DerekL1963

We have, literally, billions of turbine hours worth of experience. (And a least a couple of crashes killing all aboard.) And yet we still have events like this, and problems like this one. SpaceX doesn't have but a miniscule fraction of a percent of that. Confidence based on a small sample size and relative lack of experience is... often misplaced.

Resonant orbit.

Spent entirely too much time futzing about with finalizing my exploration airship, including spending way more time than I should have getting the arrangement of lights *just* right. (Nice even light for working around the gondola, spots fore and aft to judge the ground when landing at night. Not that I intend to land at night... in fact I plan on avoiding it.) Spent even more time diving down a research rabbit hole studying and thinking about a possible story I could tell with the airship. Minimal KSP tomorrow, because I need to get caught up on the writing I should have been doing today for my anime blog.

Look for the sign that says "This way to the Egress".

You could try the Universal Storage mod.

The latest addition to my exploration airship... droppable navigation beacons, using an inverted hangar deck. The general idea is that I can drop them and use them as target for later navigation if I don't want to land and plant a flag.

Continued working on my exploration airship.... My new 'invention': droppable navigation beacons. I.E. marking points of interest along the way without having to stop and land to plant a flag. There's a probe core and a battery inside each one.

If any other MechJebbers are into airships... Smart A.S.S. does a bang-up job of controlling them and the Surface Info window gives a lot of handy information. @sarbian if @r4m0n doesn't see this, could you ask him to update the old Mechjeb thread to point to this one? It currently points to the one that was lost in the forum hiccup right after the New Year.

Thanks! Some further fiddling around lead me to some other (I hope) useful ideas: - A non-propulsive Ec powered method of replenishing Compressed Air. Since the Gyro Rings are the primary storage for Compressed Air, maybe just integrate the function there rather than adding parts? - Given the vast volumes of Compressed Air that can be consumed while maneuvering, it would be nice if the Storage Gondola could be configured to store Compressed Air.

That fixed it! Thanks! (Been playing since 0.19, still learning stuff.)

I know, but I can't seem to get them to attach - the tail fins want to surface mount rather than sinking in. I need to poke around and see if that's because of Editor Extensions.

Fiddled about with airships, basically because I've never fiddled about with airships before. (And because I can't fly aircraft worth a D, and crashing is basically the only way I know to land.) Anyhow, the AS-2s... solar powered prototype exploration airship. Worldwide range, at least until the food and water runs out, at a stable 28m/s (100kph).

The AS-2s, prototype exploration airship.

About a meter here <points>, about two meters half a klick thataway <points>, not sure about south of here... Seriously, Mars is a freakin' planet. Conditions are going to vary wildly from place to place, just as it does on Earth.

Roleplay mostly.

Not really, no. It's track record isn't noticeably different from any other mature booster. In fact, counting both Challenger and Columbia as launch accidents - the STS has a slightly better record (.98) than Soyuz (.97)! Besides which, I was talking about the Soyuz capsule, not the booster.

Except Tesla is completely different from any Mars rover. Except Solar City doesn't research or manufacture solar cells. Except Hyperloop-on-Mars represents an accomplishment so far past any long term that "speculative" is far too conservative a word. Except any radiation protected living space on Mars is almost certainly going to be shallow and constructed cut-and-cover, and even that is a medium to far term accomplishment. Boring tunnels on Mars is out there with Hyperloop on Mars. Sounds more and more like Musk is starting to throw insane stuff out there because nobody is willing to tell him "um, wait...". A victim of his own ego.

OK, I'm confused... If I look at the data in the VAB, with a MOLE lab with a single crew I should be generating 6 LabTime/day, so 4 experiments (running in parallel) that take 36 LabTime each should complete in 6 (days per experiment) x4 (experiments) = 24 days. Instead, each experiment only has 18 LabTime at the end of 24 days (and I've barely scratched my stock of Research Kits - there are nearly 300 available).

Yes.

Unless I really need every meter/second of d/V, I simply drop the almost-empty stage in cases like this. Another trick (if you have enough) is to use that d/V at Pe to enter an elliptical orbit, and then circularize on the next.

I've been meaning to ask you... what mod is that engine section from?

I can confirm it does. I use your method all the time to move ships between my current game and the sandbox (because I can't simulate a full Duna mission in a campaign save for example) and back again without exiting KSP.

Found the part, though it's not a closed plate I can close it with a stock plate, thanks!

Playing around with various mods and building probes with M.O.L.E. tonight, I found something that might be useful for other users of the M.O.L.E. system - the Universal Storage mod has a core that's *just* shy of being a perfect fit for M.O.L.E.'s 1.875 meter parts. (But more than close enough unless you're very picky. Which I'm not.) Also Angel-125, found something missing that I occasionally find useful, some kind of 1.875 meter endplate/adapter for M.O.L.E. like the stock FL-A5.

What's the formula for calculating labtime/scientist/day?