ledogen

Whenever I think up an interplanetary mission, I often find myself limited to rovers. This is because rovers can be driven for practically eternity, while planes and rockets have to rely on fuel (I know Kethane exists, that is for when I decide I want to add mods). So. A viably infinite aircraft is an infiniglider, and because it can provide "endless" entertainment, I decided to build a few These are my infinigliders They can fly alone Or they can fly while all docked together Of course, infinigliders are fun on Kerbin, but who would deny that they would be even more fun on other celestial bodies? I chose Laythe. Now, I'm playing a nearly stock game. The only mod I use is Kerbal Engineer, and I really only use that for the DV values. So how am I going to get such a ridiculously awkward payload all the way to Laythe? The answer is with this unwieldy hunk of rocket I would like to make it clear that I did not expect it to be this easy. That is not to say that there weren't numerous failed attempts, but surprisingly, no Kerbals were lost throughout this entire project (the crew capsule had a parachute on it). Now let's take a look at this 500 ton monstrosity on the launchpad. This is the point where I start to question if I have numerous enough struts. 3 2 1 Liftoff?? Liftoff! Almost there And orbit! Hey, it almost looks like I knew what I was doing. Let's clear that up Bloopers Well, that looks like a catastrophe Oh, pretty explosions Guys, you're shooting for the sky, and pro-tip, it's the other way. Those were only a few of the calamities, but hey, they survived Aren't I thoughtful for fitting a parachute? Back to the actual mission Anyways, half an hour of boring rendezvous shenanigans later... I get extremely lucky. Seriously, look at how perfect this is. 7 km periapsis? That seems survivable. Did I mention that these guys are going retrograde. The opposite revolution direction of Laythe? Oops... Yup, get in your seats, guys... I swear it's the safest place. I don't think I have ever captured a picture as fine as this. Those are the solar panels in the background, the interplanetary stage in the mid, and our brave Kerbals in the foreground. They were actually traveling at 8 km/s when I hit. According to Kerbal Engineer, these guys suffered through 28 Gs of force. Somebody is having fun Oh my lord. There is so much ocean. I think we arrived at the furthest possible point from land. Yup, just keep flapping those wings. You'll get somewhere eventually. It was actually pretty impressive, right over the surface of the water, if I mashed W and S fast enough (sorry W and S) It could get up to about 230 m/s. Doing that was dangerous though, if I messed up, then these brave Kerbals would be going in the drink. Is that... LAND! Finally! Sketchy landing is sketchy But successful! Smile, guys! .craft files are available upon request

This is AWESOME! I don't see any way of making it smaller though, good work, regardless.

If you move away from Kerbol at escape velocity, your speed will remain constant and eventually the game will crash, because the amount of RAM necessary to keep your craft's location would be immense. That being said, it is not unheard of for people's crafts to combust, and a look at the flight report will say they've been devoured by the space Kraken.

I've never had issues, I'm running KSP on a pretty new machine, things just happen in slo-mo in the background. What I'm saying is that my scan-patterns are still normal and the craft is in one piece when I come back, but things just happen in slow motion when I'm away. I was wondering if anybody knew anything about program throttling in the config files, or maybe it's a Windows setting.

Hey, I was hoping someone could tell me how to get KSP to run at full speed when it is not the active window. I have simulate in background turned on, but I can tell that when I tab out, everything runs at about 1/4 speed. Its particularly noticeable when I am scanning for Kethane on other bodies, as the detector tone pings about once every half second, while it usually rings about 8 or 10 times a second. I'm just asking, so i can scan for Kethane while doing other things on my computer.

If you check out that link posted by m1xte (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autorotation_(helicopter)) You'll see that it is necessary to reverse the pitch of the winglets in order to turn that stored rotational inertia into actual lift.

Ahh, so someone beat me to it. Oh well, it makes a good escape pod i guess. Fewer parts, more simple. However his design does look hella good.

I have not yet seen a craft like this, so I'm assuming that it doesn't exist. Correct me if I'm wrong. Also, this is my first ever post. This is a minimalistic vessel that should be able to land on any planet with an atmosphere. Pressing E will use wind resistance to increase the craft's rotational momentum, and will also make the craft fall faster. Pressing Q will slow the craft by using up the stored kinetic energy. Essentially E makes you fall faster, and when you near the ground, Q will slow you down. 15 Gs! It weighs so little, that with 4 seperatrons, you can de-orbit it from about 120,000 M. Once re-entry is complete, if holding E, the craft will hit terminal velocity at about 500 m/s. When you slow down from that speed, the craft will pull 15 Gs until it is around a nice 10 m/s (on Kerbin) and then will hit the ground with no problems. My plan with this one was that it'd be the most lightweight way to get someone from space to the ground. Obviously it only really works on Kerbin, Duna and a few others, but why would you want to conquer a planet with no air anyways? Also, it should be noted that it is a son of a Jeb to get up out of an atmosphere. If anybody really wants this thing, i could put up a link, but its pretty easy to design yourself

Lets not forget, though. KSP is a magnificent game, and most of all, a GAME. If all games were super realistic then they'd be boring. Kerbal is a magnificent way to get players involved, without making them frustrated

school keeps getting in the way of my game, about to begin though

Yes it will, no manual labor is required