Speeding Mullet

I cannot give you too much advice on telescopes as I am still on my 20x80's I bought a year ago. I find the wide field of view you get with bins much better for sky-scanning and learning your way around the various bit's and bobs, where as a telescope is much more complex to set up and aim (in general) and with a much narrower field of view so you really are going for a targeted spot in space. If I was to give some advice though it would probably be as follows (regurgitated from pro's when I was looking): Spend a lot of money on the mount/tripod, it's virtually as important at the actual scope, I would say more so but there's no point in having a lonesome mount. Ignore magnification power - This is because you can put a “high power†eyepiece on basically any telescope and get a ridiculously high magnification power, but unless the telescope has a large enough aperture and quality optics to support that magnification, you won’t be able to get a sharp image. That “high power†eyepiece itself is probably also going to be very optically poor. Optics - Get the absolute best that you can afford. If you have the space a Dob will be an absolute light bucket for the money, biggest bang per buck as they say, but if you want to rely on computers and auto tracking etc, then look at a Schmidt-Cassegrain or Newtonian telescopes. Check out this link for a nice summary: http://soggyastronomer.com/the-agony-of-buying-your-first-telescope/ Something else to have a look at is Skynet. I bought some time on their space telescopes in the Chilean Andes and around the world and had an absolute blast. Sure it's not getting all wrapped up and heading out to a dark sky sight, but it is very very rewarding, and when else would you be allowed to control a half meter Ritchey-Chrétien or a 20 meter radio telescope!? Whatever you choose it's going to be heaps of fun, and even if you end up trading up in the future it will not have been a mistake. Good luck! SM

Trying for something quite spectacular when something quite spectacular happened. I guess I got what I wanted even though the result wasn't entirely expected..... SM

^That was a great video, I actually laughed out loud at 3:05...

I grossly underestimated the Delta-v required to hulk something into orbit around Moho. It won't be the last time I do that, but it does mean the crew absolutely wailed past Moho at stunning speed and without a hope, leaving me with an extensive redesign to post an entry.

I was planning on doing the Laythe Capitalism Challenge eventually, then this one cropped up and I thought it would be a good start. I converted my K-Prize ship (capable of landings on both Minmus and Mun in the same mission), removing the cargo bay and substituting for crew pods. Let's check in on the team and see how they got on on this wondrous voyage to the mint ball: Ten Kerbals onboard and the fuel bill was: LF: 970.67 at √0.8/unit equals √776.536 O: 1046 at √0.18/unit equals √188.28 MP: 6.88 at √1.2/unit equals √8.256 Total fuel bill equals √973.072, for a ticket price of √97.3072 per Kerbal.

I think this challenge thoroughly deserves a bump back up into prime viewing territory, and I'm doing it for a good reason. I entered the challenge in October last year. this is my story..... So I was in the middle of the Dunaprojekt challenge around November last year. I had everything nailed. The design and testing phase had taken over 4 weeks and the level of detail in the craft was extraordinary. Parachutes were individually tailored dependent on payload to surface, rocket fuel exactly calculated, and staging planned perfectly for each portion of the mission. Even the probes were configured with full EDL packages tailored to their approach. I had flight tested, ground tested, and retested everything to ensure no problems. Maximum bragging rights were lined up. Finally 3 beautifully designed rockets lifted off and joined in an orbital ballet to make the huge (no seriously) ship that would travel to Duna. Everything went beautifully as expected and mission was nominal on arrival in Duna orbit. With an expectant grin on his face Dudvan (that really should have been a clue thinking back) fired the multi-joint fairing and floated over to oversee the release of the probes. Check out the short gallery of a few interesting pictures of the mission detail. For scale the Nuke engines are the Big ones!!: annnnnnnnd then my (heavily modded) game broke, along with my spirit and will to play the game for quite some time. All of the docking ports stuck on with no amount of fiddling in game or with code able to fix and effectively ended the mission. I stopped playing really until 0.90 was a few weeks in and am now back in the game (whoop) with my own rocket company and enjoying KSP again! I'm going to re-enter this brilliant challenge shortly, but I thought the above might serve as some more inspiration and information for other people entering this re-found challenge. SM

Mullet Dyne Advanced Operations presents Dinklestein's entry to the procurement challenge. The K-5.2 Krappofortress is an 8 engine workhorse, built to loft large payloads hugely inefficiently to a target. What it does do well is make things disappear. Seriously, there wasn't even a target when the crew reached the peninsula, so they just carpet bombed the whole place, landed for a photo and flew back. Points Tally: More Boom - payload of 24 FL-T400 bombs = 216 points Swift Payback - 133M/s @ 3000 = 13.3 points Engine Maintenance - 8 Basic engines = -16 points Part Maintenance - 189 parts = -3.78 points Career Switch = 20 points Service Ceiling = 15 points Inspired Shape = 2 points TOTAL: 246.52 points Bombing Run: Career Switch: Great challenge! In hindsight I could have replaced the nose cone with a shielded docking port and gone for the refuel points, but I didn't so there we are.

Mullet Dyne Advanced Operations would like to offer up Dinklestein's personal K-Prize design as a challenge entry. Mission tested and achieving the following: Advanced Pilot Precision Award Exploratory Astrokerbal Distinction (Minmus, Mun) Exploratory Utilitarial Commendation (Minmus) The team is sure a better pair of pilots could have managed more, and visiting another SOI is certainly an alternative mission, just don't sign up Seemund and Lusen again! CRAFT FILE - please note the craft file comes with a different payload to the mission, I was going to run again and pick up a couple more awards, but have other challenges to enter! MISSION REPORT:

So good! Lovely clean lines too. What's the payload max weight to orbit on that? edit: I get that the post is about the sub-assembly which btw +rep, but I was wondering the above also

Yesterday my rocket company completed it's first contract. I also did some work on my Maxi Shuttle The main body of today's work involved the long awaited upgrade to the micro-shuttle in the form of the inventively named midi-shuttle is a key move forwards on the road to the maxi-shuttle. If that wasn't enough of a mouthful, Dinklestein has even installed snack bays in the all new Midi, with capacity for 6 crew (cargo version planned). Capable of ~750k orbits with plenty of fuel left over for orbital shenanigans. Just remember to Press 6, R, and T before launch, then hands off the wheel until staging time. Press 1 after the R.A.P.I.E.R changes to closed cycle (to close the intakes) and throttle back to zero just as the fuel in the Rockomax Jumbo-64 get's dry so you don't burn the shuttles fuel supply. Then stage and watch the form. 10/10 on this one folks! Only 90 parts and 96t SM

Haha brilliant thanks for the feedback Yukon0009, I think that's only got 1 SAS module! with a bit of practice that thing can get to space basically hands free. The micro-shuttle flies like a dream on and after re-entry too! Midi-shuttle in final testing and should be very similar in characteristics to the micro. Maxi-shuttle still firmly in R+D.

only 3 vernor engines and 6 SAS modules on mine so far. That's another lesson learned

This. This is probably what my design is missing. Still. Sooooooooooooooooooo close to reality:

I know that if you double click on on the window you want to look from, you can then pan the camera, so you will then be viewing back into the cabin from the perspective of the window. I'm not sure if it will allow you to view all occupants in each case though. Worth checking out.

The runway may not be stronger: The launch pad doesn't like flybys either:

What exactly are you looking for when you say Eve capable? Flyby/orbit only, or landing only, or full return capable vehicle? I'm in the process of creating something but I'd defer to Redshift OTF judging by his ship. SM

Feel free to peruse my new rocket company Mullet Dyne Advanced Operations. The Screamchaser and Microshuttle are both worthy of attention in my eyes

Today I made the Screamchaser for my rocket company Mullet Dyne's Advanced Operations The result of some serious forum necro posting, the Screamchaser represents the pinnacle of 6 to orbit panic. As ever, Dinklestein directed the vehicle to be fully kitted out in the most luxurious fashion so it features mod cons such as wings and seats. Easily capable of orbits over 1MKM the Screamchaser also comes fitted with lights, antenna, ladder, RCS/SAS, and a docking port. Getting to space is easy, just fly it like you stole it, but put a touch of RCS on during the gravity turn. Returning to the surface even at high energy is simple - Put the angle of attack wherever you want (30-40 degrees is about right) and leave RCS on. Once the reentry heat has dissipated point nose down slightly, and glide in for the perfect touch down. Total part count is 117 for the whole sha-bang CRAFT FILE SM

Yeah 25 depending on how you are counting it, the engine decks where also capable of operating autonomously.

This was an 894 part monster that was mostly stock apart from a few Kethane bits. STATS: Total Ship Mass on Departure: 284 T Total Part Count on Departure: 894 - bad times Crew: 28 Central Living quarters Detachable heat shield 1 Jool impactor probe 1 Jool satellite 4 sub orbital hoppers 4 communication and kethane scanning satellites 2 robot RCS vehicles Kethane mining and rover/base drop ship 4 two man rovers, each with 2 detachable science packages 4 four man bases for the Joolian moons (apart from Tylo) 1 Laythe jet plane 1 Tylo lander and return vehicle 1 Mobile Lab 1 Jool space station 1 Return to Kerbin ferry (main ship and drop ship stay in high Jool orbit to service remaining crew and moon bases) Main thread here This is one of the albums selected for best views of the (very) complex ship. For a sense of scale the tanks by the SIXTEEN ATOMIC ROCKET MOTORS are the large orange jobbies. Interestingly I originally tried to launch it as one big lump:

Thought this worthy of a share following a comment by Yukon0009. Starting big didn't work, so the R+D department directed by Dinklestein came up with this nifty little 77 part, 66.4t microshuttle, capable of high Kerbin orbit (~1MKM) and return. Just Press 6 (turn off RCS ports), R, T, and Z before launch, then hands off the wheel until staging time! Press 1 after the R.A.P.I.E.R changes to closed cycle (to close the intakes) and throttle back to zero just as the fuel in the Rockomax Jumbo-64 get's dry so you don't burn the shuttles fuel supply. Then stage and watch how beautifully the jumbo separates! Link to craft file

Snap - What an interesting engineering project to follow!

hellblazer that's a great set of photos! This is WIP from this evenings R+D for Mullet Dyne Advanced Operations

There's some absolute leviathan vehicles going on here. The Deep Jool certainly doesn't stack up against some of the previously posted but it's probably the biggest ship I've ever made. the weight of the ship was minimal as it flew to the Jool system running on fumes - Kethane mission! STATS: Total Ship Mass on Departure: 284 T Total Part Count on Departure: 894 - bad times Crew: 28 Central Living quarters Detachable heat shield 1 Jool impactor probe 1 Jool satellite 4 sub orbital hoppers 4 communication and kethane scanning satellites 2 robot RCS vehicles Kethane mining and rover/base drop ship 4 two man rovers, each with 2 detachable science packages 4 four man bases for the Joolian moons (apart from Tylo) 1 Laythe jet plane 1 Tylo lander 1 Mobile Lab 1 Return to Kerbin ferry (main ship and drop ship stay in high Jool orbit to service remaining crew and moon bases) Main thread here This is one of the albums selected for best views of the (very) complex ship. For a sense of scale the tanks by the SIXTEEN ATOMIC ROCKET MOTORS are the large orange jobbies. Interestingly I originally tried to launch it as one big lump: Oh yes, dbmorpher once responded to a "what shall I do next" thread with 1) build a cathedral 2) put in on the mun. So I did. That was a whale of a vehicle also:

Edit: Oh that's odd spoilers severely crop the image so you are not seeing half of the module! Thanks for the clarification. I suppose if the engineers ever do figure out the 12 into 6 thing, then my ships might not have to be so obscenely long