bsalis

On the topic of milk. What human first thought it was a good idea to drink milk from a cow anyhow. Who the heck saw a suckling calf and thought, "i'd like some of that".

Having the wing on the underside should be fine. However if you put all those air scoops on the underside, the drag will cause it to pitch down.

I think it looks great, but like others have said, it could use some tweaks, Looking forward to getting a craft down low, to say 6km, and watch the craters zoom by underneath.

Good work metaphor! I tried all sorts of maneuver nodes but could not get under the dV *and* time budget. Anyhows... my rescue mission is now complete, and done in style. Rescue ship docked with SSTO shuttle in LKO. All safe back at KSC. From left to right... Bill Kerman - Eve mission commander Lodster Kerman Geofory Kerman Kirk Kerman - Rescue mission commander Matberry Kerman - Rescue mission pilot Robert Kerman - Shuttle commander Elnie Kerman - Shuttle pilot

Oh meh, again "doing X" viewed through the prism of "cheating". Personally I do not clip. Not beyond what the VAB/SPH naturally allows without Debug Menu. Is there not another word to use? Perhaps ask is "doing X" considered legit? Playin' the game as envisioned perhaps?

For me this is the key issue of building a good SSTO Spaceplane. It is something you need to consider from the start. I see you have put a rocket fuel tank on the nose, presumably to balance it for flying to orbit. You should not do this. You have to balance dry mass with dry mass and fuel mass with fuel mass. In order for the CoM not to drift too much, the fuel needs to be balanced around it.

Pics and craft file help. It seems there are potentially a few issues. This one for example... If this is a Yaw spin, possibly it's from an air intake on one side open. That can happen with action groups when you remove and reattach intakes.

What Kosmo-not said, as usual. Efficiency loss from vectoring engines is negligible. I don't know why I keep seeing threads asking about efficiency when from many pics i see it seems that efficiency is least concern. If you want efficient, think LT-Ns, lots of tanks and little else except staging.

With vertical lifting jets. As for my 2c on a base. It depends what you want. Personally I think Laythe is better since you can explore by plane, and having a base serves a purpose as a place to refuel planes.

I never liked the grey tanks. They look like they belong on an oil derrick. I think the intention was that they look like shiny metal tank you see on something like the old Atlas rocket. But did not turn out right.

Ok, so mods are sorted. I have come to the conclusion that getting them back on their own power is a no go. Not even if you use up all the RCS. The physics is against them. They are in a real pickle alright! Good news is I put a craft in LKO, then with a maneuver node worked out an intercept for 46 days with only 1600 m/s. Though it's too late this evening for me to actually follow through.... will do later. I'm not familiar with the IonCross mod, but I think this will be a neat way to learn about it. EDIT: Actually... Rescue underway!

It's true, aerobraking is awesome. However, why not just aerobrake into Laythe directly instead of lucking it.

Yeah, it's no longer showing in the developer console. So it's gone, really gone...

So that is the question. It is semi-officially MIA. There was a thread about it a little while ago. Anyone think it will be back for .21? Does anyone know? Is anyone going to try and find it in .21? Am I alone thinking its return is important?

Surely this can't be that hard. First challenge is getting the needed mods! I seem to be missing the following... * cl.large.batteryPack * cl.large.shortMonoTank I don't think they are in any of the listed mods, including Stockalike.

That. Personally I just roll with it. It seems to me that it's only MechJeb that has the issues with it.

From what I can tell, the RL analogs are... Propellium = Hydrogen Liquid Fuel = Liquid Hydrogen Oxium = Oxygen Oxidiser = Liquid Oxygen Nitronite = Nitrogen Blutonium = Plutonium or Uranium Zeonium = Xenon Hexagen = ....? I'm not surprised they are making changes to resources from that chart. One converter, one drill type, just use air intakes would be fine. I don't see a point to Hexagen either.

The feeling I get is that Vall is somewhat overlooked. However it my pick for best viewing at low orbit. The contrasts and textures are nice. You are also moving at a decent pace, unlike Gilly/Pol/Minmus. It's the closest thing I have seen to the Europa probe scene in the movie 2010... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLTRDH2YFqc

Personally I'm planning on a Mysterious Mass Kerbal Abduction Event. Then send crew out to the drifting vessels to resume operations. They may have been floating out there crewless for years. What possible bad could happen?

It's just pod torque renamed to reaction wheels. Details to be seen. What we do know is that they will require electricity, so RCS may be more important than before.

Take the Leap of Laythe (clicky pic to play)

It's not a bug. RL craft use reaction wheels too. Don't attach RCS if you don't need it.

It's been so so long... they said they were moving to episodic development so they could deliver games more frequently. What happened to that?! I'd be happy with HL2 E3 or HL3. What's on the title doesn't matter so much - it would be the next installment of the franchise, and that's what matters. Why the franchise has been neglected is a mystery to me. You know - there are references in Portal to Black Mesa. So it's safe to assume they both are meant to exist in the same fictional universe. Perhaps we may see a fusion-franchise game.

Inclination changes are most efficient at slower velocities. So ideally, you do them at the AN or DN that is near the Ap in a highly elliptical orbit.

Perhaps there will be a celebratory thread or twelve.