Ravenchant

Normally I think about what the purpose would be first, then... pretty much build the general layout in the VAB and send it up piece by piece, yes. Though the procedure does vary, since I've only built three so far There's a small disposable maneuvering tug attached on each launch, better than putting RCS and probe cores on each module. The downside with this approach is that there need to be at least 2 ports on each module, one for attachment and the other for the tug. There has been more than one occasion when I forgot this and had to practice impromptu "reverse docking"... meaning: rotate the payload so the tug sits between it and the station, line up very carefully at about 10-20m, begin closing in, then undock your payload, get the hell out of the gap before the tug is crushed between the two ports and hope that they manage to get close enough for magnets to pull them together. It's quite scary to watch

I...actually haven't used NERVAs at all yet. Except for some test runs that got reverted to VAB I guess they will mostly be on interplanetary tugs and thus reusable. It reusing isn't an option- I'll probably find a dedicated Mun crater and crash land them there.

Just in case I forgot to post after installing... I absolutely love this plugin! Indispensable for any multi-mission space program, IMO. Should be stock. You rock, Trigger That said... I can't get it to work a lot of the time. When adding an alarm and subsequently switching to another ship in map mode or back to space center, sometimes the alarm isn't there when the KAC window is opened again. This mostly affects ships in interplanetary space, and is more prevalent if there are a few in the list already. Trying multiple times doesn't help, either it saves alarms of a craft or it doesn't. Am I doing something wrong? Edit: it's the latest version, but the problem was there in 0.22 as well.

Hmm, yes, quite disturbing. The Mun doesn't creep me out, although I wish it had a slightly higher albedo. Everything that's going to stay the night gets lots of illuminators though, but that's the case with any body in the game. Darkness is...dark. Dres and Eeloo, however, are slightly weird to me. Small, cold rocks sitting in the void all alone... When Kerbals go there, I'll make sure they have enough company.

Funny coincidence, just yesterday I launched the craft which is going to do exactly that. Well, minus the apollo-style part. Looks more like one Deep Space Habitat concept. The thing is sturdy, barely weighs 30 tons with empty tanks and can be easily configured for various purposes (slap NERVAs on it and you can return from Eeloo), so I'm thinking of releasing some variations once I polish and test them.

Thing is, the current navball is intuitive to anyone that has ever seen an aircraft cockpit. An Apollo-style one based on internal gyros would be more realistic, though it would require far more time to get used to as well. As a switchable mode, it could work, but let's be honest: when have you last used the navball in interplanetary space, except for maneuver node execution?

Depends on how you define "perfect" You can easily get to NaN° with a bit of maneuver node fumbling (NaN° because of a programming limitation, AFAIK. I assume it means less than 0.05°, since 0.1° is the usual accuracy of the marker).

Danny2462 is awesome, no doubt about it While an option to remove helmets on Kerbin and possibly Laythe would be nice, a button that amounts to "commit suicide" everywhere else sounds too easy to mis-click, at the very least. Maybe a confirmation window in the style of "Warning: performing this action can result in death of the crew member and can't be undone" could be put in? Aside from that...the more flavour text, the better! Edit: It would open up a whole range of possibilities, though: newby Kerbonaut - "So, why am I here again?" veteran Kerbonaut - "Oh, for... biology research." newby Kerbonaut - "But I know nothing about biology. Besides, we already have enough scientists on board." veteran Kerbonaut - "Mwahahaha"

This seems a bit...dunno, cruel? Especially once they become more than ragdolls.

Depends on what's being designed. If part of the craft is supposed to come back, I'll start with that, and build the rest around it. That works well for ascent stages and orbiters, at least. If it's a probe, I'll think about the scientific returns first, and if it's a mothership, I'll draw some diagrams. This is the only time the "top to bottom" rule is broken, as I usually design a transfer stage first, check how much payload it can get to a chosen destination, then plan the rest of the craft. Engineer is a neccessity, though. You can only plug the numbers into Tsiolkovsky so many times before going mad.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Finally I can un-mute that "music" slider

Don't they already glow green-ish when you mouse over them? It can be a bit unnerving to search blindly, but lights wouldn't be an option at least with the thermometre... because of heating and stuff

Magnificent, simply magnificent. Probably also sporting the most SAS modules this forum has ever seen.

40 km, I drove a rover up the mountains northwest of KSC. Didn't take that long at over 20 m/s. On another body... around 15km and back on the Mun? That was a royal pain, though.

That's the file Right click -> save page as should do the trick.

No pictures, but the fun fact for today is: you know you screwed mission planning up badly when your intended lander barely becomes an orbiter and the intended orbiter goes screaming off into interplanetary space. Transfers without aerobraking possibilities suck. I'll get my revenge yet, Dres!

Don't know about fringe science, but even the "black hole" method would be unusable for space travel - you would have to lug its mass around. Centripetal force ftw.

Worked on a new line of compact orbiters for a couple of hours during the past week. Which, of course, calls for a new escape system. Weight and part-count be damned, I'll use it

Yep, I was pleasantly surprised at this. When the lab gets an IVA, we'll have to do a search for Skylab or Salyut

Epic necro is epic. How did you even find the thread? But yeah, aside from the "messy" workaround of orbiting at the altitude of a moon outside of its SOI, Lagrange points aren't really doable.

A functional MMU is actually quite easy to make in stock. Mine mass about 500 kg when full, which is admittedly a lot heavier than the real ones, but then their delta-v is more than an order of magnitude greater

AFAIK quantum entanglement cannot be used to relay information faster than light. Unless the current theories are wrong to some extent, of course... @OP: At any rate, we can't "break" the laws of physics. We can only find ways to make them work in our favour

Likely not even in the next 200 years. But a manned Mars landing by 2064? While it's far from being bound to happen, it isn't that unlikely either. I mean, most of the technology needed exists. We just need a better reason to spend hundreds of billions on such a mission than "because it's awesome".

The hardest thing? Building your early and mid-level tech tree crafts in a way which doesn't make them resemble some scrapheap haphazardly thrown together and dunked into a vat of superglue. I deliberately put off interplanetary missions until I could get them to look good and at least somewhat plausible. Oh well...

I blame the "barn dance" simile