Jonboy

8,500 m/s should be plenty to get from Kerbin orbit to Eeloo and back if you re-enter Kerbin's atmosphere directly. Of course you need to get that up into orbit. But that actually takes less delta-v than it did pre-1.0, so overall the mission should take less delta-v than before.

No problem! Make sure to change the thread to Answered!

I suspect you are not selecting a fuel mixture for your tanks using RealFuels. Each engine uses one or more fuel mixes, and your options are visible when you right click on a tank. Click "Remove all Tanks" to get rid of the fuel currently in there, and select the appropriate option for the engine you're using, and you should see the Delta-V stats pop up in mechjeb.

Try using the Senior docking ports. They're much more solid and less wobbly.

D'oh! Thanks, not sure how I missed that.

I'm having some trouble. Installed the new RSS on Windows with a 100% fresh KSP install and no other mods. When I reach the KSP start screen, Kerbin is a white globe with no texture. Then, when I start a game, the KSP scene is simply the skybox. There is nothing to click and I can't look around, I'm just floating in space. Any ideas? Edit: I can't read instructions, see below.

"Your" updates? Relax.

Read the OP, there a list of allowed mods.

That's already what NASA is doing re: SpaceX. Dragon Cargo and DragonV2 are being funded through NASA's commercial resupply and crewed contracts. NASA has a contract with SpaceX and OrbitalATK to deliver a certain number of payloads to the ISS. They selected SpaceX and Boeing as the recipients of their crewed contracts, and the companies have to complete certain development milestones to continue receiving money. - - - Updated - - - A lot of people believe that SLS/Orion are pork, funded by Congress to send money to certain districts and the aerospace industrial complex. In addition, they believe that the program lacks clear direction and goals for using such a huge launcher. I happen to agree with them.

Honestly I haven't really used stock ISRU yet. I had plans for a Laythe base with an SSTO that would shuttle fuel to orbit. But because of aerobraking, everything had to fit behind a heat shield, which got complicated.

Ah yes, I think I've heard you mention that one time, Brotoro. Actually a million times. (We really do need it!)

Only saw a UFO once, the night after I ate some really old pizza. I guess you could try that?

Wow, these are some awesome mission reports. I've seen you over in the APP challenge thread, but this is great! Good work.

I don't see a poll. My opinion: KSP is a sandbox game. The devs have made it clear that they won't add weapons in stock, because the focus of the game is on exploration. But it's a sandbox game set in space. Sci-fi space battles are cool, so people are naturally going to have them. I have no problem with it.

Just read through all the reports. This is a super awesome space program! Really inspiring me to try something with scaled up Kerbin or RSS once they're all updated for 1.02! Have some rep.

As a spreadsheet addict, this looks awesome. Not using RemoteTech right now, but this will come in handy next time I do.

People seem to forget just how devastatingly NASA was condemned by the investigations after Challenger and Columbia. And the whole culture of ignoring catastrophic engineering/safety "because it hasn't caused a failure yet" was not improved at all between those two disasters. So if we're talking about NASA's unmanned achievements, I'd say that their reputation bar is very high. We've successfully explored every planet in the solar system with relatively cheap probes. As far as the manned program since Apollo, I'd say their reputation should be pretty low. Real life is not KSP, you can't launch humans into space on death traps just to "see what happens". I'll find it hard to trust NASA with manned spaceflight until they exhibit a serious change in culture (which I see no evidence of to date).

The problem is that countries very rarely act in a "rational", farsighted manner. They do not choose the most "efficient " way to do things. Rather, they are driven by shortsighted self-interest. In the last 8,000 years of human civilization, you will be hard-pressed to find a nation that in the overall greater good. As far as nobody allowing land on Mars to be owned, if colonization is profitable (which is debatable), nations will have great interest in making sure that they CAN control as much of the surface as possible. And since colonization will be limited to whichever nations have the technology to get there and survive, nationalism will most likely continue (unless something drastic occurs to make the nation-state completely obsolete.)

Yes, read the OP. Career/science modes are only needed for the Jebediah Level and you may cheat in as much science/funds as you need to complete the mission

But OP is asking about Shuttle/SLS boosters, which we know will be launched from KSP. The only option for launches at KSP would be on a barge, which would be VERY difficult using only parachutes. Powered landing is out of the question, because there's NO way a solid motor could provide the fine control needed for a soft landing. And even if it were possible, developing this sort of capability would likely cost far more than would be gained by recovery on land instead of water.

Orion had an unmanned orbit and reentry test, SpaceX doesn't plan to do an orbital test of DragonV2 until 2016. Both Launch Escape Systems have been tested successfully, though. I prefer DragonV2's LES, because it is integrated into the capsule, which removes the need for staging. Plus DragonV2 has redundancy for landing. It can land safely on either the SuperDracos or parachutes.

There was a thread about this last week, and many people, including myself, have encountered this. Not sure what causes it, unfortunately.

All my shuttle replicas in 1.02 also require a pretty step decent, with a final pitch up to kill speed. Otherwise you'll drop straight down like a brick.

Well since I bought it back in 2013, it's cost me about a cent and a half per hour of play. Considering a two hour movie can set you back 15 bucks nowadays, I'd say that's a pretty good deal. Even at the current price, you could easily spend that much money on a nice dinner or a night at the club, and you'll only enjoy those purchases for a single night.

A larger budget will not fix NASA, IMO. NASA can and does do amazing things with its current budget (especially doing scientific research with probes and rovers). Because of its relationship with Congress and the "aerospace-industrial complex", NASA often pursues projects that are highly inefficient and pork-barrel in nature. This is a problem enabled by both sides of Congress, so I'm not blaming any party here. But the modern NASA often researches or builds things that are not productive simply to direct funding into a particular congressperson's home district. And I feel, as many do, that NASA's relationship with traditional aerospace companies is a massive waste of resources, because due to the nature of their contacts, these companies make a profit whether or not the project is completed on time or on budget. The Space Shuttle was a great example of this inefficiency and I have no doubt that the SLS will be plagued by the same issues if it survives the next presidential administration. Additionally, after the investigation commissions following the two Space Shuttle disasters, NASA's internal safety infrastructure was exposed as dangerous and ineffective. Despite the magnitude of these issues, there seemed to be no real progress made in solving them in the 17 years between Challenger and Columbia. There is no reason to expect that this track record of poor engineering and administration will not continue with Orion/SLS. So no, I don't agree with you that the issue is more money. But I do agree that change is unlikely to happen in the near future.