FleshJeb

Examples of Workplace Culture in action: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crew_resource_management https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Columbia_disaster#Flight_risk_management https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Commission_Report#"An_accident_rooted_in_history" As fun and satisfying as it is to be a reactionary (because I engage in it sometimes myself), you should at least bother to educate yourself on your subject before debating it.

Fabulous stuff Steve! How about this?

Welcome! Apollo-style could mean a few things: If you mean a two-stage lander, then maybe for Tylo and Laythe. For the other three, it's not necessary. If you mean a lander that detaches from a mothership, lands, and returns to the mothership (and refuels for the next landing), then yes, definitely. The most efficient way to capture at Jool is a gravity brake using Tylo: https://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Tutorial:_Gravity_Assist#Gravity_brake A tutorial on Reddit Delta-V:

Or Shift-click to grab the whole thing, instead of having to find the root part.

I've been finding that wings in the same line, even if they're not connected seem to occlude those behind them. I don't have any conclusive screenshots yet, but it's a behavior I've noticed. I'll try to verify this later. I've been experimenting with the "wings as radiators" trick, mostly by attaching E-wings to Small Nose Cones and NCS Adapters, offsetting them way back, and doing Jool dives while holding surface prograde. One of the more interesting things I've noticed comes from the AeroGUI window. The External Temp and the drag don't really affect the thermal survivability of a part. The most important factor appears to be the Static Ambient Temp. (Note that the E-wings near the tail are glowing because they're taking heat off the nose cones.) This mission survived and made it back out to a safe orbit. Static Ambient Temp graph for Jool, per KSP wiki. Graphs available for all other atmo planets, provided by OhioBob. They're worth looking at. Out of dozens of dives with various craft, trying to survive a pass at 180km was WAY harder than just crash-diving to 130km, even though 180km is almost vacuum. EDIT: I guess the point I'm trying to make is that understanding thermal occlusion is important, but you can DEFINITELY get away with just properly "radiating" a part by choosing what it's attached to. If that "radiator" part is oriented surface prograde, you're in GOOD shape.

Went Jool-diving: Made it back. 100% recoverable.

The only two places a sophisticated gentleman may burn oxidizer are in Vernors and Fuel Cells--All other options are for for commoners. (OK, OK, I occasionally put some through Rapiers.)

Awesome! Given the limitations of LEGO-style building, I’d justify the wing clipping as adding mass and drag to the tank as radiator fins embedded into the surface. Functionally, the tank and the wings are one “unit”. Now, if you want to see KSP abuse, go look at Brad Whitstance’s SSTO to Tylo and back. I would have sworn he was editing config files until I figured out how he did all the drag reduction.

Ah ok. I was thinking in an orientation that doesn’t resist anything but sideslip. Long edges up and down, and short edges forward and back. I think you can still clip them into the Rockos completely, and they’ll be treated thermally as if they’re fully exposed. What you’ve got now makes for a nasty airbrake. Wings always work, even if clipped. I think they even work in cargo bays still. No need to repeat the test, but I’d love to see the eventual mission. Nice job on bewing’s experiment. Results are always going to be inconsistent. Sometimes with the same craft on different runs. I bet if that were pointed 85deg up and slightly retrograde, instead of 90, you’d get very different results. Heat shields have a “safer” zone behind them that I think is cone-shaped. I have no idea how much this depends on AoA. It would be nice if the SPH had a visualizer for this, so we didn’t have to guess.

Looks like the power of the educated guess paid off! The fun thing about thermal is that radiated heat is proportional to T^4, so the closer you ride the edge, the more efficient it is. Boy, were you riding the edge there! I'm curious about the orientation— I was thinking like a vertical tailfin, which shouldn’t impact CoL much at all. Got any screenies for your loyal and hardworking assistants?

Hey @Overland, I just wanted to add to the chorus of people that miss you and your unique take on KSP. I sympathize with your frustrations, because I experience them myself, but I hope you find a way to come back, because what you do is cool and fun.

On phone, quoting hard. Again, what @bewing just said. Fooey! I think ultimately what we’re going to discover is that those tanks are crap. Rebuilding the body with an additional, partially full Mk3 tank segment may be your best bet. The other bonus to this is lower overall drag. I was going to suggest changing your reentry profile, but you already did. As to the other stuff going boom: Stick a precooler between the nose docking port and the cockpit, and offset it into the cockpit. The RCS thrusters should do better attached to the coolest wing, even if you have to cheat and offset them where they need to go.

Static/unmoving isn’t as important as low altitude/dense air. They just really thermally inefficient and draggy in the thin hot stuff. Also, I think they only affect core temp directly. Wings: Since you’are entering belly-down, I was thinking on the dorsal surface with the rear of the wing pointing up. Any orientation that minimizes their drag should do. As long as they stay cooler than the tank. FYI, in the .cfg files “emissiveConstant” is the thing you’re looking for. 0.95 is really good. I think the default if unlisted is 0.6, but i’d have to look in physics.cfg. Your slant adapters are 0.8. Example: https://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Parts/Aero/circularIntake/intakeShockCone.cfg Likewise, there are parts that make really good insulators when placed in-line. Service Bays are my go-to. My default 1.25m spaceplane stack is nose cone - svc bay - cockpit - precooler. As usual, I agree with everything @bewing said. Thermal occlusion is mostly voodoo. Since you’re already invested in RCS Build Aid and EdEx, consider CorrectCoL—If only for the more accurate CoL indicator. Please ping me when you get this thing working. I’m sure it will be educational and awesome.

The only two places radiators work acceptably are in space or static on the ground. Parts with high emissivity like precoolers and intakes work anywhere, but are best off attached directly to the problem part. Can you swap the 2.5m out for 1.25m tanks? Alternately, some wings or control surfaces mounted parallel to the airflow. I think they still have pretty high emissivity. Heat occlusion is a funny beast with surface attached parts. You can also try attaching the front 1.25 to 2.5 adapter to the main tank and stringing the other parts behind it. I assume it’s the Rocko tank attached to the main tank now. Also, put some end caps on those things! Lastly, that shuttle looks amazing. I love it.

Squad Project Managers

Already have it. I just have to commit to using the module-size filter. Too bad the stock cross-section filter doesn't seem to display the tanks.

Rocheworld and Return to Rocheworld Basically, what @p1t1o said.

Now that I've upgraded to 1.5.1 AND purchased MH, it takes me forever to find the right tank. If they're all going to look so similar, they should have different-colored backgrounds by size. I thought there was a mod for that, but I haven't been able to search it out.

Is your root part in that cargo bay, and is it rotated 90 deg?

With the engines under fairings and the resources panel closed, what you're going to need is an experienced psychic. I did some math, and I'm guessing you have LV-T45 Swivels under there? You either need a higher ratio of fuel to dry mass, or to add some side boosters.

Thank you kindly. No rush. @Pds314 I gave it some serious thought, and the answer is: NO. I CAN however, drive it to destruction. I'll use the ground and momentum as the pry bars.

I don't normally ask for other people's craft files, because I like to figure things out on by own, but I'd LOVE to pry that thing apart. Any chance of a craft file?

MechJeb is for people who don't enjoy wasting their own time. There are so many useful tools and utilities, that it saves me a MASSIVE amount of time and effort to get the things done that I want to get done. Most of my gameplay is about engineering and tinkering in the editor. For me, the single greatest thing about MJ is being able to repeat the same tests under a consistent testing regime. If I want to know if a design change is better in one direction or another, I can find out without having to account for variable piloting. Good testing is about isolating variables. One of the complaints we've heard a lot is that "MechJeb is terrible at doing X". What I've found is one of three things: A) The craft they're trying to do X with is very poorly designed for the task at hand. B) The person has a poor understanding of the rules of thumb of orbital (or other) mechanics, C) They're using the wrong utility or settings. Several years ago I set myself the challenge of pushing MJ as far as I could, finding out when it works and when it doesn't, and WHY. What I've found has made me a better engineer, and increased my understanding of physics. If we want to get into dissing mods, Kerbal Joint Reinforcement is DEFINITELY cheating, and I laugh at anyone who uses it.