cantab

Now excuse me while I go install Windows/Linux dual boots on 20 PCs from ten manufacturers. OSX isn't iOS (yet...), but it's still encumbered by Apple's business strategy of tying the software to the hardware.(And yes I know Hackintoshes are a thing. But Apple not only don't support them, they seek to legally prohibit them.)

For longer separations, you can click craft and choose Switch To in the map view, so no need to go back to the Space Centre.

SSTLAB - Single Stage to Laythe and Back - has been done. So this should certainly be possible.

You've not got it switched with your upper stage rocket have you?

Learnt that "control from here", which affects navball indications and SAS reference point, works on an empty command pod. And that moving the pilot from one pod to another leaves the old pod in control. I found this out when my Mun encounter burn instead deorbited my spacecraft. Learnt that I need more delta-v than the dV map says. The orbiter will only just make it back from my current Mun mission. Also, in some "simulation" testing (ie I try stuff then revert), learnt that explosions show up on the map view and look nuts.

Equally, someone else with a lot of power may see the chance to gain a boatload of money. And it's a whole lot easier to invest in something than to try and stop everyone else from investing in it.

Pretty much. The Isp is right for a LH fuelled solid-core reactor. Fuels are a bit fudged in KSP anyway, most engines have Isp consistent with Kerosene/LOX but ones like the 909 seem to have too high an Isp for that, and ISTR the density being too high even for kerosene.

Uninspiring and unglamorous, maybe. Asteroids are never going to have the cachet of Mars or the Moon. But what else in spaceflight offers us the chance to prevent a natural disaster? The asteroid redirect mission may be being "sold", but it's one worth humanity buying.

I'm not sure if they can attach in the right orientation. If you put them long-edge-on to your rocket you can control pitch and yaw but not roll. (Then again, roll is quite easily handled by reaction wheels). And that assumes the controls "work" and the game doesn't think they're pointing in a different direction and thus mess things up. In any case, we already have two winglets and two canards that mount the right way to a rocket and work just fine.

Explosive decoupling. Besides that, they're reasonably competitive with non-asparagused liquid boosters. The lower empty mass partly makes up for the lower Isp. Both solid boosters give higher thrust than any 1.25m liquid engine, making them effective first stages on smaller rockets - just stick a decoupler and a booster below each main engine for some easy extra dV. They're also one part doing what would otherwise need several, which may be a consideration for large rockets. Really, asparagusing beats just about anything else, since we have simple-to-use massless fuel lines. But if you're opting not to use it, then solid boosters can be useful.

Not if you make them hit faster.

Seats are for wussies. Ladders are for fish. Real Kermen stand on top of the rocket like a BadS. Your challenge is simple. Stand a Kerbal (preferably Jeb, but it doesn't have to be) on top of a rocket and get him as far as you can. Rules: One Kerbal must stand on top of a large diameter part. Nothing bigger, nothing smaller. Nothing may fix him to the rocket, and nothing may be fixed to him. (So no KAS parachutes!) He may not enter any command module at any point after launch. Railings no higher than a cubic octagonal strut are allowed in the "Normal" category. They must be round the edge of the part, no using them to hold your Kerbal in a little space in the middle. No railings in the "BadS" category. No restrictions on how you get your Kerbal in place. Gravhacking and using the jetpack is fine, just remember to turn Gravhack off before launch! No autopilots, piloting aids, or in-flight information tools other than what's in stock. Other mods are fine. No using the Kerbal's EVA pack for significant manouvres. Rendezvousing with the rocket after drifting away is fine, making deliberate orbit changes or landing on moons is not. No points system, I'll just rank the entries in each category by impressiveness. BadS: --- Normal: Cantab - Reached space. My entry: I reached space, but failed to get Jeb back in place for the orbit burn. Landing was not survived. Image set

I found the KER Flight Engineer seemed to slow things down, though it's always hard to be sure. Performance is marginal on my system anyway.

Maybe try ditching the rovemate and just fix the wheels to the side of the lander can, possibly with the aid of girders/struts/i-beams. The original design looks top-heavy.

Laythe has an oxygen atmosphere, meaning you can use aerobraking and parachutes to land and jet engines to take off. Almost certainly you can land and return to low orbit from Laythe for less fuel than Vall.

Makes me think of this Manley video I watched earlier, http://youtu.be/38IYZUizX3E?t=10m25s

How low is your parking orbit? 70-100 km is good, and it makes life easier if it's pretty much circular. If you're in an orbit around Kerbin that's too high, it's going to take more fuel to escape. Of course, if you just want to fly around and are fed up of running out of gas, hit Alt-F12 and enable infinite fuel.

Hydrazine, cold gas, whatever, it's going to be more complex, expensive, and heavy than a solid ullage motor. As Derek mentioned, some rocket engines have restricted control because they only NEED restricted control. If the task does call for an engine that can be widely throttled and restarted, such an engine will be made. For example, the Lunar Module's Descent Propulsion System was gimballed and could throttle from 10-60% thrust, while the Ascent Propulsion System was nongimballed and non-throttlable.

When you're lifting off, you need above 1:1 TWR on the body in question, and ideally more like 1.5:1 or greater otherwise you waste fuel just holding your rocket up against gravity. In space, it doesn't matter much. Really low TWR means you need more delta-v, but that'll rarely be important for anything besides an ion drive and they have tons of dV anyway. EDIT: Regarding running out of fuel, a few things may be the case. If it's in the launch, you may be going too slowly and thus fighting gravity for longer, too quickly and thus fighting too much drag, or using a poor flight profile and thus wasting energy. If it's in orbital manouvres, bear in mind delta-V maps give the best reasonable case. For planetary transfers this is in suitable transfer windows when the planets line up right, at other times you'll need much more dV. (Conversely, judicious use of gravity assists can get you places with much less dV).

This is the Ryanair of Kerbin.

Some of us are planning on crashing the asteroid on Kerbin. The rest of us are planning on landing the asteroid on Kerbin.

Confirmed this behaviour in the Kerbin-Mun system with a ship in a circular orbit 9500 km altitude. There's no indication of the SOI transition before it happens, even at 1x. Even setting the Mun as the target just shows a closest approach several hours ahead of the actual encounter.

You're almost certainly not going to use solid boosters in orbit anyway, because you can't control them. Meanwhile when you're still reaching orbit, and thus just want power without fine control, you've got to consider TWR and thus the thrust your engines give. In your example above you've compared an arrangement offering 200 kN with one offering 830. I think the following are more of an apples-to-apples comparison: Solid boosters: Liquid boosters (LV-T30s), no asparagus: The liquid boosters do still come out ahead, but by a smaller margin. The weight of the engines is offsetting the superior Isp somewhat. The real advantage of liquid boosters is being able to asparagus them. I forgot to screenshot, but the asparagus one had two booster stacks, each with more fuel tanks to make the same launch weight, and brought the delta-v to around 2100 as reported by KER. Not having the main engine be dead weight while the boosters are firing meant only two not three LV-T30s were needed, in turn meaning more fuel could be carried.

Landed on the Mun. I tried to flip it over with the capsule torque, and by having Bob push it, push it with the jetpack, fall from 150m onto the legs, and so on, and only accomplished getting stuck. I had to edit my save to get him out of that. So I decided to just try and lift off anyway. Pointed the nose downslope, pitched up as best I could, and hit the gas. And it worked! Got off the ground, dropped the heavy girder landing legs (because not unlocked proper ones yet), and made orbit Rendezvousing with the orbiter I ran out of fuel and had to do a 1.5 km spacewalk, but got there without a hitch and headed back to Kerbin.

Yeah being captured by a planet or moon without a burn, aerobrake, or gravity assist from a moon if it's a planet would I think be related to the bug that orbits shift when timewarping across SOIs.