JetJaguar

Could I have my name changed to JetJaguar, if it's available? I just discovered that there's somebody else posting KSP videos on YouTube using the name "Hot Jupiter", and I don't want to cause confusion.

When I'm not sure which way I'm orbiting in the map view, I'l click on the orbit near the vehicle I'm flying and create a temporary maneuver node. The prograde and retrograde markers will then tell you which direction you're travelling.

It took me awhile to figure out how to put things in a service bay. I didn't know you had to right-click on it and open it first. Also, during my first manned Mun/Minmus landing missions, I didn't realize that astronauts could collect the data from the instruments while on EVA. I used a two-part mission profile that left the lander behind, so I thought I had to transmit everything, which left half of the science points on the table.

Welcome from a fellow Floridian (Orlando).

Left handed, but I can work a computer mouse equally well with either hand. In fact, I keep a shortcut for mouse settings on my desktop because I routinely switch back and forth. I'm all over the map with sports. In baseball, I throw left-handed but bat right, I golf right-handed but can swing a club left-handed well enough to punch the ball out of trouble (flip the club 180 degrees, toe pointed downwards, to make a makeshift lefty club). Ice hockey, I'm a right-handed skater but a left-handed goalie. I play a sport called Gaelic hurling, and I normally swing the stick right-handed, but depending on the situation I will occasionally flip it around and swing left. BTW, I suspect the majority of lefties are at least partially ambidextrous simply because the world is designed for right-handed people, so you're regularly forced to use your off-hand.

I got a new laptop today, and one of my first acts was installing KSP. I tested it out by building rocket cars!

Just thought of another one. I recently started a new career game, and I was sending Bob out in an airplane to complete some observation contracts. A contract came up to make some EVA observations on the ground at three locations that were clustered together about 80-90km due west of the space center. It was close by so it sounded easy enough, but go ahead and picture what is 80 km west of the space center. That's right, when I got there I found that one of the locations was on the side of a mountain something like 3500-4000m above sea level! It was tucked into a ledge, surrounded by sheer cliffs on three sides, and the site itself was on a fairly steep slope. Bob circled around and approached it from the only open side, and the approach wasn't so much of a descent as it was flying level as the ground rose up to meet you. Bob's landing flare was more to just match the pitch of the ground, but he made it! He taxied to the waypoint and made sure to leave the brakes set as he got out, but the weight of him in the cockpit was all that was holding the nose wheel down. When he jumped off, the plane tipped up and rested on it's tail. After making his report, he managed to climb back up and the weight of him back inside was enough to tip it back onto the nose wheel. Now, at this point I could've just recovered the vehicle, but I like to end airplane missions back at the space center. Using the engine to keep from rolling backwards down the slope, Bob was able to get turned around. He managed to get airborne as the plane dropped over the side of a ledge, the way a hang glider launches off of a cliff. Made it home safe and sound, and I bet he didn't have to pay for his beers that night!

So far, it's my first manned Mun landing. I was fairly early in a career game, and I hadn't yet advanced in the tech tree far enough to build a booster large enough to launch a single vehicle to land on the Mun and return. So I split the mission into two vehicles - a command module to fly to the Mun and back and a lander that stayed at the Mun. The two rendezvoused in Munar orbit and the astronaut spacewalked over from one to the other.

I didn't think it was much of a quirk, but like others, I leave everything I launch in space. It gets to the point with satellite contracts that it's hard to see the probe I'm flying in the map view through all of the clutter. (My workaround is to rename it and change the type to a ship so it will still show up after turning off probes on the map, then changing back when the mission is complete.) However, I will go and periodically check to see if any spent boosters have a periapsis that dips below the 70 km mark and delete those because they won't deorbit on their own unless you are actively flying it when in reality the orbit should decay eventually. I also don't like wasting time. If a mission will be awhile, I'll go back to the space center and do something else. Nine days to Minmus? I can fill six contracts while it's en route. Makes me feel like I'm running an efficient operation. However, I prefer to not launch at night unless there's a reason (I'm trying to hit a specific launch window, for example), so I'll advance to the next morning then. I use abort to extend antennas. Another quirk of mine is that I like to have everything deployed while in space - extended antennas, solar panels, and open service bays. But antennas will retract after transmitting data and you can't extend them again through the right-click menu. Action groups still work though, and I don't otherwise use abort for it's intended purpose.

Thanks! It actually is radiation that some believe is somehow being drawn in and absorbed (see tip #1 here, and ). I'm not sure why my wife believes in aloe specifically, because some quick Googling mainly turns up mentions of cacti or succulents in general, but not just aloe plants. I figure whatever, a cost-benefit analysis tells me this isn't a battle worth fighting, she can have her plants if it makes her happy.

Okay, let's see if this works. Here is the Apollo 11 launch, clicking on it should take you to where you can download it at full 2400x3000 resolution. (BTW, now I'm thinking it's not a still from one of the movie cameras): Apollo_11_Launch2 by JetJaguar1, on Flickr Here are some other photos I found on Moon hoax sites that I've used as wallpaper. I uploaded them to a Flickr album so I don't clog up this thread with a bunch of giant images. The picture of Earth behind the LM is a classic "no stars in the sky" pic. The astronaut on the ladder is supposedly too well-lit for being in full shadow, and the reflections on the boots "prove" additional studio lighting was used. I forget what was wrong about the CSM pic, but the rover and footpad pics have shadows at different angles "proving" multiple light sources.

Sure! I'm at work right now, but I'll post it up this evening when I get home. It's a still frame from the movie camera that was mounted on top of the launch tower that captured the famous slow-motion, close-up movie of the rocket as it lifted past. The pic was taller than it is wide and I cropped it to fit my monitor's aspect ratio, but I believe I still have the original also.

Is there a mod for this? If not, this is a good opportunity for one. The way I would structure it would be to have zero-star levels the cheapest with the costs increasing exponentially with experience from there. I'd also have the lower levels to be relatively common with higher levels increasing in rarity. I'd tie the skill level of the available applicants to your prestige, because the best candidates would generally want to work for the best organizations. I'd have the candidate list cycle over time, so you don't always have the same ones sitting there. I'd implement some sort of half-life where some drop off faster than others. Finally, I'd have some randomness to it all, so you could occasionally pick up someone for a bargain, or find a high-level candidate willing get in on the ground floor of your low-prestige startup. If possible, I would have the cheapest to be some sort of unspecialized, raw cadet, which would have to be trained in a specialty before being able to perform any mission tasks (otherwise they are essentially tourists). I might even arrange it so it would be a little more expensive than hiring a zero-star astronaut, but you would be sure of getting exactly what you're looking for regardless of what's on the board at any given moment. (A tangent: Maybe it would be possible to implement some kind of training system for all your astronauts. For some amount of money, they can train and gain experience while in the complex. Training would also take time, with those astronauts unavailable for missions until their course is complete. Cost and time would increase with level, and the maximum level attainable through training would be capped depending on the level of your complex. I'd probably have the levels capped at 1, 2, and 3 stars respectively, with 4-5 stars only attainable through actual missions.) Sorry if this doesn't make any sense, I normally rely on rescue missions to impress captives hire recruits. Apparently in Kerbal society, if you save someone's life they now have a lifetime debt bond to you.

KER for me, I've never used MechJeb. I don't look down on anyone who does use it and in fact, an argument could be made that MechJeb is more realistic than flying on your own because almost everything in a real space flight is automated. Rockets use automated guidance systems to follow the optimal planned trajectory right from launch. Dockings with the ISS are typically done on autopilot. Space probes are too far away to directly control remotely, the delay is too long - the round trip for a signal to the New Horizons probe, for example, is 9 hours. So, the most realistic way to play would be to design a mission profile and program it into a guidance system, then step back while it does the rest.

I kind of like the "Moon/Mars/whatever is a hoax!" web sites. Since they like zooming in to point out the smallest details, I find that they are a good source for hi-res space wallpaper. In fact, my current wallpaper is a 2400px-wide shot of the Apollo 11 launch that someone was using to prove that a Saturn V couldn't really reach space. (Edit: Now that I think about it, IIRC they were using it to point out features on the Apollo CSM "proving" it was a dummy capsule that didn't match the one that "allegedly" went to the moon.) Ugh, I am constantly debunking stupid stuff my wife and mother-in-law read on the internet. I almost never change their minds, it seems their level of belief is inversely proportional to the amount of evidence presented. I give up pretty easily nowadays. If their belief doesn't cause any real harm, I let it go. Here's a recent conversation in a nutshell: "I saw online that if you put an aloe plant next to a video screen, it will absorb all of the harmful radiation." "Uh, no. First of all, modern flat-panel displays don't generate an appreciable amount of ionizing radiation. Second, even if they did, the rays would travel in a straight line. A plant isn't going to magically suck them in. For it to work, the plant would have to be between you and the screen and completely block your view." "But I saw this YouTube video someone made." "They don't understand science." "But my friend sent me the link." "Believe whatever you want, then." We now have a little potted aloe next to every TV and computer in the house.

I'm a bit similar in that K-Pop is a guilty pleasure of mine. Strange when you consider that I otherwise mainly listen to guitar-driven hard/classic rock. It makes for an eclectic playlist: Guns 'n Roses, followed by White Stripes, followed by... 2NE1? Anyway, I don't have a KSP-specific playlist, but if I did, anything from Holst's "The Planets". Specifically, "Mars, Bringer of War" makes good launch music: Followed by Saint-Saens' "The Aquarium" when you reach orbit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6RBf_j5Y7A

Well, I'm an Aerospace Engineer, and I work for the Navy supporting the F-18E/F program. I suppose that's why my airplanes always work. I'm into KSP because I've always been interested in jets, rockets, and science. I discovered the game because my 4-year-old son loves Minecraft, and when he's not playing it he is watching Minecraft videos on YouTube. One day while watching his videos, he followed a link to someone's KSP videos and I was hooked!

I downloaded a bunch of mods, a few of which change gameplay somewhat, so I started a new career game. It's interesting to see how things have evolved differently. I assumed I would mostly duplicate at least my early designs, but that hasn't been the case.

Thanks! I have a hardtail mountain bike also, though I didn't build that one. I split my time between road and dirt, they are very different types of riding. Different skill sets, different type of fitness, even the riding culture is different.

Since bikes have come up, I built up my own road bike from a bare frame. I ordered the raw carbon frame from the factory, then I designed the paint and decals - though I left the actual painting to the pros. I built it up with full Ultegra 6800 components. "Cerberus" is my own made-up house brand, since IMHO unbranded bikes look unfinished. Here is the frame while testing the size and positioning of the decals before painting:

Same here. Gemini has always been a favorite of mine, because that's when we really learned how to fly in space. The astronauts didn't like being treated as essentially payload in Mercury, so the Gemini capsule was built to be to be flown by a pilot and the interior is arranged like an aircraft cockpit. In some ways it was more advanced than Apollo, which had begun development earlier. If I had to pick one mission as the coolest it would be Gemini 6/7. For unmanned missions, for me the coolest is Curiosity. Using a rocket-propelled skycrane to land an SUV-sized rover on Mars was an amazing technical achievement.

"Boilerplate 1", though that wasn't a real rocket, just a capsule on the launchpad to grab some quick EVA science points. My first flying rocket was "Suborbital 1".

I had a contract to place a satellite in a circular, retrograde equatorial orbit around Kerbin just a little beyond Mun's orbit. It seemed easy enough, except that every half orbit the satellite passed through Mun's SOI, which tossed it off into an elliptical orbit. I fooled around it for awhile and eventually gave up and cancelled the contract. I just couldn't get it to work. But I think if I timed it right, I could match the orbit parameters in an inclined orbit, then flatten it out. It wouldn't be stable long-term, since the Mun would kick it out within an orbit, but it may have held long enough to get credit.

I've been playing KSP for a couple of months, and in my current career game (I restarted once) I completed my second manned Mun landing mission, which included my first hard docking. I'm not far enough in the tech tree to build a launcher large enough to lift a single vehicle to land on Mun and return with a direct-ascent profile, so I split the mission into two parts. I first sent an empty lander module capable of landing on Mun and returning to Munar orbit. I followed that with Jeb in a command module that can reach Munar orbit and return. They rendezvoused in Munar orbit and Jeb EVA'd to transfer from one to the other. The plan was: 1. Send empty lander to Munar orbit. 2. Launch manned command module to Mun. 3. Rendezvous with lander in orbit. 4. EVA transfer kerbalnaut from CM to LM. 5. Land on Mun. 6. Lift off from Mun and rendezvous with CM in Munar orbit. 7. EVA transfer kerbalnaut from LM to CM. 8. Return to Kerbal in CM. 9. ??? 10. Profit. This worked perfectly! I brought the two craft to within about 10m in orbit and "jumped" across the gap. However, after this mission I learned that you can go out on EVA and collect the data from the science instruments. But I didn't know this at the time, and since the LM was staying behind I thought I had to transmit everything, leaving half of the science points on the table. Also, a contract to plant a flag on Mun popped up. So I launched a second mission, but this time I put small docking ports on the LM and CM. Docking isn't strictly necessary, since I still have to EVA from one to the other, but I figure this way the lander can be refueled and reused.

I have a few standard prefixes I use, which makes things easier to find because they group ships by function in the VAB loading menu: CM = Command Module, for general manned craft that operate in space and return to Kerbin (think Apollo CSM). LM = Landing Module, for manned craft intended to land somewhere other than Kerbin. OM = Orbit Module, for space station sections. SAT = Satellite, for contract satellites. I also have some other naming conventions: Craft specifically built to test a part for a contract are called "Test Article" and numbered sequentially. In my current career game I think I'm up to "Test Article 5". Satellites launched for a contract are named after the agency and numbered sequentially. "SAT Kerbodyne 3" would be the third satellite launched for Kerbodyne, for example. I also take a modular approach to rocket construction and divide things into two pieces - a mission section (which are individually saved off as ships) and a booster section (saved as subassemblies). This makes it easy to piece a rocket together for any particular mission. Load a mission section, tweak it, attach a booster, double-check staging, and you're good to go. I name my basic booster designs after Greek letters, with additional designations added if I modify it. If the only modification is extra fuel tanks, then "Heavy" gets tacked on, otherwise I'll add a letter or number (I'm inconsistent with that one). Right now I have Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Gamma rockets, and the "Beta Heavy" is my current workhorse. I'm inconsistent with naming mission sections, but generally unmanned probes just get some sort of descriptive name ("Minmus Lander"), while manned vehicles get a name that generally fits some theme. In my first career game that was Disney characters, currently it's Korean pop stars. Each new revision gets numbered. "LM Minzy 2" is the second version of the Minzy lander. The complete vehicle is then mission module + booster: "LM Minzy 2 Beta Heavy". Wow, this sounds really complicated after writing it all out.