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[Sordid]

Is there any way to find out how much your craft weighs other than adding up the mass values for every individual part, manually?

Not within the game, and I don't know of any external utility that could read ship files and calculate that sort of thing.

How do you get debris out of orbit, when there is no command capsule to take control of and end the flight?

By manually editing the presistent.sfs file in notepad.

[Girlinhat]

I think lander legs can withstand ~5m/s, but you're better off around 1-2.  It is in fact an extremely soft landing, you shouldn't even know you've touched down it's so soft.

[Chattox]

I think lander legs can withstand ~5m/s, but you're better off around 1-2.  It is in fact an extremely soft landing, you shouldn't even know you've touched down it's so soft.

Interesting. Do other rocket parts have a higher tolerance? The rocket I landed on the moon hit the surface at 30m/s, though it's survival may have been due to the horizontal momentum making it kind of skid/bounce rather than just one impact.

My follow-up mission did not do so well, with a landing impact speed of 400m/s

[Girlinhat]

General touchdown should be <15m/s I believe, parachutes help and the capsule is pretty tough, so it can withstand a bit of a faster impact, but look at the actual moon landing footage.  They touched down at I think .5m/s at the end.  So yeah, always go slower than you're going, always.

[Peewee]

I managed to land on the Mun for my first time yesterday, very proud of myself. There is the slight issue of hitting the ground with too much horizontal momentum, causing the rocket to fall over and collapse, rendering the brave Kerbonauts stranded, but they seem happy enough about it. I do have a few questions, though.

• Is there any way to find out how much your craft weighs other than adding up the mass values for every individual part, manually?
• Roughly how hard can you land on lander legs before they break and your ship explodes?
• How do you get debris out of orbit, when there is no command capsule to take control of and end the flight?

1. Yep. http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/forum/index.php?topic=9917.0
2. "Impact Tolerance" is supposedly how fast it can hit something without exploding, but you also have to factor in the strength of the connection with the rest of the lander. Aim for < 5m/s and you'll do fine. Oh, and don't panic. If you're panicking but have plenty of fuel, abort (gun it for a couple of seconds) and try to land again.
3. How do I? I launch my debris hauler, 'dock' with the debris, and change its trajectory to intersect Kerbin or Mun. You can also just delete the debris from persistence.sfs if you prefer the easy way out.

[Girlinhat]

I set my settings to "keep debris" on the lowest setting, like 5 pieces or so I think.

[borno]

Erm, I have been playing the vanilla game for a while, abut then decided to get the more parts. However, In building mode I can't select some of the parts, and in flying mode, my craft keeps falling apart. Is it a bug? Has this happened to anyone else?

[Peewee]

... Which 'more parts' ?
If you mean the one in the OP, that was made for a now very old version. Look through the KSP forums for parts.

[ThtblovesDF]

The debris staying is part of the full version - or a mod?

[LoSboccacc]

part of the latest release

they stay, you can hit them, you can leave a whole craft in space and resume the flight later and this kid of things.

[zehive]

Latest accomplishment was, for me, playing the demo and managing to boost myself out of a Kerbol orbit. Took a really big rocket to get all the stages and fuel i wanted up there, and a crapload of time to get in two revolutions of the star, turning up the throttle when i reached periapsis. Munar landing has proven difficult since I can't seem to get rocket controls down well enough to get myself in an orbit around Kerbin so i can get a correct trajectory with the mun.

[andrea]

playing the latest free version, I had a great unexpected success.

I was testing a rocket to lift cargo into orbit. The target was to park a spacecraft with 2 fuel tanks into a low orbit just beyond atmosphere.
In this latest test I added boosters, and succeeded in leaving the spacecraft orbiting with 2 almost full fuel tanks.
but when looking at orbital view to adjust the orbit into a circular one, I noticed that I was on an orbit perfectly aligned with that of the mun. I had 2 fuel tanks left, so I sent my orbiter higher and higher, until the flight path intersected mun orbit. Then I got caught by its gravity.
Sadly, fuel was running out, so I knew they would be stranded there. as it turns out, however, it wasn't a problem. Fuel ran out a few hundred meters above surface, and the module crashed.

Still, not bad for a craft that should have never left low orbit!

[LoSboccacc]

 Boosters, an elegant weapon, for a more civilized age

[andrea]

now that I ran out of space for boosters, I am wondering if external fuel tanks would work.

[LoSboccacc]

now that I ran out of space for boosters, I am wondering if external fuel tanks would work.

can't remember if .13 had fuel lines.. if it has, you can attach them over the radial mounted boosters and make a line toward the main engine