satcharna

Spaceflight for spaceflight's sake is an awful reason. Spaceflight for scientific progress, extraplanetary resources and the security of the human species are good reasons. You're right though, Kerbal society doesn't have to correspond to our own, but at the same time, there are no reasons for why common sense shouldn't be the same, or more specifically, the average politician's lack of it. A minister would see no reason to go to space, because it isn't getting him reelected. Lowering taxes or improving healthcare is going to get him reelected, and there's no reason why this should be any different for the kerbals.

My example clearly doesn't apply today. I thought I made that clear by using Soviet Union instead of Roskosmos. Still, just say North Korea instead, then. While I agree that politics aren't a necessity for Kerbal, I still stand by that a space programme is unlikely without competition between nations. During the Cold War, the greatest progress in space technologies were made, and there was a lot of competition for First Nation To Do This, which died with the cold war. Today, the vast majority of launches are for commercial satellites. The Kerbal programme of sending people to Eeloo simply wouldn't exist without competing nations, they'd be content with landing unmanned probes instead.

All the struts are just for aesthetics, none are needed for stability. I just wanted a crash cage, and some "wires" between the controls and the surfaces, like in real gliders.

This is partially because of how control surfaces work. Basically, they exert a small amount of force on your craft. By using just two wings and two standard control surfaces, you can make planes that move 250m/s without engines or fuel. Hopefully they will fix this in the aerodynamic update. Below is a miniature plane that can do this on Duna without a problem.

Sandbox mode is for "simulating" your rockets and landers, career is for playing the game. It's as simple as this: If there's no risk of failure, there's no challenge. Without challenge, you won't have a good time. Play sandbox until you're confident enough to fly your rockets without quicksave in career. If you can't lose rockets, you can't lose money, and you can't lose the game.

I landed another infiniglider on Duna.

I hope quicksaves are disabled for career mode as well. I'd miss them, sure, but I think immersion is more important. Sometimes rockets fail, and after enough failures your government would decide that space simply isn't worth it.

Anywhere on Kerbin obviously shouldn't work. Imagine if an astronaut had landed in the Soviet Union, or a cosmonaut in the US. They'd be treated well enough, sure, but they'd still be prisoners for several years. Still, I should hope that we at least get a safezone of a few kilometres. Targeting the KSC isn't too hard, but accurate parachute landings can be difficult, and I'd rather not have to send out little planes to fetch them every time they land a few kilometres of course or worse, in the ocean.

Just thought I'd post this up here for anyone that missed the weekly. xPDxTV is taking applications for broadcasting on KSPTV, to fill in the spots left open from the fired streamers. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/41645-KSP-TV-Broadcaster-Applications-NOW-OPEN

8/10. Very nice, but the neck looks a bit too long, or the head a bit too small.

Grayscale cosmonaut, actually, but close. You're still 6/10, I wish Nexis would improve the avatar size limit already.

Bleh/5 Favour returned.

That's a good idea, I hope people are willing to help you out. I would donate in an instant, but I'm afraid I'm permanently low on money. If I get something over next month, I'll try and shoot it your way. Your renders really are that awesome.

Neat looking shield of some form. Low resolution makes it unfortunately difficult to tell, though, so 6/10.

The Glider Programme has had another breakthrough. After the sudden increase of funding gained after the successful demonstration of the technologies involved in the prototype, CHI Engineers were hired to lighten the payload of the glider for use as an adequate landing platform for Duna. By removing parts of the crashcage, they were able to successfully land test pilot Bob, somehow returned from the dead, on Duna. The new lander is expected to see much use as a lightweight crew transporter on the surface of Duna, and a trial run order has been placed for three models to use to recover personnel on the surface of Kerbin. Pending successful trials, the gliders will be sent to Duna on the next TNVR-3 cargotug, in two months. Additionally, a VTOL-capable version, launched with a catapult and recaptured with a winch-equipped tower is being developed for use on the future aquatic Laythe-base.

War planes are impressive, no doubt. Once saw a Sturmovik and a Ju-87 Stuka, as well as some assorted fighters, at an airshow and was stunned by how massive they were. You really don't get the proper feel of scale from images and clips.

I usually score rather well on IQ tests as well, but they are hardly indicative of actual intelligence, like Sid said. There are simply too many different tests, with different standards, done in different ways. Besides, intelligence can't be summarised in a single number, simply because you can be intelligent in different ways. There are people who can tell the weekday of any date, but are unable to tie their own shoes. Does that make them more intelligent than someone who's average at everything, but writes good poems? What you should be looking for is a general aptitude test. Using them, I can say that I'm excellent at remembering things, solving logical problems, mathematics, the word part of speaking and writing, but also that I'm awful at music, keeping focus, storytelling, and anything creative that requires me to imagine things myself.

There have been some fixes, and I believe it's possible to get past rank 10 without constant payments now. The next big patch is apparently going to be a major fix to the economy though.I still haven't managed since I suck at the game.

Does this apply to all solid rocket engines, or just to the more advanced ones? Example, would making your own firework rockets be illegal as well?

I've built rockets, using time-honoured techniques originating from the Korean peninsula. Yes, I pour black powder in a tube and put a stick on it.

I'd like to urge you to reconsider the Professor Kerman spiel, I feel like it's only been weighing the streams down, and it gives off the wrong impressions. Looking back at the streams this evening, and most previous streams as well, KSPTV has made KSP look like a children's game, and I hope you will try to bring some professionalism to it soon.

No, it's just OP doing some pointless speculating.

Questions like this one are rather pointless right now, don't you think? KSP is still in alpha, and it's got a lot of work to do before it can even consider itself a beta. I doubt Squad themselves have any plans regarding a sequel at this point, and they really shouldn't either. Wait until the game is at least release-worthy before asking things like this, it's just plain inappropriate right now.

The Unpowered Glider Lander Programme has had another breakthrough, bringing about a new and highly economic way of landing new personnel on Laythe and Eve. After the deaths of brave Kerbonauts Jebediah, Bob and Sonlin, things seemed bleak for the Glider Programme, as it found itself facing heavy criticism from the general public, and significant cuts to its budget from the government. Nevertheless, the intrepid engineers involved were able to finish constructing and launching their very first prototype glider. By installing two headlights, the centre of mass was moved forward far enough for the aerobraking to no longer throw the vehicle into an uncontrollable spin, and a slight adjustment in control surface trim has increased lifting power significantly. The lander is launched docked to a nuclear tug, to offer a more comfortable pod for the pilot, and the power of interplanetary propulsion. The nuclear tug brings the lander to Laythe, where it has just enough fuel left to put the vehicle in a stable orbit at roughly 60km altitude. The glider is then detached from the tug, and the pilot EVAs to push the vehicle into the atmosphere, aiming for a periapsis of about 52 kilometers. The aerobrakes are deployed, and the glider quickly descends to its service ceiling of 10km, where it can glide indefinitely at roughly 300m/s. The standard landing glideslope is long, as the wheels have a tendency to break at high velocities, limiting landings to roughly 40m/s. Aerobrakes have to be quickly deployed at this point, to prevent the glider from simply bouncing back into the air. The vehicle is capable of unassisted take-offs in uphill slopes of less than 20 degrees, and is very manoeuvrable despite the heavy landing gear. You can see below how happy Test Pilot Bill is to have successfully landed the glider, and he is currently resting up for the very long flight to the main Laythebase, as mission control greatly overestimated how effective the aerobrakes would be. No worries though, honoured readers. The glider is well stocked for emergencies such as these, and Bill has been reported as enjoying the comfort of thick blankets and chocolate at the current time. He has, however, also been reported as saying that he'd much have preferred an inflatable mattress over the tripod-and-camera equipment used for these publicity photos.

Got to love how well the Ishak rolls. One of my favourite early planes for that alone. The massive propeller is a nice touch as well.