MajorThomas

For me, being able to right a fallen lander, without any damage, amazes me everytime. Most recent example: I landed right on top of an anomaly that had a slippery slope. Toppled over, no damage. And I was able to stand the lander up again using only SAS and retracting/extending the landing legs.

I agree, it's one way of keeping track of what you've done.

Maybe I should strengthen my statement that no aircraft could fly there. 30k m is about where I'd put the "Karman line" on Kerbin. It's basically a no-go zone: too low for orbit, too high to fly. It's about here that the RAPIER engine used by spaceplanes switches over to "rocket engine" mode (from air breathing to using internally-tanked oxidizer).

In the 1990s I got my undergrad degree in mechanical engineering / Japanese (double major). Later got my MS in Aero/Astro. Did it help? I suppose. Probably the best thing my education prepared me for was simulations like KSP

I would say this is pretty normal for aircraft. Eventually as you rise in altitude the air becomes too thin to give you the lift your plane was designed for, and you stall out. As you fall the air thickens, lift returns and you can fly again. Cruising altitude of 30,000 m may be very difficult to achieve, the air is very thin there!

I always wait for "about the right time" to do interplanetary transfer. Doing it at the "wrong" time can use 3x or more fuel than the "right" time.

Finally a job for Bo & Luke Kerman.

Has anyone considered 3D printing a bunch of KSP parts, so you can assemble your own ship from the parts, sort of like Lego?

Wow. Just...wow.

Nice job Xetalim! Scott's videos are possibly the most valuable source of info on how to do it right. This forum's participants are also mighty helpful. The third place to go for inspiration is...real life. I find that making my rockets and spacecraft resemble real life in terms of proportions works wonders. For instance: A. Make your first stage big but not overly large. Target about twice the height and twice the width of your upper stage. B. Make the upper stage small, use the smallest engine for the job. Engines weigh a lot so don't overbuild here. Make it just big enough to loft your payload into orbit with no more than say 1/2 fuel remaining (or less). C. Use the upper stage to send your (small) lander off to the Mun. Typically my upper stage is about the same size as my lander, with a slightly higher thrust engine. D. Make the lander small, and with a very efficient engine. You don't need high thrust to land on the Mun or Minmus. Use the fewest legs possible, that's 3 (not 4 or more). Don't bring goo or materials lab, they're too heavy. Just bring a Kerbal, small battery, small solar panels, small chute. Forget RCS. Just trim down the weight as much as possible. E. You'll find your lander fuel stretches almost forever if you keep the weight down enough. You'd use 1/5 to enter into Mun orbit (less if your upper stage is still attached and has fuel left), 1/5 to de-orbit burn, 1/5 to actually land, 1/5 to take off and orbit again, and 1/5 to depart the Mun and correct your course to hit Kerbin's atmosphere at 30 km. That's how I get to the Mun on a budget.

Summary articles here: http://www.space.com/22836-military-experimental-space-plane-darpa.html http://www.space.com/24639-united-states-military-space-plane-xs1.html

Also bringing attention to the Palette, a customizable set of buttons, dials and sliders developed by two kickstarter guys. This article mentions KSP, used to help demonstrate their controller's abilities: http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/10/5397296/palette-controller

Apollo: Worked because there was just enough testing. N1/LOK: Not enough testing, so didn't work.

Appropriate for this thread.

This. I just went through the entire tech tree in 0.22 for the first time, as a new player, in Nov/Dec 2013. Not knowing what lies ahead in the tech tree, and not really understanding how to get science made it particularly hard to get to solar panels. Once I had those, long-term missions with much more science was easy. And going through the tech tree in 0.23 (knowing what lies ahead and how to get max. science) it's pretty easy. That said, 0.23 appears to have made it a little harder to get science than 0.22, but now Minmus has biomes to balance that out.

Looks like Laythe!

Welcome! I'd suggest: 1. Time it such that you do half your burn before you reach the "node" and the second half of your burn after the node. This gives me best results. For instance, for a 2 minute burn, start your burn one minute before the node, and keep going for 2 minutes. 2. Yes, chase the blue vector as it moves away at the end of the burn. But do it carefully...cut thrust and repoint yourself, rather than do it at full thrust. That little bit of vector wobble at the end is what I think of as the "residual" and gives you a chance to correct the error introduced by being pointed off the vector slightly during the main burn.

So far this works great on my new G13. This is just the right bit of info I need to keep from having to switch to map mode to know the critical orbital elements. What a great app, thank you!

Can one translate and rotate in KSP at the same time? That would make docking easier, with two joysticks setup Soyuz style. EDIT: Yes, clearly one can, using WASD for rotation and IJKL for translation. In fact I've setup my G13 that way. Bliss.

Thank you Kasuha, I'd been wondering what the Abort button does. I'd consider this thread "Answered."

1. Best to treat Gilly as a large spaceship, or a moon without gravity, and fly near it accordingly. The fact you can "land" on Gilly doesn't mean that's what you're going to usually be doing. (Bouncing off is much more common.) 2. When dropping a rover, be sure it has parking brakes set. 3. If MechJeb balks and says it can't be done, or is attempting to setup a maneuver that will kill you/run you out of fuel, don't execute, instead switch to manual and trust your instincts.

That looks beautiful, and you fly it so well! Gives me ideas...perhaps a good way to transport a large space shuttle from KSC to KSC2?

+1 for this on Android.

Brilliant ideas all! The Nostromo and G13...appear to be setup for left hand use. Do you use your left thumbs for the thumbsticks? FWIW I just ordered a G13 so I can familiarize myself with a keypad unit of this type. That iPad panel control panel is absolutely fabulous...not just control buttons, but also fuel gauges and other essential stuff. I definitely noticed the game universal time displayed next to mission time. That is so useful. Not having this info, it irritates me so, because one has to exit to tracking center just to know what time it is...surely that ought to be displayed in the ship data somewhere? Combining the best of all these elements into one package would be a worthy goal.

This G13 may be the best commercial, off-the-shelf controller idea I've yet seen. Thanks so much for introducing me to it. I will, however, continue to work on my ideas for something a bit more space sim-specific.