Tw1

Yes! That's more like it! KSP aerodynamics, you are beautiful.

Though really, this more describes what my IRL day was like, rather than what I did in KSP. Edit: Hey! What is this doing un stickied?

That was... well... Epic.

This looks cool. Paper kerbals to recreate the situation that inspired the game!... Or, to sit on your desk, not burning to pieces.

*kzzzk* Gold leader, standing by: (Close enough) I don't really see the Death Star, but that kerbal's expression is perfect. How do you do it?

I'd use a "My other car is on the Mun" sticker. If I had a (full size) car IRL. I have quite a few matchbox ones...

Bit ironic how the shield is made of something highly flammable. I'm also fairly impressed with your landscaping.

One other thing that needs some wild mass guessing: What colour will it be? .... ... I reckon yellow.

Ok, who gave Jeb a black eye?

Do'h! My bad. I was thinking circumference formula instead of area formula. Still, that sounds more of a reasonable size for a tank.

When I decided to make a shuttle, I felt an important aspect was all the engines (except the SRBs) needed to be reusable. I've used it to set up satellites around Kerbin, Mun and Minmus, and to set things on escape trajectories.

7.5 to 9 meters would be a little ridiculous, IMHO. Instant lifter for just about anything. "replacing 6 tanks" to me, suggests it's going to be containing 6 tanks worth of fuel, and six tanks worth of weight. This suggest it will be six times the volume. Therefore, the dimensions could range from (compared to a jumbo) 1x the height, and 6 times the with; or 6 times the height, and the same with.

I'm not convinced that a gravity assist will slow them down that much. IKE's not that massive.

I use these, but the download version isn't up to date. http://kerbalspaceprogram.com/surface-mounted-counterweights/ I can probably offer a working version if you PM me.

SimCity 4. Had a highly moded copy.

I also suggest a combo approach, but I'd do the burn first. That way, the demands of the aerobrake is reduced. They still may need some material left for Kerbin.

Here is my entry. It is stock parts, and stock aerodynamics, so there was some small infiniglide effect, however it was negligible compared to the kerbals' power. I modified the craft throughout the challenge, adding a part here and there. Let's see: I got the completion award, stability, and agility. The smallest version weighed 0.48t, I'm claiming 120m/s as top speed (remember this is stock), I got the duckling award, and the Look Mum! award. They're pretty fit, my kerbalnauts.

Remember to share subassemblies if you get one that's practical!

I've used hyperedit to bring in replacement parts that glitched, or parts what I would have added had the mod been up to date when I launched. Then I fit them on with KAS. Normally only tiny parts that wouldn't have affected the performance or mass of the ship in the previous part of the mission. However, I avoid using it for anything large.

Aww, I wanted to try that one. Added to list of things to do.

Brilliant. I was thinking of stacking multiple drives on top of each other, but this is a much smarter solution. Though it would be nice to find a way that prevents any breakage In my attempt, the only seemed to break when pulling something along, but that may be only because I didn't try pushing things much. I tried assembling four in a battery, but it was too unstable for practical use, and didn't seem to accelerate noticeably faster. But this was in the atmosphere, in space things may be different.

This is intriguing. Will have to try this eventually.

Don't think the clamps work that way, it's probably just an animation.

I attempted to build a vessel that would fly two kerbals to Jool, using the "Jenkens Kraken Drive". It didn't go that smoothly. Launched from KSC2. Because reasons. Getting into orbit with the K-drive proved frustratingly elusive, despite revisions. So I abandoned that plan, and stuck my Lander on one of my standard lifters. Engaging the K-drive in space, gave much better results, though I had to go back to the space center before it would work. However, when it was time to "burn" again, and ram the thing towards Jool, I had a problem. One of the drive's legs had broken. It couldn't be retracted and broke again if I tried to repair it. As well as that, repair caused the ship to lunge away from the repairing kerbal. Fortunately, the 2km/s worth of chemical fuel in the final decent engine was enough to deorbit, and return to Kerbin. And my would've-been-interplaneteers landed safely. Conclusion: Kraken drives show potential, but still need some refining.

The only thing I can think of would be good old F=MA. Cannons (And probably mass drivers) seem to only give one burst of acceleration. So, therefore, the thrust of the cannon, divided by the mass of the object should give you the amount of acceleration you need. Fuel consumption for the mass driver could be estimated based on how long you fire it for each time (which should not be long), and the amount of times you will be firing it.