antiquark

From teh google, that "bulging" second stage contains a shrouded payload. Not sure what that really means, maybe there will be an extra module stored in there (lunar module?), but there doesn't seem to be much room. I'll look a bit more...

If you aim for the low-lying areas (the brown plains) of Duna, a plane that flies OK on Kerbin should work fine on Duna.

Real space shuttle has engines that can gimbal a lot. Therefore can always keep the thrust going directly through the center of mass. You can try a config edit to change the gimbal angle of your engines to say 20 degrees, it might make it flyable.

Right click and "Board". (to enter seat).

It would be cool if there was something to "collect" when you're on a planet. Even if it was a text-only thing, such as an icon with the words "IGNEOUS ROCK" or whatever, then there would be a purpose to driving around on a planet. Plus, if they were worth money, then more reason to collect them!

Great challenge, I've found it quite inspirational for my own designs.

I am the large metallic object standing behind the pesky humanoids... F-1 Engine - DSC_1322 by derek@antiquark, on Flickr

What he said! Helpful hint: print out the images from that site onto regular paper, then you can hold them up against your monitor, and actually see through them a bit, to precisely align your orbits.

Okay, tried it again... I was able to land, but when I tried to take off, I couldn't reach any altitude for my rocket engine to engage. I sort of just wallowed around at 2000m. I'll have to continue my investigations. Found a nice long stretch of smooth terrain on the daylight side... Actually landed!

Second attempt: Revamped the plane, aligned the center of gravity to the lift, and gave the wings a good dihedral for stability. Note the auto-everything. It was mostly useless, I had to manually override the pitch control, because the autopilot wanted to aim the nose into the ground. I landed! On the dark side! However while landing, I hit a pothole and it ripped off one of my jet engines. Oh well, I guess there go my plans go get home. I tried to take off again, and of course asploded everything. Thanks to "quicksave" I might try landing this one again...

Challenge: land a plane on Eve! Here's my failed attempt. It failed because the super-dense atmosphere made my airplane point nose-down, I could barely make it level. Yeah, the center of gravity needs tweaking. Sorry, I didn't take any screenshots while I was flailing around in the atmosphere, I was preoccupied . Also I didn't make note of how efficient the jet engines were, however they were producing some thrust. The booster on the pad. A couple of nuke engines got it to Eve's orbit. There's Eve, lets dump the nuke booster. Gee, wonder if I can land this thing?

- warp at one million! - some sort of orbital computer, or numerical assistance, such as a protractor overlay in the map mode.

Has anyone landed on Gilly yet? As I slowly touched down, I sank into deep dust... then catastrophically exploded! See pic, it caught me by surprise, so I didn't get a really clear pic of my ship sinking.

Welcome from Vall! Gravity is a little stronger here, I can't jump too high.

Greetings from Bop! Look how high I can jump. Be warned though, Bop is a little glitchy. I hovered a bit, but when I gently touched down, I catastropically exploded!

Greetings from Ike!

Forgot the landing gear, but the nuke engines worked OK as legs...

... HOWEVER, on the other hand, if you create a "figure of merit" which is Thrust x ISP / Mass, then the SPS-175 does stick out...

I guess you're right I spreadsheeted some of the NP engines, plotted the ISP, mass, and thrust ratios, and nothing seems really out of line.

I mounted a rescue mission to go get Neilvin, and successfully land on the pinnacle of the Matterhorn. Here's a report: First things first... sorry Fredger, it looks like someone forgot to tell you to stay behind. We're gonna have to let you orbit for a few days while we go rescue Neilvin. There's Neilvin down there! Crank up the Translatron and put it in hover mode... Make a fine adjustment to the right... hope the exhaust doesn't scorch Neilvin... Pinpoint landing! (Hmmm, what was that creaking noise? I think the pinnacle dented the central tank...) Nice! Neilvin's almost at the top of the ladder, all he has to do is hop onto the tank, then he's onboard! You OK Neilvin? Most people are in a bit of pain after they roll down a Munar mountain! Okay... second try for Neilvin... he's knocking at the door, should we answer? Yeah, I don't think he'd appreciate the joke. And away we go!

Another quibble: I'm thinking that the SPS-175 engine is out of whack. Too much ISP, too much thrust, too little weight. See the image, that simple one stager can reach a 700 km orbit.

Try playing with the a,s,d,q,w,e keys when you're assembling it.

Yes! But even if you apply the same mathematics to the scaled up things, you get the same ratio of 4.2.

Yes, the 1960's was an amazing era for rocketry! They actually tested it (but it never flew).

I forgot to mention that the real-world Nerva had a thrust equal to it's own mass. So it actually wouldn't have been able to lift off the ground, it was too heavy. Hence, nuclear rockets are only useful once you get into space.