KerbMav

Once more tried to reach an anomaly on Kerbin - this time with a rover - hours later I was close to the mark on the ISA Map, but the zoom isnt that fabulous and I couldnt find exact coordinates. Wanting to find out what I was actually looking for in this location, I googled a bit and spoilt myself two more that I did not already know. Mounted more MapSat equipment on the KerbalX and retrofitted it with SAS and stuff. Played around with different orbits to fill out the blanks in my Kerbin map.

Cute! I was content with the power-to-fuel mod - if there is water on the planet (Kerbin) I reason, that it might be safer to haul it up into space, because it is less volatile than the actual fuel - and given the stronger, not atmosphere-filtered UV-radiation from the sun, there is more free power to split the water in to H and O. But delegating supply runs to privateers (so to speak if we assume KSC is run at least somehow by the Kerbal government) sounds quite nice. Back to topic: Seems like we need three game modes: - sandbox, like it is now - career, added limited funds and research - career + resources, some tech might only be available after mining turned up new elements for construction or propulsion and they have to be continuosly resupplied by the players mining facilities

Ultimately mining has to have some kind of advantage, and considering the expected work it has to be not to unsignificant of an advantage - else: why bother programming and implementing it?

Or docked with a station for refueling? Standardized design is key for reusability though.

Me and my English are friends always not. I meant the point the decoupler connects to the booster.

Strap them upside down onto a booster! But only if they weigh as much as a duck!

You all got it right I think. Yes, I started with big landers and station parts as soon as I managed to get anything into a stable orbit. Now while experimenting with mapsat my rockets are really compared to the monsters I used in the last six weeks. And for the same reason I keep burning up until 70k - with my Ap now far far away/up. What I dont remember is, if I always used to split the circulization burn around the Ap - I did it yesterday though. OK, reprogramming my wetware to pay more attention, thank you!

Noone so far - apart from my Unobtainium for FTLs idea - mentioned "cant without". Its all about "either bring it with you (as we do it right now all the time) or gather-build in location" up until now. What would be your opinion on "the isotope found on Duna is more efficient" = less fuel, same thrust/dv? My biggest concerns regarding the resource system is:How much micromanagement and hands-on will it be? Flying just the product to the next planet or moving the ore from the miner to the processing unit too? Can the facility operate in the background? I dont know how the Kethane mod works as of now, I guess the facilities have to be the active craft to produce anything?

Yesterday it happened again, after launch during circulization the Ap was already much higher then my Pe/desired orbit should have been. I try to stop the engines and coast up to my Ap but somehow more oft than not I mess up and end with a 80/450km orbit ...

The TT-70 Radial Decoupler seems the only viable option because of the distance to the core it attaches the boosters which already gives a small safety margin. What special use do the other three have? (TT-38K Radial Decoupler, Hydraulic Detachment Manifold, Structural Pylon) I have yet to find a way to chooes how to attach the booster as I would like to - meaning the attachment point at the booster - if the cursor is no longer on the decoupler (while holding the booster and moving it into position) the game will attach the booster to the core directly.

One or two mining-mandatory resources necessary for interstellar travel maybe? FTL only outside the SOI of a star? Im getting off topic here.

Clicked my through to the recent version of the ISAmapSAT mod and tried to tweak my polar orbit so it wouldnt take forever to map Kerbin. Eight anomalies (so far) on the home planet alone?! Three I knew about - the KSC is one too. Tried to fly a space plane to one of the closer ones - guess for this I will need the new ASAS and a joystick. And maybe a VTOL plane, couldnt see a thing from high up when I got near the location.

I am still only concerned if it doodleduhboots the physicke.

Enabeling a debug tool circumvents "gameplay as designed", so I would consider it as cheating for myself and never used it. Girders and the like snapping inside a tank e.g. can look better or create a more fitting design, as they do so by themselves I dont mind to build that way. Clipping is often mentioned to cause weird physical behaviour, so I tend to avoid it mostly though.

Kerbal engineer gives you lots of information on your craft - MechJeb does to, while adding optional autopilot options.

One single resource would be a bit to few, I agree. But anything more then 3-5 would get "worky" - although remembering the X series ... hmmm ...

As I said, didnt it go into the exhaust to "stop" the particles?

Every Kerbol planet at least! but we have neglected the spacecraft's effects on the planet. The linear momentum gained by the spaceship is equal in magnitude to that lost by the planet, though the planet's large mass makes the resulting change in its speed negligibly small. These effects on the planet are so slight (because planets are so much more massive than spacecraft) that they can be ignored in the calculation. "Scientits predict: slingshotting probes around Jupiter will make him come down and crash into earth!" In maybe an aeon or two, but ...!

Maybe he only had a change of address? (Thats some kind of pun too, isnt it??)

Practically SCREAMS to be put into career mode: research and mine Therminium, good heat resistance, light, shiny! I think larger/heavier ships would profit form a heat shield? They would need even more fuel to slow down.

I dont know about you - and I myself am more of an indoor type too - but I would think it might also have something to do with ... dont know ... summer? But of course especially the space port is seeing reduced activity - why finalizing a project now not knowing what will have to be adapted to 0.21?

Kinda bugs me that Im somehow getting the hang of aerobreaking - but thermal effects being an upcoming feature, I dont know how much of this knowledge will be put to use afterwards. Maybe I should play around with the deadly reentry mod in my doomed 0.20 save.

Thats not 100% correct - some kind of "revert to launch pad" e.g. is coming. http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/entry.php/550-Rethinking-the-way-flights-end

OK, this site takes a different approach. To summarize what I understood: A rocket is like a gun, although we have to switch the model around, as in the rocket being the barrel and the fuel/exhaust being the projectile. The rocket shoots out fuel/exhaust and its speed increase is equivelant to the recoil of the gun. Now would the gun travel at the muzzle velocity of the projectile, the bullet would just be released hanging dead in the air (and dropping down if inside a gravitational field/fired on e.g. earth). Now it says that because the rocket put energy into the fuel by expelling it yet the exhaust's "backwards" speed is lower by the amount the rocket is going forward, their is a difference in energy that has to be left somewhere because energy cannot be destroyed. So the Oberth effect is the transfer of the kinetic energy of the exhaust onto the rocket. Still puzzles me - the fuel had the same kinetic energy as the rocket while still in the tanks - wasnt the energy used do stop that motion? How can it be transfered onto the rocket?

Gravity doesnt need any time to affect you. Burning retrograde also doesnt mean "pushing" the ship further away, it accelerates the ship so its orbit changes accordingly. I read the wiki article three times now - but Im still like ... uhu ... sounds nice ... what??