Harry Mckay

I've had things just disappear before too. I don't run any mods (recently added Kerbpaint, but the disappearances happened long before I installed that.) The two memorable ones were a Space Station and a Comsat in orbit of Kerbin. I actually had three Comsats in close but varying orbits, the result of a failed attempt to put them up in geosynchronous orbit, or at least at 120-degree increments in the same orbit. A small kerballed Space Station was in a slightly higher orbit. I'm pretty sure none of the 4 orbits intersected; I AM sure that none of the satellites' orbits intersected the station's orbit. Long story short, I suddenly noticed that the Space Station and Comsat #3 were just gone. My first thought was that somehow they'd collided and exploded, but there was no debris. I finally put it down to a bug, possibly a Kraken. Still nags at me though.

I have my 3 Orange Suits driving around the launch center in a testbed Munar Science Rover. Jeb seems to really enjoy bombing around in it, and the other two always go along with whatever he's up to. A side benefit is I have it there to test new ideas I have for my Munar base infrastructure, as it's rear docking port almost perfectly lines up with the ones I use on the base modules. Currently they're parked next to the scale model Kiffel Tower that I set up next to the runway for giggles. Jeb is constantly looking up at it with awe. Silly guy sure is amused easily. Basically I got tired of forgetting to check the crew window before I launched, accidentally sending them up by default, rather than whichever lesser Kerbal I really wanted to. At least this way it's some other lesser Kerbal who accidentally gets sent up.

As SpenSpaceCorp said, build your rovers in the Space Plane Hangar. Just make sure you have an attachment point so you can save it as a subassembly, then import it into the VAB. Works every time!

I loaded up my game from where I'd logged off last night, and switched to the 4engine Nuke lander I'd left in orbit of the Mun. Immediately on load it separated into its components which spun off every which way. No clue what happened. Fortunately I'd made a quick-save just before I left the game, which loaded fine. First *serious* glitch I've experienced since I started playing.

I decided to send my Munar Science Rover to Minmus, figured that it should make it since everyone says the same rockets can travel to each. Unfortunately it was clearly going to run out of fuel while circularizing it's orbit prior to setting up a Minmus window, because I never circularize my orbits when going to the Mun. To make matters worse, I'd accidentally switched to a nearby orbiter before I figured out it wouldn't make it, and therefore couldn't revert the flight. Also, being a Mun/Minmus lander, it had no 'chutes. Rather than attempt a rescue mission, I thought I might be able to use what little fuel I had left in the LV-Ns to deorbit, and cushion it's crash enough for the vehicle itself to survive. It all worked well at first, had enough fuel after de-orbiting to burn hard as it neared the ground. Just before it hit (at about 100m/s) I separated the rover from the rocket, thinking that little bit might save it. It didn't. After the massive explosion, however, I realized the command module had somehow survived, so the two pilots survived as well. Sadly, the two in the science module did, but since they had very little in the way of courage and were mid-range stupid, I didn't mind terribly letting them be the first two Kerbals to enter the "Lost" section of the manifest. Also serves as a reminder to double check my calculations before re-purposing vessels to other roles. I'm still working on a way to get that rover to Minmus.

I shudder to think what would happen to Kerbals in today's world. We've all seen what happens to peaceful aliens in the movies: Area-51 torture chambers, Alien "autopsies" and US government coverups. The poor guys wouldn't have a chance. I'm not sure what I see Kerbin as being, but I like to think they're in their own little pocket dimension, not much bigger than their solar system. Perhaps some benevolent or just curious entity keeps them there, letting them do their thing in peace and quiet, or maybe they just lucked out and ended up in a place where the virii that threaten other parts of space, aka Humanity, can't get to them. They don't suffer from the ills that our world suffers from. No religion, no political power-struggles, no racial tensions, no money (yet) and thus no wars. Modded games that give them weapons and premeditated killing are just bad dreams brought on by insufficient snacking.

I do the same thing. I find it's even worse when watching youtube videos, the video people never use the optimum viewing angle, and I try SO HARD to right-mouse-click-drag it!

"umbilical tethers" Oh My Kod THIS! And when they're implemented it'd probably be a snap to implement things like cables/fuel lines, especially for separate modules of extra-Kerbinal ground bases.

I built a small-scale replica of Ricardo Montalban's ship from that old Star Trek episode that gave us the only truly good movie in the series. Designated the Kotany Bay, it carried the 4 stupidest Kerbals in my roster into a solar orbit from which they'll never escape (unless of course they somehow make it to Ceti Alpha V, in which case they'll succumb to those mind-controlling leech things. This might actually make them smart enough to rejoin the Kerbal Space Program. Hmm.) Their crimes? You say stupidity isn't a crime? Well, it WAS during the brief period of the Kerbin Eugenics Wa... Spats. I built it around the PPD-10 HSC, gave it a single LV-N for propulsion, and used a Tail Fin to simulate the command tower. Despite the small part count (35!) it actually doesn't look too bad. Not good enough to waste on a picture, though. I may launch several more to smarten up the Kerbal Astronaut Complex Roster as time goes by.

As others have said: Being able to build something, and then play with it. Probably due to that first Lego set I got 35 years ago (my Kod, has it been that long?) It's also a nice change from my usual games which involve blowing other people up. Or stabbing them with lightsabers/katanas.

I've never learned to use maneuver nodes. I do everything by hand/eyeball. Horribly inefficient, I know. I've designed ships/stations with docking ports, but have never actually attempted a docking maneuver. In order to bump up the IQ average in my Kerbanaut list, I built a Kotany Kay (I swear I'm not a Trekkie!) and exiled the 4 dumbest to a never-ending orbit around Kerbol. I've landed many, many missions on the Mun, but only 2 on Minmus, and nothing on any other celestial body.