Tw1

Today, I continued testing a nuclear engined space shuttle. Had a few hitches. A small fuel tank fell of, but I decided to keep flying anyway. Exept I ran out of fuel in the droptanks before my apoapsis cleared the atmosphere. As fuel lines were playing up before, the main engine was only connected to a small reserve of on-board fuel, the rest linked only to the Lv-Ns. But, things were looking good. My Periaps was raising, and I was still gaining speed. In fact. I made it. I'm going to call this technique the "Skip Orbital Burn" I even had enough fuel left to do a flyby of the Mun, with a big correction as I botched the free return. That correction would've given me a Kerbin escape had I not aimed into the atmosphere. Then I doged the trees to land. The shuttle still tends to tip to one side, and doesn't fly stably enough to make orbit reliably, so needs more designing yet. But it should be much more useful than its predecessor.

I sometimes make it so my front landing gear are slightly lower than the back, this reduces landing bounce.

Anyone else note it said science bay junior? Sounds like there might be a bigger one on the way. I hope there's a small, radial one too. KSC looks a little crowed there, but maybe its just the angle.

It could be useful, maybe, if you think about it. If you leave the game for a while, then come back, it'd be nice to have a reminder of what you were planning on doing with the big hunks of space stuff you put into orbit last time you played. As for action groups, that's not a bad thought either. I use a memory technique, where certain things use certain ranges- for example, engine things are always towards the lower numbers, miscellaneous things are always near the end, and common features, like ladder deployment, always use standard buttons, even if they interrupt other groupings. It works so far.

Not sure about the science bay, it looks great for simple landers, but I don't tend to make those much any more. I'm more interested in the radial things - they look easier to add to rovers. I hope for a smaller, radially attachable bay as well. Plus, that would be easier to stick on with KAS's attach feature.

It's hilarious! That nose! So appropriately shocked at his own appearance! I don't even know why this is so funny. Perhaps side effects of being on YouTube all evening.

It looks like a caterpillar!

It's a great little engine for small landers, or Munar accent stages. Or retro thrusters, for small, fast adjustments. I used it a fair bit when it was in KSPX, and was happy it's now stock. If they do decide to nerf it, I hope they don't do much. I recall some situation where I found I could get more delta V from the 24-77, but perhaps I'm not remembering right. Knocking it down to an ISP of 330, or 340, maybe, shouldn't be too bad. Personally, I'd prefer to loose ISP than gain weight, as it's useful as an auxiliary engine, and extra weight will effect the delta V and TWR of a whole ship, but reducing ISP means I'd just have to be more frugal with that engine.

Definitely a lack of control systems, or perhaps you should try aiming for a higher orbit (more time before apoapsis) , or turning before you warp? If your vessel is massive, RCS may be the better option to reaction wheels if you must turn in a hurry. Holding Alt, or your computer's equivalent lets you use physical warp in space, which is a great trick if you're impatient, as long as your vessel is strong enough.

One of the funniest and yet most inconvenient glitches out. If you're lucky, you still can use the rocket pack, but with no hands, making it look weird.

A while ago, I designed something capable of getting two kerbals down a mohole and back. This led to ambitious plans, possibly involving visiting the north and south holes with the one Lander. Today, I made something that might give enough delta V for such a mission. Got this big vegetable into orbit with half the fuel left in the middle seven boosters. Then I did a lot of docking to replace the mainsails with LV-Ns. Jettisoning the mainsails, the launch fuel distribution system, and the LV-Ns' docking systems would leave a bunch of debris in the vicinity of the ship. But I was ready for them. After blasting them to vapour, them doing some more tidying up in LKO, Milly landed the starfighter in Kerbin City. Tempted to wait until the next version to do the mission, think of the science points you could get at the bottom of the Mohole! But that could be months away.

Patience, padawan, patience! The old parts still work. Remember- mod makers do this stuff as a hobby.

Deciding whether to go ahead with a mission, or wait until the next patch, as it looks like might have science parts! I could bring back a sample from the bottom of the mohole! If I wait ages...

One new asparagus drive segment: Guess where I'm going! Munrise and simultaneous sunset = beautiful time for a launch. Bye lifter engines! Clean up mission: While I was attaching the engines to that big drive segment: Totally suspicious. I'm going to launch a spy satellite weather satellite to go check things out.

My site visit showed the only tall peaks were to the south of the city site. I reckon airstrip island is a great place for an observatory. There is going to be one in the base game eventually.

If only the rep system was working! That is an amazing shot and caption. I'd be a little scared of Lobal too, but maybe he's just enjoying the amazing looking control panel ahead of him.

Now imagine sliding down a Dunan dune with a dry ice surfboard. Awesome.

Today, I began developing a new re-usable shuttle. My first successful shuttle had been more of a proof of concept- it didn't have the capabilities for tasks like rendezvous, or moving to orbits other than equatorial. This new one would combine a mainsail for lift of, with Lv-Ns for orbital stuff. I tested it at the Kerbin City Airtport, as the Space Center was closed for cleaning. Short hops look good. Should be fine for landing. Now, the droptanks and SRBs. Though this set up is fine for the previous one, it doesn't behave well for this version at all. So so far, I have a short range nuclear plane. I may have exposed citizens of the city to the poisonous light, oops.

I just realised it will be possible to replicate Thomas the Tank Engine stories with an outer space twist once this is finished. And I have The Railways Series as a collection on my shelf! +1 motivation.

One thing that might be worth pointing out, is this is going to be a city, not another space center, so equipment for handing spacecraft is not something that would necessarily be common there. Not that that doesn't mean an aircraft carrier thing like that couldn't be stationed at the seaport area, as long as there's room for other ships too. Phase B is a planning phase, and about where we are now. Of course, Nothke has the final say, but they are taking a rest from this Atm. Keep tweeking and testing, be patent, and we will see.

Looks like I missed this return! One of the most useful things. I'll have to update in my next mod maintenance sesh.

Nextime: springs with mainsails. Maybe I'll try that.

Nice writing. Jeb saves the day!? That was a lot of glitches for one trip.

And the circle goes on... Perhaps a multi level design is needed. Disappear- reappear with orbits linked to SOIs seems to be great for long distance travel, but makes rendezvous very unnatural. Lowest common/agreed method would work fine for rendezvous between players, but completely rubbish anything apart from surface activity, or the lowest orbits. Switching between modes would need some thinking out. If not a technical problem, it's still a big design decision.

I wouldn't really call that regeneration, as no new resource is being formed. Unless the term has a different use in the mining/oil industries. As we don't really have an explanation for how kethane forms, it'd be hard to say if it would be renew itself over time or not. The evidence we have says no, but ease with which it turns into other things does makes it pretty magical... *Not saying kethane should be programmed to regenerate, or made more science-y, or anything. Just speculating.