Rakaydos

Stock rebalance, FAR, and Mechjeb is what I use right now.

If it's simply a matter of heating the tanks to produce the pressure for the fuel, someone might be able to whip up a space laser in time to save the probe.

One way to think of a rocket... the rocket isnt "Pushing off" anything the way a swimmer might. But when the fuel explodes (and it is exploding, in very controlled fashion), the fuel pushes off the rocket, pushing the rocket away from the fuel. When you shoot a gun, you get a kick of recoil- not because the bullet is "pushing off the air", but because the bullet is pushing off the rifle. the GAU8 is a aircraft mounted weapon so powerful and firing so fast, it's recoil acts like a rocket that can stop the aircraft (A10 warthog) in flight. Edit: related reading: http://what-if.xkcd.com/21/

Even that would be useful for stretching a ship's life support. Rotating the crews through suspended animation so that any one crew is awake for only a portion of the trip.

Part 3- Almost there. Just need a laythe landing and return, a flight home to kerbin, and a landing at KSC.

The bulk of my Jool 5 mission... if I can finish it...

Favorate American Orbiter?

Anything to reduce mass, lifting from Tylo.

I think I have a good run so far, but it's going to be close. I may have to refuel in kerbin orbit just so I can make a powered landing. Hopefully I can avoid that. Meanwhile... Why bring tanks out of Tylo's gravity, that you dont need?

3D printed von newman machine. First part is bluebrints for a 3D printer that can print the components for itself. Second part is a 3D printable resource collecter, that can keep the 3D printer supplied with what it needs. Third part is a 3D printable assembler, capable of assembling all 3 parts from what the 3D printer produces. (combining this with the printer makes the printer VERY complicated, which is why I separate it) Start with 1 of each, and let the population explode.

So close, and yet so far... I accendently sent off my lander with a not-quite full fuel load for it's 3 moon tour. It landed on Val and escaped, landed on bop and escaped, landed on Pol and escaped, got a layth intercept, captured... and ran out of fuel 8 degrees of inclination off from the tanker, in different orbits. :/ Right now I'm trying to fly the tanker to it, but I might not have enough fuel afterward to land on laythe AND get home. Considering reverting to an earlier save to try and get a better orbit.

Interestingly, the most dangerous parts of the venus atmosphere are also the parts most useful to convert into other elements. Fly a station, have it convert solpheric acid into rocket fuel and Co2 into graphine and oxygen, and use the rocketfuel to fly the gasses into space. And keep doing this for thousands of years. Eventually, you'll start to run out od sulpheric acid and Co2, and the gas pressure of the planet would have dropped by those gasses atmospheric %. And venus would be that much closer to colonizable, less of a hellworld.

There is a mountian range in south america that has a peak almost on the equator that's the furthest point on the ground from the center of earth. (sea level is lower around everest, so everest still has a height above sea level advantage) This mountian, being solid rock, is stable where a hollow tower might not. Build a railway to the top, and it would be one of the best launch sites on earth, or the best place to site a space elevator. Unfortunately it's in the middle of a third world nation with no money or interest in a space program.

My single stage Tylo landing is complete. (using the Stock Engine Rebalance mod to buff the Mk55) Next up, Mothership slingshots Val to Laythe. The lander, however, makes a 3 moon detour.

I'm working on my first jool 5 mission, but it's a 2 seat single launch, no refueling. (If I've done my math right) Do I have to plant a flag on Laythe, or is simply getting out and going for a swim enough?

Apparently you missed the image with the turbojet still producing 36kN of thrust at 2/3 throttle, at 38 KM altitude and orbital speed. having a single jet makes it immune to asymetic flameouts.

Jool 5, Part 1- The Outbound Flight Project.

Why walk outside, when breathing air is your baloon's lifting gas? Let the machines convert that sulpheric acid into jet fuel, to get you back into orbit.

#1 is available in cockpit view.

Testing update: My Omni lander was able to do a powered landing on laythe's ocean, but only if I start retroburning in the upper atmosphere- my succesful test never had any reentry heating, implying little in the way of aerobreak deltaV savings- I probably wonnt be able to make it off this rock. I can try again without the docking tug attached (more delta V, more TWR, CoG drops below CoL, more of a pain in the ass to dock and refuel) or return to the VAB and add parachutes to the docking tug (where th mass wont effect the Tylo mission) It's balanced upright because all the remaiing fuel is in talks below the waterline- I played fuel flow games on the way down) Edit: I was wrong, I WAS capable of making orbit on my remaining fuel, though it's a bit tight. Hurrah for FAR, I guess. So I will be able to attempt the mission (though the flight plan calls for laythe as the LAST stop on my next flight.

As far as I've seen in "theoretically this works!" related publishing, every theoretically possible form of (backward) time travel is limited to the times after the invention of the time machine- in layman's terms, you need a "recever" to catch the time traveler and return it to foreward time- without a bucket to catch you in, you'll keep going back in time forever, unable to turn around and return to "Normal" time. Astronomical phenomimna is the best bet in that regard, because the universe wou;d have "invented" them eons ago.

After a hiatus, I may be attempting this challange again, single lander, Jeb and Bob on each moon and back to kerbin, with no ions, jet engines, or parachutes. Obvously with that, Laythe is my biggest stumbling block- the distance I need to send the tylo lander to test it for laythe entry and launch puts a crimp in my test schedual. Also I may rework my superheavy lifter for a few extra % of fuel efficency in the upper level staging.

As you speed up, cut a chord inside the Moon's orbit. If you have the delta V, you can "shortcut" the orbit and use the natural "fling outward" effect to bring you back out to the lagrange point. (where you have to slow down again)

I seem to see a revival of the JP Aerospace ATO idea posed here. The addition of beamed microwave power is an interesting idea for the JP Aerospace Orbital Ariship- Just as the ship has a significant amount of surface area for solar cells, so too does it have a lot of area that it can put Microwave Recepters on. With an orbital solar array that can track the airship as it lifts, you can use very powerful electric propultion on the craft.

If you include systems that still need engineering probems resoved, I'm going to continue to shill for the ATO variation of the Airlaunch approach. Some of the key optimizations seem to be oscillation-based active drag reduction, to maintain a turbulent free boundary layer that alows larger hull sizes without the drag usually associated with large objects moving at hypersonic speeds. Another one seems to be using the bow shock as a plasma source for MHD thrusters, alowing the large (but low mass) craft to accelerate as long as the power holds out. And thin-layer solar cells on the upper surface of the large body being used as a primary power source, both for the drag reduction and the engines as a lightweight power plant, supplimented by batteries at night. If the efficencies of each of these can be brought to a certian high threshold, ATO goes instantly from unworkable nonsence to a launch system comparable in price to a space elevater "launch", with signficantly cheaper infrastructure. The concept either works or it doesnt, based on whether it can break even, and it it works, it's absurdly good.