steuben

Conspiracy: KSP and it's successors is really a chocolate covered manhole cover.

Why do you think there is only one? There could be any number... except fractions that would be just weird and icky. And they are like the Great Old ones. By asking of their existence you have attracted their attention and their … interest. By knowing which they are you will attract their action, and their morals and ways are beyond our comprehension. Oh wait... you meant that Star Theory. Nevermind. It isn't me then.

Gene sat with his feet hanging down off the end of the dock. He flicked the fishing rod in his hands causing the bob to dance on the surface of the water. No one knew who built the dock. Every time he came here he thought whoever built it was immensely skilled in esthetics. The dock and landscape looked like something out of a Kriedrich painting. He turned around hearing footsteps on the wood. “Hey Jeb,” he said. “Hi Gene.” Jeb walked over and leaned on one the pilings. “The conservation folks’ll have fits if they catch you fishing.” Gene chuckled and reeled in the line. “They’d have to catch me.” He held up the bob, a darning needle hung down from it. “But, I’d also have to catch something first.” Jeb guffawed. “It’s more about the mediation of fishing then the act of fishing .” Gene put the rod down and fished around in the cooler by his side. He pulled out a beer and held over to Jeb. “Sorry,” Jeb shook his head. “Got a maintenance flight in a couple of hours.” Gene nodded, “next time.” He cracked it open a drunk a mouthful. Jeb nodded, “next time.” He looked out across the water, past the horizon. “Hey, Gene,” he said after moment. “You’ve been there, right?” Gene froze for a moment. You didn’t ask someone that. You either knew or you were told. “Yeah,” he said carefully. “I was there. I flew he-vac before I … I transferred to flight ops.” “No shame there,” Jeb said. “Even us daring fighter drivers thought you he-vac guys had them made from chrome steel.” Gene chuckled. “Yeah.” He looked over at Jeb. He wondered where the question was coming from. He looked back out over the water. “It was few years after I got off the plane before I finally came home.” He took a long pull from the can, draining it. “Even then, some nights I’m back there.” He put the can in the cooler. “But, fortunately not as frequently as I used to.” Jeb nodded. He shook his head as if to clear it. “How did you know it was time?” Gene shook his head. “Knowing it is the last time isn’t the trick. If you live through it, you know. The trick is figuring out the second last time.” He looked at Jeb. “You wondering?” Jeb looked down at the water. “More than I care.” He nodded his head up to the sky. “Up there is one of the few places where I am sure of where I am.” “Then it isn’t. When you stop wondering then it might be time.” “Yeah,” Jeb shrugged. “I figured. Thanks.” He started to walk back up the dock. “Hey Jeb,” Gene said over his shoulder. “There’s a bunch of us that meet at the rec center alternate Wednesday evenings. You know, if you need to talk, or want to listen.” “Yeah thanks Gene, I’ll be through if I need to.”

Camelot, it was a silly pla^H^H^H rocket.

Do these and the other things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Choose to dedicate yourself to delivering a kerbal to Eeloo and returning him safely to Kerbin, using only level 5 tech. Recast rhetoric aside, why did you start a new save?

My reflex is let it live. But then there's this argument against that, https://xkcd.com/695/

It is the year I made contact... and one day at a time.

fuel flow ISP general structural design, both static and dynamic science manufacturing research and development commuincations hiring Now, to the question at hand. Define ninety degree turn. But my guess is that what you saw was an apparent change of trajectory based upon the change of frame of reference caused by the change of the SOI.

Chapter 28 Linus walked the length of the complex collection of pipes, pumps and reactors. Seeray walked along side. He half listened to her as she described the chemistry and mechanics of the system. An ISRU she called it. His chemistry classes were a long time ago, and the rest sounded like plumbing and HVAC. “The resulting products are stored cryogenically here,” she said. “Right now we’re using these standard tanks. But, in the field we can use the standard Lox and LF tanks, either on craft or in a storage site.” Linus looked at his clipboard and the project overview. “So right now you’re using simulated Minmus ices.” He said. She nodded as he continued. “and you want to lift fifty meters of pipes, pumps, and tanks massing five tonnes to Minmus to see if it works on the real thing.” She opened her mouth as if to object, but paused. “Yes,” she said. “That pretty much distills it down.” He looked back along the equipment. “I always get these review and approval tasks,” he thought. “Gus, Bill, or one of the senior engineers should be doing this.” “It seems a bit long,” he said. ”This is just the lab bench. The linear layout is just for easy of development For the prototype we going to reduce the production volume to a quarter, fold it up, and design against the two-five chassis.” “That feels a bit large.” “It is.” She gestured to the other end of the equipment.. “We figure we can get all of this into a two-five chassis. But it would be packed really tight. If we reduce everything we can space it out. That way the system can be worked on or pieces swapped out if we need to.” She gestured to one of the valve handles. Linus noticed for the first time that it was oversized and oddly shaped. “We built and tested this using suit gloves. If we had asked for a three-seventy five, it would have gotten the field testing burnered.” “Probably not,” Linus thought. “Pushed back for redesign most likely.” He looked at the far end of the equipment at the one large tank. “And how will you feed the system on Minmus?” “Well,” she scratched the back of her head. “We have an auger system modified for use in a low-g vacuum environment.” She gestured to a machine in the corner. “With an attached hopper.” Linus looked at it for a moment. “It looks like a snowblower with a large bin attached.” She opened her mouth, but paused. “Well, the tech existed and works, so why reinvent it? We did have to make a few changes for Minmus.” Linus rubbed he forehead with his thumb and forefinger. “Why not just use a pick and shovel?” She gestured to the cabinet next to the snowblower.

"In the end?" Nothing ends, Epicdreamer. Nothing ever ends.

I wouldn't call it unwritten... but by mentioning the kraken you increase your likelihood of encountering it. Though it does hide more than it used to... for both good and ill. The kraken is the unexplained force that in versions past would destroy ships, and propel their parts to multiples of the speed of light. It could be casued by clipping parts together, crossing the SOI borders, using parts in different ways, the phase of the Mun, a fail of a 1d20 against your wisdom, etc. In 'verse it got called the Kraken, a k word, and kerbals like k words. Out 'verse it was bugs, floating point errors, the phase of the moon, a fail of a 1d20 against your wisdom, etc.

TWR is arbitrary. How long to you want to wait during your burn? It is delta-V you're after. You're looking at roughly 1500 to 2500 m/s depending on where the rock is. Less with some fancy fly-bys of the Mün and other bodies. You should be able to mine from all of them. Class E has the largest amount of ore, but is also the heaviest/largest. But, an ore rich C may have more useable ore than an ore poor E.

Chapter 23 Hilrina leaned back in her chair and blew out a long breath. The sound of a launch rolled through the room. “I know these school trips are important. But why do we need to host these school trips?” she said. “You know the list,” Dowig said as he peeked around his cubical wall. “Encouragement, wonder, science, etc. And then there’s the most important reason, director’s orders.” “Yeah I know. I just wish it wasn’t so exhausting. Three hundred kids each in thirty minute question sessions. The older kids aren’t too bad. It’s the younger ones that are the problem. They ask such simple questions with such horrible complex answers.” “Like what?” “Like, why don’t we fly a plane to the stations? Because there’s no air for the engines up there. So why not bring some? That’s basically what we do with rockets. So why not use the air for the rockets in a jet engine?” Dowig snorted with a suppressed laugh. “It would dissolve the engine,” Hilrina continued. “Followed by the plane and then the pilot,” said Dowig. “So why not use regular air? We considered it for a while. But the amount of air needed would have been larger than a rocket that went at the same speed. Which ended it.” “Good answer… did we actually do the calculations?” “No… not that I know of anyways. I think it wouldn’t work anyways. It’s more than just burning fuel. I think most of the air gets used as part of the exhaust medium, rather than combustion.” “Yeah, one of the jet guys would know. I’ll drop a line to one that I know.” Dowig leaned back in his chair. “Though I hear Jeb’s gotten a Hopper up to angels 60.” “With a vee of zero up there. It takes more than angels to make orbit.” “I know. You need 2.2 k sideways at 70.” “No way to squeeze that out of a jet. The Wheesley barely breaks 250 at 10.” Hilrina sat up in her chair. “Though don’t the jet guys have something in prototype territory? The Panter, Breather, something like that. They figured out a how to get five times the thrust for ten times the fuel.” “Still won’t be enough.” Dowig said, sitting up in his chair. “True. But if you can get up to angels 13 or so and a good 1 kps… we would just need to bolt it around a rocket. It would cut the fuel needed in half.” “At least half. I’ll ring up that jet guy. See what numbers he has.” “This could be an interesting bird to design.” Hilrina smiled. “That’s what they said about the Gull and the Hopper. They’ve both done us well.”

That's because they are fools, and thrive on condensed statements and sound bites. Though I did think the same thing when he trotted it out. "You doubt me Stu?" he said. "Me a grand high wizard, sitting atop my ivory tower." He did have a touch of drama in his speech. I think it was all that math it does weird things to your brain. "Isolated from the practical necessities of reality. Not as much as you may think. You see that one statement sums up ninety percent of what the art and craft of theoretical math, and by extension any kind of problem solving, is about. How can I take this problem, that is impossible, hard, difficult, or what have you, and change it into a problem that I can easily find the answer to? That transformation is the hard part, and where the real proof of skill lies. Not in tables, proofs, axioms, and theorems, though they are important. They are merely the tools you need."

You've pretty much got it, making digital electronic computers use slip stick style math. Though like that old programmer taught me, "never trust a computer to give you an answer you can't find yourself." Though it might be closer to adding-machine style than slip-stick.

I've been thinking about the math that KSP does when working with the craft. And I need some help shaping a thought. One of the things taught to me by a _very_ theoretical prof back at school was this: "Any impossible problem can be changed into one easy problem and one difficult one. This axiom scales nicely." And something taught to me by an old programmer: "Multiplication costs more than addition, floating point triply so." My zeroth approximation is that the bulk of the math involved in multiplication/division. So rather than use the conventional number space that we are used to, what if we convert to logarithm base 10? With a trivial amount of work the floating point numbers can be represented as a pair of 9 digit integers. I had thought about using logarithm base e to remove the trig functions that will end up in the calculations. But, if the idea doesn't pan using log10 then it most likely won't using ln. My zeroth approximation is that by doing it this way processing time could be cut in half. Leaving aside my thoughts on processing time improvements 1. does this pass the basic sanity checks. 2. can gains be made with this approach or would the overhead of the conversion to logs eat any gains from the faster operations in log-space.

Marvelous performance increases and cost reduction thanks to <AI/blockchain/quantum computing/internet/magnets delete as appropriate.> Call now operators are standing by. Two to three orders of magnitude decrease in processing time... It would be a time of wonders if it pans out. Training an AI starts at pretty finicky and gets worse. Reminds me of the time they successfully trained an AI for finding camouflaged tanks to tell you if the day was cloudy or not. And the dataset for stock/DLC KSP would be a bit large. Aside from the sanely, well sane for KSP players, designed craft, you would need a non-trival number of the game engine allows this to fly designs, several completely random designs, and few designs that only look normal under various eldritch geometries. And it would probably need a complete retraining anytime a part has its parameters changed. And then there are the modded parts...

Chapter 35 Gus stood in the control tower, binoculars hung down around his neck The latest proof of concept plane sat at the end of the runway. The design team though it could make orbit and come back. “Around the world as many times as you want on one tank of gas,” he thought. He listened to the chatter of the observation planes as they manoeuvered in KSC’s airspace. “Starting engine check,” Bill’s voice came tinny over the radio. “Engine block Ay-one green and standby.” “If it can make it to orbit and back,” Gus thought. “It can easily make it to any of the KOL stations.” “Engine block Ay-two, green and standby.” “This design would be nothing more than a mail packet. But it should he able to scale up… with better engines. It won’t replace the rockets. But, it could be a good supplement.” “Engine block Ess-one, green and standby. All systems green. Pre-lift check complete.” “Okay guys,” Gus said, cueing the radio. “You ready?” “Roger,” from Bill “Let’s see what this bird can do,” from Jeb. “Jeb, this is just a straight line flight,” said Gus. “Take her up, go around the block a couple of times, and bring her home.” “Don’t worry.” Jeb chuckled. “I don’t want Bill making a mess in here. Can’t quite open a window to air the cabin out.” “Geez,” Bill said. “You get airsick once…” “Alright,” Gus said. “Take ‘er up. I’ll see you back at the hanger.” “The first round at the plant is on you,” Jeb said. “Break. KSC Air control, Pocket-108 requesting clearance to taxi to runway 90 Heavy for take-off.” “Pocket-108, Tower. You are cleared using taxiway A.” “Tower, 108. Ack, taxiway A” Gus heard the echo of words through his headset. Gus watched as Pocket-108 left the hanger and rolled to the runway. It was a design that looked like it would work. But, it had only been flown previously by the computers, on paper.” “Tower, 108. In position on 90 Heavy, requesting take-off permission.” The controller looked over at Gus. Gus nodded. “108, Tower. You are cleared for take-off. Be advised, hand-off to KSC space control will occur at angels 35.” “Tower, 108. Ack. Cleared for take-off. See y’all on the brown side.” Gus watched as the four turbo ramjet engines throttled up and mach diamonds flickered in and out of existence and danced behind the plane. “Hey Gus,” Jeb said over a second channel. “This ain’t a stamp run. But, it is the top of the envelope.” “I know,” Gus said. “But, it’s the kind of bird you fly best.” It slowly rolled down the runway picking up speed. It accelerated rapidly past the hanger as the mach diamonds stabilized. An experimental airframe, unproven design, and prototype engines operating beyond their rating. The only thing now lifting off the runway that Gus was sure of was Bill and Jeb.

Yes, you are encountering floating point errors with the calculations. Best bet would be to pick a point and set a maneuver node and prep a burn.

No such feature, no such mod. Or at least no mod that I know of. Though someone will suggest it shortly if such exsists.

A couple of detail questions... How long a vector can a GPU handle? 3 elements, or an arbitrary number definable during runtime? How many pieces of info does KSP work with on a part during calculation, there's position relative to the root(3), linear speed (3), linear acceleration(3), rotation(3), rotation speed(3), rotation acceleration(3), mass, force applied . Any others?

<Hawkeye whistle from MASH movie> that's a nice slice off the regular price.

Chapter 27 Jorcott stood in the mock-up hall. A modified KOL module was propped up on its “side.” He flipped through the clipboard he was handed. “Okay,” he said. “See if they shave the mass by twenty percent.” The junior designer took the clipboard back. “I don’t know boss.” He flipped to the last page. He frowned. “Twenty percent… the design margin is pretty thin. We cut that much those margins will probably disappear.” Jorcott nodded. “Yes. The supply margins are just as tight though.” He gestured to the module. “Until we can close the supply loops every kilo of dry mass shaved is another kilo of supplies that can be shipped.” The hatch at one end of the module opened. Bob and Bill climbed out on to the adjacent platform. “We’ve managed to partially close the loop on water. But the losses are still pretty bad.” He watched as Bob and Bill climbed down the ladder. “And then there is the food… full loss, no recovery.” He paused and chuckled. “But, you know all this. The designers will complain for a while, and then they’ll try. I agree though, they probably won’t make it.” He shrugged. “I’ll take what I can get.” Bob and Bill walked over and stopped in front of Jorcott. “What do you think?” Jorcott said. “Tight,” Bill said. “I know it has the same volume as a KOL mod. It just feels smaller.” “We’re having to think in terms of square meters again, rather than cubic. “Bob said. “Don’t tell us that after all the time you’ve be Klik in a can, you’re getting claustrophobic.” Bob chuckled, “no.” He ran is hands through his hair. “But, what about using the three seventy five hull instead?” Jorcott shook his head. “It was pitched. But the time budget didn’t allow for it. Modifying the KOL design shortened much of the design time.” “Yeah, I figured.” Bill shrugged. “Anyways, best bet is the pipes and heavy electrical in the floor and data-comm and light electrical in the ceiling. It shouldn’t be too hard to refit the cargo pods for more useable space once they are empty.” “Yes,” Bob said. “Since we’re building on the KOL frame, much of the existing equipment should work. We may even be able to shave some mass since they won’t have to be rated for micro-grav.” He scratched the side of his face. “Though thinking about some of the stuff they’re working on up on the KOLs and coming out of agronomics and hydroponics… they figure they can hit ninety percent recycling on air and water, and maybe get some food besides.” He shrugged. “They’re probably over-estimating but even then as supply pods land we can re-fit them. If we stack enough of them we can get what we need for recovery.” Jorcott looked at the module then at Bob. “You think they can figure it out?” Bob looked up through one of the frosted skylights. “Well…” He scratched the side of his face. “He looked back down. “The science says ‘yes’.” He gestured through the walls of the hall. “The question is how much space? A couple of experiments suggest it would take about six square metres of wheat to produce enough oxygen for one kerbal.” Bill looked over at another module mocked up in another part of the hall. ‘Yeah… could manage six maybe eight square-ems. One unit per kerbal.” Jorcott nodded. “The retro kits will eat supp space.” “But,” Bill said. “Spending now to save later.” The young engineer chuckled. The rest looked at him. “Sorry, “ he said. “I was thinking of my father. He was never higher than the top of his silo. The thought of him standing in the hatchway, a piece of straw in his mouth tending his crops, up there… on the Mün.”

You should be able to EVA the kerbal in the crew cabin and have them float across to the recovery vessel. The game shouldn't give you a mission that you can't complete at a technical level.

I hear people are doing wonderful things in Emacs lately. However, what engine/toolset would you suggest?