Oberon can crash anything, I suppose... :O:

EDIT: Ah, right, the website, not the game. I really should not post at 04:21. :/\\!!

Well, I suppose Oberon could crash that as well...

ok, couple Q's.

Using the demo .13 so, but are there any good read mes on orbital insertion? Better yet, How do I fly straight? I eventually just spin out of control. I cant even fly right in Orbiter. I understand the theory of orbit, jsut not the practice.

This might help: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/...ogram-Tutorial


Flying straight is easy now; have a gimbaling engine and advanced sas. Under manual control though, especially in atmosphere, it's important to have a balanced design.

Oh, and symmetry. Don't know about .13, but later versions have a tool for symmetrical placement of components, that really changed the game.

It was a bit of a struggle, and it took a couple of goes, but Muna-1 is now in a successful +/-60km orbit of the Mun.

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/1988/screenshot2fkx.png

After leaving the Orbital Module in low Munar orbit, Bill Kerman has valiantly taken the Canopus VII's lander to the surface of the Mun.

http://imageshack.us/a/img132/9366/screenshot7ai.png

http://imageshack.us/a/img12/149/screenshot9hy.png

http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/8...enshot12ua.png

It is believed that most of the fatal design flaws in the Canopus rocket, which have resulted in the failure of the previous mission to Minmus, have since been fixed, so now all that is left to see is whether the lander has enough fuel to make the Munar Orbit Rendezvous and it might even be able to get back.

And yes, the fins are absolutely necessary.

Fins = 20% cooler. :yep:

Right, back to KSP, time to get my probe lander to the Mun. :yep:

Last night's failed attempt;

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/j...reenshot10.jpg
Mk2 lander succesfully landed.
http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/j...reenshot11.jpg
Mk1 probe overhead.

Failed because the lander didn't even have the juice left to get off the Mun (Mün?). Follow-up mission well underway with a modified Mk2 rocket.

(smaller pics because more of them)

http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/6...eenshot3zu.png
Muna-2 comes in for a Munar landing

http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/3...eenshot4sk.png
Steady...Steady...

http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/9...eenshot5jk.png
FFUUUUUUU

http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/4/screenshot6a.png
But wait...through careful use of the landing legs I can...do a roll!

http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/7...eenshot7ti.png
Almost...Almost...

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/17/screenshot8pd.png
Success! (eventually) Muna-2 ready and transmitting. :yep:

MunRocket

His expression looks like: "I really don't want to be here!"
http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/3993/munrocket1.jpg

http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/4671/munrocket2.jpg

Undocking the lander.

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/6046/munmission11.jpg

Landed.
http://img607.imageshack.us/img607/8...nmission12.jpg


Had to go through a lot of trial and error to find a good setup that can take a 3 man capsule and a lander to the Mun.

The 4 quad-engine liquid fueled boosters feed the main engine keeping the main fuel tank full for the rest of the ascent.

Right, it seems that poor Bill Kerman will have to await rescue. The lander didn't have enough fuel to make it to Munar orbit, but careful use of the RCS thrusters have managed to achieve it. Alas, it seems I have carelessly neglected to include an actual power source for the Orbital Module, so now it's useless.

Time to fire up the Recoverator II again, I think...

Didnt know there was a forum here! I Woulda been coming here for a while!! KSP is way to much fun, Im having problems getting my rockets up into orbit in 18 thought, particularily heavy loads. I am trying to get up a orbital rendevous fuel docking station which carries 4 orange fuel tanks up for transfer. Any ideas guys? IM using stock btw,

Your using Asparagus staging.

Asparagus staging helps you launch large loads efficiently. You either use 4 or 6 boosters(or 8 if you're using smaller tanks). As your tanks empty you drop them. You run fuel lines from your booster tanks into your internal tank. If you're using 4 boosters your boosters run out and then are decoupled leaving your center tank with full fuel.

If you're using 6 tanks you have two options. You can have 3 tanks empty first and then be dropped leaving you with 3 full tanks and your internal tank. Or you can have pairs of 2 empty, and go through 3 pairs and then have your internal tank.

Fuel drains from the first tank in a chain first, even if all the other links in the chain have burning engines. As fuel lines don't care about thrust or gravity, they work in all conditions.

As your tanks empty and are dropped your lowering your weight and thrust as the atmosphere thins. Generally you need more thrust in thicker atmospheres and higher fuel in lower or no atmosphere.

In real life this wouldn't work as we don't have magic fuel lines, and if we did Astronauts are wary of transferring highly explosive fuel between a fragile fuel line while in flight.


If you want an example of asparagus staging look at one of the stock crafts in the game.

Also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en4n8fsKWXA
http://i.imgur.com/kh7BN.png

Crossfeeding looks like what I'm using for my MunRocket, it's such a heavy load so it needs all the thrust just to get out of the thickest part of the atmosphere.

I could try just for fun to set it up for asparagus staging and see how it goes. :)

Surely the weight change of the fuel tanks would unbalance the craft during launch and/or cause excessive RCS usage?

The Kerblas design is pretty simple, one big booster at the bottom with three large tanks, six solid fuel boosters which are vettisoned when they empty. It's staged so the main booster and Solid Fuel Boosters both fire at launch. That usually gets me up to just below the upper limits of the atmosphere. Then I kick that off and use the nuclear engine with two smaller engines to help boost that out of the atmosphere. Then I shut off two fuel tanks and run the two smaller engines dry, kick them off and then I have two fuel tanks and a nuclear engine ready to go wherever it needs to. It can make it to the Mun just fine...haven't found out if it can get back yet...got to experiment with docking now...heh...heh...heh...:dead::dead::dead:

I've personally only used the cross feed method(usually use two rockets on the sides like the Aries-V rockets) but everyone swears by the Asparagus method on the forums. I was goin to use it with six rockets for my lander and any heavy lifting for space station parts.