Hotel26

I highly value this thread: it recently alerted me to the opportunity to watch the fascinating IFT3 launch live. (Thank you, tater.) Comparatively speaking... "Apollo was just engineers showing off." Life was excruciatingly slow in the aerospace lane back then. (I say this as someone who watched the original Moon landing, live, as a very excited/amazed 14 year-old.) After 1969, the next time I got excited about anything in space was the 2016 arrival/capture of Juno at Jupiter. I didn't even know it had been sent (in 2011). Effectively no one cares about the details of mickey-mouse "science" experiments at the other end of the solar system, anyway. "Scientists amusing themselves at everyone else's expense" . Photographers, too. Now, with SpaceX, exciting and ambitious rocketry experiments are being performed just about as fast as can be humanly imagined. I can't get enough. Yes, I wish SpaceX would hurry up: I relish the stimulation! Truthfully, I do not care whether any SpaceX launch appears to succeed or fail. Perfection is just an idol when you understand the true opportunity costs -- and it's a paymaster that pays only every five years, at a very minimum. "I lived in the 1960s. It was OK, I suppose, but I absolutely do not wish to return there!!" (Like watching snails painting their nails.) I'm betting most normal people agree with me on this. (And in case it hasn't come across, everything SpaceX' current competitors are doing is thoroughly boring[truth]. I don't follow those zombie programs. There are other threads for those, in any case (hint).)

On the drawing board, destined for Duna, but (though it does fly there) maybe not enough wing area... It's a pity because it flies really well/economically on Kerbin. (M0.86 on 0.02/s LFOX.) Still tinkering...

Every now and again in this forum: paydirt! Thanks for the above insight. (SFC Rad Out) 137.4E on the Mun. And I happen to already have an 8 drill-rig combine ("Snowflake") right at 139E on a pad with high-grade ore. It's a small site now, but the next thing that happens is a swarm of bulldozers will be landed followed by everything else required to build a major spaceport.

Getting into swing with Eeloo now. About to land my first (booststrap) mining rig: I have a medium-scale miner called Goblin arriving in just 62 days, but it will not have sufficient ergs for capture. Plenty of time to prepare a waiting Mule tug to perform the old "catcher's mitt" trick, though!

Yes. https://kerbalx.com/Hotel26/KISS (from 2020) Although it stands for "Keep It Simple, Stupid" in my case. And it didn't start from the 'KSS Module', so-called.

On Mod-L and when not to rely on it (not ever): Currently at Mission Control commanding the Mission Director's chair, preparing to aerobrake and eventually deorbit and land Outpost Jr, a deep-space vehicle returning home from a long sojourn just outside the Kerbin SOI from where it aids in plotting the timing/planning of interplanetary transfers. (One at Kerbin's leading edge for outward transfer maneuver plotting and another at the trailing edge for inward transfers.) The observant reader will note its propulsion section, which is retained for the whole mission until near the very end, deep in the atmosphere, when slowing to chute speed. When I turned to Lt Cmdr. Pembrook Kerman and sweetly enquired why the connecting Papa dock is not listed in the staging queue, he responded (just as sweetly, with a hint of cheerful triumph): "Your orders, Sir!! You might recall that, at design time, you specifically stated: 'to heck with Mod-L Stage Lock, Lt Cmdr! You know as well as I do that it has to be re-applied at the start of every command upload sequence... and we have now lost count of the number of tragic, premature ejections that have ruined missions in deep space! Let's just manually stage this one when we are good and ready, hey!!?'" Danged if the Lt Cmdr didn't quote me word for word, too[1], from over a year back, but my irrefutable wisdom still made sense to me so I settled for a mild "Thank you, Lt Cmdr; that will be all" accompanied by a laconic salute for (coffee break) dismissal (with my usual two-finger indication for strong black with extra sugar). "MAKE IT SO!!", I bellowed unnecessarily to nobody and everybody in particular. (Again sweetly, with a lilt) "Stage away!". [1] a day later, I had the security team search everybody coming on to my shift (for hidden voice recorders) just to keep everybody on their toes. I run a tight ship and brook no insolence.

Thank you for pointing this out. For those wondering, the correct spelling is "compatible". A "complete" pass searching for spelling and grammatical errors was made through all of KerbalX a couple of years ago. Katateochi graciously fixed everything reported and it was a real improvement to the site. It's evident to me now that pop-up dialogs were missed in the conduct of that search. This was my oversight and I apologize for it. The likelihood (in my estimation) is that errors of this stature are unlikely to be rectified in the near/medium term, but please do feel welcome to report them. "I feel your pain." (Regulatory terminatory quip.)

Another option is any variation on: Period Shown as 4y 23d 5h 12m 17.5s 4y 23.9d 23d 5h 12m 17.5s 23d 5.2h 5h 12m 17.5s 5h 12.3m 12m 17.5s 12m 17.5s 17.5s 17.5s A simpler variation would be 4.06y for the first row, for example. (Just use (e.g. 3 significant figures) decimal with the most significant unit present.) Another variation drops the decimal: e.g. 23d 5h or 4y 24d (rounding) (I think this is likely what @Skorj had in mind.)

Btw, I love your concept.

Yep. I use Harpoon for my Electroglide (now Elektra)... So size is no object [fine print: as long as it fits in the largest size fairing]... I have found also that using a "reverse booster" of whatever size is required is an adequate and uncomplicated way to take any moderate payload mass down to the surface. (I have recycled dozens of boosters to Eve for this purpose over the years. ) My notes on the Eve Descent Profile: decelerate to 2 km/sec in order to deorbit reaching 70-75km, decelerate to 1.2 km/s (extend airbrakes if available) reaching 50 km, decelerate to 800 m/s by 40km

After starting the Orbit program in January, 2018, I finally begin development of Eve. Since I happened to notice that Elektra's initial landing site was close to Milkrun, which landed on Feb 3, I decided to run over and rescue Cergel Kerman. (Elektra "kneels" for embarcation!)

OK. This is Elektra. 168.5 m/s at 6.6km (without any attempt to fly higher yet, since my destination is Mauve Mountain, 167E). The nice thing, too, with counter-rotating props, is that it is stable with SAS and/or Atmospheric Autopilot. Yay. That makes long trips so much shorter. Only concern is the contrails from the props. They are so short, I didn't punch them in as directed since they would have almost disappeared. That may mean that the tips have gone transsonic and are causing drag...?

Excellent and very helpful information from all. Thank you! All others welcome to describe their own experience/insights... I will report back to this topic when I have a satisfactory result (or more specific questions). Cheers!

May 1961, JFK set a decade-long goal to do something never before done by mankind; only ever dreamed about. It was achieved but not in his own lifetime. The vision and the result inspired and energized the whole world. Today we live in a collective hive-mind world. Visionaries, especially billionaires who have the wherewithal to drive their own ideas forward, are hated and reviled by little thinkers.

Not sure where to ask this -- but: I would like to find out what is possible, speed-wise, on Eve. I have finally landed my first propeller airplane on Eve, Electroglide. It carries 6 and currently I am seeing 76 m/s @ 5.2 km. It's just a bit slow for exploration of a big, old, nboring, purple planet like Eve. So, I'd like to know what the state of art is. What is the fastest anyone has traveled through the atmosphere on Eve in a conventional electric prop airplane? (I do prefer e.g. 6 seats rather than the usual 1-seat solution, but I suppose the latter has its place.) Electroglide: UPDATE: I've found one that is claimed to fly at 128 m/s. Might be able to adapt its propulsion scheme... https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/topic/197265-solar-electric-eve-plane/

That's a lot further than Starship 2, and I rather think that NASA (or whomever is the regulating authority) doesn't have any ground for delays based on this flight. That would mean the pace is likely to only accelerate. Probably the most impressive thing about this test is that SpaceX were ready and responsive to go as soon as the "paperwork" was ready.

40m or so...(?) Ah T+40...

So far, no "paperwork" with unplanned debris...??!!

I wish my clock in KSP advanced in strict real time like that. "1 per second", right on time.

(Update coming soon)

Well if you wanted a low pass of Jool, it looks like your Laythe assist did the job! You're just going to have to handle the exit so that you don't fly out of the system completely. But that is a cool chellenge because... ...if you're flying that close to Jool, it will be great for a fine tune to magnify another assist later. Since you will have just passed Tylo and Laythe on one side, I think Vall (depending on where it is) will be your only candidate. Any chance?

Hi Andrew, Gravity assists are a topic of interest to me at the moment. Your screen shot (in YouTube) is not super legible at that (or any) scale. Mainly, I don't see your craft's proposed trajectory. Most people use imgur to post images to the KSP forum. (If you go this route, all you need to know is to select the Direct Link for the image and then paste that into your KSP post.) Good luck! P.S. I'm looking at your video now to see if it gives me any further info... maybe at the very end in which you cross in front of Laythe with a periapsis of 400+ km? That looks definitely productive, altho closer in would work more strongly. However, it looks like you're getting a boost from a low periapsis at Jool that is slinging you out again. Note that pilots in general like using Tylo mainly because it's more massive but possibly also because it's further out from Jool. In any case, in my meager knowledge, the entry angle always seems to dictate your range of possibilities and one has to be prepared to abandon the idea if the opportunity just does not gel...

I have a theory now, that if I were to disconnect the toilet, turn it over and examine the bottom[sic] of it, I'd find the inscription "Made in China". Made for international export, it's just easier to put two buttons on all export items, but without the extra internal plumbing necessary to make it work in countries that do not require it. Because no rain ever falls on this sunburnt country, we make all our own water using solar-driven desalination plants. Thus, instead of "saving" or "conserving" water, we "sequester" it; doing our part to combat the inexorable rise of sea levels [why isn't that singular?] on behalf of the world's flood-threatened populations [ditto]. No need to thank us; you're welcome.

Might have been reported already (I cannot tell)... I've noticed that two recent deployments of the Open Hangars have a problem in that the port side hangar may not be entered. You bump into a collider(?). The only thing I think I've done differently is used World reference (rather than Self) in the Group and Decals... Is this a known problem? Else, what gives? (@Caerfinon) (This is possibly alternatively an underlying problem in Kerbal Konstructs, I'm aware.)

Here in Oz, where I live, toilets work differently. Maybe. tl;dr the difference between the Big Button and the Little Button is only psychological. Starting with the obvious, when you flush them, the water spins in a different direction. That might just be federal law, like the side of the road we drive on, although I recall long ago in a physics class something called 'coriolis'. I dunno. But we (most people) don't know much about these ingenious devices and we certainly take them for granted. For example, what should we do if the water gets shut off for any extended period of time (3 months, say)...? The modern device was invented by Sir Thomas Crapper and the Queen was so pleased with her first installation of his device that she ordered him beknighted[sic]. (The fact checkers squeal about this one; pretty much confirmatory, though, in my book. Real facts would pretty much put them out of business. (What even is their business model??)) Moving forward, I recently ran the first in a series of simple experiments (remniscent of that dude dropping projectiles off the roof of a high-rise in Pisa, Italy, for which he got arrested, after being reported by a couple of alarmed tourists in the square below, who narrowly missed being struck). We have here in Oz (and I feel very sure this is federal law) two buttons on the master console of our toilets (at least, if you're a city dweller). I pressed each, counted out 1-1000, 2-1000, 3-1000 while it irrigated... allowed the 'cistern' to refill and repeated a number of times (almost certainly in violation of federal law!?). So, guess what? 'Little button': six-1000s. 'Big button': six-1000s. Visual observation roughly indicated the same volume of water dispensed by each. Hmmm... OK, second experiment, with everything primed and ready to go: I pushed the 'little button' and let the contents completely expel. As soon as it had completely 'flushed', I then pressed the 'big button', expecting to get the second half... And guess what? OK, so my conclusion so far is that we may have a defective toilet. So, third experiment proposed will be to repeat the same on the other two toilets in my house. My wife will likely veto this due to already-mounting concern about our water bill. (She also thinks I have way too much time on my hands these days.) Open disclosure: I've always used the Big Button. Only now, under pressure (of the water bill), have I made the resolution to find out what the Little Button does. Depending upon the result, I may then have to consider a decision to "go public" with my findings. Or ask a professional "fact-checker" to investigate...