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[timferius]

Also also, there's a tutorial on how to fly to the Mun in the game.

[BigD145]

The quest for the SSTLAB continues! Today I built a simple 30 tonne LF-only SSTO and flew it to Laythe. It got there with 52 units of fuel left, which is kind of amazing since at full fuel its LV-Ns could only produce a maximum of 4350 m/s. I have severely underestimated the capability of the RAPIER's jet mode.

I've also calculated that I would need about a 4:1 ratio of fueled mass to empty mass, which seems pretty low. I'm actually kind of surprised no one has done it in 1.0 so far to my knowledge. From what I've seen, the optimal TWR values are around 1.2 for the RAPIERs (assuming an average thrust of 200 kN) and 0.5 for the nukes. This seems eminently doable. Soon I'll calculate exactly how many fuel tanks and engines I'd need and hopefully get a prototype built.

Have a look at Cupcake Landers. He does almost nothing but build SSTO's. He's still hammering away at adjusting designs for 1.0.

[Akura]

I fly a plane that dropped a rover for a EVA surface report mission. I get two of them, but going for the third the rover flips, ejecting Jeb. For some reason I couldn't move Jeb, nor did right-clicking do anything but show Jeb's jetpack fuel(couldn't use the jetpack). Jeb was also listed as "debris", despite the rover seat still being attached to the rover.

You should still be able to "control from" docking port.

This is the trick I use for docking recently. Doing this causes the navball to orient facing away from the docking port, and all controls based relative to the port - ie lock on to the other docking port and aim at the bright pink circle and your port is facing it, and using RCS forward key(H in normal mode, W in docking mode), and the RCS thrusters will push in the direction the port is facing.


@Marc: Why do you need enough Uranium to build an Exterminatus? What's more, why do you need enough Depleted Uranium to make enough anti-armor rounds to be an Exterminatus on its own?

[FArgHalfnr]

About reaching mun, is it more efficient to try and raise your orbit as much as possible before attempting to reach the mun? I know that it takes less burn time when higher, but I'm not sure if it's worth the fuel it takes to reach that altitude.

[Akura]

I don't know. I always fly straight up until my apoapsis is in the ~80km range, then dip straight horizontally and blast until my orbit is straight. It works, but I don't know if it's efficient.

[Lightningfalcon]

About reaching mun, is it more efficient to try and raise your orbit as much as possible before attempting to reach the mun? I know that it takes less burn time when higher, but I'm not sure if it's worth the fuel it takes to reach that altitude.

I don't think so.  At best it takes the same amount of fuel for both.

[BigD145]

Your sideways burn at 80km is going to be significantly more dV intensive than if you burn sideways in a gravity turn. You're looking at thousands more dV needed. Sometimes you have a payload that requires this, so...

[Lightningfalcon]

Your sideways burn at 80km is going to be significantly more dV intensive than if you burn sideways in a gravity turn. You're looking at thousands more dV needed. Sometimes you have a payload that requires this, so...

Most of the time even with a very borked payload you can start turning at around 40-50 km, unless you are using a lifting stage with zero gimbal.  Which I have had to do once, since my payload was my normal superheavy lifter.   I had to build a new ultra superheavy lifter just to get it up, and I needed every extra bit of thrust possible.
If it helps, think of where your energy is going.  If you go straight up, then you not only have to burn to get up there, but also to get the ~2,200 km/s velocity needed for orbit.  If you use a gravity turn, then once you reach your orbit altitude  you already have a high speed, often of around 500-1000 km/s, so you take a large chunk out of

[Shadowlord]

Also also, there's a tutorial on how to fly to the Mun in the game.

The tutorials just skip right past landing, which is just mind-boggling.

[BigD145]

Tutorials were a sorta priority around... .23 I think.

[timferius]

Landing is easy though, you just orbit, but miss.

[BigD145]

Minmus is quite easy to land on if you're light enough.

[Putnam]

Minmus is just easy to land on. Gigantic color-coded flat spots and low gravity.

[BFEL]

Minmus is just easy to land on. Gigantic color-coded flat spots and low gravity.

[nogoodnames]

Bad news. My initial calculations seem to suggest that the mass ratio and TWRs I wanted for my Single-Stage-To-Laythe-And-Back are actually impossible. I will have to go back and try to minimize my margin for error and the ascent TWR values. This will be very tight.