Wanderfound

They already do; you just have to get 'em hot enough.

Mods to the rescue: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/118571-International-Rescue-Mission-Pack

Mission Planning (AKA manoeuvre nodes) requires both Mission Control and the Tracking Station to be at level 2.

Congrats. Incidentally, that "coincidence" is a major part of the reason why the testing contracts exist; they're there to give you emergency access to parts in advance of researching them. For the reentry: heavy bits at the bottom, draggy bits (radially attached goo pods etc.) at the top. Do that, and the capsule will be aerodynamically stable with the bottom (i.e. heatshield if you install one) pointing into the wind, even without SAS activated.

OTOH, massive "wing" loading and a huge angle of attack are going to make it hard to crack the sound barrier; I wouldn't be surprised if the fuselage snaps during the trans-sonic phase. Worth a try, though.

Damn. I'm sorry.

Yes, its a bug, and I'm sure it will be fixed in 1.0.3. For now, the Stock Bug Fix mod has you covered: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/97285-KSP-v1-0-Stock-Bug-Fix-Modules-%28Release-v1-0-0-27-Apr-15%29-Misc-Utilities-%2818-Jan-15%29

AFAIAA, this is exactly the occlusion bg that was fixed.

Step 1) Wait for the official release of NuFAR. The dev build is a dev build for a reason. You can't design properly when you're not sure if the problem is the plane or the physics. Step 2) See the build guides on my Youtube channel and in the first few posts of the Kerbodyne thread (both linked below). However, as with every other KSP/FAR guide you'll find: they were written for oldFAR. How much of that advice still applies in NuFAR, we'll just have to wait and see.

OTOH, I found 1.0 reentry fairly simple so long as you maintained a 45° AoA through initial reentry and threw in an S-turn or two where necessary. 75 x 20km reentry orbit, no airbrakes required. You need to slow before you descend; your first job is to get yourself back to level flight as soon as possible, so you can control your rate of descent.

Solar should definitely be your next research priority, although you can manage Munshots without it; just carry a decent amount of battery reserve and be absolutely fanatical about locking off the batteries (right-click menu, change the green tick to a red cross) at any time that they're not needed. Basically, keep the probe in hibernation except for a few minutes at each end of the flight. But, yes, KSP has an infamously steep learning cliff (albeit not as steep as it used to be). Fortunately, there are the forums.

Give that "collect EVA reports from every biome you fly over" trick a go. There's quite a lot of science in that (but remember you need to right-click the capsule and store the data after each one, to avoid overwriting the previous reports). If you've got any sort of probe core, a one-way trip to the Mun or Minmus can be done for very little expense. Once you're in low Kerbin orbit (LKO), it's only about another 1,000ÃŽâ€V to hit either, and you can easily get that range from a small fuel tank and an LV-909. The probe itself should be nothing but probe core, battery, a couple of solar panels and a limited amount of science gear (one or two each of Science Jrs and Goo pods, thermometers if you've got 'em). With a payload this light, it takes very little push to get it going. You'll have to transmit if it's a one-way probe (so take an antenna, and be sure to aim your solar at the sun before transmitting), but some science is better than none. And, with a bit of finesse, you can make it into a return trip for roughly the same ÃŽâ€V budget (i.e. a free return transfer, as used by the Apollo missions). If you're not experienced at navigating transfers to the Mun, there's an easy way to do it: just put yourself into an equatorial LKO (anything between 70 and 150km altitude should do), wait for the Mun to rise (from the point of view of the ship) and then start burning prograde. Terminate the burn when the apoapsis reaches the Mun's altitude and you should be on your way. PS: if you haven't already seen 'em, I'd highly recommend Scott Manley's latest tutorial series. It's aimed right at the stuff you're doing now.

Check the contracts before accepting, though; they ain't all in low circular orbits these days. I discovered this by sending up a minimal-fuel two seater rescue ship to LKO...and then noticed that one of the two Kerbals to be rescued was floating around near the Mun's altitude, while the other one had a closer orbit but with a funky inclination. Much more interesting than the old version.

Incidentally, NuFAR should be able to handle panelvan designs without any trouble. See http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/20451-0-90-Ferram-Aerospace-Research-v0-14-7-4-2-15?p=1870281&viewfull=1#post1870281 Mind you, that means that FAR will treat them realistically; a big draggy box is still a big draggy box. But the pieces within will be shielded, no matter what you construct the box from. A fuselage made from wing panels should be no worse than a single-part fuselage of th same size/shape/mass. - - - Updated - - - Both wings, both RAPIERs, both Intercoolers, for most of the way from 10,000m to circularisation. Are the folks having trouble covering their craft in dozens of surface-mounted greeblies? Even if there was no memory leak, there are good aerodynamic reasons to avoid that these days...

Stock parts, but flying in FAR back when KSP was still in 0.25. Full album (including Laythe landing) at http://s1378.photobucket.com/user/craigmotbey/Kerbal/Kerbodyne%2025/Kerbodyne%20Kosciuszko/story & http://s1378.photobucket.com/user/craigmotbey/Kerbal/Kerbodyne%2025/Kerbodyne%20Kosciuszko/Laythe%20Landing/story

Back in the dark ages, I recall a moment playing the original Civilisation where I'd been at it so long that I started getting a full-sensory hallucination of there being a "sleep is for the weak" chant in the background music. Go get some rest. Kerbal will still be there in the morning.

Yeah, they're useless for lifting serious payloads long distances.

The reentry heating system was specifically tuned down in order not to intimidate newbies. In reality, every reentry is a near-death experience, but a lot of players would not find that fun. If you want it hotter, crank up the difficulty sliders. Personally, I'm quite enjoying the heat system; it's enough to make you think about it, but not so much that you have to obsess over it. And I've managed to burn a few heatshields close to the bone (as well as detonating countless unwisely placed batteries and solar panels). Heating is now the #1 issue during spaceplane ascents, too. Perhaps you should try some interplanetary aerobraking?

Despite some posts a few pages back, it appears that Kerbpaint is once again an unmaintained zombie mod. This is a prime candidate for another modder to recreate; hell, forget mods, it should be stock.

The Silbervogel would've been king of the crazy takeoff run if they'd ever built it. To quote Wiki: "The aircraft was to have begun its mission propelled along a 3 km (2 mi) long rail track by a large rocket-powered sled to about 800 km/h (500 mph)." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silbervogel

This is a continuation of what the political overseers of NASA have been doing for decades. The main result of Bush Jr's blatantly vaporware Mars plan was to eviscerate NASAs climate monitoring program. There's a reasonable argument to be made that this was the primary purpose of that announcement (as well as an attempt at luring gullible libertarian spacegeeks into voting for them). That's probably about as far as I can go on this without getting overly political, however. Suffice it to say that I do not think that these were wise or sensible decisions.

Pfft. Mustard. And Sauerkraut.

Rockets until NuFAR is released, then back on the wings. - - - Updated - - - Wrong. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/56621-The-Wrong-Brothers-career-mode-done-differently-%28pic-heavy%29

How many cells per ion?

Go to KSC store, download entire game, open the game by clicking the .exe. Takes longer,than just downloading a patch, but it works. Patcher and Launcher are broken, and have been all weekend. There was a holiday in Mexico, so the Squaddies weren't around to fix it.