Pecan

It's harder, heavier and physically larger/wider doing things this way than with struts, etc. but I like how a little of it looks. Fuel will only automatically flow in the narrow to wide direction. Use fuel-lines for engines connected the other way (eg; the nukes in your picture).

Ummm ... you know sometimes you fail? ... especially when you don't pay attention ... I clicked 'Yes, sure' then went off and read some other stuff, had dinner, did some things, then thought "You know, I haven't docked much and hardly at all recently - I usually let MechJeb do it." So - to the VAB - build drone, launch drone 1A, launch drone 1B Fail 1: This drone design didn't have an RCS tank (doh!) Deorbit drone 1B, leave 1A there as a target, back to the VAB - build new drone, launch drone 2A Fail 2: This drone design doesn't have the same docking port as the first one (facepalm!) Right! Let's do this seriously. Spurn distractions, pay attention. Deorbit drone 1A, launch drone 2B Good. No more fail. Do I know how to dock? Yes, sure - but it's tedious and I usually let MechJeb do it. Mind you, it's more interesting if your teenage daughter is playing loudly and jumping around trying to make sure you do.

[i think you've got your answers but this might help anyone else wondering the same thing...] 1. The direct answer: the difference is you'll never get a parabolic orbit in practice. 2. Conic sections (TL;DR - click '2 Features' on that page for the pretty pictures)

I have a satellite placement vehicle intended to position 3 satellites, one at a time. The best (simplest, most aerodynamic) way to stick the satellites on the vehicle was to stack them on top of each other. Decouplers would end-up either fouling an engine on and 'upper' satellite or the instruments on the one beneath it, so I used separators instead. Using a decoupler for the last/lowest was better, since that stayed with the, now redundant, placement vehicle, has less mass and doesn't become debris.

Note that although it is easier to get to Mun it is easier to land-on Minmus. For your first landings Minmus is the easier return-trip mission.

Yes, you can have several if you wish, just pick another one from the pods panel. For manned vehicles it's usually useful to have an okto or RGU as well so you can control the ship when/if the Kerbal(s) are on EVA. Similarly you might want one on the last stage of your launch vehicle (so you can de-orbit it after circularisation and not leave debris), and any stages which are to be left in space for later (re)docking.

Reverse engineering is, in any case, common practice in the real world - quite apart from learning the public science/engineering theories and practices. Whenever a car maker brings out a new engine technology or some such you can bet all their competitors get a team straight on to seeing if/how they can do it too and a bunch of lawyers to find a way they can do it without breaking any patents. In software development I've often had "technology swap" workshops with competitors where they tell us their new stuff and we tell them ours. That way we're both saved the trouble of buying each other's products and having to tear it apart to find out how it works. For education purposes copying and adapting existing designs is very widely used. Engineering apprentices usually have ro make an exact, working, scale model of some machine in their workshop (their 'apprentice piece'). Historically, to become a recognised master of your trade you'd top that by make some existing thing better, or in an original way - your 'master piece' (which is where the word comes from).

Wow, talk about coincidence. I've just come from checking the Orbiter web-address as one of my friends said he was looking for something 'real life' rather than KSP and wasn't so interested in the design/building side as seeing what historical spacecraft were like. For the same reason I have tried Orbiter - following a link from these forums - but KSP is much more fun. I am interested in designing and building my own ships.

Isn't the point of 'Spheres Of Influence' that only the current one is tracked and calculated, so all MJ orbit details - and maneuvers - will always affect your current orbit, not that projected for any future SOI?

Completely off-topic but an anecdote that I hope will amuse those who sometimes get frustrated with computers (and horrify those that love them): One of my early jobs was to perform a "3m drop onto concrete" as part of the acceptance tests for 'ruggedised' Army computer equipment. I had an office on the floor overlooking the car-park ... and on the noticeboard an invitation to everyone to come in and through one out of the window :-)

tavert! You're active in the normal forum again! I love your charts (because they're real data, not conjecture) but thought you'd gone lurker.

1) Hack your engines to silly thrust so you don't have to worry about that 2) Use inifitefuel so you don't have to worry about that 3) Relax and fly where you point Or Use Hyperedit and get there quicker

Off the top of my head I'd suggest the mods "Actions On The Fly" - lets you change action groups in flight - and/or KOS - scriptable autopilot which (probably) would let you type the instructions to toggle several engines at once or (less likely) might be able to track the COM and do it automatically (and no, you don't have to let it do any flying for you if you're against that sort of autopilot).

If there is something at your destination you can 'set as target' this will let you see the target indicator on the navball, so you know which way to steer. If there isn't, then one trick with MechJeb is to using 'landing guidance' and 'enter target co-ordinates' or 'pick target on map', which will do the same thing.

"Pointy End Up (Noisy End Down)" By J. Kerman "Out Of The Gravitas Well" By Iain M Kerman [sorry, I couldn't help myself]

ISA replacement => ScanSat

A step-by-step 'exploring the Kerbol system' rocket and aircraft narrative/tutorial that includes (so far) 20 vehicle designs and about 80 missions. First proof-reading required next week, if work allows time ...

An orange tube is 36t, which is usually quite a step-up in payload for people who have been doing (~5t?) Minmus/Mun landers with a combined launch-mass vehicle of that size ;-0 I spent ages thinking I'd never be able to get that sort of load off the ground ... and then I did, and now I do. Struts are your friends above ~20t but if you find you're having to put more than one, top-and-bottom, of each booster add a reaction wheel (or two). Then add more struts if you need to. Test, repeat, ... As I found (to my amazement and dismay, when I couldn't shift 40t) 'heavy' here tends to mean 100t+. Unless you're talking to Whackjob of course (he laughs at such pocket-lint).

Just as an aside... Q: Why do modern aircraft/rockets still have mechanical switches? A: Because computers/MFDs go wrong - a switch is either open, closed or physically broken, not just glitching. (Genuine management consultation/training: "How many of you would fly in a 'plane programmed by your team?" - only one person says 'yes' - "If my team programmed it, it wouldn't move fast enough to crash")

I crash. But, since it's what you're really asking - I land on A moon/satellite of Kerbin which might be called 'Mun' or 'Minmus'. In real life no-one talks about the Mars. Mind you, the only way I can think of referring to Kerbin's satellites together is 'lunar' which is almost certainly wrong (comes from the Latin). In the same way I think of 'Kerbol's solar system - the first only started in these wiki/forums and the second refers to our, real life, star 'Sol'. Any actual astronomers out there?

Yeah? Guess how I feel ^^ Be cool kids, and watch how much real-life information you're giving away!

One thing that isn't mentioned enough ... Aircraft (atmospheric/SSTO): Learn to use the trim controls, mod+WASD (mod=Alt under Windows). These set your pitch/roll/yaw 'defaults' so you can 'more-or-less' fly hands-free and without SAS, with just the odd tweak to trim every now and again (eg; as fuel drains). In practice: 1) get your plane pointing roughly where you want it. 2) if it tends to nose-down when you release the keys/joystick press mod+S (ie; trim up) - probably no more than three or four times if it tends to nose-up (eg; as fuel drains and the centre of mass moves back) press mod+W. etc... 3) as it wanders off-course, just mod+(whatever) to correct the drift

Absolutely, and I like your ships. Just didn't want to overwhelm the guy with loads of 100t+ monsters if what he's trying to launch is in the 20-50t range, or whatever.

Well yes, lots of people can show you their heavy lifters, but is that really what you want to see? Size (1.25m/2.5m) is not important - what mass are you trying to launch?