Tinyboss

I saw that, but I was scared off by the ModuleManager config it says I need to use (and which I notice was made by you). I'm very new at modding KSP. What do I do with that file, InfernalRoboticsRework_0_24_Fix.cfg?

@Master Tao: Here's a quick sketch of what I want to do. I just can't get things to attach this way in the VAB. With a great amount of trial and error I can maybe get the hinge onto the end of the first girder in the correct orientation. But I can never get the second girder where I need it to be.

This mod is WONDERFUL! I'm having so much fun designing origami structures that pack as efficiently as possible into procedural fairings and unfold themselves on command! One thing that's bugging me though: I'm totally clueless about the flat hinges (the ones that look like door hinges). I can't for the life of me get them to attach in any predictable way, or anything to attach predictably to them. Are they only meant to attach to certain other parts, or am I doing something wrong? For instance, I wanted to place a couple of girders next to each other with an open door hinge at the top, so that they unfold to become like one long girder. But I just can't manage to get them to attach the right way to the hinge.

More fun fitting stuff into fairings. Today I sent a large Kethane refinery to Minmus: <iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="550" frameborder="0" src="//imgur.com/a/zCBcO/embed"></iframe> Conveniently left out of the image gallery is the refueling mission I had to send to Minmus orbit when I discovered there wasn't enough DV to land. I'm also not satisfied that the solar panels are clipping with the fuel lines after deploying the drilling arms. But overall I consider the mission a success. 225 parts in six stages, $406k.

Installed some mods I really should have tried ages ago, namely Infernal Robotics, ActiveStruts, TweakScale, and Procedural Fairings. I made a quad-nuclear tugboat that fits in a small(ish) capsule, and then unfolds itself when it reaches space. <iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="550" frameborder="0" src="//imgur.com/a/Ni7pa/embed"></iframe>

Well as long as Squad remains as mod-friendly as they are today, we'll have the things we want most, e.g. Kethane. I think it's actually perfect if Squad focuses the stock game on really core gameplay and continues to expand the scope of what's possible for modders to add.

And then sending something to Mars to launch with it. ;-)

Then they have to be built for reentry. On the other hand, they're not on the tether on the way down, so if that makes them less than twice* as heavy it would be a net gain. I guess they also could be designed to burn up. They really only have to be strong enough to keep the cargo contained and dry, and able to be (de)coupled to the tractors, so that might be the way to go. *Approximately, depending on how far down they need to go to deorbit.

Surely we can come up with a way for the tractors to exchange cargoes while remaining coupled to the tether? My first, barely-considered idea: suppose one tractor has its two symmetrically-placed cargo containers oriented north-south, while the tractor above it has its cargo oriented east-west. When they meet, they can latch onto each other's containers, then release the ones they had originally. You could have as many tractors (thus cargoes) on the tether simultaneously as it can support, alternating orientations: north-south on the way up, east-west on the way down. Each tractor would just go up and down its own little section of the tether. It would be necessary to switch orientations at each end of the tether, but since that means on Earth or in orbit, it's an easy operation. Come to think of it, you'd need some means of orienting the tractors anyway, so that you wouldn't end up with torsion in the tether as two tractors meet. You could rotate the tractor against the mass of the cargo to eliminate any amount of torsion, but you still might then have to rotate the cargoes by up to 90 degrees for the exchange. A reaction wheel would do the trick, but we want to minimize non-cargo mass, so maybe some small thrusters? Or even better, you could design them with a physical shape that nudged them into alignment as they met. Have I missed any embarrassing flaws with this scheme?

I guess it depends on what you mean by "pi". If you define it to be the smallest positive x such that exp(ix)+1=0, (with the standard Taylor series definition of the natural exponential function), then you don't really have much wiggle room to say that it can be anything else. I realize that we aren't talking about circles anymore, but this does give an example of mathematical impossibility.

You probably won't want to stare at Mars for too long when it's in opposition. ;-) Edit: Oops, I didn't read that definition of "opposition" very carefully. I had in mind the other way that the three bodies can line up, i.e. with the Sun in between.

You put the docking port on the spin axis, then spin the incoming ship at the same rate, as seen in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Right, so we should potentially sacrifice all the knowledge we could learn about an alien biosphere just to learn something about a bacterium we already know. Right.

Obviously photoshopped.

A couple of random bits I can address quickly: 1. Kerbal Alarm Clock can set an alarm for the next SOI change, which also tells you when it will be. It can even set the alarms automatically, and have them go off X amount of time in advance. 2. It's difficult and inefficient to fine-tune your initial burn to get a good flyby. Do the fine-tuning about halfway there, and then again right after SOI entry. Often these are single-digit-dv burns.

The relevant part of the definition reads "has cleared the neighbourhood around its orbit." In other words, a bunch of crap co-orbiting the sun with Pluto is a problem, while a bunch of crap orbiting Saturn or Jupiter is not.

Thanks for making this tool, xEvilReeperx! Making navballs is fun. Is there any chance the tool could be modified so that we can reload the .png without exiting and reloading KSP? Here's my minimalist navball: I began by coloring the north heading red, since everyone does, but then I realized that east is more often useful, so I made that green. Then I got the idea to color south yellow and west blue, and do away with labels entirely.

That is awesome.

The molecules of a gas aren't stuck to one another, and they're all flying around at speeds whose average is proportional to the temperature. A vacuum is just the absence of anything for them to bounce against! So they just keep moving, away from where they are now.

Second this. It's amazing.

If I could a kerbal, I would Jeb.

You're still really confused about why people care about this thought experiment. Nobody thinks it's a better explanation than Newton's laws of how things really work. Nobody thinks it's an explanation of anything at all other than the absurdity of the Aristotlean model. The fact that a theory can be dispensed with using nothing but thought actually appeals to some people as an elegant, not to mention cost effective, means of inquiry. But seriously, if you take nothing else from my posts, please understand that nobody thinks this thought experiment itself is any kind of theory of gravitation.

I think you're confused about the point of the argument. You're correct that it doesn't prove that all objects fall at the same rate. What it does do is disprove the specific notion that objects fall under gravity at a rate proportional to their mass. With respect to your second paragraph, the main idea of the argument is that the "attachment" can be as weak as we like, even a touch, or a touch by a single hair. If you object to that, then you are in the position of deciding how strong the attachment must be before it counts, and that way leads to absurdity.

It's ever so humble compared to everyone else's, but it's my first, so I'm posting it anyway! Three things are docked to the center spindle/habitation module: on the left is the fuel/oxidizer/RCS storage, at the bottom is a ferry to bring fuel from the Kethane refinery on the Munar surface, and at the right is a tug for moving things between Kerbin/Mun/Minmus orbits.

Gee, thanks a lot...I never knew how sad I am not to have one of these. Seriously, this is so, so sweet, great work!