Duxwing

I've added an analysis and refined the writing because of your support. Enjoy! -Duxwing

Wow, thanks. It's beautiful! -Duxwing

Abstract Increasing fuel volume decreases the effect of engine mass on Delta-V while increasing that of ISP. Procedure 1.) Install Kerbal Engineer Redux v 0.6.1.1 2.) Place or attach as few tanks as necessary to hold a listed volume of fuel. 3.) Attach Kerbal Engineer Redux ER-7500. 4.) Attach each engine in turn and record each resulting Delta-V. 5.) Repeat steps 2-4 for each volume of fuel. Data Fuel (L): LV-1| Rockomax 48-7S| LV-909 | LV-N 100: 5,283 | 4,825 | 2,433 | 1,536 200: 5,714 | 5,818 | 3,656 | 2,758 300: 5,879 | 6,274 | 4,428 | 3,764 400: 5,966 | 6,538 | 4,971 | 4,163 500: 6,020 | 6,711 | 5,377 | 5,344 600: 6,057 | 6,833 | 5,693 | 5,981 700: 6,084 | 6,923 | 5,948 | 6,545 800: 6,104 | 6,994 | 6,158 | 7,047 Analysis Increasing fuel volume decreased the effect of engine mass on Delta-V while increasing that of ISP. The 48-7S provided greater Delta-V than did the other engines in the 200-700L range, and the LV-N only bested it by 53 m/s at 800L. The LV-1 provided much more Delta-V than did the other engines at 100L; it may therefore be designed to most efficiently use very small amounts of fuel. Conclusion Increasing fuel volume decreased the effect of engine mass on Delta-V while increasing that of ISP. A practical application of these results might be to increase Delta-V while reducing mass and cost by replacing such heavier engines as the LV-909 with such lighter ones as the 48-7S. -Duxwing

A Solution to Bi-propellant Ignition: Control your fuel flow with (a) remotely-operated solenoid valve(s). Just before launch, with rocket fueled and solenoids shut, put a heat source (e.g., a small candle) under the nozzle. To launch, open the valve(s) with a remote control: the fuel-oxidizer mixture will spray into the nozzle, wherein the heat source will ignite it. The flame front thereby created will travel up into the combustion chamber, and your rocket will roar into the wild blue yonder. -Duxwing

Orient your rocket so that the boosters don't hit it when they fall away: if you're vertical in the lower atmosphere or in any orientation while beyond the lower atmosphere, then hold your course while the boosters separate, and if you're anything but vertical while in the lower atmosphere, then roll your rocket so that your boosters don't fall down on top of it. Use the big radial decouplers instead of the little ones because the former are much more powerful; I've used them to separate asparagused 2xJumbo+Mainsail radial boosters while gravity turning below 24k without Sepratrons in FAR and in stock KSP. Tangentially, Sepratrons are nevertheless very useful for deorbiting boosters. If you have extra fuel left over in your booster, then instead of burning its engine to lower your periapsis below the atmosphere, decoupling it, and then raising your periapsis with your orbital stage, attach a probe core to the side of your booster with a tiny strut, burn all of your booster fuel at periapsis with your most efficient engines, finish your burn with your orbital stage, and then deorbit the booster by burning retrograde with the sepratrons at booster apoapsis. You'll save the money that you spend on the probe core in decreased fuel requirements for the orbiter stage. -Duxwing

How: For a stable launch in FAR, keep your rocket vertical until your atmosphere indicator goes to the middle bar, which it should do around 12km, and then slowly turn your rocket to the horizontal while keeping an eye on your apoapsis: if it rises near 70km, and you're not pointing into the brown, then deactivate your engine and turn until you are. Once you so are, burn in a direction that expands your orbit expands while maintaining your apoapsis until your apoapsis turns too far away. At that point, coast to a comfortable distance to apoapsis and circularize. Modifications: Put fins on the bottom stage of your rocket or replace a non-gimablling lower stage motor with a gimballing one in order to give yourself the control authority that you'll need to keep your rocket straight despite occasional errors of the PID. Why: FAR simulates air as air, and objects experience apparent wind while travelling through air. If you've ever stuck your head out the window of a moving car or run at a full sprint, then you've experienced apparent wind: it's the apparent motion of air relative to you. Apparent wind applies to rocketry because rockets upwards hurtle through the air at breakneck speed and thereby generate equally roaring gales. When the rocket is pointed straight upward, these gales act on the nose-cone of the rocket and are simply interesting; however, when the rocket turns, they act on the exposed side of the rocket and press the turn outward. Long, skinny rockets are particularly susceptible to this push because their entire lengths act as levers. Yet the force of the apparent wind is proportional not only to the airspeed, but the density of the medium. Again, we experience this phenomenon firsthand: we hardly mind when a column of air the size of a refrigerator rushes at us at a hundred kilometers per hour, but I doubt that anyone here would stand tall in the face of a column of water that's likewise hurtling. I've studied my Kerbal Engineer readouts and observed that the fluid medium through which we move on Kerbin--its atmosphere--becomes exponentially less dense as we rise past 12km. In this case, the practical implication of this rapid decrease in density is that gravity turns are much easier and safer above 12km than below 12km; the natural conclusion to draw from this implication is to take the shortest route to 12km (a straight line) and then slowly turn over for orbital maneuvers. Fairings: Yes! Use them to cover up anything that looks gnarly. -Duxwing

My proudest moment was sending my first unmanned, orbital probe to Eve: the probe consisted of seven Large Hybrid Ion engines running off six Gigantor Mega XXLs and more than a Jumbo tank of fuel distributed in a low, flat arrangement--and I had wanted to save gas! Yet none of that mattered as the deep, thick sky blossomed into the brilliant violet of dawn beneath my ship to reveal a wonderland beyond my wildest imaginations: Eve was real, I was there. I will doubtless return to that world to finish the task of landing that I had begun in that now long-lost savegame, this time riding steadfast LV-Ns to streak the murky gloom with roaring heatshield's fire. -Duxwing

*steps down off the crag, the smell of flamer fuel and burnt bug hanging over his power armor* *spits on the dusty ground* Whassit called? Call-I-Mary? Call-i-mahr-ee? I dunno, *pumps shotgun and flashes a grin* but it's real tasty. Welcome! -Duxwing

The micrometeorite may be just a grain of dust, but if it punches through all the Kevlar of your space-suit, then it likely has enough kinetic energy hit your flesh. -Duxwing

Perhaps Kerbals aren't just resistant to radiation but feed off it. Such an ability would explain the absence of farmland on Kerbin. -Duxwing

Until they put their hand over the hole after having noticed the sharp pressure drop and sudden WHAM! of a micrometeorite. -Duxwing

Carve out an uninterrupted hour of writing time: you'll be more productive then than during two hours that are spread out over your day like rocket parts over the pad. Thanks for taking my criticism well. The shroud need only be a 3m nosecone on an inverted 1m stack decoupler atop the LV-N, but why are you modelling realistic drag without cost and mass efficiency? Now that we're talking about realism, two recommended mods: --Ferram Aerospace Research. It vastly improves the aerodynamic physics. Lowering drag by adding nosecones and using sequential instead of parallel staging will vastly increase your atmospheric dV and therefore your payload fraction, but gravity turning too aggressively will spin your rocket out of control, and going too fast in atmosphere will shake it apart. --Deadly Reentry. Going too fast will now burn your rocket up. When combined with Ferram Aerospace Research, it restricts your survivable re-entry trajectory and energy in a very authentic way: come in too shallow, and you burn up, come in too steep, and you break up. Having used many, many parts packs, I can add that the stock KSP parts lack no core functionality. However, you may desire certain gameplay elements that they do not provide: --Kethane. It vastly extends your reach, but I wonder whether hauling all of that scouting, drilling, and refining equipment is worth the cost considering that it could have been replaced with an extra Jumbo Tank or two. --Inflatable Habitats. A gimmick, but a very useful gimmick. --Kerbal Attachment System. You can use it to attach Kerbals to things and things to each other. --Infernal Robotics. Your robotic arm fantasy is now a reality. Combine with KAS for great results. --B9 Pack. Cargo bays are surprisingly useful. Combine with KAS and Infernal Robotics for pure awesome. --Procedural Fairings. Nearly a necessity for those who use FAR and want to lift huge things into orbit. --MechJeb. We'll all look the other way when you send that fifth tanker into orbit. --Large Ion Engines. Unbeatable ISP for extremely long missions. They also look awesome. --Novapunch and any other pack that provides a 2.5m NERVA: 300kN at 900s is worth the extra tonnage. I tried your method and still couldn't find my ships. -Duxwing

I'm reading this! A few words of advice: The Story --Fewer colloquialisms (what on earth is "wool gathering"?) during narration. --Combine such sentences as, "He flipped a switch. This caused all power to be diverted to the main array" --Use more descriptive language to give your dialogue some background: a few, well-written lines can make your world come alive with light, sound, touch, taste, and smell. --Work on your mechanics: ----'This' is an adjective, not a pronoun. ----"Assent" is an expression of approval or agreement; 'Ascent' describes the rise of a rocket from the pad to orbit. ----Capitalize where you should and don't where you shouldn't: e.g., "...but He was the first Kerbal on the Mun" should be "...but he was the first Kerbal on the Mun" because Bill is not God. ----Be concise and clear. Doing so is understandably difficult; I've some examples below. "His course would bring him very close to the launch facilities so it would be an easy recovery." should be "His course would bring him very close to the launch facilities and thereby ease recovery". The reasons for the edits are important: --"it" is a pronoun and should therefore not start a sentence unless its antecedent is clear. For example, "It is said that X is Y" should be rewritten as "X is said to be Y". --"so it would be an easy recovery" is unclear. Is the narrator concluding that recovery would be easy, or was the course selected to ease recovery? --"so it would be an easy recover" is a subordinate clause and therefore should be grammatically connected to the rest of the sentence--not just tacked on. "So the inteview progressed nicely with Kentin asking about the KSP program and Beagle flight in general. Bill and Jeb did their best to answer. Jeb's image was a bit grainly at times and had just a touch of static but he was understood well enough." should be "Bill and Jeb did their best to answer Kentin's questions about Beagle flight and the Kerbal Space Program. Jeb's transmission was grainy and static-filled at times, yet intelligible." Again, the reasons are important: --Show, don't tell. Your audience should conclude that the interview went smoothly from the details that you provide them. --Where you can remove a verb, do so: I moved "Bill and Jeb did their best to answer" to the front of the sentence to eliminate "asked". I also modified the description of Jeb's transmission. Gameplay Your Munar landers are huge, inefficient beasts, and I just so happened to have spent weeks working on an all-stock, very light, and very cheap two-stage-to-orbit Munar Lander (with included lifter) that can go from the pad to LKO, LMO, the Munar surface, and back to LKO without refueling and still have a few hundred liters of liquid fuel to spare. I call it "Mun Rocket 7," but you can call it the "Duxwing Lander" (as if I weren't arrogant enough, coming in here, correcting your grammar and calling your ships inefficient ) if you'd like and can show me how to find the .craft files in my KSP folder. I have yet to try landing it on Minmus: I intend it for use as a reusable lander and orbiter of bodies in Kerbin's SOI, but a mothership can haul it to small moons for use there: its very low TWR means it cannot lift off from planets as massive as Kerbin. A full tank, however, gives it 4,559.68m/s dV in a vacuum. Pictures Jeb says, "MOAR BOOSTERS!". I say "MOAR PICTURES!". Specifically those from inside the cockpit that show an approaching body or illustrate a story point: they allow readers to bond with the characters and feel immersed in their world. Think of them as illustrations in a story book and hearken your memory to your childhood: who was the awesomest author? That's right, the one with awesomest pictures. Don't just say, "Jack decapitated the heretic," bring me the head of the holy man. -Duxwing

You may want to look into MechJeb, which can take a rocket up to an arbitrary orbit or down to an arbitrary landing site provided sufficient delta-V. -Duxwing

I have an even better idea: instead of action groups 1-20, allow n action groups by adding a scrollable, drop-down menu of action groups that can be accessed on any screen. They would by default be titled "1," "2," "3," but the player could change them and even add mouse-over tooltips. Left clicking an action group activates it, right clicking it provides a drop-down menu of such options as "delete" or "rename," and clicking the title bar of the action group (located on its side and given a unique but changeable color) allows the player to drag it. We could even have "Enter" open a little search bar wherein the title of an action group could immediately be typed (backspacing when the search bar would close it) and hitting "Enter" again would activate the action group provided that what was entered matched a name therein. Hitting enter without a matching title would play a sound cue and flash a light on the search bar to inform the player that their typo was at fault. -Duxwing

What esinohio said, and engineering the computers to handle the load--perhaps by setting up some sort of distributed computing system or cajoling the adminstration into granting you time on the mainframe (your 'launch window')--could be part of the challenge. -Duxwing

First, YOU ARE AWESOME. I wish that I had a teacher like you when I was their age. I have at length thought about such scenarios as the one that you've described in my daydreams. Below are a few suggestions: 1.) Don't mess with a good thing. If the kids are doing well on their own, then don't 'taint' their little world with your adultness. I don't mean to sound mean, but this game is theirs. 2.) Don't let the fire die. If you see that a group dynamic is limiting the kids, then step in and fix it as quickly and cleanly as you can; if they need resources, then provide them, e.g., have orbital mechanics textbooks; and keep adding fuel, e.g., leave a book full of old rocket designs idly lying on a table--or better yet, a single sheet of paper with a fundamental concept or two. 3.) Think ahead. Your goal is to get these kids to have fun with rocket science in the most natural way that you can. If doing so means sparingly helping them over an otherwise insurmountable hurdle, then do so. 4.) Match their level of sincerity and enthusiasm--which can become surprisingly intense and specific to certain aspects of the game: give the pilots adventure, the organizers power, and the engineers problems that seem just out of reach. Some kids will even find meaning in their work--stoke that, too. 5.) Stoke their interest. Put a grand, ultimate challenge before the class--a mothership capable of orbiting and deploying a manned lander upon every single body in the Kerbol system--and leave them to their own devices unless such a case as described in suggestion 2 comes up. -Duxwing

Yes, I did. They're easier to make once you get used to the rhythm. -Duxwing

A blast of flame Within the inky darkness Jeb K. lights his fart Too many die young: Sobs shaking in last terror Cries cut short, they crash Battery now empty Fuel tanks long cold and dry The slow, thick air cools I roar through the air, A column of fire beneath, To know the cosmos. --- I personally prefer blank verse. -Duxwing

Oh, it's OK. *hug* A mission to Moho is no mean feat, and you've done a great deal just by trying. Try sending an ion orbiter probe over there. -Duxwing

They're not drunk; they're just Kerbals. -Duxwing

Wow, thanks! I've written a few songs, at least two dozen short stories, a score of poems, a screenplay, and parts of two theater plays, have concepts for many more, and I copy edit almost every Wikipedia article that I read. Below is an old favorite of mine, "The Leopard and The Tree". I wrote it with a philosophical point in mind. The contented snores of man, beast, fish, and fowl fill the jungle as the night draws on CRASH! The death knell of a mighty tree resounds throughout the foliage, yet nothing stirs. The dust settles as the sun rises through the canopy, awakening an obese old leopard. Grumbling and groaning, it heaves its titanic bulk out of its den to prepare for the hunt; it rolls along, not only aware of even the slightest twitch in the underbrush, but of the significant traction that it gains by exhaling. The leopard, yellow and smelly as a fine cheese, sees a rat scurrying across the jungle, and, huffing and puffing, it gives pursuit the rat, both terrified and disturbed, makes silent double time as it zips under the tree that had fallen that very morning. With the mouse speeding through the ever narrowing gap between the rotting timber and the forest floor, the leopard almost has a stroke as it barely squeezes its podgy hindquarters under the log. Yet ere obtaining its quarry it halts! For by peering through the entrance to the mouse’s burrow, it glimpses the mouse clutching its family, weeping horribly, and bemoaning its untimely death. Unable to swallow its morals and its dinner, too, the leopard departs and vows to become a vegetarian. Forever more, it sullenly eats berries, nuts, and shoots, and as it waxes nostalgic for doubly-deep fried cream of condor it cries into the vast and endless jungle with a thin and lonely voice that falls unheard as it strikes the brush: “What am I? A leopard? Yes! I have long, piercing claws, razor sharp teeth, and a coat that strikes fear into the heart of every animal in the jungle and I’ve finally shed those pounds. Yet leopards eat meat, and I’ve sworn it off; thus, if I am not entirely a leopard, what am I? A muskrat? No. A snake? Hardly. If I am not exactly any animal in the jungle, then perhaps I am a vegetarian leopard. Yet how can I be such an oxymoron? Vegetarian leopard? Ridiculous! It’s like saying tasty tofu or scrumptious salad no, I cannot define myself so. Besides, if I can say that I am a vegetarian leopard then I can also say that I am a housecat with huge teeth, claws, spots, and pressing need for anger management!†Wow? You're actually acting these missions out? OK! Cool! You'll never run short of material that way, but you may not get the story that you wanted. Your question about In Story explanations--write one that best fits the themes of your story--raises a more important subject: universe building. A consistent, rich universe can deeply immerse your readers, and one with logical conclusions that are either never stated or only alluded to can resemble a cropped painting in that it seems real and expansive; such a universe provides a vast, rich playground for readers' imaginations. I also suggest having a few 'big' ideas necessitate everything else in your story to render its details meaningful, e.g., Big idea: Bob wants to rob a jewelry store. Little ideas: Bob gets a gun to frighten the teller and customers, a mask to hide his identity, and some bags to hold the jewels. Details: His gun has a frightening looking bayonet, his mask covers his face completely, and his bags are made of Kevlar so that the jewels don't poke through. As an author, you must decide which of Bob's reasons to include: you can imply to great artistic effect. -Duxwing

The Mun landing is a hoax! Those pictures were taken on a sound stage: look at the way the dust gleams off Jebediah's helmet! WAKE UP, SHEEP! So good that conspiracy theories about it can be written with ease. Bravo! -Duxwing

I like your idea, but your writing needs work: --New characters outside of a mystery or parable context require an introduction before entering: e.g., describe the Director's appearance or past before having him burst into the room. --Characters should greet the Director with as "sir" not "SIR!" because the Kerbal Space Program is not a military program. --Avoid repeating such words or phrases as "too" in the first few sentences of your story. --Dramatic pauses provide drama to listeners but headaches to readers: avoid them. --If you must add drama to your writing, then use dashes "--" or colons ":" to break up your words and add emphasis, respectively. Your current first dozen or so lines are as follows: Gene Kerman: And the astronaut complex will go right over there, behind the VAB. Should greatly streamline the Kerbonaut selection process... Gene is working on the plans for the new KSC design. It's a welcome change, too--he has always thought the KSC looked a bit ugly, the VAB in particular. He's been busy all week, too, tracking the meteors headed for the Mun and planning the Artemis 2 Apollo-style Mun landing planned for the 20th. Ah, the Artemis 2--a demonstration of docking, of the future. Granted, the Artemis 1 tipped over on landing, but Gene knows that an Apollo-style mission can be done... He loses this train of thought when the Director walks into the room. Gene: Director, SIR! Director: Good evening, Gene. I understand that your busy, but that little secret project you've been laying out for next year... Gene: The interplanetary base? What about it? Director: It's ready for announcement. President John F. Kerman wants to meet with us in the Capitol for the press release. Gene: OK, I'll go get my suit... Director: Oh, and Gene? Gene: Yeah? Director: That possible target you and Jeb mentioned... it's been confirmed. Despite the bad idea that it is... Gene: YES! I'll call Armstrong Base! They should look like: Flourescent lights hum above Gene Kerman's head as he excitedly scribbles on a legal pad, alone in the Mission Control Room; he whispers to himself, "And the astronaut complex goes right over there...streamline the Kerbonaut selection process". His pencil snaps, and he sighs, "If I only had a machine that would let me write with an electronic pencil," rising up and trundling off, he continues, "three hundred megawatts...lots of boosters...Jebediah--Great Scott!". He pauses wide-eyed and tremebles as the terrifying flight recordings flash through his mind: the orange-suited Kerbanaut had stapled an office chair to an RT-10, strapped himself in with duct tape, and tossed a match under the nozzle with KSC security hot on his tail. The bright flame, brilliant sparks, and choking dust drew a line from the launch pad to--Gene winces, takes a deep breath, and reminds himself that coffee does not jump out of mugs and onto Kerbal chests. Exhaling and regaining his composure, he resumes walking to the pencil sharpener, "KSC looked always did look a bit ugly, the VAB in particular... Oh! I need to update those meteorcharts from last Monday". He'd been tracking the meteors headed for the Mun and planning the Artemis 2 Apollo-style Mun landing planned for the 20th, "Ah, the Artemis 2: a demonstration of docking--of the future!". He smiles up into an imaginary sky but then bows his head, "The Artemis 1 tipped over on landing, but an Apollo-style mission can be done. Now what was I doing again?" The Director brings his pudgy bulk into the room. Gene turns to look at the open double door and blinks, "Director! What brings you here?" "Good evening, Gene. I understand that your busy, but that little secret project you've been laying out for next year--" "--The interplanetary base? What about it?" "It's ready for announcement." Gene smiles, and the Director continues down the grey carpet that runs between the rows of seats, "President John F. Kerman wants to meet with us in the Capitol for the press release." Gene nods, "OK, I'll go get my suit." "Oh, and Gene?" The director grabs the scrawny scientist by the shoulder and whispers into his ear, a hint of anxiety breaking through his staid decorum. "Yeah?" "That possible target you and Jeb mentioned... it's been confirmed--" "YES! I'll call Armstrong Base!--" Gene leaps into the recycled air. "--Despite the bad idea that it is..." But Gene is already ten paces away and shouting in glee, far beyond the reach of rhyme or reason. --- Find a good editor. -Duxwing

Jescze Polska nie zginela! -Duxwing