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[Thendash]

My recreation of the Mir space station: http://imgur.com/a/HVK7e

[Mephansteras]

Grr. Having a huge amount of trouble trying to actually dock with my space station. I'm just not very good at getting the orbits to line up, and even when I did I couldn't manage to get my ship to properly get to the station. I got within 200 meters, but nothing I did would get me close to it without seriously messing up my relative speed.

Anyone know any really good tutorials or tips for this? I tried watching a set of tutorial videos, but they didn't help much. A lot of what he said was stuff I knew needed to be done, but he didn't really say how to do most of it. Just useless comments like 'line up the orbits' and 'adjust your speed so that you match that of the station'.

Yeah, I know all that. I can't seem to DO it, though.

[Spaghetti7]

My recreation of the Mir space station: http://imgur.com/a/HVK7e

You've pretty painstakingly recreated that, even to the orbit. I like it. Good work, sir.

[Skyrunner]

Anyone know any really good tutorials or tips for this? I tried watching a set of tutorial videos, but they didn't help much. A lot of what he said was stuff I knew needed to be done, but he didn't really say how to do most of it. Just useless comments like 'line up the orbits' and 'adjust your speed so that you match that of the station'.

Scott Manley's tutorial did wonders for me. It's the one that made me able to dock.

Accelerate towards the station; depending on your ship's size, 1~5 m/s is safe. Faster then that has a high risk of you bumping into your station, or overflinging it. Obsessing over relative speed isn't healthy xD

[sneakey pete]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Now there's fuel up there, I can start using it for... fun purposes. I wonder how far my space plane would get me with a full tank.


A slightly related question.

Intake air, and airflow. Intakes have both properties.. Which one is the property that determines if engines flame out?

edit: That was most ridiculously unfun. The design was made with .18.1, playing .18.2, with the RCS changes I ran out of the stuff too quickly, somehow. aswell as that, the craft itself seemed to want to pull left while in the upper atmosphere under rocket flight, causing more RCS to be burnt.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Sean Mirrsen]

It probably pulled to the left because you repositioned the radial intakes after setting an action group to toggle them off, resulting in one of them not toggling off, and pulling your craft sideways. Or something of the kind.

Airflow is the amount of air passing through the intake. IntakeAir is the resource generated by the intake, which the engine uses. Naturally, the resource is what determines when the engine flames out.

[ank]

what is the optimal amount of intakes per scram jet?

[da_nang]

Depends on the design. For my designs, I've found max 4 per jet engine block to work best for max altitude. I could get more, but the returns diminish due to the design. Plus it's extra weight once your in space.

Other designs have other optima.

[Sirus]

This is probably ancient news, but has anyone here found the Old Airbase? I took a simple plane for a test flight and spotted it from the air. Dirt runway, traffic control tower, couple of hangers made from corrugated steel. Lots of stuff was non-collideable, allowing me to park the plane in one of the hangers.

[sneakey pete]

It probably pulled to the left because you repositioned the radial intakes after setting an action group to toggle them off, resulting in one of them not toggling off, and pulling your craft sideways. Or something of the kind.

Wasn't that, checked each air intake once I was on orbit, the toggle key was toggling all of them.
Will rebuild it with 18.2 parts and see if it still does it.

Airflow is the amount of air passing through the intake. IntakeAir is the resource generated by the intake, which the engine uses. Naturally, the resource is what determines when the engine flames out.

I've had the resource read as zero while the airflow reads as a number, but I guess that's just a result of one type of intake being less efficient or some such.
Either way, ram air intakes are much better than radial intakes.

[Sean Mirrsen]

I've had the resource read as zero while the airflow reads as a number, but I guess that's just a result of one type of intake being less efficient or some such.
Either way, ram air intakes are much better than radial intakes.

Resource intake is a function of the airflow speed and the air pressure. Air may be rushing into your intakes at many times the speed of sound, but if you're already skirting the upper edge of the stratosphere, there's just not enough of it for engines to work.

And yes, that they are.

[ank]

I'd just like to mention that KSP is 25% off at the store.
So anybody fooling around with version 0.14 go buy it!

[Skyrunner]

Oh look, gift code feature! I can now give away KSP without having to jump thru hoops.
If they had it on 50%, I would give away two. But sadly nope Dx

[Rose]

Also they got rid of the ridiculous patcher. After I got it to work.

[andrea]

Finally landed on Duna!
and I think I should have enough RCS fuel to go back home, even if tanks are 2/7 of what they should be.
Still, steering this thing is immensely slow and tring, so I think I'll just leave it parked in an high orbit around kerbin, or one of the moons, and build a new one.
which will have better placed SAS, less parts, more thrust and all kinds of improvements..
That is assuming I can bring everything back. lander has its tanks full, because I landed almost entirely with parachutes ,although I made a final push with Nuclear rocket, to avoid bending of the legs. it is odd: during tests on kerbin I landed at much higher speeds, and nothing broke, but on my first attempts nuclear rocket got separated from fuel tank.

I forgot to bring any science instrument, so I discovered almost nothing. I also forgot to bring ladders, but that led to the discovery that jetpacks can lift people on Duna. quite slowly too, which gives better control. great for utility work, such as repacking parachutes. not so great for traveling, unlike on the mun.

Spoiler: mission log (click to show/hide)

Mission commander Jebediah Kerman: I have been waiting for days… are all the angles aligned? Or whatever else we were waiting for.
Lieutenant Bob:  Phase angle is correct. 20 minutes until we reach ejection axis and our launch window opens.
Lieutenant Bill: All systems nominal. Waiting for orders
Jeb: First order. Bring me to Duna! I heard it was made of ground meat.
Bill: Seezon,activate engines’ reactors, be ready to open fuel valves
Seezon: Engines in Standby. Ready for burn at manoeuvre point
Bob: Hudbles, activate RCS thrusters and turn the ship in the Duna transfer burn direction
Hudbles: Will be ready in few minutes. Careful when the turn begins.


-----
Jeb: Are we there yet?
Bob: Yes, we are almost ready for the burn. Last data from ships computer says we need 1020.7 m/s of Delta-V . burn should last 7 to 8 minutes, depending on engine performance and manoeuvres we might need to do during the burn.
Jeb: Yes, but when can I land on Duna?
Bob: Jeb… this mission will last 80 days. Each way.
Jeb: I knew I should have taken a second pair of socks.
Bill: Everybody fasten your seat belts. Place floating objects in whatever nook in the walls you can find. Burn in 60 seconds. Seezon, check again fuel transfer from drop tanks. Hudbles, report on the power system.
Seezon: Drop tanks, nominal. Fuel lines nominal.
Hudbles : Solar panels nominal. Batteries nominal. Wires nominal.
Bill: Ready to start the burn. Bob?
Bob: Mission control confirms our flight plan.  Jeb?
Jeb: I don’t think I have enough toothpaste either. Will you let me use your?
Bob: We have supplies in the service module.
Jeb: Perfect! I wouldn’t want to come back with bad teeth. Fire the engines!


-----
Jeb:  *yawns*.  Are we there yet?
Bill: For the 80th time, , Jeb-
Bob: Actually, Bill, this time the answer is yes. Do you see that red dot out of the window?
Jeb: Yes. But I am not going outside to clean space dust from the window.
Bob: No, no. that is Duna. You can even see Ike. I am computing a manoeuvre to achieve orbit. Then, we will have to move from the current polar orbit to an equatorial one. Will be tricky, but we will have more time to prepare that.
Hudbles, activate RCS. Be ready to change heading to the values I’ll send you.
Hudbles: Yes sir. Pressurizing RCS pipes.
Bill: Seezon, activate fuel pumps. Then fill engine tanks from storage tanks. I’ll double check that all systems are nominal. Then we must balance centre of mass.
Seezon: Pumps active. Initializing fuel transfer procedure.
Jeb: Cool!


-----
Bob: We are on equatorial orbit. Now we need to lower periapsis, then circularize orbit. We will have to burn much Delta-V… but luckily we have plenty of fuel.
Jeb: This seems easy! I want to try too!
Bill & Bob: Wait! You c-
*Engines fire*
Jeb: It is fun! Also, we are going to get so much closer to that grey rock.
Bill: I hope we aren’t too far off course. This might be a disaster. You can’t just pilot a spaceship like a plane! I don’t fire the engines by magic, we have a limited supply of fuel!
Bob: Bill… look at this. According to the computer, Jeb placed us on course for a gravitational slingshot that will slow us down and leave us in a much lower orbit. We just need to circularize it.
Bill: Hmpf. Jeb, I don’t know if you are secretly the most brilliant person here, or you are just so incredibly lucky. I should be used to that now…
Still, next time warn us first. I got hit by a dozen random objects.
Jeb: I am an amazing pilot!


-----

Bill: Jeb, it is time to climb into the lander. Wear your EVA suit.
Jeb: Yes! Finally! I will take commands. I want to pilot the lander all the way down!
Bill: That is exactly your job, Jeb. Bob, Hudbles, Seezon , take care of the ship.
Bob: Have fun, you two. And try to come back whole and unharmed.
Seezon: I’ll keep engines ready for when you come back, sir.
Hudbles: And cakes and wine for when you land.


-----
Jeb: That is not fair, I can’t control this thing!
Bill: We are on autopilot at the moment. Bob is sending us toward a crater, so we can more easily find a flat place to land on. Manual control will be enabled when we are close enough to begin the actual landing and deorbiting stage finishes firing and decouples, in a few minutes.


-----
Jeb: Ah! Now it works.  Go parachutes!
Bill: We are still out of atmosphere. They won’t properly deploy until we are lower. We don’t know how thick the atmosphere is. Bob recommends to fire the lander engines to reduce speed.
Jeb: not yet.

-----
Bill: 7000 meters, parachutes deployed. They are slowing us down a bit but we are still very fast… now you can fire engines.
Jeb: not yet!
Bill: but Jeb-
Jeb: not yet!


-----
Bill: JEB! We aren’t slowing down quickly enough. Atmosphere is thinner than we thought! You must use the engines!
Jeb: Not yet. Parachutes aren’t even fully deployed. We have time.
Bill: We are 4000 m high and falling quickly. I don’t even know if they will be fully deployed before we crash!
Jeb: Landing gear on!
Bill: Are you even listening to me? We are at 3000 meters! Fire the engines now or we will both die!
Jeb: I want to see how far I can get without them.
Bill: Is this a game of chicken? Against a planet ?? This is not a joke, we are falling!
Jeb: Chicken.
Bill: radar altimeter says  we are just 1000 meters from surface. You are sending us on the side of an hill!!
Fire those *censored* engines!
Jeb: Not yet.
Bill: Gimme commands ! We are running out of time! Landing predicted in 25 seconds!
Jeb: Just wait…
Bill: We are falling at 15 m/s! it is enough to damage legs and engines! If we survive, we will be trapped! Touchdown in 10, 9, 8-
Jeb: Now!
*rumble*
*puff*
Jeb: Landed!
Bill: I don’t know if you are a genius or an idiot but , Jeb, I deeply hate you.  I am much too busy feeling alive to kill you however.
Jeb: I am going out of a walk. See you!
Bill: Wait Jeb. We don’t-
*tumpf*
Bill: -have a ladder.
Jeb: Hey. This place is full of annoying red dust. It is not meat.
Bill: Obviously not! It is ridiculous! Like saying that Mun is made of cheese.
Jeb: But it is! I ate some when we went there.
Bill: You- oh, never mind. I’ll call Bob and send him the pictures, then I’ll perform the experiments.

Using Ike to slow down is very easy. I didn't even mean to do that, but it just gets in the way sooo often.