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[Kirian]

Yeah, I know I'm like five years late to the boat on this one.  Anyone else play?  Anyone have amazing adventures/construction to share?

I've orbited Mun, but no landing there yet.

[sudgy]

I play it every once in a while.  The furthest I've gotten is landing on one of Jool's moons.  I've never made it back from anywhere past Minmus, though.

[pacovf]

I landed a rover on Duna, once. Would like to get back into it at some point, they've done a lot of improvements since the last time I played. Maybe I'd manage a spaceplane? :p Career mode sounds fun too.

[Kirian]

I landed on Mun!

The lander is on its side and those guys aren't coming back without a helluva a lot of luck, though.

But I landed!

[pacovf]

Good job! For the record, getting to Minmus and back is actually easier than to the Mun, because of the lower gravity there.

[sudgy]

Good job! For the record, getting to Minmus and back is actually easier than to the Mun, because of the lower gravity there.

Just don't try to land on the mountains.

[Kirian]

Wow, 300+ science just from a few orbits of Minmus...

[pacovf]

So I started a career mode game again. Figured out that they changed air dynamics since the last time I played. Doing ok, I land a probe on the mun... and then I realize I forgot to put any science experiments on it.

Oh well, it was only supposed to be a test, right? RIGHT?

[Kirian]

I've restarted a couple times just to refine what I'm doing.  Made another Mun landing... which promptly fell over again.  I keep trying to land on hills without noticing until I'm already down.

[pacovf]

I don't know if you want tips, but:

I recommend aiming for the centre of a crater, if you can. Also, (coloured) landing lights makes it easier to see how close you are to the ground. The Mun (and especially Minmus) have low gravities, so you can hop around for relatively low amounts of fuel to find a better place to land.


And now for my own fail: I have a contract to get a satellite around the Mun. I put it in the right orbit, 0.0 degrees of relative inclination, apoapsis and periapsis within 1% of the target... but the contract doesn't close. I was orbiting in the wrong direction. Gaaaaah.

On the other hand, a success: forgot to put a heat shield on a manned trip to Minmus orbit. The cabin was one pixel away from exploding, but survived. 400+ science. *puts on sunglasses*

[Kirian]

Another landing, another fuckup.  At least the Kerbal survived this time.  But with the main thruster getting destroyed, making it impossible to lift off again

[sudgy]

Another landing, another fuckup.  At least the Kerbal survived this time.  But with the main thruster getting destroyed, making it impossible to lift off again

Remember that you can revert flights and quicksave.

[pacovf]

Another landing, another fuckup.  At least the Kerbal survived this time.  But with the main thruster getting destroyed, making it impossible to lift off again

Remember that you can revert flights and quicksave.

I used to play the game like a roguelike, but that was in science mode and back when I had more time. Now though, I make semi-liberal use of quicksave when I am doing something unnecessarily dangerous.

Also, at Kirian: you should really try to land on Minmus first.

[Kirian]

Probably I should go for Minmus first.  I mounted a rescue mission for the lander that's upright but without thrusters.

I ran out of delta-V near the surface.  The command pod survived, though.  So it's time to rescue the rescuers...

[Kirian]

Probably I should go for Minmus first.  I mounted a rescue mission for the lander that's upright but without thrusters.

I ran out of delta-V near the surface.  The command pod survived, though.  So it's time to rescue the rescuers...

On the good side, I had reasonably good aim; the rescue ship "landed" just 6 km from the first "landing" site.

Also this time, I'm sending an unmanned lander to pick up the stranded.  At least that way no one else will be stranded.

[pacovf]

This is hilarious. Please post screenshots :p

Make sure your probe has enough batteries. I uh hear they are important. Not like I have ever had a mission fail because of a probe running out of energy at an inconvenient time. Nope.

[sudgy]

This is hilarious. Please post screenshots :p

Make sure your probe has enough batteries. I uh hear they are important. Not like I have ever had a mission fail because of a probe running out of energy at an inconvenient time. Nope.

Solar panels!

[pacovf]

Doesn't work when you are on the wrong side of Kerbal/Mun...

[sudgy]

Doesn't work when you are on the wrong side of Kerbal/Mun...

Then you wait half a month!

[pacovf]

Some manoeuvres can't wait half a month :p

EDIT: I am finding probes a bit inconvenient. Having to keep connection to Kerbin at all times makes probes close to impossible to use if you don't set up relay satellites first. I had a rescue mission from low Mun orbit that took a really long time because I only had control over the probe every so often. Making the orbital rendez-vous was a pain in the butt.

[Kirian]

OMG

Jumping up onto the automated rescue vehicle caused the heat shield to separate from the pod.  WTF.

[Kirian]

These EVA packs though...

Bob:  "What do you mean, the rescue craft is 11 klicks away?"

Valentina:  "Just what I said.  You packed to go?"

Bob:  "That's most of a day's walk."

Val:  [Turns on RCS, flies into the air, takes off toward rescue craft at 100 m/s]

Bob:  "Well, I wasn't expecting these thing to be quite that peppy."

[Kirian]

And now, despite getting everyone into the rescue capsule, it appears that 530 delta-v is not actually enough to orbit Mun.

[pacovf]

It depends on your ascent profile! You should get enough leeway to account for that.

[Kirian]

Yeah, I couldn't find an ascent that got me more than halfway around Mun.

Anyway... landed a craft with about 2000 delta-v to ascend.  It's now in Kerbin orbit, waiting to rendezvous with a science vessel to get processed.  Did I mention one of the pilots did some Kerbin orbiting before going to Mun?  One of the reasons I wanted the rescue was to rescue all that science.

[Kirian]

Yeah, I couldn't find an ascent that got me more than halfway around Mun.

Anyway... landed a craft with about 2000 delta-v to ascend.  It's now in Kerbin orbit, waiting to rendezvous with a science vessel to get processed.  Did I mention one of the pilots did some Kerbin orbiting before going to Mun?  One of the reasons I wanted the rescue was to rescue all that science.

I didn't put an antenna on the science station.

So there's no way to get the science out of it.

Fuck it, time to start a new journey.

[pacovf]

You can send a probe with a docking port and an antenna :p

[Kirian]

Assumes a docking port on the original ship.  Or in the low end of the tech tree at all.

[sudgy]

Assumes a docking port on the original ship.  Or in the low end of the tech tree at all.

Later in the tech tree there a docking port-like-thingy that doesn't require one to be on the other ship.

[pacovf]

That's too late in the tech tree (ARM?), but miniaturization has one docking port, for 90 science. It should be one of the earliest things to unlock exactly for this reason :p

[pacovf]

1882 science from a command-lander mission to Minmus. Roughly 550 of it from surface samples. One Kerbal had to stay there, sadly, but I will go back for him (...eventually?)

The lander module was minimalist, and could do one or two hops depending on how efficiently I move around. I forgot to put RCS on it, which made docking back with the command module a huge, huge pain in the ass. Eventually one of its landing legs died from trying to land on a slope that was too slopey, but the ridiculously low gravity in Minmus allowed me to get back on my feet.

Oh yeah, I landed with a scientist, which means no SAS either. That was fun.

[Kirian]

1882 science from a command-lander mission to Minmus. Roughly 550 of it from surface samples. One Kerbal had to stay there, sadly, but I will go back for him (...eventually?)

The lander module was minimalist, and could do one or two hops depending on how efficiently I move around. I forgot to put RCS on it, which made docking back with the command module a huge, huge pain in the ass. Eventually one of its landing legs died from trying to land on a slope that was too slopey, but the ridiculously low gravity in Minmus allowed me to get back on my feet.

Oh yeah, I landed with a scientist, which means no SAS either. That was fun.

Very very nice.  How did you set up the command module/lander?

[pacovf]

The easiest would be to post screenshots, but I don't have a way to upload them. I guess at some point I should get an imgur account or something.

You want the lander to be as light as possible, because to reuse it and/or hop around you want it to take as little fuel as you can (so that the command/return module doubles as a reservoir).

So materials lab with a dock port on top, Lander Mk 1 can in the middle, smallest rockomax fuel canister with a Poodle engine and 4 basic landing legs on the bottom. Also, though less important for its operation, 2 mystery goo canisters, thermometer and barometer for science. Two (coloured) lights pointing downwards for better determination of how close to the ground I am. An antenna and RCS controls would have been a good addition, but I forgot about them until it was too late.

The command module was just a basic Command mk 1 with the second biggest Jeb's fuel canister with a Terrier engine, plus usual commodities (batteries, RCS and tanks, heat shield (you don't really need much of it), two radial parachutes, docking port, etc). I... forgot about the antennas there too. That's about three or four times the delta-v you need to get back to Kerbin, even from ultra-low Minmus orbit, so you have a lot of spare fuel for the lander.

I also had an extra stage with the Mobile Processing Lab that got all the way which I didn't end up using because I don't understand how it works yet. Next mission, I guess. Putting the whole massive thing into orbit would have been way easier without that stage, though I have to say I have much to learn about how to build efficient launchers.

The main problem with this setup is that there is space only for one person to go back to Kerbin. You can do the mission with a single Kerbal (assuming you don't forget to put RCS thrusters in the lander), but the reason you want to send a Scientist with the lander is that they can reset the experiments in between hops (materials lab being the most important). I did the whole crew report, eva report, surface sample, materials lab, mystery goo, temperature, pressure science thing in 4 biomes. You can do 2 small hops with this lander and still have enough delta v to get into orbit, but I messed up my second descent into Minmus (busted one of the lander legs; could still land, but without SAS it was way too annoying to bother; and landed on "Minmus Midlands" more than once, so I couldn't take science from there again).

Considering the extremely low gravity in Minmus, you could also land a whole rocket on it and do hops with it, but I don't trust the basic landing legs enough for that. Oh, I did increase the spring and damper strength of the legs before the mission. Not sure how much of a difference it ended up making.

[Kirian]

Did you dock it to the top of the main module stages and... just shoot it into space with all that non-aerodynamic stuff on top?

[pacovf]

Yes, but that's what procedural fairings are for! Otherwise it's just going to break. Probably. I guess you could also put struts everywhere.

[Kirian]

Yeah, figuring out what order to research things is... interesting.  I've decided for my next mission to do something completely different:  Launching the lander and command module on separate rockets and docking them in Kerbin orbit, then leaving the lander in Minmus or Mun orbit to be reused later.  It means the command module has to be a 3-seater, but it also means the lander doesn't need anything like parachutes because it'll never return to Kerbin.

[pacovf]

If you are only missing a relatively small amount of science to unlock something important, one solution would be to go on a super-low orbit of Mun/Minmus, then do Eva reports as you change biomes. There is a different Eva report for each biome while "flying" above it, and you can rack up 100-200 science very easily this way. It's a bit gamey, but if you are missing something critical, that's one way to jumpstart your progress.

I agree that your early research choices can make the game way harder than it needs to be. Obviously you want to unlock science parts ASAP, but other than that, docking ports tends to be what new players don't value enough, IMHO, though you also need RCS thrusters to actually use them.

[scott_pilgrim]

The easiest would be to post screenshots, but I don't have a way to upload them. I guess at some point I should get an imgur account or something.

I don't think you need an imgur account to upload images there.  At least, I use imgur occasionally and I don't think I've ever made an account there.

[The_Wine_Merchant]

^ way better than The Martian. Would read again.

Also very intrigued. Might have to stop playing Pokemon Red in my spare computer time.

[Kirian]

^ way better than The Martian. Would read again.

Also very intrigued. Might have to stop playing Pokemon Red in my spare computer time.

You did *not* just diss the Martian, did you?  Them's fightin' words.

But yes, much more interesting than Pokemon.  Except maybe Twitch Plays Pokemon, but that was a brief moment in time.

[Kirian]

So the separate-launch mission to Minmus worked pretty well, though there was less total fuel than I might have liked, so the lander is empty and the TMI unit is... also empty, and docked to the science station, which is producing massive amounts of science now, yay!  Next, the Mun.

[pacovf]

So I finally got the equipment to do an easy tourist mission around the Mun with a payoff of ~500k... and I accidentally cancel the contract while reading up the details to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything. You would imagine that they would ask you to confirm before cancelling, but nope. Anything else that pays well gives ~300k instead and is way harder to pull off. Last save was from midway through my super-long Minmus mission. Ughghgh...

EDIT: I've tried editing my save file to get the contract back, and I can, but then I can't get back the tourists... Ugh.

[Kirian]

My space station:



Middle smaller fuselage is the central docking station.  To the left front, newly-placed habitat module.  In the back, the science module.  A couple of tugs docked on either side.

There's also a lot of extra fuel in the tugs.  Apparently my rockets are larger than they need to be.

[Kirian]

Crashed a Mun mission by burning prograde when I should have been burning retrograde.  RIP Random Kerbals.

[pacovf]

Sorry about your kerbals

There's also a lot of extra fuel in the tugs.  Apparently my rockets are larger than they need to be.

What do you use those tugs for? And how do you get them to orbit?

I have a bunch of stuff floating around Minmus, I will try to get screenshots next time I get the time.

[Kirian]

Sorry about your kerbals

There's also a lot of extra fuel in the tugs.  Apparently my rockets are larger than they need to be.

What do you use those tugs for? And how do you get them to orbit?

I have a bunch of stuff floating around Minmus, I will try to get screenshots next time I get the time.

Well, the intent of the tugs was to use them to drag things around the station as needed, or to drag things in.  For instance, one of my Minmus landings used a little too much fuel and couldn't get into a low enough Kerbin orbit.  Tug intercepts near the stranded lander's periapse, and drags it back to the space station.

[pacovf]

Was it an intercept on a non-circular orbit? That's really impressive!

[Kirian]

Was it an intercept on a non-circular orbit? That's really impressive!

Eh, not really.  As long as you have the delta-v, intercepting a non-circular orbit is frankly easier than a circular one.

[pacovf]

So Minmus:



My first lander. The lightest I could with the technology I had. Was fun to land without SAS.



My second lander. Unnecessarily heavy, but I wanted to be able to get a Scientist down to the surface while still getting SAS and not depending on probes (probes always stop working when you need them the most), and who cares about money, right?




The lander, the tug that got the lander there (with fuel to spare), and a small shuttle with place for one kerbal. Useful to carry Kerbals around Minmus orbit without requiring huge amounts of fuel (that small tanker gets 900+ m/s delta-v!)



The leftovers from the first Minmus landing mission. A kerbal is stuck there, and there's still some fuel in the tankers, so I am keeping it for the time being.



My first serious attempt at a Space station this game. It's on a circular orbit ~250,000 km above Minmus. On the top is a larger shuttle, with space for 3 Kerbals; it's terribly clunky to use, but beats having to do 3 trips with the smaller shuttle. On the bottom is the service Module, waiting to get 3 Kerbals and all that sweet sweet science back to Kerbin. I will need quite a few more trips to get everybody else back home, I've got 7 people around Minmus right now...



I also have three relay satellites around Minmus. This one is also carrying a surface scanner. It's funny how much delta-v you get from a small tanker when you don't have to carry Kerbals around.

[Kirian]

My first Dunar missions are underway.

Two requested probes to be placed, and one lander that I hope has enough fuel to get back.  Of course, transfer windows are rare, so they all went at about the same time.

My science station has been moved upward above that 250 km warp threshold, and so most of my launches aim for 250 km rather than 75 km.

[sudgy]

My first Dunar missions are underway.

Two requested probes to be placed, and one lander that I hope has enough fuel to get back.  Of course, transfer windows are rare, so they all went at about the same time.

My science station has been moved upward above that 250 km warp threshold, and so most of my launches aim for 250 km rather than 75 km.

Doesn't that waste fuel?  I feel like it would be better to get into orbit at 75 km, then from there head to 250 km.

[pacovf]

2850 science from my second landing mission to Minmus! I've now unlocked nearly everything that doesn't require the lvl 3 R&D centre. One mission to Mun (actually never landed there yet in this game), then off to Duna.

Fairly impressive that you are trying to get back in your very first mission! BTW, if you aren't using it yet, Kerbal Engineer Redux helps a lot to plan your vehicles.

[Kirian]

2850 science from my second landing mission to Minmus! I've now unlocked nearly everything that doesn't require the lvl 3 R&D centre. One mission to Mun (actually never landed there yet in this game), then off to Duna.

Fairly impressive that you are trying to get back in your very first mission! BTW, if you aren't using it yet, Kerbal Engineer Redux helps a lot to plan your vehicles.

Oh yes, definitely using KER.  Let's face it... doing the math by hand would be ridiculous.

My science is coming in slowly because I'm processing is in (two) labs first.

My science station has been moved upward above that 250 km warp threshold, and so most of my launches aim for 250 km rather than 75 km.

Doesn't that waste fuel?  I feel like it would be better to get into orbit at 75 km, then from there head to 250 km.
[/quote]

Probably not?  It ought to require the same delta-v either way, to a first approximation.  It's not like I'm shooting straight up for 250 km, then turning!

[pacovf]

Spaceplanes with only the Panther jet engine are hard. Spent an inordinate number of hours trying to reach orbit with one (plus rocket engines to finish, obviously), and no dice.

[pacovf]

I finally did it. I managed to achieve ~75km orbit with this:



Needless to say, no cargo whatsoever (I could maybe modify it to get kerbals from LKO, I guess), and barely any fuel to spare (if you count what you need to come back). Also, hella ugly. Also, right as I was going to land, I believe that the centre of mass shifted behind the centre of lift, because it became completely uncontrollable.

But hey, achievement unlocked! Flying panther spaceplanes is super hard, I hope it's easier with better jet engines. I wonder if some of my MkII prototypes would have made it to orbit if I knew how to fly these things.

[Kirian]

I have yet to even *attempt* space planes.  Are they particularly useful?  Are you needing boosters on them?

[pacovf]

Using boosters defeats the purpose of spaceplanes. The idea is to get to Kerbin's high atmosphere with a high speed using only the extremely efficient jet engines, and with lift surfaces to fight "gravity drag". Once there, when there isn't enough air for the jet engines to work properly (or at all), you turn on rocket engines to reach orbit proper, for a fraction of the delta-v that it would normally take, and without having to drop stages.

The main advantage is that it's dirty cheap, once you get a working spaceplane: you're only paying the price of fuel. It's also fun and/or pretty to fly.

It's super hard to make it work though: you need to understand lift, the optimal working conditions of jet engines, an ascent path that allows you to gain speed before going for orbit, the proportion of delta-v to be produced from jet engines and from rocket engines, etc. etc.

You can also do SSTO (Single Stage To Orbit) rockets. Kind of what Space X is trying to do. They are considerably easier to make them work... which makes them less fun, duh.

Honestly though, you need the better jet engines to make spaceplanes useful, so either the whiplash or the Rapier. Other jet engines die at "low" altitudes and speeds, which means rocket engines still have to do most of the work. They are a lategame thing.

[Kirian]

So I have a mission to grab a class-D asteroid and put it into Kerbin orbit.  OK cool.  Hey, I can track asteroids!  Let's look at this Class D one here.

Huh, it already has a Kerbin encounter on the map!  Let's zoom in.

There's no periapse marker.  Why is there no periapse marker?  Because the periapse marker is inside Kerbin.

Well.... shit.  What happens if I can't redirect a possibly 850-ton asteroid?

[pacovf]

No idea:

[Kirian]

All that considered, if I only need about 120 delta-v to get from a reasonable orbit to rendezvous, I should only need the same to get back from rendezvous to reasonable orbit, right?  Possibly a bit more since we'll have moved closer to Kerbin by that point.

[pacovf]

How do you plan to input any amount of delta v to more than 500 tons?

[Kirian]

How do you plan to input any amount of delta v to more than 500 tons?

Volume!

In all seriousness, though:  with high-Isp engines.  The Nerv has Isp of 800 s, which means burning 60 t of fuel to impart 500 m/s delta-v to 850 t.  So getting 125 delta-v shouldn't be too tough.

That's really not all that much liquid fuel when you consider it.  The real issue is thrust.  Need to use like 10 Nervs to get enough thrust.

[pacovf]

You build much bigger than me. I rarely put more than 20 t (everything combined) in orbit.

You are talking about putting 100+ t, everything combined, on the elliptical orbit of an asteroid. That's gonna look huge on the launchpad

[Kirian]

Ladies and gentlemen, the Hercules II Asteroid Interceptor and Launch System (HAIL2):



Standing over 100 m high, it weighs in at just a touch under 1 kilotonne, nearly three-fourths of it fuel.  The first stage generates over 12 MN of thrust, and the lower stages are powered by a total of 10 Mainsail engines and 8 Kickback SRBs




The lower stages have enough delta-v to get the upper stage into LKE or a bit above.



The upper stage is just a touch under 180 tonnes, with over 110 tonnes of fuel.



The upper stage is driven by 12 LV-N "Nerv" engines, which require only liquid fuel and are thus fueled by Mk 3 spaceplane pats, available at C7 Aerospace outlets around the world.  If it only had to move itself, the upper stage would have over 10 km/s of delta-v available, though with only 720 N of thrust--no fast burns here.  It's intended to encounter and reposition asteroids as much as 5 times its mass, meaning it only has about 500 m/s of delta-v available for its true purpose.

----

Yeah, I build big.

[ThetaSigma12]

How do you plan to input any amount of delta v to more than 500 tons?

Volume!

In one word: +1

[Kirian]

How do you plan to input any amount of delta v to more than 500 tons?

Volume!

In one word: +1

I do what I can for my audience.  Tip your server!

[pacovf]

Do the NERVs in front not overheart the ones in the back?

[Fully expecting screenshots of you moving the Asteroid around, by the way)

[Kirian]

Do the NERVs in front not overheart the ones in the back?

[Fully expecting screenshots of you moving the Asteroid around, by the way)

No, I think they're far enough away that they don't matter for heating.

I don't know if I can guarantee screenshots for the asteroid, but I'll try.  I have maybe a 2-3 hour window to rendezvous, capture, plan the burn, then burn.  That window may well be smaller.

All of this is planned for well in the future though... I have three probes and a mission arriving at Duna about 60 game days before the asteroid rendezvous, spaced out over several days.

[pacovf]

That moment when you realize that you've accepted a mission to test a Mainsail on the surface of the Mun. That was one silly mission.

[sudgy]

That moment when you realize that you've accepted a mission to test a Mainsail on the surface of the Mun. That was one silly mission.

I once got a mission to test an engine in orbit of Kerbin, but it gave tons of money.  I accepted it, not realizing it was the LFB KR-1x2 "Twin-Boar" Liquid Fuel Engine.

[Kirian]

I once got a mission to test an engine in orbit of Kerbin, but it gave tons of money.  I accepted it, not realizing it was the LFB KR-1x2 "Twin-Boar" Liquid Fuel Engine.

You should be able to get an unused Twin-Boar into orbit for, like, $50k.

That moment when you realize that you've accepted a mission to test a Mainsail on the surface of the Mun. That was one silly mission.

That's... trickier.  A lot trickier.  No thanks.

[pacovf]

It actually turned out to be easier than I expected! One Rockomax 16 and three FL-T800, with the Mainsail (as payload) and three Terriers has more than 3200 m/s of delta-v (since you will only be using the Terriers), even with all the extras you have to add onto it so that you can control and land it. Add a launcher stage, and you can easily get it to land on the Mun with quite a bit of fuel to spare. I probably would have been able to recover it with only minimal modifications. The whole rocket cost about 65k, and the contract was worth about 350k.

Still felt super silly.

By the way, you can always test engines on an empty tank (or no tank at all, AFAIK). You can also activate them via right clicking on them, if you need the thrust. I didn't need to do either of those things, but if you are having trouble with such contracts, that's one way to make it easier on you.

[pacovf]

I tried a Panther spaceplane again. Mk2 Panther spaceplanes seems to be doable, although some might argue that if you are using a Skipper, it's more of a rocket than anything else.

This one just carried an empty cargo bay, but then again I didn't optimize the design nor the ascent path, so it probably works out to something that can send small satellites to orbit. Most likely not worth all the time I spent trying to make it work, but it was fun.

First picture is from my first attempt with it. I sent it on an orbit that was too high, and didn't have enough batteries to keep it pointed radial on reentry, so it burned up. I fixed those mistakes on my second attempt, added some extra fuel just in case, and landed without "too much" difficulty on the desert (if you think reentry is nerve wracking with a standard capsule, wait until you try spaceplanes).





Unrelated: Munar eclipse.

[Kirian]

Ares I has landed!



Jeb and Glesei standing proudly next to their flag in Duna's Lowlands.  Now there's science to be done...

----

And paco, congrats on the various spaceplane launches!

[pacovf]

...Well, I guess I will have to find some other name for my Mars lander.

Congrats on landing! I want to land too, but definitely aiming for a much smaller vehicle (that should nonetheless still make it back to Duna's orbit).

[pacovf]

...so I have a functional Duna mission that I am delaying just because spaceplanes.

Here are two fun new designs.

The Chickadee (only 5.1t wet):



It's so light that the thrust from the single Panther sent it way higher and faster than any of my other designs, and I could circularize the orbit with just two Sparks. It's completely useless though :p


and the Starling (16.2t wet):



Yep, it's orbiting the Mun. NERVs will do that. Though I would need to tune it quite a bit to make it reliable enough. I only managed to circularize my orbit mere seconds before I started going back into the atmosphere, and it's completely uncontrollable when trying to fly it like a plane rather than like a rocket. The second problem can be solved simply by replacing the delta winglets (only 20% control surface) by canards, and maybe adding some elevons. The first problem is tricker; a better ascent profile or limiting the thrust from the Terriers might do the trick.

[Kirian]

Don't wait too long on that Duna mission, remember you only get a good launch window every two game years or so.

[pacovf]

I am actually just reverting to launch on all these designs, so no problem there :p

I find that launch windows to Duna or Eve are roughly every half year, or even less (I am on day 169 and I can launch to Duna for 1100 m/s from 75 km orbit of Kerbin, yet that does not appear on the launch window spreadsheet I found). How are you figuring them out?

[Kirian]

I am actually just reverting to launch on all these designs, so no problem there :p

I find that launch windows to Duna or Eve are roughly every half year, or even less (I am on day 169 and I can launch to Duna for 1100 m/s from 75 km orbit of Kerbin, yet that does not appear on the launch window spreadsheet I found). How are you figuring them out?

https://alexmoon.github.io/ksp/

For an optimal transfer your best launch is day 231, though you have a bunch of leeway around that.  But from day 400 to 900, you're not getting there for under 2 km/s.

[Kirian]

As promised, the saga of the asteroid that nearly hit Kerbin:



All right.  9000 delta-V to play with, and only need about 450 of it to latch on.  Great!



Asteroid is about 100 km away, no actual visual contact.  But Mun looks pretty.



Look at all those Nervs blasting away to slow us down relative to the asteroid.  So pretty!



Released some of the Nervs and fuel tanks to drop some weight.  Still no visual contact.



Well, that's as relative-stationary as we're going to get.  Time to move toward the still-invisible asteroid.

Wait, what's that readout on the right?  Impact Time: 46 min.  Time to get a move on, then.



Visual contact!



This orbit goes distressingly inside the planet.



All right, this manuever technically doesn't hit Kerbin.  Let's burn it, and shit shit shit asteroids don't turn very well.  It took a crapton of jostling around to get it out of that awful orbit.



No impact time listed.  Woohoo, we're in orbit!



Pure profit, baby.  Except for the 450k the rocket cost.  OK, maybe not "profit" per se.



So if you tilt your view of a giant asteroid just right, you may find out that the skin is barely there, and the COM is just a cube...



But from this vantage, that is one big-ass teroid.

Kerbin is saved!  And we can probably mine this thing too...

[pacovf]

Nice job! When I saw the reward for the contract, I had a feeling you were running a negative profit :p

I got distracted with both real life and Total War : Warhammer (strangely addictive), but I want to get back into this again now.

[Kirian]

To be fair, paying $150k for 83 Reputation isn't bad at all.