Kerbal Space Program

[Ulminati]

It worked fine in the 1-man version. But it's a possibility. I'll try moving it out of the landing leg I guess.

 

[Burning Bridges]

I haven't tried 0.19, but the new 0.20 is a real improvement on the optimization front. Crashes on launchpad are gone, switching from assembly to launchpad is fast, and the game does not take ages to respond.
At last *sigh*

 

[Burning Bridges]

you'll finally be able to change the root part without redoing the vessel and also will be able to pick something else than a crew/probe command pod for it.

Finally, that was so overdue.

 

[The Vanished One]

0.20.1 is out. That was fast!

http://kerbaldevteam.tumblr.com/post/51669089666/update-20-1-released

This patch fixes most of the issues encountered on the 0.20 release. Here's the changelog:

Bug Fixes and Tweaks:

• Tweaked the logic for part-to-part collisions. Things should be much less likely to explode on contact.
• Reverted the Mun's height values, so landmarks and bases shouldn't spawn below ground anymore (mind 20.0 saves though).
• Tweaked part components on EVA so they start up with the right values.
• Tweaked the suspension on the new Medium Rover Wheels, to fix jittering.
• Fixed the too-low resolution on planetary diffuse and normal maps.
• Fixed the screen resolution not being properly applied on game start.
• Fixed some situations where the 'Control From Here' selection would be lost on resuming a game save.
• Fixed a serious issue with the Cupola Pod that could cause spontaneous unplanned vessel disassembly.
• Fixed an issue that caused internal spaces to spawn in duplicate sometimes. It was harmless but wasted resources.
• Fixed the scale of Gilly in the Tracking Station scene.
• Fixed a few issues with flags behaving weirdly after they were toppled down.
• Fixed the camera jitter when walking around on EVA.

A note for Linux users:
We're aware of the issue with the mouse wheel input. This seems to be a Unity bug however, introduced in the new 4.1 version (0.19 was built with an older version). We're in touch with Unity support on this matter, but unfortunately, there is nothing we can do on our end to fix this problem. We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope a fix will be released soon.

 

[Hellraiser]

Well what do you know, the patch didn't break my Mun Base or the flags despite the Mun terrain heightmap reversion. Now if only the kethane mod got finally updated.

 

[Jack]

 

[Hellraiser]

It's an updated version I see. Good, I'll need it for the near future. Pol is actually smaller/less massive than Bop? Seems to be judging by delta-v. I never visited any of those moons or Eeloo and Dres for that matter. Dres has a nice canyon somewhere on the surface from what I know, should send a rover down there for science sometime in the future.

I need to build that damn mothership and do a landing&return from Laythe finally, the new docking ports should make jumbo tank docking in orbit easier. I got a solid SSTO non spess-plane jet/rocket hybrid lander design that works on kerbin and should achieve orbit with no problem around Laythe.

Although I think I should do a 1-man and 3-man duna landing on the STC file again first, seems odd to land on the Mun and then Laythe next. Also I need to design a new prettier cruiser. Also I need to make Duna and Laythe mission flags. So much stuff to do so little time.

BTW a hotfix got released. 0.20.1 had a nasty memory leak issue with .png and .jpeg files in mods and a bug with mouse scrolling on the Linux version. Well the Linux bug got only a workaround rather than a fix because the Unity devs made that one and they need to fix their engine so Kerbal devs can't do shit about it really but just the workaround.

 

[Absalom]

I got a solid SSTO non spess-plane jet/rocket hybrid lander design that works on kerbin and should achieve orbit with no problem around Laythe.

Post it! And I'm def. going to save that delta-v map. Hopefully I use it this time...

 

[Hellraiser]

Post it! And I'm def. going to save that delta-v map. Hopefully I use it this time...

The Oceanus, this is an old version since I swapped those 2 RCS tanks for 2 small radial ones, forgot to make a shot at the launch pad. 200 monopropelant is overkill and too heavy to get this into LKO, 80 is enough.

Pretty tricky to fly at first, as are all jet-based SSTO designs. I burn 15 liquid fuel per engine (that's 60 total) before I detach the launch clamps, those two tanks of jet fuel are more than enough. On laythe I could just do a low thrust burn so you don't take off to ditch the excess fuel. TWR on Kerbin is negligible at first so it climbs slowly, luckily turbojets increase both ISP and thrust with altitude. At 10 km I turn it at 45 degrees east, which results in a prograde of about 10 degrees above the horizon. Once intake air hits about 0.12 I turn on the two rocket engines, jets get turned off at 0.11 (which is about 2 seconds later) and close intakes.

Gets into LKO with that much fuel left. That's about 200 m/s of delta-v which is enough of a margin for error.

It has 4 radial chutes, 2 drogue chutes attached to those radial nodes (I love those) and a big main paraschute on the top. Unfortunately diminishing returns on parachutes kick in and near empty (only had RCS and leftover jet fuel) it lands at about 9 m/s on kerbin sea level. Luckily the legs are strong enough but since the engines are not even a meter above the ground I recommend landing on flat surfaces. Jets are reinforced with struts so they don't fall off on impact when you land.

Laythe requires about 60% of the delta-v of a LKO and less thrust so this thing is definitely a viable lander, although a spaceplane would be more convenient as they're better for precision landings and you don't need parachutes. The problem is 3-man SSTO spaceplanes are hard and RCS placement on a plane so you can dock easily is hard. Anyway since laythe requires significantly less delta-v than Kerbin you can simply do a powered descent with jets once the parachutes slow you down as much as they can, so landing the thing full of fuel shouldn't be a problem. It will have more than enough jet fuel anyway since Laythe has both 1/5 less gravity and 1/5 less air pressure so the jets will be operating for less time than on Kerbin before you turn on the rocket engines.

Obviously the thing has lights, batteries, solar panels, ASAS, ladders (despite looking cramped I think a kerbal can climb down easily between those two tanks/nacelles), RCS and the new large "clampotron senior" docking port at the very bottom. So it docks in reverse. Those ports are quite stable I hear so wobble should be minimal.

 

[Absalom]

Looks pretty nice dude. I haven't done much with SSTOs' since spaceplanes are such a hassle for me anyway but, if I were to return to it, I would definitely use something along what you've developed. Are the nodes that good? I haven't much with it, or structual elements at all.

I have a spaceplane ready to do the Laythe landing but that was before the update so I don't know if I'll go back to it.

As for RCS placement on a plane I use 4 at the nose and 4 on the tips of the back wings and that works out pretty well for me.

 

[Hellraiser]

Well the nodes are good because they allow strong radial attachment for parachutes rather than derping around with octagonal struts and placing four or more struts around it so it doesn't tear itself off.

 

[Absalom]

Parachutes tear off? Hmm. I rarely land on anything with an atmosphere. I was going to post my pocket rocket spaceplane with a kerbal sitting atop the fuel tanks but it seems to have gone down with the space station implosion.

 

[Hellraiser]

Depends how you place them, but sometimes they rip off the part they're attached to during deployment. It is most noticeable with heavy large craft.

 

[Absalom]

Good to know. When I get back into this game I might start a kerbal lp megathread, taking challenges so I can play outside my "routine."

 

[Ulminati]

Do what me, hellraiser and burning bridges did. Start a space agency and take cheap shots at Polant, Lenmark and Kermany.

 

[Absalom]

Do what me, hellraiser and burning bridges did. Start a space agency and take cheap shots at Polant, Lenmark and Kermany.

That would be a bit easy, since Kamerica already went to the moon . Also, I'm not sure if I could write competently in-character. I'd rather have a thread where anyone could participate.

 

[Ulminati]

Your mission, should you choose to accept it:

Send a large vessel to Jool. It must be able to send an orbital probe to jool and every one of its moons. You should also land at least one rover on one of the moons and land a Kerbal on Laythe, who you must then return to Kerbin.

I've done it a few times, but it requires a decent amount of planning when designing your mothership.

 

[Absalom]

I could always make that the main "goal" of the lp, where I have to test the rover/lander capsule on other bodies first. Also, it would require orbital assembly, which is always fun. Not only that, but I've never landed on Laythe. Hmm... I think I'll do it.

 

[Hellraiser]

If you were wondering why it's good to strut the part you attach parachutes to to the rest of the craft:

Just FYI there were actual things attached to the bottom of that lander can. Things you need to land and return like an engine and fuel, not to mention asas and lander legs, also it's now upside down. Horrible Duna mission overall, entered on a retrograde orbit, lander required too much fuel for a powered descent (to not break apart) so it couldn't return to orbit, and when I cheated the tanks to full it turned out the command module runs about 150 m/s of delta-v short of doing a Kerbin aerobrake during return. I tested the orbiter earlier by doing just a duna orbital insertion+return, didn't lower the orbit enough it seems. I'll have to redo it with the improved lander+command module in the future, no flag on duna yet.

In other news:

This is a solid fuel tug. Low part count, only RCS are attached to the tug and not the jumbo tug, the fuel tank is the bare minimum of a tank+2 senior docking ports. However the 2-man Lander Can has so much torque docking is piss easy with it as ASAS keeps the thing steady while you do lateral burns to align yourself with the docking port despite a "bad" RCS location. A bit slow since RCS pushing an orange tank is like pushing a 3-man capsule with a single ion engine but very steady. I also find the Skipper engine to be very manly, despite being made by a woman ironically enough.

Now I only need to attach a few more of these before it has enough delta-v to get to Laythe and back. At least four, here's hoping I can aerobrake this shit without ending up on some silly orbit.

 

[Absalom]

You're not having any problems with the Jumbo docking ports? And I was so glad they added the Skipper, we needed an engine twixt the mainsail and everything else. I had a bad mission to Duna earlier as well, using the HOME mod. Ran out of fuel, colonization modules crashed into the surface lol oops! Course I also tried landing them within 10 mins of each other as well as landing close by. So yeah, doomed to failure.

Nice tug. Are you using that while waiting for Kethane to be updated?

 

[Hellraiser]

No problems yet, we'll see how the cruiser handles dragging four of those and a lander behind it. Would have been easier if I just put the lander on the front as I'll have to keep redocking it whenever a jumbo goes dry, but I had to use the cupola.

 

[Hellraiser]

It seem career mode additions are going in next, resources are postponed. The good news is a kerbal recruitment facility is getting added as is a tracker of stuff you did, also proper crew management. The space center will get more new visuals and we'll get some new parts with new functionality. Not sure what kind of functionality.

In other news:

Went easier than expected, of course physics warp broke the ship apart but 6 NTRs pulling 4 orange tanks and a lander was very stable in real time. Senior docking ports are great, almost no wobble at all and ASAS kept it steady. Added one tank too much though, could do the whole thing with 3 orange ones thanks to the gratuitous use of aerobraking. Posted more screenshots in the screenshot topic.

 

[Absalom]

Ja but can it return home? Nice Jool-rise in the background too. And career mode instead of resources? Seems a pretty big addition. Crew management is heartily appreciated however

 

[Hellraiser]

It did return to Kerbin, the core propulsion part of the cruiser has 3000+ m/s of delta-v by itself in it's rockomax 32 tank. When I aerobraked back at Kerbin it still had some fuel in the last orange tank left. 4 orange jumbo tanks was overkill but they gave some margin for error.

Need to launch a shuttle to get the crew back down as I intend to reuse that cruiser, it's a fairly solid design. Uinitial burn times with all the tanks were in the 15 minute range but that's still better than the 9 ion engine Eve probe I made.

Maybe I'll go to Eeloo next with it or use it to haul an Eve lander. I have yet another idea on how to build one, last time I got pretty close but a few hundred delta-v short on the final stage to get orbital.

 

[Absalom]

Groovy. I built a whole kethane space plane just for Eve, but since I couldn't easily test it, it was a massive failure. Eve is the definition of "not worth it"