Tw1

Brilliant! How long did it/will it take to get there?

I like that tower. I may take that idea. What's the air intake on the rover for?

Infinite Kerbals! Jeb, Bob and Bill are there from the start. They are special, with the orange suits. But the rest are random, constructed from a set of syllables. I like it, everyone's Kerbals are unique. If only they didn't look so similar...

Hubbazoot's Zoom camera, on the front of the probe. It has a zoom action group, but it's better to scroll to zoom. It's pretty powerful. Jool wasn't even visible in the regular view. Yet: I wish my little telescope was that good. (Well, it is limited by real life physics, not game physics.) Not sure why it goes grey as you zoom to extremes. It may be a limit of the background texture.

Ion engines are very high tech, and thus expensive. The LV-N is not exactly cheap either, at 1700. Twice most of the other engines.

Base management is tricky. But good fun. Pushes your imagination, and launch vehicle design. Also, going for a walk, (or drive) is fun!* *Extra imagination is sometimes required. Planets are just computer rendered balls, after all. Walk, and enjoy the achievement and discovery. Aww, just look at that.. ahhh, manic smile. Of to discover... If you bring a rover, navigating large areas without crashing can be a challenge. And an experience. I enjoy the story making aspect of the game, keeping track of what kerbal does what, treating them differently, or modifying actions based on what I think they're like. Stations with re-usable landers are my next challenge, so I can land and re-land at multiple sites before going home. This'll be harder, but more interesting than a simple "Drop a lander there" mission.

This thread is back! Cool. We can show of cool things you can do with this pack again. Q. Where do you go to see the best of a classic sci-fi genera, the space opera? A. To the Space Opera house! Imagine this: In orbit. Close enough.

Nova's struts are tough. How many have you got there?

The only one I seem to have taken is this: You can sort of see all the tracks. But I can show the results: Bob, Danble and Erbald are on an "Extended mission" to Duna. (I sent them a return module and rover once I concluded they didn't have enough delta V to return in the original lander.) They are currently on the way back to the ship, after visiting the pole. Jeb, Tomdan, and Lanbur are on Dres. Bob, Duney, and Samford are on Moho. These missions all have several unmanned rovers, comm satellites in orbit, and return vechiles in orbit. The Adam probe is in orbit around Eve: Having dropped of three of the four "Sons of Adam" rover-probes. This is on its way to for my second tour of the Joolian moons. The "Jool Moons investigator": Carries rover-probes for all moons, even Tylo, tested here: My first Jool probe, whose photo I can't find ATM is only a few weeks away from Jool encounter. Edit: Here it is, dropping its transfer burn stage: Known as "Distant planets: Jool mission", it also has rover-probes, but they are lighter and simpler. One of the photos it took more recently: The Dres, Jool, and a failed Eeloo voyage all had windows very close to each other, and were all orbiting Kerbin at the same time at one point. The return windows for Duna and Dres, a second Kerbin-Dres window, an Eve window, and a window for a third Duna mission are all fairly close, so I'll probably have the map filled with lines again, in a while.

Clever insight! It may well be so.

Not at all. Protractor is much better, as it shows the difference between your current phase angle and orbit position, to the phase angle and orbit position you need to transfer. As far as I remember, Mechjeb only shows you the angles themselves. KAC makes Protractor partially redundant I found, as you don't need it as much for keeping track of launch windows. The Engineer Redux gives a lot more useful info than mechjeb's in VAB display, and is easier to make appear. Mechjeb's vessel info window, used in flight presents the data somewhat differently though, so I often put a ship on the launchpad to check it with that. Mechjeb and Redux both have inflight stats, and overlap there a bit. The main distinction between mechjeb and redux are mechjeb's autopilot features, some of which can be used as guidance for manual flight. The landing system helps judge the result of aerobrake maneuvers, for example. Things are probably slightly different in mechjeb 2, which I don't have yet.

Yes, a countdown timer would be ideal for using it to eliminate discarded stages. Could you set up a version that's triggerable in the staging sequence? Using the destroy whole vessel mode. I'd be the end of interplanetary debris if you did! Alternatively, it could wait until the part is a certain distance from the active ship, then detonate. But this might be more tricky for you to make, and more taxing on RAM and CPU. I see plenty of potential uses for this. And it looks suitably dangerous too! Nice job.

No, a lot more expensive. And the isp is 4200.

I don't know, I reckon it's a reasonable idea. We know more than the average guy how much more complex return missions can be. I've been following them on Facebook, anyway.

Speaking of magnetic shoes, we've been having a bit of a discussion here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/26134-Magnetic-boots-for-the-Kerbals As I argue in the thread, they'd be useful outside as well. But I am talking about smaller magnets, the minimum needed to let you stick to a station's external deck.

There is a thread completely dedicated to stations somewhere on here. That tends to be where to go, for station showing of. You have a lot of solar panels.

I'd suspect that breaking at Vall would be most expensive, but I've got no figures to back this up. It could be a burn from low Jool orbit would cost more. Also depends on the trajectory of your Jool encounter. If everything was in alignment, there would be less relative velocity between yourself and Vall, than yourself and Jool. Perhaps another way would be to aerobrake at Laythe, but into a slightly elliptical Jool orbit rather than Laythe capture. Then you'd just raise the apoapsis at the right point to intercept Vall. Slower, but more efficient.

My names are not that imaginative mostly, but are intended to sound cool, and descriptive, Like "Distant planets, Jool Mission." Otherwise, I just do whatever comes to mind. My big rescue rocket was the Z4, so when I made a one man rescuer, I called it "Little Zed" If it's a vessel I'm using repeatedly, I give each one a nickname. Like 'Little Zed "Fred collector"' They only earn the name when they achieve orbit. Oh, and if it's similar to another vessel, (in appearance or concept) it may get a similar name. I have a Duna Explore-o-pod, a Kerbin Explore-o-pod, Aeropod, Single-o-pod..

I don't like having to make deadlines myself, I am happy for them to take a when it's ready approach. A better end project is worth the wait. I imagine Yoda saying "Patience" when I feel impatient. Or I go look at the Dev blogs and see what's in progress.

Why is the delete button not there? I can't clear this extra post.

I made a very simple, rocket based SSTO for my first attempt. Apart from sending a guy to space, it doesn't do much. Danfrod looks baffled that he even made it to orbit. I had about 77 m/s left to return. I then decided to stick it on my 50 ton launcher, despite it only being half that, and attempt the fastest flight to the Mun challenge, which hasn't been remade yet. Tail first, (as you did) is probably better:http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blunt_body_reentry_shapes.png You don't want that hot pressure wave touching your rocket.

Is this a question about capture, rather than landing? I had a probe in these situation, and read somewhere that aerobreaking at Laythe, then doing a holman to your target saves a fair bit of delta V, as you're not climbing out of Jool's gravity well. However, aerobreaking at Jool is safer, as it's more gradual. I wouldn't pass the opportunity to save fuel if you're good to aerobrake. I say choose based on what your craft can take. (As long as Laythe is on the right side Jool to give you a Prograde orbit after aerobraking.) An option you could consider is aerobraking at Jool, but only enough to put your vessel in an orbit where the Apoapsis meets the orbit of Vall. Then you wait till intercept is near, and tweek your orbit. This is fine if you're able to wait. However, I have not yet tested this, only read about it. So I'll be interested to hear how it goes.

It is a terribly awesome craft that. Nasa's probably jealous. I love the way the plane is a fancy shape, with just the regular old command pod sticking out the front.

Sad. Makes me think of my first Jool probe. Still on its way to Jool, (I like to take things slowly) but it contains a part I really want to delete. So I'm probably going to have to crash it into Bop or Pol, or Jool itself, once the second probe takes over. Maybe Jool, it might make a good display too.

Hahaha. The poor kerbals.