Print

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

[Nao]

After many hours of planning, testing, and watching my FPS plummet into the nether, I've finally got a vessel which I'm comfortable sending to Jool to study the planet and its' moons. The transfer burn is 25 minutes long, if you ignore the time added by lag. Whole craft is a bit wiggly with Mechjeb's manuever guidance performing the burns, because the joint connecting the lander and IPD is only a standard-size docking port and mechjeb hates the idea of flying straight.

I really want a personal desktop that can run this game at a speed that doesn't give me a headache.

Part welder!, it's cheaty (as it helps stop wobble too) but it does lower the part count quite a lot!
Oh and on the note of Jool exploration and part counts, in 0.17 (before orange tanks) i did a manned Tylo landing and return on just 74 parts stock

[Eric Blank]

Have you used the lower res skins for the standard parts? That helps a bit. There's not much difference in visuals, really.

I changed the game settings to display the textures at 1/8 resolution, if that's what you mean. Are there even lower-resolution textures that can be found somewhere? Or visual models for that matter; I'd guess lowering the polygon counts could help just a wee bit, as long as it doesn't also affect their collision meshes. That could get messy >.>

...

Part welder!, it's cheaty (as it helps stop wobble too) but it does lower the part count quite a lot!
Oh and on the note of Jool exploration and part counts, in 0.17 (before orange tanks) i did a manned Tylo landing and return on just 74 parts stock

That mod looks like a great option for me, thanks!



I just finished the outward-bound segment of the Jool mission. Did some science around Jool, high above Tylo (I got a silly intercept that actually would have been a head-on collision if the second trip through Jool's atmosphere hadn't slowed the ship down) and around Laythe, where the lander is currently sitting. Sadly, I didn't put any ladders on the lander so Jeb can't get back on board if I take him for a walk

[Eclectic Wizard]

Interplanetary travel completely eludes me, i dont know how to do it at all! I dont know how to build rockets capable of getting enough fuel up there, i cant figure out getting the angles right at all, nothing! All i want is to make a Duna mission, but seriously, it just feels out of my reach!

[Putnam]

Are you doing gravity turns correctly?

[LoSboccacc]

to people playing the no transmission challenge or with transmission restrictions, an interesting mod:
http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/55710-0-22-Science-Parts-from-Tarsier-Space-Technology

will become even more interesting post .23

[Descan]

Interplanetary travel completely eludes me, i dont know how to do it at all! I dont know how to build rockets capable of getting enough fuel up there, i cant figure out getting the angles right at all, nothing! All i want is to make a Duna mission, but seriously, it just feels out of my reach!

There's a website (I don't have the link) that you put in your altitude and it spits out where the planet you want to go to needs to be, where you need to be, and where in your orbit you need to set your burn manoeuvre.

If you want to work it out yourself, there's also a image rolling around somewhere of locations in your orbit you need to burn at to get to the various planets, but doesn't (AFAIK) tell you where that planet needs to be.

[Nao]

Interplanetary travel completely eludes me, i dont know how to do it at all! I dont know how to build rockets capable of getting enough fuel up there, i cant figure out getting the angles right at all, nothing! All i want is to make a Duna mission, but seriously, it just feels out of my reach!

It gets easy after several tries!
1) Go here http://alexmoon.github.io/ksp/ and input year and day you have in your save, hit plot.
2) Wait until "Departure" time in KSP
3) Get your craft into Kerbin orbit (below 100km), make a maneuver node with dV shown in "Ejection delta-v" (above 1000m/s for Duna)
4) Rotate the node around Kerbin orbit so that the yellow (transfer) line's Pe is as close to Kerbin as possible (optimal burn). It's Ap should cut through Duna orbit at that point.
5) Target Duna and adjust speed on the node until you get encounter (it's important to have exactly equatorial orbit around Kerbin to get it!)
6) F5 and burn away!
7) When you are close to Duna but before Sphere Of Influence change make adjustments to so that you get low enough Duna Periapsis, to retrobrake/aerobrake/lithobrake (14-16km for orbit i think)
8.) ??
9) Prof... SCIENCE!

edit:

There's a website (I don't have the link) that you put in your altitude and it spits out where the planet you want to go to needs to be, where you need to be, and where in your orbit you need to set your burn manoeuvre.

You probably mean this site: http://ksp.olex.biz/? it's more limited than the other site i mentioned but it provides good visuals.

[WillowLuman]

I've got a nifty little probe that can flyby duna, and land/return from the mun or minmus. Have yet to get anything to land (much less return) from another planet.

[Sheb]

Lithobraking sound awesome. "What do you mean, I crashed the Mun lander? It was a perfect lithobraking!"

[BigD145]

Have you used the lower res skins for the standard parts? That helps a bit. There's not much difference in visuals, really.

I changed the game settings to display the textures at 1/8 resolution, if that's what you mean. Are there even lower-resolution textures that can be found somewhere?

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/51361-0-21-Squad-Texture-Reduction-Pack-B9-and-KW-Packs-also

[Girlinhat]

Lithobraking sound awesome. "What do you mean, I crashed the Mun lander? It was a perfect lithobraking!"

I refer to that as "hardware assisted landing".  No landing struts?  Engines work just fine!

[WillowLuman]

Not tried it yet, but intakes should make perfect "lithobrakes" - small, light, and ridiculously high impact tolerance.  Just coat the bottom of the lander with them, and voila. Strike the ground at 50 m/s

[miauw62]

Or the ocean? Somebody should totally try that.

[Girlinhat]

Trying to play interplanetary career with deathly consequences.  No easy reverts.  But I do revert because goddam Jeb keeps wiggling his way into EVERY capsule.

[Greiger]

Just tried it with a couple different configurations.

One where it was just a SRB a reaction wheel and jeb in a capsule with 8 intakes around the bottom of the rocket extending below. It hit the ground at 130 m/s after reaching about 80 km up.  It exploded completely and utterly.

One Srb + capsule + jeb with a number of girders allowing the placement of 16 intakes well underneath the rocket in a somewhat wide base.  The rocket reached about 10km up before coming back down directly on top of the VAB.  The SRB exploded, all the intakes and girders survived, the capsule fell through the open space left by the vaporized SRB and exploded against the VAB, although at a noticeably reduced speed.

There is potential in this.