cantab

I would have treated the asteroids simply as another type of ship. Possibly with distinct icons for an one just directed by, one put into a stable orbit, and one landed. That would let me for example make a ribbon to say I put an asteroid in orbit around Duna. Or maybe it could be a completely separate device, perhaps placed just below the ship one. That might in turn allow some space or designs to indicate the size classes.

I haven't used many mods so far. Briefly tried then dropped: Editor Extensions. It didn't do what I wanted; discussion has lead me to conclude I'll need to find or make a ModuleManager config for it. I might bring it back just to be able to change vertical snapping though, restarting the game to turn that on and off is annoying. TAC Fuel Balancer. Again it didn't quite do what I want, which is to type in the amount of fuel I want to have in a tank, but I got the job done anyway by using the minimum transfer speed. However I'm not using my space station enough to make it a permanent feature, I'll just add it when I need it. Things I have but could drop, most droppable first: Kerbal Alarm Clock. It helps, but I could manage my missions myself if need be. VOID, just about. It's a huge help for Kerbin system science, but I can get by with the biome maps and a load of trial and error. Engineer Redux, again just about. Manual number-crunching the delta-V is doable. I have had performance hits before though they seem fixed, nonetheless I'll often use just the build engineer and go without the flight engineer. Precise Node. I would really hate not having this, I've come to far prefer it over the stock node editing handles. But I did play for a long time without it, making Mun and Minmus landings and a Duna flyby, so I guess I can manage. Things I couldn't do without: None! At least no mods. Alexmoon's launch window planner, on the other hand, I don't know how to make an interplanetary transfer without.

*Takes that as a challenge*

If that's a recent development then you may be correct, I haven't been keeping in touch with earth sciences as much as I used to.As for uranium more generally, the BGS has a pamphlet on it that seems pretty comprehensive, https://www.bgs.ac.uk/downloads/start.cfm?id=1409 though I only skimmed it myself.

If you hit F3 the flight log will tell you the peak g-forces.

Kraken drives and other glitch drives are, incidentally, allowed. After all Hollywood never let real physics get in the way of a movie. And yes, for some reason said reference came to mind when I was drafting the OP.

You can deploy them by right-clicking during flight. I don't know if that "arms" them when there currently isn't the minimum pressure for semi-deployment. Staging certainly will do that. The parachute icon in the stage changes colour depending on state. White: Inactive, will do nothing until you make it. Blue: Armed. Will semi-deploy on reaching high enough pressure, set by the tweakable. Yellow: Semi-deployed. Will fully deploy on reaching low enough altitude, set by the tweakable. Green: Fully-deployed. Will cut on hitting the ground. Red: Cut. Will not redeploy unless repacked by a Kerbal. Note that parachutes will not work if the craft is not active or within 2.5 km of the active craft.

In my experience the biggest performance boosts were from reducing the Render Quality Level, and during re-entry the Aerodynamic FX Quality. The other options gave only minor improvements at best. Bear in mind a Render Quality Level of Fastest or Fast results in no shadows, which can make landing tricky without using IVA view or a mod for surface (AKA radar) altitude. Even then, there's only so much that can be done. With larger ships KSP becomes physics-bound and thus depends on the single-core performance of your CPU.

I am, yes. Sorry if I don't reply to PMs. Just waiting to be told it's my turn basically. I believe Baberbot's before me in the queue. And considering where I might try landing a Kethane base.

The other day the bug where a Kerbal gets in ragdoll (uncontrollable) state while in a rover seat hacked me off, though that's because the mission was already becoming an infuriating series of screw-ups. This bug is only made more annoying by meeting with the invisible bumps bug Tidus mentioned.

One of the tests of my Von Braun launcher would probably count. The launch went awry, I don't recall how, and I decided to just screw making orbit and burn straight up. It was only a dummy payload after all. Then I thought on a whim I'd see if I could get the interstage into orbit from the high apoapsis. Said interstage is the big RGU, big ASAS, some RCS, and some science gear. Sure enough, it made a nice elliptical orbit, which I then used for some gravity measurements. Partly helped by .23.5's bunch of massless parts, the thing has about 800 m/s of delta-V, so it's a really nice "extra" for the rocket.

Got annoyed by the editor. Hoping a mod can sort things out, Editor Extensions didn't though.

If you wanted to make a body unreachable, could you put it in a small orbit completely inside the Sun? It would show on the map, but you'd not be able to land anything there. Or would it mess things up say with the SOI?

I'm a bit late too, but I feel a compelling urge to take a Kerbal and ram him into the top of that rocket >:-)

That this is a valid concern:

I don't believe they are. Uranium ores do tend to be found in old continental rocks, but even those were formed some time after the Earth formed and solidified (and got clonked by Theia), and there are some in much younger rocks.Indeed, while it's relatively rare in the crust by virtue of being relatively rare in the universe, Uranium's not one of the siderophile elements that preferentially goes into the iron core, but readily binds with oxygen into minerals. IIRC it's more abundant in the crust than in the deep Earth, and most of the radioactive heating within the Earth happens around the core-mantle boundary, while the heat flow from the core is mainly driven by latent heat released when from the iron freezing. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldschmidt_classification for a fuller discussion)

My own comparatively modest entry, demonstrating it's possible with stock parts. I used bombs made from a load of stack separators to deflect a 136-ton C class. Add in the "Houston, we have a problem" bonus - a delta-V shortage, and later a near-squashing of Wehrble while placing the bombs - for a score of 60 points. It may raise once I land the ship which I haven't done yet. Ship placing the first bomb: Orbit before: Detonation: Orbit after: Full photo album

Good morning Mr Kerman. Before he left on vacation, Wernher von Kerman passed to us a secret message. He informed us that following the successful collaboration with NASA, his next project would be to seek a tie-in with Hollywood. He charged me with assisting him with some of the pilot filming. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to deflect an asteroid Hollywood Style. That means none of the usual grab onto it and gently burn a nuclear engine. To pass muster on the silver screen the asteroid must be blasted by either a bomb or a missile, placed or fired by Kerbal hands. As always, should you or any of your crewmembers be killed, the F9 key will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This Challenge will self-destruct in approximately 5 megaseconds. Scoring: Base: You must select an asteroid spawned by the game's normal random spawning, and it must be on a collision course with Kerbin before you launch your deflection mission. Your deflection is considered complete once the asteroid is no longer on a trajectory shown as hitting Kerbin or having a periapsis in its atmosphere (below 70,000 m). And yes, you can use more than one bomb or missile, or a mixture of the two. 0 points if you deflect the asteroid with something that can't reasonably be called a bomb or a missile, or your bomb is detonated or missile launched without a Kerballed ship within 2.5 km. 10 points for meeting all basic requirements and attempting an A class. 20 for a B class, 50 for a C, 100 for a D, and 500 for an E. Most mods and part edits are allowed. Part clipping is allowed. Autopilots are banned on the missiles (but allowed on the main ship). Hyperedit, blatantly overpowered mods or part edits, infinite anything in the debug menu, and persistence file reading or editing for advantage (such as finding the asteroid's mass or changing its orbit) are banned. Please include before and after orbit screenshots of the asteroid in your entry. Mission Bonuses: All bonuses are a percentage of your original base score. So deflecting a D class with two 50% bonuses gets you 200 points, not 225. Each bonus can only be obtained once. Asteroid-shattering kaboom: Actually destroy, rather than deflect, the asteroid. +50% Don't start a panic: Conceal the purpose of the mission in some way. Just putting a fairing round the payload doesn't count. +10% Heroic sacrifice: Kill or strand a Kerbal. It must be necessary for the mission or look like an accident, no just randomly bailing out. Deaths on re-entry or landing do not count. +10% Houston, we have a problem: Overcome some difficulty or failure, whether unexpected or contrived. +20% Little brother: Deflect the main asteroid, but a smaller companion hits. The companion's orbit may be altered with a conventional asteroid tug but only before launching the deflection mission. +50% Monumental damage: Cause either the main or the companion asteroid to hit within 2.5 km or so of KSC, the island runway, any anomaly, or any landed craft. +100% New Kerbin Order: Put the main asteroid on a collision course in the first place. This may be done with a conventional asteroid tug, but a reminder that it must be on its collision course before launching the deflection mission. +50% Ramming speed: Use your main ship as a missile. +10% Sequel potential: After the deflection, the asteroid is put back on a collision course by a gravity assist. +10% Ticker tape parade: Land back at KSC. +10% Use what you have: Deflect the asteroid with a ship not designed for it, other than adding the bombs or missiles. +20% Presentation Bonuses: Given for showing off your mission in a fancy way. Only one presentation bonus will be awarded. Akademy Award: A video. +100% Keisner Award: A comic. Not just a screenshot album, there needs to be dialogue. +50% Kerman Koober Prize: A narrative or script. +50% Fission Mailed Penalty: Halve your total score, after the bonuses, if you didn't actually deflect your asteroid! You must however have made a good faith effort, no sticking a single stack separator on an E class and claiming 250 points. Leaderboard: Cantab: 60 points. Class C, bomb deflection. ScriptKitt3h: 14 points. Class B, missile deflection, failure.

And another glitch today, on re-entry Kerbin's ground failed to load visually, it still looked like a blown-up version of what you see from orbit and I started seeing the blue orb below it. Then the parachutes failed to fully deploy (despite VOID correctly reporting the surface altitude) and the ground though invisible was still solid. kaboom.

Aren't they by definition equal in current KSP, since all bodies have zero axial tilt? Or am I misinterpreting what you're saying?

If you don't want it quite so automagic, VOID shows the current biome and situation in a head-up display.

It's not important that the risk be real, or even particularly reasonable to expect. What matters is how the potential customers percieve it. The comparison isn't refurbished Falcon vs Space Shuttle, it's refurb Falcon vs brand-new Falcon (if SpaceX will offer it and I expect they will if it's demanded), refurb Falcon vs Ariane, Atlas, Delta, Proton, etc. I admit anyone choosing the Falcon is already prepared to accept some uncertainty on the risk front, compared to other launchers that have made many more launches.

Not the same thing at all. The Shuttle was always meant to be reusable and they were never going to make a new Shuttle just for one launch.With Falcon, customers will have a clear choice: Insist on a brand-new rocket for their payload and accept the possible higher cost, or let SpaceX use a reused rocket and negotiate a lower price. Commercial buyers will estimate what they feel is the extra risk of failure with a reused rocket and weigh the losses of such a failure against the cost savings. Their estimates may or may not be in line with SpaceX's.The insurers will have a say too. The military, on the other hand, will probably just take the brand-new rocket, cost be damned. NASA's payloads are probably more expensive and less replaceable themselves than typical commercial satellites so they're also likely to play it safe.

I suspect the poor tankage for the stock tanks is a big part of a problem. The S-1C had a wet:dry mass ratio of over 17:1, and I believe that figure includes the engines. KSP tanks are 9:1 for the 1.25 and 2.5m tanks by themselves, and 8.2:1 for the ARM tanks

IIRC anti-aliasing is disabled under Linux, due to some bugs. It may be possible to force it, either for KSP or for all programs, using your system's configuration. I believe the NVIDIA X Server Settings tool will let you do that; not sure about other graphics cards or adapters.