Goddess Bhavani

The irony in KSP is that while there are community made contract packs that provide strict progression guidance, trying out one of them made me feel like a story or enforced progression is somewhat out of place in the current Career mode structure. I was given like a half dozen historical solo orbiter missions one after the other while my tech level allowed me to send manned flybys to Mun & Minmus at the time. Before long, I was wanting the stock contracts back because they were unobtrusive, regularly updated to reflect 'current' or 'near future' spacecraft capabilities. Most of all, I quite liked the "doing as I please and getting funded whichever way" aspect of KSP. The feeling of re-creating a historical space program using prototype craft that never flew in real life can be somewhat ruined by a story mode that doesn't reflect the essence of spacecraft development in KSP. And that contract pack was extremely well written to boot. Just my 2c early in the morning and no idea if it even makes sense to anyone.

^ Do you have a Captain Jack Kerman commanding one of your ships

Hard mode -1000 rep, low rewards, 60% science careers are actually a lot of fun. Have to make do with low tech parts for a longer time with slower facility upgrades, and that means moar efficiency needed in each design.

What I do is install Near Future Propulsion plus support mods, and start slowly researching the next generation of starship propulsion. There's a lot to get used to and in exchange for superior efficiency, the new engines need their own support infrastructure to function. It also gives me things to do after I finished with the standard tech tree.

Attempted to potato-ize a perfectly normal 1080p screenshot. Failed to potatoize.

In addition to airbrakes, sticking fins on capsules also allows them to actively or passively maneuver in the air depending on mass balance or design. Done right the difference in position between center of mass and pressure can make the craft 'fly' at an angle of attack (thanks NASA!) and perhaps convert its ballistic trajectory into a flatter or even upwards-coasting flight path, giving more time to slow down aerodynamically. Space programs as early as Gemini actually do make use of this technique to manage descent rate and flight path.

NASA actually recently sent aloft a "Low Density Supersonic Decelerator" which appears to have two systems in one - an absolutely enormous supersonic parachute plus an inflatable "disk sail" that adds immense drag to the re-entry vehicle. So far the LDSD's main parachute just rips to shreds in the supersonic airflow and more work needs to be done in this project. This issue of parachutes being useless for thin atmospheres is a valid concern, but there are ways to work around the issue - skycranes do a good job for soft landing payloads after deploying out from a capsule, and the capsule's high drag shape both serves as thermal protection (higher the drag, the lower the thermal heating!) and do slow the payload down enough for the next stage of the landing sequence.

I absolutely love the new atmosphere. Rocket launches require realistic-like roll and pitch programs, and re-entry vehicle design plays a huge part to survivability of manned missions returning home in one piece. I even developed a 'product line' of MARVs (maneuverable re-entry vehicles) specifically to make sharper re-entry angles survivable.... by actively flying out of the descent and landing precisely on the KSC runway! If I had the old souposphere I would have given no thought to just crashing down vertically on planets, which, as everyone knows, totally wrong. There is a reason why the Space Shuttle spends such a long time on a shallow re-entry trajectory. It needs a lot of atmosphere to slow down from Mach 25 and down to a safe landing. The Shuttle cannot and will not ever do a straight in dive to the ocean and expect anything to slow it down in time (vertical re-entry is fatal unless you have some sort of ballistic re-entry capsule, and even then a ballistic entry like that done by Soyuz in emergency mode, is definitely NOT pleasant to the occupants!) KSP gameplay is and should never be about "beating the game". Whenever "realism" is added to the stock game code, it is our duty as spacemen and women to adapt, overcome and continue reaching for the final frontier. We will be an even better community if we all adopted a unified strategy of continued learning and adaptation.

Started a miniature Koland (Poland) Air Force in KSP; this is a flight of 4 Skorpion attack fighters that will soon be delivered to the client (will ferry to other KerbinSide base) Also the Kolish pilots had fun running training exercises in the nearby mountain range.

I was poking through the more obscure camera tools/mods and just installed the Improved Chase Camera. Now I can fly planes like console flight 'sims' instead of manually panning the mouse all over the place. Made a short video to test.

Thanks so much for this flag pack. Officially, I have started the Koland (Poland) Air Force, shown here with their new PZL-230F Skorpion attack fighters.

Update- I tested the craft with its proposed external payload of 4,000kg, various exteral payloads were tested including the usual dummy bombs and missiles, plus an air-deployed sensor package for scientific survey contracts. Also, a short video showing the Skorpion doing stuff around the mountains near KSC. With authentic Koland (Poland) Air Force markings, this flight of Skorpions will be ferried to the client's air base (additional global airports via KerbinSide mod) soon. Trivia: This roundel is a KSP adaptation of the Poland Military roundel/checkerboard emblem, as packaged in the Serious Parody Flags Pack. From 1993 onwards the Polish Air Force uses a flipped roundel, as per the video thumbnail above.

Wow! I wish the rocks and lightning in-game looked half as good as this! It really adds to the atmosphere. Expression and posing of the Kerbals are utterly cute :3

In addition the radiator panels can be used as hardpoints for mounting things on them. Once I get to making bigger ships I should be able to exploit that.

Goodie, and just in time too! I was contemplating the use of those "small" radial tanks as aircraft drop tanks. They're huuuge enough for that purpose.

Service bays make good economy class seating

Today I made sure my electric synchropter worked fine in 1.0.4. It does and the surveillance ability of a silent copter on 'whisper mode' should get the interest of "certain government agencies" Speaking of tilt-rotors. I lost control of my V-44 testing new flight control system, 2 turbines got disabled but switched to electric mode and regained control just in time to ditch safely. Jeb went out to see what's wrong, took pics for the insurance company.

Help I'm sinking!

Made a replica of a mythical plane that never flew, the incredible PZL-230F "Skorpion". A little writeup of the craft and download link here (Stock, 30 parts, Level 1 Tech) http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/128854-From-Poland-with-Love-PZL-230F-Skorpion-Attack-Fighter Also, I discovered the joys of 5-way RCS thrusters. Just 4 of these babies and I have full RCS rotational and linear control over small craft. Less unsightly acne on the ships!

Polish Air Force PZL-230F Skorpion High Performance, STOL Ground Attack Aircraft Stock, 30 parts, download from KerbalX. http://kerbalx.com/pandoraskitten/PZL-230F-Skorpion Project Background: I was in the mood to create a jet prototype for the space program, after previously messing with prop planes and waiting for a flotilla of probes to fan out across the solar system. The Skorpion project called for a twin engine, short takeoff or landing (STOL) ground attack jet carrying up to 4 tons of NATO or Warsaw Pact ordnance at high subsonic speeds. The project was ultimately cancelled in 1994 but not before producing some beautiful airframes that are way ahead of their time. Specifications drafted by the Polish Defence Ministry called for a STOL jet with a top speed of Mach 0.85, making it something like a high speed version of an OV-10 Bronco, or a smaller but much faster counterpart to the famous A-10. There is some talk that this aircraft could have been one of the most efficient ground attack jets of modern times but in 1994, defence spending was not the top priority for Poland. Nevertheless, this "plane that never flew" deserves remembrance for its radical approach to achieving its design objectives - the PZL-230F Skorpion wouldn't look out of place in a sci-fi movie and resembles a compact YF-23 or SR-71 from certain angles. From observing the basic design, it would appear the designers wished to maximize center-body lift and provide a large lower surface area for payload carriage. The outer wings act as huge all-flying control surfaces but this is not reflected in our Kerbal replica due to parts limitation issues. This is compensated by using active canards that provide a huge control moment up front for superb low speed, low altitude maneuverability crucial for an attack fighter's performance. Aircraft Role in KSP: While a low altitude ISR platform could be of limited use in ensuring security around the Space Center's vast maritime and terrestrial sphere of responsibility, no real purpose for military aircraft exists today. However, the PZL-230F's ability to haul large centerline payloads allows it to serve as a short range, low cost scientific survey aircraft. It is also constructed exclusively from Level 1 parts obtainable from the basic Research Center, and is perfectly comfortable operating in rough field conditions. Pilots can also gain experience operating high performance jet aircraft using the Skorpion; it's low level top speed in excess of 1,000 kph and ability to pull significantly more G's than the average pilot can accomodate, is not to be trifled with. In summary, this design is worthy of consideration as a high performance training aircraft to develop pilot competencies. It can also be used to deploy dropsondes for scientific survey purposes. Furthermore, the KSP replica has a larger wing area than the original design and with 160kN worth of static thrust from its twin engines, significantly more powerful than the real-world example, allowing a potentially far greater payload capacity. Stock, 30 parts, download from KerbalX. http://kerbalx.com/pandoraskitten/PZL-230F-Skorpion

I had this tiny little ship that is crammed so full of equipment it will be impossible to mount the usual quartet of RCS thruster blocks to have full RCS authority. Neither would it be feasible to pockmark the craft full of holes for the single port RCS thrusters. With a bit of fiddling around I just slapped a place-anywhere RCS port on top of a 4-way standard thruster and viola, stock 5-Way RCS Thrusters! The final 3 images in the album depict a set of 4x 5-way thruster units providing full RCS control authority for a micro-shuttle.

OMG that station gives me all the correct Deep Space Nine vibes I may submit some new render requests. Got quite a few actually, so I'll pare down the list and come up with something quick n' easy to request.

These pics are impressive! Tempted to submit some of mine for enhancement Are normal HD size screenshot fine?

Economy seating on a spaceplane to increase revenue and air fright. They're going Mach 4 on an untested spaceplane with wierd flight characteristics with FAR and Deadly Re-entry. And the edges of the trailing control surfaces are on fire half the time.

Getting there is easy. Coming back, is not. Lol. This is going to be a fun mission report when it's done! Keep us posted!