Technical Ben

So, I managed to hit the burn window! The idea is to swing off Don to get to Polo. I may need to improve the structural load bearing ability of the craft though (TL: DR, Wobble!). I also reconfigured the sections for transport again. This should allow me to burn the main engine sections if needed, though I doubt I'll need that kind of TWR again, as most burns will be short and gentle. Lars will just have to come with the crew now. I hope there is space in the ship for him!

"Detached" camera mode/option?

The main crew is Jeb, Bill, Bob and Hudson (2 engineers for emergencies and to allow 2 sets of flights with KIS features and general repairs ready). So, that ion craft was certainly not planned on having any crew. I wonder what happened... Hudson: Yep, it's green and wearing a space suit. It's either a Kerbal or KSC has decided to deliver our mint icecream in novelty packages... Bob: Well, it's frozen, that's for sure... does it smell minty? Hudson:... after 30 years of cryo-suspension? I don't think you want me to answer that... Jeb: Just get it out, whatever it is, I want to fly that thing! Bill: Not yet, I've not tested it... Hudson: Bringing him over then. Meet you in the mess hall. Jeb: Uh, see you in which messy hall? Bob: He has a pilots suit! Jeb: Wait, what? The name badge says "Lars"... Wake him up! Bill: Is he still frozen? Hudson: No, been thawed out for hours, since I towed the ion craft... Bob: But still asleep? What do we need to wake him? Jeb: While you figure it out, I'm having some snacks. Jeb starts opening a few packets of nibbles. The smell wafts around the low gravity of the rotating ship section. As the smell reaches the other pilots nose* he starts to stir. Lars: Oh, um. Reporting for duty Sir! Tests successful, Sir! Can I have my snacks now? Jeb: No, they are mine, get your own! Lars: Wait, your not my manager. Who are you guys? Part of the refuelling crew? Bob: No, not quite. Who are you and what were you doing on that ion shuttle? Lars: Oh that thing? I'm the best test pilot in all of Kerbin. So my boss sent me over to test it before it's maiden flight. I'm so good they let me test everything even before it leaves the ground. Jeb: The best pilot? So why do they only let you test things on the ground? Pilot: I'm so good I don't need to do the real things, I use simulators, they are even better. Bill: What simulation were you doing? Lars: Ion transfer burns mostly. Bob: You were doing transfer burns manually... with ions engines? How? Lars: Not real ion engines. Simulated ones of cause. Bob: But they, um. Take so long! Lars: I know, they get real boring. I found it really hard to stay awake. Imagine if I'd fallen asleep, that thing is scheduled to go up into space for an interstellar journey in an hours time! Hey, you guys look a lot like the interstellar crew, what's their names? Jef, Billy and the other guys. All the others together: You fell asleep during a launch?! Lars: I what? *Do Kerbals even have noses? PS, this is a dramatisation of me being too lazy to remove an accidental crew member to the spare parts and extra shuttles (good old VAB adding crew automatically). Why send Lars back when I can just use them in the mission. - - - Updated - - - So, I'm hoping to get a gravity assist off of Kunar and right over to Don. Should be around 100 to 200 m/s DV. Thanks to Squad, I've now got to get both (or is it 3?) planets visited before the release of 1.0! Gah, better put those kerbals back in suspension and timewarp over there pronto!

No idea, but certainly it's going to be hard for the other 3 to keep up!

Getting an orbit. Getting a rendezvous. Getting a transfer. Getting a gravity assist. I'm a visual person. I can understand numbers, figures and calculations, but use them? No chance until you show me. Saw a couple of videos on the above (or with docking did it by hand, trial and error), and pow, I now know how to do it.

I asked do things fall. No statement of truth tautology there. You tried to choose a thing that does not fall from certain perspectives. In actual answer (AFAIK) the moon is constantly "falling". So yes, the moon "falls" all the time. Does it approach earth in the sense a 2 year old understands "falling"? No, but other things do. So we can know what we are talking about, we can know if things fit logically into the definitions we give. I do not decide the moon falls. I can describe what I see. So, do you agree things fall? The next question is "do all things fall"? But I did not ask that. We can choose the same definitions, or choose different ones. We can try to agree or try to argue. We can come to a common understanding. When it come to the world around us and reality, we can understand it and know what is true, as an individual or as a group.

Would Jool take 2 months to map out a giant smiley face?

Do things fall? That's something we can all easily answer thankfully. So can we know the truth? We can know the truth in seeing and being involved in the things that are real and matter. With the complexity of a con, comes the complexity of keeping it from falling apart. Keep looking for the truth, you will find it.

Good theory. Hopefully.

Cool. Nice updates (planned etc). I've hit one small bug... not sure if anyone else has it or just me. If I currently add a jnr port to a ship, it decouples/detaches all sections and flies off at speed (presumably from decoupling force multiplied). Previously attaching ports worked bug free (amazingly! ). My working workaround is to move existing ports, as this does not cause the same bug... but taking newer ones out of boxes does.

If there is still more to do, go for those new landings/missions around planets you have never visited. If you have done all that (or it's would take more time to learn, as to be honest, Eve is DIFFICULT ), then install KIS and find a new way to build when your out and about on the space ships and moons.

Stripped the parts craft down. Just a skeleton left. I am wondering if it is worth taking it's structure with me, or if it will be dead weight... However, the Kerbals have something more important to deal with first. Hudson: All finished with the cargo transfer. Just the two craft to dock over. The general winch and towing tug and the prototype long distance ion shuttle. Bob: Ok, send over the Shuttle first, it's the most delicate, I don't want anything going wrong with it. Hudson: Ok, aligning tender craft to dock... wait a second, there is something in the pod... and it's green!

Ok, another question. For tidyness, I'm using the clamps for the boxes. Any way to reattach via the node so I can use the "detach" right click option? Or am I stuck at attaching it permenently to any surface?

Nailed it! With about 50 LFO units left. Now time to move all the parts to the main vessel.

Why? Why do people keep assuming this? AFAIK since day one HarvisteR has said that the fairings split off where you choose.

The flag would melt after a few seconds... right? Why not just plan to land on the sun?

Still orbiting Kaiser. Might have enough fuel to get the little transport with spare parts back to the main craft. Then they will set out again from there. Planning will be very important so as to not burn through all the fuel. Managed this using only about 300 to 400 of my 600dv budget I have left. Then the Kerbals should all be meeting up and rebuilding for a transfer. Hopefully the velocity match burn will only be 200dv by the end of it! Of cause this will take like 3 months, so time to put the Kerbals back into "Suspended animation" (also known as timewarp ).

(Off topic, great they kept a small version of a LFO... the round 8 after all! This craft does not use them, but many of my mini probes do/did) Well, Hudson decided to ditch the lander. It's for moons only, and early telescopic sensing suggests all the other bodies in the system have atmospheres, so it will not be needed. When he met back up with Bob, there was a slight problem... Hudson: I'm back. Let's just refuel up and we can get back to the mothership. Bob: Okay, just pump over the fuel. Hudson: Wait, what? You want me to give you some fuel? You mean you don't have any for me? Bob: No, I gave it all to you for the flyby. How did you use it all up already? Hudson: Flyby? I though you said make a landing! Bob: What! You used all our fuel landing on that thing! Now what are we to do? ...

Only if a larger ion thrust can be made so as to not need multiple ions (perhaps name it a "plasma" thruster?).

If true, it's best for us not to get angry. A lot of work went into these. If there is a problem on release, then make bridges, not flamethrowers. PS, as others have posted above. This is AWESOME. The fairings also allow interstages (which I was wondering about especially for inline storage options instead of ejection fairings). So Squad has a really good head and does clever things... they are however human, and we are all different and even make mistakes on occasion.

Well, Jabin's surface looks STRANGE. Well, from orbit. It has a patchwork look to it across the surface. From orbit our suspicions were that it might have been scoured by a solar eruption or supernova. However, there are obvious dust deposits visible once landing closer. The craft landed on "normal" rock and dust, so we still don't know what the discoloured material is, but the theory is now that it might be volcanic or meteorite in nature. It seems to have been blocked by a crater wall (if volcanic) or perhaps it was an eruption from a passing comet or even Kunar (and hence only covering half a hemisphere). Hudson had taken photos on the surface, but as it's his first moon landing and recording trip, he was a bit nervous, and held the camera backwards. No photos of the surface, just his big smiling face! (no idea why, I was certain I even got one of him next to a rock but folder shows none). There is a flag left behind as proof he did not make it all up though!

Thanks. Well, Bob has not done the back of the napkin calculations yet. They should be able to use the last section of the transport to return to Kerbin. Hopeing to explore the whole system, but they only have what they have there, as it's 30 years to get anything to them. I nearly panicked when I thought I'd forgotten the command seat. I did only bring one, but thankfully found which box it was in.

A bigger tank for the ion? Needs 4x the capacity of the small round one at least. Does the new change meet that? Without a bigger ion drive, it's rather pointless, as it would be too long a burn and on small ion craft, the difference in fuel tanks is like a 20 part craft or 24 part (due to 3 extra tanks). So not really ever a problem. For landers/rovers/tiny probes though, we don't have a radial LFT, so having 2 types of small, was very helpful. Now... hmmmm.

Closet thing I know of is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jellyfish_Lake That is symbiosis. The only other close approximation is fast growing/moving plants. But not uproot so to speak AFAIK. (Fire fails at being an animal, but for reasons that the 3 main descriptions miss)

Most is there in the save. No idea if it's in the most convenient location (attached to vessels some times, kerbals in vessels other times and the root science/history class other times). A mod could easily track those details already there though.