Bill Zarr

Since Billygoat_J expressed an interest here's an album of the SSTO spaceplane. It's just a basic, simple spaceplane. The most exciting bit of part clipping is the ladder. The service bay contains 4x Z-100 batteries, a FL-R10 RCS fuel tank, An OCTO2, 2x SP-L panels and communotron 16.

No, you are wrong. I would prefer if you didn't make wild unfounded accusations of me abusing game physics.

It has 3 of the structural intakes underneath at the back. The thing behind the service bay is a liquid fuel tank, the RCS thruster is just stock with a linear RCS port shifted over in offset mode. It's pretty much a point at 15° above the horizon all the way into space flight path. It has ~300m/s left in a 75x75km orbit & some liquid fuel left after re-entry for flying back after overshooting /undershooting the KSC. Oh and no fuel tanks under the wings, just the 3 that can be seen.

Added a few more modules to the LKO station I've been building to replace the one that was built earlier in career. 7 construction flights, 106 parts not including the SSTO space-plane. The ISRU is to see if I can make use of those ore from Mun/Minmus to Kerbin orbit contracts.

I'd rather have things not activate by default while stowed. Having things not activate by default prevents having to disable and use action groups excessively. ie Antenna - the game defaults to the best antenna, which if it is on a stowed satellite may not be the one you want to use. Having the antenna of a stowed satellite deploy through fairings or cargo bays (or get damaged as was suggested) is completely idiotic. Another example of something not to activate while stowed is landing legs. I've no wish for landing legs to toggle while stowed. Returning a lander via spaceplane for a specific example. Last time I tried this the legs did deploy and I ended up having to use action groups rather than the default toggles. Engines? No I certainly don't want engines to operate while stowed in a cargo bay. Do I want engines to activate while in a fairing? In general - No. There may be instances where one may want to activate them while stowed but there are many instances where you specifically do not want them to be activated while stowed. In general the default behaviour of things not activating while stowed is more useful to me, and I would suspect that is true of most players. Arguing for the 1% of cases when activation would be useful against the 99% of the time when you don't want this behaviour doesn't really cut it. A simple (in terms of UI) solution would be to have a toggle on the fairing/cargo bay/service bay that allowed activation of the things inside it (for good or ill).

From ISRU.cfg TemperatureModifier { key = 0 100000 key = 750 50000 key = 1000 10000 key = 1250 500 key = 2000 50 key = 4000 0 } ThermalEfficiency { key = 0 0 0 0 key = 500 0.1 0 0 key = 1000 1.0 0 0 key = 1250 0.1 0 0 key = 3000 0 0 0 } From RadialDrill.cfg TemperatureModifier { key = 0 10000 key = 250 7500 key = 500 5000 key = 750 500 key = 1000 0 } ThermalEfficiency { key = 0 0.1 key = 250 .1 key = 500 1 key = 750 .1 key = 1000 0 }

I launched a space station ring module (stock) and hauled it off to the Mun. It has no real purpose in career, I just like the look of it. Then I got offered a contract to expand this station so it can hold even more kerbals, I think not.

USS Enterprise and Shuttlecraft This is an all stock Kerbal-version of the Star Trek USS Enterprise, ie it's small compared to the Star Trek version & obviously has no warp drive. (253 parts including shuttlecraft when docked in orbit, ~4770m/s ∆v, Shuttlecraft (49 parts) ~1678m/s ∆v) Additional Images: Mission Albums for more pictures of the craft, launching, docking the shuttlecraft, landing on moons etc. Download: USS Enterprise Shuttlecraft Enterprise Notes: It's a bit tricky to fly into orbit (I doubt the fairings bug helps tbh). Remember to switch control to the big probe core before launching! Turn on the aerodynamic overlay, keep an eye on the light blue line that comes out the Cupola, pitch forward to keep that as small as possible. Once the SRB's burn out it's relatively safe to gradually pitch over to horizontal. The final stage should get it to a 100x100km orbit with fuel to spare. The launch mission album has a couple of pictures that show values. Action groups are listed in the craft details. (Click title in VAB) The thrust is not perfectly balanced, but it is close enough that the reaction wheels can easily cope with it. Moving fuel from the body and neck to drained tanks in the saucer section will improve balance slightly too. Shuttlecraft Notes: Have fun docking this! It has a total of 7.5 units of Mono-propellant. Use this only for docking, LOCKING the mono-propellant fuel tank in the cockpit is advised at all other times, otherwise you may deplete it when using the belly Vernors. Oh and toggle those Vernor engines off when you're trying to dock. It's a tight fit & you need to reverse in. The front tanks of the Enterprise nacelles have extra oxidiser so the shuttlecraft can be completely refuelled at least once. I would advise locking all the bi-propellant fuel tanks on the shuttlecraft when docked with the Enterprise, since the Enterprise RCS Vernors will drain from all tanks. Mono-propellant can be refuelled from tanks in the shuttlebay. Remember to close the shuttlebay door! The dorsal Twitch engine has been set to have slightly reduced thrust so the craft thrust remains fairly balanced. Action groups are listed in the craft details. (Click title in VAB) Hitting the brakes will activate the Launchinator, elevating the shuttlecraft into a handy launch position.

I took a spin in to Eve. Took the shuttlecraft out for an away mission to Gilly. Came home again. Experimented with safe aerobreaking heights at Eve and Kerbin. Mission albums

After the recent physics changes I realised I'm not very sure how deep you can aerobreak in Kerbins atmosphere. After a spin round the moons I came back from Minmus and tested aerobreaking. Posted a mission report thing in that forum if you want to see more of the trip.

[quote name='Kevin Kyle']Another one I am going to have to fly, maybe this weekend. Very nice! Is this available to download? Not yet, not run into anything I think needs fixed or changed though so I'll probably make it available soon. [quote name='Just Jim']Awesome! What's the part count? 253 parts & 161 tonnes (including the shuttle) Also part 2.

Exploring with a stock USS Enterprise - the Kerbal version. No particular fancy plot or mission design, just exploring for fun and taking pictures along the way. The first version got flown to Duna, but I made a few improvements to the design. The newer version looks a bit closer to the iconic design, and is a lot better balanced in terms of thrust and RCS placement. The Shuttlecraft got a makeover too. Downloads for the craft files are available in the thread on The Spacecraft Exchange. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Made some design changes to my stock Enterprise, looks a bit closer to the original series/motion picture versions now. The slight wobble on the saucer section has been reduced to minimal levels. There is even less torque from engine placement than before. The RCS is better balanced and it has about ~1kms more ∆v. Took it out on a quick jaunt to the Mun to test the handling. [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/97RBREv.jpg[/IMG] The shuttlecraft that fits in the back looks a bit more snappy too. [URL="http://i.imgur.com/xVRp7VO.jpg"][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/xVRp7VOl.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

Tinkering with MkII shuttlecraft for my stock Enterprise. And thinking of a science variant.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/gaming/a18217/enterprise-kerbal-space-program/ Didn't expect this, I am much amused. (and a Mad Engineer apparently )

I built a stock Enterprise & went to Duna. Went to the surface and back with the on board shuttle. Full album

I built a fun little lander from the Mk1 crew cabin. Can go from low mun orbit and back. Album on imgur if anyone wants to see more pics.

Wanderfound, thanks for the tip. I was going by eye in the SPH, & I knew they weren't angled enough to be right through the CoM. My concern was also that the thing should be able to thrust straight for manoeuvre nodes so didn't want to angle the Terriers more than the gimbals could correct for. Might be better to add a couple of Spiders for orbital manoeuvres.

Both the Terriers are angled upwards slightly and the turbojet is angled down slightly. Once it's in vacuum I think the Terriers could only run at about 80% throttle before it started to overwhelm the reaction wheels and nose up. If I spent more time tweaking it I'm sure I could get it to perform better, but I doubt it would ever work as well as something that was inherently balanced from the start.

I built a couple of quick SSTOs, X5 is my first post 1.0 SSTO, X6 does not fly that well due to it's offset engine layout, wing layout on it is bad. It is not so much flown into orbit as wrestled into orbit.

Exactly how many Gigantors used as radiators are needed to stop the ISRU from overheating? 16 doesn't (& that's with an unobtanium engineer) How many should be needed for it to be a balanced game mechanic?

Running for 15 min at full throttle vs exploding after less than half that time is a notable difference don't you think?

Built a test ship that will run for 35 min at full throttle without overheating to critical failure (Tested using infinite fuel). The radiators get to the point where they are radiating away almost as much heat as they absorb from the tank. They run very hot but it heats up very slowly once the radiators near equilibrium. The didn't reach it but appeared to be getting quite close. 15 min run depletes all fuel without problems. No radiator version explodes before it empties half a tank. Also building something docked in the VAB doesn't stop heat flow but, docking once launched sure does. Imgur album that I can't get to embed properly

The turning circle isn't great, but it can turn fairly well, only the front two pairs of wheels and rear two pairs are set to steer. On mostly flat grassland it's ok clipping along at 25m/s FFx3, but I generally deactivate steering on the rear two pairs of wheels if going fast. It's wide enough to be stable on pretty steep inclines. The docking port connection gives some flex to the system too. It took on some pretty serious terrain in the mountains and did better than I expected it would. The whole thing drives pretty well. The 6 wheel rover at the front is a delight to drive by itself though. A full string of modules in a mobile-base-train-rover is a bit of a beast to turn though.

Craft Name: Science Rover & Lab Rover Module Stock: (KER for engineering data) Celestial Body: Kerbin Number of Biomes: 4 Grasslands, Highlands, Mountains, Desert. (Could have hit up Shores and Tundra but they are within the 5km cut off of KSC. In theory all Kerbin land biomes are within range if you are insane/patient enough) Total Mission Cost: 86,739 for combined rover modules, 80,185 recovered (92.4%) Highest Science Tier: lots (I've unlocked everything in this career save so I don't know really) It's actually quite fun to go the scenic route via rover, and discover giant trees, MGLs and Cavorite deposits. It would have been a better idea to park up the lab and just take the science rover up into the mountains then return and re-dock to the lab. I might make some minor tweaks to this design but next step is deploying it to the Mun.