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[MadYarpen]

I'm guessing they had some WOW moments.

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

They did the live stream of them watching the Scott Manley video. I missed it, caught it right at the end. I imagine it will be archived and up on the site fairly soon.

Project B.E.A.S.T Watches Project B.E.A.S.T - Scott Manley Edition

http://www.giantbomb.com/videos/project-beast-watches-project-beast-scott-manley-e/2300-11101/

 

[Ted]

I watched the first couple of Project B.E.A.S.T. videos and pretty much had to hit steam and buy this straight after.

What a great fun game/sim!

I ended up staying up far too late last night after finally managing to get into a stable orbit around Mun. I think I genuinely whooped out loud when it all came good in the end.

I know this is small fry to you guys but I just had to share with some one!

Building:

Launch Pad:

Launch:

In space preparing for stage 2:

Stage 1 separation:

Stage 2 aim:

Stage 2 long burn

Stage 2 not sure this is going to work Jebediah:

But it just might:

Oh yeah, now let's tighten this up:

HELLO MUN:

I'm now tweaking my rocket with the things I have learnt on this flight and will send another to the Mun before attempting a landing with this one. I think I have plenty of fuel but I'm not sure so would like to have a smidgen extra which I should have with the amendments I have made.

I'm kind of MacGyvering this without any knowledge of the subject at hand and man achievements feel good!

 

[MadYarpen]

I watched the first couple of Project B.E.A.S.T. videos and pretty much had to hit steam and buy this straight after.

What a great fun game/sim!

I ended up staying up far too late last night after finally managing to get into a stable orbit around Mun. I think I genuinely whooped out loud when it all came good in the end.

I know this is small fry to you guys but I just had to share with some one!



I'm now tweaking my rocket with the things I have learnt on this flight and will send another to the Mun before attempting a landing with this one. I think I have plenty of fuel but I'm not sure so would like to have a smidgen extra which I should have with the amendments I have made.

I'm kind of MacGyvering this without any knowledge of the subject at hand and man achievements feel good!

Just remember that usually a rocket that looks like a real life one should work best

 

[gutterboy44]

Just remember that usually a rocket that looks like a real life one should work best

Yes, and don't follow the Vinny building guide book. Having things like your RTG sticking off your nose cone is a bad idea. There is drag and center of gravity in this game. Having odd things asymmetrically sticking out of your ship can really make things wonky during launch.

 

[Brashnir]

Yes, and don't follow the Vinny building guide book. Having things like your RTG sticking off your nose cone is a bad idea. There is drag and center of gravity in this game. Having odd things asymmetrically sticking out of your ship can really make things wonky during launch.

But definitely DO keep the sick lights.

 

[UFO]

Watching these project beast videos from like 10 through 14, it drives me up the fucking wall the way they keep using only the SAS controls to turn that big ship all the way around, spending 5 minutes every time to wait for it to stop overshooting back and forth

I think I'm at this point right now. They keep using the main engine to match speed instead of the rcs thrusters. They keep go8ng back and forth, it's driving me crazy.

Edit: Why didn't they open the parachute?!

 

[jotun?]

I think I'm at this point right now. They keep using the main engine to match speed instead of the rcs thrusters. They keep go8ng back and forth, it's driving me crazy.

Edit: Why didn't they open the parachute?!

If you're talking about when they were heading toward the

Spoiler

mountains

, I don't think it would have slowed them in time. In my current career the same thing has actually happened to me twice by dumb luck, and I lost the capsule both times

 

[UFO]

If you're talking about when they were heading toward the

Spoiler

mountains

, I don't think it would have slowed them in time. In my current career the same thing has actually happened to me twice by dumb luck, and I lost the capsule both times

Don't they always open 1000m above the surface?

 

[MadYarpen]

Don't they always open 1000m above the surface?

There is also matter of speed. If the capsule does not slow down enough they will be torn off. And in the mountains there is less atmosphere to brake.

If you're talking about when they were heading toward the

Spoiler

mountains

, I don't think it would have slowed them in time. In my current career the same thing has actually happened to me twice by dumb luck, and I lost the capsule both times

You can set parachutes to open higher. Usually I set it at 1500 if I feel I'm on the edge. But now that I think about it, I guess it doesn't help if you are goint to fast.

Tip for duna:

Spoiler

If you plan to use parachutes to slow down you need to set them to open with lower pressure too.

 

[Ted]

The highs are so high but the lows are so low.

RIP Jebediah and Bill. You were brave and you were dedicated but it turns out 150 m/s is not an appropriate landing speed on Mun (or presumably anywhere).

Just remember that usually a rocket that looks like a real life one should work best

Look, I've watched Red Dwarf...

I'm sure I will get there but there was a little bit of simple logic behind that design. Given I know nothing of space (but a little about flying) my main aim was to ensure i had a separate stage for each part of my trip. One to brute force me off Earth, one to make the transition from Kerbin orbit to Mun orbit and one to slow me down and then get me off Mun and home again. Stages one and two worked OK but stage 3 was proper bad!

I'm trying one last time with my current model to check how much of bthe poor landing on the Mun was user error (a lot I suspect) and how much was design (also a lot if I am honest) and then I will probably try something a little more realistic.

Yes, and don't follow the Vinny building guide book. Having things like your RTG sticking off your nose cone is a bad idea. There is drag and center of gravity in this game. Having odd things asymmetrically sticking out of your ship can really make things wonky during launch.

She's comically difficult to make change direction for sure - turn turn turn...not that far...correct correct correct.....argh not that far.....turn turn BOOM!

I had assumed this was largely weight, she's a big, misshapen, girl. I will work on my symmetry going forward. Is there a better alternative for the magical electricity wand that is more aerodynamically sound... or can I just have two, like horns? Clearly the latter is a better idea.

But definitely DO keep the sick lights.

So sick.

When I build my space station anyone on Earth who looks up as I pass is going to be strangely compelled to party.

 

[runningjoke]

Is there a better alternative for the magical electricity wand that is more aerodynamically sound... or can I just have two, like horns? Clearly the latter is a better idea.

Symmetry would make it better, but totally overkill. Move it off the capsule and onto the last part you can jettison. Put something on the opposite side with the same weight as the isotope, like a battery or science experiment.

 

[gutterboy44]

You can also stash stuff in side service bays. Yo can place objects center line and not be affected by aerodynamics. You really don't need RTG's for many early missions. Small solar panels and a battery should be more than enough. You can put 4 2x3 or 3x1 solar panels on a ship and it will generate over 8x the electricity and still weigh less than 1 RTG.

Edit: via kspwiki some suggested use case scenarios for RTG

The Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator is useful for purposes such as:

Traveling so far away from the sun that solar panels become insufficient.
Operating energy-consuming equipment on the night-side of a celestial body.
Removing the need to take special action to replenish electrical power stores.
Emergency backup for a stronger primary power supply.
It is able to provide power while stowed in a faring or cargo bay

 

[UFO]

Got my SpacePrius to Minmus today. The Engineer Redux add-on is fantastic! Should be part of the standard game.

 

[MacGurcules]

I watched the first couple of Project B.E.A.S.T. videos and pretty much had to hit steam and buy this straight after.

What a great fun game/sim!

I ended up staying up far too late last night after finally managing to get into a stable orbit around Mun. I think I genuinely whooped out loud when it all came good in the end.

I know this is small fry to you guys but I just had to share with some one!



I'm now tweaking my rocket with the things I have learnt on this flight and will send another to the Mun before attempting a landing with this one. I think I have plenty of fuel but I'm not sure so would like to have a smidgen extra which I should have with the amendments I have made.

I'm kind of MacGyvering this without any knowledge of the subject at hand and man achievements feel good!

One thing that's useful to learn is that sometimes less is more. You think that you can solve most problems by just adding more fuel and more engines. That's largely true (and very Kerbal), but for every kilo of fuel you want to put into orbit, you need another kilo on the ground to lift it (I don't know the exact equivalence, but you get the idea). If you build a lighter, more efficient upper stage, you can get away with a lot less booster on your lower stages.

For example, with a reasonably efficient ascent, this ship has plenty of fuel to land on either Mun or Minmus and return with a comfortable margin.

 

[brianmcdoogle]

I love/hate this game. Here's why I love it:

It was a one-way trip to Duna. But, why was it one way?

HATE:

1: It runs like garbage on my Mac, and all of my support emails and logs go unnoticed it seems to official channels. I'm on a late 2012 iMac, and to get the minimal number of crashes, I have to greatly compromise my experience (despite running many contemporary games just fine)...

2: Which means I can't play with any graphical settings. To get this game to crash minimally (which is maybe 6 times an hour) I have to lower all of the specs. It looks kinda of ugly as a result. And it's really a bummer looking at other peoples' stuff because...

3: I can't play with any mods because it crashes constantly. Yes, that means graphical mods, but it also means scientific or helpful mods. I have no idea the Delta V on stages or anything because I can't install that stuff that tell you stages, Delva V, or whatever. THAT MEANS I got to Duna, Minmus, and Mun all by myself. The only "guidance" I had was watching Project B.E.A.S.T which was helpful in that it told me to turn East on launch. Nothing else was useful...

LOVE:

1: Which is something I love... I did this all by myself. I didn't download any mods, or view any tutorials (or play the game's tutorials; I just played sandbox for 24-ish hours), or read up on anything. I got from Kerbin to Duna on my own and it took 172 in-game days. Mun was becoming to easy, as was Minmus, and I could even do both on the same trip, even if I was probably brute-forcing it with dozens of solid fuel rockets, but I did it myself. And, that includes Duna. I got to Duna with almost no help. As that goddamn pod landed, I channeled my inner Cameron and shouted "I'M KING OF THE WORLD!!!"

But, now, again and I'll repeat, without any mods, I'm stuck. I have no idea how to return home. It took a lot of solid fuel rockets to get me into space, two large liquid fuel rocks to get me into orbit, nuclear rockets to get me to Duna, and my original idea was then to leave part of my ship in orbit, land, and then re-dock after landing, but I have no idea how to dock, so I lost an entire stage landing.

So, in vague terms, how can I get to Duna and back? I had good luck with the nuclear engines, but I had to burn 6 or 7 minutes to get to Duna's orbit, then another few minutes to correct it, and at that point all I had left was my lander, which I had to ditched to get the pod to land safely. Is it a good idea to use liquid/nuclear engines to get to Duna? Should I do something else? Do I need to plan my launch to get a proper alignment with Duna?

This is my stupid rocket, which I freely admit is probably overkill or silly:

Edit: I forgot to mention, but here's the crap I've had to deal with playing this game on a Mac. All of a sudden I couldn't click the fuel icon to get a better view of my fuel usage or see what is remaining; this was when I was trying to land on Duna, which is why I had to do an emergency ditch of my lander. This game is so buggy for me.

 

[MadYarpen]

I love/hate this game. Here's why I love it:


It was a one-way trip to Duna. But, why was it one way?

HATE:

1: It runs like garbage on my Mac, and all of my support emails and logs go unnoticed it seems to official channels. I'm on a late 2012 iMac, and to get the minimal number of crashes, I have to greatly compromise my experience (despite running many contemporary games just fine)...

2: Which means I can't play with any graphical settings. To get this game to crash minimally (which is maybe 6 times an hour) I have to lower all of the specs. It looks kinda of ugly as a result. And it's really a bummer looking at other peoples' stuff because...

3: I can't play with any mods because it crashes constantly. Yes, that means graphical mods, but it also means scientific or helpful mods. I have no idea the Delta V on stages or anything because I can't install that stuff that tell you stages, Delva V, or whatever. THAT MEANS I got to Duna, Minmus, and Mun all by myself. The only "guidance" I had was watching Project B.E.A.S.T which was helpful in that it told me to turn East on launch. Nothing else was useful...

LOVE:

1: Which is something I love... I did this all by myself. I didn't download any mods, or view any tutorials (or play the game's tutorials; I just played sandbox for 24-ish hours), or read up on anything. I got from Kerbin to Duna on my own and it took 172 in-game days. Mun was becoming to easy, as was Minmus, and I could even do both on the same trip, even if I was probably brute-forcing it with dozens of solid fuel rockets, but I did it myself. And, that includes Duna. I got to Duna with almost no help. As that goddamn pod landed, I channeled my inner Cameron and shouted "I'M KING OF THE WORLD!!!"

But, now, again and I'll repeat, without any mods, I'm stuck. I have no idea how to return home. It took a lot of solid fuel rockets to get me into space, two large liquid fuel rocks to get me into orbit, nuclear rockets to get me to Duna, and my original idea was then to leave part of my ship in orbit, land, and then re-dock after landing, but I have no idea how to dock, so I lost an entire stage landing.

So, in vague terms, how can I get to Duna and back? I had good luck with the nuclear engines, but I had to burn 6 or 7 minutes to get to Duna's orbit, then another few minutes to correct it, and at that point all I had left was my lander, which I had to ditched to get the pod to land safely. Is it a good idea to use liquid/nuclear engines to get to Duna? Should I do something else? Do I need to plan my launch to get a proper alignment with Duna?

This is my stupid rocket, which I freely admit is probably overkill or silly:



Edit: I forgot to mention, but here's the crap I've had to deal with playing this game on a Mac. All of a sudden I couldn't click the fuel icon to get a better view of my fuel usage or see what is remaining; this was when I was trying to land on Duna, which is why I had to do an emergency ditch of my lander. This game is so buggy for me.

First thing i'd normally say is: you need X deltaV... But as you have no mods, it would be useless.

1 make a rocket, not asparagus. Use liquid fuel rather than solid, so that you can do an effective launch. Some tutorial would help you, look for gravity turn. Even if it is not perfect it will be better than massive thrust and going supersonic at 1000 m.

Centre of drag should be behind centre of mass. Otherwise it will flip. Think darts.

2 plan your launch so that Duna is ahead around 45 degrees of kerbin. Launch from Duna should also be planned but the angle is different.

3 you don't need a separate lander. It is easy to go from dunas surface to orbit. But if you want to dock, learn on Kerbin orbit.

4 adjust your transition trajectory early. But check it from time to time cause you may crash into the planet otherwise. For adjustments limit the thrust as much as possible. Small burn makes big changes.

5 Use atmosphere of Duna to slow down rather than only engines. Setting periapsis on the approach at 20 km should be fine. Similarly with Kerbin return, but remember atmosphere is much more dense.

6 puddle engine is enough, I feel that with 2-3 minutes of burn it is easier to make precise maneuvers. No need to go nuclear IMO.

7. Below are screens of my Duna ship, maybe it'll help you.

I hope you can make it, it's a shame you have issues.

Here it is. Most important thing design - wise is using shorter tanks, I lock flow from all but the lowest and turn them on one by one as the lowest runs out of fuel. This way I can keep centre of mass at the front. Otherwise it is quite rough design. Did its job though

Whole thing:

Stage 1:

Stage 2:

Stage 3:

Lander/comeback ship

From the trip:

 

[Ted]

You can also stash stuff in side service bays. Yo can place objects center line and not be affected by aerodynamics. You really don't need RTG's for many early missions. Small solar panels and a battery should be more than enough. You can put 4 2x3 or 3x1 solar panels on a ship and it will generate over 8x the electricity and still weigh less than 1 RTG.

Edit: via kspwiki some suggested use case scenarios for RTG

Went for panels on my new ship but have been distracted now by career mode so I haven't had a chance to try her yet.

I did give it another run with my tweaked version of ship one and I got to Mun, landed safely, got back to Earth but then exploded on re-entry. I had no idea the capsule didn't have a built in heat-shield!

Beyond that though, good trip, I'll give it another go with this OG ship after adding a shield just to know she got there in the end.

One thing that's useful to learn is that sometimes less is more. You think that you can solve most problems by just adding more fuel and more engines. That's largely true (and very Kerbal), but for every kilo of fuel you want to put into orbit, you need another kilo on the ground to lift it (I don't know the exact equivalence, but you get the idea). If you build a lighter, more efficient upper stage, you can get away with a lot less booster on your lower stages.

For example, with a reasonably efficient ascent, this ship has plenty of fuel to land on either Mun or Minmus and return with a comfortable margin.

I am slowly learning this. Career mode is forcing me to learn some of the basics I had previously just brute forced.

This is my stupid rocket, which I freely admit is probably overkill or silly

This is a thing of true beauty.

 

[brianmcdoogle]

I totally redesigned my ship, landed on Duna, got back into orbit, but now I don't think I'll have enough fuel to return home. I have like 1200 liquid fuel remaining and two nuclear engines, plus a lot of dead weight (I used up my backup fuel engine/tank escaping Duna's atmosphere and orbit) that I can't jettison because I put the decoupler in the wrong spot!

Whoops!

Here's the new ship in space on its way to Duna.

I think I figured some new stuff out.

First off, and you're all free to laugh at me for this, I just discovered on this trip that if you press the left shift key, you can incrementally increase your thrust. This entire time I was either going max or nothing. Ha. Also, if I right-click an engine, even if it is in a different stage, I can turn it on. Without that, I wouldn't have been able to land or get off Duna because the nuclear engines weren't enough.

Secondly, it really helps to jettison those empty fuel tanks, so I mostly set up my ship so that I can do that. I say mostly because I could probably do it even better.

Third, and perhaps most important, I use a lot less fuel if I wait until Kerbin is in the noon position and Duna is around 9-10pm. Took me a while to figure that out.

Fourth, and most annoyingly, Duna's atmosphere sucks, so I had to put a bunch of airbrakes (which I don't think even work that well) and parachutes to get the ship to land relatively safely. I say "relatively" because I did bounce on impact (I think I was landing around 8 m/s) but I did luckily stay upright. During the entire landing, I still had to keep on full blast my two nuclear engines, or else I would increase speed and crash. This is a hard landing.

Finally, my solar panels are useless because the engines recharge my batteries just fine, but they look so cool that I don't care if they add more weight. Same with lights. ALL OF THE LIGHTS.

I think these are my biggest problems (assume that I can't get home on this trip, which seems likely):

1: Figure out how to better get into orbit with Duna. I can get there leaving Kerbin orbit (it's like a 15 minute burn, though... is that bad?) and I make a small correction halfway, but when I get to the encounter, I have to do another massive burn to get into orbit, something like 10 minutes, and then it's a terrible orbit where I'm seemingly coming in the wrong way and I'm almost perpendicular with the orbit.

2: Land better on Duna. I had to use a lot of fuel for the nuclear engines, as well as my big "get off of Duna" engine, and that left me with very little fuel to get back into orbit. Maybe more parachutes and airbrakes will help and cause me to use less fuel? Also, with the atmosphere being so thin, do I need to worry about heat concerns and things potentially blowing up upon Duna entry?

3: Figure out how to get back home. If I leave Kerbin in a noon/9pm position to get to Duna, I assume it's the reverse to get home. Also, I need to figure out the fuel situation. If I can get 1 and 2 working better, I can probably not worry so much about this part. If I can get off Duna using just my big engine and not touch my return fuel tanks that feed the nuclear engines, I'll have 1600 liquid fuel to get me home. That may still be light, but I don't know until I get to Duna and try it out, I guess. I mean, is five tons for the engine and empty fuel tank that much weight when I'm already in orbit heading home?

At least they made it again!

Man, I wish I could play with mods.

 

[MadYarpen]

Get rid of nuclear engines. Puddle and swivel engines are great for duna trip. 2-3 minutes of burn to jump to duna is fine.

• Puddle will get you to duna and with help of aero braking - to its orbit,
• single swivel is enough to land, take off from duna, and go back to Kerbin. Or Reliant engine, I'm not 100% sure right now.

You don't need such a massive lander - I had 4 1.25 m tanks and single engine.
Of course, if you really want to have all three kerbals there some changes may be necessary. But I wouldn't use 2.5 m structure.

Less is more.

And seriously, get rid of nuclear engines. I think they are useless with a ship of this size. They get more efficient as the ship gets bigger.


Also consider doing tutorial missions. They cover only basics, but you wouldn't have to discover shift key function...


E: If you want to use nuclear engines no matter what, make sure you have no oxidizer in your tanks. They don't need that.

 

[brianmcdoogle]

Never send a man to do a woman's job!

I left Jeb, Bob, and Bill in orbit around Duna while I tweaked my old ship. So, it was up to Valentina to complete the mission. This is the ship in orbit approaching Duna.

Since I had so much more fuel in the tanks when landing on Duna this time, my ship was heavier. So, I again spent way too much fuel from the "get off Duna" rocket. But, I finally prevailed, and the ship landed in a relatively great, flat location.

It took a ton of fuel to get off Duna. I almost didn't make it, and I think it was luck. The main rocket died 3 seconds after takeoff, so the two nuclear engines (yes, I kept them) went poof-poof-poof and struggled to get back into orbit, but it worked. BARELY. Valentine was now in a lower orbit than Jeb, Bob, and Bill, and with the same amount of fuel. So, either she would be stuck in orbit, or I would risk it and try to get her home. As it turns out, I had barely enough fuel to get back into Kerbin orbit!

But, I was going way too fast, at a bad angle, and one of my parachutes was gone. All I had left were three of the side-mounted parachutes and one airbrake that was near death.

This was, without a doubt, the slowest re-entry I had done. I think I orbited Kerbin about a dozen times, and it took about 2 hours real-time for the ship to finally enter the atmosphere. The entire time I was worried the ship would burn up, or the remaining parachutes would fail, or the airbrake would fall off.

I was going to hit the ground, either in one piece or many. And, I was heading towards mountains in the dark. I had no idea if I would make it.

Touchdown! I landed in some mountain area with trees! What a great ending.

Oh, except when I went to the Space Center to collect the ship, the game crashed. Luckily, it autosaved after I touched down.

So, I did it. Now I'm going to try and get Jeb, Bob, and Bill home. But that will be for another day, because I'm tired. This game is so stressful.

Oh, and here's the monstrosity that I made that got me there and back again.

Sorry for all the photos.

Edit:

Update!

Brought the boys back. Barely. I was entering the atmosphere at 3000+ m/s at a steep angle. I'm surprised how durable the capsule and heat shield are, but not the airbrakes, sadly. They burned up really early on re-entry. I guess I should't use them for landing back on Kerbin.

So, that's two successful missions to Duna. Since I had so many problems with the game crashing on me, this entire time I would get my ship to Kerbin orbit, save, then fly to Duna, save, then land, save, then take off, save, and return to Kerbin orbit, save, and land. If I died during any of those, I would just erase my save and start over, so "technically" they never died. Nice to have all the original guys and gal back on solid ground.

I REALLY want to go to Eve, but Duna was already really difficult to do without mods and looking things up. Maybe I can just do an orbit of it since I have trouble taking off of things. But, I really want to try and land on it. It looks so pretty from space. Maybe Moho or Dres? Since Moho is so close to the sun, I wonder if I can slap on radiators to the ship and get that to work. Dres looks kind of boring. And I know I can't get to the outer planets, so that's not on my immediate radar.

 

[MadYarpen]

OMG this is so kerbal!

Spoiler

 

[gutterboy44]

Wow, great mission brainmcdoogle. That is one Kerbal as fuck looking ship. Good stuff. Those nuclear engines for getting to orbit on Duna are really, really hurting you. That is so much weight for garbage atmospheric thrust and delta V. You really want to only use those nukes for big orbital transfers on big ships.

 

[AcAnchoa]

1: Figure out how to better get into orbit with Duna. I can get there leaving Kerbin orbit (it's like a 15 minute burn, though... is that bad?) and I make a small correction halfway, but when I get to the encounter, I have to do another massive burn to get into orbit, something like 10 minutes, and then it's a terrible orbit where I'm seemingly coming in the wrong way and I'm almost perpendicular with the orbit.

2: Land better on Duna. I had to use a lot of fuel for the nuclear engines, as well as my big "get off of Duna" engine, and that left me with very little fuel to get back into orbit. Maybe more parachutes and airbrakes will help and cause me to use less fuel? Also, with the atmosphere being so thin, do I need to worry about heat concerns and things potentially blowing up upon Duna entry?

3: Figure out how to get back home. If I leave Kerbin in a noon/9pm position to get to Duna, I assume it's the reverse to get home. Also, I need to figure out the fuel situation. If I can get 1 and 2 working better, I can probably not worry so much about this part. If I can get off Duna using just my big engine and not touch my return fuel tanks that feed the nuclear engines, I'll have 1600 liquid fuel to get me home. That may still be light, but I don't know until I get to Duna and try it out, I guess. I mean, is five tons for the engine and empty fuel tank that much weight when I'm already in orbit heading home?

At least they made it again!

A 15 minute burn for Duna is possible, and I wouldn't say is good or bad, it depends on your engines and the mass of the craft. As your ship gains mass you'll need more powerful engines if you want to make a quick injection burn, but as long as you are within the delta v parameters for the mission you are ok with long burns.

The trick when going to other planets is to get the right phase angle, which is basically the angle that the target, the sun and the planet you are in form. And of course the inclinations of each body also play some role. There are some tables and tools out there to help get the right conditions for an optimal burn. This is valid when going from any given planet to another arbitrary one (and when applicable from moon to moon), so when you want to come back to Kerbin you have to consider these angles once again.

You can calculate the delta V by yourself, it's not difficult at all, just tedious.

And definitely do care about heat during Duna reentry. Its atmosphere is enough to make you explode but not enough to safely put heavy craft on the ground using only parachutes.

I REALLY want to go to Eve, but Duna was already really difficult to do without mods and looking things up. Maybe I can just do an orbit of it since I have trouble taking off of things. But, I really want to try and land on it. It looks so pretty from space. Maybe Moho or Dres? Since Moho is so close to the sun, I wonder if I can slap on radiators to the ship and get that to work. Dres looks kind of boring. And I know I can't get to the outer planets, so that's not on my immediate radar.

Going to Eve is easier than going to Duna. The problem (big problem) with Eve is coming back from its surface, an "orbit and back to Kerbin" mission is fairly easy. Going to Moho is harder, if you don't make a very good injection burn in Kerbin you'll have to make a huge inclination fix when orbiting the Sun, taking away a big chunk of fuel.

 

[MadYarpen]

Yeah I tried to build Eve descent/ascent vehicle and delta V just wasn't there.

 

[jotun?]

Going to Moho is harder, if you don't make a very good injection burn in Kerbin you'll have to make a huge inclination fix when orbiting the Sun, taking away a big chunk of fuel.

If you wait for a transfer window that allows you to hit Moho at an ascending or descending node, you shouldn't need to worry about a plane change


edit: I forgot how ridiculous getting to/from Moho really is. Avoiding the solar plane change saves up to ~760 m/s, but you'll still need to have something like 13500 in Kerbin orbit if you hope to land there and return (half that for just a landing), so that plane change is relatively small compared to everything else

 

[AcAnchoa]

If you wait for a transfer window that allows you to hit Moho at an ascending or descending node, you shouldn't need to worry about a plane change


edit: I forgot how ridiculous getting to/from Moho really is. Avoiding the solar plane change saves up to ~760 m/s, but you'll still need to have something like 13500 in Kerbin orbit if you hope to land there and return (half that for just a landing), so that plane change is relatively small compared to everything else

That's why I talked about a good or bad ejection burn from Kerbin, if you time it properly and leave from a good parking orbit you can eliminate the inclination fix, which can be way higher than 760 m/s and get in the range of 2500 m/s in a full 7 degrees scenario due to the high speed you are travelling at.

Then another big problem comes when you have to slow down to get captured by it because of the planet's orbital speed (12 to 18 km/s) and lack of atmosphere for aerobraking assistance. And there's of course the high eccentricity and heating issues. So, yeah, Moho is hard, not the hardest thing in the game, but definitely hard.

 

[Crispy75]

the hardest thing in the game

nominations, ladies and gentlemen please

 

[runningjoke]

nominations, ladies and gentlemen please

Landing a spaceplane on the runway after returning from another planet

 

[brianmcdoogle]

Everything burned up and exploded on my descent into Eve except my capsule, so my three guys were able to walk around on the planet (which is really cool looking, btw). Upon approach, the atmosphere looks so thick and on landing, I can't even jump the gravity is so high. I have no idea how I'm going to be able to land without blowing up or take off with such strong gravity. This seems almost impossible.

Is there any way to practice this? Like, can I assume if my lander can take off and land on Kerbin, that will be enough?

That said, I saved before doing this because this mission was just supposed to be an orbit, and I just couldn't go without attempting to land. Getting to Eve is really easy, as was the return. I had tons of fuel to spare. Other than potential heat issues, I'm going to try Moho next, and then maybe Jool. I assume since Jool is the Jupiter analogue you can't really land on it, so that will definitely be an orbit only. My ultimate goal is to get to every planet, land, and be able to return home.

I'm sure there's a mod for it, but since I can't get them to run, I wish there was an in-game "simulator" where I could test spacecraft on different planets to see if they are viable rather than spend the time to travel to them only to find out I'm woefully unprepared.

 

[jotun?]

There's a mod called HyperEdit that you can use to teleport a ship to Eve's surface. I think there's another I don't know the name of that just lets you build/launch from other planets

Getting to orbit on Eve supposedly takes a bit less than double the delta-v as getting to Kerbin orbit, plus you need more thrust to deal with the gravity. It is considered one of the hardest things in the game

 

[Ted]

Been doing career mode and just took two tourists for an orbit of Kerbin. Their little faces during launch in the inline crew cabin thing were great. Such fear, such awe but still so adorably cute!

I seem to be learning a lot about efficiency and simplicity it seems whilst I do the career mode. You really don't get very advanced parts at the start and earning science seems pretty tough. It's super fun though to think laterally around what essentially become puzzles.

 

[gutterboy44]

Been doing career mode and just took two tourists for an orbit of Kerbin. Their little faces during launch in the inline crew cabin thing were great. Such fear, such awe but still so adorably cute!

I seem to be learning a lot about efficiency and simplicity it seems whilst I do the career mode. You really don't get very advanced parts at the start and earning science seems pretty tough. It's super fun though to think laterally around what essentially become puzzles.

This is the most redeeming part of career mode. I had played about 250+ hours of KSP before they even added the first career mode. However, every time I start a new career mode with a major update, I find new ways to be more efficient or better use parts I have taken for granted for years.

 

[MadYarpen]

I had some time to play recently, this game is so much fun.

Here is my report:

1. Rescue mission.
Jebediah Kerman was stuck in the Sun's orbit, a bit larger than Duna's orbit. Such were the results of trying to go to Duna with a ship which took me to the Mun for the first time
I made quite simple unmanned ship with dangerously looking grabbing unit.

Randevous was not easy. like on kerbin's orbit but the scale was much larger. I think first burn gave me separation around 30k km.

But once I corrected it several times, I managed to start approach, catch him and refuel Jebediah's ship.

Return was a little on the edge - but now he is ready for new mission!

2. I started to build petrol station on Kerbin's Orbit. Still work in progress.
It will serve in future, further trips.

I think electric charge is a bit overkill...

3. And today I ALMOST made this thing work. Shuttles are sooo hard to make. I loose control once I'm out of the denser atmosphere...
I'm guessing it is because thrust of the shuttle engines I set in the hangar is big enough to compensate for it's weight AND drag. Once drag is gone, the thrust is to strong.
I don't think there is a way to limit thrust of one of the engines to the level which I would set on the ground?

I had it above the atmosphere, so I'm close. Maybe shutting down shuttle's engines at 50km will be enough...

 

[gutterboy44]

The center of mass and center of thrust are out of allignment with the NASA style shuttle. You need the engines on the shuttle to be angled slightly to bring the center of thrust back in line or else it will always go out of control. Notice the angle of the engines in the pic below.

 

[MadYarpen]

The center of mass and center of thrust are out of allignment with the NASA style shuttle. You need the engines on the shuttle to be angled slightly to bring the center of thrust back in line or else it will always go out of control. Notice the angle of the engines in the pic below.

I thought i movef center of drag only by turning the engines on with 37% of thrust.... I will try this, thanks.

 

[gutterboy44]

Nice, looks like there is some news today regarding KSP that isn't just 1.1 release date. I think 1.1 might be out by the end of the week regardless. Also, anyone still on the fence, KSP is on sale again on Steam, $23.99. http://store.steampowered.com/app/220200/

 

[gutterboy44]

Ohhhhh shit, they threw me off, it was a secret release of 1.1.

1.1 out now!

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com...s.html/kerbal-space-program-11-turbo-charged/

Hello everyone!

Kerbal Space Program is “Turbo Charged” by the release of patch 1.1!

After almost a year of hard work our major update is finally here! In the package you’ll find a large boost in performance due to the upgrade to the Unity 5 game engine, 64 bit binaries for Windows and OSX that will help you mod the game to ridiculous lengths, and the brand new KSPedia reference guide for all the information you need to play the game!

That’s not all though, here are some of the highlights for this patch:

All new user interface
The user interface has been rewritten from the ground up to take full advantage of Unity 5’s new integrated systems. The ‘parallel’ UI systems have been removed and the game now uses only one system, adding to the performance bonus the update already brings. Almost all interface elements have been redesigned and tweaked but have retained the familiar feel for experienced players. The most notable tweaks can be found in the map view, staging, IVA portraits and the right-click part menus.

Players can now search through parts by typing in text greatly reducing the time needed to find that one part needed to complete the rocket. The Tracking Station will inform the player of a craft’s next maneuver node time, helping players to maintain several active flights at any one time. The Space Center overview features buttons for all the buildings, making sure you don’t miss out on any part of the space program by overlooking mission control!

KSPedia
KSPedia will be the primary source for information on just about anything in the game. New players will find the basics of building and flying explained here, and more experienced players can take in information about more advanced concepts such as docking, in-situ resource utilisation and all the information they need to plan a successful mission to the next planet or moon.

New tutorials and scenarios
The tutorials have been extended and reworked from the ground up. The new tutorials will cover topics ranging from basic and advanced construction and flight, to docking and landing on Mun. Learn how to execute the perfect gravity turn, orbit Kerbin and land the Eagle.

Not only tutorials have been reworked: we’ve extended the available pool of scenarios as well, increasing it by 150%! Use a spaceplane to re-enter the atmosphere and land it back on the runway at the Kerbal Space Center, return a craft without heat shield from Duna, or beat SpaceX at their own game by flying back the first stage of a rocket to the launch pad. These new scenarios will unlock these advanced topics for any player!


A special thank you goes out to everyone involved in testing the QA, experimental and pre-release versions.

Kerbal Space Program 1.1 is now available on the KSP Store and Steam, and will soon be available on other third party platforms.

 

[Mengy]

Ohhhhh shit, they threw me off, it was a secret release of 1.1.

1.1 out now!

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com...s.html/kerbal-space-program-11-turbo-charged/

Holy Shit, no kidding? That's awesome news!

 

[DBT85]

Yep, caught me out. I just happened to hit the forum to see whats gone on in the last few months since I've been so busy and 1.1 is out!

Unity5 at last.

Looking forward to running many mods and lots of visual enhancement bits.

 

[Lonestar]

oh man, my crappilly built space station with Jeb and the Double B's doesn't like 1.1

It instantly blows up if I load into it

 

[MacGurcules]

Restarted career for the 1.1 release. It's been a while, but is reentry less forgiving these days or have I just severely atrophied?

Used to be that you could do a suborbital launch to like 100k and reenter with no heat shield and a single nosecone chute. Now I can't seem to manage without a shield and drogues.

 

[brianmcdoogle]

1.1 Crashes on launch. Late 2012 iMac, OS X 10.11.4.

It happens so fast, but best I can tell, it is loading a sound file or something from Squad. It's probably one of the first 10 things that gets loaded. No mods or anything installed.

Any ideas what I might try?

Edit: EditorLoop01 is when it crashes.

 

[jotun?]

Restarted career for the 1.1 release. It's been a while, but is reentry less forgiving these days or have I just severely atrophied?

Used to be that you could do a suborbital launch to like 100k and reenter with no heat shield and a single nosecone chute. Now I can't seem to manage without a shield and drogues.

What are you trying to re-enter with? A Mk1 command pod should be able to handle that easily (I just tried it). A service bay has kind of absurd heat tolerance, so that should be able to take it too.

1.1 Crashes on launch. Late 2012 iMac, OS X 10.11.4.

It happens so fast, but best I can tell, it is loading a sound file or something from Squad. It's probably one of the first 10 things that gets loaded. No mods or anything installed.

Any ideas what I might try?

Edit: EditorLoop01 is when it crashes.

I don't know if it will help with that specifically, but I found this on their tech support forum:

Most OSX issues are permissions related, solve these by enabling read/write permissions on the KSP_osx folder. To do this, open a Terminal, change the directory to where the KSP_osx is and type: "sudo chmod -R 777 KSP_osx" (without the quotes).

 

[ThreePiMatt]

I've been messing with 1.1 since the prerelease started and reentry has definitely been more of a challenge.

Longer reentry vehicles can have problems. A pod and a service bay is fine. A pod and a Science Jr. is okay if you come in gingerly. A pod, service bay and Science Jr. is going to be problematic.

In general, for all my returns from Mun and Minimus I've been using drogue chutes and heat shields (with about half ablator). For Science Jrs, I've been EVAing to pull the science out and dumping it before reentry.

 

[jotun?]

The big problem with having science jr and service bay under your pod is that it won't be stable. The service bay can take the heat from a pretty mean reentry, but the whole thing is likely to just flip around because they're so light relative to the pod. The biggest benefit of a heatshield for many Kerbin-area reentries is just for the weight to keep the bottom pointed forward

I also saw reports in the early 1.1 prereleases that the science jr had problems when it was holding results because the open flaps stuck out too much. So even if you had a heat shield right under it, those flaps would catch enough air to heat it up and explode. I haven't tried it to see if they ever changed/fixed that

I do like that parachutes can open a bit earlier now. Maybe coming in over mountains won't be guaranteed death anymore

 

[EvB]

I'll reinstall this later, I always found the performance painful, so this is good news

 

[MacGurcules]

What are you trying to re-enter with? A Mk1 command pod should be able to handle that easily (I just tried it). A service bay has kind of absurd heat tolerance, so that should be able to take it too.:

A command pod, a Science Jr, and a couple of goo canisters. The heat does seem a lot more aggressive, but that's cool. The shield is there for a reason and I wanna say it's lower in the tree than I remember.

Really, the most jarring thing is that it doesn't seem like I can slow down enough to safely deploy a regular parachute before crash landing anymore without taking a very shallow reentry path. Not really a complaint. Just not the way I remember it. At least the drogues have a use now, I guess.

 

[Nzyme32]

This is great. One of the first issues I had with 1.0 was that the tutorials were completely broken. Commenting on the Steam Forums led to no answer, but I'm happy that they still addressed it

 

[ThreePiMatt]

I believe both the heat shield and drogue chutes were both moved lower down the tree.