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Uhura Kerman? :-D

next-gen Fat-Boys©! I'd buy one. air bags for cars. depending on size, gaming keyboards with really smooth key press feel. f*cking mosquito swatters. fall protection for breakable expensive stuff. like mobiles/cell phones, glasses, watches, me... shock absorbers for high-end turn tables... a free floating dark side of the moon record? anyone?

Well, since it is possible - and often the desired outcome - of an inclination change to give you an NaN as ascending node value, i assume it is not technically a bug per se. It seems, your ship/probe/base/planet was somehow reduced to a very very tiny version of itself... so tiny, that the resulting calculations result in either extremly high or very very close to zero results. So in all likelihood you, sir, divided by zer... Oh Shiiiiiiii

In space only Scott Manley can hear you scream. (movie reference for us old farts)...

well, the interesting part is in the last leg of the novel. i don't want to spoiler it, so i can't be specific, but the flight path of the Hermes will be tricky to recreate... especially if you want to go for the two refuelling missions around Kerbin. (i probably can do the first one :-D) and the last maneuver? you really think this is doable in KSP?

YES! This! Depending on how well you performed during the mission, how brave and/or stupid they are...

yeeeeeessss.... in theory you could go to Duna in a 100ton ship with a single Ion engine and lots of patience... but you would need to burn several times at PE. doing lots and lots of Kerbin orbits... and then hit the right ejection angle at precisely the right time. I have no clue how to plan this kind of maneuver in KSP. If someone could tell me, I'd be happy to try it... until then? TWR it is. :-)

careful, they will in all likelihood burn during reentry. can't find the thread right now, but someone claimed, that chutes have four stages a) packed and waiting for staging (good) staged (active, not yet deployed. may burn during reentry!) c) deployed (moderate drag) d) open

only made it to Duna successfully so far (twice). my Jool mission was eaten by some bug or other, but they didn't have enough fuel to return anyway :-( © good old days. (pre-v1.0) currently struggling in career to get enough science to get the claw to get my Mun lander back to base, which has enough science to get the claw to... hmpf. BTW, is aerobreaking on Jool still a thing with the v1.0(.2) aero?!? I mean, my previous ship wasn't really aerodynamically build, wasn't required pre-v.10...

Can we pull a Felix Baumgartner v2.0? LKO EVA -> de-orbit via jetpack -> splash down -> be alive enough to be recovered... I do know, that a Kerbal can survive the reentry heating. (though not landing in the mountains. poor Erike) I do know, that a Kerbal can survive a 40m/s splash down. (damn you, non-fireproof parachutes) Is there enough monopropellant to slow down sufficiently? Will there ever be personal parachutes? Will there ever be a mod that allows Kerbals to go fishing? -- there i am, proud employer of two kerbals returning from LKO... without a ship. and of course i got ninjae'd _and_ one-upped: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/122171-Kerbals-too-tough-%28EVA-self-rescue-from-munar-orbit%29 kudos for that stunt!

What about strategies? You can easily cash in a lot(*) of science by converting funds from survey contracts. As for the "horizontal rocket" argument: So what? Launch a plane (think 'Sänger') as a first stage. Granted, juggling the two vessels after separation will be tricky, but hey, that's what you asked for. -- (*) granted, you would have to do a lot of contracts, but hey, you will be doing these anyways, right?

2) no videos of him eating - There will be, once he gets hungry. With his fuel efficiency this is expected to happen somewhere 2018.

ah, sorry. misunderstood you question. then yes, pilots are the most easily replaced specialization of the three. if you can live without having to automacigally find the right spot on your navball - which only takes a few seconds tops. but think about your poor passengers, would Bob and Bill really accept leaving for a two years Duna mission without Jebediah? I mean, pilots are not strictly necessary, but the human... err kerbal touch of it just feels right (unless you are flying with Andreas L.) ;-)

Crew Reports! EVA Reports! Surface Samples (after unlocking those) taking the experiment out of goo canisters and junior labs, so you do not have to return those heavy things from Mun... Pushing... getting out and pushing the return pod sometimes really is the only way to get home... rarely, but it does work. planting flags!

And Scott Manley has done a nice introduction/walkthrough for early career mode on his channel: it's well worth the time to watch. the tricycle for doing the KSC science stuff is called "Cheating One" in my save, though :-D

I assume the spirit of the challenge would forbid us to bring mining equipment? Even if it is stock as of v1.0?

old post (2013), search function failed me, so here it is again(?). (no sound(*)) Woah.... That is a lot of debris out there... from just one collision. found it today via http://listverse.com/2015/05/13/10-spectacular-satellite-collisions/ (not all are "spectacular") -- (*): it's realistic, because it's in spaaaaace... or my speaker broke

The Mk1-Command Pod already has a rounded bottom in its model... supposedly this was standing for the integrated heatshield... now that we do have actual heatshields, shouldn't the pod get a flat bottom? currently it looks kinda weird when you stick an additional heatshield below that - especially if you make it detachable (unnecessary, but cool to jettison when the parachute deploys) :-D

Good: 1.0 Wooooohoooo!!!! Bad: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! I took a break for a couple of months, started last week again. Got my career to about the point where i stupidly upgraded a building with th last of my credits. so i had 5770 credits left and no free contract slots. took me the whole evening to clobber together na craft able to complete the survey missions, used 5640 cr to launch... sooo proud *g* this morning: v1.0 and i have to start all over again. *sigh*

Cool read!!! thanks. Check the ESA videos on this topic, too: (11min) Ascent (20min) Docking (20min) Undocking/Return

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."