Brotoro

Without knowing the interior structure of Jool, we can't say whether or not it would likely (currently) have a a magnetic field. These planets are not like the planets in our solar systems inside...so you can't be sure any conclusions you draw based upon planets in our solar system will be correct.

I don't understand your point. Are we talking about Jool, or are we talking about something 10 times the size of Jool?

Jool has a radius of only 6,000 km. Saturn has a radius of 60,268 km. Jool is smaller than the Earth.

It would have large tidal bulges, yes, but because the Laythe is tidally locked, there would be no tides that rise and fall like we have on Earth. Radiation levels will depend on whether the miniature jovian looking planet Jool has a strong magnetic field, and whether Laythe has a strong magnetic field.

Gotta let everyone know whose junk is all over the landing site.

Congratulations on the Laythe landing. That bay in the distance is my favorite spot on Laythe.

Dulas, Just post the IMG code from your image's page: Looks like line below only with [ ] instead of < > <IMG>http://i1303.photobucket.com/albums/ag153/dulasmatthew/ScreenShot2013-05-11at113428PM_zpsff12c52f.png</IMG>

This thread has been very helpful to me. Thanks for starting it, superm18.

Another flag:

Congratulations, Deadpan. My first rendezvous and docking away from Kerbin (where it was a life-or-death situation for the kerbal to return home) was one of my happiest moments in recent memory. I'm still amazed at times that we can get two tiny pieces of hardware together in the vast depths of outer space.

For all your propane-powered rocket needs.

I've been driving around on Laythe all evening. It does get tedious after a while, but audiobooks make it bearable.

By request... here is the link to the craft file for the Fido KE rover and its rocket.

This is not the case in my experience. I know two guys who are reactor operators, and we have discussed the training they go through. One of them was telling me about the simulation they had be put through that day: Total power outage...backup power systems out...no emergency water feed. I laughed and asked how likely THAT was to ever occur. But he said they trained for it. And a month later, a monster tsunami slaps Fukushima. These guys are well-trained and dedicated. They tell me that the industry had gotten a bit sloppy back in the 1970s, but Three Mile Island was a real wake-up call, and they are much better prepared and knowledgeable now.

Hmmm... looking at my mission screenshots, it appears that it only took me 307 days to reach Laythe. I wonder why my calculations for the Hohmann transfer orbit time are off. Must check...

I'm most impressed by the videos of Scott Manley [szyzyg] (the most informative) and stompthompson (from whom I learned the secrets of rendezvous). I enjoy watching chickenkeeper24 and hocgaming. And I find kurtjmac very entertaining as he flails about at times (and I have a soft spot in my heart for his videos because they were the first ones I found and I spent hours watching them when I first found KSP).

The trail I saw that lasted several minutes was not a bright glowing trail (that effect immediately behind the shuttle faded rapidly)... The trail looked like dark billowing smoke. I don't understand how ionized gas could last so long without cooling (the text above referring to the ionization lasting 20 minutes refers to the effect that surrounds the shuttle, not how long it lasts at a spot after the shuttle passes) or why it would appear dark.

You can edit your first post, including the title of the thread, with the Go Advanced button while editing the post.

If you just want to drop colonists onto Laythe, you don't need an SSTO. Just give each of those 4-kerbal pods some parachutes, a probe core, a few solar panels, and a retro pack. Bring a few extras to test out exactly how far ahead of target to do the retro burn, then drop 'em at will. Edit: Temstar got there first.

Here you go:

Kind of a Kermit the Frog expression there.

I watched a Space Shuttle reentry as it passed over northern New Mexico. The sky was already light (it was close to sunrise), so I didn't see so much of the glow, but instead saw the persistent "smoke trail" it left behind (that took many minutes too dissipate). You can see sort of what it looked like in that shuttle video posted earlier when he zooms in on the trail behind the shuttle and you see the billowing cloud-like effect. I'm not sure what exactly causes that cloud since the shuttle does not use an ablative heat shield, so it shouldn't be leaving behind a lot of material. And several minutes later I heard the sonic boom from the passing.

You would not have giant tides coming and going on Laythe (like we have tides that ebb and flow here on Earth) because Laythe is tidally locked to Jool. This means that the tidal bulges stay in the same place all the time relative to the surface. What causes tidal heating of the Jovian moons is the fact that they tug on each other a little, which perturbs their orbits, which gets their revolution rates a little out of sync with their rotation rates...and then Jupiter works to lock them back in sync, which causes the tidal heating. We can assume the same thing is happening around Jool (even though the limited spheres of influence of the game physics means that it won't actually happen).

Chernobyl was by far the worst. It didn't kill anywhere near the number of deaths caused by fossil fuel plants, but it was easily the worst nuclear power plant disaster.

I think a Hohmann transfer orbit from Kerbin to Jool takes a little over 1.5 Earth years,