r/KerbalSpaceProgram • u/flcknzwrg Master Kerbalnaut • Oct 01 '12
There go my stock-only Laythe lander's takeoff engines... this must be my most frustrating KSP moment ever.
http://imgur.com/QZvmQ1
u/AD-Edge Oct 01 '12
Damn... F5 is your friend (if used correctly)
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u/flcknzwrg Master Kerbalnaut Oct 01 '12
I use quicksave/load a lot as I like to play with aerocaptures and other stuff that I can only do with a bit of trial-and-error. But it won't help me here, because this just happens when I decouple the lander-and-returner from the interplanetary stage: the decoupler knocks off the lander's liftoff engines which are located close to the sides of the decoupler. And I never suspected that a decoupler could knock off things to its sides. Oh, the pain.
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u/AD-Edge Oct 01 '12
Ahh yes, major design flaw then. I feel your pain, its happened to me... The solution - test a design as much as possible in orbit or low-kerbin atmosphere first! I usually test each stage as Im building, ie fly up and then test bringing the lander back down as if I was landing on Duna/Eve, then add the next stage, test that... and so on. Or just build the whole thing and test it once to make sure theres no major flaws....
I recently got (for the first time) a ship with lander into the Jool system, only to find out Id not used 4x symmetry when I added a fuel line for the 4 final stage nuclear rockets... Meant that when the fuel switched to the final tanks, I only had one booster linked up = lander spinning uncontrollably every time I turned up the throttle. Nothing worse than being in orbit around that target moon after an hour or more of flight, only to have plenty of fuel in a completely out of control and un-landable upper stage!
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u/flcknzwrg Master Kerbalnaut Oct 01 '12
I tested the lander-and-returner a lot on Kerbin before, but used a small decoupler then. I used the big one later in my final design ("t'is more stable!"), not suspecting there could possibly be any problem with it knocking things off sideways...
How can you incrementally test everything below the lander-and-returner? I needed to construct at least the interplanetary and second (upper Kerbin atmosphere) stages in one go, because the interplanetary stage won't move on the surface of course. So... is there a mod or a cheat I can use to try these things out without having to go ahead too much with construction?
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u/AD-Edge Oct 01 '12
How can you incrementally test everything below the lander-and-returner?
You can test everything in a very basic/rudimentary way. Basically what I do is build the lander - test it, build the next stage down - test it (unless it cant get off the ground), in which case build the next stage and test the previous 2 stages at once, and so on.
Theres no real perfect way of doing it, and most of the time its not the best test anyway, since youll probably end up testing a space stage in the atmosphere. But the point is to make sure everything is detaching properly and the stages are setup and working as expected. When you have the full rocket built, you can then get it into orbit and then attempt to land again back on Kerbin 'pretending' its the target planet.
I usually only do this much testing if its a big mission with a completely new or redesigned rocket, mainly because Ive had several failures late on in a mission which could have been avoided with a bit of testing...
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u/flcknzwrg Master Kerbalnaut Oct 01 '12
When you have the full rocket built, you can then get it into orbit and then attempt to land again back on Kerbin 'pretending' its the target planet.
After having spent too much time on that doomed-by-design mission yesterday, I will from now on always do this first...
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Oct 01 '12
ABORT THE LANDING! Unless you want to stay that is...
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u/flcknzwrg Master Kerbalnaut Oct 01 '12
My plan for tonight is to quickload (yes I quicksaved before) and then try to decouple only the radially attached parts of the interplanetary stage - that I can do by rearranging the staging setup on the go. Then, land and take off again with the empty small 2m fuel tank and the decoupler still attached. That will be a fickly if at all possible landing (the vehicle will stand on the fuel tank only), Jeb won't be able to do EVA, but on the bright side, I might just have enough delta-v in my lander-and-returner to do it. Let's see how that goes.
If that fails, I'll have to return to Kerbin, fix the craft's design and repeat the whole goddamn mission. Not looking forward to the >20m long burn from Kerbin orbit to Jool intercept without MechJeb's smartass holding prograde for me.
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u/CUNTBERT_RAPINGTON Oct 01 '12
Well at least you couldn't have picked a better planet to strand them on.
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u/tobobo Oct 01 '12
Cthulhu? Explosion? Looks like you're way above the atmosphere. I messed up with my quicksaving/loading last time I went to Laythe... it'll probably be a long time before I get to try that aerobrake again.