G'th

That only really applies to making a larger version of the single fuel cell. Six fuel cells should perform roughly the same as six fuel cells rigged to work together. It doesn't really make sense that rigging the fuel cells together would somehow produce double the output compared to six fuel cells running independently.

It'd actually be pretty neat if somewhere down the road you made it so that the Minions were a competing space program run by AI. But of course, that's a far cry from what you're looking at doing right now. Good luck on the mod, it'll be interesting to see how you do considering the limitations we have with editing Kerbals.

Another way around the problem, as I pointed out in the FASA thread, is to keep them on your outermost boosters (IE, as far away from the bulk of the rocket as you possibly can) and/or under your rocket, and to use as little as possible as an extra redundancy. They won't collide with your rocket in doing so.

Indeed, though the shuttle as it was was pretty far away from the original concept. While a non DOD influenced shuttle wouldn't have quite been as effective as they had hoped, it certainly would've proven far better than the Shuttle as we knew it. The biggest problem with the shuttle was that most of what it could do it wasn't ever used for, which in turn was at least partly NASA's fault during Challenger (NASA's administration has always been its biggest problem post Apollo), as that accident was ultimately what resulted in the DOD moving to their own launchers, which in turn drove the costs of the Shuttle way up for NASA. Its still a Catch-22 though. The DOD had a lot to do with why the Shuttle wasn't as effective as it could have been, but they also had a lot to do with it getting funding in the first place.

Well thats not necessary. People just need to realize how to place the launch clamps so that they don't collide with your rocket when they spawn in flight. (because thats how they break your rockets) Keep them on your outermost boosters, or even more preferably, under your rocket. That way then they spawn they just fall away and don't collide with anything. Basically, if your clamps will collide with your rocket if you don't release them, they'll break your rocket in flight due to the bug. If they don't collide, you won't have any issues. Its also wise to keep the number of them down. Use as few as possible. While it sucks because then you don't get that pretty "Launch Tower" configuration, it will at least save you from a lot of issues once you launch.

This is why I use HDEV as a screensaver at night. So relaxing watching the Earth go by, even if most of the time its just he Pacific ocean that you can see.

They don't properly scale to each other? How about that. For those that don't understand what he's saying, he's saying that the Single fuel cell doesn't properly scale with the larger one. IE, 6 single fuel cells won't perform roughly the same as the larger one, and will weigh more. While technically the larger one should weight slightly less (because in rigging all of those things together you will lose some degree of material which may or may not be made back up), they should perform roughly the same.

The thing about the space shuttle style ascent stage is that it really was only appropriate for getting something like the shuttle into space. Using it for something else isn't really efficient because you can do the same with a bigger, simpler, rocket. Heck, even when they were considering creating an expendable cargo variant of the Space Shuttle (Without the crew support or wings, but still using the basic launch configuration), it was only really because it'd be cheaper than designing or leasing out a similarly powerful rocket to do it in the conventional way, not because it would have been the ideal method for cargo delivery.

Indeed, and now that I have a working computer again I can resume testing, which I'm sure Mike will appreciate.

That'd unfortunately require us to be able to access the Kerbal model, which as of yet we cannot. However, Texture Replacer headpacks do make up for it some small way, as at least then they have more facial features. Chatterer also makes up for their silence a bit, even on EVA.

Inb4everyonefreaksoutagain

1.6 as it stands is a mostly WIP, and as such isn't fully working. The mod has come a long way since 1.6, however, and the new release is coming soon.

^ That. Its a bug that's existed for a long time, typically comes up with part heavy ships (which stations tend to be).

I have a small love for the Ares I, hence, a lot of my smaller rockets (typically crew lifters) use a tall SRB first stage.

That'll run the stock game perfectly no questions asked. However, if you plan on extensively modding it (and/or getting into the Visual mods), I'd recommend upgrading the CPU and the video card. A step or two above (IE, next best in the series) in either one will do wonders. Also recommend upgrading your RAM to 8 or 16GB, one because its cheap enough that there's no reason not to (and good RAM will last a long time), and because it'll allow you to take advantage of x64 whenever its available (or you decide to use the hack to get it). If you go for more ram, be sure that your Windows install is 64bit. I'd also put a bit more money into the power supply myself and get something a bit more powerful. But thats not totally necessary. From my perspective, I like to have my computers last a long time, so I always put a bit more money into the small stuff so they last. I've had this computer since 2007 and most of it is still the original parts that nowadays are only just starting to fall out of the top of the line. If you wanted to go for a "future-proofed*" type of build, then I'd definitely also recommend upgrading to a full size tower and Motherboard so it'll be easier to upgrade. *In reality, no build could ever really be future proofed (unless you went into the future), but it is very possible to design builds that'll last an entire gaming generation, if not more, with minimal upgrades.

Oh, so many. Depending on whether or not you want to go for a full scale replica of our solar system, the mods to support the realism will mostly be the same. Here's my list, though I'm too lazy for links. Google isn't hard. FAR Deadly Reentry Continued RealChute Outer Planet Mod (Pretty much essential, should be stockified) Kerbal Joint reinforcement KIS/KAS HullCam VDS RasterPropMonitor, Probe Control Room, Vessel View, and Docking Port Alignment Indicator, and/or MechJEB (For IVA flying, if you really want to go the extra mile. I always exclude MechJEB myself because its a bit convoluted and its more challenging) RemoteTech2 TAC LifeSupport DangIT + Entropy (launch failures are fun when they happen) Trajectories Science Revisited Infernal Robotics VOID (Personally find it easier and cleaner to use compared to KER or MechJEB) Ship Manifest (Though I disable its crew transfer (as its buggy for me), its still useful for resource transfer as well as science transfer)

I really have to wonder why they stuck that god awful fairing on there and didn't make it so it flushed with the part above it (presuming the part above it was the same size anyway, ie, a pod) It looks stupid.

My original reasoning was simply because this was meant to be Eyes Turned Skyward inspired, rather than a 1:1 telling of that timeline. It was also because at the time that I started this, RSS and many of the other rescales weren't working as of yet. However, I have since lost the save file due to a myriad of shenanigans. But not all is lost for this, as I have since resolved that once things are in place, I will reboot this using RSS and will actually follow the timeline from Freedom 7 on. (possibly even earlier) But I'm currently waiting on RVE to be working again, at least for Earth, before I really get into preparing for it. At this point, I simply can't play the game without clouds and such. It just takes away from the experience.

Failure is not an option. If your Kerbals are stuck with the pre-1.0 hardware, send a rescue mission. If they have post 1.0 hardware, they'll be fine so long as you don't put their Kerbin periapsis in the negative. And there's only a couple of mods that don't work right as of yet. Most are working fine. (though they may have to be updated on your end)

Thats....actually fairly reasonable outside of cancelling Block II. (though I can understand why if they're willing to just use the IB) If we're going to cut costs when it comes to NASA, this is the way to do it I think. Kill a redundant component of the rocket (The man rating) and bam, money saved and we can still space today.

Nope, thats just the regular 1.8.1 download. Mine isn't tainted by the likes ATM, however, so its not blurred out. And as for the transparency issue, I'm not gonna even touch that lol. While I'm sure I could do it, just too lazy.

I just got back from the Space Center! It was a most excellent day. Got some one on one time with not only a NASA engineer who worked on the shuttle (and Hubble), but also two astronauts who flew on Discovery and Atlantis! Think I spent three hours with Atlantis between Martin (the engineer guy. Didn't get his last name) and Don Thomas. Ran into Mike Mulland at the Saturn V center and got to have a chat with him before he went off to do book signings. This was also the first time I had ever actually met anybody who actually went to space. So that was pretty sick. First thing I did after the park opened was to go see Atlantis again, and I was right in doing so. Martin basically gave me a mini tour (There weren't many people in the center just yet) and he pretty much converted me into a Hubble fanboy lol. Having him show me the mock-up they have and what everything did and what not was amazing. And then later on I saw the Hubble IMAX movie they have, that covered STS-31 and STS-61 as well as what all Hubble has been able to discover, and it was mind blowing. The way they set up the theatre made it as if you were sitting there in space with the astronauts as they dealt with Hubble. The scale was amazing and in most of the shots it was like I was looking at the mock-up, except better! It was just unreal. And, on a less awesome note, I also got to witness the Columbia/Challenger memorial, and let me tell you that was not the most pleasant thing ever coming into it without knowing what all was in there. When I first went in I had just thought it was just a memorial for the astronauts with some of their personal effects. But off in a corner down the hall way (they don't even make an attempt to make you notice it. Like, the small hallway between the main one and this room wasn't even lit) were two pieces of debris from Columbia and Challenger. And when I turned that corner I literally gasped and teared up a little. I mean, I had just spent hours with Atlantis and yeah. Seeing those pieces was not pleasant. But beyond that, it was an awesome day. I'm working on uploading the pictures I took so that'll be a bit.

Holy crap seriously? Wow. Makes it all the more awesome to be helping out with this mod.