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Falki, amazing work! And you demonstrated with style and cool music to boot! It is my wish to help you hash out a solution to varying the effective height so one isn't too high on Gilly or too low on Jool, say... So let's summarize the design goals: 1-Make sense with the body size (high altitude on gas giants, low altitude on small moons, doesn't need to be precise, just roughly sensical) 2-Don't be so low we hit an atmosphere 3-Don't be so high we hit a SOI (like Gilly's) or a lower moon. (Jool vs Laythe, Duna vs Ike) 4-Make it forward-compatible with any future solar systems, such as planet packs or wherever we'll meet our alien cousins. 5-Give a hint to the proper altitude in the part specs, so we can plan interplanetary probes. Using pure math would result in weird numbers, would likely solve 1-4, 5 would be messed up. I had once suggested 'maybe classify worlds in 'Small bodies' 'Mid-sized bodies' 'Big ones' and give the values for all three in the parts, that would help with #5, but makes things tricky with #4 as you can't just make a list of Kerbol's worlds and put them in a table. ...Or can we? How about we look at a table with kerbol's bodiess, in order of body width, showing low moon's altitude/SOI limit, and atmospheric depth for the hell of it. I'm hoping this chart can help you figure out some good limiters for 'Small body' 'Mid Body' and 'Big ones'. Then we can pray those limiters would work with any future solar system. Body name Equatorial radius (m) Atmosphere depth (m) Maximum safe altitude (m) SOI limit or nearest moon's SOI SOI limit Nearest moon Pe minus moon SOI Radius (approx) Gilly 13 000 0 126 123 126 123 Pol 44 000 0 1 042 138 1 042 138 Minmus 60 000 0 2 247 428 2 247 428 Bop 65 000 0 1 221 060 1 221 060 Ike 130 000 0 1 049 598 1 049 598 Dres 138 000 0 32 832 840 32 832 840 Mun 200 000 0 2 429 559 2 429 559 Eeloo 210 000 0 119 082 941 119 082 941 Moho 250 000 0 9 646 663 9 646 663 Vall 300 000 0 2 406 400 2 406 400 Duna 320 000 50 000 2 000 000 Ike: 2 000 000 Laythe 500 000 50 000 3 723 645 3 723 645 Kerbin 600 000 70 000 9 500 000 Mun: 9 500 000 Tylo 600 000 0 10 856 518 10 856 518 Eve 700 000 90 000 14 000 000 Gilly: 14 000 000 Jool 6 000 000 200 000 23 000 000 Laythe: 23 000 000 Kerbol 261 600 000 600 000 4.2 Gigameters Moho: 4.2 Gm Looking at this, Gilly's a clear outlier, Duna and Jool are touchy, every other SOI is all over the place but easy to work with. Maybe you can get away with something like 'Small bodies - below 100 km radius' (Gilly, POl, Minmus, Bop) Maybe orbital survey 20km - 40km - 80 max? 'Medium bodies - 100 to 1000 km radius' (Ike to Eve) Current Orbital survey heights we know work well. 'Large bodies - above 1000 km radius' (Jool and Kerbol) Orbital survey needs testing... Anyway, hope that little chart helps you out. (I got the values from KSP1's wiki)

Reported Version: v0.2.0 (latest) | Mods: Alarm Clock (AlarmClock 1.2.1) BepInEx (BepInEx 1:1.8.1) Community Fixes (CommunityFixes 0.11.0) Flight Plan (FlightPlan 0.9.1) K2-D2 (K2D2 v0.11.2) KerbalHeadlamp (KerbalHeadlamp 0.1.2) Maneuver | Can replicate without mods? Yes OS: Windows 11 | CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8250U CPU @ 1.80GHz | GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti | RAM: 65390 MB I've built a SSTO which goes to orbit quite easily with an empty cargo hold. However, if a package consisting of 1x Fl-R25, 3x Z-200, 6x Z-400, 1x SP-4L, 1x Communotron DTS-M1 and 1x SRW-125 is fitted in the cargo bay, it only reaches orbit with great difficulty. The mass of the cargo isn't the issue, I've replaced the cargo with a fuel tank with a similar mass and orbit is still easily attainable with this swap place. The Micro engineer mod, shows significant difference in drag with and without the stowed cargo, so drag from cargo that should be shielded by the cargo bay seems to be the issue. Included Attachments: SSTO.json .ipsImage { width: 900px !important; }

Had a handyman over to replace my broken toilet seat. (Still isolating. Can't go get one myself). Shouldn't take long or cost much right? He confirms my suspicion that the flush mechanism is faulty, and asks if I'd like him to look at it, and I agree. He leaves, returns with a new siphon mechanism. Can't remove the old one because everything is ancient and rusted solid. Eventually manages, but in so doing breaks other corroded parts. Leaves, returns with parts, and a colleague to help ... "Do you have a Dremel? I need to cut slots in these seized screws" ... leaves for parts, returns, with another colleague ... A couple of hours later, the entire toilet and cistern are completely removed and sitting in my bedroom, the bathroom floor is soaked, a leak has wet the wall and carpet downstairs ... Long story short, changing my toilet seat took three people all day and cost £200. LOL. To be fair, the toilet is very old, was on it's last legs, works great now, and it's a lot cheaper than a new one.

ok for the alt calculation, Thx for adding comment Alt seems OK ! The time to burn is not Ie : Mission: To Minmus! t: 52:06 body: Kerbin msl/ter: 200.43 km /200.18 km atm: (in space) v: 1,868 m/s Node Burn: 0.0 s (41.1 %) dV: 0.10 (41.3 %) throttle: 0.01 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- eject at phase angle 114.7 ejection angle -1.0 dV: 844.93 m/s Maneuver: dt: 15:41 dV: 844.9 m/s stages: 1 burn: 49 s burn: 49 s stages: [#1 dv: 845 m/s t: 49 s 1x Methalox] Burn is planned in 15:41, but we miss Minmus. If I use MNC to adjust, it's more 14:20 to enter SOI (without changing the dV needed, with circular and good inclinaison 6° starting orbit)

Back in November, I had an Atlas III (ad), my heaviest class of surface miner (622,200 kallons total capacity), arrive in the Jolian system and -- by goof [sic] fortune -- find itself well-poised to simply effect capture at Pol; rather than suffer the hazards of the Jolian pinball machine. It was able, there, to refuel and then head toward its original target, Vall. Today, happy to report capture: In the meantime, I had as well, relocated my Vall miner, Goblin (ad), cap. 32,000 kallons, out to Pol. Here's why -- in a spoiler, because this is a huge, huge "cheat":

Personally I find it hilarious that a space sim game (it’s not just a rocket sim or you wouldn’t have a literal star system, and more coming up, AND colonies etc) that’s supposed to be an analogue of the physics of reality doesn’t want to design a basic system that the first game had and was loved by most of the community. By all means make it less complicated but of ALL the features to lament you lament the one thing that most of us keep asking for and are frustrated about and that’s some decent (at the most basic level) UI for us to understand exactly what is going on with all aspects of our ships. How do you possibly expect us to plan out an interstellar mission if you don’t want to bother spending time on UI development? If you’re dumbing it down so much by interstellar that I don’t have to actually plan a trip from the bottom up to hope to be successful in going to another system, let alone the edge of the Kerbolar system, and all I have to do is press a few buttons to ensure my engine starts and my landing legs deploy in 200 years, I’m gonna uninstall KSP2 and go play KSP1 with mods for the rest of my life (dramatic, I know, but I think it emphasized the point).

So, we have been trying to figure out how to get a third car for Thing #1 ever since he got his license back in September. But, in case you hadn't noticed, the used car market is insane right now. I'd been hoping to buy a new(er) truck for myself and give him my old truck, but (for example) right now a ten-year-old Tacoma with 100,000 miles on it is literally selling for about the same price it was when it was new. Even old econoboxes are stupid expensive right now. So we've thought about it and prayed, and decided to wait and see if the bottom drops out of the used car market this year like a lot of folks think it will. So, last month I got a call from a guy I worked with twenty years ago back in California. He'd been thinking about me, just wanted to catch up. We spent an hour on the phone chatting about work and family, it was great to hear from him. This week he sends me a text: "Hey, you mentioned that you were looking for a car for your oldest? We've got this 2002 Mazda Tribute. Bought it new, drove it 200,000 miles. It runs great, but the catalytic converters are worn out and it won't pass smog. Not worth fixing, can't sell it unless we do. We were going to donate it, but we were wondering if you wanted it? No money, just come pick it up." So, free car, just have to drive out to California and get it. Woot!

My car has gremlins. The other day i was driving and got a blink and miss it “Charging System Malfunction Detected” message. Was on screen half a second. Had i had my head turned to change lanes or just be defensive behind the wheel id have missed it. Didnt see it again for a few hours until that night. Popped up on screen 10-20 seconds then went away. Drove 200 feet then it returned for another 10-20 seconds. Didnt see it again. Until the next day. Last night specifically. Earlier yesterday i went to autozone where i got my battery. Was made 08-2021, installed 09-2021. So it was about 3 years old. Tested it three times: bad, charge-retest recommended. Test 2: good, but had only 80% charge. Ran engine 5 minutes while talking with employee. Test 3 at my request to see if my alternator was charging. Battery tested as bad. Warranty swap. New issue found the negative terminal was not fully tight. New terminal clamp installed. Problem solved? Nope. Drove it home and many hours later i go to this burger place (40 mile round trip) specifically to prove out the battery. No warning shows. Figure done and dusted. Nope. 90 minutes later after i got home and ate my burger, so its now about 2330. I go back out to buy or intended to buy some sodas and snacks. I get 3 miles AT MOST before the “Charging System Malfunction Detected” message returned. This time it was blink and miss it then it went biblical. Came on. Stayed on a good 5 minutes then blinked out, for 2 seconds. Then on. Then off. Then on. Then off. Spending more time on than off. Then 5 hours ago i decided after having gotten it on my driveway safely to crank the car on just to see what happens. Idled 5 minutes no warning. Decided screw it lets do a quick 2-3 mile loop, did a few mild pulls and 1 full throttle pull just to see. No warning light. Im stuck at home with 2 cars out of commission. 1 true dead battery and 1 with an alternator that has approx 87445 miles on it that cant decide if possessed or healthy. Ive sourced a new alternator but its beyond what i feel a safe driving distance all things considered. Good news is my father lives a short drive from the store with said new alternator and requested he buy it for me and drop it off at my house for installation later today/this evening. Will update if you guys like. 070801092024

Unfortunately, what's probably needed here is a config that dynamically adjusts to rescaled systems, instead of a one size fits all solution. It's something that I've wanted to do for awhile but have never gotten around to it. (basically check what the home planet has been rescaled to and do a little math and figure out how much to adjust the heat shield based on the difference between stock Kerbin and the rescaled Kerbin) So, what's happening is this: An assumption is being made that your system is being rescaled bigger than it really is. ALSO, a realism factor is being applied to the ablation rate because in real life, a heat shield ablates a mere fraction of its total amount than would happen in stock KSP. In stock KSP, I'm still trying to capture the basic essence of your ablator being sucked nearly dry. But IRL, an Apollo heat shield only ablated (IIRC) only 10%-ish of its total amount. (Because, overengineering) The greatest heat loading ever experienced by a heat shield was by the Galileo Jupiter Atmospheric Probe which ablated something like 50% of its heatshield. (might have been more/less, going by memory) The easiest solution for you here is to use the Deadly Reentry menu to crank up reentry heating. (there's one in the stock KSP menus but it's clamped to 200%. The DR one overrides the KSP one and goes a lot higher) That solution, while being easiest to execute will affect everything even supersonic aircraft, so you could instead use an MM config to make the ablation rate faster. The following will double all heatshield consumption rates: (adjust lossConst to suit your desires) @PART[]:HAS[@MODULE[ModuleHeatShield]]:LAST { @MODULE[ModuleHeatShield] { @lossConst *= 2 } }

Still working on the orbital build to go to Duna. Yes, I know, I could probably do this in one launch. But I'm lacking some needed parts, and this gives me a chance to practice docking and building in orbit and such. Anyhow, I was able to get a second power arm attached to the Sekhmet I hub, as well as a communications hub. Two images: The first image is what we have in orbit currently, while the second image is a sneak peek inside the fairing at the end of the communications hub. For the first time in playing this game - over 1000 hours in KSP1, and 200+ in KSP2 - I used an engine mount. I wanted to have an antenna of some kind at the far end of the truss, but I needed to have a fuel tank and an engine to get this up there. I also needed to move the fuel from the existing spare tank to a new one (the existing spare tank is where the actual fuel tanks/engines for the interplanetary flight are going to be), so I used an engine mount to "hide" the antenna and keep the ability to have other parts on the thing. Once docked, I moved the fuel from the existing tank to the new one at the end of the communications hub, and then quick-saved so I could jettison that fairing to give a show of what it will look like. Gotta say that the engine mount is going to be getting some serious use in the future from me! I have but 2 gripes with this. The Sekhmet I hub wiggles all over the place. It will not stay true to any SAS direction, instead choosing to wobble around said direction. This is making docking difficult, and I'm finding I have to come in a little hot (to the tune of > 5 m/s in order to hit the target dead on). That stupid temperature gauge is annoying. I'm in orbit, not the atmosphere; I shouldn't have an overheated part. I may have to edit the JSON file and adjust the temperature of both the OKTO and the cargo bay it is inside of (I checked yesterday, and both of these are > 200 in spite of being in orbit). I still have to add: Interplanetary fuel tanks and engines A lander module I might add some habitation modules (Wayfarer's) in the event there is a mission to create a space station. Please do NOT spoil that for me; I do not want to know in advance if there is or not! Let it be a surprise!

I am saddened that the inflatable heat shield is broken in KSP2 because all of my great Eve Entry methods are busted because of this. In KSP, the inflatable shield can withstand 3500 K, which is 200 more than the other shields having ablator. I know they said KSP2 would be different, but that shouldn't change the fact that this shield should tolerate much higher temperatures than most other parts, even if collapsed (3250 K in KSP). Ref: https://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Heat_shield

Basically, whenever I try to upload a new PFP, the forum says “Error -200” and "Sorry, and unknown server error occurred when uploading this file.

////////////////////MISSION_UPDATE\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ - K.G.02 Fueled up and Ready - K.G.02 - fully operational and with its new heat shield installed. Foreword: So I wanted this to have been the last mission update on this blog. But to much, I had to document, had happened. With the introduction of re-entry heat a few more lessons learned; lessons Identified presented themselves. The Kraken also reared its ugly face.. or its been doing it for a while, I just got fed up with putting up with its shenanigans. Which meant K.G.02 had to get a facelift.. and I had to make my most KSP'ed rocket to date. More on that bellow. Mission Tasks: A. Iterating the H.T.V. and refueling K.G.01 C. Refueling K.G.02 D. Refitting K.G.02 with a new heat shield. Lessons Learned; Lessons Identified: A. The H.T.V. v1.1 successfully landed at KSC - notice the 3 big grid fins has been replaced with 3 wings Problem 1: Hitting the mark: I had a lot of trouble figuring out where to aim my decent point to successfully land the H.T.V. on the pad. Taking Kerbins rotation into account, the time it takes to get to the ground, as well as the bleed of speed going through the atmosphere.. made it really hard to nail the very precise point I had to be to be able to line up the pad. Right now the H.T.V. will be through the hot re-entry at ~15.000 km altitude. Which means that there is not a lot of time to do the final maneuver that aims it to the pad... and as if that is not bad enough, the fact that it steers like a brick, means that you need to be close to right above the pad to be able to hit it. All in all it means it's practically impossible to hit the right spot. Of the 8 launches it took to refuel K.G.01 with Hydrogen - only 1 landed at the pad. And I feel that was more luck than skill. I had to find a way to quickly bleed the horizontal speed once it was through the dangerous part of re-entry. - the answer became fitting the vehicle with aerobrakes. I found out that if I aim about here: I will bleed out of the hot part of re-entry right above KSC - by reserving some Δv to extend or shorten the prograde I can aim for the back end of the big island east of KSC once I hit the 70km mark. making sure I consistently have the right path etc. The H.T.V. only needs 300Δv to land - 400Δv to land comfortably with my skills. Once through the dangerous part of Re-Entry the aerobreaks can engage: Methalox H.T.V. v.1.2 breaking to line up the run way. The image above roughly shows the break out point. From here its all about breaking the vehicle down to 200-300 m/s and then flip the ass - I've found that If i flip it too soon, it will tumble and you spend a lot of altitude getting it back under control you could have spent aiming. The final iteration of tht H.T.V. also had the stabilizer wings replaced with control surfaces - to enable it easier to "glide" towards the pad. Problem 2: "Huston we have a problem - My engines are gone" Picture of the 1st stage of the refuel gliders - and all its engines dropping to the ground. The second problem I ran into was that the engine plate on the 1st stage of the refueling gliders could only handle re-entry speeds at sub ~700 m/s. I was very worried that this would mean a total redevelopment of the 1st stage. Fortunately I have become so good at getting it back to KSC that I found I could afford to burn the engines and keep the vehicle at around 700 m/s the Result was this much heat: 1st stage of the glider succesfully getting through the thinner atmosphere. As you can see, I have still plenty of Δv to land the vehicle - and the engines to do it Se detailed slide show of Mission Task in Spoiler below: B. Two H.T.D.s each pushing 20t hydrogen into a lunar insertion orbit. The next part was pretty "simple" Continue the fueling up of K.G.02. Since I had 2 H.T.D.s this time I decided to try launch them simultaneously. It demanded an unnecessarily load of work to do this. Even if a vehicle as 0 m/s relative motion to each other - they can still drift several kilometers away over the wait time. The first time I did not realize I could connect the two vehicles while they were coasting. (significantly reducing the workload) Second and final load I connected the two vehicles every time they had done their burns. Although I know it makes sense - It has hard for my brain to wrap around why the Δv is almost halved when the two vehicles are connected - compared to them being separate The rocket equation is wild. Any way - I cannot figure out if it was worth the extra hassle. On one side its nice that they arrive at K.G.02 at the same time - I remember building the station that It could be really situational how quick things could arrive at the station. Since if you have a bad insertion window you need to orbit the moon a few times before you get a good rendezvous... but that takes month around the mun. SO I avoid that hassle... but I have to time the maneuvers - kill relative speed after each and connect the vehicles again to avoid drift - also took time to do. That being said - man it looks good.. but it puts a lot of Sci-Fi epics in contrast. It must be hella lot of work for fleet ships to stay in formation in real life. xD Se detailed slide show of Mission Task in Spoiler below: C. The problem that had to be solved. So - K.G.02s solar panel array was prone to Kraken attacks. It would start to vibrate until the point where it would break itself a part. I could manage it by hitting Timewarp for a second.. but It happened so often that I would have to reload a previous save multiple times because the station had broke apart while I looked away: I decided that I would have no more of it and looked at alternatives - The only item that was able to build the shape I needed without having a bazilian parts were wings. So.. this is also my first alternatives use of wings as well as my first ridicules rocket. Behold this monstrosity: The stand-up guy of a rocket needed to get the new heatshield into orbit - I so look forward to be able to build stuff like this in space. Since the heatshield had the structural integrity of a wet tissue paper, and the drag of a drag coefficient of a pavillion at a Childs' birthday party, It meant that I would have to drag it into space instead of pushing it (Tensile strength vs compression) - I also had to launch it at 45° E as soon as it cleared the tower - because once it had gained speed, you could not do maneuvers without it breaking apart... The heatshield fighting its way through the atmosphere - powered by 4 massive solid rocket boosters. As you can see this maneuver made for a quite hot tour over the karman line. While in the atmosphere the rocket was powered by the 4 biggest solid rocket boosters I could find. The biggest challenge was completed - getting it into space. After it was just gently installing it on K.G.02 - Since it was quite big the T.T.Ds had a lot of "trouble" rotating it to the right angle. It was easier to rotate K.G.02 to fit the correct orientation. The result was this: K.G.02 with the new heat shield installed. K.G.02s Hydrogen tanks are now shielded from Kerbols rays propper - so propper that I actually wish I had installed a few flod lights to it. It's very dark in the shadow now. But maybe that can be remedied in the future once we need to install radiators to our vehicles and stations. Se detailed slide show of Mission Task in Spoiler below: Moving Forward: Last thing to do now is just refueling K.G.01 again and it is finally over. Then I will upload the craft files to all the vehicles, station parts etc. Its weird to think that it's soon over. But I feel like I have also build more like 3½-4 stations rather than 2 stations at this point... as well as developing each service vehicle 3 or 4 times before getting it right. I have learned a lot with this journey.. and I am looking forward to break free of Kerbin.. Maybe i'll take a tour to Minimus first just to square off Kerbin SOI. Any way! See you next time, hopefully for the last time x)

I've tried this a half dozen times before shutting the game down in frustration. It's either another PBKAC or a bug. Appreciate insights. Here we are trying to capture at Minmus. Two things I've noticed: I can focus Minmus - but not interact with the transit line in that view (pe marker on the left) - no MN placement in that view I can only place the MN on the path from the ship at its Minmus PE (not the one that shows around Minmus - the one in spaaaace along the blue orbital path leaving Kerbin) I can place nodes on the short section that crosses at the Minmus pe - or along the orbital path and neither seem to change what's bugging me I cannot get a capture. Should be about 200 delta v to capture at Minmus. Everything I try gets me the orange line ether adjusting my orbit around Kerbin, intersecting the Mun or leaving the system entirely. I've run the DV from 150 to 1500 at multiple places (because Minmus pe wasn't working). Sliding the MN along both the orbital path or the crossing intercept path. I've reverted saves several times and tried different insertions. Nothing seems to be letting me capture. I've run the Minmus pe to both sides of the moon, tried it at 4k meters and several hundred thousand meters (and various places between). Nothing will circularize. IIRC - going back to memory from March/April - we used to be able to set a maneuver node in [Body] Focus (the left pe tab showing Minmus' SOI ). Can't do that in this build apparently. So I'm stuck trying to get the MN placed at the other pe marker (right side). Still, nothing I do is working. So. What am I missing? Bug or another PBKAC for the day?

After evacuating the Quartermaster from Meridian Base, I discovered that I could no longer use the Menu options, or change to a different vessel outside of physics range. Confused, I opened the debug menu, and discovered that there was a serious problem. I was being spammed with an error. Searching it up, I discovered that this was a bug with stock KSP called Docking Rot, that could occur in any vessel created from docked parts, though Kerbitrail ports seem to get it worse. There was no solution. I had to revert to an earlier save, and terminate the base from the Tracking Station. Sadly, this meant killing the base's lone crewmember. Rest in peace, Whats-his-name Kerman. In an effort to resolve the lag issue, I decided that the best solution would be to replace Wyvern with a brand new facility, one that could perform all the same duties with a much lower part count. To do this, I would need to shift manufacturing to an MKS Atlas factory dome. Six assembly bays. With those bays, I can produce pretty much every advanced resource worth making in a single dome. One part instead of six. Not a massive reduction, but these things add up. Once happy with the design, and having tested it on Kerbin to ensure all the drills worked, I went to Tarasque Station and started work on the Ground Kit that would be used to deploy the base. ...oh wow. 210 days, and that's just for orbital assembly! Construction on the ground will take even longer. I'd better send more engineers when the time comes. Kraken reached Dres and successfully captured. Valkyrie did likewise. Within a couple or orbits, she's rendezvoused with Odyssey. All gathered data was transferred to the Valkyrie, over 200 of it. The crew followed, no doubt grateful to finally have clean air, power, and functional living spaces. And food. Next up, meeting the Kraken for refuelling. Propellant load complete. 4,196 m/s of delta-V, more than enough to return home without having to worry about any misjudged burns or inaccurate transfer windows. Speaking of, the window back to Kerbin is only 97 days away. The crew of the Odyssey marooned out at Dres, will finally head home. As for the Odyssey herself... She was an outdated design, improperly built for her mission. There would be no attempt to fit the Kraken's drive to her forward section, the refuelling ship had no propellant left to burn with. At best, the vessel might serve as a minimally capable space station, and even that would only be possible if the Kraken's fission reactor was salvaged to provide power. I saw no further use for her, and that meant her destruction as an anti-lag measure. But simply terminating the flight wouldn't be an honourable death for a spacecraft that had come so far, carried the crew to the first landing on Dres. And further, it would be wasteful. Instead, I chose to deorbit the spacecraft, She would forever be a part of the planet she'd flown to, a permenant piece of Kerbin on a world that would likely never see the Kerbals return. And I got 600 science from the seismometer, which is nice.

Sort of, but not entirely. The Saturn I used an RL10-based second stage, while the Saturn IB used the same basic upper stage with a J-2 engine, which became the S-IVB-200. It flew a few times before Apollo 4. However, the third stage that flew on the Saturn V in the Apollo 4 test was a different configuration, the S-IVB-500, with a flared interstage, a different helium pressurization system, a new auxiliary propulsion system, and a different separation system.

The main feature of update was Exploration mode. Now I have goals to explore Kerbolar system. Lack of parts makes me to solve puzzles, how to achieve target with current parts, what parts should I unlock, where should I go. I have enjoyment from overcoming limitations and have feeling of progression during comliting missions and unlocking new parts. Second feature which makes me continue exploration is plot. It’s not cinematographic, but messages are funny and well writed, lore is very intriguing. But not all in exploration mode is well as it seems to me. I encountered missing text for science reports which was written as “default message” or “crew assess environment and collect its characteristics”. The well written examples are soil sample reports, now I didn’t see them written in default message style. Some missions in exploration mode are dishonest and absurd balanced. For example mission “LIL CHONKER” where you get only 35 points for delivering 200 tons Minmus, but for Kapy rock you get 200 points. In Kerwide Tour missions it seemed to me annoying to use cabin cans for my crafts. They are like they were made for planes, but instead doing any crew observations you must bring with you unsuitable parts which very much interfere your flight. Missions also suffer from an inadequate interface and lack of important position and orbit information that would come in handy during complex missions. For example, an orbit rounding mission gives the orbit parameters not as an eccentricity and a large semi-axis, but as a perigee and apogee. This is done due to the fact that the player has nowhere to see the eccentricity, although this is a very important parameter in orbital mechanics. As a result, this parameter will not be stored in the player's head and it will be more difficult for him to plan and execute more complex orbital maneuvers in the absence of this knowledge. Or the plot mission where you need to put a satellite into Minmus orbit. The inclination of the orbit of 45 degrees is proposed to be determined by eye. It is clear that this is not particularly difficult to do and it is so well chosen, but it greatly reduces the number of goals that could be set for the player. The game really needs a tool that shows all the parameters of the orbit with great accuracy. The window can be placed specifically for this purpose in the same place as the panels with the resource manager, details, etc. Very much interferes with the exploration process that you have to memorize in your mind all the places you have visited in order not to waste time flying to the same place 2 times. There is no archive for science reports and the most of your reports you see once in the campaign. You can miss story or lore if you skip them accidentaly. Also other things, like discoverables, are not saved on your map. After you found it game doesn’t add it as known object in tracking station. Founding of discoverables is interesting, but very time consuming process. You must fly above surface or drive rover for a very long time and it’s not a fact, that discoverable is big enough to spot it for a first time. I suggest to add scanner on 3-4 tech level, which can orbit celestial body and if it flies above discoverable it detects it and give a player a area on map, where player should search for it. Maybe telescope, which should fly above area of interest for certain time within the permissible speed range. It would create a new and interesting challenge for the player. There are no credits as in KSP1. At first glance it seems to be missing feature, but in my opinion in KSP2 it’s unnecessary layer. Not in terms that in future player must also control resources in colonies, but it motivates you to explore and fly instead of using mechanics like financial strategies. On the second tech tier I built rocket which delivered communication sat and lander to Moho without using any gravitational maneuvers, with KSP1 money restrictions I wouldn’t do it. So to gather science I went to Moho instead of farming some boring stuff in Kerbin SOI. My rocket was large enough and it seemed that there are no restrictions for craft size, but during construction of rocket I encountered one. It was mass. Without powerful engines you can lift heavy masses, and to unlock these engines you must collect science, do missions and fly to another places. But what could be taken from KSP 1 is the center for the recruitment of kerbonauts, so that you can quickly find out the list and statuses of all the kerbonats, because it is not very convenient to watch them in the VAB. After compliting Minmus plot mission I got mission to do the same but on Duna. Building interplanetary ships and mission to Minmus are much different things, and it seemed like it is very big leap for inexperienced players. Of course there was no timer and you can pracitce and collect science for unlocking parts building simple probe to Duna or to another planet, but for inexperienced players it can be non-obviously. And there were no secondary missions after comliting Minmus mission when player must send light probe to another planet, this mission would encourage players not to be afraid to try to send missions easier than landing on the Mun, but to other planets. During complex flights and missions there were some very big inconveniences with the map view. At the moment the map mode is very inconvenient to use, the screen is too cluttered. When trying to edit a maneuver, you constantly misclick because the cursor sensitivity zones are oddly configured, windows from different points in the orbits open and block the maneuver editor, when you turn the camera some parts of the editor disappear. With a large number of elements, a separate panel would be useful where all the maneuver parameters could be precisely adjusted: the velocity vector, the perigee argument, the number of the turn. It would be possible to find out from there the exact parameters of the orbit before and after Icons of all crafts look exactly the same and change size incorrectly when you change the distance from the camera. As the number of crafts increases, you need to hide some devices not only from the list in the tracking station, but also from the map for convenience. But there is no such option and you are forced to see all your units ever launched. After several launches in the map mode you get an unpleasant jumble. Using the list to select devices is also not convenient because there is no division into types of devices. The presence of filters of vehicles by type, such as manned ship, probe, satellite, lander, rover, etc. would give convenience, obviously visible visual difference and the ability to immediately find the desired craft. But so far in the game there is no possibility to set the type of vehicle to the control module. Also the game has an obscure naming system. After you have docked or undocked the units, they do not retain their original name and you have to remember what is what again. Setting the main unit in a bundle and the ability to rename control modules piece by piece, so that after docking and undocking for the resulting units were automatically assigned to the types and names you specify, would solve the problem. Such a system is available in KSP1. Workspace system in VAB is very incomprehensible, the game nowhere gives instructions on how to use it and it is difficult to understand waiting for an unaware player what its advantage is. Of course the update made a positive impression and I was able to get a lot more emotions when playing than before, but there are still a lot of problems in the form of some unbalanced missions, difficult and insufficient interface especially in map mode, serious bugs. But there's still room for improvement

I wanted to revive this thread adding some additional notes: 1: Wheels are too slow. the S2 and XL3 I can accept if they were kept slow but the rest of the wheels (M1, TR-2L, and TR4) can probably use double of their Drive Limiter value (200%) at least. 2: Climbing slopes needs to be improved. Currently I can climb 20 degree slopes at best. I'd like to request to have that number doubled (40 degrees). There are several things that we have access to in the Parts Manager to help but these max values we can adjust up to is insufficient or just aren't helping. The Drive Limiter (what manages the rover's speed or torque or w/e) is the most helpful parameter to climb with when at full 100% thus needs to probably be doubled. 3: Collision mesh is like the wheels are sitting on a thin plane circle so the rest of the wheels are just clipping in the ground, please make the collision mesh match the shape of the wheels or by minimum give them a cylinder shape? 4: Kerbals are OP when running into wheels... --- Also something I wanted to comment greatly about is the wheel steering orientation has been great from my experience. It amazed me that wherever I placed the wheels on a craft it would know which way it should steer and also when docking with another rover the wheels would once again switch settings and knew which way to steer automatically, something that has greatly improved over the original KSP so good job to whoever did that!

Hi, looking for computer advice. (Specifically building a cheap one for KSP2) If you couldn't tell from some of my mission reports, (<-- Notably that one, scroll down to the rover) I 1. have a moldy potato for a PC, and 2. do not mind playing at a so-so framerate. I have been looking into buying parts for a new PC, (basically just to play KSP2 but I think it's worth it) but I have extremely limited knowledge about computer parts, what they do exactly, and how they all fit together. If I get the parts, I'll figure out how to build it, but I really struggle with choosing the ones that I need. What's some good advice for someone who is looking to Build a computer that just has to run KSP2 at a bare minimum Not spend extravagantly on this Does not care for graphics (they are already as low as possible on KSP1 for me) Still wants a decent playable framerate for moderately-sized craft (200-300 parts count, I'd say) Anything at all would be appreciated, I'd prefer links to something on Amazon or other services where possible, and linking to earlier posts is fine. Thanks!

I tilt it ~3 degrees when between 50-100 m/s depending on TWR then lock to prograde and let it do the gravity turn. If it's turning too fast I keep direction vector to the left of velocity vector circle up to 12 km. After 20 km I start to control the angle or the throttle to keep the AP closer than 1m30s. Never go faster than 1600 m/s at 60 km. I shoot for 100-200 km depending on TWR. Ideal orbit at end of burn: ~150 km X 70 km, SLS style with no separate circularizing. It takes a while because you ride the AP but I time warp.

heavily depends on the rocket for me, especially because I have reentry heating turned up to 200% on my save file. Some pieces are prone to overheating even before the particle effects start so I need to be pretty careful about how I chart my ascent and at what speeds I hit different heights in atmo. For the most part I do my best to be pure verticle until about 5-10km and from there it's heavily dependent on what the craft is and what I'm doing with it.

How Chuck Yeager broke the Sound Barrier - The Complete Mission - KSP RSS/RO - XS-1 flight, October 14th 1947- Hi, I finally finished this project that kept me occupied for some days (weeks? ), a full reproduction of the historic flight of the Bell XS-1, breaking the sound barrier, in RSS/RO : ) 76 years ago, October 14th 1947, Chuck Yeager embarked on his Bell XS-1 "Glamorous Glennis", carried by a B-29 at Muroc airforce base. While having two broken ribs, he, the USAF and NACA marked history with this milestone, crucial in developing technologies and knowledge both for planes and manned space exploration. Embark on the "Glamorous Glennis" with Chuck Yeager, for this historical ride above mach 1, breaking the sound barrier for the first time ! The whole mission was flown from the cockpit, but the video has some external views as well, some archives images and original crew conversations, but from X-1A flight (starting at 5:40, the rest is AI custom generated voices I created to add immersion and make the thing feel more alive). This was definitely a challenging and fun mission to do, as well as learning a lot about the outstanding research and systems from that time ! Yeah I'm just in love with the old days analog era, true pioneers ! Any feedback appreciated (best watched with headphones) Below the video, you'll find a mission report on how it was flown, recorded, many cool and interesting historical details with pictures, ressources, links, and mods used ! : ) Thanks for watching ! First some quick additional details about the video : - As mentioned above, I used the audio archive from the X-1A flight (credit to Retro Space HD), and made the audio match the corresponding parts. After digging and digging, I coudln't find any audio from the 6062 flight, if anyone knows about it, I'd be very interested ! - The chase craft is inspired by a P-80, which I believe was the plane used for this (please confirm if you know : ) ). Turns out it in the end, it looks more like a f3D, but it's ok The cockpit interior of the chase plane isn't historically accurate of course (that's a lazy bit from me). - 5:15 : This is a mistake from me, I'm almost positive the purge fuel exhaust was placed near the engine section, facing rear, not on the belly like here. - 6:14 : From what I red, when released, the mothership/X-1 assembly were slightly pitched down, to avoid stalling on the Bell upon drop. But as I had to record each scene multiple times, to get different angles, I resolved flying it horizontally instead, at the 20 000' drop altitude. This because I needed consistency between the different takes, to have the same background/altitude/angle, and make my life a tad more easy - 7:57 : As mentioned in the video, I'm using VOR (radio) navigation to return to Edwards. I don't know if Chuck did so too, does anybody know about this ? I'd guess he was flying VFR, but he also couldn't see much in this thing (actually much less than here, since this cockpit ingame can have its seat go up/down). Visibility was so poor, how could he fly and even land in that thing ^^ The how(s) (click pictures to enlarge) - After setting up a KSP install where I could get acceptable frames with all those pretty mods (that was almost some sisyphus/impossible task for my config^^), I first built the craft files, then I needed to create a custom IVA for the B-29 cockpit (from Airplane Plus mod), in unity : before after below, I'll maybe release this as a mod at some point, or addional config for Warbirds cockpits mod, by @theonegalen . : ) I worked with reference images, so it's mostly accurate to the real B-29 cockpit. I also tweaked both the X-1 IVA and P-80 chase IVA interiors. (both are from the great Warbird cockpits mod - The P-80 uses the Mk1 inline cockpit WB ASET IVA) - Then I created a custom runway, that I made match the Edwards base one, using Kerbal Konstructs. First I flew the mission in one go, only from the cockpit, with B-29 mothership / Bell XS-1 assembly. After that I recorded all the external shots. - Finally, I needed to have views from the chase plane : that was the tricky (to say the least) bit I used two methods : firt I created another runway next to the main one, spawned the two crafts on each runway, and with the help of Physics Range Extender mod, I made them both take off at the same. Once in the air, I used Atmosphere Autipilot amazing cruise flight controller, to automatically control the B-29, while I was manually flying around with the chase plane. Another solution I used, was simply, in the most kerbal fashion, to strap the P-80 on top of the B-29 assembly, making it a double mothership haha. And yes it could even fly ^^ - The last interesting and funny bob I'd like to mention is the "elevator" that Chuck used to get inside his X-1 cockpit midflight : for that I added a little elevator actuated by robotic parts. I would have the kerbal exit the B-29 cabin by the back. And EVA to the elevator to get in the cabin. Well, I forgot Kerbals on EVA can't walk on parts while under acceleration. This led to Chuck being slapped against a B-29 structural panel, "constrained" and unable to move with a wind of 200 MPH against his back. So change of plans, I redid the thing to be even a contrapti-er (?¿) contraption : I constructed another version of the craft, and put an external command seat on top of a spaghetti assembly of robotic parts that would take the kerbal from the start point, to the elevator, and down with it to the X-1 cabin. (Yeah as you noticed, I carefully hid this horrible thing as much as I could in the video^) The History : I'll add here some interesting facts that hooked my attention ("fascinated me" would be more accurate ) - Two nights before the flight, Yeager broke two ribs when he fell from a horse. He was worried that the injury would remove him from the mission, and hid it from his superiors. On the day of the flight, Yeager was in such pain that he could not seal the X-1's hatch by himself. His pilot friend Jack Ridley, the only one he told about this, rigged up a device, using the end of a broom handle as an extra lever, to allow Yeager to seal the hatch. Just imagine a Nasa test pilot doing the same thing today haha - I find amazing that the mission report by Chuck Yeager himself, only consisted of a single printed typed page. I used this as the good reference for the flying ingame : - Details on the XLR-11 rocket motor and its (very cool) cockpit controls : - For Science ! - The essential Mach meter : - The crucial stabilizer : - Finally, a random collection of bits and bobs - Ressources : - Recommended videos about the X-1 : - Mods used in the video : Thanks for watching and reading ! And happy new year !

Not today but during holidays, i flew a jet (Rafale style) in the western deserts... And my Rover travelled about 80 km (!) across Eve, some parts are allways showing heatbars, well Eve is supposed to have more than 150° celsius at daytime. I have a small reaction wheel underneath the body which helps turning back when the rover flips. The landscape is a challenge to navigate, i am trying to reach the "Explodium Sea" in the west but it is still some 200 km away. The heatbar in the background is from my powered descent pod i used, after 50km distance the label disappeard. And then i lost control due to Eve advancing too far in its orbit, i have to wait a few months to come back to this rover and move on. More valleys ahead...

So, we finally get to play with the Leviathan. It's only got a limited amount of resources, however, and if I waste them, they can't be replaced until I can send a transport at the next Duna window. I designed a base that would be able to produce MaterialKits, Specialised Parts and Machinery. Not in any great amount, admittedly, but it would hopefully produce enough to keep the Leviathan stocked. I can use that to build a larger base with greater output later. I set Tarasque to building two things - a Banshee RSV that could carry Supplies, Fertiliser and Machinery, and a copy of the planned base. The Banshee had an insuffiently capable probe core, so I swapped it out for a better one before having Leviathan carry out construction of the redesigned version. It was at this point that I discovered a problem. Endeavour was not the only spacecraft in the Duna system with limited supplies of LFO. All of my planned landing systems were reliant on it. And while Leviathan is absolutely flush with liquid hydrogen, there's no spare EnrichedUranium for nuclear engines. This bottleneck could seriously put a crimp on the operation. In happier news, Harpy successfully brought its second captured asteroid into orbit over Kerbin. I'm honestly surprised at how well this vessel works. Duna Surveyor arrived at Duna, and carried out its capture burn. The moment I'd been dreading arrived. Would this probe suffer the same fate as Jool Surveyor 2? Would it have the juice? Yes! Yes it did! In fact, its EC count barely moved during transmission, as the giant solar arrays kept it well supplied throughout, and the survey of Duna was completed. A few orbits later, the probe was on its way to Ike. Getting there was a little fraught, as the Patched Conics orbital simulation was lying to me again. But I got it there. Once again, the scanner activated. Once again, it produced results. Now I was able to choose a good landing site for the first base. Good thing too, because Leviathan finished building a Kodiak GCV. I discovered the Resources tab in the Workshop window, allowing me to transfer fuel, supplies, fertiliser, materialkits and electric charge across before launching the kit into a vessel. Seems the effort I went to to fit a Logistics module to Tarasque was redundant, even if it had worked, which it didn't. The GCV found a fairly flat spot in the area I'd chosen, a region of Ike where multiple resources overlapped. Including, to my suprise, Water. Apparetly it's really abundant on Duna's moon. I somehow managed to lose the screen-cap, but the test version of Angel Base landed on Minmus was completed after 23 days of construction. All systems functioned, at extremely low efficiency. This was because of a lack of Machinery. It was at this point that I realised, I had sent very little Machinery along with Leviathan, just the 200 units in the Orbital Assembly Workshop. This... could be a problem. The base is capable of producing Machinery, so theoretically it could bootstrap itself up to full efficiency, but this might well take so long that sending a transport could prove the more effective option in the end anyway. Ah well. Designing a freighter could be interesting.

Thank you very much for a lovely parts mod! My first and favorite so far, kudos! Sorry for this constructive criticism, I just hope to help you make this even greater. Probable bug: The FSP-XS1 doesn't seem to work for me, it doesn't seem to detect stellar exposure and gives no power (the 500 ec battery does work though) The DSP-Hubble clocks in at 350 Kgs! Much heavier than similarily sized panels. May I recommend a 'fair weight' of around 3/4 the Gigantor 's? 120 kgs or less maybe (and why is the in-game SAW1 so light? hmmm) The DSPF-J1 feels off. It's visually gigantic, but doesn't give much power (barely more than M25) and is very lightweight. I would propose to make it go sort of between the Gigantor and SAW1 in energy produced? (somewhere between 12 and 55 ec/s) Balance recommendations: Having a bit of EC along with solar panels is nice, but 500 ec for a 3kg panel feels quite unbalanced compared to the game. Might I suggest keeping those batteries small (20-50 EC for small panels 100-200 for large panels maybe?) just keeping in mind in-game batteries weigh about 1kg for 20 EC.