Kimberly

I could, but why not think big? I think I'll design some microsatellites instead of recreating the Teledesic design, though. Besides there being no suitable parts for it, the darn things were supposed to be 12 meters across, with a solar panel of 12x12 as well. I'd prefer to just take 20 microsatellites up at once, get the transport vehicle into the right orbit and then use a 21/20ths orbital period to move them into place. (I can't use 19/20ths, because I'd be in the atmopshere!)

Well, I haven't seen your little airplane do a sonic rainboom.

Sumghai, I'm planning on a mobile laboratory using your lovely parts. The idea is that the MoLab will be able to house four kerbals for a month or so, while they drive to interesting spots on the planetary surface to do science, and then they return to a stationary base which has greenhouse and whatnot, to resupply. I'm wondering how many logistics modules I ought to give the MoLab, though--how much food storage did you imagine the logistics module having?

Also planning on doing that, but that's much easier. The real network has just 24 satellites, after all. I made a 20-satellite network in 0.20, and I tested it with Figaro GPS; I achieved the goal of having at least 4 satellites visible at all times. By the way, that crazy idea I posted previously? That's based on Teledesic, a proposal in the 90s to put 40 satellites each in 21 orbital planes! Because Kerbin is so much smaller, and the atmosphere is less of an issue, my network ought to actually be better despite having far fewer satellites.

If my calculations are correct, then with the use of 20 satellites each in 10 orbital planes, I should have excellent coverage of Kerbin's surface using just the basic 250 km antenna, with intra-plane and inter-plane crosslinks between the satellites possible. With an orbital period of 30 minutes and 45 seconds, the satellites would barely skim the atmosphere at an altitude of 72.77 kilometers. Ignoring the curvature of Kerbin, the absolute minimum latency would be 0.49 milliseconds, maximum round-trip time within a single satellite's coverage area would be 0.79 milliseconds. I could provide all of Kerbin's residents with high-speed communication with a single network! Once RemoteTech 2 is released in earnest, I know what's going to keep me busy.

It's probably hidden behind other UI elements. Try moving it to the right.

I actually tried to track down some contact info for Innsewerants with some e-stalking. But despite the fact that he freely gives away his real name and date of birth in several places, and in one place his location, I can't find anything on him. He doesn't seem to be in the phone book, or on Facebook and the like. I am forced to conclude Innsewerants is currently on a deep cover mission in South America, hunting down Bolivian drug lords.

Thanks for the cool video. It's fascinating how that rover has a kethane scanner on it.

Actually, they don't know what happened to it. It was only visible on a few frames of film, from which you could deduce it had a pretty massive speed, but it might've disintegrated completely before reaching space. And as KSP should've taught you, just going up won't get you into orbit!

I think it's fair to assume that Laythe's oceans are water of some kind, until we have evidence to the contrary. It looks that way, after all. Keeping mind that spacecraft have to sustain the pressure difference between vacuum and the pressurized compartment, 1 atmosphere, it should be no problem for space-ready vehicles to descend to 10 meters or so below Laythe's surface, where the pressure difference will again be approximately 1 atmosphere. (Although they will have to withstand compression, rather than decompression.) If Laythe has pure water, gamma radiation 10 meters below the surface will be 2^55 times less than at the surface. That ought to be plenty. Electrical pumps could fill bladders to sink crafts, or pump water out of the bladders to use their buoyancy to propel craft upwards. Buoys on the surface can provide air (if it is breathable) and electricity to the base below. Boats or water-landing could deploy rovers to anywhere on the planet, and short manned expeditions should be safe. As a bonus, a base that deep is protected from Laythe's weather systems, likely to be somewhat violent due to Laythe being tidally locked.

I wouldn't write it off that soon. If you make it difficult to research and be quite expensive compared to other engines, it could be a nice end-game option for space programs that have managed to become loaded with cash.

A suggestion I posted before: retroreflectors! Functional ones, that you can use in conjunction with a laser to determine your distance to the retroreflector. A nice and simple thing you can deploy on the Mun.

Yes, if you want to use parts with a lot of energy drain, you're going to need pretty big battery banks. Getting solar energy isn't the problem, keeping it through the night is. If you want to build a Mun base, by far the most sensible spot is at the north or south pole, because they are almost constantly illuminated.

So that's why it has that well, sputniky shape! That's very interesting.

"Wind energy" is basically the use of kinetic energy. This kinetic energy is created by an input of thermal energy from the sun. Local variations in thermal energy cause wind. Windmills do "slow down" the wind, but rarely to any significant effect, and as long as the sun keeps shining, there will be more wind. Imagine a water wheel powered by rain. The water evaporates through the sun, falls down and powers the wheel, then evaporates again, etc. You're making use of solar input, that's how you can obtain electricity without using anything up on Earth. Do note that "green" is not the same thing as "clean" or renewable. Nuclear energy is clean, and you make a good case for calling it "green", but it's not renewable--we will eventually run out of fissile material.

It will, in the next version.

Sorry, but this has been suggested time and time again. It's on the "do not suggest" list for that reason--the Squad developers are aware of the idea.

How does "splashing down hard" work with the new buoyancy code, Hooligan? Earlier you showed it how it didn't explode stuff you were dropping into the ocean, but can we drop things into the ocean at any speed now, or will they still explode (as they should) if they impact hard enough?

It is probably more efficient to use a sub-polar orbit to scan most of the planet, and then switch to a true polar orbit to get the poles themselves.

A computer that was programmed using copper wire run either around or through magnetic cores, representing 1s and 0s. The Apollo software wasn't so much programmed as it was woven.

You're not using RemoteTech 2, are you? RemoteTech 2 should not be used for normal gameplay and is only for playtesting.

People who do not speak English perfectly should be encouraged to do so. It is useful for them, being the de facto international language, and also makes their posts easier to read for everyone else. Ignorance is excusable in this case, but a refusal to learn not. (Although I will agree Morty's post was hardly that bad. Punctuation is his main issue.)

One benefit of free return maneuvers is that you can ditch any empty stages. While you perform your capture burn around the Mun, they'll keep on going and deorbit around Kerbin rather than causing debris.

There are two problems with scanning at the moment: 1) Scanning isn't dependent on your orbital altitude (unlike Mapsat), so it takes long in game time. 2) Scanning at warp requires building ridiculous craft with lots of scanners, so scanning with low real time breaks immersion.

Thanks!