heng

correct me if i'm wrong, but probably one of the most power consuming tasks would be thermal stability. could it a) be possible and/or cost effective (weight/mass consideration against power usage) to use a 'water' (or something) cooling system? the thing i have in mind is as follows: you have a collector, exposed to sunlight - basically just a black, heat conducting surface - and opposite, exposed to shadows, a radiator. could be identical, which would simplify construction. heat is distributed throughout the cube via tubes - aluminium [sic!] comes to mind - and a small pump. obviously water is not the medium of choice, but maybe it would work with gaseous nitrogen or liquid freon or similar? yes, no gravity, reduced convection, it has to be active.(*) the key point are adjustable covers over the collector/radiator. if it is too warm, cover the collector. if it is too cool, cover the radiator. as simple as that. pro: no expensive, complicated electric heating, adjustable radiators prevent cooling out too fast. cons: i have no engineering background whatsoever, this is just a crazy idea in a crazy mind (and now a crazy forum ;-)) PS: you guys all have seen the Cubli flywheel? is this a usable concept for attitude control? or too complicated for a cubesat?---- (*): on second thought, the thing has to be pressurized internally anyway, right? so maybe heating the air inside would suffice?

from the kickstarter page, timetable excerpts, heavily cropped, otherwise unchanged - selection of quotes may be biased by my personal opinion: "2014: Kickstarter crowd-funding starts [...]" "2015: [...] Early sales phase starts." "[...]" "2017: [...] establish overall mission cost, plan and timescale." "2018: Main technology design and development starts." "2019: Main sales and marketing campaign starts." ... yeees, uh... I do calculate my participation probability to be within a small, but finite range, pretty close to one of the extremes of either 0 or 1.

I would suggest using a different material, if I may. Instead of using cyano-acrylates, which bond with water, try using UV curing adhesives. You can just release a blob of the stuff, adjust as necessary - take your time, then switch on the lamp for bonding. Basically glueing the UV lamp directly to the surface: ######### - surface .#.#..#.. ......... - adhesive ========= - glas =^^^^^^^= =|||||||= - UV light/heat lamp Pro: - more time to adjust to optimal position - bond can be released after use by using a heat lamp - not reliant on water The other Pros and Cons are the same.

http://hugelolcdn.com/hugegifs.com/i/3350.gif :-D

[snip] actually, it is increasingly difficult to find the right isotope for a working RTG. usually these use Pu238, which is not used in nuclear weaponry - hence in short supply. This specific isotope has to be explicitly bred for this purpose, and AFAIK hasn't been in great demand during the last few years... partly because for fear of failure, partly because deep space missions fell out of focus during the late 20th century.... PS: from the wiki: "The United States stopped producing bulk plutonium-238 in 1988; since 1993, all of the plutonium-238 used in American spacecraft has been purchased from Russia. In total, 16.5 kilograms have been purchased but Russia is no longer producing plutonium-238 and their own supply is reportedly running low."

It is sufficient for your craft to register a stable orbit. This means a Periapsis above 70km (and an Apoapsis within Kerbin's SOI). Any eliptical orbit will do. Then perform the test - staging or right-click, depending on contract - while at the required altitude. It is _not_ necessary to have the whole orbit within the bounds. PS: in case this was not clear: as long as your PE is below 70km your ship will not be in an orbit! PPS: it helps if you have the contract displayed in the HUD, that way you can see directly which conditions are met by the green check markers...

The first node in the tech tree features: Kerlington Model Rockets and Paper Products Inc. - Command Pod Mk1 Jebediah Kerman's Junkyard and Spaceship Parts Co. - LV-T30 Liquid Fuel Engine - FL-T200 Fuel Tank Found lying by the side of the road - RT-10 Solid Fuel Booster Maxo Construction Toys - Modular Girder Segment Edit: aaaand the Communotron 16. right. forgot this. A good start, and all of those are allowed. Further, you allowed the following noteworthy parts regardless of chosen brand(s): Found lying by the side of the road - docking ports, all of them - parachutes, all of them - Mystery Goo - Small Inline Reaction Wheel - some more stuff, if you have uses for it, indulge me. This will require a serious pre-planned approach of what to acquire when in the tech-tree... I am not sure i am up to this task... anyway, placeholder in place ;-) Anyway, here's a short rundown on all agencies, according to the wiki, with a short comment. Edit: *snip* see OP post. Will try to see how far i get over the weekend. Update: Sorry, hitting a bit of rock bottom with this weeks time planning (RL), still figuring out how to achieve orbit with explosive staging... currently testing some designs in sandbox mode. this is taking longer than expected. but i am still on it

IMHO if your craft reaches the ground in several different places with different parts, you did not perform multiple landings, you crashed. ;-) on purpose or not.

http://xkcd.com/202/ youtube comments are baaaad ;-)

"Forza Philae! Forza ESA" "Mille Grazie" The good think is, that the important stuff does not need translation ;-)

Besser als der Hesse anschliessend! ;-))))))) Screw office work, I'm watching this!

Touchdown!!!!! Whoooooooooo Congrats!!!!!!!!!

in a few million years WE will be the ancient aliens, and that probe might as well be a precious artifact, after earth explodes

random thought: there should be a Mission Control Room, maybe as a small inset - like the kerbals on "manned" missions - showing some enthusiastic engineers back home on Kerbin, for probe missions. Maybe with a little celebration picture whenever a probe lander touches down. :-D

you are all watching the "live" stream as a comic? XKCD is doing a live drawing stream... I am watching this via http://xkcd1446.org/ for easier access. PS: at the office, can't watch the "real" mission room live stream :-(

time-warp is a cursed blessing, or a blessed curse... *sigh*

are you asking only in terms of physical properties? Robert L. Forward: Dragon's Egg - A civilization evolved on a neutron star. Hard SF, less plot driven, more setting and accuracy focussed. or do you allow interesting concepts, that are engulfed in a gripping narrative? Neal Asher: Spatterjay - extremely well done and 'fleshed out' - pun intended - fauna. my personal SF must-read recommendation ;-) Jack L. Chalker: The Warden Diamond - four planets in one habitable zone, with a catch: once there, you cannot leave. SF classic

Argl! For those of you where the above solution does not work... a) IF you are having difficulties docking with 2xClamp-O-Tron Docking Port Sr. IF you did not read the Wiki then: you should read the Wiki... *facepalm* I feel sooooo stupid, and just wasted >1h getting very frustrated in the end. The senior ports do have two sides, both of which may connect to your vessel during assembly, but only one of which will connect to another docking port. Thought someone should mention this in this thread. Edit: Yes, I did have two ports on my base, was able to use the other one... still, lack of symmetry, center of mass different, lost an hour... bothers me

Launched three Kerbals on a daring tour to Jool. They had plenty of legroom in the hitchhiker storage, four lander modules, several small disposable science probes... and just about enough fuel to either return home or visit one moon. Which of course i only noticed after arrival... That was in 0.24. I since played 0.25 for some weeks - leaving the ship in orbit around Jool. Recently finally decided to visit at least one of the moons, since this would be the last mission in this savegame anyway - loaded, and somehow every single flight in progress was deleted... missing part or something. I think it was the upgrade of Kerbal Engineer Redux from beta to 1.0 that sealed their fate... Still sad about it. So much preparation and the long trip out... and they didn't even set foot on one of the moons :-( Mission Commander Obmore Kerman, you will be missed!

entry one: "Someone" did a slight mistake while trying to send a satellite into a specific orbit. There now is a Kerbileo satellite orbiting in a highly eccentric tour around Kerbin. Its desired orbit is circular at 23,333km x (RL2K-conversion factor) with an inclination of 56°. The craft now swings from more than 2,000 kilometres too high to nearly 10,000 kilometres too low. The orbit is also tilted by about 5 degrees from the intended plane. Please correct this. Thank you. (src: http://www.nature.com/news/wayward-galileo-satellites-could-still-aid-scientists-1.15843) :-D entry two: Rendezvous with Rama An interstellar object is headed into Kerbol's SOI on a hyperbolic trajectory. Meet up with it, "do some science", return home.

http://vimeo.com/110535098 http://myscienceacademy.org/2014/11/03/timelapse-photographer-capturing-the-milky-way-films-giant-fireball-in-the-sky/ snotr is rated as "adult"?!? that is sooo wrong. there's not a single NSFW video on that site... granted, a real time killer, so not exactly good for school computers, but definitively _not_ adult!

http://www.snotr.com/video/14346/Meteor_explosion_Milky_Way_Time_Lapse beautiful! someone installed deadly reentry in RL

O.O They are going to use asparageese (asparagasis?) in RL?!? mind->blown Woah. Did not know that. Awesome! Ok, that seals it, next rocket will have lots of fuel lines and staging errors...

not a good week for spaceflight... :-( ©

I used it for basically everything I ever put into orbit prior to 0.25... but now - playing exclusively in career mode - I have yet to build one. SRB for the win, because... cheaper and stuff. Am I alone? Am I doing something wrong? Do you have a better way? just curious Bonus Question: plural... Asparagi? Asparaguses? Bsparagus? edit: Ohhhkay... 9 pages and the vote seems to be No 34 Yes 22 Rarely 21 Sorry for manual count, still new here, don't know how to post a poll