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[BFEL]

Gonna need a LOT of power generation to run all those ions at the same time.

[nogoodnames]

Electricity is really the least of my concerns right now. The biggest engineering challenge right now is balancing all the fuel, making sure there are enough jet engines and getting the whole thing to fly an efficient ascent path.

I've done a first pass with adding wings and it looks far better now. Amazingly, with a few tweaks it actually became flyable and would have gotten into orbit if I hadn't screwed up the fuel lines.

[Shadowlord]

How do you even attach all those engines to one fuel tank?

[BigD145]

Electricity is a HUGE concern. Take a good look at the weight of the Gigantor's, because they don't work so well out at Jool distances from the sun.

[nogoodnames]

How do you even attach all those engines to one fuel tank?

The structural part that looks like a docking port and/or actual docking ports and/or cubic octagonal struts.

Electricity is a HUGE concern. Take a good look at the weight of the Gigantor's, because they don't work so well out at Jool distances from the sun.

0.3 tonnes, or 5.6 tonnes if I put on one for each ion engine. Even if I need twice that many, it's still just a drop in the bucket for the now-approaching 600 tonne craft. Worst case scenario, my burns take a little longer.

Edit: Okay, sent up a test craft and solar panels are much weaker at Jool than I expected. Gigantors produced less than 1 EC per second. I hadn't realized the efficiency was quite that steep now. RTGs will likely be the most mass-efficient option.

[Sensei]

So, since when did kerbals get super durable? It seems like going EVA in Kerbin atmosphere is almost always a viable way to survive a craft now. It's like, I don't even have to worry about my kerbals if I lose my parachutes or something. They can just jump out and bounce weirdly on the ground.

[nogoodnames]

And yet, just falling a couple meters on Eve is enough to kill my kerbals. It all depends on how they land.

Right, RTGs it is. I can power all the ions 100% for a reasonable 16 tonnes. The real issue is part count, since that will be 198 extra parts on an already laggy craft. I'll probably reduce it to 8 ion engines. I wanted to keep the acceleration above 0.01g, but clearly that isn't happening.

...Oh wait, with only 8 engines the ~2000 m/s transfer burns will take 14 hours each. Shit.

[miauw62]

Er, anyone know how tweakscale affects thrust/weight/etc. values? Latest design used a 1.25m poodle instead of a terrier, which I THOUGHT would have higher thrust, but don't know now.

Last I checked (which was a couple versions ago to be fair) downscaled engines tended to be overpowered compared to their default size equivalents. You use MechJeb, right? It should tell you the Isp as well as the TWR which can be used to derive the thrust.

I do not use MechJeb, or Kerbal Engineer or any such things that would tell me, thus the question.
Still, sorta figured the downscaled poodle was OP. And I STILL had to turn on infinite fuel to not die.

I have this terrible feeling I will eventually use less rockets to get off Eve then I will to abscond from the Mun.

Also, just downloaded USI Kolonization. How do I get it to play nice with TAC? Right now the outputs for the life support things are "supplies" instead of food, water and oxygen, as is right and proper.

I don't get your dislike for KER. It's a very useful mod, and lets you make sure your rocket won't suddenly have too little power to ascend halfway through a gravity turn. The in-flight HUD shows apoapsis and periapsis, so you dont have to switch to the map screen constantly. It also has a very useful surface altitude and horizontal speed indicator.

It's literally just numbers, and big data readouts look pretty cool.

[Shadowlord]

Yeah, KER doesn't autopilot for you or anything: It just provides you with data. Which you would think you would already have, but I guess the devs don't want to drown people in numbers when they can just let them try things and see what happens (until they get frustrated at not knowing if they'll even be able to take off, and look for a mod to let them see those numbers).

[Dorsidwarf]

(this is assuming you don't already use MechJeb and that you don't really want to start using it)

Just use MechJeb is in the vehicle editor to make sure you have sufficient dV, then delete the part before launch.

Now you'll know whether you suck at building ships or if you just suck at piloting them

I'm pretty sure the in-game statistics tab tells you your /\V

[Dutchling]

(this is assuming you don't already use MechJeb and that you don't really want to start using it)

Just use MechJeb is in the vehicle editor to make sure you have sufficient dV, then delete the part before launch.

Now you'll know whether you suck at building ships or if you just suck at piloting them

I'm pretty sure the in-game statistics tab tells you your /\V

what in-game statistics tab

[puke]

So, since when did kerbals get super durable? It seems like going EVA in Kerbin atmosphere is almost always a viable way to survive a craft now. It's like, I don't even have to worry about my kerbals if I lose my parachutes or something. They can just jump out and bounce weirdly on the ground.

I dropped two from the same rocket as a test.  They both survived kerbin reentry, and the one in freefall bounced.  The one using his eva pack to try to slow, he splatted.

[forsaken1111]

So, since when did kerbals get super durable? It seems like going EVA in Kerbin atmosphere is almost always a viable way to survive a craft now. It's like, I don't even have to worry about my kerbals if I lose my parachutes or something. They can just jump out and bounce weirdly on the ground.

I dropped two from the same rocket as a test.  They both survived kerbin reentry, and the one in freefall bounced.  The one using his eva pack to try to slow, he splatted.

What speed were they going? I've never had a kerbal survive reentry since they added in heating.

I have had one bounce when it was ragdolled, but only if it landed on the helmet

[Graknorke]

So, since when did kerbals get super durable? It seems like going EVA in Kerbin atmosphere is almost always a viable way to survive a craft now. It's like, I don't even have to worry about my kerbals if I lose my parachutes or something. They can just jump out and bounce weirdly on the ground.

Since forever. You have to be able to get them to land right but if you do they just bounce a lot.

[puke]

I dropped two from the same rocket as a test.  They both survived kerbin reentry, and the one in freefall bounced.  The one using his eva pack to try to slow, he splatted.

What speed were they going? I've never had a kerbal survive reentry since they added in heating.

I have had one bounce when it was ragdolled, but only if it landed on the helmet
[/quote]

My bouncer belly (or back?) flopped, and the splatter landed on his butt while jetting.

They went straight up to about 450km and back down, so they were not reentering at orbital speeds.