Tw1

416: Construct an impromptu nuclear reactor using soft drink cans and bananas, and fail to properly shield it.

Today, I decided to go for an asteroid. There was a big one coming, so I went big. Launch was tenuous. Also, It's still wierd seeing jumbo tanks used on smaller outer boosters. Soon, it became apparent things weren't going quite to plan. But I had an intercept. After much fiddling, I had it. My own asteroid. I called him Rock one. Now, it was time to turn it and begin the long trip back to Kerbin. The puny RCS thrusters did little to turn the E-class 'roid. So I swiveled on the pivot, thinking I'd turn the asteroid with offset thrust, and use the "warp cancels rotation" trick to stop it. That's where it all went wrong. My carefully built space tug fragmented. And damn it, I hit F5 not F9. However, I couldn't abandon my kerbies. Enter the bare bones rescue plan. After 2 years, my rudimentary rescue ship arrived add the isolated pod. ♫I just spent 2 years in a little pod... ♫♪♪♪ (Seriously, someone needs to make a KSP parody of that song.) Three more years later, and they were back in Kerbin orbit. Then it was a modified Kerbal X's job to retrieve them. Kerbal X to the rescue! The Kerbal X brought my crew home safely, after almost six years in space. Was it worth it? Maybe.

How's that asteroid looking Dunmey? You've got the best view... Also, fire.

It began as a regular launch, when one of my smoke enhancers (RT-10s set up to give that proper blast off cloud) broke of and hit one of my actual engines. I tried to fly the rocket but it soon became apparent orbit was not to be. So I went out in a blaze of glory.

I've got a pic like that. Not quite as impresive as Wack's though.

The names Fox. Spy Fox. Totally a 'secret' agent.

For the plot! Do what must be done!

Well, it wouldn't make sense to put it on Minmus, now, would it?

I would also like to know how much drag a kerbal has, and how to calculate it. Though perhaps for different reasons.

I felt pretty competent when I proved I could get a kerbal to orbit with a ladder, ten struts, and a probe core. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/70180-Attempting-to-go-to-space-the-Kerbal-on-ladder-engine-An-experiment-report?p=980474&viewfull=1#post980474 Most of those things are a case of more boosters, though smarter boosters help. I think expertise might be better measured in the basic skills, like docking, rendezvous, payload lifting, landings, SSTO design. Though completing an Eve return is quite a display of skill.

Quentisentail.

Not really a term, but a statement. [/nitpicking]

That is a nice picture. Is The Mun's glow photoshop?

The thing is though, those events took place before and after the warp field was deactivated. Even though it's not possible to see the vessel in flight, light will be reflecting off it before and after it goes into warp.

Hi mrenigma, I have a suggestion for you. You know how it displays a line from your closest approach to where the planet will be at that time? Would it be possible to have that direction displayed on the navball? That could simplify course corrections and crazy experiments.

I was having similar problems yesterday, while working on Oceans of Eve/City on the Mun. The previewer thing was not working. Hopefully this is can be fixed without too much trouble.

Hehe, Me too.It must be that time of year! Today, I pulled my metaphorical mad scientist's cap over my literal wild messy hair, and rebooted my experiments in the field of kerbobalistics. I'll get to the edge of space yet. For full details of the experiment, and previous ones, click the link in my sig.

KAS. Best mod for base building, IMHO. Adds a great deal of fun setting up and re-arranging things.

Nice use of the claw! The bug reminds me of something that happened on my Apollo recreation last year. http://imgur.com/a/vdR5f It looks worse, and he went poof soon after, but at first he was in a similar state of being uncontrollable. Well done on bringing them home!

Hello, and welcome to a new round of cannon tests! With a new set of engines comes new potential, so I'm rebooting these trials. *fanfare* (That's a trumpet incase you don't get it.) First, testing the Kerbodyne KR-2L! This is the cannon. Pretty standard. Or volunteer today is of course, Jebediah Kerman. With Jeb positioned in the center of the engine bell, it was time to send him skyward. Now this was interesting. The thrust effect and the engine's collider surface are not aligned. Perhaps if I jump. Much better. Jet pack assisted, Jeb reacked about 3.5 Km. Interestingly, this is less than the heights I achieved with mainsails earlier. This may be worth investigating. And bounced on the way down. This feels familiar... Ok. So that was the KR-2L. Time to test the S3 KS-25x4 Engine Cluster. Higher thrust will throw a kerbal higher, but the clustered nature of this engine may complicate matters. However, I hypothesize that the thrust will have been programed to come from one central point. I built this set up with ladders leading to both the center and one of the thrusters to allow me to test both possibilities. Note how Jeb appears to be floating above the engine. This would be due to it having a simplified collision mesh. Ok. Off we go. Woosh! That answers the question of where the thrust comes from on a KS-25x4. This time, Jeb went about 4Km. However, this was without jet pack asistance. I modified the cannon to make it suitable for multiple launches: And tried again. Achieved a max of 4.8 Km. Ok. Now, time to go big. This time, I'm going to take a scientific approach. I plan to build a huge pass through type cannon- for this to work optimally, the engines need to be positioned so the arrival of a kerbal in each engine's thrust zone coincides with the game calculating a physics step. To work out spacing, I conducted an experiment: Seems I forgot rule one of cannon building. Struts and launch clamps. A little later: I think you get where I'm going here. Added extra pods so Bill and Bob could join in on the fun. After three splattered kerbals tests: There. That's where I need my engine to be. Back in the VAB, I set up a version on the cannon with a KS-25x4 just below the bit my kerbals kept crashing into. Beautiful. Jeb's enthusiastic face. ...And Boom! Off at a rapid pace. Everything is proceeding as expected. Except for the cannon falling apart below. Bill and Bob where in that thing.... 7Km! Now that's more like it. But this was an unassisted flight. Making full use of the Jet pack: Which was not that helpful for the first second, as Jeb wouldn't stop tumbling... 8Km! Now we're starting to get somewhere. Unfortunately, Jeb had drifted too far this time. He did land on the bouncy launchpad, but bounced off and was killed when he hit the grass. I may bring parachutes next time. Now, I could keep going with by trial and error, but if I'm going to overbuild this to its full potential, I'm probably going to need to take an engineering approach. Fellow forumers, I need some advice. Physics advice. If I'm going to calculate the position that a kerbal will be in at each physics step, I'm going to need to take drag into account. I'm not sure how I'd go about factoring in that, so I look forward to any advice. I'm using the stock aerodynamics model, BTW. That's all for this time! To finish up, here's a picture of Jeb bouncing from the launchpad:

Finally updated. After copying across my main save, and checking everything was Ok, I made this. A Tintin rocket. It had clipped in LV-N's and might have worked if I'd remembered to raise my periapsis out of the atmosphere before doing my transfer burn... I also took my Eve Explorer's Kerbin based duplicate on a drive around the KSC to do some tests.

That mighty 64... I remember when I couldn't get them to stay intact in my noobish, crazy stacks. How times have changed.

:( If you still have craft files, I think you could be forgiven for editing/ hyperediting things into place. But, at least it will never happen again, as now you'll be motivated to start backing them up.