rpayne88

Except for the "rule" saying he needs to show it's possible, he doesn't need to prove it's possible. It's basically a case of launch as many kerbals to other bodies as possible within a year. This should be easy for all but the newest noobs in the game. Even then, if you can't so much as get to the Mun within on Kerbin year, its not Vally's fault.

Lets just say I'm sick of having KSP use less than half of my system's resources and lagging on moderately complex ships. I mean, either make a 64-bit version or write a program into KSP that will circumvent the memory limitations and use all available RAM, CPU, GPU, ect.

Only if they are the active ship. KSP will not model a decaying orbit unless the ship's periapsis is inside the atmosphere and it is the active vessel.

I just did the same with four pre-made remote tech satellites space approximately 90 degrees apart. They are currently is a 1Mm circular orbit with their eccentricities being less than 0.000001 (I think I put the right number of zeros.) Thanks for the help; I'm currently working on getting polar orbiting satellites up.

And in space velocity is critical. Dv can be seen as the "range" your rocket has. The more dv you have, the farther you can go. Zero dv means you will not be completing any maneuvers what so ever. Also, take into accout that it is the TOTAL change in velocity. For example, to go from 0m/s to 1000m/s (negleting outside influences such as drag,) you would need 1000 m/s dv. But to go from 0 m/s to 1000 m/s back to 0 m/s, you would need 2000 m/s dv. That is because you need 1000 m/s to accelerate to 1000m/s and another 1000 m/s to decelerate.

So I've been looking at remote tech for a while now. Well, actually, I've installed and deleted it a few times. Does any one have any suggestions on how to quickly set up a comm network around Kerbin. If so, what kinds of orbits, altitudes, eccentricity, ect. (just an idea, no exact values needed) do you use? Also, what do your satellites usually look like when they are launched? All my attempts at setting up a relay network have wound up with me wasting 3+ hours, rage quitting KSP, and purging it from my computer. Maybe I'm doing something wrong and should have asked for suggestions first. Any way, I still think it is a good mod that introduces some realism into KSP.

Are the communitrons extended? That may be causing remote tech to cut off spacecraft control.

I've got a bit of a problem with DR. I've built a crane for a base construction on Duna that uses a hinge, rototron, and hydraulic cylinder. The parts are not mapped to any keys, yet when I go to pitch my rocket (using the up and down arrow keys I've mapped the rocket to) all three DR parts start moving throughout their range of motion in exactly the same way they would if I was intentionally using them. This is causing phantom forces to be exerted on my rocket making it almost uncontrollable. The pod torque from the probe core, and both manned pods have been disabled and the only problem I can see is DR moving itself. Any way I could fix this?

You can try strapping some SRBs to the first stage (make sure they burn out and drop before your liquid boosters, though.) This will allow you to leave the pad with a much lower throttle setting than with out them. This means that when you begin your gravity turn, you have more weight towards the tail o your rocket, helping to keep it stable. Note: this works for me but I do use FAR. Edit: As for the "barrel rolls," are all your struts on straight? Misaligned struts have been know to cause phantom torque on rockets.

Who's dollars. You are NOT going to get a gaming laptop for $650 USD unless there is something wrong with it. My Inspiron 17R SE cost me $1300 USD direct from Dell. You may be able to get a decent desktop, though. I never really looked into desktops since I don't have the space for one.

I'll back him us there, I've done the same thing.

Steps to solving this problem: 1. Make star systems revolve around a super massive black hole 2. Change each star's SOI from "infinite" to "X" 3. Make it so we can time warp during burns 4. Add one million X, 10 million X, and 100 million X time warp 5. Create a hypothetical engine that has great performance outside of the solar wind and poor performance while in it (vague, I know.) 6. Place everything on rails except for the controlled object while burning 7. Take the VAB keys from Jeb

That is the limitation of 32-bit applications. They can only use a single core and 4GB of RAM. I get the same thing some times despite the fact I have a quad-core, 8GB, and 64-bit Windows 7. I would like to see Squad either make a 64-bit version of KSP or writes a program into the game that uses ALL available resources a system has to offer.

Any TWR greater than one on any given body would suffice for a rocket only landing. I would go with a TWR of two or three to leave room for error. As far as the drogue chutes are concerned, they are not intended to slow your craft down to a safe velocity. Their purpose is to reduce the g-loading of main parachute deployment. In other words, their there to help stop your ship from ripping itself apart. I would go with two or three for redundancy. Just make sure you strut them on to prevent them from being torn off by their own deployment (I've had that happen before.)

As far as getting into orbit, you want a TWR of approximately two. You will get off the ground with anything higher than one, but the higher your TWR, the faster you will get into orbit. dv is more important once you are in orbit. You can have a TWR of less than .000001 and still change to another orbit. If your TWR is this low, though, it will take quite some time to make a noticeable change. A good plan for space flight is to use an engine with a very high TWR as the first stage of your rocket to push you off the ground. Then ditch it and light off a second stage with a TWR greater than one until you are in a stable orbit. On Kerbin, a stable orbit is any orbit whose perigee is higher than 70km (above Kerbin's atmosphere.) Once you are in orbit, efficiency is the name of the game. Use high Isp engines such as the LV-N, LV-909, Poddle, or, if you have the patience, the PB-ion. TWR: Engine mass does not change, unless the engine breaks off of your rocket. Thrust is how much force, measured in kilo-newtons (kN) that each engine can provide at full power. 1kN equals 1000 Newtons (N.) Newtons are used to measure force (if you have not taken, of remember from, physics.) You can calculate how much force your rocket is applying in a downwards direction by multiplying its mass by Kerbin's gravity. As with every where in physics, the metric system is used. You calculate a rocket's "force" on the ground using the equation F=ma, or force equals mass times acceleration. In this case, acceleration is Kerbin's gravity, which incidentally is the same as Earth's, 9.8m/s^2 (32ft/s^2.) Lets say your rocket has a mass of 1000kg and is siting on the pad at KSC. You multiply the 1000kg by 9.8m/s^2 to get 9800N, or 9.8kN, of force. That means you would need 9.8kN of thrust to make your rocket "float" over the pad or at least 9.81kN to make your rocket ascend. You can find your TWR by taking the ratio of your thrust and comparing it to your weight (which is not the same as mass.) Lets say you were cheating and using infinite fuel and you had a hypothetical engine that provided exactly 9.8kN of thrust. Your TWR would be 1.00. In KSP, as in real life, however, your mass is constantly decreasing as you burn fuel. This means your thrust (assuming no throttle input from you) stays constant while your mass (and your weight) decrease. This causes your TWR to increase as you burn the engines. Delta V (dv): Dv is a measure of the extent of how much your rocket can change its velocity (not the same as speed.) Dv is officialy notated as a triangle (Greek symbol for delta, used in physics to show change in a variable) then a v. First off, velocity has a vector to it. This means it has a direction to the speed. In space your velocity is critical to your orbits. In order to raise your orbits, you thrust pro-grade, thus increasing your velocity. To lower your orbit, you thrust retrograde, thus decreasing your velocity. Dv is a measure of how much you can change your velocity, usually measured in m/s or km/s (1km/s=1000m/s if you live in the U.S. like I do and don't know.) For example, if you wanted to raise your velocity (assuming no outside influences such as drag or gravity) from your current velocity of, lets say, 1000m/s to 2000m/s then back to 1000m/s you would use 2000m/s or 2km/s. Why? You use 1000m/s dv to increase your velocity to 2000m/s per second. You then use an additional 1000m/s to slow yourself back down. Dv can be calculated using only simple algebra and the Tsiolokovsky (I would butch his name trying to pronounce it) Rocket Equation. The equation is as follows: Dv=ve*ln*(m0/m1). In plain English, delta v equals the product of the effective exhaust velocity times the natural logarithm of the quotient of the initial mass divided by the ending mass. Ve needs to be computed on its own. When it is factored into the the equation, the equation looks like this: Dv=(g*Isp)*ln*(m0/m1) Where g= the gravity of a body Isp= the specific impulse seen on the engine statistics. So, the final equation, in plain English, is delta v equals the product of gravity times specific impulse times the natural logarithm times the quotient of the initial mass divided by the ending mass. If you have a calculator, all you have to do is plug the numbers into the equation to get the correct answer. Orbits: Orbit is defined as free fall around and object. For example, if a baseball is thrown fast enough (ignoring aerodynamic drag,) by the time it should have hit the ground if the object was flat, the surface has curved away from the ball. As long as the ball continues traveling at this velocity, it will never hit the ground. Orbital Information: Just some useful terms to know: Apoapsis (sp?, AKA: Apogee): The highest point in your orbit or ballistic trajectory. You will never be farther from the surface than this without input. Periapsis: (sp?, AKA: Perigee): The lowest point in your orbit. You will never be closer to the surface than this point without input. On ballistic trajectories, your periapsis will be zero and the object will impact the ground at some point. Eccentricity: A measure of how circular your orbit is. An eccentricity of zero means you are in a perfectly circular orbit. Orbital Period: The time it takes to complete one orbit. Types of Orbital Transfers: These are used to place your craft on a trajectory to intercept another object. The most common type of transfer is the Hohmann transfer. In this orbit, you place your periapsis above your target if you are in front of it, and below it if you are behind it. Raising your periapsis will cause you to move slower, allowing your target to "catch up" to you. Lowering your periapsis will cause you to accelerate, allowing you to "catch up" to your target. Rocket Design: An efficient rocket can place a high payload fraction into orbit. A payload fraction is the fraction made by dividing the weight of the rocket and payload (a capsule or spacecraft, for example) by the weight of an otherwise empty rocket (fuel is included in an empty rocket, just not the payload.) An easy way to achieve a high payload fraction is to "stage" a rocket. Staging involves dropping empty fuel tanks and other parts when they are no longer needed, leaving another stage to continue pushing a payload into orbit. A design commonly used in KSP is called "Asparagus Staging." Using Asparagus Staging, one pair of boosters on opposing sides of a central booster core feed into another pair of boosters on opposing sides and so on until fuel reaches the central core. The first pair of boosters feed all the engines on the stage, including their own, then fall off after they have depleted their fuel. Then, the next pair burns and so on. Other things to take into account when designing a rocket are structural stability and control-ability. Struts are often used to increase the structural stability of a rocket or craft to prevent it from falling apart during flight. RCS, reaction wheels, and fins/ control surfaces help to control a vehicle. A Note on Space Planes: Space planes do not need a TWR greater than one to take off (although it is still a good idea to have a TWR greater than one.) The lift generated by their wings counteracts the force of gravity when they are designed correctly. Remember, though, that they spend much more time in the lower atmosphere and are subjected to the pressures affiliated with low altitude flight. Spaceplanes are difficult to design. If you do decide to design them, make sure the center of lift is behind the center of mass or the aircraft will do a low altitude loop and crash shortly after takeoff. For beginning players, it is a good idea to wait to design successful rockets before attempting to design a spaceplane. Hope this has answered your questions and provided you with enough understanding of the game for you to enjoy it. Please remember, I do not know who you are or what your educational level is. I apologize if it seems like I was treating you like an idiot. I saw that you were also new to rocket science and wanted to clarify some core principles of KSP to you. Edit: There are mods that do most of this work for you if you do not like the idea of crunching numbers for each rocket. Or you could resort to trial, error, and fireworks displays over KSC.

The problems with L points are that you are being influenced by two SOIs at the same time. If they were implemented in the game, you would also have to take into account the subtle affect on your orbit due to every object in the game. Meaning your LKO station would be slightly affected by Elloo. That means several million calculations per second for your processor. In other words, it would KILL your CPU. To remedy this, Squad had made it so it is only possible to be affected by one SOI at a time. This makes L points impossible in KSP. Undoubtedly, Squad would add L points if the math involved could be easily preformed by most computers.

That is exactly what I'm asking.

NONE. If you have enough patience, you will be fine. Just expect to see multiple catastrophic failures and fire works displays.

NP fairings are NOT FAR complaint. FAR does not recognize parts under NP fairings as shielded.

I've mapped my keyboard so throttle up is page up. Throttle down is page down and cut off is end.

IRL, trim allows the pilot to relieve pressure on the yoke or stick. It allows the pilot to place the plane at a particular attitude and have the plane remain in that attitude without any pilot intervention. It is almost a mechanical autopilot. It functions the same way in KSP and can offer even finer control over air/spacecraft.

NERVAs (Nuclear Energy for Rocket Vehicle Applications) are something we all use in KSP for interplanetary travel. In real life, they are a proven technology. They work by passing a fuel by a nuclear core and allowing the heat from the core to cause the fuel to expand to produce thrust. Unfortunately, they have never been used. The reason for this is due to the risk involved in launching a NERVA into orbit (they can't power themselves in the atmosphere due to radioactive fallout.) The question becomes: what is the launch vehicle used to launch a NERVA suffered a catastrophic failure? I would like to see what some people have (or will) create to address this problem and recover a NERVA without destroying it. Rules: 1. The engine and its abort system must be on an LV capable of carrying it to orbit. I'll take your word that the rocket carrying it can place it in orbit, so you don't need prove it. 2. You must have a NERVA a minimum of 100m away from the LV with in 3 seconds after hitting to abort button. 3. If any supporting parts (parachutes, probe cores, ect.) are broken off (i.e. not jettisoned with decouplers) your design will be disqualified. 4. All non-magic mods are allowed (i.e. It has to use "believable" technology) 5. Your choice of the NERVA to be aborted 6. You don't need to worry about your LV falling back. Cudos if you use an RSD such as TAC self destruct 7. Screen shots of your rocket on the pad, immediately after aborting the launch, and on touchdown. You are free to add more screenshots if you would like. 8. Your system must be versatile. It must be able to abort the launch on the pad, at 10km ASL, and above 10km ASL while pitched 45 degrees. There is no scoring as of yet. I just want to see some designs. My mom just told me to wash the dishes and I have stuff to do latter tonight. As a result, I plan to have my proof of concept posted by 11:00PM EST.

I already know how to dock using the map screen and maneuver nodes. I have two questions about how it can be done manually. 1. Is this possible with only an understanding of algebra and trigonometry? (I suck at math) 2. How do you do it if it can be done with such a limited understanding of math.

To some extent. Hitting the ground at high speeds may cause them to fail, though.

What if you deactivate them and de-orbit them in such a way as to allow them to land safely and be recovered?