The Fog

Communications status AOK from Minmus 13: "Civic Duty: Check."

The pilot view in the lower right corner shows the current mood of the Kerbals. Sometimes if they feel safe and comfortable (I guess?) they'll "dance" by waving their arms, and sometimes they'll adjust their helmets. It makes me feel like they really know what they're doing. I think it's just natural for them to do that when they're EVAing, say, on the surface of the Mun feeling safe. Wouldn't it be nice?

Confirmed this is happening. I'm still on Lion. It used to work in 0.21 and before, and that's why I got used to shift-scroll to zoom in VAB. But after upgrading to 0.22 it ceased to work. Right now I have to use middle-mouse-button and move my mouse to zoom, which is not as convenient as shift-scrolling. I did some searching on Google and KSP Forums, but it seems there's no solution to this yet.

Rings?! For sure?! That'll be super cool! I can't wait to crash something into it take samples from it.

Same here. I think it'll make more sense if there's a separate part to store surface samples, since it's a physical thing that couldn't be digitized. And it'd be super cool if the surface samples weight actually goes up the more you store.

That would be exclusive for Jeb.

The science tech tree was awesome. It really makes me think about the early days of space exploration. I mean, pre-0.22 with all those parts I used to fly to Jool for fun, but now, hey there's no NERVA! Even 909 requires some research to get. And... where is my solar panels?! There were so many parts that we took for granted. But now without them I feel really crippled. Simple things like reaching LKO are not that simple anymore. And with electricity (finally) being a resource so hard to come by, I know now how it feels like for the human engineers back then when they launched stuff in to space IRL. I have a thousand words and things that I wish to share, but please forgive me that for now I need to find a way to Mun for MOAR science. So, in short, thank you for your fantastic work Squad, please please keep it up. In the meantime I'll keep my eyes peeled looking around the Kerbal Observable Universe until I spot something with a gold disc.

Great! Welcome back. I wanted to continue my Yakitori adventure though, but .21 wiped out everything, including my favorite kerbonaut Calald Kerman

Well... I was way too bored the day before. Saw the video which reminded me of Black and White, so I bought it. And after 2 days playing it. The answer is no. At least not now. I won't waste your time by telling you how bad it is, so I'll make it short: There's nothing attractive. I'd recommend waiting a bit until the game has at least something enjoyable to offer.

Right now we have prograde / retrograde / node markers which is of course essential for any type of maneuvers. However, especially when making minor adjustment burn to close in on a planet, I've found that most of such burns are normal / radial. Currently the navball does not indicate those directions, and it is not trivial to find those directions manually in interplanetary-space. I have to drop a maneuver node whenever I want to make such adjustments, which is very much of a hassle, especially when I've already oriented my map-view focusing on the encounter. My current workaround is to use MechJeb's Smart ASS to point me in the direction I need, but I think a stock implementation on the navball would be more appropriate. In short, I think adding normal, anti-normal, radial-in, radial-out marks on the navball in orbit-mode would be very helpful.

Ah yes yes, "Museum" was the thing that was in my mind, but somehow this word slipped right past. I'm thinking (hoping) that it will be a full featured scenery like the inside of VPH / VAB, plus navigation via an EVAed Kerbal, like what boomerdog2000 has suggested: Also, presenting a mininature replica of the spacecraft alongside with the collected item would be super cool. I, personally, had a plan to study the Kraken which involves a large amount of batter and hot oil. Actually my idea had no relationship with the "Oh you got to Duna" type of trophy but actually collecting stuff on the planets. And yes, that's a cool idea that if we got enough stuff back from Eve we might eventually confirm that its really made from grape jelly.

I did a quick search on the forum and it seems it was not suggested before... I think it'll be nice if Kerbals could collect "something" from the planets and return them to KSC for "studying". I'm not talking about easter eggs. There're just too few of them and not enough variety. There should be multiple stuff that are worthwhile to be returned to Kerbin: e.g. Polar ice cubes from Duna, "Soup" and dirt from Eve (Why? Why is it purple?), a jar of green gas scooped up from Jool... etc. To take this further, let's have a "trophy hall" in KSC that let us show off for bragging rights. The collection action would be strictly limited to Kerbals so we have a bigger incentive to send Kerbals instead of probes. Plus, a bigger incentive to rescue them instead of leaving them stranded.

+1 Please Squad please? P.S.: If we could do something with that crashed saucer.....

You are correct about the radiation belt and that ozone had nothing to do with it. It's probably time for me to pick up that old physics textbook again, but alas, crashing something into Duna is more enjoyable. I'm sorry for my bad writing in my original post that mixed up the two completely irrelevant stuff. As for radioactive particles in Laythe's atmosphere, a bit of re-thinking and some research showed it should be minimal. That reminded me about induced radioactivity, which I clearly forgot in my original post. Oxygen and common atmospheric gas elements are resistant to neutron activation, combined with the fact that there shouldn't be much neutron / alpha radiation out there, the effect should be minimal. Solar wind (Or Kerbolar Wind?) shouldn't have enough energy to cause photodisintegration. Therefore, radioactive particles inside Laythe's atmosphere should be indeed minimal. Sorry, my bad for giving wrong information in the original post. However, before declaring Laythe being safe, we'd probably need to think how Laythe's atmosphere plays within Jool's magnetic field (if there is one). The above only addresses for radiation from space alone. The upper Laythe atmosphere could get ionized and swept up by Jool's magnetic field and completely change the composition of the radiation around Laythe. So... I'm still puzzled.

Great! Thanks for the tip! However, in 0.21 I've found that Tebasaki didn't fly as good as it had been. Mk I was only able to achieve roughly 85x85km orbit (used to be around 100km). Will need some more test with Mk IV before I could confirm if the previous posts are still valid under 0.21

Oh thanks for the tip! I hope they'll adapt the new SAS system soon. It works way better.

+1 Well said. Especially about Oxygen and water => Cloud part. However, Laythe has its own day / night cycle, it's orbit w.r.t. Kerbol (the Sun) and the water vapor in the atmosphere should give it seasons so it should have rainy seasons like Earth. If its ozone layer isn't thick enough to stop radiation, which I think should be the case given its proximity to Jool, rainfall will wash the radioactive particles in the atmosphere into the ocean and I think the ocean would be pretty radioactive. Therefore I'm not quite convinced Laythe ocean is "safe". Anyway, it seems life in KSP universe had no problem dealing with radiation. Just look that those Kerbals who doesn't seem worried about the liberal use of RTG and NERVA engines. They don't even care being blasted in the face by NERVA engine exhaust!

I wouldn't say using MJ is a cheat. I used it as a learning tool when I was new to KSP, because the arcane science of orbital maneuver isn't always "google-able". But soon I discovered MJ isn't always 100% reliable, let alone 100% efficient. So, even with auto-pilot on I kept watching and sometimes I had to frantically hit that "Disengage auto-pilot" button. I'm not sure about others, but for me MJ tends to freak out if my CPU is under heavy loading. Since you're saying that you're going to test it on an "elderly" computer, then I guess it won't behave well and the entertainment index should, well, sky-rocket. The new plugin system makes it very easy to install / uninstall mods so I see no reason why not to try. And, here's my 2-cents about MJ: Pros: P1. Reminds you to turn off RCS when you don't need it. P2. Launching a refuel craft the 20th time isn't fun. P3. Docking to a station under 5 frames per second isn't fun neither. P4. Seriously, manually executing a 10-minute burn isn't fun. P5. (Except landing de-orbit burns) MJ shows its actions and how they're done right in front of you. It's a great learning tool. P6. Repeatable results for design optimization. P7. It's like a Swiss army knife. Many tools inside and let you choose what you want to use. P8. Flying manually and beating MJ in fuel usage / time spent is very satisfying. Cons: C1. Eats through your RCS storage if you forget P1. C2. Landing, although very precise, uses way too much fuel. C3. It actually causes wobbles due to over-compensation in almost every actions. C4. CPU-intensive. Esp if you let too many info window open. C5. No longer provides ascent performance results in version 2. So I can't judge how efficient my ascent profile is. C6. Spaceplane guidance is a joke right now. C7. See P8. MJ is only good for general cases. C8. (Yet to be tested on 0.21) Sometimes it causes extreme lag if more than 1 MJ part is present on a craft. (Used to happen when I forgot to ditch that MJ part before docking to a space station) That should be all... Anyway, have fun.

Thanks Trigger. Now I can go to Duna.

I'm not good with words, so I'll put it simple: Thank you Squad!

I need them to drive my rovers! Come on, sign up as a Kerbonaut. It's not as dangerous as everyone says.

Objective: Land a probe on the surface of Duna to "sample" the planet's surface Background: With the successful Nankotsu missions, satellites returned valuable data regarding Duna's true origin. And the eons-old question was finally answered with a resounding "YES": That Duna's surface was indeed made of spicy powder. To make things more exciting, the spicy powder was completely new and does not exist on Kerbin. Needless to say, Shinji wanted it. However, satellite returned two types of spicy powder: The normal red one covering the majority of the planet's surface, and a white-ish one covering the polar areas. Preliminary studies showed that the white-ish one are just frozen watered-down red powder. Despite that fact, Shinji still wanted to taste both. So he and Knova quickly developed a "artificial tasting bud" and fitted that on the tips of a couple of landing legs. And a mission was launched to Duna to see which one they should bring back. Vehicle: Surface Tasting Rover Edamame Pilot: Nil (R.C. by Knova Kerman) Misson Log: Usual launching: Knova was lucky to intercept Duna right on the ejection burn: Small tweak to bring the Duna periapsis down and align the planes, as far as one could see from the awkward map viewer. Since Knova wanted a precise landing location, a stable low orbit was established first: The first Duna landing attempt for Kerbal kind. Knova surely deserved the round of applause that follows by putting Edamame safely on the surface of Duna: And destroying the skycrane was fun too: Edamame landed on the white powder, so it began tasting right away. "Very Spicy. Moderately hot (chili) with a hint of green onion. Watered down. Probably not strong enough." That was the message that came up in Edamame's tasting report. Knova then proceeded to drive the rover towards the red powder carefully. Edamame reached the red powder and started tasting. "Extremely Spicy. Very hot (chili). Complex aftertaste. Mouth-watering. Recommended to put on skewer or deep fried meat." Edamame confirmed the preliminary studies, that the red-powder are more worth getting. With the mission finished, Knova drove Edamame to a nearby hill-top for everyone to admire the beautiful sunset on Duna: Mission Success!

Objective: Put probes on Duna system to find out what is available there Background: Having Yakitori Mun fully operational, all Kerbals were divided into two distinct categories: Those who are visiting there, and those who are waiting for a vacancy. Shinji had been waiting for an opportunity to explore other planets in the Kerbol System. And it seemed the chance for doing so had came up with all the money pouring in. Duna was chosen as the first target to explore given it's proximity to Kerbin, and it's limited gravity such that Kerballed mission, if required, could be possible with current Yakitori technologies. It was also an interesting planet since it looked red, and for generations after generations Kerbals had been wondering why it looked so red. EM-wave spectrum indicated that there was a possibility that such red color was caused by the fact that the planet's surface was covered in spicy powder. Shinji was determined to launch a mission to Duna, in hope that a new spice to be found there. Vehicle: Nankotsu Satellite Launcher (Payload: MapSat Mk IV) Pilot: Nil (R.C. by Knova Kerman) Misson Log: Nankotsu on the launch pad awaiting launch. Since it was the first interplanetary mission for Yakitori (and in fact, across whole Kerbin), that Knova had put a whooping 4600 m/s delta-v on the transfer stage and the probe itself. "Enough to get past Eeloo." He said. Since everyone was anxious in getting there. Waiting for prolonged time in LKO for proper transfer window was not preferred. So instead, the craft was put directly towards Kerbol orbit using gravity assist from Mun. After a standard Holmann Transfer and a series of correction burns, Nankotsu managed to intercept Duna. A round of applause was given to Chief Enginneer and R.C. Pilot Knova Kerman for achieving the first Duna intercept of Kerbal-made object. Without overwhelmed by the emotions, Knova quickly performed another correction burn for the desired mapping inclination and aero-capturing periapsis altitude. A good view of the Duna polar area during aero-capturing, and later, with Ike in the background: After a series of orbital adjustments, Nankotsu was safely in orbit around Duna. Another round of applause was given to the great engineer. The transfer stage was dumped with a 1000 m/s delta-v left. Knova surely did provide way more than enough fuel for Nankotsu. The onboard equipment were switched on once Nankotsu was in proper mapping orbit. Data transfer was positive and it was the first Kerbal-made object ever to achieve orbit around Duna! While waiting for the mapping for Duna to complete, an identical Nankotsu launch was made to Ike. However, Nankotsu 2 arrived Duna on the wrong side of the orbit, which made it arriving at an alarming velocity. With the limited capability of KSC's maneuver node editor, nobody could detect that during the early transfer orbit, and thus a huge amount of delta-v was spent to keep the situation manageable. Transferring from Duna orbit to Ike orbit was just like transferring from Kerbin to Mun, only a thousand times easier thanks to the close proximity. Nankotsu 2 arrived Ike orbit with just around 580 m/s delta-v remaining on the transfer stage. This should be a reminder for everyone that interplanetary travel could take a ridiculously large amount of fuel before you know it. Fortunately, that was still more than enough, and Knova had no problem putting it in Ike orbit. With the mapping satellites in place, very soon Kerbals would find out that after all the eons guessing, that if Duna was really made from spicy powder or not! Mission success!

Objective: Land and Install the Kitchen Module for Yakitori Mun Transfer Operation Personnel to Yakitori Mun Bring Luke, Dilgan and Calald home Background: After all the hard work, it is time to install the final, and most important module to Yakitori Mun: The Kitchen. With it installed, Yakitori Mun will be ready to serve waves after waves of customers with the finest accommodation one can find on Mun! A truly great place to visit, highly anticipated across all Kerbin. Operation personnels were needed there too. Afterall the crew up there were Kerbonauts who were not exactly the best people to operate a hotel and restaurant. By transferring the operation team there and bringing the Kerbonauts home, this mission will be the final KSC-controlled mission for Yakitori Mun, which will open for business afterwards. Vehicle: Yakitori Mun Kitchen Module & Crew Transfer Vehicle Pilot: Insertion Phase: Nil (R.C. by Knova Kerman) Return Phase: Luke Kerman, Dilgan Kerman and Calald Kerman Misson Log: Knova sighed in relief that finally he was launching something not that heavy and complicated. After a smooth landing on Mun and some usual Momo Crane towing, everything was in place. The operation team and our three heroes took a group photo, marking the moment that the first hotel ever outside Kerbin was ready for business. * From the left: Calald Kerman - Junior Kerbonaut Dilgan Kerman - Senior Kerbonaut Luke Kerman - Master Kerbonaut Flag of Yakitori Dildorf Kerman - Yakitori Mun General Manager Loford Kerman - Master Chef Enbree Kerman - Apprentice Chef, Waiter Geofley Kerman - Hotel Attendant for Western Style Rooms Munfred Kerman - Hotel Attendant for Japanese Style Rooms Note the facial expressions of the professional customer service personnels versus those of the Kerbonauts and the General Manager. That was why they were required on Yakitori Mun. And it was time for our heroes to come home. Kawa Mk II rolled in to refuel the Crew Transfer Vehicle: After the refuel, the crew switched to manual control and proceeded to ascent to orbit. "I think I will miss this place." Calald said. "Yes. I think we all will. Next time we come in, we come in as customers." Luke said. The crew took a good look at their creation, then took the vehicle all the way back to Kerbin. After landing safely in KSC. The crew was surprised to see Mun hanging high up in the sky. Awaiting them are a glorious feast to celebrate, and it was sure to relieve the complex emotions that the crew were feeling. Mission complete. And this marked the end of the Yakitori Mun missions. Next up: Culinary Duna!

Objective: Land the new Kethane miner Kawa Mk II to Yakitori Mun Kethane Operation Site Background: By adding Kethane processing capabilities to Yakitori Mun, Tebasaki could be refueled on Mun and thus the return trip would be safer in terms of fuel level. Of course, Knova soon designed the mobile Kethane platform suitable for the job, and promptly named it Kawa Mk II. However, after extensive testing, he found out that using the traditional skycrane approach to land Kawa Mk II was very difficult due to its weight. So, a more Kerbal form of landing was to be attempted. Vehicle: Surface Kethane Processor Kawa Mk II Pilot: Nil (R.C. by Knova Kerman) Misson Log: Problems launching heavy stuff into space? The solution was simple: MOAR BOOSTERS! Landing on Mun was easy so we'd skip that. The fun begins when Knova attempted the new topple landing approach to set Kawa Mk II on the ground. In order to topple land, RCS fuel was to be pumped back to the top tank and the landing stage would decouple. Then, wobble the whole craft until one of the wheels touches the surface. Once that happens, the wheels should give enough force to wiggle away from the landing stage. Knova carefully executes the above plan. Some of the jettisoned pylons decided to undergo spontaneous combustion while Kawa Mk II was being wobbled: After touchtown, Kawa Mk II wiggled clear of the landing stage. And had its RCS tank jettisoned during its drive to the operation site Kawa Mk II doing its job: In the meantime, since Kawa Mk II landed too close to Yakitori Mun, Calald Kerman was assigned to do the garbage disposal. Garbage disposal in progress: The lander stage was so heavy that the actual driving was kind of painful. "Argh... Should have used Momo Crane instead..." Calald thought to himself after Kimo Rover almost tipped over. Unable to use Physics Warp due to the instability of the setup, Calald proceed to the painful long drive, towing all of those garbage out of the drawing distance. Meanwhile, Kawa Mk II had finished its job, and Knova discovered that he had forgotten to put RTG on it. Seems like it could only be operated in daylight then. After a lot more towing, and swearing, the base was once again in pristine condition, clean from debris.