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I'll put in a second vote for the Ender's Game series, the final books were certainly not as strong and much harder to read but they had a very important and valuable theme. The Ender's Shadow spinoffs that I've read so far were awesome, Bean is such a great character. I feel like Card really researches the hell out of his books too, they're believable. I'll also add my voice to the tumult for Star Trek, Firefly, and Battlestar Galactica. I thought BSG got weaker towards the end but that happens to lots of shows so I wasn't surprised. If we can talk about video games in here as well, I'd suggest anyone play through the Mass Effect series. I spent more hours of my life with Shepard and friends than I care to admit, but the narrative and themes in those games transcended the medium. It's funny when a game can make you relate to real world issues; celebrating diversity, racism, political maneuvering, etc. The ending disappointed me, but I refuse to let that sour the overall experience. And now I've gone off-topic, drat.

This is amazing.

I know for a fact he had a "stabilization chute", I don't consider that to be a free fall. Felix was freefalling until he deployed the main chute, hence the gnarly spin. Either way it was an amazing accomplishment.

Doesn't he technically still get the record for longest freefall? If I remember correctly, Kittinger used a drogue chute to slow his descent...

There is zero evidence of a fake, and tons of evidence that the landings actually happened. Anyone who doesn't think we landed on the Moon is quite simply shutting their eyes to facts.

Wow that was pretty amazing, don't exactly think it was the "Apollo of our generation", but kudos Felix.

I voted for Jeb. Don't you guys know what Bob did when he was CEO of Kerbin Capital? Hundreds of good Kerbals were laid off. And why won't he release his tax returns?

And that is what I was trying to say, in far fewer words. I don't mind other people's opinions, but when they say, "I am right and you can't feel accomplished because!", I get a bit defensive. It's a game, and a sandbox game at that.

So there's only one way to feel accomplished now? Huh, odd. I bet Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt both feel accomplished, even though they do different things. If you'd read and responded to my entire argument, the main thrust of it was we all have things we enjoy doing. I know people who only ever play single player in first person shooters, on easy, and feel accomplished. Just because you get a thrill flying a pixel spacecraft by hand does not mean I do, or should have to.

I'm sorry, but that's your opinion. Some people, myself included, get far more of a sense of accomplishment from planning and executing elaborate missions and designing spacecraft. I'm glad you think you're right, but it's the way you think, not anyone else. I'm proud to say, "I designed that, I thought up a mission plan, I executed the mission, and returned my Kerbals safely from the void of space." I don't consider KSP to be a flight simulator, and it's too laggy for me anyway. MJ removes that stressor from the equation, so I can focus on putting little green men on colorful spheres.

First I lay out a mission plan, i.e. visit a specific spot on Mun or Minmus, etc. It can really be whatever and is only limited by imagination. I then design a payload that can complete said mission, whether it's a lander or satellite or "other". The payload has to look cool but must also complete mission criteria. Then I build the propulsion for the payload (NERVAs ) Then I build the lifter rocket, and I really couldn't care less what it looks like. It all falls off anyways. This is coming from a guy who absolutely loathes launches.

This looks amazing and I'm planning on trying it as soon as I get home from class. I need something to keep my mind off all my failed interplanetary missions anyways EDIT: Watched the launch slideshow... I mean, launched it. I haven't docked to it yet but it looks bada$$ sitting in orbit. I used the full version btw.

This patch was pretty disappointing to me. I am an unashamed MechJeb user because "winging it" isn't fun for me. With a way to calculate and execute transfer burns and other tedium I can focus on spaceship design and mission profiles, which is where the fun lies for me at least. Imagine my surprise when reading through help topics on launch of .17: "Just hold a protractor up to your screen." That's not exactly the most fun way to play a game, IMHO. After about twenty failed interplanetary missions I just said screw it and decided to take a break from KSP.

Good job Evenger, knew you could do it.

Were the engines engaged? I know it sounds stupid, but if you jettison the "kicker" stage with the maneuvering thruster, the descent stage engine does NOT turn on automatically. That may have been what happened, because it would cause the descent stage to turn retrograde but not thrust, like you described. I can't see the staging bar on your screenshot, but I think that may have been the issue. If that wasn't it, try to get into a stable Mun orbit of about 10km then hit the "LAND" button. It has always worked for me. Glad you're getting use out of my design, I'm still waiting for your Mun landing pictures!

The amount of ingenuity I see on this forum on a daily basis always surprises me. Very, very cool. As far as IVA goes, it's never been a feature I really thought much about, but I'd have to agree that crashes in IVA might make people work a bit harder to keep their rockets safe.

Pictures usually accompany a statement like that... hint hint.

Yeah, she's a big beastie. Served me well through the first stages of my KSP career though. Glad to hear you're not getting discouraged! One last thing, if you use my ship, I mounted the small SRBs on two decouplers to give them clearance when they fell. Mechjeb doesn't know how to handle that apparently, so you'll have to press spacebar after the first set of large SRBs and the small SRBs drop off. This will blow off the second decouplers and mechjeb will continue to stage normally after that. Now I feel kinda bad uploading a rocket with so many quirks, I wasn't a very subtle designer when I started

That's... odd. Mine downloads the .craft just fine. Did you try to open the file? Just move the original to your KSP/ships/VAB folder. If it still saves as a .txt just save it as a craft file manually by renaming it to "shipname.craft". Should work fine. Good luck!

I also can't see the patcher. Some official clarification would be nice.

I'll upload my first lander design if you want, but it has a pretty serious flaw. About 2/3rds of the way through the first set of boosters, it will heel over almost horizontal and oscillate badly until they're released. I believe it has to do with the large gimballed engines overcorrecting for the thrust they're pushing. MechJeb will take it to orbit however, it's just a scary thing to see. If you still want to use it I'll upload it. EDIT- Fixed it. You can autofly this baby straight to the Mun now. http://www./?q37931gr87pgwme

I would also recommend Scott Manley's videos, they're excellent. He uses MechJeb but does not use the autopilot so you can watch and develop your skills at flying and landing. I also think your lander is a bit small and I'd recommend using the telescoping lander legs as they're quite a bit more durable. Don't worry about losing some ships getting it down pat, this is a very tough game (I had at least two dozen failed Mun attempts before I landed safely, and at least a dozen more before I landed AND returned safely). Just FYI, MechJeb's auto land will land you on the Mun and Minmus safely, it doesn't just work on Kerbin.

This is amazing. Time to practice my Duna transfer burns. Is there a way I can calculate delta V needed? I'm assuming it'd be (initial dV+(velocity at time of transfer-dV used during burn)) for the outbound leg, am I close?

Would you mind releasing a .craft file? It's cool if you don't want to, I just love the way that station looks. Very realistic.

The quicksave it loaded to was before either flight started. I like to think that Minmus is a sentient being that absorbed the Kerbals. High praise indeed I kinda want to intentionally crash another pod on Minmus just to try this scenario again, or strand one in orbit to try a rendezvous. Not sure yet.