jwenting

hmm, or build a rover and gently nudge it so it starts rolling slowly. Helps if it's sitting on a gentle slope as well, just rocking it could give just enough clearance to get out.

I always smile when kids say it's "simple to just XXXX" for devs of a big software system. Having been in the industry, the things suggested are never "simple" to implement, always require major effort. As said, they can't just add mods and hope they will continue working. Not only would it need extensive testing, and repeated extensive testing with everything that changes elsewhere in the code, there'd also be potentially massive legal problems if after months or years someone steps forward and claims that the stuff that was added was actually stolen from them, or uses open source code that doesn't allow commercial use. Even if the case can be won eventually when it goes to court, the company would be destroyed from the bad press and the massive legal cost.

this will get the top orange tank (full), with the crew capsule and nuclear engines into a 100km orbit with fuel to spare on the 3rd stage (the second orange tank down). Skipper on the 3rd stage, 1 Mainsail on the 2nd, 6 Mainsails on the 1st stage. 2 NERVAs on the 4th stage. Plenty for a return trip to Duna, and possibly Eve or even further (I've only tried it to Duna so far). It's a further development, heavier version, of this, which can get one Kerbal to Duna orbit and back BARELY.

only Macaddicts would pay more for a 13" screen than the rest of the world pays for a 17" screen with otherwise similar or better specs...

if it does, it'll be abused instantly by the shoot'm up kids to lay in wait overhead KSP with rockets and other weapons. taking potshots at anyone daring to launch. Instantly destroys multiplayer of course, but those kids don't mind, they're having fun griefing others.

hmm, 2 docking trainers in LKO chasing each other trying to get close enough for another attempt at not crashing into one another or overshooting massively (all my dozens of docking attempts have ended as either one or the other so far). One small base sitting in LKO waiting to be sent to Minmus to replace the one that was there that Jeb accidentally tipped over when he tried to jump on top of it to get a better view. Another small base sitting on the Mun with a single Kerbal in it, waiting for a relief crew and something to do that's more interesting than playing Tetris. Also on Minmus a small exploratory Kethane mining operation (which that base is to be the crew quarters for) consisting of so far a mining rig, a rover, and a crew escape vehicle (which now temporarilly doubles as crew quarters). And some probes around Kerbin, Min, Minmus, Eve, and Duna. Planning a manned landing on Duna, and later one on Eve.

we won't, as the US doesn't even have the capability to send a man into space, let alone anything massive enough to get to the moon and won't have that for at least a decade, more likely 20 years, if ever, and they know it. So the US is defeated before they even start.

1) yes, espionage is a big reason. China has stolen so much in military and other tech from the US lately they can't expect to be trusted anywhere near anything at all. 2) flag waving is a big part of the Chinese space program, and is a main reason the US and USSR had a space program at all (military access to space was second, private access to space a very distant third in the US and never a factor in the USSR). 3) see 1) And yes, I agree China will be the next to the moon, and will almost certainly beat the US and USSR/Russia to Mars as well. The US have given up on space, especially manned space, apart from keeping GPS and telcomsat constellations alive, Russia simply has no money for adventures. I leave out Europe, who're both morally and economically bankrupt. Arianespace survives for now on government programs to launch Galileo sats that nobody wants except the EU government who want to show how they don't have to rely on the USA, the new arch enemy.

And put pressure on the solar array and station skin, pushing it down ever so slowly (yes, light and solar wind do impart momentum, the principle behind solar sails, now THAT would be an interesting thing to investigate, does KSP model light pressure...).

Who knows, for now we can safely assume that Kerbals are masters at materials science, and have been able to create materials for the skins of their vehicles that can withstand these speeds and stresses with no ill effect whatsoever that can't be corrected during routine maintenance. Just because us humans, better pilots though we might be (why else are we hired to replace Kerbals as guidance units), can't create such materials doesn't mean they can't be created by Kerbals. It'd probably need a pretty efficient heat sink of course, THAT might be tricky.

yes, wonder why it keeps trying to tell you to attach tanks rotated at weird angles while refusing to attach them properly at times.

RL the cells will produce, but they won't get more power out then you pour in. Same would happen in KSP were you to get electrical power from lamps. You'd get far below max efficiency from them.

For a planned kethane operation on Minmus, the JSEA decided to first test the rover designs on the Mun (as it's closer). First to be sent up was a scout/collection rover, fitted with 2 kethane tanks and a detector. This design has an added advantage in that the landing stage can serve as a crew return vehicle (though after this flight it was redesigned slightly to give it more fuel). It was also found to be somewhat unstable on slopes in low gravity, which didn't bode well for operations on Minmus. http://www.hornet.demon.nl/KSP/Rover%20Una.craft Second test was a far more capable vehicle, and a far heavier one. Featuring a massive kethane tank, a detector, and a mining drill, this was the mother of all rovers. Yes, I love ascent shots Good thing our engineers are precision engineers. No landing struts needed, and no damage to those engines. On its last fuel the landing stage was shot off, to crash back into the Mun some distance away. Initial idea was to turn it into a tug, but the launcher was too small, and most of the fuel in the landing stage was needed to the Munar insertion burn. Ain't she purty sitting there, waiting for the sun to rise to begin exploration and testing the kethane mining equipment? http://www.hornet.demon.nl/KSP/Ketharover%202.craft

oooh, used to play SimEarth to pieces, ages and ages ago as a student. And yes, I'm that old.

hmm, first time I landed on the Mun I touched down gently and after about 20 seconds of wobbling slowly, ever so slowly, fell over.

The idea is that the plasma (thus the evaporated bomb body itself) drives up against the pusher plate. In atmosphere, the air turned into plasma by the explosion adds a little bonus to that.

well said. My thoughts exactly.

1) if you pay me to play the way you want to, and I consider that payment to be enough, I'll consider it. 2) so don't rely on it blindly. Same as you don't rely blindly on anything else either. 3) and that's a reason to not use it?

to calculate the window, I use Mechjeb to give me the escape burn, then finetune that by hand both to get the best approach (and midcourse corrections as needed). There's other tools, and sometimes misses the closest window, but it works reasonably well (and certainly better than my meager skill at such things).

Kerbal Engineering Redux and/or MechJeb2. Helps a ton with design and flight planning.

Had you taken care to look up things, you'd have found such clauses to be unenforcable and illegal. I've personally challenged them with several companies that tried to sneak them into contracts, always successfully. Mind I fully agree that things created on company time and/or company tools belong to the company. That's what you get paid for and get those tools for after all. Talking about things created in spare time or past employment here.

right, so it should be legal to give copies of KSP to all your friends as gifts? After all, giving things away is "private use"... Thanks, but no thanks.

uh, no. Use depleted Uranium, which is a waste product from Uranium refining and has a half life of several million years. The radioactivity released would not increase the background radiation noticeably, and if you aim them over water it gets diluted in that to the point where you wouldn't know it exists at all. What's more important is that Uranium Oxide is rather toxic (as are all heavy metal oxides, I've worked with lead and mercury oxide during my graduation work, the safety precautions were rather extreme), and Uranium of course tends to oxidise rather well at rocket exhaust speeds (heck, most anything does).

sounds like anything to do with "ancient aliens" and panspermia... Erich von Daenicken would be proud.

let's see. Ran out of fuel about 10m over the surface of the Mun yesterday, trying to land a small base there (2 hitchhiker containers, a panoramic thingy, and 2 docking ports I'll probably never use, some solar panels and landing engines). Bounced a few times, nearly tipped over, but now sitting on the surface even if not quite where intended. Also yesterday, my first return mission from Duna ran out of fuel in a highly eccentric orbit around Kerbin, 65 by 2000 kilometers, barely enough to start aerobraking. Took several hours (with time acceleration) before we got a suborbital trajectory and a safe landing.