Well, one of the biggest updates we have received is here. 0.16 of KSP (Kerbal Space Programme).

Think of it as a space and orbital mechanics simulator with all the great things that newtonian physics can offer coupled with great gameplay and crazy Kerbals that somehow make you want to build the most dangerous ship imaginable just to sit them in.

Well KSP has moved a massive leap forward with 0.16 with the introduction of EVA's. This means you can now directly control your Kerbal out of the ship on any environment. He can slip, fall, jump and most of all fun can die.

A lot of other things have shnged in KSP. Items have been resized and a host of stock parts included. They all have different mechanics now so previous ships i have made reliable through constant testing and upgrading are no longer valid. Its back to the drawing board on this one.

So step one here is the test of the construction building and simple EVA on launch pad (muawahahahaha)


We have the mark 1 capsule which only carries one occupant. However i went, on a quickly built test rocket (that looks a little shoddy - the best way to be), with the 3 man capsule. Well, this bad boy is large. Note all the scientists, mechanics, formen and other kerbals now running around on the VAB floor



Completion of the test rocket and noticably new rocket boosters. You still have the same old rubbish can types but these ones look big, bad and dangerous, so i put them on.

The completed test rocket sports the 3 man capsule on top surrounded by the standard fuel tanks we knew from previous version to show the size difference. The one man capsule is the same diameter as the standard fuel pods. There are larger fuel pods designed for the larger capsule size but i have not used them here.


The next picture is testing out the EVA system. Here the rocket is on the launchpad, its not the biggest but no slouch either.
EVA's are easily done. One previous versions with the capsule cam on the lower right of the screen, we could watch our kerbals panic. Now hovering over their cams gives us the options to EVA. Once clicked your kerbal will spawn on the ladder on your pod. You have a host of different ladders to choose from and you can cover your ship in ladders so your kerbal can "handhold" manouver all over your ship in space. It would also be a good idea to have on when landed on the moon to get your kerbal to and from the ground safely. The capsule's come with a small ladder as standard for your kerbals to stand on, but i can see more ladders will be needed to help prevent kerbal injury death.

Here is my kerbal hanging on for dear life high up from the lauchpad floor (i was sorely tempted to launch at this point)




Now kerbals have a type of ragdol physics and can "push" off of ladders (preferably in space or low gravity situations, or not so high of the ground). you can enable their EVA suit which has thrusters or you can float around in the void of space. Well on the next picture, i did push off the ladder - i did NOT use EVA manouvering pack and i was NOT close to the ground or in zero g envoronment.



So my kerbal, lies ther (unfortunately deceased) at the base of the rocket slumped over from what must have been a very bone crushing landing to his legs. My first kerbal death. But hey, the features work !!! Its all in the name of progress you know !

(i so wanted to launch the rocket with him so close to the boosters).

Part 2 to come

Awesome. I tried my first eva last night too but did it while my rocket was in mid flight. Somehow my little guy just hung onto the side of the capsule.

Loving this. I hope they add parachutes to the Kerbals themselves so we can HALO and HAHO. Riding my capsule in atmosphere with my dream goal destination off in the distance.

do all the previous mods have to be updated to this patch?

Part 2

Moving on from test rocket 1, we have progressed to the next stage in development and testing to the uniquely named "Test 2" rocket.

Now before we go further into the details of testing, here is a bit of background info.

Performance :- My rig, though it was once the essence of a high end machine many moons ago, i have to say that it would be considered pretty low end performance wise by todays standards. Yet it runs KSP in its current iteration well and its a good game for those who want some great fun and physics on less than beefy machines. However, KSP is still in alpha and i can only guess that in time it may progress in such a way that a more beefy computer may be needed. As for now, its fine. Though with the updates and improvements you can really tell that they are working hard on performance as well.

Start screen :- Gone is the previous and is currently replaced by animated kerbals. How nice. Great touch.

So, onto phase 2 of testing.

Test 2 rocket has taken the shape in the picture below. Note on the last stage there is peripheral liquid rocket engines which have full throttle authority. Originally i did not go for this option. Instead i too a larger single engine. However i was having structural integrity issues with the join between the engine nozzle and the decoupler beneath it. So i opted for the current config.

Also on display next to the engines are the new landing gear which is very beefy looking and have a great unfolding motion. If i can get to the moon, we can show them in action.


Onto the launchpad we go. I only like using stock parts, however i do have one mod installed - "Mechjeb". I consider this mod to be a natural extension of KSP and clearly it has been developed alongside the 0.16 release. Mechjeb is an autopilot facility using a variety of modules (attached items or autonomous capsules instead of manned capsules). Mechjeb is not a get out of jail free card. Whilst it can make flight very accurate, your ship must be up to the task, otherwise chaos and eventual explosions will ensue.
As previously stated, mechjeb is already updated to work with KSP 0.16 and now sports a few more tabs of information and functionality. The much loved Smart A.S.S. , ascent and landing module + a host of others have been added to with such things as "Instrument landing system" and "Autom8". I have no idea what they do yet so i look forward to exploring !


Launch going well with a true vertical run.



Initiating turn to gather speed for orbital velocity. You can see my choice of "Mechjeb" pod burning brightly on the side of the capsule. You will also note that i have two kerbals of the same name in the capsule. Obviously the gene pool on planet Kerbol has not grown that much and the little fellas may like close family relations.


Seperating first and second stages at the same time. I will need to tweak the fuel amounts as the second stage (center) depletes its fuel before the end of the first stage. Leaving the first stage to lug the mass of the second stage for a while.


Stage 3 and 4 have reached orbital height and velocity and enjoying the sun rise again over planet Kerbol.


Deploying the EVA ladders. These are very nicely done and i have 2 different types on display here. They are fully animated and retract into a little holder box which hosts its own light source that activates when deployed.


Trying out my first space EVA. Here at the end of the long line of ladders my Kerbal has egressed and is now standing at the bottom run after walking all the way down


I tried to types of getting off the ladder. One is to "push" off the ladder which can be done anywhere on the ladder and the other i simply climbed down and off the end. Both ended in my kerbal and I being dissorientated as he started tumbling through space. I was then force to remember newtonian physics where his little push or climb off the end would keep him moving further away from the craft for eternity. However, i activated his EVA pack and we got him under control just off the bottom of the ladder and some distance from the ship.


Your kerbal needs hand holds to hang onto the ship. Once he is in grab range of a ladder a pop up text will advise that you can grab and he will hold onto the ladder and orientate himself onto the ladder.


Using my remaing fuel retro-grade to degrade the orbit for a capture with the surface of the planet. Here i have seperated to only the capsule in preperation for the re-entry. Note that re-entry heat mechanics are not in game yet and hence you can technically re-enter at any speed you want.


Finally back home (for a watery landing). Its good to see the parachute deploy. I did have a few problems with chutes in my constructions as originally i attached the chute to a different "Mechjeb" pod which sits on top of the capsule. I found that the chute ripped the "Mechjeb" from the top of the capsule leaving the capsule to freefall to its impending demise.

I have already lost count how many kerbals have "donated" to progress.

Part 2 addendum. The features work well and EVA's provide a very immersive and fun addition to the game.
As for my Test rocket. Its suffering from 2 construction problems at the moment. Too much power for its size as full throttle will take it past its threshold and rip it appart. The other problem is i have far too little fuel to get to the MUN (moon). So some redesign work may be needed for Part 3 (going to the MUN)

Can't wait to see the MUN tests.


Wheels

Is docking in 0.16 now - so possibly to simulate space station supply and such?

I really need to find some time to purchase and get into this. It looks more awesome on every release.

Docking is not in game yet unfortunately. I am pretty sure they have done work on it, but all future features are not guaranteed to make it in the next update cycle depending on their completion at time of updaate release.

SO if 0.16 is anything to go by, 0.17 is going to be a whopper. I will post the plan list for 0.17 when it gets published.

As for the mun test, i am working towards it. My rockets need a little tinkering to get there and i have definitely proved that if it doesnt work last time, more boosters may not be the way to go ;-)

In saw the game on a friend's laptop last weekend, and he seemed to have little problem to get to the Mun every time, using a very simple design. He was using MechJeb though.

Part 3 - GOING TO THE MUN !!!

Sorry for the delay, had a cold have taken today off as i don't fancy a burst eardrum and it has given me the time to do the MUN test.

Pre-amble;

There has been quite a lot of tweaks to the stock parts, not only in size and weight, but also in the efficency of the engines. Also the way the parts interact with each other feels noticably different aswell. I have played around with basic to complex constructions and the more complex they become the more of an engineer you as the designer will have to become. Just building a rocket is a game in itself and when you actually build one (hopefully it won't take you as long as me), it really does give you a good sense of satisfaction. It also gives you the drive to tweak your construction for better performance or deifferent tasks.

I also noted that bracing struts are more needed in this version, which is not a bad thing - just makes you think about your build a bit more. I like it.

One downside (if you could call it a downside) to the stock parts is there is no aerodynamic cone for the large fuel tank. So instead i stuck a pointy bit from the spaceplane hanger on top to make it look a bit more purty. But KSP is still in alpha and for the meagre price i have paid, it is more than worth it in my book. My wife already knows what a Kerbal is and gives me the (how many hours will you be on) groan when she sees the kerbal splash screen. Ahhh women, you gotta love em.

Anyway goals for my flight. Establish orbit of approx 85klm high, have orbit in the plane of the MUN, have my ship designed so that no debris will be jettisoned into a permanent orbit. (i want all my debris to re-enter kerbin, or i jettison them into either deep space or the object i am going to orbit land) Its a personal preference really and i know a space collision with debris is a very minor chance. But on a previous build, the space around planet kerbin was utterly littered with rubbish and discarded parts. Then i have to take off from the MUN and get back home.

Anyway back to the deaths test. As you will notice from the screens below. I am back to the original Kerbals of Jeb, Bob and Bill. Quite frankly, in all my disasters tests, i have gone through the entire log of pilots. (shame really, some seemed so keen) But as the clones of Bill, Bob and Jeb arose to the top of the pile, test 3 started taking form. It must have been fate.

Now, its sometimes better to go simple in design. Hell, its certainly makes thing easier. So with this advice, i closed my first around it and threw it into the rubbish bin, going for a complex and silly design instead.

One thing to note, is when they get this big or bigger, you have to take care in the groupings of your items such as struts as they can automatically group into a stage you don't want them.



Onto the launchpad and you will see a new feature incorporated in 0.16. In your building phase you can choose struts that hold your rocket into place which is a godsend really. Takes a bit of pressure off of making sure things are level at the bottom. You can see it in the picture above and can see them holding my ship off of the ground in the picture below. Great idea.
Now one word of caution with these struts that hold your rocket. They don't automatically release. You need to place them in the desired stage to disengage or you will end up like me... Full throttle with the hand brake on. Embarrasing really.


Anyway, after a refuel and a telling off by the kerbal bean counters, i managed to get the struts to let go and we are good for the climb !


Climbing away this monstosity of an ugly duckling is climbing well. I have no SRB's (Solid Rocket Boosters) on this design, so its all grunt from the liquid rocket engines.
One point to note is that the new engines (they are massive) are also gimbling. This can create a bit of a problem with taller structures as it can creat an oscilation in your rocket giving (at least) wobbles and (at worst) catastophic structural breakdown. Use with caution and extra bracing. All good fun i'd say.


With the initial climb completed and running under the "mechjeb" module, the rocket begins its turn turn to build up orbital velocity whilst progressing to the thinner air as can be seen in the scale at the centre top of the picture (darker the blue, lighter the air density)
With the big home build and unsightly booster rockets depleted, i happily discard them back to the home land.


Shortly after the next 2 stages burn out and are ready to be discarded. they are released in quick succession and roll violently behind me in the wake of the next stages rocket thrust. Bill, Jeb and Bob are clearly not happy at this point (i don't blame them).

Now this leaves me with my central stage which i will use to transit to the MUN and land coupled with 3 exrtra rockets whose purpose will be to accelerate me into a cirular orbit.


In map mode.
After orbit is obtained. With "mechjeb's" SMART A.S.S. module, i use to postion prograde (easy to do manually with ball) and burn to elongate my orbit and throw the apoapsis out in space to a point where my craft will exit kerbin's gravity and come under influence of the MUN's gravity.
Apoapsis is the highest point above the object you are orbiting and is the slowest point of your trjectory.
Periapsis is the lowest point above the object you are orbiting and is the fastest point of your trajectory.
You can see below my apoapsis elongating away from the planet. A good rule of thumb is to start a prograde burn just before the mun crests the horizon of kerbin in map mode.


As i zoom out in map mode, you can see the new "patched conics" trjectory system in place. Its very intuitive and makes life very easy with transitioning from one planet to the next. HEre you can see that my once round blue orbit line is now a curve ending at a circle followed by a yellow line. This changeover is the point where i encounter the MUN's gravity and will no longer be effected by Kerbin's gravity. You will also see a yellow sphere to the left of the yellow line. This is the predicted position of the MUN when i first encounter its gravity. The white cirle on the arc to the right is the actual position of the MUN at this particular moment.


WIth directional thrusting (in this instance pro-grade). I manouver my encounter with the mun to give me the lowest point i will pass the surface (Marked by yellow periapsis) to a target of around 20klm. The mun has no atmoshpere and low gravity. So i can travel close to its surface without the risk of atmospheric effects.
You can see here i get the periapsis to just under 19K above the surface. That is fine with me.


Now that my preliminary velocity will get me roughly to where i want to be, its time to shut down and enjoy an EVA whilst coasting to the MUN. You will notice that one of the pictures below shows the fuel status of the EVA pack. EVA packs have limited fuel and replenish when you re-enter the rocket. It is also mentioned that they plan to add oxygen consumption in your suit and on the rocket and also adding different fuel types for different items as the game progresses. So you will need to work harder to keep Kerbals alive in later versions.




Using the time warp feature, i progress just before the Mun's periapsis, ready for my retro-grade burn to slow me down so i will orbit the MUN.
In the picture below, the patched conics will show what will happen if i don't slow down. The blue line is my encounter with the MUN. I will shoot by the suface of the MUN at approx 20Klm high and at a speed of just under 800m/s. This velocity will shoot me past the Mun to the end of the blue line where i will loose the influence of the Muns gravity. The break and yellow line say i will pick up Kerbins gravity where at the end of the yellow line i will be spat out from Kerbin's influence into deep space.


With my orbit burn completed i have a stable low orbit around the MUN. Fuel is acceptable at this point. From this position i am free to adjust my orbit to intercept any point on the Mun of my choosing ("Mechjeb" normal+ and normal - will orientate your craft to the correct position to do this - or you can use the ball.)


With landing site chosen (and its hard to tell how level the terrain is from this height - its a case of suck it and see). I go retro-grade once again to slow down and position for a landing on the mun.


Landing gear down and still quite high, (mechjeb once again) has position me veritical with 0 lateral movement in a decent to touchdown. I stand poised ready to snatch control if the ground looks unsuitable.


Successful landing ! Its time to get the little fellas out and walk on the surface of the MUN. I could not help myself. It was low gravity after all! So i made the kerbals jump from high off the ladder to watch them stumble and collapse on the ground. They did well! jumped up and dusted off to some fun acrobatics in low G in the second picture. The second picture shows a kerbal high above the others from a jump and from some random movement he had going at time of jumping, he actually did a full flip in the air to land on his feet. I was quite impressed !



Crew back on board - its time to head home. One good thing about low G and no atmosphere is that getting home is a lot easier than getter here. So burning again, vertical initialy for a short period, i turn the rocket manually into a 90 degree plane and establish an orbit around the MUN. Don't need to go high, just high enough to avoid the mountains and coast into a position to burn for Kerbin.


Patched conics show that i succesfully leave Muns gravity to be captured by planet Kerbin. Not the best capture as i have a very high orbit. BUt its not too bad, i have the fuel.


Using the spare fuel and a retrograde burn. I shrink one side of the orbit so it lies within the atmosphere. Then just before the atmosphere i use all my remaining fuel to slow down for re-entry.


No fuel remaining. I am guaranteed an entry back to Kerbin, so i discard the last of the trash and leave it up to my trusty capsule.
The capsule feels better than previous versions as this one tends to weather cock into the correct direction. Though not yet in game. Re-entry with heat mechanics will make comming home a brand new ball game. So i can't wait. But for now, i make the most of not having heat worries and go flat out like a lizard drinking back to the surface.


Re-entry is complete, we all all but done here. As the air density increases the capsule slow and when i feel its sufficient enough, i pop the chute. 3 kerbals hear the chute deploy, followed roughly about 2 seconds later by a very loud metal ripping sound. They only had about 8 seconds to collect their thoughts before they added themselves to the ever growing list of Kerbal fatalities.


There was one fatal flaw left in the design. On top of the capsule where the chute normall goes. I stuck on an SAS module (provides something akin to gyroscopic manouvering). To that module i stuck the chute. Not just any chute. But the highest graded chute which i suppose is used to bring very large things slowly back to earth.

I guess the high drag of the chute overcame the connection between the SAS module and the Capsule, leaving the capsule to free-fall to its watery demise. The picture shows the chute carefully lowering the SAS module to the water. At least we can use that again next time. ;-)

Addendum.

Ship mechanics have changed quite a bit. It is more challenging now to build worthy ships. This will be even more of a factor when you are planning a trip to the second moon Minmus. As Minmus is very far out compared to the MUN, it will spark some very ingenious and weird looking rockets i am sure.

EVA's. Well, they are certainly the icing on the cake for this one. With all the wonderful modules out there in the community (and even with stock parts) you can make Mun rovers and do a heck of exploring not only on the MUN, but on Minmus and Kerbin as well. There are eastereggs planted around all the areas.

I have not even touched the Spaceplane hanger yet and it will be nice to see what weirdness i can come up with then.

The future looks bright for KSP. Its an easy game to pick up and play. You don't need to troll through books or manuals as its all intuitive to pick up and at the moment there is no penalty for getting things wrong. So you just create, fly, explode, crash (in any order) and then refine and do it again.

The modding community is massive with this game and there are truly some astonishing items to enrich your experience in KSP. BUt as KSP is in alpha still, some mods may become broken with the next upgrade.

With things like oxygen, different fuels, docking, base building, talk of an orbital construction yard, expansion of the solar system and some sort of "career mode". I await eagerly for each new release.

Enjoy.

Let me know if you want to see more - or if you are bored of my ramblings.

Very nice indeed. But, damn, it looks complicated!

Its a very easy game to play. If you know orbiter at all, it has the physics of orbiter, more detailed planets, but retains a control system that is very intuitive.

When i started out, i just built anything and took off with it to see what it would do. It won't take too long before experimentation will see you pushing to get to the MUN, or Minmus or even past the kraken (imaginative monster from square sail days) that lurks on the dark side of the sun.

Patched conics keeps you updated real time with where your ship will go (so you can easily adjust on the move) and the ball is a fantastic tool to get things done. Like i said, there is also mechjeb which is a great utility to help you out. But you don't need it, my first flights to the MUN were all by hand. The biggest problem is fuel, and designing the ship you want with the amount of fuel and thrust needed to get it all there. Building it is half the fun.

If you are even remotely interested. Try the free version of the game. Its only version 0.12, but you are free to download it and play it as long as you like. That will give you a good feel for what it is all about. Though the early version doesn't have minmus, a host of technical upgrades, a spaceplane hanger and spaceplane parts, EVA's. But its still a lot of fun to wet your teeth on.



Yeah, simpler designs are often the best way. But when your building, sometimes you just get that urge to throw in the kitchen sink as well. I am going to make the excuse that it took me so long as i wanted to build a ship with lots of extra things in there to talk about in my test. Thats my excuse and i'm sticking to it.
There is a host of other mods out there that cover everything from ship designs/autopilots/mechanical arms/attack helicopters/working lasers/to even a really great recreation of the "eagle" from SPACE 1999 (if you are old like me to remember that show).

Give it a try RSc, i think you might enjoy it.

Part 4 - Exploring Minmus.

As successfull trials have shown we can actually fly somewhere in space, the KSP directorate has initiated its boldest statement yet.



So the mighty crew of Bill Jeb and BOB (clone version 3) were tasked with the mammoth mission.

A new ship was devised. Based on lessons learned, a plan was devised, a ship constructed, and finally a name worthy of the wonders built was given to this ship...... TEST 5 !!

Test 5 was wheeled onto the launchpad and in this moment she was tasked with a night time launch.


Control confirmed all stages and departments were green for launch (a kerbals favourite colour so i hear). With blast off confirmed the overpowered rocket with reduced thrust heaved itself from the launchpad, in all its bulky ugliness.



In the inky blackness, Test 5 climbs true initiating its turn to gain orbital velocity. As the altitude gains, the effects of the morning sun behind covers the horizon as the sunlight despereately tries to catch up to the accelerating rocket.
I initiated the orbit in the standard 90 degree plane (which is the plane of the MUN). However minmus does not lie on this plane and I don't know the angle, but i have a cunning plan to sort this out later.



Orbit height achieved, but orbit not yet established. The main engines are shut down. Now i don't have any RCS thrusters on this craft (little jets that provide manouvering in space). Instead i opted for SAS (capsule contains SAS ability) and added an extra module to aid the capsule's SAS ability. This was to save weight from the thrusters and fuel pods for the RCS systems. SAS will provide pitch roll and yaw (so does RCS thrusters) however without RCS, i have lost translational abilities (forward, back, sideways, up and down lateral movement.) As docking and intercepting is not a part of this mission, it was deemed that SAS should be all that is needed.

Unfortunately a problem arose as the engines shut down. The gimbling engines threw the craft into a end over end fast rotation. I applied SAS to counter the roll, but it was not sufficient (or in an incorrect place) to conteract the forces. I had no option but to dump the main engines and establish orbit on the remaining engine which was supposed to be used for planetary transfer.



With orbit established, the next challenge is to align my orbit into the plane of Minmus. In map mode we can see the orbital path of Minmus (The Magenta line) and we can also see the orbital path of my ship. (the blue line). As my orbit is small around Kerbol its hard to get a good reference against the orbit of minmus. SO i prograde burn to extend my orbit around kerbol so i get a better reference against Minmus. Now its a case of burning "normal + or normal -" to match the planes. As you can see in the next picture the blue line lies pretty much over the magenta line (my plane of orbit vs Minmus's plane of orbit). Job done.



Next is the transition to Minmus.
I am again using the aid of mechjeb, but only minimaly. I am also not using any calculators to show that you are given enough info in this game to make planetary transfer not too difficult. Mechjeb does offer two buttons that will orientate and initiate burn to either Minmus or the Mun for you automatically if you wish. But for this, i am doing it by eye and vague pretense i have a small clue on what i am doing.
Minmus is a bit harder to capture i found. Its small size and low gravity means that a more precise intercept path will be required to get a capture with Minmus. In the next picture, the blue line shows my transfer to minmus and where the blue line turns to yellow, is the point i am captured by Minmus's gravity. My path wasn't too correct, as you can see by the hook of the blue line, i extended out to the maximum orbit from kerbal and had already started my return before Minmus captured me. I was a bit lucky with this as i was traveling so slow at my apoapsis (highest point of orbit - the bottom of the hook on the blue line - marked by a blue AP symbol), that minmus actually caught me up and intercepted me. Orbit plane was a little off and initial transfer burn was the cuase of thsi.


However capture was obtained and you can see that i will end up with a periapsis (lowest point of orbit) around minmus of 680 klms above the surface of Minmus. The trip from Kerbal to periapsis will take 3 days and 11 minutes.


So the hard bit is done. We are going to Minmus and with quite a bit of fuel on board as well. Happy days. With just over 3 days to burn before getting there, its time to get a little green man outside for an EVA to inspect our ship. With lights burning bright on the little Kerbal's helmet the inky black void of space was pushed aside to show the sides of the craft.






3 days passes rather quickly under time warp and when approaching the periapsis of Minmus, the ship is turned retrograde and a burn initiated to establish an orbit. Now Minmus compared to the MUN has a very undulating terrain filled with massive mountains and deep valeys with frozen methane lakes strewn inbetween. So care must be taken for a landing site. Also with such a low gravity, a very low orbit at low speed can be achieved. The next few pictures shows an elongated orbit and a picture of Minmus from far away followed by a lower more circular orbit and close view of Minmus.






To Be Continued !!

Trip to MINMUS continued

Whilst in low orbit, I can see that the frozen methane lakes are flat and that there are quite a few flat looking shelves high on the mountains. I decide that a landing on one of the flat spots on the mountains will be best as it will take less fuel to land there and require less fuel to take off from there. Plus its the old addage of i don't want things to get out of control whilst i am looking up at terrain. So on the next picture you can see a flat shelf up high on the right hand side of the picture. That will be my landing spot.


The plan is to land on the ridge closest to the methane lake for my kerbals to explore. Also give a good vantage point for surveying the area. So with point chosen, i enter map mode again and using the terrain features of the planet, i manouver my orbit to fly over the shelf. The next orbit round shows a pretty good alignment.



Happy with my trajectory, i initiate the retrograde burn to de-orbit. On the second picture you can see the blue line indicating my orbit across Minmus. In this instance moving in a direction from the top of the blue line (towards the top of pitcure) to the bottom of the blue line. As you can see the bottom of the blue line seems to stop right on the ledge. Its all looking good.



As the descent begins, it seems to take a while. The low gravity of Minmus means things happen slower than what i am used to from the moon. Whilst descending it becomes clear that the surface isn't as flat as i would like. I chicken out and adjust the descent to move a little further away from the edge of the ridge to a place that looks flatter. Once landed, i asses how far i am from the ridge and the terrain and do a little hop over a bit closer to the edge of the ridge.








Landing completed its time to "Get your kerbal out" and survey the mountain and frozen lake. The gravity is so low on Minmus that one jump from my kerbal takes him about as high as my lander. Go go Superman - er Kerbal.





The lake is some distance but its hard to tell from here. (To be honest i forgot how high the mountains were). So i decided for my kerbal to take a wander down to the frozen lake. There is only limited fuel for the kerbals EVA pack, but the gravity is so low, i know i can go quite far on it. So with a Jump high into the air, the little kerbal activates the EVA pack and off they scoot down the mountain to the lake. On the way down, i get a bit of a shock realising how far away it really is. WHen you EVA, you have no indication of which way your are heading. The only reference is objects you are close to. When you float high above the ground, that reference blurs and you loose the sense of speed in all directions.


So whilst decending down the (now apparent) massive cliff face, i decide to stop halfway and asses the situation. As i approch the ground my references returned. I was traveling forward fast - really fast. And also descending quite quickly too !!. With full reverse thrust as well as up, i managed to kiss the gound softly with my descent but was carrying far to much speed. The little kerbals legs could not keep up and a hilarious ragdoll, low G tumble ensued for what must have been a good 200 meters or more. He lay there slumped not moving. I was a little worried i killed him (ok maybe not) but a tap on the keyboard and he jumped up happy. I guess low G falls are quite soft but can be somewhat perpetual :-)





Once at a stop, my poor little kerbal was 7 klms away from the lander and not much fuel to get back on. In the middle of the lake is a nice reference island. So instead of spending all day walking up a massive mountain it was decided over comms that my little kerbal will use remaining EVA pack to go to this island and then the other two with the rocket will reposition next to him to save the day.



At this point you can see that he is over 9klms from the ship indicated by the magenta icon

PART 4 Addendum.

I have said it before and i must say it again. EVA's really do add another dimension to this game, just watching them tumble is strangely satisfying. Its utterly brilliant.

With regards to Minmus, 0.16 has corrected the graphical glitches present on Minmus. Minmus provides an additional challenge harder than the mun in terms of getting there. The low gravity however makes landing and manually positioning around a little easier than the MUN. Minmus gravity is so low thatyou can actually EVA to the surface from orbit if you so desire. There is even some that claim to have EVA'd to the surface from orbit and then back the the rocket in low orbit.

With EVA's one thing to note is. That if you decide to leave a kerbal on the surface by himself. Their icon showing distance only appears when close. SO remember where you put them or place them next to some rocket debris, otherwise it may be dificult to locate them.

All in all, i am really enjoying 0.16 and with the change log for 0.17 now released (posted on the sci-fi forum) i am looking forward to the fixes, additions and most of all the extra planets that will be incorporated.

Stay tuned next time for Part 5 - Artifact hunting.

Excellent report and screenshots Bogusheadbox!! You are managing to do far more than I have so far. Right now I am trying to put together a rocket design to that will get the 3-kerbal capsule to the Mun and back. I will tackle Minimus after that.

Keep the reports coming!

Thanks for the kind words. The next report will take some time and i may utilise some wonderful add-ons (when i figure out how to use them).

You guys are my heroes. Achievements such as reaching the Mun and returning safely seem so far out of reach for me. I struggle even with the proper procedure for entering orbit of Kerbin. John Klenn and Buzz Kaldrin are extremely proud.

I hope in the future they will add friction so that proper enter from orbit will be required. I've managed to send ships to mun and minimus. Heck, I have right now 5 ships on mun within 1k of each other.

Man, I've got a long way to go seeing your pictures there. I finally achieved my highest altitude. (234,000 meters) And that was after dozens of configurations until I finally came up with something that gave me that little extra push out of the thick air.

How do the Kerbals handle re-entry, while in EVA?

Just fine until they read the end of the re-entry process and the group approaches.

So far there is no heat damage and very minimal atmospheric friction (that causes damage to parts).

Thanks for sharing bogusheadbox,

You just sold me a version of ksp. I tried the free demo sometime ago, but found it a little hard and not sure what to do.

You have now shown the way, my first task is to get into space without dying, then orbiting the earth and then the mun

Great game/sim.

Thanks!

@ cougar - Make sure you post some pics of your endeavours !

@ einstein - As master said, heat mechanics for re-entry are not in game yet. Nova silisko was making a user mod for re-entry heat in game. He has now been placed on the dev team, so i am sure heat mechanics will make it in on a future upgrade. And when it does, boy will it be a game changer !!!!

I beleive there are some you tube videos around of Nova's early work on heat for re-entry

I finally had a semi-successful sub-orbital flight from start to finish. Must have spent a couple of hours testing and retesting a configuaration made up of SRB and liquid fuel engines.

I launched at an angle that took me inland. I got high enough to eva my Kerbal and retest my eva pack controls(had a double bound key somewhere that instantly turned my thrusters on when I activated my pack which sent my kerbal flying hopelessly fast away from the craft) I actually got disoriented with my controls and sent my Kerbal a good hundres feet or so away from my capsule but thanks to Providence was able to get back in. Then I parachuted down into some valley between some mountains and got out unscathed.


I don't have any screens but I'll try it again to show you my baby steps.

Nice one coot. You will be shooting for the mum in no time :-)

Part 5

**Incomming message for KSP command**



So the task was set, secret orders opened and read, and the first team selected and dispatched.

Jeb, Bill and Bob, were still on Minmus from the last report and so a new team of intrepid explorers has undertaken the challenge. Time is of the essence, and "test 5" craft was chosen initially until the boffins at KSP command can create a more dedicated platform.

Task
1. To transit from kerbin to the mun (Saftley is optional)
2. To establish low orbit around the Mun
3. Observe visually for any anomolies and intercept and investigate.

**** MESSAGE CENSORED FROM KSP COMMAND TO PRESERVE THE LOCATION AND INTEGRITY OF ANOMOLOUS SITES ***







The MUNAR arch. Is this some astronomical chance of nature or has this something to do with the Kraken ?

**** MESSAGE CENSORED FROM KSP COMMAND TO PRESERVE THE LOCATION AND INTEGRITY OF ANOMOLOUS SITES ***
<censorored>...is viewable from low orbit........<censored>

I found the arch myself yesterday. I wonder if there are any other 'anomalies' on the Munar surface to be found?

could anyone write a idiots guide to get to the mun please with mechjeb and without? I get lost trying to decipher the information on the KSP forums

You need to lean your orbit on 090hdg. Using "M" view and a lot of trial and error, you should get there.

There is

As for how to get to the Mun...

Fly up to about 10km then bank out towards the 90º mark on your compass. Then get up to 2kps in a nice orbit around kerbal (hopefully you are going around the axis. If not you will need to adjust it. Then wait for the mun to come over the horizon towards you and burn straight for it it. Your orbit should pull you down and away into it's orbital trajectory. Then open up your map with M and wait for your orbit to go out to the mun orbit. It should turn yellow when it calculates a mun capture.

Then try not to die...

And not just on MUN either

I tried my best. But i am an idiot, so i hope it makes sense. Clicky here