Eric S

If you mean use your kerbalizer-created kerbals in KSP, yes there are plans, but no timeline has been given that I'm aware of.

Pretty much the only point of it I see is that it tells you how much of your thrust is spent fighting gravity assuming you have no orbital velocity yet, and that is not a strong point. I can't say that I've ever tried to use that stat for anything.

I've heard that there are problems with certain parts if they're between the docking port and the root capsule. The octogonal cubic strut is one of the parts, I'm not sure about the girder struts you're using there. Has something to do with a bug or inability to reverse it's stacking when the ship reorganizes itself when it docks.

Correct. The current aerodynamics model is a placeholder that is intended to be replaced at some point. A few months ago, "at some point" was looking like we'd see the first pass in 0.19, but the devs changed their development cycle to something a bit more agile (more updates, but smaller updates) and we didn't get any of it then. I'm still hoping to see it soon, as I didn't want to start experimenting with spaceplanes until we got the new model so that I didn't have to relearn everything when it all changed.

This has to do with the launch characteristics of your craft. and the ascent trajectory. If you're getting orbits like this, it probably means that mechjeb is getting too high of an apoapsis before it achieves the needed orbital velocity. You can tweak the ascent trajectory if needed, since the ascent trajectory doesn't automatically update according to your craft or your desired orbit. Starting/ending your gravity turn sooner might help, as will changing the turn shape (a lower number for turn shape results in a more aggressive gravity turn). There's already an option for that present in the maneuver planner, "change inclination." It's listed after the Apo/Periaspsis change options. EDIT: Oops, that second answer is for MJ 2.X, not 1.X. Then again, I'm pretty sure all development is happening in the 2.X branch.

Two things come to mind. The regular TWR number goes up as you burn fuel, since that does decrease your mass, but since you're talking about TWR (current), I think you're already aware of that. TWR (current) goes up because the force of gravity decreases as you get farther away from the mass that's causing the gravity. This is why higher orbits have lower orbital velocities, you wind up needing to counteract a lot less gravity. The W in TWR is weight, not mass, so your weight can change even if your mass does not.

Once you're in orbit, it becomes a matter of efficiency vs patience, as fewer engines will almost always be more efficient than more engines because you don't need to accelerate/decelerate the mass of the extra engines. The only exception is if you don't have enough thrust to perform a maneuver in the time allowed, and if you plan ahead well, that doesn't happen. I tend to use two atomic engines in all my designs so that I can radially mount them (inline, they're a pain in the butt). Sure, it means half hour burn times on some of my bigger ships, but I don't actually mind that.

Found a mistype in the config files. All the ones I've checked have "breakintTorque" instead of "breakingTorque".

double post, sorry.

How bad reentry heating in KSP will be will depend entirely on how the devs balance it. I did a Duna mission for the reddit weekly challenge #40, it was the first time I had used Deadly Reentry, and despite the fact that on Duna, I did a straight transfer-to-landing aerobrake maneuver, I never saw any reentry heat. Likewise, on the way back to Kerbin, I did a 36k aerobrake maneuver that took me from tranfer velocity to an 880K apoapsis in a single pass with no heating on the heat shield. After all, we're reentering MUCH slower than the apollo missions did, since Kerbin orbital speeds are a third or less than Earth orbital speeds. On the other hand, just to make sure that I had installed DR correctly, I reloaded a save just as I entered Kerbin's SoI and tried a 34K aerobrake, and went from "ooh look, finally a heat bar on the heat shield" to BOOM! in 10 seconds flat. I'm hoping that whatever formulas the devs use it isn't that touchy. Basically, there's a very narrow margin between a perfectly safe reentry with no excess heat and almost instant disaster. Realistic, yes, but not sure it's appropriate.

Same. When we thought we were getting mining in 0.19, I had already designed my scanning satellite, had a few launch vehicles so I could get it anywhere, etc. As for Minmus first... absolutely. Less gravity than the Mun means that the same amount of work yields more results in LKO. Then again, I should check out how well the new rover wheels work on Minmus first. For some reason, I've been slacking on playing around with the new rover wheels.

And here I was thinking that picture was of a new bobcat, before the optimization and balancing passes.

There's only one balloon mod that I know of of that type (there are a few that use balloons as impact cushions, but they aren't what you're looking for). Hooligan Labs Airship Parts.

Try the addon Kerbal Crew Manifest. Very handy for exactly what you're trying to do. Other ways to do it: EVA out 5 of the kerbals before launch. Build a ship with multiple capsules, only the first one gets loaded with kerbals unless you EVA more into it or use Kerbal Crew Manifest or something like it to populate the craft.

The "don't exceed terminal velocity" function turned into an option that defaults to off, as do all the other options that might limit the throttle. If you turn that option on, it is quite willing to let the SRBs provide most of the thrust. The other options are a max acceleration value and a don't-overheat option.

One thing to keep in mind on planetary transfers: Most of the planets don't have circular orbits, but rather elliptical ones. Some even have fairly high inclinations. Protractor doesn't take either of those factors into account.

Ah. I think I like the active better, but I can't remember what the passive looks like so I'm not sure why I think I like the active better.

Approximately equal, the actual ratio is 0.9 fuel to 1.1 oxidizer.

I put my command pods under a probe pod so that I can test doing unmanned launches. In fact, if I forget to use Kerbal Crew Manifest to load up the pods, I fly unmanned launches by accident. Nice because I'm testing the exact ship I'm flying, no chance that swapping out the command pods will mess up the staging, etc. Plus, if I just happen to mess up, which I never do, and run out of fuel while rendezvousing a manned ascent craft with an unmanned but fueled orbital module, I can take control of the unmanned orbital module and do the rendezvous that way.

Visually, I like the CBM stuff much more. Low profile and look like real life modern docking ports.

No life support at this time. You can EVA a kerbal, leave him out there for a few decades, and when you come back, he'll still be there, healthy as ever. It's more likely that you launched a single vehicle with multiple command pods. By default, only the primary command pod is populated when launching. You can adjust this with the Kerbal Crew Manifest addon.

To be honest, I'm not sure. It might not save you anything in the long run, since while it might save you braking delta-V, you'd then have to use delta-V to raise your periapsis. I was mostly thinking of the intercepts I'd get when I wasn't trying to be precise, and my capture periapsis would be well outside the orbit of any moons the planet had. THAT you want to avoid. On the other hand, if you brake at a really tight periapsis until you've got a high apoapsis, where you burn to raise your periapsis to where you want, then when back at periapsis you burn to put your apoapsis where you really want it, that could take delta-V than taking your apoapsis where you want then raising the periapsis. I think this would be the basis of a bi-elliptic transfer.

I like it, another high visibility cockpit. The things to warn you about: 1) find someone that knows how to do internal views. I don't, I've just heard that they're not trivial. 2) figure out how you're doing the crew hatch. Probably one of the glass sides would work best. You'll need a crew hatch, otherwise you can't EVA from the pod. 3) if you want the kerbal to show up when he's in the pod, talk to the guy that did the sfr command pod, that's the only one I know of where you can see the real internals through the windows in the cockpit.

Right, I got derailed. I'm good at that. For the normal method, you want to match orbits with Moho as close to parallel to Moho's orbit as possible to minimize radial velocity relative to the sun. You'll want to match Moho's inclination to minimize vertical distance and velocity, but this isn't as critical since changing your inclination in solar orbit, especially if your ascending/descending node is lower in your orbit, is very expensive. You should be fine-tuning your Moho intercept using small burns early on in the trip to achieve a minimal periapsis so that the oberth effect maximizes your breaking. Ideally, you'll center your breaking at your periapsis to maximize the oberth effect, but you may need to start the burn early. Don't burn too early though, as that will cost fuel, you'll want to have the burn as close to centered on the periapsis as you can but still achieve a capture.

Biggest game changer would have to be maneuver nodes. Eeloo is fun to get to, but not really a game changer. Yes, re-entry effects are only cosmetic at this time. Wait, docking came in 0.18? I thought it came in 0.17. Never mind, if it really came in 0.18, then THAT is the big game changer from what you're used to.