aquilux

Maybe, we could use the animation module in some way to vary connection strength and impact tolerance dependent of temperature similar to how the inflatable heat shield works?

Simple solution, work it in exactly the same way the landing autopilot keeps from smashing into the ground. Use the attitude error as if it's altitude, measure turn rate off of how quickly attitude error changes and use that as velocity, and measure change in turn rate over time (Degrees per second squared) and use that in place of your T/W. Calculate a table that is updated live based off of your (degrees per second squared) multiplied by an aggressiveness factor (0 to 1, zero does not even try and one will fling the controls full force one way until half way there, then full force in reverse to the target, set by user). This table indicates the desired turn rate per attitude error, much in the same way that the landing autopilot specifies a desired velocity per altitude and feeds that value into the translatron. If the current turn rate is below this, it will thrust to increase turn rate. If it is over this, it will thrust to reduce it's turn rate. Obviously this gets complicated if you change your target attitude, but that can be attributed to user error. Either don't change your desired attitude so suddenly, or don't set the aggressiveness factor so high that mechjeb can't react fast enough. Also, fix the method of attitude change. In situations that humans would move in a straight line to the target, which is the most efficient, mechjeb traces out a spiral.

There's a bug report about this. It appears all solid fuel rockets report as 0dV until the next update's fix.

Because it was originally made by r4m0n using mechjeb.dll as a framework, before the library came out for all those mods that relied on features that it was moving away from. It became somewhat neglected, and now I have no idea whether or not r4m0n has even touched it in months. It definitely needs a rewrite. If you go for it see if you can make more control modes possible, such as preset toggles numerical inputs and maybe even set torque values, in addition to imprecise manual controls. It'd be really interesting if you managed something that piggybacked on the control surface code to manipulate the joints. I know there had been talk about landing legs that adjusted their position to level out your lander. If you managed to tack this functionality on, one could use it to land on just about any surface. (I imagine the legs drop to full extent, and then go limp. As the lander comes down, each leg is pushed up again. When the code detects that all legs are in contact it locks them in place, and the user then uses pitch and yaw to adjust their attitude in relation to the ground. This could also make the lander capable of "kneeling", maybe using h/n to keep the control inputs standardised in terms of motion, in case you are trying to dock a rover or what not.)

Will we ever get a spaceport download? I've wanted to use your mod since it first came out, but you've always had it on a file-share site, and my network blocks just about all of them. And no, changing internet providers is not an option, I only have access to filtered wifi (even if I throw money at the problem).

@ferram4 "that cannot be done in KSP without making aerodynamics subject to the player's whims" Considering how simple the .cfg files are to understand and the sea of mods out there, I'm sure that anyone using your mod would be into more realism. Considering that any knowledgeable player could just bring up the debug menu and cheat his/her way to anywhere, I'm sure anyone who is going to use your mod will use it properly as that will probably be their intent. "I don't know how well it would be received." I may be imagining things, but I'm pretty sure they've said that they plan on making a more realistic aerodynamic model at some point, just that they haven't gotten around to it yet. (In fact, I think it was mentioned when they were talking about implementing reentry heat) As for not wanting your help, just look at the people they've hired on in the past. They have a tendency of snapping up the best modders out there that are working on stuff they haven't gotten around to. It seems like while they know that they could get something to work, they will happily let someone else work as part of the team if they feel that someone will be better at it then themselves. Just promise to post a mod to bring it to your level of realism if you think they fall short.

Yes, if you want to call it cheating, though it perfectly illustrates what I'm talking about: In other words, higher altitude deceleration is prefered, though rather difficult to achieve. Maybe you could use the animation module on the FAR values? I remember that the inflatable heat shield did that to increase it's drag when inflated, though I'm not sure if they properly moved it's center of lift to keep it stable. As for how to set up some the heat shield in terms of lift? Make a "cone" of wing parts imbedded into the actual shield structure (maybe as sub-parts?), that sit at a small angle to the direction of motion. When the pod is angled, one side tilts to face the wind at a "flatter" angle, and the other side gets closer to 45 degrees to the wind, causing a lateral "push" away from that side of the pod. We could either use the pod's "magic" torque to push it temporarily into the proper angle, allowing it to right itself when we don't want any more lift effects, or we could use detachable counterweights set 180 degrees apart to stay true to life, dumping only one to throw off our center of gravity and "permanently tilting" the pod during reentry.

On a related note, a possible solution to the whole "max g-force" issue would be to have the ablative coating be a subpart that wraps around the spacecraft. If too much force is exerted on it it'd crack and break off much in the same way solar panels shatter during reentry. That combined with making the connection to the pod extra weak (if it's an attachable shield, though that'd probably be best considering the different reentry scenarios one may encounter) would cause your craft to actually break apart if it over-Gs.

Ok, so, it's been stated that I should not post late at night and tired. That being said, it's kind of an engineer's pipe dream in terms of reentry to do as much of your deceleration in the upper atmosphere where you hardly notice the reentry effects. An example of this is the proposed skylon craft, because of it's exceptionally low density in relation to it's surface area, it would only need minimal active cooling on certain key points along it's leading surfaces to survive reentry with what is otherwise a fairly standard skin. Another good example (though not from orbital speeds) is spaceships one and two from virgin galactic. They have nothing more special than paint and carbon composite as their pressure hull, main hull, and skin all combined into one, and it's hardly scorched on reentry. The way I understood it was that the skip in the apollo reentry profile was to spend as much time in the upper atmosphere as possible, only hitting higher temperatures and g-forces when they couldn't avoid it. When you watch the video, remember that altitude is rather exaggerated, the actual flight path is much shallower in reality. (look at when they give an overview of the whole flight, and notice that they've drawn the atmosphere as a good 1/3 the thickness of the whole planet, if that isn't exaggerated I don't know what is)

Just watched your video, and I take exception to the high altitude deceleration being wrong. about the apollo CM reentry profile. Notice "the skip" to keep the "heating load" down. Also, aerodynamic control is something I'm still hoping someone adds in.

Ah, so I actually spent some time looking over this and I see that is in fact what you have done. Chris, just tweak the settings until the shield protects the pod from, let's say, a 3g reentry, but just barely. (use mechjeb to calculate it, re enter manually with mechjeb giving you it's predictions) Any steeper of a reentry will generate more heat than that, and it'll go beyond what the shield is capable of and your parts start hitting their max temp values. Boom boom POW, there goes the ill fated ship.

The way endless and I were trying to manage this in the bit of code he worked up for ablative heat shields under the prior version, was to just have the burnoff rate and efficiency of an ablator that actively dispersed heat, tied to the heat shield's temperature (though I had initially thought to use a more direct drag factor). As the shield got hotter the ablator would burn off faster and in the process dump more heat, but it wouldn't quite keep up. If you tweaked the settings right, you could make it so that too aggressive of a reentry built up enough heat to blow the shield, and then boom! Also, even if you kept the descent below overheating, if you tried to reenter from too far away (see "too fast") you'd burn through your ablator too soon, and then there'd be nothing to protect you from re entry, and then boom as well. Here is the thread, if you want to look over what we have accomplished.

If you, yogui, or anyone you/you guys know feel up to it, there's a suggestion that was sadly lost in the site wipe. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/10/origin-of-the-apollo-shaped-manned-mars-lander-1966/ Basicly, everything about the M.E.M. and it's class of vehicles just scream "MOD ME! MOD ME! I WANT TO LIVE!", and I'm surprised no one has started working on this.

Maybe someone who knows how to code could create a standalone .dll to perform the functions DR preforms? From the looks of it it's either stagnated, or the original modder has his/her hands full with something else at the moment, Besides mumech.dll is horribly outdated and mechjeb is in a constant state of flux with their work on 2.0+.

I'd like to suggest a new hub part, like the ones allready available, but all for one type of strut. For example, the triangular strut hub would have 5 nodes. One forward, one back, and three to the sides as if you surface attached the ends of the struts to another strut. Maybe you could make a surface attach part like the "broken docking port" now in the game, that is tailored to fit the end of each type of strut. @ViAlexis: I haven't noticed a loss of custom window settings, but it is indeed being somehow anchored in place for me as well.

To expand on your idea Cardinal, I mention this: http://painterlypack.net/ Something in the same style as that would be rather useful. Browse through the different parts available and check off the ones you want. Maybe even build recommendations for other parts to go with what you've already selected based off of statistical data about what other people have downloaded (like what amazon does with their suggestions).

Could we have a Space Port download? My network blocks most file share sites and I'm not able to use anything else at the moment.

I agree with this in spirit. NASA, considering it's diminished funding and capabilities should be focused on larger organizational goals like running the space station and organising long range missions, rather than the shorter term of designing launch systems and performing routine flights. Almost all launch and LEO functionalities can be done cheaper commercially now anyway. I see NASA's role going forward as similar to that of a general contractor, with science being the motivating party. Need a new satellite? Commission a corporation with experience. Need a launch? Hire cost effective launch company. Have a problem? Issue an open challenge, ideas will come out in droves. Just filter out the best, and select from them. NASA should be focused on continually expanding our sphere of influence, doing the things that have never been done before and can't be done by anyone else, and not distracted by the small details that others have matched and improved upon already.

Have you considered making a short fuel tank the length of the RCS tank as well as properly themed radial engines like I had suggested before?

Aren't minthrust and maxthrust throttle percentages? If that's the case then it's because they'll be used for more realistic engines (most real engines can't throttle down past some absurdly high value, like 68% or something like that. In fact, if I remember it right, the apollo LM return engines couldn't ever go down to 95% if anything at all or something like that. If not that, then it's probably the old engine module that they left to allow for backwards compatibility with old parts.

Alternatively, TRON. Materialise an artificial construct the same way one returns from the grid. We see this happen at the end of legacy. It has the added benifit that you don't need to send anything but the digitiser a com link and an energy source, and presto! Teleportation.

I think it'll be two pronged. The first part will be some sort of manipulation of the higgs field. The second part will be some sort of buoyancy so that it won't have to use as much energy to hover and so that it won't fall quite like a rock. I think the easiest thing to use for buoyancy would be vaccum. Things float because they're lighter than the stuff around them, what's lighter than an area of absolutely nothing? They have the added benefit of not weighing any more than they already do this way. They could easily open specially built compartments, or even voids (spaces between utilised areas, usually difficult or impossible to get to) to the vacuum of space, then close the hatches/valves and bring that vacuum down with them.

Ferram, I posted some counterpoints to your arguments and suggestions as comments on your drag experiment mod so that I do not clutter up this thread. I would be grateful if you took the time, at your leisure, to read over my points and respond to them.

Have you ever seen the superlift airplanes? That's exactly how they do it. "...landing gear system with 32 wheels was designed..."

I really hope the spaceport link comes soon, mediafire and just about all other download sites are blocked on my network. If I were a crack addict in a spaceship, this would be like a cocaine asteroid just outside and not a spacesuit this side of the solar system to haul it in with.