superecnate

Jeb is fuming back on Kerbin after a long time on the Mun. He's mad at Tomfurt Kerman for taking his 'most science earned in one mission' medal (Tomfurt did most of the work in my initial voyage to Jool).

I'm trying to calculate (by hand) how much delta v it would take for a ship to go from LEO (2,000 kilometers altitude) to a circular, polar 1500km orbit of Venus. I'm getting stuck calculating the delta v requirement for the hoffman transfer to Venus. I'm using the delta v equation from this site (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hohmann_transfer_orbit), but when I use wolfram alpha(http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=%28sqrt%281.327426776E20%2F%28108.21E6%29%29%29%28sqrt%28%282*%28149.60E6%29%29%2F%28257.81E6%29-1%29%29%2B%28sqrt%281.327426776E20%2F%28149.60E6%29%29%29%28sqrt%281-%282*%28108.26E6%29%29%2F%28257.81E6%29%29%29) to plug the values into the equation, I keep getting crazy numbers. (all my imputs are in km, btw) Can someone help me? Here are my inputs: GM (Gravitational Parameter of Sol):1.327426776E20 R1 (Semi-major axis of Venus): 108.21E6km R2 (Semi-major axis of Earth): 149.60E6km (I've already tried the Vis-viva equation, and it gave me a similarly insane number. http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=v%5E2%3D%281.327426776E20%29%28%282%2F149.60E6%29-%281%2F1.28905E8%29%29%2C+v%3E0)

Hate: Lag It puts a cap on my designs, and the crazy designs are what this game is about. Love: How open this game is. You can do whatever you want, with no cap other than the soundness of your design and lag.

Yes it does. Just select Duna as the target, and hit transfer to another planet in the manuver planner while you are in LKO (from LKO is the most efficient). It should transfer automatically, through several burns.

I think that will make it too hard for most people.

Jebediah and the Death Plane: A story of a test flight gone wrong. Jeb was walking through a hallway. On the sides, he saw the emblem for section 21. His new job was to test new ‘First Generation’ aircraft. KSP needed a lot of new aircraft, and section 21 had to provide. He walked through the door into the prep room; Doolittle Kerman was waiting for him. “Hello Jeb, look like you’re going to pilot the new Avian IC today. Well, you’re in for the hardest test of your life. The robo-geeks could barely control her when her wheels touched the ground.†Jeb crossed his arms. “I’m not gonna spend much time touching the ground now, am I?†he said. “Don’t get cocky, Jeb. You know those few seconds during takeoff and landing are among the most crucial, I taught you that myself.†Said Doolittle. “Now, the aircraft’s actually quite nice in the air. It’s much more maneuverable than the IA, although the IB is still the best. Unlike the IA or the IB, though, is that it’s designed to be much more versatile. The problem is that the aircraft really starts shaking and tilting during takeoff: the unmanned prototype was a few centimeters from breaking its wing off. The engineers think that it’s been fixed, but the higher-ups are rushing it. The most important thing for you to know, however, is that that shakiness also applies to landing. It’s fine at low speeds, but if you don’t want to crash and burn, you gotta hit the deck slow and brake Hard.†“Gotcha chiefâ€Â. Jeb looked nonchalant, but Doolittle taught Jeb for a long time, and he knew Jeb paid attention to every word. “Good luck, pilot!†Doolittle said, with a respectful nod, and left the room. A short half-hour later and Jeb sat in the aircraft, at the end of the runway. “Jeb, you’re cleared for takeoff. Good luck.†Jeb took a deep breath, put on his shades, activated the engines, and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Yee Haw!†and gunned the throttle. The two jet engines quickly accelerated his aircraft, and the turbojet soon began as well. Not two seconds later, the aircraft started to rapidly lose control, and tilt to the left and the right. Right when Jeb put his hand over the open hatch button to jump out of the aircraft, it rose into the air. Jeb breathed a sigh of relief, and settled back into his seat. As he tested the aircraft’s maneuverability, he began to regain confidence in the aircraft, it was very maneuverable. He flew over the hanger, shouting “Woo, Hoo!†and “Aww, yeah!†A few minutes of testing later, and the flight controller said over the radio, “That’s about enough testing for today, Jeb. Come back home. The cafeteria is serving some nice Karibu for lunch!†“All right!†said Jeb. The runway was already lined up. I’ve gotta land as slowly as I can. I’ve flown this too well to die now! Jeb turned the engine to low throttle, and descended to the runway. He lowered his landing gear, turned on his brakes to their hardest setting, braced for rapid deceleration, and his wheels touched the runway at 80 m/s. If he had gone any slower, the wings might not have enough lift to keep the nose up. A fraction of a second later his forward wheel hit the runway. The aircraft began to rapidly decelerate. Jeb’s head hit the front of his cockpit because of the rapid deceleration, giving him a nasty headache. The screech of the tires drowned out everything else. He looked up, and saw the world was tilted to the left. Oh no. was all he could think of before his left wing smacked into the runway at 60 m/s, and snapped off the aircraft. Jeb was thrown against the right side of the cockpit as the unbalanced force turned the aircraft into a sharp left turn. The turn was far too sharp for the wheels, which skid to the side, tearing all of the rubber off, and pulverizing the metal beneath. The plane rapidly started to tilt to right, and Jeb lunged for the escape hatch. He could only see the sky and a ton of debris from the violently disintegrated left wing through the window. He slammed the open hatch button so hard that it bruised his skin. The glass viewport of the cockpit burst open, and the stress of the high-speed crash ripped it off, and it flew over Jeb, crashing into the runway in front of the plane. Jeb climbed onto the handholds on the left side of the plane, now 45 degrees tilted to the right, and saw the chaos around him. A flaming section of the left wing flew over him at high speed. He took a deep breath, and jumped off of the runway, away from the plane. He vowed to haunt the spacesuit engineers if their suit failed to protect him. He felt a piece of metal cut his arm, and saw the former aircraft disintegrating on the runway. He saw the fuel tank break off and flip over the cockpit, and fall back down ahead of it. He put his hand in front of his face, as the friction from the runway melted the bottom of the fuel tank, and ignited the fuel. Jeb felt the massive heat, since he was still only a few meters away from the blast, although luckily shielded by a section of right wing. His back hit the ground and he began to skid. At this point he was a few meters to the left, and in front of the aircraft, and now he began to slow down. At first he didn’t even know he was skidding, but a second later, he began to feel the burn. Even with the growing pain on his back, he began to laugh like a madman. He was far enough away from the aircraft to be safe. He survived! He skid for almost a quarter of a kilometer, and not a single piece of the aircraft remained intact. The KSC gave him a pass for free lunch for life, and they vowed to never make him fly that plane again. Jeb got a new spacesuit, and walked into the prep room. Doolittle was already there. Jeb said “What’s next, Doc?†Doolittle smiled.

I took the Jeb apporach. You can just see the top of the tower in the bottom left:

My tribute to the Great Men who landed on the Moon:

It's actually more interesting that that. Because the speed of light is slower inside you eye than in the air in the spaceship, the flashes were "luminal booms" similar to sonic booms, but with light.

Thank you scottholio, that solved the problem!

I'm having a bit of a problem. It displays Enviornment perfectly, but for all of the resources it simply says: "Temporary" Can anyone help? MenuItems { Label { Text = Vessel Status Color = 0,0,0 } Label { Text { Binding = Resource Name = ElectricCharge } Prefix = Electricity:_ Suffix = _units Color = 0,0,0.6 } Label { Text { Binding = Resource Name = LiquidFuel } Prefix = Fuel:_ Suffix = _units Color = 0,5,0.7 } Label { Text { Binding = Environment Type = LatAndLong } Color32 = 255,70,0 } Label { Text { Binding = Environment Type = Acceleration } Color32 = 255,70,0 } }

As for the site, you give your altitude at any point of your orbit, and your velcity at that time, and your periapsis so that it knows what orbit you are in. Then you give the desire apoapsis you are trying to get to, and it gives you the peripsis you want, and how much Delta V it will take to bring your periapsis down to that.

This is a thread to show off some of your fun and interesting aircraft. It can be modded, or not. If you wish, feel free to add a description. Mine: the Obj. 8 "Avian Ease": It has a top speed of ~140 m/s at low altitude and uses mainly the Firespitter parts It can use airbrakes to come to a landing at very low speeds, and uses very little runway to take off and land. It is also very difficult to stall in. Also, it can fly backwards:

One does not simply escape Kerbol. 'Eeloo there, Gov'na! Luckily, the Kerbal solar system is on a diet, it doesn't need an asteroid belt! I'd tell you a joke about Eeloo, but it would be too cool.

Although didn't bother to take pics of any of my trips there or back, here's from a mission to Duna+Ike and back: Be mindful that this was back in .17 My first Mun+Back was in the old .13 demo.

My first landing (with novapunch) was Laythe. I had struggled to get a ship in orbit of Vall, looked around, and saw laythe. I had to land there. Naturally, my landing was flawless:

I'd love to participate.

When you see pictures of Jupiter, Saturn, etc. and think "What planet is this?" simply because you are so much more familiar with the Kerbal system. When you see a NASA, Space X, etc. rocket and think "Why do they only build really small rockets?" When you see a NASA rocket and think "Where are their struts?" When you are horrified by how little people know and care about orbital mechanics and space science.

Try to calculate the density of Kerbin's oceans. It will be a very high number, though.

I lost a heavy rover on the Mun when I ended the flight of a EVA Kerbal.

'Shakes cane in air' Back in my day, we just spent all day flipping around in SRBs.

For me, A accomplished KSP player is someone who has landed on another Mun/Planet. A Great KSP player has accomplished one of the really difficult challanges (ex. returning from Eve, Grandmaster, etc).

I'd send Jeb, but he would find it boring. Besides, there are several days unaccounted for, the Kerbals might have killed it themselves. They do have a gigantic high-speed rover...

Bob's Log: Entry One: Thanks to my bravery, and my appearant intellegence, I have been chosen as commander of a mission to return to the Mun, after the cataclysm that drove civilization to near exiction a decade ago in the 19th era. I'm going with Newming, Geofkin, and Bill. We're expected to return in a few days. Here's the Ship on the pad: Newming and Geofkin are strange fellows, just yester- [page unreadable due to koffie stains] Entry Two: I managed to see Kerbin eclipse Kerbol. It was quite beutiful, and I hope that it is a good omen of things to come. We're about halfway to the Mun, and I'm rearing to plant my flag in its soil! I am, however, perplexed as to where my toothbrush went. I've been looking for it for several minutes, and none of the others have come up here so where is it? Entry Three: Aww, yea! We landed on the Mun! Unfortunantily, the decouplers fired early, and the rockets attached to them took out our solar panels. It sucks that we will have to live without exterior lighting, but our internal generators should power everything else. Some of the engineers claim sabatoge, but who would sabatoge such a momentus event for all of Kerbalkind? Entry Four: I planted the flag on the Mun! We all got out to plant the flag and take a pic for PR back home. It was very bright outside, and things are looking hopeful. Entry Five It's night now, and it's pitch-black outside. For unknown reasons, all of the soil around here actually absorbs all non-solar light. None of our EVA helmets illuminates the terrain! It's too bad we don't have the equitment to analyse it, the scientists are going crazy! Newming helped relive the tension a bit, though: Entries 6-8 were ripped out. Entry Nine: Mission Control has asked up to stay on-station due to the soil. They've sent us a rover to check out the place. It finally arrived. Thank goodness, with all of the wierd stuff happening lately. I am scared to death of The Silhouette. Anyway, Newming and Geofkin went out to investigate a rock about 2.5km away, it turned out to be unrelated to the Dark Soil. Trying to keep up a lively mood, they played around a bit with the rover as they returned home. Newming did return with a strange look in his eye during the day's poker match. Entries Ten and Eleven are smothered in Koffie stains. Entry Twelve: Another, larger rover arrived today. I took it out for a spin, in a good mood due to the less frequent sightings of The Silhouette. It was a blast! I took it over the nearby ridge, but didn't find anything. Entry Thirteen is illegebal due to hastry writing. Entry Fourteen: Oh, thank goodness! Another load of Kerbals is comming. The ship is bringing thirteen Kerbals, and arrives tommarow. I can't take another night with just two others, after the horror of last night! I still can't get over Bill's death! Entry Fifteen: If it were'nt for the new load of Kerbals falling on its side, I would've left by now. The Silhouette showed its powers by TELEPORTING A KERBAL!!! Mission Control better bring a rescue craft soon, because tomarrow we are going to shuttle all Kerbals 5km away on the rovers. We can't survive many more nights like this. All later entries were stained by Munar soil where we found the Journal. END OF BOB'S JOURNAL Disclaimer: A few days later, this Journal, and half of the Kerbals, was rescued. Bob had gone completely insane from the events. Bob and Newman are the only original Kerbals to survive. All surviving Kerbals from this base have gone totally insane, or suffer from acute amnesia, or PTSD that blocks their memories. Thus this journal is our only means of learning what happened there due to antenna failure during the night of Entry Fifeteen. Mission Control has forbid any landings anywhere 200km from that site.

I'd say plant a flag on Duna! I did, before the Kerbals got stranded on the surface.