OTehNoes

That's strange!

Love that design Sargent, very efficient use of space! Would be good attached to a space station!

Yep that qualifies! Winner!

Still doesn't beat my challenge... Claw's entry is the best so far, but he didn't come close to beating my time...

The challenge is no longer limited by the 24 hours, but seeing as he didn't beat my time, it isn't a winner! Game on chaps! The key is to make it light as possible, you'll find if you pitch up and down aggressively, it'll accelerate VERY fast. If you guys really struggle that much to make one though I'll give you my craft file.

Ah I see, well, I'll update the original then!

But then how do we declare a winner? Shall we just do first to beat my time?

Oooh okay I have an idea. Take off from the KSC and land at the island airfield, with no form of thrust at all. You have to make a super infinigliding girder like mine. This may seem easy but they are by their very nature awkward to fly, it may only have control surfaces to deal with yaw and pitch, roll can only done by the pitch in a probe body at the front of the... thing.... This may seem easy but these things by their very nature are awkward to fly as pitch adjustments often cause them to speed up, so the challenge is down to finesse. End condition is landed and stopped on the island runway, that is when your run ends and you record the time. Initial time to beat: 1 minute 38 seconds (it is stopped in the last image, it just fell over a bit, causing the 0.3 m/s)

Ah! Once again the challenger has become the... challengee? Anyway! My mind is a bit blank at the moment so I'll aim to have the challenge with you within an hour or so!

Moar struts!

Several, though mainly with planes. Might try it with docking soon!

Here's my effort! 3 Kerbals down from a 624 x 626 km orbit! Worked as a boat too! As you can see from the pictures, the re-entry itself was fairly sedate, not that much heat at all!

5. Kerbal can only be attached to vehicle using external command chairs or ladders. Nope.

And bingo was his name-o.

Might be worth adding no ladders to the list then if they aren't allowed!

Does this qualify? Did it for the H.O.R.S.E challenge.

Well, why would you do it on other planets if it's not important? To somebody new who has never played the game, they wouldn't know anything about Kerbin would they? Sure we know, but we've been playing a lot and had a chance to go out and explore the other planets. If you've never even managed orbit before, then doing science not only gives the person something to do, but it also gives them some information on the planet, as well as the science points to progress!

Don't get me wrong guys, I'm not saying this is something they do regularly, as they're past the point where things are needed to be done on the surface, but it has been done. If we're drawing parallels with a developing space program, i.e. the Kerbal Space Program, then these things need to be done before you go putting things in space, would you not agree? NASA once had to do it, but they're now beyond that point, obviously, and now seldom do that much research on the ground, as today there is no need, but there will have been a time when they did.

Which are commissioned by NASA. Sure they don't plonk astronauts on the surface like we do on KSP but if they want information, they send people to get it, maybe not from their own labs, but they still do the research, and said people are by definition employed by NASA. Also how is sending somebody to a specific location a waste of resources when it costs millions if not billions of dollars to put a satellite into orbit?

See I haven't got the time to read through it all D: But my point still stands, NASA do still do Earth science from the ground, they just also do a lot from orbit too.

The storm systems are tracked by satellite but rainfall would be measured on the ground. How/why would you measure rainfall depth from orbit? You couldn't! Anyway to finalize this, I'm just saying NASA DO have Earth based projects, but they aren't really their primary concerns any more, given that they've probably already done a lot of it, and our attention at the moment is more on space. I for one would like to be able to look for more geological features in KSP!

Check the second link I posted, an example would be that they're checking soil moisture with SMAP (granted the study instruments are in orbit), but that's just one. I can't be bothered to dig through it all and find each individual example of where they're done Earth based studies, but trust me, they do, albeit not very often any more as they've probably already done the most important stuff already, and leave anything else to other foundations to save themselves time. This for example is measuring tropical rainfall. This will be done from the ground via digital rain gauges. Basic stuff but it will be done from the ground.

Does anybody else think this when they read 'The Claw'?

This has quite a bit of information if you fancy reading into it, I can't be bothered too much with specifics as I'm currently doing one of my assignments! Though you are also right, NASA don't always do all of their research themselves, they often branch out and collaborate with others too, but they do also do a lot of Earth research themselves. It's necessary if you want to have a chance at understanding other planets really, as Earth is really our best basis for comparison! This is a bit more specific!

I assure you they do. But as well doing it on Kerbin teaches new players how to do it, so they know how the equipment, as well as the biomes and things work for when they try it on a more difficult target!