To infinity and beyond!!

[Scotterius]

I got to duna today, might try eve soon. My duna mission had 4 probes (that could land) and a space station (that can land safely once). I didnt realize you could zoom in on the planet before you get there and I was hoping for a lot of moons to explore. When I had my encounter I was dispointed

I had a hell of a time getting that monster off the ground. A lot of structural failures. I would take off, hear a crash, and then see the lifters from the far side come rocketing past. Many brave kerbals...well many 'kerbals' died today.

Jebediah is chillin' on Minmus though, with Bob and Bill.

(And yes, Scott Manley's tutorials are awesome...those three are alive thanks to him...and that they were on voyages when my designs got crazy).

[Blxz]

You took an entire station into orbit at once? Suicide I tell you!!!! MADNESS!

I love it. Keep putting up pics. Lets make this a thread to kill bandwidth.


As for Eve, this was actually my first successful trip there. I've never been to the inner planets before as I found the angles confusing. I think my revelation today might have fixed that. If you want lots of moons then Jool is the one to go for. I've been out there and aerobraked down but sadly ran out of fuel as I got a barely stable orbit. I've not been to any of the moons in the game apart from the Mun and Minmus.

I do hear that Laythe (around Jool) has an oxygen atmosphere so if you can get a jet engine craft out that far then it will work. They turn on in other atmospheres but generate no thrust, only Kerbin and Laythe are suitable.


Also, if you like massive canyons then check out Dres. You can land on the rim and drop a kerbal in via jetpack and experience the whole ~5km drop in glorious low gravity. Probably the most interesting, non-anomaly landmark that I have seen so far. (have you found the armstrong memorial on the mun?)

[Scotterius]

All of that sounds really interesting. I have found no easter eggs yet, do you use a lander on the moon? I am playing with stock parts, but I am thinking about down loading the 'H.O.M.E.' mod, and maybe a rover mod...and maybe KSP rocketry (I could use the aerodynamics and some reengineering).

There are a few tasks I cant do like docking, EVAs (in space), and fancy orbital changes...like going from over the poles to over the equator.

What I am thinking about now is colonizing Dres. I am considering a series of spacecraft launched hours from eachother. This will allow similar final orbits on dres, and matching landing sites eventually.



Here is my duna survey station. The amount of wattage a hot tub takes is crazy I tell you.


The temperature at Duna's pole is -32.4 C, just an fyi there. If I am reading the other instruments right it has about a 3rd of Kerbal's gravity.

Finally for some reason Kerbal kind has been complaining they cant see the stars like they used to. I cant imagine why.

[Blxz]

Hot damn... thats some fast program you have. It took me a long time before I even got to the moon, let along had enough confidence to try Minmus. And interplanetary stuff has only been very recently, pretty much when I started this thread. The SSP (Scotterius Space Program) is far more ambitious than mine.

As for docking, it involves a few things. Similar orbits then waiting until a reasonably close approach (<10km). Then you make your speed in regards to your target down to zero. Then gradually burn directly towards it. Then only docking is required. Be careful about docking ports as the 'Clamp-o-tron' and the 'Clamp-o-tron-Jr' won't match each other.

Finally, the best single mod I can suggest is MechJeb. It has nifty autopilot functions to take the boredom out of launches for the umpteenth time at a frame rate of like....5 when you have mega constructions (at least on my computer). But much more importantly, it has a whole range of information tabs that allow you to more easily finetune your flights. Knowing to burn up and down to change the orbit inclination (polar vs equatorial orbit) and more easily holding prograde when you want to focus on the map and not the navball....useful. And the close approach readout is VITAL for organising an aerobraking manoeuver in the Jool atmosphere from 100 days out.


Speaking of Jool aerobraking. I used this just last night for my most ambitious acheivement. I stuck a plane on top of a rocket and flew it out to Laythe, one of Jools moons. This moon has an oxygen atmosphere and so can handle jet engines. Enjoy the view. (if the forum doesn't cut the rather wide image down.)



EDIT: I believe that the moon in to the left of Jool there is Vall, one of the other moons. Truly a lucky shot.

[Scotterius]

That is awesome! Jool is a bit out of my reach at the moment. Tylo looks really cool though. Space planes terrify me however. I learned what ISP meant today, and I might be able to make far more efficient . Yep. Numbers are 'perdy impootin'.

My Duna colony might still be a few days off, I have a lot of testing to do first. Speaking of which Jebidiah was killed today in a tragic accident with a prototype rover. He did get up to 60 meters a second (about 134 miles an hour)...and then just exploded.

How do you load your rockets with more Kerbals? Like I have a crew module with three but I have an empty habitation module. How do I get more in the ship?

I also made a nuclear rocket rover, that was a bad idea...but it had to be done, FOR SCIENCE! No screen shot needed, just imagine a smoking crater that will be roped off for 5,000 years.

[Blxz]

That rover sounds like true kerbal engineering. And yes, Isp is very important, although I was much the same. Start with the main numbers and slowly start to learn the others as and when you need them. That is why I was using nuclear engines for my space pods, great specific impluse (Isp) in space although a terrible thrust to weight ratio.

Tylo is the rocky moon right? I think it is one of the hardest to land on and return in the whole game. it is large with a large gravity but the lack of atmosphere means you need to do a powered landing and a powered take-off (of course). And the distance from kerbin adds to the challenge. I've yet to make it since Laythe was my first non-kerbin moon to be visited so far.

As for more kerbals, you need to fly them up. Only the first 'pod' determines the number of people. Make a 3 man module, strap a rocket on and get as close to the target as possible so you can refill. In space this is easy, on another planet, somewhat more difficult. Removing kerbals is the opposite. So start with a robotic unmanned core and then strap a bunch of manned pods to it. These will be empty when you start to take-off which will allow you to create little bus services. I use this to move my guys around between my kerbin and mun space stations and down to the kethane mine if needed.

Ahh, just read your post again, you want to know how to fill them up on the Launchpad. Either launch the whole thing and fill it up in space OR stick it on the pad but don't launch. Then make a 3 man 'bus' at the spaceplane hangar and drive/fly/walk them over to the launchpad and get them to climb up your carefully placed ladders, then switch back and launch as per normal.

[Scotterius]

Thanks for the tip with kerbal crew management. I seems like a over looked feature. Mechjeb looks like a game changer. True altitude? Automatic powered landing? When I landed on Mun I landed at 4K from sea level, powered descent all the way (took me forever), and it was on the darkside (because I suck). Hairy! I had a cold sweat the whole time.

Still docking is really holding me back. I will figure it out, it just will take a while.

[Blxz]

True, mechjeb can be overused but options are options. And it does require you to add one of the parts to your spaceship so you can avoid it entirely if you find temptation overwhelming. Like I said though, there are some bits of information that are simply invaluable and not available anywhere in the game such as predicted orbit after aerobraking, etc. I also think it feels more realistic to have the instrumentation there. Although, don't expect it to be perfect. Failed mechjeb landings are painful to watch sometimes and manual 'seat-of-the-pants' flying is still exhilarating.

Anyway, it has been far too long without a picture. I shall go and try to find something pretty to look at.

EDIT: For the life of me I can't seem to find the Armstrong memorial. I built a special mun hover lifter and everything but its not in the rough area where I am looking. Must be having a bad day.
Still, the hover lifter is a mean feat of engineering. Able to get to the mun, perform a powered decent and then hover for upwards of 20 minutes at whatever altitude I choose. it is also equipped with docking ports top and bottom so it can act as a skycrane to pick up anything on the surface and then return to the SSSMunscape and dock the payload with that station. No pics since it isn't that impressive to look at; just a few fuel tanks and some nuke boosters on the side. Looks like R2D2 actually.

EDIT2: A minor problem with my ion engine lander I designed for Minmus. The Thrust to Weight ration goes below 1 at about 3000m (can't lift its own weight anymore). I can't really capture the majesty of this 'landing' but I've tried to use a few screenshots.
http://i997.photobucket.com/albums/af98/Blxz/step5.png
(but of course the kenshi forums won't show the whole thing so you'll need to check out the direct link instead)

[Blxz]

Tylo looks really cool though.

The Tylo 5 enjoying their indefinite stay on this barren hunk of rock.





Took some effort getting the rover to the surface. The screenshot doesn't show it but the entire right side has been badly damaged due to running out of fuel about 30m above the ground. Lucky those wheels have some good shock absorbers and most of the vehicle survived. Those guys get to enjoy the tylo view forever since I don't know how to get them back. it would require a rocket of EPIC proportions to land and take off from such a high gravity moon.

Also of note, they will never get to see the majesty of jool in the sky above since Tylo appears to be tidally locked and I'm on the far side.....bummer.