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[Katrina Oniseki]

Science! In Munar orbit!

What parts did you use on that craft? All my custom built ships are too heavy to get into munar orbit. I've got like... 13 stages on my biggest, and have maxxed out at around 80,000m before running out of all fuel.

[orange]

I have not done a Mun Lander yet.  Those legs are for landing on Kerbin with more Science.

So, this fairly early Mun Orbiter.  All the parts (there are batteries, solar panels, and a SAS) come to under 300 Science to get to (if you are in career mode).

Crescent V

*Stage 0: Capsule and basic parachute
*Stage 1: Two additional chutes (on materials lab)
*Stage 2: FL-T100 Tank & LV-909 Engine (for pre-landing decel on Kerbin)
Stage 3: Decoupler & LV-T45, 3 FL-T400s (in previous pic)
Stage 4: 6 TT-68Ks, 12 Sepratrons
Stage 5: 6 LV-T30s with 4 FL-T400s a piece

*Left part of previous pic and part viewable above external stages below.



Another important technique I have been utilizing is to not go into circular Mun orbit.  The goal should be to get a sub-30k perigee Mun orbit so you can get Science in space near Mun (vs high Mun orbit).  This will also allow you to do EVAs over the various Mun biomes.

The above rocket returned to Kerbin via a direct re-entry with unused propellant (since there are no fancy: "you die horrible hot-death if you re-enter at too steep an angle" or "skip off and die horrible cold-death if you attempt at too shallow an angle").

[Katrina Oniseki]

After 8 solid hours of trying again and again in sandbox, I finally put a space station in orbit. Screenshots below!

The rocket is a five stage design (though the game counts it as ten stages). Eight Rockomax BACC SRBs assist with initial liftoff, supporting three Rockomax "Mainsail" LFEs each with their own Jumbo-64 tank. The main engines cannot be pushed past 2/3 power or the entire rocket will literally tear itself in half with the overwhelming thrust capacity.


Once the SRBs are expended, they are jettisoned and the main engines are pushed to their limits. Within seconds, we've cleared the atmosphere.


Once the massive tanks are empty, they too are jettisoned. The second stage is lit, and burns for the next several minutes to bring the payload up to about 100k altitude. A 45° angle is introduced to set up the orbit path. This part is very tricky, as even this single engine can tear itself in half if you turn too quickly. On the other hand, constant course corrections are required even after you find your target.


Once the second stage is empty, the next part happens almost instantaneously as soon as it is triggered. I was (after 3 tries), unable to get a good screenshot of the separation. Four smaller SRBs light up and power the whole ship halfway through its orbit. Why only halfway? Because no single stage I could come up with would push something this heavy all the way into orbit. This part is extremely difficult, mostly because you can barely guide these things, and they have so much power. Not ideal for delicate jobs at all... which is why we're not done yet.


Once the boosters are dead, they're jettisoned as usual and a smaller engine finishes the burn for me with more careful aim. Once I've gotten to this point, I'm already in a solid orbit. The rest of the fuel goes towards matching the 100k orbital on my periapsis.


Finally, I'm done with the hard stuff. One final job (the fun stuff) is left to do! Jettisoning the engines and turning the rocket into a proper space station, I align myself as desired and begin to deploy my solar panels and instruments...


The final product. Space Station Kat! ... or a GDI Ion Cannon, if you prefer.


I am very proud of my work, honestly.

[orange]

Bill Kerman bravely volunteered for the first Mun mission.  He is a hero to all Kerman!  The engineering team however left out the critical piece of information... they were not sure if he would make it home!   Bill now continues to orbit Kerbin at a high altitude, awaiting the day that his best (and much smarter) friends Jeb and Bob can rescue him.



Ya, not enough fuel to make it home on the descent/stage.  It however gives me a non-science goal of rescuing Bill!

[Louella Dougans]

i remember a mission I did in a previous version of KSP like that.

however, because I have never got the hang of docking craft, the best I could do, was to get a rescue ship close, and have the stranded kerbalnauts.... jump.... from their disabled craft to the rescue ship. 

[Jekaterine]

 
I'll steal this and maybe finally get a larger station into orbit at once.

[orange]

i remember a mission I did in a previous version of KSP like that.

however, because I have never got the hang of docking craft, the best I could do, was to get a rescue ship close, and have the stranded kerbalnauts.... jump.... from their disabled craft to the rescue ship. 

Well since I am in Career Mode and I have yet to earn sufficient Science! (tm) to pick up docking adapters, that is exactly what Bill had to do once we had the technology for a big 3-man rocket.

Due to a gravity "assist" from Mun, he was now in an orbit between Mun & Minmus!  Jeb and Bob however were up to the task with the newly available Specialized Controls and Heavier Rocketry parts the engineers developed based on the Science! (tm) funding the series of 5 Beep missions returned.


Beep 3 leaves Minmus


Buddies 1 prior to lift off


Bill is where?


Bye Bye Craters II


No longer alone!


Mun helps out on the return trip


Not to far from where we left... like 4 weeks ago!


Buddies 1 was a total success.

Bill, the first Kerman on the Mun, was rescued.  The first rendezvous mission was a success.  The first intentional off structure EVA was a success.  All three made it home safe.

[Katrina Oniseki]

After building a horribly laggy and oversized space station that eventually went physics-crazy and tore itself aprt for no good reason, I've started a new game, opting to follow the traditional graduation of goals.

Starting with this new game, I began with launching my first probe in the most efficient way possible. To that end, I am using mod parts rather than vanilla parts. You'll notice this in the images. They work far more efficiently.

Katnik 1 is now in orbit!



For more info on the launch, you can go here.

[Arnulf Ogunkoya]

Seeing as this is an EVE board I thought I ought to mention:

Kerbals at War

And

Kerbals at War 2.

In case the rest of you didn't know about them.

Oh yes, and this. Possibly the weirdest use of the game I have yet seen.

[Lyn Farel]

Seeing as this is an EVE board I thought I ought to mention:

Kerbals at War

And

Kerbals at War 2.

In case the rest of you didn't know about them.

Oh yes, and this. Possibly the weirdest use of the game I have yet seen.

Dat physics.

[Ché Biko]

Have any of you Kerbals played around with Orbiter?

[Victoria Stecker]

Needs moar asparagus, makes getting stuff into orbit much easier.

I'm tempted to fire this up and let it patch, see what it's like now that I haven't played in several months or a year.

[Aria Jenneth]

I watched my housemate landing his first manned mission to Mun. He'd gotten there with resources to spare, so he was attempting the classic '50s sci fi comic book version of a rocket touchdown-- tail-first, no landing gear, trying to land lightly enough that he'd be able to take off again without actually ejecting the lander.

Why this seemed like a good idea, I forget.

The tail touches down at only a couple meters a second, but the engine snaps off anyway. The joining rings fail, and he just manages to detach the lander as some twenty stories of lengths of rocket body collapse in slow motion onto the surface of Mun like so many felled logs.

Being half-decent at control, he drops his landing gear and brings the lander down among the wreckage without a hitch, while one of his rocket fuel canisters rolls slowly away across the landscape and the others jostle and shift. He lowers a ladder and disembarks a kerbal, with whom he has just started to explore the Munar surface when the remaining rocket fuel on board the surviving chunks of wreckage starts cooking off.

The time needed to climb back in a lunar lander and get the hell out of dodge turns out to feel very, very long when you have blast-flung, building-sized bits of spacecraft raining around your ears. It did not last, of course, but for that brief time, he had managed to bring weather to Mun.

[kalaratiri]

I bought this yesterday. I am really, really bad at it.

[orange]

I bought this yesterday. I am really, really bad at it.

And that is okay!