Kerbal Space Program
- Thread starter Leonel
- Start date
Fr8monkey
Deity
Go to Jool. Planet and 4 moons = tons of science!
Thorgalaeg
Deity
I was thinking on going to Jool (mainly to visit Laythe) after getting nuclear engines, so first step would be to visit Eve, and take some surface samples. But looking at the delta-V chart, to recover a lander from Eve might be almost impossible! So i will try a multiship mission to Eve, land some Kerbals at Gilly and get some samples while an unmanned probe will land at Eve itself to transmit all possible data from the surface.
Later it will be Jool turn or maybe i will try to grab some asteroids to see what happens, but i need the grabber unit first. I hope there are a good amount of science there.
So many things to do and so little time!
Later it will be Jool turn or maybe i will try to grab some asteroids to see what happens, but i need the grabber unit first. I hope there are a good amount of science there.
So many things to do and so little time!
warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
Yeah, a Eve land & return mission is very difficult. You've got to land a large efficient, perfectly designed lander on the highest peaks on the planet... at least that's what the people who I have seen do this did... One strategy was to land a lander on wheels and then drive it up to a high peak.
Jool is going to be a fun mission. I recommend sending a fleet of refueling ships right before or right after your lander, so that you can see more in one go. I forget if you've docked yet though, you don't want to make that your first dock mission.
Jool is going to be a fun mission. I recommend sending a fleet of refueling ships right before or right after your lander, so that you can see more in one go. I forget if you've docked yet though, you don't want to make that your first dock mission.
Is there a way to practice docking without docking modules on your ship? Like, can I have one capsule attempt a rendezvous with another, or will they explode if they touch?
You can practice rendezvous (i.e. getting within 300m), alignment (orienting the ships end-to-end so they could theoretically dock if they had ports), and even crew transfer (send a guy out on EVA and have him hop aboard the other ship--this is how I saved a stranded kerbal at Moho earlier in this thread). The ships will bounce off each other if they touch at slow speed (generally less than 3-4 m/s) and potentially damaged if they impact at higher speeds.
I'd recommend sticking (identical, size matters) ports on the two craft, though--docking is hell the first couple times you do it, and you don't want to go all the way up there, spend the time on a rendezvous, and then not be able to close the deal.
Daedwartin
Emperor
- Joined
- Jan 6, 2012
- Messages
- 1,785
Also, the claw acts as a clamp, and can be used to dock with a object which doesn't normally have the ability to dock. Which can be very handy for a rescue mission. Because the Claw allows fuel transfer.
Thorgalaeg
Deity
Don't be tellin' me about docking. I'm the docking f***in' master!
Seriously, yep i have docked many times, but have never been at Jool "system" and i am somewhat intrigued. It will be the next step, since i just successfully completed my Eve project and got a nice amount of science. I even carried more fuel than needed so thanks to the extremely low gravity i "landed" at Gilly in this funny way, in order to not having to decouple the big stage with all that fuel left. Next time i will place docking bays at all my landers.
Attachments
Thorgalaeg
Deity
Problem with probes is you cant take any terrain sample and return it to Kerbin, which means a lot of science is lost. So i usually always carry some kerbals they are light and small, dont drink, eat or breathe and can spend years alone in space without any visible stress. They are somewhat valuable guys.
Also can be even of some utility sometimes. Just returning from Eve, and approaching Kerbin for aerobraking, the ship became energy-less in the most critical moment. It was due to the sun being behind while all the solar panels were placed at the front (or the top) of the ship receiving not radiation at all. So the only solution was to go EVA and rotate the ship pushing it with the jetpack. It was a thrilling end for my Eve mission (it is curious how this kind of hollywood-esque things happens usually in this game).
Also can be even of some utility sometimes. Just returning from Eve, and approaching Kerbin for aerobraking, the ship became energy-less in the most critical moment. It was due to the sun being behind while all the solar panels were placed at the front (or the top) of the ship receiving not radiation at all. So the only solution was to go EVA and rotate the ship pushing it with the jetpack. It was a thrilling end for my Eve mission (it is curious how this kind of hollywood-esque things happens usually in this game).
Thorgalaeg
Deity
In the most pure kerbalian way of doing things, i installed deadly reentry and FAR, then built four ships including nice heat shields (a command ship with a lab and attached probes, a manned lander and two big fuel tanks) and launched them all to jool. Of course without testing first how reentry worked.
Reaching jool and trying aerobraking i discovered with horror (however i already was pretty sure something horrible was going to happen) that i placed the heat shields in the wrong end of my ships and they have a very strong tendency to flip pointing the tail towards prograde at reentry while the heat shields are at the head.
So here i am with two options: restart the whole mission with redesigned ships or shutdwon deadly reentry while doing the jool mission so i can aerobrake whithout my ships burning off and falling apart. First option means to do all the work again (including looong and boring nuclear engine bursts
) but second one is not very interesting since after tasting deadly reentry and FAR aerodynamics i feel the vanilla game lacks something.
Maybe i will wait for 0.24 to start a new career game too, meanwhile i will do some experiments with FAR and DR in sandbox mode. 0.24 must be around the corner, must not it?
Reaching jool and trying aerobraking i discovered with horror (however i already was pretty sure something horrible was going to happen) that i placed the heat shields in the wrong end of my ships and they have a very strong tendency to flip pointing the tail towards prograde at reentry while the heat shields are at the head.
So here i am with two options: restart the whole mission with redesigned ships or shutdwon deadly reentry while doing the jool mission so i can aerobrake whithout my ships burning off and falling apart. First option means to do all the work again (including looong and boring nuclear engine bursts
) but second one is not very interesting since after tasting deadly reentry and FAR aerodynamics i feel the vanilla game lacks something. Maybe i will wait for 0.24 to start a new career game too, meanwhile i will do some experiments with FAR and DR in sandbox mode. 0.24 must be around the corner, must not it?
Fr8monkey
Deity
:GRIPE: I CAN'T get back into my Mun lander! After about 6 or 7 attempts at a soft Mun landing I finally acheived it tonight. Did a quick EVA so that my Kerbonaut would be safe on the surface.
But now I can't get him back into the capsule!
See the attached screenshots. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but grabbing ladders doesn't allow me access to the capsule. Plus, the capsule suddenly tilted over a few minutes ago. Munquake??
Seriously, how do I get this little guy back into his capsule?
But now I can't get him back into the capsule!
See the attached screenshots. I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but grabbing ladders doesn't allow me access to the capsule. Plus, the capsule suddenly tilted over a few minutes ago. Munquake??
Seriously, how do I get this little guy back into his capsule?
Attachments
After you grab the ladders, you have to climb up to the command pod and a light green text will appear with additional instructions. I think it is [f] to grab/let go of the ladders and then [f] to board your ship when you are close to the door. However, you have to crawl all the way up to the pod to board.
You can also try to jump straight into the pod given the Mun's low gravity with [spacebar]--try to position yourself just under the door, and jump up. When you get close to the door, grab it and then board.
If your ladders are spaced too far apart and your kerbal is falling off them, or you can't reach the door by jumping, you can use his jetpack to get back onto the ship. Activate it with [r], and after you jump you can use the same WASD piloting keys to fly. Shift will use your jetpack to stay in the air, and don't hit control because it will rocket your kerbal into the ground.
I'd use a quicksave before going the jetpack route, though, because you have limited fuel and thus a limited number of attempts.
You can also try to jump straight into the pod given the Mun's low gravity with [spacebar]--try to position yourself just under the door, and jump up. When you get close to the door, grab it and then board.
If your ladders are spaced too far apart and your kerbal is falling off them, or you can't reach the door by jumping, you can use his jetpack to get back onto the ship. Activate it with [r], and after you jump you can use the same WASD piloting keys to fly. Shift will use your jetpack to stay in the air, and don't hit control because it will rocket your kerbal into the ground.
I'd use a quicksave before going the jetpack route, though, because you have limited fuel and thus a limited number of attempts.
Thorgalaeg
Deity
Getting back into landers is not a trivial matter. Kerbals are little tough guys but are very clumsy too. So i always make getting-into-capsule tests at the launching pad when designing landers and such.
I think I spaced the ladders too far apart. I was trying to keep the part numbers down. In my first screenshot you can see there are gaps between each ladder section. I guess it's too much. 
As for the jetpack, I was trying it, but the controls are different enough from the rocket controls that I'm not having success. I need to get him to fly away from the camera, and that's tricky for me. Maybe today since I have no alcohol in my system
As for the jetpack, I was trying it, but the controls are different enough from the rocket controls that I'm not having success. I need to get him to fly away from the camera, and that's tricky for me. Maybe today since I have no alcohol in my system
Thorgalaeg
Deity
BTW, i decided to continue with my massive jool expedition, so i temporally disabled deadly reentry heat damage (touching the .cfg file) so my ships could resist Jool aerobraking. Even then it was not an easy task since G damage was still there and my ships were forced to the limits.
The plan however was to rendez vous above leythe, so the worst part was to use Leythe to make a secondary aerobrake, since the atmosphere is to small, you have to brake in very little space, ence you need to fly very low to find enough air (thanks aerobraking calculator!) so it was even more dangerous than the main aerobrake at jool even with much lower speeds. The ships even received some damage, particularly some flimsy scientific modules which didnt resisted the shockwave or the G-force or whatever destroyed them and a probe which previously detached from the main command-lab ship while airbraking at jool and sunk hopelessly into the green gaseous depths. So less science for me.
So here i am with four ships and a bunch of kerbals flying in disparate orbits around laythe. Soon the pristine high atmosphere of the ocean moon will be profaned with space debris and all kind of kerbalian waste. Now to assemble the mecano, and start to explore as many moon as i can, be it with the manned lander or with the three remaining probes. I only hope there are enough fuel in the two tanker-ships to fullfill all the planned operations, since i had to use some of it to several unexpected major corrections and such.
The plan however was to rendez vous above leythe, so the worst part was to use Leythe to make a secondary aerobrake, since the atmosphere is to small, you have to brake in very little space, ence you need to fly very low to find enough air (thanks aerobraking calculator!) so it was even more dangerous than the main aerobrake at jool even with much lower speeds. The ships even received some damage, particularly some flimsy scientific modules which didnt resisted the shockwave or the G-force or whatever destroyed them and a probe which previously detached from the main command-lab ship while airbraking at jool and sunk hopelessly into the green gaseous depths. So less science for me.
So here i am with four ships and a bunch of kerbals flying in disparate orbits around laythe. Soon the pristine high atmosphere of the ocean moon will be profaned with space debris and all kind of kerbalian waste. Now to assemble the mecano, and start to explore as many moon as i can, be it with the manned lander or with the three remaining probes. I only hope there are enough fuel in the two tanker-ships to fullfill all the planned operations, since i had to use some of it to several unexpected major corrections and such.
Attachments
I think I spaced the ladders too far apart. I was trying to keep the part numbers down. In my first screenshot you can see there are gaps between each ladder section. I guess it's too much.
As for the jetpack, I was trying it, but the controls are different enough from the rocket controls that I'm not having success. I need to get him to fly away from the camera, and that's tricky for me. Maybe today since I have no alcohol in my system
There are extendable ladders that cover the space of 4ish regular ladders and are now standard on my landing craft.
Flying away from the camera is [w], and flying towards it is
BTW, i decided to continue with my massive jool expedition, so i temporally disabled deadly reentry heat damage (touching the .cfg file) so my ships could resist Jool aerobraking. Even then it was not an easy task since G damage was still there and my ships were forced to the limits.
The plan however was to rendez vous above leythe, so the worst part was to use Leythe to make a secondary aerobrake, since the atmosphere is to small, you have to brake in very little space, so it was even more dangerous than the main aerobrake at jool even with much lower speeds. The ships even received some damage, particularly some flimsy scientific modules which didnt resisted the shockwave or the G-force or whatever destroyed them and a probe which previously detached from the main command-lab ship while airbraking at jool and sunk hopelessly into the green gaseous depths. So less science for me.
So here i am with four ships and a bunch of kerbals flying in disparate orbits around laythe. Soon the pristine high atmosphere of the ocean moon will be profaned with space debris and all kind of kerbalian waste. Now to assemble the mecano, and start to explore as many moon as i can, be it with the manned lander or with the three remaining probes.
Deadly reentry makes that jump so much harder. I've only sent tiny probes since installing it, I'll have to try a larger craft to see how quickly it breaks up.
Thorgalaeg
Deity
It is not only heat, there is other forces i dont understand well, G-forces and shockwave i think, all combined with FAR aerodynamics. The trick is to make balanced ships, with center of mas well at the back. I also use an inflatable shield to serve as airbrake at the tail to maintain the head looking backwards (usually).
About my jool mission finally i managed to rendez vous and replenish all the tanks of my Laythe station. In the image below you can see the lab and the big lander docked (there are 4 kerbals in total, but two are currently working in the laboratory so they do not appear at the bottom right of teh screen), plus a tanker docked at a side bay. At the brackgound you can see the other tanker, which couldnt dock to the main station due to damage received while aerobraking which resulted in the loss of a couple of RCS thrusters rendering the ship inoperable for docking operations, so i used the other tanker to dock at it, load the fuel and transfer it to the main station. The "sandwich" with the three probes is floating not very far away. I had to detach it from the station in order to leave a free docking port for the lander, since all the other ports are of the smaller Jr. type and only of use for fuel transfer.
For now things go reasonably well. Not exactly like it was planed at first (it is difficult to foresee everything) but my lads are improvising and adapting to the unexpected situations caused for reentry damage and pure design errors.
About my jool mission finally i managed to rendez vous and replenish all the tanks of my Laythe station. In the image below you can see the lab and the big lander docked (there are 4 kerbals in total, but two are currently working in the laboratory so they do not appear at the bottom right of teh screen), plus a tanker docked at a side bay. At the brackgound you can see the other tanker, which couldnt dock to the main station due to damage received while aerobraking which resulted in the loss of a couple of RCS thrusters rendering the ship inoperable for docking operations, so i used the other tanker to dock at it, load the fuel and transfer it to the main station. The "sandwich" with the three probes is floating not very far away. I had to detach it from the station in order to leave a free docking port for the lander, since all the other ports are of the smaller Jr. type and only of use for fuel transfer.
For now things go reasonably well. Not exactly like it was planed at first (it is difficult to foresee everything) but my lads are improvising and adapting to the unexpected situations caused for reentry damage and pure design errors.
