Xyphos

I love wub-wub. so I <3 Radio or http://www.trancefm.com (no, I'm not trying to advertise, either.)

I was going to suggest a magnetic coil, but @RainDreamer beat me to it. the only difference, my version would have been backwards; the vessel rides the rail down to the ground first, then magnetically brakes.

YEP, that did it. thanks. this is kind of a weird bug feature.

The super-big rover wheels, I have 6 of them on each side of my giant mobile drilling rig on Minmus, but shortly after landing, I discovered that it can only move forwards or backwards and refuses to turn. any suggestions? I'm using 1.1.2 btw.

I want to make a simple editor plugin that can remove all struts (and optionally fuel ducts) from a vessel, I know C# but I'm clueless on how to make the plugin. The reason for wanting to remove them is that sometimes they go astray, needlessly increase the part count and/or become obsoleted.

...and a magical garden hose that defies the 2nd law of thermodynamics in which it can transfer unlimited amounts of fuel without restrictions.

xyphos@ubuntu: sudo rm -rf /*

Remind me to never fly Northwest. I used to be a push-back driver, when I was in my 20's - that aircraft is supposed to be attached to a tow-bar on the nose gear and pushed out with a "tug" tractor - pilots cannot see what's directly behind them, and that little stunt they just pulled was super-risky.

Alt+F4 fixes all problems.

For the steam version, opt-out of the beta program, should update to 1.1.2

yeah, it's about 150 dV lost, for every km or so. rough guestimation. but, imagine if your rocket was lifted to 10km by an octo-copter, or your spaceplane flew that high with wings and a fan; the dV lost to the atmosphere would be gained in terms of lift, where rockets become better suited, then dV isn't much of an issue. the idea is almost as crazy as dropping a rapier-powered vessel from a big balloon at high altitudes

Eve has a very dense atmosphere, rockets tend to loose effectiveness in atmospheric conditions due to the pressure pushing back on the thrust. this causes the rocket to loose both thrust and ISP (the efficiency measurement) Although possible to return to Eve's orbit from sea-level using rockets, it's definitely not efficient or practical, which is why I suggest a new engine type, rocket powered fans (or even helicopter rotors) to bring the vessel up to an altitude where rockets would be better suited. DISCLAIMER: I do not claim to be an aerospace engineer, I'm just a guy who likes to tinker with things, and play sandbox games.

okay, well... rocket-powered fan it is then. whatever. the idea is that ISP on Eve at sea-level wouldn't be as efficient as flying a fan-powered plane to a certain altitude where normal rockets could then be used.

Exactly. non-airbreathing jet engine. it uses Liquid Fuel + Oxidizer (LFO) to power a fan to compress the surrounding atmosphere into a source of thrust.

I meant, LFO in a combustion chamber to power a large fan in which the atmospheric pressure can be converted into thrust. imagine the 2.5m jet engine, but not air-breathing; it's LFO fueled but uses the surrounding atmosphere as a primary reaction mass. this would make for a space-plane takeoff, where the atmosphere gets thinner and you can switch to normal rockets.

I already knew that. but that's not what I meant. I meant, LFO in a combustion chamber to power a large fan in which the atmospheric pressure can be converted into thrust.

Eve has always made me wonder about the possibility of a new engine type: rocket-powered turbines; it uses LFO fuel to power a turbine and uses the Atmosphere for extra thrust at low altitudes.

I meant, practical as in reusable, not every vessel will be able to dock with that on the ground, but every vessel can dock in orbit.

Sorry, I apologize, I'm an Engineer, not an artist so the image below is pretty abstract and not to scale. I've had problems in the past whilst jettisoning the inflatable heat shield and I've came up this this concept, I've only tested it once, and it worked but I didn't take screenshots, so I had to draw this image.

Play sandbox, career is for chumps. Try to keep it stock if possible, mod parts may be used if a stock version of it doesn't exist. Try to avoid using fuel ducts and/or asparagus fuel routing, it seems just unrealistic, in the terms of energy/mass conservation laws. Try to avoid clipping parts together, structural elements are OK to clip, but never put 8 fuel tanks in the same exact spot as another. If if didn't work the first time, add more boosters.

sure, it can be done in stock, but it's definiately not practical.

Surface Bases are overrated imho. You're better off putting a refinery in orbit and a drilling shuttle on the surface; that way, you can keep it 100% stock, dock with the orbital refinery to refuel and off you go.

R.S.U.V. - Rapiers Suck, Use Vectors.

Build something big with symmetry, part count around 400 or so enable symmetry mode and attempt to clone a part instead, you misclick and end up cloning something else the whole game is now frozen for 5 minutes while the editor attempts to clone all those parts add another 5 minutes each time the mouse is moved as the editor attempts to adjust the cloned locations terminate KSP out of frustration from the task manager, play a different game until you calm down. Suggestion: have an option in the settings menu, before the editor begins to clone something over N parts, have a confirmation dialog appear to prevent the editor from needlessly locking up