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Poynting

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Posts posted by Poynting

    Mk1 Pod Reentry

    in KSP1 Gameplay Questions and Tutorials

    Posted

    I noticed in 1.0.0 that rolling the capsule can alter the angle of attack of the heat shield. I believe this is entirely on purpose as it is used by the soyuz in real life. It is caused by intentionally offsetting the centre of mass from the physical centre of the capsule. It allows you to generate more or less lift just by rotating the capsule. Looked like the centre of mass was pushed towards the capsule door.

    I think this is a really cool feature but I can see why it would seem odd if you haven't thought about capsule generating lift. (lift allows you to shallow out your re-entry profile reducing heating)

    1.0.2 Ascension curve and flight trouble..

    in KSP1 Gameplay Questions and Tutorials

    Posted

    You want to keep your centre of mass high not low. Then try to keep your centre of drag near your centre of mass. Having the centre of drag behind the centre of mass (with respect to velocity direction) will ensure the rocket is stable regardless of its attitude but if it is too far back you won't be able to steer at all. It is possible to maintain forward flight even in an unstable configuration so long as you keep the too aligned or have the attitude authority to overcome the drag torque. But if you turn too hard the drag applies a larger and larger torque (positive re-enforcement) and the rocket flips. Its a balance between the manuverability you want and the positive feedback.

    Let's talk about parachutes, drag and heat..

    in KSP1 Discussion

    Posted

    I too have been playing it sensible and not using parachutes until subsonic speeds after re-entry. They really should be ripped off/destroyed/over heated with all the other re-entry effects but they aren't low down in the atmosphere as they slow you down so quickly. Has anyone tried opening one before re-entry?

    Guess i was wrong about heat can damage everything.

    in KSP1 Discussion

    Posted

    Yeah its the high 0.95 emissvity value they have given that part. Its a shame they haven't got the heating just right yet. The reason parts heat up is because of the radiated heat from the shocked air. So a high emissivity value should lead to them heating up (exploding) faster!

    Simpler code to put in a magic heat dissapator and call it emissivity though. My CPU thanks them :)

    Official 1.0 MEGA Hype Thread!

    in KSP1 Discussion

    Posted

    Maxmaps tweeted- Crossing t's and dotting lower case j's, this has to be a clue!

    j is tenth in the alphabet and he tweeted that an hour ago and ...... my head is full of hype... where did my thought go?

    Is Jeb spelt with lower case j's anywhere in the game? Or is this actually a clue?

    Official 1.0 MEGA Hype Thread!

    in KSP1 Discussion

    Posted

    lol, I just got a call from work. Everyone except for the manager and director in my department called in sick today. My boss left me a message on my phone asking me to come in (it's my day off, I'm not going in). Me and the other 5 guys in the department are all big Kerbal players. I doubt they are sick... they are here... somewhere in the cars of they hype train. I should call them all and see if they want to have a launch party; I hear that booze, rocketry and general unprofessionalism go together pretty good.

    Amazing :)

    "KSP Widow"

    in KSP1 Discussion

    Posted

    Play KSP with her.

    I have done in the past :) but I think she needs some time with it to herself to get the bug.

    - - - Updated - - -

    So, you never tried the "Six Words" at your job? :D

    https://xkcd.com/1244/

    You'd be surprised at how many times I've had to stop myself! If solar weather was included in KSP it would be a lot harder!

    "KSP Widow"

    in KSP1 Discussion

    Posted

    I'm sure this doesn't apply to you as long as your girlfriend is taking it in good humor, but game compulsion is a thing. People have lost their jobs and family over the likes of World of Warcraft so it's important to stay balanced.

    As for me? My wife is a gamer too. We have a standing agreement to give each other a day or two of space when a new release hits if the other isn't into that particular game. :D The day will go something like this:

    Her: "Honey, Arkham City released today!"

    Me: "Oh. Do I have no wife today?"

    Her: "Yup! Pretty much!"

    Thankfully she does mean it in good humour but yes balance is extremely important and game compulsion is very scary. Setting out when you are going to play and having a finish time stop me going over the top.

    I work in the space industry, so I guess i'm lucky the two don't conflict as much as they could!

    "KSP Widow"

    in KSP1 Discussion

    Posted

    "KSP Widow" is the new nickname my girlfriend has settled on for herself. I feel bad for her but I can't... resist... the... HYPE!! Thankfully she is a bit of a geek too so she understands. But still shes going to deserve a big treat.

    How is everyone else managing to sooth their other half? Or just with the other things in life?

    Career?

    in KSP1 Discussion

    Posted

    For the full 1.0 release -> has to be a new career. Vanilla too, just to get the feel. But I guess it will be a completion race, how fast can I unlock everything. Then start over with the updated mods. On an extra note I'm really looking forward to the performance improvements.

    New Resource Easter Egg

    in KSP1 Discussion

    Posted

    Something large that is hard to find and relates to the ISRU aspect... A large untracked comet on a highly eliptical orbit around kerbol (possibly highly inclined with a long orbital period), could even be easter egg shaped. It could be packed with resources (wouldn't break game balancing if it was highly inclined/eliptical) I imagine it would have a large tail (eeloo gysers) so it wouldn't be impossible to find but you would still have to spend a long time in a kerbol orbit to happen across it. I imagine that would take two months to find... Challenge?

    FAR: Rockets flip out during launch

    in KSP1 Technical Support (PC, modded installs)

    Posted

    I personally just use plenty of fins to make my rockets stable. I take the hit on drag to ensure I can take the optimal flight path to orbit. However one trick I recomend for stable rockets is reducing the sensitivity of the fins to around 20% (right click in the VAB and set to positive 20). This reduces the oscillations caused by SAS when you transition through mach 1 or when you have an excess of control authority.

    Infinite Universe = Impossible

    in Science & Spaceflight

    Posted

    The universe as far as we can tell is infinite in spacial dimensions. It had a start at the big bang. Measurements from standard brightnest supernovae in other galaxies can be used to measure the rate at which the universe is expanding. The measured rate of expansion determines that it is expanding faster that the gravitation of everything in the universe can slow it down (Its travelling faster than escape velocity, like a rocket leaving kerbin's SOI in KSP). Therefore there is no end to the universe it will last forever (or if you understand general relitivity it is not a bound universe, it has a saddle geometry). However saying it will last forever, you have to realise as the universe expands everything flys apart untill the universe pretty much appears empty (You couldn't reach the next object closest to you in your lifetime, even traveling at the speed of light). So in any useful sense it does end for us.

    Now for the expanding problem...

    First you have to comprehend what we mean by infinity and expansion. Its not easy by any means as this kind of expansion is like nothing you have witnessed.

    First of all lets imagine the universe is an infinite sheet of rubber (2D for simplicity). And by infinite we really mean literally goes on forever.

    Now imagien stretching a small part of this rubber sheet, pulling it inwards towards you. Its possible right? the rubber compresses near you and stretches further out? Gradually that stretching reduces to basically nothing far out from you. Now imagine the opposite, pushing out and stretching the rubber near you. It compresses further out, until eventually really far out you can't tell that the rubber is compressed at all?

    But we've measured (with those supernovae) that the entire universe is expanding. It isn't getting compressed somewhere else. So how does that work? where is the compressed bit? Well thats the trick, with an infinite universe you don't need a compressed bit. You just need the furest parts of the universe from you to constantly move outwards. If the universe were finite that would mean the outer edge moves into a new area. But the universe is infinite so all you need is for the infinitely far away section of the universe to be traveling away from you infinitely quickly. It never moves into a new area beacause we aren't taking about a point in space when we say infintely far away from us. We are just talking about the fact that as we get furthar away from our observation point, the point we moved to is flying away from us faster and faster. Even exceedign the speed of light at a large enough distance (This doesn't break relativity, nothing is actually travelling faster than the speed of light locally, it just appears that way from our point of view).

    In essance you can do want you want with an infinite space because its very definition means you don't have to worry about the edge of it doing anything naughty, because it doesn't have one!

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