Zephram Kerman

It is my favorite configuration! Having all engines working, instead of hauling dead weight, really gives a nice improvement of efficiency. Furthermore, you can cascade these cross-fed 'packet' rockets to use every stage of your craft. (I think this was the reason you linked to the Melissa monster.) Here\'s a simpler version of the concept:

They\'re both laughing, at Bill, for leaving his seat just before the main event (crash).

The gravity on Minmus being so slight, I wonder if it would be better to scan the poles by hovering, flying around in a spiral?

BIG NEWS: Minmus really is made of green cheese. The crew of Minmus Exploder Explorer, having returned from their glorious mission of discovery (and having wreaked havoc on the bookies), did bring a sample of Minmus regolith to crack scientists at the Kerbal Exology Center. After very thorough research (whole minutes of taste-testing), the K.E.C. have confirmed Minmus is made of a flavorful green cheese, probably Limburger. This confirms the theory that the small moon is no alien to our star system, but was actually launched into orbit by Jeb\'s father, who really hates the stuff. ...This just handed to me... Apparently, the Minmus samples are fake. The crew has admitted the originals were switched en route from the return mission, because they got hungry along the way. Bill prefers mint ice cream to limburger cheese, so.

I\'ve experienced this issue myself, mostly due to certain amusing posts generating milk spots all over my desk.

Beautiful, beautiful! Good work, you two. These maps are very handy.

Makes you wonder about the (stuff we assumed was) water. To avoid tailstrikes / sticking to the runway, I do two things: 1) tilt the tail upwards a couple of steps, and 2) put a fourth landing gear on it (just in case). That way, I can rock forward and back to get unstuck, and nothing explodes (usually).

It\'s not as bad as you might think. It seems to me that the drag model is not the issue (other than the way it\'s always been). The problem is the engine parts are still basically placeholders. The ramjet should be utterly helpless while sitting still on the runway, but it gets full efficiency. Regarding trajectories: it really depends on engine performance, so everything will change as the new features in version 15 get improved. My strategy for now is to use engines in stages according to their 'sweet spot' or performance envelope. A good example is Oggula\'s and theflyingfish\'s experience with Orbiter\'s Delta Glider XR-2. (In that ship, I would take off horizontally with the rockets. Once the ship reached the scramjet\'s performance envelope, it would be used for much better efficiency. Then it shuts down and back to the rockets to finish the ascent.) Another example: just today, I visited Minmus using four ramjet engines as vertical first stage boosters. (That probably won\'t work for long.) I launched straight up, then gradually tipped over until nearing the ceiling for those engines. At the end of the performance envelope, I was flying horizontally as high and fast as those engines allow. Ran them out of fuel, then jettisoned and fired the rocket stage to finish the ascent.

Prays for dynamic drag.

Yep, definitely transfer from VAB to HAB. I built a ship to visit Minmus today, and tried it in the HAB just for kicks. It was a pain. The way symmetry works in there is different, so I had to place several things by hand. It worked! But, only because I used up most of my awesome.

It kinda reminds me of this thing: Don\'t go through it, or you might paradox yourself.

Come on, it\'s all right! The water\'s stiff!

The two engines seem to work as advertised, although I\'ve only been goofing around for a few minutes so far. The basic jet starves and loses thrust at about 6 km, like you said. The turbojet keeps working up to, I think, 10 km. It\'s supposed to have poor efficiency near the surface, but I flew around with it. So I made them into a launcher! The launch stage is three basic jet engines. The next stage is three turbo jet engines. Both of these consume a single jet fuel tank, which is just enough. The final stage is a normal rocket. Staging was weird because the jet takes a few seconds to build up thrust. So I modified the staging sequence so that the basic and turbo stages overlap before the basic jets jettison.

Good stuff guys! Was up until the wee hours of the morning last night, just playing with the new hangar and jet engines. Nice, quick download with no problems. Now relax and have a great weekend! There\'s this cool game you should try...

In honor of your excellent work and achievement: Name: Mercator Highlands Latitude: 70° 06\'N Longitude: 52° 18\'E Altitude: 3336 m Celestial Body: Mun

I hate it when that happens! Actually, it\'s probably that known bug about the terrain detail setting. The work around is to change the graphics setting for terrain detail to a higher figure. Lower terrain detail somehow affects the collision check. Increasing terrain detail fixed it for me.

I\'m not sure about this, but intuition tells me the ideal gravity turn varies depending on your TWR. If your rocket is under-powered, a shallow angle should help reduce gravity drag while the airspeed tends to stay below terminal velocity anyway. An over-powered rocket should use a steep angle, to get clear of the atmosphere early, so as to put that extra thrust to work asap. This is probably not important enough for an introductory lesson, but worth discussing here.

Fixed that for ya. \'What\'s in your rocket?\'

Still nothing. But we collected a lot of data about exactly how empty space is. I feel a bit like S.E.T.I. Here\'s the Albatross. It is named this way, because it is a goofy-looking bird designed to soar in orbit for extended periods, then make a clumsy running/rolling landing like the lucky sea bird. It has some nice features: • Designed for hunting monoliths on Kerbin, it\'s also just fine on the Mun. • No need to cancel out lateral motion before landing, just align the wheels to the direction you are moving and hit the ground running. • The wheels are more forgiving of impact than normal landing gear, so get your vertical speed down to 15 m/s and then keep the wheels straight until they come up through the flight deck. • The descent stage should have plenty of fuel after landing, in case you feel like hopping over some rough terrain, or down into a crevice, etc. • The combination of the cart and long-range muon detector work very well together. • None of this matters in geo-synchronous orbit, but it has plenty of fuel to get there. Beware: the launcher is prone to explode on staging. When the first stage expires, shut off the throttle before jettisoning. Otherwise, the radial decouplers damage the three main engines. The other stages work fine, but I don\'t use this launcher anymore.

Fixed. Sorry about that. I\'m still getting used to DropBox, and this newfangled interwebs thingy. https://www.dropbox.com/gallery/78157466/1/KSP-Easter%20egg%20hunt?h=b3f6c4

Hail, and well met, good sir. It is quite the noble task to which you have endeavored. The tender mercies of space are like no other, yet the regions to which you have committed are stranger by far, and as yet, completely uncharted by man or kerbal. As it was written, 'ere be Kraken.' You were wise to match your course to the mirror image of our fair island home. Since the diameters are essentially the same, you should return to your starting point in exactly one year, not coincidentally the same date which Kerbin should arrive there as well. Should this journey prove to be successful, you and your crew will be heroes of note. Yet, always keep healthy fear of the beast known as Pride, which is more fearsome and real than any mythical creature, and has led many an adventurer to his doom. Having avoided the kraken is not the same as defeating it. Only the creators, Squad (what preserve us and provide us with booms) can accomplish such a feat as actually defeating the infamous kraken. We will expectantly wait to see, in due time, with luck and the grace of Squad, your valiant crew streak through our skies to a glorious arrival of some condition.

@Temstar: If you have any trouble with legs breaking off, you can reinforce them with struts.

Nothing so far. I\'ve checked the area above KSC, where I figured it would be most likely. Now, Albatross is slowly advancing eastward, as its period is slightly shorter than the Kerbal day. We\'ve checked about 90° of the equatorial sky. Bear in mind the detector range is only 150 km. So there is a huge belt of space in between the areas I\'ve checked. From 220 km up to 2671 km, as well as eccentric orbits, have not been checked. I really doubt there is anything up here. Except for likely spots like the one I just checked, the odds of anyone visiting random spots this high up are extremely remote. But it couldn\'t hurt to waste a few CPU cycles while I mess around on the forums.

Yah. I guess Harv is wrong. Actually, I think he just doesn\'t mind whatever we call them. I\'ve been calling them Munar Muonic Anomalies, and Kerbal Muonic Anomalies, but nobody else does. You\'re all wrong.

'Jeb. What did you do, Jeb?' What were the G-forces to get you to that speed in 8 km? 'Instant orbit; you\'re doing it wrong.'