Kerbal Space Program, Revisited.

[xthetenth]

Orbit him around the mun or kerbin and bring a returner ship with that sort of thing to him and have him eva to it.

[GuppyShark]

Is it actually possible to have empty seats on a Kerbel spaceship? I guess you could have one crewmember EVA on the launch pad.

(I play very rarely and so am not keeping up with updates).

[PeZook]

There's a "crew manifest" mod that lets you add and remove kerbals before launch. Also, adding a second capsule will spawn it empty (so for example you chose an unmanned probe as the core, then add the three-kerbal capsule, the the capsule will start off empty - perfect for rescue craft!)

[Imperial528]

Is it actually possible to have empty seats on a Kerbel spaceship? I guess you could have one crewmember EVA on the launch pad.

(I play very rarely and so am not keeping up with updates).

You can launch with a minimum of one control unit, whether it is a probe or a Kerbal. I usually launch with just two on board so I can rescue them if I have to.

[GuppyShark]

Ugh, I just landed a scientific probe on Eve (my first successful interplanetary mission) and there wasn't an option to go back to the Space Centre, I had to End Flight and can't reactivate it.

[Serafina]

Well, started playing the demo.

First major hurdle: Get into orbit! Failed for a while...then i used too much thrust (with solid fuel to boot) and the poor Kerbal started orbiting the sun in a highly eccentric orbit.

Having finally found out how to get into orbit (with easier rockets), time to play around a bit...and run out of fuel. Cue Kerbals being stuck in a non-decaying orbit.

Okay, so now i have orbital maneuvering down - time to go to the Mun!
Hmm, i propably need a lot of thrust to get there...better build a huge rocket. (Cue designs falling apart for a while).
Success! We have established orbit, time to extend it to meet up with the Mun....no, meet up, not overshoot and fly out of the solar system!

It worked eventually, but landing on the Mun was tricky enough that only the capsule survived on the first craft. The second landed properly, but used up too much fuel to return to Kerbal. But the third design worked as planned, and now i think i have to buy the game for more options.

[PeZook]

Actually you don't need a lot of thrust to go to the Mun. For orbital rockets, you need delta-v the most, but thrust is of secondary importance. Of course, it needs to be big enough to actually push you there within a human lifetime, but you can easily get away with thrust-to-weight of below 1 - hell, you SHOULD, since the small engines have very good fuel efficiency.

Also: the full version can take mods, including awesomeness like Mechjeb which simplifies a lot of spaceflight headaches like "holding direction while thrusting"

[GuppyShark]

I'd had a Kerbel floating in orbit for 12 hours and had sent up three or four rescue missions to try and bring him down safely. It took forever to figure out how to approach in such a way as not to almost immediately overshoot him.

It still took me a few attempts but I was eventually able to get close and steady enough that he could jetpack over and board. The rescue craft had enough fuel left after the orbits and velocity-matching to de-orbit, and we landed safely on dry land (I was aiming for the ocean).

Thrilled to have pulled this off, brave little John Kerman hops out of the capsule for a photo. And, picture taken, falls off the ladder and dies.

[Zaune]

Downloaded the demo a few days ago. After approximately twenty-five exploded rockets and a dozen dead Kerbals, I've almost mastered the art of orbit.

This MechJeb thing sounds like a really, really good idea.

[Vanas]

MechJeb won't help your rockets stay together. Getting through a few dozen launchers whenever you design something new is quite normal; the art is to learn which bits are falling off and why. And then attach giant metal rods to them to make sure they stay on.

Really, I'd suggest taking a look at the map screen (if it's in the demo) and plotting some manoeuvres. Generally, if the engines cut out at about 30km, you'll get to ~100km just following the arc. Plot a manoeuvre at the top of it to see what happens. That's how I tend to get into orbit unless I'm just flying it by eye.

[Serafina]

Bought the full version.

MechJeb is awesome. Oh sure, flying manually, plotting maneuvers manually are fun - but having the option to do it automatically is really good. Especially for repetitive stuff like getting into orbit (move to 300 m/s and ~10km, turn 90° east, raise apoapsis to 80+km, turn to the horizon and accelerate to 2300 m/s...gets boring after the first few dozen times).

What i really appreciate though is the ability to execute maneuvers automatically. Especially if its for a really long journey, i can just set my course and let the game run, checking on it every once in a while.


So far i've mostly sent BSOs (Big Shiny Objects) into various orbits. It's mostly an exercise in constructing rockets for various payloads - i started with a simple Sputnik (four science instruments, four long antenna on top of radioisotope generators). Then went for more complex solar-paneled arrangements. Right now i am trying to get a long-range crew habitat into orbit - half a dozen crew containers, round crew capsule, dozens of solar panels and large batteries - and 18 ion drives with ludicrous amounts of xenon. Should be able to make a round-trip around the solar system, then dock at one of the space stations i am planning to build and equip with a lander. But getting it into orbit is reaaallly painful and hard.

[PeZook]

Sorry to burst your bubble, but 18 ion drives won't give you anywhere enough thrust to ferry half a dozen crew containers around. Well, okay, they will but you'll die of old age before an ejection burn is complete

[Vanas]

Hey, hey. I'll have you know that it only took an hour and a half of constant thrust to get a near-circular Evil orbit with an ion probe.

[Grumman]

I downloaded the demo, and at the moment I'm experimenting with landings using thrust alone. So far the closest I've come to success is leaving the ground and landing without the whole ship exploding.

[PeZook]

Hey, hey. I'll have you know that it only took an hour and a half of constant thrust to get a near-circular Evil orbit with an ion probe.

Nuclear, son. That's where it's at.

I must have crashed in excess of sixty live, working nuclear reactors into Duna, the Mun, Laythe and Eve by now.

And Kerbin, of course

[Vanas]

Yeah, but a nuclear engine on one of SeffTech's dinky probulators? The billions of rubuloids all go on the AI; we literally can't afford to build any reactors.

We did try stealing some from the KerboNük scrapyard, but they were about as effective at the RTGs we acquired.

[Zaune]

Anyone else having an issue with MechJeb's ascent autopilot window refusing to show up?

[TimothyC]

Anyone else having an issue with MechJeb's ascent autopilot window refusing to show up?

You've likely moved it off the screen.

If you open the config file (in PluginData/mumechlib), look for the values for "windowPos_MechJebModuleAscentAutopilot". You'll want to set the second and third values to X,Y coordinates that correspond to values that would let you see the ascent auto-pilot window - relative to the upper left hand corner of the game window. If either value is negative, that's a big clue for what happened - you've moved the window outside of the viewable area.

[Zaune]

Upgrading to v2.07 solved the issue, but thanks anyway.

[TimothyC]

Upgrading to v2.07 solved the issue, but thanks anyway.

That's because the upgrade wrote over the config file. I'm waiting for the full release of the MechJeb 2 before I upgrade myself.

[Imperial528]

Because flags and what not:



New Mun rocket, created for the purpose of deploying Flags, or as the eggheads call them, Claimulators, on Mun.

Successful lithobraking result:



Plaque reads as such:



Atmospheric reentry test of Superheavy Lander designed for rescue:



Superheavy Lander completed, launching seen here:



When fully fueled it masses at about 1030 tons.

[Admiral Valdemar]

The hell have you got on that beast?!

[Imperial528]

Not enough rockets, apparently. I had to redesign it from the ground up since it kept exploding due to structural oscillations, but the end vehicle is only 69.8 tons to LKO. It's barely 100 tons if you count the spent fuel tanks that are left over. It's over twice the mass of the Saturn V and has 12 times the first stage thrust, and it can't even chuck 100 tons to LKO. Though those 69 tons can get to Mun and hopefully land on it.

[Imperial528]

Success!



Mallie's just going to have to EVA pack over, since flying is terrifying on Mun. Well, it's terrifying to begin with, but it's even worse without air.

Final vehicle mass is 18 tons, compared to the 1.2 tons left over of the original Munar Lander.

And we got her back:



How any Kerbal survives without a rocket to sit atop, I do not know. Yes, I know I spelled the writing on the plaque incorrectly. But we've already left so it doesn't matter. The flags should'a come with a spellchecker.

[Zaune]

They're Kerbals. It kind of fits.