vetrox

Weld parts together After they have left the VAB? Edit: I'm not even sure if it's possible

once you learn how to place rcs and use the docking controls its easy. You can take all the time in the world so even without any motor skills or coordination you will be able to dock. Make sure sas is enabled on both ships too. As long as you are able to rondevous easily then docking shouldnt be too difficult. You dont even need to look at your craft. You only need the nav ball. The rest of the screen is just eye candy

You can always use half throttle or quarter throttle. EDIT: is that 5 mainsails? thats alot of thrust lol 1500kn each if memory serves your TWR must be insane!

I would love to aerobrake low into jools atmosphere and see some crazy storms.

I would love ksp to have the graphics from space engine as my pc isn't from the dark ages.

Kerbal Engineer Redux or Mechjeb (both are mods) will give you technical readouts of your ship. Weight, Thrust to weight, Delta V (learn what Delta V is!) for each stage. Once you know how much Delta V your craft has and how much DV it takes to get to orbit it becomes a case of just slapping stuff together and getting it to orbit and then the system! It quickly becomes second nature

Well my view and opinion is that he did it all for science and he gave no thought to the war. He also had jewish slave labour build some of the rockets. Weather he was forced to use them or just used them because they were there and he wanted to get his project off the ground is anyones guess. Also i would like to add. It was probably Americas view on von Braun and his **** past that allowed the soviets to get the first sattelite into space. Because of his background america gave the rocket contract to the navy (i believe) and von braun had his own rocket that was able to get into space before the Navy could even get a rocket off the ground (which they never could ) -Back to the topic- I tried building solid fuel only rockets in KSP. They are no fun...but all we can use in model rockets is solid fuel (not that liquid fuels are really that safe for an amateur to handle or even power a rocket with )

The only reason I dont do any sort of model rocketry in the uk is the fact taht I'm not allowed to make my own fuel. Something to do with it being an explosive?...i would probably kill myself pretty swiftly as well. Admittidly theres nothing to stop me buying a bunch of motors and designing my own rocket that way. I could buy some off the shelf rockets pretty cheap but i love the idea of making it all myself I'm fairly sure the guy (von braun? something like that) who made all the liquid fuel engines didnt care what they were used for as long as he was allowed to develope them so he could get people into space. What better way to fund your research is there than the military?

I love me that sandbox mode Cannot wait for the economy to see what challenges it adds to career mode. To me the career mode feels unfinished (and it is) so i will just stick to sandbox mode for now. I dont have to grind anything in that mode When i play x3:the terran conflict. All i do for the first portion of a save is grind missions to get enough money for some ships to be able to do better missions to be able to buy a station to make more money so i can buy bigger ships so i can complete harder missions so i can buy more stations so i can buy more ships to complete the hardest of missions so i can dominate the galaxy...sounds grindy to me

I have been doing a bit more thinking into this. If anyone has any sources for the information I'm after that would be amazing but for now I'm going on pure speculation. This bone and muscle loss can be countered by use of artificial gravity (at least that is the theory) so you all say centrifugal (or is it centripidal?) force is the answer. Now from an engineering poitn of view this must be a nightmare. You have 2 options. You make the whole ship spin (impractical as it would have to spin quite fast and could you imagine looking out of the front of your ship as it span round? Also you would be facing forwards whilst the ship span clockwise so the gravity would be pushing you from the side...impractical. Not that you need windows.) But you would only need to get the ship up to speed once and it should stay at that speed. Howver the ship would need to be very specific dimensions otherwise you would have different amounts of gravity in different parts of the ship. This could be disorientating Second option is to have a centrifuge as part of your ship (just like in the europa report I drew a diagram but left my phone at home!) now the only way I can see this working is through the use of bearings. Now basic physics/engineering shows that if 2 moving parts touch they will generate some sort of friction. It may not be much but its there (or did i just dream and imagine this?). This means maintainence and failure. Now i'm sure there must be bearings on the iss but i havent been able to find any info. Some bearings will require some sort of lubricant do we know how common lubricants act in zero G. Also you need to keep this thing spinning indipendantly of the rest of the ship? If there is friction then it will slow down eventually so you will need to divert extra power to keep it moving. Not to mention this will weigh alot. As well as the huge cargo hold for provisions to lug around and then your landing gear. Another problem with this centrifuge idea is the effects it will have on the crew if they have to leave and re enter zero g on a regular basis. W just have no idea about it Someone needs to design something and get it up to space for testing! However the ESA looks to be trying to develope a suite that pulls your body down to simulate gravitys effect. I dont envy those engineers in any of the worlds space programms! Also another thing i had swirling around in my empty head. How do we even know that our bodys would react in the same way to this artificial gravity as it does to earths gravity? I'm just voicing my thoughts here so if anyone has a reliable source for any of this information that would be awesome you could also call me a crazy man with crazy thoughts running around in my head as I'm pretty sure thats what I am.

I sitll hold bone (and muscle) loss to be the deciding factor. Along with radiation protection. Ok muscle mass isnt exactly hard to regain but imagine. You have spent all those months in zero g trying to maintain as much muscle mass as possible. You then get out of your lander at mars and flop about on the floor because you're muscles are still weak. Even astronauts who come back from the ISS have to be lifted out of their capsules. Also. Its all well and good saying put a cetrifugal whatever into space but launching stuff into space is hard work. Theres probably a reason there isnt one on the ISS. Even one of the astronauts (i forget which) stated that he fealt it was one of the major problems that needs to be overcome.

Did anyone watch stargazing live last week? (or was it the week before?) Theres still issues that need to be solved before sending men to mars. One of the biggest being bone and muscle loss from zero G.

Although i'm not the worlds leading expert in bio weapons its still something i fear. Also if used in a military situation your targets are going to be very isolated from other parts of the world. You can also immunize your military. And the reason i fear it is for its sheer lethality. Yes nuclear weaponry is powerfull but so is bio weaponry and i just fear it. I have no opinion on nuclear arms. Personally i feel bioweapons could be fairly reliable. However I shouldnt pay attention to fiction for this but in Metro: Last light a small station gets wiped out in a matter of hours (or is it a day or so?) because the virus is released via bomb (no explosion thus no collateral damage) the station is infected. Those who are infected first die fairly quickly, those who are infected slightly later die slightly more slowly (as the virus gets weaker) and the few remaining stragglers (who are from other stations) survive

Basically this. I liked it at first. But once i got skippers i decided taht I prefer sandbox. Purley because i will be halfway through a career mode mission and think. I want to put a base on this body. I wont have all the parts unlocked so i qill jsut quit and go back to sandbox. Yes I could just grind science until i get everything i need but why do that when i have sandbox just a click away. I do love the first few tiers where u try and use as little as possible to get as far as possible. Cannot wait for economy to be introduced. I'm not playing ksp much atm whist i wait for it. God i miss the days when just getting into orbit felt like the biggest feat in the world!

Nuclear weapons arent waht i fear. As someone pointed out they have no use in traditional warfare (by traditional i mean trying to take territory for yourself) The thing that does baffle me is the sheer amount of nuclear tests that were conducted! You think chernobyl was a disaster that contaminated a large area... What I fear is Bio weapons and this became even more real when playing Metro:last light. A weapon that can destroy whole populations but leave everything else un-touched. This is the weapon you use if you wish to take territory. Even engineering a virus that can spread and kill a population and die out after a given set of time. Again, no fallout, no reprocutions just infect a person, send him into a city hub and win the game for your nation. Easy Mode, at least with nukes you have the potential to survive. It may be slim but if you are far enough away you may live, or you may hide but a virus spread out with the help of the wind...you dont know it has happened until you are already infecting everyone...*shudders*

Was in a tense game of dota when this came on TV. The episode is about some of the failures of NASA's craft. Namely apollo13 and the space shuttles. I expect you already know of these as I did but I still watched it and found it interesting as it had interviews with some of the control staff and some of the astronauts. It was very depressing to watch people die in front of my eyes (even if it was quite a while ago now) but if you want a bit more insight into some of the astronauts and control staffs opinions then its a good watch. Also the reacions of the astronaut who had to try out the MMU for the first time *shudders* not something i would have wanted to do. Its on the I-player atm however I'm not sure how you can view it outside of the uk (im sure there are ways but this isnt really the place to discuss them) It can be found here http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00lk0jq/NASA_Triumph_and_Tragedy_One_Giant_Leap/

Formal Caution Delivery

When you are in docking mode make sure your sas is turned on. This helps compensate for any imbalance you have with your center of mass and RCS placement. If you are trying to dock you need to do what has been said and right click the docking port on your vessel and 'control from here' and do the same with the port you want to dock with. Also you will never get your velocity to absolute zero without mods. Simple orbital mechanics will tell you that. unless the 2 objects are docked then they will slowly drift apart. On your nav ball all you need to do is get your prograde marker into the center of the target marker (the pink circle). When in docking mode its pretty easy. A & D move the prograde marker left and right. Shift and control move it up and down. W & S increas and decrease velocity. If the ports aren't aligned then you need to do some orbital ballet and use a combination of docking mode and stageing mode to orientate your craft. Or you switch to your other craft using "[" or "]" and point the required port at your first craft.

I use a couple of mods and have tried alot of others. The problem i find with mods is keeping them updated. I personally cannopt be bothered to keep looking for updates. I hope there is a way to have mods auto update themselves in the future. My least favourite mod when I tried it was b9. And only because of the sheer amount of parts included and navigating through all of them was to tedious for me. I can also understand why some people want mods included in the game. IT gives them a sense of balance. Modders dont have to make things balanced but if it comes from squad then one would assume it will be balanced with the rest of the parts. So players will feel more content. The other thing is, not everyone even knows about mods. I expect there are alot of people out there buying ksp and quitting after a few hours because they dont know the DV of the ship they are building or because of crummy aerodynamics or whatever. Plus you dont void your warranty if you leave the game stock

Hmmmm. If only i had some money to burn. Would be quite a cool science project to launch a rocket into space and land back down using a phone. I dont quite think your run of the mill model rockets would be able to make it though

I hevent used the nukes in a while. Probably becuase I have only been to duna (although my dres mission hasnt got any nukes on it) I plan my dv accordingly and i prioritise twr over excess dv. I'm too impatient to do all those burn times. On a side note I would like to point out that the LV-N's are quite long. On some of my craft they just owuld take up too much space or look wierd. I have a vacuum shuttle-tug. I have one with an lv-n and one with 909's and the one with 909's is just a better shape for what I was after and tugs smaller stuff around with ease. (took my kerbin space station from kerbin to the mun then took it to minmus. Maybe it just has centemental value that makes me prefer it.)

When i was a security dog handler I used to have a really shouty German Shepherd. I had a vest for him that had "Ask to pet" written on it in big capital letters. Did anyone ask before they come rushing over? Nope (only parents with small childeren) You also have the people on the other end of the scale who are absolutley anti-dog in every single way. As I'm no longer a dog handler I now have a siberian husky that couldnt be better trained (unless it sees a fox) and I when it goes for its morning walk I take it to the park...you know where people have a habbit of walking their dogs. Now this park is clever, theres a play area that is completley seperated from the rest of the park and no dogs are allowed in this seperated area. Now, if you want to play with your childeren outside of this area I'm all for that but if my dog happens to be walking around and having a sniff and what not and your child happens to walk up to it, please dont grab your child away and start screaming at me. Go take your child to the achre of land that dogs are prohibited from being in. Also if you think my dog is misbehaving thats cool. Please tell me as I strive to have a well trained and behaved dog but an unfortunate thing about dogs is they like to chase things and they have a habbit of chasing things i havent noticed...like geese. So when my dog is chasing a goose I really dont recommend trying to grab my dog and then telling me to control it. Especially when its pretty obvious I'm trying too. TBH the people who the op is describing are people who have never been around dogs. They dont know friends with dogs, they have never had dogs so they assume that people whith happy looking dogs are sensible and so are the dogs. I'm surprised childeren arent tought from a young age how to interact with dogs (I.E dont unless you have asked the owner) They get shown how to cross a road but not how to interact with animals? Also I hate people who have dogs taht are aggressive to other dogs but dont muzzle them. My huskie loves other dogs...theres one dog that didnt like my husky and the owner just shrugged it off and made me out to be the bad guy? (Thats the short story ) Also dog owners who dont use a lead/leash. Owners who leave dog poop everywhere (is it really that hard to put your hand in a bag and pick it up? Your quite happy to own something that malts and slobbers everywhere potentially filled with parasites but you wont pick up its poo?) I could go on but i will stop about now because i can get quite opinionated on this subject.

Thanks, I thought so. I managed to work it out all on my own Although the way you have phrased it is alot simpler than my entire post *doh* ITs the same thought process that I used to have about jumping into a moving train. If the train has and open dorr and you manage to jump through that door onto the train (from a stationary platform) That train will be moveing at say, 100km/60mph and you are doing 0mph/kmph. Its just like jumping onto a treadmill really, but less hilarious

So I've just set off the weight limit alarm on the elevator at work and it got me thinking (thanks to ksp and the simple physics it has taught me) A hypothetical situation arises in my brain If the brakes were to stop working and the elevator plummeted to the bottom of the lift shaft. How would i save myself. The old me would assume that jumping at just the right time (IE just before the elevator hits the ground) i would survive. (you know...if the elevetor didnt just implode on itself) --------- Now, Am i right in thinking this is not true. For examples sake lets say the elevator decends at 100m/s. If i jump just before it hits the ground I would still die horribly. Lets say me jumping reduces my velocity by 10m/s. The elevator hits the ground at 100m/s and I, shortly after, then hit the ground at 90m/s Thus dying horribly. Is my brain functioning correctly? Have i just given myself a new fear of elevators? (even though im fully aware of all the safety mechanisms in non hypothetical elevators) Note: I am not taking into acount terminal veloceties of myself or the elevator. Or anything else that probably should be included. I'm just trying to keep it as simple as possible

Balancing your rcs is a big help too if you find using your rcs in docking mode (or hnjlik if you use those) makes your craft go a bit squiff.