Johno

I felt for someone who tried that, then angrily asked the forum why it didn't work. Today I had the job of testing a RAPIER in a suborbital trajectory. Too late I remembered that Jets would only get us so high . . Further, the jet on the starboard nacelle flamed out first. Oh well, I had the chance to trial my Spacecraft Recovery System (lots of parachutes)!

Had a really frustrating day trying to get a spaceplane into orbit. If I can manage it, it'll revolutionise "Rescue kerbonaut" missions. However, getting the balance between low mass and sufficient fuel is proving . . troublesome.

Okay. But this is meant to be a ready and rough unit for basic comparisons. So . . . One OTE is 300 DoTEs.

OTEs. I love it! Someone would need to work out the amount of fuel in a doughnut for a ready conversion . . . DoTEs would be the best phrase for that.

I have noticed that rescue missions seem to be the simplest way to earn extra dosh quickly in the new career mode. It's better than "Bring me 400 boars' tails," of course! One thing, though - suddenly I've realised that somewhere along the line, rendezvous without mechjeb has become a trivial operation . . What have other people noticed about how to grind for cash? Are there any other methods people have found that work?

Nice thorough scan though!

I got the original trio back from a near disaster - they were orbiting the Mun on an odd near-polar orbit, and the process of rescuing the Munar module had drained all but the last dregs of RCS fuel. 1 hurriedly designed tanker-transport later, they were on their way back to Kerbin! (Cost about 200,000, but lesson learned).

Mahnarch: How do you land a spacecraft with boxing gloves on?

A near disaster today. I was coming back from a mission to Minimus (with MEGA science), and was preparing to jettison the service module for Entry, when I suddenly noticed something missing. . . PARACHUTES!!!! So I hurriedly made rendezvous with my Science station (which took practically all my fuel). We'll get some sort of a rescue mission going shortly.

I'm not censoring what I said, by the way. I'm a teacher AND a parent, so I have very finely tuned automatic bowdlerisation routines built into my speech processing unit. "Gosh darn it to heck" is what I really say, much to the amusement of the kids at school . . .

That moment when you prepare for running the test that will net you several gazillion moneys plus enough science to science all the scientists in the scientific world . . . . . . And realise that you left the part you're testing back on Kerbin. GOSH DARN IT TO HECK. FUDGE!

No pictures . . but today, I took an entire class of year 10 students and had them learn how to put a rocket into orbit. A couple of them managed it. Using the Demo, alas - so far we've not been able to organise anything like a site licence. But even so, it was a brilliant lesson. I have to say that some kids were more interested in overbuilding massive rockets and blowing Kerbonauts to kingdom come . . .

Let's try adding one more stage.

I have sinned again . . . My new Spaceplane had been refuelled and was raring to land. So in a piloting failure of epic proportions, I managed to touch down with a vertical speed of over 100ms-1 . . . RIP Jeb. You died bravely, hitting another continent. And your death handily combined burial, cremation and scattering.

Bless me, KSPers, for I have sinned. When I was trying to refuel my new spaceplane in orbit, I tried to get the tanker into an orbit which would intersect the plane. I forgot my basic orbital mechanics. So the Hohmann transfer instead became a Hohmann cancel-orbital-speed-and-point-the-spacecraft-at-the-ground manoeuver . . A tanker laden with fuel makes a very large crater when hitting the ground at over 200 m/s . . . . .

I was already a science teacher before KSP, so I knew orbital mechanics. But like so many others, there's a difference between understanding the Physics, and knowing how exactly to control the spacecraft so that it does what you want! ALSO . . Before playing KSP, it would have been reasonably easy to cope with the scene from Star Trek - Into Darkness where the Enterprise is dead in space and falling towards Earth. Now, of course, I look at that and realise that the crew have about 4 days to get everything sorted out. Kind of ruins the suspense.

There WASN'T Symmetry when I first started creating rockets! My first serious rocket (beyond the usual slap-together mess when you're figuring out how it works) was a monstrosity. It had 6 Trash-Bins-Fulla-Boom (which were not actually used in the design- you couldn't mount anything except SRBs laterally at that point! What we used to call "Structural boosters" were commonplace), and it had liquid-fuel boosters attached to each of them (and in those pre-strut days . . when flying it looked a bit like a squid). It would be fair to say that it wasn't the most stable creation, but it did get me to orbit. And back then, that was a big thing (it relied on tables that'd been circulated around the 'net!).

I had already done the survey, but +1 to No More Free Launch!

I'm a relatively low level player, but that amazing moment when a Kerbal gets out on Minimus and plants a flag for the first time . . .

So I'm loading KSP. First hint is "Locating Jeb Kerman." Then the next thing: "Motivating Kerbals". Heh! I had this image of the KSP staff finding Jeb, then bringing him to the Kerbonaut building to give a wild-eyed, enthusiastic talk to the crew. . . . . Ever had a funny combo?

I think mine would have to have been my first successful MOR (Munar Orbital Rendezvous) mission, as opposed to Direct Ascent missions. Everything went just swimmingly. It could have been a remake of Apollo 11! We had launch, parking orbit, TMI, transposition and docking, crew transfer, undocking and Mun landing. Then a perfect ascent and rendezvous, a perfect docking. I jettisoned the Munar module, returned to Kerbin happily. The landing was perfect . . . . . . And out stepped Bill. Only Bill. Jeb and Bob were still in the Munar module, orbiting the Mun . . . .

Shut up and take my money!!!!! (Metaphorically speaking - I don't think I could justify paying as much as it looks like that would cost for a game controller. But it's very nice all the same! )

What, he's stuck in minecraft?!

$7 (US, worked out a little differently in Aussie dollars of course) for me. It was voluntary at that point, and I spent the money just thinking I was financing the development of a great game. Never realised how far it'd go!

Finally! After weeks of trying, I launched my first successful SSTO[1] spaceplane into orbit! Now to see if I can get it to land, that'll be great . . [1] Well, mostly SSTO. Expendable underwing boosters and side-mounted drop tanks.