MalfunctionM1Ke

It really depends on the rate of ascent, wind, max. altitude and rate of descent. BUT, there is calculator for this that takes the weatherdata into account and gives you a nice prediction: http://predict.habhub.org/ So I have put in all my data from time to time and it turned out that it might travel up to 300km in the worst case. On a nice day, with a slight wind to the east, I might actually be able to stay in a 50km radius because as the balloon drifts off into the east in the lower atmosphere. The Stratosphere thins out and slows down quite alot so that the Balloon more or less "stands still" horizontally while it is still ascending and the Earth rotates beneath it to the east and my launch-site catches up with it. You see the same behaviour in KSP sometimes

I found a supplier for balloons but I am struggeling with the permits and I am not buying the expensive stuff before I am actually allowed to launch it. Germany's Bureaucracy is the worst Therefore I sadly have to scrub the launch and postpone it to the 20th of August.

I am currently trying to get a helium balloon into the stratosphere and going for a degree in engerineering starting this wnter Never would have thought about all of this without KSP

Congrats, you successfully developed an addiction

*sigh* Farewell Ted. Thanks for all your time in IRC. It was very helpfull

Yeah, thats a common issue with the conics. But a while back we had it even worse Not my images

Half sized RSS is still huuuuuuge. I have to try this

I am currently trying to track all the easter eggs down.... again. I should stop deleting savefiles "accidentaly" So far I got everything on Kerbin, Mun and Minmus and they all look save and sound. I am curious about the others.

Germany's regulations are pretty strict when it comes to radio transmitters and they even can tri-angulate your position when you are interfeering with the radio on an airport. So I think that is out of the question, but I like the idea of a live feed. It's just not worth the effort, sadly. Actually I think they even encourage you to use the airspace as long as you are not violating other peoples privacy or restricted airspace. On a personal note: Does anybody know where to buy a 1600 - 2000gramm Weatherballoon in Germany or Europe? The shop that I wanted to use "Stratoxx" is broken and "Stratoflight" is excessively expensive for what they supply.

The Kraken-Drive ... or Ladder-Drive

I remember the B9-Light that illuminated the Moon from Low Kerbin Orbit

There is actually an XKCD-What if? about a similar scenario https://what-if.xkcd.com/139/

Dont colonize Dres, colonize its orbit. Start by docking Asteroids together that drift in its orbit.

Plunged right into the Sun after a swing-by of Jool only wearing a Space-Suit.

There is actually a web-tool where you can plug in your numbers and it will give you a predicted Flightpath. http://predict.habhub.org/ Weather ballon, yup

This Thread is about my Weatherballoon-Project, and what it takes to launch one. Maybe I can inspire someone with this to do the same or at least bring it closer to each of you. I have no experience in doing this, I have no degree (yet) but this project taught me alot. Launch-date: 20. August 2016 I had no altimeter on the craft so I can only estimate the ceiling altitude. I aimed for an average ascent rate of 5m/s and because I got 6330 seconds of footage from lift-off to balloon-deflation I end up with 31,650m give or take a few. Full Playlist: The Government (LBM) needed all these informations to give me a Permit: Name, Adress, Phone-number, Email Location of the Launch (Adress is sufficient) Time and Date of the Launch Data about the Balloon - Material -Grossmass without Payload -Description of the Payload -Grossmass of the Payload -Field-density in g/cm² (Division of the Payload's Grossmass by the area in cm² of the smallest surface) -Ascend speed in m/s -Descend speed in m/s -Will a Parachute be used? -Which Gas will be used in the Balloon? Will the lines withstand a tension of 230N? Will the Field-density exceed 13g/cm² and a mass of 2kg? Max. Flight-Level in meters Purpose of the Flight Overall Vehicle length On-Board GPS? Signed agreement of the owners of the Launch-Site Contact-Data written on the Paylaod? Attach the Airtraffic-control permits (German Airtraffic-control Langen) So while the bureau's were checking my numbers I started building a styrofoam-box, glued it all together and ran threads through the edges. Meanwhile I watched videos on Youtube about how to deploy a Parachute in rarefied Air, gathered information on Parachute-designes, Parachute Material and how to sew it all together. Turns out, the two most crucial things to concider is the Diameter of your Parachute and the Material to use. So I went to Amazon and bought 2,5m² of a pink Ripstop-Fabric. I would have preferred black but pink is probably easier to sopt against the sky and when it lands in the woods or a field. About the sewing, thanks mum for showing me around your old sewing machine Seriously, ask someone who knows how they work, because a sewing machine is a crazy apparatus. Once i got it all together, I punched some eyeleds in the edges and the middle beecause the parachute isnt just hanging attached to the ballon, but is part of the cord that runs from the payload to the ballon. This way it will stay closed on the way up, and open on the way down, all by its own. To make sure the damn thing actually opens, i strapped it behind my car and gave it a spin. Putting holes in the box to stick a camera through is actually the easiest part. You just want to make sure that you build a little frame inside so that your USB-Powerbank and Camera stay in place no matter how wildly the box spins around its axis. It probably will when the Balloon pops. The Kerbal on the Outside is Valentina which i strapped on a Ruler that I covered in duct-tape (in case it breaks so I dont lose her) and shoved it through the box and secured it on the inside with zip-ties I actually reached out to @KasperVld if there was a discount coupon I could use for the Shapeways Shop and what I was about to do with it. Turns out, not only got is Kasper excited about this Project but even Shapeways is curious if I could pull this off and they sent me a Kerbal for free. So not only did I have this half-finished Project but I actually owed two companies to return the favour. Yeah, i have to admit, this whole thing is 90% makeshift from scrap that I got laying around, but I am very confident it will work. Pre-Launch Preparations: - spraypaint the Payloadbox in signal colors - weighing everything (Parachute, Payload, Balloon) to get the Launch-mass - build a 1.5x dummy-weight - buy a few sets of rubber gloves - inspect the balloon - prelaunch full duration testrun of the electronics - charge all batteries - erase all flash-memories - construct connection lines Final touches I removed the weight-spread-skin from the Balloon. This is a very thin latex-skin that is attached in a circel around the gas-inlet of the actual balloon. With a bigger payload you would attach it to this skin to keep the weight away from the rather fragile neck of the balloon. But because my Payload is only ~1300grams i ll put it on the neck where I also put the gas in. It even saves 600grams total weight and 1000 Liters of helium. I also went on and spaypainted the Payload-box just in case it will land in a forest so we have a bit more contrast to the environment with orange than the original grey. Launchdate-Weather and Wind Prediction:

For me, this is not THE magic boulder. They look fancy yes, but randomly generated objects (fancy or not) have no mystery. I would like to see the old magic boulder again, the old texture with the old monolith on it on its old "hidden" orbit. Squad pls

I actually never went interplanetary when I started playing KSP. It was a pain in the butt to find the right phase angle to even reach Duna. But since Kerbal Alarm Clock came out, I love visiting all the planets and moons. You are missing out if you restrict yourself to go interplanetary and see the ice valleys of Vall or the Sulphur Spikes of Pol, only the mention a few.

TWR is great but piloting skill is more important. Always go full throttle until you reach the terminal velocity. And reach it fast or you will waste fuel. Terminal Velocity discribes the speed where you begin to be "held back" by the atmosphere you are dashing through. I.E. the highest speed an object would reach by falling to the ground. Or in other words: You would actually rather aerobrake by going faster than your terminal velocity than launching. The terminal Velocity will also change with atmospheric pressure (higher speed in thin air and lower speed with high angle-of-attack or blunt leading parts) Kerbal Engineer Redux can give you a read-out for this.

Okay, that makes sense. But I dont think a fisheyed-view would be very realistic for KSP.

No it is not. Does the horizon bend when you look down in the top of your field of view? I would give the human eye ~120-160° of view.

The Thread Title should be "CHEAP CAMERAS HAVE UNREALISTIC LENSING EFFECTS" Dont confuse curvature of the earth with Fish-eye lensing effects. Actually it is pretty hard nowadays to find a camera that doesnt give recordings a fisheye-effect. What I mean by this are effects like this: It has nothing to do with what the horizon actually looks like but it extorts everything that is too far off the center of the picture.

I am glad they brought the magic boulder back,...... but where is the monolith?

I dont think thats true. They changed it because the pavement of the runways caught fire with the jet exhaust facing the ground.

Not my picture but it says it all: