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[WillowLuman]

SAS helps greatly.

[LoSboccacc]

I don't understand what's difficult about getting the craft near each other. The hard part is covering the metres, not the kilometres. Docking is a bitch when the target craft is rotating (which is apparently all the time).

Orient your target docking node to normal or antinormal and it will stay on the same axis allowing you to approach.

So long as the rotation is only on one axis though you can mostly compensate.

also sometimes it is better to tab to the other ship and dock it instead of chasing it spinning

[Aseaheru]

I still have to learn to orbit without dying, burteforce or debugmenu... The problem is wither not enough thrust or it falling apart or both...

[ChairmanPoo]

Ok, so which one do I research?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I still have to learn to orbit without dying, burteforce or debugmenu... The problem is wither not enough thrust or it falling apart or both...

My orbital flights improved DRAMATICALLY once I got my first reaction wheel.

[Aseaheru]

They dont help me much.

SCIENCE. GET IT.

THEN LANDING GEAR OR SOLARS.

SOLARS BEFORE GEAR.

[ChairmanPoo]

Err, which one of the greyed ones should I get?

[Silfurdreki]

So is it the rendezvous or the docking that people have trouble with? Is it the mental reorientation necessary to use the translation controls that people don't get?

I don't understand why it is so hard for some.

The part where you put your RCS modules in weird places and their thrust is now uneven, so the craft spins in ways you don't expect at the slightest provocation. You can't be arsed to relaunch either.

'tis a bitch I tell you.

In other news, materials studies near the Mün and Minmus nets ALL the science. I'm practically salivating over how much any other planet will give. Or even a landing on the Mün or Minmus.

[puke]

You do know click is short for kilometer?

Yes!  Yes I do!  I guess I should have spelled it Klik?  How does that work? 

I was like 700Km off, but you'd be amazed the DV in those EVA packs.  I was sure the little dude was going to die, it was probably the happiest moment of my KSPing when I actually managed to reach the target.  I only had to lead it a little bit.

[puke]

In other news, materials studies near the Mün and Minmus nets ALL the science. I'm practically salivating over how much any other planet will give. Or even a landing on the Mün or Minmus.

Oh man, I opened up so much with just EVA reports over each biome of Kerbin, Mun, and Minmus.  Material and Goo studies from the surface of Minmus got most of the rest, and I think I could finish the rest of the tech tree if I could just reliably get landers back from the Mun.

I've built plenty of Mun landers and have no problem getting them there, but I have a hard time landing efficiently enough that I can make the return trip.  especially with 2x materials bays..  I expect lots of people use mechajeb for their landings to obtain better fuel efficiency? 

I do everything with the mk-1 eyeball and throw trivial things like launch and transfer windows to the wind.  But thats no excuse for my inability to land, just why my rockets and transfer stages are bigger and less efficient they should be.

[TherosPherae]

So is it the rendezvous or the docking that people have trouble with? Is it the mental reorientation necessary to use the translation controls that people don't get?

I don't understand why it is so hard for some.

I can dock just fine when I can see the damn port. But when I'm on the eclipsed side of the Mun trying to get a fuel tank to stick to the side of a space station, it can be pretty difficult.

At this point, I'm considering just terminating the station entirely and then putting up one with floodlights pointing in every direction so I can actually see where I'm docking.

[puke]

retrofit it!  send up some double-ended docking ports with lights attached, and you've got illumination.

[alway]

The order of important things:
1. gimballled liquid engines
2. struts
3. batteries
4. sas
5. solar panels
infinity. landing gear

You can build much better, more reliable landing gear out of the metal structural thingys.
Basically, this is the perfect lander design for anything in Kerbin's SOI for a there and back again mission:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Drop a decoupler and heatshield between the fuel and science bay, and it's even good to go for Deadly Reentry. Those landing structures are much stonger than landing gear, much more flexible if you come down wrong, and incredibly stable. You could land that thing on a 20 degree slope. More if you added another horizontal set to make the base even wider. It also results in a great place to attach struts to for the earlier stages.

[TherosPherae]

Also, I haven't acquired enough science for RTGs yet, but it seems that they're only a few missions to various astronomical bodies away, so I might hit up Moho to finish it off once I (finally) finish rescuing that poor Kerbal from the greedy surface of the Mun.

The rescue mission failed - I told him to use his little RCS pack to get to the rescue site faster because walking's fuckin' slow. And then he hit the ground....

So, guess it's time to throw a satellite or two at Moho.

[ank]

You do know click is short for kilometer?

Yes!  Yes I do!  I guess I should have spelled it Klik?  How does that work? 

I was like 700Km off, but you'd be amazed the DV in those EVA packs.  I was sure the little dude was going to die, it was probably the happiest moment of my KSPing when I actually managed to reach the target.  I only had to lead it a little bit.

It means the same thing, the word you are looking for is "meters".

[Graknorke]

You do know click is short for kilometer?

Yes!  Yes I do!  I guess I should have spelled it Klik?  How does that work? 

I was like 700Km off, but you'd be amazed the DV in those EVA packs.  I was sure the little dude was going to die, it was probably the happiest moment of my KSPing when I actually managed to reach the target.  I only had to lead it a little bit.

It means the same thing, the word you are looking for is "meters".

If he was looking for metres then he would have said a few hundred thousand, rather than just a few hundred.