Ty Tan Tu

Today was about things that float, I sent a stock MK2 based amphibious boat out to the island off the the coast of the Kerbal Space Center. I climbed the tower for the first time and took this somewhat iconic picture. Next I landed a lander can in the water off the coast. It worked so well that I added a science lab too it. that worked too, so I sent the craft to Laythe. I forgot how long it takes to get to Jool, but I did make it. I was a bit disappointed that the science lab was not half under water.

You inspired me to take a few pictures of the ocean floor off the coast of the KSP Center. The actual sea level is where the ship appears. You can also see it with the blue on the islands. There is a tiny angle where Unity will show a different view. I wanted to capture the ridge off the coast but either I ran out of light, or it was to deep for my surface craft.

Actually now that I think about it, it should use less delta-V, because you are performing each maneuver at the optimal time. Maybe the reason they do not do this is because rockets can not just be ignited, shut down, and reignited as easily as they are in KSP?

You can simplify it. Get into an equatorial orbit around Kerbin. Fire your engines prograde to escape Kerbin. If you are going to an outer planet, fire prograde when Kebin is between your ship and Kerbol to raise your altitude around Kerbol. Fire prograde when you are between Kebol and Kerbin to lower altitude around Kerbol (your ship is pointed retrograde to your orbit around Kerbol). Now you and the planet are both orbiting the same body, Kerbol. Select the planet as your target by left clicking on it. Match the targets inclination at the ascending or descending node, which ever is closer. Now you have reduced it to a 2D problem which is a lot easier to solve. Your maneuver node will be easy to set up. You will use a ton of fuel, but not that much more than you might think, and it does teach one a lot about what is involved in flying to another planet.

Wait a minute. The second video looks like it is displaying a time of 01:60:4... How it that posible?

The idea is that they will be parts that can fail, but can be repaired in flight by an engineer. Most parts seem to reliable to me. What if only three of your four landing gear legs extend and you are forced to use an EVA to repair it?

I am brand new at attempts to make part mods, so don't judge me too harshly. As a beginning exercise, I thought I would just flat out steal the T-100 tank mesh and edit the config file and play around with the DDS file. To distinguish myself from other junk yards, I thought I should add the attention to detail that assures the buyer that the parts they buy from Ty's Junkyard and Used Refrigerator Parts™ have been inspected and any defects that might have occurred from prolonged exposed to sea water have been expertly repaired. We are always looking to improve our products, and with the financial backing of Auntie Selma (Jebediah's second cousin twice removed!) we have been able too pricure a second new roll of duct tape (well new to us) to insure that your next flight will be as safe as your last flight with Ty's Junkyard and Used Refrigerator Parts™*. *[All parts are sold as is. Your mileage may vary. Parts are sold by weight, not by volume, some settling may occurred during shipping. Void in Tennessee.]

After I stranded Valentina on Mun on my very first attempt to land (see my avatar), I sent a rescue mission. I had learn from my first mission and was actually doing a fabulous job of watching my altitude and rapidly toggling the shift and ctrl keys while moving closer and closer to Valentina using the A, D, W, and S keys. I was in the zone! And then - inexplicably - I hit the space bar. I sat there in stunned silence as I watched my engine and landing gear separate from the command modulue... I was close enough that I am sure Valentina saw the explosion on the horizon. And so it goes.

The QA team, and hence programs squashing bugs, has been very busy with 1.3.1. Once that is released, I would think that the pace will pick up a bit. I am imaging a Jira Dashboard with about 20 tickets on the list for each person on the team, including programmers, graphic artists, and QA.

Is it blowing up because of heat? If so just throttle down a bit and take it slower. Are you trying to stack solid fuel boosters? Consider using decouplers and look at your staging very closely.

I have been toying with the idea of build a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar type plane that can carry a variant of the Pegasus missile high enough into the air for it to get to space.

Now that you are out of the shadows, your solar cells should kick in and you will have plenty of power to communicate with us. I wish I could help you with Laythe, but my first attempt failed rather miserably. I have been thinking of abandoning the idea of a land base altogether and build a sea based colony using structural fuselages as pontoons.

Which reminds me, I have been wondering what a Kerbal calendar might look like. None of the ratios between the Kerbin year, Mun period and Minimus period make a calendar obvious to me. Maybe a 9 month year based on a 450 day year and 50 day Minimus period with an extra short variable month tacked on know as the "Festival of Snacking"? I suppose the ruins at the "Temple in the Desert" might add a hint. We have two large temples and four small ones in a very precise configuration. Is it an ancient astronomical observation center? I guess I will have to think a bit more about my Kerbal archaeology...

I think you would need a pocket protector for something like that.

It has to be Mystery Goo. Mystery Goo is very good at etching metal, and Kerbals like making plaques. That is why they are always looking for the stuff. Research is being done to use Mystery Goo to etch circuit boards, and in the future, even chips. But with the present technology, Mystery Goo can only be used to make plaques.

It sounds like there will be some very welcome enhancements for rovers including: Added ability to tweak endpoints of symmetry struts and fuel lines. It will make building sky cranes to deliver the rover to the surface easier. What was that old sixties song?

Obviously anything by Scott Manley is going to have the humor entertainment factor to it. Here is a ludicrous video

I suppose if I was smart, I would start with an ASCII character like the "!" and "#" and "&" for different classes because they show up at the top of the list when sorted alphabetically. So, as unimaginative as I am, I might end up with something like "& Duna Tanker Rover I".

It seems more than adequate to me. According to notebookcheck, you could play Resident Evil 7 at high with decent frame rates. Heat is always a problem with laptops when playing games, so you might look at cooling pads. It is definitely better than my AMD A8-8600 Radeon R6.

Here are a few of my favorite snapshots.

One of the problems with a KerbalKon is that the community is so willing to give away their hard work on mods (both software and hardware designs) for free. Not that that is bad thing, but it would be hard to justify the personal expense of setting up a booth in some distant local just to show off your cool controller knowing you will get little to nothing in return to offset the costs.

Swigert: "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here." [Krrrr] Lousma: "This is Houston. Say again, please." [Krrrr] Lovell: "Uh, Houston, we've had a problem." [Krrrr] Lovell: "We've had a MAIN B BUS UNDERVOLT." [Krrrr] Lousma: "Roger, MAIN B UNDERVOLT." [Krrrr] Lousma: "Okay, stand by, Thirteen, we're looking at it." (Some might say that making 'Krrrr' sounds between communications between the Command Center and the space craft is purely optional - but I think they are just being lazy.)

I once put a ladder on upside down. I was so proud of myself, I had successfully placed my lander on the surface. I unfurled my ladder - and it went straight up into the air. One giant leap for a Kerbal, one small step for Kerbalkind.

I have been thinking of writing a tongue-and-cheek short story very loosely based on H. P. Lovecraft's The Dreams Within the Witch's House. A young minor Kerbin engineer has a theory that it is possibly to visit other dimensions with the proper alignment of geometric shapes. He finds himself as the lone occupant of the first ever Mun station (Because of a glitch, the Kerbin return vessel forgot to add a parachute and all the other Kerbins are stranded on the orbiting Mun station.) The land base Mun Space Station was designed by Gene Kerman, the only Kerbin with light colored hair, and is seemingly built on the hilly Mun landscape in a haphazard random manner. But then, during the long Mun nights, our young Kerbin engineer starts having dreams...

I am just thinking out loud. I have been thinking about building a custom KSP controller, but when I start looking at the components and programming required, I started to get a bit overwhelmed. But then I started thinking... A USB keyboard already has all the circuitry and programming built in. As I understand it, the typical keyboard has a circuit board and two sheets. The outer sheet connects with the physical key. The top sheet then contacts a point on the second sheet. The second inter sheet contacts a point on the circuit board. So if you could map the first sheet to the second sheet you should know which pins on the circuit board produces specific codes. I should take a keyboard apart and see just how small the board is (I am not very good at soldering), but would it be possible to hack a USB keyboard as the starting point for a custom KSP controller?