Print

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

[IronTomato]

When you find the source for infinite Jeb, you've reached Nirvana. 

[Octobomb]

NYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! GAAAAAAH! 80m! 80M! Done my first rondevous, done my first approach, about to dock the first time and kmp moves the station 500m! Don't have the heart to try again in single player.
I feel better now.
By the way, Bay12, I missed you. It's been too long.

It feels good to be back.

[puke]

Decided to pick up some science by mining the moons various biomes.  So I designed a lander with two material bays and two goo containers.

Used 4x symmetry to bolt two rows of them, for a total of 8 landers attached to the heaviest lift vehicle that I've been able to manage without access to Mainsails.

It took a few trys to get the thing into orbit, as it is considerably heavier than anything else I've successfully launched - including interplanetary missions.

Unfortunately, I'm not a skilled enough pilot to land the landers with anywhere near enough fuel to get back off the moon.  They've got a pretty sizeable tank and the most efficient small engine I could get, but I think I might have gotten greedy with the 2x materials and 2x goo canisters.  Also, I forgot RCS thrusters so I'm not sure how I'd re-dock them with the mothership.

Maybe should have aimed it at Minmus instead.  Maybe should have brought 4 or 6 instead of 8.

Ah well, one more amusing failure.

[BigD145]

2 and 2 is not difficult. Try something like this:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It can deorbit, land (Mun or Minmus), hop up, land somewhere else, liftoff and orbit, transfer back to Kerbin. You just have to get it to either moon.

[puke]

Thats about 5x at much fuel as I had packed.

[BigD145]

There's fuel to spare so you can make mistakes. It does get the job done. With your final sampling you can pump all fuel into the central column and leave the landing bits behind to save on weight. It's built more for the Mun, so Minmus you could travel a bit lighter, although you still need a bit more fuel to get back to Kerbin. It can still deorbit from 100km above the Mun and get back to Kerbin all by itself. I have made a version of this with the tiny RCS fuel pods, with RCS on the main stalk, on the disposable landing legs so you could probably process at a lab before returning to Kerbin.

You might be able to cut out 1/3rd of that fuel all around for Minmus.

[puke]

but it does not look like you can lift more than one at a time.  I was trying for something like this:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[BigD145]

Yes, I can see those being one way trips to the surface.

[puke]

Haha, but now it is a very populated surface! 

That is actually the Mk2 with a larger fuel tank.  I brought up a quicksave and have relocated the Mk1 to Minmus, if they cant get back then I guess it will give me an excuse to fly a rescue mission.

Maybe it would be more efficient (but heavier overall) to design it with a detatchable lander stage, so the science can return to space and leave the legs and landing engine and fuel tank behind.  Not sure if that is worth it, does not seem so.

[BigD145]

My design is a bit of a lander hybrid. The legs and empty fuel tanks dead weight get left behind.

[puke]

I see, you ditch the outer tanks.  Do you really need all 5 engines?  if its just for stability, could you use smaller ones or even RCS instead?

[BigD145]

They are definitely needed for landing if you don't want to burn the entire time down. They certainly help for fuck ups when you're quite close and need to lose some velocity. There's also the bottom heavy stability of it. Once you ditch the outer tanks and get into Munar orbit you're quite a bit lighter and can plonk yourself down almost anywhere on Kerbin. I've gotten to the poles for some final atmospheric measurements as part of the whole mission.

This same vehicle with another vehicle underneath (and maybe the remains of the initial Kerbin lifter) can go to Eve, Duna, Jool, Dres, and at least get to but not return from Moho. I need to send a refueler to Moho to retrieve that mission. I might make it a full space station but Moho is such a pain.

[puke]

haha, these derpy little thing have JUST enough gas to touch down, and BARELY make it back to Kerbin -- even with my lousy piloting skills!

A better astrogator would have fuel to spare.  Not a chance on the Mun, but they totally work here:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[nyulzsiraf]

haha, these derpy little thing have JUST enough gas to touch down, and BARELY make it back to Kerbin -- even with my lousy piloting skills!

A better astrogator would have fuel to spare.  Not a chance on the Mun, but they totally work here:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

it is look nice
yesterday i tired to lift smth like this, but it fell to pieces :p

[forsaken1111]

Just in case you felt like you were doing well as a pilot in KSP, here's Scott Manley again to show you how terrible you are as he flies(and lands) aircraft without wings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzLyntlitT4