Excalibur

They're definitely there, I've seen them myself. Quite subtle, I'm not sure if they're just a graphical artifact or intended.

They use the new LiquidFuelEngine module added in 0.16. This calculates burn rate based on thrust and Isp. There's no consumption figure as such. They will still use fuel don't worry, infact try lighting one of these puppies on the pad and you'll see how inefficient they are in atmosphere. Yeah, several GW sustained over several minutes. I honestly think that if we ever send manned missions to the outer planets, it will be with nuclear power. Either NTRs or nuclear-powered ion engines.

I may be able to give you a hand with some designs. Stock only?

Haha that's such an awesome idea, I'd never have thought of it! I've been wondering how cool it would be if someone combined the Electrical Energy plugin with DYJ's propeller-driven engines. I've been wondering about building a fold-up aircraft with solar panel-covered wings that flies through Jool's atmosphere indefinitely! I think possibly the hardest mission profile will be landing on Eve and returning for that exact reason. Either that or getting to Moho. If it's as close to the Sun as Nova says it'll be nigh on impossible to get to without some crazy parts.

Cool, what did you think of the wiki entry? I don't care what people say about Wikipedia, I can spend hours on it!

Planets closer to the parent star than your point of origin (Kerbin in this case) are harder to reach than planets further away. This is because when you journey into the inner solar system you delve deeper into the star's immense gravity well. This has the effect of making any orbital changes much more expensive. So my guess would be that Duna would be easier to reach than Eve. That said ease of mission depends on what you're trying to achieve. Nova said in one of the unofficial 0.17 discussion forums that Eve's gravity would be about 1.7x Kerbin's, whilst having an atmosphere 5x as dense. The thick atmosphere would make landing very easy. However if you want to do a return mission, taking off again from Eve would require quite a bit more delta-v than lift off from Kerbin. So if you want to bring your Kerbals home, I'd recommend Duna as your first target. I know it's mine.

Just an interesting video I found on YouTube, shame it never happened that way.

Don't expect it to work in the atmosphere. Download: http://www./?2cge86f2cc9wk2r Anyone have a miscellaneous part or .cfg edit they want to share? Nice, I see you actually went and made that NERVA model. I'd like to recommend increasing the IspVac to around 800-850. I know it sounds like an unreasonably high number but the real NERVAs of the 1960's had Isps over 800. With further development specific impulses of 1000-1500s would have been possible. Unfortunately as we know the nuclear rocket programmes were cancelled prematurely... EDIT: Perhaps reduce the thrust a bit too? This section on Wiki makes a very interesting read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_thermal_rocket#Nuclear_vs._chemical Going from my interpretations of what's in the article, increasing the mass to perhaps 5 tons, reducing thrust to 125-150 and giving a IspVac of 800-1000s would seem to make the most historically accurate NERVA engine. Just a suggestion!

I agree with you personally. I found all of the extra-Kerbin artefacts using the Muon Detector only. The Minmus anomaly gave me no end of trouble until I finally realised it's location was rather unusual! That said, if someone asks for the coordinates because they don't want to go to the trouble finding out for themselves then fine, I respect their choice. Even if I think they're missing out.

I can provide updated coords for the Minmus anomaly if you like, I've sent up a craft and hovered within a metre of it in the past.

I really should learn to model and texture myself. If you decide to model some new nuclear engines to go with the .cfgs that would jolly good of you!

I did mention both Sunday Punch and leucome in the OP. It appears leucome has left the forums, and Tiberion is attempting to get the license for the Sunday Punch parts. I've spoken to him and I think it's best not to share at least the 1m engine until those issues have been resolved. I don't want to anger anybody here. Until things become more clear I can't really share the engines. I'm sure no one will mind if I share the details of the .cfg edits though. Expect those up soon.

NERVA Nuclear Rocket Engines As 0.17 draws nearer I couldn't help wishing that I had something a little more advanced than chemical propulsion to get me to the planets. The two engines shown here have been around for a while, but do not use the new fuel module that bases fuel efficiency on specific impulse. So for the people who don't know how and those who haven't gotten around to it yet I present these two .cfg edits for Sunday Punch and leucome's nuclear engine parts. If the original part creators return and take issue with me, feel free to send a PM and I'll remove the post if so wished. I purposely set the initial Isp to be awful so as to discourage using a nuclear engine within the atmosphere. The real NERVA engines developed during the 1960s attained vacuum specific impulses upwards of 800s, so these engines have twice the efficiency of chemical rockets. Use these babies in space and you'll just keep on going. 1960s style.

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed watching.

Posted this in the Spacecraft Exchange a while back.

I've had no trouble with it. Maybe try using precision controls ('Ctrl'). Perhaps you could elaborate on exactly what you are doing with the controls, throttle etc. when the problems happen. I'll post up a video soon enough to show what you can do with it! I will say you do need to setup the trim in the pitch axis though. If you don't already know you can hold 'Alt' while pressing WASD. Trim lets you adjust the neutral point of the controls so to speak. So if the plane is constantly diving when you let go of the controls, hold 'Alt' and keep tapping 'w' until the aircraft flies level.

Concorde A scale recreation of the legendary Concorde. Has plenty of power and turns like a fighter, it flies like I imagine the real thing does. It even has a working droop nose. It's largely stock, but does use a few mod parts so I've included a dropbox link that includes everything you need to take to the skies. Have fun! DOWNLOADhttps://dl.dropbox.com/u/96756455/Concorde.rar

Exactly my sentiments Capt'n. Whenever I needed to perform a manoeuver that I had no knowledge of, I'd turn to MJ to see how it was done. I'm also quite a fan of pressing 'Engage' and walking off for a drink/whatever. I think MechJeb is also quite a useful tool to use when developing new craft. Since it's extremely difficult to manually fly the same path to orbit every single time with a new design, use of MJ removes quite a bit of uncertainty in the results. This allows you to ensure each launch of a new craft and its variations is a 'fair test', thus speeding up development. And the beauty of it is that when you feel like a bit more of a challenge, you can just press 'Off'.

I have to say khyron had this challenge licked when posted earlier in the Jet Engine Speed Challenge he mentioned. I managed to get within 10m/s or so of his speed but couldn't quite catch up. Good luck peeps!

I think I remember Nova saying Eve's surface pressure will be a fair bit higher than Kerbin's so wings will generate more lift. That said, to land the Atlas MkII on Kerbin all I do is free fall to about 5km, velocity around 200m/s. I turn retrograde with the airbrakes which also slow the craft slightly (these will be even more effective on Eve). I start the braking burn only 1km or so up and actually use very little fuel in landing. Massive amounts of wings on a heavy craft like this will be more of a liability I think.

I've never actually played around with that mod myself. Will have to take a look at it one day. Feels a little too 'cheaty' for me. That said I guess so is the fuel transfer plugin, with it's ability to magically move fuel up to 2km.

Thought I already had. Silly me. I'll update the OP with them now. Be warned, as I stated above the Atlas in that configuration is a bit cheaty due to the fuel flow bug present when using the 3m to 7x1m engine mount. I did use many more mods at one time, but with the release of 0.16 I considered many of them redundant. I also try to use only engines using the new specific impulse module as I think they're 'closer' to stock.

Updated OP with dropbox link to the collection of mods I use. Enjoy.

It's uploaded now, but I'm at a bbq so I'll find the link for you tomorrow. Plus, rather embarrassingly the Atlas Lander is not the beast I thought it was. I've discovered a bug with the 3m to 7x1m connector. Even with seven engines attached fuel burns at the rate of one. Will upload a revised design tomorrow that doesn't cheat! Thought the new aerospikes were rather more efficient than they actually are!

Spot on wired. I used Jupiter from the 2001: A Space Odyssey soundtrack. Thought it perfect for this. I used r4m0n's excellent Fixed Camera plugin. All of the cameras were mounted on the first lander's debris. Took me a while running around with Jeb pushing them into the right position.