ave369

I tried to launch an asparagus staged rocket and the game turned into slide show because of the shoddy fuel flow optimization. I guess I'll have to wait for a couple more patches before I return. Wait, what Dres? I haven't found any Dres in KSP2 either.

Point taken. I submit.

Everything in YOUR statement is fundamentally not factual. > A torch drive needs to produce high levels of thrust for days with a fairly high TWR and a usable payload fraction too A torch drive is a drive that has more thrust, more TWR AND, especially, drastically more Isp than a conventional engine of the same class. The metallic hydrogen engine has more thrust, TWR and drastically more Isp than other engines of the class it belongs to, namely chemical engines. It is not a fusion engine and not a fission engine, it is a chemical engine. > metallic hydrogen is extremely dense No, it is not. It is formed under extremely high pressure, but it does not mean it is extremely dense. Density of metallic hydrogen is theoretized to be around 0.7 g/cm3. > a long-burning torch drive making interplanetary journeys in a few days via semi-brachistochrone trajectories This is not what metallic hydrogen engines are developed for in real life. They are developed for single stage rockets to low Earth orbit in real life. The benefits of metallic hydrogen is high thrust (as it is a chemical engine), while having a better Isp than conventional chemical engines. > metallic Hydrogen is endgame tech Citation needed.

KSP 1 did not have any exoplanets. When you need a 10 year relativistic flight to reach another star system and each sublight starship costs at least 10,000,000 kerbodollars, will you launch every single piddly probe to the systems where Puf, Gurdamma or Rusk are from Kerbin and spend 10,000,000 kerbodollars and 10 years each time? Or will you plop a colony on Puf, build a space center there and launch from Puf to explore the system as if it was Kerbin? The metallic hydrogen engine is not a fusion torch, it's a chemical torch. It is intended to launch single stage pulp novel style rockets to LKO, but it will be of little use in deep space, let alone interstellar space. Expect thrust around the same values as Mainsails and Mammoths, and ISP two times that of Mainsails and Mammoths.

A Crane is a piece of machinery that removes all weight and size limits on EVA construction. It would be a habitat type part that, when occupied by an Engineer, allows you to access the standard EVA construction mode with the standard distance restriction,., but with no weight limit! Combine the Crane part with robotics and wheels to make a mobile or rotating crane, move it around and have a larger radius to build stuff. Is it possible to make such a mod?

Is there a mod that improves the EVA construction mechanic, particularly by removing weight limits with help of some machinery? For example, if your craft has a "Crane", an Engineer can man this crane and access EVA construction mode with no weight limit?

I assume the process looks like that: * You assemble a KSP1-style base which is just a stationary craft. This gives you the ability to open the base editor, but so far it can do little more than the KSP1 engineering screen; * You start some ISRU on your KSP1-style base. This allows you to build bigger parts in the base editor, and unlocks the first "building" parts that are built in situ; * As you expand your base, build buildings and resettle Kerbals to your new extrakerbestrial settlement, you get more ISRU options and unlock more building parts; * Eventually you gain the ability to build the runway, the launchpad, the SPH and the VAB; * Congratulations, you can now assemble and launch spacecraft from your brand new Muna City! Building an orbital colony, I assume, would be the same but with no ISRU options, you'll have to bring resources by big transport ships. The benefit, on the other hand, is that you can build spaceships directly in space, no launch required. I guess the best option for a space base would be a size E asteroid which will provide some ISRU.

I'm going to focus on Minmus in early game and Laythe in midgame. The colony on Minmus will be called, unimaginatively, Minmus City and located in the middle of the Greatest Flats. As for the Laythe bases, I'm going to have more than one because I'll try to turn Laythe into the second Kerbin because it's so hospitable and Kerbin-like. Given the seagoing theme of the moon, the settlements on various islands will be called Port Royal, Tortuga and New Providence. What are your plans for colony names?

This base building mechanic intrigues me a lot. I'm going to use it to turn Laythe into the second Kerbin once I get KSP2. Build a full space center that can assemble and launch all kinds of spacecraft there, and settle dozens of Kerbonauts. Also, Minmus should become an auxiliary spaceport in early game.

But дыня is pronounced DIN-yah.

There is so many options to name it... * Kerbflower * Santa Valentina * Noah Kerman's Ark and so on...

KSP2 will have acceleration in time warp. With it, you don't need huge xenon engines: the "huge cruiser, one piddly xenon engine" design becomes entirely viable.

I think NERV is the go-to engine for the stage of the game when all your missions are Duna and Eve. For the other planets, and especially OPM planets, you need better tech. My Trans-Joolian explorer cruiser is based on the Near Future engines, namely the 2.5 m plasma engine. The engine is fueled by 12 tanks of Lithium and powered by two nuclear reactors, which gives it the delta-V capacity of 10000 m/s fully loaded and fueled while being able to produce NERV-like acceleration around 0,2 G. The nuclear reactors like to play thermal tricks and occasionally explode if you leave them on during a timewarp. So I designed a "Reactor Safety System" based on a KAL-1000 which starts the reactors and deploys extra radiators when you throttle up the plasma engine, and stops them when you kill thrust.

I prefer to strut them fast. After the station is deployed, these struts can be recovered by an engineer and re-used to fix the station's final shape and prevent noodling.

Having Making History and thus access to the 5m size helps. There is no 5m single engine in the game, but there is a fuel tank/engine assembly part that can serve as the basis for your custom 5m super-engine. It has 5 nodes: 4 size 1 nodes and one size 3 node. A Mastodon should go into each of the size 1 nodes. An engine plate with 5 Vectors should go to the size 3 node. So you have a super-Mammoth with 4 Mastodons and 5 Vectors, and no nozzle clipping. This will be your lower stage engine. To boost it into the orbit, add 4 asparagus staged boosters. Each should be a Size 3 Kerbodyne with a Mammoth as the engine. So you'll have a Size 4 central stage and four size 3 asparagus staged booster stages. This alone is enough to launch really big payloads into space. Whole stations, or interplanetary cruisers with 10k delta-v, you name it. I can imagine very few payloads too big for this rocket; for example, it won't launch a whole USI Orion (mod) engine with a bomb storage unit into orbit. Anything smaller than that is fair game.