cantab

Current only Jeb, Bob, Bill, and Lemuki are in Kerbin orbit, in two independently-capable three-Kerbal orbiters current still on their upper stage. They have food for around a decade, though those snacks will be getting stale after a while, and untried recycling units for water and oxygen. There are KAS pipes and struts, but no winches. There's also a Tylo ship and its refueller in orbit. Because Jeb designed it there's no pod, only external seats, so it can't support long operations in space. It should be able to land on Kerbin and return to orbit two or three times. Heatshielding is a problem. The Tylo lander has no shielding, and the orbiters shield only the pod not the life-support parts. Bill, Bob, and Lemuki will take one of the orbiters down, and command its service module to reorbit. Jeb will attempt to land the Tylo lander on the same continent, using a large deorbit burn to reduce entry speed. I need to check if I can bring a bare service module down safely; if so this will be taken, if not the second full orbiter must come down so it can land on its parachute. Whichever one is not taken will stay in orbit should the need arise to return to space. This will then provide fire, food, and water for the four Kerbals to begin rebuilding civilization.

Memories? 10char

The main use of the ISS is as a lab in zero-g. I'm not sure commercial stations will be looking to fill that role. The Chinese stations probably will, but will the US and Europe really like China being the only country with that capability?

Ah, the good old sunk cost fallacy.

Live bodies - ie people?

http://www.kerbalx.com/crafts/212 DasValdez built this ship for novice players to fly to the Mun. But you can do better. Take it to Moho. And yes, I believe this is possible. The ship has just over 8000 m/s of delta-V, and people have got to Moho with 7500. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/74375-Lowest-Delta-v-to-Moho if you want evidence and help. (Incidentally I took it to Eeloo myself. Less delta-V needed, but sooooo much timewarping.)

I'm kind of the other way after my experience with my station, and indeed the very Tylo ship I built that refueller for. High part counts have a much worse impact on docking than on launching, and big ships tend to not be agile like small ones, so if I insist on flying something that heavily lags my PC I'm going to do my darnedest to launch it in one piece.

I don't think any of the Moon or Mars stuff will happen I'm afraid. It's been talked about for decades but I just don't see the will to fund it. And much as happened to the Shuttle, I doubt we'll see anything beyond the Block I SLS, with the solid boosters. The SLS could be useful for constructing ISS2, allowing fewer launches and larger interior spaces. I can see a combination of SLS and Falcon Heavy launches working very well for that. Then again, the pessimistic side of me sees there being no ISS2. It would also be great for launching a big space telescope, thanks to the wide payload fairing, but the timing is wrong for that. JWST is already designed to go up on the Ariane 5, and it'll be a decade at least before there's another large space telescope. I guess there might be some interest in a big spy satellite.

Correct. However the game does not give you part weights, it gives you part masses. So you need to know the value of g in the applicable thrust and mass units, which amounts to knowing what the thrust and mass units are.

The big question: Which is? As in, are you regarding anything less than rock-steady 60 fps unplayable, or are you considering 12 fps not a problem?Also, roughly what's the Physics Time Ratio? Open the debug menu with Alt/RShift+F12 and click debug stats, and you can read it off the top left corner.

I've heard of E classes as light as 800 tons. The heaviest seem to be around 3000. The task is possible, of course. I doubt though that it will be profitable. You can save delta-V by gravity assists, but achieving the required precision will be tough with such a vast craft. I would try and meet the asteroid in solar orbit, then ping-pong it off Kerbin and Eve to push the apoapsis out to Jool. Then Tylo can help match Bop's inclination and raise the Jool periapsis, which will reduce the needed capture burn at Bop. I strongly recommend PreciseNode and plenty of patience. The "trick" to the gravity assists, incidentally, is that you want to be crossing the assisting body's orbit. Just touching it like you would for a Hohmann transfer doesn't work very well. So your first Kerbin flyby should put your periapsis nicely inside Eve's orbit.

That's a really old video and thus a really old bug. In the description Danny himself says it should have been fixed in 0.16.

Well, other games are available. But as far as KSP goes: Mod-only install. Delete the stock parts. Candidate mods for that: KW and/or NovaPunch, obviously. Vertical Propulsion Emporium. Bargain Rockets. *Maybe* Near Future Technologies. Not sure it's got many options for launchers. NecroBones' mods - Modular Rocket Systems, Joolian Discovery, etc. Or another idea. You stopped using MJ previously, but how about a MechJeb only save. No manual control inputs allowed.

The simple and efficient way is to aerocapture into an orbit with apoapsis level with Ike's orbit. Alterbaron's calculator or the Trajectories mod will help. If you don't want to aerocapture, you can do a propulsive capture into a similar orbit (simplest), a direct Ike encounter and capture (a tad more complicated but a bit more fuel-efficient), or an Ike gravity assist into Duna orbit (even more fuel-efficient but tricky to set up). 350 m/s should suffice for the powered captures, so it's not that bad. Whatever you opt for the key to getting, avoiding, or adjusting an Ike encounter is to make a mid-course correction on your way from Kerbin to Duna, and use a mixture of pro/retrograde and radial burning. This allows you to change your arrival time at Duna while keeping the same Duna periapsis, and thus you can get there when Ike is where you want it - either on your course or safely out of your way.

Seconded, that's what I'm doing. In the mean time I'm trying out mods and mucking about in sandbox.

PS: On launch TWR, I often go very low, even when I was playing with stock aero. 1.1-1.2 wasn't uncommon and occasionally even lower. I like to maximise payload from a given diameter stack, which then allows me to simply group said stacks together to scale the rocket for larger payloads. I also just like the look of the rocket slowly lumbering off the pad. Not had a problem flying such rockets.

The exhaust of the NERVA is actually cooler than of a chemical rocket, and thus I believe at lower pressure and more affected by ambient air. I think it was something like 400 s at 1 atm. (The greater exhaust velocity is because the exhaust is pure hydrogen, which being a light molecule moves faster at a given temperature.)

Landing? No. But I did send this little guy on a multi-flyby mission past every planet plus the Mun and Ike. Thirteen gravity assists over 35 Earth years. Its near-twin missed out on the Mun and Eeloo, but instead impacted the Sun. (Ignore delta-V figure, I used a docking port instead of a decoupler so it's miscalculated, the true delta-V is just over 8000 m/s.)

I strongly recommend trying our FAR (Ferram Aerospace Research). Overhauls the aerodynamics and makes launches much more engaging. Bad design or bad flight can cause loss of control in FAR. If you have aerodynamic failures on then your craft can even be ripped apart by aerodynamic stresses; if you want things more forgiving turn failures off. A side-effect of FAR is it does reduce the delta-V required to orbit, meaning launchers have bigger payload fractions - a smaller rocket launches the same thing. Fairings are recommended, though not essential, with FAR. Procedural Fairings are easy to use and very powerful. If you'd rather have the constraint of fixed-size fairings, try KW Rocketry or 0 Point. Real Solar System changes the solar system. Various "configs" are available. Full RSS is just that, our own solar system. With the stock parts you get very small payload fractions, further mods are generally recommended. 6.4x is the Kerbol system made larger, and gives payload fractions like real-life rockets when using the stock parts; personally I dislike the way it flattens the terrain. KIDS (Kerbal ISP Difficulty Scaler) lets you make the engines more or less efficient. If you're using FAR and want to stick with the standard Kerbol system, you can use KIDS to make you need larger rockets again.

How much delta-V you have: Kerbal Engineer Redux. Alternatively VOID or MechJeb, or do it yourself with a scientific calculator. How much delta-V you need: /r/KerbalAcademy's delta-v charts. Alternatively KSP Wiki's simple delta-V map, Alexmoon's Transfer Window Planner website, or the Transfer Planner mod in game.

My new record is the refueller for my Tylo ship. Pretty much as big as the VAB's interior. I hadn't planned ahead or used any VAB expansion mods, so it was a job fitting everything in. Stock and Procedural Fairings parts, around a thousand of them, I never noted down launchpad mass. Flew it in FAR with my 0.85x engine Isp nerf. I over-built it and I wouldn't be surprised if it could make orbit in stock. It had a few issues, like the boosters blowing up a couple of 14400 tanks from the core, but no big deal. Fun fact: There are no control parts on the launcher. No reaction wheels, no fins, no RCS. The only control for the ascent is the thrust vectoring. In orbit, having shed part of the second stage to save weight. 4000 tonnes, 300 parts, and not enough Vernors. 70% of the payload fuel sufficed to top off the refuellee's tanks. My old record was 10000 tons on the pad and 1500 payload, but more parts: https://flic.kr/p/oGAHXJ

Dead bodies?

Select the right probe core if applicable. When I have a flexible payload I often put a probe on the launcher itself, it helps the control. Set appropriate throttle. Usually full, the most obvious exception being rockets that use SRBs and liquid engines to launch. EVA any unwanted Kerbals that have snuck in. Walk the little blighters to a hopefully safe spot. Space ignites engines and releases launch clamps if applicable. We have liftoff.

Seeds? Or pollen?

Birds? 10char