AbacusWizard

I think what I'd find most useful would be fuel adjustment buttons on the right-click menu of the docking ports: buttons for "transfer as much fuel as possible from this side of the docking port to that side" and vice-versa.

Kerbal Attachment System does it reasonably well. Have the kerbalnaut climb out of the command module and, still clinging for dear life to the ladder, right-click and grab the end of the winch cable.

Story: I first bought Kerbal Space Program about a year ago. At that time I was also teaching, for the first time, a support workshop for a certain first-quarter physics class. It was going reasonably smoothly--the professor would introduce a new topic to the students; the students would struggle with it and not quite understand it; they would come in to my support workshop; I would explain the material in different ways and answer questions and walk them through example problems. About 3/4 of the way through the quarter it seemed like they had covered all the material on the curriculum, so I wasn't really sure what to cover next. I was about to head in to the next workshop with no clue what topic I'd be covering, when suddenly I got an email from a student: "In the next workshop, could you talk about escape velocity and orbits? Our professor's been talking about them and I don't understand it." My brain jumped up and down and cheered "I HAVE SPENT ALL OF MY FREE TIME IN THE LAST SIX WEEKS PREPARING FOR THIS VERY MOMENT" I gave an enthusiastic presentation about escape velocity and centripetal force and orbital velocity and geosynchronous orbit and transfer orbits. It went very well; several students stuck around after the end of the workshop to ask more questions about how it all works. Eventually I sent them off with links to download the KSP demo.

You know, now that you mention it, I'd love to see a mod that changes the planets to mimic the style of turn-of-the-century science fiction: replace Eve with a lush sci-fi Venus covered in primeval jungle and swamp; replace Duna with an ancient sci-fi Mars covered in desert, crumbling canals, and the ruins of dead civlizations; treat asteroids as the shattered remains of a missing fifth planet. Of course this would be best used alongside a steampunk spaceship parts mod.

Regarding teaching about orbit: I always start by using the example of a rock spun around on a string to introduce the notion of centripetal force. With no force at all acting on the rock, it would either stay still (if it wasn't already in motion) or move at constant speed in a straight line (if it was). In order to move in a curved path, it needs a force, and that force is provided by the tension in the string. With a little bit of questioning the students quickly figure out that this force has to be proportional to the object's mass and velocity (massive object requires lots of force; fast object is changing more quickly so it needs more force) and inversely proportional to radius of the circular path (this one's trickier, but I point out that larger radius means more gently curving path, so the direction isn't changing as suddenly--if the students are old enough to drive, I make comparisons to sharp turns versus gradual turns and they get it right away). So far that gives us F_cent = mv/r. But the units of measurement don't work out--we need an extra m/s. Easiest way to do that is to square the velocity, so F_cent = m v^2 / r. So far this should work for any object moving in a circular path at constant speed: there must be a (total) force of exactly mv^2/r, pointing towards the circle's center, or the trajectory won't be circular. Now for gravity. Some students have already seen F_g = G M m / r^2 ; if not, it's pretty easy to work out the basic format by a similar line of questioning. I then tell the students: consider an object, let's say a moon, in orbit around a planet. That's a (roughly) circular* path, so there must be a centripetal force. What's providing it? There's no string holding them together--instead it's gravity. My favorite bit at this point is the equation F_required = F_provided In other words, the force that is required for something to happen can be set equal to the force that is provided to cause it to happen. In this case, that means we can say F_cent = F_grav or m v^2 / r = G M m / r^2 With a little algebra, we can solve for v: v = √(GM/r) G and M are constant, so this tells us that for any given height, there is a certain speed that will allow a circular orbit. (Calculating that speed for Kerbin, by the way, was one of the first things I did after buying KSP.) Note also that mass of the orbiter cancels out and therefore doesn't matter; two objects at the same height and same velocity will orbit together even if they have different masses. The upshot of all this: getting into orbit ONLY requires reaching an altitude of your choice (above the atmosphere and any tall mountains should suffice) and achieving a certain sideways speed that depends on that altitude. Once that's accomplished, no further forces are required except gravity itself. * at this point I have to tell a certain part of my brain "yes, I know it's elliptical, now shut up"

Jool's moons are pretty fun, but in terms of time spent (and number of vehicles landed or in orbit there), I'm all about Minmus. Easy to get to, pleasing color, interesting variety of landscapes, low gravity. Good times.

That's what uncrewed fuel tankers are for! Seriously though, that's one of the things I love about KSP. If something goes wrong on a mission, it isn't game over--it's inspiration for the next mission!

Would it be so much trouble to have a tiny navball inside the helmet? There's plenty of room; those helmets are huge!

One more vote for "rendezvous"--the first time Jeb ran out of fuel while still in orbit, I put everything on hold and spent a couple of days just doing research on orbital mechanics until I figured out the finer details. Precise docking and EVA control have also been big learning walls for me. My improvement has been gradual enough, though, that I didn't really realize it until a couple of weeks ago my wife watched as my science officer popped out of the lander, flew straight over to the mothership's lab like it was no big deal, and popped in the crew hatch, and she said "Wait, isn't that the sort of thing you used to spend like half an hour of frustration trying to do? Did they change the interface or did you just get better at it?"

I learned by a combination of three methods: • applying the physics skills I already have (deriving the rocket equation, calculating when to turn on the engines to land at ground level, general intuition about what happens to an object's motion when a certain force is applied, etc.) • further research (reading parts of Buzz Aldrin's writings on orbital rendezvous, for example) • in-game experimentation (so what happens to my orbital trajectory if I fire thrusters in this direction?) Honorable mention to Arthur C. Clarke's book The Exploration of Space, which gave me a lot of inspiration about what could be done that I ought to try (e.g., interplanetary travel infrastructure: crew takes SSTO shuttle up to orbit, transfers to interplanetary craft that never lands, maneuver to orbit another world, transfer to SSTO shuttle that takes them down to other world's surface).

I'm not gonna take a day off of work; my students need me... but I might spend a little more time than usual discussing orbital mechanics in any physics class where it's even remotely relevant.

I think docking ports really are one of the most significant game-changing features of the whole shebang. The ability to attach two separate structures together (either permanently to make a larger structure or temporarily to transfer crew or fuel) opens up so many possibilities. In career mode my primary driving goal, above anything else, is to research that first docking clamp and atomic engines--with those, I can put together enormous space tugs, meaning that any ship that can reach orbit can be towed to anywhere else; and also tankers to refuel anything anywhere that needs it.

I know it makes no sense whatsoever and is ludicrously unrealistic, but teeny tiny ride-on spaceplanes are so much fun!

I've purchased a lot of old games from them and am in general quite satisfied with the setup. This sounds like a reasonable move that could bring KSP to a lot more players, and it's always nice to have another non-Steam option. P.S. They have Alpha Centauri and Master of Orion II. You know what you have to do.

makes me wonder how badly the kerbalnauts themselves will be scorched. Are the glory days of external-seating spaceplanes at an end? Say it ain't so, Slim!

I'm considering running an all-female space program for at least a little while to balance out the all-male space program of the past. Beyond that, I'm happy to be an equal-opportunity employer.

I would love to have Kerbal Lego--even if it's just minifigs; most of the rest I can build myself.

That could be a useful component in building Kraken-drives.

Not necessarily--it doesn't take much fuel to send an empty SSTO tanker up to orbit, and with parachutes it's cheap-as-free to send the full tanker back down.

A compromise that I'd really like: a large tank holding a lot of xenon that represents (and presumably looks like) a bunch of small tanks welded together, but is in game terms just one part. The main problem I have with xenon is that the small tank size leads to a high part count, causing lag and inconvenient refueling procedures. These are problems with the game interface, not real-world problems.

Or maybe they're just moving veeeeeeeery slooooooooooowly.

I'd love to have a nearby canyon to try flying through--right now all we've got for glider excitement is trying yet again to zoom through the arch in the Science Facility. It'd be great practice for off-world flight missions; for instance, when Bill tells Jeb he's crazy for volunteering to pilot a flight through the Great Rift on Dres, Jeb can say "It'll be just like bulls-eyeing womp rats in Kerman's Canyon back home."

Behold: the Voyager Probe Rack, equipped with seven Eve Drop Probes. I hauled it to Eve in the cargo bay of the Voyager I, my interplanetary exploration flagship, and left it in orbit. I've deployed to of the drop probes so far and have five left that I can send into the atmosphere whenever I like. Since there are seven of them and I like theme naming, I'm naming them after the cities that built the Seven Wonders of the World.

Keep in mind though that the Kerbals also live in a world in which SSTO spaceplanes are possible and practical (and fun!). Once I get the off-world mining infrastructure in place, I can send up a cargo spaceplane to receive a shipment of minerals and bring it down to the surface at no cost other than fuel, which is cheap--and becomes essentially free if I can also mine for fuel. There's a high initial cost for the infrastructure, but given enough time it will more than pay for itself.

Whoa, I missed that in my first readthrough of today's devnotes. Interesting. I am highly in favor of more stuff to do with ion engines, but at the same time I do often use the toroidal fuel tanks in probe landers and other small crafts, so I also would prefer a new part instead of a repurposing of this existing one.