purpleivan

Ups and downs in my first ever Science game. Ups. 1. Placed a probe on the Mun that was only intended to sit in orbit. 2. Val returned safely from a Mun orbit mission. Downs 1. Val's vehicle (the Muno Uno) had no antenna, so significantly less science goodies resulted from the mission than expected. 2. Jeb dropped his first car (a science grabbing runabout) in the Astronaut Complex swimming pool. 3. He then totalled his first plane after it got away from him while on EVA on the Runway Island. "Hey come back here". "I mean it, I will not be kind, no 1000 hour service for you". "Just... can't... keep... up". "Uh oh". "Awwww... rats".

Trying something that I've not done in the six years that I've been playing KSP... start up a science game. So far it feels like what it is, Career Mode without the budgetary restrictions and contract chasing. Things started as these things tend to do, with the complex and risky "grab science from the launch pad" mission. With the sciencometer (that's the official term... look it up) ticking up, it was time to put some Space into this Kerbal Program. As tank choices were limited it was time for "Ol' Stripy" to take the the skies. After the first successful orbital mission, it was decided that that a mission to the little known polar region would be the next logical step. The official report from the Science Office... it's cold. Jeb picks a good spot to tuck himself away in, during a game of hide and seek, to while away the time before his next assignment, As he lost that game (Bill's seems to have an unnerving ability to find anyone on the compound) Jeb was sent out to the shore to scoop up what science was to be had there. He would have driven there, but as the species has engineering capable of getting into orbit, but has so far failed to invent the wheel, this trip will have to be on foot. On the way out Jeb got bored and started running backwards. With shoreline science goodies in pocket, it was time to invent the wheel... these wheels, the ones attached to the upsided down science vehicle in the Astronauts Complex pool. This meant that exit from the vehicle to obtain an EVA report and surface sample, had to be made in a rather undignigfied, upside down underwater position. After Jeb's failure to control a small wheeled vehicle properly it was time to show what this program can really do, with a trip to Mun orbit of a probe. With so much fuel left onboard once orbit was established it was decided to attempt a landing on the surface, something hampered by the only SAS unit being the teeny tiny one in the probe core. This made manouvering near impossible, but somehow a smooth landing on the surface was made. Eager to prove that a kerbal wasn't going to be beaten by some hunk of wires and bulbs, Jeb set off for Runway Island. Landing was, well... ok. The brakes on these bargain basement landing gear are probably only slightly better than Jeb sticking his arm out of the cockpit window, at slowing a plane down, resulting in it sliding off the end of the runway. Fortunately there was no damage. With the batteries drained after only some of the science was transmitted back to the KSC, Jeb decided to give them a boost by nudging the plane up against the nearest wall and slamming the throttles to the max. This worked well until it was realised that the plane was stuck, with no reverse thrust available to get it loose. Jeb shut down the engines and existed the cockpit, in order to push the plane free of the wall. Success, she free... and rolling away. Jeb took off after his ride home. It took some effort to get alongside the wayward aircraft, but he was unable to jump up and grab hold of the hatch. Still he chased it, as it rolled off the side of the runway and picked up speed. Ending in the inevitable explosion and shower of sparks and wreckage. "Jeb... Bill here. How does she look, do you think the damage will buff out". "That would be a negatory Bill". After Jeb mishandling of a simple short flight to a nearby island, it was decided to give the keys to the program's latest ride, the "Muno Uno" to Val. The flight was uneventful (something that Val kept reminding Jeb of). Once at the Mun, the serious work of sciencing began and it poured in. Well as much as a thermometer, barometer and Val's reports can pour it in. However a slight design issue was discovered when the first transmission of data was attempted, as the vehicle had no antenna, so the only science returned to Kerbin, was what could be physically returned in the vehicle. At least that part of the mission went well, with the capsule and the cargo bay. plus the science equipment it contains, making it back home in once piece.

After a little while away from the game I entered the Apollo Style Redux v3 Challenge. Mission report here. A trip taken in a very un-Apollo like vehicle. Dumped a Launch Escape System tower a little later than planned. Sent a lander to the Munar surface. Set down by a famous landmark. Deployed a rover/ascent module. Used said rover to litter the surface with Mun Scientific Experiment Packages. Bob played a bit of footy with a MunSEP. Then Bob and Val left the surface to meet with Jeb in the CSM. Selfies were taken. Docking was made. Before finally returning home.

I am proud to (well, that might be too strong). I am submitting for your delectation or derision, this entry to the challenge. The journey of Unpollo 11. https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/195467-unpollo-11/ The 3 Little Kerbals - 3 Kerbals on board the spacecraft (1 remaining in the CM, while the other 2 land on the Mun) +20 A Flag on the Mun?! - Plant a flag on the Mun (Non-cumulative, 2 flags do not get 10 points) +5 Mun Buggie - Have a Munar Roving vehicle (MRV) on board +15 Abort! Abort! - Have a Launch Escape System on the top of the rocket +15 No More MEM! - Dispose of the MEM by crashing it into the Mun (without Kerbals inside of course!) +5 Up, Up, and Away - Make the MEM two-stage, leaving the descent stage and its engine on the Munar Surface +20 Look on the Bright Side! - Land on the bright side of the Mun +10 Shut Away From The World - Put the MEM behind some sort of fairing +5 Down Under - Put the MEM under the CSM during ascent +20 Splashies! - Splash down in the ocean on Kerbin +5 MEM Hugger - Dock to the MEM using the CSM +10 SubSat - Deploy a small sub-satellite before returning to Kerbin (Like the PFS sub-sats deployed during Apollo 15 and 16) + 10 Parachute Problems - Have 3 main chutes and 2 drogues on the CM +10 Additional Goals Landing Accuracy Land within 50 m of the NAM +15 I was roving on the Mun one day... Are we there yet? - Drive beyond 10 km of your lander +20 If I was to be really cheeky I'd claim the following points, as when set to hibernate all 4 would have had power for 6 hours, even the one that lost it's external battery, bouncing down inside a large crater. I had no idea how much juice those probe cores gulp down and 105 units seemed plenty, until I deployed the first MunSEP and found the power ticking down at an alarming rate. But as I said, that would be really cheeky Munar Scientific Experiments Package (MunSEP) Your MunSEP must have a power source that can keep it alive for at least 6 hours, at least one science experiment, and be controllable (have a probe core on board) Science Extravaganza - Deploy four MunSEPs at least one kilometer from the landing site (at least one kilometer from each other) +20 So realistically I think have a total of 185 points (not including cheekiness points). Could have had 5 more for "No Mor Docking" but I failed to read the description for that properly and dumped the docking port in Mun orbit... ah well.

This report describes the mission to send 3 kerbals to the Mun as an entry to the Apollo Style Redux v3 challenge. Liftoff in the warm morning sun went without a hitch. Putting this thing into a 200km orbit also went according to plan. With the fairing dumped overboard it's time to take a look at this fine craft. Svelt, sleek, elegant... it's none of those things. Ok... time to head for the Mun, so 4 nukes burst into life pushing it hopefully in the right direction. Yup, right direction it was and now Unpollo 11 is on it's way to a 20km orbit of Kerbin's biggest neighbour. Val and Bob have a great view from the lander can that's jammed in underneath Jeb's Cupola module. Jeb's view is strangely obscurred. That would be the launch escape tower blocking the main window. Dragged all the way here from the KSC, it was time to dump the thing to give Jeb a better view. Ah, that's much better. Final orbit was a shade under 22km, due to some late dropping from warp resulting in an insertion burn that began a few seconds too late. With orbit safely established, it was time to grab some points, er... I mean launch a pair of scientific satellites. Fare well brave little sat. Hmmm... the landing site is at the Southern edge of that big crater on the right and the sun's getting pretty low there, so time to hit the warp button. That's better. Next step was to detach the lander. Named not the Eagle, in the spirit of exploration, of the Beagle, in the spirit of scientific enquiry, but The Bungle... in the spirit of something else entirely. Well, there she goes, floating free, ready to head for the surfa... What's that you say... crew's still aboard the CSM. No problem, just need to go get bit of EVA time with Val and Bob. With the crew actually aboard now, it was time for the crew of the Bungle to prepare for the descent. Seeing the memorial (the target for the challenge) down below, it was time to start manouvering for a nice close landing. That should do, won't get the points for sub 5m, but definitely sub 50m. "OK... Engine stop. KSC... The Bungle has landed". For the first kerching of surface based challenge points, the pair raised the flag. Then took a moment to take in the sights. Time for the crew to take to the rover for some... well... rovering. But what rover I hear you say, why this one, that also happens to be the ascent stage of course. Val pulled away from their landing site, before taking a last closeup view of it, before heading off to their first of 5 stops. She has a fine view through the expansive glass dome. Bob's view is... limited. Off the set, for to carefully place the first of four scientific packages (MunSEP) at a minimum distance of 1km from their landing site, as well as each other. That's over the 1km mark so lets make this Station 1and deploy the MunSEP. Earlier, when I said "carefully place" what I really meant was just pinging them off the back of the rover, like a loose bit of rust flying off an old truck. But MunSEP was built for this kind of punishment though, and all is well. So where to dump, er... I mean deploy the next high tech Munar scientific thingamabob. Val has an idea. Val carefully backed up to the edge of the crater that would be Station 2. While at college Val had a summer job driving a garbage truck, so she has all the experience she needs for this. The MunSEP bounced and rolled a few times as it descended the steep wall of the crater before the inevitable flash of an explosion. Well... it's still has a probe core and a thermometer. Time to quickly set it to hibernate while no-one is looking, to make sure the 5 unit battery has a chance of lasting 6 hours (rule of the challenge). Well it's still operating, just in hibernation mode. For the first time since the rover was deployed Bob has a view of more than 50cm from the glass of the window. "Back it up a bit more Val, so I can get a nice photo." "That would be a no Bob." With the 2nd MunSEP "safely" deployed at more than 1km from the others and the landing site, it was time to head off to Station 3. Ok... where to drop this one. Ah... a rock. Scientist love rocks, we'll drop it here. Another carefully placed scientific package. The crew then headed across the surface once more until arriving at another large crater. Val wanted to back up and dump again, but Bob is concerned that a vigilant Challenge setter might notice another damaged MunSEP and deduct points. So the package was dropped at the top of the crate rim instead. Bob got out to check its operation as well as it's distance from it's 3 siblings. This is looking like a good spot for Station 4, over 1km from the landing site and Stations 1 and 2, just need to check distance to station 3. Argh... 852m, you've gotta be kidding me Bob cursed. Well, he said something a little more colourful than that. What to do, what to do. Well... it's a little know fact but Bob is quite the footballer (the proper kind, not the kind with body armour and players the size of SUV's). So he started to deftly dribble the ball across the surface. On the left foot, then the right. At the edge of the crater the thing was still about 50m short of the minimum distance from Station 3. Bob knew what must be done. So he lined himself up, close his eyes and imagined that he was about the take a penelty at the World Cup. Punt. What... that's like 10m at best. Some striker you are. Bob was not pleased. Headbutting the thing was all he could doing and in some strange quirk of physics, the MunSEP was momentarily stuck to his head, before being thrown into the distance, down into the crate. Maradona Kerman may have had the "Hand of the Kraken", but Bob seems to have the head of it too, as the thing finally starts rolling down into the crater. As this happened there was the sound of an explosion somewhere in the distance. Aparently in space, you can here physics screw up. Ok... lets go check the numbers. 1097m from Station 3, we'll take that won't we. After showing off his fine footy skills Bob returned to the rover. Val decided to take another look at the landing site and found (well, the lack of really) the source of the explosion, as the descent stage has disappeared, presumably in a fireball. Ok... one last task on the Mun. Drive to a distance of over 10km from the landing site. Almost half way, keep going. 10.1km from the flag which should count as the landing site, even if all remains of the lander there are now gone. With all tasks accomplished on the surface, it was time to leave it, so the pair of rocket motors on the ascent stage/rover were ignited. Pitching the vehicle up and hitting a slight bump in the ground, the ascent stage... ascended. There's the landing site down there, the massive memorial now just a bright dot on the surface. Finally it was time to cut the engines and coast to the point where the circularisation burn would be made. A nice view from up here. And a nice view of Kerbin too. Val decides she wan't to get out and grab a quick shot of herself and their ride. A little while (ok... many hours) the ascent stage rendezvoused with the CSM. Docking was a pretty straight forward afair and soon Val was tanking off some of the remaining fuel to the CSM. Not all of it though, as the ascent stage had one last points earning job to do. First it had to be detached. Then instructed remotely to make a descent burn to bury it in the regolith. Yep... in this challenge you actually get points for crashing something. With the ascent stage returned to the surface, it was time to jetison the docking port that has attached it to the CSM for more points. Then... time to turn our eyes towards the next stop. Kerbin. That should do I think. Off they went, with the power of 4 nukes blasting them away from the Mun and towards home. That home. On the return journey it was discovered that their entry into the atmosphere would be on the dark side of the planet. Bad for taking screen shots (Boooo!) and also possibly for points, as there were 5 up for grabs for a splashdown, as opposed to landing on solid ground. So their entry altitude was adjusted to put them into an orbit, rather than straight into re-entry. The nukes were lit up to burn the orbit in, as well as to reduce speed to a level that the solar panels had a chance of surviving. That looks like a nice brightly lit splashdown site up ahead. Coming in it was decided t burn the remaing fuel because... well, why not. Finally the SM was detached and the CM scortched through the atmosphere alone. Hot, hot, hot. With the fiery part over with it was time to deply the two drogues. Then the three main chutes. Val sat and waited... and waited... and waited. Then there was a jolt. "Jeb... do you see chute deployment?" "Oh yeah!" The CM drifted slowly down to the ocean until finally... ... splashdown (and 5 points). The three brave kerbals, having returned from where many, many, many have been before have only one thing on their minds. A proper meal.

Just took a read through the release notes and the thing that caught my eye was "New Advanced Grabbing Unit Jr. With 2 variants". Hooray... no more big ugly blob on the front of my more pointy aircraft and spacecraft when all I want from the grabber is the ability to hook up and transfer fuel.

As long as when it gets in physics range it starts wobbling like a deranged octopus.

I was about to post the same thing. My Steam account says 1564 hours, but I stopped launching from Steam in April 2015, so 1564 would be for my first 10 months of almost 6 years playing KSP, so definitely over 2500 by now, probably between 3 and 4k.

That'd be a tick in the box, @qromodynmc how about you.

Very impressive, it's an insane Russian doll of planes and spacecraft

Crackers, chedder cheese and pickled onions So what do you say @Smokey the Bear

My collection's 11.9GB starting in 2014. Just over 14,000 images and I must throw out about 70% of the ones I take, so that's a lot of F1 action.

Some time ago, there was much discussion and theorising about the true nature of Kerbin's arctic ice. Does it sit on top of a great landmass, or does it float, possibly providing a navigable space beneath it, to act as a shortcut from one ocean to another. Well, Val and Bill finished their survey of that region today. After leaving the outpost, the Drop in the Ocean, the pair headed in the Naughtylus for the frozen icecap. The sub arrived and found... rock, lots of rock, near the surface at least. It looked like it went down a long way, but just how far, that's the question. Only one way to find out. After descending for several minutes the Naughtylus hid the seabed and the truth was revealed. "The Wall" as it's known in these parts, is just that... a wall, with no navigable way through it. But at least Bill got to try out Bob's latest creation, a diving suit that use a beathable liquid to allow for important reseach at these depths, such as will flags stick into rock 1.1km down. The answer is yes, they will, and in case you're wondering the breathable liquid is mango flavoured. With the question of the nature of the icecap resolved, Bill returned to the Naughtylus before it headed back to the surface. Special thanks go to the mods Kerplunk, MOIST and BallastWaterTanks for making this important research trip possible.

More nautical adventures for me today. The Naughtylus headed to the great wall at the edge of the icecap, on a mission to see if there might be a navigable passage underneath it. Val managaed to avoid a nasty collision with the wall, with just a few metres to spare. Nothing but rock here, so lets go down and take a look. All the way down. Down in the inky depths, the Naughtylus found the base of the wall. Bill went out to take a look. With evidence that the wall was indeed a wall, and not some kind of hugh icecube, it was time to head West to look at other parts of it, just to be sure. But sure enough all there was, was wall.

Part 3: The Wall This morning it was time to really put the Naughtylus through its paces and use it for what it was designed for. Investigating The Wall. Which wall, why the wall at the edge of the arctic. Val and Bill headed up towards the surface so they could see the wall up there as there approached it, instead of it suddenly looming out of the darkness, to be smashed into at 35m/s Once on the surface the wall is nowhere to be seen, but I am assured that it is there, just over the horizon. Over there. As the Naughtylus approached the ice cap, the silhouette of the wall began to grow. With about 200m of water above, this water is about 1100m deep. Once they seemed to be close to the wall (hard to judge distance down here) Val swung the sub round to approach it at an oblique angle. Suddenly the water cleared and the detail of the wall came in to view, forcing full left rudder and a quick roll to avoid a messy collision. Having brought the boat back to the surface, Val gently manouvered towards the imposing rockface. Then it was time to dive again, just to take a look... yep, still a wall down here. After decending a couple of hundred metres the Naughtylus leveled and headed back to the surface, then on the surface towards another part of the wall. Ok... time to follow this thing down to the bottom. Here we go. 1100m down and the seabed finally came into view. Val and Bill knew that the base of the wall should be nearby, but had no way of telling quite how close. Val gently nudged the sub forward until finally the dark rock was illumnated by the sub's lights. Then it was time to descend to the seabed once more, so that finally the base of the massive wall could be seen. Bill was eager to stretch his legs, so volunteered to do the honours of raising the flag. 2m from the wall... 1100m from the surface. Val kept a close eye on Bill durring his EVA. With the important job of nailing a bit of flappy plastic to the seabed dealt with, it was time for Bill to return to the Naughtylus. Then it was time for it to head back to the surface. Once there the sub motored along on the surface towards their next investigation site. Val enjoyed the sunset. While Bill cooked dinner. That next site would be right here. Bob had suggested that ther might be floating ice near the small number of holes in the icecap, possibly providing a way under the ice. But unfortunately no, there would be no travels under the ice, as yet again solid rock blocked their passage. The following day one last spot was chosen to assess the solid rockiness of the great wall of the North. After much time sailing on the surface, the Naughtylus made it to the Western edge of the wall. Land, the type with green stuff on, came into view as the sun was close to setting, Val swung the boat around to head towards the wall, hoping to find a navigable passage. But sadly there was no passage to be found.

Started a deep sea adventure. Maybe not the start you'd expect. But that delivered this. Which went down here. Then this flew to where the Drop in the Ocean was, well... dropped. The submarine in the plane's belly, the Naughtylus, was detached and headed down to go meet up and dock with it on the seabed. Science and maybe shenanigans will follow.

Chapter 2: The Naughtylus The Drop on the Ocean isn't going anywhere, it's not a problem, it was designed to do that. Just sit in the depth of the ocean and wait. But wait for what. Why a submarine to come visit of course. But how to get a submarine all the way to those frozen Northern seas. Well for this the traditional, some would say dependable... I might say slow, method of one of those things with wings was chosen. I believe they're called aircraft. This was certainly a "thing" rather than a fine example of winged excellence. It was heavy, wobbly (especially when trying to take off) and suffered weird dynamics in flight. But more of that later. A little after dawn the "aircraft" with the submarine it's belly, tore across the grass at the KSC (the wobbliness meant that something as narrow as that big fat runway wasn't an option), it's afterburners blazing. This did not end well... but at least the sub was intact. Ok... time to load it into a new aircraft and try again. This could be the start of a trend. After, ahem... a few attempts, the sub was finally airbourne. This thing is not fast, after a few minutes of flight (the tanks were nowhere near full, but it probably wouldn't get of the ground if they were) it would barely excede 300m/s The angle of attack was rather steep for for horizonatal flight. Not long after passing this mountain a strange behaviour was discovered. As the fuel burned down, the nose started to drop, so fuel was transfered from a tank at the front, to one at the rear. The plane reacted by going into a nose dive... F9 time. Hmmm... so transfering the CoM back, causes the nose to instantaneously point groundward. Not had that before. Ok... transfer fuel to the nose then. Another couple of times on the journey North, more fuel was sent to the nose to stop this thing plumeting into the ground/sea. With the Drop in the Ocean coming into sight on the HUD, there was now no fuel at the rear of the plane, just the nose tank and a bit in the wings. As it was known that the outpost was 1km down, this looks like a good place to land. Land, crash... you decide. Either way the "plane" has done its job and the sub is in one piece. 1.3km to the Drop in the Ocean, must be almost right on top of it. So let's take a look at what this trip's been all about then shall we. This thing... the Nauthylus. Away it fell from the transport aircraft, sinking into the depths. With Val at the controls and Bob sitting in the back seat, the Nuaghtylus headed towards the bottom. On reaching the seabed Val turned on the lights. Then she deployed the tail fins and headed towards the Drop in the Ocean. They touched down about 800m from it, so the journey there didn't take long. The sub has a maximum speed of about 35m/s. Ok... now how to do this thing. First drop it down nice and close to the docking port and try to be at least roughly lined up with it. Then nudge forward. Eventually the two ports came into contact. Jeb informed Val that a sold dock had not been made. Ah... forgot to use the rams at the back, with them swung into position and extended the two ports lined up and docking was established. After this Val and Bill came aboard the Drop in the Ocean and some cheap champange (a lot of transport planes were demolished on takeoff) was consumed. Jeb opened the envelope containing their secret orders. Some gasped, others moaned, but none could complain... orders is orders.

Tales from the Deep - Part 1: Drop in the Ocean The following is dedicated to all those brave kerbals, in game saves everywhere, that never made it back from the cold dark abyss, that are Kerbin's oceans. I've sent kerbals to all the bodies in the system, climbed a lot of mountains and even boated around the entire mainland coast of Kerbin, but one place I've not been to (well, not often anywhere) is down in the deep. So today was the day that glaring omission would be rectified. The plan was to set down a base, an outpost, a marker in the deep if you will, that will forever be remembered as... ... ahhh, who I am I kidding with all the flowery language, I just wanted to mess about with some underwater stuff. The Drop in the Ocean The day's activitied started with the outpost the "Drop in the Ocean" being sent to the chilly North polar seas by the most suitable vehicle available... a rocket. This rocket. Then this 2nd stage. Yar... ice cap dead ahead Captain (well, and sideways a bit too). With the fuel depleted and the worst of the atmospheric heating over, the fairing was dropped, leaving the Drop in the Ocean to decend on its own. The idea had been to use the air brakes at the top to guide it in close to the ice cap, but the trajectory didn't carry it as far as that, so they were never deployed. Then obviously, it was time for the chutes to take the strain. As the Drop in the Ocean decended, the ice cap dropped out of sight. This landing spot wasn't as close to the big icecube as had been hoped, but it would have to do. This part was tricky, because for some reason if the vehicle had touched down before the tower with the parachutes was detached, the separator wouldn't fire. This took a few attempts to get right, timing detachment just a meter or so above the waves. Ok, this thing's heavy, so we're on our way down now and with 23m above us. ... and 983 below, that seabed is about 1km down. That pesky parachute tower just didn't want to let go and took a fair amount of wiggling to get it loose. That's done it, but now it seems to want to race the Drop in the Ocean to the bottom. I think it's going to win. Gradually the light began to dim. Then dim some more. Until finally it was pitch black. A few dozen metres from the bottom, the parachute tower comes into view, looming up out of the dark depths. A little closer to the bottom and the lights of the Drop in the Ocean start to illuminate the seabed. Finally the outpost touches down, just metres from the parachute tower. How many metres I don't know, but metres nevertheless. Jeb headed for the hatch wearing the latest in KSC approved diving gear. Actually, a well past it's use by date spacesuit if we're being honest. Jeb told Bob that he would be back shortly after stabbing the sea floor with a flag pole, but immediately he was outside, he crept around to the front window, to give Bob the biggest jump scare of his life. Bob is certain that all these pranks of Jeb are reducing his life expectancy. With the important task of getting Bob's heart to miss a few beats, Jeb headed down the ladder to the seabed. Then with no further ado, he raised the flag. This scene does look familar, like so many flag raising's that Jeb's done, just with fewer stars. Once safely back inside it was Jeb's turn for a jump, as Bob was waiting on the other side of the hatch in a hideous sea monster costume. Bob new it was best to be prepared on this mission for Jeb's inevitable pranking, even if the only available preparation was retaliation. Always be prepared. To be continued...

Today was a day of rocket powered SSTO's. First was a spaceplane that runs on a single aerospike, which made it safely into a 75km orbit before returning to the surface in one piece. Then it was the turn of The Klipper, loosely based on McDonnell Douglas' Delta Clipper concept. This was also placed in a 75km orbit, but it had a healthy amount of fuel left onboard by the time it landed, so probably would make it to 90km and back.

This is what's under the fairing. The front tank had a small amount (120 units I think) of fuel when dropped in the water, the others were empty. I started out with a lot of fuel (no idea why), then didn't get around to removing or replacing the empty tanks later. The big SAS module is in there with the idea that it wouldn't hurt to have it... except for the mass of course.

This morning was all about boats... very speedy boats, for the Jetboat Speed Record challenge. This design managed to get up to 354m/s and survive, while maintaining contact with the water, so remaining, you know... a boat. A fraction faster (it hit high 355's when the fairing collapsed) and the boat stops being a boat and become flaming shrapnel. But afterwards Jeb was his usual positive self.

After @Pds314 extolled the virtues of farings as boat hulls in the Kayak Club thread, I decided to have a go at this with an "everything in the fairing" type of design. That did mean of course that Jeb was flying blind. I managed a speed of 354m/s which was at the moment the fuel ran out, which was pretty lucky as that's the limit of this boat before it transforms into shrapnel. I had a go at letting the thing run as fast as it can and see what happens. Turned out that at 355m/s the fairing shatters, followed soon after by the rest of the boat. It looks like at that speed the thing becomes unstable and gains air for a moment, as KER's Situation display changes to "Flying Low" for a split second befor the thing shatters.

Yes... more of a challenge now too as you can't just slam into an atmosphere at 30+km/s and expect to survive.

Indeed.

Does the burn have to be of a single stage or multiple, one immediately after the other. I've had a few very long ion drive burns, some with multiple stages. I definitely remember a 3 hour burn on a single stage while I was at the machine, albeit I spent a lot of my time in my browser and cutting back occasionally to check on things. There was also a burn that was 6 hours or so long, which I left running when I went to bed, then detached before lighting up the next ion drive stage the following morning. If combined stages count, then probably something in the region of 10-12 hours would be my max. BTW... these super long burns would have all been for challenges to get from Kerbin to another planet in the shortest time. Something like this xenon packed nonsense that got from Kerbin to Eve in 5 days.