Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Dutchling]

My Solar Probe managed to orbit the sun. Not very hard to do, and I now (hopefully) have a lot of delta V to muck around with in the solar system.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ion Engines are not very good , but I just wanted to use them. My probe has four of them, and can speed up 10m/s in 24 seconds. It took me most of my first xenon tank to get out of Kerbals SoI, but now I five other ones .

[Aseaheru]

I used a nuclear engine for most of the work.

[Twi]

Ion Engines are not very good , but I just wanted to use them. My probe has four of them, and can speed up 10m/s in 24 seconds. It took me most of my first xenon tank to get out of Kerbals SoI, but now I five other ones .

Remember: If you want to conserve fuel with ions, put them on low power. At least, I think that's how they work. You get more impulse out of them that way, IIRC. Normal engines used to do that too, but that's not how rocket engines work.

Also, if you're a fan of ion engines and mods, consider the Ion Hybrid pack. Number one, it increases the stock Ion Engine's thrust from 0.5 to 2. Which is still pretty tiny, mind, but it makes them much more bearable to use. Second, it adds a whole bunch of big batteries, big solar panels, big xenon tanks, a larger ion engine (with the same impulse but slightly better thrust to weight, IIRC), and nifty hybrid engines that I've never used and am not really sure how they work. They somehow use rocket fuel, xenon gas AND electric charge. Or something. I don't really know, I haven't used them.

If you're not a moddy kinda guy, feel free to completely ignore that whole paragraph.

[forsaken1111]

Hybrid ion engines are actually rather good. I'm using them on the ship I'm currently assembling in orbit. A single engine module requires a launch all on its own and careful docking via detachable maneuvering RCS blocks which are discarded after docking.

[Dutchling]

I've seen and (kinda) used that before.
Thank, but I want to do everything vanilla for now. No need to use mods if there is still plenty of base game to discover.

Anyway, I just finished my first (vanilla) docking .
*** Dutchling will never try to dock without RCS ever again
The goal of that mission was to a) manage to finally dock something, b) transfer Kerbals (Jeb and Bill) to the KSS, and c) Bring whatever his name is back to the KSC. Misson goals (a) and (b) have been completed, now I just need to land. While I have landed before, I never landed from orbit, or at specific location. It should all work out just fine though .

@Aseaheru, I do too. But I like to use Ion Engines because both Xenon and Ion sound awesome . It also fits better on a probe imo.

[forsaken1111]

Also these are excellent for large ships...

http://kerbalspaceport.com/common-berthing-mechanisms-2-5m-docking-ports-2/

[Aseaheru]

No, it has an ion engine but i used a nuclear one to get it into position.

[Dutchling]

No, it has an ion engine but i used a nuclear one to get it into position.

Well, I could have added another stage, but that would mean I'd leave debris in orbit of Kerbal which I'd rather avoid doing. And besides, it is not like I have anything I need to use all that xenon for. Might as well see if I can escape Kerbals SoI.

[Dutchling]

First Kerbal to land, on err, Kerbin .

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Next time I'll include some thrusters. I don't trust those parachutes >.>

[tryrar]

goddamn matching orbits to dock with something is rather hard -_-

I FINALLY get a SS habitat module into a good orbit and subequently wast ALL my fuel trying to match orbits with the core 

[forsaken1111]

goddamn matching orbits to dock with something is rather hard -_-

I FINALLY get a SS habitat module into a good orbit and subequently wast ALL my fuel trying to match orbits with the core 

What do you mean by matching orbits? The orbital plane or the position within the orbit (ie around the planet)?

[Aseaheru]

both.

[forsaken1111]

If you're already in the same orbit as the target but you need to catch up/slow down to reach it, just burn so your orbit is slightly larger or smaller.

Assume you and your target are in a 100km orbit. If you need to 'catch up' as in the target is ahead of you, make your orbit 95km and you will slowly catch up. If you're ahead of your target, make your orbit 105km. You will go slower than the target and eventually it will be under you, 5km away. At that distance you can zero out your relative velocity and burn towards it to dock up.

[Twi]

goddamn matching orbits to dock with something is rather hard -_-

I FINALLY get a SS habitat module into a good orbit and subequently wast ALL my fuel trying to match orbits with the core 

On the plus side, when you do manage to dock, you will feel like a sexy, sexy god of space.

Also, what Forsaken said.

[jocan2003]

It is worth saying that for your space object manipulation you NEED this really. Go check it.

http://kerbalspaceport.com/robotic-arms-pack/

Canada arm anyone? Or you could also just use it as a big refueling arm.