KSP Weekly: The Space Twins Study

[SQUAD]

Welcome to KSP Weekly everyone. The preliminary findings of NASA’s groundbreaking Twins Study have recently been published. The study saw researchers monitor astronaut Scott Kelly, who is no stranger to KSP, on the International Space Station (ISS) from March 2016 to March 2017, in comparison to his twin brother Mark, a retired astronaut, who remained on Earth as a control subject.

Since Mark and Scott have identical DNA, this provided a unique opportunity to see the effects of microgravity, cosmic radiation, changing sleep cycles and isolation on a human. Scott spent a year on the ISS as part of the Year in Space mission, together with Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko. Alongside the Twins Study, this mission was aimed to help prepare astronauts for a three-year return trip to Mars.

The study was narrowed down to 10 major areas scientists knew were affected by prolonged stays in space, for example, the human immune system; changes in the proteins that control the production of body fluids, such as blood, lymph and cerebrospinal fluid; a breakdown of the twins’ entire genome and the changes that Scott’s genome may have undergone, compared to Mark’s; changes in cognition; the different types of bacteria that inhabit the twins’ digestive systems; among others.

In terms of genome changes, it was discovered that 93 percent of Scott’s genes returned to normal after he landed. However, the 7 percent of genes that did not suggest that there are some longer-term changes from prolonged spaceflight linked to DNA repair, bone formation, etc.

Susan Bailey from Colorado State University also found that Scott’s telomeres - the ends of each DNA strand - increased in length while he was in space. But within 48 hours of landing they shortened, and later returned to the length they were before his mission. On the other hand, Mark’s telomeres remained the same.

The cause may be the rigorous exercise Scott had to go through on the station to maintain bone and muscle mass. Another possibility, backed up by research from Scott Smith of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, is that Scott’s healthier diet on the ISS may have played a part. This may also have contributed to a drop in body mass while in space.

A positive result from Emmanuel Mignot of Stanford University found that being in space did not affect Scott’s immune system. He gave both Scott and Mark a flu vaccine before, during, and after Scott’s mission, and found both had an increased immune cell response.

Later this year, the team will release their joint paper detailing the findings, alongside a series of smaller papers in related areas. In the meantime, you can read a detailed rundown of the research here.

[Development news start here]

This morning (local time), we released the very first patch for KSP Enhanced Edition, which is bound to solve over 90 different issues. With this first patch we hope to solve many of the problems that our players have been experiencing. However, we will continue to compile feedback, bug reports, and support Enhanced Edition. Click here to read the detailed release notes.

On Wednesday we also published a deep look into the Mission Builder, the core feature of the upcoming Making History Expansion. A simple but comprehensive tutorial to help prepare Kerbonauts for the launch of the expansion and to give them an idea of the sort of things they will be able to create using this tool. As requested we’ve included high-res images to accompany the article. Click here to check it out!

If you’ve been following us, by now you’ll have the sense that the Expansion is already in an advanced stage of its development, but with that comes the arduous task of testing every component, and inevitably finding pesky bugs. Of course we haven’t lost a second to start fixing them day by day, so that we can minimize the issues as much as we can for the release.

On top of that, the team worked on a brand new node to test the distance from a vessel or Kerbal to another object. The settings of this node will allow creators to measure the distance of a Vessel/Kerbal in relation to a Launch Site, a Go To and/or Fly through node, another Vessel and/or Kerbal, a Celestial Body, a specific point, an asteroid, and/or even a Flag. The distance can be measured by a straight line or the circumference of the globe. In practical terms this node could be used in conjunction with Scoring and Funds nodes to set a scoring system up.

Coupled with that, the team also implemented a few updates to the expansion overall Scoring System. This included the implementation of the End Mission Scoring Tab, where players will see the summary of the completion of a mission, their score, awards, and more. The team also finished setting up the Awards Tab of the Mission Briefing dialog where creators will be able to set the amount of points that a player will need in order to receive Gold, Silver or a Bronze award as well as the trophies that the mission will include and their settings. There’ll be trophies for the number of KM a players has travelled, the number of vessels built, the accuracy of a KSC landing, the number of survivors after a mission, among others, all to be defined by the creator.

The team also worked on implementing a variant switcher for the brand new Structural Tubes, which come in 5 different diameters and will come in handy when building tubular structures without the hazard of using explosive fuel tanks. As an added bonus, each structural tube will have 5 different length variants, which you’ll be choose with the switcher.

In the art department, we are working on finishing with the new pages of the KSPedia, and we also wanted to take this opportunity to show you the new Structural Panels. When making the expansion, we wanted to add a number of flexible, multi-use parts for players to use in their creations. These include adding twelve new structural parts as part of the expansion, each with three texture variants. These include squares, equilateral triangles, and right triangles in 0.625m, 1.25m, 1.875m, and 2.5m sizes. We’ve also supplied these with ample attachment nodes which should help players make more precise constructions (although surface attach is also supported). Here’s a pic showing the various elements as well as an example of the three texture flavors (white, stock-gray, and gold foil:

[High-res Image] 

That’s it for this week. Be sure to join us on our official forums, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Stay tuned for more exciting and upcoming news and development updates!

Happy launchings!

 

 

*Information Source:

• Gushanas, T. (2018, January 31). NASA Twins Study Confirms Preliminary Findings. Retrieved, from https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-twins-study-confirms-preliminary-findings
• Gushanas, T. (2018, January 31). NASA Twins Study Investigators to Release Integrated Paper in 2018. Retrieved from https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-twins-study-investigators-to-release-integrated-paper-in-2018
• Dunbar, B. (2013, June 07). The Joint US–Russian One-Year Mission: Establishing International Partnerships and Innovative Collaboration. Retrieved from https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/one_year_mission.html
• O`Callaghan, J. (2018, February 20). The Initial Findings Of NASA’s Twins Study Have Been Confirmed. Retrieved from http://www.iflscience.com/space/the-initial-findings-of-nasas-twins-study-have-been-confirmed/

[linuxgurugamer]

Can't wait

[CoreI]

11 minutes ago, SQUAD said:

The team also worked on implementing a variant switcher for the brand new Structural Tubes, which come in 5 different diameters and will come in handy when building tubular structures without the hazard of using explosive fuel tanks. As an added bonus, each structural tube will have 5 different length variants, which you’ll be choose with the switcher.

Does this mean that there will only be one part for all 25 (5 lengths x 5 widths) tubes?

Nice news overall! Those structural panels look pretty good. 

[RoverDude]

5 minutes ago, CoreI said:

Does this mean that there will only be one part for all 25 (5 lengths x 5 widths) tubes?

Nice news overall! Those structural panels look pretty good. 

Five parts - one per diameter, the length is varied by mesh switching.

[StrandedonEarth]

Ooooh, now we can build geodesic Death Stars 

[Space Station 4 Crash]

The time warp bug is an absolute game stopper and it doesn't look like it was addressed. 

As career mode progresses on ps4 you eventually cannot time warp and then save afterwards. The game completely locks out saving, loading, return to space centre or tracking station, in some cases you cannot recover vehicle when landed on Kerbin. This has been a major complaint, how could it not be addressed? All of these fixes are great but you cannot finish career with this bug. 

Has this been addressed in this patch? Are you even aware of it?

Ridiculous.

[TimothyC]

25 minutes ago, RoverDude said:

Five parts - one per diameter, the length is varied by mesh switching.

So stock mesh switching will include nodes being hidden/made available?

[luizopiloto]

I'll make a better ver. of this:


PS. A "heat tile" like texture should be nice...

[snkiz]

27 minutes ago, RoverDude said:

Five parts - one per diameter, the length is varied by mesh switching.

So builtin B9 like support?

Just now, luizopiloto said:

I'll make a better ver. of this:


PS. A "heat tile" like texture should be nice...

That's a simple texture swap and config edit for mass/thermals. Now that the right kind meshes to make heat tiles are in the game, should be easy.

[klgraham1013]

51 minutes ago, RoverDude said:

Five parts - one per diameter, the length is varied by mesh switching.

One wonders if this could be done with other such tubular objects.

I've always been a sucker for standardized GUI features.

Edited February 23, 2018 by klgraham1013

[KerrMü]

This is huuuuge! You could build a lot of stuff using those new panels. A LOT of stuff.  Counting the days guys. 

Edited February 23, 2018 by KerrMü

[ThatGuyWithALongUsername]

I freaked out when I saw those triangles! I don't think I've been this excited about a triangle for at least 15 minutes!

 

Seriously, this is revolutionary for construction techniques! Can we see those empty fuselages next week? Odd that these are in the expansion and not 1.4. Perhaps we could at least get the square ones as replacements for the M-1x1 and M2x2 structural panels.

 

I was already planning on buying this expansion, but these fancy space nachos are just too much!

[SR1200 THUNDER]

That list of bug fixes isn't very impressive considering how many of them are for spelling and grammar. Poor spelling and/or grammar are NOT bugs.

I don't see the bug where the controls stop functioning following an EVA making further gameplay impossible was addressed. Was it? That is a gamebreaker and far more annoying than the lack of proper English usage.

The most common bug complained about: the inability to save, recover, or play the game after a time warp is also conspicuous by its absence on that list. Was it addressed?

A little bit of clarity would go a long way here, Squad. If the game is going to be an unplayable mess for the forseeable future, just admit it and let us console peasants go on our merry way. But acting like fixing every missing comma in the game is a separate bug fix just shows a level of contempt for the consumer usually reserved for big budget AAA game developers and publishers.

(lol, thanks to the member that pointed out my spelling error! I fixed the bug in my post now. All in good fun, I couldn't resist)

Edited February 24, 2018 by SR1200 THUNDER
Spelling error

[SpenSpaceCorp]

58 minutes ago, SR1200 THUNDER said:

spelling ang grammar.

*and

(Given the context I just could not resist) XD

Edited February 24, 2018 by SpenSpaceCorp

[SpacedCowboy]

Well that's all fine and dandy but, what about 1.4?

[SR1200 THUNDER]

So, after my earlier post, I deleted all my old saves, and started a new game from scratch.

I put the flea under my capsule, lit it, splashed down, and could NOT recover my vessel, return to KSC, bring up the pause menu, or anything else.

I will just accept that result as Squad's response to my earlier question concerning whether or not that bug has been addressed. Keep working Squad, I want to love this game, but it clearly wasn't ready for release yet.

[panzer1b]

1 hour ago, SpacedCowboy said:

Well that's all fine and dandy but, what about 1.4?

What annoys me the most about this is that what id consider essential stock game parts are being put behind a paywall.  now im still gonna get the expansion, since i feel that the game is worth way more then what i bought it for, but what sucks is that i cannot make a ship or craft using the new panels that would be loadable by someone else that doesnt have the expansion.  Please dont split the community be making panels expansion only, or if you absolutely must, at least give the 1.4 update the square ones just so that we can at least have some options and not have to keep vessels to ourselves when we wanna share ships.

 

And im refering to ONLY the panels when i say they need to be in 1.4, as cool as structural tubes are, i dont consider that a "essential" feature of the base game that you need to make good ships.  panels on the other hand, actually let you do something that needs to be stock (like make ship that arent bloody circular, and since they are structural, i could use them as armor for warships, obviously not happening since i need to be able to share these with others that may not have the parts)...

Edited February 24, 2018 by panzer1b

[Caelib]

1 hour ago, panzer1b said:

What annoys me the most about this is that what id consider essential stock game parts are being put behind a paywall.  now im still gonna get the expansion, since i feel that the game is worth way more then what i bought it for, but what sucks is that i cannot make a ship or craft using the new panels that would be loadable by someone else that doesnt have the expansion.  Please dont split the community be making panels expansion only, or if you absolutely must, at least give the 1.4 update the square ones just so that we can at least have some options and not have to keep vessels to ourselves when we wanna share ships.

 

And im refering to ONLY the panels when i say they need to be in 1.4, as cool as structural tubes are, i dont consider that a "essential" feature of the base game that you need to make good ships.  panels on the other hand, actually let you do something that needs to be stock (like make ship that arent bloody circular, and since they are structural, i could use them as armor for warships, obviously not happening since i need to be able to share these with others that may not have the parts)...

When you consider the value of this game and its replay-ability compared to most other games, the cost of the expansion is a small price to pay for the added benefit.  I paid $20 for this game more than 4 years ago and I have put over 2000 hours into it - that is a cost of ONE CENT per HOUR!  If somebody is too cheap to buy the expansion, they don't deserve to use those parts.

Edited February 24, 2018 by Caelib

[Raptor9]

With those gold foil panels and the gold foil radial LFO tanks, making Apollo LEM-style descent modules is going to be so much better looking. Thanks @SQUAD. 

EDIT: or assembling probes at different sizes and putting our own internal components...the possibilities

Edited February 24, 2018 by Raptor9

[Cassel]

Quote

Since Mark and Scott have identical DNA

they are clones? twins doesn't have identical DNA only very similar

[Vanamonde]

49 minutes ago, Cassel said:

they are clones? twins doesn't have identical DNA only very similar

Identical twins do have the same DNA because they started off as one cell that split. Fraternal twins start as two cells which just happen to develop at the same time, and so are no closer DNA-wise than any other siblings. 

[Poodmund]

Are those panel textures early proof of concept or final pass?

[Azimech]

YES!

Finally ... new shapes ... You've got no idea how happy you guys have made me!
 

[Jimmidii]

Don't get me wrong, the new structural parts look like they will be awesomely useful, but are we still limited to having a rigid attachment to one parent node?

Still possible to build up structures with them if it is still just the one attached node of course, but I'd love to see nodes able to be treated in a similar way to docking ports, with more than one attached and one acting as the real node for the purpose of the craft.

[DunaManiac]

14 hours ago, Space Station 4 Crash said:

The time warp bug is an absolute game stopper and it doesn't look like it was addressed. 

As career mode progresses on ps4 you eventually cannot time warp and then save afterwards. The game completely locks out saving, loading, return to space centre or tracking station, in some cases you cannot recover vehicle when landed on Kerbin. This has been a major complaint, how could it not be addressed? All of these fixes are great but you cannot finish career with this bug. 

Has this been addressed in this patch? Are you even aware of it?

Ridiculous.

patience, patience, squad hasn't even answered your question! Have some faith for once.

I just feel like... people should have some faith for once. Before KSP enhanced edition, many people thought that there would never be an update. And we got one. Then a few people said that that this is the final version even though it's buggy, and we got a patch. People who don't have faith always seem to be proven wrong... am I right?