Tyko

perhaps it was once populated with cats and you won't know if they're still alive until you visit Eve.

Thanks for the advice...I might redirect my probe to Eta for a first attempt, collect science there, then drop deeper into Thalia's gravity well and see how it goes.

Yea....heat around the inner planets is tough. I'm about to send a probe to Thalia for the first time. Bob hasn't yet determined how hot it will be, so the first probe doesn't have any special heat management. Jeb wanted to add a rotisserie grill

That sounds like a challenge Maybe I'll have to sandbox a ship together and see if it's possible.

Thanks @linuxgurugamer for keeping all these great mods alive!

I'm using it...there are a couple of challenges. There's no way to tell Trajectories to only account for your descent stage. If you have a classic pod + service module layout you're going to be dropping your service module before re-entry. Trajectories' calculation is based on the vehicle at the moment though, so you're getting calculation errors both because of mass and aerodynamic factors After you've dropped your service module it becomes much more accurate, but still tends to overshoot a bit. It's still useful - I especially like using it to calculate multi-pass aerobraking maneuvers. It does a really good job for those.

It seems like I have more success with higher 1.5 - 2 TWR for small rockets and 1.3 - 1.5 TWR for larger rockets. Keep me honest here, but with similar aero designs a smaller rocket will experience more aero drag than a big rocket because surface area doesn't rise as fast as volume.

circularizing asteroids around Kerbin and drilling for fuel is a great way to save money - especially when you you're building interplanetary manned missions. Don't land the fuel and sell it though. Instead launch you ships with as little fuel as possible to achieve orbit, then have a fuel tanker fill up at the asteroid and fuel your mission in orbit. The money you'll save on more lifting power by not having to lift all that fuel is well worth it.

I did have to have a kerbal "get out and push" once to get a return trajectory into Kerbin's atmosphere...I'd read about it, had run out of options and was like "might as well give it a try". Val made it safely home..

Their urine is highly acidic and Kerbals have fantastic pee-nmanship

my first successful rendezvous and docking...so many hours of reading / watching tutorials / failed attempts to get there.

@JK_Kerbineer the addition of the second question broke your survey. It's requiring me to select one of the options in question 2.

There are a few categories of modding and the learning curve depends a lot on which you choose: Modding existing parts - This might be changing the thrust on an engine or moving parts around in the tech tree This is pretty straightforward using Module Manager and a text editor. No need to do modeling as you're using existing parts The Module Manager Wiki gives a lot of great examples and the MM forum is a great place to get advice Adding a new part based on an existing model - you want to create a new engine, but don't mind using an existing engine model Essentially the same as above, you just use different MM syntax to tell it you want a new part versus modifying an existing one. If you're going to publish your mod and you're using someone else's model you want to make sure you have rights to use it - each published mod has a license that outlines your permissions and you can also ask the owner of the mod. Creating an entirely new part Now you're getting into modeling and @DrLicor already suggested some great resources for getting started You'll also need to write text config files for these, but a lot of what you learned from MM configs will apply because it's essentially the same syntax. In many cases you can still copy code from another part - say you design a new 2-man capsule, you can borrow the code from an existing capsule and edit it to suit your needs. Writing DLL code that modifies the game Now you're getting into the land of C++ C# coding that @DrLicor mentioned above. (edited after feedback from @Snark) In short, if you just want to play around with tweaking parts it's really easy because you only need a text editor. The MM syntax is easy to understand and there's plenty of examples in existing parts mods. I found @Yemo's mods to be really good learning tools because the code is well documented. Try SETI Rebalance for lots of examples. Another great source of inspiration is the Community Database maintained by @Alshain

Anyone else using with 1.3.1? I've found the 2 standard fairings work just fine. The Interstage fairing isn't protecting the parts below it from drag. I launched a rocket with an interstage and the fuel tank right below the interstage fairing adapter was experiencing drag as if it's top wasn't shielded by the fairing.

Von Braun would be so proud My endeavors aren't quite so advanced yet. New GPP save and my first lunar probe lands on Iota. I got the lander's weight down to 245kg including fuel for the translunar injection plus landing w/5 science experiments (1.3.1 GPP 50% science)

hmmm...that's one point of view... I don't use labs that way and find that most of my fun happens as I unlock parts and have to build missions based on my choices. If you're just going to do the labs/time-warp trick you might as well just give yourself a million science points and unlock the whole tree, or play Sandbox. For those of us that do enjoy progressing through the tech tree there's a bit point to this

Agreed that decouplers - especially the 2.5m - are in dire need of a remake.

You clearly put a lot of thought into your changes. Over time I've also updated my tech tree and you could do the same. I started with Unmanned before Manned, because it got me close to what I was looking for. After I learned how @Yemo made the changes it was pretty straightforward to make changes to it to suit my taste. I just renamed it TykoTechTree to keep CKan from overwriting my changes and have been slowly making changes ever since. I realize you're looking for suggestions for changing Stock. It may be worthwhile to create your own mod, share it with others, and build support for your point of view.

There's a part called an Experimental Storage Unit (ESU). This can collect science from any attached parts using the right-click "Collect All" command. You can attach these to any craft. For example, you could have one on your rover/biome hopper to hold all of the surface samples as you move around the surface. If you're using a different craft to return the samples to Kerbin you can just put another ESU on your return craft. Dock your biome hopper to the return craft. Do the "Collect All" command from the ESU on the return craft - this transfers all the samples from the ESU on the hopper to the ESU on the return craft. Fly home and SCIENCE!!!

"No, really! It's just extra snacks we are slinging at you...trust us and prepare to receive our care package" "Every time we have dealings with Starfleet, I get nervous. We are dealing with something that could be perverted into a dreadful weapon." - David, Star Trek - Wrath of Khan...

If I want to comment out an @module change, do I just comment out the initial @module line or must I comment out all the subsequent lines down to the close bracket for that module?

Which mods do the reactor and antenna come from?

Personally I don't care about IVAs and would be happy to have more cool parts to play with. I realize others do use IVAs, but given the choice between not having the parts at all or having parts without IVAs I'd cast a vote for "moar parts" Thanks for all the great work!

Yea, I spoke too soon...looked like it was working. with the latest update I'm actually seeing more stutter...I launched a 12 piece sounding rocket and the game was stuttering horribly..I reverted back to the dll compiled by @John007qwe which seems to work better. I'm also not seeing prompts to collect science in KSC biomes. Once I'm off the ground it's giving me proper reports.

I saw this too and my conclusion was that the stats had been reversed for the two chutes. I wrote a quick config to reverse them which I'm happy to post later (not at my computer at the moment) EDIT: Here's the config I wrote to swap out the drag characteristics: