DStaal

From another thread, quoting a transcript of an interview: That's obviously this ship: Which has the magnetic confinement nozzle. An interesting part of that statement is that the engine is vacuum-certified. Which leads me to wonder: are there atmosphere-certified versions of metal hydrogen engines as well? Perhaps that's the finned engine (with lots of cooling) we see here:

In general I'm pretty agostic on the v2 vs v1.10 issue - but I think it would be really confusing to have a KSP 1 v2.0.0 and a KSP 2 v1.1.0 (or whatever) at the same time. Better to keep KSP 1 in the 1.X series, just to make it easier to keep track of.

Thanks!

The zip is just the source code, not the compiled mod. (Triple-checked.)

Given that there's an Orion Drive in the trailer - no bet.

Wheels. Not the ice-skates-with-rocket-engines that the wheels in KSP1 to often reveal themselves to be, but something that works like real wheels.

There's some: Being able to set up a new VAB & launchpad would be good, especially if you're able to do so lightyears from Kerbol. EL mostly works, but isn't quite the same. Even better if you can recruit from that colony. Also, from what we've seen they have addressed the issue of things not on absolutely flat surfaces being likely to move/explode over time.

I don't think it's particularly likely either - though I think it would be a very nice addition. Still, just wanted to point out that multiplayer doesn't have to mean competing space agencies, in any form.

Multiplayer could also mean something like Telemachus is in the base game, and you can have a full mission control center as well as a pilot at the same time.

I'll admit the science system in KSP isn't very realistic. However, without adding a *lot* of busywork to it, I'm not sure what I'd replace it with - it does a pretty good job at what it's supposed to do.

I'd actually argue that the Orion is early-game. It's actually likely *within* what we could do even twenty years ago - if not forty. We just decided it wasn't safe enough to try.

I have another thought on how to tease info out of what we have: What are the tech trees? Let's assume they haven't changed the tech/science system much - you still gather science and advance through the tech tree to more advanced technologies, each influencing what's available next. Looking at it that way, I think you could consider the Daedelus as the end-tech on the same tree as the Orion - both are about dropping a fuel nugget behind you and detonating it, the Daedelus just has advanced the type of fuel and detonation, as well as the evening out the bursts of thrusts and getting better at collecting the energy. Then Epstein drive would be a different tech line - it's conceptually much more similar to an evolution of chemical rockets, though is obviously a few steps up the tree. What's in between? And what would be on the same tech line as ion drives? Or would they be a dead end, never really useful for anything other than small probes? (And of course this is just a tech tree that came to me quickly. There's reasonable arguments for other layouts obviously - but I thought it might be able to give us more of a framework to speculate on.)

If that's the same bell, then those chamber modules aren't likely part of the engine, or at least not stackable - the ring of ports in the side of the bell wouldn't make sense then. They make sense for an inertial confinement fusion engine, where they would be ports for the confinement beams. The modules could be the laser generation array, which is where much of the heat would be generated. Or it could be a bell with similar structural reinforcement. That's the type of technical detail that would likely get shared between designs after all: Any large physical engine bell operating in similar temperature ranges is going to have similar engineering constraints. (Which actually leads to one reason not to think it's the mirror cell fusion drive: That would have a magnetic bell, not a physical bell. Lighter weight, and it's the same tech as you're already using to build the mirror cells - and you don't have to worry about the exhaust melting your bell.) There are a couple of other designs where a long drive segment comes into play. An interesting thought though is if it *is* the same bell, and those aren't engine chambers - they're fuel. (This would then be a resource-transfer ship, most likely - which is consistent with it launching that lander at the end.) If so, with that bell and the ports, it could be a mini-mag orion drive: smaller nuclear bombs, and they're remotely detonated instead of internally fused.

If it is a Krepstien, it's likely magnetic-confinement fusion.

That's definitely a different engine than this: I think it looks more like the engine clustered around the mini-Daedalus than the one above. From the mini-daedalus shot and the disintegration shot they appear to need quite a bit of cooling. I'm leaning towards it being one of the Krepstien drives - the ship being designed to use the mini-daedalus for interstellar travel, and then Krepstien for interplanetary.

Sorry, I did look - but I think I spent more than 30 minutes writing my post.

Just thought I start a thread to try to analyze what engines we've seen in the released material so far. Obviously the most talked about so far have been the Orion nuclear pulse, and the Daedalus inertial confinement fusion engines. However, there's definitely others in the trailer and what's been seen so far. For instance: In this picture, the central engine *may* be a Daedalus, but it's also slightly different than the one leaving the Jool station: There are ports inside the bell, and the rim is more separated from the bell. It also appears to be much smaller, based on the scale of the rest of the ship. As a guess, it's likely another inertial confinement engine, but a smaller one. However, there's also the eight engines surrounding it. They could be the same engine as this shot: But they could also be a something completely different. I don't have any ideas off the top of my head on it. Anyone see something familiar? There's also several of what are fairly likely to be magnetic confinement nozzles - best shot I can quickly find for one is here: Not the Thuds on the lander - but on the transfer stage. I've seen them in a couple of other shots as well, though I can't find any stills online quickly. (There's a good shot in the gameplay video with one in the center of a cluster of what are probably NERVAs around it, so they likely use similar fuel.) Some appear to have integrated radiator fins. Speaking of radiator fins, the last landing shot in the trailer has a heavily-finned bell in shown (in two different sizes) that wouldn't fit any of these either. I have no real clues there either. So, ideas people? I've skimmed Atomic Rockets a few times, but I haven't really researched to carefully different possible engine designs - I'm hoping there are people here more knowledgeable than me.

Actually - Atmo helps improve the thrust of the Orion Drive. It's a *great* launch engine - it's only a so-so vacuum engine. Launching SSTO is the best use for an Orion Drive - long as you don't mind the exhaust plume...

Not quite the same - the 3-body method would pick the two biggest influences, and just use those. I was thinking more using all 'system objects' - that is, anything the player didn't launch. Though I'll admit for many cases it would effectively be the same. The main thrust of this idea however is the patched-conics for near the planetoids, and X-Body simulation for further away.

An interesting thought experiment would be a hybrid system: Keep the planets on rails, and have say up to 2x(low-orbit) on patched conic, and put high-orbit and above into a modified N-Body, with just planetary and solar influences counted. (No other ships.) That would eliminate most of the stationkeeping, provide the Larage points and most gravity assists, while keeping computational cost fairly minimal. It'd also provide a graduated learning curve for the players to adjust to - with most players really only being exposed to N-Body during transfers.

Did someone just clear the mail queue on Spacedock? (I just got 35 update notices.)

How big were they? Kerbal Planetary Base Systems has a fairly small rectangular one.

I'm not sure what they did, but I know @Snark put a fix for it in SimpleFuelSwitch.

Known issue, stock glitch in latest KSP. It's visual only - close the PAW and reopen and it will show the correct current contents. Multiple resource-switcher mods are showing the issue. (Though I think some have addressed it.)

Honestly, I think the biggest argument against N-Body physics is that while Principia is a well-known mod, it's not exactly a widely used mod. (Not that it isn't used - just that it doesn't get the same amount of 'I use this' as a lot of other mods.) So, given the choice most KSP players aren't using N-Body physics. I would like Larange points, I'll admit. I'm sure there's a good way to fake them in a modified patched conics model. (Maybe make the most common their own SOI?)