*Aqua*

Hi, I learned in school that magnetic field can induce an electric current in a coil. Can't a satellite which travels through Earth's magnetic field as a coil and use the induced current? Or isn't it strong enough?

SAS: "No electricity? Ok, time to be lazy. "

The family line of the Japanese Emperors is said to be more than 2000 years old. Although Japan changed in size and government form several times, the emperor's family was always at the top.

One bomb isn't enough. You'll need millions or billions of them. (source) There were about 2000 nuclear bomb tests on Earth up till now. Did they change our atmosphere in a significant way? No. It seems most people don't realize the scale of things. Mars have 1/10th the mass, about half the diameter and about 1/4th the surface area of Earth. It's smaller but it it still a huge rock!

I think a genetically modified/engineered plant, bacterium or something like that is best. Its only purpose is to chemically bind the sulfur acid and CO2 so it can fall down as 'snow'. This will reduce the thickness of the atmosphere, cooling it down and lessen the pressure. Still an open question is, where to put all the sulfur and how to bring enough water to the planet.

Ah, now I understand! Sorry, sometimes it's difficult for me to understand English sentences. Hm... the resulting aircraft will be very difficult to land. Jet engines don't react fast to the throttle control and speeds over 10 m/s will cause a crash. I messed up several times on each landing. But it's a good idea!

Right-click on the docking port. There should be an option to undock. Right-click on other parts, too. Some hide special actions in there.

I tried that. VTOL will only be stable when the tanks are full or almost full. After burning half of it, the CoM will be shifted to much. A stable VTOL starting/landing will then be impossible. It won't be a VTOL anymore which contradict the rules. Usually you use control surfaces or way more parts to react on the CoM shift, but with only 14 parts it's impossible. I guess a part limit of 30 will be enough. I'll wait for PoliticallyCorrectLobster's opinion on this matter. He maybe change the rules.

You are right. You can switch SAS off when having symmetric thrust. I never fell below 66% because of that. Asymmetric thrust will require active SAS all the time, so I assume electricity will be an issue.

Thanks for the fast reply. I will look into that. Prof Kerbstein is really funny. ^^

Both planes I used have 14 parts each. The rules says 'Use under 15 parts.', so 14 parts is the max you can have for the Conservationist award. Sure, you can have them. Jet engines and intakes are bound to action group 1, rocket engines are bound to action group 2. Start the flight by activating the jet engine by right-click -> activate. http://netload.in/dateiYrXapEGS0r/SPH.zip.htm (6 kB) (stupid hoster but didn't found a better one without user registration) Maybe you can switch one ant rocket for another part. The thrust is so low the SAS should be able to handle it, but electricity can be can be a concern. @Darren9 Nice! How many parts did you use? I count 2 solar panels, 2 hinges, 3 'gears', and what else? Also what mods gives you glider wings?

But then I lose the Conservationist award. I can't swap 3 parts for the gears. Right, VTOL gives 250 points and Conservationist only 50 points. But I can't get bot awards at the same time. Unsatisfying.

Does a VTOL need to be able to start horizontally? The name stands for 'vertical takeoff and land'. >> Create a (functional) VTOL that can also take off and land horizontally. Damn! Adjusted score Success: Take off and fly at least 1 km. +100 Points Lander: Land your plane on the KSC runway. +50 Points Islander: Fly to the Insular Runway. +70 Points Easter Bunny: Fly and land at an easter egg. 2x +150 Points (pyramids & KSC 2) Conservationist: Use under 15 parts. +50 Points SSTO: Create a single-stage spaceplane. +150 Points ------------------------- = 720 points I don't think VTOLs with stock parts are possible. Ok, time to use use B9. Edit: I just looked at the B9 jet engines. I can't use them, they are much more efficient (like 10 times!) than the stock ones. It's cheating. VTOL isn't possible... Me neither.

3rd try, 2nd plane. I had a great idea to modify the plane to a VTOL. But just have a look at the pictures. Score Success: Take off and fly at least 1 km. +100 Points Lander: Land your plane on the KSC runway. +50 Points Islander: Fly to the Insular Runway. +70 Points Easter Bunny: Fly and land at an easter egg. 2x +150 Points (pyramids & KSC 2) Conservationist: Use under 15 parts. +50 Points SSTO: Create a single-stage spaceplane. +150 Points VTOL: Create a (functional) VTOL that can also take off and land horizontally.(No Parachutes!) +250 Points ------------------------- = 970 points Edit: Incorrect, see http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/75028-Fly-a-plane-using-only-capsule-torque-and-thrust-vectoring%21?p=1077822&viewfull=1#post1077822 I guess that's the max you can achieve with this plane. There was just a drop left in the tank.

Thanks! I'm not sure if I have enough fuel for Magellan. The jet engine causes a vortex in the fuel tank. High Flier will be difficult, too. It needs the right pitch to reach 70 km and I didn't figure it out yet. I also tried VTOL but failed miserably. I just can't position the upwards engine right without destroying the balance between CoM, CoT and CoL for forward flight. I think it is impossible without mods. (Had some promising success with VTOL engines from B9.) My current plane maybe have enough fuel to reach a second easter egg for another 150 points. Flight plan would be Island -> KSC2 -> Pyramids -> KSC then. I maybe try that.

Ok, second try! And this time it worked out. It's the same plane from before. I removed the unnecessary fuel line and flew more carefully. 14 parts: 1x Intake, 1x Cockpit, 1x LF Tank, 1x small LFO Tank, 4x wings, 3x gears, 1x jet engine, 2x ant radial engines Score Success: Take off and fly at least 1 km. +100 Points Lander: Land your plane on the KSC runway. +50 Points Islander: Fly to the Insular Runway. +70 Points Easter Bunny: Fly and land at an easter egg. +150 Points (pyramids) Conservationist: Use under 15 parts. +50 Points SSTO: Create a single-stage spaceplane. +150 Points ------------------------------- = 570 points

Name: Eierlegende Wollmilchsau (engl. jack of all trades device) 14 parts: 1x Intake, 1x Cockpit, 1x LF Tank, 1x small LFO Tank, 4x wings, 3x gears, 1x jet engine, 2x ant radial engines (+1 fuel line I forgot to remove, but it wasn't connected properly and had no use anyway) Score Success: Take off and fly at least 1 km. +100 Points Islander: Fly to the Insular Runway. +70 Points - do these points count in my case? Conservationist: Use under 15 parts. +50 Points SSTO: Create a single-stage spaceplane. +150 Points --------------------- = 300 or 370 points Crashed at the end... do I get a consolation prize? Somehow the plane behaved weird at the approach. Did the CoM shift to much? Also it didn't stop on the runway, although the brakes were on. I don't know why. Maybe it bumped up a little and glided <1 meter above it.

And I love the sound of the folding/unfolding of the wrap. ^^

Travemünde? Srsly? So if they shoot up a manned rocket and it had an emergency, the pilots would had to bail out over GDR or PRL. Expect weeks and months before the authorities allow them to go back to Western Germany. But only after intensive interrogations of the pilots. And if they aren't dead sentenced for doing 'infiltration' and 'being foreign agents'. Yes, east authorities were that paranoid back then. Btw the GDR would have been happy if West Germany launched rockets from Travemünde. They could have studied the rockets to get to know all the technology. Cheap R&D! It also wouldn't work as propaganda. East German civilians weren't allowed to get near the border without special permission. There was a several kilometers thick dead zone before the border with mines, patrols and all that stuff. West Germany had better things to do. East and West Germany knew they would be the battleground of a third world war. They did a lot to not let it happen. Although both sides took preparations for war. East Germany had enough ammunitions on store to fuel a attack by several soviet armies(!) pushing to as far as to the Atlantic ocean. (Yeah, enough ammo for >20.000 tanks, millions of soldiers and thousands of planes!) West Germany prepared for an US-led nuclear strike on its own(!) territory to halt a soviet attack if it went more than 50 km beyond the borders. They all were stupid back then.

Hello! I suggest some 'minor' changes for the flight GUI: Buttons: - Change the RCS and SAS lights to clickable buttons. - Let us set thrust by left-clicking on the thrust bar (is that the right word for it?). - Why does the thrust bar look like you can go over 100%? Either remove that part or let us go above 100%. Overpowering the engine should produce vastly more heat which limits the duration to 1? minute. This needs tweaking of all engines as some are really cool and other are already in the red zone at 100% (ie. the LV-N). UI and nav ball: - Let us change the position of the UI elements. The nav ball often is in the way when landing but needs to stay open. I would also like to be able to move the altimeter down near the nav ball. In crucial situations I have to look up and down all the time. That's not ergonomic and drives me crazy. - I would like to see sharper indicators on the nav ball. I would like to have them semi-transparent, too. I have the nav ball scaled up to the second largest setting and the indicators are fuzzy. If there are several indicators overlapping each other I have problems orienting myself. (worst case: prograde, target, planned maneuver and 'cursor' [don't know the name of that 'wing thing' in the center]) - There is an altitude change meter. I want additional ones for the to horizontal axes. It will greatly help for landing. - There is a bug in the stage view. It sometimes doesn't group parts right when using symmetry, one isn't in the group. The bug is around for ages - it's time to fix it. - The stage view can get very long on complex rockets. Is there a better way to visualize this? I have no idea how to improve it but I don't like the current one. What do you think?

What's the name of your erm... 'work'? 'Chilli for lunch'? ^^

Omg my god! HOME RUN!

Everything which is marked in blue: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Planned_features

I tend to look deeply at details. Please bear with me. Your ideas have some points which you'll have to think about a bit more: - There is no way to convert reputation into science. Is this intended? - To hire Kerbals you need reputation. Hiring Kerbals increases reputation. Increasing the staff size to gain reputation? This doesn't make sense to me. - More than 2-3 smart Kerbals aren't needed for career play through (1 as pilot and for early experiments; 2 guys for science lab). I can pick not-so-smart Kerbals and train them to Einsteins and activate timewarp. Why should I care about reputation to attract smart ones? This eliminates one of the two reasons for gaining reputation (money is the other one). - The scientist will be a competitor to rockets. Both produce science by spending money. Flying rockets is more fun the just giving a Kerbal a science job. So is there a good reason to hire a Scientist? - To me it seems money is the only important 'resource'. You can do whatever you want if you have enough of it. Spend some and Kerbals will get smart and happy. Spend some more and you'll get all the reputation you need to 'fix' you income modicator. So why should I care all the other stuff?

The terraforming of Mars isn't something one nation can handle itself. It needs the corporation of at least all the western states for several thousand years. I guess there won't be an America by then. If empires in the past count:Holy Roman Empire (of German Nation) - the so called "First Reich"; founded in 962, dissolution in 1806. Persia aka Iran is much older, 2.500 years maybe? The ancient Egypt lasted for at least 4.000 years and its successor is still around. Together it makes a lifetime of 6.000 years. This topic was already discussed some weeks ago: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/70211-Terraforming-Mars?p=1013567#post1013567