Kerbals in Spaaaaace!

[Jimorian]

The Grabber for asteroids can definitely latch onto other ships, and even individual Kerbals, though that's apparently very finicky. I haven't played around with that aspect of it much myself, but I was watching a livestream, and the player wasn't able to latch onto the capsule or engine like he wanted to for symmetry, so he had to grab the ship from the side instead. What I did discover through personal experience is that you can transfer fuel through an asteroid if you have 2 or more ships attached to it via grabbers. They also make interesting landing gear. They won't actually latch onto a planet or moon, but with an impact resistance of 50 m/s, you don't have to worry so much about them breaking from under you.

[Eirala]

I haven't used the claw much myself, but it can supposedly need a rather large relative speed to engage. A few tens of meters per second should be enough.

Another (exploity) solution to rescue the craft would be going on EVA and accelerating the ship with the EVA propulsion, then getting back inside the capsule to refuel and repeat.

[Binks]

I do know it won't dock with a variety of parts, including capsules and engines. And giving it a think, it might *only* be fuel tanks that it can latch onto.

That could be the problem. The biggest piece of my lander I'm trying to grab is the capsule, so that's what I've been aiming for. Grabbing a fuel tank will be hard because of their positioning but I can try that and see if it works.

I haven't used the claw much myself, but it can supposedly need a rather large relative speed to engage. A few tens of meters per second should be enough.

Another (exploity) solution to rescue the craft would be going on EVA and accelerating the ship with the EVA propulsion, then getting back inside the capsule to refuel and repeat.

10+ m/s? That seems hard to aim, but I can give that a shot too. I am nowhere near skilled enough to do the EVA propulsion thing unfortunately. I've seen some people pull it off and have been very impressed but I have trouble just moving EVA kerbals around without them flying off in random directions, pushing something else sounds impossible.

EDIT: Well after a lot of work I managed to get the claw attached. It was the attachment point that was the problem, as soon as I lined it up with a clear side of a fuel tank (no easy task given my design) it locked right on, even at very low speeds (0.2m/s). Dumped all my fuel aboard but realized I'd been calculating leftover fuel based on my (much lighter) recovery craft rather than my lander, so I didn't quite have enough fuel to return even with that. Had plenty to get into very high Kerbin orbit though, so I did that, then tried the EVA pushing to get my periapsis down to aerobrake. Wasn't easy to learn how to do it, but I'm far more comfortable with the EVA controls now, so that's a plus. Took 5 orbits to fully aerobrake and cut my apoapsis down but the lander returned safely, with 400+ science, which is huge for me.

Thanks for the help. I feel like I've learned a lot about rendezvous maneuvering now. May have to try real docking, certainly would be a lot of help in my missions but it always seemed too difficult to get into.

[Jimorian]

Official intro to new features of 0.25. Some very cool features!

[AdmiralCheez]

You can accidentally destroy the Space Center with a catastrophic rocket failure? Time to start my ICBM program, and my orbital battlestation!



Oh, and I guess other helpful things like interior crew transfer, cargo bays, and adding an arrow to the navball pointing to maneuver nodes.

[Jimorian]

I could always tell which way to move the navball to get to the blue marker. It was the opposite of whatever direction I started.

[factotum]

You can accidentally destroy the Space Center with a catastrophic rocket failure? Time to start my ICBM program, and my orbital battlestation!

You're not thinking big enough...Scott Manley dropped an asteroid onto KSC.

[AdmiralCheez]

You're not thinking big enough...Scott Manley dropped an asteroid onto KSC.

For an asteroid that size, I would have thought there would have been more damage. Some buildings survived! I guess he just needs a bigger one. Or the Mun.

[Peelee]

I could always tell which way to move the navball to get to the blue marker. It was the opposite of whatever direction I started.

..........

[Derthric]

Most recent update is nice, glad to finally have something to do with my reputation.

Haven't gotten too far into the system yet for any of the real changes but I am loving where it is going.

[AdmiralCheez]

About halfway back from a mission, I caught myself thinking, "Okay, just one more trip to low Munar orbit, and I should have enough data to research ladders." It's a very strange thing when you think about it.

I also got a mission to rescue a Kerbal stuck in orbit. Not sure how he got up there, but I'm going to say it was a rival space company that somehow lost track of their ship. Also weird to note that the contract expires in five years, so I could just leave him up there for that long and still get the money and prestige for a rescue mission.

[Peelee]

OK, the new Mk2 Cockpitis giving me fits with the extending bay ladder. I can fumble my way through with the standard extending ladder at wonky angles, but I don't much like it. I was able to fix the inline version by adding stationary mobility enhancers down both sides (a LOT of playing with wonky angles, minute adjustements, and had to turn snap off to do it), with a bay extender below - this works pretty well, and doesn't ruin the sleek design too much. But I still want a way to do this with the non-inline cockpit. Are there any workarounds for this? Assume all stock.

[RCgothic]

New career start for .90!

So far I've got my first relay trio placed, all of my buildings upgraded to tier 2 and 6 Kerbals to 1 star.

Next stop, The Mün!

[Eldan]

Nice that the thread is alive again. I just recently saw Hank Green play this on Hank plays, so I dug it out again. Like him, I managed an orbital helicopter, but mine was much bigger and therefore less stable, less efficient and overall less cool.

I also tried my first interplanetary mission. After a handful of crashes into the Dunan surface, I managed to build a working lander. Then strand it into space because it didn't have enough fuel to return. (I managed a solar orbit, at least.)

The next step, logically, is the a step all my creations eventually take. Tripple the number of boosters in the first stage.

[RCgothic]

I've started on Moderate difficulty, and I'd have to say the balance is about right. I struggle for both funds and science, but not too much.

I can just about effect a rescue from LKO with 30 parts and 18t limit. Completing Sat contracts was impossible without a relay network, which was impossible to establish before getting photovoltaic panels. So that was the first target of my early research, and I just about made it.

Once I unlocked RCS and photovoltaic panels I could handily place sats up to 2700km once my relay network was in place. The relay trio was one again placed by a manned mission (insertion into LKO - moving up to 750km on own RCS power). 750km have me more phase angle to play with for initial positioning based on previous experience (see previous page).

Then my focus was on placing Sats for money, and that provided enough funds to perform a lot of building upgrades. Although I may have over-spent slightly, as I only have 20k left. Oh well, should be able to work with that.

[Wookieetank]

So a friend of mine got me into the multiplayer mod, just in time for the new patch to muck things up. Prior to the mod not working for me (despite not having updated yet ><), my friend an I invented a new "sport" in KSP: Battle Rovers. We found that by varying the ammount of fuel in solid state boosters you could turn them into rather servicable projectiles. Making a battle rover that did more than explode on attempted manuvering off the runway took a bit, but by then end of an afternoon we had both managed to created working rovers. Definitely my favorite day of Kerbaling to date. If I can find where my battle rover got saved I'll post some pictures (was too busy making things go boom to think of it at the time XD).

[Eldan]

Next step: aerial dogfights using boosters as missiles?

[Wookieetank]

Next step: aerial dogfights using boosters as missiles?

Actually we went from Battle Rovers to working on a multi-astroid space base (which I've yet to make it to), but I like your thinking!

[RCgothic]

Ok, summary of the past week:

Put a pair of comms relay sats in equatorial orbit of kerbin with a directed antenna targeting the Mun. Made the assumption that two was sufficient (as one would always be able to see the Mun), which was reasonable as my existing sat trio would link back to KSC. However, I only checked their battery life with their omnidirectional antenna active. 95% up-time. Oops.

Put two of the same satellites in orbit of the Mun, again, assuming two would be sufficient. Not reasonable. The Mun had no exisiting trio, so a craft on the far side from Kerbin wouldn't be able to link back whilst the satellite was also behind the Mun. 90% up time. Oops.

Tried to complete a surface survey contract on the Mun with Jeb. Forgot to bring enough fuel for a return. Oops.

Reverted to an earlier save which wiped out all of that. Double Oops.

Re-established my comms networks, this time with three sats in polar orbits (to avoid shadows), and with greater battery life. The new trio around the Mun serve as their own relay link for when one sat is on the wrong side of Kerbin.
Even better, launched three sats at a time using this beast:

Spoiler

Show

Completed the Munar survey mission with Jeb and returned.

Constructed my first successful space plane.

Unlocked all the 90 level science tier and have about half the 160 science tier.

Busy busy!

[Gnoman]

Two questions:

1. When trying to go to the Mun, is it better to achieve a standard Kerbin orbit and then gradually increase orbital diameter, or should I launch on an escape trajectory and then try to turn that into an intercept?

2. What's the best way to target a specific orbit? All I can manage to do is launch into a "whatever" orbit and then try to tune it to match what's needed, which is very fuel-inefficient.

[Storm Bringer]

can't answer about the second one, but for the first I've personnaly found it easier to go into stable orbit, then burn to the Mun. that way I have time to play with the manuver node and get it right before I burn fuel.


the Apollo missions did that as well, as it gave them a much bigger launch window for the moon shot (and this room for hold ups).

to try and launch and inject in one go would require extremely good timing, to the second on every stage.

[factotum]

You shouldn't ever aim to escape the Kerbin system unless you're planning on travelling to other planets--it's a massive waste of fuel otherwise. The easiest method is always to start from LKO (Low Kerbin Orbit, if you're not sure) and set up a manoeuvre node which changes the orbit so its high point coincides with the Mun's orbit, then drag the manoeuvre node around the orbit until you get an encounter.

As for (2), I'd usually try to match the apoapsis of the target orbit from launch, then circularise to match the rest.

[Gnoman]

How do you get maneuver nodes in this version? I have the tracking center fully upgraded, and still can't use them.

[RCgothic]

Two questions:

1. When trying to go to the Mun, is it better to achieve a standard Kerbin orbit and then gradually increase orbital diameter, or should I launch on an escape trajectory and then try to turn that into an intercept?

2. What's the best way to target a specific orbit? All I can manage to do is launch into a "whatever" orbit and then try to tune it to match what's needed, which is very fuel-inefficient.

The ideal profile is to launch into 75km orbit and circularise. Then initiate a transfer burn to the Mun all in one go. This is because rocket motors are more efficient at high speed/low orbit. So you want to initiate your transfer burn from as low an orbit as possible. This is called the Oberth Effect.

The best way to target a specific orbit is to use manoeuvre nodes.

Edit: You need to upgrade both Tracking Centre and Mission Control to get manoeuvre nodes.

[factotum]

If you don't have manoeuvre nodes, then you can use the old fashioned way of getting a Mun encounter--basically, put yourself into LKO and wait for the Mun to rise, then start your orbit change manoeuvre (you'll be thrusting more or less directly at the Mun). Use the map to see when you get your encounter.

[Rakaydos]

So, I've got a spaceplane that works with the new update of FAR, that can reach orbit with more than an orange tank's worth of fuel left. Despite, I might add, the addition of high altitude skin drag meaning I need to light rockets 200m/s earlier than in earlier version.

[Peelee]

How do you get maneuver nodes in this version? I have the tracking center fully upgraded, and still can't use them.

To expand on what RCgothic said, upgrading the Tracking Center gets you Patched Conics (basically, you can see if your orbit intersects with another body, like the Mun, and how that will affect your orbit - you can get Mun landing missions without this, but its much more imprecise), and upgrading Mission Control gets you Flight Planning, which lets you set maneuver nodes. Note that you need Patched Conics in order to unlock the Flight Planning; if you only upgrade Mission Control, you won't get the nodes. Which makes sense, really.

In unrelated news, I've started my new career in Mostly-Hard mode; I retain the abilities to revert flights and quicksave, and resources all pay out and return for 100%, but when I unlock a new tech block in the R&D department with science, I still have to pay the funds to unlock each piece of new tech. It seriously cuts into funds, and really makes Experimental Testing much more worthwhile, since I can accomplish other things while testing that nice, expensive part.

I tried Hard mode. It was incredibly exciting and made every launch feel like a "this is real, and if I fail, people will die" situation. I managed to save everyone's lives, at the cost of bankrupting the space program. Now I do Mostly-Hard mode. Much less nerve-wracking.

[Razgriez]

Well, since it was on sale on Steam, I decided to give KSP a try. Here's what I discovered so far:

-I need to work on balancing my rockets, especially once the Mystery Goo is added

-attempting to decouple a stacked Solid Fuel Booster when my ship goes sideways courtesy of above just means the modules above it ride loosely to the booster if it still has fuel

-Radial Decouplers, + Solid Fuel Boosters + Emergency situation as above = bad things

-Jebediah will be sorely missed after an slight over compensation on attempting to sling shot to the Mun.

- Naming my ships "Trying Science!" or "Not Made of Explodium" is just tempting fate...

- As is forgetting parachutes....

-Right, new game save file...

[Rakaydos]

Generally you want to put Goo on your craft in pairs. There's a symmetry tool that will make balancng that way easy.

Is Jeb out of fuel? sounds like time for a rescue misson!

[Razgriez]

Well regarding Jeb, that was actually during the "To the Mun Part 1" training, Plotting is confusing to me, and I could use some explanation for properly making maneuver plots, and properly setting up intercept courses.

....He was however caught in a few of the explosions that happened regarding still firing boosters being separated due to me trying get away with only 1, non-symmetrical placed Goo during my current go at career mode (thank you revert option). That said, I've kinda blown my entire budget what with multiple failures to achieve some contracts.