Gargamel

I know the Apollo landers carried the radioactive core in a cask on the lander's leg, and an astronaut would have to then insert the core into the RTG itself. I believe this was done because there had been a few failed launches where RTG's had RUD'ed upon unexpected re-entry, so the core has to be contained in a cask that will survive re-entry, and not contaminate the environment. I think Apollo saved weight by keeping the core in a smaller cask, and then assembling it later, rather than having to build a bigger cask as part of the RTG. The Apollo 13 RTG ended up (intentionally) in the Tonga Trench, and they think it's still intact. So there is historical precedent for 'activating' an RTG, but I don't think it has a usable game play mechanic.

Not possible. RTG's create power from the decay of an isotope. They don't have any moving parts, there is no on or off switch, there just is power. And heat. From the moment the material is created, the clock starts ticking. I think they should decay some. Perhaps adding some parts in the tech tree where the efficiency of the RTG's increases with more unlocks. The first RTG would be good for 2-3 years, the second 8-10, and the third 30-50. While the cost would increase due to the better materials and design, the weight of the part should not increase much at all, as they are being designed to be more efficient. I don't think we need more RTG parts, just increase the stats on the one we do have as the tech tree progresses. EDIT: Seeing @Brikoleurs comment about fun game play, I'll amend my idea so the highest tech tree would either not decay, or have a life span long enough to basically not have an effect on the game. 500 years?

Quite possibly, I was just thinking how I place ports on my landers, and it's usually on the top. I had the image of a huge craft hovering over top a tiny lander, trying to dock, like a seagull trying to steal the food from your hand.

Docking, while in atmospheric flight, with a stationary vehicle, is not impossible, but very difficult. I'd design the correct vessel for the mission, with enough fuel to get back, and then land it nearby. Have the kerbals run over to the new lander, and fly home that way. You can have a much smaller lander that way, rather than the giant sky crane you'd have to design to return the kerbals and their ship. If you do do the mid flight docking/landing and full recovery, post it up on Youtube, that would be a sight to see.

Don't feel bad, I'm still playing 1.2.x, I have 1.3.1 downloaded, but I wanted to wait for mods to level out, and .... well.... I never got around to updating. At this point, I'll just keep playing till 1.4 and the DLC drops, and then I'll update, as I'm guessing this will be the last major release for some time, aside from future DLC's.

Not a problem, keep it in the back of your mind. I'll try to take a look and see what I can find. At least you have pointed me in the right direction!

Please... elaborate....

MechJeb can do this to you if you have "Limit Acceleration" enabled in utilities, and other places. I know other mods will do it too.

Very cool @taniwha. But, I haven't touched python in ten years or so, and the most coding I do these days is futzing around with arduino or OpenCalc, so I'm little lost as to what to do with your code. I know it's a bit much to ask, but maybe you could modify the script a bit to pull just the Name, role (pilot/sci/eng), # of missions, and mission days, and drop them in a CSV file? Maybe make it a packaged executable that saves the CSV with a date/time stamp in the name? It'd be either trivial or a pain in the butt to do, so either way I understand if you'd decline. I'm working up a spreadsheet that will allow a player to pick crew for upcoming missions based on past experience and such. I'll keep looking at your code and try to figure it out though...

Mods. Mods. Mods. Those alone will let you tweak the game so that you basically make it be a different game over multiple installs. So yes, buy it. It's worth the flat asking price, but waiting for a sale isn't a bad idea either. But then again, do you really want to lose out on valuable play time?

How is this post different from the already existing thread (s) on this? What makes your suggestion deserve it's own thread? It's a fairly well written post, so I ask for clarity (not a MP'er), not snarkiness, even though the existing thread is currently on the (top of the) first page.

Saw this on @Kottabos channel the other day, great looking mod. One of those, "This really should be stock!" mods that nobody has thought of yet...

After having recently broke up with my ex, This is where I'm at right now. KSP has been my goto distraction of late :).

True true.... I was referring more to more local events that took out large sections of the infrastructure.... If you haven't read On the Beach, you might like it, part of the plot is a US nuclear sub that has to take refuge in Southern Australia after WW3, and the trials they have to go through to stay functional. Dunno why I thought of that, but I did.

Did a quick search and didn't come up with anything. Is there any way to have the FF data exported to like a CSV file? My application is pretty narrow in this case, I just want to sort the kerbals based upon various things, and then do a crew selection for a major mission based on experience and a random element. I know I can sort in game, but I'd like to add my own functions to the spreadsheet to do some calculations. The more I think of it though, it's probably more work than it's worth, but it may spawn some other's to try something similar, like an offline crew management system. One of my favorite mods for the game though, absolutely love it. So thanks for all the work!

EMP's would knock out LORAN too, and I don't think the other's have the range in a lot of areas.

I would not be surprised to see concurrent releases. Especially if some of the merch they are selling would be DLC themed.

ICBM's were around before satellite navigation was a thing, they just used ballistic profiles and inertial guidance systems. Modern Submarines also use inertial guidance to navigate. The Navies would just have to revert to sextant and celestial navigation, it's something they still train on (as of recently, may have changed). The vast majority of bombs dropped in the Gulf War were dumb bombs, and of the 'few' smart bombs that were dropped, very few, if any, had GPS guidance. Most of them were laser or optically guided. The big thing that would change would be communications.

Great actors, great script, different viewpoints than have been explored before. Oh, and Tom hanks is the driving force behind it, just like he was with Band Of brothers after Saving private ryan. He did Apollo 13, and wanted to do a more in depth view of the Apollo program. They do cover Apollo 13, but from a journalists point of view, as the movie covered the space flight side of it. My favorite episode is about the head engineer for Grumman(?) when trying to design the lander. It's hard to find, but I did find a DVD copy on amazon about a year ago. I just watched this within the past week, and I can't even remember the plot, nor the actors. I might be old, but I do remember not enjoying it. I'm booting up netflix right now to rewatch a few seconds to try and remember. I was that bad/boring. ...... Oh yeah.... I remember it now. Nowhere as good as the other two films, and it very poorly explains the events of the other two. A third movie, or even a series was needed for that storyline, but this was not it. ------- So has anybody read SevenEves yet? I found it a hard pill to swallow, and I never finished the second part, it got... boring I guess.

It's more of a docu-drama, but HBO's From the Earth to the Moon was excellent. Shows a lot of the inside stories, in drama form, of the Apollo program. Sadly, on a HD TV, the CGI just didn't age that well.

Spermology is the study of trivia. This is the science spermology thread.

All I know is that about half way through the last jedi, I considered asking for my money back. I saw all the other movies (except 3&4) in the theater and enjoyed all of them. Same basic plot lines as before. Demonic flying penguins. Starships that have huge weak spots on them again. etc etc.

It's a matter of scale. The SV was built like it was because that is what the mission and physics required it to be. The Kerbal analog to the SV would have the same mission performance, with far less energy required, be it less efficient or not.

Even without a screen shot, I'm 99% sure it's a COM/COT alignment issue. While you may have built it with the correct alignment in the SPH, you may have designed it so the fuel is consumed asymmetrically. So when you get to orbit, the COM is no longer in the same place you put it.

I don't think pushing a button that says "UP" would be that difficult. Of course, knowing Kerbals, there would be at least 6 of these buttons, one of which would start the ascent stage.