Hotel26

This will be my smallest kind of low-orbit fuel dump (and reason for it is Classified:Unknown). Pictured are: an Asterisk, four Orangutans and two Sparrows, all brought up by my new Blister lifter. I'm still tuning the Blister re-entry, so the practice runs are fun.

That's OK; I was kind of musing out loud... I'll get to the bottom of it, because that's a great map. And I can still use it in the browser.

You did a good job. I felt sure you were going to lose a wing somewhere during that turbulence but you held it together!

It is strange that I downloaded this yesterday and was able to see it and zoom in on it. Today, I cannot. Linux Mint/Image Viewer (xviewer). Reloaded from the source and same thing. I'm digging in to find out what is going on. All I can see now is a black-and-white checkered pattern. The file/pixel stats look correct. Hmm... (Firefox opens the file OK, too.) The only thing I've done in between is expanded /swapfile from 2G to 8G.

Very nice job. I'm gonna go fly it and see how this feels. (I had been avoiding AoA > 0 to avoid the heat from the extra drag but it's a kind of "immunization", I suppose!) I sense an argument in the greater reliability of returning a craft to the KSC that a spaceplane has, in The Great Rocket vs Spaceplane debate. (Not that I want to re-open worms for supper... ) "It's the Fun, silly!"

Excellent work! This was a tough one and You, Esteemed Adventurer, are the very first to solve this particular puzzle. Maybe others will now follow in your footsteps. We look forward, also, to your very own first Discovery! Bon chance.

I live in a modern city with population of 1.5M that is pretty much like any other western city of that size. However, because it's located at the furthest end of the planet, only 3 cases of COVID-19 have been reported (last I checked). Nevertheless, my company (impressively) announced this morning it is suspending travel and requiring all employees to work at home until Easter; at which time the company will close for two weeks. Today, at school, my son's math teacher said he thought the public school system should close now while it is still early. No sign of it doing so, yet. "The greatest shortcoming of the human race is the inability to understand the exponential function.", Dr Albert Bartlett Personal action is always the most reliable action. So for me, hygiene: especially at home!

@Chequers Great job on that landing!! (I'm sure it was a thrill.)

You didn't mention how nice your airplane is! (It is very nice!)

The TP syndrome doesn't bother me in the slightest and I'm not going to try to mull the reasons for it, either. Why would a rational person expect there to be no 'irrational' behavior in the world?[1] We ordered a reasonable supply of longevitous food on Friday from the supermarket goliath here and it was delivered here at home this Sunday morning at 6:30 am. We did this in anticipation of a coming lock-down or self-quarantine. Hardly a panicked action and now we have less reason to have to panic later. I'm also asking my wife to absolutely minimize trips to the supermarket. She wondered why it was so crowded and very few were using self-serve. I wouldn't want to touch a screen there unless I was carrying a bottle of hand sanitizer. But neither would I want to stand in line. I think any panic behavior being exhibited is not about the risk of catching coronavirus, but is in response to the containment measures being applied and because the way we have globalization structured. And I'm somewhat frustrated. But I don't think it is rational for me to expect anything different, so quiet frustration is the order of the day. I'm frustrated because I just accept that I will become infected with coronavirus this year. (For one thing, I have a school age son.) It will make me sick but it likely won't kill me, even though I am in the higher-end of the risk spectrum (age). The second-most likely thing that will happen to me this year is that I will have an interruption in work and/or permanent unemployment (due to age). This because of the economic impact of the measures chosen to 'contain' this disease. If that happens, I may wish I was dead (rather than, say, homeless). Even if we are buying time e.g. to find a vaccine, we are likely to now be living with coronavirus forever (unless we get lucky with mutations). Meanwhile, harsh to say, we are spreading the pain from the vulnerable to the whole world -- and for what is likely, in my estimation, to be a net negative outcome.[2] And we are unlikely to learn anything about our global networks; just-in-time, single-source manufacturing; the monopoly in the production of pharmaceuticals; the dubious existence of bio-security labs or the inherent fragility of infrastructure in high-density metropolises. How about some firewalls? Still not palatable, are they? [1] or that breaking legs or knocking out teeth [see Twitter above on the previous page] is going to make for a better world? [c.f. 20th century] [2] the impact of these measures adversely affect the elderly, too: especially in regard of supply of medicines upon which they rely

Easy, guy! Just cool your jets and we'll all get along fine. Yeah, I know I just broke some kind of rule. Couldn't help it: citing "irresistible opportunity for humor".

You have the Right Stuff!! Your upcoming promotion is well-deserved! Hello, @juniorss828. Welcome to the forum! I think you mean Pegasus 4, above? Builds usually take me about 15-30 minutes, with testing/tuning after that taking lots more time. This build took longer because I am a beginner with robotics. And even more time, wasted trying to put a ladder on what I thought was a Mk3 cabin but was actually a Mk3 fuel tank. You know that ain't going to work! In KSP v1.7.3, the Kraken do indeed find the combination of a) robotics and b) claws truly a delicacy! So I had to shelve Peg 4 (as 4K) until I get to v1.9.1 or some version where that combination works. Meanwhile, I made a more conventional version and reverted to my old crock of carrying an attachment (Bowser) under the belly of the transporter: Very silly. It permits docking with visiting aircraft and with the Invader rover pictured (included with Pegasus 4). It can transfer/accommodate crew as well as fuel. I have finally turned my research to Orange Tank technology. (This has been coming a long time!). I couldn't resist shortening the working title of "Orange Tank" to "Orange Tan". And then to the final Orangutan. Extremely silly. My assistants think that OT tech is futile and pointless. (There's a reorg coming up in their ranks, I'd say... (especially after the mistake with ladders)) OT is a standard test payload, you see. It features self-deorbiting for recovery. Whichever craft comes to dock with it and take the last of its fuel merely has to point it retrograde and use the "Abort" key to undock, fire the sepatrons and arm the chutes. Just make sure you're attached to the right end!! Not really what the surface denizens wish to see hurtling back at them from space every day, but for some reason, Kerbin still remains relatively under-populated. Meanwhile, I'm working on (i.e. "playing with") a recoverable, medium-scale lifter. The blueprints are Classified:Stolen, so no pics for legal reasons.

Musing... A. I've always improvised the "gravity turn" throughout my career until somewhat recently. I've discovered that you can encode a gravity turn with a single number, V, at which speed you pitch down to the perimeter of the yellow prograde marker (5 deg?), HOLD for prograde to catch up, then SAS Prograde. As long as the time to apoapsis keeps increasing, you're good. V=90 m/s for just about every case, with the biggest variation being necessary in the case in which your payload has wings, which will be applying a de-stabilizing force during the lower part of the ascent. B. I'm currently experimenting with a novel(?) approach to the second-phase re-entry burn (at 55km above Tobruk, to tune the final approach trajectory). NOTE: this is for highly fragile craft!! Burn retro to decelerate to a guaranteed safe speed for re-entry (as low as 1,200 m/s, in one case!) and then turn Radial Out and burn to flatten the trajectory back out to intersect the target environs. I'm also fooling with pinpoint return of pure rockets. I'd be happy with the KSC green or, failing that, a splash-down as close to the shore as I can get it. New territory for me.

How do those fins on the Reuso work? That is to say, how come they appear to be just planks? These are to control a retrograde re-entry/descent, isn't it? Why aren't they more "finny"? Pardon my sudden curiosity!

because they're in KerbalX. I'm quite sure of it. And/or CKAN... E.g. a Browning machine gun: https://kerbalx.com/KAS/M2-Browning-Machine-Gun-50-Cal-Mounted-Heavy-Barrel "You can get anything you want, at Kerbals' Restaurant..."

You will need tractor beams. (And possibly a Black Hole projector...)

Passing people to people, who usually control their own local temp: all the same 11C is still very chilly. People tend to live more around the 24C range for comfort, don't they? (So I did raise eyebrows about that one...) All the same, I understand the seasonal variation for respiratory infections is a fact.

Sorry. (all sheepish). I am surprised that just getting focus on it and then applying warp (it's in space, right), wouldn't halt the rotation...?

Hmm, big problem. I do believe though that the ASAT technology to solve your problem may have been researched/deployed last year. Try this:

Yes, yes, yes, but what about KSP sales...?

Yes, I actually have played with the gear speed limit self-imposed since my first KSP airplane, except of course, I can retract during, say, a go-around. I use 150 m/s and it is very, very generous! It's not so much for 'realism' as to enforce good approach planning and to prevent myself getting lazy and using the gear as airbrakes to save an approach. VLE: see V-speeds I really do hope pilots get interested in this challenge because Wangari Maathai has a kind of Coffin Corner that will break the mould for lots of "standard" procedures. If you enter too steeply, you risk 1. burning up, 2. auguring into the ground or 3. pulling the wings off. If you don't enter too steeply, you will likely just 1. burn up. I do think it requires a novel approach to land. But I am not sure I have it entirely figured out, either. At least, I haven't fully tested how reliable my theory is in performance. WM appears to present a Puzzle fit for a Mastermind? It would be most interesting to see what people come up with.

I will say this about space planes: the world has far too many of them for its needs. And very many of those are useless 1-seat wonders... (But can we please think of this as a testament to how much fun they are!?) I have to say I like the VLHR class too. I spied someone's rocket with rather large tail fins and the owner's comment that it couldn't be landed horizontally: So, some wheels and an aerodynamic tune-up... This is my light-weight lifter. It's designed for outlandings on the next continent east, too, after propelling loads near its max lifting capacity to apoapsis , but relying on those loads to finish their own circularization. I guess this is my idea of how to bring a rocket back down on a runway. It has a lot of Spunk for a bantam-weight lifter.

OK. Now I have to try that. It sounds like Fun!

I spent a considerable amount of time experiencing frustration over Mk3 hatches and ladders. (Details don't matter...) On a whim, I built Pegasus 4, which is, yes, the fourth in a series. This one has robotics, though. It's a mobile camp/fuel dump, capable of transferring fuel/pax between itself and other (smaller) vessels. It generally should be able to get the docking boom over a wing of another, bigger craft. (Even if the pilot has to retract the nose gear to do it...) I haven't actually tested that -- and it wouldn't surprise me if the Kraken eat it for breakfast.

Others too have touched on this and also the wider issue of spaceplanes versus rockets. Can't recall anyone mentioning Fun yet. I say, "Spaceplanes are Fun. Landing at KSC is a challenge. Challenges build skill. And using skill is Fun. We play KSP for Fun. Quod est demonstrandum. Each to one's own..."