Some advice--when starting out, abuse the ASAS. Use struts to tie your rocket together. Don't floor the throttle in low atmosphere--ensure you are accelerating upwards, but don't go overboard because you'll burn a lot of fuel fighting wind resistance until you get into the upper atmosphere. It's also easiest to get into what's called a pro-grade orbit, and you do that by heading east (towards the 90° marker on that little navball). You can also save fuel on ascent by starting a gravity turn (i.e. start gradually leaning over towards 90°), I usually do it in the middle-blue altitudes.
Kerbal Space Program
- Thread starter Leonel
- Start date
Victory is mine again!
Got a satellite into orbit around Minimus.
Now, comes the question, what to do next? I can maybe go for a manned landing on Minimus, though that doesn't sound too exciting. Or, I can possibly get out of the Kerbin system and get some satellites into orbit around other planets. hmm... the possibilities!
Spoiler :
Got a satellite into orbit around Minimus.
Now, comes the question, what to do next? I can maybe go for a manned landing on Minimus, though that doesn't sound too exciting. Or, I can possibly get out of the Kerbin system and get some satellites into orbit around other planets. hmm... the possibilities!
Minmus is a different challenge than the Mun--it has 4 km cliffs everywhere, and much less gravity.
Duna is a popular first interplanetary trip locale, and I'm a big fan of putting massive space junk in space (see the fuel pod I posted earlier--had 30 SRBs and 18 mainsails to get it into orbit).
Duna is a popular first interplanetary trip locale, and I'm a big fan of putting massive space junk in space (see the fuel pod I posted earlier--had 30 SRBs and 18 mainsails to get it into orbit).
hobbsyoyo
Deity
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2012
- Messages
- 26,575
I need help with two things:
Can anyone make a tutorial on how to make a good spaceplane? All mine crash. A link to a great youtube video would be ok.
Can you guys help me pick an objective to work toward, please?
I want to do a mission but I can't decide what to do. I feel like I'm suffering from a lack of imagination. Someone come up with something off the wall for me to accomplish.
Can anyone make a tutorial on how to make a good spaceplane? All mine crash. A link to a great youtube video would be ok.
Can you guys help me pick an objective to work toward, please?
I want to do a mission but I can't decide what to do. I feel like I'm suffering from a lack of imagination. Someone come up with something off the wall for me to accomplish.
Can't help with the spaceplanes, mine all suck even when I try to use stock models or stuff built off Youtube. I'm a bad spaceplane pilot.
Here's an idea I had that I haven't been able to pull off yet (going to try to lay the groundwork next weekend): create a space station in orbit Duna, with a reusable lander. Put at least an orange tank on the space station, so you can send the lander down and back up to the station, refuel, and then repeat.
Here's an idea I had that I haven't been able to pull off yet (going to try to lay the groundwork next weekend): create a space station in orbit Duna, with a reusable lander. Put at least an orange tank on the space station, so you can send the lander down and back up to the station, refuel, and then repeat.
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
That'd be a mission report I wouldn't mind reading
After the disastrous manned science mission to Jool, I put my planetary exploration on hold and decided to get better at my landings and controlled burns around planetary bodies to achieve getting to exactly where I want. I ended up learning quite a bit trying to make this happen:
Presenting the first ever Munar sex hotel complex - containing 3 sex hotels - 1 capable of accomodating 6 couples plus a threesome - the other 2 capable of supporting 4 couples and a threesome each - for a grand total of a 37 population capacity, not including the sex rovers.
The sex hotel complex has for some reason failed to attract any females - very quickly turning into a gay Munar sex hotel complex. Not that there's anything wrong with that. The last mission saw 15 gay Kerbal space tourists arrive in the largest of the 3 hotels. The other 2 hotels are mostly vacant with maybe a 85% vacancy rate right now.
Flying the sex hotels around was not easy - they are quite bulky.. There ended up being JUST ENOUGH fuel to land all 3 that close to eachother. You have no idea how much I am not kidding that there was just enough. Two of the hotels have ZERO fuel left and the third one doesn't have enough to really go anywhere or move around, maybe fly up a bit and then fall back down.
Each hotel carried a rover with it, but the first hotel had design complications and the rover was lost during the flight. There are three rovers at the base because I ended up starting this mission by figuring out how to land at a previous landing site - which already had a rover there waiting for me. The spot ended up being hard to get to due to a crazy inclination burn that was required - each mission required pinpoint accuracy due to the somehow amazingly EXACT nature of the fuel reserves. I think it was worth it though - all my future landings, no matter what, are going to be a lot more accurate now, and the maneuver node makes a lot more sense too.
Docking.. yes.. I think I am finally going to try it now. Figuring out that will unlock a lot of stuff I can do in the game.. Plus I think all the time spent trying to accurately move around and land last night will make docking easier.. here's hoping anyway!
After the disastrous manned science mission to Jool, I put my planetary exploration on hold and decided to get better at my landings and controlled burns around planetary bodies to achieve getting to exactly where I want. I ended up learning quite a bit trying to make this happen:
Spoiler :
Presenting the first ever Munar sex hotel complex - containing 3 sex hotels - 1 capable of accomodating 6 couples plus a threesome - the other 2 capable of supporting 4 couples and a threesome each - for a grand total of a 37 population capacity, not including the sex rovers.
The sex hotel complex has for some reason failed to attract any females - very quickly turning into a gay Munar sex hotel complex. Not that there's anything wrong with that. The last mission saw 15 gay Kerbal space tourists arrive in the largest of the 3 hotels. The other 2 hotels are mostly vacant with maybe a 85% vacancy rate right now.
Flying the sex hotels around was not easy - they are quite bulky.. There ended up being JUST ENOUGH fuel to land all 3 that close to eachother. You have no idea how much I am not kidding that there was just enough. Two of the hotels have ZERO fuel left and the third one doesn't have enough to really go anywhere or move around, maybe fly up a bit and then fall back down.
Each hotel carried a rover with it, but the first hotel had design complications and the rover was lost during the flight. There are three rovers at the base because I ended up starting this mission by figuring out how to land at a previous landing site - which already had a rover there waiting for me. The spot ended up being hard to get to due to a crazy inclination burn that was required - each mission required pinpoint accuracy due to the somehow amazingly EXACT nature of the fuel reserves. I think it was worth it though - all my future landings, no matter what, are going to be a lot more accurate now, and the maneuver node makes a lot more sense too.
Spoiler :
Docking.. yes.. I think I am finally going to try it now. Figuring out that will unlock a lot of stuff I can do in the game.. Plus I think all the time spent trying to accurately move around and land last night will make docking easier.. here's hoping anyway!
Thorgalaeg
Deity
Just did my first expedition to the Mum. It was awesome. It took me the whole evening to design the rocket and to make the trip. It is true this damn game can be dangerous.
The rocket whihc was called Gordo3 for obvious reasons was maybe a bit too heavy for carrying Jedemiah only but i didnt want to face any fuel shortage, so i used 4 mainsails for the first stage and 1 more in the second plus 5 jumbo tanks:
The thing worked flawlessly at launch since it was reinforced with many struts in the weak points as you suggested.
So it reached a correct LEO without problems and didnt even need to align planes with Mum afterwards. There was some fuel left in the second stage at this point so I reached Mun height via a Hohmann tranfer orbit with almost half of the third stage fuel still there. The worst part was to synchronize the rendez-vouz with the Mun since i didnt understand very well the symbols at first (it is me or this game needs a lot of work on the interface so we can know some fundamental data at least). Anyway after some time going around and a good bunch of fuel lost i managed to meet with the moon. I landed in this huge crater at the hidden face:
And after bouncing around a bit and a tricky final approach the eagle landed finally in a piece and on his four legs. Here you can see Jedemiah admiring the landscape:
The returning was going to be tricky to since there was not too much fuel left after the problematic synchronization, so i took off, faced retro-grade and made the descent burst only to see that the fuel was SLIGHTY short, and i am not joking, incredibly after expending all the remaining fuel the ship was going to pass just above kerbin atm as you can see here without touching it or maybe doing an atmospheric ricochet and returning to space (dont know if such thing can happen in this game), look at the fuel amount left at the upper right corner:
Fortunately Mum came in to help us, and just when i was in my descent path to nowhere Mum came closer and its gravity hold me back just enough to put my periapsis into Belkin:
So, there was it. My reentry speed was going to be brutal (about 3000 m/s) but thanks to the lack of detailed re-entry physics Jedemiah Kerbal made his way back alive and in one piece, after a refreshing splashdown in the ocean.
So, it was a hollywoodesque the end wasnt it?, when everything looked lost, mother nature came and help our hero. Awesome.
The rocket whihc was called Gordo3 for obvious reasons was maybe a bit too heavy for carrying Jedemiah only but i didnt want to face any fuel shortage, so i used 4 mainsails for the first stage and 1 more in the second plus 5 jumbo tanks:
Spoiler :
The thing worked flawlessly at launch since it was reinforced with many struts in the weak points as you suggested.
Spoiler :
So it reached a correct LEO without problems and didnt even need to align planes with Mum afterwards. There was some fuel left in the second stage at this point so I reached Mun height via a Hohmann tranfer orbit with almost half of the third stage fuel still there. The worst part was to synchronize the rendez-vouz with the Mun since i didnt understand very well the symbols at first (it is me or this game needs a lot of work on the interface so we can know some fundamental data at least). Anyway after some time going around and a good bunch of fuel lost i managed to meet with the moon. I landed in this huge crater at the hidden face:
Spoiler :
And after bouncing around a bit and a tricky final approach the eagle landed finally in a piece and on his four legs. Here you can see Jedemiah admiring the landscape:
Spoiler :
The returning was going to be tricky to since there was not too much fuel left after the problematic synchronization, so i took off, faced retro-grade and made the descent burst only to see that the fuel was SLIGHTY short, and i am not joking, incredibly after expending all the remaining fuel the ship was going to pass just above kerbin atm as you can see here without touching it or maybe doing an atmospheric ricochet and returning to space (dont know if such thing can happen in this game), look at the fuel amount left at the upper right corner:
Spoiler :
Fortunately Mum came in to help us, and just when i was in my descent path to nowhere Mum came closer and its gravity hold me back just enough to put my periapsis into Belkin:
Spoiler :
So, there was it. My reentry speed was going to be brutal (about 3000 m/s) but thanks to the lack of detailed re-entry physics Jedemiah Kerbal made his way back alive and in one piece, after a refreshing splashdown in the ocean.
Spoiler :
So, it was a hollywoodesque the end wasnt it?, when everything looked lost, mother nature came and help our hero. Awesome.
@Warpus: That's a pretty awesome Mün colony. I think I need to download a rover parts pack to make it easier to move around on planets--my rocket sled is wayyy too powerful for what I need it to do.
@Thorgalaeg: Your lander looks incredibly different from what I'm used to seeing. I like the look of it. On a prior page, somebody used the cylindrical command pod to make a compact lander and that was a neat idea too.
Maybe taking the engine off the rocket sled and using only RCS would work, but I think I would run out of fuel too quickly without a massive fuel station nearby.
@Thorgalaeg: Your lander looks incredibly different from what I'm used to seeing. I like the look of it. On a prior page, somebody used the cylindrical command pod to make a compact lander and that was a neat idea too.
Maybe taking the engine off the rocket sled and using only RCS would work, but I think I would run out of fuel too quickly without a massive fuel station nearby.
Thorgalaeg
Deity
Note that some images are cut at the top since i messed it up with Paint. My lander is pretty primitive and basically all of it is a huge fuel tank and a small engine plus two radial engines since i didnt know if a single engine was enough to take off Mum (it was obviously, so i added some extra weight i didnt need), i use the basic Mk1 command pod to keep weight low. Here you can see a better pic of it still attached to the rocket.
Spoiler :
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
Antilogic, thanks.. I was up pretty late working on that project. My plans included an eventual return vehicle platform/station/thing, but i looked at the time and it was 9am.. so.. I went to bed. but I'm back! Hoping to build a space station by tomorrow night.
As for rovers I really like the demv mark 5 ant. It has really good balance and seems easy to control - it can't go too fast, but it's not too slow either - IIRC I was cruising at 12-14 m/s or so. One thing I will say right away is that you have to remember to open the rover's hatch *before* you release it, if you end up going with the ant. otherwise there is no way to get in. I lost a rover and quite a bit of time figuring this out...
A periapsis so low in the atmosphere (3,200m) will always result in you losing orbit and ending back on the ground. The atmosphere is so thick at anything lower than 15,000 that you might as well be pointing at the ground. Consider it a bull's eye hit in terms of achieving a path home
As for rovers I really like the demv mark 5 ant. It has really good balance and seems easy to control - it can't go too fast, but it's not too slow either - IIRC I was cruising at 12-14 m/s or so. One thing I will say right away is that you have to remember to open the rover's hatch *before* you release it, if you end up going with the ant. otherwise there is no way to get in. I lost a rover and quite a bit of time figuring this out...
Thorgalaeg said:
A periapsis so low in the atmosphere (3,200m) will always result in you losing orbit and ending back on the ground. The atmosphere is so thick at anything lower than 15,000 that you might as well be pointing at the ground. Consider it a bull's eye hit in terms of achieving a path home
Thorgalaeg
Deity
Yep i was very lucky, if i had loaded an 1% less of fueI Jedemiah would still be going around and around in space. OTOH i am fairly sure that in real world reentrying so quick and flat would mean an atmospheric ricochet like a flat rock skipped across a lake, but surely the physics in the game are far of being so detailed. Anyway i was trying to give some suspens to my story.Antilogic, thanks.. I was up pretty late working on that project. My plans included an eventual return vehicle platform/station/thing, but i looked at the time and it was 9am.. so.. I went to bed. but I'm back! Hoping to build a space station by tomorrow night.
As for rovers I really like the demv mark 5 ant. It has really good balance and seems easy to control - it can't go too fast, but it's not too slow either - IIRC I was cruising at 12-14 m/s or so. One thing I will say right away is that you have to remember to open the rover's hatch *before* you release it, if you end up going with the ant. otherwise there is no way to get in. I lost a rover and quite a bit of time figuring this out...
A periapsis so low in the atmosphere (3,200m) will always result in you losing orbit and ending back on the ground. The atmosphere is so thick at anything lower than 15,000 that you might as well be pointing at the ground. Consider it a bull's eye hit in terms of achieving a path home
BTW is there a large mod or a mod compilation with lots of addons including those cool rovers in your pics? I have seen there are many mods but i am too lazy to download it all one to one.
EDIT: I answer myself, just found what i was looking for at this page. Any particular recommendations?
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
Yep i was very lucky, if i had loaded an 1% less of fueI Jedemiah would still be going around and around in space. OTOH i am fairly sure that in real world reentrying so quick and flat would mean an atmospheric ricochet like a flat rock skipped across a lake, but surely the physics in the game are far of being so detailed. Anyway i was trying to give some suspens to my story.
Yep, that is one of the things in the game that is unrealistic and makes return back home (and landing on some other bodies) a lot easier.
Re-entry heat, wind/turbulence conditions, possibility of reentry heat weakening structural collections, clouds, and weather, are all things they have on their official "to add to the game at some point" list, and all those things would make landing on planetary objects a lot more interesting and realistic. Once the full game is out, we are all probably going to need to be ferrying around a bit more fuel than we're used to
The Dev mark 5 ant rover is cool - I like it more than the bobcat or whatever it's called rover - so far it's been my favourite lightweight rover. There's cool looking larger rovers out there, but I haven't tried any yet. I would get mechjeb once you've successfully completed your first get to and return from mission to another planet.. Once you get past that stage you will want to focus your attention to different kinds of problems and use mechjeb to get you into initial orbit more efficiently. At least that's what I ended up doing and I am glad I stayed away from Mechjeb until "I was ready". It can help you with almost anything. I use it to get a nice elliptic path when getting into initial orbit around Kerbin - that sort of autopilot is invaluable and saves me fuel. I control the thrust myself. I also use it for data readout purposes - there's a lot of graphs and hard data displayed.. such as all the angles you need to move between planets, which is very handy. There's been one emergency landing where I used mechjeb to land, but other than that I have been trying to avoid its other features.
The quantum strut mod seems very handy for space station design - which I'm in the process of trying to accomplish now.. I have one piece in orbit with living quarters for 13 and a whole bunch of solar panels and have a rocket design that would send up 10 more living quarters, a whole lotta rcs fuel, and a return ship/thrust helper. I haven't had a chance to try to get the 2nd piece in orbit yet.. There was one attempt last night that ended in comical failure, but .. yeah, the struts will probably end up being very handy. We'll see though
What else is there.. I like the mod that allows you to graph your data from your scientific instruments, or from wherever.
I really haven't used too many.. I installed a bunch of them in a batch process of sorts (open a bunch of tabs, download zip files, copy over folders, done), so I see new parts here and there, but the things I've mentioned are the only ones I've tried so far.
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
Okay, so everything with docking has been going beautifully, until this step
Especially this part:
So I get this to happen and I'm "in sync" with the other piece in terms of being in basically the same orbit around the planet and everything looks amazing. But then next thing I know and my prograde is jumping around like crazy again.. "No big deal", I think, my relative velocity hasn't changed at all, I'm still pretty much not moving wrt to the other piece, so that shouldn't be a problem.
But it was a big problem. I was always moving just slightly off wrt the other object and I couldn't stabilize myself because the prograde marker wouldn't keep still.
That, and I'm not exactly sure which way my RCS is going to burn when I press IJKLHN. How are the directions determined? H and N seem starightforward enough, but the rest are useless to me because I never know which way they're going to burn. I must be missing some vital piece of understanding here
Another issue was that oftentimes I found myself switching back and forth between vehicles and would have to reset my targets each and every time. So I get it - don't switch that often.. but when everything is moving around so much, I want to be able to go from thing to thing to stabilize everything
None of these issues would even be issues if that damn retrograde marker would stay still.
hobbsyoyo said:
Especially this part:
So I get this to happen and I'm "in sync" with the other piece in terms of being in basically the same orbit around the planet and everything looks amazing. But then next thing I know and my prograde is jumping around like crazy again.. "No big deal", I think, my relative velocity hasn't changed at all, I'm still pretty much not moving wrt to the other piece, so that shouldn't be a problem.
But it was a big problem. I was always moving just slightly off wrt the other object and I couldn't stabilize myself because the prograde marker wouldn't keep still.
That, and I'm not exactly sure which way my RCS is going to burn when I press IJKLHN. How are the directions determined? H and N seem starightforward enough, but the rest are useless to me because I never know which way they're going to burn. I must be missing some vital piece of understanding here
Another issue was that oftentimes I found myself switching back and forth between vehicles and would have to reset my targets each and every time. So I get it - don't switch that often.. but when everything is moving around so much, I want to be able to go from thing to thing to stabilize everything
None of these issues would even be issues if that damn retrograde marker would stay still.
If your RCS isn't perfectly, and I mean perfectly balanced around your center of mass, even rotating your craft with RCS will cause it to drift (and the velocity vector will jump around). Fortunately, you don't need it to be perfect if you are aggressive with your ASAS--I toggle off RCS, reorient, turn on ASAS, wait about 20 seconds, then turn RCS back on and start moving again. You can burn with ASAS on to reduce the rotation and spin put on your craft with off-balance RCS.
H is forwards, N is backwards, I test all the others with short burns and see which way they go. Sorry I can't be more helpful, but watching the direction of the thrust has always been more helpful for me.
H is forwards, N is backwards, I test all the others with short burns and see which way they go. Sorry I can't be more helpful, but watching the direction of the thrust has always been more helpful for me.
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
Hmm
Well I'm going to have to abandon these docking attempts and station design tonight because it's getting a bit too personal. Several inanimate objects have been referred to as "********"
I probably started with a station design that's a bit too complex for a first dock, but I don't think I would have these issues if I could burn retrograde wrt to my target whenever I wasn't in sync. I just don't know how to orient myself because the marker goes crazy.
Antilogic, I started doing that, but it felt so unintuitive that it didn't really help. I think my designs were poor in that the RCS wasn't positioned properly, but there were a lot of other problems on top of that.
Well I'm going to have to abandon these docking attempts and station design tonight because it's getting a bit too personal. Several inanimate objects have been referred to as "********"
I probably started with a station design that's a bit too complex for a first dock, but I don't think I would have these issues if I could burn retrograde wrt to my target whenever I wasn't in sync. I just don't know how to orient myself because the marker goes crazy.
Antilogic, I started doing that, but it felt so unintuitive that it didn't really help. I think my designs were poor in that the RCS wasn't positioned properly, but there were a lot of other problems on top of that.
It's an acquired skill, no doubt. It took me three or so docking runs and plenty of reloads before I got comfortable with it. I'd try putting together a simple core module with a hab unit, a major docking area, and a command pod of some sort, and a small science-type module with solar panels and stuff. Or even a refueling ship that can re-enter Kerbin's atmosphere and a small station core or something like that. Don't do what I did and launch massive pods the first time, that was a pain.
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
That's kind of what I did. Back to the drawing board. I know how good it would feel to get this done, I might try agian later tonight
