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zarakon

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Posts posted by zarakon

  1. I think it would be worth experimenting with thrusting in different directions.  I suspect that in Sharpy's experiment, he was thrusting forward and losing some efficiency from wobble at 4x physics warp, since EVA kerbals will waste some fuel trying to stay aligned with the camera while going forward.  Thrusting UP instead would probably give a cleaner result

  2. 35 minutes ago, Kobymaru said:

    Also, have you tried putting something between the heat shield and the probe core? The protected zone is a cone, so you might have luck if you move the wider parts further away from the shield. Of course, that might introduce other (flipping) problems.

    The actual mission probe that I lost was a HECS mounted directly behind the heat shield.  I also experimented with a Stayputnik which had a round battery and small reaction wheel in between.  It seemed to last a little longer but still died

     

    40 minutes ago, eloquentJane said:

    All you need to return science data is the science container, a heat shield, and a parachute - no probe core is required. Deploy the parachute before decoupling the return package, and it will deploy at a safe time because they're automatically set to deploy when safe. There's no need to return the probe core, which is rather convenient because you could send up a dual mission for science returning and a relay satellite and leave the relay probe in orbit whilst returning the science.

    Hm, cool idea.  Do you know if that would satisfy the contracts that ask you to return a vessel to Kerbin from a destination?

  3. 36 minutes ago, KerikBalm said:
    52 minutes ago, zarakon said:

    My biggest issue with planes in career mode is that the contract requirements are all out of whack compared to what your available airplane tech is actually capable of.

    Oh, I see you just unlocked the first aviation node!  Now you can go take some samples from above 18km halfway around the planet, right?

    Well, that's easy enough to solve with a rocket. Either make an ICBM to rach halfway around the world (preferable because of the long travel time), or use airbreathers to get close, then fire the rocket for a zoom climb. Panthers can get you to 18km anyway at least in a zoom climb, so you must be talking before panthers, and I wouldn't want to go halfway around the world using a juno or turbofans... so this contract screams suborbital rocket to me... Put a LF rocket on top of a SRB, and use the LFO rocket to fine tune your trajectory.

    Two problems with that:

    1. If the best way to complete contracts that are nominally designed for planes is to use rockets instead, that's.. basically what I'm complaining about.

    2. It's "easy" in theory, but kind of a pain to actually do and not at all practical, especially since taking measurements from 3 zones would then usually require 2 or 3 different trajectories.  If you could use an actual airplane and do it for just the cost of fuel, it's worth it, but if you have to use rockets anyway you're better off doing more lucrative satellite or rescue contracts instead.

  4. My biggest issue with planes in career mode is that the contract requirements are all out of whack compared to what your available airplane tech is actually capable of.

    Oh, I see you just unlocked the first aviation node!  Now you can go take some samples from above 18km halfway around the planet, right?

  5. On 4/21/2016 at 10:01 PM, Wyzard said:

    Add a "Close" button to the "Review Stored Data" window

    When I click "Review Stored Data" on a part that contains science results, I get a window that shows details for each stored result.  As far as I can tell, the only way to close that window is to click the "Keep", "Transmit", or "Discard" button on each individual result, which can take awhile if there are lots of them.  I have an orbiting science lab that holds 47 science results, and to keep the lab well-stocked with research data, I have to periodically click through them all again to pick out one or two more to research.  It'd be useful to have a button in the corner to close the window immediately, as if I'd clicked "Keep" on all the remaining results.

    Please, yes!

     

    Tweakable Reaction Wheel Torque

    When using small cheap probes in career mode, even the smallest reaction wheel provides way too much torque.  It would be great to be able to tune them down a bit.

     

     

  6. 7 minutes ago, Fallarnon said:

    It functions fine as one, note the ultralight. The issue here is simply that you don't like the answer, not that the answer is flawed.

    It's flawed because by the mention of "first landing gear" this thread is most likely about career or science mode, where the landing gear in question is in a tier 4 research node.  The chair is in a tier 7 node, which means it's irrelevant to the discussion of low-tech issues.

  7. 1 hour ago, telesien said:

    I tried the biplane, but it doesn't seem to accelerate at all even with the central tank completely empty. Suspension seems to be OK, so I don't know what the problem might be. Interesting is that I can't seen any elevons on it. Is that correct?

    My first thought for it not moving is the same as what bzimac said - you likely have something blocking the exhaust.  On mine I actually used the rotation gizmo to turn the tail connector up a notch, which puts all the tail fins above the center line of the plane.

    I don't use any of the elevon parts on it.  All three of the tail fins are the control surface type

     

    craft file:  https://www.dropbox.com/s/jia9b3nkrxcsp44/Biplane%201.craft?dl=0

  8. On 4/10/2015 at 11:47 AM, Renkov said:

    I agree that the runway shouldn't be worse that the grass lands around it. I can see the different tiers being different lengths and widths. Lights up at night. Or has other attributes. Especially since the roadways around the Space Center are flat, they seem to have that technology available.

    100% agree

    The level 1 runway could be just like the island runway, short and dirt-looking, but still flat.

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