MilkToast

I've got a new bug I've not seen before - modded install, and I've got an interesting problem developing. image The text in all my Mechjeb windows (and my Kerbal alarm clock, as a matter of fact) does this on every screen. I've restarted multiple times. The first time, I used KAC to take over a ship in flight, and it summoned the Hell Kraken. Closed the game, restarted, and everything seems fine - except for this. Thoughts?

What's the purpose of the launchpad camera. Does it track? What does it do?

I don't think that was actually the question. I've got a probe down around 100km above the surface of Kerbol - stupid me, however, didn't equip science parts so I can't answer that.

While this sounds like a REALLY good idea, isn't it gonna get a little crowded on this page? I see great things as a separate webpage, links and all!

A few notes here: First off, gravity can be approximated as a point source (each body, that is) - for a craft in earth orbit, neglecting effect of other bodies, the orbit is exactly the same if you have earth in all it's sizeness, or just a point with the same mass. This can be shown using some exciting amounts of integration with Newton's gravitation formula, but you can find that somewhere else if you want. As Kasuha mentioned, two-body physics is plenty in the real world for a lot of interactions - although, you'd better compensate for the moon when you're flying satellites around Earth. It does introduce a sizeable error. Once you leave the earth-moon system, pretty much everything reduces out. It's one AM and I'm kindof gibbering, but the last thing is that for all intents and purposes, the center of mass of a two body system (that is, one that we would see set up in KSP or real world, where one body is a man-made craft), lies within a negligible distance of the center of the planet. For example, the ISS (mass 450 tons (thank you google)) and orbits roughly 250 miles up (for a total of 4250 miles, plus or minus). Earth weighs 6.58321259 × 10^21 tons. so, a rough COM calculation (using earth as datum) (m1*x1+m2*x2)/(m1+m2) (6.58321259 × 10^21*0+450*4250)/(6.58321259 × 10^21+450) 2.9051166e-16 miles = 1.84068e-11 inches For comparison, a hydrogen atom is 3.93701e-9 inches across. So the ISS is "moving" the earth by less than a hundredth the diameter of a hydrogen atom. This, obviously, is very negligible (if even measurable) on this scale. So, we neglect it. Asteroids would be lighter, and therefore move more: (damn you IMGUR!) maths (pardon my approximations] Either way, still not moving a significant amount.

@Alexmun - Very helpful. That calculator is a piece of work. I went ahead and did the burn two or three days later, at slightly greater expense. Thanks!

Considering this - I've got a loooong flight in progress with a big ship. But I don't think you've fixed the infinite points - at what point is the entire planet mapped? If I go into an 80 degree orbit, I'll never hit the poles. Perhaps use something like what SCANsat has - a percentage of coverage. 1 point per percent. I don't know if ISA has a percentage - but you could even eyeball it as close enough.

I've got a ship I would love to get to Duna soon. The nearest Hohmann transfer window is in 209 days (thank you Kerbal Alarm Clock) - with travel time of a month or so, I'm looking at 250 days to get there. What I'd like to do is get there sooner - leave BEFORE the window. I do not want to timewarp - rather, I've got a ship already enroute from the last transfer window, and I'd love to get there shortly after it does. I'm looking for tips and thoughts on how to do it.

I've been in KSP for about a year or so - launched a whole lot of things - massive stations, rovers to eeloo, and so on. What I've never done is any form of orbital construction. So I decided that rather than fly a series of small ships, I'd build a big one. Meet Ulysses, my (excessively, in my opinion) large exploration command craft. Ulysses masses just a nudge over three hundred tons, and has a part count of 452 (before final strutting, this'll likely change). I assembled it in eight launches over five days: -Command Module - The command module houses a science lab, a three-kerbal can, and four large solar panels on struts for power generation. -Cargo Module - The cargo module is the smallest and lightest segment - merely a short truss with multiple docking ports radiating out from a central axis. All the sub-craft are mounted here. -Ike Lander - This is a small lander, designed to shuttle from low Duna orbit to Ike and back, potentially several times. This one is an SSTO (which isn't really hard to do on an airless moon). -Duna Lander - A larger, more powerful lander designed to descend to Duna, and return. This lander has many drop tanks, so this is a one-time trip for it. -Duna Rover - A medium-size rover that will deorbit and land under its own power. More for fun than anything -Science Return Craft (2x) - Two of these small pods are mounted to one rack on Ulysses - these are simple, fast craft designed to return all the science gathered. -Propulsion Module - The simplest of the modules - this is a large tank with eight nuclear engines mounted on spars. Fully fueled, it'll provide approximately 1.5m/s2 of acceleration. -Drop Tanks - Behind the propulsion module, I docked another tank with four double tanks on decouplers. I'll drop these two at a time as I progress on my tour. Getting all this docked in orbit was the biggest challenge I've ever had. While I have MechJeb installed to help with orbits, I did all the docking by hand. Only one mishap - the drop tanks (roughly 160 tons) was parked close by a single Poodle engine - I was coming in at about 250 m/s on a transfer orbit, and shed about half that speed before plowing directly into the main structure of the ship. Sadly, I reverted the launch before taking a picture - but there were two ships in orbit for a moment. Mission Plan: I'm going to Duna! We'll park in a low Duna orbit after aerobraking (suggestions on how low to take such a large ship?). We'll deploy the lander and rover, visit some anomalies (I've got a probe en route already to find some), and return the science. Afterwards, I figure I'll shed the cargo module and dock the command to the propulsion module, and fly it to Laythe. Not quite sure what'll happen there, but I'll probably launch a separate mission in parallel. Things I need to figure out: -My Hohmann transfer to Duna opens in 209 days. For slight role-playing reasons, I'd rather not timewarp like that. I'd like to depart sooner, using a non-optimal orbit. Any tools around to do this? Any ideas on best ways to accomplish this? -Strutting. Gotta launch a small ship up to "service" Ulysses before it departs - it needs some serious strutting done through the KAS mod. Why didn't I think of this before? Particularly those engines - they wave all over the place at full throttle. Travel Log Departed Kerbin orbit in a non-Hohmann transfer - did this in two stages - a six-hundred m/s ejection burn (including Munar gravity assist) that put me just outside Kerbin SOI, and a longer transfer burn to Duna. With top acceleration a hair over 1.7 m/s2, this is going to be a loooong ejection burn. We went with the non-Hohmann transfer to allow for a quicker travel time - I've got a satellite enroute I'd like to catch up to. About the time I completed the munar assist, I discovered a stowaway! Jonming Kerman had rode up with the Duna Lander Module, but never got off. In the huge personnel shuffle that occured post-launch, I must have forgotten to let him off. So, now I've got SIX kerbals, instead of five. I think we're gonna roll with this. Unfortunately, we no longer have enough supplies to keep my guys alive on their long mission - supplies will have to be fast-tracked to Duna at considerable expense to meet the guys there. Updates to follow!

Just got the City Lights and Cloud addon.... the city lights is really lagging my computer out. Would love to keep the clouds though. I'd assume I'd just delete the "city lights" part of the plugin? There's a DLL and a directory to kill. Will this work?

Now I feel like quite the moron. Thanks!

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/SC-9001_Science_Jr. How is this done? I have a smallish space station I flew towards Minmus (a wonderful piece of engineering, if I do say so) to serve as a science base station for a pair of landers (also currently on scene). Rather than transmitting the collected data, I planned on storing my accumulated science in a single return pod, which, when my research is complete, would be decoupled and flown back to Kerbin. If that didn't make sense: -Station - one science lab in low orbit around Minmus. -Landers (2x) - contain all science parts, fly from surface to station -Return craft - one pod, holding all science after processed by labs. My question is this: My first mission came back, with exposed Goo containers and Material Bays. I "processed" the Material Bays for the boosted science, then moved the science via EVA to the return pod. Now however, my material bay is locked - i.e. right clicking on it does nothing, gives no tooltips, etc. The pod looks exposed. Did I do something wrong? I think I may have done something in the wrong order. Fortunately, I have the second lander which hasn't deployed at all yet. I did this exact sequence with the thermometers and other parts I have researched, with no problems (then again, I didn't really expect any with those). Let me know where I goofed. I can provide screenshots if necessary, though I don't think they are.

While a good (and therefore appreciated) suggestion, this seems a little bit of overkill to me. Like finely shredding paper before burning it.

Why is this the most accurate thing about KSP I've seen all month? (worthy of inclusion in the signature, I daresay)

While a total bummer, it's kindof what I figured. Thanks for the speedy response.