Kerbal Space Program

[My pseudonym is Ix]

Next stop, get someone to write a mod to turn the Mun into a desert planet!

FTFY

[Smeghead]

Laythe has deserts and a blue sky, if you manage to land on actuall land of course. Still, awesome job. Its the space bus!... for hope. Driving to the Mün and back

Ptangmatik: if you want some help and we can't give it to you, look up Scott Manley's Tutorials, they really helped me to understand the game and how to make things work.

[Ptangmatik]

I've now got a docking station orbiting with about 1k fuel to spare for another mission. Bill Kerman (Kerbal lad on the Mun)'s stood up again, I don't know why he decided to lie down, it gives me something to do I suppose: rescue mission.

Now I need to try designing and crewing a Mun rover to get to him, duct taping it to a rocket and lighting the blue touch paper.

However that might work.

Ah! Scott Manley! I watched his beginner tutorial and presumably glazed over during a few important details. I will however pay better attention to some more of his stuff.

Edit: rebranded my stranded Kerbal craft as a Munbase. I can now sleep happy. (Also found out how solar panels work, handy.)

[Maf]

Having a flick through this forum, I discovered there was a demo which I didn't spot first time. Having written this game off as it looked to complex/hard, I felt I should give it a go. I've now spent all weekend having a whale of a time.

"Kerbal 1" to "Kerbal 5" were launched solely with the purpose of colliding at max speed with the Mun.
After "Kerbal Lander 1" to 4 met various fates, KL5 finally managed to crash-land on the Mun after much mucking around. Kerby survived but the craft didn't.
Had a look at some of Scott's videos on youtube and discovered Manoeuvres and the retractable landing legs, and then set my sights on landing without my craft exploding. KL6 landed safely, and sat there looking smug, until I noticed the fuel gauge registering about 5%, there was no way lil Kerby stood any more chance than Kerby5 of seeing his family again. KL7 through KL11 are a continuing WIP, with KL managing landfall safely with 25% fuel, which was so nearly enough for me to get back. I can get my Kerbal Peri point down to about 30km, but not quiiiiiite enough fuel to hit re-entry.
Plan now: Land pod on Mum with 30% or more fuel, save game, attempt to come home safely. Then, despite being unemployed and poor, I shall throw some money at Steam and get me a full version. Even if I didn't get a new version with all kinds of new toys and planets, I think the developers deserve my money for the fun I've had with the demo alone. Can't wait to try out the new vehicles, but I'm damned if I'm buying anything until I've completed my mission.

Talking of vehicles, Space Bus For Hope is amazing!

[Dutch guy]

Periapsis at 30 KM should be plenty low to allow aerobraking (IE slowing down by hitting the atmosphere). If it doesn't get you in first time, the second swing around should get you into the atmosphere no problem.

[Maf]

Actually, I did a few swings around, just in case. Sure I'd notice if I'd hit the atmosphere. Must've been 300km
(It was last night, around 4am, and I'd been drinking all night...)

[Master Gunner]

So long as you can get peri down below 50, you'll be slowed down enough after only a couple passes. Anything below 70 should work, it just takes a while. Keep in mind that worst case, you can actually get out and push.

[Maf]

What would be the most fuel-efficient way to get back from the Mun? My current method: going straight-up to about 15km, rotate 90° then thrust to a roughly circular orbit. Orbit to the far side(?) of the moon, then thrust until my orbit intersects Kerbal. Any suggestions? I feel like there's plenty of room for improvement in my technique! Maybe wait until the Mun is in an optimal position before takeoff - whatever that would be.

[My pseudonym is Ix]

Because the moon has a low gravity and no atmosphere, your best bet is to hit up to 45 degrees pretty much straight from takeoff, then hit map mode, wait till you got a decent apoapsis and circularise. Then just follow the whole 'thrust till orbital intersect' plan, get yourself in a Kerbin orbit, hit the retrograde vector and hit home.

If you've watched the Manley videos, you'll see that going straight up and then 90 is an inefficient way to get off any planet; his plan for kerbin is to head straight up until 10k, then go 45 degrees until apo=100km

[Maf]

Ah, I thought that was just for planets with an atmosphere. Which it was, but I took the opposite approach

Cheers - I shall give the 45° plan a go and see if that saves me enough fuel to get em home!

After many launch vessel rebuilds (KL8-13), I've got a less reliable, but more efficient launch vehicle, getting me in to orbit with all my final-stage fuel remaining, pretty much. Somehow I managed to end up landing with around the same amount of fuel though, possibly because I'm coming in too fast or something..? Ah well, if I can get Kerby home, I'll consider it a success and go buy v0.20

[Dutch guy]

I have gotten a lot more efficient at making orbital rendez-vous. I can even get inclined orbit rendez-vous pretty accurately.

So now I've started experimenting with modular space stations/ships.

Behold the Dragonfly module!



Since I already had a Boondoggle (don't ask, my brain works weird at 3 am) class ship in orbit, I decided to dock these first. A second Dragonfly will join to the back of the first one later (using a clampotron senior)


Note the Dragonfly still has the engine module attached in the first pic. In the second pic it has been jettisoned to expose the Clampotron senior and the Separotrons have put the engine and its small fuel tank into a deorbit trajectory.

The boondoggle class is based on my design for a heavy space tug. Basically its the same design, with a hitchhiker storage container, 2 clampotrons and 2 gigantor solar arrays added.

Once docked as above, the boondoggle ship had roughly 80% of its fuel remaining, the Dragonfly has a storage tank with another 400 units of fuel.

[DmitriW]

Last night, I downloaded KSP. Today, I achieved my first two successful orbital insertions.

First I tested a simple satellite, intended to remain up there until its orbit decays.


Then I re-engineered the same launch vehicle to get a manned pod into orbit with enough fuel for a re-entry burn.


Next stop (hopefully) ze Mun!

[Ptangmatik]

Skycraned me one damn classy looking rover, currently on my way to rescue the stranded moon pioneer (note for aspiring rover pilots: use docking controls to steer)



Only problem is: 2 seats in the Mun escape craft, and now I've got 3 Kerbals on the Mun (well technically 4, but that 4th guy's on the entire other side of the Mun in a toppled top-heavy rover, the original stranded Kerbal and Munbase is only 17km from where I parked my 2nd rover)

[DmitriW]

(Badass Drone Mothership)

Okay, I'm stuck. I'm trying to create a design similar to Smeg's, but I'm not sure how to flip the tri-coupler underneath the three nuclear engines in the screenshot. Can somebody more experienced enlighten me on this?

EDIT:

Managed to rig up an ugly-but-functional Munshot. I now have a probe in orbit!

[Smeghead]

First: Not sure you wanna use my design since it was kind of defective in the end.

Second; you do know you can turn parts in the hangar using the qweasd keys right?

[DmitriW]

I tried that, it didn't seem to have any effect. I think I'm a version behind the current one, though.

[Smeghead]

I think you've been able to do that since...um... always? so the verson should have nothing to do with that. Besides if you got it off steam it should be up to date (0.20).

Edit; looking at your screenshots; you have the most up to date version of the game, because the info tabs on the map was added in 0.20

[Ptangmatik]

Dmitri: are you trying to spin it after it's snapped into position? try before it does that

[Maf]

Silly question: Is "Skycrane + Rover (Stock)" supposed to have a rocket with it? Seems to just be a rover.

Much trial + error making my own. Took me ages to make something that would reliably move my rover to Minmus, only to discover my rover design was deeply flawed in almost every way (power, stability, landing jet power, etc).

Time to build a fresh rover from scratch so I can test it on Kerbin. Then attempt to rebuild my launcher under it. Really like the idea of building bases and space stations after I've master the art of the rover. Is there a way to combine existing vehicles? Like, build a fuel depot unit for a moonbase, then just load my standard launch rocket?

[Smeghead]

No the skycrane and the rover doesn't come with rockets.

I would not go to minmus with a rover; while it has nice flat lakes to drive on; the gravity and lack of atmosphere can make even the smallest turn flip your rover over.

As for fuel depot; you can transfer fuel from one craft to another if they are connected with a docking port, it is probably best built in orbit around Kerbin though, but that would of course force you to learn how to do orbital dockings (which is hard!)

[Dutch guy]

As for fuel depot; you can transfer fuel from one craft to another if they are connected with a docking port, it is probably best built in orbit around Kerbin though, but that would of course force you to learn how to do orbital dockings (which is hard!)

Actually, once you get the mechanics down, doing orbital dockings become surprisingly easy. Especially if you keep things in an equatorial orbit. Just make sure the target is in a roughly circular orbit. (A few kilometers variation between Periapsis and apoapsis is fine). Launch the docking vehicle into the same orbit. If the target orbit it inclined, use the map screen to wait until/judge when the target orbit is directly overhead the Kerbal Space Center and launch at that moment. Put the apex of your launch profile a dozen or so kilometers below the target orbit. Use a maneuvering node to circularize your orbit. At the same time look at your position relative to the target.

If the target is ahead you need to catch up, so you need to move faster. This means a lower orbit. So when circularizing put your apoapsis and periapsis about 10 to 20 kilometers below the target orbit. Conversely, if the target is behind you in the orbit, it needs too catch up to you, so you need to move slower. This means a higher orbit and putting apo and periapsis about 10 to 20 kilometers above the target orbit.

Once you get into an orbit, set the target vessel as your target in the map screen. you will now see 2 markers called the Ascending Node (AN) and Downward Node (DN). Remove all previous maneuvering nodes and set one at the next AN or DN whichever comes first. Plan and execute a normal or anti-normal burn to align the tilt of the orbits.

Now you should have a single set of orangey intersect markers. One is the target location at intersect (The closest the 2 vessels will be together during a given orbit) the other is your location at intersect. Assuming the next node will still be quite far apart this means waiting until you get a closer intersect, so time accelerate until the intersect distance drops to a few kilometers. (Keep an eye on the difference in distance on each orbit, since you lose pretty much a fixed amount, so you don't overshoot).

Once you get the closest encounter through orbiting you'll need to plan another maneuvering node. This time make a slight prograde (forward) burn that puts your apoapsis AT the target orbits altitude. Then slide the maneuver node around until the intersect is as close at you can get it. (Don't aim for zero, 2 kilometers is mega awesome). Execute the maneuver, wait for the distance of the vessels to close and then turn your ship to retrograde. The speed indicator above the navball should now automatically have switched to target mode. Once you are close enough to the target vessel, burn retrograde until your speed relative to the target is 0. You are now at a fixed distance to the target, in the same orbit.

Aim towards the target marker (Purple circle reticle) and make a small burn. to start moving towards the target. Turn retrograde and wait until the distance has close to about 200 meters, then kill your speed again. Now the time has come to use RCS. Move in for the docking and take your time. It helps to keep both ships aligned north south, there is much less drift that way and it's much easier to aim.

[Ptangmatik]

Ok, how does docking mode actually work? I've checked a bunch of tutorials and they all just say 'and now use docking mode'. When I press left, does it fire the left thrusters or move me left by firing the right thrusters? And how can I tell which orientation its moving left/right in?

Currently, my space station pieces are much more interested in humping than attaching

[Master Gunner]

I believe docking mode lets you control RCS thrusters with WSAD.

[Dutch guy]

Docking mode is basically a sort of hybrid mode that lets you control both the linear thrusters and rotational thrusters with just the WASDQE keys. If you look at the indicators on the bottom left you will see 2 squares at the top, a green one with the text ROT or a blue one with the text LIN (If I remember the colors correctly off the top of my head). By pressing the space bar you can switch between these modes.

The linear (LIN) mode means just that, move sideways while keeping the rotation/attitude the same. Rotation (ROT) mode is again just what it says on the tin, change the attitude but keep the linear movement unaffected.

Note that suboptimal placement of RCS thrusters CAN mean crossover effects, meaning a rotational input will affect the linear movement or linear thrusts cause rotational acceleration.

I personally prefer to use 2 hands and use the IJKL and HN keys with my right hand to make linear movements and keep the WASDQE keys for rotation. Its probably more of a personal preference thing. If the ship is set up correctly its usually much easier to first get the ship roughly into a position close to docking, then line everything up in terms of rotation and then move only linearly again to dock. If the ship is not set up correctly (or is just a weird shape with a strange weight distribution) bleedover from control inputs can mean things going pear shaped fast if you don't have all controls at hand immediately.

[Smeghead]

So I saw a video of a guy building a planet buster by mistake (this was in 0.18 so I don't know if it would actually work any more) wherein he crashed a ship into a planet; teh planet would become 1 big error.
He tried it on Jool which failed and everything but the capsule of the ship was destroyed. the capsule was flying at 8,5x the speed of light afterwards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=NLscXyIP4c8&list=UU8DIKwGU8wFZfk3Xi3-zcrQ