Kerbals in Spaaaaace!

[dethkruzer]

well, I finally got to Minmus in career mode, even managed a picture-perfect landing on my first try. Only problem is I think don't have enough fuel to get back, so until I get a rescue craft of some kind, Jebediah is kinda stuck up there.

He doesn't seem to mind too much.

[factotum]

well, I finally got to Minmus in career mode, even managed a picture-perfect landing on my first try. Only problem is I think don't have enough fuel to get back, so until I get a rescue craft of some kind, Jebediah is kinda stuck up there.

You might want to do a quicksave and then try it anyway--it takes surprisingly little fuel to get into Minmus orbit, and once you're there it also takes surprisingly little to cancel out Minmus's orbital velocity and return to Kerbin. If you have some RCS fuel to spare you can use that to help out.

[dethkruzer]

You might want to do a quicksave and then try it anyway--it takes surprisingly little fuel to get into Minmus orbit, and once you're there it also takes surprisingly little to cancel out Minmus's orbital velocity and return to Kerbin. If you have some RCS fuel to spare you can use that to help out.

Well, I got Jeb back down. Nt much fuel left to spare as I burned the rest of it to kill off my velocity when I returned to kerbin. I was still going over 2 kilometers a second after blazing through the atmosphere.

[Storm Bringer]

can anyone recommend a good demo or walk-though for rendezvous? I would like to have a shot at it, and things like orbital re-fueling and such.

[factotum]

Scott Manley did a good one last year just before the 0.18 release:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHkY3FusJIQ

[Rakaydos]

I've been playing the demo (will probably get the main game when grandma's christmas check comes in)

With considerable iteraton, my mun lander can now tip over from a hard landing, stage to Ascender, and throttle up to launch back to kerban from the sideways position, usig only the Ascender's landing legs to prop it up 45 degrees. And if it doesnt tip over, the landing stage has it's own capsule, and fuel that MIGHT get it back to kerban if someon gets stranded.

Just recently figured out orbital intercepts, and I now have an unmanned ship sitting out near geosynch, while it's pilot rode down with another ship. (no docking hatches, though.)

[SuperPanda]

Looked up the rules to make sure this wasn't Thread Necromancy, and its not just yet.


I just recently got the game and have been getting my space program rolling in Career mode. Considering doing a restart soon though since I lost my first Kerbonoaut on the last mission. I was testing a Sky-crane style lander on Kerbin and used up my fuel about 90 m off the serface (was feathering my decent too much early on and having trouble juding distance) so splashed down hard and lost Bob.

I've not managed anything too impressive yet, landing at the south-pole and another landing in a mountian range are about my best achievements so far.

Will probably keep my current career mode save and keep going for learning reasons, thinking of doing a "story mode" save and doing short write ups for missions for fun (just because its a quirky game which gets me thinking like that). Would want to think up good space program names first though.

Loving it so far, but I'm really looking forward to getting solar pannels, landing gear, and docking hatches. Currently trying to build a Mun flight without any of those.

[Storm Bringer]

I would recommend doing a few more low orbit missions and try and hit a few more kerbal biomes frist. you will be able to get enough science for what you need just form that.

Did you know that the space centre, the luanchpad AND the runway are all seperate bimomes that give different reading and science?

if you do decide to do a Let's play of KSP, do link to here, i'd love to read it. for misson names, i'd go for a mix of destination based ones (i.e. "Mun 5", "Jool 7"), and/or variations of real misson series names (fpr example, instead of "Gemeni", go for "Duplex" or "Twinned")

[Jimorian]

Also, do Mun and Minmus flyby missions to get a bunch of extra science, and thus parts, before trying the actual landing missions. It helps a LOT.

My science tutorial video series got stalled by a very bad cold where I was coughing like crazy for the past couple of weeks, but it's been getting a really nice reception and quite a few views, with the first video at nearly 3000, and the other 3 at 1000. I guess people like that I was showing that it doesn't take super hard missions to get the science you need to progress up the tree. I should finally be able to do the Mun landings episode now that the cough is managable, followed by the Minmus landings ep. Then onto the planets!

[iyaerP]

I have managed to crash into Mun several times, but can't get enough fuel to slow my vessel down enough to survive landing. I always either weigh too much from excess fuel, and don't even get there, or can't slow down to the point of survivability.

[SuperPanda]

I would recommend doing a few more low orbit missions and try and hit a few more kerbal biomes frist. you will be able to get enough science for what you need just form that.

Did you know that the space centre, the luanchpad AND the runway are all seperate bimomes that give different reading and science?

if you do decide to do a Let's play of KSP, do link to here, i'd love to read it. for misson names, i'd go for a mix of destination based ones (i.e. "Mun 5", "Jool 7"), and/or variations of real misson series names (fpr example, instead of "Gemeni", go for "Duplex" or "Twinned")

I was thinking less of a "let's play" as I've seen other posters do them and more of a role-play-ish take, maybe in the form of newspaper articles about the missions.

my practice files so far have used mission names themed on Kerbal planets, such as the Moho atmosphereic flight program and the Orbol orbiter.

I refined the Orbol prototype into my Loopy Mk II. I also am experimenting with trying to put a lab (and three seperate landers) in place simutaneously with the TryPoly launcher (but the Loopy is far more efficient for orbital missions I'll probably recreate it next time since it gets into orbit with plenty of fuel for manuvering to help me plan where to land).

I'm thinking of starting a proper go at it in a few days. I've been working out puntastic acronyms for different groups I might use and I'm scouting out the mods I'll be running.

My space programe will be the Kerbal Administration of Space Exploration (K.A.S.E.) just so I can have a headline be "KASE closed?" after an inevitable crash.


Once I get my VPN working I'll check out your tutorials. Sadly the great firewall makes Youtube hard to use. Right now my Orbital mechanics are - poor - to say the least. I might need to get Kerbal Engineer to help with Rocket Design.

Planning to use the following mods so far:

Aesthetic only - texture replacer to add city lights and clouds to Kerbin
Texture replacer to give Kerbals different faces (Jeb might be Jebbra)
Chatterer

Parts and gameplay:
- Kethane mod
- KW rocketry
- Intersteller (but only after maxing out the existing tech tree if possible)
- ???

Currently not planning on using anyone else's craft files but that will depend on how difficult it is to make rovers, stations and such. I've not had much trouble landing even complicated and bulky landers on Kerbin (with the exception of my Skycrane landing where I misjudged my fuel limit).

[factotum]

I have managed to crash into Mun several times, but can't get enough fuel to slow my vessel down enough to survive landing. I always either weigh too much from excess fuel, and don't even get there, or can't slow down to the point of survivability.

That sounds weird--the hardest thing by far in KSP (or in real life, for that matter) is achieving orbit; once you've got there, the amount of fuel you need to get anywhere else is not that great.

Word of advice: you might want to try Minmus first, if you're struggling with the Mun. It takes a little bit more fuel to get there in the first place, but landing and taking off needs so little that it more than compensates for that; it's also a lot easier to land on a place with such low gravity.

[Storm Bringer]

I have managed to crash into Mun several times, but can't get enough fuel to slow my vessel down enough to survive landing. I always either weigh too much from excess fuel, and don't even get there, or can't slow down to the point of survivability.

are you trying a direct landing form kerbal orbit (ie a straight shot form Kerbal orbit to the Munar surface), or are you trying to land form Munar orbit (ie get a stable munar orbit, then arrange a landing form their)? i've always found it much eaiser to get a munar orbit then land.

when i suceeded (in sandbox, i must admit), it was by a long, slow, low powered decent with the 50 kN small engine, which landed upright after a lot of fiddling with the engine power and SAS to keep myself upright.

my advise is to keep your spacecraft aimed retrograde and break hard early on, almost to zero velocity, so that your approaching at a very steep angle and don't have too much sideways velocity to worry about. then, you just have to use a low powered decent engine to keep your approach speed low,

[Wookieetank]

I have managed to crash into Mun several times, but can't get enough fuel to slow my vessel down enough to survive landing. I always either weigh too much from excess fuel, and don't even get there, or can't slow down to the point of survivability.

So far my two attempted Mun landing have ended thus:

Landing 1: @ 500m/s
Landing 2: Landed, but was going just fast enough for the rocket part of my ship to explode leaving me with a kerbin stranded on the Mun in a command module with a parachute.

i've always found it much eaiser to get a munar orbit then land.

when i suceeded (in sandbox, i must admit), it was by a long, slow, low powered decent with the 50 kN small engine, which landed upright after a lot of fiddling with the engine power and SAS to keep myself upright.

my advise is to keep your spacecraft aimed retrograde and break hard early on, almost to zero velocity, so that your approaching at a very steep angle and don't have too much sideways velocity to worry about. then, you just have to use a low powered decent engine to keep your approach speed low,

I'll second this as helpful info. A friend of mine introduced me to a youtube tutorial series written by an astronomer that I've found most useful despite being for an older version of the game. Linky

Edited for accuracy.

[Rakaydos]

I managed to get enough research for nuculear engines from minmus and Mun flyby orbits (there's a bazilion biomes down there to fly over) and have been doing flybys of all the planets and moons to try and max out my tech tree- this file hasnt landed anywhere except kerbin yet, but I've returned from an eeloo flyby with fuel to spare.

[Talderas]

Landing 1: @ 500m/s

Landing at 1.4x the speed of sound doesn't sound pleasant.

[Wookieetank]

Landing at 1.4x the speed of sound doesn't sound pleasant.

The terms catastrophic and explosions come to mind when pondering the fate of that landing.

[Talderas]

The terms catastrophic and explosions come to mind when pondering the fate of that landing.

I probably shouldn't have used the speed of sound as a comparison.... that's 1.4x the speed of sound in earth's atmosphere. In your defense, the lander may not have been travelling faster than the speed of sound on the Mun.

[Wookieetank]

I probably shouldn't have used the speed of sound as a comparison.... that's 1.4x the speed of sound in earth's atmosphere. In your defense, the lander may not have been travelling faster than the speed of sound on the Mun.

It was traveling faster than the speed of landability/safety which is all that really mattered at that point. Didn't really help that I ran out of fuel either on that go round. I'm hoping sometime this week to attempt Munar landing 3 (and this time to remember to bring an antenna ><), I'll post updates once I get around to it.

In the mean time:

Munar Landing 2: Pay no attention to the rocket debris in the background, no I don't know what you're talking about, you must be delusional
and
This was supposed to be 12 engines, somehow I ended up with 128, decided to go with it anyways (not my Munar vehicle)

[Rakaydos]

Man, my best story is when my Minmus lander had a staging problem when reaching kerbin orbit that ripped off one of the landing legs. I proceded to land vertically on 2 legs and my engine on JUST the right amount of slope, get out, plant a flag, take soil sample, and get back in.

Then I topped it off by flying to another biome, landing horizontaly, taking samples, RCSing back vertical, and returning to kerbin.

[factotum]

This was supposed to be 12 engines, somehow I ended up with 128, decided to go with it anyways (not my Munar vehicle)

Chap on another forum I frequent decided to build his own version of the Soviet N-1 rocket, so he used only the small engines on his first stage--I think he ended up with 70 of them, or something like that!

[Wookieetank]

Chap on another forum I frequent decided to build his own version of the Soviet N-1 rocket, so he used only the small engines on his first stage--I think he ended up with 70 of them, or something like that!

Nice. Once I get the docking bits unlocked I plan on trying to recreate the Apollo Missions. I have a strong feeling that much hilarity (read: explosions) will result from my attempts.

[factotum]

Nice. Once I get the docking bits unlocked I plan on trying to recreate the Apollo Missions. I have a strong feeling that much hilarity (read: explosions) will result from my attempts.

I think it's easy enough to do an Apollo mission as they originally planned it (e.g. Kerbin orbit rendezvous--send up the lander and the service module separately and get them to dock together in orbit), but doing it as it was actually *done* would require an impressive rocket indeed, I think!

[Wookieetank]

I think it's easy enough to do an Apollo mission as they originally planned it (e.g. Kerbin orbit rendezvous--send up the lander and the service module separately and get them to dock together in orbit), but doing it as it was actually *done* would require an impressive rocket indeed, I think!

The plan is all in one rocket. If I'm assembling things from different launches in orbit, I plan on it being for a space station or interplanetary ship.

Edit: or an interplanetary spacestation!

[razark]

I've done Apollo style missions before. In .22 career, it was pointless, because you couldn't transfer science from the lander to the return capsule. Even now that they've fixed that in .23, I still find it to be more trouble than it's worth. Building a stack that carries a single ship capable of landing and returning is pretty easy compared to making separate ships, not to mention the annoyance of transferring crew.

[Rakaydos]

A modified apollo style probably works better for interplanetary landers. It avoids the problem of landing and taking off, carrying all the fuel you need to return to kerbin.

[iyaerP]

This was supposed to be 12 engines, somehow I ended up with 128, decided to go with it anyways (not my Munar vehicle)

HOW DID THAT NOT EXPLODE FROM OVERHEATING?

[SuperPanda]

If I was going to do some sort of Let's Play (or otherwise) this would be an example of what I'd be doing (more geekily roleplaying my space program than other LPs I've seen).

Spoiler

Show

Hello my Fellow Kerbins and thank you for tuning into the Kerbin Oracle's Rocket's Now. I'm Kermert Oliver Breman and this is the news at 10. Last week we announced news that the government had officially recognized and approved of the Kerbin Academy for Space Exploration (KASE) which has now officially opened. Dr. Myria Genecott was selected as the scienctific director of KASE and is ecstatic about 99% of her job.

The other 1% is co-founder and allaround Kerbal-icon Jeb "Never-gunna-die-ah" Kerman. Having finished his most recent extreme sports tour he showed up at the KASE space center to officially that he and his brothers will be full partners in KASE. Analysts suggest that its a good time to purchase stock's in Jeb's company KERBAL, or Kerbal Exploratory Research in Ballistic Aeronautics Ltd. as it is set to be one of KASE's regular contactors.

Also joining the KASE team are Jeb's brothers Bill, An Aeronautical engineer and Bob, the often ignore accountant. On the less famous, for now, side there is Tom, Heading up Kerbal Resources; Macney, The optimistically named Recovery Team Leader; Burlock, officially titled Janitorial Staff but unofficially the one who cleans up after; Algas, the head of Exo-gastronomy research; Desbus, Director of Public Relations; And Enbal - Dr. Genecott's Research assistant.

As many of you noticed when your window's shook earlier today, the planned non-combustible capsule test did not happen today. Reports from inside KASE suggest that while Dr. Genecott did plan to merely test a capsule to ensure that it didn't explode when powered up by itself, Jeb was having none of that. While Dr. Genecott was getting the tests ready, Jeb installed a second capsule with working ignition controls and 4 solid fuel booster rockets to what is now officially recognized as the Impatience Mk 1 rocket.

Jeb's planned launch was delayed briefly today by the last minute installation of parachutes. This gave Jeb time to paint the rockets Red, to make them go faster.

In methods unknown, even to Dr. Genecott, Jeb somehow convince her to ride in the bottom capsule, the one with no active controls).

The rocket made it to roughly 107 km over Kerbin making Jeb the first Kerbal in space. The parachutes slowed the craft enough to land safely making Genecott the first Kerbal to return from space alive.

Spoiler: Science Aquired on mission

Show

68 points of Science.

KASE is advertising for even more new hires and is looking for a section to develop a research lander for Testing in various locations around Kerbal.

[Wookieetank]

HOW DID THAT NOT EXPLODE FROM OVERHEATING?

SCIENCE! Thats the best I've got really, no clue why it didn't explode. Seperating all of those made for quite the sight once the lag sorted itself out.

So after three attempts with my previous munar lander setup yesterday, I failed to make orbit with any of them. Did something change with how ships control in the most recent update, or did I just have a bad go of things cause my ships which used to be rather agile, turned liked ungreased bricks at the speed of a snail on sandpaper?

Edit:

If I was going to do some sort of Let's Play (or otherwise) this would be an example of what I'd be doing (more geekily roleplaying my space program than other LPs I've seen).

Spoiler

Show

Hello my Fellow Kerbins and thank you for tuning into the Kerbin Oracle's Rocket's Now. I'm Kermert Oliver Breman and this is the news at 10. Last week we announced news that the government had officially recognized and approved of the Kerbin Academy for Space Exploration (KASE) which has now officially opened. Dr. Myria Genecott was selected as the scienctific director of KASE and is ecstatic about 99% of her job.

The other 1% is co-founder and allaround Kerbal-icon Jeb "Never-gunna-die-ah" Kerman. Having finished his most recent extreme sports tour he showed up at the KASE space center to officially that he and his brothers will be full partners in KASE. Analysts suggest that its a good time to purchase stock's in Jeb's company KERBAL, or Kerbal Exploratory Research in Ballistic Aeronautics Ltd. as it is set to be one of KASE's regular contactors.

Also joining the KASE team are Jeb's brothers Bill, An Aeronautical engineer and Bob, the often ignore accountant. On the less famous, for now, side there is Tom, Heading up Kerbal Resources; Macney, The optimistically named Recovery Team Leader; Burlock, officially titled Janitorial Staff but unofficially the one who cleans up after; Algas, the head of Exo-gastronomy research; Desbus, Director of Public Relations; And Enbal - Dr. Genecott's Research assistant.

As many of you noticed when your window's shook earlier today, the planned non-combustible capsule test did not happen today. Reports from inside KASE suggest that while Dr. Genecott did plan to merely test a capsule to ensure that it didn't explode when powered up by itself, Jeb was having none of that. While Dr. Genecott was getting the tests ready, Jeb installed a second capsule with working ignition controls and 4 solid fuel booster rockets to what is now officially recognized as the Impatience Mk 1 rocket.

Jeb's planned launch was delayed briefly today by the last minute installation of parachutes. This gave Jeb time to paint the rockets Red, to make them go faster.

In methods unknown, even to Dr. Genecott, Jeb somehow convince her to ride in the bottom capsule, the one with no active controls).

The rocket made it to roughly 107 km over Kerbin making Jeb the first Kerbal in space. The parachutes slowed the craft enough to land safely making Genecott the first Kerbal to return from space alive.

Spoiler: Science Aquired on mission

Show

68 points of Science.

KASE is advertising for even more new hires and is looking for a section to develop a research lander for Testing in various locations around Kerbal.

I like it.

[TheLoneCleric]

I keep playing in Sandbox. I really need to try the campaign.