Atoning Unifex

+1 to this. I like the idea of measurements over time. Reading temperature on entry into an atmosphere for example, or simply granting greater research benefit from experiments the longer you run then (to a point).

This is an excellent point. So we should be looking at a balance of being able to get the appropriate analysis tools (assuming they are implemented!) to destination compared with bringing physical samples back to kerbin. Then instead of having a %loss due to transmission we have a % effectiveness of certain tools to extract data from physical sources. So perhaps you could get 90+% data from a lifeless planet like minmus, purely based on local analysis, but with a more complex planet with atmosphere, like laythe, you would have to bring back samples to allow proper intesive searches for life and other substances outide the range of your tools... Maybe that's overcomplicating things....?

Hypertext sounds like a good interin work around for texting but leax256 is right, I want to just proof-of-concept by design without actually having to spoil the surprise and achievement of making a landing there. What would be good is some sort of computer simulation that would allow the creation of a generic smooth body that approximates a target planet and then allowing a craft to be testing from orbit or surface. I think that would be really useful, even allowing the creation of alternative planets to really challenge your design skills. I love the irony of asking for a computer imulation to be implemented inside a computer simulation though!

1 is a great idea yeah but I admit to have borrowing it from another suggestion I added it to this post so that the rest made a bit more sense! 2 was my main point to make and you got my exact drift - yeah some storage in command pods with options for expansion. 3 & 4 I personally think data loss should not be an option - yes there may well be interference in data streams but you can simply send the data as many times as you need until it all gets received correctly. I guess I'm not too bothered as long as I don't lose scientific data! I have seen but never used remote tech, I did wonder if it did something similar. Maybe I'll check it out...

I've seen a bunch of suggestions on science and thought I'd add my own opinions. My thinking was specifically centred around how (in 0.22) I can't dock a lander with a station/mothership and transfer the results over for physical return. I also dislike the data transmission loss. I don't feel it's realistic. I don't doubt some/all of these have been suggested before but maybe not quite in this way!? 1) Split collectible info into physical and data components, so that you can only transmit the data and have to return the physical. 2) Treat both types as a resource, like electric charge, fuel etc, that is shown in the top right. Craft would need sufficient free physical and data storage to hold collected science (options are here for new parts). Transfer between docked craft could be handled like fuel transfers. Physical resource could even have weight to simulate returning rocks. I really like the idea of having to manage data and sample storage and plan ahead, and having storage and computing components to add to your craft. 3) Data transmission should be lossless but there should be maximum ranges for each type of transmitter, and considerations like more power for larger dishes (which i know is already in) and line of sight (you can't transmit through a blocking planet!!). 4) Allow transmission of data between craft. I envisage a lander with a low power transmitter sending data up to a craft in orbit that has the power to then return it to Kerbin. This does present a problem of having two distant ships active at once though. Perhaps a system that pairs transmitters together and can temporarily have both craft active during transmission only. I dunno if this is easy/possible but it feels a more intuitive way of performing data management. There you have it! Opinions?

I've come across some unusual behaviour in this mod. I have a kethane miner ship, half full of kethane, with a converter attached. There are 7 engines - 6 radially mounted and the 7th in the centre. If I set the ship off on an extended manouver, and have the kethane converter running to replenish the fuel on the go, then at about 1-2 minutes into the burn one of the radial engines will throttle right down to almost zero, obviously causing the ship to veer off course. It's definitely related to having the converter running because if I use exactly the same ship and perform the burn without the converter running then the ship behaves as expected. The ship does have MechJeb on board, and I thought perhaps the 'prevent overheat' function was causing this, possibly, but tests confirm it's not!

'Fine' to you is a high frequency of crashes when using map sat parts? I've heard the talk about removing mods to free memory but, just no! I do not feel it is justified to give up the large variety of parts I have to allow me to use a single part.

What about something similar to the quantum struts mod? If you're not familiar here's part of the description from Spaceport: "They’re small devices that when powered harness a form of quantum locking to create a ‘strut’ from one point to another, enabling your docked vessels to connect to each other as though they had physical struts connecting them.". Here's the spaceport link It might be possible to embed something similar to this inside of the farings so that they are like virtual struts that disappear once ejected? Only a thought!

One question i have been pondering about MJ: why, when performing a manoeuvre using RCS, do the jets fire constantly throughout the manoeuvre? Surely it would make more sense, and be more efficient, to fire for a short time and then let momentum take over?

OMG that is so outrageous it's awesome!! I must try it! I've found with previous fairings (like KW) I can't attach struts so had just assumed the same. This makes it easier. I would certainly love auto-struts if it's possible though. Maybe rather than struts perhaps disks that extend inwards from the fairings to the first thing in their way. (makes sense to me anyway)

This works great for me and is slowly replacing all my existing craft's fairings. Keep up the great work. One thing I wouldn't mind is some sort of payload stabilisation/support for loads at the top. Once payloads get past a certain length they start to become very wobbly (particularly when using mechJeb to launch ). It would be cool if there could be some added support inside the fairings to counter this - like space age bubblewrap?

Great work! I do have a weird bug though. The reource overlay is not showing properly. Looks as though it starts out quite a bigger diameter than the planet and then it shrinks until it disappears inside the planet. If I shift my view then the resource sphere will appear off to one side briefly before disappearing.... Looks like the scans are working, just can't see the results!!

I think the button position is pretty annoying in general, even in the old position, because of it getting in the way in the VAB. I'd really like to see a configurable button position. Maybe the ability to have the button in different places in the VAB or in flight.

MechJeb seems unable to land me on Pol! I've attempted numerous landings and get the same results: I get to about 700m off the surface, all is going well, everything is lined up and on target, then I get a burst of power from the engines and the craft starts rotating left, right and finally in complete circles with sporadic engine bursts. It's strange this happens on Pol as I've just been landing on Bop fine, with the same craft, as well as other planets. Couple of other bugs I've noticed are that sometimes MechJeb time warps past planned maneouvers (usually when warping at the fastest speed), sometimes MechJeb burns past the end of a maneouver (I wonder if this is due to the 'smooth throttle' option not cutting out quick enough on bigger engines), and sometimes the burn starts too late - instead of half the burn before the node and half after it does say 90% after (this i think is to do with staging and MechJeb thinking there's more engines active than there really is). I'm using v2.08 and the latest KSP (2.20). That aside, I love the plugin. Makes most flight so much simpler!!

Hey there. I'm loving MechJeb, very handy for when I'm feeling lazy!! I've a few things to ask/comment on though (i'm using 2.07): There seems to be a lot of wobble/spin produced by the launch assistance on some rockets. I'd expect this on really unstable ones but mine are stable when launched manually. MechJeb consistently seems to resonate the rocket so that the shakes get big enough to throw the fairings off the top and sometimes adds a pretty nasty spin too. It seems like it's trying to overcompensate for movements and causes the wobble itself. Is this a known issue? Is it something that's being worked on? Sometimes it forgets all my windows and settings. Usually seems to occur in VAB when i notice the Delta V window is missing. No idea what causes it. Any ideas? Tried doing an autodock with a station using parts from the KOSMOS set. MechJeb wouldn't recognise the craft was being controlled from the APAS-69 docking port and, although it did attempt to dock anyway, the craft alignment was 90 degrees out from the actual port. Is this just a quirk of how the two mods work together or is there anything that can be done to get it to work together. Last thing - can you please put the mechjeb menu button somewhere else please? It's fine in flight but gets right in the way in VAB over staging. How about in the bottom right (but to the left of where staging sits) and having it as a menu that slides up instead? That aside, I still think it's a great tool. Keep up the great work!

Thanks. I was considering using fairings but it looked a pretty tall payload for them and I could just see instability and lots of failures. I'm specifically imagning cases where the bottom of the payload is narrow (like a docking ring). Even with struts in place i think it would be pretty wobbly. I'll have a play and see what happens, a picture would be great for some inspiration though EDIT: Don't worry, I got one into orbit easier than I thought thanks for the help!

Hey folks. I've just started playing about with this mod and, whilst it's great, I've not really got any good ideas for suitable launch vehicles - other than trying to balance my station on top of a rocket, which sounds pretty unstable to me! Anyone got any hints please? (I've got KW rocketry, NovaPunch and a couple of others, so i have the parts, just not the brains )