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[GalenEvil]

>.> I disregarded the small hardpoint. Now I think I will need to do as you PTTG and set something like that up too. Man... I haven't even gotten out of the solar system since upgrading to .17 I can get JUST into orbit, and then my ship loses power

[Shinotsa]

Heya, has anyone else successfully landed on Jool intact with the command pod intact? I recently touched down on Eve with a shuttle design and decided that I should next shoot for something with a thicker atmosphere with... surprising results. At the surface I could maintain normal flight at about 10 m/s probably due to the incredibly thick atmosphere, and when I touched down even at such a low speeds the back half of my shuttle was torn off. The debris began spinning rapidly, tearing everything off of the command pod. It eventually settled down, twitching occasionally, but it still wouldn't allow me to go to the space center. I finally had to do an EVA and end flight with a brave kerbal so that I could get out without having to end the mission.

A note for anyone planning on trying this: descent took me about 20 minutes real time from when I hit the atmosphere. I didn't dare accelerate time due to the physics wonkyness. Also, below 10,000m you really have to fly manually, as the constant adjustments made by ASAS aren't made for such a thick atmosphere and as such are fully capable of tearing your shuttle apart.

[PTTG??]

>.> I disregarded the small hardpoint. Now I think I will need to do as you PTTG and set something like that up too. Man... I haven't even gotten out of the solar system since upgrading to .17 I can get JUST into orbit, and then my ship loses power

You need to put the small hardpoint on top of a normal seperator. It's really twitchy.

[ank]

Heya, has anyone else successfully landed on Jool intact with the command pod intact? I recently touched down on Eve with a shuttle design and decided that I should next shoot for something with a thicker atmosphere with... surprising results. At the surface I could maintain normal flight at about 10 m/s probably due to the incredibly thick atmosphere, and when I touched down even at such a low speeds the back half of my shuttle was torn off. The debris began spinning rapidly, tearing everything off of the command pod. It eventually settled down, twitching occasionally, but it still wouldn't allow me to go to the space center. I finally had to do an EVA and end flight with a brave kerbal so that I could get out without having to end the mission.

A note for anyone planning on trying this: descent took me about 20 minutes real time from when I hit the atmosphere. I didn't dare accelerate time due to the physics wonkyness. Also, below 10,000m you really have to fly manually, as the constant adjustments made by ASAS aren't made for such a thick atmosphere and as such are fully capable of tearing your shuttle apart.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say no-one will ever land on Jool, since it's a gas giant, and therefore has no surface.

[alexandertnt]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say no-one will ever land on Jool, since it's a gas giant, and therefore has no surface.

Im not entirely sure if this applies to Jool as I have not tried myself, but this game tends to implement non-solid space bodies (eg Sun) with a solid, landable invisible surface. If that is the case, it should have a surface and be quite possible to land on it (even if it shouldn't really be possible).

[ank]

Somebody needs to go into cheat mode and investigate.
Mod a pod with build-in rockets, unlimited fuel, low mass and high impact resistance.
If your craft is only 1 item, it should be able to survive the physics.

EDIT: Wiki states that there is a solid surface, and it's possible to walk around it in EVA. maybe just land with a command pod with no parachutes?

[PTTG??]

Gas Giants MIGHT have a surface. It just might be solid metalic hydrogen or pressure-stabalized 10,000 degree carbon or something.

[Graknorke]

Gas Giants MIGHT have a surface. It just might be solid metalic hydrogen or pressure-stabalized 10,000 degree carbon or something.

This.
Gas giants probably have some sort of solid centre, although it wouldn't be feasible to send anything there because of the pressure.

[Fikes]

I tried to make an interplanetary craft. It worked-ish. No explosions but I burnt the assent, transfer stages, and most of the descent stages just getting into orbit (Only 3 engines trying to push all the stages + like 24 fuel tanks into orbit. It goes about 35m/s from 3k to 10k). When I finally got there I was able to burn into a solar orbit/planetary intercept path with Eve but it is hard to tell if I will ever intersect the planet. To increase my chances I put my periphrasis on an intersect with Duna. Even at max speed this is going to take a while.

All that remains of my craft is the "return" vehicle - a pod, parachute, small fuel tank, and Merva (or what ever engine).

[Graknorke]

I tried to make an interplanetary craft. It worked-ish. No explosions but I burnt the assent, transfer stages, and most of the descent stages just getting into orbit (Only 3 engines trying to push all the stages + like 24 fuel tanks into orbit. It goes about 35m/s from 3k to 10k). When I finally got there I was able to burn into a solar orbit/planetary intercept path with Eve but it is hard to tell if I will ever intersect the planet. To increase my chances I put my periphrasis on an intersect with Duna. Even at max speed this is going to take a while.

All that remains of my craft is the "return" vehicle - a pod, parachute, small fuel tank, and Merva (or what ever engine).

Needs more boosters.
If you can't fix launching with boosters, what can you fix it with?

[sluissa]

Recalculating thrust:weight ratios and redesigning to make it more efficient?

[Graknorke]

Recalculating thrust:weight ratios and redesigning to make it more efficient?

So... more boosters?
They add more thrust, they add more weight, and they have an efficiency.

[LoSboccacc]

It goes about 35m/s from 3k to 10k).
When I finally got there I was able to burn into a solar orbit/planetary intercept path with Eve but it is hard to tell if I will ever intersect the planet.

well, first of all the less you accelerate the more you lose to gravity drag. if you can set all your engines to fire using a concentric construction, you will obtain a much greater efficiency from the same number of fuel and engines.

Gravity losses as a proportion of delta-v are minimised if maximum thrust is applied for a short time, or if thrust is applied in a direction perpendicular to the local gravitational field

for the interception, you need this: http://ksp.olex.biz (and a landed vessel that you can use for the 1000x warp, and to prevent !!RAGE!! the space cthulhu fix from 0.17.1 in the future)

[Fikes]

I threw the craft together just trying to see if I could get to a planet on my first try. I knew it would be heavy but I didn't think it would be THAT heavy.

I know of how to make the ship better, at least I think. I have no idea how to increase my chances of intercepting a planet. My Mun landing plan was always to throw myself into an elliptical orbit around Kerbin that had an Apoptosis at the same altitude (is altitude the right word?) as the Mun and just waiting. This is more complicated when your orbit takes months.

I am 4,500 days into it and haven't run into Eve or Duna yet.

[Techhead]

Theoretically, adding additional fuel (in boosters or in tanks) will continue to add delta-v as long as three conditions are met. First, the rocket's thrust must be greater than it's own weight. Second, you don't waste it by carrying your empties for too long. Third, you rocket remains structurally sound. If you happen to be adding boosters to the bottom of your stacks, the first two should not be issues until you hit critical weight.

Trivia: The Space Shuttle actually weighed slightly more on the launchpad than its peak thrust, but the fuel burned warming up the engines made it light enough to take off.