Yellowburn10

That's just one way to use it. But who says you have to take the lab with you to every minute valley and crevasse? Why not have a separate craft go and collect science, then just bring it back to a base or station that has a lab? Like as an example, a space station could send a lander or probe filled with science equipment down to the surface of a planet, gather all the science available in the area, then head back up to the station to analyse all of it with the lab. Then you could repeat the process over and over, eventually gathering all the science from a celestial body, at full value, all without ever needing to leave. Sure, it would be a bit resource intensive, and refueling the lander over and over might be an issue, but it's far from impractical or not worth using. The lab would still have a very good and practical use, giving a good amount of science without being too OP. And yes, of course it would be a nerf compared to what the lab is capable of doing now, but that's kinda the point of what YaBoy was wanting to discuss.

I feel like the mobile lab should be a place where, instead of gaining MORE science from an experiment, it should just be able to give you the full amount of science via transmission. It would make sense, considering that instead of bringing the science back home for analysis in a lab, you literally brought the lab with you to analyze it instead. It would still take some time for analysis, since a mobile lab wouldn't be a robust institute as the one in the KSC, but the results could be worth it if you don't want to wait however long it would take to get that science back to Kerbin on it's own.

All I would want is the long-ago promised Gas Planet 2. I've been wanting something like it ever since I learned about it, and while mods have delivered such in droves, having something "official" would be great as well.

When you car's almost out of gas and you think to yourself, "Man, my car's gonna need some more delta-V."

This is honestly one of the best looking large re-entry vehicles I've ever seen. And it's actually aerodynamically stable? That's better than most other large re-entry vehicles I've made.

Hey, that's awesome! How does the part count compare to one made without flags?

I've changed the title of the thread to better match the discussion this thread has created.

I've been doing a lot more testing recently, and taking everything learned here into account. I've now moved on from testing proof of concepts to actual working prototypes! First is the electro-prop: I based this design largely on what KerrMu had posted, and what do you know, the thing actually flew! Sure, it took a moment to get off the ground, but it's far more than any other design of mine. There is a noticeable difference though, mainly this design is powered by fuel cells. While heavier than solar power, it makes a small amount of fuel go a long way. The main improvement with this design over my own was the larger wing design and more efficient design of the engines (I.E. Not enough propellers). Now the rocket: This design has progressed a lot farther than the electro-prop, mainly due to the fact it has a "payload" of a science bay, SAS wheels and a small docking port for refueling. The main difference with this one was switching out the terrier engine I was using before for a NERV engine. I had forgotten that the NERV still works like a charm on Duna, and with it I could make a craft with similar Delta-v as my old designs, but at a fraction of the weight. Plus, I've had much more flight testing with this plane more than anything else, and I've been able to take off, fly and land with reasonable ease for a Duna plane. As an unintended feature, this plane also happens to be a Duna SSTO. So there's that. Thanks to everyone for the tips and advice! Hopefully I'll soon have a craft I'm satisfied taking with me to Duna for real.

I'm trying two different designs, electro-prop based and rocket power based. My current designs are all essentially proof of concepts, basically trying to see if what I'm trying to do is feasible. None of them so far have made much progress when it comes to actual flight, although I admit I've been working more with props than anything else. Their thrust is abysmal in Duna's atmosphere, but my design incorporated fuel cells for some incredible efficiency. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten much more than around 40 m/s at best out of them so far. I need some more testing with rocket planes for their performance, but from what I've gathered so far, their weight is a real pain to factor in.

Well, I was planning a large excursion to the planet in my current career save, complete with a base, rover and a ship to get too and from duna orbit. I thought a terrestrial airplane would be nice for exploration and for getting to certain spots quicker than a rover, but not as resource intensive as a spaceship.

Recently I've been trying to design an airplane to be able to fly on Duna. I've gone through many designs so far, none of which seem to work well. Rocket planes are often too heavy and cumbersome, while electric prop planes never seem to get enough thrust in the thin atmosphere. At this point, I'm wondering if planes on Duna are really that viable in practice. I was wondering what suggestions, if any, might help out, or if it's even worth it in the end?

Awe, I was really hoping for a fuel transfer fix, that's been really bugging me. I know there are temporary fixes for it, but it doesn't make it any less annoying. Here's to hopefully having a 10.2 patch!

I recently had a few good "proud" moments recently. First off, I'm on my way to complete a very difficult contract of sending a kerbal to a comet before it gets sent back into the Oort cloud. I've already landed on it and gotten a few samples from it, and now the ship's on its way home. Should be back in about a year and a half kerbal time, which I think is pretty good, considering it was basically on a trajectory that would almost take it out of the solar system. The other achievement has to do with a recently designed space shuttle that I've finally finished, and is now my best flying shuttle I've made to date. It can haul a little over 30 tons to LKO, and can even go to places like Mun or Minmus orbit with around 5-10 tons, although getting back may be a problem. But my favorite part is that it flies so good, both on accent and decent, and doesn't stall or flip out. I love it!

These missions become so much easier if you have cargo bays unlocked. Just have a ship with a claw detach from the cargo bay, collect the debris, and put it back in the bay. Depending on the mass of the capsule you're collecting, reentry may be a bit wonky, but you're usually fine if you don't do anything too crazy during reentry. Of course, that doesn't really help in your particular case, but I also don't typically take contracts that recover debris from surfaces, so... But good job being able to fix the issue!

Almost reminds me of a buzz lightyear suit.

I had decided to take one of those new comet contracts. The reward was decent, so I took it thinking that this wouldn't be too hard, right? Well... to start, it needs a surface sample from the comet, so I need a crewed mission (For context, I've sent probes to at least Duna and Eve in my current career, but no manned missions to them yet). That wouldn't be so bad, except to reach the comet on just a one way trip, I'll need an estimated 8,000 m/s. Yeah... Imma need a biiiiiig rocket. At least I've unlocked tech up to the nuclear engine, so that should help. But really, this will probably be one of my hardest contracts to date.

(Edit to insert actual pictures and not just links) I don't know about the rest of you, but when I first saw that new silver fairing design, my mind almost immediately went to "Starship." Well, with that and the addition of creating open fairings, I decided to give building it a shot. Here's my effort so far: It's mainly the basic outline of the starship, with the dimentions being similar to the current design specs of the planned starship (I.E. 9m diameter, 50m height). It still needs polishing, but already it's looking pretty good. I'm working also on a super heavy booster to accomidate it. Basic length design really puts into perspective how big this thing is gonna be.

Those are the advanced tweekables. You need to activate those manually in your options when you install a fresh game. Go and activate it in your options, things should be working again after that.

Yeah, I would say that if you're just focused on getting somewhere, the Mun is a better target, but a return trip will take a little more.

Something I thought of almost immediately about these flags is that they'll allow us to add certain design details we never would have been able to do before. For example, someone could make a flag texture that looks like a window, and use that to make things like custom cockpits or. Can't wait for people to come up with more ideas like this!

Well technically speaking, yes, if reflection lighting worked the same in KSP as it does in the real world, you'd probably be able to see all the planets in the Kerbol system even from the night surface of Kerbin, not just LKO. There are mods you can get that actually do this for you, but I can't remember what it is off the top of my head.

This is what I've been doing as well . I guess It's just been getting a bit tedious for me to do it for every single update. Sometimes those downloads can take a while. So then, downloading mods is a similar process on steam, then? I guess then the only benefit of buying a steam version is having an easier time with updates. Perhaps too easy, as you say.

In light of yet another sale of KSP on steam, I've been seriously considering making it a part of my steam collection, despite me already owning the game through the KSP store. The main reason I would want it is because would be easier to install updates and mods through steam compared to the store version. With updates in particular, I always seem to have problems downloading a new update through the store, and typically have to reinstall the entire game again in order for it to work. Figure just having a steam download would be much easier to deal with. But again I ask, would it be worth it? Or would I just be better staying with just my store copy?

So, in my career I have the level 2 R&D, which should give me access to resource transfer, and it does for most things, but for some reason I'm unable to do resource transfer with the Grabbing Unit. I've checked on my sandbox save and I'm able to transfer with the Klaw there, so it's probably not a bug. Do I need to further upgrade my buildings in order for this to happen, or is there something else wrong?

I finally was able to get a working version for a space shuttle I've been developing in my current career. Overall, I'm happy with it. It flies fairly well, for shuttle standards at least. It's mainly designed to be a restocking/crew transfer vehicle to my space stations around Kerbin SOI, however it packs enough Delta-v to potentially be able to venture out into nearby interplanetary space. It's first true test will be helping me fulfill a few tourist contracts, I'm very excited. I'll post some pictures later if I have the time.