KSK

Update I'm working through the part descriptions node by node - so that's the order they appear in in the patch. I've added a first draft of the first few nodes worth to the original post. A long way to go - and the aero parts are going to be fun - but it's a start. Cheers, KSK.

For a face-to-face meeting? Pick my jaw off the floor, try to dial back the goofy grin a bit and then welcome them to Planet Earth. Hoping to goodness they've studied our body language and social gestures in advance so that, for example, an offer to shake hands doesn't inadvertently cause an interstellar war. Making First Contact would be just incredible. I subscribe to the notion that any species advanced enough to pay us a visit in person is most likely going to be friendly (and if they're not, a species capable of interstellar travel is going to kerbstomp us anyway if it comes to a stand-up fight), so yeah - I'd be more afraid of goofing up than anything else.

Why not? Provided he's flying this contraption where nobody else is going to get hurt then I say go for it. You may as well ask, why go bungee jumping or indulge in any other extreme sports.

Just snagged 3200 or thereabouts in a single mission to Minmus, which is my personal best. It was a rover mission - Bob and Jeb drove halfway around Minmus, picking up temperature, pressure, Goo, Materials Studies, EVA reports and samples at each of seven biomes (Lowlands, Midlands, Highlands, Slopes, Greater Flats, Flats and Lesser Flats.) Couldn't face finishing the circumnavigation in that rickety rover for the sake of one more biome, but Bob and Jeb have sworn to return in an upgraded version with a couple of extra science instruments and proper data pod, so they can also store more than a couple of crew reports. Depending how the rover performs in practice, they may do a circumpolar trip as an encore. There's plenty more science to be had on Minmus!

I've heard that the only thing Flat-Earthers truly fear is sphere itself... I'll get my coat.

No pictures because my incompetent ISP is currently blocking access to Imgur because clearly a free image hosting site will bring down the ruination of British society and probably corrupt at least half a dozen young minds in the process. </rant> Anyhow - back on topic. I brought Jeb and Bob home from Minmus after their epic drive from the Greater Flats to the Lesser Flats in their Mk 1 Science Rover. The Rescue 2 recovery vehicle piloted by Valentina Kerman performed a pinpoint approach and landing maneuver, setting down no more than 300 metres from the, now-abandoned rover. The Rescue 2 design was judged to a nicety - Mission Control estimate that Val had enough fuel in the tank for a whole 80m/s of velocity change after executing her trans-Kerbin injection burn. Built from a pair of Mk1 inline cockpits and a spare Mk1 crew cabin, the triumph of willpower over design that was the Mk1 Science Rover lurched across Minmus on eight RoveMax S2 wheels. Whilst RoveMax vigorously deny that their entry level wheels are scavenged from old shopping trolleys, rumour has it that Jeb is going to have a quiet word with their management. Scientists and engineers across Kerbin have since been inspired to create all kinds of snazzy new technologies although further research is required in order to build a rocket large enough to launch the Mk2 Science Rover currently in the prototyping and test phase. Test drives in the mountains west of KSC indicate that the Mk2 is extremely stable, resilient to damage on the rare occasions that it does turn turtle and apparently capable of maintaining a respectable speed up 60-70 degree slopes. This extraordinary capability is attributed to 'the Sidewinder maneuver', which was discovered when Jeb decided to wiggle the steering wheel back and forth for no readily discernable reason. Apparently RoveMax wheels exhibit superior traction and torque when turning than they do in straight line travel, so by gently swerving a rover from side to side, it can be coaxed into quite impressive feats of speed and hill-climbing.

Hmmm. That's a good idea. With a live cockpit you're just hearing all the noises that your crew hears. With a probe core you get that whole silence of deep space aesthetic going on. Yep - I like that!

With luck the two could go together in this case, although I agree that better visual cues would be needed in the map view if sounds weren't available. I was thinking the same thing about deploying landing legs - that creaking, groaning sound that's used at the moment isn't so great and I think just having the legs silently unfolding in the vacuum would be much more awesome. But some kind of indicator light on the leg hinge which lights up when the leg is moving, or when the command to deploy takes effect. Something to let you know immediately that your button press has worked.

I can recommend Spacepod if you're looking for an astronomy and planetary science themed 'cast. Earth counts as a planet in this context, so there's bits of geology, glaciology and stuff mixed in with stuff about asteroids and assorted interplanetary missions. The level is pitched at 'interested listener' and doesn't assume much of a scientific background at all, so might be a little light for what you're looking for but I like it. Also, the Orbital Mechanics are apparently pretty good although I haven't (yet) listened to any of it. In the words of my dear wife upon reading the podcast description 'oh god - you'll want to start this once we're done with Spacepod.'

Perfectly understandable and in turn, my respect for your withdrawn comment. Internet debates need more of that kind of thing.

And as a totally random and self-aggrandizing aside, your line-up fits pretty neatly with how 'my' Jeb, Bill and Bob would play! Can't see Jeb on anything else than vocals and lead guitar and Bill would be a born drummer. I already have headcanon for Bob as a guitarist but he's a talented kerb - pretty sure he could turn in a decent sax solo if required.

Glad you added that qualifier. Even then, I would argue that rejecting reason isn't necessarily the sign of being uneducated - in fact the better educated you are the better the reasons you can articulate for your apparent rejection of reason in a particular field. Plenty of eminent scientists have held to their incorrect views on a subject in the face of an ever increasing weight of evidence against them. Sometimes a deeply held pet theory can trump any attempt at scientific objectivity. But I'm just arguing for arguments sake here.

I agree that a knowledge of air and spaceflight makes it more likely that you'll know the Earth isn't flat but I don't see why one guarantees the other. I also think it's a little dangerous to dismiss Flat-Earthers as gullible or uneducated. That way lies the slippery slope of similarly dismissing anyone who holds opinions that we disagree with. Indeed, Flat-Earthers seem to be quite capable of advancing rational arguments for their belief, even if they're less capable of accepting rational counter-arguments. (And they're hardly the only people in this world to have that particular blind spot.) Besides, holding to odd beliefs in one sphere shouldn't be taken as a lack of capacity in other spheres. As to Mad Mike - he seems a bit crazy but I have no idea how he persuaded the Flat-Earthers to part with their money. If he told them his steam powered rocket would take him to the edge of space and he pinky-promised to get lots of lovely photos of Flat Earth, well yeah you might have a point. On the other hand, if he told them that his rocket would only get him 1 maybe 2 kilometres up at most - you don't have to be a genius to figure that buying an airline ticket and staring out of the window during takeoff and landing, would probably give you more useful information for rather less than $8,000. TL: DR, I don't know enough to judge either way. Until then, calling this guy a moral vacuum seems overly harsh.

Well now I got that tune stuck in my head... With apologies to Dylan, Harrison, Lynne, Orbison and Petty.

Got a big grin going now - that was a great chapter! Got a real sense that the End of the Line was a much more professionally run place - nice job with the writing there. Incidentally - you're not a Travelling Wilbury fan by any chance? Don't have to be ashamed of the ship I fly (end of the line)I'm just glad to be here, happy to be alive (end of the line)It don't matter if you're by my side (end of the line)I'm satisfied.

Sound design in general is one area where I think KSP could use a lot of extra love. It would be nice, for example if spacecraft sounds in space were only audible from IVA. Admittedly that's a bit niche but all the examples that @Corona688 pointed out are a bit underwhelming too. Just the ordinary engine noises for example - these are rockets for goodness sake. Even with a certain amount of creative license (to fit in with the depicted quirkiness of Kerbal rockets), they should be noisy, they should be dramatic, they should sound like the cutting edge machines that they are. (And it really shouldn't be hard to get hold of a couple of decent recordings of real rocket launches to help the sound designers). Instead KSP rockets sound like Jeb blowing an extended raspberry all the way to orbit.

In Soviet Russia, KSP runs Beowulf cluster.

Has Netcraft confirmed it? Or am I on the wrong forum in the wrong era remembering the wrong meme?

Right, because a thread to complain about stuff is exactly where I'd expect to find something like this. *sighs* Could some kind moderator merge this thread with one of the other ones dealing with this please?

Came across this gem on Facebook the other day. I think the link says it all. http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/61-year-old-limo-driver-lift-himself-sky-diy-steam-powered-rocket-1648177 Best Facebook comment: "I think I've seen this cartoon before. Spoiler warning - he doesn't catch the roadrunner."

I'm with @Streetwind here - too hard to choose a single one but I'd go for most of his picks. Falcon 9 for that whole landing on its tail thing. Saturn V because giant moon rocket. R7 family because history and cool design.

Cool - hope it works. I'm very much from the 'if it aint broke don't fix it' school of computer users, so I tend to figure that if I can get something to work it can't be that tough.

Very simple on iOS and I can't imagine Android is much trickier. There should be an option somewhere in your settings to switch on mobile hotspot. At which point your phone will give you a password which you use to connect to it in the same way you'd normally connect to your router.

A couple of things that I've found with writing realistic (according to present day technology) spaceflight science fiction which I think would also apply to films. Getting the level of peril right can be quite difficult. There's only so much mileage in the 'wonder of space' Admittedly, I'm by no means an expert at this writing thing but there's only so much drama you can extract from star-struck astronauts watching their homeworld from orbit. It might never get dull for them but it most likely will for your audience / readers. I've also found that striking a balance between 'welp - they're stuffed then' and 'meh - they can fix that', is tricky. I imagine it gets even more tricky when that's not the main focus of the film and you can't really afford to devote half an hour of screen time to an elaborate depiction of the crew cobbling an air filter together out of old socks, duck tape and a spare Tang can. Especially when they're building it mid-way though the film so you're pretty sure that, as the theatre probably isn't planning to roll the credits anytime in the next hour, the crew are probably going to be okay. You can level plenty of criticisms at Interstellar but (for me at least) it did a very good job of the 'exploring strange new worlds' theme. Likewise, I thought the Martian did a good job at getting the general feel of the book right without getting bogged down in technical minutae.

I see absolutely no reason why more accessible gameplay implies simpler gameplay, or any sort of dumbing down, or any lack of modding capacity. A simple, if rather shop-worn example would be a delta-V readout added to the current stock game. Presto - the game is now more accessible because you now have some metrics to drive your spacecraft designs if you choose to use them, rather than relying on trial and error. The more casual 'struts-and-boosters' crowd doesn't lose anything, folks that prefer a more planned approach to the game gain a great deal. As for cartoony graphics - fine. After all we're talking about a game where all the protagonists are cartoony green aliens anyway. I wouldn't regard a well executed, uniform but cartoony graphic style as any sort of problem, especially if the whole game, terrain graphics, information readouts and everything were done to match. Edit: Sorry about the double post - you can blame the wonderful mobile forum experience for that.