MajorThomas

Nice device, Logitech. Would be nicer if instead of "G1" it said "LIGHTS" and when you clicked it, the button lit up, no?

Hi All, I've been looking for this for a long time: A specialized keypad / control panel, USB of course, for sims such as KSP or Orbiter. Not a one-off user project, but something mass produced, commercial if you will. Haven't seen anything though. What I have seen: 1. Arduino-based custom projects with indicator lights, switches, display panels, etc. Fantastic, but (so far) one-off and available only to the builder(s). 2. Some joysticks may have programmable buttons on them. 3. There are lots of commercial panels, switch boxes and display units for aircraft flight sims, but haven't seen anything for space cadets like us. If a simple, affordable and attractive space sim control panel doesn't exist maybe it's time to create one.

I've played orbiter since 2003 or so. (I'm MajorTom in the forum over there.) Did a few add-ons, which was my way to enjoy it. Didn't fly that far; had trouble getting to Mars, and difficulty getting back from the Moon. In KSP though, you make your own ships, and flying in space is just so much easier. (Yet I find planes and spaceplanes really hard in KSP.)

I had the Hell Kraken hit my Kerballed ship on the way to Jool. It was part of a squadron also consisting of a tanker and a probe, orbiter + lander. (My PC is old and the high part count and multiple objects in orbit give me lots of yellow MET numbers.) The probe and tanker were fine. Actually the Kraken hit as I switched from one of those surviving ships to the Kerballed ship. After restarting KSP, the Kerballed ship was gone. So this time, imagining it's somehow safer, I'm not switching between ships in map view, instead I'm exiting to the tracking station and selecting new ships to view from there. So far so good. I wonder if this is helping though.

It was mentioned a few times in the Register (tech news) forum. I must have gotten a clear-enough description of what it was that it stuck in the back of my mind, although I had never seen any videos of it or other mention. Then one day I decided to take a look at it online, and within minutes decided I needed it! Note: I was by then an experienced user of the Orbiter flight sim, and understood what a spaceflight sim was. What I immediately noticed about KSP was the sandbox build-and-test-what-you-want aspect, plus the simplified yet somehow superior user interface. Orbiter is great, but I always wanted to design and fly my own ships, and used the various "newbie" add on tools (spacecraft3.dll and multistage2) to accomplish that. But in KSP no programming was needed; building and flying your own ship is part of the experience for everybody. That, and interesting places to visit, and reasons for going to visit these places, is what hooked me.

Dark chocolate is the real thing. Milk chocolate is dark chocolate with sour-tasting milk mixed in.

Lovely thread! I too started small and mostly built models from Estes and flew up to C engines when I was a kid. Nowadays I'm into the bigger stuff, J engines and such. And am a member of my local club (WAC; Washington Aerospace Club, Seattle). My video! (Caution: the second half will make you dizzy unless you're Jebediah Kerman.)

Space Nonfiction Book List. (Title subheads are in parentheses) I will occasionally update this list to include your additions. Thanks for contributing! Space Programs Apollo Apollo (The Race to the Moon)– Charles Murray & Catherine Bly Cox. Fantastic history of Apollo, mainly focuses on the engineers and managers who made it happen. Virtual Apollo / Virtual LM (two books) – Scott Sullivan. Extremely detailed, 3D computer drawings showing everything that goes into a CSM and LM. Apollo 11 Moon Landing – David Shayler. Mission description, photos and transcripts. Very interesting. Moon Dust – Andrew Smith. Our journalist protagonist set out in about 2003/2004 to interview all the still living men who walked on the moon, after the death of Pete Conrad. (Jim Irwin was already gone by then.) He manages to talk to all of them, and found out how they dealt with life after coming back from the moon. Often surprising, and very human. A Man on the Moon – Andrew Chaikin. Famous Apollo history, I believe used as the basis of the HBO miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon.†(For Bios of astronauts, flight directors and Goddard, see below. For US Space Exploration and Encyclopedias of US Spacecraft, also see below.) Soviet Soyuz – Rex Hall & David Shayler. Everything you’d ever want to know about design, history and operation of the Soyuz spacecraft. From 2003, reprinted 2007 (so doesn’t include the latest versions of Soyuz or recent missions) Red Star in Orbit – James Oberg. From 1981, and a great read. This was written during the height of the Cold War, and gives the Soviets their due. I learned a lot from this book. The Soviet Space Race with Apollo – Asif Siddiqi. Dense, detailed scholarly analysis of the Soviet lunar attempt. (For Korolev Bio, and Encyclopedic info on Soviet Spacecraft, see below) China’s Space Program – Brian Harvey. Good history and summary of China’s space efforts. History / Biographies Korolev – James Hartford. About the fabled and mysterious “Chief Designer†whose life and personality are beyond belief. If he hadn’t died in 1966, the Soviets might have beat the USA to the moon. Carrying the Fire (An Astronaut’s Journey) – Michael Collins. Perhaps the best astronaut biography there is. This man has a gift for words and humor. Failure is Not an Option – Gene Kranz. Memoir about Gene’s time as flight director at NASA, spanning Mercury and all Apollo. He was memorably involved in helping save Apollo 13. And well regarded as a great flight director and fine human being. To a Distant Day (The Rocket Pioneers) – Chris Gainor. I really enjoyed this history of rocket development. Equal time is given to Tsiolkovsky, Goddard, Oberth, Von Braun, Korolev and others. Rocket Man (Robert H. Goddard and the Birth of the Space Age) – David Clary. Good biography of Goddard, whose career was far rougher than I had imagined. Explains (but doesn’t really excuse) his reclusiveness, and jealousy at others possibly "stealing" his work in liquid fueled rocket development. As we know, Tsiolkovsky had independently…and before Goddard…developed much of the theory, meanwhile in Germany and Russia, other groups did similar work in liquid fueled rockets after Goddard, but did not collaborate with him thanks to his unwillingness to share. He wasn’t credited as a rocket pioneer until after his death, as the US Government at the time was not that interested in his achievements. Space Exploration / Reference Books The Case for Mars (The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must) – Robert Zubrin. This may be considered a classic now, among those of us who hunger for space exploration and turn our eyes to Mars. From 1996. I attended a presentation of his at Stanford U. at about this time. As expected, he talked about getting humans to Mars. Mars (The Inside Story of the Red Planet) – Heather Couper and Nigel Henbest. From 2001. I received this as a gift and haven’t read it through. It’s a big, illustrated look at Mars in popular culture, exploring Mars and looking for life and other related topics. This books is perhaps 5-10 years premature, seeing that there have been successful and science-rich rover programs in the intervening years. But no life found on Mars yet. Red Rover: Inside the Story of Robotic Space Exploration, from Genesis to the Mars Rover Curiosity - Roger Wiens Interplanetary Spacecraft – Bill Yenne (et. al.). From 1988, a very cool book on how to develop an interplanetary spacecraft and its mission. Darn interesting, I ought to do more than just skim it someday. To the Edge of the Universe (The Exploration of Outer Space with NASA) – Exeter Books. From 1986, very nice look at the history of astronomy and space science, then how the early space probes sought to expand those frontiers. Many good illustrations, as you’d expect. There’s a value to these early books: They’re full of questions and wonder, and plenty of intelligence, perhaps more so than today’s books that seem to start out with “well, we’ve seen this before from 30 years ago…†(This book possibly not available separately, came as part of a three-book set.) The Encyclopedia of Soviet Spacecraft – Douglas Hart. I had to grab this when I saw it in a used bookstore. It’s from 1987, and is absolutely packed with images, many taken at a space museum in the Soviet Union. Plenty of diagrams, cutaways, etc. Much of this information became commonplace after the early 1990s, so note the 1987 date and be impressed. This was my main source of info on Soviet Probes until I purchased the recent “Space Probes†book below. The Encyclopedia of US Spacecraft – Bill Yenne. From 1985. Devotes most of the space to spacecraft and their missions, has a section on launch vehicles near the end. (This book possibly not available separately, came as part of a three-book set.) History of NASA (America’s Voyage to the Stars) – Bison Books. From 1987, revised and updated since original 1984 publication. Not a lot new or groundbreaking here. (This book possibly not available separately, came as part of a three-book set.) SPACEFLIGHT (The Complete Story from Sputnik to Shuttleâ€â€and Beyond) – Giles Sparrow (Foreword by Buzz Aldrin). Very nice, beautifully illustrated, encyclopedic history of spacecraft, spaceflight, missions and the people who flew them. From 2007, and has sections on Chinese and Indian space programs toward the end. SPACE PROBES (50 Years of Exploration from Luna 1 to New Horizons) – Philippe Séguéla. Wonderfully illustrated, encyclopedic history of space probes. Divided into sections devoted to the body being explored, starting with the Moon and including Venus, Mars, outer planets, Sun, etc. etc. Pocket Space Guides by Apogee Books: Deep Space (Whitfield), Project Gemini (Whitfield), Russian Spacecraft (Godwin), Mars (Godwin), and others. Pale Blue Dot - Carl Sagan. Also Cosmos by Carl Sagan. These are very good reads. He wasn't famous for no reason. Ambassadors from Earth: Pioneering Explorations with Unmanned Spacecraft - Jay Gallantine Photography / Art LIFE in Space – Very large format book, largely a photographic history of the US manned space program including Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, the first few Space Shuttles, then some space probes. From 1983 (Yes, I’ve been dragging this around for 30 years). Many famous images here. Entering Space (An Astronaut’s Odyssey) – Joseph Allen (with Russell Martin). Many pictures from orbit, including not only from the Space Shuttle. Some truly nice images here. Visions of Spaceflight (Images from the Ordway Collection) – Fredrick Ordway III. When I saw this at a budget bookstore I just had to grab it. It’s full of space art images, old and new. Such as illustrations from the turn of the century, from Jules Verne and HG Wells stories, later followed by the Collier’s magazine space series. My favorites are the fabulous, nearly photorealistic illustrations of Chesley Bonestell and Fred Freeman from Collier’s, imagining what space stations, trips to Mars, and nuclear propulsion might look like. This is the classic stuff of summer daydreams. Other Laika – Nick Abadzis. Graphic historical novel about Laika, the first earthling in orbit. (Spoiler: Like Old Yeller, it's about a dog, and it makes you cry at the end.) The Space Shuttle Operator’s Manual – Kerry Mark Joels, Gergory P Kennedy & David Larkin. From 1982. What more could a space geek kid want? Every system, control panel, switch and dial described. Every procedure, and many missions. There’s a kind of mission patch on the front cover listing the names of the first 4 shuttles including of course Challenger and Columbia, no Endeavour yet. Comment: It makes me sad that despite the extremely high degree of public interest in the STS and the impressive transparency in its design (this manual even has a list of subsystem contractors for heaven’s sake), incorrect procedures and management decisions did in some cases lead to the loss of spacecraft and crew.

Congratulations!

You could do as Pete Conrad and Al Bean did...and put the flag a little further away to prevent its being damaged by your takeoff...

I've only managed this exactly once.

Have you seen how unstable low orbits really are? In real life, stuff in LEO comes down rather quickly if not boosted often (see ISS). And even in KSP, if you fly a capsule, say, at a 69 km orbit, it will re-enter within about 2-3 orbits. So why leave tons of debris in low Kerbin orbit? Realistically, it would self-deorbit quickly enough. And it clutters up your game, taxes your CPU, etc. Just delete or deorbit it all.

I'm with Nuke, let new parts have a "testing" phase during which they have a failure rate. Say, initially 10-20%. But after a few missions where the part did not fail, the failure rate drops to zero. And you are told the expected reliability of the part, and how many successful flights it's had, before you use it in the VAB. And, for those who don't want to deal with part failures (design and piloting failures already being present) have the option to make all parts 100% reliable. But for advanced users, part testing and reliability would be FUN!

I badly want decals / recoloring / other customization for my ships. Would make me love KSP that much more.

Merlin 1D, F1, SSME and NK-33 are all great, having leading ISP or TWR values. Or just brute force like F1. Then there's the (seldom used) Ion engines such as NSTAR with absurdly high ISP but really low thrust. Video about the NK-33 and how it came to be used by USA rockets: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZnYr94aa9E

If these aliens decide they want to help us, and they went ahead and made contact with some humans, they'd have to choose very carefully. Government, military or business leaders might not be the best choice. Assuming the aliens were intelligent enough to offer us something of value, they would, like wise adults, either stay out of the way or have a plan to reveal themselves in a manner that minimizes danger to individuals or society. What would that look like? If they're not particularly bright but well meaning, then first contact may be a messy affair, probably more to worry about from terrified humans than aliens. On the other hand, if aliens had bad intent we'd suddenly find a large rock or ice ball headed our way, then POOF we're snuffed. No sense showing themselves to us, monologue-ing, etc. So...seeing that we're not yet snuffed, or dealing with an alien contact fiasco, then so far either we've encountered wise and careful aliens, or none at all.

There is also the Wiki and it has links to tutorials. Or just go to YouTube and look for Scott Manley videos. Or ask specific questions in the forum.

Great flying + Great editing = Fantastic video!

Where did the rock version of the KSP theme come from?

I'm going with KNASA.

Welcome! I'm a new member here too, but have enjoyed every bit of this forum.

Agreed, I think Minmus first is just the easiest way to go. As Smidge says, it's easy to encounter the Mun on your way back from Minmus. To those who think it's easier to go from Mun to Minmus...have you ever tried going from Mun orbit up to Minmus? It's not easy. Playing with the maneuver node, you'll see you can't easily fly "up" from the Mun to Minmus. What I saw available was to go to Minmus from the Mun when it was on the opposite side of Kerbin. However, if you start at Minmus and head back to Kerbin, on your way home, you could stop off at the Mun easily. BTW, I would not bother to make orbital inclination changes while in Kerbin orbit before going to Minmus. Just a waste of fuel. Instead do a Hohmann transfer to Minmus altitude. When most of the way there, you'll find your velocity drop to something suitably minuscule, like 100 or even 50 m/s. Then do a very low Delta V burn to adjust your path so that it intersects Minmus, simples.

Hello Dan. Um...Hail Probe?

It's more a theoretical construct, but interesting nonetheless. Check out the Wikipedia article. Meanwhile I'll guesstimate the "Kerman" line on Kerbin is about 40 km altitude...

The centripetal force-by-rocket idea is fantastic, 6 minutes? That would be the hands-down winner, except for the infinite fuel. Perhaps the OP might modify the rules to read "tangential burns only" which means you'd be constrained to flying in the atmosphere, as low and fast as you can go. Which leads my thoughts to... What is the "Von Karman" altitude of Kerbin? (Better yet, Von Kerman...) That's the altitude at which aircraft must be going so fast in order to fly that they're actually at orbital velocity. It's the traditional boundary between the realms of air and spacecraft. On Earth it's 100 km, and in practice it's a no-go zone, too high to fly and too low to orbit. This area is well explored by KSP users, so I bet I'll get an answer to this one.