The_Stargazer

Lagrange points are extremely easy to station keep.... Thats one of the things that make them special... They\'re the 'neutral' points between Kerbin and the Mun. Only adjustments you have to make are for tugs by the Kun.

What do you mean by 'always face the Mun'? If you\'re talking about the satellite always facing the Mun while orbiting Kerbin inside the Mun\'s orbit, that would need to be done by station keeping gyros or thrusters on the satellite. If you put it in orbit of the Mun, always facing the Mun is easily done by making the satellite 'long' so gravity keeps it pointing at the Mun (Gravity-gradient stabilization). Also the satellite would occasionally have its view of the Mun blocked by Kerbin as it orbits, unless you put it in one of the Kerbin-Mun Lagrange points (points where the gravity of Kerbin and the Mun cancel out and an object is stationary relative to the two bodies).

Probably for several reasons: 1 - Most rockets only have strap on solids. There are SOME rockets with strap on liquids (mostly on 'theoretical' rockets like the Falcon 9 Heavy), but for the most part the only ones that are strapped on in the manner of the radial decoupler are solid. 2 - Strap on liquids would take more complicated / heavy decouplers than their simpler, solid brethren. 3 - The game's in Alpha. Devs have lots of things to add, can't change everything at once. 4 - Most multiple liquid engine rockets are contained within a single shroud, with several very large fuel tanks cross feeding a number of engines, instead of having separate tanks for each engine.

Though there is a push to get more COTS (commercial off the shelf) computers flight certified. Heck, even Android phones are being flown (in a stripped down version) as the CPUs of some small satellites.

Oh, forgot to mention, there are parachutes above all three of the solid motors making the outer rocket stages recoverable, but the central core stages are disposed of.

All, So I was asked in another thread how I managed to get a 12 engine liquid fuel rocket using only standard parts. (I've yet to see an add-on package that I like, most seem too sci-fi esk for my tastes, and I enjoy playing within the limitations of the standard parts). The keys to making this rocket: - Solid rocket motors have different attachment characteristics than liquid fuel tanks - You don't need to fire every component in your rocket if you set the 'fire time' to a stage after the point where they separate. So I use three solid rocket segments that I never fire as 'structural components'. Starting with the main capsule, I have a decouple, two liquid tanks, liquid engine. Below this is a decouple, a tri coupler, three SAS modules, 6 liquid tanks and engines divided into three stacks. Now attached to the sides of the previous stage are 3 solid rockets using side mounting brackets. Below each solid rocket is a tri coupler and three stacks of a SAS module, three liquid tanks, and a liquid engine. In the center, under the middle stage, is the same. I then used three of the new structural beams in the latest patch to bind the 12 engine stage together. It CAN launch without this binding mechanism, and you get some interesting oscillations, but it is very difficult to fly. With the structural members it flies quite easily. For a total of: 12 Liquid Engines in the 1st stage 3 in the 2nd 1 in the 3rd (using traditional definitions, not the ones in this game) Using a similar mindset, and continuing to 'step up' with this mentality, you could build a 'pyramid rocket' like those envisioned by Heinlein and 1930s sci fi authors. At present this rocket already has more than enough delta V to escape the Earth. If I shoot for orbit I usually get there with at least half to a third of the middle stage, and a full upper stage. Anyway, was just posting as requested. Feel free to discuss or criticize at will ;-)

Here, took a quick photo using my laptop, but no mouse, so difficult to move it to a nice viewing angle. Will post better photos later. Basically there's a central 3 engine 'core' with three cores strapped on by structural solid boosters that are never used for lift, simply as structural elements. (by changing where they 'fire' in the stage order to a point after they already separate). Then there are 3 of the new structural bars used to bind the largest stage together. I actually managed to get this to fly before the latest patch and the addition of the structural bars, but only about 1 time out of 10. Could easily used this design idea to build massive 'pyramid' rockets like those envisioned by Robert Heinlein and 1930s sci-fi authors. But not much purpose for them in the game at this point since there's no destinations. This rocket as posted has more than enough power to escape Earth (as I accidentally found out the first three times I tried to get to orbit)

No... Though The computers were outdated because of 'design freezes'. When you're developing a rocket or space vehicle (or any engineering vehicle really) you have to basically put a freeze on implementing new technologies or the vehicle would never get done. For example, when the Shuttle was first developed in the 70s (didn't fly till the 80s, but was designed in the 70s), they made the choice of computers. Then the whole computer revolution began. But if in 1980 we decided 'hey look, we have revolutionary cool computers that we should use on the Shuttle', then they could spend another 5 years implementing that into the design and.... wait... the 1980 computers are already out of date in 1985... So then they decide to put in new computers in 1985, takes 5 years... and 1990 comes around... You get the idea. As soon as we decide to design a vehicle, the technology is out of date. While yes, they want stable computer systems, and the SIMPLER the computer the more stable it is, computer tech that flies in space is usually out of date due to design freezes.

Foam, sure I'll post a photo when I get a chance. Basically I used 3 solid boosters as structural elements only, they don't 'fire' until they've already been ejected.

The exact quote: 'NASA went to the moon with less computer power than we have in this phone. We throw birds at pigs.'

Amusingly one of my friends at KSC commented that an Android smartphone has more computing power right now than all of NASA's computers combined when we went to the Moon.

Bingo! You can make a pretty impressive 3 stage stack with 12 liquid fuel engines on the bottom, followed by 3 engines, followed by 1 engine. Each with 3 tanks stacked above it. (all using no ad-ons) While this is overkill at this point in the game (far more thrust than you need to orbit), pretty fun to put two almost full stages in orbit to play around with.

This is why real rocket scientists use computers to calculate optimal burn times, etc...