Specialist290

No problem I'm right there with you on wanting more info on the output side of the house. Would be something nice to have.

I believe you have to recover whatever part the data is "stored" in in order to get full credit for it. The pod only holds the Crew Report and other crew-related activities, from what I've gathered so far.

Glad to see Unity unveiled. And I'll forgive you if you're a little behind on the next update. The campaign mode is quite entertaining, even if it's fairly bare-bones for the moment.

Good to know. I'll make a note of that on the list.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure if there's anything that has exactly what you're looking for, but there are a number of plugins that allow you to fine-tune maneuver nodes by adding values incrementally, like the PreciseNode plugin. Arrowstar's Trajectory Optimization Tool has a few different maneuver planners you can use for specific operations (two-craft rendezvous, planetary launch windows, Hohmann transfers between two orbits), but it's a bit limited as well. Since you mentioned you're a numbers guy, I'm going to hook you up with a website that has pretty much every equation you can use to calculate orbital parameters. If you know how to program (or even just how to set up an Excel spreadsheet) you might be able to come up with a calculator of your own using this information.

Today (or yesterday at this point, technically) I did some basic operational testing around Kerbin of a design I eventually plan to take to Duna. I also learned that the inflatable heat shields in Deadly Reentry are a pain and a half to manage properly.

I'm going to second everything that's been mentioned in this thread, especially purpletarget's videos, because they're a great way to get in at the "ground floor" of applying actual rocket science to KSP and not at all because he already pimped my own little project for me... *innocent whistling* On top of that, these three pages at Atomic Rockets are handy in breaking down some of the more complex aspects in a step-by-step way (and the rest of the site is worth a read, too, when you have the free time). I'm also going to recommend that you read the pages at MyKSPCareer.com as well, which aims to explain things in layman's terms specifically from a KSP player's perspective.

Welcome to the forums! I've never done any part modelling myself, but I do know of a list of modding resources that might have the information you're looking for. You could probably also post a topic in the "Addon Requests and Support" subforum, and I'm sure a number of knowledgeable users will be able to answer any questions you might have. Hope this helps!

The menu layout changed with 2.0.9, although I think there's an option somewhere that allows you to use the legacy layout. If you've already got 2.0.9, you don't really need to keep 1.9.8 around unless you still have the old parts on some of your ships.

I'm still going to be awake for the next hour or so anyway, so it's something to keep my mind fixed on.

What madness is this? SQUAD actually announcing a release date before it happens? Has the world turned upside down?!

I'd be all in favor of something like this. It's a great way to encourage exploration, even after you've already unlocked all of the parts.

Welcome to the forums! Nice list of achievements there! Hope you'll share more of them in the future. Might want to check out the Mission Reports subforum, or the "What did you do in KSP today?" thread, and contribute to those as you go along. And I agree with the "Take screenshots as you go" advice. I try to save at least one from every mission I do, just so I'll have a reminder of where I've been and what I've done.

Welcome to the forums! Should you ever get stuck while playing the game, feel free to ask questions in the Gameplay Questions subforum, or to check out some of the resources available at the Drawing Board, which is linked in my signature. Above all, make yourself at home.

Welcome to the forums! Of the add-ons and plugins that I use myself, I'd recommend Kerbal Engineer Redux, Kerbal Alarm Clock, TAC Fuel Balancer, the Docking Port Alignment Indicator, and the Improved Navball (or is it Enhanced Navball? Can never keep that straight.) All of them are incredibly useful for navigating and managing your craft in-flight. Hope this helps!

Take another look at that diagram you posted. The longitude of the ascending node isn't being measured from the planet's surface; it's being measured from the reference direction. The planet's rotation has nothing to do with it.

...But you've only left the job half-done! You didn't post how you look!

Assuming I'm interpreting the orbital parameter definitions correctly, it should be fairly easy to find the reference direction through one simple parameter: The Longitude of the Ascending Node. The ascending node is the point where the orbit crosses over from "south" of the reference plane to "north." If you set the longitude of the ascending node to exactly 0 degrees, then that means that your orbit is going to cross the equator at a point where, if you drew a line straight up from the surface to your craft, that line would be pointing straight at the reference direction.

This, pretty much. The tech tree is cool and all, and I'm going to look forward to seeing how quickly I can get through it, but I'm probably not going to treat it like a real "campaign" just yet.

Sadly, I wasn't able to find the dark corner that my family's personal model is hidden in. However, after doing a bit of searching, I was able to find a webpage with some photos of essentially the same model and the disks that came with it, as well as the system specs. (The website itself is Russian, but the text for that page in particular is English.)

Welcome to the forums! Since you're a new player, I'm going to recommend that you take a look at some of the tutorials available over on the Drawing Board, which is linked in my signature, if you ever get stuck. Feel free to ask questions around the forums as well. I understand perfectly about not wanting to get swamped by mods; there's already tons of parts available in the stock game, so you can get a lot of mileage out of the different combinations from those alone. That said, a few of them can be quite handy indeed. I won't try to rush you to install any of them, though! Above all, have fun, and hope all this helps!

I think the loading distance is actually calculated from the center of mass, not the ends of the craft. You might want to try with a segment more than 5 km long for the next test, just to be sure.

I just discovered this thread, and I want everyone to know that you are all awesome and that this thread is going on the Drawing Board I'm going to have to try many of these tricks out myself.

I'm using DRE right now, myself, and I can confirm that it has an inflatable 6-meter heat shield. Before inflating, it fits quite nicely inside a 2-meter space, and it can also be jettisoned once you no longer need it.

There's nothing that's exactly like the Maneuver Planner in that you can input a given command like "circularize" or "set apoapsis at a given altitude," but there are a number of plugins that let you edit maneuver node information directly. The one I've been using lately is PreciseNode, which lets you also see what the ejection angle is at your plotted maneuver node (which is quite handy for fine-tuning interplanetary transfers if you couple it with something like alexmoon's Launch Window Planner).