WillThe84th

That's funny. I'm making something very similar to this.

This sounds like an amazing mod, but I have a few questions. How would this affect planet packs such as OPM, would the systems of Sarnus, Urlum and Neidon become unstable and the moons would fly off into space? How much does this mod affect the performance of the game? Does it dramatically slow down the game, or just a little?

This a good idea, but it's already been suggested many times. There are mods that do almost exactly the thing that you are suggesting. Here are some of those mods: Outer Planets Mod: Adds Kerbal analogs for Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Kerbol Plus: Adds a gas giant, 6 planets, 14 moons and a comet. Trans-Keptunian: Adds 4 planets and 5 moons.

That heat shield looks awesome, it's gonna help a lot!

11,941. Is that bad?

Is there a way to make this only work on Kerbin? Because in my opinion, it seems kind of cheaty to use it on a different planet.

How much stuff can this get into orbit?

Yeah, I make a lot of typos...

Thank you.

If you are new to KSP or to Rocket Science in general, you might not know what all the different engines that the game offers do, or how they work, or why you would use one instead of the other. At it's most basic level, the engines in the game take some sort of fuel, and accelerate it out the back of the rocket/plane and, because of Newton's Third Law, this propels the craft forward. How the engine does this depends on the type of engine, and in KSP, at this time, there are five different types of engines. These are: Chemical Rockets, Jet Engines, Solid Rocket Boosters, Ion Thrusters, and Nuclear Thermal Rockets. (There is only one Ion Thruster and only one Nuclear Thermal Rocket) Quick Note: All engines have different characteristics, thrust, ISP a sea level, and ISP in vacuum. Thrust is how much force the engine exerts, and ISP measures how efficient the engine is, so an engine with an ISP of 400 will use half as much fuel to produce the same thrust as an engine with an ISP of 200. Chemical Rockets: Thrust: 2-4000, ISP ASL: 80-295, ISP Vacuum: 290-350 (Not including "Puff" Monopropellant Engine) Chemical Rockets (or Liquid Fuel Engines) require Liquid Fuel and Oxidizer, and is one of the most common engines that you will use in the game. The basic concept is that the fuel is burned inside a combustion chamber and then the heated exhaust expands through the nozzle and is shot out the back. These engines are somewhat efficient, and have pretty high thrust. There is a very large variety of these engines so each one is fit for a particular job. For instance there are some of them that are more efficient in the atmosphere than others and some might be very efficient in space. You're sure to find one that fits your needs. Jet Engines: Thrust (Mach 0): 20-360, ISP ASL: 3200-12600 Jet Engines only require Liquid Fuel, but they also need Intakes. These engines work by taking air from the atmosphere, compressing it, mixing it with the fuel and then burning it in the combustion chamber. They exhaust then shoots out the back, propelling the craft forward. They also only work in atmospheres with oxygen, (Kerbin and Laythe) and if they are deprived of air, (if you go too high) the engines will flame out and stop producing thrust. Like the Chemical Rockets there a different types of Jet Engines in the game. There are high efficiency, low thrust engines, and there are low efficiency, high thrust ones too. Solid Rocket Boosters: Thrust: 18-750, ISP ASL: 118-195, ISP Vacuum: 154-220 Solid Rocket Boosters (or SRBs for short) only need one fuel called Solid Fuel, which they carry themselves. These engines differ from other ones because, unlike the Jet Engines and the Chemical Rockets, all of their fuel is stored inside the combustion chamber. This means that when you start these engines (with an ignition charge at the top of the booster) they will continue to run until all their fuel is used up, so you can't shut them off. Solid Rocket Boosters are low efficiency, high thrust engines, and are best used during ascent. Ion Thrusters: Thrust: 2, ISP ASL: 100, ISP Vacuum: 4200 Ion Thrusters need a resource called Xenon Gas (pronounced Zee-non) and also require Electric Charge. These engines are very complicated, but basically they use electricity to ionize (charge by adding or removing an electron) particles and then shoot them out of the back at insanely high velocities. These engine are incredibly efficient in space (12 times more than the most efficient Chemical Rocket) but they produce practically no thrust. Because of their low thrust, they are best used on small crafts like probes. Nuclear Thermal Rockets: Thrust: 60, ISP ASL: 185, ISP Vacuum: 800 Nuclear Thermal Rockets only need Liquid Fuel. The concept of these engines is my favorite. They work by heating up the fuel with a small Nuclear Reactor and then shooting the fuel out the back. The Nuclear Reactor allows the fuel to get hotter than it does in a Chemical Rocket, which means that the fuel is more energetic, which then leads to it going faster out the nozzle of the engine, which means that the engine is more efficient. This engine is about two times more efficient than the most efficient Chemical Rocket, but the Nuclear Reactor can cause the engine to overheat, (so radiators are almost always required) and it doesn't produce much thrust. R.A.P.I.E.R Engine: Jet Engine: Thrust (Mach 0): 105, ISP ASL: 3200 Chemical Rocket: Thrust: 180, ISP ASL: 275, ISP Vacuum: 305 There is an engine in the game called the R.A.P.I.E.R, and that engine has two modes, Airbreathing (Jet Engine) and Closed Cycle. (Chemical Rocket) It is mainly used for a type of spaceplane called an SSTO. (Single Stage to Orbit) P.S: I got all the images from the KSP Wiki. P.P.S: If I missed anything or did something wrong, please tell me. Also, if you want more of this sort of stuff, say so.

Yeah, bad reasoning on my part. For some reason I thought the Isp in afterburning mode was something like 7000. Now for better reasoning: I like the panther because it has a high gimbal range, which can be utilized to do insane stunts, like going backwards. I also like how you can build fighter jets with them. Like this one: But actually, if I was making a science plane, I'd use the goliath.

For some reason I've found that the Mk 1 cockpit heats up more than the Mk 2 and Mk 3 cockpits. Has anyone else experienced this?

One word of advice. I suggest you get some sort of mod to make explosions more interesting, (like Collision FX) because at the beginning, explosions are very common.

Well, you aren't too lonely anymore, ever once in a while you get to say hi to a passing asteroid.

I do the same thing. If you pitch up, it allows you to stay in the upper atmosphere so you can bleed off as much speed as possible before you start really heating up.

Wow. These are amazing. I'm not very good a SSTO making/flying and most of my designs never reach orbit. However, I have been able to make one, but it could only carry one kerbal and nothing else.

It's not that hard to survive reentry in a spaceplane, it just takes a lot of patience and some practice. I've found that the Mk 1 cockpit overheats easier than the Mk 2 and Mk 3 cockpits, so there are usually a better option. Another good technique is to pitch up and try to increase your vertical speed, so that you stay in the upper atmosphere and don't heat up as much.

I voted for the Panther, but I think that the Whiplash is pretty good too. If I'm making a plane that's just going to fly around Kerbin, collecting science, I would definitely use the Panther. Although it's not the most efficient, (but more efficient than the Whiplash) it's pretty fast, and I can't stand waiting a long time for my plane to fly to the other side of Kerbin if I'm going slow. However, if i'm building a space plane, I would use the Whiplash because it works the best at high speeds and altitudes.