Kerbal Space Program - Page 20

On November 11 2014 23:26 stenole wrote:
You lose science from landing in the water? I had no idea..

One of the more fuel-efficient maneuvers to get more control over where you land would for example let you just scratch the upper atmosphere of kerbin, maybe ~50km (I don't really know the exact numbers that work), slowing you down and greatly reducing the excentricity of your orbit on that passthrough, but not so low that you directly land on Kerbin.

On November 11 2014 22:52 m4ini wrote:
It depends on your design, do you have fuel left after the burn to return to kerbal? And do you play with FAR/deadly reentry?

On November 11 2014 23:28 Daumen wrote:


I lose it because my Science Junior gets destroyed like 80% of the time I land in water ;D
If you land in Water and all your parts are still intact then you dont lose any science.

On November 11 2014 23:29 m4ini wrote:
edit: your science junior breakes in water, but not on land? Did you put it on top of a relatively high vehicle? The easiest way to circumvent that is simply, redesign your lander.

On November 11 2014 23:34 Simberto wrote:


Oh. You need more parachutes. The Science Junior has a lesser impact tolerance than a capsule, and you can't use landing struts in water. If you add a few more parachutes and you don't have an absurdly spaceships that breaks by falling over after landing in water, your descent rate will be below 8m/s and thus not break the thingy. I would always configure anything that is designed to return to Kerbin so it can land in water, that saves a lot of trouble.

On November 11 2014 23:32 Daumen wrote:


I dont use any addons ;X maybe i should get them xD

So, my basic problem is, My last Lander had fuel, and I tried to burn towards the shore but it wasnt enough OR I noticed the problem too late. The thing is, Id like a good rule of thumb so I can burn earlier :X

So on my return path, right after I had a Mun Escape, I had NO idea where I would land since Kerbin turns around its axis, so I now assume that if I make a maneuver node at the end I can see the "Reach node in X time". If thats 6h, then I expect to land right where my blue line shows me(minus the slowdown during reentry).

Since I'm still at "low tech", all thats returning from my Mun mission is/was the starter COmmand Module, Science Junior, 1 Fuel Tank, engine in that order (and the parachute on top of the command module).

On November 11 2014 23:39 stenole wrote:


You could always have your Kerbal fetch the science from the science junior and bring it back to the command pod.

On November 11 2014 23:39 stenole wrote:


You could always have your Kerbal fetch the science from the science junior and bring it back to the command pod.

On November 11 2014 23:38 m4ini wrote:


FAR and Deadly Reentry are the two mods i can't play without. But be warned, it doesn't make the game easier, quite the opposite. Aerodynamics (well, more or less) start to play a role, and heatshielding for your vessels.

I still don't really understand what you're doing, so i'll just describe how i return from the mun.

After the return burn from the mun (~450dV) i'm in an extremely eccentric orbit around kerbin. I then burn a tiny bit retrograde (i assume you know pro/retrograde, if not, tell me) to get my periapsis to around 45-50km above kerbin, to use the atmosphere to slow down a bit - two or three times, until i have a relatively stable orbit. And from there it's just shooting fish in a barrel, you can't really miss your target from there.

On November 11 2014 23:42 Simberto wrote:
From what i gather, the problem is that the lander is designed to land on land, not water. Thus it probably descends at ~10m/s with its one parachute, and the landing struts make it not explode on land. However, on water they are useless, thus the stuff explodes.

Btw, second workaround if you do not wish to redesign or aim where you land: Spacewalk, grab the data out of the science junior and the mystery goo, and put it into the capsule. This means that you don't have to waste fuel carrying used-up sciences back, which can make interplanetary missions a lot easier because you need a lot less fuel to return after dumping your science facilities onto Duna, while still getting all the science because you took it out of the thingy first.

On November 11 2014 23:43 m4ini wrote:


True. But honestly, i really dislike breaking things on my rockets, i want to have everything refurbishable as much as possible. It's a bit OCD, but still. ^^

On November 11 2014 23:43 Daumen wrote:


ye I know what you mean, guess I am just too lazy/impatient (or too cocky?) to do that ;D But can you give me a basic summary on what FAR & deadly reentry is? I assume deadly reentry just makes the reentry burn do dmg to your vessel and you need to worry about it (with new parts?).

You gotta think enviromentally friendly. Carrying used-up science facilities back to Kerbin wastes absurd amounts of fuel, and fuel to get that fuel into orbit, etc....