cantab

This is an awesome mod. I love the way you've integrated other planet packs so I can have a truly epic Kerbol system, if my counting is right I've a total of 80 celestials including the Sun.

I'll throw out some ideas: A radial mount probe-core that's an old mobile phone with some wires bodged on, and maybe done to look like it's duct taped to the side of the rocket. Water-rocket boosters. Low Isp and thrust but partly make up for it by being very light when empty. Solar panels that have obviously been taken from calculators. A reading glasses and cardboard tube telescope, acts as a science instrument, attach nodes so it can appear to stick out of a command pod.

A planet-sized object beyond Neptune remains a possibility, but with sky surveys being done all the time the net is closing in. As discussed the orbits of the bodies we know give us reason to look for something, at least.

Of course the problem is that right now the child has the knowledge and aptitude to bypass the filters, but not the maturity to understand the stuff they're viewing. That's why there are parental control programs in the first place.As for the effectiveness of any filtering. If you have physical access you own the PC and can do what you like with the software on it, and that is how it should be. Consequently any "parental controls" on the computer itself are useless against a child with the inclination to bypass them. Well implemented filtering on the network by contrast cannot be bypassed by a device on the network. However it's wide open to removing the device from the network altogether, and that's often pretty easy. Even if that's not an issue, unless you choose a highly-restrictive and often impractical "default block" policy there are going to be holes to get through the filtering. And then there's that important "well implemented" rider in the first place. I'm not sure what, if anything, is the best solution. Possibly old fashioned supervision in the real-world, but that's less suitable when it comes to highly portable devices.

If you want to fly slowly enough that landing and takeoff is safe, on Duna you'll need lots of lift or a vertical or short takeoff system. You can test it on Kerbin anyway, take your design up to an altitude where the air pressure is similar to Duna's surface, and if possible lighten it (eg by short-fuelling) to simulate Duna's lesser gravity. Don't forget to consider how you will get it on to Duna in the first place.

You're probably thinking of Outer Planets Mod, which has a Vall copy called Plock. RSS has an imagination of Pluto, of course that will probably be updated now we have real images.

Mizar and Alcor in Ursa Major are famous, yeah. An optical double, they aren't related stars. http://binocularsky.com/newsletter/BinoSkyNL.pdf has general advice and includes some suggestions for doubles.

I played RSS and RO for the first time. Not sure I entirely like it, but after a few attempts I pulled off my first launch to orbit, a Voyager probe. Now I just need to figure out the burn to get to Jupiter, that was giving me trouble.

An "instant jump" feature would require quite a bit of work under-the-hood. Things like SOI changes, atmospheric entries, and impacts all need to be checked for in advance and handled. And then how you handle them? If you stop for each one and prompt the player then you lose the instantness of the jump. If you just go straight through then you will get players complaining that they weren't warned, or even saying "my ship vanished" because they never even knew it was an unexpected Mun encounter that flung it off-course or whatever.

7/10. Pretty nice actually.

One of the recent KSP updates enlarged it.

This is just feasibility study stuff. As you can see it got off the ground, and was even vaguely controllable.

Last I checked you could spam the science experiments clicking transmit each time and the transmissions would automatically queue up. Meaning the only time you truly need the faster antennae is if you're doing an impactor.

L8. Or, if you turn it upside down, 87.

"Big Dumb Objects" in general could add interest, but I really think that would be something for a KSP 2.

Regarding the warp drive and other mods with similar issues, would it be feasible for FAR to recognise part config options that instruct it to not voxelize certain meshes? Then part developers would add those options where needed to make their parts behave correctly in FAR. Turn on the "Ignore Max Temperature" cheat?

For PC Stellarium is another good program. It focuses on giving a realistic view of the sky which it does well for naked-eye and binocular equivalent views. As far as printed charts go I'm a fan of Taki's Star Atlas. His regular one is six sheets per hemisphere and I find it excellent for use with binoculars and small scopes.

Even though that and the Kerbin Cup were developed by the game's developers, they're still regarded as mods.

I am reporting an incompatibility between FAR and Roverdude's Alcubierre Warp Drive. With both mods, and no others, installed manually the game regards parts within the warp drive's warp bubble as "stowed" even when the warp drive is not activated. Other (stock) engines will not activate and solar panels and radiators will not deploy if they are within the size of the warp bubble. This occurs on the ground on Kerbin or in space, and applies whether the warp drive is inactive or active. The warp drive itself is not regarded as stowed and will operate when above its failsafe altitude. Installation details: OS: Ubuntu 14.04. KSP version: 1.0.4, Linux 64-bit. Alcubierre Warp Drive version: 0.2.1 FAR version: v0.15.3.1 "Garabedian" This is similar symptoms to what eliminate1337 described in late May, http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/100798-1-0-2-Alcubierre-Warp-Drive-%28Stand-alone%29-v0-2-1-2015-05-15?p=1958397&viewfull=1#post1958397 . I have not attempted to confirm his docking workaround.

I am reporting an incompatibility between the Alcubierre Warp Drive and ferram4's Ferram Aerospace Research. With both mods, and no others, installed manually the game regards parts within the warp drive's warp bubble as "stowed" even when the warp drive is not activated. Other (stock) engines will not activate and solar panels and radiators will not deploy if they are within the size of the warp bubble. This occurs on the ground on Kerbin or in space, and applies whether the warp drive is inactive or active. The warp drive itself is not regarded as stowed and will operate when above its failsafe altitude. Installation details: OS: Ubuntu 14.04. KSP version: 1.0.4, Linux 64-bit. Alcubierre Warp Drive version: 0.2.1 FAR version: v0.15.3.1 "Garabedian" This is similar symptoms to what eliminate1337 described in late May, http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/100798-1-0-2-Alcubierre-Warp-Drive-%28Stand-alone%29-v0-2-1-2015-05-15?p=1958397&viewfull=1#post1958397 . I have not attempted to confirm his docking workaround.

No Kerbal Engineer, Precise Node, etc?

Great observing! M33 is a face-on spiral and as a result has a low "surface brightness", that means it's especially badly affected by light pollution. I've looked for it a few times but never seen it. The same to an extent for M63. M57 like most planetary nebulae has a very small apparent size. Through binoculars it will look like a star. For a planetary nebula that actually looks like a nebula at low magnifications try M27.

Who are or is Sideways? This is something I'd like to see changed. IMHO the game should display resource amounts in kg and be explicit about that, to make things more transparent to the player. As it is we have these weird arbitrary units with the mass per unit never stated in-game, creating a needless extra barrier to understanding how things work. (Massless resources like Ec excepted of course). I wonder if designs akin to Project Daedalus would be considered in scope? Though perhaps that kind of stuff would be better suited to a KSP 2.

What exactly is going wrong in the failed attempts?

So this is a guess, but perhaps the asteroid is failing to count as "new" in the "new station" requirement, even though it's counting as "newly discovered". I wonder if this might occur if it did something like spawn before taking the contract but had tracking initiated afterwards. If I'm right then selecting a different asteroid that you're sure spawned and had tracking started after the contract was taken and, perhaps, after the station launch would fix it. Unless clawing to an "old" asteroid ends up permanently marking the station as "old".