Kerbal Space Program

[callmedave]

Thanks, il point my firework at Duna and report back here.

[Derek Withers]

[Robbaz]Glorious[/Robbaz]



A Munar landing at last. Jeb did forgot to put my thermometer on the lander. I successfully made it home for lots of glorious science points too.

[DIW35]

First successful Mun landing feels good. Despite having been to all the other planets and moons (only put a lander on Eve), I still find myself continuously going back to Mun, and designing craft to do it differently each time.

[Derek Withers]

Hi Derek.

Jeb the cocky bd managed to land on minimus on two legs on his next flight . He only just had enough fuel to get back though.

Edited by Derek Withers on Monday 7th April 17:29

[DIW35]

Just put together a small one man craft to allow Jeb to do a round trip to Mun, Minmus and back to Kerbin. Needed to juggle fuel from the transfer stage to the lander once he had been to the Mun and back in to orbit, but other than that the flight was quite straight forward. The only complaint Jeb had when he got back to Kerbin was that he didn't land a bit closer to the beach by the lake.

[Foliage]

I like the way you have used fuel tanks to spread your legs out (oooh err missus) ive been thinking of making a lander that's wider, I think i'll take some inspiration from yours, ive been struggling to land on the mun for the last few days, I keep crashing into it. I just cant get my speed low enough without expending loads of fuel. Im really happy with my launcher though

I need to rescue jeb hes stuck in orbit.

[callmedave]

Foliage said:

I like the way you have used fuel tanks to spread your legs out (oooh err missus) ive been thinking of making a lander that's wider, I think i'll take some inspiration from yours, ive been struggling to land on the mun for the last few days, I keep crashing into it. I just cant get my speed low enough without expending loads of fuel. Im really happy with my launcher though

I need to rescue jeb hes stuck in orbit.

I had a mun lander which was the control cockpit on top of 2 materials bays. on the side of these were 3 fuel tanks with an engine underneath, I managed a landing using the engine as the 'feet' it was wide enough to remain stable. lander legs do have a certain amount of bound/rebound in them to be a bit more forgiving.

you want to land no faster than 4.0 m/s and obviously straight down on a flat surface is ideal.

[DIW35]

Here's a couple more that may give you a few ideas.

The lander here is a small one man affair, but again uses fuel tanks to widen the footprint. It's a 2-stage lander, so the extra fuel tanks and legs get left on the surface, so requires a lot less fuel to get the capsule back in to orbit. To fly this one successfully ideally requires being able to dock back with the command module, though the pilot can be EVA'd across if you can get close enough, but are unable to dock.


This one is a 3 man lander, designed to return to Kerbin directly from the Mun or Minmus. It uses fuel tanks and girders to give a super wide footprint. You would have to have some serious sideways velocity to tip this one over on landing.


This lander was designed to go to Duna, hence the drag chutes. The external fuel tanks are again used to spread the footprint, but they are also attached by decouplers so that they can be jettisoned on the ascent once they are empty, to lighten the load. This one too is designed to dock with a service module when back in orbit, which will be carrying the fuel for the return journey. If I remember rightly, once I had transferred the crew back across to the service module, together with any remaining fuel in the lander, the lander was jettisoned to stay in orbit around Duna.

Edited by DIW35 on Tuesday 8th April 12:02

Edited by DIW35 on Tuesday 8th April 12:04

[callmedave]

For my Duna landing & return mission i plan to do a similar setup, a lander module that is detached for easier takeoff.

I had a pretty straight forward fly by last night of Duna, in total it was a 2 & 1/2 year mission, as i cant work out when the best window is to encounter a planet is so a lot of waiting. i got over 600 science for it! Il post some pics tonight when im back home.

I worked out that crew reports and EVA reports can be transmitted at 100% (no loss) so managed to get a sun orbit and Duna orbit report sent to Kerbin. i returned with 4x goo and 2 materials.

[CrutyRammers]

callmedave said:

For my Duna landing & return mission i plan to do a similar setup, a lander module that is detached for easier takeoff.

I had a pretty straight forward fly by last night of Duna, in total it was a 2 & 1/2 year mission, as i cant work out when the best window is to encounter a planet is so a lot of waiting.

You need MATHS! Fortunately someone has done it for us: http://ksp.olex.biz/
There are mods which tell you the exact angle, I always just guestimate it by eye, it seems more "kerbal" that way
I found duna a bit of a pain to land on at first, the air isn't thick enough to let you do a parachute landing unaided, and it needs something a bit heftier than a mun lander. Plus it's very hilly.

[DIW35]

For some reason I can't see any asteroids. I have a few unidentified things in the tracking station, but I don't seem to be able to identify them or track them.

[DIW35]

I went through a period where I didn't play this game that often, but just lately I've been enjoying designing new ships for travelling around the local system. This little fella was designed to be a relatively small one man craft able to go to Mun or Minmus, which it does quite capably. I don't think it is capable of doing Mun and Minmus before returning to Kerbin, as once the lander has jettisoned the transfer stage the only fuel available is what is on board, and being a small lander, it doesn't carry much. Enough to get back in to orbit from either moon and transfer back to Kerbin, but that's about it.



The complete craft shortly after take off.


Minus the booster stages.


The lifting stage is dispensed with just short of achieving orbit, so doesn't leave any debris floating about.


The transfer stage has plenty of fuel to get to Mun or, in this case, Minmus and establish orbit.....


...and has enough to start the descent before being jettisoned to crash in to the surface. Again, no orbiting debris.


The small lander is all that's left, but carries enough fuel to land and then return to Kerbin.


Almost there.


Jeb seems quite pleased with the design.


So much so, he invited Bill to try it out and join him.



Hope you guys like it too. If anyone would like to try it out, give me a shout and I can upload the craft file to Dropbox. It's all stock so should work for anyone.

[NNH]

DIW35 said:

For some reason I can't see any asteroids. I have a few unidentified things in the tracking station, but I don't seem to be able to identify them or track them.

I found that if I carry a saved game from 0.23 into 0.235, the asteroids didn't show up. A new game worked just fine, so I'll start working up the technology slope again.

[DIW35]

Mine was a completely new start in 23.5. The only thing I have carried over is a few favourite ship designs that I copied in to the relevant ship save folders. My tracking station is listing 7 unknown objects next to the little icon at the right hand end of the info bar at the top of the screen, but there's nothing showing in the left hand detail panel.

[paulrussell]

I'm in need of help as I can't get a station into orbit. My efforts seem to lead me loosing control whilst still in the atmosphere.

[Foliage]

paulrussell said:

I'm in need of help as I can't get a station into orbit. My efforts seem to lead me loosing control whilst still in the atmosphere.

If your ship is too long try adding more stuff onto the sides.

[firemunki]

paulrussell said:

I'm in need of help as I can't get a station into orbit. My efforts seem to lead me loosing control whilst still in the atmosphere.

Hell I can't even get a man in orbit let alone a space station!

[NNH]

DIW35 said:

Mine was a completely new start in 23.5. The only thing I have carried over is a few favourite ship designs that I copied in to the relevant ship save folders. My tracking station is listing 7 unknown objects next to the little icon at the right hand end of the info bar at the top of the screen, but there's nothing showing in the left hand detail panel.

If you click on one of the unknown objects, then a blue radio telescope icon should be available at the bottom left. Clicking that will resolve an orbit for the asteroid.

[paulrussell]

Foliage said:

paulrussell said:

I'm in need of help as I can't get a station into orbit. My efforts seem to lead me loosing control whilst still in the atmosphere.

If your ship is too long try adding more stuff onto the sides.

I've just managed to get a station in low orbit, with little fuel left. I'm going to have to send another rocket up to try to push it into a higher orbit, though I've not tried docking anything let alone trying to get the right orbit.

firemunki said:

Hell I can't even get a man in orbit let alone a space station!

That's quite easy. Just use several solid fuel boosters.

[DIW35]

A picture of your station would greatly assist in trying to make a diagnosis as to what your problem might be. Good luck with docking. It's easy once you grasp all the concepts involved, but it can be quite a steep learning curve.