if i recovered, but the transmit value is zero. Not sure what i am dong wrong or how to actually get science using this lab.
science has rapidly diminishing returns, you can only do so many experiments on samples from a given location before they provide no value...
Wings on a rocket can help if you keep rotating uncontrollably. Also can make big, cumbersome rockets easier to pitch/turn.
Often wings will make a cumbersome behemoth that just veers wherever the fuck it wants into a precision instrument tyat has no problems holding a course. During launch or re-entry, anyways. In space wings are only useful for looking cool.
I got a science lab in orbit around the mun with a bunch of goo chambres and science jr's. I have three kerbals on it, 2 in the lab. I have transmitters but they arent directly attached to the lab (not sure if that matters).
When i do experiments with the science jrs it asks if i want to use the science lab for it. I say yes. Then things seem to break down. It keeps saying i would get some science if i recovered, but the transmit value is zero. Not sure what i am dong wrong or how to actually get science using this lab.
science has rapidly diminishing returns, you can only do so many experiments on samples from a given location before they provide no value...
You can do the same experiment over again and get full value as long as you are in a dfferent biome though right? Even in orbit?
I might have made the mistake of doing repeat experiments, not sure
yeah at a certain level of orbit you get the "observed X over [insert region name here]"
and you can repeat those once or twice for each biome. But there may be an altitude requirement for that? not sure. I never see the biome mentioned in super high orbit experiments (like when I careen past a planet because I ran out of fuel)
I like that lander design. I need to start building more propulsion into my final stages. My pre-strut design lessons (failures) made me skittish to do so
Posts
got a couple more mun return trips.... time for Minmus landing.
Technically you landed. Congratulations!
You can adjust your orbit as you approach a body. North and sout are the same no matter where you go. When you enter that body's sphere of influence, burning at 90 or 270 will increase or decrease the periapsis. It takes less fuel to make these corrections the farther out you are, which is why I wish you could set the navball according to your target.
so began an attempt to get back to kerbin by just burning when the ship had spun around in the right direction.
Managed to get off the mun and into kerbin orbit, but, ran outta fuel before I could get home. Was close though.
Since then of course I've realised you need battery backs and been to mun and minimus and back
always turn SAS off when landed. Or invest in solar panels. (this was before I had panels)
no special modules installed, just the command module SAS
I pretty much hop out just long enough to plant the flag, take soil, do my eva report before blasting off again.
ultimately it boils down to a physics bug. the command module thinks its moving but its not
(Yes, those are jet engines firing up)
I get into space with a 'fair' amount of fuel left.
Bill shows no fear as he drifts out of Kerbin's orbit, probably never to return
At this point I realise that I forgot the fuel hoses to connect the extra fuel tanks to the engine on my planetary transfer stage. I get to spend the rest of this stage carefully transferring fuel around manually with the alt+lmb transfer screen.
I line up a transfer to Moho. I should just skim the surface, giving me lots of time to lose the ~4000m/s of extra velocity and get into an orbit.
Moho is just barely visible in the distance(up and left a bit from center). Bill is overjoyed.
After doing an incredibly long burn to decelerate, Bill gets ready to make his landing.
A surprisingly uneventful landing! Bill celebrates by pretending to fly the rocket from the extra seat we brought for Jeb. Unfortunately, we landed on the wrong side of the planet to complete the rescue mission. Maybe another time, Jeb!
We do our science and leave Moho behind, for now.
To save fuel, I line up a very tricky transfer without adjusting my tilt. I have to wait 7 years for the proper alignment to pull off the transfer. Bill gets really good at solitaire.
My aim from Moho was good! We are on a direct intercept course with Kerbin, and the parachutes should do the rest of the work for me.
Just to show off a little, Bill uses the rest of his fuel to land the rocket perfectly upright. Good show, Bill!
3DS: 1289-8447-4695
SAS holds it at exactly the angle you left it at which is not the angle it would naturally rest at
hmmm ok yeah that would explain what I did wrong
I didn't really "orbit" the moon instead I got slung into its gravity and popped out in a really weird way, but I got all my high atmosphere and low mun science done so I just headed home but somethings gone wrong and now Jebidiah is stuck ina weird orbit that I can't seem to match from launch so I'm thinking I have to do another shoot off the mun
So that's why my lander was standing on 2 legs when I landed on Minimus. Huh.
Also... space planes... I don't get it. What can you do with a space plane that you can't do with an appropriately sized rocket?
Space planes are much more efficient as a "single stage to orbit" vehicle. So if you get a space station set up, they make good taxis for fuel and kerbals.
Also, they are a lot of fun to fly in the atmosphere.
haven't yet fitted a docking collar to anything. I haven't experienced that pain yet.
so would you do something like make a Kerbal orbiting station, dump a whole bunch of stage-2/3 materials there and then spaceplane your kerbals up to hop in them and go to other planets?
But really, until they implement cost, there isn't a major advantage to using planes over rockets. Just something to try for fun.
Once costs are there, it will be significantly cheaper to put a plane in orbit since all/almost all it's parts are reusable (as opposed to all those solid boosters and extra stages you jettison with your average rocket).
They can't be used for a mid or late stage engine because you can't put any larger fuel tanks underneath them, and they aren't practical for a first stage engine because you can only fit small-size engines and tanks on them...
E: similarly, I keep trying to find a use for the Atomic Engine but they're so weak I can't fit them anywhere but the highest-stage (which won't have to escape heavy gravity) engines, and and they're so ridiculously long they make the upper tower too unstable
My last successful SRB configuration was a tri-coupler, with each SRB having one SRB sticking off the side of it to form a larger triangle shape (like a pool table rack), for six total SRB with a very tight mass
a few struts in the right place and you have a pretty decent stage-1. you can extend it with one extra rack of SRB's for just a little extra oomph once you get more flight stability pieces
but now that I have the big ass liquid stage 1 rocket, I'll probably never use it again
The tri-coupler is OK for first stage in early career mode, but their real value is for docking large pieces together in orbit. You can use the bi or tri couplers to "double/triple dock" for added stability. I've not attempted it, but from what I understand it's much much harder to accomplish than even normal docking with a single port.
And here's a guy trying to dock two halves of a cool looking space station:
edit: ahh here's a Scott Manley video on the subject
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FxmFeKSUc9c
*edit* oh I see he does at the very final part
dont know how you would handle time warp though
http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/55835-KMP-v0-1-5-1-0-23-wip-alpha
There's also a more reliable multiplayer mod where you can't interract with anyone, it just shows you what everyone else it up to on the server.
Steam ID: Obos Vent: Obos
my life...... is over......
Couldn't get back though. Wasted a ton of fuel on minmus escape because I way way way over judged how much power you needed to break free... ended up hurtling to nothingness and not enough fuel to correct
now I can't get back there because I can't figure out how to deal with the inclination properly
this thing is fucking baller
Invested the assload of science in probe technology (solar/ion engines).
I got a science lab in orbit around the mun with a bunch of goo chambres and science jr's. I have three kerbals on it, 2 in the lab. I have transmitters but they arent directly attached to the lab (not sure if that matters).
When i do experiments with the science jrs it asks if i want to use the science lab for it. I say yes. Then things seem to break down. It keeps saying i would get some science if i recovered, but the transmit value is zero. Not sure what i am dong wrong or how to actually get science using this lab.
science has rapidly diminishing returns, you can only do so many experiments on samples from a given location before they provide no value...
Often wings will make a cumbersome behemoth that just veers wherever the fuck it wants into a precision instrument tyat has no problems holding a course. During launch or re-entry, anyways. In space wings are only useful for looking cool.
You can do the same experiment over again and get full value as long as you are in a dfferent biome though right? Even in orbit?
I might have made the mistake of doing repeat experiments, not sure
and you can repeat those once or twice for each biome. But there may be an altitude requirement for that? not sure. I never see the biome mentioned in super high orbit experiments (like when I careen past a planet because I ran out of fuel)
Bill Kerman seems super stoked about being stuck behind those steel bars for the rest of his life
Time to build fucking behemoths again
A wider base will give you more stability when landing in a mountainous area!