Kerbal Space Program

I'm so proud of myself. Yesterday, i used a real lander correctly for the first time in leau of crashing gently into a planet. Correctly being opinionative, i couldn't figure out how to make the crew switch to the lander, so i made one get out of the ship and go into the lander manually, as well as undock manually and such. Difficult stage controls -.-

I have begun establishing a Mün base. Did some sightseeing with a new rover to find an interesting spot:


My 'tanker'. 2 docking ports, mono/liquid tanks for refueling and enough horsepower to move smaller base structures (hopefully).

I send a second Kerbal since Bob was feeling lonely.

Thankfully they haven't noticed that the Mün base has no return vehicle yet... =3

Jeb and Bill are still on the KSS. I made a supply run for them (They were running dangerously low on snacks it seems.) and added a new deep space communications array to the KSS:

Too bad we don't have rotating parts in KSP. Would be awesome if the 'Wheel'would slowly spin...

you can rotate it, but if you change the vehicle or use the time warp it will stop (which is btw a very unrealistic feature , if your vehicle is lost because it spins 2000 rpm, just hit time warp -.-)

That's a useful piece of information, thanks. My current project might have a little spinning problem that I haven't completely solved yet.... =3

What might this be?


If you think 'the Scimitar from Star Trek' you are wrong. It's not a ship but...


... the latest addition to my Mün base.


My Kerbals are very happy. I hope they don't realize that there is still no return vehicle.


You are looking at a 600 ton rocket lifting over 40 tons of payload. The drag was the biggest problem with this rocket. Once I was out of the atmosphere is was a rather smooth ride. I literally landed on fumes though. There is just enough fuel left for one final 10 second burn. I think next time I won't ditch the stage with the nuclear rockets early because they are annoyingly weak...

It's a good game. It needs a lot of work though. The terrain is hideous and the physics can be really janky thanks to PhysX and the craft file structure. But my weakness for physics driven games leads me to like it a lot anyway.

T

he physics can get pretty wonky. Wish me luck, I'm prepping a large mission to Jool and its moons. My focus will probably be on Laythe since it has an atmosphere with oxygen: SPACE PLANES!!!

Fuel depot is in the making:

This baby is quite heavy. I hope it won't shake itself apart on the way!

I started using MechJeb for the more tedious tasks like getting into orbit and rendezvous.

I tried using it to dock as well but all the docking autopilot did was waste precious RCS fuel and spin the tank around. But I downloaded Docking Port Alignment Indicator and it is awesome! I only look at the screen to check that I'm not scratching the paint.

Obviously I should have docked the engine module last but I wasn't sure how many parts my PC can handle. I got some FPS lag with the old modules but I redesigned them and cut away most of the 'junk parts' like lights and additional docking ports.

I quite like that the new challenges are improving the design of my ships. Cutting back on parts and optimizing the delivery module in a way that allows me to de-orbit all debris. Don't want to suffer from Kessler Syndrome over Kerbin!

That docking screen is sort of useful, ill look into it.

Actually, I just found out how to do rendezvous from a tutorial mission I downloaded. I also have mechjeb, but now it doesn't replace my skill or lack thereof do to so.

Also, mechjeb eats rcs for anything, do stuff manually. Why it does so IDK, you think it would use less than the average person considering it should know exactly how much moving it needs to do without correcting for overmovement.

I just started working on planes myself. The island directly in front of the takeoff for planes has a landing strip and hangars and a traffic control tower. My first full game flag went there and I am docking planes there to use as a second airbase. IDK why the devs put random landmarks like this in the game. Does Duna have a giant mountain sticking out of the atmosphere too?

Btw, how do you, once your plane is landed safely on the ground, reduce it's speed to 0? I cant get mine to stop rolling through holding up and down to increase drag alone, is there a vent you can open to create more drag? You think it would have a parachute, but I can't get parachutes to work on planes myself. I use the small solid rockets used for separating parts of a ship, facing forward, to stop the plane lol.

Most wheels have brakes, I think you have to double click the brake button to activate parking brakes.

Searched the button config and right clicked the piece. But if there is please tell me how to use!

The brakes are the red/brownish button under lights and gear at the UI in the top middle of your screen. That brake will even stay on when you go back to the space port.

I flew a mission to Duna today and everything went wrong. First the Kraken ate my rocket in transition to Duna! The screen went all funny and the UI went black (quickload). Later the chutes just ripped my habitat apart (quickload). Then I wanted to use MechJeb to land the crew capsule. It landed it on top of the habitat module and it fell over (quickload). (Don't watch Youtube while MechJeb is working!!!) Finally: The rovers snapped to the wrong connection point in the VAB and are standing on a structural strut that was left over from attaching it to the crew module.



Well, they will live...

So, I tried my luck with SSTOs (single stage to orbit, a plane that can fly from the ground all the way up into a stable orbit) again. "Jessep, why?" you will ask. The game even comes with a working SSTO plane. "Because they never have enough fuel!" I say. Either you can't really use it to fly in atmo or you can barely limp to a low orbit with just enough fuel to do precisely nothing but deorbit again.

Meet the Albatross:

If you think I've gone overboard on the air intakes - you don't know the half of it! The Albatross features 22 air intakes. She can fly up to 30,000m with her jet engines, maybe a tad more if you push it...

The large wings hide enough fuel tanks for 1,900m/s delta-V, more air intakes and a state of the art fuel distribution system that keeps the center of mass at its place - as much as it is possible.

You know how the engines just draw fuel from the front? Your center of mass moves back the more fuel you burn. If it moves behind the center of lift your plane becomes really hard to control.

The root of all evil (as far as planes and SSTOs in KSP are concerned).

My workaround:

I'm disconnecting the tanks from the engine with a decoupler (Don't hit Space by accident!!! ) and I'm piping fuel from a small tank close to the center of mass directly to the engine. This way the fuel is evenly drawn from front and back and the center of mass doesn't shift by much. Works for both jet and rocket engines.

The .craft file is in the attachment. I'd love to know what you guys think and if you have any ideas for improvements. The Albatross is supposed to fly in Laythe's thin atmo some day but I haven't flown a plane there yet. Hard to prepare for the unknown so I try to over-engineer... =3

PS: 1 toggles jet engines, 2 the rocket engine, 3 all engines, 4 the air intakes. You will need 100m/s to get airborne.

Reading this thread has made me want this game a lot. Very interesting! Alas I think I will have to wait for a sale.

I do want to try your plane. Also, I found the brakes. Now, I just need to know how to transfer crew through docking ports, as I have never been able to do anything but move them in EVA.

What a weird place for the brake button, next to random lights and the abort button...

Man that's a smart design for an engine on a jet, because you are right about the fuel burning linearly and that is an amazingly smart idea to burn from both ends inward to the center.

Reading this thread makes me want the game. Think I'll wait til I have a few months free.

EVA is your only option right now. Moving them through docking ports is a planned feature though. I hope we will get this feature with the new science bays in the next update so that we can build proper space stations!

The new version will also feature sub assemblies! It allows you to combine crafts you have build, which is VERY useful. You can build a lander for a specific mission and just combine it with a saved interplanetary stage and lifter you have build in the past. Feature video:

Now that .22 has been out a while, how has everyone been playing with the collection of science?

I'm excited we can now build a generic rocket to get into orbit and load other things to attach to it separately. There used to be a mod, but none of them are good now that we have data collection and loading of multiple part builds.

Oh, you know me. I have the whole science tree unlocked and have now roughly 15000 points left over. I've been to all planets/moons except Eeloo and Pol (mission on its way). If you really want to unlock everything that's left in one mission I recommend to send a mission to Jool with probes. The amount of science you can get from Jool and the 5 moons will get you all the science you will ever need.

I managed to successfully land two Kerbals on Tylo Apollo-style and returned Jeb, Bill and Bob to the KSC:



Landing on Tylo is a piloting/engineering challenge since it has almost the same gravity as Kerbin but no atmosphere. It's surprisingly hard to land on engine power alone without the help of an atmosphere to slow you down in such high gravity. Well, I could have build a larger lander with more trust to weight ratio for an easier landing but I wanted to keep the design as light as possible.


Subassemblies are indeed great but I have hardly used them in career mode except for a heavy lifter. Most of my rockets are custom build for each mission anyway. I'm back to building SSTOs and might expand to VTOLs since they are sometimes even harder to design than SSTOs. Speaking of SSTOs: I overengineered my last one a bit and flew to Minmus:


Turns out I need 200m/s more to get back from Minmus orbit to Kerbin. Need to add some small tanks somewhere or switch the engine. Good thing I put docking ports on everything... =3

KSP is 40% off on Steam this weekend: http://store.steampowered.com/app/220200/

I recommend trying the demo first and watching Scott Manley's tutorials.

I'm in awe. I think I need to watch some tutorials. I'm truly awful at KSP.

Haven't had too much of a chance to play it, due to time constraints, but I finally made it to the Mun and back a week or so ago.