|
I'm still learning how to build a rocket that will make it back from a surface landing on Mun in Career mode. All stock, only recently got MechJeb. My first successful venture to the surface stranded not-Jebediah which is about par for the course. The rocket that got to the Mun was built so that one 'naut would land while the other stuck around in orbit to retrieve them. Except that the lander was attached by a separator and blowing that off made the orbital section no longer available for some reason. Undeterred I reverted to just after orbit and sent another rocket to retrieve the second kerbalnaut.  (My first orbital transfer was similar in that the first rocket got stranded because I blew off everything but a non-RCSed cabin in LKO and cursed myself for not planning ahead) Anyway, lander finally got to do its thing but it used up far more fuel than I expected. I "landed" with a trickle left in the tank. I used the storage bay doors to get it on its legs, planted the flag and left it at that. It's been about 6 in-game months since that time.My current rocket is over-designed but one attempt managed a landing (and crushed its antenna in the process) and had enough delta v to make it back into a pretty high orbit around the Mun. I'm thinking if I have smoother orbital insertions I'll be able to manage it without further engineering dickery; I'm still learning how to approach the landing efficiently. That's my story so far. Playing it gives me a deep appreciation for how difficult this is.
|
#
¿
Dec 1, 2016 16:04
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 18:26 |
|
|
Yeah, it didn't make sense to me at the time and I started googling around to see what was up. It was already too late to revert all the way to launch but it's good to know for next time when I'm doing silly things like building stations before I've really got the tech researched to do it easily.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 1, 2016 17:40
|
|
|
Saved my stranded kerbalnaut from the Mun. Took several attempts and redesigns and switching to science collection off the moons to finally make it close enough without smashing or having enough fuel left to return. The final rocket design for this mission had a minute's worth of fuel left as it was coasting back to Kerbal. Got a trip to Duna waiting for a good maneuver window and space station designs next on my list.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 6, 2016 05:49
|
|
|
VanSandman posted:A whole minute? You overengineered the hell out of that thing! Yeah. Turns out taking out an intermediary stage (and their engines!) but keeping the tanks around made it far more capable than the original design.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 6, 2016 22:02
|
|
|
Well drat, if I knew that I wouldn't have been able to roll back a mission that was supposed to go to not-Mars and instead managed to burn towards an encounter to Jool. I just accepted the fact that I won't see those two brave kerbalnauts for a long, long time (and probably not be able to return them to Kerbal safely). Ah well. Why yes I should have built a probe first and then do manned missions later. I didn't because I'm an optimistic idiot. 
|
|
#
¿
Dec 8, 2016 21:14
|
|
|
Built a science base around Mun for satisfying a contract. I've done docking before but only with two rockets that were meant to go elsewhere afterward. Wasn't too bad an experience! Probably the worst of it is pushing enough fuel out there; I had built a ~$65k probe tanker to boost from launch to Mun and I needed two of them to fill up the 2000+ units of liquid fuel. The second was going to burn back to Kerbal for refueling other missions but its rear end blocked the solar panels and ran it out of power before I could make the maneuver.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 10, 2016 04:41
|
|
|
How..terrible an idea is it to assemble a station in Kerbal orbit and then push it out to the desired point? At this point I'm two launches away from full assembly: one more living quarters module to balance the 4-spoke array and then some engine underneath to get it into the sun's SOI. It's going to happen no matter what at this point because I needed a station around Kerbal for another contract and I had built with both requirements in mind to save on costs. From docking procedures there was some uncomfortable resonance after turning on SAS to see if it could stabilize so I'm a little worried what's going to happen when I light the main engine and start the burn. This is with all stock parts.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 12, 2016 20:41
|
|
|
Hm, didn't even consider that option. It wouldn't really change the basic design all that much aside from multiplying the engines I'll need. Thanks, I'll give that a shot and see how badly my first iteration turns out!
|
|
#
¿
Dec 12, 2016 21:23
|
|
|
Kerbal station has turned into a Kerbol station. I went with a pusher engine setup and auto-strut key pieces. Thanks for the help, it only slightly flopped because I forgot to strut one side but nothing catastrophic occurred. It's also completely empty and only slightly off-kilter to Kerbal orbit but it's there and has about 30s worth of delta V on a strong engine! Contract achieved, 750k collected which more than made up for the build itself. Flush with cash I can start chasing personal pet projects. I have about 3 months before first interaction with Eve on a probe mission. I want to build a constellation of scanning probes around the Mun using only a single launch, though I might try it in LKO first to see how well a separator rocket pushes out separate orbits. Then some sort of rover. And maybe further probe missions of the solar system with new science gadgets attached. gently caress me this is so satisfying.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 14, 2016 17:22
|
|
|
This is my first rocket rodeo so having some form of progressional play laid out for me has been certainly helpful. However my thinking is if you're here to shoot rockets out to space (and learn how!) then taking the science mode is probably the way to go. You aren't overwhelmed with all the options, it gives you a bunch of soft goals to accomplish and the tech tree lays out pretty explicitly what you should be able to do with the parts available. But if you just want to make launch some mass somewhere without worrying about how efficiently it gets there, you can just slap something together haphazardly and away you go. It blows up in your face? Debris is scattered all over your solar system? Launch another! If you know what you're doing then sandbox jumps you straight to the action and it's a matter of finding your own goals.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 14, 2016 20:04
|
|
|
Yeah, don't do the science readings at several nearby locations-type contracts unless you have other reasons to be there, like collecting biome-specific science. Especially if it's on the Kerbal surface and you have no idea how to put together a jet that can land on variable terrain.I think I spent 20+ minutes on that mission just to clear it from my stack, dumping off a Kerbal from a rickety jet and then having them run from one spot to another. Thankfully could fiddle with another game on my phone at the same time. The Minmus/Mun ones were a lot more satisfying because I hadn't collected surface samples at those biomes. Coming back home with a couple of chunks of 200 science, plus miscellaneous viable readings was a good feeling with the contract complete as a slight bonus.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 14, 2016 21:34
|
|
|
OwlFancier posted:If your space program is not constantly spraying prefab space stations with a new company decal on the side out of kerbin orbit 24/7 you are doing it wrong. That's what happens when you run your space program as a business instead of a scientific expedition that needs private cash infusions from time to time.  You could get infinite cash by through the "reclaim without launching" exploit and then play it as a science mode with contracts. 
Sage Grimm fucked around with this message at 22:01 on Dec 14, 2016 |
|
#
¿
Dec 14, 2016 21:59
|
|
|
There are antennas that are relays and antennas that are direct. Relays are the ones that can act as a range extender, bouncing the signal off itself to the next relay or destination. You can theoretically boost the communication range of a rocket by attaching more of the same antenna but the formula is such that it isn't generally worth it. Get your biggest dish where possible and upgrade your tracking station for far flung missions.
Sage Grimm fucked around with this message at 00:29 on Dec 31, 2016 |
|
#
¿
Dec 31, 2016 00:26
|
|
|
Stick your delicate science equipment inside a service bay, attached to the thingy that can hold your science reports. My re-entry craft tend to be minimized as possible: chute, pod, SAS, (crew cabin if I'm carrying passengers), service bay, heat shield. I haven't worked out a good (ie relatively inexpensive) way for making a re-entry vessel for launching large pieces into LKO yet.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 9, 2017 16:41
|
|
|
Yeah, but I feel safer knowing I'm not going to be burning up if I just let things happen with a heat shield. Maybe a couple RCS blowing off if I'm not sticking at pure retrograde but you don't need those coming into Kerbal.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 9, 2017 18:28
|
|
|
Alternatively you can ALT-TAB out and do something else on your PC. I shitpost on forums!
|
|
#
¿
Jan 10, 2017 16:29
|
|
|
Weight balance? Looks cool? You get a trivial increase to relay range but it's generally not worth it. Use this to get a rough idea how far a relay can reach before it falls out of range. If it's 2G and you've got Tracking Station 3, Duna needs to be "close."
|
|
#
¿
Jan 15, 2017 07:59
|
|
|
Speaking of those rescue contracts, I've got one currently waiting for its insert window to hit a year from now around the sun. Going to be interesting because it's a drone with a Klaw rescuing a pod of some sort; I forgot to add crew quarters to make it safer. There was another contract to pick up some space debris around Kerbal which I thought was also a rescue mission until I snagged it. Wildly successful, first time I made a successful suicide burn landing without a parachute or heat shield. On the other hand, hugely wasteful because it was on top of an orange tank setup meant for capturing asteroids. vv But hey, it's better than the run I made to get an E-class around Kerbal and burned all the fuel and monoprop without managing even an eccentric orbit. Turns out they're a lot more massive than I figured; my only other encounters so far are As and Bs which were relatively easily to grab and then push closer. It's more my fault, it was not a close encounter at all and I burnt about half my tank getting there. 180k lesson learned! (I haven't figured the trick of pushing a full orange tank up into Kerbal orbit efficiently) I might have a parallel science save going so I don't feel obligated doing other missions while waiting for insertion windows.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 16, 2017 17:46
|
|
|
Are you playing with mods to give full science on transmit or is this stock? Or did you manage to bring back all three materials bays + goo? Otherwise I might suggest adding a service bay with an Experiment Storage Unit centered inside to your rocket, just under the pod. The added weight should still be enough to do everything you did except you get a full return on science. It's still pretty impressive you managed to do all that on a 60k rocket.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 21, 2017 16:16
|
|
|
Didn't even think of EVA for pulling out science experiments! Re-learned something new today.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 22, 2017 00:46
|
|
|
Yeah, I've only got up to the Four Body Flyby. The Three Body Flyby is just waiting for the transfer window to roll around and that one is basically something I ginned up as a cheap stock small probe. I can't even conceive of trying to LAND on that many planets/moons.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 28, 2017 22:38
|
|
|
Otacon posted:Nice lifter, but consider researching interstage fairings - you'll get better delta-v (less losses due to drag) if you cover up the exposed section. I had to do that with my newest version of a Kerbin tourist rocket that uses the big one-to-four structural connector to pile on Mk 1 crew sections and a second upside down to get back to big tanks and engines. The way that parts are connected (single parent) that upside down connector presents a lot of drag going up if it isn't inside a fairing. But it works and does a pretty decent job orbiting the moons and "orbiting the Sun" in a single launch.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 2, 2017 21:26
|
|
|
In other news I've been throwing away semi-expensive rockets on missions doomed to failure weeks from launch. Who knew getting a half mega-tonne rock to not smash into the face of Kerbin would be so difficult? On the plus side, the ride in from space was wild. Up until the rock could not handle the thermal forces and "blew" up, scattering pieces of the pusher prettily all over the lower atmosphere. Also missed a Gilly scanner satellite mission because I didn't realize a Hohmann transfer for something in LKO was scheduled 20y into the future and blew past my alarms once execute's auto-warp kicked in. Managed to burn back into Eve orbit and had a flyby encounter with Gilly but no more fuel in the tank for anything more. That one is easy to re-launch with something a little more efficient, though. And the actual probe can stick around as a relay for now.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 6, 2017 14:15
|
|
|
I find the pause function it uses causes the game to hang once I try to switch to that ship. It just never loads and I have to kill the process. But yes, Kerbal Alarm Clock is installed and for the most part has kept me from forgetting maneuvers.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 6, 2017 14:32
|
|
|
KoRMaK posted:Was trying to bring a kerbal back from out near mun and couldn't figure out why the controls weren't responding and mechjeb wasn't giving options Yes, this is one of the space gotchas, even if you have solar panels. Because occasionally your giant rocket rear end is blocking the sun because your last maneuver required that angle! And when you go to warp to the next desired position, you are completely out of battery power from maintenance requirements. Not deploying antenna is another one that I've done occasionally. It's not as bad now that I've got relays set up for the moons and the tracking station is upgraded. Pissing me off recently is my lander being upside-down inside the launch assembly throws off the control sphere. It's perfectly fine when it's empty (and the probe in the main tank section is designated as primary controller) but as soon as it is loaded with kerbals on launch the controls are upside down. I had to do a bit of re-design so I could easily access the probe core for right-click->Control From Here; the lander is understandably inside a fairing. And then fiddle with the fairing some more so bits aren't sticking out and cause heavy drag. And manually gently caress with ascent parameters so it doesn't end up trying to hit an angle just above horizon shortly after launch; this rocket ain't an SSTO.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 9, 2017 17:50
|
|
|
I have on multiple occasions. It's not a big deal, you burn a little more prograde until you can see Periapsis on the Sphere of Influence around the Mun. Or let it happen because you want to land as soon as possible.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 10, 2017 05:27
|
|
|
I finally managed to make a rover that is fun to maneuver on the Mun. The landing was a bit rough but the launcher rocket had just enough delta v for a suicide burn..on the side of a crater. I had to frantically disengage and try to re-orient the thing. It unfortunately ended up sliding upside down for a good long while as my single lander leg wasn't enough to flip a ~6 tonne vehicle on its own. I only lost a light and the atmo science widget, however, everything else scraped by just fine. When I managed to flip it upright (service bay doors whoo!), no issues with controlling it unlike my previous effort. Could eventually get to the top of the crater and zoomed down the slope, catching some decent vacuum and coasting merrily towards one of the Mun bases to see if I can grab onto it. Unfortunately I didn't realize the next slope it was going up was another crater lip and well, the RCS thrusters I had attached weren't enough to slow down its descent to safe levels. It cracked up while I cracked up.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 10, 2017 16:03
|
|
|
OwlFancier posted:Around the air and then forwards. Jump and then keep missing the ground. Don't think too hard about it.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 10, 2017 21:13
|
|
|
Oberleutnant posted:The trick I was always told is to put a tiny engine (maybe RCS, I forget) with the nozzle pointing skyward, so it forces the rover/probe down on the ground, giving more traction. With a very low thrust you can keep fuel usage down. I went with dialing up the weight by about 6 times for something that was workable on Kerbal, as that's about the gravitational difference between it and the Mun. Essentially I replaced light structural members with full RCS tanks; this was fortunately an unmanned vessel so the slightest collision causing a catastrophic explosion would not be too terrible a price. But I have heard of using RCS like that.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 12, 2017 05:59
|
|
|
No fuel? NO PROBLEM! 
|
|
#
¿
Mar 1, 2017 17:43
|
|
|
Hah, yeah, that would explain why I don't trust MechJeb for Kerbin landings and more than willing to tab out while it was in the middle of a moon landing. Or it's ascent module being terrible on the launch pad without some heavy modifications to its settings.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 15, 2017 17:28
|
|
|
metasynthetic posted:Real men do EVA reports at 5km suborbital REAL kerbals do surface samples by EVA and scooping a handful as they zip past.
|
|
#
¿
May 23, 2017 23:41
|
|
|
This talk got me back into playing this game again and being able to build up to a certain tonnage and then slap on a sub-unit that I know can push that tonnage out to LKO makes it a heck of a lot easier to plan around. Successfully built and started a couple probe relays to hit the closer planets with juice to spare and now I'm sending up another relay type that can hit the outer planets in about half an hour in design. Before this I was designing the entire rocket for the entire mission and having more trial and error spanning days which wasn't as fun. Still more to learn. Like how to grab a part on a moon and get it back to Kerbin. Or return landers built for planets with atmosphere.
|
|
#
¿
May 24, 2017 00:41
|
|
|
A bunch of them got hired by Valve for some reason.
|
|
#
¿
May 29, 2017 19:19
|
|
|
New patch recently, not all mods have updated to suit.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 4, 2017 02:32
|
|
|
Maybe a Nokia or a Razr of yesteryears but they just aren't built to deal with the strain of tearing through the atmosphere these days.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 9, 2017 20:05
|
|
|
We would have to add a lot of support for that ramp. How about a ladder that reaches into space, bring up payloads via some sort of automated vertical mover and then just release them at the end? Like some sort of middle finger to the earth. It sounds too out of this world.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2017 05:25
|
|
|
Mr. Powers posted:Jeb is also stuck in a highly elliptical sub-munar orbit around Kerbin with about 250 science on his ship from my first Minmus landing/return. I'll probably send someone else to gather the same science because I think I'm going to need MechJeb to pull that rendezvous off. My Jeb is currently about year 2 into an ill-advised trip that was meant to hit Duna but MechJeb did a second burn and I didn't catch it until it was several seconds in. So I adjusted it to hit *something* and now they're doing some decade long orbit while I've been furiously teching up and spreading comm sats around the system and learning how to be more optimal in my designs. I probably should put together a mission to help catch him when he reaches Jool..
|
|
#
¿
Jul 18, 2017 18:25
|
|
|
Besides, I've got another mod to handle launches from the pad..that I can't remember the name off the top of my head. Iterative, modifiable ascent parameters, rarely misbehaves (and if it does it's because the rocket itself can't handle it).
|
|
#
¿
Jul 20, 2017 18:23
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 18:26 |
|
|
uXs posted:To do that I'd have to release the first one in its orbit, speed up (or slow down), wait an orbit, circularize again and release the second, and so on. That would take way longer than 5 launches. Also they wouldn't have an engine to correct their spacing later. Alternatively, have your comm sats with RCS engines and minimize their tonnage. Or the third hand, have them with ports so a tug can launch and push them wherever you like after the initial dump.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 21, 2017 15:30
|
|