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Last active January 10, 2018 22:19
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KSP checklist
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ksp-checklist.md

Vehicle assembly

  1. Install MapSat GPS radio
  2. Verify sufficient power for electric rover (solar panel or RTG that doesn't fall off in dynamic environments)
  3. Does gear touch the ground when extended?
  4. Did you pack enough delta-v? (No.)
  5. Are you planning on returning?
  6. Is your shit manned or did that little probe body ruin the day?
  7. How many crew do you want?
  8. Did you remember ASAS and SAS?
  9. Is RCS needed?
  10. Check yo stagin'
  11. Are you packing parachutes? Do you need to repack them?
  12. Does the craft need an illumination? For docking? Looking downward for landing? For EVA to be able to find the hatch?
  13. Adding an antenna on one side of a docking port can help you orient while docking; put one on both spacecraft

Designing a space station

  1. How many crew do you want?
  2. Can everyone onboard get home if the station has a problem?
  3. Science modules?
  4. Food, bathroom, clothes, cupola?
  5. EVA airlock module?
  6. Robotic arm(s), are there mods yet for this?
  7. Radiators?
  8. Computers? ASAS, SAS (reaction wheels)
  9. Heating/cooling/CO2 scrubbers (Kerbal resources mods can help here)
  10. RCS? Ion? ISS has to repeatedly boost its altitude over time
  11. Lights? Are docking spacecraft well-lit? Is the station well-lit for glamour shots?
  12. Do the solar panels and batteries provide sufficient power?
  13. Docking ports: are they positioned with enough clearance for docking spacecraft? Can the station be extended beyond its design?
  14. BOSS? ISA MapSat or GSP?

Launch

  1. Did you test your lander on the launchpad first?
  2. Did you time accelerate until the correct phase angle (and leave enough time for docking if applicable)?
  3. Is there wobble? Back to the VAB to stiffen the launch vehicle, struts or redesign.
  4. Look up the inclination of the body you intend to visit and calculate your launch heading
  5. Lock gimbals on non-core engines

Docking

  1. Control from here on the part oriented correctly towards the target
  2. Set the other spacecraft as the target
  3. Orient both spacecraft normal and anti-normal respectively to null out the rotation of the body you're orbiting
  4. Determine if you're going to be docking in the dark and whether or not you have lights and the battry power required
  5. Remember to roll your spacecraft so RCS thrusters fire as you'd expect
  6. Set the individual docking port as target once it's visible
  7. Disable SAS on contact to let the attraction pull both spacecraft into the same orientation

Satellites, probes, and mapping

  1. Polar orbits allow one probe to map an entire body
  2. Elliptic orbits allow extended time over a particular feature on the surface

Orbiting

Transfer manuevers

Landing

  1. Is the surface even?
  2. Is it going to be properly illuminated?
  3. Is there going to be any bodies visible from the landing site? Do you want there to be? Tidal lock?
  4. Did you read the kspwiki article on your target and its atmospheric data, etc.?
  5. Check yo stagin'
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