Technical Ben

Chuck shows his respect of such awesomeness he bows, but accidentally headbuts Scott into orbit. Scott being an expert at orbital manoeuvres, uses the suns shine reflecting on his head to change his trajectory to land at the ISS and tags a stay over night.

Return from the Mun was fine. I did not need the 3x heatshields I'd packed just in case. Interplanetary to test now.

Older versions had slight rotation/angle errors on pointed modules/tanks/parts, such as the command pods. Can you see if it works properly on cylinder tanks/pods? [edit] Testing myself, it appears cylinders are fine. With some predictions/data output from MechJeb in addition to testing, I would say currently a strange "veer left" atmospheric/drag/lift aero model bug seems to have kicked in for any parts that had lift. Hence the cylinders being excluded. :/ ??? However, this appears to be the readout effected only, and the craft/engines all fly/fire straight/true. PS, move to bug forum?

It looks a lot like the moon.

Were they lagging before? If not, then something has changed. Either software or hardware not doing what it should. When did it change, and what PC/Laptop do you have?

I continued to fail to get my main launch vehicle to successfully land. When it is not overheating due to random bugs and real overheating issues, it fails to stay upright. I may just add a ton of SAS to it. But it has succeeded in launching a lot of things during my practice runs. Like this cargo transfer ion craft. Stock but with KAS/KIS cargo to transfer. I'm undecided on if it's best to use it for Mun/Minmus runs, as it has a lot of batteries to cope with eclipses etc, or send it to duna/jool with it's 3.5km/s DV. It has 179 parts as the tanks are removable. But as it performs quite well without the need for drop tanks, I may redesign it with less parts.

As for help on this forum to stop playing... /possibly needs to stop playing.

That is giantnormouse. Wow.

Thanks! I'll use this to plan some super long distance/endurance interplanetary cruisers.

Shuttle inside a shuttle inside a shuttle. (It's been done) Or SSTO inside a STTO inside a STTO. which may not have been done. Not sure about your single rocket stage there though.

Still trying to get my STTO and return shuttle(lookalike only)/launcher supercraft nicknamed "Iron Giant" to land successfully. That's after I've already solved heating, fuel, control and random disassembly. Hopefully this design will now work fully. The "egg" at the bottom is an optional payload/Kerbal crew cabin with fully powered return. The shroud is optional too, as it flies fine with or without it. Final testing with a load of station sections at less than half it's payload capacity, as I've already launched the tugs/interplanetary craft. Just not had a soft enough landing just yet. [edit] Nope. More tweaks needed.

Wait. I'm making my craft look cool WITH heatshields.

I use carefully aligned docking ports (but have to get the right order of placement, place one top, one bottom, but only connect the top to the payload, the bottom them "docks" once launched/active). However heavy payloads often need struts as well.

Easy. It's Maxwell's Daemon.

Does it say "exploded due to heat" or just "collided/exploded"? I had some explosions, but put them down to wobble/joint failure. I'll try again with 1x physics warp.

I assume it's just really good programming (everything modular and sanity checked for error proofing), or for when/if and pods are internal transfer only. Like space station parts where you can go in through a pod, but not out of the sciencebay/lab. Currently the science bay does have a hatch though.

I'm planning and testing in sandbox as always before I attempt career. Why? I don't mess with Kerbals lives. If it's going to fail, I need a quick retry, instead of "loosing" lots of funds and science for a change in mechanisms (as I'm use to lots of old stuff I have to "unlearn"). That and I don't mind doing it all career, but I've done it pre-heat, so it would be the same just with heatshields now. So I plan on making things a bit more interesting. For example I'm using 3 stacked shields, as spares to test with. So I can figure out if 1 would be good enough, or if it's best to take spares.

Thanks. Stupid me was toggling so fast did not see it.

Is there a way to force the chase camera to lock position? Currently it makes docking rather a problem. I've coming in straight, then the camera acts all fancy "I'm going full blown Hollywood action shot" and spins all over the place, and I get disorientate.

Stock ship (Exception Mechjeb module) with KAC and KIS/KAS installed, getting similar results. On docking ports etc. Overheating in timewarp, but find without warp. [edit] Turns out the solar panel was just clipping through the bay by a fraction. So not related.

I'm getting explosions due to timewarp and overheating. Normal parts suddenly overheat if timewarped. (Unless I've missed something with the update. But AFAIK docking nodes don't generate their own heat. )

Now to return! Using the last drop of fuel, running on the RCS to get the rendezvous, Jeb gets the vital data back to the orbiting station. Jeb: That's the last of the data. This must be able to help Kerbin! Bob: This planet appears to have survived a small supernova nearby. Along with the data from the moons of Kaiser, this should be enough to devise a way to protect Kerbin from solar flares and... The rest of the crew look quietly out the window. Bob: What's the problem? Bill: We may not be able to transmit the data after all. Look at this recording we made while you two were on the planet. The video screen shows Kol erupting out a giant burp. Then loads of static. Bill: I've tried all the frequencies, boosting the antenna and everything. I don't think we can get a single out at all. Jeb: What? All this for nothing. Can we not strap this science to an ion craft and get it back that way? Bill: Considered that, using Lars' little shuttle. But will it even survive those solar flares? Hudson: Hey, wait up guys... what's that beeping from the console? Bill: You left something on? That's the service module broadcasting an automatic message. Hudson: But I turned all our service modules off to save power... it's not coming from our craft! Bob rushes to the console. Bob: It's not local, there is nothing in orbit here. What's picking it up? Bill: The antenna, it's still pointed towards Kerbin... but there is just static from them. It's something between us and home. It's a signal coming from Kaiser! One of our old landers? Hudson: No, not ours. Now I recognise it. That's a service repair request! Only way to find out what it is, is to answer. Jeb punches in some commands to the communicator. Jeb: "Please come fix all this broken stuff Bill and Hudson keep throwing together out of scrap. K Thanks. Jeb the Awesome Pilot." ... nothing but silence. Jeb: Well, that's rude, no reply. Bob: Kaiser is about 15 light minutes away. The reply will take some time. The crew wait, over half an hour passes. It's tense, and only Lars seems relatively calm, or asleep as usual. Unknown: zzzzpt... Request accepted. Intercept planned. Burn in 1 day. Arrival 2 years. Plan B active. zzzzzpt... Bob: What? There is someone else out there. Who are they? All of the kerbals, except Lars who was still fast asleep, try to send another communication. "Who are you" Bob asks, "do you have boosters" Jeb requests, "any snacks?" Bill checks. But no response. Even the beeping on the console stopped. Bill: They must be prepping for the transfer burn. We will have to wait. You set the suspended animation pod to 2 years, I'll get the snacks." The station goes quiet, and the Kerbals wait out for their unknown visitors. - - - Updated - - - The station lies dormant for two whole years. Ever so often a great crashing noise and screeching erupts across the station. But that's just Jeb snoring. Eventually the suspended animation system disengages, and the Kerbals step out to see who their visitors may be. They look out the window to find a surprise. Robot Kerbals: zzzzpt. All systems nominal, serviced and refuelled. zzzzpt. Bob: Wow, where did those come from? Jeb: What where they doing around Kaiser? Bill: They look really high tech. Hudson: Hmmm. Could they have been sent after our launch? Bill grabs the comms. Bill: Lead engineer, Bill Kerman, requesting mission statement and systems report. Robot Kerbal: Mission "Plan B" Data Recovery Automated Kerbal Orbital System. Mission, to recover scientific data from Dolas, failure not an option. Craft inventory, 4 Automated Kerbals, one return craft. The kerbals look at each other with big grins. Peering out the window, parked just by their station, a completely fitted and fuelled interstellar return craft.

That would be an interesting bug in the system if it ever happened. Both stages burning... as KSP players, we can attest to that happening. FTS was initiated (if I heard correctly on the stream).

Oxidiser is harder to transport for little gain (low density and bulky tanks). Hydrogen alone is not much use until we build fusion powered devices.

I once saw what I can only describe as a meteor with trail in the early afternoon. Sky was a darker blue as it was approaching evening, the smoke/trail did not linger, and it seems to large to be contrails. Though we do get fighter planes practising a lot around here. I'm not sure if I saw it brighten as a meteor does on burnup, so hard to know if it was a rock or a plane.