Reentry works fine. The biggest problem with it is that the Kerbal throws off the balance of the thing, so you need to compensate.
I’ll get back to you - at the moment I still don’t have a way to get to the Mun and back that I’m happy with, so it might take some time to get my designs finalised.
Well, I got a Kerbal into a sustainable, multi-circuit orbit and got him back alive using rocket power. I can go to sleep now. Jeremiah’s a hero.
Here’s the first section of my first space station: the Escape Module Module. It has a tiny docking port on one end and a large docking port on the other, as well as twelve of my single-use microrockets.
I forgot a couple weeks ago I ended up live streaming my first attempts at space ship construction and took some suggestions from other SDMBers as we went, which mostly amounted to “more solid boosters”, “more fins”, and “paint some flames on it”. There may have been some alcohol involved. NSFW language somewhat.
Anyway, I recorded some of the attempts and made a compilation.
Where the hell are the FINS? I only see huge wings and canards. Little fins? Gimme some!
I put a satellite in a nice polar orbit around Duna. Unless I figure out how to get there a lot more efficiently it’s going to take a fuckshitload of fuel for me to put a dude on the surface and bring him back. Need to get better at orbital maneuvers. Maybe read a wiki or something.
I still have trouble with getting into a stable orbit on every launch. Now that you have done a successful orbit, it won’t be too long before your first fly-by of Mun and then a landing. Now that I have done that I am watching videos to learn some more advanced concepts. A space docking is my next goal as a stepping stone for a flight to Eve or Duna. Although I suppose I should aim for Ike.
And do be careful of the time you spend in the game. The second night I was playing it the clock went from 11:00 PM to 5:00 AM in about half an hour.
ETA: At some point I also want to try my hand a building a space station. Hopefully there is a Kerban (?) named Chris that I can then leave in command of the station.
Things I have seen and read seem to think that re-entry will be made a bit more realistic in some future update, then it will be dicey :D.
I am pretty happy with my design for Mun and Minmus transit, it is getting stuff to other planets that I am interested in. That and rovers. I have no idea how to design or transport a rover.
That is some funny stuff.
I’m traveling right now, but when I get home, I’ll share my rover design. There’s a screenshot of it upthread, but I’ll explain what I did in more detail later.
An easy planet to get a remotely controlled rover to is Eve, because you can deploy a parachute. Otherwise I’d use a lander designed somewhat like my Minmus lander on the upthread screenshot, mounting the rover under the lander and landing using the four radial engines. You can then fire a small decoupler and drive away.
Here’s a rover transport method I like to use.
Basically, the rover is attached in the front and back to the rockets on each side of the upper stage via radial decouplers. Once it lands and those decouplers are released, the rover drops a very short distance and sepratrons push the two rockets away. The rover is left sitting on the surface.
I think this style does tend towards less efficient designs, though. For example, I’ve got 6 nuclear engines in the middle stage. Also, I’m pretty sure it won’t work too well once the aerodynamic effects are reworked. But at least for now, this design makes an easy landing on Duna and going further is mostly a matter of building up the bottom stage.
Here’s my rover trike. It’s balanced radially despite the unusual design, so I can put it and the delivery module on top of a conventional rocket instead of something like Mithras’s. It has a computer brain, two seats for passengers and two reusable docking ports, meaning I have the option of refuelling the delivery module and lifting off with the rover, if I so choose.
I have successfully delivered one to the Mun so far, but it was destroyed when I couldn’t find the handbrake. :smack:
I just sent another, and this time I put the handbrake on. And here is the rocket that got it there. Both the descent stage and the orbit to orbit stage still had plenty of fuel left, so the vehicle should work for other celestial bodies too.
It seems I have no creativity. I look at the things you guys and others have designed an built and my rockets look so vanilla in comparison.
No kidding. My creations are pretty standard.
That said, I’ll tell you, you learn about physics playing this game. It should be introduced to high schools. A huge learning curve in getting your Kerbals into orbit is just the fact that you don’t fly a rocket like you think you should. I found it remarkably counterintuitive to realize that although the atmosphere ends at 70,000 metres, I didn’t have to shoot up like - well, like a rocket - for 70,000 metres. In practice I’m actually levelling out at like half of that, maybe 40K, because there’s still so much momentum carrying the ship up after I dump whatever terrifyingly dangerous booster got the ship that far - indeed, I often find myself pointing the nose BELOW the horizon while I’m still not quite high enough, which I find absolutely freaky. It doesn’t LOOK like it should work, and yet it does, because it’s not like flying a plane in a video game.
Alright, so I can get Bob Kerman into orbit. With a tiny bit more design work, I can probably get him up there with lots of extra liquid fuel on a remaining engine. How do I shoot him to Mun and let him check the place out - not land on it, just see it - and get him home safe? I’ve set it as a target and the game helpfully puts two dotted lines to Mun’s orbit but what does that mean?
Well, how do you go about building them? If you chiefly copy real life, that could be the issue. It’s a reliable, safe way to get alright rockets but they will tend to be rather orthodox.
I start by asking myself what I want to do. That usually gives me information about the last stage. Then I work my way back to the penultimate stage and then the antepenultimate stage and so on until I’m figuring how I’ll launch from Kerbin. Throughout that process, I ask myself only what is the most efficient way to accomplish the goal while trying to presume as little as possible concerning what it ought to have. I never tell myself “Of course spacecraft have this so I better do it that way”.
Aside from some kind of command module, none of the pieces are parts you ought to use and none of them are parts you ought not use. They are just means which are more or less efficient according to your ends and circumstances. The fascinating aspect of the vehicle builder lies in figuring that out.
I recommend that you look up Scott Manley on Youtube - this video is a good tutorial on how to get from orbit to Minmus (Mun’s little brother).
The 2 dotted lines are for determining if you are on the same plane as the Mun. Have you figured out the maneuver nodes yet? When you set a node it gives you options for changing course. Set the node and pull out the prograde icon and the orange circle (orbit at the end of the burn) will expand. You can move the node around until you see an encounter with the Mun. You may get a purple circle which would indicate your orbit after the Mun encounter… If you can’t get an encounter you may be off the plane enough that you need you use the ascending or decending node to set a burn to match planes. It takes a bit of practice. Just remember to F5 once you are in a good orbit so you can keep trying for the encounter. And do what I did, put on Pink Floyd and marvel at how addictive this game is.
Here’s my latest contraption: the orbital delivery system for a sixteen ton section of space station. It features six dual jet engines that slowly lift it to 10 kilometres above sea level, where they are jettisoned and the seven rocket engines take over. The module itself has space for ten Kerbals and three large docking ports - one of which will be occupied by the Escape Module Module I posted earlier.
I wouldn’t get too excited about the unorthodox designs you see. An upcoming patch is likely to correct the current model for atmospheric drag, and then those designs will have many problems.
Anyway, I myself have been deliberately not exploiting the weaknesses in the drag model, for the sake of realism.
In other news, here is my small, unmanned rover model (with labels!) sitting on the planet Eve.
And here is a picture of it mounted on a rocket, ready for lunch to the planet Eve. Note that this vehicle is a bit overbuilt for that purpose; I ended up with way more fuel than I needed on my Eve rover mission. But it should be able to get me to any planet in the Kerbol system.
Two things immediately leap to mind:
One, that successfully deploying this rover as mounted requires an atmosphere in which parachutes are effective. That pretty much means Eve (Duna’s air is too thin; you’d need some engines to help slow the descent). But you could mount it easily under a lander, using four-radially mounted engines to descend onto some rocky ball with no atmosphere. Simply replace the parachute with a TR-2C Stack Separator. Separate the rover, drive away.
Two, that when the atmospheric drag model is updated, I’ll need some sort of fairings. One hopes the developers will add fairings at the same time as they add drag updates, and they are indeed listed under “Planned features.”
I’d like to second Witt’s suggestion of Pink Floyd. I’d also like to add Strauss’ The blue Danube waltz.
Daft Punk seems to be custom-made for this game, just turn down your in-game music and listen to these while playing:
Building phase: Harder, better, faster, stronger
Launch: Aerodynamic
Kerbin orbit: Around the world
Acceleration in space: Burnin’
Outside Kerbin orbit: Voyager
Using solar panels and the Xenon engine: Solar sailor
Gravity turns: Fall
Exploring other planets: Outlands
Using a rover on another planet: Robot rock
