Ultimate Steve

If only there was a trombone version...

Well, we have either SpiderJeb - as the papercraft would have us believe - Or SantaJeb. Here he is on my Christmas tree! Happy holidays to all!

'Murica! Also:

Episode 2 is up!

8/10 nice design... Just not too terribly huge enough () 916 Kerbals to Minmus. One launch. Lots of Delta V. ISRU capable. Can land on anything the Mun or lighter (and possibly Eeloo). It is called the ITV-020 - Philosopher of Time.

While Stanley is flying through the apparently alien sky, he ponders the ultimate question: Why do forum threads from 2015 get nercoed so often? After that, Stanley sees a huge portal and may or may not be flying towards it.

The game defines "new" as a craft launched after the contract was accepted. I don't think the contract system knows how to handle construction mods. But because the game is imperfect (but still extremely awesome) if you feel that you've been cheated you can open the debug menu and complete the contract the "direct" way.

Currently 11:49 PM. Tomorrow is my dad's birthday. On vacation, no access to video editing software, have enough footage for five more episodes of Reusable Space Program, but nothing to edit them with. I need a probe to go to Duna. It's not finished yet, and I hope to get it launched in time for my dad's birthday, but that thing has over THIRTEEN Kilometers per second of Delta V. EDIT: I'm an idiot. I was making it actually spaceworthy so I added some crew compartments and I began sending it on its way to Duna. Without realizing that the crew compartments changed "DAD" to "BAD." Ehh... It's not too terribly noticeable... And it's pretty much too late to relaunch. I guess the "Duna Adventurer Delta" is now the "Beacon At Duna." Edit2: Huh, it actually flies excellently. Nearing Duna, but I should probably go to bed seeing as it is nearly 1 AM. Two problems I've noticed: I forgot symmetry when placing the solar panel, and I forgot the antenna so these Kerbs are gonna be without comms for a year or so. But I made it to Duna in record time thanks to the huge amount of Delta V this thing has.

"Just 5 more minutes!" That is sooooo accurate.

So, I have a bit of a problem. A few days ago I was flying a model rocket (which was my first launch of an "E" engine) and, well, it sort of exploded. Details: It was an Estes E9-6 engine. The rocket was an Estes Magician. When it launched, the propellant, cap, and nozzle separated from the cardboard engine casing and blasted up through the rocket, breaking it in two and melting the paratrooper I had stuffed inside. This was not an engine mount failure, the mount was perfectly fine and the empty (no nozzle or anything) cardboard engine casing was still in the rocket after the failure. The clay cap in the rocket engine may have been partially cracked, the other two in the package are sort of cracked (although it is hard to tell if this is normal - this was my first "E" engine launch) and that may have contributed to the breakup of the engine. As far as I know, I stored the engines properly. They were stored in my basement, which can get a bit chilly but is usually at a constant temperature. Not sure about humidity, but if it helps I live in Iowa. The engines are less that two years old, and I have successfully fired engines stored in these same conditions for around three years, although they were not "E" size. The temperature at the time of launch was cold, but above freezing. I also flew another rocket that day, but it wasn't an "E" and the engine did not fail (although the rocket sort of did). I can provide more details, pictures of the empty casing and other two engines, and two separate camera angles of the failure if necessary. My question is this - is it safe to use the other two engines that came in the package? And if not, would adding some glue to reinforce the clay cap fix the problem?

Hehe. I actually returned him. It's in my mission report, if you want to dig through it. Soon, when I get around to making more chapters, he might get to be my first Kerbal on Dres. Oh, and on topic: That is 916 Kerbals to Minmus in one launch. Unless whackjob sees this thread, I think I might have won.

As far as discoveries, nobody can predict that. But if I had to guess, with wishful thinking, I hope we discover something on one of the moons. And I hope we get at least one picture from inside* Saturn's atmosphere. When will we go back to Saturn? Who can tell. Sometime in the next twenty or so years something will be launched. My guess is either a polar orbiter or a mission to Titan. Or, if we're lucky, a ring sample return. As far as who will launch it, I think NASA has the biggest chance of launching one. In a three way tie for second, I'd say SpaceX, Russia, or China. If it is SpaceX, it would be a Titan version of the Red Dragon or maybe just a small payload (The Falcon Heavy in theory can send super light stuff to Pluto, so Saturn should be easier than that). If Russia does it, my guess is that it would be an orbiter. If it is China, or Japan or India or one of those other countries, my money would be on a flyby or impactor. If I was in charge of the space program, I'd send an atmospheric probe into the polar hexagon.

Unfortunately, you can't change this in flight, so when you just did a huge mission, but your terminal velocity is just above the safe limit, and if you deployed it it would still be fine, it won't let you deploy the chute, resulting in Jeb dying. Other than that, it's an excellent feature!

1) Reads comic page 1. 2) Briefly envisions myself fighting macey-dean style battles in space in KSP. 3) Reads comic page 2. 4) Briefly wonders If I could possibly win a game of chess with half of the pieces. 5) The Final Countdown starts playing in my head. *Totally* not because I'm listening to it in the background. 6) Gets incredibly hyped up for the big battle scene (if there is one). 7) Takes so long writing this comment that I have to restart The Final Countdown before autoplay - actually, autoplay will take it to another cover of The Final Countdown. So I'll let it play through this time. 8) I re-read both comic pages. Can't wait for Laythe!

Step 6 - build a rescue mission for the rescue mission, and launch it into space and get to Duna only to realize you're out of electricity with no solar panels. Step 7 - revert to VAB and add solar panels. But the game crashes right before you save it. Step 8 - return to KSP after a month of being bored with it and launch the rescue mission with the craft you built a month ago. Get it all the way to Duna but realize you forgot the solar panels again. Step 9: repeat steps 7-8.

A long, long time ago, back in the days of Kerbin City and the mod that powered it (I can't think of the name right now, but it allowed you to place static objects into KSP), waaaaaaay back in 2013, there was a Mod called KerbolQuest. It never got very far off the ground, but had it been finished, it would have implemented a huge storyline. Somebody should make a storyline mod. (I might, but I'm not really a modder)

Thanks! And yes, The Story of Project Intrepid will Continue (haha) but it is at somewhat of a hold right now. I've been busy, but I hope to do both simultaneously.

So, a few days ago I decided to start a new career mode in KSP 1.2. - with a catch. That catch is that everything must either be completely re-usable, or remain in a safe position (landed on a planet, in a stable orbit) as a useful craft (satellite, space station, base, but no debris) and that no parts may explode or despawn. And it turns out, this is actually very complicated. You'd think that you'd save a lot of money making everything re-usable. However, if you land too far away, the extra cost from mounting parachutes on the craft is offset by the 70% return value! This mission report will be in the format of timelapse music videos to keep each episode short and watchable - not unlike videos by Hazard-ish, Matt Lowne, Kergarin Aerospace, or Turbo Pumped (Who all have great videos - go check them out!) However, as I do not have much experience doing this type of video, any constructive feedback is appreciated. Episodes: Enjoy! More coming soon!

I recommend the Engineering Tech Tree. Also, I've started playing a new career mode with one very constraining limitation - everything MUST be re-usable. It either must land on Kerbin intact, or remain useful in orbit. (Minimal orbital debris, also.) I'm actually finding it quite a struggle to escape LKO - and I'm also finding it difficult to progress through the tech tree. But, yeah. I've sort of sometimes hit that "meh" moment. But most often, before I can "finish" a career a new update comes out or I get bored with my current save. I don't think I've ever landed Kerbals on anything other then Kerbin, the Mun, Minmus, Gilly, Duna, and Ike in career mode. Most of the time I play sandbox.

Well, if you want to go super lightweight, then you can theoretically make a super lightweight Tylo lander, if you minimalize a lot. Normally when people think of Tylo landers they think of huge 20+ ton beasts when really you can get a Kerbal there and back for less than two tons (see my sig) and if you're really talented, as little as one ton. So in theory a minimalist 6.4x Tylo lander won't be tremendous, just huge. Never played with 6.4x before, so I may be wrong, but a lander might be doable in less than 20 tons.

I don't have Facebook or Twitter. But I can take a picture of a paper cutout Jeb strapped to a 5 foot tall Model Rocket.

Bradley Whistance did an SSTO to Eve and back. Yes, you read that correctly. SSTO TO EVE AND BACK. No, seriously.

If you're still looking for places to go, I've got a couple suggestions. 1. This one island between the KSC continent and the eastern one (approx. 10 East, 30 North) 2. On the southern ice cap there is a place where there are mountains (15 West, 77 South) 3. If you haven't already, check out the anomalies like the Desert pyramids and KSC2. Also near KSC2 are some interesting mountains.

I'm just going to say here, at Dres it takes a TON of Dv to circularize. I had to do a 3km/s burn (and the a 7km/s burn to rescue another ship, but that's not important) on a recent mission. Now, if you go to Jool, if you set it up right, you can get a gravity assist from one of the moons and get into Jool orbit for basically no Dv.