Crimson_Pride14

I was thinking on this earlier and had a couple of thoughts on science and space stations (and ground based science station). Like you said it doesn't benefit you much to make one since you do experiments once then you have to do them somewhere else, which a station is not good for. So I thought we need more experiments! Since we had such a great community, let's get them involved as well. How about each update we have a number of experiments added from the developers and from the community. They could be realistic (spiders making webs in zero gravity) to something more kerbal (making tomato monsters with radiation). So the community can have a thread where they post ideas and then the best are put in a poll and people get to vote on which they want in the update. Since these can be internal experiments, the won't require in-game models and amount to nothing more than data files. As for how you get the experiments up there, launching a new station everytime is very wasteful and kind of defeats the purpose. You also want to give a reason to do it on a space station. So you need a way to take experiments up and down, kind of like what the shuttle used to do. So to do this you have a payload part that is part of your craft. It has a certain amount of space, and experiments take up a given amount. So you can either fit a one big experiment or multiple smaller ones. All you do is take your craft up and dock with the station to swap out experiments and you bring the old ones back. Another thing to think about is why do you need a space station? It can be justified by saying you need a certain amount of science ability to do certain experiments, more than just sticking an instrument to the exterior of your spacecraft. The distinction I think can be measurements are done on spacecrafts, research is at science stations. So research you have to do on a station. Going one step farther, you could require the addition of certain modules to the station to increase it's ability to do science. For example, to do a biology experiment you would need a biology module. So the more modules you add, the higher number/level of complication experiments you can do. As for the purpose of these experiments, that's a good question that I can't address. My thought was that instead of unlocking tech, the research on stations could be used to increase efficiency. For example, a chemistry experiment could lead to fuel with better ISP, or a biology experiment makes more efficient life support systems. Since we can't use time as a mark of completion, we can use a system that requires you to finish a certain number of experiments or finish them in a certain place. Or you could have a progress bar, where each experiments gives you a certain amount of research points, i.e. like 500 for a certain experiment. To improve the ISP of a fuel for example, you might require 10,000 chemistry points. To get the points you have to get the experiment to the station and get it back to the planet. Anyway, that's what I was thinking.

Can some part modder work on some folding dishes as well? Would love one as an interplanetary dish.

Like to say first, great mod. Really adds to playing the game when you have to stay in contact with Kerbin. Now to the main point, was a suggestion/request for the interplanetary dish. The one you have right now is kinda awkward to use as a relay satellite. I use the ole dynasat adapter to have my satellite point at Kerbin. I can't place the interplanetary dish right on the back of the satellite, so I have to put it out on struts to mount it. (See picture) Of course this creates a lot of weight, and in the cases where I only want one it gets the mass off center so I end up with a large error on any burn I do. It also makes any manned craft I wanna send out to that range very awkward looking. So to the point, has anyone ever made a collapsible dish that could be used in place of the larger one? If not has anyone thought of making one? Something like this might be cool. You could either make it as a part mounted to the side and it folds out to point at your target, like a solar panel. (Maybe figure out how the ISA dish tracks it's target and incorporate it into the dish?) If not that then you could combo it into RemoteControl module that would weigh more than the normal one, but would allow it to fold out in the same way. Thoughts?

Might I make a suggestion? To me seems like the capacity of the batteries is way lower than it should be. I increased their capacity by about 125% and the large battery still can't provide power to a single comm satellite for the duration of the eclipse time. I only have a remote tech command pod and three antennas connected, so the large battery should be able to handle that easily. I think the consumption rate is good, just that the capacity is to low. I also ended up increasing the collection amount of the solar panels to about .1 because they couldn't even power the things I had running, not to mention charge batteries in the process. Same goes for the nuclear battery, it's recharge rate isn't near enough to recharge batteries while running everything. I may go back and increase the battery amount even more to get it where I like. I love this mod, don't get me wrong, I think it's really well done. I just think the balance could be better cause right now you'd have to add tons of batteries if you run everything off batteries that would normally use electricity. Adds more frustration than realism.

If you do all that you could give the possibility of having a steering mechanic for re-entry, just like the real thing. Not sure how you would do it, but being able to do pinpoint landings would be cool for sim players.

Like I said in the other thread, someone has made a a multi joint plugin at some point that allows this kinda thing. But very good job, can't wait till you can animate it.

Ah ok gotcha. Well I like to try and design my rockets like I would in real life, with just enough fuel to reach orbit with about margin for ullage and such. That gives me just enough fuel to get it back into the atmosphere. What about having a lil reference window for Delta-V's to get to other planets from a given parking orbit? That would be extremely useful. Btw, love your mod cause it makes me feel like I'm at work. Just way more fun.

Well the only way I can think of to do my idea is using MechJeb to simulate the launch before you actually go, at least the only way I could think of without doing a base flight. That's why I suggested it.

Noticed a bug with the nodes today. The nodes I have placed behind liquid engines are not stiff enough and whenever the engines are firing the get pushed up into the fuel tank. Hasn't caused a failure yet, but can cause some pogo style oscillations on a first stage. Not sure if it's collision detection or what. First shot is at no throttle, second is at about 1/3, last is at full. Edit: Scratch that, reverse it.

I have a suggestion, though not sure if it's even feasible. Since we have so many mods now that can give us the delta-V required for interplanetary travel, would be nice to be able to import those numbers into the VAB to see if we have enough fuel to reach it before we launch. Nothing worse then getting all the way up there and finding out your 200 m/s short. Also, I use this mainly to see if I have enough delta-V to reach orbit. It's nice because I can get in the ball park before I even launch then make small adjustments. The thing that would put this over the top is if you could somehow import your flight plan in MechJeb to the engineer mod and compare the amount of Delta-V that you'll need to reach orbit compared to what your vehicle can do. Everything needed should be there. MechJeb already calculates drag and gravity loses, in theory it should be able to calculate all that before hand based on your flight path that you adjust in the launch assist. Would be the first step to being able to do flight planning. Again, know nothing about coding or no idea how hard this would be. Just thought I'd throw it out there.

Thank you man, appreciate it!

Excuse my ignorance, but are there any folding panels that use EPS? Searched everywhere but couldn't find one. Even tried to modify the ZO2 panel to do EPS as well but I know nothing about modding files. Kind of a stickler for these so I can fit it in the shroud.

First posting of some pictures. First landing on Duna, and first attempt with the new re-entry mod.

I'd really like a mission planner like some others have mentioned. Something where I don't have to test a rocket several times to get it to where I wanna go. I know some people like playing that way, but I'd rather be able to focus on the payload and mission than trial and error. This is what I propose. It would be a simulation of the galaxy, from a moment that you would chose to launch your rocket. When you click the launch button from the VAB or the launch pad from the space center you have the option to plan your flight or just launch. Your launch can either be right away, or you can set it for a later time. (Useful for setting up your launch so you don't spend a lot of time in a parking orbit waiting for the right angle. Possibly give a view of the galaxy with a slider to speed up time to the point that you want so you can see the planets positions.) You set a parking orbit that you wanna start from around Kerbin. Several mods are already able to predict the phase angle and ejection angle with the required Delta-V to reach the desired destination. Looking at what Harv has already started with the patched conics update it could be possible to hover over where you wanna go or even select a celestial body or vessel, so it will display the information you need to rendezvous with it. So you can click where you wanna go, and it will make a mark as a event in the flight plan. This event will list the angles required to reach your destination, along with the delta-V. There can even be a count down to the event, so you know exactly when you have to be lined up and when to start your burn. One small thing that would be amazing is to mark on which ejection angle you need to start your burn based on the engine you have. Since the nuclear engine has such low thrust the burn has to be pretty long, which throws off the final trajectory. So knowing how early to start the burn so you get the right angle would be a life saver. Though that would require direct information about the rocket, which could be possible because there is an engineer mod somewhere that does the same kind of thing. Once you have where you'll enter the SOI, you can move the mission planning up and start again from that point. Your path will be estimated like it is now, but you can add burns in at certain intervals to adjust your trajectory to either move into an orbit or enter the atmosphere and land. You could do this by selecting certain points on your path and list how much Delta-V you want and at what angle. These will be marked down as another event in the fight plan, with required Delta-V and any other information you need. If you wanna get back to Kerbin, you start again from a parking orbit over the body your taking off from. If you don't wanna stop at that celestial body, you can let your craft pass through it's SOI. At the next SOI change you can start the mission planner again like before and continue for as long as you want. You can set as many events in the flight plan as you want, allowing for gravity assist trajectories to minimize the fuel required. So as you overlook the galaxy you will have a diagram of your trajectory's and your flight plan. More importantly, you will have a list of burns that you have to make in order to follow that path. Each one has the angles and Delta-V required. As you fly you can have a countdown to each event. So you do your transfer burn, warp to the next event, do your burn, and warp to the next event. So on and so forth. There are mods to estimate the Delta-V of your different stages, so it's just a matter of arranging your stages to get the proper Delta-V. Of course this will require cleaning up of the current game. Seems like the precision of the orbital mechanics still isn't where it needs to be for this kind of precise planning. There also needs to be some better navigational tools outside of mods, because of the requirement to burn at certain angles for certain times. There also needs to be a way to account for error the the calculations. So it might have to be a dynamics flight plan as well. But for the next update a bare bones version would still be amazing. Even having the option to trigger certain stages and certain time or positions in the flight could be cool. But that would also probably require a overhaul of the staging interface in the VAB to makes it easier to organize. Apologies for the wall of text, just wanted to explain my idea thoroughly.

There are literally thousands of Greek deities you can name your stuff out of, some who sound really awesome. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Greek_mythological_figures

Very impressive feat. Even though I was confident it would work, was still nervous as hell as it came in. So many things being done for the first time.

That decent imagery will be bad ass, if we get it back. Think this is the first flight of the ASRG, but NASA has used the RTG on several occasion.

Every single lander mission in history, with the exception of the Apollo missions, has been computer controlled. There is no way a human can control it with the delay, not even to the moon. Radar doesn't need light to work either. Kinda kills my hopes of a live video stream though.

Just one more day till we see if it works! Honestly I think it stands a good chance of working. It's basically just like the Viking lander landings (uses the same engine even), except it stops itself above the ground and just lowers the rover down. Don't see any reason why it should fail.

I know I posted this a couple of times around the old forum, but won't pass up a chance to plug it again. Did this as part of my senior design project presentation. Our mission was to design a lander to get to Mercury. This was our plan. http://youtu.be/epBHkA63mms?hd=1 Also have a few videos about some of my rockets but they are pretty boring, so not gonna post them.

Oh yea, I forgot about that bug. Could very well be what caused the error. Would that explain the flow rate change though? Yea I could have, but where is the fun in that? Always better to get real world results anyway.

Can I make a small request? Can you make it so tanks list their fuel in mass and not volume? Just throws me off cause you do everything my mass and thinking about trying to actually calculate what I need in my rockets. Would save me a step.

Well since we now have Isp\'s for engines, decided to see just how well the game models engine performance by seeing how well it can calculate Delta-V. (I know you coulda found Isp previously but I didn\'t feel like it lol) Only thing we need to know is the density of the fuel, since the tanks give it in volume. So did a test stand firing to figure out the mass of the fuel. Screenshots of initial conditions: Test Fire: (Patsey is a champ) Results: So did a little math. Note that we now know the mass flow rate as well. So the engine should put out about 2193 m/s of delta-V. Let\'s test that. Orbital Firing: So the actual delta-V from the start of firing to the end was about 2253 m/s. So the error is about 3%, and I\'m willing to chalk that up to velocity change due to carry over from the orbital path since it wasn\'t even close to circular. Even so still within 10%, so I\'ll go ahead and say that the computer model is very good at modeling theoretical performance in a vacuum. Don\'t really feel like doing it for atmospheric as well so just gonna leave it haha. Sorry if someone has already done all this, I as bored and thought it would be fun to test it. Yea, I am an aerospace engineer so I find nerdy things fun. Interesting to note that the flow rate changes in a vacuum, so they must have kept thrust constant and changed flow rate as Isp changes. Opposite of what it really should do. Means burns in a vacuum will be longer than in atmosphere as well. Interesting indeed!

Thank you boss! Good mod, exactly what I\'ve been wanting to test my transport rockets.

Any chance you could make some smaller increment ones? Some .5 tons or .1 tons would be nice for that fine tuning of flight paths.