Magzimum

You're right! I opened my old 1.3 (Linux), and made a ship of only Kerbalism parts. Then moved the save game to 1.3.1, and it just opens: (For those who didn't read the above posts: These are the Kerbalism parts, but the tab on the left is missing... so I cannot grab these parts from the regular menu in 1.3.1 (Linux)...) Oh well, I am gonna make subassemblies of these parts, and hopefully that will prove a workaround for now. I really like 1.3.1 better than 1.3, so would prefer to not go back to 1.3 anymore.

I just did a clean install of 1.3.1 (Linux), and installed only Kerbalism and the Module Manager (2.8.1, which is the latest I can find). I really must be missing something, since I am the only one asking this now... But where is the Kerbalism tab in the VAB gone to? Kerbalism works. The food/water/oxygen/shielding are all there. The geiger counter is there, and so is the small antenna. But just no new tab with Kerbalism parts. Sorry for posting twice (previous one was Sunday) - I thought that a picture would explain my problem better.

Yes, I would be in favor of more stock planets/moons. No objections if they all appear around Jool. Requests for new planets / moons are a frequently recurring topic on the forum. I once wrote my wishlist in a thread which requested a 2nd gas giant. I'll just copy my suggestions here again, since it seems on topic. I tried to include as many variations as I could think of, to get as many new challenges as possible.

I just updated to 1.3.1, and in the VAB / SPH I cannot find the "Kerbalism" tab with the storage tanks for food/water and oxygen/nitrogen/etc... Kerbalism is working (e.g. the pods show oxygen reserves, the comm system is changed, and also the short-range antenna and geiger counter are there). Just the entire tab with the life support tanks appears to be missing? Any tips? I am not sure that adding a save game will help, as it happens in both my current games (a sandbox and a career game, one of which was copied from my 1.3 game, and one was started fresh).

Maybe it should, but personally I never have that many ships in that list that I need a search. Also, they are organized alphabetically, so if you use a system for the names (I use the destination at the first word - e.g. Duna, Mun, Jool) then ships are easy to find.

Tipped over my Minmus station so Jeb could climb back aboard without monoprop. Successfully made it back to Kerbin only to realize I had forgotten the parachutes. Today is one of those days. [edit] Yes, those are wheels (large and XL) mounted on the side... some silly cash mission. I had tourists with me too...

I love the tourist contracts, until Duna becomes a destination. At that moment I consider the tourist contracts "broken", precisely because one wants to go to Minmus, one wants a Mun flyby, one wants to land on Duna, and the 4th one wants to get to Ike. The solution is both obvious and simple: No more than 2 destinations in any contract, and these destinations should be relatively near each other.

Good point, but yes, I checked both. You're absolutely right that they alternate.

@Helmetman, You make good points about the TWR of the mothership in comparison to the ISS. However, my mothership needs to get to Duna, while the ISS at best needs to increase its Ap and Pe by a few kilometer. I cannot post a picture, since it's all under development. I am not trying to solve a very particular problem, but was rather trying to get help already in the conceptual stage of the design.

Nice ship! I noticed that it uses the much stronger Sr. docking ports. My ship has only the regular ones, which are more wobbly (I haven't even upgraded the R&D center to level 3). Frankly, I am opting to just launch in 1 piece after all, and only do some refueling in orbit to reduce the mass at lift-off. As soon as my ship is back from Duna, I should have enough Science points and cash unlock new parts and solve part of my problem.

I noticed that the OP was really adamant that we discuss "drag ALONE", so I'd like to add my 2 frictionless cents. When you impact the ground, and you vehicle slows down because of this impact, that is certainly not called "drag". If anything, the normal force is more closely related to lift. Also, drag is a function of velocity squared (as @bewing said above) , so it will rapidly approach zero as your speed is reduced. You cannot reduce the airspeed of any vehicle to zero by drag alone (in KSP we have no wind - if you add wind, you could make your ground speed zero by drag alone). So, in my opinion, the answer is NO.

I'm playing a career game, and the next mission should (hopefully) take some Kerbals to Duna. I would like to build a large mothership with a few extra modules in orbit, but experience has taught me that it's a bad idea to just couple a number of sections together with docking ports. The Space Kraken will wobble the ship apart when under acceleration. I have been experimenting with stronger bonds between the sections of the ship, using multiple docking ports, but results have been rather poor. I tried something like this, but when coupling two of these together in orbit, only 2 of the 4 docking ports seem to line up. Common sense and maths tells me that when 2 of these line up, all 4 should line up, but a right-click on the docking ports suggests that only 2 out of 4 are coupled. Any tips and tricks to make a strong mothership with a bunch of fancy modules, and being able to accelerate it? Launching in 1 piece is the obvious solution, but I haven't unlocked the really big engines yet, so was hoping for an alternative. (Also, I play Kerbalism, which means my ships need greenhouses, huge storages of food and water, and a bunch more life support stuff, and most importantly a lot of living space for the Kerbals).

I noticed the smiley, and I assume that there was some humor in the post. I would still like to reply with a serious note. Perhaps pictures can revealthe difference between a train and a typical spacecraft. Soyuz with its 3 typical passengers/crew: Commuter train with 3 typical passengers:

I have designed plenty of motherships that should be reusable, since they stay in orbit. I have also designed plenty of SSTOs that are by definition reusable. However, I have never actually reused them, because I almost never fly the same mission twice, and I always need different tools for different jobs. Do you intend to reuse the ships? Or do you just recover the funds? Maximizing funds-recovery is (to me at least) a different discussion than reusability.

I need a little advice how to keep Kerbals protected from radiation on long missions (e.g. Duna). I have a ship with a hitchhiker container with the maximum shielding, and all my 4 Kerbals are spending their time in that HH container unless I need them elsewhere (which does not happen much on the interplanetary transfer to Duna). The other crewed parts have no shielding (but the Kerbals aren't in it). They just died (all 4 of them) due to radiation as they were approaching Duna. They've been hit by one solar storm, and nothing else. Do I have to put heavy shielding on all parts, even if the Kerbals aren't in it? Spoiler: pictures of the ship:

Kerbalism! My new favorite mod! This is a simple Duna mission for 4 Kerbals, where two will land on Duna and Ike, the other two stay in the mothership. The damn mothership is HUGE for such a simple mission. In the Kerbalism mod, Kerbals demand living space, tons of food, oxygen, water. See all those tiny stacked tanks between the orange tanks? Those are the food/water tanks. That's not fuel. The tiny radial tanks? Oxygen and nitrogen. Seems right to me. I stocked them for a 3 year trip. Also, I don't have all parts unlocked yet, so it's a little improvised. No nukes, and no really big tanks yet. Also, no gigantor panels yet. [Edit] I just noticed that the ship's name is visible (in the KER window). DIE 4K stands for the "Duna Ike Explorer, for 4 Kerbals". Thought it was pretty funny. * ducks*

Soooooooooo... the unit of Ker is the square root of Force?

Regarding the relays: I have two satellites orbiting Minmus, each with 4 low gain antennas (), and 4 high gain antennas (). They orbit at around 400 km altitude. Obviously they are deployed. However, an orbital station at 40 km altitude, with two RA-2 antennas (these: ) does not appear to connect to them. Picture of the map view and the station: Is this intended? Should I just put my relays into a lower orbit? Or is there a trick I can use?

@ShotgunNinja, First of all, the huge supplies did not help Burbert at all. He died of CO2 poisoning within 2 Minmus-days, with his oxygen/food/water levels still above 90%. But I get the feeling that the game (or rather, Kerbalism) resets all the life-support parameters of the Soon-to-be-rescued-Kerbal™ to completely full when you get within physics range (2.2 km). When I get that close, the Kerbal will typically be rescued within a few minutes, so she/he does not need that many supplies. In fact, it would be nice if they are in actual danger!

@ShotgunNinja, Thanks for the quick reply! I'm gonna figure it out... I encountered something else, which I think is a bug. I accepted a rescue contract, and found Burbert Kerman stranded on Minmus. He was doing quite fine, because his EVA pack was LOADED with food, water and oxygen. However, that made the Kerbal so heavy that he couldn't jump. Some more explanation in the spoiler, together with a fix.

A quick question about relays and communication with Kerbalism: Does Kerbalism override the communication system that is part of the stock game since 1.2? It appears that in map view the (green) lines that show the connection are aimed at the center of Kerbin, rather than at the various surface based communication posts. Also, I don't appear to get any relay-system working. All ships, manned and unmanned, attempt to communicate directly to Kerbin. I really would like to get some relays around distant planets, so that I can send unmanned landers to some moons/planets that aren't 50% antennas by mass. Still loving Kerbalism btw. Really adds something new to the game.

Thanks @eberkain! I've checked it out, and it's the CFG tab on the vessel info window. I knew there had to be something, but if you don't know where to look it's difficult to find. Thanks!

Been playing a Kerbalism career (moderate difficulty) for a while now. Loving it. Compliments for its creators! There is so far one small annoyance, which I hope someone can help me with. I have deployed my first relays: two small satellites that orbit Minmus (in an equatorial orbit - not the most efficient, but that's not the topic of my question). These satellites disappear behind Minmus every orbit - which is in the nature of things. However, whenever the signal of the satellite is lost, Kerbalism stops time-warp and gives a pop-up message. And when the signal is back, it stops time-warp again to tell me to relax... This slows the game down too much - especially since I cannot fix the fact that a planet/moon will block the signal, and I intend to keep these satellites in this orbit. Is there any way to stop getting warnings that stop time-warp, without changing the vessel type to "Debris" (which appears to stop the relay from functioning)? Apart from Kerbalism, I am not using other mods that affect the communications.

Thanks for the tips. On the advice of @wadusher1 and @blakemw I downloaded and installed Kerbalism. I like it a lot.

I am looking for a mod that allows me to grow food (life support) in space, but to do this a little realistically. I have spent the better part of this Saturday researching the various mods (Snacks, TAC Life Support, IFI Life Support, USI Life support), and a bunch of mods that gave me some parts (greenhouses: from Biomass, Planetary Base Systems, MKS), and I found that they all seem to make life a little too easy on the space explorers for my taste. Food (or supplies, snacks) grows far too easily, and its production uses very little electricity. Sometimes it is complex in terms of balancing, but it never seems to require loads of sunlight or electricity - which I'd expect. Does anyone have suggestions? I don't mind a complex or simplified "economy": both the Snacks mod (just 1 type of resource) or TAC life support (with its 6 types of resources) is fine. What I would like to find is a mod in which there are either compact greenhouses that consume realistic amounts of electricity for food production (meaning LOADS of electricity, forcing me to use stacks of Gigantors), or in which there are solar-based greenhouses with realistically low outputs, so that you have to build a lot of them (at least the equivalent of those stacks of Gigantors). I just cannot build a space colony in which all the food for my Kerbals comes from something no larger than a small shed, powered by a 1x6 solar panel. I'm sorry if the text above came across as more of a rant than a question. It probably was.