Odyssey

I keep track of all my flights in a logbook. I've been shopping around for a good space-themed notebook with little success. A kerbal themed flight logbook would be really cool.

This may have been addressed elsewhere, but I wanted to bring it to the group to see if someone had a solution. I want to have multiple missions flying at the same time. But I don't want to have a kerbal sitting on the Mun for a year because I'm busy flying my Duna lander. I'd like to set up Mechjeb to lay a course in, make the insertion burn, then leave and fly other things while it's on its path. The trouble I'm having is getting Mechjeb to fire an insertion burn without having to wait 5.5M sec or some other insane amount of time. What's the best way to get a ship into place to fire an insertion burn not long after leaving Kerbin orbit?

Yeah, just tried a redesigned rocket and let Mechjeb run it's ascent program to 105k. After coasting to 105k, it made a burn that took apogee to 285k, but did create an orbit. My rocket was put on a course to impact downrange. Why is this happening?

I think I'm having trouble similar to eran100's. I'm launching a ship with the Mechjeb command pod (the spherical pod) and really, there's no Earthly (Kerbally?) reason it shouldn't fly just fine. However, when reaching the set apogee with the ascent program, the ship will fire engines pointing relatively upward, instead of horizontally to establish orbit. Furthermore, (after several tries and at last going to manual) I tried to do a Mun injection burn with the new stock NERVA engine. That led to an unusual course correction which admittedly did get me to the Mun, though not at all in the same way as in previous versions (not really a complaint, more of an observation). I'm wondering if mechjeb is properly equipped to deal with the stock NERVA and/or if anyone else has had similar issues. In the same breath, I'm also curious as to mechjeb's procedure for interplanetary flights. I'm assuming it goes something like (ascent, orbit insertion, a burn to head out of Kerbal orbit into solar (Kerbol) orbit, ???) at that point do new targets come up in the Orbit Transfer mode? I'm just asking. Love Mechjeb, curious if I'm using it right.

How do you guys demodulate the signal? I'd have no clue how to even start something like that. To me it mostly just sounded like a phone dialing random numbers really fast. Is there a program for that or something?

I get that everyone wants to go off to other planets, but I'd be willing to bet that any interplanetary manned mission will involve multiple dockings. The only non-ridiculous Mars mission plan that I remember that didn't involve some form of docking was Robert Zubrin's Case For Mars, which is brilliant. As perfect as his plan is though, I think when we do get our act together, a fair amount of it will involve docking crew modules with supply modules, landers with motherships, and various other dockings. Just saying, I love what they're doing, but I'd have put in docking before many other features. Then again, I'm not a programmer, so what do I know?

My first flight to the Mun in version .16 was a solo landing my Jebediah. He came in low over one of the Mun arches and his ship smashed to pieces. The command module survived the fall to the surface and he climbed out of the capsule and became the first Kerbal to walk on the Mun. However, with no means to return, it looked as though he was to be the Mun's first permanent resident. The Kerbal Aeronautics and Space Administration, deciding that no kerbal was to be left behind, then placed a 3-kerbal rocket on the pad and had a single kerbalnaut step out and slowly climb his way down the stages. Ezekial Kerbal watched as his fellow Kerbalnauts flew away and 2 days later, landed 200m from Jeb's crashed lander. Following some brief munwalks and a survey of the wreckage, all 3 kerbals climbed into the newly arrived lander and 3 days later splashed down in the ocean, safely.

As an aerospace engineer (Master of Science, NC State University, Go Wolfpack!) I enjoy KSP mostly for the ability to design flight systems (shuttles, planes, rockets) and so for me, MechJeb is a useful tool because I'm not a pilot, I'm an engineer. Neither my reflexes nor my computer hardware are ideal for flight simulations per se, but MechJeb allows me to have success with my landings and other flight operations. I think if you ask the experts who do this for a living, they'll tell you that, while it can be rewarding to calculate a trajectory by hand, it's also highly unnecessary for an astronaut to do these days. The next generation of NASA vessels will fly almost entirely by computer, both for safety and to conserve fuel whenever possible. The landings on Mars, both unmanned and the eventual manned flights in the future, were and will be handled by computer control. I think the MechJeb system is brilliant and I'll continue to use it whenever needed. Having said that, if KSP version 0.75 or whatever, decides to throw in an autopilot feature, I'd like to see it include a failure mode every once in a while that may force me to fly manually in a landing phase as I think that's the most likely scenario for needing to do so. There's nothing wrong with a little adventure flying. As others have pointed out, it does make the experience more exciting and rewarding. But I love KSP for the engineering and the simulated (so far) science and exploration. (I'm looking forward to building Mun bases and digging up soil samples and learning about the monoliths) Still, all around, it's an individual choice, but for my enjoyment of realism, I fly MechJeb.

you can double check me on this, but, according to what I've seen, a gas giant such as Jupiter or Saturn (and presumably what we will find out there in KSP) would have an atmosphere of gas which would increase in pressure as you go further into it, but compress any gas enough and it becomes liquid and then solid. So, essentially, you could have some sort of ocean (non-water based) at lower altitudes. At that point you could, in theory, have a hybrid spacecraft/submarine (cue engineering nerd gasp) and both fly and swim in a single mission. For more on this, see Ben Bova's Jupiter and Leviathans of Jupiter.

My tribute to Apollo 12, the flight of Odyssey VI, landing near one of the arches, near MunCam II

My first flight of the Aurora (hope no one minds, I put the IASA logo from Farscape, mostly just to test my ability to change around the texture file. I've also got about 3-4 other mods running or parts used here. Kudos to the KSP community!

You're the man Cephus. CSS is one of the most beautiful mods on here. Can't wait for a 0.16 upgrade.

I'm a fan of the Ausplane too. I love that you guys put other liverys in with the pack. They look great and I tweaked one for my own preferences, but they're all a little similar. Are there any out there that are totally different? And, like Csonic6, I can't wait to have a manned (kerballed?) flight. Also, any plans for landing gear? The stock that I'm using now are a shade too big. Great job!

My thinking has been, if the ship is going to be one of many, give it a simple name that has a deep meaning (Odyssey, Aquarius, Discovery, etc.) and just add a roman numeral for the flight number (Odyssey V, Apollo XI, etc.). For ships that we think of as one of a kind (not that it's a problem to get them back in KSP) Go with something a little more distinctive (Sword of Orion, The Sterling Marlin, Curiosity's Bolt, StarRanger, etc.)

I'm going to wait to download this pack until they've updated for 0.16, but I'm psyched for the chance to fly the Discovery from 2001 around.

Okay, turns out there was nothing wrong with my system. I didn't realize where the photo files were going. I totally get it now. Thanks to you all for your help!

I know this is probably old-hat to most of you, but I haven't been able to take a photo (screenshot, picture, whatever you wish to call it). Can someone talk me through the process. I'm not sure if it's a settings thing, or something with my computer, but just let me know, using small words as apparently I'm an idiot in this regard, how to go from seeing something you want to photograph, to having a picture in a file which I could share with all of you. Thanks