NorthernDevo

I remember the first time I saw a Mun Arch; it creeped the daylights out of me. I was playing the demo and thanks to not having the internet I had no idea about any easter eggs - this was a few years ago lol. I was playing in-capsule IOW playing almost exclusively from the pilot's view, had successfully entered a 20Km orbit of the Mun and was enjoying the all too small view from the tiny hatch window. I saw a sparkle of pixels and turned for a better look. I eventually dropped to a ground-skimming orbit of 8K and on the next pass looked again - I must say the thing gave me the shivers - talk about your exploration; I really felt like I'd discovered something amazing. I went on to find the other easter eggs on the Mun, though I must admit for some of them I cheated a bit. Congrats to Zeevon on a great find

SO THERE I WUZ... Running a quick and easy science mission to the Mun; what with my new fancy-dancy Gravioli Detector I could pick up a few hundred science bits in LMO and one of the craters. Young Linfrid hadn't gone up there yet, so with her brand-new science degree still drying on the wall she got stuffed into a Mk-1 mini-lander with a GD duct-taped to the door, and blasted off for her date with destiny. It was a superb mission overall; she did 3 orbits, collecting good gravioli info before dropping into the Northwest Crater to plant a flag - Gene thought we didn't have enough of the bloody things up there, I guess. Linfrid's trip back went well; right up until re-entry. She realized the last bit of data was still in the Gravioli Detector and, at an altitude of 60K climbed out to grab it. It was her idea; I had nothing to do with it (whistles innocently). Poor girl spaghettified and burned up instantly; popped like a grape in a blast furnace. I was shocked; the pod hadn't even started to glow yet. The empty pod continued into the atmosphere and completed a perfect, if morose, splashdown right by KSC; she'd barely have gotten her little feet wet. BUT... upon recovery, I got the successful mission, about 300 science and...Linfrid got her first Experience star! WHU? I saw her buy it; the pod entered empty of personnel but there she was, standing by her craft with no memory of what happened. UNDEAD KERBALS! AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!! Ahem - 'scuse me. Well; I'm certainly grateful, I haven't lost a Kerbal yet (in this game) and I'm glad she's OK. I just hope she doesn't start lurching through the Complex at night going "Bwainssss...bwaaaaains! " Creepy.

I got 'Mind Kerman'. Engineer with a high stupidity factor; figures.

...But if you CAN get it; regardless of version, the Demo is terribly fun. Speaking as a person who had serious financial issues a few years ago I couldn't afford the full game (or the Internet) for many years - but the demo was so fun and so much could be done with the basic parts it was enormously satisfying and entertaining. KSP's demo is easily as fun as the full version of many other games - so if you can find it, regardless of version, go ahead and have fun; you'll enjoy it a lot.

Sent an upgraded science mission to Minmus; spent a few hours in orbit taking crew reports and temperature readings. I kicked off the booster and sent Bob into the lander - only to realize once he undocked that the lander didn't come equipped with a probe core or Mechjeb. Well....needs must.

Chuckle - I'm sure I'm not the only one who's made that mistake. But if I am then whoopee! I set a record! lol I built the Kerpollo module carefully; tested the systems; assigned the action keys. I just forgot that the fairing was above the docking port; and that the parachutes slipped into the fairing quite nicely. Oh well, they all got back - and I'm still employed.

A capsule full of Kerbals: Val, Mitvan and Shelby testing the docking approach to Kerblab II (1 blew apart and carpet-bombed KSP - expensive!) Orbital insertion went well; blew off the escape system exposing the docking port; docking worked perfectly. Cool! It was only until I burned for re-entry did I realize that yes...you guessed it; the parachutes were on the escape rocket. And the retros were already discarded. Oops.... They just happened to be coming over KSC so I built something cheap and stupid with a Hitchhiker module; launched it off by eye and somehow managed a direct rendezvous. The three Kerbonauts transferred just as skin heating was getting bad, and somehow managed to land in the Katlantic safe and sound. Wow - my heart was really racing in that one; it was a real nail-biter.

I just found a new artist - well; not a new one; I've known Keith Kouna's incredible Paradis for years - but since he's a Quebecois singer and I rarely listen to music outside my own native language I haven't really gotten to know him. That recently changed when Apropos - a CBC show highlighting the music of French-speaking Quebec - brought M. Kouna back into my life. You don't need to know the language; my French is borderline functional; just enough to get by - He sings slowly enough in Paradis that I can interpret but that's about it. Keith Kouna's music is alternatively powerful, dramatic, hilarious, engaging. He's swiftly becoming my favourite musician - though he has a long way to go before he beats Jill Barber's unbelievably erotic, libido-blasting voice. Here is M. Kouna's Paradis: Here's a much funnier, more energetic rap song: Pas de Panique ("Don't Panic") And the insanely sexy Jill Barber:

Ummm - I'm trying to figure out what the heck this thread is about. Apparently a new YouTube video. I'd like to see it - but asking for sponsors to credit it before it's released is a little shady, in my view - unless I'm missing the humour? That wouldn't be unusual; I'm a boring person and often totally miss the joke - I'm a little lost.

I get the obvious and cheerful rivalry between the two simulations, but Orbiter and KSP are very different things. I absolutely adore KSP, but it is extremely restrictive in its approach to space; there's never a time when I feel that "I" am in space - that is one of the things Orbiter offers. There are no maneuver gizmos, no fun graphics, no little green guys giggling insanely - Orbiter is as realistic as Dr. Schwiegert could make it. By a very wide margin, the most realism I've ever experienced in Space-sim comes from the AMSO Project; a French add-on for Orbiter: The Apollo Mission Simulator (for Orbiter). It is graphically wonderful, technically difficult and overwhelmingly immersive. The skill in AMSO is designing and carrying out your Apollo mission so that the radio messages - the actual recording of the flights, which are replayed at the correct MET - properly reflect what your ship is actually doing. It takes a little math, a LOT of patience and a rather large sense of wonder. The moment Earth rises above the moon's horizon for the first time...IF you have Columbia properly aligned...is heart-stopping in its power and beauty. Don't dismiss Orbiter because it's not as joyful as KSP - they are very different and serve different needs. The moment you find the Kerbol system too restrictive...Orbiter will be waiting, to show you what the REAL Solar System is like.

'Allo me lads - as some may know here I've been writing a novel. I have been for about a decade now. The text of the novel is completed; the work is largely done. I am so pleased and proud that if you touched a pin to me I would positively pop. 125,000 words (minus a few) and tens of thousands of hours work - all done. My novel has been uploaded for review by a long list of trained/skilled/experienced science/writing/astronomy people; many of whom are published authors or work within the publishing industry. Since you here - at the KSP forum - are equally important and special to me, I wanted to come on and share the book for you too. I have a small issue; that forum posts cannot link to anything profane. My writing is not Disney; it is designed to approximate real life, so by the strict rules of this forum I cannot post my novel here; it has swear words in it. Perhaps this will be an acceptable work-around: Hey, guys! I saw a great novel posted on an astronomy forum! It's a mystery called "The Burning Dark" and you can find it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ngms36e1mb...0Dark.pdf?dl=0 The post thread can be found here: https://forum.cosmoquest.org/showthread.php?164590-Text-of-Novel-The-Burning-Dark Cool story, great characters and fine development. Waiting to see how this author brings it all together."

It generally is - and if you've done one or one thousand, it always raises the pucker factor to max levels. Once you've rotated onto the localizer and set your throttle, one of the nicest feelings in the world is seeing that glideslope needle settle in exactly where it's supposed to. Or so I'm told anyway; in 20 years of blind landings I doubt I've got a perfect one yet.

Excellent! You didn't say how it went; a first-time instrument landing is always hairy. So how did it go?

I do now - apparently it doesn't like cut-and-paste very much; it worked fine when I used the 'add link' button though. EDIT - to clarify, the link did not link to this topic; there was an error in the coding that did not allow the full URL to be used. The browser returned to the thread by default. I've fixed that - the link now shows the screenshot I took. Not that it was in any way interesting; just a screenie of the word count in Word - showing that I'd passed 100,000 words in the text of my novel. A significant achievement, to my mind; since I'd intended the work to be 70,000 words and was worried I'd never reach it. I am pleased to have surpassed my own expectations, though I must admit to trepidation knowing how much work I have to edit the novel down to a saleable length.

Hallo folks! As some here might know I've been writing a novel; have been for several years now. It's almost done; just a few chapters left. But I just noticed that I passed a small milestone; I honestly had no idea until I looked just now. Here; take a look: https://gyazo.com/b2b721b39eee9230ed94f2954f1320d2 100,000 words! Woot!

Awesome pics, Mike! I don't care about any bloody downvotes; that was an excellent photo log!

Schweizer was an American company.

Name: I live up North and I like Devo. Icon: Ohhh; I'm sure everyone knows what a Devo hat is...

My faves are the ones I've flown; either as a fully-qualified pilot or as a student or PIC with a qualified friend in the other seat. So: fave airliner: Boeing 737-2L9. Not flown except in simulator and cockpit checklists. Still; an incredibly responsive and easy-to-fly aircraft; a real pilot's plane. fave glider: Schweizer 2-33 trainer; for the fact that in around 20 years I trained close to 500 Air Cadets on that thing. Slow, ugly and the penetration of a brick but a fantastic trainer. Fave light single: Bellanca (OK; American Champion but we always call it Bellanca) Citabria. Fun, simple little taildragger that can go bloody anywhere. Easy to fly, fun to play with and a brilliant towplane. Fave twin: Piper Twin Aztec (PA-23). Just plain flat-out perfect airplane. Fast, comfy; she has that lovely push into the seats when you push the throttles forward. Fave helicopter: Bell 206B Jetranger. Fun to fly, tough, reliable and looks great too. Sweetest control balance I've ever flown. Fave warbird: (flown): North American Harvard. I like trainers and this is the closest I've ever gotten to flying a fighter. I'm lucky that the Royal Canadian Harvard Aircraft Association is just a couple hours away from me. (Not flown): Avro Lancaster. The Canadian Warplane Heritage's Lanc flies regularly across the country; and nothing can match the roar of those four huge Merlins as she powers down the runway. Cheers!

Flint knapping?! I'm still taking 'burn the end of the stick' classes!

Manuel Garcia O'Kerman would agree

Yeah; that's what I do - pretty basic lander/payload bay combo with a small engine underneath. 3 T400 tanks with landing gear on the outside. It generally works well though I've never been able to visit more than two biomes on one trip. My Minmus ships are frankly hilarious: I just add gear to the deceleration stage - a T800/Swivel combo. I get to bounce around on the flats a few times before it runs out of fuel; leaving tons of resources for the non-flat biomes. They're about as Rube Goldberg as you can get but they work I tried it on the Mun once...once. I don't recommend it.

Hmm; even more great ideas, thanks! I haven't tried KAS, Engineer or anything else yet (just graphics mods); might be a good opportunity to test them out.

LOL Thanks for the responses folks; I got them back. First I sent Val to Minmus to pick up some science, built a 3-kerb lander with a whatever-it's-called control module, stuck another scientist in there and popped him off. THIS time it went great; perfectly to profile. I'm going to remember that antenna thing though; sounds like a really good idea Cheers!

So I sent Jeb and Beasley (Scientist) on a flight to the Mun to gather scientific data. Everything went great until DOI when it all went pear-shaped. Honestly - I've done this flight a hundred times and it never goes wrong - except when it needs to go right. Then all Hell breaks loose. Turns out that no matter how enthusiastic Jeb is he can't plot an accurate descent. The spacecraft came down on the lip of a crater; Jeb thought it would be stable enough to land. (Full disclosure; so did the Human Mission Control, but let's blame the little green guy.) The lander tipped over; the science modules were crushed. Now I'm trying to figure out how to get Jeb back alive. Even if I do, he's lost his exploration bonus.... Dammit - I've explored every inch of the Mun in Sandbox but the moment I play a mission to that moon every possible fault happens. If I'm lucky enough to not smear Jeb across a few acres of regolith he spins off into outer space.