RoadRunnerAerospace

trust me, it is going to get much longer to accommodate enough supplys for a jool mission......

Year 3, day 300 VAB After a terrible hour of calculating rads that the crew would get on the ship, it was decided that they would have one module that is highly protected from radiation to act like a storm shelter, and a electro-magnetic field to protect them from the "ambient radiation". Bob was convinced that he would be fine, nothing would dare touch his amazing mustache! Bob has problems. Anyways, progress on Eggyolk-1 is going swimmingly, just an increase of habitat space is required, and more food, and they are good to go!

Thats what made me interested in kerbalism in the first place!

I`m back!

SHWEET!

Hmmmmmm I need a plot device to start this off......... Year 3, day 239. Tracking station, KSC. Bob Kerman was looking over the latest astrometry read-outs on the jool system, while he was observing the orbital resonances, he noticed something anomalous between Laythe and Tylo, something defiantly out of the ordinary, disrupting the orbits of both of the planet-moons in a very regular fashion, causing a very interesting orbital resonance of both of the moons, eyes widening, he knew exactly what was happening, another planet-moon, orbiting between Laythe and Tylo, he rushed to the mission control room (during their coffee break), and they agreed to the mission, although bob personally thought that Wherner, and Gene agreed to just shut him up, so they could finish their coffee break in peace. The VAB team started work on a latest pod design, named (very colorfully) Eggshell 2, no one, AND I MEAN NO ONE, shall ever speak of Eggshell 1 since it`s last few test flights. With the rocket put together with ample amounts of superglue, duct tape, and coffee, it was rolled out to the launch pad on a Eggshell booster. After a beautiful lift-off from launchpad K-19, it began its graceful gravity turn, into Kerbin`s summer clouds After a successful launch (the first one since the cursed Eggshell-1), they proceeded to test out the crafts maneuverability in orbit, and it`s OMS engine And with much bickering about Bob`s mustache distracting bill, they prepared for re-entry Then as they felt the gees from re-entry slowly creep up, They continued bickering, but did not realize one very, very important thing..... They forgot a parachute! So, Bill being Bill, he decided to channel his inner para-trooper, and jump out <CLASSIFIED> <REMOVED FROM TEXT> <NO!> After a very long fall, both bob, and bill survived, bob being the lucky one, he survived with only a very wet mustache as a injury... Bill, on the other hand had to be carted away in a charter boat that the kerbals use for recovery. And this, was the end of the first (mainly successful) test flight of Eggshell-1

True, missiles would be the dominant close range combat (100 miles or so, where enemy's can`t react, but still get enough "oompf"), but at farther ranges, they are basically useless, they`re too easy to dodge/destroy with CIWS. Drop tanks have one major problem in space combat, they are combustible, and hinder a ship`s maneuverability (who wants drop tanks riding a freaking roller coaster?! They could break something!) the best option is to drop them as far away from the combat as possible, and fetch them later, leaving they`re precious fuel vulnerable (I think space combat would have a lot of depletion warfare (i cant think of its name)), and you cant choose when you`re attacked. Kinda interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_P

According to many-a-sources (aerospace engineering textbooks, etc.) you would want to have a larger engine bell to increase Isp, correct? larger engine bell=more mass not to mention all of the weapons systems consolidated on one ship would require that nuclear reactor to be the size of, like, texas to provide enough power to the lazers, and if it is hit, the entire ships goes with it, requiring more armor to protect it, requiring more deltaV to get around, requiring a higher Isp. More ships with one or two lazers take advantage of "concentrating all firepower" on the enemy fleet, thus focusing more (again, earlier in the thread), and being more accurate, and powerful. the only way I can think of getting around the engine bell problem is to have lots of smaller engine bells (N-1 kinda thing). I will admit that I forgot about space`s spacy-ness, and went to "terrestrial analogues" though....

A

I don`t think a van would need a spoiler to slow down

see! another use for the patented (patent pending) Anti-radiation lead icebox! (just ask indiana jones!)

Flight controllers are awesome. -Cessna 152: "Flight Level Three Thousand, Seven Hundred" controller: "Roger, contact Houston Space Center"

a space battleship? Unrealistic. Largest thing out there would be a corvette, why consolidate all of ye`s forces into one massively vulnerable ship that can`t maneuver+has terrible deltaV? With a bunch of smaller ships, you can maneuver around/out of the way easier, and have overlapping CIWS (is that right?) coverage. now, with lazers, they can all focus on a point (mentioned earlier in the thread), causing more condensed/critical damage than 1 large lazer that dissipates.... Not to mention, if one ship is destroyed, there are more ships to continue the fight.

Spoiler?

Never understood the book anyways.....

Man, thats not a boxer anymore! strap a gun on that thing, and call it a tank!

ha!

MEGA-JOOLS! i`ll see to myself

DON`T MENTION THAT!

But would it respond?!

(30*2)-(10*2)+6

Hey, thats pretty good! Its pretty surprising that around a 4 ton mass (depending on speed) did not break anything, but thats pretty lucky!

Another one! the NOTS-EV-1 pilot spacecraft, and its first successful (and final) launch was on the same day as my B`day, just about 4 decades before (give or take a few years.... like 5 or so) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOTS-EV-1_Pilot please note, maryland is pronounced maar-land not marys-land like the Canadians out there pronounce it!

I have seen jupiter through 70mm refactor seen saturn-same thing launched model rockets watched rockets launched from wallops flight facility (and seen one explode) story musgrave`s autograph watched the last sts landing on TV and finally, seen curiosity`s landing on TV (at 3 in the morning!)