Dean Harper

I put a lab in orbit of Mun (with a reusable lander) in order to more efficiently explore its surface, but I needed more manpower to get everything running smoothly. Figured, "Hey, might as well bring a jumbo fuel tank and attach it to Sky Lab so I don't have to refuel for a while. I never got off the launch pad, on account of my support struts spawning in the air and my rocket immediately exploding.

I sent a mission to Duna, my first manned mission beyond Kerbins SOI. Disaster struck and three lives were lost (the big three, Jeb Bill and Bob). Since then I've only ever sent out probes.

I use liquids for all my rockets, but launch is always assisted by radially mounted solids. I've also found my liquids to be more efficient (though sometimes less stable) if I have SRBs mounted beneath them at takeoff. It's more thrust at the start and puts me a few kilometers in the air before starting up the liquids.

When I was coming in for a landing with my first Mun rover my heart was pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears. I don't think I blinked through the entire ordeal. Now though, Mun and Minmus landings are business as usual.

I have a number of Programs for each type of craft. The first in each Program is designated I, when it accomplishes my current task I stop updating it and move onto II, and so on. For example, I am currently designing Icarus III as a SSTO Spaceplane. When that works, I might set myself a higher goal and move onto Icarus IV. These are my current programs: Planes: Icarus III Manned rockets: Ascension VI Unmanned orbital probes: Observer II *Discontinued* Unmanned surface probes: Beholder IV Manned landers: Explorer III Space station parts: Spirit of Kerbin I Occasionally I need to make a special variation of a design. In that case a letter representing the change is added to the end. For example, when Jeb crashed Explorer III on the Mun, I built a probe guided Explorer III-R to rescue him.

Happy New Year everyone. I'm definitely going to get someone onto another planet this year. Maybe even return them too, who knows?

"Altitude of 6km? Nahh, I don't have to burn my engines for a few more seconds" - A few seconds later poor Bob slammed into the Mun. He died on impact and all future space craft were built with lights for night landings.

You'll probably get a lot of differing opinions, but I think it would be putting someone on the surface of Eve and returning them to Kerbin.

"How fast am I going? Pshh, my landing gear can take that..." - That lander crumpled like an empty milk carton. "Glad I installed a pilot ejection system" - The ejected cockpit collided with the plane. No survivors.

I once launched a fair sized space station into orbit in a single piece. That isn't the overly complicated thing, the needless complexity came when I tried applying the same idea to a Mun base. It contained a command module, two hitch hiker cans, multiple rovers, multiple solar panels, spare fuel, a full suite of science equipment and docking ports for future expansion. The first few attempts at launching it went horribly wrong and the one time I got it to the Mun, well, it hit the surface at an angle with a speed of about 100m/s.

As Jeb was aerobraking on his way home from Minmus he ejected his return stage in the upper atmosphere (after having used its engines to help slow his descent). It flew forward a little bit, then the drag started to really slow it down and it came back at his pod! The two collided. The return stage shattered and the command pod spun out. Fortunately his pod wasn't destroyed, but I had a white knuckle grip on my mouse.

I had Bill flying a plane loaded with remote science probes. The idea was to have him fly over different biomes, dropping probes along the way that I could switch to later for science. Unfortunately, after dropping a probe over the mountains his plane became unbalanced and spiraled out of control. He ejected, popped his chutes, and safely drifted back to the ground. He landed on the slope of a mountain, his chutes disappeared, his capsule slid down the cliff face and hit a cliff edge like a ramp to pop back into the air. The laugh out loud moment came when he slammed back into the ground.

Duna has almost completely replaced Mars in my head. I have to stop and actually try to recall Mars' name any time I'm talking about it. I've also started judging the designs of real world planes based on KSPs game mechanics.

The moment Steam starts updating, I'm going to start playing Mars, Bringer of War as loud as I can.

Madness? THIS. IS. KERBIN!