Duxwing

I did: see the OP. My solar panel performance greatly decreases with distance. -Duxwing

Beautiful! The neat containers and their shelves and tanks make me giddy with logistical excitement! Also, procedural Parts has a procedural Life Support tank that can be smoothly tweaked to contain whatever TAC supplies, whereas this mod makes storage chunky and imperfect. What is the practical advantage of this mod? -Duxwing

Set your navball to surface, point retrograde, tap your throttle, and keep your speed below five meters per second. -Duxwing

I brought two to charge them between transfer windows of the Joolian moons. And, just for the extra TWR, I put six more engines on. Thanks. I therefore will need 1.62e3 * 18 = 2.91e5 units of electrical charge. 2.91e5 EC / 4e3 EC per battery = 73 batteries 73 batteries * 2e-1 tons per battery = 14.6 tons My battery mass therefore would exceed not only my propellant mass but my payload mass. Whereas if I transferred from Eeloo to Kerbin via two burns spread over less than a day, I could use fewer batteries. This multi-burn plan could be used elsewhere, reducing necessary electrical charge that of the longest necessary burn; e.g., Jool to Pol. On the WAC dV map of 2013-06-23, Jool -> Pol requires 2,500m/s dV Kerbal Engineer says my rocket needs 1.18e4 Xenon for that dV 1.18e4 Xenon * 18 EC per Xenon = 2.16e5 units EC 2.16e5 EC / 4e3 EC per battery = 54 batteries 54 batteries * 0.2 tons per battery = 10.8 tons This tug would have too many batteries to be structurally stable. Solar panels might reduce my effective battery usage rate. My recent Laythian lander--hooray!--has given me data on the Joolian system. On the Laythian surface, its best-performing OX-STAT produces 0.03 EC/s at noon, 4% of its rated output. A Gigantor XL is rated for 18 EC/s and therefore would produce 0.72 EC/s. My craft would consume 14*18 = 252 EC/s--three orders of magnitude more. So many solar panels would be needed that using them would be mass and cost-ineffective. Might RTGs do better? Each masses more than two men and produces almost no electrical charge: no. I feel like a quarian in a bramble patch. >_< Wherever I go, I'm dangerously stuck. Might orbital gerrymandering help? Orbital gerrymandering would involve transferring from one satellite to another, minimizing my burn time. The least burn would be Jool-Laythe, which would require 1,600m/s dV. 1,600m/s dV requires 7.43e3 Xenon 7.43e3 Xenon * 18 EC per Xenon = 1.44e5 EC 1.44e5 EC / 4e3 EC per battery = 36 batteries 36 batteries * .2 tons per battery = 7.2 tons I must further reduce my EC requirement because thirty-six batteries would destabilize my craft and 7.2 tons would be too much dry mass for acceptable propellant use and TWR. Could fancier gerrymandering solve the problem? Fancy Joolian aerobraking could keep my apoapsis Laythian, necessitating only a maximum 1,200 m/s dV for Tyloian capture from Vall. 1,200 m/s dV necessitates 5.67e3 Xenon 5.67e3 Xenon * 18 EC per Xenon = 1.02e5 EC 1.02e5 EC / 4e3 EC per battery = 25.5 batteries 25.5 batteries * .2 tons per battery = 5.1 tons That mass and number of batteries is manageable. Can I lower it? I speculate that my Tyloian capture window would be so short as to prevent my splitting the burn and recharging between the mini-burns. I cannot aerobrake at Tylo. I cannot interrupt my voyage. Any ideas? Hence Kerbal Engineer. -Duxwing

I will need to carry more electrical charge because I will also return from Eeloo without recharging. For my purpose, as delta-v, so electric charge because I want this craft to change velocity by 3,400 m/s without recharging. -Duxwing

How can I calculate how much electrical charge I will need for each delta-V? I want to build a reusable interplanetary tug that can bring ten tons (1) from Low Kerbin Orbit to any other low orbit except Low Kerbolar Orbit. Its technical specifications are 1,200m/s dV without recharging, 0.15 TWR, and indefinite aerobraking anywhere with and without payload. It will have a reserve of electrical charge because operating without one around Jool and Eeloo would require too many panels (2). I want a standard design to simplify infrastructure and would rather not use modified parts. Footnotes 1 - I may need more for my Interplanetary Shuttle, which does with crew what the Interplanetary Tug does with cargo. 2 - I use the Stock Rebalance Mod, wherefore as far from Kerbol, so the inverse square of power received. -Duxwing

I would descend to Kerbin, establish friendly human-kerbal relations, share my technology and knowledge with the kerbals, and return to Earth with my findings and achievements. -Duxwing

After weeks of research and development, I have deployed my Interplanetary Shuttle with disappointing results. It began as an audacious project: bring six Kerbals from LKO to any other low orbit and back while using TACLS. I ran the initial estimates and found that I would need 8,000m/s dV and 900 days of LS. Further theoretical development and several failed Mohoian probes evinced that I would need at least 11,000m/s dV. I therefore had to choose between a tiny thrust-to-weight ratio and Kethane and chose the latter. I carefully adjusted every variable, sitting in my room for hours, and finally had my IS7: a one-way ticket anywhere. Giddy, I sent her on an unmanned shakedown cruise to Duna. The DRE inflatable heat shield worked perfectly, and MechJeb held my craft steady. After proving her maneuver-worthiness with careful orbital maneuvering, I opened KAC, which showed that the a Dunar-Kerbinar transfer window would open in over four-hundred days. I was speechless: quick returns can be done in reality! I feel disappointed in myself for not having first tried returning a Dunar orbiter instead of building that useless rust-bucket. Hauling the extra supplies on an Interplanetary Tug feels so humiliating when compared to my lofty goals that I need some encouragement and advice. -Duxwing

AMAZING! The little 'ka-chunk' on docking and, perhaps not due to this mod, not being sent to the external cam, is very immersive. Suggestions: 1 Let the magnitude of the shake equal the sum of the magnitudes of thrust and drag over the sum of the magnitudes of inertia and stability factors. The equation would be: Ms = (MT+M) / (Mi + f). Shake would therefore increase with TWR, speed, and atmospheric density and decrease with mass and stabilizing airfoils. 2 Make the shake 'real' by coding all parts to jitter when experiencing thrust or drag, enabling SAS, RCS, and control surfaces to smooth one's ride. 3 Integrate this jittering with FAR's structural failure system, causing stressful environments to necessitate tough craft. 4 Add a structural failure system whereby excessive jittering eventually fatigues parts, reducing their load tolerances; offer warning messages. -Duxwing

You should instead hope that scientists remember that no epistemology has provided certainty: science is always evolving! Furthermore, we have been wrong about the fundamentals over and over again. First we thought Earth was the center of the universe, which we thought was created by a God. Next we thought that Earth was almost at the center of the universe, next around the sun, next part of a galaxy, and finally part of what we see today. Heck, we know so little about the universe by mass that two of our cosmological fudge factors--Dark Matter and Dark Energy--are named after our ignorance. And frankly, I have a self-interest in discovering that the fundamentals are wrong: my scientific career has not even begun. Obviously! Also, consider the following related trivium. If all my friends, who are not only rational and levelheaded but thousands of miles apart, suddenly and simultaneously jumped off the same bridge, then I would consider that the wisdom of this learned crowd so likely exceeds mine that remaining on that bridge would be suicidal; hence the utility of scientific consensus. -Duxwing

I agree with the previous weight-shaving ideas and further suggest: 1 - Keep your Kerbals in the lander can throughout the trip 2 - Connect the lander can to its lander with a pair of Clampotron Sr.'s 3 - When done exploring Ike, leave the lander in Low Ikean Orbit and dock the can to the transfer stage 4 - Remove the Cupola, Hitch-Hikers, Hubmax, and big RCS tank from your transfer stage. 5 - Make your transfer stage just a Clampotron Sr., fuel tanks, and engines. 6 - Move all life-support functions (e.g., solar panels) to the lander. -Duxwing

I'm recovering from being a killing-game lover. The games twisted, bent, and broke my sympathy for other virtual chracters and horror at the nature of the game into a persistent sadomasochism toward the virtual 'enemy'. I am glad I quit. -Duxwing

How do we know how interested people are in space? Perhaps we need not despair; e.g., at least four other kids at my school play Kerbal Space Program. -Duxwing

A: (whispering to self behind podium) Preeeecious. Preeeeecious. They stole my-- (rises bolt upright) Precious freedoms! Hurrah! Q: How many dictators does it take to turn an empire into a union of ruinous states? -Duxwing

Wow... Thanks. -Duxwing

I have a plan! First, philosophy. Kids are spoken down to eight hours a day, five days a week to earn the autonomy and respect we grant adults. Whatever our educational goals, that social dynamic is unhealthy: engineering can be a respite. To get that respite, treat them like you would engineers because being taken seriously after more than a decade of being laughed off is such a relief that they, ironically, will be thrilled. Keep the emotions kid-scaled and validated, and they will feel motivated. Next, goals. Not everyone is necessarily an engineer. Some people lead well, others make pretty art, and others still can lead. Provide diverse, relevant roles, let student choose one, and allow students to affect the structure of the class. For example, if you want to do a natural disasters unit, then you could create a Kerbinar Guard, whose four teams of four engineers each must find and deflect a deadly asteroid from Kerbin while fourteen leaders, writers, and artists organize the teams and manage their scarce political and financial resources, report on events, and make informative and motivational art. Finally, be sincere. Begin the lesson in character and costume and never let them see you break it--not even after school--because the planet is in terrible danger and we can't dawdle around. Have a boombox play dramatic music. Offer advice and guidance only when needed. Keep the game world simple and dynamic with fake news reports and speeches. And most importantly, whenever you wonder if you are going overboard, go further because the kids will eventually just to with it and, with every year, the unit will approach legend: proud will be they who steer mighty craft through the stars. An example opening speech, given in a suit after a brief silence, "Welcome to the Kerbinar Guard: you're here because you're the best. What I am about to tell you will require your unanimous oath of secrecy on pain of death. (oath of secrecy) (points to map). Four asteroids will destroy us in a year, and we need you to knock them off course. We have hidden this information lest panic should doom society, and we have built you an integrated design, flight, and command center wherefrom you can run this black project. Or, you can use this agency's broad emergency powers to publicize the impeding asteroids to seek more funding than we can pilfer from the budget, create black sites elsewhere, or do almost anything else. I therefore suggest electing capable leaders. I suggest that the rest of you, engineers, artists, writers, or whatever else, review the classified material in the briefcase on the desk and organize a team to stop each asteroid." -Duxwing

A: Wake up, sheep! Can't you see the government is already controlling our minds? This guy is almost drooling-dumb, and you're standing idly by! We must stop the little green men who secretly control the intelligent, god-like octopus who secretly runs everything! Vote for me to end the conspiracy! Q: Why did you build a highway to your house? -Duxwing

A: Don't be ridiculous: space Affairs does not exist, has not existed, and never will exist. Whatever you might see is always only saw a weather balloon floating on swampgas being struck by ball lightning. Q: How many politicians does it take to screw in a lightbulb? -Duxwing

Cool! It worked! Can I make Kerbin less blue? Should it be so blue as KSPRC makes it? Yay! -Duxwing

The Kerbals venture Duna, Eve, or especially Jool because I want to see grand adventure and Kerbal technology! -Duxwing

Whether something can be done differs from whether it should be done. -Duxwing

"As it is, so it should be" is the naturalistic fallacy. False: L'Academie Francaise governs French without futility or tyranny. More generally, governed communications have been extremely successful; e.g., mathematics, the metric system, computer languages, NATO codes. Spoekn language could, with our effort, become regular and phonetic without losing its richness and freedom. Or we could build an English Academy in Oxford and run it like the metric system. -Duxwing

Thanks! Can I so remove textures from that folder as to keep textures I want; e.g., the helmet reflections? -Duxwing

Almost everything in this mod is beautiful! The not-beautiful things are Kerbin's atmosphere, which should be clear when viewed orthogonally, and the SQUAD part retextures, which seem dead without their bright hues. How can I change the SQUAD parts back? -Duxwing

How much electricity would a Mk2 Lander-Can, a Hitchhiker Storage Module, an OKTO2, a 1.25m Water Purifier, and a 1.25m Carbon extractor need? I want to know how much electricity I must store and how much I must continuously provide. -Duxwing