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[miauw62]

I've really never figured out how to do interplanetary transfers.

[puke]

My method is to overbuild and eyeball it.

[MagmaMcFry]

Think my bigger problem is getting there first

Also I really should get me a mod that calculates dV already. Eyballing stuff can get tedius, mostly because it involves so much trial and error (oh your lifter got you nicely out of orbit, but this time you fell just short of making a mun transfer? too bad, do it all over again).

Actually there's a really easy method to calculate dV manually. You know that the engineer report in the VAB shows you the mass of your craft? Well, for every stage you have, just take the ratio of initial to final mass (measure once with full stage tanks, then with empty stage tanks) and the ISP of the stage engines, then look up your stage dV in this handy chart. To get the total dV of your craft, just add all the stage dV together.

This also shows you how to build nice spacecraft without using infinity stages, just make your mass ratios high enough.

[fourpotatoes]

My Munbase program had its first successful launch, delivering my third-generation ISRU rover (the first to fly beyond suborbital launch failures testing). Lessons learned:

• I need more fuel and a vertical control position on the final landing stage. The transition to the rover cab after jettisoning the drop tank & control unit makes it difficult to control the last few hundred meters.
• Lithobraking is a viable strategy.
• Self-righting systems were overbuilt because I failed to account for the Mun's lower gravity, but rollover testing paid off.
• Future launches need to include spare parts.

Spoiler: Landing site (click to show/hide)

All that rover testing led to this:

Spoiler: SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY! (click to show/hide)

The spinny things are Separatrons attached to radial decouplers. The vehicle also has small liquid-fuel engines for show.



This started out as a serious test of an as-yet-unflown construction rover, but then I went foureighteenwheeling.

(edited for typo)

[BFEL]

I'm pretty sure those aren't rovers so much as they are Space Winnebago's

[MarcAFK]

That's a Gundam skateboard.

[BigFatStupidHead]

The second official mod is available today. This one's based on the Sentinel mission.

[Jopax]

I did it again. I stranded a Kerbal in orbit because I didn't have enough fuel coming back from the Mun. Then I sent a rescue ship and everything went perfectly except the part where I ran out of fuel while trying to deorbit it.

Now I have three Kerbals stranded in a rather eccentric orbit which means it's going to be even harder to rescue them all properly. Especially since I need to get all three of them back :V

[BFEL]

Get out and push ya lazy bum!

[puke]

Now I have three Kerbals stranded in a rather eccentric orbit

That isn't what that word means.

If they had lots of fuel, it could be an eccentric orbit.  If they are stranded, it's just a crazy orbit.

[MarcAFK]

eccentric meaning not centered, highly elliptical?

[Putnam]

it's a joke about rich people

[Jopax]

Hehehe, that's a good one.

Anyways, managed to save the buggers, I just used the same rescue vehicle, except I added a Mk1 pod on top of the Mk2. The orbits were a bit fudged so I had to transfer them one by one via EVA some 10 or so km's and by the time the last guy got out the separation grew to a little over 20 km's

Now I'm trying to build a space station, got the first part up there which wasn't that hard since it wasn't too huge. Now I need to haul up the science lab and some extra bunks for the contract, this is proving much more challenging since they're fucking huge and make my rockets spaz out after a while.

[BFEL]

So hey, anyone else play with Interstellar after the reentry heating stuff got added?

I wanna know if the "active cooling" nitrogen cryostat things dissipate vanilla style heat or if its just a fancy version of the radiators and the "wasteheat" resource thing.

Because I wanna make a atmosphere entering lander that's reusable and not having to strap heatshields errywhere would be awesome.

[PTTG??]

I wish they'd simplify interstellar again.

Antimatter? Great. Reactor/Thermal/Engine/Radiator separation? Fantastic. Undocumented and obtuse soot modeling? That's going a little too far...

It's an arbitrary distinction in some ways, yes, but man is it annoying.

Also, it'd be great if cut down on the number of exotic reaction mass sources that nobody uses.