Re: KSP General + community project

[Ketchup]

Once again, I have reached Mun with an intact lander. First try with limited asperagus staging, worked splendidly.(Have an upvote for that advice)
Had fuel remaining in the maneuver and braking stage when I detached it for the final descent at about 6 km from 'sea level', though at the elevation it was only a few hundred meters at most. Interestingly, the RCS tank and thrusters for the space maneuvering survived the impact, and nothing else did from that stage.

Experimenting with lower power thrusters ended with one of four RCS thrusters on the lander coming off the lander and planting it upside down. Easily righted, though it can no longer fly with stability. The lander carries a lot of fuel for the RCS thrusters that it cannot use it all practically. I use the middle-sized one for shape and stability as a mounting point for the RCS thrusters, as they seem to become unstable with the small mono tank.

Spoiler:

The target in the distance is the mono tank and thrusters for the second stage.

Easy mode to reach mun:

-Get a rocket that can achieve orbit with at least half of a fuel tank left (of reasonable size)
-Wait for your orbit to have the Mun just over the horizon.
-Face PROGRADE which is the circle with the three prongs poking OUT of it and not the cross through it which is retrograde
-Burn. Press M for map and your . (on the keypad) to bring up the engine controls (or the little arrow at the bottom of the screen) and wait for the encounter to reach the Mun.
Easy!

Not the way I do it, but you make it sound easier than my method.

[Kippershy]

Forgot to show this off earlier.



Also, don't forget you can use the little circle balls of monoprop if you don't need so much

[Ketchup]

Forgot to show this off earlier.
Also, don't forget you can use the little circle balls of monoprop if you don't need so much

I may try that, but the point of putting them on one of the circular mounts is to be able to place them in symmetry to other parts of the craft as a mounting point.
But I'll definitely look at it.

After further exploration (there's not much to see but I like to pretend there is) using the landing engines and re-establishing a control method with a missing thruster, I hit the surface too fast and it tore off two landing legs and a winglet, as if I needed that. Better result than last time's catastrophe, however.
Now to send a rover...

[Ketchup]

Today, I got a few things done.
I managed to get a larger lander to Mun, which I have dubbed 'Octopus Base' for no real reason aside from it having more legs than my other landers and vaguely looking like one. This was unmanned, and it contains three lander cans for my Kerbals so I can have them all in a cosy Munar home. I managed to land it very close to my other two landers. The second lander was intended to bring the first type of rover, but this failed due to staging issues and the rover itself slammed into Mun. After getting Octopus there, I sent a much better rover with three seats which landed only 2 kilometers away from Octopus, an easy task for the nuclear-powered rover.
Octopus:

Spoiler:

The next step is a rescue mission to return Jebediah, Bill, and Bob to Kerbin, something I've never done before. It'll be interesting. After that, accomplishing the same goals on Minmus.

The first asparagus-type boosting stage I made is still sending payloads to Mun with only minor modification. I'm quite happy with it, though it rarely falls apart due to ejected boosters hitting fuel tanks.

[Ketchup]

Or this will happen...
I had to change to the Space Center to change to the rover while trying to put the Kerbals into the base, with the rover rolling away, and with only Bill on board, the rover disappeared without a trace. The lander that brought it is still there, but there is no debris of the rover and no sign of Jeb or Bob.

They are recorded MIA at the Astronaut Complex. Fitting.

Kinda getting tired of this happening, but I guess it's my own fault by not placing something to secure the rover to the ground. How frustrating.

[Kippershy]

How the fuck is that happening.
You're not landing near the poles are you?
Please tell me you're not landing near the poles.
NEVER land near the poles on ANY planet.

[Ketchup]

As far as I can tell, I've landed all four landers close to the Munar equator in a 3 km^2 area, but that's based on how it seems to rotate.
So not at the top or bottom, the middle, I guess.

I think we've got some Apollo 18-esque moon bugs to deal with...

[Kippershy]

Well fuck, I have no idea what would cause that then.
If it's not an issue, I recommend deleting your current files and redownloading perhaps. .22 is right around the corner so you might want to wait, I dunno, but that's an uncommon bug and for it to happen a few times in quick succession it might be an indicator of a corrupt file or something...
Though that's a far fetched reasoning I'll admit, it's always a possibility.

[Tytan]

@Thread, Here are you guys landing rovers on the moon and here I am happy that I didn't crash on re-entry.

@Ketchup, Props for the obscure modern horror movie reference.

[Kippershy]

@Thread, Here are you guys landing rovers on the moon and here I am happy that I didn't crash on re-entry.

@Ketchup, Props for the obscure modern horror movie reference.

Moon is easy, Minimus more-so.
Interplanetary missions are much more fun.

[Tytan]

@Thread, Here are you guys landing rovers on the moon and here I am happy that I didn't crash on re-entry.

@Ketchup, Props for the obscure modern horror movie reference.

Moon is easy, Minimus more-so.
Interplanetary missions are much more fun.

I landed on the moon once. I'm pretty sure Jeb's dead now.

[Kippershy]

Well, the first steps are always a little tricky. You'll get the hang of keeping him alive if you try and work on where you don't do so well.

[Tytan]

Oh, he arrived alive. Leaving, not so much.

Supersonic reentry's a bitch.

[Kippershy]

[cb5]

A easier way to reach other planets though is a asparagus style rocket with a low enough payload that it can get there.

Personally I was trying to make all in one rockets, but the problem I was having was that I was using up all my fuel on the way out of orbit thus I would have needed to use the satellite rockets to reach the planet.

What I am doing now is instead sending my satellites and rovers on one rocket and my astronauts on another. My lander needs work though, cause it can land, but I don't have enough fuel to come back. I'm going to completely revamp my rockets to try and see how low I can get the weight.

[Kippershy]

That video by the way is using specifically the entry level parts of the career mode set to release very soon.
That's why there's no asparagus, no bigger fuel tanks, nothing but those three different parts.
The only other thing you get to start with is the small SRB

[Ketchup]

So, I re-installed. It seems to have much-improved performance.

A poor decision on my part(accelerating time/physics while my skidding on Minmus) and that resulted in the explosion of the first lander I sent. RIP Jeb.

Finding out that I didn't need to use all of my fuel to land on Minmus due to its low gravity, I increased the payload to include a rather heavy rover. Though I remember putting an SAS module in it to help with tipping, it must not have made the final draft, so I landed without it. The RCS thrusters for similar purpose didn't have fuel because I managed to forget to toggle fuel consumption off for the rover's tank.
So this ended up being a lander with only landing struts to maneuver, those being very ineffective on their own. It's currently upside down in the crater I accidentally landed in.
But, there was still fuel in the lander so just put it into orbit of Minmus because I could. It may not have enough fuel to land safely though...

My success rate not counting rovers lost to bugs with rovers that reached target's orbit is currently 33%. Not very good at that.

Minmus is quite boring, time to take on Duna, Eve, or Ike.

[Kippershy]

Both Duna and Eve have atmospheres, so you know. Makes parachutes a good idea.

[Tytan]

I have an important (to me) update. I successfully (crash) landed on Minimus.

In other news I have successfully put a lone Kerbal in orbit. You're a brave Kerb Samald. Your wife and child shall be informed of your heroism.

[Ketchup]

Both Duna and Eve have atmospheres, so you know. Makes parachutes a good idea.

Oh I know they do. I made a lander for atmospheres that has more than enough parachutes.

Made a few attempts at getting to Duna, but I could not produce a serviceable course with my basic maneuver stage as it doesn't carry enough fuel to produce adequate delta-v with the engines installed. I did produce a course to Eve and managed to get into its influence, but the ship was moving far too quickly when it got there. Going to try to develop a usable method, and will probably try again for Duna trying for a more efficient course, possibly using Mun to aid in a slingshot with Kerbin. Obviously I need to slow any vessel sent into orbit of Kerbol down, the atomic engine seems like a potential candidate.
Attempting aerobraking looks scary. May use it to aid in descent provided I make it there, but there should be redundancy at least the first time.
A fun thing about KSP is that when you learn how to do something the first time it becomes so much easier, and all the more satisfying.

I have an important (to me) update. I successfully (crash) landed on Minimus.

All the kerbals I sent to Minmus died one way or another. It's kinda dangerous, what with the low gravity and stuff...

[Tytan]

Hence why Sam is in orbit.

I think he has enough propellant to get him to escape velocity still.

[Tytan]

We never do see a female kerbal do we?:

[Kippershy]

Chobit pls

Kerbals are on the bottom of Squads list of what to do - literally.

[Kippershy]

Both Duna and Eve have atmospheres, so you know. Makes parachutes a good idea.

Oh I know they do. I made a lander for atmospheres that has more than enough parachutes.

Made a few attempts at getting to Duna, but I could not produce a serviceable course with my basic maneuver stage as it doesn't carry enough fuel to produce adequate delta-v with the engines installed. I did produce a course to Eve and managed to get into its influence, but the ship was moving far too quickly when it got there. Going to try to develop a usable method, and will probably try again for Duna trying for a more efficient course, possibly using Mun to aid in a slingshot with Kerbin. Obviously I need to slow any vessel sent into orbit of Kerbol down, the atomic engine seems like a potential candidate.
Attempting aerobraking looks scary. May use it to aid in descent provided I make it there, but there should be redundancy at least the first time.
A fun thing about KSP is that when you learn how to do something the first time it becomes so much easier, and all the more satisfying.

I have an important (to me) update. I successfully (crash) landed on Minimus.

All the kerbals I sent to Minmus died one way or another. It's kinda dangerous, what with the low gravity and stuff...

>Minimus
>Dangerous
I had a kerbal basejump from 30k (from an orbiting station) and land safely EXACTLY atop of my lander on the surface.
I wish I had recorded it to prove it. I think I did record the second time though. Not sure. -- no, I didn't. Damn it.
Anyway, yeah.
It's safe if you know what you're doing.


As for getting to Duna (or any planet) yes, the NERVA (LV-N) is essential for fuel efficiency in vacuum.
Also, don't Mun slingshot. You actually lose potential by doing that. You're much, much better off relying on proper transfer windows and going straight out of the system.
It is possible to not lose speed in the mun slingshot, but most often you actually spend more energy getting it to happen then you gain.

[Ketchup]

To be fair, one was a misclick and the other was me doing something silly.
"We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

You needn't always pull the superiority card to prove a point, Kipper.

All my testing of that engine has been while in a close influence, and I found them more difficult to use than LV-T45s for all applications thus far.
I've read of the Mun slingshot being inefficient before, but it's probably going to be used as a comparison.

[Tytan]

If I'm thinking of the correct engine, then it's very good in deep space. As long as you have a few ways of collecting electricity. The Xenon engines are good to, as long as you have more than a few and are already in a stable orbit.

[Ketchup]

Well bleh. Sort of got to Duna in 108 days. And just when I thought I had made it the lander exploded because it was fell down a hill. But it was on the surface for a grand total of 45 seconds.
That took 2 hours. Yippee.

I did learn some things, though. The LV-N is very efficient and I had fuel left when I got there, but I managed to run out of RCS fuel, greatly complicating landing. Using Mun as a slingshot to get into a farther-out Kerbin orbit helped tremendously, and had an insignificant effect on fuel. For next time, I'll be sending a nuclear-powered rover(which will also solve some problems with the SAS running out of power) and possibly more RCS fuel. The asparagus stage will also be upgraded.

[Tytan]

It updated yay!

[Kippershy]

To be fair, one was a misclick and the other was me doing something silly.
"We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

You needn't always pull the superiority card to prove a point, Kipper.

All my testing of that engine has been while in a close influence, and I found them more difficult to use than LV-T45s for all applications thus far.
I've read of the Mun slingshot being inefficient before, but it's probably going to be used as a comparison.

Sorry, I don't mean to. I just do it because the stuff you guys are doing is so menial to me that I don't even think of it as trying to be superior. I just say it how I see it.
Which you'll say I'm doing it again no doubt here, but honestly, don't care because 1. tired 2. can't think of a better way to explain myself.

[Ketchup]

To be fair, one was a misclick and the other was me doing something silly.
"We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

You needn't always pull the superiority card to prove a point, Kipper.

All my testing of that engine has been while in a close influence, and I found them more difficult to use than LV-T45s for all applications thus far.
I've read of the Mun slingshot being inefficient before, but it's probably going to be used as a comparison.

Sorry, I don't mean to. I just do it because the stuff you guys are doing is so menial to me that I don't even think of it as trying to be superior. I just say it how I see it.
Which you'll say I'm doing it again no doubt here, but honestly, don't care because 1. tired 2. can't think of a better way to explain myself.

I shouldn't have said anything, I do the same thing to a friend of mine in a somewhat different way. A key difference being that he doesn't try to do any sort of mission, he just likes blowing up kerbals and building ridiculous contraptions. When he asks how to build a ship to get into orbit with I'm at a total loss on how to tell him from a true beginner's perspective since I have that aspect of the game nailed already.

Just the way you put it set me off. 'I can do this rather pointless though skillful maneuver. Oh, and I did it twice. Thus, Minmus isn't dangerous if you're skilled like me, Mun peasant.'

So yeah, sorry.

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