LordFerret

I would like to see Kerbal EVA's where the little guy actually turns and faces direction relative to your angle of view.

In case you did not know, there are services available at NASA where you can ask their scientists questions such as these directly - and receive legitimate authoritative answers! http://science.nasa.gov/ask-a-scientist/ Now, if you'd like to play with some software for calculations (pretty much the real deal) you can check these out. http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/copernicus/ http://open.nasa.gov/blog/2011/07/28/space-mission-design-for-everyone/

I'm picturing attempting a back-flip off a springboard and ending up in orbit.

Scooty Puff Jr. ... lol! Not sure if this one counts as a 'not end well', because it actually kinda sorta did?

Why the installer? I'm using Win8.1, but I've always used the zip versions.

In my book, anything I can't remember the name of is a 'gizmo', 'gadget', 'do-hicky', 'thing-a-ma-bob', etc. lol

Wait... are we talking about the gizmos in the VAB?... or the navball gizmos while out in flight? I don't use gizmos in the VAB, except for the one which allows you to change the anchor(?)/base part(?) for dragging the whole assembly around. Out in space, I only rely on the navball gizmos for fine tuning per say ... after I move manually, and if there's time for fine adjustment. Overall, I find they waste RCS, and overshoot a lot especially with large vessels. The one exception is the retrograde hold, which is helpful during descents. It would be nice if those buttons could be mapped to keys.

So I've discovered! I've managed to stay away from MechJeb thus far, and am planning to keep it that way. Staying close to vanilla. The only mods I'm using are Lazor for the docking camera (which should be stock!!), and SCANsat. That's it.

That issue is nothing more than speculation by some who've brought the idea/topic up on Reddit (and elsewhere), Trek itself makes no 'official' statment - cinematic license. http://www.reddit.com/r/AskScienceFiction/comments/1x4nw6/star_trek_what_are_those_white_streaks_you_see/ "Warp Propulsion "Star streaks" Whenever a Star Trek ship is at warp, it seems that always several stars are flying by when looking at the main viewscreen or out of a window. The effect was probably created only to emphasize the high speed of the ship. It is quite obvious that these "star streaks" can't be actual stars, because even at high warp a ship would pass by only one or two stars per hour but definitely not several stars per second. Here "passing by" means that the relative angle changes by more than 90 degrees, resulting in such an effect like the "star streaks". " - http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/treknology-power.htm The popular Memory Alpha site doesn't even address the topic other than to define the specifics of warp drives and types and limitations, based on episodes. The first jump to warp in Star Wars is likely the closest thing to reality, although they did exaggerate it a bit... light streaks jumping into black. The notion that the light streaks seen were actually 'ionized dust' didn't even become a topic of discussion about what they actually were until about the time TNG came out. The assumption, by so many, was that they were in fact star streaks. There was a least one episode where that did exactly happen, but I don't know which one so I can't cite it for you... but that's exactly what they did do visually. Trek has changed the visualizations a number of times, with good reason - traveling at ftl is 'boring'. At warp/ftl speed, they improperly show movement/trails, doppler streaks. Again, cimatic license. In reality, you'd likely not see much of anything except perhaps foggy light at the end of a deep dark tunnel. Here's a valid demonstration of what you would likely see... http://www.adamauton.com/warp/ Now, back to my original statement; Celestia and ftl travel. Were you able to see more than fuzzy light at the end of a dark tunnel, Celestia shows proper movement of the star field you're traveling through, minus the actual proper motion of those stars themselves (fixed positions). You have to keep in mind that Celestia's goal wasn't to portray the visual effect of ftl travel.

Download and install Celestia v1.6, and load up Pascal Hartmann's 2 million star database - it's basically the old Tycho I & II catalogs... the star positions are (scientific) assumptions due to the fact the updated Hipparcos catalog wasn't available, and I don't remember if the new catalog is the default in the last release of Celestia (if it is, there's 2+ million local stars there). Anyway, load that up. The default FOV (as I recall) is equivalent to the human eye (and if it isn't, you can make it so, or whatever FOV you wish). Start cruising. According to discussions on the old Celestia forums (despite other previous commentary otherwise), it was stated that viewing stars on Celestia's Earth would be an equivalent setting of mag7 (or just under) with fuzzy dots for stars (atmosphere)... while out in space, as astronauts see, mag10 with points for stars (vacuum). Note the speed (in c multiplied) required for the Trek field effect. Also, I'll make an assumption, that in Trek, navigating about in space, your course wouldn't exactly be a straight line (even with warp)... you'd have obstacles, or perhaps use the gravity of stars along the way to change course, or even just pass by in close proximity in using them as navigation reference points. It's space - do what you want. *edit* Being the old Celestia forums are dead, a little poking around, this is the closest reference I can find (regarding magnitudes)...

What? Watching several episodes, old and new, the implication is clearly that they're stars, not ionized dust. Even some of the displays while the ship has been underway show charted stars moving in accordance to what was shown on the main viewscreen. There was extensive discussion about this in the old Celestia forums, by hard-core fans no less, and nobody ever suggested even a notion about what you suggest.

Yes. Thank you, all of you. That was the problem, now solved. My rearrangement (as shown) allowed me to successfully put the lander down on Kerbin no less as a test.

It's docked to the launcher, which orbits Mun while landing and science stuff goes on. The solar panels are retracted during landing/takeoff. I've other landers where I've done the same with no problems. As for the girder issue, I'll try rearranging things. I didn't think it would matter, especially after putting this (below) monstrosity down... but then again, the girders aren't directly beneath. Thanks. I'll come back later and change this to "Answered" if it resolves.

I'm running KSP v0.90, with SCANsat and Lazor mods. I've built a Mun lander which has some very strange behavior... despite the engines firing, it has little to no thrust. Picture of the lander is below, taken in the VAB... I've built several other landers, similar, none of which I've had a problem with... like this one below for example... So I'm at a loss here. I don't understand why the first craft pictured has no thrust. It should, in fact, have far more thrust than needed. Any ideas?

This needs to be updated perhaps?... http://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/21dco6/things_you_may_not_have_known_about_playing_ksp/ ...and the Wiki as well. (yes, I know, in due time... in due time. lol)

Interesting. Reminds me of a discussion on the old Celestia forums about Star Trek warp speeds, the stars whizzing by (best demonstrated in Celestia with Pascal Hartmann's 2 million star database loaded). I've used Celestia in the past to demonstrate a photon traveling from the sun to Earth, the time it takes. Even cruising around the solar system at 10c... not as fast as one would think... even 1au/sec. Star Trek's warp speeds demonstrated required a multiplier of c in the thousands. lol

I always forget that.

There's a lot of stuff I listen to, including as mdkendall shared - SomaFM, I like (especially) their Groove Salad channel... But I also listen to CalmRadio. It's a great (free/minimal station advertising) source for Classical music, which I'll often listen to while working in the VAB, and also the Relaxation/SPACED channel for when I'm out there flying. https://calmradio.com/ (when asked to Login, click on "Try Us" to listen free)

Just a few here and there... I'd have to go count. Maybe 200 - 300? I usually take at least one of each new *finished* vessel, and now and then of some major (for me) accomplishment/landing... and of course weird stuff, such as.....

As far as the Comms are concerned, I do believe they've got triple backup of everything (2 functional, 1 as spare/parts). They even have ham radios onboard ... ham operators (ARRL) have contests sort of, which they make contact with the astronauts and obtain QSL cards ... and there's a large cooperative program (education) between NASA & ARRL. http://www.arrl.org/amateur-radio-on-the-international-space-station Losing Comms with the ISS is the very least of problems they face. They've access to just about every band imaginable - plus a few you and I have no access or availability to equipment for.

One would think at this point that a single 'huge' rocket for such a trip isn't the ticket... if they put any real thought into it, just as many do here in KSP, several launches and dock/build in orbit and then head out.

...unless you've got a Kerbal onboard; Then, you can EVA out to the panel, and with the Kerbal close to the panel, right-click the panel and have the little dude open it. You should only need to have him open one, because once it does open and starts producing power, you can open the others normally. The little guys know how to fix flat rover tires too.

I'm still in the process of putting SCANsats up, and as crazy as it sounds, before heading out to the 'body', I watch it timewarped a little and look for a polar landmark... once arriving, going right into a polar orbit (or close to it), I adjust the orbit to my 'landmark'. So far, seat-of-the-pants as it is, it's worked for me (98% or better coverage). All except Moho... that one was a bit of a cheat... it's got a dot of 'light' marking each of its poles lol.

You could just leave the satellite in orbit around Kerbol for now, and wait until you get tech for the Advanced Grabbing Unit (the claw)... then launch a ship and go capture it (as you would an asteroid) and return it. That's a long wait for what little Science you'd get from it however; But, a good challenge!

Don't know if any of you followed up on that story, the deaths in Shanghai, but basically it was all because of greed. Some nightclub started tossing handfuls of fake US $100 bills into the crowd... a promotional stunt... and it caused a stampede... stupid move on the part of the nightclub..... totally heartless and without thought by all those rushing for the bucks.