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~KERBAL GAZETTE~ SPACE PROGRAM LAUNCHES NEW WEATHER SATELLITE, WORLD INDIFFERENT YEAR 1, DAY 74 - UNISAT-2/TIMMER 2 MISSION OBJECTIVE: Launch the Timmer 2 weather satellite into polar orbit for the KWB. LAUNCH VEHICLE: Prima-1 Rocket Beyond prepares to launch the second mission of the Unisat program, which is yet another weather satellite for the KWB. Although Kimera Industries and The Kerbal Fund have already bought a commsat space in the program, Beyond is still busy retrofitting the satellites for the specific requirements the companies asked for (OOC: I flew this mission like a month ago, hence why it’s another Timmer satellite). Other than that, there’s not much to talk about with this mission. It’s pretty much the same as the last Unisat mission. “Liftoff on Unisat-2.” - Kraft Kerman (Flight Director) “T- 2 minutes to orbital insertion.” - Kraft Kerman “Successful startup on LV-909.” - Chris Kerman (BOOSTER) “Orbital entry is established on Unisat-2.” - Kraft Kerman Another successful mission for Beyond! Sure, it isn’t the most exciting, but even the little missions deserve some attention. However, Beyond has told us that they're preparing for a mission that won’t be so little. They haven’t revealed many details to the public yet, but they’ve said that it will fly faster and further than anything that’s flown before. We’ll just have to speculate until then, we suppose. READ NEXT: Scientist Bob Kerman Discovers Mysterious Specimen named Mystery Goo (Pg. 1) | Yankerbs Win Record-Breaking Game Against the Green Socks! (Pg. 6) | Do You Know What it’s Time For? Because We Don’t (Pg. 13)

My apologies, I split up Chapter 8 Part 2, but mistakenly moved all of the references to Part 3. The previous Chapter 8 Part 2 has been updated to include the references at the end of the post. Chapter 8 Part 3 This is Walter Kerman reporting. With the successful test of the LV-909 a new rocket has been assembled. A first stage with an LV-T30 boosted by two RT-5 solid fuel boosters to get the rocket off the ground. Once the rocket has reached a high altitude, nearing vacuum, the LV-909 takes over. It is expected that this rocket will have sufficient range to fly past the Mun and back for the first time. To ensure the safety of the pilot a fuel cell is included, providing enough electricity for the entire trip. Additionally a Science Jr has been included for the first spaceflight to perform materials studies in the orbit of the Mun. This rocket is the first of the Arethusa family of rockets, designated the Arethusa class A. The Arethusa rockets are intended for operation within the Kerbin sphere of influence, beyond low Kerbin orbit. Having completed preparations, Jebediah boards the rocket, named the gumdrop*, and the countdown begins. Jebediah tells me he has had extensive training, working with Valentina, to learn to properly use the LV-909 with its thrust vectoring capabilities. The preparations of the larger Mun rocket took longer than previous launches, providing me an opportunity to talk with Jebediah. Jebediah, what are you feeling as you prepare to launch for the Mun? “It is interesting being up here,” reported Jebediah. “I am quite a way up just sitting here with this large rocket below me. It feels kind of like being on a ship at sea, the rocket twisting and creaking below almost like gentle waves.”** Are you worried about lifting off in a rocket large enough to fly by the Mun? “No, I’m feeling more calm than I expected,” said Jebediah. “We have simulated this extensively and this mission is very much like what I flew for the spacewalk, just with one extra stage to reach the Mun.” There you have it folks, our brave Kerbalnaut is highly confident in his mission. Finally the countdown reaches zero and Jebediah lifts off for the Mun. The largest rocket the current launch pad can support rises effortlessly up into space. The first stage burns out with the rocket nearing the edge of the atmosphere, as the first stage falls away, the second stage accelerates Jebediah onward toward the Mun. I am told the tracking capabilities of the space center are fairly limited at this point, unable to provide direct guidance to an intercept vector with the Mun. To properly reach the Mun, Gene tells me Jebediah was launched when the Mun was, “Up around that direction”. The transfer burn completes and Jebediah is now off to be the first to see the mun up close. It will take a day for Jebediah to reach the Mun. We will report more on the mission when Jebediah reaches the Mun’s sphere of influence. In the meantime, Lizfal has reported in for another experiment. This time the KV-1 'Onion' Reentry Module is being tested to see if a Kerballed mission to Minmus in this pod would be appropriate. The KV-1 is a pressurized pod, unlike the MK1 command pod. The hope is that being able to move around the full pod, unencumbered by a space suit, will be a more comfortable operating environment for long range missions. I had an opportunity to talk with Lizfal before she entered the pod. How do you feel after your previous long simulation experiment Lizfal? “I’m doing great Walter!” gushed Lizfal. “Bob’s team helped me recognize how my mind came up with people and things to interact with to make up for my inability to do anything beyond sitting on the chair and flying sims. They helped me recognize reality again and know when I am falling into fantasies. I feel like I understand my mind better than before.” So you have no concerns about another long simulation confined in a pod? “None at all,” beamed Lizfal. “I think I could handle another fifteen days in a MK1 pod, but I get to be the first to try out an Onion, which is almost as big as my apartment back at the university! I just need to make sure I avoid the kraken… er keep focused while flying the simulations.” Lizfal is locked into the new KV-1 pod to begin her new simulation run. Until next time, this was a Walter Kerman report. Jebediah Chronicles - Day 225 It is very quiet in the command pod, the rushing sound of the Terrier silenced as the rocket coasts toward the Mun, even the radio is quiet right now. A good time to reflect and gather thoughts. Bill and Bob are still working on proper flight controls. This fight and maybe one more should provide enough data to figure out the fly by wire controls for a rocket. I’m getting pretty comfortable with this flight path of keep going up until the air is thin enough to make a late gravity turn, but it will be nice to have a more efficient flight path. We will want to be as efficient as possible to keep our fuel usage to a minimum. Kerbin continues to shrink as the Mun grows closer. I’ve never been this far from Kerbin. Of course no Kerbal has. In every test flight I’ve ever flown there were always emergency services around that could come for me. They saved my life a couple times, though they were too late for other Kerbals. Right now I’m beyond any rescue, I need to trust in my ship and my skills to get back. At least this is a pretty simple flight, loop around the Mun and head back to Kerbin Just a small burn for proper reentry. Too bad there isn’t room in this pod for some company. - Jeb * Apollo 9’s capsule was named “gumdrop” because of the capsule’s appearance in blue protective wrapping. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_9 ** From John Glenn’s thoughts waiting on the Mercury rocket to launch into orbit in The Right Stuff. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Right_Stuff_(book)

Hi. could you talk us through what you did? Looks like you are linking to a fork. Did you download and use the fork pluging instead, or was it something else?

KSP 1.12.x Community Tech Tree [3.4.5] Last Updated August 13, 2024 The Community Tech Tree is a mod designed to extend the stock technology tree to accommodate many community mods in an inclusive and extensible manner. This takes the form of expansions to the current tech tree. It provides new and extended branches for command pods, thermal management, ion engines, nuclear power and propulsion, and many more useful nodes. You'll need to install ModuleManager version 2.7.1 or higher, if you don't already have it, in order to extend the tree. The Community Tech Tree will not assign parts to mods itself, instead, it is up to mods to support it themselves. Any mod that does not support the CTT will still work just fine, it will just not take advantage of new tech nodes that are added. If a mod you like doesn't support the tree, let the author know, or produce your own patch to add support. The best way to to do this is via ModuleManager patches. See the guide for details If you are a modder, you can link to this little icon if your mod supports or bundles the CTT: Frequently Asked Questions Q: Why do I see so many empty nodes! A: Because of the current state of KSP tech tree modding. There are compromises to having empty nodes hidden (little lines leading to nowhere). Q: I hate the empty nodes, how do I get rid of them? A: I suggest you use @ev0's mod, Hide Empty Tech Tree Nodes. Q: How do I fill up the empty nodes? A: Find mods that support the tree. Q: I want to add a new node for my mod, can you add it? A: To avoid tree bloat (a problem in the past), I have a strict requirement that at minimum 2 mods must want a node before I will consider adding it. Take your node idea, talk to other relevant mod authors to see if they'd use it, then come to me with approvals from the stakeholders and we will work towards that. Q: Why isn't this realistic? There's still manned pods first! A: The goal of this project is not to redo the tech tree, it's to extend it Q: How do I add my mod to the CTT? A: Consult the ForModders.txt in the download for full instructions. Q: How do I get mods to fill up every node? A: Dig around/ I provide a framework and the information in the thread - there is no "complete list" or anything. Q: How much science does it take to unlock the tree? A: Lots! I don't have exact numbers for 2.0+. Q: I supported the CTT but I'm not on that list up there! A: PM me or post here, I'll make sure you're on the list. Unfortunately I don't have time to scrape lots of mods for their status. Supported Mods Near Future Technologies (all packs) [adds to ion propulsion, construction, structural, rocketry, command pods, solar, atmospheric and nuclear power branches] Stockalike Station Parts Expansion Redux [adds to construction and habitation branches] Cryogenic Engines [adds to Rocketry branch] Kerbal Atomics [adds to Nuclear Propulsion branch] Heat Control [adds to Heat management branch] KSP Interstellar Extended [adds to many branches and late game tech nodes] SpaceY Heavy Lifters [adds to Rocketry branch] Modular Rocket Systems [adds to Rocketry branch] USI Life Support [adds to Life Support branch] USI OKS/MKS [adds to construction, colonization, life support and much more] Alcubierre Warp Drive [adds to warp drive nodes] Infernal Robotics Next [adds to actuator nodes] Licensing This work is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 license. Download Mirrors Primary (SpaceDock) Secondary (CurseForge) Tertiary (GitHub) Issue Tracking and Source If you appreciate this project, please consider contributing to my caffeine addiction! I really appreciate it, and also helps justify this time sink to my wife , which results directly in more models.

The thing with manual install problems is that those are things I can generally fix. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I have enough problems that I inadvertently create without having to deal with the litany of problems produced by other people as well. I have a life, and making KSP mods is not the top priority in that life, so putting time aside to talk the CKAN people through making my mod work would take time away from actually making the mod.

A lot of kerbalnauts are familiar with the Ace Combat games, and a lot more know about War Thunder. However, very few know about a hidden gem from the early days of air combat gaming. Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII (Image source: Steam) Just like @TwoCalories's Ace Combat Thread, I decided to make one for Blazing Angels players to talk about their experiences with that game. How well did you fare in the campaign, favorite plane/s and missions, did you ever make it past the Norwegian fjords, playing with family, et cetera. For those who don't know or forgot, Blazing Angels follows the story of American pilots who partake in various iconic battles throughout the Second World War. Some of those battles include but are not limited to: the Battle of Britain, Desert Rats, Pearl Harbor, Midway, D-Day, and then you eventually end in Berlin. The player is an unnamed captain of a squadron of four composed of Tom the "shield," Joe the mechanic, and Frank the hunter; by the way, the captain talks. You can command your wingmen to stay with you, attack enemies, or protect you from incoming threats. The dialogue among the characters is great, and although the music can get repetitive sometimes it still feels appropriate for the situation. I will admit the graphics are mediocre, especially compared to Ace Combat 7, but I'll give Ubisoft a break considering it was released for the Wii in 2007; that was the version I got for Christmas two years later. The cutscenes and "old man captain" narrations before each level were very insightful since I would know more about what I was getting myself into, just like the mission briefings in AC7 only with way less advanced graphics (e.g. model vehicles and/or army guys moving on a blue and red map with the occasional explosion) - just like mission commanders using models on a map in the 1940s. After each mission was completed, I would get treated to another old man captain narration describing the aftermath. If I did well enough, I would get an "Ace" medal - and hear my dad quoting Chicken Little if he was nearby. As for the gameplay itself, although I enjoyed it a lot - and my years of playing it served me well when playing some levels in AC7 last year (despite it being on a PS5) - I was a bit disappointed that I had to do everything. Seriously, a lot of those levels had British/American air and/or ground forces with me besides my wingmen, and all they did was sit there and be green damsels in distress instead of actually blowing up enemies like they're supposed to. I can help take out the carrier decks of the main Japanese fleet, for example, but what was the point of me and the boys protecting the bombers from the Zekes if all they're going to do is fly around and expect me to sink everything? What about you all? What were you experiences with this game - or its lesser-known sequel, Blazing Angels 2: Secret Missions of WWII?

Hi there, it's been a really long while. I'm still in school of course but I'll be out after next year. I forgot I ever even made an account on here lol. I want to talk about a few things about KSP in general and about the KSP in school stuff because it seemed like other people were inspired by what I did. KSP 2's launch.. threw me off really bad, super super bad like I don't even want to play any of the games anymore bad. At the time I wrote this thread, it would've even been several years since I started playing KSP at all. Now, it is 2024. It's been almost a decade since I've started playing the game, I'm glad it's been a wonderful part of my life and it made me interested in technology, astronomy and even more fields that I thought I would never invest time in. I should probably talk about the whole "games in school" thing at all, first off: they know. Your school's IT department (if competent enough) usually has systems that go off if they have it configured right. Last week as soon as we got back into school, some student tried installing games onto the network; unfortunately, it was malware. He got out of school suspension immediately and had all of his technology access taken away. Usually, when you sign in you agree to a contract called the "Access Usage Policy" stating that you agree to their rules and bla bla bla. Second off, I don't recommend playing games in school, I know that sounds really lame but for any student who ever or will check this thread in the future, don't. You'll get easily distracted and fall down a slope where work piles on because you're too busy goofing off. That's what happened to me and I crawled out of it lol. Study hall is fine, I wouldn't care but just be really really careful of what games you install and when you play it. I forgot if I ever said this in the thread but, the FABLED laptop is dead and forever will be. (Taken away by administration because it was "due for replacement"). TL;DR not a good idea to play ksp in school but you can if you really want to

Cannot tell now that all of those mods have been installed, but what we two do know though is that it was not those mods. It was from the mods on CKAN that specifically give you the warp drives engine parts. It may have very well been the mod by RoverDude. It is up to speculation at this point. Something must have not been installed right and/or clashed with something else. Oh well. Those things always seem to cause spontaneous unpredictable and unintentional detonations. We have been wondering if it is because of the PB-NUK Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator overheating, but we do think that that is it, and think that it has something to do with the mod being broken, as in the spaceship always ends up going boom at some point, and it is always because of using the Alcubierre warp drive parts — no matter what they are — which as far as troubleshooting goes, as of writing this, does not seem to have any sort of immediate answer as far as debugging Krakens goes, unless there is some sort of solution for this which has been overlooked or not found yet. As if the bugs as far as the bubble looking how it did (which is how it should not) and the fact that they still take as something like about as much as time as Xenon engine burns do to reach far-out stars added by Infinite Discoveries wasn't enough, the darned parts seem to rigidly insist on destroying the whole spaceship that was built for the interstellar missions in the first place. As of writing this, it seems to be an insidious all too replicable Kraken. The long burns from Kerbol to other stars would be endurable if the intolerable darned Kraken that defeats the whole purpose of installing stars to attempt trying to do interstellar missions with that way would just go away and join the other solved Krakens in Kraken Jail, which seems like it would be located directly underneath the KSC, like some sort of bunker prison. But much like this other bug where solar panels deploy in the VAB without being deployed by toggling and cannot be retracted either in the VAB or outside of it during flights, that of which the source of is practically impossible as of writing this to determine, and a solution looked up for it before writing this blames a mod that was not installed. Which makes for two mod bug full stop stoppages. And we two cannot seem to figure out how to even start doing diagnostics. But through our conversations about KSP we realized together that the easiest and pleaseiest way to go about things like that is to remove every mod and add on to a bug-free blank state "now that we know what the best mods are" (through testing them through trying them), to quote the conversation about it from earlier — yet that still seems as of writing this like it would solve things like the problem with the solar panels, and this Kraken with the warp drives will still persist. Knowing that... what gives? There has to be some sort of solution to that knowing that, if it happened over here, it has happened elsewhere. But the darn things seem to go boom every time that they start doing their warp drive thing that those warp drives do for anything longer than a few minutes. If that, even. Thus the talk of it being unpredictable. It is a real head-scratcher indeed. Is it because of the game version? Mod incompatibility? Something else entirely that is more out-of-the-way than somebody might think of at first???? Are those mods kursed??!!??!! Because it is starting to seem so as of writing this, and we hate how it presents us with a warp drive that takes the warp drive out of warp driving after a few minutes. If we had figured out before writing this how to get .mu models to show up by exporting them with the materials right, which has not worked despite our best efforts with experimentation yet as of writing this as well as kind attempts at assistance from @ColdJ , then we probably would have already published our own warp drive mods by now that were created to get around this error. But it seems those things are still plagued with the same errors, and there must be some sort of nuance escaping us here that we are yet to determine as of writing this. Kerbal Space Program is so much fun, but not when things like creating mods for it and installing mods that were made by the community for it in the same ways are throwing out these issues that seem to tackle us more than we can tackle them as of writing this, and that is why there has not been any mod publishing or interstellar space travel documentation: because Bforartists/Blender and KSP1 are both great at crapping out at times when you would not anticipate it like that, and then have the nerve to be like mysterious riddles in terms of diagnostics and troubleshooting when it comes down to the horror that is trying to work with what you do not understand like that. And those are the type of flubs where you swear you are doing everything right and very well may be, but this incredibly highly specific thing is stopping things from working correctly, and it is starting to look like we are going to need the KSP version of Scooby-Doo Mystery Van adventure to solve this mystery, if you get what we mean. And we really do mean that. It's like "try contributing to a game that wants to fight about it for the ability to be able to even do it at all because of how modding the game works"... and you would think that, with KSP1 being a video game that runs on the Unity Engine, it would not be that hard to mod, yet it seems to be way harder to mod that people might think, and all of that stuff is so unsolvable as of writing this for us in all of the ways, that, as of writing this, we are starting to struggle with not giving up on working with this endless stream of "fix this one thing so that it can work properly" together toughly so much that is causing us to write what is now by this point in the writing hundreds and hundreds words about all of this stuff. But the determination to get all that stuff working is still as fierce as ever because the way to get it working is to try and to do stuff like this. Lately it has been like "What we did do in KSP1" is want to chuck a whole Kerbal or two at our pretty gaming setup that glows rainbow colors out of pure frustration due to this type of stuff. Which is actually possible as long as they are not wearing their space travel gear, as according to KSP info, they are 2'5½" and weight about 99.2 lbs without jetpack nor parachute. But with their gear, they are 207.235 pounds each, which is not within chucking with ease range, unlike the former. Here is to hoping that we can figure this all out and contribute to the Kerbal Space Program community with mods and with those warp drives included but working this time. We do not get what you (i.e. @capi3101) meant by "the devil you know and all that", but if you we were referring to that darned Warp Drive Kraken, then we agree big time. "In space, no one can hear you pass gas..." like you say in your signature indeed, and nobody can smell it either (thanks to the adult diapers that come installed in most spacesuits, like NASA's Maximum Absorbency Garment!!), but unlike that, these modding problems reek of fettered potential possibilities in terms of being able to create our own custom parts and then take them on interstellar space missions using the warp drive part mods. Quite the Kerbal Space Program stinker (as in difficult task/unpleasant thing) indeed truly. And farting around doing other things in Kerbal Space Program eventually leads to wanting to work with these things again that go wrong the same way, and it can obviously be seen how the cycle would repeat from there. Which it has. Yet we keep trying. Which is important. And why we are writing about it. Which is basically because of this confusion-inducing bottlenecking of epic proportions that is epic because of how epically hard to understand how to solve that they are. Shoutout to the moth that landed on the monitor we were looking at while writing this between this sentence and the previous sentence that scared the living daylights out of the two of us, by the way. It truly added to the dystopia that is this KSP modding mess over here with its grizzly and morbid pestilent cameo that was as unpleasant and unwanted as these Kerbal Space Program modding issues that place restrictions that we, as of writing this, have been watching other people get by through somehow getting past how we cannot as of writing this. Which is not quite what we were thinking of when we were planned to set out and create mods as well as interstellar space missions with warp drives. We want to make Kerbal Space Program into something like an interstellar roleplaying game, but there are certainly obstacles as of writing this. For instance, say that us two wanted to go to this randomly generated purple gas giant with the equally randomly generated name "Boneair", and go visit its cute little moon Lapidboul, both of which are pictured below. Literally impossible. At least as of writing this anyway. Try taking your custom part that will not even visibly show up in the VAB to another star on a spaceship with a warp drive that makes the whole ship go boom randomly, you know? TL;DR version: us two basically did the same that we did before, cursing (out) the (darn) KSP(1) part modeling process and warp drives mods for being as frustrating as they were, which was a pain in the Kerbum to work with. But deep down we both knew that both of those problems can be solved, even if they have seemingly unsolvable problems with them that present incredibly demotivatingly frustrating challenges. But people have gotten past those. We two both keep faithful hope together lovingly knowing that instead of letting it make us angry. We are sure that great "post-worthy" posts will stem from figuring this all out after we do. "Until then", you know?

What did we do in KSP1 today, you ask? Well... you ever have a day in KSP that feels like the day? The day that this was written was one of those KSP1 days. This post is definitely not a short post with only a few sentences per picture this time either. While brevity can be powerful, long writing often offers a richness and depth that can be immensely rewarding to write and equally as impressive to read in world called Planet Earth where short-form content is increasingly more prevalent. It represents the culmination of countless hours of dedication and revision on the work. And every additional detail added in adds to the overall richness on a more profound level, which allows readers to immerse themselves more deeply. And the choice has been made degree wise that our major will be English, so consider what you are reading here some practice for that, that of which we hope brings as much enjoyment to read as it did to write and isn't too TL;DR or TMI. "The more, the merrier." you know? The day that this was written was another epic day spent adventuring through outer space with love. This time was special though, and more than worth writing about. It was worthy of writing about the said Mexican space game while drinking Mexican soda truly indeed. The foremost objective was to take interstellar travel parts from parts mods created by @linuxgurugamer (that of which creates great mods that heavily populate our CKAN KSP mod list) to stars created by the "Infinite Discoveries" addon program made by @Sushut. But it seems that Alcubierre drives are a Kraken Magnet over here for us, and thusly may not be something that can trusted for travelling beyond the Kerbol System, unless spontaneous and unpredictable complete destruction of the spaceship is a wanted attribute. And try getting something like parsecs out from there without something like warp drives. That is what we have to do due to warp drives always causing the spaceship to blow up... and it is enough to make us want to make our own mods to fill in the technological gap caused by the glitching and/or whatnot. Even joyous journeying to the "Kcalbeloh System" by @Jason Kerman is like watching snails trek vast distances very slowly without them, but things like mods not being able to be installed correctly due to different game versions and such have made things so. But no worries. Mods can be made and .cfg files can be edited so that there is still fun adventuring to be had to build for. Generating planets and then editing their orbits seems is its own type of fun awesomely anyway anywho. And the best part of it all is that the mission that got this ship as far as it did before it was claimed by the same Kraken that seems to claim every other Kerbal or ship made by them that uses these personally infamous warp drives infected with the Kraken Kurse. Pretty much literally every part of the spaceship and its mission had gone nominally besides that. And in addition to that, the day that this was written, which is the same day that all of this stuff documented had happened, was the day that 210 space-themed stickers were shipped for delivery — meaning that the day that this was written was their arrival day — along with 1755 smaller holographic heart and star stickers. You know, like the gold star stickers that teachers put on your paper after grading it if you did A+-level work or something like that. I love that the posts that we see from all of the others on here are that high-grade. You all deserve some holographic heart and star stickers for that. Golden star stickers, if you want. In total, that is 1965 stickers. And 1965 happens to be the year that Edward Higgins White II did the first American spacewalk pictured below to pay tribute, which is a feeling that of which we are sure that all of the readers have felt upon doing their first EVA with a Kerbonaut in KSP. We figured that it would be worth speaking about given the impressive numbers and high amount of relevancy. A lot of why this post is so long and has so many words is because the writing helped pass the time required to make the stickers arrive. Worth the wait indeed and gave quite a hit of hype to see finally sat in front of the doorstep like so: Talk about enhancing playing Kerbal Space Program with some decoration, you know? We are sure that that will remind us of this. As in these forums, and our writings on them. Here is the interstellar payload spaceship that we made in KSP1 the day that this was written that had went awry to the point of causing Kerbal destruction (), and the rest of the rocketship that surrounded it. The shiny reflective white metal was intentionally chosen to fit with and match the white stock parts. The thing had gained quite the sci-fi aesthetic to it by the time that it was done being built and hence thus bore little if any resemblance to the rest of the craft which had concealed it. The strutting on this rocket was a pleasure to do and helped immensely during the mission to prevent wobbling, and instead had a satisfying sturdiness to it where wobbling would not fly. Pun intended. It provided the rocketship more precision to control all of its thrust power with gracefully and MechJeb was able to handle launch and orbital burning procedures because of its inelastic-ish lack of wobble. After the escape burn shown in the second KSP GIF below, the spaceship was easily able to reach Jool. And without using too much delta-v too due to it being a good launch window time, as well as other factors. Its gravity well worked perfectly for a gravity assist slingshot burn all the way over out to Plock. In essence, this ship was so efficient and well-designed, that it was able to do the equivalent of slingshotting from Jupiter to get to Pluto. With plenty of sightseeing too to boot no less, even though most of the mission was flown with a payload fairing on that blocked the windows. But who needs windows when trailblazing through the final frontier? Not these specific Kerbals. They were still able to make do regardless anyway. All of the fun gravity assist travel was evocative of the Cassini–Huygens spacecraft trajectory that took place from 1997 to 2004 in terms of how it felt during gameplay and what it looked like on the map view and whatnot. Quite similar and as impressive indeed. In fact, as far as space travel with stock parts goes, as of this being written, this was the most far-reaching and successful mission yet, although there will obviously be another mission after this that will be even more epic and fruitful, seeing as this is the proof in the pudding right here. The 77-part payload spaceship launched on the launch vehicle part of the rocket weighing 34.520 tons yet still being able to make it out as far as it did without providing any propulsion in and of itself was something that created a lot of optimism and rocket design inspiration. To that into perspective, other things that weigh around that much are a Boeing 737, a bulldozer, a cattle truck, a large passenger bus, and — last but not least — a medium-sized yacht. But not like the yacht from the Maritime Pack by @Fengist, that of which is 1.53 tons. 34.52 tons = 76103.57 pounds, which is a simply stupendous amount of weight to be able to take out so far, and more than seventy-five-thousand pounds of weight is more than ample for a spacecraft designed to refuel indefinitely and maintain operations in the void pockets of outer space. That type of weight-to-distance ratio provides ample capacity for incorporating all necessary components. The term "weight-to-distance ratio" may not be standard in the realm of aerospace engineering, but it is a fitting and effective way to describe the relationship between the mass of a payload and the distance it can be transported. It simplifies the discussion of how payload weight impacts the distance a spacecraft can travel, which is crucial for understanding and appreciating advancements in rocket design and mission planning. The biggest and key difference between Thrust-to-Weight Ratio (TWR) and Weight-to-Distance Ratio (WTDR) is their focus and application. Thrust-to-Weight Ratio (TWR) measures the thrust produced by a rocket engine compared to the rocket’s weight. It indicates how effectively a rocket can overcome gravity and is critical for launch performance and acceleration. A higher TWR means a rocket can lift off more easily and accelerate faster. Weight-to-Distance Ratio (WTDR), while not a standard term, conceptually relates the mass of the spacecraft to the distance it can travel. It reflects how efficiently a spacecraft can carry its payload over a given distance, considering its propulsion and delta-v. A lower WTDR suggests a spacecraft can travel farther with a given mass of propellant. TWR focuses on launch and acceleration capability, while WTDR addresses payload efficiency and travel distance. For those interested in calculating their WTD ratio who are smart enough to, here is the instructions: Additionally, relating the "weight-to-distance ratio" (WTD) to the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation helps clarify how this concept aligns with established principles in spaceflight. It is a four-step process, that of which abbreviates to the acronym "CDCI": Calculate the delta-v by using the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation, which involves the initial mass (including propellant), final mass (after propellant is used), specific impulse of the rocket engine, and the acceleration due to gravity. Determine the delta-v value, representing how much the spacecraft's velocity changes as it expends its propellant. Calculate the Weight-to-Distance Ratio (WTD) by dividing the initial mass of the spacecraft (including all propellant) by the delta-v value obtained. Interpret the WTD to understand how efficiently the spacecraft can transport its payload over a given distance. Things such as CDCI and WTD are quite useful for assisting with calculating how to do the more nuanced and involved orbital moves, like slingshotting to a slingshot and then yet another slingshot, that of which is a well-established technique in orbital mechanics that has been used by NASA and other space agencies for decades after it was suggested by Aleksandr Ignatyevich Shargei (a.k.a. Yuri Kondratyuk) in his paper "To Those Who Will Be Reading in Order to Build" ("Тем, кто будет читать, чтобы строить") back in the twentieth century. That technique is what Pioneer 10 and Mariner 10 used to get so far out. And it makes it possible for spaceships to do fun KSP1 orbit ballet stuff like this: It felt like such an epic accomplishment to have reached Plock. And how a KSP player playing with stock parts would too. It re-interested us in keeping the space travels close to Kerbol. And until the whole ITK (Interstellar Travel Kraken) that keeps eating our KSP spaceships every time that we go to start really truly trusting in our warp drives gets dealt with, that is how it must be. No ifs, ands, or buts. Interstellar travel is a perfectly ambitious goal for both rocketship design and mod part creation in the meantime anyway regardless... and look at what we can do besides that stuff!! The latter lower picture showing the gravity assist done using Karen here is something that perfectly encapsulates the scope of this mission: we went far and had lots of fun. Back in the day, it seemed like landing on Mun was hard enough, and interplanetary missions like this were something that was out of the realm of reach in terms of knowhow and skill. But then we started to become prodigious. There’s something poetic about that. We always loved how, much like the Reflective Visors visual addon, Kerbal Space Program mirrors the nuance and boom-potential of real-world missions like those to the outer planets or even beyond our solar system. What makes the achievements in that game as shown above truly impressive is the perseverance and ingenuity that were required to achieve them after countless failed attempts, reloaded quicksaves, and hours spent tweaking rocket designs and flight plans. The process is as much about learning from each misstep as it is about the final successful journey. It’s not just about strapping more fuel tanks onto a rocket; it’s about precision. In the end, reaching Plock from Jool is serves as proof of the patience, problem-solving skills, and deep understanding of space travel, both in the game and outside of it, that it took to get there. And to think that that speaks nothing of the modding that we also have planned after we figure out how to stop getting these .mu models to not show up correctly, as in not at all. That is something that we still have a keen eye on, as KSP1 modding has now been demystified enough as of writing this to the point of it being all too fun to try and make function correctly. Aside from that, it is starting to feel like we are not bluffing when we say that we are getting towards what true advanced cognoscente-level Kerbal Space Program mastery looks like. Kerbal Space Program players who know what we are talking about know that the game is infinitely deeper and fuller of novelty and as well as technological depth than just "building rockets"; you can design intricate spacecraft, ranging all the way from asteroid miners to space shuttles, capable of handling multiple mission profiles with designs include advanced features like modular payloads, automated systems, and redundant controls. It is something significant to be able to say that you were able to land Jeb on Mun, but it is a whole other thing on a whole other level to be able to save that you have mastered the art of things like orbital insertion, performing gravity assists and perfectly timed burns in Kerbal Space Program. An inspirational way to look at it is "Enough failures will teach you how to maximize mission success." Our ability to do interplanetary missions with a deep understanding of celestial mechanics came from study as well as trial and error. When you start to get that talented, you start to be able to push the boundaries of what is possible in KSP, inside of the VAB and outside. And not only that, but you can you share that with the community through the type of contributions that help shape the new KSP players into KSP veterans, like creating guides that help others understand and master the advanced aspects of the game and its mods, whatever they may those may be. And a key element of such mastery is what this thread is all about: maintaining detailed reports of missions in the form of post-mission analyses that include things like information about design choices, fuel usage, and orbital maneuvers. The skills start to show especially in how you adapt designs or strategies in real-time based on new challenges or unanticipated issues, you know what we mean? Which even adapts to our situation with wanting to make custom parts through modding for interstellar travel. It would be fair to say that the voyage across vast amounts of space starting from Kerbin that used to Jool to end up all the way at Plock, the outermost celestial body, is, as of writing this, our best latest masterclass in KSP1 space travel. That being because it shows that all of this practice and studying has paid off and that this is only the beginning of doing things as legendary as creating a whole ore-based economy culture out in space for other Kerbal pirates to shoot at and steal from. That type of thing is a beautiful reminder of how, when you see things like your Kerbals touching down on a distant planet, you’re not just seeing pixels; you’re seeing the culmination of effort, learning, and imagination. It’s a moment that carries weight, sparks emotion, and creates memories. It is something that sticks with you as much as other achievements. The second latter photo is the last photo taken before the Warp Drive Kraken ate up the spaceship like Kerbals eat up snacks they bring with them on their long space missions as cargo. Rest in peace to all of the Kerbals on board who perished as a result. The interstellar ship that we designed may not have been able to make it to the stars like originally intended, but it had made it quite far before it was claimed by the same Kraken as similar ships before during their Alcubierre drive engine burns. It most certainly seems now to us that we have "made it" to the realm where the KSP players with lots of knowhow who build spaceships like this and do the same type of playstyle roam, and that now we are far beyond the basics by now. And that brings us to something that we wanted to shoutout the day that this was written, which is our own unique approach to Kerbal Space Program and its specific gameplay aspect comes from our combined perspectives. As a cis and trans pair sharing the same body, as has been stated before previously in our profile signature at the bottom of our posts, we find that our different viewpoints lead to innovative strategies that might be different from what others typically use. Our gameplay style is shaped by our duality and thusly we bring a diverse set of perspectives to the table, which influences our approach to missions and design in unique ways, and our contributions to the community in the form of writing and furthermore moreover plans for contributions through mods are a direct result of those same shared experiences. "What you see is what we make", you know? We learned that sharing what we thought were "trivial details" can humanize interactions and, if anything, create connections. It feels as though, as long as we’re following the forum guidelines, nobody can or should stop us from sharing our Kerbal Space Program stories and how "our story" relates to those stories. The guidelines are in place to ensure respectful and constructive conversations, but they’re not meant to stifle voices. Seeing transgender people posting on this forum about it with a sense of safety and well-deserved dignity helped motivate us forward. Or shall we say prograde? For those interested in reading more about that, a whole lot of words have been enclosed in spoiler text below. Otherwise feel free to read on without clicking on that. If you really think about it, the Kerbals are like our space babies, and we’re the Kerbal daddy and mommy guiding them, protecting them, and helping them grow. Every mission we plan... every rocket we design... it’s all about making sure our little green guys and gals are safe and successful... and we love it. It seems we set our sights on the stars, only to start gravitating back to the familiar celestial bodies of the Kerbol System. This cosmic U-turn was sparked by the sheer efficiency of using Jool's mighty gravitational pull as a slingshot, propelling us from Kerbin to Plock with surprising ease. We hope that this post brought you positive feelings and that achieve something amazing too, perhaps even as a result of reading this. Much love and best wishes.

Dres exists, but, who cares? And when was the last time you saw someone talk about Moho? TBH Dres is talked about more then Moho. Almost like Moho doesn't exist...

i know... maybe you should edit the OP and inform that installing form CKAN is not recommended. since you don't wanna talk with CKAN users every week about OPX not working.

I tested a plane mounted on a rocket in my early career save. Worked fine till landing. But we don't need to talk about that. Jeb survived, that's all I'll say.

This challenge was continued with permission from the previous thread manager @sdj64 LINK to the old Jool-5 thread There are over forty-five pages of entries and discussion, so look and see what made it and what didn't LINK to the older Jool-5 thread. There are hundreds of pages of entries and discussion, so look at it to see what worked and what didn't! CHALLENGE RULES Given the scale of this challenge, everyone who completes the mission successfully gets a spot in the hall of fame. 1. No cheating, including the stock debug menu cheats, HyperEdit, kraken drives, or file editing. HyperEdit is allowed for testing but get rid of that H when you fly the real mission! 2. No part-clipping of functional parts (fuel tanks, batteries, crew pods, engines, science parts, SAS) into each other. It is okay to clip structural and non-functional parts, wings, and heat shields. 3. Any number of launches are allowed to assemble the ship in low Kerbin orbit (preferably below 100km, not a hard ceiling though, but do try to stay around or below 100km at most). All launches must be flown! 4. There's funding for one main ship only so all the crew, lander(s) and other stuff has to go to Jool as one big ship. Once the ship leaves LKO, it cannot obtain more parts or fuel unless it mines and refines the fuel itself. The ship can separate once in Jool's SOI. 5. Kerbals must be in a pod or cabin (no seats) for the interplanetary journey. Seats are okay for landing and flying within the Jool system. 6. One refueling mission is allowed in the Jool system if you run out of fuel, unless your ship uses ISRU. The refueling mission can only transfer resources, not parts, to your Jool 5 craft. This mission must actually be flown! 7. On all of the landings, the Kerbal must be able to get out and walk (or swim!) around on the surface. Make sure your ladders work! 8. Use Normal difficulty or harder, except, any ComNet settings are allowed including turning it off completely. 9. All the Kerbals have to arrive back to Kerbin surface at the end of the mission, happy and alive. You are allowed to optionally send up a craft to return them from LKO. 10. Mods / DLC: STOCK: only mods which do not add parts and do not change physics are allowed. This includes any informational, planning, visual, autopilot, or automatic functions. DLC: Any and all DLC made for Kerbal Space Program are allowed. MODDED: Use of most parts mods and certain game mechanics mods are allowed. You NO LONGER HAVE TO ASK if your favorite part pack is allowed! Some parts mods are prohibited. Please see below. Specific Mods: ENTRY SUBMISSION RULES 11. Submit your challenge as an imgur album, with good captions and descriptions, as a video or series of videos, or as a thread in Mission Reports. 12. Pictures or it didn't happen! Please keep the resources tab open, as well as show the informative windows from Mechjeb or KER if you use them. Take a picture of every important moment, including transfers, dockings, landings, stagings, and refuelings. For Jeb's Level, also take pictures of the science screen when you recover your craft. Alternatively, video submissions are a great way to show everyone your mission as well. These will help future participants to see exactly how you accomplished each part! CHALLENGE LEVELS 1ST LEVEL: one Kerbonaut lands on all the moons and come back safely. Low mass and low cost and low parts sub-challenges: with stock parts and physics, how low can you go and still accomplish the mission? NOTE: Low cost submissions may not utilize ISRU, or a negative cost would be possible. (Thanks @jinnantonix!) 2ND LEVEL: two or more Kerbonauts land together on all the moons together and come back safely. 3RD LEVEL: There's not enough time left for training one crew member to be an expert on all of the moons, so five Kerbonauts must go to the mission, with at least one unique Kerbonaut landing on each moon. JEBEDIAH'S LEVEL: collect as much Science as possible! Your score is the number of science points from the Jool system only, returned to Kerbin (not transmitted). Only stock experiments count for this! To score, take pictures of the science screen(s) when you recover the data. Otherwise, the rules are the same as 3rd Level. GATECRASHER / HONORARY MENTIONS: Missions completed the mission in spirit but didn't meet every requirement. ISRU: Use of ISRU will get a note ISRU on the entry description in the hall of fame. This includes stock ore harvesting and converting as well as mods such as Kethane and Karbonite. ISRU is allowed for any level of completion. GRAND TOUR: Not officially part of the challenge, but landing on all planets and moons in the Kerbol system in one mission will earn a GRAND TOUR note and the everlasting praise of all of Kerbal kind. Rule 4 is waived, but any Kerbals on the mission cannot return to Kerbin in between any landings and you still must follow the other rules. Additional optional information to help others see how the mission was accomplished: - Which game versions did you use? - What mods did you use, if any? - How many Kerbals are on the mission? - How many launches were needed to start your mission from Kerbin? - How much did your mission cost? - Did you needed a refueling mission? - Did you bring additional stuff like satellites, rovers, etc? - Share the delta-V information too, if you tracked it! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Well, now this big announcement is in the Kerbal News, all the public is excited about this mission and even the Government is watching! Now it's up to you, to the engineers and to the bravest and craziest Kerbonauts of all time! Completion Badge: Anyone who has finished the challenge can add this badge to their signature. The Low Mass Feather badge is available for entries in the low mass sub challenge. Hall of Fame 1st Level- - @Laie Video here. Used a smaller-than-you'd-expect rocket with a dedicated Tylo lander and a spaceplane shell that encloses the Vall-Bop-Pol lander to make the Laythe lander. A very well done mission with a great video. - @Stratzenblitz75 Video here. Used a completely reusable mission involving a tiny mothership which orbited Tylo and tiny landers that explored the system. I should also point out that no nuclear engines or ions were used in the mission. Truly impressive. - @Ultimate Steve Videos here and here. Used a single launch in career mode sending Val to many places in the system including Vall. Very impressive how quickly the mission was thrown together and carried out. - @IncongruousGoat Album here. A simple, single launch Jool 5 mission that only uses 42 parts! Very well optimized and well done. Good job! - @chargan ISRU Gif here. Used an ISRU shuttle and hopped from Kerbin, to the Mün, to the Joolian moons, to Duna, and finished it off with a glorious vertical landing at the KSC. Excellent job! - @GRS Album here. Used a massive, creatively named mothersheep that carried landers for Laythe and Tylo, landing on Vall and Bop (AND DRES!) by itself. As an added bonus, the lonely Dres was even visited, that doesn't happen very often. Amazing job! - @Challyss Album here. Used a brute force 5 meter launch booster with two 5 meter side boosters. Once in LKO used a vector-power stage to boost to an elliptical orbit, then used a rhino powered mothership to go to Jool, where it completed the mission. - @5thHorseman Videos here. Used a single launch to send three Kerbals to the Jool system, where the ship parked in an elliptical Tylo orbit. From there a tug took the landers to their respective moons where they *wait for it* landed. The ship then fired all three Kerbals home safely. An amazing mission and equally amazing videos. - @Xurkitree Grand Tour Thread here. A surprisingly small mission that not only landed on all the Jool moons, but also every other planet and moon in the system. The mission sent a craft out to Eeloo, which landed and returned to Jool before heading home. Once in orbit Derton was picked up by a recovery rocket and landed safely back on Kerbin. Outstanding. ISRU Video here. I don't even know where to start, Xurkitree didn't just do a Jool 5 in this mission, they did it twice. A large SSTO ISRU craft launched and refueled on Minmus before gravity assisting its way to Jool where it completed the landings and then returned to Kerbin, WHERE IT RELAUNCHED and then detached a small non-ISRU craft which carried out the landings again. A fun note was when the Laythe lander landed by computer control while the Kerbal parachuted down. Great job on your fourth Jool 5 submission! - @dvader Album here. A single launch using only chemical engines. Used several gravity assists to make the trip to Jool cheaper in terms of delta-v. Used a small but capable plane for Laythe, and a donut lander for the other moons (with extra fuel for Tylo and Vall.) Overall a very optimized mission, complete with a near KSC landing. - @fulgur Album here. A very small and well optimized mission with a smaller-than-you'd-expect mothership. Ions were used to scoot Jeb and Vall about the system to the various moons, and then left as the small mothership made its way home, getting into Kerbin orbit with only forty m/s of delta-v remaining. (Talk about close margins!) The crew were returned safely by an Aether SSTO. - @Pro100kerbonaut ISRU Mission report here. Used an SSTO spaceplane to go to Minmus to refuel, then flew off to Jool. This mission is the most impressive in how it handled the Tylo landing. Not only was the landing done using the SSTO, but it came directly from Vall without refueling at Bop or Pol. The landings were all completed flawlessly, but was destroyed in a crash landing back on Kerbin. The pilot survived though, and any landing you can walk away from... - @dnbattley Album here. A direct ascent mission to all five moons, starting with Pol and Bop, then Vall, Tylo, and finally Laythe. The tensions on this mission were very high, as Jeb began his Tylo descent on a NERVA powered craft with a TWR of .9, managing to get it above 1 just in time to pull off the landing. From there Jeb flew to Laythe where he somehow missed the ocean (this might be a KSP first) and used the craft's jets to push it into the water for an ocean launch. After struggling back into orbit, Jeb flew by Tylo back to Kerbin, using a Duna aerogravity assist to get the right trajectory (ARE YOU SERIOUS?) Upon returning to Kerbin he was able to sneak in a Minmus landing. This mission is without a doubt one of the more Kerbal ones submitted, complete with Jeb gliding the final stage down to Kerbin with his EVA chute. - @EveMaster Grand Tour, ISRU Thread here. Additional album here. EveMaster managed to complete the Jool 5 challenge with an ISRU craft, utilizing the power of two mammoth engines and a detachable spaceplane. Also went the extra few million miles and completed a grand tour! Both Bob and Jeb were on this mission, however Bill stayed behind on Eve, so only Jeb is being considered for this entry. Regardless, an excellently executed mission. - @ManEatingApe, @Jacke, @dvader, @Muetdhiver, @Rakaydos, and @Pds314 Mission thread here. What these users have completed is the first community Jool 5 mission for this specific thread, possibly the first ever. Furthermore, this mission was done in a 'caveman' style approach, meaning no maneuver nodes, tier one buildings, and launch mass restrictions. These restraints meant the main ship was built over multiple launches. The landings were carried out by a plane and three identical landers, which carried Jeb to, around, and back to Kerbin from the Jool system with excruciating precision. I highly suggest checking out this mission's thread, it's one of a kind! - @Space Nerd Album here. Using a long nuclear mothership, Jeb and Malvis conquered the Jool system in a surprisingly easy manner. An off-center Bop/Pol lander was docked onto the side of the mothership, leading to one of the more interesting mothership designs. Jeb took Laythe, Tylo, and Vall, and Malvis handled Bop and Pol. Once all the landings were done, they flew back to Kerbin and used a 10 meter heat shield to slow down and splashed into the ocean. - @ralanboyle Video here. Using a single brute force launch, a main station of sorts was put into Jool orbit,. From there a Laythe-plane was released, and upon returning from Laythe, a lander/fuel tank combo (and an extra part for Tylo) took on Tylo, then Vall, then Bop, then Pol. They forgot to put a flag on Pol, but who cares. Also, the lander was able to return to Kerbin all by itself. Quite the capable craft I'd say. The mission is edited into a very nice video, and I suggest giving it a watch if you've got the time. - @Carbonjvd Album here. Using the incredibly stylish IPV Excelsior spacecraft, Tridous Kerman flew to Minmus to refuel, where she picked up two more crew members in Minmus orbit. From there they flew to Jool, where they refueled at Bop. After the tanks were full, they hopped to Pol, then Tylo, then Bop again, then Vall. From Vall the crew hopped back to Bop for more refueling, then flew to Laythe. After converting stored ore into liquid fuel, the crew touched down on an island, then (you guessed it) flew back to Bop! (for more fuel) From this final Bop landing, the Excelsior returned to Minmus where it all began, then safely touched down on Kerbin. A stylish landing for a stylish craft. - @camacju Grand Tour. Album here. This mission is impressive as it not only visited the five moons of Jool, but also every other landable surface in the Kerbol System. The Jool portion of this mission was completed after the mothership completed the Eve portion, then used gravity assists to get to Jool. A Tylo assist put the ship on course to aerobrake at Laythe, and after landing on Laythe the lander was then reused for Tylo. The other moons were completed using a smaller lander, and the brave Kerbonaut landed back at Kerbin after quite an exciting trip. Video here. A very well edited video of a Jool 5 mission which used only liquid fuel! Launching from the runway as a spaceplane, the craft flew up before staging its rapier engines and continuing to orbit on nerva-power. The Laythe landing was done using a smaller spaceplane, and the rest of the landings were done using a very impressive lander which used only 1 nerv engine to land on all the other moons, including Tylo! The lander also served as a trip home and as a heat shield so that the brave kerbonaut could parachute to safety. This mission is beautifully summed up in the video link, and I highly suggest checking it out. A truly unique mission! Video here. Another liquid fuel only mission! This one utilized multiple relaunches of the same spaceplane to put multiple fuel tankers in orbit. From there, the craft departed for Jool after some gravity assists and once again demonstrated the unusual, difficult, and impressive use of a nerv-powered Tylo lander. The video this mission was edited into is nice and tidy as well, and I suggest watching so you can see all the work that went into it. Video here. And yet another Jool 5 mission, but this time with only one engine! A cargo spaceplane with a single rapier made multiple launches to place several fuel tankers into orbit before flying a gravity-assist-utilizing course to Jool. Once in Jool space, the Laythe landing was conducted first, and then the plane ditched its outer shell so that just the rapier engine and a few fuel tanks remained. The craft then docked to a fuel module in orbit and flew to Vall, landed, then went to Tylo where a dedicated fuel drop-tank was used with what I'll dub "backflip staging". From there the Pol and Bop landings were done, with fuel to spare. After a fiery return to Kerbin, the brave Kerbonaut, Wildard, paraglided safely into the ocean. I recommend giving this video a watch, because it's short, to the point, and an amazing display of Kerbal engineering. Grand Tour. Video here. This mission is truly a record breaker, as not only was it a Jool 5, but it is the lowest mass Grand Tour without ISRU record holder, with a take off mass of 14.447 tons, less than a Mammoth engine! To focus on the Jool 5 portion of the mission, a spaceplane made a bouncy, thrash-flippy landing, then a tiny tiny lander was used to tackle Tylo. Pol and Bop were handled by a small ion lander, and Vall was handled by a lander so small it looks like a pancake. You should definitely give this mission's video a watch, as words cannot truly describe just how insanely optimized this mission was. - @Goufalite Video here. This mission began with the assembly of a main mothership in LKO. Once complete, the ship cruised to Jool where it used gravity assists to achieve orbit. From there, the spaceplane was deployed to Laythe, but missed its target island. Never fear! The spaceplane had such high performance it was able to fly to a nearby island. Once back with the mothership, the SSTO was drained and detatched, and a capsule on its nose was undocked and docked to the Tylo lander. The Tylo lander used 2 aerospike engines to blow its way to the surface, and the final stage of the lander redocked to the mothership to be reused as the lander for Vall, Bop, and Pol. After visiting Vall and Pol, the lander flew by itself (and out of connectivity range) to Bop, where it landed and returned to Pol all on its own (Goufalite found this method was more fuel efficient). After returning to the mothership at Pol, a Tylo gravity assist sent the crew home, and both safely landed only 50 kilometers from the KSC. This mission made me nostalgic for my first Jool 5 mission, which in turn makes this mission special to me. Nice job, @Goufalite. - @king of nowhere Grand Tour. Mission thread here. This mission was done using Kerbalism, and an absolute UNIT of a mothership. Appropriately named the DREAM BIG, this ship conducted the Jool 5 challenge with dozens of farms, radiation shields, and drop ships to keep itself self-sufficient. Fighting food limitations, mod issues, solar storms, insanity and radiation damage, the crew of DREAM BIG flew throughout the entire Kerbol system planting flags on every world. The mission thread is an entertaining read, and has a video tour of the DREAM BIG spacecraft, which I highly recommend you check it out. I congratulate @king of nowhere on completing the mission, and for not losing their sanity in the process! Mission thread here. This mission was done with tremendous build constraints, and done entirely in a no-contract career mode save. Each launch was limited to 20-25 tons, meaning it took dozens of flights to finish the main ship, the Marco Polonium. The ship used many cost and weigh saving methods, including using the Laythe lander as a stage on Tylo, and by using claws instead of docking ports in some cases. The mission also visited Duna, Ike, Eeloo, Dres, and Eve (orbit) as well. This mission is one of the most entertaining ones I've reviewed (along with one of the most optimized) and I highly recommend giving it a read. Mission thread here. This mission was much like @king of nowhere's previous two in the sense that it involved Kerbalism and self-imposed building constraints. The result was a Jool 5 mission designed and flown to be as realistic as possible, and done with a maximum LKO mass of 140 tons. Bill and Bob took the Economic Downturn and its support craft to Jool and visited Tylo first, using the Seated Man lander, then made way for Laythe to deploy the Sole spaceplane, each accompanied by the space tug Right Answer. Sole's upper stage was reused as a Vall lander, while Seated Man's upper stage was used to land on Bop and Pol. For the inner three moons, great care was taken to limit the radiation damage incurred on the crew, with Bill being irradiated all the way to 95% upon his return to Economic Downturn. The return trajectory had to be tweaked a few times to prevent the capsule overheating, but Bill and Bob ultimately prevailed, and returned to Kerbin with nearly 500kg of samples. This mission is one of the few anxiety inducing submissions due to the challenges imposed by Jool's radiation belt. If you are a fan of gripping mission threads, I suggest giving this one a read. - @Lt_Duckweed Video here. This Jool 5 mission is notable for three reasons. Firstly, it is fully recoverable. Secondly, it only uses two engines, being the nerva and rapier. And thirdly, it was edited into a masterpiece of a video. This mission began with a launch just west of the KSC, and made a direct transfer to Jool. Upon Jool arrival, the elegently designed craft deployed a nerva-propelled lander, which performed the Tylo landing. After refueling at the main ship, the lander then visited Vall, Bop, and Pol with refueling trips to the main ship in between. The lander then returned to the main craft, which transfered to Laythe, completing the final landing. The craft then returned to Kerbin and came to a stop on the KSC runway, returning with it every part it launched with. I must repeat the high quality video the mission is edited into, and strongly suggest giving it a watch. - @bwest31415 Album here. This mission began with the launch of a long thin rocket which was followed by a normal transfer to Jool. Upon arrival to Jool however, inflatable heat shields were used to induce a Joolian aerobrake, a maneuver I've scarcely seen used since the addition of reentry heating to the game. The first landing to be done was Laythe, and the final stage of the lander was used to land on Vall and Tylo. The lander then left the main ship behind and traveled to Pol, then Bop, then back to Kerbin all without refueling. Jeb landed safely back on Kerbin after a toasty aerocapture, and exited the pod to take in a nice mountain view. - @18Watt ISRU, Thread here. This mission was done as both a Jool 5 and a Kerpollo submission. The mission began with a brute force launch and direct transfer to Jool. The mothership used wolfhound engines, which was good for TWR but slow when the ship was fully fueled. The ship flew first to Tylo, and after landing, the Tylo ascent stage would be reused for later landings. Next, the ship went to Bop to refuel, then to Laythe, where a staged spaceplane returned the brave Kerbonaut to the mothership. Next Val went to Vall, then the ship went to Pol and landed, before returning the crew to Kebrin, who parachuted to the surface of one of Kerbin's icecaps. - @OJT ISRU, Thread here. This mission was fully reusable* (apart from deployed fairings but we couldn't decide if that counted or not) and landed every component of the main ship back on Kerbin upon finishing the Jool system's exploration. The mission began with three launches, one for the mothership, one for the lander, and one for the SSTO spaceplane. Due to unfortunate moon placements, no gravity-assisted captures were possible and a retroburn was conducted. From there, a surprise Laythe aerocapture was conducted, saving much needed fuel. After the Laythe landing, the main ship flew to Vall, left the plane in orbit, and then landed with the lander beneath it and refueled on the surface. Next up was a Tylo landing with razor thin fuel margins, followed by Pol and Bop. It is worth noting that this mission did not repeat OJT's previous Jool 5 mission's Pol refueling process, in which the lander did numerous trips to the surface to bring tiny bits of fuel up to the main ship. With the landings complete and plenty of fuel to spare, the ship flew back to Kerbin where it landed piece by piece, with the lander being launched an SSTO parachute module. An excellent mission, and no doubt a fine achievement. - @kspfreak Video here. This mission not only visited the moons of Jool, Bop's Kraken, and in a rather small vehicle, but also visited every other moon in the entire Kerbol System! This mission's video is a fun watch, and ends with a fun paraglide back to the KSC. A mini grand tour of sorts, and very well done. - @JeDoesStuff ISRU, Video here. An SSTO submission! Coming in with a mass at just under 30 tons, JeDoesStuff showed off an incredibly refined ISRU SSTO by flaunting it around the Jool System. Included on the spaceplane are subtle but clever features to aid in launching horizontally, such as Vernier thrusters on the nose to raise attitude during takeoff, as well as a large landing gear that is only deployed to angle the craft. I haven't seen the latter of those additions on an SSTO before, so I applaud the ingenuity! The video this submission is contained within is also very well edited, resulting in a brief, yet concise viewing experience. If you're looking for a fun video to watch, or to see a razor-thin-margin Tylo landing, then this submission is for you. Low Mass - @EvermoreAlpaca Video here. Mass of 6.2 tons. Spaceplane launch, gravity assists off Kerbin and Eve to reach Jool. Landed on Laythe with the same rapier used in the launch stage, returned to orbit with an incredible TWR, scooted over to Tylo where the most bare-bones Tylo lander I've ever seen was used to land on and take off from Tylo (saved fuel by having Bill push it to the top of the mountain), flew over to Vall where the landing was done using staged batteries and a single ion engine. The Vall lander (which was also part of the Laythe lander) completed the last two landings on Bop and Pol and returned to Kerbin using many more gravity assists before preforming an aerobraking, with Bill parachuting to the space center and landing atop the RnD. - @Alpaca Z Video here. Mass of 5.8 tons. Vertical launch using a whiplash ramjet engine, which was staged prior to orbital insertion. Resonant orbits with Kerbin and Mun assists were used to set up a KEKKJ gravity assiste route to save fuel. Spider engines were used in a two-stage Laythe lander design to save weight, and EVA construction was used to rebuild craft to negate the need for decouplers or rebuild the craft (or get away with only bringing one chair). Landings were otherwise routine apart from an incident on Tylo where the lander fell on its side, requiring an intuitive solution to rebuild the craft in such a way it could use redundant engines as support pillars. The video is very well narrated and goes into much more detail regarding the craft's design and flight plan, I highly recommend watching it to get the full picture of this mission. - @camacju Video here. Mass of 5.2 tons (Current Record!). This mission not only shatters the previous record, but does so with an impeccably made video. Launch mass was saved in numerous ways, one of which involved using tiny flags in place of landing gear for the horizontal KSC Runway takeoff. EVA construction was used to reassemble the craft(s) into what was needed at any given point during the mission. The vessels flown and techniques used are difficult to describe, so I highly encourage a watch of this mission to see some of the best of Kerbal engineering. - @camacju and @Ultimate Steve Grand Tour, Video here. Mass of 7.6 tons. This is a meticulously crafted and borderline perfectly executed low mass mission. This was not only a Jool 5, but also an entire grand tour weighing not even 8 tons! The video's excellent editing allows it to speak for itself, and I highly recommend you watch this mission to see perhaps the greatest low mass mission in the history of KSP. Low Cost - @jinnantonix Video here. 34,663 funds. The thread's first low cost submission! Using a low cost launch vehicle and a K-E-K-K-J flyby route, the mission put Val and a fuel-tanker station in elliptical Laythe orbit. From there one lander tackled Laythe, and another tackled the other four moons, with an extra few stages for Tylo. It is worth mentioning that this mission used no electrical charge and relied entirely on engine gimbal and some RCS to steer. On the way back, a double Eve flyby helped slow down, so an aerocapture could be done at Kerbin, where Vall proceeded to parachute onto the VAB. - @camacju Mission here. 24,070 funds. This mission used a SRB powered launch stage and a terrier powered transfer vehicle to get the landers to Jool (after numerous gravity assists). A dedicated Laythe lander tackled the ocean-world, while a multi-stage Tylo lander tackled the rest of the moons, and returned the brave Kerbonaut Wildard Kerman to Kerbin. Before heading back however, the new space-construction method was utilized to steal a solar panel from the transfer stage, marking the first time this creative form of staging has been used. Mission here. 17,635 funds (Current Record!). This mission is a more stripped down version of @camacju's previous low cost mission. This mission featured a visit to Laythe's ocean floor, and utilized eva construction to manually remove empty fuel tanks from the mission. Additionally, eva fuel tanks were used to refill the brave kerbonaught's jetpack to enable fuel savings by extended jetpack use. Low Parts - @bayesian_acolyte ISRU, Album here. A small, single stage craft comprising of 31 parts. Bayesian_acolyte said there could have been some part count improvements, but even without it the mission still did so much with so little. This mission shows just how far ISRU can be stretched, especially with that Tylo landing. - @Majk Thread here. A simplistic Jool 5 mission consisting of only 30 parts . The mission began using a very basic launch stage, and flew to Jool using a long nuclear ship. Lander reuse enabled part count savings, and usage of the nuclear ship as an ablative heat-shield helped return Val to Kerbin's surface in one piece. - @Majk Video here. Easily the most simple Jool 5 mission completed to date, accomplished using only 9 parts (Current Record!). This mission started with the 9th part, an RTG, stowed inside the command pod before installing it in orbit. It is also worth recognizing that a clever method of timewarping in the tracking station enabled refueling to take place while utilizing only a single RTG. The submission takes the form of a short, concise, and wel narrated video, and I highly encourage giving it a watch. 2nd Level - @jinnantonix ISRU, Album here. Used a big launch with a self-refueling vector-powered lander that made multiple Laythe landings and mined ore from every moon. Two kerbals were landed on each moon and the lander was recovered at KSC. - @Kerbolitto ISRU, Album here. Excellent mission done using two space shuttles capable of refueling on moons. Absolutely amazing job. In all things I ever thought I would see happen in KSP, a space shuttle landing on Tylo was not one of them. - @Marschig ISRU, Videos here. Not one, not two, but three ISRU planes flew to Jool and to all five moons on both the 3rd and 2nd levels. The SSTOs also visited Duna and Minmus in their missions before landing back at the KSC. Truly exceptional. This is the first time I've seen three Jool 5s all submitted at one time! - @PhoenixRise86 Album here. Used a mothership for the first part of the mission, then resorted to ions to get to Ike and Minmus, then safely back home. Also, this is the first 2nd level mission to not use ISRU. - @GRS: Album here. The highly anticipated Sheep v2 did not disappoint, and went above and beyond by visiting not just Jool's moons but also Kerbin's and Dres. Used massive nuclear boosters to get around the Jool system and the Tythe lander to get two Kerbals on every moon and Dres, before using the Sheep v2 to land the entire crew on Minmus and Mun. Spectacular! - @Xurkitree ISRU Video here. This modded mission utilized ISRU, a nuclear mothership, and eight aerospikes to land on all five of Jool's moons with Cerdrin and Lodous Kerman. Returned the lander and mothership to LKO where a separate rocket retrieved the crew. I highly encourage watching the video submitted, it is excellently edited and the music supports the awe of the mission. - @QF9E Thread here. This mission used a blunt-force approach by lifting off on a powerful launch stage, and made quick work of Jool's moons. The moons were all visited by one lander, which dropped various attachments that helped it land on some of the bigger moons. At the end of the mission, the three brave kerbonauts safely touched down in the ocean, and a BFR style spacecraft recovered the remains of the lander in Kerbin orbit for historical preservation. Truly an impressive mission indeed! - @Mars-Bound Hokie ISRU Mission here. Using the Anubis II SSTO, Tancan, Fernal, and Kenby Kerman flew to Minmus to refuel, then blasted off for Jool. After touching down on Laythe to refuel, the crew went for Bop, then to Tylo. After landing with no liquid fuel to spare, the Anubis II was refueled, then launched for Pol. After a risky auto-piloted landing, the ship refuel before bounding to Vall, where the crew had a group picture. Heading back to Kerbin, a mix of brute force and aero-braking was used to get the trajectory needed to get back to the KSC, and then the crew refused to ditch the plane and pulled off the legendary runway landing. - @king of nowhere Mission here. "And so I completed the Jool 5 in day 383, 1 hour and 9 minutes of a new career" are the words typed by @king of nowhere at the end of the mission thread, and fundamentally capture the astronomical accomplishment documented within it. In a career save speedrun, it was decided to focus on a Jool 5, and the mission was optimized for time rather than mass or cost. The amounts of delta-v put into each maneuver to achieve bullet-like trajectories around the Kerbolar and Jool systems is simply jaw dropping. Over the course of the flight, the La coscienza di xenon and its landers managed to plant flags on all 5 moons within a 12 day window, which I don't believe has ever been done before. If you wish to see the chronicles of a one-of-a-kind, record setting Jool 5 mission, the flight of the La coscienza di xenon is the mission thread for you. Grand Tour Mission here. @king of nowhere's second Kerbalism Grand Tour, but with radiation shielding 3 times less effective, bugs, life support issues, frantic crew members smashing fuel cells and dumping food overboard, and so much more! This mission chronicles the Nail Bolt on its tour around the solar system, finding monoliths on every world and making it back in roughly two decades. This mission thread covers the begins, rebeginnings, redesigns, quick fixes, and compromises that took place during the Bolt's journey not just to Jool's 5 moons, but to every other surface as well. This is one of the most thorough submissions the challenge has seen, and is a great resource for those considering Kerbalism entries of their own. - @Lyra Mission here. A single launch mission! Using a spaceplane for Laythe, a notably slim Tylo lander (with a reusable upper stage for Vall), and an ion lander for Bop and Pol, this mission was a pleasant, self contained romp around the Jool System. One unique aspect of this mission I've seldom seen elsewhere was the use of claws on the nuclear mothership's outer hull. This allowed the landers to not need docking ports and attach to the hull like barnacles. A very clever, mass saving decision for the landers for sure! 3rd Level - @iAMtheWALRUS Grand Tour, ISRU, Album here. Used SSTOs to launch the mission and used moon hopping to get around the Kerbol system. Very nicely done. Also, first 1.4 submission - @sturmhauke Album here. To put it in the words of the pilot them self; "A mostly reusable mission to all 5 of Jool's moons. Single launch SSTO carrier drone, with a separable mothership and 5 landers." Very well done and efficient mission. Used fuel cells to power ion crafts for Bop and Pol, sent a plane to Laythe, and conquered Tylo with a rocket lander. - @mystifeid Album here, ISRU. Used two launches to put a mothership and a universal lander into orbit. Then used left over launch stage to boost to Jool and then around the system until it ran out and was staged at Tylo. Bob landed on every moon, accompanied with a different Kerbal for every moon. Very nice mission, and even had the added bonus of a near KSC landing. - @PhoenixRise86 Album here. Used a single launch of pure rocketry, no jets, ions, or nukes used in the entire mission. This mission did the Jool 5 mission in style, with some of the most interesting landers I've ever seen, including an aerospike Laythe plane. - @Marschig ISRU, Videos here. Not one, not two, but three ISRU planes flew to Jool and to all five moons on both the 3rd and 2nd levels. The SSTOs also visited Duna and Minmus in their missions before landing back at the KSC. Truly exceptional. This is the first time I've seen three Jool 5s all submitted at one time! - @jinnantonix ISRU, Video here. Of all the Jool 5 missions I have seen in this thread so far, none treat their Kerbals better than Jinnantonix has. The craft was modular in design and split into several different arrangements for various landings, and came with a gravity spin for deep space transit. Very considerate, and very awesome. - @Grogs Album here. Two launches to build the main ship in orbit, one crew launch for realism. Used a giant transfer stage to get the landers to Jool. Chemical engines pushed the landers about the Jool system, with nine Kerbals in total being involved in the mission. Once the landings were completed the mothership returned to Kerbin where a fourth launch collected the Kerbals and returned them safely to Kerbin. - @Pipcard ISRU Thread here. A well executed, eight Kerbal mission with one of the longest ships I've ever seen in this game. Excellent mission that toured the Jool System in an engaging thread. Mission was assembled in multiple parts, flew to Jool, landed on the moons (being sure to refuel on Bop and Pol when needed), EVA jetpacked off Tylo, and the crew was returned to Kerbin by a separately flown space plane. - @Kerbolitto ISRU Mission here, here, and here. Kerbolitto's second submission! Using a space shuttle with several surface experiments, a crew of eight explored the system. The Tylo landing was done with perfect margins, landing with no fuel left! This craft may also hold the record for lowest TWR launch of Bop in history, and an outpost on Laythe with a mini-plane was even constructed. Bob chose to stay behind and man the base while the crew returned home. Excellent end to an excellent mission! - @Ksp Slingshooter Album here. Assembled the main ship using multiple launches, then flew to Jool, settling in an elliptical Jool orbit with some help from a few gravity assists. From there the landers detached and flew to their moons, one by one and completed their landings. Due to some unexpected occurrences at Laythe, the Vall lander swooped in and rescued the Kerbal, taking both back to the mothership. Without enough room in the command pods for everyone, two brave Kerbals rode back to Kerbin on ladders, detaching and re-rendezvousing during timewarp. A rescue craft was launched, and met the mothership just in time, with only three minutes to transfer the Kerbals before a fiery re-entry. Truly a Kerbal mission! - @RoninFrog ISRU Thread here. Using the gloriously huge HMS Sauron, Jeb and 16 friends took to Jool in this massive SSTA. First they stopped at the Mun, then flew to Pol, then Tylo, then Vall, Laythe, and finally Bop. On the way back to Kerbin, time and fuel and the positions of the planets made a Duna landing prove itself most useful, before heading back to the Mun, and finally, back to Kerbin. This 1 stage mission has some amazing screenshots in its thread, as well as most amusing comments for each picture. If you're wanting to learn more about an ISRU approach, I suggest giving this mission a peak. - @OutInSpace Video here. Using a total of eight launches, this mission's mothership was constructed methodically, complete with an enormous pair of transfer boosters. After heading to Jool directly, the mothership flew to Tylo, Vall, and Laythe by itself, and sent an ion craft to Bop and Pol instead. After numerous attempts, the Laythe plane was finally able to show what it could do, and the 5 crew returned to Kerbin orbit, where they were picked up by a landing craft. If you want to see the nitty-gritty maneuvers used during a Jool 5 mission, I suggest you check out this mission's video. Its editing and methodicalness make it an unintentional flight-tutorial for getting to Jool. - @Entropian ISRU Mission here. Using a 5 meter tank with 5 meter tanks strapped on the side and a large cluster of mastodon engines, the craft rocketed off the pad to Minmus, where it refueled and went off to Jool. Landing on Laythe proved to a close call, with ZERO delta-v remaining upon touchdown. From there the ship bounced to Vall, Tylo, Pol, and Bop, before making a rough splashdown on Kerbin. It is worth noting that the crew did forget to put a flag on Bop. However since every other mission criteria was met and the craft was landed on Bop it is still being counted. - @GRS Grand Tour. Mission here. This time with the Sheep v4 the Jool moons were visited again, along with 60 other destinations! Relying heavily on ion power, landing after landing was accomplished visiting worlds close to the sun, around Jool, and even outer dwarf planets. So many worlds were mentioned that the Jool 5 portion is only a tiny fragment of the overall mission. There is genuinely too much in that mission to describe here, so I highly suggest you check out the most expansive sheep yet's thread! - @s_gamer101. Mission here. This mission began with the launch of an enormous reusable launch system that placed the main ship in orbit. A trip to Jool ended with a fiery aerocapture above Laythe, where two of the crew members took a small spaceplane to the surface. After a tricky fuel situation in which drop tanks were accidentally kept as huge pieces of ballasts, the Tylo tug was used as an extra stage to boost the main ship. This proved to be enough delta-v, as once the landings were completed the ship cruised back to Kerbin, where they parachuted safely to complete the mission. - @AlpacaMall Mission here. This mission began with the launch and orbital construction of the KSS-J "Orca". Engineer construction added fuel lines and removed unneeded RCS thrusters, and the craft departed for Jool with a reusable lander upper stage, with lander stages for Laythe and Tylo. The landings were completed in the following order: Laythe, Tylo, Vall, Pol, Bop. From Bop, the Orca was left to serve as a relay station while the crew module left for Kerbin. The vessel landed with all the crew and 23458 science. - @BeanThruster Album here. This mission began with the launch of Vapidity, the mothership used during the mission. Instead of going to Jool, Vapidity made its first flight to an E-class asteroid so it could refill all of its fuel tanks (it launched almost empty to save weight). After flying to Jool, the first landing took place on Tylo, before leaving the engine nacelles in case later refueling was needed. Next, the last stage of the Tylo lander was used to land on Vall, then the lander flew solo to Bop where it awaited the rest of the ship. Vapidity took the time to take a spaceplane to Laythe, then went back to low Tylo orbit to refuel. Vapidity met the Vapidlander at Bop, conducted the landing, then went to Pol to do the same. Vapidity returned to Kerbin before the crew landed using the Laythe spaceplane. In total, the crew collected 20113.6 science. - @RuBisCO ISRU Album here. This mission began with a lot of mainsail engines to push the main craft into orbit, and delivered not one, but seven Kerbals to the surface of each moon. The first visit was Pol, where cleverly built piston legs kept the refueling craft perfectly level. Next was Bop, then Vall, then Tylo, where a rover and lab were brought to the surface and returned to orbit (except Tylo where it got left behind). For the Laythe landing, the crew took down a spaceplane, as well as a helicopter and a floating lab with plane-refueling capabilities. The helicopter was used to collect science from the local area, and after being refueled, the plane returned to orbit. After the main ship was refueled on Pol, the crew returned home. - @18Watt ISRU , Mission here. This mission is nearly identical to 18Watt's previous submission, but now has accommodated a unique Kerbal for each moon, bumping it from a 1st to a 3rd level submission. Main ship refueled on Minmus before heading to Jool, refueled on small moons, and pilots Val and Billy Bobfurt flew each unique specialist to their respective moons. - @Krazy1 ISRU, Album here. This mission was done with the Principia mod, which makes gravity and orbits behave more realistically. The spacecraft used was the "2 by 4", named after its two mammoth engines and four nervs. First the craft launched to Minmus, then visited a passing asteroid, then went back to Minmus to refuel, then shot off to Jool. After the Laythe landing, there was some trouble getting to Vall due to orbital issues. After Vall came a very bouncy Tylo landing, which was followed by a Pol landing, and then a Bop landing. It is worth noting that Bop is orbiting retrograde in this mod for orbital stability. After completing the landings and experimenting with weird orbits, the 2 by 4 traveled home, refueled on Minmus to prep for landing, and then touched down safely on Kerbin with its crew of 5. ISRU, Album here. This mission utilized an orange and gray aesthetically pleasing spacecraft. Once launched into orbit, the craft refueled on Minmus, then shot off to Jool where it landed on Vall, then flew to Tylo where it performed this landing, before nearly burning on Laythe, then finished up with Bop and Pol. Upon returning to Kerbin, some excess ore was turned to fuel to save weight, and the crew splashed down 10km from the KSC. - @Kimera Industries. Mission here. This mission's mission thread chronicles the Avocado on its journey to Jool's moons and back, using appropriately named components and landers. Due to its nuclear propulsion, the escape burn was split in two, though did not go gently into that good night, and upon arriving to Jool, took use of a convenient Tylo assist to go almost directly to Laythe. From Laythe, a lander was dispatched to Vall and Pol, then the entire ship reunited and migrated to Tylo where the landing was achieved on the fifth try. Next came Gilly 2.0 Bop, where an interesting SPOILER was discovered. Upon returning to Kerbin with little to no time for caution, the cargo container and its draggy friends kept the craft from overheating during airbraking, and the crew landed to live another day. Jeb's Level - @Xurkitree Grand Tour, ISRU Album Here. Collected 19,711.3 science from Jool on a girl's night out mission with no lack of gravity assists. A note from the author said that the mission greatly improved their skills in KSP and proved that fact well with the insane gravity assists they pulled off. Also first Jeb's Level on the new thread yay! - @ManEatingApe Video here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here. Collected 16,532.0 science from Jool. There isn't anything I can say about this mission except you need to see it for yourself. Exclusively low tech was used, and collected in space science from all biomes. This mission did the near-impossible, with primitive parts, and landed all Kerbals safely back on Kerbin. - @SolarAdmiral Video here. Collected 42,296 science from the Jool System. Single launch on a cluster of three meter parts, before heading off to Jool. Started with Laythe first, landing using a floating platform. Science was collected with a small jet-powered boat. Next stop was Tylo, where a rover was used to collect science from many biomes. On Vall one landing was done, and a hop added to it before heading to orbit again. Numerous biomes collected from Bop and Pol by hopping around in their low gravities. Direct shot home and landed all seven Kerbals to tell the tale. Absolutely astounding mission! - @jinnantonix ISRU Video here. Collected 82,510 science from the Jool System. Single launch, one much smaller than you might expect. Used a plane to gather large amounts of science from Laythe, dove into Jool's atmosphere, grabbed science from almost if not everywhere, and even managed to use the Laythe plane as the final stage on the Tylo landing. Had an artificial gravity system to facilitate the kerbals, and landed back at the KSC. Honestly jinnatonix managed to do so much in this video I can't describe it all here so I suggest you just watch the video. Amazing job. - @GRS Album here. Collected 28,643 science from the Jool System. The long awaited Sheep mission that satisfied both the Kerpollo and Jool 5 requirements led by Simone Kerman that explored the Jool system and returned home Apollo style. The mission had a heavy launch and went to, around, and from Jool using a massive nuclear stage. The usage of the Scifi visual pack gave the mission a unique look as it took science from every moon (including Jool's upper atmosphere!) in style. Incredible. - @Jim123 Video here. Collected 8780.9 science from the Jool System. Single giant launch put a large nuclear mothership in orbit. Flew straight to Laythe where the landing was completed with a dual stage to orbit (and Jeb's jetpack). From there the crew went to Vall and landed, before heading to Tylo and dropping one of the most Kerbal looking Tylo landers I've ever seen to the surface. After Tylo biome hopping was used on Bop and Tylo, before a pair of service modules detached and went back to Kerbin, boosting each other home where the crew landed. Nice video. - @jost ISRU Album here. Collected 16940.2 science from the Jool system. Flew to Jool using a long nuclear mothership. From there an ion ore probe helped find ore on every moon but Laythe for the rocket lander. Laythe used a three seat plane for the landing, and even found a geyser while on the surface. Landed on Tylo with 1m/s to spare before refueling, and landed everyone safely back on Kerbin after leaving the nukes in a graveyard orbit around Kerbin. Excellent! - @Beriev Album here. Collected 49430.1 science from the Jool system. This entire mission was done in a 6.4x solar system. Launched off the pad with an absolutely enourmous rocket, fittingly dubbed the 'Absolute Unit'. Used many kicks to get out to Jool, where the ship split up to tackle the moons. For Laythe and Tylo, ascent vehicles were landed separately, before the crew arrived on-surface. Later, both sets met up at Vall, then flew to Pol, then Bop, and then to Dres. After a fun journey, the Absolute Unit returned to Kerbin, and the crew landed safely. This mission has an incredible execution and design, as well as a well-captioned Imgur album. I highly suggest giving it a look. - @Pro100kerbonaut Video here. Collected 10238 science from the Jool system. This mission was done with a rather interesting, asymmetrically balanced ship, and had quite the bouncy ride. On Tylo parkour was done, on Laythe swimming. On Vall two landings were done, and on Pol and Bop the lander bounced around. This mission used a combination of a gravity assist off Tylo and a retro-burn to capture at Jool, and upon return to Kerbin parachutes were attached to the crew section using a klaw. A fun mission with great editing. - @king of nowhere ISRU Mission thread here. Collected 105136 science. This mission was insane from its conception, with the goal to collect every single bit of science from the Jool system as possible. While this goal was not ultimately accomplished, the mission is still one of the greatest Jool 5 submissions I have ever seen. To collect science on each world, a durable lander known as the Dancing Porcupine was deployed and driven on all moons but Laythe. For Laythe, a spaceplane called Absolutely NOT Albatross was used to collect science from each biome. In fact, Absolutely NOT Albatross did even more than just Laythe. Using a multi-stage attachment, Absolutely NOT Albatross visited the lower atmosphere of Jool and returned to tell the tale. The craft's brave pilot even took an EVA report while in flight before ascending. The main ship dubbed the Flying Christmas Tree, and was capable of refueling on low gravity worlds. Upon returning to Kerbin, a craft launched to return the brave Kerbonauts to their home-world. Having visited every biome on every moon, it is no surprise that this mission amassed more science than any other Jool 5 mission before it. I highly recommend viewing this mission's main thread. Amazing job king of nowhere! Mission thread here. Collected 11395 science from the Jool System. The sheer amount of effort put into this mission cannot be overstated. King of Nowhere started this mission as a nanocristalline diamond caveman mission, which in short meant no contracts, no facility upgrades, no quicksaving, on career mode, while starting the save with severe limitations. While the mission ended up needing quick-loading, it still is eye popping to see just how much work went into it. Each launch (in the VAB) was limited to 18 tons maximum, so a work around was used by having docking ports around the base of the rocket, to which separate boosters would be docked using a runway-launched rover. This meant that many launches required multiple launches of booster attachment vessels before the rocket itself could attempt to leave the pad. After over 100 launches, the Navis Sideralis Neanderthalensis and all its cargo were ready, and the ship departed for Jool, leaving a most amusing pattern of drop tanks in its wake. Upon reaching Jool, disaster struck when the Tylo lander suffered an anomoly, and quicksaves were needed to complete the Jool 5. While at Jool, science modules were discarded after use because a lack of KSC upgrades prevented their resetting, and every aspect of the mission, from flying between moons to the landings themselves, were executed with meticulous testing and prior calculation. I cannot possibly explain everything this mission did in this little blurb, so I highly encourage anyone who wants to see some of the best Kerbal engineering I've ever seen to check out the linked mission thread above. ISRU Mission thread here. Collected 142744 science (Current Record!) from the Jool system. This mission is perhaps the greatest Jool 5 missions to ever fly. A worthy successor to @king of nowhere's previous submissions, this mission collected practically every single piece of science that the Jool system has to offer, with only a few dozen science bits unobtained. In addition, the mission visited every single anomaly in the Jool system, performed circumnavigations of every moon, and flew a two-crew craft into Jool's upper atmosphere to collect science, and deployed an aircraft carrier to Laythe. The mission's thread linked above follows the journey of the Flying Christmas Tree 2, a massive mothership capable of landing and refueling itself, Leaping Mantis, a rover designed for climbing steep grades on alien worlds, Tamarromobile, a larger rover for Tylo, Phoenix, the spaceplane for Jool, Absolutely Not An Albatross, an SSTO for Laythe, and Garibarge, the aircraft carrier for Laythe so that Kerbals could disembark from Not Albatross and collected surface samples from Laythe's ocean biomes. The mission began with Flying Christmas Tree 2 being equipped with the landers, planes, and aircraft carrier. Use this link here to see the majesty of Flying Christmas Tree 2 in all its glory -> (https://youtu.be/h61wplb0DRw?si=HlNYwxnYPkPaem2k). From there, it flew to Minmus to land and refuel, and then departed for Jool. The following efforts to circumnavigate all 5 moons and locating the anomalies require an entire thread of its own, requiring one to view and read the entirety of the mission thread linked above. Out of all the Jool 5 missions I have ever reviewed, none have exhibited such effort or gone to the extent shown here. This is not one of many Jool 5 missions, this is the Jool 5. - @OJT ISRU Mission thread here. Collected 26871.3 science from the Jool System. This mission thread contains some of the most eye-catching, visually stunning KSP screenshots I have ever seen in a Jool 5 submission. The mission itself was tested and proofed in sandbox, and consisted of a long, skinny mothership, a spaceplane, and an ISRU lander for Tylo. With the lander and plane hanging from docking points on the main ship, the craft boosted to Jool and used a Tylo flyby to capture. Visiting Vall first, the lander took around 100 days to refuel. The ship then flew to Pol where the relatively tiny lander (in relation to the mothership) flew to Pol's surface and back numerous times to refuel the main ship before it could head to Bop. At Bop a kraken was discovered, and on Tylo the crew found it refreshingly eventless. The last destination was Laythe, where the plane and lander were left in orbit so the main ship could return to Kerbin. A return craft returned the crew and science, and crew XP was had by all. - @Robin Patenall Mission thread here. Collected 61174.6 science from the Jool System. This mission began with the construction of the Emerald Star, a large and reconfigurable interplanetary vessel that required 17 launches to complete. Once built, the Emerald Star used Eve and Kerbin gravity assists to efficiently sling itself to Jool and started with Tylo. Using one of the Emerald Star's 3 drive cores to send itself down to a lower Tylo orbit, the lander successfully brought the crew to and from the Tylic surface. When the mission reached Vall, a magical anomaly was discovered, one which would prove to be only one of many odd discoveries made on Jool's moons. An SSTO found one on Laythe as well, during one of its three total landings. A monolith was found on Pol, and a deceased kraken on Bop, one which caused a crew member to lament their inability to bury it. Once the landings had been complete, the remains of the Emerald Star returned home, where it was parked in Kerbin orbit awaiting future assignment. - @problemecium Mission thread here. Collected 8755.7 science from the Jool System. This mission thread covers the finally completed tale of the Aletheia, a massive, nearly 1.3 kiloton mothership. With numerous cargo bays, it brought landers, an SSTO, a deployable space station, numerous pieces of scientific equipment, and two ARKS to return the crew to Kerbin if needed. Upon construction, Aletheia and its seven crew members proceeded to Jool, using 46% of its total fuel. The transfer section was left behind in Laythe orbit while the rest of Aletheia continued on. After Laythe came Vall, where one of the ARKS was used to refuel the Tylo lander to enable it to tackle Vall (the ARK was then joined to the deployable station and left behind). The lander then tackled Tylo, and was left behind for future use. Bop saw the discovery of a hopefully deceased Kraken, and Pol marked landing number 5. This romp unfortunately depleted Aletheia of the fuel sufficient to return to Kerbin, so the second ARK spacecraft brought the crew home safely, using a Mun assist to tweak its final trajectory. This is one of the more aesthetically pleasing Jool 5 missions, and done in career mode in a very well typed out and necromanced thread, so if you are a fan of large stylish motherships, I would recommend giving this thread a view. Gatecrashers / Honorary Mentions - @JacobJHC Grand Tour, video here. Giant single launch craft, also visited every planet and moon from the OPM planet pack. Very big. Gatecrasher because crew hasn't landed yet. - @Fraus Mission here. There's nothing that can be said about this, other than that this mission definitely had more thought put into it than any other Jool 5 I've seen. - @cqIpb Mission here. This mission was flown on an Xbox, and pushed the console to its framerate limits! cqIpl was inspired to do a Jool 5 mission after finding this thread, and despite not being able to land on Laythe due to lander instability, still had a lot of fun finishing the rest of the mission, and took a few great screenshots along the way! As of writing this, cqIpb is still new to the KSP Forums. Welcome, we're glad you're here! - @Alpaca Z, using a craft built by @Lt_Duckweed (with permission) Grand Tour, ISRU . Video here. Using a rather simply built SSTA, this mission was a simple case of flying around the entire solar system and refueling everywhere. This craft utilized air-fans, ions, vectors, and nerv engines, allowing it to be not only capable of high efficiency maneuvers, but also those requiring high TWRs. A highlight of this mission was the strategy to use EVA construction to rebuild the back of the plane to enable it to land vertically on Tylo's surface. Why bring landing legs when you have wings that could do the job just as well? This mission's video submission is also of a high quality, so I recommend giving it a view. In all, the crew of three finished their grand tour in only 15 years and 117 days! Efficient and speedy Moved to Honorary Mentions due to the fact that the crew could not exit onto Tylo's surface.

This requirement, which I agree with, leads to an odd dichotomy for paid mods. Code-based mods have to provide a free link to the source code which means anyone can get the mod for free; you're only paying for the convenience of a compiled DLL. Artwork-only mods wouldn't have to share anything for free. Mod authors could then bundle unnecessary art file bloat into code-only mods, and add obfuscated extra code to check for those files, to prevent people from compiling the code on their own. KSP DRM. I don't have a solution just pointing out this edge-case issue. Agreed it's extremely complicated and I appreciate your donated time (without asking us to join Patreon to talk here, lol). I'm glad that you saw this thread because I created it partly based on your recent moderation of a mod that recently went paid. You deleted some posts will leaving others.

These are fair questions with very complicated answers on our end. Because it’s not specifically covered. Our current policy arises from direction issued to the moderation team a while ago, based on the no self promotion rule. The issue is obviously way more complicated than a simple “don’t talk about it” approach. We’ll figure out something here and get back to you “shortly”.

YEAR 1, DAY 59 - JEBEDIAH & BILL Deep in Aztec County lies one of the greatest pilots of all time, Jebediah Kerman, the ace from Amaccaca. He’s done it all. He was the first Kerbal to Circumnavigate Kerbin, the fastest flying Kerbal, and the highest flying Kerbal. For a long time he was the spokesman for Junkyard Aerospace Parts, which was in fact so successful for the business they renamed themselves to Jeb’s Junkyard. On this particular day when the agents (or black suits as pilots called them) arrived, Jeb was, well, being Jeb. “Hey Jeb, uh, there’s some black suits here to see you,” Bill said over the radio. “Ugh, this isn’t about the whole thing with the neighborhood, is it? I did get that family a new pet!” Jeb yelled back. “No, they’re here about some- wait, you never told me about the pet.” “There’s a reason for that…” “So, when will Jeb land?” asked one of the black suits. “It’ll probably be a few minutes. He took off around an hour ago, so he’s a few kilometers away at the moment.” Bill said. “I see,” said the black suit. “So, uh, what kind of plane is Jeb flying?” he asked. “A DE-395 Gyp.” Bill replied. “What? Those things haven’t flown since the 1930s!” “It was a gift from Jeb’s Junkyard. He said he liked vintage planes, so they gave him a vintage plane. Named it Brown Betty.” “Oh yeah, Jeb was a spokesman for them, right? What ever happened to his position there?” “Well, when you mix Jeb, a plane, and industrial equipment together, bad things follow.” “Alright Bill, clear the runway! We don’t want a repeat of the last landing!” Jeb said over the radio. I apologize for the weird suit textures, Texture Replacer had a stroke or something. “So what do you two want?” Jeb asked accusingly. “My taxes? I promise I paid them, they’re just… taking a long time!” “No Jeb, we’re here about something else.” the agent said. “I’m Jeff Kerman, and with me is Shearer Kerman.” “How many hours have you flown Jeb?” asked Shearer. “Around 2,000,” Jeb answered. “Well Jeb, we have a proposition for you. How would you-” “Yes, I think I would like to be a Kerbonaut,” Jeb interrupted. “H- How did you know?” Shearer said confused. “I’ve read the news. Everyone’s been saying I should go up first. Plus, you have the insignia, like, front and center on the car doors.” “Oh yeah… well… I mean we had a whole speech planned out, but I mean… alright, hop in.” Shearer gestured to Jeb to get into the car. “Not without Bill,” Jeb protested. “Bill? Well, I mean, we considered him, but… Jebediah, can I talk to you for a sec?” Jeff brought Jeb a little ways away from the car and plane. “Listen, I get you and Bill are friends, and we considered him, but Bill’s kind of… let’s say, not all there?” “Listen,” Jeb said. “Bill may be a little dimwitted, but he’s one of the best damn engineers you can get. I’m sure you’re gonna need engineers in space.” “Well… fine, alright.” Jeff said reluctantly. The two ended their sidebar and made their way back to the car. “Hop in,” he said to Bill. Bill excitedly ran to the car, and the four Kerbals were on their way. *** I just have to pop in and say that THE CAR AND PLANE ARE NOT MINE. I have been short on time, so I scoured KerbalX for some good prop vehicles. Here's the links to them: Plane: https://kerbalx.com/DE_Aviation/DE-395-Gyp Car: https://kerbalx.com/MicroSwitoo/Kadillac-Ceville

I updated the thread to be an Ace Combat/Project Wingman thread. AC and Project Wingman come hand in hand nowadays anyway, so I thought it'd be good to let you guys talk about Project Wingman as well.

Sorta the first. Group A "We think that everything will be fine, it's probably slightly less certain than what we currently know about Dragon." Group B "We agree, but if anything goes wrong we—us in this room—will be savaged for making the wrong decision when the signs were there to the public, and we ignored a simple contingency plan. I don't think it's the second scenario at all—I talk (usually txt, lol) to someone somewhat involved literally daily (ok, it's like 75% meme exchange ). I think the PAO (and Boeing) have botched this from the start. Minus the unforced PR errors (public now thinking something is terribly wrong), I think they come home on Starliner for sure. Should they pull the trigger on a SpaceX contingency, they would be smart to underline that they think Starliner is fine to return, but one of the points of two providers was to have just this sort of contingency option. Nominal ISS work will seamlessly continue, they will come home in 6 months on Dragon, and Starliner will return by itself for analysis. I would hope that they have actually characterized the problems so that they can simultaneously tell everyone that the added time at ISS allowed them to determine exactly what needs to be fixed on future flights, and they have already begun testing the fixes. If they have to refly the cert mission, they'd have to talk to Amazon about buying one of their Atlas Vs (they're already gonna lose money on this contract, might as well at least succeed).

What did we do today (as of writing this) in Kerbal Space Program? (The classic first Kerbal Space Program, that is.) Spotted something... "quite interesting", to say the least. More on that later. Before that, the day before, we learned from what happened following the previous post. And that is what will be discussed a bit below, before discussing what happened after. It seems that, as of writing this, we indeed show a lot of potential outside of modding Kerbal Space Program when it comes to playing the game proper, mods or no mods, but clearly still need to learn interplanetary and interstellar travel rocketry designs and such. Let this serve as proof of that. What you see here above is the giant fuel tank that we tried to add to our interplanetary ship being lifted into orbit. Choosing the smallest docking port possible was not the smartest design choice, but it ended up connecting. The same way that you could walk around with a huge bag of bricks slung over your shoulders, we tried to basically do that with our spaceship, not thinking about that part. Besides being able to connect to the interplanetary spaceship and provide a bunch more fuel, it did not do much but add huge amounts of weight and bend worryingly at the docking port connection. It helped at first, but that for a brief moment until something or another caused a collision, which caused this big blast that destroyed most of the payload that had been brought to the ship due to it. Thankful that the Kerbals were still even alive, we took that sort of cone thing seen in the lower picture fueled with the precious little bit of Liquid Fuel and Oxidizer that it had left and burned prograde. Then, we took that spaceship to to Duna and did this: Anyway, though... As for "what we did in Kerbal Space Program today" (as in the day that this was written on)... After that the day that the abovedescribed stuff happened, we decided to try creating a command pod using payload fairings, that of which is pictured below. That was way less chaotic and went way more according to plan than the interplanetary mission that spanned from the post before to this in terms of comparison. It flew into the air quite nicely on top of the RT-5 "Flea" Solid Fuel Booster that it was attached to, and functioned as any other command pod would, meaning this idea is indeed a keeper. Especially considering that, with this, you can design interiors that can function like KSP IVA, and can ditch the walls around the command seat inside to deploy parachutes as shown above. You see, this was around the last moment that Jeb was up there before we started spotting something that is about the silliest thing that somebody could see in Kerbal Space Program. Something that was not something that you would anticipate seeing at all unless told about it. Something quite unusual. It was this thing: If there is one thing that were not anticipating to see in Kerbal Space Program upon approaching sea level during a regular routine water landing, it is that thing right there. But there it was, staring back at us, its ginormous silliness palpable. I guess that the ocean decided that it wanted to do what the IVA camera screens in the bottom right corner in KSP do too. Regardless... talk about a "Kraken", eh? Jebediah Kerman eventually landed in the water, in a reflection of his own face. Kerbal Space Program? More like Kerbal Face Program! Like... what in the world?! Truly epic stuff. || That is what we did together in Kerbal Space Program the day that was written. We hope that you truly enjoyed the read and find our find as funny as we do.

This is a serious topic, and unfortunately, KSP2 fails on all fronts here. And I can only talk about problems with interface, but I'm sure there's plenty more things that can be improved. Plus, if anything, the 0.1.4 made it worse. Look at this Let's start from the top left. The "hamburger menu". Known to exist in most mobile apps, but absent from most desktop applications, except some browsers. Alright, it's a good idea to have a button AND a hotkey (Esc), just like staging does, but does it have to be an actual icon of a hamburger? Probably a snacks joke, haha. Okay, it's there but... it only works one way. There's no button to go back from the menu. Not very intuitive, is it? Meanwhile, a button with similar function (opening a menu of options) in App bar looks entirely different. Next stop is on the right, the GFORCE window. Or is it a Gforce window? Maybe it's crew portait window? And if it is, why does it show empty seats? Where's that cyber Kerbal dummy that devs have shown us ages ago? Anyway, what matters is that the name has a hard time explaining what it is, because the GFORCE only applies to that thin strip on the left. And I think another issue are the window names. Not only they're 8 pixels tall (at 1080p screen), very inconsistent in letter shape - look at any two same letters close to each other, they are not identical because the whole thing is badly compressed, but also inconsistent in letter size and style - for example, the resources window has the title made of 7 pixels, but also the separator isn't a dot, but a hyphen. And the whole theme makes it look like it's some placeholder codename, not an actual thing. Why is it ORBITAL.INFO, and not Orbital Info? Why is it TIME.WARP and not Time Warp? There's no reason to have it like that in a product that's not a prototype available only for the dev team. Font choices. On that one screenshot I counted 12 (Twelve) different styles, including changes in font size. That is the opposite of unified interface, feels more like a bunch of different bits made by 5 different people, glued together to make a UI. We've got window names in two (at least) sizes, orbital parameters (also at least two sized AND styles), the navball there you can find another 3, timewarp window with 2 more, the resource window with another new size, and staging with at least two more. Iconography. There isn't much here but there are two identical radiotelescope icons that do different things. One shows radio connection, the other is Tracking Station. That can be confusing. Also, all planets in the top left list have the same icon of Kerbin. I know it's an icon for "planet" but it's the same for moons. The Navball. Oh the navball. I should explain that I am slightly visually impaired. Wearing glasses, short sighted, astigmatism, recently fighting (without effects) focus/contrast issues in my right eye. And there's no other way of saying this, the new dark mode of the navball looks like crap and is unreadable for me without leaning in and squinting. The tiny, very densely packed numbers blend with the background, the center bird blends with the background lines, the SAS icons can be barely seen against what's behind them. You could say to increase the size of the UI - but I don't think I should. I'm not that blind because, in KSP1, with roughly the same size of the ball, I had no problems reading the numbers. Here though, it's a complete blur. Honestly, the most readable thing in this whole screenshot, is the FPS readout.

Can you talk about it or are you under NDA? If you can talk about it in a limited fashion, what other features does the mod have? Also, I just noticed something. Not all the Titan SRBs have nodes at the base of them. While it makes sense for the side attached ones not to have a bottom node, I think the inline versions at least should have nodes. Would it be possible to get those for all of them?

What are good hard science fiction books? That talk about reusable rocketry and artificial gravity and near future propulsion. Pls no political thrillers or religious thrillers I watched battle star and enjoyed the expanse. I want some books to check out on kindle bonus points if they got audio books.

Ill fix it. I must of left it in when I did he last update. The mods still a work in progress so thanks for the feedback. Sure when you get back lets talk.

Talk like Up-Goer Five: Express complex ideas using only very simple, common words. For anyone who has somehow managed to miss it, a while back xkcd had an absolutely brilliant strip: a schematic of the Saturn V, carefully labeled.... but with all terms restricted to only the thousand most common English words. This is where the KSP community gets the term "you will not go to space today." https://xkcd.com/1133/ This game is to talk like Up-Goer Five. That is, you have to express complex ideas using only the most common English words. Here are the rules: The person before you ends their post with a brief paragraph of something reasonably complex to explain. You need to take their post and re-word it using this tool (it lets you type what you want, and draws a red line under any "forbidden" words): http://splasho.com/upgoer5/ You can paraphrase if need be (you'll probably need to). The one really hard rule is, your "translation" has to fit in that tool's edit box with no red "forbidden words" underlines at all. Post your translation inside a spoiler box, so that people reading your post have a chance to guess an answer first, if they want to. Then provide a technical paragraph of your own for the next person to take a shot at. You're not allowed to answer your own post; someone else has to. But you're welcome to come back again after some other folks have had their turns. Guidelines for the "technical paragraph": Don't make it too long, please. Just a sentence or two is plenty. (Otherwise nobody will want to take the burden of "translating" it.) Don't make it so hard that nobody understands it. It should be something that a typical KSP forum user can understand without having to go look stuff up. Ideally the post should be about KSP-relevant topics, e.g. spaceflight, astronomy, engineering, KSP game advice, etc., but that's not a strict requirement, just a suggested guideline. (Props to @Deddly for pointing out the upgoer5 tool to me, which is what gave me the idea for this game.) Just as an example, here's a sample technical paragraph: SRBs are useful as boosters on the launchpad, because they're inexpensive and provide a lot of thrust. However, they're less efficient as upper stages, due to having a low Isp. Here's my stab at translation, using the above-linked tool to validate it: Fair 'nuff? Okay, to get the ball rolling, here's a technical paragraph for someone to start with: Building a SSTO spaceplane is challenging, because not only do you need to balance air-breathing engines with those that work in a vacuum, but also the ship needs to be aerodynamically stable at high velocity.

mine was back on the 5th but i dropped out that week due to one of my presents. nothing i can talk about here.