Kimberly

It's not possible to do scanning like that (with the same level of accuracy) due to engine limitations. Mapsat et al. suffer from it, too.

I think you guys are too worried. Aside from the unlikelihood of anyone filing a lawsuit over a mod for KSP, someone who clearly lays out what the donation is for (or rather, what it isn't for) will be in the clear. Does it protect you from all frivolous lawsuits? No, nothing can--that is the nature of frivolous lawsuits, they aren't sensible.

Why not use the aviation lights parts?

I think the ideal spawning behavior would be to specify an offset from the Spacedock part. That way, you have a degree of control over where you end up, but you don't need to have a movable launchpad (as with Extraplanetary Launchpads) if e.g. you want to construct a base. I also don't like EL's approach with ore mining, because it's done without regard for the overall flow of gameplay and makes things too easy; I like the fact that OrbitalConstruction makes you ship from Kerbin.

Pressing F3 does exactly what you're asking; it shows the flight report.

Eelo and Jool orbit in resonance, so they'll never collide.

Sure you can; you can do this to meet a ship if apoapsis intersects with the target's orbit. But this means you'll have significant speed relative to your target, so once you're close you need to burn retrograde (relative to the target) to slow down enough to dock.

Are you sure you're running the developer version (some people had this issue earlier)? Are you sure your craft has the Mapsat dish on it? Are you sure it's not hidden under any other mod's button in the lower-left of the screen?

I think Laythe is definitely the best candidate for long-term habitation. It would take a great deal of investment, but once you set up shop it would be quite alright--an underwater base would be well-protected from radiation and potentially violent weather, the climate control systems can get oxygen from the air to supplement recycling systems, and water can supplement the recycling systems as well. It's not inconceivable that Laythe could be terraformed to be more like Kerbin in the long run. Laythe is capable of a great deal of autonomy, especially because there are low-gravity non-atmospheric moons of Jool from which resources can be mined. On Minmus, you have no reason to send a manned mission. Any people there are totally reliant on Kerbin. The communications delay with Kerbin is very small and you can easily send maintenance missions, so why not just have your industry on Minmus be fully robotic? It's not worth more than a scientific outpost, at best.

If I recall correctly, kerbonauts can repair rover wheels, repack or deploy parachutes, toggle solar panels, and extend radar dishes/antennas as well. No boosters or engines, though.

I tried a GeneratorModule, but this makes the description window show "Output" and then a blank line, and changes the right-click GUI as well, so that's not ideal.

Night is actually going to be a little longer, because of Duna's orbit around the sun. (Kerbin's solar day is 6 hours and 50 seconds, for example.) But power usually doesn't cut that close.

I'm trying to modify someone's greenhouse for my personal use. I stripped out the IonCross stuff without trouble. However, I'm running into trouble getting it to both produce and consume electric charge: when the doors are open, I want it to act like a solar panel and generate electricity. But I also want it to be a constant electricity drain. Peak electricity production is equal to the drain, so you lose electricity if the sun's not directly overhead. Also, instead of "extend solar panel" and "retract solar panel", I want the buttons to read "open shutters" and "close shutters". The part's creator did this through giving the shutters a separate animation module, but this meant it acted as a solar panel regardless of whether the shutters were open, which is silly. Producing electricity seems to be working--generation happens only if the shutters are open. However, I can't seem to figure out how to give it a constant electricity drain, or how to change the button labels. Currently, the code looks like this: MODULE { name = ModuleDeployableSolarPanel sunTracking = false raycastTransformName = glass pivotName = glass isBreakable = false resourceName = ElectricCharge chargeRate = 2 animationName = door powerCurve { key = 206000000000 0 0 0 key = 13599840256 1 0 0 key = 68773560320 0.5 0 0 key = 0 10 0 0 } } RESOURCE { name = ElectricCharge amount = 50 maxAmount = 50 } Any tips?

Open the Mapsat window, click on "Kerbalpedia", then "Settings", and check the "Auto-update hilo.dat" box.

How is development on this part going? Is it compatible with 0.21? I think it's very promising, but it could still use some work--feature-wise it's pretty good, but the texture definitely needs to be a bit more sensible (what are all those shapes?).

Is it safe to make satellite networks using the stock antennae and probe cores? That is, can I expect RemoteTech functionality to be implemented for these parts in the new version, so they'll keep working? What I have in mind won't be at long range or anything like that.

Question: why are three parts even necessary for this? Why not just keep one part, the tape deck which combines the Build and Flight Engineer? People who don't want the Flight Engineer can just take off the part when they're done building. People who don't care for the Build Engineer can decide not to look at it, press "Compact" or not add the Engineer until the last part. The fewer parts needed the better, I say.

There are certain ideal orbits for transferring to each planet. There is a net loss of delta-V by boosting up to those orbits, but if you have a refueling station there, your craft can make do with a significantly lower fuel capacity. If you're not willing to have a fuel depot for each planet you want to burn to, it's best to just keep your depot at LKO. A Minmus refueling station isn't efficient.

Just because a lot of websites do it, doesn't make it a good idea.

I like the landing kit idea, sumghai. It means only having a single extra part. How would they be placed, though? If you're intended to place them in the middle, the parachutes would block a Node's upper node. If you place them at the side of modules, you're not saving much in part count, though they'd look better than the standard landing legs. Or are you supposed to place them at the ends? Also, just throwing this out there: for large base designs, I feel as though there's a lack of a meeting place of some kind. If you've got 30 kerbals or so, don't you want them to be able to get together once in a while? This isn't really possible if you only have linear modules to work with...a large round hub would be nice with four nodes on the sides, perhaps with an inner circle on which the Kupola module would fit exactly. Tell me if that's crazy.

Imagine I have a single probe with an attached lander orbiting Duna. Can I release the lander, and give a set of instructions that will make it burn into a decaying orbit, deploy parachutes, and then deploy the landing legs? Assuming I get the timing right, does that mean I could make it land despite a long communication delay, or even losing contact?

This isn't really something specific to this mod; you can probably find lots of videos on it elsewhere. But let me sum up how it works: pick an orbital period you would like your satellites to have. (For a geosynchronous orbit, that would be 6 hours.) You want your satellite deployment craft to get into an orbit with an orbital period of 2/3rds that. Release a satellite at your apoapsis, and have it burn prograde until it is in an orbit with the right orbital period. The next time your deployment craft reaches apoapsis, have it release another satellite, and have that satellite burn until it reaches the right orbit. It should be 1/3rd of an orbit ahead of the previous satellite. The next time your deployment craft reaches apoapsis, do the same thing with the last satellite. You can find the altitude needed for a given orbital period using Kepler's Third Law. There are calculators online that will let let you calculate it without needing to do any math, all you'll need is Kerbin's mass (which you can find on the wiki) and the orbital period you want. Keep in mind that you need to subtract Kerbin's radius from the altitude the calculation produces. If you use Kerbal Engineer or Mechjeb, they can tell you what orbital period your ship currently has, so that you can get in exactly the right position.

Yeah, I don't get it either. What's the point of SAS at all, if you can keep your rover perfectly level by using docking mode? Then you don't pitch when moving.

Have you tried turning "auto-update hilo.dat" on in the Mapsat settings? Innsewerants specifically added that option so an accurate hilo.dat can be generated when the terrain changes, without needing to update the mod.

Don't you mean RCS?