FyunchClick

Yeah it is, isn't it. This was what I cooked up for my interpretation of the Hummlebee (which is definitely not a Kerbin VTOL, and is brazenly plagerized from Kuzzters without even attempting to hide it ). But as to the science pack, I did it like this: Which allows me to just click on the backdoor and EVA straight into the cargo bay as shown here, no jetpack required at all. (addition of a third engine there gives me enough punch to launch it from Kerbin with just a bunch of kickbacks strapped to the wings, and that much easier to handle around KSC) And when you want to do a science harvesting during a suborbital, just leave your scientist in the deckchair. Plus I love those little observation windows at the top of the MKIII cockpit. Just like the real thing. Shame to hide those... Edit: is that a Surface Scanning Module mounted on the right side of the bay?

That's a very Kerbal way of getting into take off position you got there.

So, here's Jeb in the Auto-inhume MKI. Yup, flight was a complete success. So saved that game (I prefer to work in saves an leave persistent alone), opened the file using notepad, and there's this bit of data: KERBAL { name = Jebediah Kerman gender = Male type = Crew brave = 0.5 dumb = 0.5 badS = True tour = False state = Missing ToD = 7260 idx = 0 CAREER_LOG { flight = 1 0 = Flight,Kerbin 0 = Die } FLIGHT_LOG { flight = 1 } } So, where it says "state = Missing", I changed it to "state = Available" (gleaned it from someone else on the roster). Save it, back to KSP, load the save. Aaaaaaand... he's back. Ready for a more eleborate version of the Auto-inhume that that is my regular space program. Edit: using KSP 1.004

I've resurrected Val back to active duty in the past hacking the save file. I'll have a look later and make a write-up.

Well, this is what google threw up when entering 'kerbal isru engineer', and this was linked on that page. Apparently the ISRU doesn't benefit from an engineer but the drill sure does. I also saw someone make a breakdown of the minimum engineer level required to make drilling worth while when using fuel cells for power (which is a requirement for some missions now solar panels are useless past Dres), search term 'kerbal minimum ore drill fuel cell' (a stripped down version of what I began searching with as that's what I usually do if the first pass doesn't give me what I was looking for).

Play a career on harder mode.

There's a pretty nice mod that colors the background of the parachute icon in the staging list to indicate if it's safe.

Agree. For me two things make Kerbal stand out from other games: the superb quality of the mods, and the willingness of the community at large to share their knowledge through tutorials and this forum. If we were having beers, this would be the moment where I go "no I really, really love you man" and tomorrow we'd have that awkward moment where we'd both pretend that never happened.

Weeellll, it's not so much the waste of fuel as the flying off at 5 or 10 m/s just as you were easing into a docking port at 0.1 m/s and pressed 'k' for a final correction. They're pretty powerful and you'll probably put on quite a few (you will need it to lift of on rcs at I think 30+% of its wet weight at KCS in order to use it to brake on Duna, less on the Mun). For VTOL purposes, they only need to point straight down, any other direction is a waste of mass and partcount.

<snort>dagnabit, coffee all over my keyboard...

Even in v1+? I've seen an EVAing Kerbal go poof at 60-ish km, while gently coming down from LKO, due to overheating, and that was just from LKO speed (not coming-back-from-Minmus speed). I've also seen one go poof after stumbling and falling out of a cockpit only 3 or 4 meters up, but perhaps there it didn't drop head-first.

Well, as I see it both are brash, but I think yours is a bit more self-aware (monolith conversation), and where Kuzzters has a bit of a control issue yours is more of an adrenalin junky. Of course, the tone of both story lines is quite different, and I'd expect the Jeb from a bleaker Kuniverse to be a bit more reflective.

You can always revert to KSC or the tracking station and time warp from there. It's not capped there.

Your Jeb or Parkaboys? You both have a slightly different take on him.

Wormhole monoliths? Awesome! Almost makes me wish someone'd mod that. So, is this a one time thing or did they just discover a way to evacuate lots of people from Kerbin for free?

And rightly so, so I wouldn't hold it against them if it breaks; I'm just hoping I'm able to continue this career as I've never made it further into the system than this.

Sorry, didn't catch all of this conversation, so pardon my cluelessness, but is this when your path just wobbles up and down when you've set up an encounter in a far away SOI like Minmas? I think that's just the physics messing about, I just press "." to get it into the first level of time acceleration putting my craft on rails, the wiggling stops and you can set up your nodes and whatever without all the jumping about.

Well, there were a couple of times in my career as IT professional where a small tweak to something very basic (as in at very the basis of the application) just moved performance from painfully slow to fantastically smooth. This seems a biggie. I'm more worried that it'll mean my fleet is dropping out of the sky left and right because all of a sudden things that had no problem being clipped do now, or some wing joint all of a sudden can't take the stress or something like that. But we'll see.

This can't end well, can it?

I noticed that too, and they are nicely centered on the wing too when you do so, but I find that only seems to work well with the wing at a right angle as mentioned in the other posts, and I also have trouble getting it to work well if the camera angle is too high. Whatever the angle of the wing, I usually put them on using the method you described, then turn off angle snap and use the rotate and offset tool to get them exactly where I want them and lining up neatly with the ones already on that wing, if any.

Do you think it's possible to do a ship that can do an airbreathing SSTO for Laythe and be a rocket powered SSTO for Tylo at the same time? AFAIK, the first relies mostly on getting a good kick from airbreathers with a small push from rockets (of which only a little can come from a low TWR one like a LV-N) to work up to the 2.9 km/s dV mentioned for Laythe orbit; the second needs 2.3 km/s of rocket power with a solid TWR and dedicated airbreathers are just dead weight (numbers from here). Wouldn't you just be better off going for a high TWR rocket SSTO, with some control surfaces for controlled gliding on low throttle on Laythe, that can do at least 2.9 km/s to tackle both places? I've never done a Jool tour yet, I'd be genuinely interested to see what the opinions are of those who have. - - - Updated - - - I've only got limited experience, but as a tool to do a soft VTOL landing they seem very friendly so far, because they also double for attitude control, and I think they're easier to manage than angled engines as they're controlled independently from your main engine throttle (which you can keep operating independently) and pulsing them is a very easy way to control your altitude and rate of decent. Can't comment too much on the ISP (in atmosphere or out) but I don't care so much for that as I've never intended to use them for long periods of time. You'd need quite a few of them to lift off very large payloads on high-g world, so they may not be ideal for those scenarios. Even on a high-G world where they may not provide enough thrust to lift a fully fuelled and loaded ship (like on takeoff on Kerbin), they can also help in shortening run-way length if you're doing a horizontal takeoff with your space plane as they can provide additional lift to that generated by the wings until you have enough airspeed to stay airborne on wing lift alone. Binding them to a key to enable or disable them, as Kuzzter mentioned when he discussed his humlebee, is quite crucial for being able to perform any sort of docking maneuvers.

Works like a charm though, I'm liking it so much I've completely gone off putting angled engines on my VTOL belly landers since I ripped that idea from your Humlebee. I took something quite similar to it to the Mun for a trial run, and after bleeding off most speed with the main engines, that final slow touchdown pulsing up on RCS controls is very smooth, especially when you "control from here" to that belly mounted docking port and point SAS to prograde. I did make sure the torque for COM and dCOM is as low as possible using the RCS build aid, but even if it's a bit off, the same vernor thrusters you use to land will try to keep attitude with SAS turned on and they're got plenty of power to keep you straight.

Oh that's not even funny. I've found myself doing that during a Scott Manley vid where he's in the VAB and talking for a bit and I wanted have a closer look at his ship; "why is this context menu popping up when I try to pan around? Oh, youtube..."

Switch the snapto off (shortcut is "c" I think).

Did you rotate the kickback with q or a before placing it? I think the radial attachment point stays on the same spot, and the decoupler will clip through the kickback model to reach it.