Kerbal Space Program

Interplanetary travel is really hard. Even when I take the time to do the maths and work out what angle I need to burn at, the targets are so small, I can never get them in a Hohmann transfer orbit. I always end up circularizing my orbit and trying to rendez-vous with the planet like a space station. It takes ages and wastes a lot of fuel.

Edit: just landed on Eve.

zs9UC.png


Get used to your new home, Bill Kerman, because there's no way for you to get back to Kerbin.

It was annoying. I was doing a soft descent assisted by two parachutes, and then my ship just exploded for no reason. At least the capsule remained intact.

Eve is an interesting planet. Thick atmosphere, it has oceans of purple liquid, and the gravity here seems to be quite strong.

I quick-saved so I might try again to land my ship on the surface in one piece.
 
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I've been playing about with the demo version which is obviously quite limited. Just wondered if the paid alpha version has any heat/friction when re-entering the atmosphere?
 
toString said:
I've been playing about with the demo version which is obviously quite limited. Just wondered if the paid alpha version has any heat/friction when re-entering the atmosphere?
Click to expand...

At this point NO.
Presently the latest build is 0.18.1. An there is no re-entry heat effects present.
But it is been worked on, an will be added once ready.

That doesn't mean heat isn't modeled even that this stage.
Fly a probe to the Dark side of the moon, an a Tempature probe will read -200.
Or in Kerbin atmo +30.
 
Seanoog said:
At this point NO.
Presently the latest build is 0.18.1. An there is no re-entry heat effects present.
But it is been worked on, an will be added once ready.

That doesn't mean heat isn't modeled even that this stage.
Fly a probe to the Dark side of the moon, an a Tempature probe will read -200.
Or in Kerbin atmo +30.
Click to expand...

Isn't there a mod that adds the effects?
 
Seanoog said:
At this point NO.
Presently the latest build is 0.18.1. An there is no re-entry heat effects present.
But it is been worked on, an will be added once ready.

That doesn't mean heat isn't modeled even that this stage.
Fly a probe to the Dark side of the moon, an a Tempature probe will read -200.
Or in Kerbin atmo +30.
Click to expand...

Heat isn't modelled very well though, no day/night difference etc. suppose it isn't important though.
 
I downloaded 0.18 yesterday and crikey, I'm struggling. Need to spend a bit of time getting reacquainted methinks. Might have a play tomorrow.

The HUD stuff and nav ball are tiny on 1920x1200 for some reason, need to dig around in the options to see if I can fix that...

I can see so much potential for this game, the screenie above made me think that there could be campaign missions to implement GPS satellites etc which generate revenue for more research. Having that in place could also allow GPS based systems to work. :D
 
Narj said:
I downloaded 0.18 yesterday and crikey, I'm struggling. Need to spend a bit of time getting reacquainted methinks. Might have a play tomorrow.

The HUD stuff and nav ball are tiny on 1920x1200 for some reason, need to dig around in the options to see if I can fix that...

I can see so much potential for this game, the screenie above made me think that there could be campaign missions to implement GPS satellites etc which generate revenue for more research. Having that in place could also allow GPS based systems to work. :D
Click to expand...

Devs have added a system to scale the entire UI.
Go to setting, on the General screen look for UI scale option, set it to Normal.
An it will look like version 17.

PS: version o.18.1 is out. So download it.
 
Just for fun, I just strapped 6 linear RCS things to the bottom of a stayputnik, attached two radial mono tanks, and a radioisotope thermal generator to the top. This thing is ridiculous. No only has it managed to lift itself into space, it's currently on a a trajectory to rendez-vous with Jool, with 11.12 units of mono fuel left (out of 20). No staging, no conventional rockets, just me holding down the H key the whole time.

Edit: that first one crashed and burned. I tried again, but this time with some science stuff attached. Managed to soft-land on Laythe, but my electric generator broke off. Had to be quick taking these screenshots before the probe died.

Surface gravity 0.8g:
wnRTh.png


Corresponding to an acceleration of 7.85m/s/s
p7oMQ.png


Temperature, a chilly but respectable 4.4°C. (I'm assuming C because if it was F, you wouldn't have that liquid water in the background)
0ZXHW.png


Atmospheric pressure, 0.7924 atmospheres:
wtg8C.png


And one more shot with a view of Jool peeking up over the ridge:
5Fek2.png

All in all, that's a pretty cool moon. I had no idea there was a water world here until that first probe arrived in the Jool system. When that probe died, I just had to land a science probe on it to check its vital statistics. Awesome. I notice it's in a 1:2:4 resonance with Vall and Tylo - that must be how it stays at that nice toasty 4.4°C.

Edit again: fast forwarding, I see that Laythe is tidally locked to Jool.
 
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I've FINALLY managed to hoist a satellite into space, extended the solar panels, turned on the radar things...now what do I do? I strapped as many sensors on it as possible and turned them all on but was hoping for something to happen. Am on a very limited internet connection at the moment as I'm offshore and OcUK forums seem to be the only thing that loads!

Cheers
 
J0hnb0y said:
I've FINALLY managed to hoist a satellite into space, extended the solar panels, turned on the radar things...now what do I do? I strapped as many sensors on it as possible and turned them all on but was hoping for something to happen. Am on a very limited internet connection at the moment as I'm offshore and OcUK forums seem to be the only thing that loads!

Cheers
Click to expand...

Please, please, please guys post picture of your achievements.
"A picture is worth a thousand words" + they look cool. :cool:

As for johnboy:
What parts to your satelite did you hoist up there?
Docking ports, lander legs, ion thrusters?
You could use it as an impromtu Station.

Personnally not really played with rockets too much in 18.1.
Having far too much fun with planes. Sadly on my mobile so no pictures.
More too follow tomorrow. :)
 
More in the spirit of the game, there is no point lol. The more time I spend with KSP the more fascinated with it I become. I spent ages trying to get a decent rocket to transport a simple satellite to orbit the Earth. My rocket became an abomination, solid fuel boosters (both sorts) everywhere on first stage, second stage loads of fuel etc then finally the satellite swaying precariously on top. Well it did the job and got a nice orbit going but it was ugly. Rocket mark 2 had half the engines about 1/4 weight and the sat is in orbit. Brilliant. Next task, get a satellite to the moon. This may take a few days hehe.
 
My first moon landing without anything breaking off my ship.

DaWKh.png


And safely back on Kerbin.

PyFKf.png


That was this morning. Just now, I managed to dock two spacecraft together in orbit. Wow that was tricky.

kaR21.png
 
Wow, this has changed a lot since I last played it (1.3/1.4 I think?).

I'm about ready to try a manned (Kerbinned?) Mun landing for the first time in ages, but I've lost my old lander design. :( I used to be able to hit orbit, transfer to the Mun, land, and return to Kerbin with about half a tank of fuel left.

Anyone got a stock-part heavy-lifter design for the Mun? I've spotted a few people plonking the 2 ton habitation unit on the surface. Is that all a single mission or is that done with refueling in orbit?
 
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I've got a craft which can get the 2tonne habitation unit onto the Mun along with the mk3 capsule. I need to refine the design though, managed to use up all my fuel slowing down.
It's an apollo-esque design with a main ship still in orbit which has insane amounts of fuel in it. Few tweaks on the cards later! :)
 
I've built a station in orbit and I'm getting the hang of intercepting and docking with it.

Anyone else having a problem getting a 'good' dock? I come in to dock, everything is looking all square etc., but then after it acknowledges the dock I'm suddenly only slightly overlapping the 2 docking rings.

I'm also a bit surprised there isn't a large docking ring, the standard ring looks a bit small t be strapping big fuel tanks to.
 
Does anyone know how to use those 6 sided station hub things? I notice it's not possible to attach clampotrons to the sides of it, so how do you dock anything to them?
 
macmodder said:
I'm also a bit surprised there isn't a large docking ring, the standard ring looks a bit small t be strapping big fuel tanks to.
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There is a large clampotron, or rather there is a clampotron and a clampotron junior. The large one seems adequate for most jobs. I just use a converter from the aerodynamics tab (I think) to attach a large fuel tank to it.

As for docking tips I find that turning off SAS helps with the final magnetic connection. Otherwise the SAS can interrupt the bodies joining together and cause them to be misaligned, I lost my first station to just such an issue. Was auto-clamping and all of a sudden the piece I was in control of started swinging around madly then split off a large piece of the station and took it with it :(
 
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