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Y3 D325-Y4 D169 - Jool Explorer So, hot on the heels of the departure of Draco, we have another historical event taking place: The arrival of Jool Explorer at the Jool System! If you recall, Jool Explorer was launched all the way back in the middle of Year 1, almost two and a half years ago! Heck, that was all the way back when Jerry here was an intern! Ha ha! What's that, Jerry? You're still an intern? Oh. Well. Talk to KR about that. In any case, as Jool Explorer is approaching its goal, this is a good time to review its mission objectives: Minimum Objectives (If we don't accomplish at least this much, we'll wind up sitting in front of a Kongressional hearing.) One flyby of Jool One flyby of Laythe Primary Objectives (These are the objectives that the probe has been designed to achieve.) Two flybys of Jool Two flybys of each of Jool's large moons: Laythe, Vall, and Tylo Deploy one atmospheric probe on Jool and one on Laythe Secondary Objectives (Once the Primary Objectives have been completed, if the probe has any capability left, we will attempt to accomplish these additional objectives.) Flybys of Jool's minor moons: Bop and Pol Additional flybys of Jool and its large moons. So, this morning, Jool Explorer crossed over into Jool's SOI. Our first task is to adjust its trajectory coming in to the Jool system. The folks over in Orbital Dynamics have worked up a plan for us that will let us use a gravity assist at Laythe to capture Jool Explorer into the system rather than burning fuel, which will help extend the life of our propellant load. If you're unfamiliar with the concept of gravity assists...well, go ask the guys in Orbital Dynamics. There's a reason I'm in management. This maneuver will also check off our first minimum objective with a flyby of Laythe. So Jool Explorer burns at the very edge of the Jool system to set up its capture maneuver. However, as we all know, the Jool system is huge. It's going to be almost sixty days before the Laythe flyby. So, back to work, everyone. We'll get back to this in a couple months. ---------- Well, here we are back with Jool Explorer on Day 384. The Science team has been hard at work over the last several weeks getting preliminary readings from the experiments on board Jool Explorer, and they've already been releasing some stunning photography. Today is the day we discover if our burn two months ago was good. Jool Explorer is rapidly approaching Laythe. And, so far, it appears that we are right down the middle of the slot. Science has all of their instruments and cameras ready to go for our first flyby. We'll be passing about 140 kilometers away from the surface. And we have our first successful flyby! Flight just got back and let me know that their numbers indicate that Jool Explorer has successfully captured into an elliptical orbit around Jool. Excellent work! So now Orbital Dynamics is getting to work on plotting the next burn, which should be at JEs first apoapsis in a couple of days. ---------- Day 387 now, and Jool Explorer is getting set to burn at its Jool apoapsis. This burn will set us up for releasing our first atmospheric probe into the atmosphere of Jool. The burn was successful, so Jool Explorer is now on a sub-orbital trajectory for Jool. We'll get back to it in a couple of days for the probe separation and burn. ---------- And now we're back on Day 389. Jool Explorer is about an hour away from entry to Jool's atmosphere, which we obviously would like to avoid. So, first up, we trigger the separation of the Jool Atmospheric Probe. Then Jool Explorer immediately turns and burns to increase its periapsis above Jool's atmosphere. This would not be the time for an engine failure. <nervous laugh> But, thank goodness, that burn was successful. Now we can turn our attention back to the atmospheric probe. This is an important milestone of the mission, so obviously we hope that the periapsis was set to the correct height to ensure proper entry. <glances nervously over at the Orbital Dynamics folks sweating in the corner> The probe enters the atmosphere and is almost immediately enveloped in plasma, entering radio blackout. It's a long five minutes. But eventually, radio contact is restored. The probe survived atmospheric entry! It immediately begins radioing back data from its instruments. When it reaches about 200 kilometers below entry, its parachute deploys. It continues to sink deeper into the Joolian atmosphere, sending back pressure, temperature, and spectrographic data as it goes. However, although the probe is tough, it is not indestructible, and the Joolian atmosphere is unforgiving. Finally, after sinking an amazing 500 kilometers into Jool's clouds, the probe stops transmitting. That was an incredible outcome, and I'm sure the Science team will be parsing through that data stream for a long time. Meanwhile, Jool Explorer's instruments have not been idle, and they have recorded their data from their first flyby of Jool, meeting our second minimum mission objective. So, we have met the minimum mission requirements! Now JE is headed back up to its apoapsis above Jool, and OD will be plotting our next move. ---------- Back at periapsis on Day 393, and Jool Explorer is burning prograde this time to set up another flyby of Laythe. This is a pretty major burn, but it will set us up for the release of the Laythe Atmospheric Probe, which is a major milestone of the mission. So the fuel expenditure is justified. See you back in five days for the flyby. ---------- Back now on Day 398. Jool Explorer is approaching Laythe once again, this time on a suborbital trajectory. An hour away from entry, the atmospheric probe is released. Jool Explorer immediately burns to raise its Laythe periapsis...and its Jool periapsis? Or so the OD guys tell me. I don't get it either. I just keep pressing the "I Believe" button. In any case, Jool Explorer is safe now and recording data from its second Laythe flyby. Meanwhile the atmospheric probe is burning its way through Laythe's atmosphere and we're all holding our breath. The probe hurtles tantalizingly over a couple of major land masses... ...deploys its parachute... ...and settles into the ocean. That's fine. The probe floats. We'll probably get better data from Laythe's liquid water than we would from dry land anyway. In any case, another successful probe deployment, and a second Laythe flyby checked off of our primary mission objectives. Jool Explorer passes out of Laythe's SOI and then sweeps down to its Jool periapsis. The probe's orbit is very low now. The good news is that this gets us a very close flyby of Jool, which marks our second flyby of Jool itself and makes the Science team very happy. However, the low orbit will make it very difficult to perform flybys of the other Joolian moons. We could just burn to raise our orbit, but the Orbital Dynamics wiz kids have a better plan. They want to use another Laythe flyby to raise the probe's orbit with a gravity assist. So, here we are now, just a couple of hours out of Laythe's SOI, and we're burning at Jool periapsis to set up another Laythe flyby. I guess we'll see how that turns out in a couple of days. ---------- Well, Day 400 now, and Jool Explorer is swinging by Laythe again. After the flyby, Flight confirms that the gravity assist has raised Jool Explorer's orbit by a considerable amount. And Science has collected their data from Jool Explorer's third Laythe flyby. So now JE is back on its way to Jool apoapsis and we're setting our sights on the rest of the moons. ---------- Four days later now, Day 404, and we're back at Jool apoapsis. Orbital Dynamics has another burn scheduled that should set Jool Explorer up for its first Tylo flyby. Exciting! ---------- In other news: As Jool Explorer is coasting down Jool's gravity well, Draco reaches its mid-course correction burn on Day 406. The crew of Draco have been following the progress of Jool Explorer with great interest. (Because, let's face it, they don't have much else to do.) As they look out their windows and see Jool as a sparkling green gem in the sky, the Kerbol System doesn't seem so large after all.... ---------- Three days later, Jool Explorer is approaching Tylo for the first time. The probe swings by in a close pass and collects its data. It then exits Tylo's SOI and carries on. The next day, 410, Jool Explorer is back at Jool apoapsis. Orbital Dynamics assures me that a small burn here will set it up for another flyby of Tylo in a week or so. ---------- Day 419. We're back for our second Tylo flyby. This, unfortunately, is a more distant flyby. Science is disappointed. But OD assures me that there is a method to their madness. After Jool Explorer has exited Tylo's SOI, the probe burns again. And this burn sets it up for its first flyby of Vall next week. As an aside: Once this burn was completed, Flight sent me a notice letting me know that Jool Explorer has reached 50% of its initial fuel load. Good to know. ---------- It's Day 425 now, and we're excited that we're passing through our first Vall flyby! Science has all of their data, so Jool Explorer is just going to keep coasting for now. ---------- It's Year 4 Day 4 now. Happy New Year, everybody, hope you all had a good holiday. Jool Explorer is approaching Jool periapsis, and OD has a burn planned that will bring it back for its second flyby of Vall. That went well, Flight tells me everything is in order. It's a long haul back to Vall, but we'll see you back in a couple of weeks. ---------- Okay, Day 24, and Jool Explorer is flying by Vall for the second time. So, for everyone who hasn't been keeping score, this means that Jool Explorer has successfully deployed both atmospheric probes, and completed two flybys of Jool and all three of its major moons. This means that Jool Explorer has successfully completed its primary mission objectives! Since we still have almost 50% of our fuel load remaining, we've given the go ahead to start into the secondary mission objectives. Orbital Dynamics should be getting us some flight path options for those any day now. Right? <Orbital Dynamics guys look startled for a second, then run back to their offices.> ---------- Day 27. Jool Explorer is back at Jool apoapsis today. And Orbital Dynamics has given us a flight path that is...ambitious. The plan is this: Jool Explorer is going to make a minor burn at apoapsis today that will put it on a course to flyby Vall. It will get a gravity assist from Vall that will put it on a course to flyby Tylo. It will get yet another gravity assist from Tylo that will put it on a course to flyby Bop. I am pounding that "I Believe" button today. So Jool Explorer makes its burn. ---------- Day 28, we have our third flyby of Vall... ---------- Three days later, we have our third close flyby of Jool... ---------- Four days after that, on Day 35, we fly by Tylo for a third time... And after we exit Tylo SOI...well, I'll be damned. We will need a course correction burn, but not a major one. I guess that worked. Good job, folks. ---------- Now on Day 40 we have our course correction burn for Bop. We're right on target. Things move even slower here in the outer reaches of the Jool system. See you all back in two weeks. ---------- It's Day 54 and... Heerree'ss Bop! Science is very excited, although all it appears to be is a captured asteroid. Jool manages to look small from out here. So our next target in the extended mission is Pol. Unfortunately, there are no large moons out here to provide gravity assists. So we will just have to burn for it. Orbital Dynamics is working on a plan for that. ---------- So, did I mention that things move slowly out here? It is now Day 131, two and a half months since we left Bop, and we have finally reached the burn for Pol. Now we have to wait more than two weeks for the flyby. All for just another captured asteroid. <yawn> And Flight has just informed me that this burn brings Jool Explorer below 25% of its initial fuel load. ---------- So, it's Day 148 and we're getting the first pictures and data back from the Pol flyby... ...aanndd...that is not just another captured asteroid. I will be very curious to see what Science has to say about that one. ---------- So, after the Pol flyby we have some hard decisions to make concerning Jool Explorer. The probe has accomplished all of its primary mission objectives, and all of its secondary objectives. It has roughly 22% of its initial fuel load remaining. It is in the outer limits of the Jool system, with no gravity assist targets available, so any destination we pick for it will require a large expenditure of fuel. And there is a possibility that if the probe is allowed to orbit uncontrolled in the Jool system it may crash into Laythe, possibly contaminating its surface with the radioactive contents of the probe's radiothermal generators. So KSP management have decided that the probe should use its remaining fuel to achieve a controlled disposal in the atmosphere of Jool. Day 155, a week after the Pol flyby, Jool Explorer performs its final burn. ---------- Two weeks later, Day 169. Jool Explorer is a couple of hours out from entry now. Still sending back data. The probe is hurtling towards Jool's atmosphere at over 9,000 meters per second. This is the closest it has ever come to Jool, still getting good data on the planet. And as the probe enters the outer limits of the atmosphere...end of transmission. What a mission! Atmospheric probes deployed on Jool and Laythe! Four flybys of Jool, three flybys of Laythe, Tylo, and Vall, and flybys of Bop and Pol! A staggering amount of data! We'll be turning our attention to Draco and Duna here in just another week, but after this it will be hard not to be imagining what a kerballed Jool mission would look like. Eh?

There is a LOT of great stuff going on in Fanworks and Mission Reports now, with some new stories and some continuing ones. Some are all text, some are text and screenshots, and there are at least two graphic novels. I've had some good conversations with other writers in PMs and thought it would be nice to have a thread where we can talk about things like characterization, canon/fanon, plotting, tone, things to avoid, etc, etc. If I may be so bold, I propose a few ground rules to start: All of the Forum and Community rules apply. They apply VERY much. Don't criticize another writer's work unless asked to--and then, only criticize those aspects about which the writer asked for help. When criticizing, above all be constructive. "You did this wrong, this is how you should do it." is not helpful. "When you did this, I had this reaction, which I'm not sure you intended. If you intended the reader to have this OTHER reaction, you might try doing it in this way." -- that might be. But... If you asked for criticism--take it. Try not to argue with the critiquer. Is he wrong for feeling what he felt when he read your work? Maybe, but he did feel it, and writing is about the reader's perception more than the author's intent. Find the kernel of truth in the critique and do your best to learn from it. If you get angry about a criticism--stop posting, make peace by PM, move on. Let's not post drafts of works-in-progress for commentary on this thread. I was thinking this one could be more about general topics and idea sharing. Interest? Ideas? Other directions for the thread? Thanks all.

you have to use a quote from a show / real life. for commenting on peoples quotes i will allow the hidden content thingy. ill start us off “ This is Peridot, transmitting on all frequencies from abandoned Crystal System colony planet Earth, to Yellow Diamond. My mission has been compromised. My escort and informant are gone, and I am now stranded. PLEASE SEND HELP! ” —"Cry for Help"

again, for the sake of clarity: what do you mean by "damaged" and "busted"? because i thought by "damaged" you meant "yellow", but if you instead mean "needs maintenance", then it will break. this engine is red, it is broken, it does not function, it cannot be fixed by an engineer. hence I am decoupling it and will place a new one on the docking port, i prepared those engines to be interchangeable. the drill on the left is equally broken. the convert-o-tron is yellow, also the engine on the lower right. they are broken, they do not function, but they can be fixed by an engineer. now, if you have a yellow part, it will stay yellow. it will not become red. but you talk like you do not mean yellow and red, you talk like you mean a part without color, i.e. a part that is not broken and that functions. and in that case, those parts will eventually become yellow or red.

yea but we want a bona-fide space-big-rig. we can talk about space trains later.

That was from the DeepMind paper of the same name at the top of the image, Levels of AGI (Nov 2023). https://arxiv.org/html/2311.02462v2 Here's the table caption: Table 1: A leveled, matrixed approach toward classifying systems on the path to AGI based on depth (performance) and breadth (generality) of capabilities. Example systems in each cell are approximations based on current descriptions in the literature or experiences interacting with deployed systems. Unambiguous classification of AI systems will require a standardized benchmark of tasks, as we discuss in the Testing for AGI section. Note that general systems that broadly perform at a level N may be able to perform a narrow subset of tasks at higher levels. The "Competent AGI" level, which has not been achieved by any public systems at the time of writing, best corresponds to many prior conceptions of AGI, and may precipitate rapid social change once achieved. They also have a set of levels for autonomy vs required human interaction. Regarding Siri... I have a feeling that nearly all of us on this forum at all live in a bubble. Think about the people you most commonly interact within the real world. What percentile of cognitive ability do you think they are? I'd wager people interested in a game about spaceflight and orbital mechanics are probably smarter than average. I hear about people selected at random from the population from my wife (well, not quite random, they have to be in a situation where they need a surgeon—very few trauma, or anything where it would select for being a dope, though). She sees several thousand people a year (~20/day?). I'll say something at dinner about something X, that I think people should do ideally, and she'll give me that "Do you live under a rock?" look (often verbalized in exactly those words, lol), then tell me people are too dumb to pick X. As lousy as Siri is, I'd not be surprised at this point if it was better than 50% of people—look at the % of kids within different grade levels who perform at grade level. (National Center for Educational Statistics) Level 2 is apparently an "8th grade" reading level, so 52.6% are not terribly literate. Honestly "reading levels" is pretty odd, I always considered reading a binary skill, you can't read, then you can—they are functionally sorting by cognitive ability I think, not "reading level," as the levels talk about reading and understand more and more complex ideas. Reading itself doesn't change in difficulty, words are words, and if you don't recognize one, you look it up (at any "reading level"). So yeah, it would not surprise me if Siri is better than ≥50% in whatever narrow task they were looking at (grammar?).

All this talk about fakes and fake fakes makes me just think we are living in a Philip K. Dick novel.

I kinda miss him/her, as well as the others that i used to talk 2 years ago in here... at least they're focusing on better stuff. I assume[or at least will within a few hours] that @TwoCalories will reply next

Jeb is happy mission has pretty much been an total success from the astronauts view. Enter Eve orbit then picked up Bill who sneak onboard the probe carrier and has 150 days in an rover seat was happy to get into the hitchhiker module and change underwear, he brought 5 K science. Here is the probe carrier at day 9. Designed to be very narrow as designed before medium fairings was unlocked. Just pushed the lander out a bit to let the Gilly lander drop off early. First mistake, should have gone 1+6 medium tanks and two nuclear engines, then 6 rovers rather than 2 landers. we had the technology. Gilly lander worked well. Look closely at the left lander and you can see Bill. It was an luck that Bill went on an intentional unmanned mission as he could transmit more science home earlier. Here he is on the Gilly lander who has no landing legs, an docking port would be more fitting. He reported one problem outside of old underwear. You can crash into space around Gilly, Bill has an theory that gravity is so weak it create the opposite of an event horizon. Jeb think Bill has smelled his dirty underwear for to long. He also had problems finding the Oblique Impact Site, Jeb yes that huge crater is so hard to find. At the same time a probe landed on Eve The rover seat is so an kerbal can collect atmospheric samples in low eve orbit. But the orbital module has no batteries just 5 charge from the small probe and I did not want to risk 6 K science getting 2.2 early. Landed at Eve Environmental science let you transmit 1000, material science data is 1200, missed olympus, shallows and sea who is also land biomes all giving 2200. 6600 Science missed + the 600 atmospheric from Olympus. and the extra returned from Olympus. Not to talk about the discoverables. I say its plausible to uncover the big sperical tanks and fairings to cover them before reaching Duna. Collecting Bill And 6 K science Here is the Eve manned ship. An last note after picking up the science we docked with the now empty probe carrier to get some more hydrogen, getting the 11 k science home asap is obviously an priority. It had 5 K dV, grabbed half of it, wanted to use the probe carrier to aid in mapping Eve. As carrier was empty it should still have decent with dV but it showed as 0 dV for quite some time until it showed 3 k who make more sense.

Since we're celebrating, here's a few of my favorite community contributions over the past year; I think I've watched jeremybrett1933's LET'S ROCK video probably every day since it's been out. Just gets me HYPED Datau03's recreation of the classic Build Fly Dream trailer is fantastic Inspired by KSP1's Final Frontier double F mod, Wayfarer's Wings by KSP2 Modder leonardfactory adds an accolade system so you can track the achievements of all your Kerbals. Incredible work. Diana Gearhead's engineering of airships has been truly impressive, especially considering we couldn't figure it out and she wouldn't tell Nate how they worked for MONTHS. Bradley Whistance's returning to content creation to cover KSP2 was really exciting. If you haven't seen his videos, check em out. @Socraticat's Halloween Pumpkin was the talk of the office the week they shared it. They blew our own office pumpkin carvings out of the water. Madishmike's Titanic definitely wins my Boat of the Year award. The amount of detail they managed to fit in is just incredible. I genuinely could not stop laughing the day this hit the top of /r/KSP. ---- There's A LOT more that I just couldn't get to in this post, but I did make a series of Community Highlights posts here on the forums all last year. Definitely check out those. And if you have a favorite piece of KSP2 content/moment from the past year, share it below! Thanks for playing our game and thanks for making this community a joy to work with. Here's to more greatness in 2024!

KT is awesome. She came and gave a talk at the U years ago and I got to spend some time with her. She went back to JSC from the talk to be capcom, so a buddy and I sent her thank you flowers, delivered to MCC. The florist near JSC actually made a thing with flowers sorta like a liftoff with a plastic shuttle coming out of it. We saw it delivered on NASA Select (old NASA TV), which back in the day you had to have sat tv to see—the old ~2m dishes from the 80s.

1. You’re already making up technology so why not make up whether something works or not? 2. The challenges would be that the technology you envision is fantastical and might not even be feasible. The time travel machine especially is just pure fantasy, even if forward time travel might be possible there is no small machine that could produce it. 3. To quote Ant-Man, “Don’t talk to your past self, don’t bet on sporting events.”

I think it's more like a part of the community thinks they don't talk enough and another part thinks they talk too much, and we take turns complaining about it!

This community switches between "they talk too much" and "they don't talk enough" like an overclocked metronome.

Scaling the wings is a first step towards doing it for other parts, so it's possible. We already have a capacity to use Space Shuttle/Rover parts in landers, jets, etc. We don't know what the colony parts are yet. It stands to reason it'd be a different mechanic to the VAB. There's been plenty of talk about an orbital VAB, but nothing about a colony designer, so it stands to reason the Colonies will be... less about creativity than spaceships. At least, unless we hear something big and new. Still, that doesn't include mods, or the creative use of panels/struts/beams. We've seen everything from the Batwing to a Christmas Tree. And when we get to the interstellar level, who knows what that'll scale up to?

I'm not sure if this already exists, but welp. Any interested parties can talk about SETI and alien life, etc. here. I tried running the Wow! signal (6EQUJ5) through a Caesar cipher decoder. Well, that was a waste of time. I just realized this. The string 6EQUJ5, commonly misinterpreted as a message encoded in the radio signal, represents in fact the signal's intensity variation over time, expressed in the particular measuring system adopted for the experiment. The signal itself appeared to be an unmodulated continuous wave, although any modulation with a period of less than 10 seconds or longer than 72 seconds would not have been detectable. Oof. I guess I'll keep klutzing with the Wow! signal.

Fair enough. If we want support from the layman, we need to make them a bit less layman! Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, I looked for someone (way better English fluent than me) that had done it nicely. And I not only found one, but it talks explicitly about how the Source Game can help gaming! The importance of having access to KSP¹'s source code was already discussed ad nauseam on this thread, I suggest to read this bunch o links to have a thoughtful explanation - you may want to read some other posts of mine too. But, in a nutshell, having access to the Source Code is essentially why we have Internet nowadays - the whole TCP/IP stack (the thingy that allows computers to talk to each other on this big network we call Internet) is Open Source, and it's the reason that everything including the kitchen's sink (LITERALLY) can talk to Internet - as there's no need to rewrite it from scratch for every new device (or pay someone to do it), what would drive the costs to the stratosphere. That said, not everything need to be Open Source in order to succeed. Most games are an example of that. But sometimes, some games get relevant enough to demand a higher level of support that perhaps may not be under the reach of the publisher! Some people may be willing to port the thingy into ARM processors, some other may want to run it on RISC-V dev boards, perhaps a new lightweight, energy efficient and powerful (but pretty expensive) tablet is being launched somewhere in the World and NASA would love to have it on the Space Station running KSP. It would not be feasible economically to KSP's publisher to spend all that money themselves, neither reasonable they start to charge people that run KSP on PCs to fund such development. If KSP¹'s source code would be available, interested people (as NASA engineers) would be able to do the port themselves using their free time. Now we need to talk about something else: what Source Code is not. As it was said above, having access to the Source Code is not the same as being able to relaunch a version of the Game yourself and make some bucks from it. Images, characters, lore, sounds, animations, missions, all of this is also Intelectual Property, and they are not part of the Source Code. So, unless KSP¹'s published decides to release everything as Public Domain (as did by the Fables author!), you may recompile the thing, and (depending of the license) perhaps redistribute the compiled code to whoever may want it- but not the rest of the game. The dude that would download that code would need to buy KSP¹ the same (if not had done it already), because the compiled code by itself is not enough to play the game. Being pragmatic, the real need for the KSP¹'s source code is to fix the bugs. For years KSP¹ is being plagued by bugs that were not fixed - or were poorly fixed, leading to yet more bugs). Obviously, such bugs are not going to be properly fixed anymore now that the KSP¹'s development cycle is finished. Having access to this Source Code will allow us, Authors, to be able to properly fix or work around these bugs without creating new ones, because we will be able to check on the Source Code (and by debugging sessions) exactly what's happening under the bonnet, and so be able to do something about. (I will not discuss, again, about shaddy ways to get access to that Source Code and that's being already exploited on the wild - we aim to be EULA and Forum compliant on this task, some of us are professionals where it's unethical to do such things, as it may affect negatively our careers). Completely unrelated to KSP¹ but affecting it, recently Unity Technologies decided to go the Racketeer way and virtually almost killed their game scene. It was really that bad, and perhaps will keep being that way. The Worst didn't happened (yet?), but if things had really gone down trough the tubes, having access to KSP¹'s source code would improve the chances of having it ported to something else by the Community (porting things is where Open Source guys really shine). On the other hand, if KSP¹ were made using an already Open Source engine like Godot (or anything else that could suit them better), all that drama would just not affect them - because it's plain impossible to go rogue on the customers that are using Open Source themselves. One can withdraw support for the object of the contract, but can't prevent someone else from offering a replacement contract (see the last Red Hat drama). — — — I have noticed that someone (I forgot who, sorry!) is using my Banner on their Signature: But just miniaturising the image made it ugly due the white text being illegible and screwing the aesthetics. So I rendered a new one, without the white text, in a small "form factor": Whoever you are (and everybody else), fell free to use it instead! Cheers!

you can recolour using part variants, there are a couple of posts on the forum on that talk about that. in the past you could assign a different texture in the model section, I've not been able to get that to work sinds 1.7 texture replacer might be able to do this for you I just edit the textures in place ..... dds2png (xnconvert) then photoshop and then back.

Annnnnd, less than 2 months after that, I decided against it. I talked it over with others to get their perspective, and decided to flip majors to engineering science last spring. Luckily, a handful of classes do overlap with engineering technology, like calculus and English 1. I also recently decided to transfer, and last month, I was accepted into a state school for Mechanical Engineering (Aerospace concentration). Right now, I'm in Calc 3, Physics 2, and a couple others at my community college, and it's going well so far. Other parts of my thoughts and plans haven't changed. I was still exposed to some interesting stuff in engineering technology, and I do plan to get a Master's (not necessarily the accelerated track, I'll have to talk it over with my advisor next month). I am wondering about opinions about taking extra courses not required for your undergraduate or graduate though. I went through the course catalog, and there are some electives that aren't a part of the normal curriculum, like mechanical vibrations, and combustion. I was also looking at a few classes in a non-degree program at a more expensive nearby college which offers aerospace courses my college doesn't offer like gas dynamics and orbital mechanics. Maybe I can go for a double major in Mechanical and Aerospace?

It's light, but it takes up a lot of space. You try docking Phoenix to a ship with a bunch of other vehicles. Same goes for the rovers. They are not incredibly huge, but they all have wheels stuck on long trusses for stability, and that take up lots of space. Basically, every vehicle I'm carrying around has a very large base for wheels, or large wings. Most are also long. And let's not even talk about Garibarge. Part 2: Launching Flying Christmas Tree 2 With all the landers in place, Flying Christmas Tree 2 may be the most majestic ship I ever launched. Or the most silly. Probably both. 2.1) Launching Flying Christmas Tree 2 with Tamarromobile 2.2) Launching Not Albatross 2.3 Launching Garibarge 2.4) Launching Phoenix 2.5) Launching Leaping Mantis, and refueling

[Reshare - Consolidating (my) Agencies of Kerbin and their Craft into One Place] Tier 0 (No Tech) Agency: United Rocket Director: Kuku Kerman Craft : KSP Builds - Kerbicus_S1 Kerbal News Right Then: Your Premier Source for Cosmic Chronicles! United Rocket boldly Launches their Newest design - Kerbicus S-1 Sub Orbital Jumper In a twist that's got Kerbin's space enthusiasts buzzing louder than a swarm of startled space bees, eccentric tech guru Kuku Kermin has launched United Rocket, a brand new venture poised to shake up the interstellar scene. And who's leading the charge? None other than ace pilot Kip Kerman, famed daredevil extraordinaire! and one time partner of Jebidiah Kerman himself! The launch of United Rocket comes hot on the heels of a manifesto Kuku wrote in college detailing dissatisfaction with the tactics of certain agencies leveraging "discounted" orbital packages to curry favor with green authority figures. Seizing an opportunity, Kuku Kermin rallied support from anonymous hedge funds and blasted off into the unknown by privately incorporating United Rocket. Rumours inside the agency talk of initial names trying to capture the imagination of Kerbins Everywhere. Space K was apparently tossed around before the board decided United would be a good word choice to foster the perception of global solidarity. But it's not just business maneuvering that's making headlines – it's the personal drama unfolding between Kip Kerman and his former partner Jebidiah. Following a three-year coma that saw him lose both Val and his stake in their business, Kip is back and ready to reclaim his place in the stars. Jeb, for his part, has been open to interviews, but a lack of available interpreters has left reporters scratching their helmets in confusion. Seen Here Maneuvering the craft through the clouds is famed daredevil United Rocket's game plan? To test their craft extensively before offering them for commercial use, all while allowing eager enthusiasts to own their very own United Rocket rocket. Their maiden vessel, the Kerbicus_S1 Sub Orbital Jumper, made its debut to a live broadcast, much to the delight of hopeful Kerbals everywhere. And despite the absence of a fireworks show, the vessel took off without a hitch, proving that even amateur rocket enthusiasts can soar through the clouds. However, reports suggest that Jeb is less than thrilled about the Kerbicus, especially since it's primarily constructed from parts he was forced to relinquish in a settlement agreement with Kip. Yet, Kip remains undeterred, boldly declaring, "The Kerbicus is so easy to fly I bet Jeb could manage!" as the spokesperson for United Rocket. There you have it, dear readers: the space race just got a whole lot spicier, with United Rocket firing up its engines and Kip Kerman at the helm. Buckle up and hold onto your helmets, because it looks like we're in for a wild ride through the cosmos! Stay tuned to Kerbal News Right Then for all the latest updates, gossip, and gravity-defying antics. Until next time, keep reaching for the stars and never forget to laugh along the way!

The Communotron 16 is a direct antenna. Direct antennas will only talk to ground stations or relay antennas, they cannot talk to each other. If you're trying to make a comm network, you need to use relay antennas.

Hello does i can talk about off topic very off topic things i have few thing i could talk about but don't if i can and can i ask a favor for the ksp moderators / devs : can i dm you on discord and can i get private talk ? (but i don't have a mic)

Well I didn't read the bug reports before playing this mission, so it was an obvious solution to me for a Jool-5 capable probe. Too bad this propulsion technology is not ready yet in this game. I've been reading the KERB updates, and they talk about acceleration under time warp bugs, but without specifically pointing the Dawn engine Thank you for the link. From my uninformed point of view, there seem to be multiple unrelated bugs affecting ion engines and time warp. I will read the full thread when I'll have the time, and maybe I'll share my save. It might help the devs and the QA dep.

(Take two on convincing the community to be nice (take one) because the first one did not work and I’m more stressed about it this time) Ok so, as it seems, I’m not having an easy time motivating myself to stay active on this community. You may be familiar with my first post. The schism is still here, and therefore I still have more stuff to complain about. So, I’m going to make another post, even longer this time, hopefully this time with better formatting and active correction to remove bias. I really just want this whole thing to calm down. the schism As everyone who’s ever poked KSP2 or these forums with a 39-and-a-half-foot-pole has noticed, there’s a big schism in the community between what is basically two parties engaging in passive aggressive discourse on basically every single forum topic in this entire freaking subforum, even on other sections of the greater forums as a whole. The two sides, as I see it, are: On one side, there are people who have trust in the developers, and believe in a future for the development of KSP2. They see patience as a necessity to a good community, despite the fact a full release was expected 3 years ago. They think the devs aren’t bad people, and they deserve trust and patience. The vision they dreamed of for KSP2 is coming, and all they need is to sit tight and encourage the developers. Eventually, one day, the version of KSP2 they get heart palpitations just thinking about will be here. A few (not all!) members of this side deny there is anything wrong with KSP2, and see genuine constructive criticism as bad. On the other side, there are people who have little to no trust in the developer team’s competency. They see the 6 months of little tangible feature development as a sign that KSP2 is dead, dying, or doomed. The devs did an awful job launching, and the game probably won’t survive very long before T2 pulls the plug on funding. They typically provide genuine constructive criticism of the game, usually with tone issues. Often they think the developers overpromised or are otherwise incapable of meeting their promises, and that the dev team is inefficient or slow at development. A few (not all!) members of this side think KSP2 is a cash grab scheme, or think everyone who bought into the game early has been intentionally misled and can’t see reality. Where do I stand? Well, in the past, I’ve been pretty firmly in the first group, and I think I still am to some degree. However, as I step back a bit, I see the development is going really rough. The game is certainly lackluster in comparison to modding its predecessor, and I enjoy and play KSP1 way more right now. The devs are doing all they can to maintain a positive public image, and can’t, because let’s be honest, the launch was really frickityfracking awful. Communication issues, performance scares, and the incredibly buggy nature of the release has huge and long-lasting effects. Player count is not going up. Things are Not Great. But, how I see it, in my personal opinion, the devs still deserve some slack. The devs faced extreme hardships, and they deserve patience. In my opinion, any predatory release tactics are probably T2’s fault (like, honestly, it’s kinda like, their whole identity at this point in the gaming community). KSP2 is objectively not very good right now, but recently the devs have managed to remove a TON of huge and pressing bugs. Performance has freaking skyrocketed, pun intended, and multiple people I know are now capable of running it on their machines. Foundations have been getting put in place for future updates. I have trust in the developers and a good belief that KSP2 will, one day, a year or three down the line, meet its promises, and I will be encouraging and patient. But honestly I’m not here to talk about all that. I’ve got like, a much more pressing problem to talk about. the actual issue of the schism I’m not here to focus and fixate on the squabbles. I hate to participate in them, they make me feel icky. I don’t want to fuel the fire, because it’s an objectively really really big and long-winded fire that I subjectively just want to see the end of. I think my last post contributed to the fire, because more of it than I’d like was centered around “no guys devs actually good”, but I realize standing behind my opinion and tainting the possibility of neutrality of my post probably detracted a lot from it and was in general disagreeable to the side I wasn’t a part of. That’s why I’ve cut down on that, and I’ll be spending the next obscene number of pages focusing on this community. The fact there’s a schism at all is harrowing, is it not? Let’s think about what both sides have in common: we’re all fans of KSP or KSP2. We’re all astrophysics majors, rocket scientists, dorky nerds who like space, armchair engineers, computer scientists, and geeky nerds who play with model rockets in their backyard. We all are disappointed by the state of KSP2. We all looked at the trailer and probably died of heart attack at least three times each. Nobody can say that KSP2 is really superior to KSP1 with mods, in terms of performance, features, playability, stability, support, customizability and in some cases even graphics too. We all have been impacted by the really awful launch. We all participate in the community, regardless of whether we argue or just chat or just lurk, and want to play a fun game. What differences do we have? Well, one side thinks KSP2 will be good and the devs deserve slack, and one side thinks KSP2 won’t be good or that the devs are meanies. Well, when you stack it up like that, it seems kinda silly how we’ve driven a wedge between the two parties who both just wish they could enjoy KSP2 as much as the release trailer promised. We’re all KSP dorks who just wanted a cool sequel like the one in the trailer. We can all agree we don’t have that yet. Is it coming? Depends on who you ask. I think so, but my opinion is not relevant to this part of the post. I’ve stayed off the forums for a while. I’ve lurked a lot, checking the forums basically daily, since my last post. Most of my interactions with the community since then have been posting youtube videos and responding to comments on the original post. I tried to come back and have a good time, but the sense there was this unkillable beast of flame wars and tension writhing in one of the most active categories of this forum is at least a little unsettling. It says a lot about the lack of coherence and unity in the community if people can split themselves for OVER HALF A YEAR over an issue like this. And don’t get me wrong, it’s a huge and stressful issue. But how I see it, this is no excuse for how we (me included) have been treating others on the forum. we are the schism. that's us. Here’s a friendly reminder: Community is everyone. Community is you specifically. Community is also me. Community is also my friend Steve. Community is also the mod & dev teams. Community is every member who reads this page or responds. Community is a Lot of people. In fact, community, as it so happens, is all of us. We did this. Nobody is at not at fault to some degree. We’re to blame. We’re responsible for fixing this, me included, you included, and we’re responsible for being nice to the community (this includes everyone in the community). As a community it is OUR duty and responsibility to not be mean or blind about it. WE are the community. Please take a second to just read over this paragraph and internalize it. This post here is the next chapter of my participation in trying to patch the schism, but no one single dweebus such as myself can do this alone. But seeing the state of these forums doesn’t give me confidence we can recover naturally anyways. We’ve already torn this huge gap in the community, and if we don’t close it, that gap will stay there. If it’s announced tomorrow that funding gets slashed severely, there will still be individuals who claim that the devs will rise from the ashes and miraculously make one of the most ambitious video games in gaming history. If KSP2 miraculously gets an update tomorrow that makes it completely exactly how we all wanted it, colonies and interstellar included, hundreds of handcrafted star systems, there will still be individuals who claim it doesn’t meet standards and bash it on the forums. Not one year ago, the KSP forums community was a freaking amazing place to be. We’d all go screw around with silly mods, make cool videos, share epic screenshots, say “guys won’t KSP2 be so cool when it releases” while ogling at some dev videos, and collaborate together with massive and elaborate community projects, and I would be hard pressed to find a single genuine insult anywhere on the forums, which still had like bajillions of active members. I really miss that community. I want it back, if that’s okay with you guys. I don’t like this place very much right now, and I can’t convince myself to stay active here for very long, because I simply don’t like the vibes that like 40% of the forums radiates and the other 60% is actively trying to ignore or pretend isn't a problem. Multiple people have left the forums before my eyes due to this issue, some even having directly contacted me to talk to me about it, because what I described in my first post is exactly why they left. This is a genuine issue. These forums are not as fun to stay in as they used to be, and the sense of unity and community and fun is severely damaged. This is a genuine concern I genuinely raise about the genuine state and genuine future of these forums. I don’t know how else to emphasize “guys this is a problem, we should fix it together”. If this post hasn’t convinced you “maybe we should be nicer to eachother” then I don’t know what to do, since this is the last thing I can think of to do, unless I wanna write four thousand words next time I make a big post. Which I don’t feel like doing. Please don’t make me have to write another post. I have carpal tunnel. ok, cool, whatever, so what do you propose we do then, dweebus? I genuinely don’t know. My guess is to start along the lines of “be nice” but that’s a lot easier said than done. I’ve seen a lot of mean comments thrown at people. I’ve seen a lot of passive aggressive ickiness from both sides. I’ve seen a lot of people just joke and make fun of other people for having an opinion that is not theirs. I’ve seen people start cursing out eachother or even hurling slurs over something as silly as “should there be this thing in this silly computer program about silly green aliens doing rocketry” or perhaps “why isn’t this thing here in this silly computer program yet”. And, mind you, this is all the stuff I’ve seen AFTER the moderation team filtered out the worst and most rulebreaking attacks. I’m not a mod, so I have absolutely no clue what the worst of the worst looks like. All I know is what I’ve seen can only be the tip of the iceberg. So what I propose is maybe just like, let’s all collectively resist the urge to yell at people who don’t share our opinion. Let’s also collectively resist the urge to yell at people who yell at us. Those usually are conducive to a good community, I would assume. Maybe we can set some collective terms for what we want, such as “constructive criticism is good but let’s be nice about it”, or maybe “let’s all agree KSP2 isn’t perfect yet”, or even perhaps the apparently very controversial and difficult to understand “i don’t like to be called a [insert long string of swear words]”. Those seem like reasonable demands to make of our friends and allies here in the community. But I don’t have a good idea of what we as a community should do. These situations probably have a lot more nuance to them than I can immediately think of, and my solutions aren't easy nor universal. I don't have an objectively untinted view of the situation, and I don't have a bird's eye view like moderators or developers might. I, as a dweebus member of the forums with no qualifications, really do want you all to collaborate and work together to find a way to make things better here. I want people to start thinking of ways to make the community a less toxic and flame-infested place, and I can’t do it alone. I'm not that good with people. Plus, you can’t do it alone either, since you too are just one person. Can we perhaps do this together please? I’d like to think this post is less of “i’m complaining, but loudly, and then some people agreed with me” like last time, and more “call to action to help actually make the community less mean to eachother” or perhaps even “open letter” in style and purpose. Like seriously I really just want me and everyone else to be able to enjoy the community like we did before. I really want us to be a unified, collaborative community again. It really hurts to see people just being like this to eachother. a conclusion i guess Ok, so, to recap: we’re all being mean to eachother, despite the fact we’re pretty similar in the end. This is bad, because being nice to eachother is good. We should all make an effort to be nicer, so that people stop leaving and people start enjoying the forums more. Nobody likes to be insulted, and we are all friends here on the forums. I propose we collaborate to do this, since we can’t really do all this alone. Please help us help eachother, which would include you. Stay tuned next time, for in 4 months I'll write 5k words on this exact same issue!! (this is a joke) (this post is prone to edits for grammar, spelling and tone. it is open to polite constructive criticism. please do not insult me or anyone else in the comments for the love of heck.) TL;DR: please be nice thanks