espm400

I just posted this in the 'what did you do today?' thread, but a probe mission just netted me ~1175rp. Since I just yesterday started playing again after a several month absence, this was way more than I'd earned in total up to this point. Long story short, I was about to quit and decided to just fire the lander probe I'd made for an earlier Minmus landing and return out at the sun. It didn't make it, but I ended up with a random Eve intercept.

Just picked KSP back up yesterday after a few months on cool down. Decided to try the career out and started with a couple manned sub-orbitals and Mun fly-bys, and it was late, so I didn't get far. Started out today with some meager earnings from last night, wondering what would net me the most research with my current tech. Figured I'd land an unmanned pod on Minmus, just in case it didn't make it back. It did. Still underwhelmed by my earnings I though, why the hell not? Let's see if I can hit the sun with my current tech. Nope (probably could have if I used gravity assists and the like, but this was just a 'fire from the hip' shot as I was about to quit)... Welp, I got out of Kerbin's SOI and found out that the research points were massive. So after spamming transmissions of deep space research I figured that it had turned out to be a fairly successful mission after all. I still had a tank of fuel c/w an LV-909(?) left, so when I reached my AP I fired it retro to see how close I could actually get. When out of the blue I saw a flicker on my map. Somehow on a random firing, I ended up with an Eve intercept. With the tiny amount of fuel I had left I adjusted my orbit, but I had forgotten two crucial things: 1. I was coming from behind the sun carrying a helluva lot of dV and 2. I didn't have DRE installed, so I could aero-brake as much as I wanted. With these two omissions from the flight plan I came screaming through Eve's upper atmosphere at roughly 7-8km/s (still spamming my transmissions), barely moving my trajectory. Oh well. As soon as I was out of the atmosphere, I went back to the space centre to see my earnings. Total research gained from that random flight: ~1175 rp, far more than my total research up to that point. Not bad considering I was planning on spending about five minutes with it. Ended up almost two hours...

All hail Goo...

I learned that you don't need multiple legs on a lander... It honestly stayed that way... What can I say, I've been away from KSP for about three months now (needed a break), and decided to get back into it with a full-on stock install. Trying the career mode out currently. I tend to treat this game much like I treat DayZ; it's fantastic, but don't overdo it or you end up bored and/or frustrated. Anyway, also forgot antennae on that ship, but made it back with a reasonable research total...

One thing you'll never catch me doing, is downplaying the risks that firefighters have to deal with on a day-to-day basis, not to mention some of the things you guys see. I trained for the volunteer unit in my hometown when I was 18 and only worked one day. Mind you, it wasn't the physical strain that made me quit, I just witnessed something fairly horrifying that I never wanted to see again. Currently I work as a pipefitter in the Alberta oil sands, and though I wouldn't claim it to be as risky as fighting fires, there are still any number of things that can kill or maim you in an instant, Hydrogen Sulfide probably being one of the most prevalent. I guess what I'm saying is that all jobs carry risk, some more than others, but it gets to a point for me at which comparison becomes a mute point. Also, the weight of the hose, gear, etc. might be a burden, but what I think lajo was saying was how can you control - what is it? - about 1,000 gpm of water coming out of a hose when you weigh a fraction of what you do now? One final side note: I wonder how much dV you could get out of a 20lb fire extinguisher...

They're usually the first thing I build when a new update comes out, and building a good one usually eats up a good five hours plus. I even used the pistons and hinges from Damned Robotics and the cab from TT's Modular Wheels pack to make a pretty decent replica of a Liebherr LTM 1150 as well as an LR 1550 (?) in previous builds. The LTM was next to useless, due to the way struts react to the Damned Robotic parts, and the multiple docking ports necessary to make the telescopic boom work weren't the most stable joints, but it looked pretty cool. The LR on the other hand, worked great and had an amazing capacity (I think it was ~200 tons on Kerbin), as it used a great deal of winches from KAS and only loose hinges. I'd post some real life reference pics, but imgur isn't accepting my uploads right now... Anyway, here's the only one I've made in .21 so far (I've been on a bit of KSP break for the last couple weeks). EDIT: For the record, the one in the foreground is my modular Kethane/Ore hauler.

Technically, if you climbed to 2,868,750m you'd stay in orbit. It'd be an interesting way to achieve a perfectly circular KSO... There's gotta be a mod out there to allow physical time warp when climbing a ladder.

How did your desktop die? Rarely will a computer be completely unusable when it fails. Unless it was submerged in water or subjected to a massive power surge, usually you can get away with just replacing a single failed part.

You can either setup custom action groups to manipulate specific legs, or conversely, you can just press the 'g' key to move all of them at once.

The stock control surfaces are very weak indeed. If you look at the following example, you'll notice the F/A-18 has stock control surfaces. It's very stable, yet not very maneuverable. The rest use B9 and are all very agile (the F-15 is incredibly maneuverable). Here are some examples of CoM/CoL: B-1B: My old F-15 analogue (been updated since the pic): As the name says, an HST testbed (it pitches up on it's own): It's been a while, but IIRC using Alt+directional control will trim your control surfaces, allowing you to hold a pitch up attitude.

I'd suggest osmosis...

Personally, I go for a standard Munar injection, then mid-transfer adjust to polar orbit and circularize at ~50-100km (still don't know the optimal altitude).

Back near the end of .20 I was practicing my precision landings on the Mun and accidentally hit the wrong time-warp button. I overshot my landing zone by a few km, but in the ensuing panic I ended up with the best suicide burn I've ever done, literally being able to see my shadow as I killed my horizontal velocity and transfered to vertical movement at roughly 5-10m above the surface.

I'm in the same boat. At least that storm last night was something...

These are from .20.2 and I currently have yet to switch them over as I haven't played much .21 (been taking a break and playing some X3: Albion Prelude). However, I can't remember all of them, but the F-15, F-18, and F-16(far right) all have their CoL directly behind the CoM (touching the yellow ball), and in the case of the F-15, a bit above as well. Also, from left to right: - YF-23: very much WIP, but employs those same engines - F/A-18: most stable one here, but not very maneuverable due to the stock control surfaces - F-15 MTD/ACTIVE: The best aircraft I've made in KSP. It can hold a stalled turn (see: Pugachev's Cobra maneuver) - random 0.5m body drone-type-thing: Was just a testbed for some other things (though I don't recall exactly what ) - F-16: Just a basic jet. Haven't used it much, since at the time I was still enamored with that F-15. Background: - near - X-15: Rocket-powered test plane. Never did get the drop craft to work, but the plane itself flies. - far - X-29: Just as maneuverable as the F-15, with a minor hitch; as soon as you get close to the sound barrier, it has a tendency to lose control instantly and detach itself from its control surfaces and engine. Still haven't got it supersonic... Pre-post edit: Before I posted I remembered I did have one SPH pic of an old version of the F-15. I'll see if I can get those planes into .21 tonight and update with more pics, but no promises, as I'm currently in the middle of building my first gaming rig in over a decade.

The only design I have that employs that engine is my F-15 MTD/ACTIVE. It's very maneuverable, but fairly stable, not to mention it can take some pretty rough landings. Keep in mind that a) It's strictly atmospheric, I'm using FAR, and c) I'm also using an XBox 360 controller.

As I'm currently on a bit of a break from KSP (got into X3:Albion Prelude somehow), I don't have much in .21 (was setting up my initial RT comsat array when I stopped, so the only thing I have in LKO is four RT microsats at 400km). However, in the past since I've yet to complete a gravity turn with FAR that leaves me with an AP under 90 km, that's generally the lowest orbit I have. Other than that though, it varies greatly depending on what it it that I'm launching, what mood I'm in, and whether or not Bigfoot has been spotted on that day... In all seriousness though, in .20 I had three stations; one at 95 km circular (my 'gas' station), one at 500 km circular (my 'main' station), and one in the closest approximation of a Molniya orbit that I could manage (my 'why not' station). Other than that, my LKO was nearing Kessler Syndrome levels of satellites, in all manner of orbits. I guess I'm not being very helpful in this case... Oh well, what can I say? I tend to be a sort of 'shoot from the hip' sort of KSP player...

Since when has the internet been able to keep a secret..?

I don't know if anyone does this, but although I do usually setup some of my network in KSO, my first step is usually just tossing about four of those MicroSats that are included with RT up at about an inclined 400km LKO. The reasoning behind this is that my KSO comsats tend to be fairly large (usually have a minimum of six 50 Gm dishes), and I can only accommodate one per launch, whereas I can put four to eight of the MicroSats up with a fairly small rocket. Doing it this way I have a functional network that will serve Kerbin for any satellites that I launch around her (Kethane scanners and ISA MapSat...um...mapping satellites...). With this method, you won't be sending any probes to the Mun, but after one launch, you'll never have to worry about blackouts with any future satellites that you launch.

I've been pretty faithful to ASUS for my last three laptops (an A-series in '07, a G73 in '09, and a G74sw in '11), and as far as I've been able to tell, they offer most models with the option of an OEM Win 7 install. As I said above, I've had three generations of ASUS, and my only complaint I've ever had was with my G73. It had the thermal paste issue that a bunch of the first models had (thermal paste on only a portion of the GPU and CPU, leading to overheats). Although it could have been addressed by the warranty, I decided to take some time and do it myself (wasn't too hard, plus I would have had to send my computer away for a couple weeks, which was not an option for me). Aside from that, all of them still run well to this day. I still use my G73 for helping me diagnose issues with my friends computers when I don't want to use my current computer, and although the A-series is pretty much useless, I decided to dig it out of my 'random electronics' drawer and fire it up just for the purposes of this post. Despite it being over six years old, it still booted up fine and ran the games that were still on the hard drive. I don't know if I'll get a G76, as they are pretty damn expensive and I'm currently in the process of deciding on components for a desktop, but I would nonetheless recommend one to someone if they had the money, and it suited their lifestyle. I just don't think you can beat the performance for the same price (in a laptop). Yes, it's unarguably true that you can a much better desktop computer for a cheaper price, but for some people (myself included), a laptop is a necessary evil. Although 'gaming laptop' isn't really an oxymoron, it is definitely a misnomer. You'd never catch me using my current G-74 on my lap (mine is currently on the other side of the room, plugged into my TV), and you can't expect their batteries to last for even most short flights (I can get ~35-40 minutes out of mine at 100%). True, you can't upgrade most of the components, but for people like me who are, for example away from their homes for months at a time (I'm a tradesman who spends a lot of time in work camps), if you want a gaming rig, you need a laptop.

If you want to get into atmospheric flight I would strongly recommend installing Ferram Aerospace Research (FAR). Basically it does a complete overhaul on the drag models in the game, allowing for proper atmospheric flight.

I think my laptop just had a meltdown merely looking at that ship...

For my first Mun landings in a new save, my favorite is still: "No way..! That's great... *chuckle WE LANDED ON THE MUN!!"

That's a lot closer to a missile than a lifting body. Lifting bodies are aircraft where the body itself creates most of the lift (see:Lifting Body). I do believe that I incorrectly classified the 'Dyan-Soarer' as a blended wing body, though, as it's probably closer to a conventional aircraft than a BWB. My bad... EDIT: I'm currently learning Blender and intend to release some classic lifting body designs (as I said, I'm just starting out, so don't expect anything anytime soon)...

Runs fine over here. Well, until I go over my RAM budget with mods. Thankfully, with the optimization of some of said mods, my budget has been growing (Thanks Bac9). I hope I can figure out how to do something similar to KW, because that's one of my favorites, but it's very nearly half a gig... Always just used Crew Manifest for that one.