BagelRabbit

Granted. It's not me, because I didn't say 'Granted, bu --'... quack. I wish that my current mission to Jool succeeds.

For your first question, the answer is that the VTOL must have appealing enough features to make people vote for your entry! Perhaps the heaviest weighted factor in this competition is how easy it is to fly your craft. Remember that the stock designs that come with the game are often used by beginners who want to gain a better understanding of KSP. Your craft, then, should be flyable by a KSP novice. Other factors could include safety, range, SAS and/or RCS-equipped design, lowered part count, small physical size, possible reusability, science capabilities... the list goes on and on. Different people like different blends of these things, but the more of these factors you have, the more likely you are to do well in the challenge. As for your second question, I'm the only person thus far to make an in-progress screenshot (I think it's on page 2). Everyone else's designs are so unique from one another, however, that it's doubtful that you will be accused of cheating. Don't worry about it unless your design ends up looking really similar to another person's.

7/10. Too many prepositional phrases in the first part, but the second is great. (Change some grammar though: You can't fix stupid(ity) with duct tape.)

...my entry is here! I initially designed it for good looks but it ended up being so much more. Pavo VTOL NEW! How to Fly Tutorial! Features! >Parachutes to bring the entire craft down gently! >An abort system, if you only want to bring Jeb down gently and let the rest crash! >Toggle-able engines for faster flight! >A Probodobodyne OKTO2 on top, for people who like their navball vertical! >Landing gear AND landing legs, so you can land anywhere! >RCS fuel and reaction wheels for quick turning! >Supremely safe: Lands normally at <11m/s; Kerbal survives at <~55m/s, depending on orientation! >Deploy landing gear, press '2,' and Wham! You've got a capable rover! >Ladders for your Kerbal! Lights for seeing things! The list goes on and on. These features make it a great trainer VTOL and a great way to practice landing spacecraft! My one complaint about the craft is that it's a bit sparse on fuel. However, if you run out, you can always pop your parachutes and land safely. So, unless you want to fly far from the runway, the craft is pretty safe fuel-wise. Action Groups: 1: Deploy all parachutes for a soft landing! 2: Toggle small engines in the back for more speed! 3: Deploy/retract landing gear! (Landing legs can be deployed by themselves by pressing G, then 3.) Backspace: Deploys crew-capsule abort system! .craft file! https://www.dropbox.com/s/qsmxcma36tofhky/Pavo%20VTOL.craft If anyone has any questions about this craft, I would be happy to answer them.

Quick teaser of the VTOL I'm building... ...It looks pretty sweet. Now I just have to get it to fly!

Once you really get into the hobby, there are a variety of altimeters that transmit to your computer. Perhaps the coolest is the TeleMetrum, which transmits GPS coordinates, altitude, acceleration, and can even deploy parachutes. But it's very expensive, a little finicky and probably shouldn't be used for any rocket that's flying on a F motor or less. I don't have one but it's on my wish list! http://www.apogeerockets.com/Electronics_Payloads/Altimeters/TeleMetrum_Starter_Set Anyway, I've never felt that I needed a telemetry output, although occasionally I wish my rockets had GPS units. Then again, I've never flown anything larger than a high-end H motor. Perhaps I should invest some money in a good telemetry unit if I want to go bigger. By the way. The reason why I keep directing you to Apogee Component's website is that their founder, Tim van Milligan, is a really great guy. I've met him several times and he's always said that he admired my rockets. I think that for that, he should have all of the business he can get.

There are a number of commercially available altimeters for model rockets. Some of them are quite small and, frankly, rather cute. I got my altitude, velocity and G-force figures from a AltimeterTwo, which you can buy/read about here. http://www.apogeerockets.com/Electronics_Payloads/Electronics/Jolly_Logic_AltimeterTwo You can buy other altimeters that do things such as parachute deployment, rocket staging, etc. but the AltimeterTwo is inexpensive and very durable, so that's the one I use!

I was convinced to play KSP way back when the Yogscast's Sips did a playthrough. I think it was right after 0.14 was released, and KSP was still rather unknown; Sips may have been the first major Youtuber to have ever played KSP. Regardless, I was hooked.

Yep, but only at the end of the video. I would say that he's a little Jebadiah, judging by his orange flight suit and his big grin.

Anyway, enough of launching perishable pseudo-Kerbals. I recently flew a plasticine Kerbal on my latest rocket flight, the one that had the GoPro in it. The results were gorgeous. The video's already in KSP Fan Works but I'm posting it here as well. Enjoy!

The rocket cost less than $100 to build in total. The rocket motor cost ~$20 and the little model of Jeb probably was made for only ~$3. The most expensive part by far was the $500 camera mounted on there. Really, though, the camera was originally purchased for other things, so I don't know if it even counts. The rocket is rather squat and stubby: it was made with a 4" diameter body tube but it's only a little over two feet tall. It certainly looks bigger though. The flight used a reloadable solid rocket motor, an Aerotech H123W, to be precise. I have a license to fly rockets with up to twice as much impulse, but the rocket site that I launch at won't allow it. Thank you so much for the compliments! I would love for this video to grace the Daily Kerbal, though I have a sinking feeling that I'm not worthy.

Do you remember the time I took a plasticine Jeb into the zero-G plane, sending him merrily bouncing about the cabin in total weightlessness? [http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/66492-Jeb-in-Zero-Gravity-In-Real-Life!] Well, the same Jeb has now successfully flown on a high-powered model rocket. The rocket reached 1,451 feet at a top speed of 233 mph and a peak acceleration of 8.2 G's. It deployed its parachute near apogee and drifted down for a safe landing. Jeb survived the flight intact, though he fell off of his little carrier seat. Oh, and the rocket was also carrying a GoPro camera. Enjoy! Let me know what you think and feel free to ask questions.

H'm! I was actually thinking of a similar style challenge, only with rocket building instead of flying! Anyway, I'm thinking that if the craft is unstable as is, revert it to the last stable save and try again from there. I don't really know though.

Yay! Yay! Yay! I'm a diehard rocketry fan... and have flown a number of largish rockets. I can safely say that model rocketry may be the closest real world equivalent to KSP, besides actually joining a bona fide aerospace company. Here are some tips for your first rocketry launch. 1) Build a kit. Building from scratch on your first rocket is generally not a good idea unless you know basic rocket physics. Be sure to assemble the kit as per instructions, too. You can make modifications later, once you have a bit of a better understanding of rockets. 2) Start off kinda small. If your first rocket is a five-foot-tall four-inch-diameter behemoth and you don't have any experience in rocket-building, things can go very wrong, very quickly. Having your first rocket shred and send little bits from horizon to horizon is not a good way to get into rocketry. (This has actually happened, although fortunately not to me.) 3) Find a big field. Even with the small kits, you generally want a field that's at least 300x300 feet to account for parachute drift. With bigger rockets, the field should generally be larger. Once you start building the big stuff, you want to go a long ways into the countryside. 4) Join a club. This is the best piece of advice I can give. Model rocketry clubs are a great place to talk about building rockets, and they generally have very large fields to launch rockets. You will be able to make friends and learn a whole, whole lot. 5) If at first you don't succeed... Try again! But if you follow the previous four steps, you will be pretty much set. And I'll leave you with my latest rocketry project, which is a GoPro camera carrying rocket that travelled over 1300 feet into the air. Any other model rocketeers on the forum?

Current Grand Tour Space Station ship: It's the largest thing I've ever assembled in orbit, and with any luck, it won't disintegrate when the nuclear engines are fired up.

The Transportation Module has been attached! This module, larger than anything ever docked to the space station before, is an absolute beast: -12 Gigantor solar panels -4 Nuclear Engines -More than a Big Orange Fuel Tank's worth of pure rocket fuel -Two Mini Clampotrons for docking small unmanned craft -More than 900 units of RCS fuel As I said before, it's a beast. The launch went kind of smoothly except for the part when the periapsis dipped below 55km. This caused the craft to enter the atmosphere, but through the power of air resistance, it dropped the intercept distance from fifty kilometers to thirty. Several careful burns brought the craft within three kilometers of the station, and the docking went pretty well from there. Of course, the crew tried to open a bottle of champagne in weightlessness, and the resulting gush of weightless fizzy beverage damaged several electrical boards and short-circuited an experiment or two. Picture: Video:

Noted. I'll change the title. (It's a space station for now, and it will be up until the installation of the nuclear engines, IMHO. But that will hopefully happen soon, whereupon the spacecraft can truly take the title of Grand Tour Ship.)

The Corvus Space Station mk2 is coming along famously. Three modules are currently docked to the first HubMax of docking ports. One is an unmanned orbiter designed to take plenty of science despite its small footprint. Another is a lander that is designed to undock, land, and redock without difficulty. The third is the second-generation Kerbal shuttle, carrying six Kerbals to a safe docking with the station. The unmanned orbiter will likely eventually go on the aft HubMax, along with other unmanned spacecraft. In addition, an enormous fuel tank with nuclear engines and a massive solar array will be placed in the rear of the station, as soon as I figure out how. Two EVAs have been done to examine struts that were not removed by staging and remain clinging to the aft section. They have been determined to not be a problem, but Kerbal ground control is still a little wary about docking anything onto the port. Crew morale is high, and all members of the station are excited about their role in Kerbin's newest space station. Videos:

Coolitic, you're right. I looked up RTGs and they're pretty harmless. I still think that nuclear engines should increase radiation levels though. I would agree that you should have different amounts of radiation on different parts of planets. For example, you would receive more radiation near the poles and, say, in some crater basins. This is shaping up to be an interesting idea.

I don't know if this has been mentioned, as I am new to this forum, but -- I would love it if devs added a certain amount of Kerbal-harmful radiation into the game. The radiation would increase as Kerbals passed out of planetary atmospheres or planetary magnetic fields. Radiation would also be greater near Kerbol. Thus, Kerbals would be shielded more from radiation on, say, the surface of Laythe than on Moho. RTGs and nuclear rocket engines would also increase the amount of radiation that Kerbals experienced. Certain parts, such as structural panels, could reduce the quantity of radiation that Kerbals receive. Each cockpit could also reduce Kerbals' radiation doses by a certain amount. On EVA, however, Kerbals would receive high doses of radiation. (A few parts could also be created with the specific purpose of reducing radiation exposure.) After exceeding the maximum amount of radiation, a Kerbal could pop or become otherwise incapable of piloting the craft. Radiation would cumulatively build up in Kerbals as missions passed, and thus, a Kerbal could not partake in too many missions. After a certain time, he would have to be grounded. Radiation could be measured by an additional scientific instrument, basically a glorified Geiger counter, for moderate amounts of scientific information. By the way, is there a mod for this? (I don't think any of the life-support mods include radiation.)

I'd have to say Landred Kerman is my favorite. He's blessed with plenty of courage, very little stupidity and a little dose of badS. I chose him for my first Jool-return mission, which he carried out extremely well. He flew by Laythe and Vall before successfully returning to Kerbin. He's currently onboard my Corvus II space station, which is destined to fly into Munar orbit. He's the unofficial Captain of the Corvus. (Jeb's the official captain.)

Nice job! Drop-Pod Planes are one of the most technically challenging types of craft in KSP. I actually had a challenge for this a while back that's sort of died. Here was my entry to the challenge, which could drop off twelve Kerbals: ...but it was really difficult to fly, especially because without the dropped-off bit, the plane had almost no structural integrity and would wobble in bizarre ways. Your plane looks a bit better for that purpose.

Gemini B with the MOL is correct! I shoulda made that harder

...and it's just about finished with the Centaur burn. Everything still going well. Looks like another successful spaceflight from the United Launch Alliance team! (Great job, guys!)

Here's a tough one. This was a special big space-car that was like the second type of space-cars that went to space. But this space-car had two parts. Two people would be in the top part as the space-car went to space and when it came back from space, but the two people would not go to the bottom part until the space-car was in space. The bottom part was bigger and had more things in it. This space-car never became a real space thing, but it was a good idea and a new Up-Goer was made just for the space-car.