AbacusWizard

I've been using medium docking ports to connect my surface-to-orbit tanker to my Minmus mine/refinery combine without any problems. Both the tanker and the combine are on wheels, so it's relatively straightforward to maneuver them into a connection; the difficult part was designing them so that the docking ports would be at the same height in the first place. (Testing them out at the Space Center before launching for reals is a very good idea, by the way.)

If it's spreading out in three dimensions, yes; what if you focus it into a narrow coherent beam?

Kerbal Trebuchet Program! Magnificent!

I do often link all the antennas to a hotkey if I have any hotkeys left, but on all but the simplest vessels I often have all of them reserved for some other purpose already.

I currently have a Mobile Ore Combine on Minmus ("combine" in that it is both a drilling rig and a refinery; "mobile" because it's on big wheels). It includes four resource converters, eight drills, and two engineers (in an engineering bay that can detach and fly or roll around on its own). To get the proceeds into orbit, I have a colossal surface-to-space tanker that lands on landing gear, rolls up to the Combine, clamps in to a docking port, and waits while the Combine pumps newly refined fuel directly into it. When it's full, the tanker detaches, turns eastward, opens up its throttle, and launches like a jet. By the end of the procedure I have over 200 tons of fuel in orbit and can repeat whenever necessary at zero cost.

Laythe isn't ugly at all--most of the land is beachfront property, and the night skies are breathtaking! (The atmosphere is probably also breathtaking, but since kerbals wear spacesuits at all times when outside anyway, it shouldn't be a problem.)

ALSO: Whenever you're taking a ship on a short trip up to orbit and back (maybe to get some science, maybe to deploy a small satellite, maybe to deliver crew or supplies to a space station, whatever), if you have any extra unoccupied seats in the command module, fill 'em up! Find a tourist who wants to orbit (free money) or send a rookie astronaut for easy basic training (low Kerbin orbit will get a fresh hire up to Level 1).

If life support is ever implemented, I want to be able to mine Minmus for ice cream.

Design your own general method of assigning control groups, and stick with it! I tend to build a lot of vessels designed to dock with each other, and most can be categorized into "main craft" (space station, orbital tug, interplanetary mothership, etc.) or "sub craft" (lander, satellite probe, cargo pod, transport skiff, spaceplane, etc.). To keep the controls consistent and prevent interference, I generally reserve control groups 12345 for "main craft" and 67890 for "sub craft." My usual control group scheme: 1: toggle all solar panel arrays on main craft 2: toggle all high-efficiency engines (nuclear or ion) on main craft 3: toggle all other engines on main craft 4: run all repeatable science experiments on main craft 5: run all non-repeatable science experiments on main craft 6: toggle all solar panel arrays on sub craft 7: deactivate all engines on sub craft 8: activate all engines on sub craft 9: run all repeatable science experiments on sub craft 0: run all non-repeatable science experiments on sub craft I also often use Brake to toggle ladders on landers with no wheels, and Abort to deploy parachutes (vital for parachutes intended for multiple uses). For vessels that don't have solar panel arrays or science experiments or multiple engines, I often re-allocate those control groups to other purposes (drills, converters, etc.). Spaceplanes use 6 to toggle all the air-breathing engines AND air intakes (closing the air intakes reduces drag, or so I've been told), and 7/8 to deactivate/activate the rocket engine(s). I usually don't have science stuff on my spaceplanes (I use them primarily for transporting crew), so I reroute 9 and 8 for toggling ladders and shielded docking clamps. The consistency makes it really easy to remember which button does what, no matter which craft I'm flying. It also means that, for example, if I have several small ships docked at Starbase Alpha and I realize that some of them have their engines turned on, I can just press 7 to deactivate all of them--then, when I want to use one, I can undock it and press 8 to spark the engines on just that one.

Why not open the persistent file with your favorite text editor and change ALL of the names to Elon?

I am reminded of a quote from a story that Utah Phillips used to tell: "Oh, judge, you and your laws. The bad people don't follow 'em and the good people don't need 'em, so what good are they?"

If others want to mod in military equipment, that's fine and I'm glad they can do so, but I wouldn't want any in my own copy of KSP. I love games about complex strategy and long-term planning and precision maneuvers, and I love peace and science and exploration; KSP as it currently stands is one of the few games I've found that combines all of these.

HOW ARE YOU, GENTLEMEN!! ALL YOUR SPACE ARE BELONG TO US.

"Green lighted"--proper navigation lights?

From today's DevNotes: Strictly for entertainment purposes: anyone want to speculate on what this might be? Given that parts of RoverDude's Karbonite mod were more or less directly integrated into 1.0, I've been looking over RoverDude's other mods: USI Kolonization Systems? Probably not; it certainly isn't "a smaller feature." Karbonite? No, the basic idea is already bundled into 1.0's ISRU system. Karbonite Plus? Maybe; the notion of rarer but more valuable resources that can be harvested (and brought back at a profit?) would be neat. Freight Transport Technologies? More of a parts pack than "a smaller feature." Asteroid Recycling Technologies? Probably not; the new ISRU system already allows mining asteroids. USI Exploration Pack? Also more of a parts pack, but if I remember correctly it includes external seating that can be crewed at launch, which is a feature that's been requested for a long time. That'd be mighty convenient. Of course with the new aero, sitting outside a rocket at launch is asking for trouble! USI Survivability Pack? It has tiny all-in-one escape pods that are pretty cool. Alcubierre Warp Drive? Cool idea, but not really thematically appropriate for stock. Sounding Rockets? Small low-tech uncrewed rockets that flesh out the early game. Could be useful. What do you think? (And RoverDude, if you're reading this--want to pour any kerosene on the fire? Also, seriously, thanks for everything you do; your contributions significantly improve something that is already amazing.)

I ought to watch Apollo 13 again now that I actually know some rocket science. I'm currently reading Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 for the first time and everything in it so far about space travel is making me think either "Oh hey, that's exactly how I do it in KSP!" or "Wow, that's even more efficient than what I do in KSP!" This is probably because I got a lot of my general ideas for spaceship design and orbital infrastructure strategy from an old nonfiction book called The Exploration of Space... by Arthur C. Clarke.

The stories I really like--true, fictional, and spontaneously occurring in game--are the stories when something does go horribly wrong... but then acts of incredible ingenuity and heroism save the day and everything turns out better than expected. This is one of my all-time favorites:

Mostly I like the videos but it does annoy me that they often seem to focus on things going horribly wrong. To me at least the glory of KSP is when things go magnificently right.

It's even more straightforward to prove--no integrals required!--if you use a gravitational version of Gauss's Law. Replace electric flux with gravitational flux, replace charge with mass, and the equations should work out exactly the same. If the region you're investigating contains (uniformly distributed) mass, it can be treated as located at a single point; if the region you're investigating contains no mass, the gravitational flux should be zero. (Neat result: in the interior of a hollow planet, there is no gravity!)

On the subject of heroically walking away from an explosion... (I pressed SPACE to disconnect from the final orbital insertion stage, which still had a little fuel left in it. I forgot that I still had throttle set to nonzero, so the main ship's engines activated, damaging the previous stage's fuel tanks. I quickly mashed X to turn them off, but it was too late; the chain reaction explosion had already begun. Without really thinking about it, I immediately mashed Z to set throttle to full (and, also without really thinking about it, F2 to grab a screenshot) and successfully outran the explosion.

My biggest accomplishments were in 0.25: • the Wayfarer program--a small ion-engine science satellite in orbit around EVERY celestial body, so I could instantly complete any "science from X orbit" contract at no cost • boots-on-the-ground landings on (and safe returns home from) every solid celestial body except Eve and Tylo • Blue Rover Outpost, a permanent colony on Laythe consisting of • a building with crew quarters, a science lab, a viewing cupola, and plenty of solar panels • a stylish rover that could rise up on stilts and attach to a docking clamp on the underside of the building • an orbital fuel/habitat station • a six-seat spaceplane for transport between the surface outpost and the orbital station - - - Updated - - - Oh, and I was quite proud of the Voyager I, my primary flagship in 0.90... I just didn't get to do much with it because 0.90 kept freezing up.

I frequently build orbital stations containing lots of fuel so I can refuel docked spaceships later on. (I don't see much point in a surface outpost having more fuel than was needed to land it, though.) And of course it doesn't have to be all launched in one go. I launched the central core of Starbase Alpha (medium fuel tank with docking spokes, detachable lab section and crew quarters section) into orbit, then launched a pair of colossal fuel bananapods designed to attach to the docking spokes (as well as a stylish orbital transport skiff with external seating for six). Kinda high on part count, especially with another ship docked to it... but the nice thing about the bananapods is that they can detach and maneuver independently, including flying off to rendezvous with a big ship in a parking orbit 2.5 km away.

This rookie doesn't look too happy about his own perceived safety. (Don't worry, rookie, this spaceplane works just fine.)

The ultimate problem with "sense of motion" in any game with realistic physics is... motion relative to what? Should you get a star-streak effect when you're lounging around at the Space Center because Kerbin itself is zipping around the Sun at ludicrous speed?

Fill your ship with cool cool ice cream from Minmus; that should cancel out any excess heat from the Sun.