Terwin

I suppose it depends on what you consider abandoned. I have Scansats around Kerbin, Mun, and Minmus that have finished their planned mapping duties and are sitting in orbit waiting for 'gather science in space over' contracts(thermometer and Gravioli detector on each of them just for this purpose). Similar satellites are currently around Moho, Gilly and heading to Duna(~ 10 days?), Jool(~200 days away), and Dres(~ 4 min from ejection burn) (Eeloo scan-sat launch to commence after the Dres ejection) In previous games I have more neglected abandonments: Jeb along with 2 tourists in an orbital tourist ship that does not have enough fuel to avoid burning up during reentry, waiting on the development of the Klaw for a rescue(In a Caveman game which I will probably not return to now that it is complete) An extensive scattering of 'Mun Bomb' probes landed on various mun biomes in a few Caveman games. An eve probe with an electrically powered propeller for propulsion and several science instruments landed on Eve in a 0.90 game(abandoned after visiting several biomes) 'Automated fuel stations' on Ike, Gilly, Minmus, Moho and occasionally other bodies in various 1.0 games (the 'automated delivery' component was Deprecated before 1.1) In previous games I have also abandoned a variety of surface probes(generally consisting of a service bay, solar panels, probe core, reaction wheel, antenna, and one or more science experiments, ejected from a manned lander for future 'science landed on' missions) I don't consider spent stages to be abandoned, more fully utilized and discarded (unless they still have fuel for some reason).

I am pretty sure I have never used the Mk 1-2 cockpit, anything that is not done with a 1.25m part is usually done with the Mk3 cockpit, or, occasionally Mk2 parts. I currently have a ship returning from Duna with 2 crew in a Mk3 cockpit(and more crew in a science lab in the back) I also have a ship heading out to Jool with 2 crew in the Mk3 cockpit. I have never gotten a space-plane to orbit, but I still use the Mk3 cockpit on every 'large' rocket I launch. The rocket equation makes dry mass the primary optimization value for almost every ship to be launched, for a part to be useful from an engineering design standpoint, it needs to have benefits over other parts that serve a similar function. I do not find the Mk1-2 cockpit to have compelling benefits over the Mk3 cockpit, so I do not use it.

I can see a lot of purpose to a SSTO that requires surface refueling on Eve/Lathe/Tylo and can deliver base components large enough to include a full mining rig(Drill, ISRU, Probe core, and presumably some sort of mobility and docking/klaw) You can use it to build surface bases one module at a time.(starting with ISRU of course so you can get back to orbit) On Minmus this is the standard approach for filling orbital fuel bases.(land, fuel up, launch)

Something else to keep in mind: Unused docking ports create lag. (on the order of unused ports * parts in physics bubble) I think in 1.1.3 docking ports are still examining each part in the physics bubble each frame to check for anything it needs to dock with. As such, even a relatively small core component with lots of docking ports can cost frame-rate, and it will only get worse if you bring things along side for docking.

All software development is a subset of CS(Computer Science, which generally also includes firmware and hardware)

If you have >1.0 TWR at Eve sea level, and ISRU, you can land a sea level, refuel, fly somewhere higher, refuel, etc, until you launch for orbit from Eve's highest peak. Would this still count as SSTO? No staging events happen...

Edit: Forgot to update the in-save-game config. Just leaving this here in case someone else searches the forums for the same problem. ------ I just wanted a quick sanity check before I start uninstalling/reinstalling mods looking for some sort of conflict: under GameData\UmbraSpaceIndustries I have: FX, Kolonization, Kontainers, LifeSupport, Reactor Pack, and UKS directories I have updated LifeSupport\Settings.cfg and UKS\USI-LS.cfg so that NoHomeEffect = 0 and NoHomeEffectVets = 0 As far as I am aware, this should disable the habitation/home sickness portion of USI-LS, but I just had a Duna mission go all-tourist on me(including vets), and my Jupiter mission looks like it has about 21 days left before it does the same thing... Setting BaseHabTime = 100 in both files does not seem to have helped, even when loading a saved ship in the VAB. This looks a lot like I missed a config file, but I did not see one in any of the other USI subdirectories that referenced these values, are there other, non-life support mods that are known to have these values set as well? (note: I manually deleted, downloaded and reinstalled the LifeSupport and UKS subdirectories, so I am fairly sure this is not a CKAN related error) (If someone else who uses MKS and USI-LS can please verify 'Yep, that looks like it should work' I'll copy my save directory and start building up from a clean install to see if I can find the source of the problem, but I would rather not start that process if I just forgot to update another config file) Thanks. ------ Edit: I forgot that the config is also saved in the save file, so that was the config file I failed to update. updating that using the in-game UI fixed the Jupiter mission and I'll edit away the grouchy/Tourist in the persistence file to fix the Duna mission...

Third Caveman 1.1(.3) attempt: Moderate, much the same as the normal game, just a few more mun probes and no bothering with airplanes or most contracts. I was a little concerned that my polar mun probes might not be able to land as I did not change the inclination until I was in the Mun SOI, but there turned out to be enough d-v for everything to work out. http://imgur.com/a/OT4lA

Probably my biggest uncorrected fail would be when my grand tour hauled an asteroid into low Tylo orbit for refueling after achieving or bit, only to discover that if the ship was light enough to lift off from the surface, it did not have enough fuel to reach orbit. I loaded a pre-landing save and resumed my partial tour, but Lathe and Tylo are still on my list of 'never visited with a Kerbal' (Eve is the only other member of that list) More recently, I Was trying to deliver a refueling base to Moho in preparation for a manned mission, but it did not have enough fuel to land. The first fuel tanker was too aggressive and did not have enough remaining fuel to meet up with the refueling base. The second one did not look to be much better. The third tanker seemed to be on a much better approach(stopping by the Eve fuel station for a refill), but the second tanker actually arrived with enough fuel to allow a landing, so it turned out to be unneeded. In a later game(1.0.5) another fuel-station fail occurred when I was attempting to refill my Eve Scansat at my Gilly fuel station, but it refused to send the fuel drone. Turns out USI-MKS had deactivated the logistics center functionality, making my Gilly fuel station little more than a elf-fueling rescue pod. (I also had a fuel station on Ike and one approaching the Jool SOI, but without logistics, they were just expensive probes without science on board.

Here is my Second 1.1(.3) caveman attempt. Normal. Not interested in repeating my home-bound game from 1.0, I went ahead and dropped a few pods on the Mun. http://imgur.com/a/ZZzdd If I ever go back to this game, I'll need to research the klaw so I can pull down Jeb and his two tourists. Is this challenge still active? According to his profile page, @MoeslyArmlis has not been online since July 14

Here is my first 1.1(.3) caveman attempt. Easy, using 2 roller designs, and 4 rover designs. The only engine ever used was the size 0 jet engine, and no wings were ever used. All 'in flight' science was gathered by jumping, either jumping kerbals, or jumping rovers using the ground as a ramp. I call it acrophobic. ~2.5 hours. http://imgur.com/a/DIRWQ

I also remember RoverDude saying that turning the system on would not brick your existing probes, so you should at least be able to do *something* even with the system turned on. I also mentioned putting an 88-88(the large non-asteroid day antenna) on all my scansats and Roverdude said those have the range reach Kerbin from anywhere in the Kerbol system, so you could future-proof today by just putting large antennas on your probes.

Probably not, but fortunately, Scott Manley already has:

All you need to do is sling your sling-stage away from your ship faster than the exhaust velocity of your engine. As you can include the decoupler and other structural components, you might even manage with marginally less velocity on your sling stage. Of course there is no guarantee the in-game physics will actually work as expected... Last time I checked, you can slowly move/raise your altitude with a simple 2 tank design: 1) transfer all fuel into the tank closer to your destination(tank A), 2) rotate the empty tank(tank B) around the center of gravity(in or near tank A) until an arrow starting at tank A an pointing at tank B is also pointing at your destination 3) return to step 1 note: rotating your ship keep your center of gravity, but pumping fuel moves it, so you slowly crawl towards your destination with no fuel cost, and only the energy cost of rating your craft using reaction wheels.

From what I recall, reduced drag/heating was the stated reason for allowing the materials bay to be closed after use.

That may be true, but I am great at inventing new ways to mess up a craft/mission. Nah, just inventive. (or perhpas forgetful, like myself)

I believe they had the numbers earlier in this thread, and drag losses were 1-2 orders of magnitude smaller than gravity losses, so pretty trivial for rocket-shaped rockets.

I'd be careful of that, I believe KAC uses in-game time, so a 90 minute burn should only need a 90 minute alarm(perhaps more if your node is near a planet but most of the burn will not benefit from Oberth)

Do not kill/strand kerbals(all pilots and probe cores receive rigorous (mostly) off-screen training so that the program does not lose any astronauts) Collect any reasonably accessible kerbals that were stranded by others(I generally ignore +pod(landed) rescues because it is not worth the hassle of collecting a landed pod, same with any rescue from Kerbol orbit or planets where I do not have a presence or mission en-route) Aside from early career, I always have gender balanced crew and extra living space for any mission that passes Munar orbit. Any manned mission that leaves the Kerbin SOI should have ISRU on board, and if it is going more than a few KM outside the kerbin SOI it should have multiple years worth of supplies(USI-LS, but with habitation disabled) Leave no science behind.(MPLs experiment storage helps greatly with this)

The stock system is not stable. Bop and Vall get ejected from Jool in less than a century if you have n-body physics: (80 year simulation)

Well, I remember reading RoverDude mention something to the effect of making the mods he makes because those are things he wants to play with in his games(but making those mods available to everyone so long as it is not too much hassle), and as SQUAD has shown a propensity to hire mod developers like RoverDude, I would not be at all certain that the feature list is bounded by any rational number. Each new modder that gets hired no doubt has ideas for things that would make the game 'better' and there is a good chance they also get inspired by mods created by other modders as well, so I would not be terribly surprised to have SQUAD continue to add new features until the game no longer makes enough money to justify ongoing development. One thing to consider: there are no copy-protections on KSP, so if you play through a service that automatically updates your game(Steam), you can copy your game directory and play that version until you have completed whatever objectives you would like to set for yourself. With other download sources(GOG, Squad website), it is even easier, as you can just not install any updates to the directory where your ongoing game is stored and nothing will change until you want it to(either through mods or installing new versions). Personally I have several KSP directories in my c:\games folder, including 1.05, 1.1, 1.1.3, and a few 0.90 versions as well. While I often copy my saved games into the newer install, all of those old installs still work just as well as they ever did, and I can go back and play them anytime I want. As 1.1.3 was pretty much all bug-fixes and the primary development mentioned in the last couple devnotes is optimization/bug-fixing, it sounds like they are doing quite a lot to reduce the bug count. I doubt they will spend 2 years on bug fixes at this point, but it does sound like there should be some major stability/reliability improvements in the next version or two. Note: KSP is already rock-solid compared to the wildly popular PokemonGo game, so while there is always room for improvement, I would consider KSP to be in pretty good shape right now. Pokemon Go: force-stop and restart every 10-20 minutes of play, often losing resources that must be reacquired, multiple annoyances during play(failure to register events, laggy and stuttering play unless features like AR are turned off, frequent lags, crashes and occasional shadow-events while fetching updates from server, some parts of the map were completely unpopulated[down-town Austin may have been populated this morning, finally) KSP: infrequent crashes after multiple hours of play with an auto-save system that can make sure you do not lose too much play-time, occasional annoyances(maneuver nodes can be fiddly for long manuvers(planetary intercepts for example), need to be careful with landing legs/wheels, probably some others I have not encountered) Personally, I consider KSP far more 'finished' than the recently released Pokemon Go game, and I have not heard anyone talking about Pokemon Go not being finished...

Last night I was launching a scansat towards Jool and I thought I would try out some of what I read on this thread. Reusing an existing launcher that in the past required circularization be finished by the 0.03 TWR transit engine, I tirned ~ 5 degrees at 60m/s and got to space with ~400m/s left in the launch core. I also found that trying to turn at 30m/s did not work for this launcher but 80-100m/s worked just fine to still have a few hundred m/s in the launch core in orbit.(not very aerodynamic with a Mk2 core, 2 Mk2 drop-tanks and radiators+panels+scanners+communicatron bolted on the outside) Stock aerodynamics by the way. (The first launch was probably more efficient because I tried to hide my scanners and panels in a pair of fairings attached to a reversed docking port, but when I tried to disengage the docking port it apparently decided that it was afraid of heights and would not let go, and while trying to figure that one out I also realized that stock fuel switcher(1.1.3 compatible) does not respect Modular fuel tank(not yet updated) changes and my NERVA powered probe had large stored of oxidizer, so I just reverted and tried again)

I like how the science lab will let me store multiple copies of a given experiment, works great with goo, materials, gravioli, seismic and surface sample experiments, letting you get full science recovery in a single visit. As far as actual science data generated by the lab, it can be useful for purchasing all those empty nodes in the community science tree while you are on an extra-planetary sojourn, but is not a terribly big deal unless you have mods that populate those 1500+ science nodes.

Physical time-warp can cut that by a factor of 4(5 kerbin days-> 30 hours -> 7.5 hours at x4 time-warp), which sounds like an 'over night' burn with KAC set to pause a few minutes before the burn is due to finish. Start the burn, set the alarm, go to bed and find your burn almost complete when you wake up.

Don't feel bad, I have been playing for about 16 months and I generally go up to 30-35km, turn to 45 degrees until Ap is above ~65 then burn horizontal. (I'll let Ap get higher if I will be circularizing with a low thrust engine, generally I am lifting vehicles made with Mk3 parts and nuclear engines, so I am extra careful about the launch as the aerodynamics are not great(lots of things bolted on the outside of the air-shell, like Gigantors, drills, and heat sinks)) It is not a method I would advocate, but it is simple to use and avoids many of the flipping related issues(you are pretty much out of drag at 30km and above 35km you can't even use fins for steering any more. Not a bad time to pop your fairing/nose cones if you do not need them later)