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[forsaken1111]

I wonder how mechjeb handles that mod.

It works fine because mechjeb is considered 'local control'. You need the comm line to connect to the craft to tell mechjeb to start working but otherwise it works fine. If you lose communications or power though, it will stop.

[Dutchling]

Welp. Time to try that mod.

I expect much rage from my side

[forsaken1111]

Welp. Time to try that mod.

I expect much rage from my side

It isn't the easiest. Make sure you have some way to communicate both directions before you send a probe off. If you're going to the mun, have a dish on the craft and have it targeting a dish in orbit of kerbin which itself has an antenna that has a line of comms back to mission control. I have fun working everything out.

[Dutchling]

Wait. So turning around will make a craft unoperable?

[forsaken1111]

Wait. So turning around will make a craft unoperable?

No, fortunately they don't worry about the actual orientation of the dish. You right click the dish and tell it to target something else and if they have the range they connect regardless of orientation.

[Dutchling]

So would you need RemoteCommand on all Kerbin-orbiting sattelites? Or where else do you control ships from?

[forsaken1111]

So would you need RemoteCommand on all Kerbin-orbiting sattelites? Or where else do you control ships from?

You need any "Pod" element that has "RemoteTech" in its description. These are the new RT pods/disks or - if you use the RT compatibility mod (http://kerbalspaceport.com/remotetech-probe-compatability/) - all stock probes as well. This is required to process remote commands as well as relay them to other satellites.

To contact a remote probe you need a powered antenna on the remote probe that has enough range to reach back to KSC or to a relay satellite, and you need a pod with the remotetech command/control components. If the antenna is a dish, then it has to be targeted specifically through the context menu. Omni-directional antenna don't need to be targeted and they automatically form links.

The KSC tracking station is a 5Mm omni-directional antenna. For your first step I'd suggest putting a geosynchronous sat in orbit directly above KSC, or do as I did and place a mesh of sats in half-geosynch orbit to cover the surface. Each of my commsats has a RemoteTech Command part and a 9Mm omni-directional antenna. My munar commsat has two 50Mm dishes, one pointed at the Mun and one pointed at Minmus.

Interplanetary probes will require a satellite link for most of their travel time. As SatDishes are disabled by default, you'll immediately lose contact to the vessel right on the launchpad if no antenna is mounted. Tip: Attach the antenna to your first launcher stage. Before launch, enable your satdishes and link them up properly, then you can safely discard the antenna during ascent and don't have useless weight to carry around.

I'm planning to put a munar relay sat in a polar orbit around the mun with a dish pointing back at Kerbin.

More pics as I go:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The 4/5th pictures say 'out of contact' because the small omni-directional antenna aren't deployed yet. When undeployed they have a 2km range. I also hadn't targeted the dishes at any of the available relays, so the craft was cut off entirely and flown by the kerbonaut instead.

[ShoesandHats]

Is there any way to know what your ejection angle is in vanilla or using Mechjeb? That'd make interplanetary travel a lot easier.

[Dutchling]

forsaken, would you need to have all of the sattelites orbiting Kerbin pointing their dishes at whatever you're sending into space for it to have contact?

[forsaken1111]

forsaken, would you need to have all of the sattelites orbiting Kerbin pointing their dishes at whatever you're sending into space for it to have contact?

Most of my sats in orbit don't have dishes. Do you mean the munar comms sat? Yes, once I launch something I'd need to switch one of the dishes over to target it. You can do that remotely though if you have a comms line to the satellite by selecting it in the RT gui and changing the dish target. You don't even need to switch to the sat.

I'm doing some testing now but I THINK that if you have a ground station on the mun and you point the dish at the mun, that will work too.

[Dutchling]

forsaken, would you need to have all of the sattelites orbiting Kerbin pointing their dishes at whatever you're sending into space for it to have contact?

Most of my sats in orbit don't have dishes.

Don't you need a dish in order to recieve from the dish? The OP in the thread seems to say that...

[forsaken1111]

forsaken, would you need to have all of the sattelites orbiting Kerbin pointing their dishes at whatever you're sending into space for it to have contact?

Most of my sats in orbit don't have dishes.

Don't you need a dish in order to recieve from the dish? The OP in the thread seems to say that...

I have 6 relay sats in orbit with omni-directional antenna and two sats in orbit with an omni antenna and two dishes each. Those sats with dishes are my long range comms and I will target them at any other dishes within range, yes. But since they also have omni-directional antenna they can pass the signal they get via the dish to the relay network via the normal antenna and then back to the ground station.

[Dutchling]

But what happens if Kerbin comes between the commsat and your space probe? Or do you have two dishes on the space probe and always one commsat that is on the right side of Kerbin?

[forsaken1111]

But what happens if Kerbin comes between the commsat and your space probe? Or do you have two dishes on the space probe and always one commsat that is on the right side of Kerbin?

I have two commsats deployed on opposite sides of the planet so there is always one looking at the moon, sometimes two. I could bump it up to three or more to ensure I always have LOS.

If kerbin did get in the way, the probe would just stop doing stuff until kerbin got out of the way again.

[Dutchling]

So if I understand you correctly, the commsats point their dish at the space probe (or is this not necessary), and the space probe has a dish for each commsat? Or does it just point at Kerbin? I'm not sure when it's okay to point at a body instead of individual stateliness.