Tyko

can you add a link to the mod you're working on?

Is the OP asking for a flight computer connected with very powerful RCS to emulate "star wars" or "biplane" style flight or is this a request to actually break the physics system to enable "un-realistic" flight models? If you're not breaking the physics model, then it would quickly become apparent why "real" spacecraft won't fly like atmospheric craft do - it's just crazy DeltaV hungry. IMHO, most movies use "star wars" style flight models because they made for a movie experience that non-technical viewers would understand. There are many games out there that let you fly spacecraft like atmospheric aircraft. One of the reasons I went to KSP was that I wanted to learn how to fly "real" spacecraft and because of that I'd be opposed to anything that breaks the physics model.

Given how difficult and risky a docking landing is (without F5/F9 you're risking all your equipment and maybe lives) I'm just using KAS and its pipe connectors. You have a port on each vessel and a kerbal can create a pipe connection. Land near your mining rig, run a pipe between the two, transfer your fuel, disconnect the pipe. It feels more "realistic" and your landing accuracy only has to be in meters rather than near-perfect.

If you're plotting a planet or moon encounter just get yourself ANY kind of encounter, then left-click on the planet/moon and select Focus View. Now you can zoom in on the target body and see exactly where your encounter path is. If you're open to mods, Precise Maneuver (amongst other things) will map keyboard buttons to the six directional arrows on the Maneuver Node. Using those 6 buttons you can tweak your Node while your in a close-up view of your planet/moon. Using this method, it's really easy to nail precise flybys or put yourself in an exact orbit.

I did some initial porkchop plots and it was around 30Km/s to do a ~150 day transit to Jool. Depended on relative positions of the two planets of course. I can refine the scenario my first post was more to discover if someone had already done this since I've only been playing since 1.1 release

Toggle = turn on and off = quickly enable or disable the rotational thrust from RCS Sure, because I have fuel tankers that mostly work just fine using Reaction Wheels for rotation and RCS for translation, but when they are topped off with fuel they handle like cows. so when I can take the time to rotate slowly I want to save RCS fuel and when I'm doing final docking I want to toggle RCS rotation thrust on so I can have better control...For that matter, any heavier vessel can rotate on RWs when there's time, but there are times when you need quicker more precise rotation and it would be valuable to only use RCS fuel during those times when you really need faster response Already have one...thanks for the offer

I was thinking about this earlier actually. You can already turn ore into parts with Extraplanetary Launch Pads. The goal we are working on here is the "assembly" after launch part. If you had a mod that let you build parts from ore, you could still launch those parts up to the spacedock

I was thinking about a speed run to Jool challenge. Here's the scenario I'm considering: Jebediah and Valentina are on a long term research mission in Jool orbit when a medical emergency happens. They must get back to Kerbin within 1 year, and there aren't any ships in a position to get them home in time. A 2 Kerbal medical team has to fly out and all 4 of them fly back. Only Jeb and Val have to land for the mission to be complete. A call goes out for the cheapest, fastest mission to rescue our intrepid heroes. The Challenge: design and fly a craft from Kerbin KSC, achieve a 1000x1000Km orbit above Jool, return to Kerbin and land a 2 person pod. Waypoints Starting point: at KSC Orbit Jool in 1000x1000Km orbit (presumably to rendezvous with Jeb & Val, but the actual transfer is assumed and not part of the challenge) Return and safely touch down on Kerbin Payload - Passenger space for 8 - 4 seats are occupied and only 2 seats have to touch down at Kerbin. The other 4 represent extra living space and medical gear for a multi-month journey. Time - no more than one year from first launch until return capsule touches down Launch and assembly - this can be a single launch or multiple launches with assembly in orbit. Regardless of how you design the mission, the clock and budget count starts with the first launch and must include all assets used (fuel tankers, etc) Calendar - for consistency, the calendar starts on year 1, day 1 of the standard game calendar This will ensure all players are starting with the same planetary alignments We could change this as long as everyone starts at the same time. Mods - Vanilla with UI mods allowed no mods allowed that add or modify parts or their functions No mods that change the planets, their position etc You can use UI/functionality mods - transfer window planner, MJ, KER, etc Am I missing anything here? I want it to be fair for everyone. Scoring: Not sure...A couple of ideas: Lowest cost? - This seems like a good idea because it will keep some focus on efficiency rather than just kerballing together moar boosters Fastest trip? - also be fun to see how fast someone could do it regardless of cost Any thoughts? Has this been tried before? Looking at transfer window planner I think the DeltaV budget would be well North of 50Km/s. Is it possible?

I was hoping I could toggle RCS roll/yaw/pitch with an action group, but the options don't even appear in the options when I set up a group. Is there a secret here or is it just not an option?

some really cool thoughts here. The VAB still offers all the the placement tools and if you just create a VAB in space, most of the coding is already in place without writing a whole bunch of new systems. the overly simplistic view but: you'd need a way for an existing craft to be imported back into the VAB environment - once in there, the VAB already has everything else a part, or series of parts that you have to orbit to create the "import node" that provides the ability to import the craft into the orbital VAB this would be your "spacedock" and the capacity of the spacedock in parts / tonnage (whichever is easier) would be dictated by how big your spacedock was. Maybe each spacedock component accommodates 10 tons/20 parts (or whatever, I'm just throwing out numbers). If you want to work on a 100 ton ship, you need to launch and assemble 10 of those spacedock parts. Spacedock parts would require power, crew etc. - these are all mechanics built into the game already I'm proposing this because it seems like a fairly straightforward thing to create if you can just reuse all the VAB functionality. And, why wouldn't it be cool to bring a ship in and upgrade it after long mission? This happens IRL to naval vessels and I would expect that we'd do it IRL in space in the future.

The benefits of the orbital workshop are the precise placement, access to tools like CoM, CoT and RCS (if using the mod). Also though, the ability to disassemble is really valuable. There's no current way to swap out a module that's not on the "outside" of your craft. Here are a couple of examples of things you could do in a workshop that would be really tough if not impossible with KIS or some sort of enhanced docking: You get nuclear tech and want to upgrade your ship from chemical to nuke. change the tanks storage from LFO to LF only pull the old chem engines and attach the nukes. You're probe tech increases and you want to upgrade a probe with a more advanced probe core - these are often buried in the stack and it would be a real pain to remove and add back each piece above it in the stack.

@Snark More biomes are great and tying them to interesting geographic formations give you the added bonus of getting great vista to appreciate.

Yep, I've run into it occasionally before. Instead of getting irked, I took your approach and decided to find it humorous. I wasn't posting the pic as a rant, but just sharing an amusing moment. Could you imagine if the Apollo program had found that on the far side of the moon? LOL

Pepe and Corgas landed today right outside the sprawling metropolis of Minmus City today. Off to the left you can see the Kerman Central Park

If stock air intakes' drag profile changes when they're retracted you could probably mod one to produce EC when it's extended. That would do a pretty good job of acting like a RAT. I'm not sure if/how you could get it to only work when you're moving though. It might generate EC even when you're sitting still.

wow, a 1000 Tons...what about lifting it in parts and then assembling in orbit? Along the same lines but a little simpler - lift it with empty fuel tanks and launch fuel separately - fuel it in orbit. what's the Dry Weight of the craft?

If you want a deployable base check out MKS LITE it's an inflatable base system in which you can land one central lander with inflatable buildings already attached. You fly the one lander to your destination and then inflate the modules on site. It's pretty close to the "3.75m box" you were asking for

Nice work! Slowing down is always a good thing...don't want your precious science coming in a several kilometers/second

Good info. Do you have a model for how many radiators it really takes? I'd found that the VAB numbers don't don't cut it because they don't account for the fact that your radiators are actually going to soak heat from sunlight too. The VAB numbers work great in the shade

Did you use a lander? a rover? tell us more

@Claw you're just awesome! just last week I was running into EVA light failures and undocking not working. This week you come out with a solution!! Wish you had a Paypal link...I'd send you coffee money

I'm running OPM in 1.1.3 and haven't had any probs so far

Totally fair! and the work you do "in your spare time" makes the game even more fun! Can't thank you enough. Now that I'm not fearing for my kerbal's lives because of the readout I can sleep better

That KSP and the USI-LS readout isn't accurate if the ship isn't in physics range. I was remembering the times I've pulled up my life support readout and had a panic moment because it reported my ship was out of EC or almost out of Supplies only to jump to the ship and find that everything was fine. @Merkov explanation from the USI-LS thread: "this happens because KSP doesn't really calculate life support when the vessel in question is not in physics range (or maybe when you're not focused on it?) so when you re-focus on that vessel, it retroactively calculates what the life support usage was since the last time it was in focus. If I remember correctly, this also happens with other resource usage, such as warehousing/logistics in UKS, and drilling/ISRU and fuel cell usage in stock. The reason we notice it with USI-LS is because there is actually a window for seeing life support status when you don't have the vessel in question loaded, whereas there is no equivalent status screen for unfocused vessels using the stock functions. KSP is super complicated and there are trade-off between performance and accuracy...this is just one of those tradeoffs and now that I understand it I can plan for it.

Got it...the "overheating when the sun rises" thing might be happening in 1.0.5 too...that wasn't really a 'bug' fixed after 1.0.5 as much as me lacking full knowledge of all the thermal considerations.