bsalis

Meh, close enough.

Small post this evening, only 61 and 62. A couple of small islands close together, out in the vast blue ocean. 61st is the bigger one, with a small offside island. Only one flag down here, on the main island. Looking west. Interesting bay and lakes. 62nd is a short hop away... ... and tiny. Sort of a carrot and potato thingy. Yep - pointy one and round one.

It's not around Eeloo. I doubt it can be hidden (easily). No point in hiding an existing easter egg anyhow.

Windy day on Laythe... Meanwhile, back on Kerbin...

Another three this evening: 58, 59 and 60. I am working my way west to Laythe East outpost, instead of going back to Laythe West. Which is where I have been working from since I arrived and setup there after flag 26. 58th is west of the last group of three islands I flagged. It quite far south at 59degs. It's a long one. Stretches well over the horizon. Mountainous too. Will try to land on the edge over yonder there. Arg, where am I going to land. What was I thinking! After some slow, vertical jet assisted flying, I found a sweet spot. Like a big paw. 59th is a medium one, more west again. A flat one... will not be seeing many more of these. Looking west. Still a long way from Laythe East outpost. Interesting coast on the right, but not much else. 60th is far north west of the last, and almost back on the equator. Now this is uncommon. Mountainous region surrounded mostly by flat lowlands. Looking back, south, at the tail of the island. Landd on the edge. Looking west on the some lowlands. Off to base we go. Circumnavigated Terrible dark night time pic below - sorry 'bout that. However, here I am finally back at Laythe East. Which means I have officially circumnavigated Laythe. Well, flying that is, not by orbit!

They are just better. For any stage. Not as OP as they once were.

Three this evening. 55, 56, and 57. Another small cluster, a bit south of the last. There are quite a few islands south of this vast ocean expanse... far away from my outposts. 55th is the big one, by far. All three visible here. Other islands in the distance. It has a tail... like some others I have seen. 56th is roundish, flat and the smallest. Nothing special. Has a little bay. Flag down. 57 in the distance. Overview. Only going to put one flag down for 57 over there. 57th is something rather odd, as you have seen in the other pics. Now this final one is not dull. Has tendrils. A lake and... what is that blue speck to the right of it? easter egg? Nope - just a knee deep puddle! Hmmm Cthulhu?

Aldrin was smart and very talented. He was the first to master doing anything useful on EVA. It made sense for him to be the first. It was not the seating, NASA was just being polite. It had to do with temperament. They felt more comfortable with Armstrong having the honour of being first. I think they made the right decision. I like how he was quite humble about it, in the sense he just felt he was doing his job, doing his duty as part of a big team. I also like how he rarely did interviews or try to capitalise on it in any way. It give him a mythical aura of sorts. He also did not do product endorsements... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzz_Aldrin's_Race_Into_Space ... now imagine if that was Armstrong.

Any SSTO spaceplane that works on Kerbin will work better on Laythe. Other than that you want TurboJets, and *ample* lifting surfaces. As for refueling... you can see my system in this post Brotoro has another system if you want to dig through this

Yeah sure the data may be there. However it sounds like it's broken. Seriously, this is a tragedy. It needs to be fixed!

I have 50 to 54 this post. This is a cluster to the south end of that vast ocean. This is well west of Laythe West outpost. 50th is a smaller sandbar type to the north of the ring. All islands of this cluster here, but one is so small you can't see it. Should be and easy landing - it's like a runway. Hmm, corrugated, maybe not so easy. Just more water. 51st is over to the east a little, on northern rim still. Couple of smaller companion islands that won't be flagged. Looking over at them here. Overview. 52nd is the eastern one in the group. Regular blob with central peak type. Plenty steep. Didn't quite make it to the ridge - a bit unsafe. Overview. 53rd is the smallest in the group. Not even visible on map view! This is why it was not visible - it is tiny. Hmm, mebe this was not a good idea. Another flag down. Deal with it 54th is last and largest in this group. Has a nice little lake and a big peak. Close enough to the peak. Can see the lake from here, that's what matters. Overview. Damn, that is pointy!

Have a vid here. Clicky image below for it. I think it should qualify.

Space tape on Mercury-Atlas 2. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=mhFNx--MQasC&lpg=PA104&dq=Mercury%20atlas%20belly%20bands&pg=PA104#v=onepage&q&f=true

Hmm, not sure... On Kerbin at least, try going into a vertical ascent, then throttle down. Now hit the chutes just after you stop and start falling backwards. When i used chutes, i also didn't use RCS ... i was mostly hands-off controls, just using ASUS a to dampen out swinging as the back crossed the green retro marker. Also, are you using FAR? Since that reduces drag which i don't think will help.

Sorry for the late reply.. don't often check my craft threads. First up check the action mappings in the SPH. You may wish to re-assign them to your preferences. Then to fly... 1. Open the Resources tab. You will need to monitor the IntakeAir. 2. Disable the gimbals on the LT-Ns. You will not need them, and gimbals only work against you when in front of the CoM. 3. Activate all jets and throttle up, accelerate. Pull up and ascend vertically. 4. Start leveling off past 10Km. Start watching the IntakeAir 5. Written down, I have 0.14 units on the resources tab for flameout threshold on 5 engines, so stay under that and pick up speed until you don't seem to gaining much more. 6. Active ALL rocket engines, then shut down 2 jet engines, pitch up 7. Again, written down, I have 0.11 units on the resources tab for flameout threshold on 3 engines. Once you hit that, shut down the other 2 outer engines. 8. Once the center engine flames out... shut that down too, and close all air intakes. 9. Keep climbing on all rockets, then when you are in the higher atmo, and don't think you need all the thrust, shut down the aerospikes, and keep using the more efficient LT-Ns to finish. The rest you should know You may wish to check the flameout thresholds again in test flights. Also note that I have not used this craft in .20, so it performance may have changed a little since .19. If you are planning a trip to Duna and back, this craft can do it. However, you have to do it carefully. There margin for error, but it is not big. I suggest getting familiar using it, then launch several to LKO to practice maximising delta-V. Measure this by oxidizer volume. Vent any excess fuel before departing for Duna, and use up the RCS to help with maneuvers too.

Yes, slightly behind. But make sure that the CoM does not drift behind the CoL after fuel drain when you want to re-enter and fly again. Ideally CoL should be a bit above the CoM as well for stability, but it's not a big issue if it is not. It should not be too far above, since then the Center of Drag (CoD) will probably be higher above the CoM. This drag will pull back, from above, causing the plane to pitch up. Wings also have a little mass, so high CoL means high placed wings, so this will raise the CoM above the CoT (unless balanced with dry mass below)... so theres more pitching up from that too. Without seeing a pic I would say that the CoM is above the CoT, and that the rocket thrust is higher than the jet thrust, so you don't notice the problem until you switch. There can be other reasons and contributory factors though.

That. I also see an ASAS on top. So that is lifting the CoM up above the CoT, causing it to pitch up. This can be controlled at lower altitudes because the control authority is better in the thicker atmo. Fix the above and you can probably get that to orbit. I doubt you will be able to re-enter and land it though.

I have 46 to 49 this evening, and the South Pole as well! These are all islands further to the south from islands in the previous post. 46th is small and in the middle of nowhere. I think this might be the smallest so far that is not nearby to any other big island. Tylo and Vall almost aligned. Onward! 47th A larger one, south west of the last. Going to land on the stubby bit to the west. Looking west. Not going to flag the little one over there. Overview. 48th is another small one in the middle of nowhere. Coming in low... hard to see where to land. Nothing but ocean views here. Overview. Delta shaped. 49th is quite a large one, even further south. Looks reasonably flat from this height. However it certainly is not flat - quite rough actually. Very far south now, it's rather dark. Off to the south pole we go. SP the South Pole. Jool flanked by Tylo and Vall. Overshot, gliding back. Ta da! If you look carefully, you can see the lines on the ground showing the exact south pole.

As chickenplucker points out, use quicksave/load. There is also a warning about physics warp the first time you use it. I don't think there will be a fix, because I don't think it's broken. The game uses PhysX, and running that fast just does not seem to be very accurate. If anything a 'fix' will be that it is removed.

If i recall correctly, shortly after EVA was released with .16, the devs said that they were OP and not intended as "jetpacks". The expected nerf never seemed to happen. Personally i'm not fussed either way.

It's certainly the way to do it. You can cover a lot more ground on Laythe in a plane. Rovering is a bit pedestrian in comparison. This evening I have a trio or reasonably large islands, 43, 44 and 45. These are south west of Laythe West outpost, around 30 degrees latitude. 43rd is the largest one on the north. Big square-ish shaped. 44 and 45 in the distance. Some grey coloured lowlands and lakes too. Interesting arc ridge. 44th is the smallest in this group. On the left... hmm. Reasonably generic shape. Looking north. Yeah - kinda boring. 45th is the south west one. Nice deep bay here. Another bay another flag. Definitely not boring!

I only know the dV, which 500 m/s With that you can... - Get to the surface and back to orbit on Gilly, Bop and Pol - Just get down, or to orbit, on Minmus - (i think) get to Eve from surface of Gilly!

Yep - plenty. For a tailsitter like this, all you need is legs on the back, which is the obvious bit. If you are having trouble landing, put some parachutes at the front (near the cockpit for easy re-pack), then pull them when you are travelling slow and over the spot you want to land. They will keep you upright, then apply jet or rocket thrust as appropriate and needed to touchdown softly. Works a treat!