Kaos

Beside of orbit disturbances the plane of the orbit is only shifted parallel. Neither the left image nor the right image matches this situation, but the left one is far closer. I can also not see the matching between text and image. To the text: The orbit will "slide". Well, it stays the same, but the star is at another position seen from the planet. There can be orbits using orbit disturbances to move the orbit to keep it constant relative to the star, for example the planetary bulge of earth can be used to do this. But that would not appear on perfect round planets.

First of all I have plenty more ideas what to do and all within the given budget. But I tried to keep it simple in here and reduce the number of developements. Furthermore I have calculated some numbers but leave a lot out here for sake of shortness of description. Here I use only two rockets, that already existed back then. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_orbital_launchers_families Name LEO TLI Cost Delta II 6000kg 1508kg 151M$ Titan 21900kg 8600kg 350M$ Furthermore I use only space logistic boxes (SLB), an own concept Nautilus-X ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nautilus-X ) Moon Hopper, an own concept Lunar space station (LSS), an own concept Moon communication satellites (I would not call this a concept) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_NASA 2014 constant dollars. Take 25% of budget for manned space exploration. Allocate a huge reserve for failed starts or miscalculation of costs or bad numbers in converting $ of different sources, so only 15% of the numbers there: So I have a budget of 3000M$ (Million dollar per year). I will not include transport of astronauts from earth to ISS or back in my planning, as I take only 25% of the budget and do not change more than 6 Astronauts per year at the ISS. Each SLB is a cube with a sidelength of 1.5m. On each side are connectors to attach it androgyn to other SLB. SLB mass may not succed 4t. Each SLB has small solar panels on each side for emergency power. On each side are connectors at defined possitions for data: Some data adapter. In the capability range of USB or Ethernet power: small: 10A, 12V DC; big: 50A, 500V DC water, hydrazine, bipropellant, xenon: with a flow rate of 12g/s (or 1t/day) (Not every SLB has all connectors) While all SLB are of same size and maximal weight, they can contain different interiors, which helps logistics. There are SLB for automatic construction of robot stations out of SLB. With the SLB a network of slow transports from LEO to LLO with the help of ion thrusters is realized (resulting in 120M$ for a five year transport from earth ground to LLO) or direct transport to moon with bipropellant (380M$ for a SLB within some days to LLO). Moon hopper is a transfer vehicle that can go from LLO to the moon surface and back without refueling and leave some payload there. It can be equipped with 4 astronauts but has to be tanked at the ground then. The lunar space station (LSS) can dock with up to two Nautilus-X and two moon hoppers at the same time. Furthermore it can dock with a gigantic number of SLB, as a SLB does not use up docking ports. In fact they normaly provide more than they use. Communication satellites have a mass of 800kg each. Beside communication they can take images. A network of 10 can already provide a good communication on the moon. 6 start within a single Titan. My programm: 2006: 1000M$ SLB developement 1000M$ Nautilus-X developement 500M$ Moon hopper developement 500M$ Developement of: communication satellite, ISRU units, modules for LSS, ... 2007: 1000M$ SLB developement 1000M$ Nautilus-X developement 500M$ Moon hopper developement 500M$ Developement of: communication satellite, ISRU units, modules for LSS, ... 2008: 1000M$ multiple SLB starts with fuel 1000M$ Nautilus-X developement 500M$ Moon hopper developement 500M$ Developement of: communication satellite, ISRU units, modules for LSS, ... 2009: 1000M$ multiple SLB starts with fuel 700M$ Nautilus-X developement 500M$ First moon hopper construction 300M$ Developement of: communication satellite, ISRU units, modules for LSS, ... 500M$ Construction of the core module of LSS 2010: 600M$ multiple SLB starts with fuel 1000M$ First Nautilus-X into orbit 200M$ Developement of: communication satellite, ISRU units, modules for LSS, ... 400M$ Send moon hopper to the moon (arrives nearly empty there) 800M$ Construction of the core module of LSS 2011: 100M$ construction of unmanned ISRU test unit for at least water extraction on the moon. Flys with Nautilus-X. 500M$ multiple SLB starts with fuel 400M$ Start of the core module of the LSS 1000M$ Nautilus-X flight to the moon, 3 Astronauts. Carries the core module of the LSS. Uses multiple fuel SLB in earth orbit and moon orbit. 3 Month stay in moon orbit. Docking with moon hopper. Unmanned moon hopper test with ISRU deployment on the moon. Moon hopper docks back with LSS before Nautilus-X departure. 800M$ start of 6 communication satellites 200M$ Developement of: communication satellite, ISRU units, modules for LSS, ... 2012: 1500M$ multiple SLB starts with fuel 500M$ first moon housing unit. Can be transported as payload in the moon hopper. Enough for 2 People. 1000M$ Nautilus-X flight to the moon, 2 Astronauts. Moon hopper lands the housing unit there. Afterwards astronauts take moon hopper to land there. Construct housing, check water ISRU. Mission time on the moon: 2 weeks, if ISRU is not working, 3 Month if ISRU is working. Flight back to earth then. From then with less detail: Every year one Nautilus-X transfer to the moon and back. Take modules there sometimes. Construct a solid moon base with ISRU capabilities for at least water, fuel, concrete, iron. Expand moon base with stuff from there and from earth. Especially ISRU capabilities. Eventually increase the number of people in the Nautilus-X and per moon hopper. Further milestones: 2014: First greenhouse experiments on the moon 2015: Moon base starts to deliver fuel to LSS. SLB send more tools and stuff and no fuel any more 2016: From now on Nautilus-X is docked round the clock and a second one docks for short periods of time 2017: Permanent moon base with 4 Astronauts. Delivery of second moon hopper. 2018: Different things can be manufactured on the moon by now. From now on the base is expanded by 1 Astronaut per year. This is possible, as the neccessary supply per Astronaut decreases by this. 2019: Fuel production on the moon has increased to a degree that two flights to the moon are possible per year. Now the moon program budget is decreased to 2000M$ per year and the mars till 2029 program begins. Construction rate of the moon base is keeped and eventually increased by local workforce for this decreased costs.

The downside of this idea is, that one is forced to do the same repair EVA over and over again. Perhaps the engineers would automatically maintain all parts of the ship slowly over time. And on EVA they can maintain the parts instantly. Then I consider this idea as a very good idea! That would also give manned missions an advantage over unmanned ones.

While realism is not the ultimate goal it still can be a good inspiration. So I looked up the reason for a number of EVAs in reality. The vast majority seems to be installation. Next is repair. Then handling of experiments that can only be handled from the outside. And still quite some for testing of EVA equipment. We have the repair thing, but no random fails. We can open solar panels from the outside even if the craft has no power. Then there is some interaction with experiments from the outside. So in comparison to reality the most missing thing is some construction work. And for to direct answer the question: Yes, I think there should be more EVA activities possible.

You could bring some stuff with the lander, drop it and count how long it takes until it reaches the ground. If you do that multiple times and you know good enough how fast you did accelerate in the meantime you have a good estimation of your own height and speed.

The most important thing for (2) is that the flow of time is not constant. With such an high speed, time will flow very slow and an observer in this object will see that the other thing is also slower than c.

I would also like them.

I once left a ship with a kerbal (chute was demolished by an internal collision) in a height of perhaps 2000m over water. I used jetpacks to breake and indeed the kerbal survived. I think this was in version 1.02. So it might be possible to survive with only a heat shield and no chute?

That is also my knowledge. So using the claw also needs some construction outside of the VAB. Nevertheless I made some flexible joint constructions on orbit with it.

The claw can be used as flexible joint. But with many of them you will quite likely encounter bugs.

Everyone has different wishes for what to implement next. Various things have been implemented in the course of the developement. So I would like to ask the community: Since you play KSP, of the features that have been implemented until today, which features have you desired the most before they got implemented? Mine were: ISRU and more realistic aerodynamic.

Ok, then I have misunderstood you. That of course should be fixed, I didn't get this behaviour yet, though.

I had no problems as mentioned with capsulas, yet. For more complex constructions I have to think in advance and add heatshields or slow down in the high atmosphere. Both which I find reasonable effort. Nevertheless I am sure that it will be rebalanced further or further options will be given at game start so everyone can enjoy the game. That said, let me ensure that I find it a good thing that you speak about your problems, as for a game to match the requirements of the community the community should share its experience.

About the first post Well, chess was invented 2200-2500 years ago and the last rule change dates back 800 years, so it was indeed changed nearly 2000 years after its invention. For KSP: I like the new aerodynamic, the old one was a bit boring in my opinion. Interplanetary reentry straight down with no problems does not feel interesting. If you dislike it, you can still play an old version of KSP or use a mod. Indeed, I myself keeped sometimes an old version when I did not find the changes interesting and did not want the mechanics to be changed for my curent versions. And for the rant part I would really love to build my own rockets for a mars mission, but unfortunately I do not earn that much that I can afford it. Unitl I do, I play KSP a bit and enjoy the enhanced physics.

I love building infrastructure. And the flexibility in the layout of the infrastructure.

Nope. NASA plays on hard mode.

I know that they float. But when some external forces submerge them enough (rocket above it that pushes, engines below that pull), they should burst.

I once had the game in a mode where everything started to wobble and turn around. After restart (complete close of the program), everything worked fine again. Another reason I can think of is that if there is a lot too much control stuff in the rocket, SAS can start to destabilize it by overcompensating minor errors. Does it work without SAS and only manual control?

I can often solve this problem by flying slower and to stay closer to the flight direction.

Perhaps alt-. would do the trick? With something like that I would support it.

There is discussion going on for how to use the new heat system for something interesting and for how to add something interesting new into the solar system. So I thought why not combine these two and add lava fields on Moho: A fluid that is super hot. Perhaps in a way that with enough ablator and cooling one could stay long enough for a splashdown experiment.

A welder would be useful and generate a lot of heat

Flying slower can also help.

I would indeed like more mechanical parts to be included. Not mainly for rovers, but for example for ground base construction. Then one could adapt the height of a docking port. This works at the moment a bit with the claw, as it can be used as flexible joint, but the claw is kraken bait and inferior to active moving parts for this purpose.

I also like the possibilities this opens.