jimmymcgoochie

Take one “rover” which is decidedly short on wheels… Add one rover with a surplus of wheels… Add engineer to provide energy and catalyse endothermic reaction and… Rovers successfully bonded together, now featuring the more science, better power generation, more powerful communications of the wheel-less dud and the self-driving abilities (and mobility) of the donor rover, now turned into a trailer on the back. Off it went to explore Minmus even more, gathering seismic data as it trundled along at a blistering 1.4m/s, only marginally faster than a Kerbal can walk in this low gravity, Bill admired his handiwork for a while before returning to orbit- and also remembered to plant a flag, which Bob did not; though Bob was probably concussed at the time, see above…

Fuel tank utilisation in wings starts at 1% by default, that caught me out when I was making X-planes. You can crank that right up to get useful quantities of fuel in your wings. That “high altitude” experiment, unsurprisingly, requires flying high- I believe that means 50km on Earth- and not just going fast. Mach 2 is the obvious choice as it only requires flying fast and not too high.

Linus: OK, what are we going to research next? Some new probe cores and probe-related paraphernalia, bigger and better solar panels, new launch rockets- Wernher: Nuclear propulsion! *boop* Linus: What? Why? Wernher: I dug through the blueprints Bill and Bob left behind and found something really interesting, but it needs a nuclear engine to make it work. Linus: ...but we have one of those already? Mortimer: A very expensive one, I might add. Wernher: Not as expensive as this one, we don't! Mortimer: *eyelid twitching* Wernher: It has a nuclear engine now! Gene: Wait, who's flying this thing? Wernher: Jeb? Gene: Jeb's still AWOL. Wernher: Val? Gene: Val's on the Mun station. Wernher: ... Sanlan: MECO in three, two, one *fzzt* oxidiser depleted, circularising with the nuclear engine. Linus: Uh, should we be letting her fly a nuclear plane? You know, with the space madness and all? Sanlan: You see any other Kerbonauts around here? Besides, the doctors gave me those yucky pills and now I'm totally fine. Though I think they said something about not driving or operating heavy machinery... Wernher: Uh oh. Sanlan: HA! Got you! Relaaaax, Doc, everything is under control. Payload deployed, deorbit burn finishing any... second... now, fold in the solar panels aaaand... Sanlan: Huh, this thing can fly really slowly. Pitches up a bit much at those speeds though, probably the big heavy nuclear engine hanging off the back. Sanlan: Touchdown! What's my score? Did I beat Bob? Did I beat Val? Did I did I did I? Bobak: Calculating... Looks like payload mass 29.6 tons, total cost 6292 funds per flight, that makes 212.6 funds per ton. The last one was 20.6 tons at 226 funds per ton. Sanlan: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *ahem* Wernher: Nearly thirty tons per flight, and cheaper than the original per ton at maximum payload? I'll take that. Mortimer: Yes, yes, very impressive. Now someone tell Bill we've got a contract to repair a rover on the surface of Minmus. Looks like they didn't bother putting wheels on it, so he's going to have to take some wheels off the existing Minmus rover to make this work. Linus: Nooooo! Not my baby! Mortimer: And make sure he plants a flag too, some idiot is going to give us forty grand for it! Bill: Did anyone see something flying over a second ago? I thought I saw a shadow moving across the ground, but it's gone now. And I'm sure that rover had all eight wheels last time we checked it. Linus: *sobbing* My poor rover! What are they doing to you? Bill: Oh, quit the melodrama, Linus. I barely touched it- in fact, I hooked it up to the other rover so it can be towed along like a little trailer. Linus: *snlffling* what? Bill: It would take too long to take it apart and move all the useful stuff over, and it has those two docking ports on it already, so why not? Now we have an even bigger rover with more science, better stuff and it can drive itself! Linus: That's amazing! Bobak: The rover is on the move, heading to the *thud* what was that? Wernher: Hey Bill? Looks like there actually was something flying off when you landed- and we just found the mysteriously missing wheel. Bill: That'll do nicely. Bobak: Having some issues with the self-driving system, Bill. Can you do some engineer-y stuff to try and fix it? Bill: Roger that. Bill: I took it off the rover and stuck it on the lander, then moved it back to try and reset it. Try toggling the autopilot mode from "land" to "water" and back, then turn it off and back on; that usually does the trick. Bobak: Bingo! Nice work. Bill: Heading back to the Dres Express at the next opportunity. Not to worry, I gave the lander's engine a once-over and there's absolutely no chance that it'll have a critical failure just as I start the ascent leaving me stranded on Minmus. No chance at all. Gene: Um, OK? Bob: I have a visual on the lander and, oh wow. Gene: What? Bob: It's Dres. Bill: That's a nice view. Linus: Meh, it's still Dres and therefore boring. Gene: I don't get all this anti-Dres stuff. Sure, it somehow ended up pseudo-orbiting Kerbin and with one of Kerbin's moons orbiting it, but that's not Dres' fault, is it? If anything The Anomaly made Dres more interesting by putting it within easy reach, a convenient low-gravity stepping stone to bigger interplanetary missions in the future- and maybe even as a propellant depot if we can ever get on-site propellant production up and running. Wernher: Well, yeah, but still... Dres is a pretty bland place, just a blotchy grey lump that isn't even big enough to be a planet. Linus: It's much smaller than the Mun, barely bigger than Ike and the one interesting feature- the canyon- just shows how boring the rest of it is. Sanlan: Aww, stop picking on the poor thing. Dres is actually pretty nice when you're there; not that any of you would know about that . Bobak: Ooh, someone call Gus and tell him to bring some ice for those burns!

I usually set all my craft to point directly towards or away from the sun whenever I leave them so they get full solar panel exposure; Kerbalism will remember the exposure level and use that during time warp. Re. the solar panels being occluded, it might help to change the target body to track; when I played Beyond Home a while ago it seemed to work better if the solar panels were tracking the barycentre rather than either star. If that doesn’t work, maybe creating a fresh installation and copying the save over will fix it? That worked for me when one of my games broke a little while ago. Oh, and I doubt you’ll manage a landing* with that probe- orbital velocity 700m/s at 100km altitude and you have just over 850m/s left. *at least not in one piece!

NTRs actually perform much better when the propellant (liquid hydrogen in nearly all cases) flows through as a) hydrogen is a neutron moderator, reflecting neutrons back into the reactor such that they can cause more fission reactions, so the fission rate increases linearly with increased hydrogen and the reactor will output more energy when the rocket bit needs to produce more thrust (good), and b) liquid hydrogen is really, really cold, helping to cool the reactor and meaning you don’t need to throw away any of that nuclear energy by dumping it overboard via radiators (also good). Breaking that connection will probably be a bad thing- the reactor won’t produce as much power, the rocket part could end up out of sync with the reactor meaning either too little heat being produced (low thrust and ISP) or too much (leading to reactor shutdown/scram/meltdown if the heat built up too quickly), and you’ll get more efficiency losses transferring heat from reactor to cooling loop to propellant than going directly from reactor to propellant. It might be possible to implement in KSP, but I doubt you’d get better performance than a conventional fission (or fusion) thermal rocket.

If you create a new save game with the same name as an existing one, the existing save is deleted and you can’t get it back. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. It’s always a good idea to name your save games something other than “default” so they’re less likely to be overwritten accidentally, and to create backups of the save files inside it (KSP/saves/(whatever you called your save) then copy persistent.sfs and keep a copy somewhere outside the KSP folders) to avoid losing a save game you’ve been playing for a long time.

Might be an issue with your landing gear suspension. Enable advanced tweakables, override the spring/damper settings and turn spring strength down on the wheels that are jumping.

Slow down, Bob! Watch out for the lander Bob! Bob! …Bob? “Owwwwwww!” -Bob.

Gene: Has anyone seen Jeb? Bobak: Nope. Wernher: I thought I saw him wandering around outside in the middle of the night, but it was pretty dark and I didn't have my glasses on so it could have been anyone. Gene: Hmph. Well, if you see him let him know I'm looking for him. So what's on the agenda today? Mortimer: Another rich moron paying customer wants a ride to LKO. Also, some other rich morons paying customers want a space station in LKO. Gene: So we need two craft for that- Mortimer: Hold up there a minute. Gene: Eh? Mortimer: Put the tourist in the station. Launch the station with the tourist inside. Get the money for the station contract. Return the station to the surface intact, tourist pays their fare, then refund the station and we get most of the money back for it on top of the contract payouts. Werhner: Morty... that's brilliant! Bobak: What's with the part grabber probe on the bottom? Wernher: Looks like somebody forgot that tourists can't fly, and didn't put a probe core on it. We couldn't fire the engines until the grabber came along to give us a control point. Mortimer: But it still worked, right? Bobak: Splashdown confirmed just a few clicks off the coast. Gus: I'll send some people out in a boat to bring it back. Gene: Well, Morty, I have to hand it to you- that worked an absolute treat. Mortimer: Another idiot wants to be knocked out by G-forces. Make it cheap. Wernher: Done. Mortimer: Sometimes they're practically begging us to take their money... Bill: Ahoy there! Bob: Lander acquired, I'm heading down to the surface now. How are there cobwebs in this thing when it's been floating here in space the whole time? Bob: OK, seismometer deployed, mystery goo thingy fixed up (what did you do to it, Jeb? ), plenty of time before Bill comes back around so I think I'll head over to that hill to get some more samples. Wernher: What's the matter, Bob, scared of heights? Bob: Heights, no; falling, yes. I think I'll stay low from now on. Bob: OK, that's lowlands, slopes and midlands all done, I'm heading back to the lander now. Wernher: You're really low on propellant, take it easy- Bob: Why am I not slowing down-! *thud, crunch, clang, various other onomatopoeias of an impact-related nature* Gene: Bob! Gene: ...Bob? Bob: Owwww... Gene: Right, that's enough sightseeing- get yourself back to the Dres Express ASAP. Bob: You don't have to tell me twice. Ooh, that smarts... Bill: Hey Bob, how was your "trip"? Bob: ... Bill: You're supposed to plant a flag in Minmus, not your face. Bob: ... Bobak: Heads up you two, the Dres Depot should be arriving momentarily so you can refuel. Bob: Oh. Bill: That's not good. Bobak: What? Bob: Who designed this thing exactly? Gene: Why? Bob: They put a regular Clamp-o-tron docking port on it. Gene: And? Bill: And, the Dres Express and the lander both use half-sized Clamp-o-tron Junior docking ports. Walt: You've got to be kidding me... Bill: OK, I think I can see a way to make this work, but you're not going to like it. Gene: Go on. Bill: If I take the docking port off the lander and stick it on the Dres Depot, reroute a few pipes and deploy a whole lot of duct tape, we might be able to dock to it that way. Once we've filled up, we undock, I remove the docking port and stick it back on the lander. Wernher: You're right- I don't like it. One mistake or problem and you can't use the lander any more, meaning you'd have to try and land the Dres Express itself on Dres. Bill: Relax, Wernher, everything's going to be- oh. Wernher: What? Bill: The docking port got stuck and for some reason my construction tool isn't registering it any more. It's just floating away and I can't do anything about it. Everyone: Linus: Give me a second- saving changes to persistent.exe F9 Bill: ...weird, it just started working again. Gene: What did you just do, Linus? Linus: *cold sweat* I... changed the docking port's vessel type from Ship to DroppedPart so it wasn't recognised as the root part of a vessel any more and Bill could pick it up again sent a remote command to the EVA construction tool to turn it off and on again? Gene: ... Wernher: ... Linus: *nervousness intensifies* Gene: ...fair enough. Wernher: The old "Tiotibo" solution. Works every time. Linus: Yep. Sure does.

Stock scale.

I think you need more RAM- running RSS/RO/RP-1 usually uses anywhere from 20 to 30GB RAM for me, if you skip the really intensive stuff (easy on the graphics mods and be ruthless when picking your parts mods or trimming out parts you don’t need) you might get away with 16GB. RAM tends to be fairly cheap compared to other PC components and is really easy to install, however it’s worth checking if your motherboard can actually cope with a larger amount- I once bought a load of RAM to upgrade my old PC only to discover that it could only use a maximum of 8GB and I’d just installed 16GB on top of the 4GB it had before (it didn’t like that…). If you’re going to jump from stock scale to RSS, I’d suggest trying an intermediate scale to start with: you could try JNSQ which is built at 2.7x stock scale (around 1/4 real scale), or rescale another planet pack- Grannus has a 2.5/2.7x scaled config which can be used separately or with JNSQ, or you could use the Rescale! mod with the stock system, stock + OPM or try a config for a different planet pack altogether e.g. Beyond Home. There are also plenty of mods to make the game more realistic than stock, but less real than reality e.g. life support, construction time for rockets, part failures, crew health and more; many of the mods used by RO/RP-1 have stock-alike options too e.g. Kerbal Construction Time (makes rockets take time to build and research take time to complete), Kerbalism (science experiments take time, life support, crew radiation and stress, part failures and all are adjustable), tech tree rearrangement mods like Probes Before Crew (because in reality probes were before crew at pretty much everything), budget management mods, different fuel types (hyperbolic and cryogenic, both of which are key parts of RO) and so on. If you want to jump in at the deep end, go straight for RSS/RO/RP-1, but personally I found it a lot easier to make the transition via an upscaled system and learning some of the mods beforehand. There are a few good RP-1 based video series about, most are now a bit outdated due to recent additions to RO and RP-1 but they’re still good to give you a flavour of what to expect.

And now for the regularly scheduled episode of Probe Time! Dres Duet D: 9/10. Missed the first circularisation node due to stock alarm clock failure Mission Control not paying attention, but got there on the second attempt. Dres Duet M: 8/10. Also missed its node and had to complete its transfer and capture the second time round, several days later. We'll be back soon with another episode of Probe Time! Now back to the studio tent future Mission Control... Everyone: *confused blinking* Gene: Did... did anyone else see that? Bobak: I don't know what I saw. Wernher: I can't remember. What were we talking about again? Val: Hey guys, bad news- our medical monitors are saying we're getting exposed to too much radiation. Every time the Mun orbits around Kerbin it dips into Kerbin's outer radiation belt and this station has nowhere near enough shielding on it to deal with that. Gene: Val is... on the Mun station? Bobak: Wasn't she standing right here? Linus: It's happening again! The fourth wall is collapsing! *faints* Bill: So we're off to Dres now. Bob: New science thingamajigs to deploy and all that. *plane noises* Gene: ...huh? Bob: So long, Kerbin! Bill: And thanks for all the snacks! Bob: Mission Control, this is Dres Express. Slight problem. Bill: We don't see the lander anywhere around Dres. Jeb, are you sure you actually left it there and didn't crash it into Dres? Jeb: ...yes? Bill: Talk us through exactly what you did. Jeb: So we arrived at Dres, then Sanlan stole my Dres landing (still not happy about that, Sanlan ), then we went to Minmus and I landed that time and- oh. Bill: You left it around Minmus, didn't you? Jeb: Well, yeah. We needed the fuel to get home, remember? Wernher: Why not just send out another fuel tanker like last time? Walt: Are you kidding!? We had enough bad press with the first Dres mission needing a refuel. Wernher: Then we build something absolutely huge to act as a fuel depot around Dres, with enough fuel for several missions. Walt: That... might work actually. Mortimer: When you're all finished spending all our money on stuff you should have thought of in the first place, there are some contracts here that need completing. First of all, another poor chump got stranded in orbit and needs rescued. Ribdo: LAND! Solid land! Mortimer: Next, two tourists want a flight into LKO. Bobak: That's odd, that new guy Ribdo didn't get credit for orbiting Kerbin so he's still rank zero. Gene: Just stick him in with the tourists, there's a spare seat. Ribdo: Wait, what? Jeb: Hey new guy! Stop hogging all the oxygen! Ribdo: *hyperventilating into a paper bag* Bobak: Maybe sending him up in the same type of shuttle that he got stranded in wasn't a great idea... Jeb: KSC in sight, should be a nice descent to the- Ribdo: *deploys the emergency parachutes* Jeb: What a wimp. Ribdo: Land! Solid land! Jeb: I hate tourists. Tourists: Hey, we didn't even do anything! Jeb: Whatever. Pay up and get out. Mortimer: And now a contract to repair a rover on Dres. Wernher: Repair? There's literally nothing wrong with it! Wernher: As a matter of fact, the solar panels seem to be generating nearly six times more power than ours, and it has a seismometer on it! I'll send the Dres rover over there, maybe Bill can do some surgery- Linus: *barges Wernher away from the rover console* My rover. Mine. Wernher: meep Gus: Everyone out! Gene: What? Gus: Out! Unless you want us to demolish the place while you're inside and build the bigger, better Mission Control on top of you. Mortimer: Oh yeah, forgot to mention- all those contracts were enough to pay for a major upgrade to Mission Control, mostly so we can do even more contracts and get even more funds! And get everyone a chair with a cupholder so you don't keep spilling coffee all over the computers. *some time later* Sanlan: Ooh, shiny! Gene: Keep the windows open, that'll disperse the paint fumes. Bobak: So we can have fumes from rockets and planes instead *plane noises* Gene: What was that? Jeb: Science plane! Wernher and I made it while you were all waiting for the new Mission Control building to be finished. It's got loads of science-y gubbins on it and a bunch of air-dropped seismometer probes. Wernher: So much science! Mortimer: So many funds! Jeb: Bombs away! Gene: Wait, what!? Jeb: Science bombs, that is. Gene: Oh. I see. Carry on. Jeb: Running out of daylight and science bombs, looks like I can make it over to that "Glacier Lake" place though since I'm already going that way. Just need to yeet the last probe onto the north pole and *massive out of control tumbling* gah, autopilot had a little freak out there because I flew over the pole and suddenly everywhere was south but it wanted to go north. Jeb: So, uh, how do I get back to the KSC exactly? I have zero fuel left and- Val: Wakey wakey, sleepyhead. Jeb: *confused blinking* whaaa-? Val: Looks like you're on tour guide duty today, better not keep those pesky little kids waiting. *picks up a notepad* Jeb: But I was just standing on the launchpad at Glacier Lake? Val: That was three days ago, silly! *writing on pad* Make sure you wear your spacesuit, the kids love that. Jeb: But- Val: *hands Jeb note* See ya later, Jebe-diet! Jeb: *reads note* strange stuff happening. nobody can remember what. secret meeting under launchpad exhaust tunnel at midnight tonite. don't get followed. Jeb: Val, wait-! But the corridor outside was completely empty. And wasn't Val on the Mun station?

Science mode. I should probably put that in the rules! Career is too grindy with all the limitations it imposes, you'd spend more time grinding contracts to upgrade buildings than actually completing the objectives.

With enough patience, you could complete the entire tech tree without going beyond Kerbin’s gravity well. But that would be boring- start flinging probes in all directions, think of all that science just waiting to be found!

Stock. Parts. Only.

The first R&D upgrade unlocks “resource transfer”, that’s what you need to transfer resources between parts.

Race thread is up! Send me your agency names/flags/descriptions if you're still interested.

Winner: @jinnantonix The Gaelan Space Race Tales of the Kerbals' great Space Races have reached their distant cousins, the Gaelans. Though less technologically advanced and with a society less focussed on industry than Kerbin, the citizens of Gael are eager to strike out and explore the many planets and moons of the Ciro system- and maybe even its close neighbour Grannus. Obviously the discussions about how to set about this astronomical task immediately broke down into bickering, name calling and eventually a full blown food fight. The Gaelan High Council eventually had to step in and restore order- by starting a Space Race of their own, complete with spectacular prizes for the winners. Anyone who wants to take part, please send me a PM with your agency name, flag (please make this KSP flag sized, 512 x 256) and a one-sentence slogan/blurb. Entries will remain open for one week after the race starts. The competitors Lewie Space Program by @Lewie Through blunders and F9 to the Stars Gael Corporation by @GuessingEveryDay For Greebfap! SpaceK by @minerbat To space for fun and explosions! Nacho Average Space Program by @Spaceman.Spiff Where we're going, we don't need cheese! Society of Monolith Priests by @Selective Genius Through Exploration, Salvation Sundowners in Space by @jinnantonix Pretending to be at work Drunken Space Pirates by @Turbofreak Having good times in space Collecting valuable artifacts and science Well, it's the first of September so looks like it's time to- LET THE GAELAN SPACE RACE BEGIN! (Entry is now closed)

Now that I think about it, maybe no DLCs would be better.

You’re flying that plane all wrong, pitching up far too much far too soon. Fly level to gain speed and pitch up slowly, you’ll get much more altitude if you climb at 45 degrees and 800m/s than at 300m/s.

You're in the "modded" support forum so I'm going to assume you're using mods. In order to help you, we're going to need some more information and the log files. First thing's first- what version of KSP are you on? What mods are you using, and are you sure you have the right versions for your version of KSP as well as all the dependencies they require? (CKAN will do this automatically, manually installed mods often include their dependencies but not always so worth checking). This guide shows how to get your log files and what to do with them when you have them: KSP.log is easier to find (it's right there in the KSP root folder) but is less detailed, Player.log has more information in it but is harder to find as it's buried in layers of folders and inside a hidden folder that isn't always visible. Try to get them both, upload them to a file sharing site and then post links here; don't post the contents of the logs straight into the forums as it's an absolute pain to try and read on a PC and nearly impossible on a tablet/phone. Getting past the loading screen and onto a screen with the little planets icon but then crashing is pretty unusual, but to me that suggests that the game has loaded and compiled without any issues but something is then causing problems after that and if that's the case I'd expect to see a huge spam of errors in the logs. How long have you waited on the spinning planets screen? I've seen it take several minutes to get through that screen to the main menu with a very heavy load of mods. How much RAM do you have in your PC and how much is being used by KSP when it fails? Open Task Manager (or Activity Monitor if you're on a Mac) and watch the memory use graph while KSP loads; if it hits 100% then you might be running out of memory which can cause things to go wrong.

“Houston, be advised that the precision landing team did their job a little too well; also, ‘landing right next to Perseverance so it could get some really cool action shots of the landing’ may have been a bad idea. Anyone ever see that weird film where they go to Mars to find out what’s eating all their algae that they carpet-bombed the planet with and the robot thing goes crazy and tried to dive-bomb them with its little helicopter? Because that’s what Ingenuity is doing right now. INCOM-*signal lost*”

Bobak: Uh oh, Gene's back and he doesn't look happy... Everyone act natural! Val: Jeb, leaning nonchalantly against the CAPCOM desk whistling tunelessly is not acting naturally! *Gene enters the room* Walt: So, how'd it go? Gene: What a waste of time! I honestly thought I had their attention, for all of about thirty seconds until they started fighting each other and then the whole place became a mass brawl. *sigh* So, what's happened while I was away? *awkward silence* Gene: Come on, spit it out! Bob: Well, um, we've had to, kind of, end the Amphibious Rover program. Gene: Why? Bill: Well, they sort of... Mortimer: You're all trying to give me a heart attack. Bob: But it's not all bad news- we sent a couple of probes out to Dres and Minmus and those didn't explode at all! Val: Hey look, it's Kerbin? Bob: Where? Bill: I don't see it either. Val: Gimme that control pad *yoink* right... Val: There! Just above the fuel tanks. Everyone: Oh yeah... Gene: How did those probes get over there so fast? Bob: Well, Dres and Kerbin are pretty close right now so it only took five days- Gene: Five days!? But I was only away yesterday! Bill: ...so, uh, we also launched a variation on that satellite into orbit of Kerbin to get some additional science. Bob: And then we ran a simulation of a new 6-seater X-20 shuttle that could ferry crew up to the Azimuth Space Station and back much cheaper than using big pods every time. Bob: Undershot the KSC a little bit but it still landed fine without needing to deploy the parachutes. Jeb: Parachutes on a plane is for wimps! Val: You know, I've been thinking about this for a while- all these missions we're doing seem to happen in just a few minutes when in reality they take days. Wernher: What do you mean? Val: Look at the transcripts for the Kronus calibration flights- you'd think they took a couple of minutes, when in reality they lasted almost an hour each. Or how about assembling the Azimuth Space Station, or Jeb and Sanlan's trip to Dres, or the fact that we managed to launch an entire mission to Moho without it even appearing in the transcripts at all! Gene: What's your point, Val? Val: What if we're looking at this all wrong? What if- *Linus bursts into the room* Val and Linus at the exact same time: The Anomaly affected time instead of space!

Still working on the objectives for this, but I have a few ground rules pretty much set. Required mods: Galileo's Planet Pack (GPP), Grannus Expansion Pack (GEP) and Kopernicus, along with GPP textures and EVE (it's a dependency of GPP); Kerbalism plus science-only config, which cuts out all the life support/part failures stuff and just leaves the experiments-take-time stuff; Probes Before Crew. All of these mods work in KSP 1.12.2 and can be downloaded via CKAN. Permitted mods: KER, MechJeb, planetary visuals like scatterer, Waterfall, JX2 antenna (for interstellar communications only), Kerbal appearance and/or name changers, new space suits for Kerbals, KAC, transfer planner tools. I'll consider requests to add to this list if anyone has any suggestions. Banned mods: All parts mods, anything that changes stock parts' appearances or performance, anything that allows construction of parts or vessels while they're in flight or anywhere other than Gael- this includes KIS/KAS, Extraplanetary Launchpads, MKS etc., GEP's CommNet extension that adds a level 4 tracking station (at least until the interstellar phase, I'll consider allowing it then), Kerbal Konstructs and related stuff that adds new launch sites, Making History and Breaking Ground DLCs- it's base game only now. Rules: Everything is based on in-game universal time (UT), not real time. Bonus points will be awarded for completing objectives in the quickest time and for completing each of the five (planned) phases of the race. Complete the objectives in order. You must complete each objective before proceeding to the next and complete all objectives in each phase before starting the next. Strict limits will be imposed on the number of active missions and the number of objectives each mission can complete, both to encourage good planning and to prevent spamming dozens of craft in all directions Avoid part clipping as much as possible- I don't mind squishing stuff in a bit to make it more aerodynamic or to protect from re-entry heating, but no hiding entire parts inside other parts. No Kraken drives or other cheaty propulsion systems are allowed. Everything must launch from the KSC launchpad and runway, no other launch sites are allowed. No reverts allowed, unless game glitches or crashes cause mission-critical failures. Bad piloting, poor planning and forgetting parts don't count as mission-critical failures; you make a mistake, you live with the consequences. If a crew member dies during a mission, the mission fails and must be restarted from scratch. The whole crew must be returned safely for all interplanetary missions, for interstellar trips returning is optional. Screenshots for everything! Feel free to use the Historian mod to add useful information to the screenshots, or include the game UI with the universal time clock. If you don't screenshot it, there's no proof that it ever happened. I'd like to see a screenshot when a craft leaves the launchpad, when it makes orbit and then when it does important stuff- completing objectives, but also when e.g. an orbiter/lander mission drops the lander. "Orbit x" objectives require one complete orbit- I want to see two screenshots which include the orbital period in the bottom left corner, at least one orbital period apart on the UT clock. If multiple biomes are needed, Kerbalism experiment control windows will show which biome you're in- include this per biome; likewise when science data transmission is required. Once I have the objectives hammered out, I'll start a new thread for the race to start on the 1st of September which will include the objectives, difficulty settings to use and the scoring system. I'll also try to play along/ahead to see if there are any glaring issues that would make this more of a grind than it needs to be. If you're still interested in taking part, send me a PM with your team name and flag. Or if you read that wall of text above and are just ...