Spyritdragon

Is it just me, or does the Delta IV Heavy spacecraft NASA just launched (for the Orion Spacecraft) look a whole, whole lot like KSP? Even Orion itself's crew module and solar panels look alot like a KSP Command module and solar panels . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_IV_Heavy

I really think they should go for the option of "Don't tell anyone and let people find out in-game". That would be pretty awesome, and i love surprises .

Sorry - i've been very busy with resits, and on top of that there's so many games vying for my attention . Nauthy, you still here? You're the project leader - got an official status? Seems to me like we could recruit more people again, but none seem to have been coming in for a long time. I guess people have just gotten used to seeing this post bump up every now and then . And we'd have to have part of the old crew here, or it'd be kinda disjoint.

Emmm did we diededed?

Speaking of proper orbit&burn for landing.. its best to cancel out as much velocity as you can pointing at an angle of 45 degrees, right? Cause diagonally you'd only need sqrt(2) m/s for every 1 m/s horizontally and vertically you want to reduce, as opposed to 2 if you did it independently. Or am i calculating something wrong there? My head is incredibly derpy right now.

Ah yes. Very nice explanations, thanks ^-^. I'd totally forgotten about the drag factor in keeping your plane straight, for some reason.

1. is just a part test really. Either find a use for them in orbit, or just plonk one in a suitable position on your craft ^-^. You dont even need to have a use for it, it doesn't even need to propel anything. All you have to do is run it, under the specific conditions :-). 2. I find them very useful for small things. To be honest, i use the LV-1R more, but they're nice if you need small bits of fuel that dont need much thrust. I have a series of small communication satellites weighing under one tonne each. For these i'll usually attach either a can of xenon and an ion engine. It has a low specific impulse, so i usually dont use it if i can use something bigger. Ion engines have awesome specific impulse, but my probes dont usually carry enough batteries or solar panels to keep the engine going for more than a minute at a time, especially on the night side of planets. So i use two radial LV-1R's, cause i always like having some movement options. Even the smaller probe in-line engine is just a bit too big sometimes - lots of power, and it runs through the standard mini grey fuel tank i bring rather quickly. Also, awesome use for LV-1®'s: Rovers! I put one or two on the back of my rover as an added boost, cause going 10-15m/s is kinda boring sometimes. 3. Solid rocket boosters are generally recommended only for Kerbin stages, usually your first. Most of my ascent crafts dont even have solid boosters, so higher-level boosters aren't a necessity at all. I suggest you instead head for the Skipper 2m in-line engine to get your heavier crafts off the ground. 4. If you bring a Kerbal, you can get more science from the moon ^-^. So unless you really dont wanna bother brining a Mk 1 pod, i advise you bring a Kerbal.

Allright, here goes I've seen alot of questions about spaceplances here, and the governing tutorial seems to be this one. Now, when making spaceplanes, i've always been advised (and so far it works pretty well) that the Centre of Lift goes behind the Centre of Mass, so our plane will tilt slightly downward when not controlled. Put the COL in front of the COM and your plane becomes flip happy, put them too close to each other and your plane becomes excessively maneuverable. I don't get it though. Why is this? Say my COM is right in the middle of my plane, what is the fundamental difference between the front of my plane and the back of my plane that makes the plane flip-happy if my COL is in the front, but stable when its in the back? Okay, sure, i'd rather be plummeting down towards the earth rather than get in a stall and lose use of my control surfaces, but i dont see how that affects stability in normal flight. I can also see that a plane that naturally wants to point downward makes pulling the noise up less twitchy, but in return, it'll make pulling it back down more twitchy, and the general maneuvrability of the plane isn't much affected. The plane can now be controlled by letting it naturally pitch down and pulling it back up, which ends up being controllable, but you can do it the other way too. In general, why not have a plane that just keeps pointing in the way you put it?

As said above, this is likely not allowed. Generally, distributing copyrighted material isn't allowed, wether or not you provide credit to the original author. You can always change them for yourself, but you aren't really allowed to redistribute entire part files mostly made by Squad. And as i mentioned above, you'll run into other problems, too. But, to be honest, this is exactly what ModuleManager was made for. I don't really get what you mean by 'what program i need to use for it to work'. You just write your mod, using the ModuleManager API, then provide the ModuleManager files along with your mod (You can do this without problem since ModuleManager is Creative Commons, as far as i know), and then people can install your mod like any other mod and use KSP to run it :-). All you need is KSP and, at the basic level, a text editor, like notepad :-). So why redistribute Squads copyrighted content, when you can use this? It increases compatibility, too.

Whoa! That is one old game you got there brah

Make a backup every few days, or just at the start of every day if you feel like it. That way, if your save file ever corrupts, you can reload it :-). Plus, it also works when you forget to quicksave and then, say, do your orbital rendezvous closest-approach a little toooo perfectly.

Launch it! NAO! xD

Welcome to the forums! You'll find we're quite the band of merry madmen (edit:mad scientists), and we share mission stories, crazy ideas, hypothesies (is that even gramatically correct?) and interesting science discussions just as much as we help others out. Hope you enjoy the forums! ^-^ Its just as a reception :-). Its not necesary really, but it can be fun to have people get to know your face :-).

I'm not sure about wether what you're saying is allowed, however, have a look here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/55219 Its a special mod, or well, its an API, called Modulemanager. Its use is fairly widespread, and many major mods rely on it for compatibility with ther other mods, as you might have noticed while using said mods. It allows you to edit other parts at runtime, allowing you to change all kinds of properties for differente existing parts without needing to overwrite Squad's actual files. This way you can make changes to the way other parts, stock and mod alike, behave, as long as you know how they are actually configured, without: 1. Making users go to the hassle of finding bits everywhere and, for example, replacing every part.cfg, instead allowing them to just post your mod in GameData and be done with it. 2. Kinda blends in with 1, it makes that your mod is easily installable and removable. Each part has its own part.cfg in a seperate folder, so if you replaced all those, getting the originals back without a full, clean install could be a pretty big hassle if not properly prepared. This way, people can easily place and remove your mod without altering anything related to the base game. 3. Make your mod change or combine with stock parts or other mods' parts, without having to redistribute any copyrighted content

As the others have said, that thing is a monstrosity. Also, most KSP planes are unstable. Why don't you take the Aeris4A for a spin, see if you can get that to orbit? Its a very good example of a spaceplane, and its not too hard to get into orbit with it. If you stilll want to go through with this design. Trembles alot? MoreSpacetapeâ„¢! Also, all of your load relies solely on your two wings there. Add some canards (that produce relevant amounts of lift) to the front, and add control surfaces to those. Those'll function as elevators - the control surfaces on your wings are ailerons, which are usually used mostly for roll control. Leave the triple tanks in the rear off - don't need those. Just use fuel from the main body for the rocket engines. Also, i still advise taking off alot of the fuel tanks, or at least emptying a bunch of em if you really want to keep this structure.