Montieth

For orbital launches from Earth or Mars they're probably using more conventional Methane/LOX derivatives. For RCS and non-Epstein drive ships (like the Knight Shuttle from the Canterbury) they have a small reactor and fusion torch drives, also tea-kettle which is heating reaction mass with the fusion drive. The key thing for atmo-flight with an Epstein drive is that it has radioactive products and is a LOT of energy that's hazardous to the folks on the drive side. So, while we see the main drives used in the series, they'd not be boosting away from say, Tycho station with the drive cone pointed AT Tycho. That'd cook the station. They'd RCS away and get to a vector where their drive would not cook the station and it's occupants.

Calculations of the Brachistochrone curves is what's needed. Someone might already have done the code for this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brachistochrone_curve

1000 meters? Is that for main or the drogue and then mains? 'Cuase I'm pretty sure that's WAY too low.

Besides MechJeb and Scansat, what are the other functions that dovetail with the new IVA systems you're developing? Also, what's the external mount camera of choice?

I suspect aerial refueling hoses that are used with probe and drogue systems are rather complex in their construction as well as being resilient for both flexibility and tensile strength. Let me ask a buddy who actually works with this stuff. I'm curious now about their actual construction and if they have any data or power functions in their makeup (valve status or control).

True, the synthetic stuff is nice. It's also super un-durable. I was set to buy some until I found some elevator cable ( finer threads, tighter bend radius) for free that was removed from an elevator in a building I work in (They have to dump it in the land fill because it can't be easily recycled, gums up the metal shredders, I was able to get a spool of it for free! Spare wire rope is nice to have). However, the synthetic winch rope is very un durable as I said. Chafing and heat are a problem. Steel wire rope you can run it over a structure like a frame and it'll be fine (mostly). I know one guy who got his deuce and a half stuck in a field and he could only run the winch under the truck past the axles. It sawed a nice mark in his axle housings. I'd not want to do that with synthetic rope. You'd ruin the rope quickly. Heating in space would probably be a problem for the Samson and other stuff. It starts to lose strength at around 250°F.

Well, you can, you just need to include some return path for power. The ground works as a current return path it's just not very efficient. Or you can send signals down cable that has a single copper core and a braided outer core. A but of dielectric inside to keep the separate. The cable is in fact a wave guide and not exactly a power signal and return path. As to a winch, a friend works on the electro/mechanical/hydraulic systems for these things. The hose is loaded on a drum that effectively works like a winch but with very specific controls for how far it is deployed and with specific tension monitoring sensors. I think there's some valve control wiring in the system as well. Far more complicated than the 10,000 lb Garwood winch on my Deuce and a Half. From a technical perspective, the winch cable is wire rope. See US army FM 5-125 https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/5-125/ More seriously, on the point of winches, something that occurs to me now that I'm thinking about 10,000 lb capacity PTO winches. They usually have a shear pin in the drive input so as to act as a torque limiter on what the winch will pull and to act as a 'fail safe' to help avoid blowing things up in the winch or in your PTO/Transmission. Have you thought of such a function on the winches to help avoid parts explody when Kerbals use the winches over their strength capacity of say the parent parts?

The thing to remember is that a steel cable is actually wrapped around another cable or sometimes a fiber strand there to hold oil. A hose is just a hollow cable designed to hold MORE oil than with a fiber wick. http://www.gsproducts.co.uk/media/wysiwyg/wire-rope-fiber-core-2_2_copy.jpg And you can transfer power over a cable....that's a resource ain't it?

So, I'm back playing KSP after focusing on other games and hobbies for a while. This is nice to see bigger and better than ever and very very pretty. Skimming the thread looking at some of the feature requests, it struck me that some players might appreciate a half core/half fairing not unlike a bomb bay or equipment bay on aircraft for the Mk1 and Mk2 fuselage sections. A conventional bay with outward opening doors for the Mk1 with a rotary bay not unlike that on the Buccaneer would probably be nice for the Mk2. Edit: Space for 1-3 of the wedges with perhaps the wedge mount for each section extending out to put the payload in the air stream.

I'm back into KSP after a year's hiatus. One of the things I really prefer are the better IVA's for missions. I really prefer to run most if not all from the IVA. I really like that the new MAS system will show the Action Groups on the toggle switches. For example, in the VAB under the description area...I type in... AG1 = RW (Reaction Wheels) I can toggle those off in the VAB and then not have the Command pod RW's wobbling the rocket. ANd it's easy enough when I get close to orbit to engage those and not wonder what I set that control to. Nice little detail.

Hmm. I thought you were doing that initially. I can understand why you're not. In order to make things reasonably passable, why not make a larger bulge around the pivot point? It won't look sleek but won't have the same question of how it all really works for spacing. I've worked with electrical bits like that joint, they tend to be rather cramped with that sort of single pivot point joint.

I think from a mechanical perspective, a sliding elbow might be more workable. The joints rotate against each other which, when the two wedges are slipped in opposite directions makes the tube straight instead of an elbow.

I am seeing the same issue that Cruzo is seeing with regards to the Casa and Ponderosa. If configured as a hab module in the KSC, it's inflatable and and operations can be managed with the tool tips. If it's defaulting as a GEO lab, then clicking "manage operations" gets you another "Start Converter" Button with no operations manage possible. Perhaps it's something with the GeoLab Tool context tool tip and NOT with the Casa or Ponderosa itself...

That look nice. I like how you've incorporated one of the methods of stacking the ship in such a way that things work for the crew's apparent downward gravity while they're under thrust.

Instead of the pong screens, how about the usual RPM MFDs'output with the controls for the large forward wall mounted screens in the panel in front of the kerbal? That way you can throw a forward camera image up as well as orbital data.