Bekiekutmoar

Congrats ... ! This is the biggest and most impressive mission I've seen yet in KSP ... !

Well, Eve is probably out of the scope at the moment, unless I've got fuel to spare after the gruesome retroburn for orbital insertion around Moho. Speaking about Moho, it turns out I've got a launch-window to the planet right now ... ! Bill Kerman has been assigned as pilot to ferry the four crewmen to the Crispy Rock. That's right, the ship carries the same name as the mission itself ... ! The experienced Bill manages to carry out two well-pointed flights to the Crispy Rock in just one night. Now that's effectiveness ... ! Day 1: Jebediah, Bob, Dohat and Kircas depart to Moho, leaving the partly clouded Kerbin behind. Due to the fairly low TWR, it takes three passes to reach escape velocity. All crewmembers are in good spirit and rather enthousiastic about the mission.

The KSC has designed an interesting ship for trips to and from the innermost planet Moho. This vessel relies for a significant part on two Ion Engines with a total thrust of a whopping 1 Kn, but with an extremely economical ISP of 4200. Thus, the size of the interplanetary ship can be kept limited as there is much less mass to move around. The initial mass of the ship is 44-45 tons, but when the Ion Engines will be activated, the mass will most likely have dropped below 5 tons ... ! There will be 4 crewmembers; Jeb, Bob, Dohat and Kircas. They'll stay in a Hitchhiker Container while the vessel will be controlled with a probe core. All to keep the mass low ... ! Mission planning; the Kerbonauts will travel to Moho and get into orbit with a nuclear engine. The KSC claims the asparagus-staged group of fuel tanks on the hind section of the ship will be sufficient to perform these actions. A small probe at the front will be released shortly before entering the SOI of Moho. After that, a small lander with one Kerbonaut will land on the surface, then return to the mothership. The Kerbonaut will be transferred back to the Hitchhiker Container, the Lander ditched, and the then low-mass vessel will return to Kerbin solely on Ion Engines. Below the already assembled ship in LKO. Unmanned though at the moment, the Kerbonauts are to be transferred shortly ... !

Looks like the other star is 3500 times further away from Kerbol than Eeloo is ... !

Today I somehow managed to vastly improve the chances of survival for the seemingly doomed crew of the vessel 'Crispy Rock'. Jebediah, Bob, Dohat and Kircas were sent to Moho in an advanced vessel that relied on Ion Engines for a great part. Delta-V capacity was huge given the small size of the vessel, but the relative velocity to Moho of 7,3 km/s prooved to great. Only after burning 90% of all available propellants (fuel, Xenon, RCS) the crew realised the relative velocity was too huge and beiing lost in interplanetary space forever was almost certain. Kerbin couldn't be reached anymore, but Eve would be an alternative; aerobraking into the dense atmosphere could result in some form of orbit around the planet, making a rescue mission in the near future a whole lot easier. Eventually, the vessel ran out of all propellants and course corrections had to be done by getting the Kerbonauts to push the vessel with their EVA-pack. Speed relative to Eve was also more than 7 km/s, the PE of 54 km above the surface however was just right to get into a (elleptical) orbit. The Kerbonauts seemingly were nervous but also a bit optimistic during this dangerous action ...

My soon to start manned (4 Kerbals) mission to Moho will rely partially on Ion Engines. The journey to Moho will be done with a nuclear engine. The journey back to Kerbin will be performed with 2 Ion Engines, the ship will then be essentially a Hitchhiker Container with some other stuff (total mass below 3 tons).

Too bad the HD-pack of Astronomer doesn't work due to memory issues. I've got 8 GB of RAM but it seems the game engine only uses 4. -I first installed the high-res VE (works flawless) and then downloaded the HD-pack. The latter one didn't function ingame. In the folder, I could saw the images of bump1 and detail1 while having sizes of respectively 417 kb and 2,58 MB, indicating a problem with memory. I replaced the HD-version of duna1.tga with the one of the original VE, but with no effect. Second step was to delete the only other mod I had installed; Keramzit with the procedural fairing. Still no effect. Third and last step I could think of was the deletion of the high-res VE and downloading the low-res VE, and again installing the HD-pack. No result. Anyone suggestions? (hoping that I'm not asking a question that has been asked hundreds of times in the past ... )

Installed. Did a quick view with the Tracking Station and the visuals are really good. This mod literally adds to the atmosphere of this game.

Tuolea looks like a giant popcorn ... Nice project ... ! Possible names for the Super Eve: Qrotesque, Gordo, Liethul.

Implementation of more star systems would be a huge plus in my opinion. It should be released as a paid DLC, so Squad would have a financial motivation to fabricate more solar systems, and those who are opposed to multiple systems could refrain from buying the DLC. Ofcourse, this would be something for the long-term.

29112013 - 0.22 Sandbox save 19012014 - 0.22 Sandbox save (dedicated to perform a Eve return trip)

Really interesting projects in this thread ... ! I wonder when mods (or 'official' devs) will crack the mysteries on how to implement multiple solar system. Right now this seems to be impossible to implement due to lighting-effects and (I might have this one wrong) the fact Kerbol is the source of a certain root-system as far as coding and programming concerns.

Neat simulation ... ! Doesn't offer the excellent gameplay of KSP but the Visuals are astounding. Here a moon around a gas giant, the gas giant itself orbits a blue subgiant around 110 parsecs from our Solar System.

I think of this implementation; after a long trip a Kerbal vessel has achieved a polar orbit around Tylo. Something unknown is seen from orbit in one of the polar regions of Tylo, and the Kerbals investigate. It turns out to be a crashed alien ship; its been there for ages and without any signs of alien activity ... But ... the engine seems to be largely intact and very useful for the Kerbal Space Program. Approaching the wreck with a Kerbonaut and right-clicking it yields tons and tons of Science and expands the tech-tree significantly ... ! After researching, the Kerbals have now 'assimilated' some kind of Warp capability for their ships, and are able to travel to a nearby star system. The warp-capable vessel eventually reaches a planet with a permanent cover of clouds and dust. Some crewmembers decide to investigate the planet, and harrowing music plays in the background while descending in the dark and murky atmosphere. On the surface, they find ruins of a once thriving alien civilization, destroyed long ago by a devestating nuclear war. The unfortunate aliens decided to send out a ship to colonize another planet, but somehow crashed onto a barren moon around a green gas giant in a star system far far away ... !

Some DLC / paid expansions wouldn't be bad at all in my opinion, like other solar systems and interstellar travel. Would be instant buy for me ... !

View from a planet around Barnard's Star. That lake must be methane or something because its around -150 degrees Celsius there.

I've discovered this piece of software today. I thought those pics were edited somehow, but the visuals are really that good. The ideal game would be with the vastness and Visuals of Space Engine, combined with the ability to build air and spacecraft that are subject to physics as in KSP ... !

Small SSTO's are excellent for exploration of Laythe.

I think in 2014 the development of KSP will continue but in a slower rate. Little new content will be added, as Squad will probably focus on improvements 'under the hood' and implementing various game modes (career, multiplayer). The need for new content will (partially) be compensated by modders, as they'll likely release rather interesting and enriching mods. Good examples of these nowadays are Kethane, Alternis, Cloud Mod, RealSolarSystem, and more.

Ship en route to Laythe.

Docking together a vessel with the Jool System as destination. Five launches done, two more to go. However, I've lost one of the two major solar panels in the construction proces. Turns out a solar panel doesn't really like being hit by a ejected fairing.

I'm skeptical too. Could even be possible that we'll never see the mentioned Gas Planet appear in the game since Squad has altered its course in game development. But don't dispear, we'll probably see modded celestial bodies from the modding community soon ... !

Looks like a complete geographical overhaul on Duna. Very nice ... ! Btw, is that a redone Vall just above the horizon in the second pic?

Bob, Bill and Jebediah left Kerbin 350 days ago in a mission to Duna. The ship was meant to return to Kerbin after activities on Duna were done, but Jebediah insisted on going to Dres. When trying to reach Kerbin from Dres, it became clear that the transfer was horribly timed. The hellish Eve was ironically the last chance for the Kerbonauts to avoid drifting into interplanetary space for at least 10 years, as they were running low on fuel. Now they're in orbit around Eve with a broken ship and exactly 5 units of liquid fuel and 8,4 units of oxydizer.

Gotta say I'm looking forward to this. What are the abilities of the source code for relative programming noobs like me? Changing (all) specs of existing celestial bodies ... ?