🚀 The Kerbal Thread - Share Your Kerbal Creations
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Working on getting my first space station up around Kerbin. Here's a shot of the orbital component:
Here's a shot with it sitting on top of the launcher:
Sitting on the launchpad, getting ready for a 200km polar orbit. Since the science module doesn't display portraits, you can only see half the crew here:
And success! Time for Jeb to return to the surface:
And here's the KSS in orbit without any docked ships:
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NEEDS MORE LADDER. <fuckshit>
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Made a space station, then docked a Super Gnat to it, then thought: what he heck am I going to do with this? So. Yeah.
They've improved the physics engine (for rockets at least) a lot. The last two patches have made it incredibly stable compared to previous versions.
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i like it less that you aren't posting screen shots!
There are some of my first orbital station. Of course, since I've expanded that station, they need to be updated. I should also post some of my Munar orbital station. I'll probably post some tonight when I try the shuttle idea I built last night. I keep getting distracted by:
- Finishing contracts (I'm running in career mode).
- Cleaning up orbital debris. I've finished about 80 contracts so far, and I only have 2 satellites and 2 orbital stations. No debris. [I have a ship specially designed for the job of removing space debris. It's also good for when I misjudged the fuel requirements on a ship that can't quite leave Kerbin orbit.]
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There are some of my [first orbital station][1]. ...
Here's an update of KSS, now dubbed KSS 1.1. I've added a command module, to replace the original probe control module. The command module also acts as a recoverable escape pod, as you can tell by the parachutes mounted on it.
And here's the Munar Space Station - or MuSS - I've put up. Current orbit is nearly circular at about 50 km:
Now to test my shuttle design. I used a dummy spaceplane the other day to test a few different booster configurations. Now to design the shuttle:
Liftoff at just over 50 m/s. Pretty good, but might want to consider dropping that a bit for a boostered shuttle:
Overall, the handling on this was the best of any plane I've built yet. Then came the landing. Unfortunately, that did not go so well:
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Epic fail on my part. Now you have to upgrade KSC buildings! I finally upgraded my launch pad to one that can hold the weight of my first orbiter, but doing so used up all my cash and now I can't build anything! Oops.
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contracts to the rescue!
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Epic fail on my part. Now you have to upgrade KSC buildings! I finally upgraded my launch pad to one that can hold the weight of my first orbiter, but doing so used up all my cash and now I can't build anything! Oops.
Accept more contracts! The advances should let you launch a ship or two.
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I'm both loving and hating the new contract parameters. For example, we have this gem:
The survey contracts can consume a lot of delta-V, even putting a lot of pressure on my nuclear landers. To address this shortcoming, I decided to design a craft that would be even MORE broken...
AN ION LANDER.
A patch or two ago, Squad made ion engines more useful. Turns out that if you can keep your craft really light, they're a viable choice for landing on everything at or below Duna/Moho's gravity. The big challenge is countering the massive electricity requirements. I got around that by having a lot of battery adding a lot of panels:
With physics warp, the burn times aren't too shabby.
The low TWR means landings require a lot more care, however. I think I'm going to trade some delta-V for TWR; 11km/s is already obscene in a single stage, and xenon is a very light payload to get to an orbital refueling station.
Fun fact: radial-attached batteries are massless.
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radial-attached batteries are massless.
for now......
actually most radially attached things are, the non foldaway solar panels are, bot sure about the bigger ones though.
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So, after playing the demo and loving it, I have now got the full game. I am thoroughly enjoying it and have just managed to make it back from landing on Mun. I was really struggling with getting things there with enough fuel to get back, as rockets big enough would just end up overpowering my SAS and crashing, or things on the borderline I just wouldn't have enough fuel to get back, and really didn't want to leave Jeb there while I set up a rescue mission, particularly as this is beta career mode and as such I have none of the fine control features that upgrading mission control/tracking will give me. Thankfully I discovered symmetry mode, and things suddenly became very easy.
So, my next goal is minmus, and according to you fine gentlemen if I can get to mun I can get there, so that's what I'm going to do. I managed to get to Mun with a tiny bit of fuel left in my second stage, and I intend to do the same again.
I am using the massive massive massive solid fuel rockets as my first stage, and the game says those are intended to be recovered and refilled. How? I can't say for certain but they appear to just explode when they hit the ground. Do I just stick chutes on the top of them and deploy the chutes as I detach? Or do they survive impact and I'm just a moron?
I am finding funds holds me back quite a lot (hence my lack of upgrades) and so I am looking to save money where I can and this seems like the first thing on the list.
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Personally I always go for Minmus first in a new game.
Plenty of Science and lots of contracts to go there.It's slightly more Delta-V to get into low-Minmus orbit compared to the Mun, but much, much less to land and return to Kerbin thus your lander craft can be a lot smaller and easier to handle.
The Flats are exactly what they sound like, so dead easy to land on.
- Landing anywhere else is tricky though as most of the rest of the surface is steep or very steep.
Though right now I have a rocket in low-Minmus orbit that I know can't get home.
I fluffed the third landing in that mission and he's about 50m/s short.There's usually a contract that can be (ab)used as a rescue mission, and rescue craft are even more fun than the original mission!
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I should really do a minmus mission tonight. I have the capability, I just haven't done it yet. I've been a bit too focused on trying to get a refueling module up to my KSS. Unfortunately, that seems to be fairly difficult using rockets. Maybe I should figure out a good SSTO build on a spaceplane ...
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I've been a bit too focused on trying to get a refueling module up to my KSS.
i admit. i tend to do this for my early builds by sending the tank up empty (actually have it feed the first stage for more deltav) then send up a series (usually 4) smaller ships to fill the refueling tank.
later in the tech tree you can more easily do that with huge rockets.
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Minmus is easier than the Mun and normally uses less fuel. Landing can be trickier though because it's so mountainous.
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You know one thing I haven't done, other than flagging Tylo and coming back alive, is land a rover on anything.
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Alright, time to get a fuel module on KSS 1. Launching the tank fully loaded, hoping to get as much fuel to the station as possible.
Flawless separation of the solid boosters:
Perfect docking:
And now the final engine has been returned to Kerbin:
And here's a shot showing the final fuel aboard the station:
Mission rating: SUCCESS!
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it seems that the aerodynamics are being reworked. finally
http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/content/325-Overhauled-Aerodynamics
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I'd be okay with them integrating NEAR/FAR as long as they don't bring over the jet engine nerfs, or if they do, they give us 2.5m jet engines and larger.
Another big concern that must be kept in mind here is that many players are already used to the existing system, and have build their fleets of spaceplanes based on the existing conditions. As much as possible, we want to ensure existing functional designs will still perform acceptably. It would be no fun to find out your spaceplanes aren't controllable anymore because of the new system. That wouldn't be an improvement at all from a fun point of view.
Backwards compatibility for the most part? Sounds good to me.
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I am really struggling with an orbit task.
I have lined up the orbit as close as I possibly can, far closer than any other orbit has required. I have lines touching all around at maximum zoom, but I can't get the orbit accepted. It says it wants a synchronous orbit around minmus, and I have matched the target line as I say as perfectly as possible, but it just isn't accepting it. I am stumped.
Are there any ridiculously tight margin missions and I have just got unlucky with this one? or is there some trick I'm missing? whenever I do any improvement it takes a burn of less than 1 m/s, often 0.1, and I don't understand how I am supposed to get it any closer, I don't have the fine control, and the maneuver nodes often just bounce around all over the gimbal making it even harder to try and get closer to the target.
dafuq?
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Sounds like some of the new features I haven't played with. If you need control over tiny delta-V increments, try using RCS in linear/dock mode.
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dafuq?
you i just orbit you and this is crazy but..... are you possibly orbiting retrograde?
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I bet 100% thats exactly what I'm fucking doing, because I have never fucking checked the direction of any orbit I've done so far, and have probably got lucky every other time.
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Easy way to check: check your surface velocity. if you are in synchronous orbit that should be 0m/s
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The target orbit has a spinning "sparkle" that shows the correct direction. Your orbit doesn't but you can see it in time acc.
The other thing it might be is that synchronous orbit contracts also seem to require your craft to be "in sight of" a particular place on the ground.
If you expand the contract requirements fully in the flight screen then you'll see which one is unfulfilled.
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unfortunately it just shows the orbit details in the notes, so I can't tell which one is unfullfilled (it's just "be in this orbit" is incomplete).
I checked and can confirm i'm going the wrong way, doh!
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I checked and can confirm i'm going the wrong way, doh!
at least this in minmus. you probably have the delta-V and spare to make that orbit. ;-)
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yeah I have a full tank of fuel pretty much, my course corrections though numerous have used very little fuel. I could probably do it even with an empty fuel tank just with RCS, minmus is very forgiving.
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struggling to Duna,that shit takes a LOT of fuel...
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struggling to Duna,that shit takes a LOT of fuel...
wait till you're trying to get into an orbit at Moho and tell me that Duna takes a lot of fuel!oh, and good luck!
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I also tried to rescue Jeb from a pod I forgot to put parachutes on when it was orbiting kerbin, I got within 0.6km of him before all hell broke loose and I ran out of fuel trying to get closer. It doesn't fill me with hope for trying to dock bigger ships together for the interplanetary stuff, so I would probably be trying to focus on bigger rockets.
Is that going to work? or do I need to sort my shit out and learn to dock my ships like a real man because it will work out far easier long term?
(Jeb was fine, I just used remaining fuel in his ship to slow him down enough to survive)
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Is that going to work?
up to a point....
or do I need to sort my shit out and learn to dock my ships
that would be wise. it'll pay off in the long run.
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Is that going to work? or do I need to sort my shit out and learn to dock my ships like a real man because it will work out far easier long term?
You can do Duna (and Ike), Eve (and Gilly), and I think Dres from single launches. Without cheating. Dres' weird orbit and lack of a gravity well makes it deceptively challenging. Maybe creative use of the Extra Large parts will let you get Jool also. Maybe. You can definitely get to Jool in a single launch, safe return maybe not.
You can see screenshots of a rocket stack that did Duna and Ike in a single launch and returned safely in this thread somewhere.
Anything beyond that is going to involve docking somehow. EDIT: actually to amend that, the "Duna & Ike" mission I did also required docking the lander back to the mothership... so. Still needed docking. I don't think you can do direct lander return from that distance, especially after a Duna landing.
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I've done a manned Duna and return with a single launch and no dockings, but the landing was tricky as it was very heavy and tall.
Didn't go to Ike. It'd be possible but you'd have to be pretty darn good at aerobraking and go there before Duna.This was before the new "huge" parts, using a nuke engine on the land-and-return stage.
The return was extremely tight, only possible with near-perfect departure burn. Took a little bit of save-scumming IIRC.
Since then I've never tried as it's so much more fun to dock a lander, keep the capsule and send the noble ascent stage into a fiery doom.
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wait till you're trying to get into an orbit at Moho and tell me that Duna takes a lot of fuel!
This is the top stage of my next Moho mission:
Mind you, that's only 7.6t. Using a Skipper/Mainsail inner ascent stage and KR-2L/KS-25x4 outer stages will probably add about 10km/s.
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Ok, time to put some outposts on the Mun a Minmus. Here's the setup I used for both:
The final outpost is there at the top, with a couple of Poodle engines on each side for any mid-late stage burns, as well as to handle the final landing. The outpost consists of three modules: a command node, a hitchhiker module, and a science module. With docking ports on the sides and bottom of the outpost, I should be able to dock rovers once I get them out to Mun and Minmus.
I forgot to take screen caps during the flights, so I'll just give a quick recap. The MuSO was first. Since the MuSS has staff that wasn't being used, crew for this mission consisted of two pilots. Take off was uneventful, though I did end up needing to engage the poodle engines during the circularization burn around Kerbin, which was earlier than I had planned. Fortunately, they were provided with plenty of fuel. The rest of the flight was easy. Docked with MuSS to swap some crew. One pilot was left on MuSS, while the Scientists and engineer were transferred to the MuSO. Landing was successful:
Once the engines and fuel pods were ejected, the remote destruction cleared away the debris, and MuSO's commander, Desbo Kerman, planted the base flag.
Next was the MiSO mission. Due to a pilot shortage, Hargard Kerman was recruited to lead this mission. After reviewing the MuSO launch logs, the construction team determined that it was not necessary to alter the design of the launch system to complete the MiSO mission.
After reaching Minmus orbit, a 45° inclination change was enacted to pass over a survey point to help complete a contract requirement. Pilot Hargard was pleased to note that this new orbit gave him more landing options. After carefully[1] selecting a landing site, Pilot Hargard gently landed MiSO 1:
Again, the fuel tanks and engines were detached and remotely destructed, and our brave pilot planted the flag for MiSO Base 1:
[1] Not so much, he just kinda went for it.
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After reaching Minmus orbit, a 45° inclination change was enacted
Hint - make inclination changes as early and as high as possible, they are very expensive to do late and low down.I do the inclination burn the moment the craft enters the sphere of influence, assuming I didn't get it right before then.
1.0 is looking exciting - outer space refuelling without mods!
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Hint - make inclination changes as early and as high as possible, they are very expensive to do late and low down.
Who said I had a problem with the inclination change? And your hunt applies to pretty much any maneuver.
outer space refuelling without mods!
You can do that in 0.90. Just dock and transfer fuel.
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That's a lot of monopropellant to carry around. Are you using monopropellant engines?
With docking ports on the sides and bottom of the outpost, I should be able to dock rovers once I get them out to Mun and Minmus.
Fair warning: rovers are annoying in low gravity. I've seen some interesting designs using RCS thrusters or ion thrusters for downforce, however.
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I've been given a slew of Duna/Ike missions, and have been gradually whittling them down to get funding for more fun missions. Here's the Class D Asteroid base they wanted:
This burn was painful. I'm not doing this again by choice, at least not until they fix the bugs where switching between craft after grappling with an asteroid causes non-physics timewarp to end in rapid unplanned disassembly (ARE YOU LISTENING, SQUAD?). Thankfully, this mission ended happily:
They also wanted an Ike base with a cupola module, so I gave them the Francis Ford Cupola:
For survey missions on Duna, I'm using a traditional nuclear lander because I don't trust extended solar panels in atmosphere. However, Ike has no such requirement:
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1.0 is looking exciting - outer space refuelling without mods!
Huh? You've been able to do that since they've had docking ports. It's never required mods.
Scroll up, I've done it in like half the missions I posted here, and screenshotted it more than once.
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That's a lot of monopropellant to carry around. Are you using monopropellant engines?
I used the monoprop to maintain attitude. I find it most effective for such large ships. Also, I prefer to do my docking using monoprop engines, and I was docking with MuSS on the MuSO mission. Another consideration was that I didn't want the monoprop as a permanent fixture on my based (maybe I'll regret that later), so I put it on the engine pods to be detached and destroyed.
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The problem is when you run out of monoprop gas, your ship becomes near-uncontrollable. So then you have to go back to the drawing board and add SAS anyway.
But now you think about it, SAS weighs a lot less than monoprop, even considering the solar cells (and smallish battery) required to keep it going... sure monoprop's still good for docking, but for attitude control, I stick with SAS all the time.
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equired to keep it going... sure monoprop's still good for docking, but for attitude control, I stick with SAS all the time.
Admittedly good point.
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Another thing to keep in mind is mass fraction. Given the rocket equation*:
If you want to maximize Δv, you're going to want engines with the highest Isp possible, and for as much of the craft to be consumable fuel as possible. Those monopropellant tanks get heavy, and they aren't going to help mass fraction unless you're using monopropellant engines.
*The units of this particular derivation will be in seconds. To convert to m/s, multiply by 9.8m/s2.
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RTFBP
"Carry massive tank out to craft" is not outer space refuelling, thats carting a massive tank out from Kerbin.Outer space refuelling is when you land on an asteroid, planet or moon, dig and refuel in place.
Thus giving you a functional gameplay reason to build bases and to put asteroids in low orbits.Kethane, Interstellar etc have done this before but it's finally going into the core game.
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Outer space refuelling is when you land on an asteroid, planet or moon, dig and refuel in place.
So by "outer space refuelling" what you meant was "mining".
Refuel with what? Dirt? So realistic.
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Given that asteroids are made of dirt and water, yep, it is realistic.
Especially as it's being actively researched already.There's other interesting chemistry but that's the most obvious.
