SunJumper

What score do we get if we clip the ground, survive, and return to Kerbin? Mathematically, the thrill factor there is infinite.

Oops, I thought I had a legend at some point... Legend: Italics: Added Bold: To be added in the next update Plain: To be added later. Also, I'll be accepting science definitions (the flavour text) for the science experiments (Just PM them to me). However, to speed things up a bit, I'll need them to be in the following format: Name of experiment At least five lines (All must be acceptable, and for the same experiment, and not necessarily in the same planetary order)* Your name as a comment (ie // Sunjumper) * This requirement is lifted for wordy things, ie News, TV, and the In Situ Space Doco This allows me to copy/paste your lines into the sciencedefs, with you referenced, and I can go through the file to put your names into a readme file.

While typing data into the console of a Cupola near a mountain, he poofed.

Yes, I plan on having my own separate science definitions in a dedicated folder. I don't have the tools to make or edit models.

Until he proves his number, tan(90-99^-999999) Proof: As theta approaches 90, tan(theta) approaches infinity. arctan(4) is 76 degrees, and as 90-99^-999999 is less than 90 (otherwise the number would be infinite or negative), and greater than 76, tan(90-99^-999999) is greater than 4. I don't have a numerical approximation.

Actually, it would be quite acceptable to have the transmission rate be ~70% and allow surface recovery. Surface recovery just means you recorded directly to DVD/Video/Hard Drive, and the video suffered no quality loss due to interference.

Decrease the electric-charge proportion and decrease the Isp by 100 to 200s to increase thrust in the most balanced way.

By this, what restrictions do you impose on yourself (not necessarily with mods) for fun? Here's the ones I've used: Incremental parts: First flight is one part, second is two, third is three, etc... That particular one I found to be too slow. Perhaps a Fibonacci progression would be more fun. 50 tons or less: Any launch must mass less than 50 tons. Any craft may not exceed 50 tons via docking. Could be X Tons or less or X parts or less All manned flights and no transmitting

I normally only use ions when in solar orbit or beyond. They are normally fine for braking into orbit (except for Moho but including Gilly), but only into high orbits or where it will not take more than two passes to escape. I've even had success using them as far out as Jool...

Note that although using ksp distances will reduce the delta-v to the mun/etc, the delta-vs to the planets will increase massively. Also, the mun would be very close to kerbin, there would be only 4200km between the muns surface and kerbins surface. The mun might not even have a SOI...

Using structural parts as well as engines/fuel tanks separated by decouplers can provide sufficient mass to represent your payloads...

In Allmhuran's case, I don't think the use of mapping would have helped his tier 0 missions, as the future mapping parts wouldn't be in tier 0 anyway. A readout would be useful, however orbiting crafts would still pass over the smaller biomes quite quickly. I'd like to be able to overlay the biome/etc map over the sphere of the Mun/Kerbin, rather than have it on a flat map...

In infinite launches with tier 0 parts, definitely possible. In one? Not as much. Sorry.

Name one guy that has made an album on getting 5500 science on the first mission. A lot of us have done amazing things here, including Scott Manley.

I'm curious about how one would go about a full tree unlock while minimising costs...

AFAIK, the minimum is two, the first being a grand tour (by Allmhuran), the second being a simple probe tour of Jool with all the sensors.

What if there was a "scan" button rather than a "Log data" button. The "spamming" is done automatically while the player watches the probe/craft orbit something. This would also nullify the use of hyperspamming when in low space of a body during a fast flyby (like Moho)

I've edited the RealSolarSystem config file for some unrealistic fun: REALSOLARSYSTEM { // Note, bodies below MUST be in precedence order. Parents before children. // So Sun, then the planets, then the moons. Sun { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 696342000 Mass = 1.9891E+30 } Moho { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 2439700 rotationPeriod = 5067031.68 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 2.11 Mass = 3.3022E+23 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 18909100000 eccentricity = 0.30563 inclination = 37.005 meanAnomaly = 174.796 period = 7600530.24 LAN = 48.331 argumentOfPeriapsis = 29.124 } } Eve { SSTScale = 0.99868058647931 Radius = 6051800 rotationPeriod = 20996798.4 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 177.36 atmosphereScaleHeight = 15.9 maxAtmosphereAltitude = 220000 atmosphereMultiplier = 5 GeeASL = 0.905 Mass = 4.8676E+24 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 66208000000 eccentricity = 0.0667 inclination = 178.39458 meanAnomaly = 50.115 period = 19414166.4 LAN = 76.678 argumentOfPeriapsis = 55.186 } } Mun { SSTScale = 0.9832 Radius = 1726500 rotationPeriod = 2360584.68479999 tidallyLocked = true axialTilt = 1.4346 GeeASL = 0.1654 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 99999999 eccentricity = 0.00 inclination = 45 //5.145 to ecliptic; 23.435 avg to Earth's equator (+-5.145) period = 2360584.68479999 referenceBody = Eve } SSFStart = 170000 SSFEnd = 175000 PQSfadeStart = 170000 PQSfadeEnd = 175000 PQSdeactivateAltitude = 180000 PQS { Mun { PQSMod_VertexHeightMap { heightMapDeformity = 9500 //7500 } PQSMod_VertexSimplexHeight // doubles { deformity = 1200 // 400 persistence = 0.7 //0.5 frequency = 1 // 12 //octaves = 10 // 8 // A DOUBLE } PQSMod_VertexHeightNoiseVertHeight // floats { deformity = 1200 // 400 frequency = 12 // 12 //octaves = 7 // 6 // INT } PQSMod_VoronoiCraters { KEYvoronoiSeed = 462 deformation = 600 //200 //voronoiFrequency = 100 //50 } } } } Duna { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 3396200 rotationPeriod = 88642.6848 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 25.19 atmosphereScaleHeight = 11.1 maxAtmosphereAltitude = 154000 atmosphereMultiplier = 0.0069 GeeASL = 0.379 Mass = 6.4185E+23 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 327939100000 eccentricity = 0.093315 inclination = 1.85 meanAnomaly = 19.3564 period = 59354294.4 LAN = 49.562 argumentOfPeriapsis = 286.537 } } Ike { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 241030 tidallyLocked = false rotationPeriod = 2013 Mass = 1.075938E+21 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 12345678 eccentricity = 0.01 inclination = 155 period = 1441931.18976 referenceBody = Duna } } Jool { SSTScale = 0.9999 Radius = 25456888 rotationPeriod = 38052 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 3.13 atmosphereScaleHeight = 27 maxAtmosphereAltitude = 374000 atmosphereMultiplier = 10 Mass = 8.2E+25 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 1.5E+11 eccentricity = 0.01 inclination = 0.305 meanAnomaly = 18.818 period = 374335776 LAN = 100.492 argumentOfPeriapsis = 275.066 } } Kerbin { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 5000000 rotationPeriod = 85943.1 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 22.45 atmosphereScaleHeight = 7 maxAtmosphereAltitude = 88000 Mass = 3.68E+24 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 150000000 eccentricity = 0.00 inclination = 0 meanAnomaly = 10 period = 31558149.7635456 LAN = 348.73936 argumentOfPeriapsis = 114.20783 referenceBody = Jool } SSFStart = 78000 SSFEnd = 80000 PQSfadeStart = 80000 PQSfadeEnd = 100000 PQSSecfadeStart = 80000 PQSSecfadeEnd = 100000 PQSdeactivateAltitude = 105000 PQS { Kerbin { PQSMod_VertexSimplexHeightAbsolute // doubles { deformity = 1000 // 485 persistence = 0.7 // 0.60000002384185791 frequency = 36 //12 // 24 } PQSMod_VertexHeightNoiseVertHeightCurve2 // floats { deformity = 6000 // 4000 ridgedAddFrequency = 48 // 48 ridgedSubFrequency = 32 // 32 //ridgedAddOctaves = 8 // 6 INT simplexHeightStart = 400 // 800 simplexHeightEnd = 7000 // 4600 } PQSMod_VertexRidgedAltitudeCurve // floats { deformity = 1800 //1100 // 750 ridgedAddFrequency = 140 // 25 // 140 //ridgedAddOctaves = 8 // 3 INT } PQSMod_VertexHeightMap // doubles { heightMapDeformity = 7000 // 5000 } PQSMod_AltitudeAlpha // doubles { atmosphereDepth = 7000 // 4000 } PQSCity { KEYname = KSC repositionRadial = 158200.0, -220.0, -570000.0 lodvisibleRangeMult = 6 } } KerbinOcean { PQSMod_AerialPerspectiveMaterial // floats { atmosphereDepth = 7500 // 5000, scale height in m } } } //Export //{ //resolution = 8192 //maxHeight = 12000 //oceanColor = 0.1255, 0.22353, 0.35683 //} } Laythe { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 6000000 tidallyLocked = true Mass = 4.2E+24 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 150000000 eccentricity = 0.0000 inclination = 0.00 meanAnomaly = 210 period = 1377648 referenceBody = Jool } } Gilly { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 10000 tidallyLocked = false rotationPeriod = 7156 Mass = 3.765E+19 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 350000000 eccentricity = 0.25 inclination = 62.9 period = 109074.816 referenceBody = Jool } } Bop { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 55555 tidallyLocked = false rotationPeriod = 6254 Mass = 1753500000000000000 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 300000000 eccentricity = 0.15 inclination = 22.45 period = 27553.843872 referenceBody = Jool } } Pol { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 33000 tidallyLocked = true Mass = 3.3E+17 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 26691567 eccentricity = 0.0041 inclination = 135 period = 152853.5047104 referenceBody = Jool } } Tylo { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 8634100 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 0.2 rotationPeriod = 45915 Mass = 8.27E+24 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 8033449370000 eccentricity = 0.161 inclination = 15 period = 618153.375744 referenceBody = Sun } } Dres { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 555000 rotationPeriod = 38052 tidallyLocked = false atmosphereScaleHeight = 59.5 Mass = 2.1E+22 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 43341000 eccentricity = 0.11 inclination = 25 meanAnomaly = 320.34675 period = 929596608 LAN = 113.642811 argumentOfPeriapsis = 336.013862 referenceBody = Tylo } } Eeloo { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 960800 tidallyLocked = true axialTilt = 0.1 Mass = 6.1E+22 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 66745140 eccentricity = 0.5 inclination = 0.47 period = 306822.0384 referenceBody = Tylo } } Vall { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 4444444 rotationPeriod = 32063.712 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 0.772556 atmosphereScaleHeight = 27.7 Mass = 1.32E+24 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 1876679082000 eccentricity = 0.04440558 inclination = 28.9 meanAnomaly = 142.955717 period = 2661041808 LAN = 73.989821 argumentOfPeriapsis = 96.541318 referenceBody = Sun } } Minmus { SSTScale = 1 Radius = 135300 rotationPeriod = 50777 tidallyLocked = false axialTilt = 119.591 Mass = 6.1E+20 Orbit { semiMajorAxis = 5555555 eccentricity = 0.000 inclination = 180 meanAnomaly = 14.86012204 period = 7816176000 LAN = 110.28683 argumentOfPeriapsis = 113.76349 referenceBody = Vall } } } Tl:dr, some bodies are much smaller, Kerbin and Laythe orbit Jool (same orbit, hopefully 180 degrees apart), Gilly has the same surface gravity as Kerbin (if you stand on its mountains, that is), and Bop is an asteroid to visit for more early science. Moho is lower, Mun is orbiting Eve and Eve is in a retrograde orbit. Ike is now orbiting Duna with a very fast rotational period. Dres is replaced by Tylo, Dres and Eeloo orbit Tylo, Minmus and Vall are switched, both are smaller. I wonder if the Magic Boulder still orbits Ike if I make it bigger...

...Yeah. Try 300m diameter

So I was messing with some values...

I can see it being useful to have the sensors automatically stream science over long periods of time. For example, the accelerometer sitting on the surface for a few days recording the frequency of quakes. This therefore leads into mapping the bodies, whether image wise, topographically, gravitationally, thermally, etc. I suppose science would be based not on biomes but on arbitrary subdivisions, you'd get science once per division but would also walk away with a few cool looking maps per body. (Then again, mapping bodies is handled by three mods, and the maps are only topographic/biome-wise/resource-wise). Also, the materials bay might also count as a sample. I'd imagine it containing a few sub-samples - plastic,metal,etc.

You could do it for bragging rights though... Also, I'd be able to estimate how low one could go with this if I knew how to convert from atmospheric pressure to atmospheric density. I know density = PM/RT in real life, but the values for M or R or T might be different than what we would expect. Hence, by my estimates, if the above applies, I'd expect minimum altitude from the ions would be about 46 to 47km.

Ion engines could be useful for maintaining orbit at about 40km...

If high physics warp could reduce all the part masses to a single point mass, and then have the thrust act on this point only, it may be possible to complete ion burns in a few minutes of play time.

I found out how to get a 'flyby of the Sun' (the message when recovering will tell this). Just go from Kerbin's SOI into a solar escape orbit, and then while keeping your eccentricity above one, return to Kerbin, somehow, and then land and recover. Not a significant science amount (as you only get 24 Science), but good for bragging rights.