Tw1

Though I agree to a certain extent, that certain things should not be patentable, copyright law is very important. Imagine if an author spends years working on a novel. Then, once they've published it, someone else copies it letter for letter, then starts selling it for a fraction of the price. It is not the just the words and ideas that have been stolen, it is the hours of work that the creator put into composing them. Imagine if when Squad completes KSP, then some larger, more well known company goes and downloads it, makes a few tweeks, and starts selling it as their own. That would not be right, would it? This is why good copyright laws have their place. To protect the content creator. But I would argue, in the case of things like medicines, break-through technologies, and anything else that would be of sufficient benefit to humanity, that there should be mechanisms to allow someone else to create the product, should the patent holder refuse, or be incapable of doing so. Also, patenting simple ideas, like using magnets to hold a plug in, are a little ridiculous. Same with patenting something from nature, like a gene. I think there is need for reform, but definitely not abolition. The case raised in that thread is quite specific, about modifying and redistributing a piece of code. Perhaps it could be better addressed by changing the consequences of uploading it to spaceport.

As planets are "on rails", they may be able to fudge L-points for solar system bodies, but not, I imagine, our spacecraft. Unless, they fudge it with some sort of SOI in the right spots? (Something that changes orbits in the region, rather than being a gravity well like regular SOIs.

The green balls that appear at the end of parts when you add them are the nodes. When you pick up parts, you will see them if it's a good sub-assembly.

With the coming resources, or the Kethane mod, you could build a base that works as a centre of operations for exploring a moon or planet. Wether this is more practical than a station depends on the circumstances. An orbiting station can more easy reach many different places, using landers, but this requires your landers to be capable of reaching orbit at a single stage. A plane, rover, or sub-orbital vehicle from a base does not need to reach orbit, but must travel all the way to its destination on its own. Apart from that, it can be pretty fun starting a little establishment on another body.

Actually, I was thinking a sling shot type thing would be pretty cool. I was experimenting with modified KAS cables the other day. If I set the cable really long, and the retract speed really fast, with the right set up, I could possibly propel anything I like into space. As long as: 1. I get the angle correct, so it fires properly, rather than swinging like crazy. 2. The forces aren't so huge that everything gets pulled apart. (I don't want to have to edit parts, if that can be avoided.) 3. I can get a kerbal or object to stay in the bucket bit without him falling out too soon, or flying out too late. Experiments I did the other day with KAS suggest it's feasible. But I'm not going to be playing for a while because of uni exams, and won't be trying it any time soon.

You can, but it's not straight forward.

I did a few more experiments. None of them really got anywhere, but they looked cool. These ones used the "it doesn't notice collisions" principle. If you look closely, there are engines missing where kerbals "collided" with them. Seems the game only checks for collisions every few fractions of a second, leaving a little room to work around. This means spacing is very important. I attempted to recreate one from that Reddit thread, but it didn't match its claimed 20Km. So I them turned on part clipping. This wasn't the final one, but: Well, it worked, just that happened once of twice. I got some strange effects, similar to a video posted earlier in this thread: I never got anywhere near the station, but I certainly gave some kerbals a great time. I think I'll make an SSTO instead....

I never really thought about doing that. I just called it the Kerbal Space Program. (It's a Space Program with in a Space program. I love puns.) But there's no "Human space program" is there? Maybe I'll have to think of something.

Choose your window before you launch. Perhaps you need this, or go to spaceport and get the protractor mod.

Hold on, you're right. Derp. Umm... *blames Jeb. Or the Kraken*

It's about 2 meters different

Made some more kerbal cannons, which blew up, then played around with a neat little cart, and the KAS cables. Then, I visited my crew on Moho, and moved them around a bit. It's a cool place. Very, very sunny.

The wiki has a different figure. I'm going to take this guy's figure for future launches.

Nope .

I used to have a bunch of parachute holders on escape orbits out of the sun. They were the furthest thing away I had, and I checked up on them every so often. One time, I did that and found all my satellites had gone. Everything except a few stations survived. Naturally I immediately quickloaded, and ended the fight of those parachute things from the tracking station.

Welcome! Quicksaves are stored with the permanent saves, they last until you quicksave again. But launching a new rocket or plane will make the game quicksave automatically, so be careful.

It may be a problem with the technique you're using to transfer. Also, you probably only need two LV-Ns, unless you really need high TWR.

Loaded up this craft file from that reddit challenge. It defied everything I'd previously found out. Maybe this is how Einstein will feel one day if FTL is invented... Should've stuck with threefold symmetry, like I'd intended, not four.. The reddit craft: The craft was certainly impressive. And achieved twice the height that I kept reaching. With a little help from the Jetpack. I tested the bottom bit on its own, and it only got slightly higher than the single mainsail. So it was definitely the stack above doing a lot of the work. This design showed potential. But one drawback was it always fell apart during launch. Also, it needed to be bigger. Much bigger. I put it through the roof. And the floor. And then the roof again. It started to lag in the VAB, so I knew it was nearing its maximum potential for overbuilding. When it finally loaded on the pad, it was certainly impressive. And it was holding the one and only Jedediah Kerman. Don't you love the enthused look on Jeb's face? Put him in a 52 mainsail monster cannon, and he's like "Whatever this is all about, I'm so glad to be here." His first task was to retrieve the parachute from the yellow box on the side. Then it was time to descend to the bottom down a very long ladder. A turning area was added after one try, where Jeb tried to go down head first. It's quite a long way down, a result of the construction technique, which involved moving the command pod to the very top, and building below it, and lowering it to the ground, and building above. What's more scary, looking down, or looking up? Neither as far as Jeb's concerned , he's totally unflappable when there's rocketry to be done. He descended that 40m ladder with eager anticipation in his eyes. Well, this is it. Boom time. Not Jet packing this time, and got to a respectable 11.5km. But Jeb wasn't very well lined up. We could do better. Again with Jetpack? That's more like it. And again: 17.3Km. That's pretty good. (I think Kerbin orbit is probably not feasible with these parts though.) I'm pretty happy with that. Jeb forgot his parachute that time, not that imminent death bothered him in the slightest. Decided to see if I could squeeze a few more engines into the design. Bill was also back (from the dead) and wanted to have a go. But he wasn't very cooperative. I had to send him back when he forgot to pick up a parachute. He wanted to try parachuting down the middle, with me putting the engines on while he was airborne, so he'd get extra lift. Unfortunately, he descended too rapidly for that, and ended up on the ground. Hit F9, tried again. This time, he parachuted right down the middle, and landed safely on the step-off platform. Kinda. Ok. Bill's acting weird. Perhaps he hit his head too hard.. Decided to go a head with the launch. Bill didn't move. It was reassuring that my version of the kannon didn't pull it self to bits under prolonged thrust, but odd that Bill wasn't going anywhere. I even tried standing him on the side engines instead of the middle. Nup. Not going flying today. That's enough canons for me. I'll finish up with this epic picture, Bill, in the smoke of 58 mainsails, looking up through an engine's bell. And that's the end of that.

Z4 Munar Rescue Rocket, and its successor, the very similar Z5. Because, well, the name says it all. I say most useful because my space program couldn't run with out it, and its smaller brother. It's no good sending something for a trail run, if there's no guarantee of a safe return.

That is strange. Perhaps the mainsails are closer? I've got to check that out. Their craft looks not unlike the original concept I had...

So that the platform manages to get thrust from every mainsail? ? Maybe. Platforms tend to be pretty light, this idea could have potential. But I'm all cannoned out for now. Maybe some other day. These things are pretty quick to make, once you know about the hold Alt to copy trick. Testing and refining still takes a while. If anyone else has a go, that'd be cool to see.

Makes me think of the firespitter plane cockpit with ammo in it. The kerbals probably had no clue what it did. "These bullets aren't chocolate!. These are inedible, what good are they?" 291. Sonic screwdrivers for kerbals. Why should they ever need any other tools?

The horizontal cannon in that video is a bit like what my last experiment did. I wanted to see if I could space the mainsails enough apart that they'd have an effect. I also wanted to see if I could use a horizontal and a vertical mainsail to achieve a 45 degree (approx) trajectory. After a few failed designs, I ended up with this: Bearly fit in the SPH. It also shows of my modified extra-long struts. It made use on the mechanism that was to be used on the orbital canon. I call it the dropping platform. Melbald walked (down) the plank, glad that this was not my "real" save only a simulation. I tipped the platform, and whoosh! What happened next was so fast, I didn't get any images. As the earlier experiments predicted, he was accelerated by the first engine, but not the second. Splat. Poor Melbald. But what was completely unexpected, was this: I switched back to the cannon-vessel only to find it flying. Gravity soon did its thing, and we were going down again. Fast. I decided to bail Deremy. Then a second strange thing happened. He started heading skywards. Very fast. As you see, he reached an apoapsis of 6750 meters, far higher than any previous kerbal without using rockets. So that was some achievement then. He did not enjoy his decent. I attempted to turn him so he'd land head first, as legend says they always land safely head first. It's very tricky to reorient a kerbal using the jet pack. I'd prefer it if they could be controlled like spacecraft, WASD to turn, IJKL to translate. He did not land on his head, but still managed to bounce. At first he was terrified: Though this was soon replaced with a grin, It was all to soon, and he did not survive the landing. I was hoping to use this to fire then to the island with the runway. But perhaps a simpler approach, with a mainsail at 45°, is necessary.

I almost doomed my Moho mission because of a quicksave mistake, and a warping error. This prompted me to learn save file editing. Popped them back at apoapsis, and although I was still on a sub orbital path, I had enough time to devise a safe way to land the lander.

True! 0.18 The user below me has made a space station just for looks, no fuel storage, or anything.