JenBurdoo

I notice he said nothing about experience for Kerbals - is that being pushed back then?

Is that a Sara Kerman in the final crew? (ducks and covers) And why are all the pilots "n/a" yet "KIA?" Does that mean there werepilots, they just didn't have names? From the picture I get the impression they were just stuck onto the engine (this must be where the idea for the EAS-1 came from). Seriously, awesome post. It reminds me, someone should make a vid of KSP to the soundtrack from October Sky. Or vice versa. "And now begin the explosions. Followed by a light salad."

How do you do it? I found shutting down the intake before launch (using the little green button to the right of the tweaking menu) saved a small amt of air, but unclicking that in vaccum didn't seem to do anything at all.

Edited to forbid having Jeb get out and push. Though I think I did mention no RCS. You can trap air to use again in space? Really? I'll have to try that... possibilities abound.

That's right. I'm sure it's possible, but atm all I've been doing is suborbital, just trying to get as high as possible.

Launch a ship into space using air-breathing engines only, ie any engine(s) that conks out around 30km. This means you have to be going as fast and as light as possible when the oxygen gives out. As an example, the above pic shows a four-piece aircraft that I coaxed to 166km. I got another one to 179km. My first try didn't even have a parachute, and suicide-burned just before landing to save the pilot. - No rockets, no RCS, and no hybrids (RAPIER, etc). - Control mods like MechJeb are fine. - Multiple engines are fine. - Post images of your craft at launch (proving you didn't use rockets to get it into space) and at apoapsis. - Does not have to land on a runway, or even intact. - The intent is to suborbit - just get as high as you can. But if you CAN orbit, all power to you. - No fair letting Jeb get out at apoapse and push. Category I (the one I'm doing, as I haven't tried FAR or unstock parts yet and have had zero success with light probes thus far: - Stock aerodynamics and parts. - Must contain a Kerbal. - Kerbal must survive. Category II - Anything goes. Aerodynamics, modded parts, probe-cores, no recovery, whatever you like. Extra kudos for getting into orbit, or smacking into the Mun.

Landed on Gilly via extreme EVA: https://www.dropbox.com/s/lq5d8r2tdqspfqn/Screenshot%202014-09-21%2003.29.00.png?dl=0 And launched an airbreathing jet into space: https://www.dropbox.com/s/u01n047fzszqffb/Screenshot%202014-09-22%2021.39.09.png?dl=0 The trick is landing it without killing the pilot.

My current three-kerbal orbiter is named the Jool I (since there isn't a Saturn equivalent in the Kerbol system yet). I've been trying to construct a Jool V for a while without success. My initial career attempt had simple, basic names: Hop: Suborbital Circle: Orbital Beeper: Unmanned Touchdown: Manned landers I really wish there were a way to save ship types and craft names. Real space missions can be referred to by many names - one for the launcher class, one for the payload class, one for the mission series, and so on. Saturn V - Apollo 11 - CSM/LM - Columbia/Eagle

I feel the demo is more than enough if the goal is simply to increase interest and do some "learning without realizing they're learning." I've put out feelers to use the KSP demo to both my library system employers and the air museum where I'm starting to volunteer. In both cases, we have no budget but every reason to attract teens and improve educational content. And in both, the responses are thus far positive!

If you work as an educator, that's all you need. They ask for teachers, but I'm a public librarian working with teens and kids, and just started volunteering at an air museum. I don't teach physics classes, but I can definitely see uses for KSP if I can talk my bosses into allowing it.

I've just started testing KerbalEDU. I'm sure it'll improve a lot over where it is now, but right now its value looks to be in guiding users towards what they need, and providing useful readouts of what happened. My own educational gaming philosophy can be summed up as: "DON'T tell them they're learning anything, just let them play and learn without realizing it." There are all sorts of things that can be learned indirectly even though they're not even required to play -- like playing Risk as a kid, taking geography in high school, and suddenly remembering you know where Irkutsk is. KSP is like this: I wasn't even trying to learn -- I just wanted to put my Kerbals into the sky. It wasn't until after I had devoured the wiki and gotten into orbit for the first time that I realized I now understood why the Saturn V turns sideways during launch. I also realized I knew what it's called -- a gravity turn. Oh, and I've started reading and rereading NASA memoirs. They have absolutely nothing to do with KSP or physics, but I'm doing it anyway because I've suddenly regained my enthusiasm for the subject. You may teach this for the physics and math, but if you do it right they'll go on to history, literature and art. And they never even have to know.

I'm talking about the tiny little gray box with "FF" on it, not the translucent window with the crew names and medals. It's on Duna in this image. It can't be dragged, and clicking on it in any way opens up the large window.

How can I move or close the FF box? It sits smack in the center of my screen, getting in the way of panoramic screenshots. And if I can close it, how do I open it again?

Made my first flight to Duna and Ike. Dunno how to move or close the FF box, but it was still a magnificent sight.

Actually, now I think of it (having just rewatched it for Yuri's Night) -- the film First Orbit: It's footage taken from the ISS over the exact route Yuri Gagarin took -- the exact terrain he would have seen -- and it is backed by the original mission audio, and by a haunting, original musical score.

The filk music album To Touch The Stars: http://www.prometheus-music.com/thestars.html Especially Hope Eyrie and Fire in the Sky. I have a mind to make a Hope Eyrie music video using KSP.

They also don't show up on some of the ARM additions. That was my problem earlier. The two-engine launcher does not list D/V. The four-engine one does UNLESS a second stage is added above it, even if that second stage on its own appears in the deltaV indicator.

Updated my MechJeb to 23.5 and while it is working, I am unable to view Delta-V stats at all. The function is available but invariably reads 0 d/v. Is this a bug, will it go away if I reupload, or am I not using it right? I see there is now a function to change to different planets, though I've set it on Kerbin and still nothing happens.

Well, my first dress rehearsal for a rescue attempt failed miserably. I did manage to target the center of the crater where Bob, Bill and Jeb are, but ran out of fuel on the way down. The crew was on a suborbital trajectory to the far side of the Mun; luckily I had quicksaved...

Reached Eve for the first time, dropping an unmanned lander on it with some science to transmit back. I reckon I won't be able to recover anything from Eve during this iteration of the game, as I'm still fairly new.

Thanks for all your comments and help, guys. I landed on a moon (Minmus) for the first time: https://www.dropbox.com/s/73mmnfzmm61wrkn/Screenshot%202014-02-13%2000.52.44.png Here's the ship I ended up building, complete with asparagus staging: https://www.dropbox.com/s/66d9zrs9bcapxto/Screenshot%202014-02-13%2003.37.31.png I even landed back at KSC (after some aerobraking practice), with well over 1200 science points: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qtzlqa830rw3wpn/Screenshot%202014-02-13%2003.09.49.png You guys gave me the confidence to make Touchdown II a success. I am so proud of myself and my Kerbals right now. Thank you! Now to rescue the trapped Kerbal XL1 in the crater...

Orbited Minmus for the first time ever, and picked up all the EVA biome science in one go! Landing was not so easy; I kept my engine burning until landing on Kerbin at about 5m/s, but when it tipped over the Science Jr. was destroyed, splitting the rest of the ship in half (capsule on one side, engine on the other, SciJr nowhere in between). I think Circle VII will try for a landing on Minmus. Now that I have the Skipper engine and Rockomax tanks I should be able to loft three SciJrs, fuel and engines into Minmus orbit.

Good to hear I could help! Incidentally, read the Kerbol article before you say that. It states that the official name is "The Sun" and (near the bottom) that the name Kerbol was devised on the forum and doesn't (yet) appear in the game. They may still add it. In all honesty though, it's like the complaints about calling the characters "kerbalnauts," another "unofficial" term. I use both. Feel free to call it what you like - it's your game. Until there are multiple stars and types of astronaut in the game, there's no danger anyone will be confused.

The most efficient, maybe, but that would take years -- you have to go (way) farther away before you can get closer. The answer to the OP is here: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Science Look at the Celestial Body Multipliers chart, it indicates where "low above planet" starts. Anything above that but still in SOI is "high above." Low above Kerbol is 1 million km.

Thanks for the tips, folks, it worked like a charm. Got close to 500 sci for an 8-day flight with Bob Kerman. I'm curious about using a bi-elliptic transfer to get into "low" Kerbol orbit -- wouldn't that take, like, forever? Couldn't you do it more easily by using a few gravity assists?