Max Grant

Bruce Wayne Kerman Enterprises is interested in your prototype . . . .

Here is Burdred. I made an outside chair, I guess a "catbird" seat or whatever you want to call it. I forgot he was out there. As you can see by the elapsed mission time, and the awful frown on his face, it's been quite awhile, and the poor guy is just . . . .pathetic. I got him out of there and sent him on a few missions with Jebediah to spice up his life!

Ok, you want to get within a useful rendezvous distance, which is under 4 km, under 2 if you can manage. Have a tank of real fuel not RCS for achieving this. Your target needs to be in a relatively circular orbit. I try to set space stations to be targeting the Mun, and then I correct the plane difference using the little navigation ears in map mode. Then, any ship into orbit can align with the Mun and rendezvous is easier. Line up one edge of your approaching ship's orbit with the target, and then make one orbit bigger or smaller than the other, and cycle through to get a good rendezvous set up. As that time approaches, turn to the retrograde marker on your nav-ball, which should say "target" which is the velocity difference between you two. First rendezvous will be a high velocity, so plan for a longer burn. We're talking 30 m/s and above. On that first rendezvous, try to get it as close to zero as you can. Once you do, immediately turn to the target marker and pick up some velocity, say 6-10 m/s. Looking in map mode, you should see your next rendezvous sliding around the now-nearly-matched orbits, to a closer rendezvous. It may overshoot and start to grow apart in distance again, and in that case stop burning and coast, while you adjust your appraoch. At that second rendezvous, again lose your velocity difference, and then burn to target. This time a little slower. Your target velocity adjustments at each rendezvous should be smaller as you get closer. You may take 2-3 orbits to get this right even after you've mastered it. it is a series of closer, and closer rendezvous(es?) until you are within about 500 meters. Then, you can use RCS. You should find that as you get closer to the target, you "lose" your zeroed-out velocity over a much longer period of time, until you are effectively in almost the same orbit. Then you can dock.

The first Mun landing I made, lander legs were still 3rd-party parts, and I remember at one point just dropping the ship down on its engine bell. I also seem to recall that you couldn't save games yet, but I could be wrong. Meaning every trip was the only trip.

I have stayed stock the last two releases for a couple of reasons. 1. The stock parts are just better now. I used to get mods to do things I wanted, that stock parts couldn't. Mostly rovers. 2. Mods always cause performance issues. I have yet to use a mod that I didn't see slowing things down. That's the breaks in a beta version of the game. 3. The challenge of doing all this with the stock parts pleases me. I like solving problems, which is why I play this game. It's kind of like having a space lego set (like I used to get as a kid) that actually flies. I have been working on finding the least possible amount of ship for the most use. The newest stock parts (especially all those squee little engines and tanks) are so cool. Eventually I may find mods that interest me again. One thing I would like to see for the rover wheels is cruise control. It is no fun trying to keep one of these rovers from flying down a hill at 14 meters per second . . . for half an hour.

Manned missions to Jupiter and Saturn, to look at all those gorgeous, fascinating moons. We could probably learn more from those two places than any others, with all the variety going on. It would be a gigantic dataset for humanity to work on, for a long, long time. I also would send some super-sized telescopes into orbit, or have them built on the Moon. Maybe a pair of orbiting, 500-meter space telescopes (with detectors at ALL wavelengths) at opposite sides of some wide Solar orbit, so they could do long-baseline interferometry with a Mars-sized orbit. With no budget, there are some wicked things we could do, that would open up the Universe enormously.

The next step was Mars, and the NERVA rocket was a real thing, it actually existed. It was canceled to "save the budget," according to the wiki article I read. Of course I can't help noticing that it was saved to spend on Vietnam . . .

I was peas porridge in the pot. Nine days old. My dad watched the landing with a set of huge over-the-ear headphones so that it wouldn't wake me up. Maybe I rolled over and looked at the TV while it was happening, but I wouldn't have seen much. He still has the headphones, which is why I know the story.

Ion engines would be more realistic, and fun, if you could program their burn to last over a long period of time, like days, and then time-warp them without using the limited physics warp. It would require a completely different bunch of code to do that which I imagine won't happen at least any time soon, but the real value of the ion engine is that it can burn not for hours, but for YEARS on very little fuel. So you have to program the trajectories over a long period of time. That's more than this game is set up to do, currently, and I can understand why. Check out the trajectory of the Dawn probe, which is what I think the Kerbal ion engine is modeled after. In particular, look at the "thrusting" vs "coasting" lines. Those burn times are GIGANTIC.

I get burned (literally) by that one too, but I have an excuse: I need bifocals.

I have this thing for books. I like the smell. I like the pages. I like the flopping sound of the pages. One of my favorite books of all time, Satellites, Rockets and Outer Space, was huge in my young life, in forming my dreams of space travel. I just tried looking up the edition I had, and I've realized I have (or had) an extremely rare edition, in hardback, that apparently has not been spotted recently on the Internet. Anyway, books are marvelous things. That book had THE coolest pictures, some of them of totally impractical spaceships that nonetheless looked awe-inspiring. And it was first printed in the 1950's, so some of the ideas people had about the Solar System were amusingly out of date, in the 1970's when I read it. I'm definitely going to get this one. It looks awesome.

I do not think that is overkill. I love it. Perhaps, one posits, Kerbin's early days included a period of high meteorite activity, perhaps during the formation of the Mun. I've been looking forward to detail like this.

I'm terrible at math, but the game has this great little interface that does it for me. I don't re-arrange my missions in search of gravity assists, but if one presents itself I use the navigation thing in the game to work out how I can best maximize the opportunity.

I'm hoping there will be new things to fly to. Just a couple, maybe. If not, well, I have not followed the development and I'm kind of staying away from learning details, because I like to be surprised. I've barely played 20.2. So, I expect I'll find plenty to do.

I watched Cosmos when it came out, on PBS, age 11. It had a profound impact on my life, and I still re-watch it today. It is now on Netflix. I would love to see this sequel. The world needs another series like Cosmos. There are a lot of cosmology/astronomy shows out there but DeGrasse-Tyson has the passion to give it some reach. I've been working as an IT architect/consultant for most of my adult life, but my re-awakening interest in astronomy has lead me to start re-learning math (programming is so much like algebra, after all), and this game in particular has gotten me thinking that when my kids are all grown, I should go back to school and do real science. One of the KSP features I'm watering my mouth for is having a full Solar System, so I can launch a Grand Tour-style mission of my own. The Voyager missions were the most visible, biggest space science that was being done as I was growing up (I was too young to watch the Moon landings), so they are what I think of first when I think of rockets, and space travel.

Eve is made of amethyst. That's why it is purple.

Oh, I did some math, and with the DSM ion engine, it would take me 600+ days to reach light speed. Now, if the engine were realistic at all, the solar panels would stop getting a decent charge long before I could reach such a speed, as even at 1/1000th the speed of light one is far, far far out of the SOI of Kerbol very quickly. I know I could do some cheats just to see it, and I might later, but my real goal was just to see how fast, in-system, I could get a ship going within my levels of patience.

Duna Flyby http://s111.photobucket.com/albums/n155/Maxgrant/Duna%20Fast%20Flyby/?albumview=slideshow Crazy fast. I timed my screen captures for every 5 seconds, roughly. Kind of lost my picture through the viewport for a second as we approached at an angle I didn't expect. You get the idea. if you watch the slideshow, the images will appear roughly in real-time.

I was originally attempting to get somewhat close to the speed of light, which I've had delightfully illustrated to me as WOW THAT'S REALLY FAST. In the course of one of my attempts using the DSM pack ion engine, I found myself more or less pointed at Eve, so I thought I'd fly as close as I could and as fast as I could. Due to a miscalculation of mine, I thought I was going a lot faster than I was, which was still pretty fast. I took these screen captures at about 3-4 second intervals. The slideshow on photobucket shows them to you at 5-second intervals. So in close to real time, you see Eve whoosh by. http://s111.photobucket.com/albums/n155/Maxgrant/Eve%20Fast%20Flyby/?albumview=slideshow I'm positioning myself for a flyby of Duna at over 3x this speed, or just over 1/1,000th the speed of light. It still FAST.

If your D key is broken, how on Kerbin do you ever do anything but NASCAR race around the Solar System?

I'm currently at 394,200+ m/s in 0.17. This puts me at slightly over 1/1,000th the speed of light. I've been burning with the DSM Ion engine for over a day and a half, with a couple of intervals, one to flyby Eve at ludicrous speed, and I've gotten a serious appreciation of how fracking fast light really is. I won't be able to return to do another flyby

If you want to get to Jool, get free of Kerbin's SOI so that you are orbiting the Sun, Find Jool and orbit until you are 90 degrees from it, just coming around the Sun/Kerbol. This would be like you coming over the horizon to see the Mun from Kerbin, on a bigger scale. Now point at Jool, and run your engine until your apoapsis hits Jool's orbit. You need to slow that throttle at that point and gently nudge it along until you see a Jool capture appear. Also make sure you're in Jool's plane. It is slightly off Kerbin's. I've done this with the DSM Ion engine+solar panels as my 2nd to last stage. Not yet made it with the Nerva rocket. It takes more precision because the SOI's of the planets are so much tinier than their orbits, compared to the Mun and its orbit. I've been to all four planetary SOI's with unlimited fuel cheat, so I could learn what it takes to do it. Now I'm doing it with the DSM Ion engine. So far I have landed on Tylo, I have a splashdown on Laythe, I abandoned a poor Kerbal on Eve (Kerbals can't stand up on Eve, too heavy). I tried Moho but it burns engines right off landers. I've landed and crashed on Duna several times. Trying to get a legitimate lander down on the planet now.

If you want to fly to Jool, you don't need any special mods. I did switch on the infinite fuel cheat but that was to learn how much re-design of every rocket I've ever used would be required. However, provided you have like the Nerva engine or an ion engine, or a lot of big tanks, here's what you do: Leave Kerbal orbit and SOI. Orbit the Sun and when you come around it and Jool is in sight, point your craft at Jool, and SLOWLY expand your orbit until it just touches Jool. If you're an old hand at reaching the Mun, you will recognize this manuver on a MUCH larger scale. However remember that Jool's SOI is tiny on this scale. So you have to just KISS the orbit of Jool with your periapsis. Then, you may need to fine-tune it vertically or horizontally. As you make your 250-day+ journey out to Jool, you may fine-tune it more to make sure you actually enter the Joolian SOI the way you want. It is possible. I've done it twice now, no mechjeb or calculator or any application. Just me and 2-level patched conics.

Have none of you guys tried setting foot on EVE? No matter what you do, unless someone has some trick, nobody is leaving EVE alive. Once your Kerbal sets foot on the surface, he just kind of rolls over on his side and can't get up. I tried this 2x before I refused to sacrifice a 3rd Kerbal. Someone tell me if they've seen different, but as far as I know if you leave a Kerbal down there, he'd better already be in his ship to leave.

Yea I had my Kerbals step out on Eve. They took one step off the ladder, fell over, and wouldn't get up again. I sent a second Kerbal out after I ended flight on the first one, and he did the same thing. Treacherous place.