SirJodelstein

Solar panels & Rtgs are so overrated... Sorry, couln't resist

The layout is correct (almost, thats not 8-fold symmetry i used there), but you've got the wrong engine type. Respectable attempt anyway, but you won't be able to sell this one as an Hypnosis replica :-)

Currently playing through it myself, and yes, the 1-2 missions per node is achieveable, and i am trying to go unusual ways in the tree. I have choices everywhere i go, but also have the "i shouldn't pick this yet, this might cripple me" thought about some nodes. I used jet engines to get science from Kerbins biomes, with a flight to the north pole to unlock SRBs. With that, the door is open for drone missions to space/LKO first, and with a little optimization unmanned Mun/Minmus (at 400-500 science each) + manned missions into LKO, wich eventually leads to manned missions to Mun+Minmus in chairs. Gave me choices between better rockets vs transmission vs construction things vs new science experiment. Went with transmission, and did a Duna impactor mission with loads of batteries. With better rockets, i might have done a return mission instead. Or i could have continued to do Mun missions to unlock solar panels. Now i have unlocked the large SRB+LV30, and can finally do a heavy lifter. If you are having troubles, maybe you are missing a crew science opportunity? (EVA while flying over biome?) Or some areas for science that can be reached early on with some tinkering like "upper atmosphere" or "space near Kerbin (not orbit)". I can show you some of my designs if you are interested (pm me).

Do you like engine exhaust effects? Do you like art? Here is an off-the-beaten-path challenge for you: Exhaust Pattern Reproduction Challenge The goal is to reproduce an exhaust pattern image as closely as possible by building and firing the appropriate engine layout. Participate by either posting a replica of a given pattern (along with a screenshot of the rocket/vessel that you used to produce it from a "normal" angle) or by posting a new pattern for others to try a reproduction (Please give your creations a name). I'll start with an easy one: "Black Ace of Diamonds" and a hard one: "Hypnosis" You "win" this challenge by having fun participating. Simple as that. No highscores, no efficiency records, there are plenty of other challenges if you want those. This here is just a little KSP quiz combined with some engineering know-how with some pretty images. Lets see how it rolls.

Continuing my "interplanetary missions without energy generators" stuff. Eve lander detaches from interplanetary drive stage

Get r4m0ns TreeLoader (also linked in the OP) and fire up KSP. Start a new career game. TreeLoader plugin will ask you to select a Tree from a dropdown list and load the selected tree automatically for you (via kspmodders.com)

I used r4m0ns TreeEdit to create a total Techtree rework to adress all of the issues i have with the stock Tree (mainly "way too easy" and "unlimited sending == returning"). It can be selected in the Tree selection menu from TreeLoader. In this tree, you will need to explore Kerbins biomes via rovers and experimental planes before beeing able to unlock the first rockets. You will face meaningful decisions about your next advances, since you cannot simple unlock it all at once. Do you really need those ladders or lights? Or maybe save those valuable science points for more pressing limitations? Go for better rockets first? Or maybe invest in lighter probe cores and transmission technology? Or more science experiments? Or save it all up for energy sources? Your choice! One thing is for certain: You will need to build vessels you have never built before in KSP, this tree will challenge your creativity, engineering expertise and strategic planning. Tech Tree overview with node costs and node content highlights (click for full resolution) Features: - mismatching parts whereever you look. You will have to build some adventurous contraptions to progress. (See album at the bottom). - Early Kerbin biome missions required to gather enough science for spaceflight technology - Drone exploration as the only viable choice for early space missions due to the massive weight of the available pods. - Large unwieldy parts come before more efficient designs - generally about ~1-2 missions per technology, total unlocking cost about 29.000 science (not counting the empty "experimental" nodes from the stock tree) - Spaceflight starts with the small SRB - Late transmission elements (750 science). No suicidal missions early on. - No energy generation until very late stages (2000 science). Interplanetary missions without energy sources other than rocket engines? Better pack some tons of batteries ;-) The tree is balanced to be used with the following restrictions (ignore them if you like it easier): - No crew reports from ladders of a landed vessel (generates the "flying-over-XY" report). If you want that report, you better build something that can hover. - Dont use the airplane cockpits for spaceflight. Cupola, command pods and chairs only. Chairs are balanced since they cannot store experiments. - No manned spaceflight mission to anywhere where you have not sent a probe first This is a tech tree for anyone who likes a good challenge. I tried to keep node progression and content logical/natural, but in quite some cases creating gameplay challenges came first here. So don't complain that it is unlogical to have struts very late, or that noone would ever send a probe to space without having developed energy sources and radio transmission first. This is the Kerbin way of science! Technical note: The tree contains all the nodes of the stock tree, so if you use mods which have assigned their parts to these nodes, the parts will still appear somewhere along your journey. Use mod parts at your own will (balancing might be off). Feedback welcome!

Ok, here is my entry: Mission EnDuranCE (short for Experiment to navigate to Duna requiring astronomical Charges of Energy) Ike flyby to burnup in Duna atmosphere in 35 days, with battery capacities for 38 days, and 50 dV remaining. For added fun, i used only the medium stack battery banks: Science bounty can be seen in the last images: Goo+Temperature from high+low Duna/Ike: 557,9 sciene! Be aware that there seems to be a bug with the energy consumption at high warp rates: My 95k charges ran out in about 29 days where they should have lasted 38 days (only consuming element is the probe which should have used 1.6777 charges per minute, and the SAS was deactivated for the flight). I edited my quicksave afterwards to restore 21k energy i should have had just after entering Dunas SOI. 10 tons is really harsh limit, i'm going to open up a new "middleweight" category for vessels less than 12 tons which should dramatically increase the options to go with.

Actually, i doubt it is possible to build a lifter that puts more than 10 tons into lko. Come-on, the highest-thrusting option has 120 kN thrust at a lousy ISP. I think even 5 tons to lko with these is a great display of engineering skill. Every planet? not very likely. And if we can start in LKO it immediately goes down to almost zero challenge if you have a good enough computer. Sorry, back to the drawing board.

@Gangrene: I have to disagree. My testing cylce is launch, fail, revert back to VAB, perform a minor change, relaunch. The problem is not choosing the pilot for the first launch (i usually do that). The problem is that KSP forgets this selection as soon as i revert to the VAB for the minor change. Everything else on the rocket is saved, why not the pilot assignment (or worse, the removal of a Kerbal for an unmanned test flight). Jebediah keeps sneaking on into my unfinished experimental flights.

- Start a new Career save - exit to main menu - edit the save-file (persistent.sfs): change the line "sci = 0" to "sci = 20000". - load your game. Voila, enough science to unlock everything, and get the whole fun of science experiments without needing to go through the tech tree.

And i've been tabbing through all the planets for so long.... great!

As it is possible to transfer energy like fuel via Alt+RightClick, so yes, this is perfectly reasonably (but not really required).

This is a challenge to explore the hypothetical question "What if electric charge was a limited resource?" In my opinion, this would definetly have a heavy impact on gameplay, forcing the player to make some additional interesting decisions during craft building and mission execution. Challenge Outline Build an unmanned craft less than 10 tons (payload in LKO) and perform an interplanetary science mission. Highest science return wins. But here is the trick: The limited part list contains no energy generators. You will have to trade available dV vs battery lifetime, and balance probe lifetime with transmission costs. Part list - Any probe body - tanks: FLT-100, torodial, oscar-B - engines: Rockomax 24-77, LV-1R, Sepratron - Any science experiment except - Communotron 16 for transmission - stuff: Fuel line, any chute, any landing leg, any inactive structural and aero parts (no decoupler/separator - you can however use several sepratrons to create a makeshift overheat separator) - any battery Additional rules: - This is an interplanetary challenge. No science experiments at Kerbin/Mun/Minmus. - atmospheric entries must be protected by a makeshift heatshield (plates/nosecones/adapters/etc), and be able to keep that heatshield in prograde direction during atmospheric heating phases. - start with your craft in an 100x100km (+-5km) orbit around Kerbin. Use whatever you want to get it up there. - required documentation: screenshot showing craft in orbit, map view showing initial mass&orbit, mission summary showing total science acquired - try to keep a somewhat sane shape (imagine you had to build a lifter for it) - informational mods and mechjeb are allowed for this one, as it is more of a builing/strategic challenge How to play get this zip, put it into your "scenarios" folder, and "unzip here". This should give you a scenario with 0 science and all nodes already unlocked (i could not create a scenario with the specific part list without modifying the part.cfg files). Go from there. I am currently working on my submission (current plan is a 20-day sprint to Duna impact with Ike flyby), and am curious what you can come up with. Highly recommended: Launch window Planner for non-homann transfers

I agree, and chairs come as an addition very early on. But unless you can tell me how to spawn a Chair with a Kerbal from the VAB/SPH, there still needs to be some pod that contains the crew. One of the first ingame tasks in this tree will be how to figure out how to separate the extremely heavy cupola from the actual vessel without decouplers. Also, the cupola is a nice obstacle for any kind of flight/spaceflight mission due to its weight.

An extremely lucky Mun sample return In my custom tech tree, i have no energy sources yet, and the batteries ran out shortly after liftoff from mun. This is where i landed: phew. 500 science landed on the drone head because i could not orient the probe during reentry. Next to a cliff. At about 8m/s. Lucky drone :-)

I used r4m0ns TreeEdit to create a total Techtree rework to adress all of the issues i have with the stock Tree (mainly "way too easy" and "unlimited sending == returning"). It should be available next to Yargnits and Majiirs tree in the selection menu as soon as r4m0n promotes it. In this tree, you will need to explore Kerbins biomes via rovers and experimental planes before beeing able to unlock the first rockets. You will face meaningful decisions about your next advances, since you cannot simple unlock it all at once. Do you really need those ladders or lights? Or maybe save those valuable science points for more pressing limitations? Go for better rockets first? Or maybe invest in lighter probe cores and transmission technology? Or more science experiments? Or save it all up for energy sources? Your choice! Features: - Early Kerbin biome missions required to gather enough science for spaceflight technology - Drone exploration as the only viable choice for early space missions due to the massive weight of the available pods. - Large unwieldy parts come before more efficient designs - generally about ~1-2 missions per technology, total unlocking cost about 29.000 science (not counting the empty "experimental" nodes from the stock tree) - Spaceflight starts with the small SRB - Late transmission elements (750 science). No suicidal missions early on. - No energy generation until very late stages (2000 science). Interplanetary missions without energy sources other than rocket engines? Better pack some tons of batteries ;-) The tree is balanced to be used with the following restrictions (ignore them if you like it easier): - No crew reports from ladders of a landed vessel (generates the "flying-over-XY" report). If you want that report, you better build something that can hover. - Dont use the airplane cockpits for spaceflight. Cupola, command pods and chairs only. Chairs are balanced since they cannot store experiments. - No manned spaceflight mission to anywhere where you have not sent a probe first This is a tech tree for anyone who likes a good challenge. It contains all the nodes of the stock tree, so if you use mods which have assigned their parts to these nodes, the parts will still appear somewhere along your journey. Use mod parts at your own will (balancing might be off). Feedback welcome!

I am currently fine-tuning my own total tree-rework before release via TreeLoader. Currently includes stock parts and nodes only, so as long as the mod makers assign their parts to the stock nodes, they should appear (though the nodes containing them might now be at a totally different position in the tree). Anyway, stay tuned for a major challenge: You start with a Cupola and some random stuff to build makeshift rovers. No rockets other than sepratrons and an ant engine, so you will have to explore beautiful Kerbin quite a bit with planes before beeing able to unlock the first solid rocket booster. In some areas, you get the large unwieldy parts first before refinements give you lighter/better fitting options. Ever built a micro rocket with the largest stack separator available or with the heavy Manifold radial decoupler? Good fun :-) Other challenges include very late Energy generation (robotic missions to Mun and Minmus on a tight energy budget, my last two flights only had some minutes energy remaining when they started the return burn, so it was "aim, deploy chutes and watch helplessly") and no signal transmission options until after exploration of the Mun.

i still prefer this mod, because it has categories/folders. One folder for lifers, one for rovers, etc

Incredible detail if you actually drew this without image references! I built it! And i did some test flights with it. Oh dear, the name "Noober I-2" is program here. First, there is a 50% chance of disassembly on the Pad when physics kick in (low launch clamps = not very rigid). If it doesn't, liftoff to booster and mainsail separation is suprisingly stable and with a near-perfect TWR. After that, the problems start. The intermediate stage Poodle has nowhere near enough thrust (TWR < 1), and shortly after that, air resistance and gravity do their job and return the crew to the surface. Crew survivability is no problem, even with last tank+engine still attached the parachute will not rip off. Nice challenge! Here is my blueprint (a little more vague, be creative). Bonus points if you can actually make it fly reasonably stable :-)

i was talking about an artificial satellite in Low Earth Orbit

Thanks for all the answers, i just saw this amazing video on gravitational gradient stabilization from what i gathered, this effect happens for any satellite, but is usually too weak to stabilize the satellite unless you have special devices (long tethers/booms with mass at the end) to deliberately utilize it? so if i put a car into orbit and cancel its rotational movement it will float like in "A" (but will stabilize over the course of many years/orbits), but if put two cars into orbit connected by a several kilometer long rope the system will self-stabilize and orbit like in "B"? (And most satellites use the "add synced rotation factor" method to continually face earth?)

So, i've come here because of a discussion with some coworkers today we couldn't settle due, and i've come here to find good scientific explanations (preferrably with references) on who is right or wrong: Assume a sattelite in a circular orbit around earth (ignoring atmospheric effects). At one point in time, the satellite cancels all local rotational moments in relation to earth (with gyros/RCS/KSP timewarp). From that point on (provided there are no further attitude control actions from the satellite), does the orientation of the satellite stay fixed in relation to the universe (A) or does it rotate and constantly faces earth with one side? Please do not discuss how KSC simulates this, i'd like to discuss real physics here. Topics covered in our heaty discussion today touched tidal locking, force fields, water-in-a-bucket-swung-on-a-rope, ISS active attitude control and Nerf gun fights, but no side could prevail. Do satellites automatically tidal lock to earth? Do they need active attitude control to keep facing earth? Or do they float around their orbits with a precisely-calculated fixed rotation speed that keeps them oriented towards earth without further force/torque input? What happens when they stop this rotation once? Does it depend on orbit height and/or vessel mass or size? I have a very clear opinion on those matters (which i am not going to post to not bias this discussion in a certain direction), i just couldn't find references for it.

difficult decision. Many good submissions, so hard to decide on one. In the end, i went with Ampstermans Duna-Lander, as this was the only rocket (other than mine) that survived a vertical 15m/s drop test on Kerbin. But it has no landing lights and tips over easily, so i am inclined to change my vote in the finals (i hope Pulsar and GusTurbo make it to the finals). Some more notes (mostly critics for crafts i really liked): - i skipped every lander with < 1700m/s dV, since i think a heavy lander should bring enough fuel for some maneuvering - Sirine: Great craft, included it in my fleet, but not useful as a stock replacement (too otherworldly). Also, impossible to climb the ladders downwards (upwards from floor is fine) - GusTurbo TheHeavy: Inable to climb down ladders - frizzank - no landing lights - Genius Evil and Hejnfeld: IMO, this contest is the wrong place to submit crafts that leave the landing stage behind

Not quite finished, but here is my current project: Squib the space squirrel. Currently a single-stage rocket with about 4200m/s dV. Just a little bit more tweaking to do Craft and more pictures in the OP