[The ARM megathread]

If you push your rocket engine exhaust gases in one direction, the complex you+asteroid is accelerated in the opposite direction. That's basic physics. And it does not depend on how are you arranged in space.

No one is arguing that. The problem is that when the ship turns, the direction of thrust changes. The solution you've proposed is not very efficient. You've got a stack of SAS modules nearly as tall as the fuel tank.

The answer should probably be engines with higher gimbal range. Seems like something that would be nice to have anyways, for building shuttles and stuff.

[NASA Asteroid Redirect Mission Pack/0.23.5 Images: now with 100% more SLS]

It was always the NASA mission pack. The ARM mission is NASA mission that involves the use of the SLS. Therefore, the SLS was always a promised part of the pack.

That's ridiculous. They never said they were gonna give an exact replica of the SLS. I'd love for you to pull that quote up. The purpose of the pack is to somewhat simulate the objective of capturing and redirecting an asteroid, they never said it was going to be a 100% simulation. I highly doubt the real plan involves a magic claw that just hooks onto any object.

I suspect the only reasons we're even getting these larger parts is a) we'll need the increased power to pull it off and that new update to Unity physics allows more stable joints of that size.

KSP is not about recreating real world vehicles. It offers up loads of generalized parts and lets you build what you want. You want specialized parts that fit together perfectly to a replica SLS, i'm sure there's a mod for it somewhere, but this update isn't about giving you that.

[NASA Asteroid Redirect Mission Pack/0.23.5 Images: now with 100% more SLS]

Man, forget all the haters, the new parts look great. Finally a stock LES, and the new part sizes look great. I think so many people are just so used to all their favorite mods they don't like that the new stock stuff isn't exactly like it.