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But you dint answer my question, when you have such amount of energy confined in a smal space, you end with matter due to pair production effect. So this will be negative matter? Call it like you want, the same happens with harold white´s work, some places is mentioned q-thruster, others warp drive. Really? you need to mention the basics principles of Alcubierre Drive? This is mock? I guess I was clear enoght. It does not matter what effect produce.. You change your state many times, to make those changes you need to put some energy into the system. How it brakes? You said that is free falling, but you need to stop the free falling. How you do that? Then you need to point to another direction and move again.. Another change of state. How do you move the "matter and negative energy" to produce one effect or the other? Is not that a change of state? It does not need energy imput?? If that is not a PM machine.. Then I could not find any other example of a PMM. In that case, I am the "less wrong", becourse you believe that you understand more. Is not outdated. So you can talk for hours? Explain quamtum entaglement effect, not just the formule that preddicts that. Explain why it happens. Why to know the state of an entaglement particle said something about the other? Becouse is the same particle? becouse they are connected? I look in internet for those problems for years, nobody knows the answer. They just know that happens and it needs to be accepted. (is a propertie of the quamtum world. But all scientist said that they dont know why! To answer this, we need to really know how the universe really is. Its topology, all of it. We need a theory of everything, String Theory, if some day is prove it. In a lower frame we have Quamtum Gravity. So dont tell me that we understand QM. The same happen with gravity. What is their cause? what is their basic particle? The graviton? how it is? You know.. Quamtum effects start to be notorious for a group of molecules. "The equations of Yang–Mills remain unsolved at energy scales relevant for describing atomic nuclei." That is a lot bigger than plank lenght. First, not me, or you, or nobody can said nothing about the universe topology, Because we dont know! There are just theories, hundreds of them. My theory, is that the limit of the universe is the light speed. If you press attention, all round about that. Is the key of all answers. Quamtum gravity already made some calculations about how it will look a black hole from that theory points of view. There is not singularity. if you start to think, all the things close to the event horizon are freeze in time from an external observer. After that point, in a way.. you can said that the time is reversed. Or not reversed, forwards in other plane. From the things inside the black hole, The begining may look like the singularity (big bang) making the whole time and space. And what can produce all that? The speed of light with its cosmic censorship mechanic. Is this the true or just another farie story? The answer is, "we still dont know." I have all that perfecty in mind. the amount of money that NASA gave to White was very small. White is a very weird scietist becouse he never show his data or reasearch to other people. He said that is "classified", he make some talks once in a whilea, last one was in the starship symposium 2013. Like always, he explain the same thing that every knows about warp drives, and then explain that he is trying to test that. And that is it! When they asked specific questions about his experiment, or his theory.. He said that he cant not give more details becouse is classified. You know how weird is that behevior inside a scientific comunity? What is Nasa winning with all this? Publicity. The Nasa name is mentioned in plenty of notes with this topic, so when they ask money to goverment, they had a little more support from the scyfi comunity who represent some voters. Some years ago, I was very interested in new kind of 3d sounds. I did a really big reaseach (I read almost 600 pages of that), also I meet her niece. Some time after I exchange some emails with him. Then I found their patent in europe of his invention, and it was very different from what he claims. In fact he just improve an old method. I found many like him over the years, the same behavior arise, hide some things and talk about the same thing. Etc. That is the conference when I read that many made some particular question about its method, and he dint want to said. If you are trying to test something, or werever, you want that as many people like you can repeat that process to see if their reach the same results. Nobody will remove your credits like inventor. But this is not happening here. The other paper that you send about geodesics, explain the warp drive from the time reference, also calculates some other things, but it does nothing to do with quamtum mechanics or other stuff. I also read a note in century dreams, that describe how a Warp Drive ship will look from one external observer on the docks. First you will see the ship just appear from nothing, then you would see the ship arrive and going in reverse. Then again it disappears, an you see the ship go, also in reverse. I dont know if the universe will be ok with all that.

Banned for computer talk in a nonsense thread.

PURPOSE: This tutorial is aimed at those who want to build a basic airplane/space plane, but find themselves overwhelmed when looking at some of the pretty amazing space planes other people have built. I don’t want to show you how to assemble a specific airplane or space plane that I thought up (though we will use an example). I want to show you how to design your own plane that flies how you want, so you can experiment and learn. (Don’t feel overwhelmed now, but the airplane we build/experiment on in this tutorial can be modified to fly in a 200km orbit and return to Kerbal Space Center.) BACKGROUND (basics of aeronautics): I was going to write an information topic about basic aeronautics because the ones I read were very simplistic. What I mean by that was there was little depth beyond “put your center of gravity in front of your center of lift.†This IS an incredibly important tip. However, I kept seeing comments from people unable to design or fly their own aircraft for various reasons. Fortunately, before I started writing I found this article "Basic Aircraft Design", written by Keptin, and I think it is a very good starter. I tip my hat to the author for spending time making the illustrations and breaking the terms down. Do not feel like you have to fully grasp the concepts, as the point of this tutorial is to actually SEE how the different factors affect flying in stock Kerbal. Keptin’s article covers these topics, in this order: Center of Mass (Is mentioned, but not described as he assumes you already know what this is.) Center of Lift (and its relationship to Center of Mass) Center of Thrust (and its relationship to Center of Mass) Control Surfaces (Ailerons, Rudders, Canards/Elevators, Elevons) Wing Shape (High, Moderate, Low Aspect Ratios) and Wing Sweep Wing Placement (High, Mid, Low Wing, Dihedral, Anhedral) Angle of Attack Landing Gear (and effects on takeoff/landing angle of attack), landing gear width, overweight I recommend you read Keptin’s article and have a very basic understanding of the above terms. You can either read his whole article and come back here, or read his article and mine at the same time. I decided to try and mirror my tutorial with his (with a few exceptions since we have to design). Also, I will not cover all of Keptin’s topics in this first tutorial. Some of the topics are pretty big, but if people want more, I will write another. Plus I found this tutorial became pretty long as it is (about 10 Microsoft Word pages without pictures). So if you want to shorten your reading in Keptin’s article, see my topics below. TOPICS: For easy reference, here’s what you’ll find below: Section 1: Creating a Test Aircraft Section 2: Landing Gear Placement Basics Section 3: Horizontal Center of Lift Design Section 4: Horizontal Center of Mass Design During Flight Section 5: Vertical Center of Lift Design – aka Wing Placement (High, Dihedral, Low, Anhedral) Again, I believe this information will all be fairly basic and meant to be hands on. So if you’re looking for advanced tips this may not be the tutorial for you. LET’S GET STARTED: Section 1: Creating a test aircraft. So you read in Keptin’s article (or already know) about the center of gravity, lift, and thrust. So now it is time to put these three together into an aircraft that is reasonably stable so we can test out different designs. I’m going to assume you know the basics of the Kerbal interface and how to find the parts, although if you haven’t rotated and flipped parts in the Space Plane Hangar, I have included those keys. Let’s build our airplane: (see the picture below for help) 1) Go to the Space Plane Hangar and start a new ship. (Select “New†if you have any parts or previous ships up in the hangar to clear it out. You might also want to start a new save game if you are squeamish about killing your kerbals, as you will probably crash a few times.) 2) Select the Mk1 cockpit, add two Mk1 fuselage sections and one TurboJet engine. 3) Turn on angle snap. 4) Place one tail fin on the top of the rear fuselage, as far back as you can get it. 5) Landing gear: Place one “small gear bay†on the underside of the nose so that the back edge of the gear lines up with the seam between the Mk-1 and the forward fuselage section. 6) Place the rear gear (with symmetry on) on the underside of the rear fuselage section. Line it up so that the back edge of the gear bay lines up with the seam between the rear fuselage and the turbojet engine. Place the rear gear slightly up the sides of the fuselage. Make sure angle snap is on and you will have to rotate the gear 45 degrees [shift-Q, nine times]. Ensure the gear points straight down. 7) Turn on the Center of Gravity (yellow & black bubble) and the Center of Lift (blue & black bubble) indicators. 8) Select the Delta wing, turn on symmetry, and mount the wings in the middle of the fuselage side. Align the center of lift (blue & black) bubble just behind the center of gravity (yellow & black) bubble. You can use the little “spikes†that stick out of the side of the blue lift bubble to help with alignment. 9) Attach a “Standard Control Surface†to the back edge of the wing, with symmetry on. 10) Add “XM-G50 Radial Air Intakesâ€Â, with symmetry on, and align the intake’s connecting point with the flame symbol near the back end of the airplane fuselage (left side). 11) Give it a name and save if you want to. Overall it should look like this… Go Fly – But wait! Before you actually go fly I want to describe what we will do. We will use the same basic profile for takeoff and flying the plane. That way the changes we make during the tutorial will be a bit more obvious, and the results repeatable. Read through this next part before you do your first takeoff. Here’s our procedure… 1) Rotate the camera around to a comfortable viewing angle. Personally, I like a view that allows me to see the control surfaces and landing gear. 2) Ignite the engines [space Bar], run the throttle up [shift] to full power, then activate the SAS [T]. 3) At 120 m/s, pull the nose into the air (or pull back on your joystick) to get the nose a few degrees up. Holding 5 to 10 degrees nose high is fine. 4) After the aircraft climbs away from the runway, retract the landing gear [G]. 5) Continue to accelerate till you reach around 160 m/s. Pull the nose into the air again [s, or Joystick] and try to get it straight up. Work hard to get the dot in the ‘V’ right on the straight vertical dot. 6) When you reach around 2000 m, push forward [W] till you get the nose back to the horizon. 7) Turn off the SAS [T] and see what happens. This is where our generic procedure will end. Feel free to play with and fly the airplane around more after this point. However, this flight profile will serve as a baseline for my comments on aircraft reactions you’re looking for (listed as “Test Reportâ€Â) in each tutorial section. It’s up to you if you want to fly before reading the Test Report, or read the Test Report and then go experience it. Now, actually GO FLY! – Test Report: What you’ll notice during the flight is the aircraft won’t actually lift off the ground at 120 m/s and will run off the end of the runway if you let it. We will discuss why that is in the next section (if you haven’t figured it out already). Go ahead and run off the end of the runway and make sure you’re still pulling back. The aircraft will fly away easily and is controllable all the way up. The nose sort of bounces a little during the pull, but it’s not too hard to pull the nose up and push it back down. SAS off, it flies about the same except it doesn’t snap to a stop during rolls and pulls. Depending on your exact placement, it might want to pitch slowly forward. This will be our starter aircraft for Section 2. Section 2: Landing Gear Placement Basics Landing gear placement is one of the basic considerations for your takeoff roll. I’m not going to delve into all the types of landing gear or problems in this tutorial (maybe on another tutorial) because I want to focus on small aircraft aero basics. However, this basic tricycle gear can cause problems leading to wasted aerodynamic tweaks that can mess up airborne performance. For example, one way to fix the takeoff of our basic airplane is to put on canards, or we could tip the wings up. However, we can adjust the landing gear first without increasing part count (and weight and drag) and without changing the airborne aircraft characteristics… Let’s rotate the landing gear around. 1) Select the rear landing gear (make sure symmetry is on) and reset the rotations you did earlier (Press [space]). 2) Rotate the gear so the wheels are on the front of the gear bay instead of in back (Press [D, 2 times]). 3) Now, rotate the gear 45 degrees down like earlier [shift + Q, 9 times] and attach to the rear fuselage with the back end of the landing gear again lined up with the seam between the TurboJet engine and the rear fuselage. This leaves the center of gravity unchanged, but moves the wheels very far forward. Go Fly! Test Report: Oh no! What happened? The aircraft tips back on its tail because the wheels are so far forward. That's okay, go ahead and activate the engine and take off anyway to watch what happens. Wait to activate the SAS until after the nose wheel is back on the ground. At 120 m/s, rotate the nose off the ground. You'll find it takes very little to get the nose up, and the aircraft is very stable after that. The rest of the profile looks like it did before. So we fixed the rotation problem (sort of) without changing flight performance or part count. Obviously starting out with an airplane tipped up and the engine on the ground isn't ideal. So let’s refine this a little. 1) Go back to the hangar and select the gear, undo rotations, and rotate it back down 45 degrees (remember: symmetry on, [space] to reset, [shift + Q] to rotate). Except this time when you align the gear on the rear fuselage, place it so that about 1/3 of the gear bay is in front of the Center of Gravity. 2) Adjust the wings so the center of the Center of Lift bubble is aligned with the back end of the Center of Gravity bubble. (The bubble will move some, it's okay.) Go Fly! Test Report: The aircraft takes a little more to pull it off the ground than when the wheels were flipped around, but it also doesn't sit on the engine. The rest of the flight profile is unaffected. Go ahead and play with gear placement more if you want. Also note that even though the landing gear moves the Center of Mass bubble in the SPH, it doesn't actually change the flight characteristics. Despite having weight and drag in the SPH, the landing gear currently have no effect on in flight mechanics (KSP v0.23). This isn't too big of a deal with most aircraft, but if you're working on touchy stability with strange airplanes, it might be important. Because of this, you may want to consider adding the landing gear last during construction so that it doesn't throw off the Center of Mass bubble when placing the Center of Lift. I will possibly cover more landing gear in another tutorial if people want it. Personally I'm a fan of having the gear all swing forward when they retract, but you can place them in either direction. We'll use this most recent configuration as our baseline airplane for the next sections. You might want to save a copy to save you time later after making modifications. (By the way, this configuration is capable of flying up to about 64km if you let it keep going straight up.) Section 3: Horizontal Center of Lift Design Okay, so when talking about Center of Lift, what's actually important in basic design is the relationship between the location of the Center of Lift, and the location of the Center of Mass (at least for now...). So what we're going to do move the Center of Lift around a bit in relation to the Center of Mass (horizontally) and see how the airplane flies. We will discuss vertical changes in Center of Lift in a later section. 3.1 Center of Lift Aft of Center of Mass (Positive Stability, or Stable) This is how we've been flying the plane around up to this point, with the blue lift bubble behind the yellow mass bubble. Now we're going to move it much further back and see how it handles. Modifications: 1) Grab the wings and slide them aft just so there is a slight gap between the blue lift bubble and the yellow mass bubble. (Blue bubble closer to the engine than the yellow.) Now go fly! Test Report: The airplane is a little harder to takeoff than it was before and the nose is slower to get up and down. It still flies pretty smooth though, and I find it a little easier to fine tune the straight up part. If you paid attention to the altitudes during pull up and pull down, you’ll see it takes more room to turn. This is kind of important to note: SAS off, the airplane wants to pitch down slowly. If you design your airplane with the Center of Lift too far back, the SAS might not be able to compensate and the aircraft will slowly pitch over. 3.2 Center of Lift with the Center of Mass (Neutral Stability) Modifications: 1) Grab the wings and slide them forward so the blue lift line is coming out of the top center of the yellow mass bubble. Go Fly! Test Report: The airplane lifts off the ground really easily. The nose is quick to get toward straight up and is still a little "bouncy." If you manage to get really aggressive with the pull up (or your Center of Lift is a little too far forward), the airplane might go out of control a bit. SAS off, the plane might want to pitch up or down a bit depending on your exact Center of Lift placement. Advantages here are that the plane is a lot more responsive. However, it sits on the edge of being out of control. Bear in mind that the Center of Mass will shift during flight (aft for this airplane), so if you start out neutrally stable on takeoff, you may end up unstable during flight. 3.3 Center of Lift forward of the Center of Mass (Negative Stability, or Unstable) Unstable during flight you say?! Let’s try that out too. Modifications: 1) Grab your wings and slide that lift bubble forward so that there is a slight gap between the blue lift bubble and the yellow mass bubble. (With the blue ball closer to the cockpit!) Go Fly! (Or try to anyway.) Test Report: How was that liftoff? This thing is flyable if you know how, but you can see how much work it is and how easy it goes out of control. Usually you don't want an airplane like this for (hopefully) obvious reasons. It's actually kind of fun to watch it fly around. The SAS actually does a lot of work here trying to make the airplane stable. If you manage to not crash for a while, turn the SAS off and see how it goes. If you want to play around with a negatively stable airplane, adjust the Center of Lift so that it is only slightly forward of the Center of Mass (blue bubble inside the yellow bubble, but forward of center). You can slide that around a bit and see that an airplane with a forward Center of Lift is flyable but takes some work. It's sometimes easier to get the airplane under control without the SAS, then turn it back on when you're nearly flying right again. This might give you some confidence if you find yourself in a bad situation and you can rely on some piloting skill to save it without abandoning or reverting right away. 3.4 Revert the airplane to the baseline from the start of this section. This means putting the center of the Center of Lift bubble at the back edge of the Center of Mass bubble. Section 4: Center of Mass Design During Flight Okay, so now that we know a bit about the relationship between the Center of Lift and Center of Mass, how can we affect this during flight? Well, for our basic airplane, the Center of Lift isn't going to move around but the Center of Mass will because of fuel burn (and maybe because you leave or pickup a payload in orbit). For now, we'll just talk about planning a Center of Mass change due to burning fuel. 4.1 Center of Mass due to Fuel Burn for our basic airplane (horizontal Center of Mass) As we saw in Section 3, the airplane is most unstable when the Center of Mass is at the most aft position. So in this section we will adjust fuels to simulate the change in Center of Mass during flight. In this way we can find out if our aircraft will end up neutrally stable (Section 3.2) or unstable (Section 3.3). Then we can design the airplane to have the desired stability and maneuverability at all times in flight. In our basic airplane, normal Kerbal fuel feeding will use fuel from front to back. Let's see if we can figure out when the Center of Mass will be furthest aft. Modifications: 1) Right click on the front fuselage tank and run it completely empty by clicking and dragging the green bar down to zero. Watch how the Center of Mass yellow bubble moves aft, toward the engine. It will also move slightly down, but let’s not worry about that for now. 2) Now right click on the rear fuselage tank and run it completely empty. Watch the yellow bubble. It should move forward (and slightly down). So the Center of Mass is furthest aft when the forward fuselage tank is empty, and the rear one is full. 3) Refill the rear fuselage tank and make sure the forward fuselage tank is empty. Notice how the center of the blue bubble is still behind the center of the yellow bubble (although it is now inside the yellow bubble). Go Fly! Note: If your plane tips back on the tail, see if you can think how to fix it. (Hint: Think about Section 2: Landing Gear. This is part of the iterative process of designing.) Test Report: The plane is fairly maneuverable but still controllable at the most aft fuel condition. Not much else to say here other than, if your plane tips back on the engine and you didn’t figure it out, you’ll need to move the landing gear slightly back. (With the fuel cut in half, this configuration is capable of flying up to about 85km if you let it keep going straight up. Recall when fully loaded it was about 64km, a 33% increase.) NOTE: Make sure you refill the forward fuselage tank when you’re done!! Section 5: Vertical Center of Lift Design – aka Wing Placement (High, Dihedral, Low, Anhedral) Vertically moving the Center of Lift can be caused by two basic design choices. If you recall Keptin’s discussion of vertical wing placement (high, mid, or low) and wing up/down angle (also known as dihedral and anhedral), these affect an aircraft’s stability similar to having a forward/aft Center of Lift. In the case of our basic airplane, we have been flying with the delta wing mounted mid fuselage, so the Center of Lift has been (nearly) at the same vertical height as the Center of Mass. Moving the Center of Lift above Center of Mass (High Wing and Dihedral) tends to stabilize an aircraft. Moving the Center of Lift below Center of Mass (Low Wing and Anhedral) tends to destabilize an aircraft. Realize the concepts of wing placement and dihedral/anhedral are two different concepts, and we will explore both. 5.1 High Wing – Center of Lift Above the Center of Mass (Positive Stability) High wings tend to stabilize an airplane. Modifications: 1) Grab the wings (symmetry and angle snap on) and place the wing root 30 degrees above the fuselage center line and angle the wings so they are back to level [shift-Q, 6 times]. (30 degrees above fuselage center is two steps up with angle snap on. Hopefully you know what I mean. The wings should be level after you rotated with [shift-Q] six times.) 2) Place the Center of Lift blue bubble above the Center of Mass yellow bubble. No doubt, it’s definitely above! Go fly this one. Test Report: Very maneuverable in the pull up to vertical, and still fairly maneuverable and bounces a little. Great but what’s the downside? When you push forward, the airplane will likely go out of control if you push too hard/far. However, with a high Center of Lift (over the Center of Mass), the aircraft tends to “right†itself sort of like a curved leaf falling through the air. SAS off, it wants to pitch up (due to Center of Thrust issues.) 5.2 Dihedral Wing – Center of Lift Above the Center of Mass (Positive Stability) Just like high wings, dihedral tends to stabilize an aircraft. Modifications: 1) Grab the wings (symmetry and angle snap on) and reset rotations [space]. 2) Tip the wings up 10 degrees [shift + E, 2 times]. 3) Attach the wings mid fuselage so the blue lift vector goes up through the center of the Center of Mass yellow bubble. The blue lift bubble won’t be as high as last time. Go Fly! Test Report: You’ll see that it flies a lot like the high wing airplane. Fairly maneuverable to straight up with a little bit of bouncing. It suffers from the same instability as a high wing if you drive up to about 2000m and push forward hard [W]. And just like high wing, it pitches up with SAS off. 5.3 Low Wing – Center of Lift Below the Center of Mass (Negative Stability) Low wings tend to destabilize an airplane. Modifications: 1) Grab the wings (symmetry and angle snap on) and reset rotations [space]. 2) Place the wing root 30 degrees below the fuselage center line and angle the wings so they are back to level [shift + E, 6 times]. (Hopefully you know what this means now that you’ve suffered through high wing. Again, the wings should be level after you rotated with [shift + E] six times.) 3) Place the Center of Lift blue lift bubble below the center of the Center of Mass yellow bubble. Go fly it. It’s not too uncontrollable… Really! Test Report: Pulls up nice and quick to straight up, then suddenly spins around and goes crazy for a second. You can do some pretty crazy maneuvers with this and it sort of stabilizes with a little bit of pilot input. SAS off, it wants to pitch up. Although this time it’s due to instability, not Center of Thrust. 5.4 Anhedral Wing – Center of Lift Below the Center of Mass (Negative Stability) Just like low wings, dihedral tends to destabilize an aircraft. Modifications: 1) Grab the wings (symmetry and angle snap on) and reset rotations [space]. 2) Tip the wings down 10 degrees [shift + Q, 2 times]. 3) Attach the wings mid fuselage. Again, make the lift vector go up through the center of the Center of Mass yellow bubble. Notice how the center of the blue bubble is nearly centered in the yellow bubble. So it’s not actually below the Center of Mass (unstable), but it’s about as neutral as you can make it. ([shift+Q] 1 more time and you can make it neutral if you want.) Go fly. I bet you can guess how it will react, based on our dihedral experiment. Test Report: Flies a lot like the low wing aircraft, but maybe not quite as quick to go out of control and a little easier to recover. SAS off, it will want to pitch away from your prograde marker. Like the low wing, this is due to instability. 5.5 Vertical Lift Placement Summary Personally, to me anhedral looks awesome on an airplane. Strangely, I don’t really like it on a space plane (maybe because it isn’t the classic shape). If you place the wing slightly high, you can give them anhedral and it will still be reasonably stable (looks like a Harrier). If you place the wings low and give them dihedral, it looks more like a space plane (to me anyway). Try this and see how it flies: Move the wings down from the midpoint one angle snap (15 degrees) and give them dihedral [shift + E, 4 times]. Align the back edge of the blue lift bubble at the back edge of the yellow mass bubble. SUMMARY: I hope you have fun with this basic plane. It isn’t much, but I think it’s effective for playing and learning. Placement of the Center of Lift with respect to the Center of Mass is a big design crux of your airplane. Generally speaking, you DO want the Center of Lift behind your Center of Mass. However, you need not be afraid of having it neutral if you know what you want. Hopefully I’ve given you a bit of hands on knowledge and courage to try out different designs. Don’t forget to consider fuel burn in your design. The design choice of high/low/mid wing and dihedral/anhedral/neutral wings is really up to you. Just like the Center of Lift/Mass, it depends on how you want your airplane to fly and what you want it to do. You can also combine these in various options to get the look you want, but with stability. If you have a hard time flying a plane, you’ll probably want it more stable. If you find flying airplanes easy, then you can opt for a more maneuverable design. Realize the aircraft reacts differently as you get fast and higher up in altitude. And for space planes, you’ll need good controllability and stability as you leave/reenter the atmosphere. If you guys want, I can continue the tutorial to explain how design and test this thing to get into orbit with only two more parts.

Licking Wounds Loddon eased his jets and lifted free of the Base. Here it looked good. No damage visible, no burns or anything showing. But above... He looked up and saw a bulge on the side of the tri-coupler mount and frowned. This was not going to be good. "I'm ascending up to check the coupler." He said into his mike. "Roger EVA One." Bob answered. "Be careful, we're still getting sporadic spikes on the power line. Something must still be wrong out there." "I will." Up he went and looked down on the connector. It wasn't pretty. Two of the docking ports had been jammed down, their magnetic grapples visibly distorted around the rim as the whole port's edge was crumpled. "Looks like when they decoupled only one worked. The others were effectively immediately crushed by not only the full weight of the Skycrane but also probably the actuation systems on the crane. Must have been a heck of a jolt! They've been driven into the assembly mount!" "So... no way to salvage the tri-coupler?" "No, sorry Bob, I think they're going to have to redesign the transport to land beside us. I was never keen about something that heavy docking on top of the base anyway. We do have one docking port left up here that looks intact, but I wouldn't want to trust it." The original aim was to have several small ships here, each able to land on top of the base. With three docking ports in a triangle on both base and lander the engineers thought that docking would be easy to align. The simulators showed it worked, though it took some skill to land right. Then the designers ran across the council and the lander designs got bigger and bigger as the needs went up. The current transport design was over five times the size of the original one and the base's docking port wasn't really rated for that load. Even before this incident there had been talk about just landing beside the base and hooking hoses up instead. Now that seemed the only option. "I really don't think there is any way to fix this Bob. At least not to get all three working again. And the one left is off center. We can't land anything heavy up here, it'd cause lateral stresses. Sorry." "That's OK EVA One. Right now we need to figure out what happened. I want to know how the power spikes got past the surge protectors. We should have been safe." "Yeah, I'd like to know that too. Look, I'm going to check out the skycrane. What's the situation with that?" "Well, saving the whole thing? Probably not an option as it was never designed for long term use, but you should check out the escape ship. The skycrane's systems were incompatible with the base, but the escape ship's computer might be useful as a backup here. Be tricky as the thing doesn't have a docking port. We'd have to rip it out of the ship and cart it over by hand, then re-install it. Not a simple task in a space suit." "True. I'll check it out." Loddan adjusted his RCS and flitted out across the grey plains towards the landed Skycrane. *** The Command pod was rather packed. Only Loddon wasn't present as he was still outside. "I know Gene," Bob said into the mike, "The crew just got back from the check of the ship. Gernand and Caldin offered to carry on the check up in a few minutes. We want to be sure." "And you have no idea what caused the problem?" Gene's voice came over the speakers. "Well, the computer has some kind of issue, and the power fluctuations were what killed it, probably by exacerbating an existing problem. It seems that whatever it was spiked the system so bad it got the backups. I'm not sure how that happened. As to the power spike itself? It's a bit of a guess but we're pretty sure it was some kind of feedback from the actuators on the docking mechanism. From Loddan's suit-cam pics it looks like the hydraulics went nuts when we tried to undock, and when they let loose it caused the actuators to behave like generators. It was so sharp a jolt it overloaded the surge protectors in the docking assembly." "The entire assembly's fried?" Gene asked. "Two out of three ports, and some of the auxiliary systems too. Those we think we can fix, so the remaining port should be functional, but it's off center so won't take much weight without straining the system." "Hmm..." Gene pondered. "How about we send up a replacement computer on a probe core, then land it on the remaining docking port? That should give you operational status again at least. It would be a bit of a jury rig, and be rather exposed to radiation damage and micro-meteorite impacts, but it would work." Bob glanced at the display and raised an eyebrow. "Wait a minute Gene, Loddan's calling. This might be news about the skycrane." He flicked the switch and let Loddan in on the conversation. "Loddan, what'ya have for us?" "Not good news I'm afraid. The skycrane is OK, pretty much untouched, but I'm afraid the nav comp in the escape ship is toast. Must have been fried by the same power spike as our computer. Manual systems work, but trying to use this, even just as an escape ship, would not be easy. I'd suggest we get rid of it just to be sure. If the system is badly fried it's faintly possible something could go nuts if we leave it sitting out here." "OK, but if the computers gone how do we get rid of it?" "Heh, that's easy. I launch it then bail. On low thrust I should be able to RCS out of there and let it just cruise on out, run out of fuel and lithobraking will dispose of the debris for us." A raucous laugh from Dansey caught Bob's attention and he glared at him. For once Dansey's face fell and he looked sheepish. Miracles never cease! "And if it goes nuts on you while you're inside trying to launch it?" "Bob, I'm already inside it to check it out. I'd like to dump it now, just to be sure. I don't like the idea of a damaged vessel sitting here so close to the base. Let me dump it, please?" "Well, we were intending to get rid of it, but I think the plan was to launch it into orbit to be used as a personnel shuttle or something. *sigh* OK, OK Loddan, go for it. Just be real careful, please?" "Oh, only 'cos you asked nicely Bob." A light chuckle from Caldin bought a smile to Bob's lips. "So, you'll need the probe then?" Gene added, once Loddan was finished. "Yes, looks that way Flight. Thanks. Let me know when it's ready." "Will do Alpha One." Everyone relaxed visibly once A solution was found, even if it was a ways off happening yet. "Um, Sir?" Caldin said quietly. "Maybe me and Gernand had better get on the safety sweep? The earlier the better, right?" "Yeah, sure Caldin. Let me know what you find." Caldin grinned and bounced out of the room, Gernand following on behind a little more slowly, shaking his head. His grin said he seemed to like Caldin's attitude at least.

Changing subject, As i know see the original poster who posted my arguments we're invalid has edited his post to change his "subject". Overall DLC's Are a bad idea. We've been flaming over this little post, How about we just stop flaming and try to talk about why DLC's are bad or good for KSP. We don't want to have communities insulted for little things, Such as spelling or grammar.

Let me dig up a (very) old photo... Dang it, can't find it. Must be from 0.18 or thereabouts. Anyhow, my most what? moment in KSP: here I was, just launched my first probe into solar escape trajectory. Either probes were kinda new, or ion engines, and I wanted to see how fast I could get one going. Got the most out of Oberth effect on chemical engines and all that. It gets into kerbol's SoI and... BAM! tuns out the game decides it's going retrograde instead of prograde. A mess of an orbit with high eccentricity at that. Thanks, Kraken! Thankfully Jool was close by, and I managed to squeeze an intercept out of ions. It put the probe on kerbol polar escape trajectory just with the gravity assist. Talk about inefficient trajectories... retrograde encounter with a gas giant and a polar trajectory just to get escape from the solar system! It's got to be in one of my old save files still flying towards that rendezvous, but I don't wanna fire up the old versions, so I guess you will have to take my word for it, but it was one of those moments in KSP that stuck with me. Rune. It was a hilarious bug, that's for sure.

Chapter 11.5: Reunion of foes Over a month later... See/Sig: Wow.... B9k: I know. It looks so beautiful... B9k: Guys- I need to activate the comm array to contact mission control. We may be having a situation here... See: I don't- B9k: Check the gravioli scanner. Sig: ... That is a blinking dot. B9k: Yes, yes it is. MC: Hey guys! How is Duna? See: It's gorgeous! B9k: MC, I am sending you gravioli scanner data now. We have a bogey, decelerating relative to us, directly aft. MC: Get eyes on target DuneDancer. Sig: I can barely see it! See: It's really dark. B9k: It has next-to-no heat signature, and active scanning on bands other than gravioli shows nothing. It seems to have near-perfect insulation... MC: Well then, approach and- Jeb: NO! DO NOT APPROACH! DO NOTHING! Shutdown exterior lights, and deactivate all non-essential systems. See: Jeb? B9k: Why? Jeb: You know why B9k. Just... Observe it. B9k: Complying.... MC: Jeb, we need to talk. You are behaving more and more irrationally. Jeb: Myself, Bill, and Bob have reason to belive this object may be- See: It's moving! Jeb: -hostile... Sig: It's glowing.... See: This can't be good. *THWUMP* B9k: Spacial ripple! SBBBBBBWBAiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq...... Ok, I'm fine. See: Sig, check all systems- Sig: B9k, could you run a system diagnostic? B9k: Primary computing systems offline. All exterior sensors other than the gravioli scanner is offline. Gravioli communication systems are working- 3/4 of the detectors are damaged and non-functional. See: Can it get any worse? B9k: Yes. RTG's are venting gas. Nuclear engine containment is damaged- I doubt the engine will work properly anymore. RCS control systems are malfunctioning, and there is worse news. See: HOW CAN THIS *BLAM* Sig: Oww.... Good thing he has a glass jaw. Right, B9k, life-support is fine, right? Centrifuge is still spun up? B9k: Yes. Sig: Alright. What's the worse news? B9k: The object is on a re-entry path down to near where the rover is. Sig: That's great! Can we set up an uplink with the rover? B9k: Already Patching it through. Give me a minute. MC: ***** Is **ery on** allr**t? B9k: We are still here. No injuries, but we are dead in the water until the damage to the nuclear engine has been checked. See: WhAt happened?... Sig: You were beginning to panic and jinx us all. See: Ah. B9k: Pictures are coming in now. Sig: Isn't there supposed to be something? B9k: Overlaying infrared visuals now. Sig: Turn us toward the estimated landing location. B9k: I am in communication with the AI in the probe. AR: Hey up there! Something came down hard here- I want to go look at it. Can I? Sig: ... See: ... MC: Go ahead AR. AR: YAY! AR: I will send you the gravioli sensor readings- it is very pretty. B9k: The gravioli readings are so high that this vehicle is probably powered by a gravioli acceleration engine. See: Why don't we have one of these? Jeb: I have been working on it for a month- the distortions the engines causes are hard to control. Every engine needs to be tuned to ship, and that is a very touchy job. AR: I am getting closer! I am tuning out weaker gravioli signals. AR: I see it! AR: Is that it? AR: That's it! What is that? See: It's a flying saucer. Sig: I don't think this is a good thing... AR: IT BURNS!!!! SWARM: WE KNOW THIS TECHNOLOGY. WE RECOGNIZE THIS GRAVIOLI TRANSMISSION TECHNOLOGY. CAN YOU HEAR US? MC: Yes, we can hear you. We hope to- SWARM: QUIET. MC: Excuse me? SWARM: BE QUIET. WE ARE SEARCHING FOR AN AUTONOMOUS VESSEL, CAPABLE OF 1/3RD LIGHTSPEED, KNOWN AS NOSTALGIA FOR INFINITY. MC: We know of no such vessel. However, we wish to open channels of communication and trade with you and your people, as well as - SWARM: WE NEED FOR NOTHING OF YOURS. WE WILL TAKE WHAT WE WANT, AND CONTINUE OUR SEARCH. STAY GROUNDED FLESHLINGS, OTHERWISE YOU WILL BE TARGETED. MC: We will not cave to your demands! SWARM: IT DOES NOT MATTER. GOODBYE. AR: HELp me...... B9k: Signal is degrading... See: Can you get the signal back? B9k: No. Sig: Guys? See: I am going to get suited up for an EVA- we need to get out of here ASAP. Sig: GUYS?!?! See: What? Sig: Our sats are going dark. See: That is a horrifying thing to say. Sig: Look- here is the map of out orbits 20 minutes ago. See: Close orbit and much farther orbit. Yes, and? Sig: Here is a map when the probe was taken out. ALL the sats went dark at the same time. See: Oh *****. *************** I hope everyone is enjoying the story! NfI is coming back, and so is the SWARM. I love reading your speculations! Next post will be on the weekend.

Hey sarge playing the BootStrap missions now to test, things seem pretty good on this end. You having issues because you don't have launch stabilizers yet? I made my own for now. Anyway I never new how well written the BootStrap missions were. Nice. Going to play through them to check them out. I might have to talk to the Author and see if he minds me packaging the missions with MCE.

The drag should be way, way lower, n'est-ce pas? Assuming all other things being equal it should get to escape velocity sooner. Guess I should test both. Gonna try out this vegetable theory, see how it goes. What's all this talk about need to throttle down? Why would I throttle down? If the asparagus is dropping engines, technically it is the one throttling down, hehe. I keep my 8 engines till the end. Well, almost. In the second to last stage I drop three Rockomax 48-7S helper engines. I just got a 24.33t ship going 2994 m/s. Now I haven't tried the accepted asparagus way yet, but this seems like a pretty good result.

Not really. The idealised tables and empirical equations that define wind chill temperature make assumptions about the surface temperature of the body that is being cooled. This is why they talk about the effect of wind chill on exposed skin. The convective heat loss of someone standing naked is obviously different than that of someone wearing a heavy parka because the difference in temperature between the air and the surface of the person is smaller when wearing a parka than it is for someone standing naked. The heat transfer rate isn't a linear relationship either because the convective heat transfer coefficient is also dependent on the air temperature in the boundary layer. You can get away with having an exposed face at -40°C if there's no wind, but it will be darn uncomfortable or even dangerous to have an exposed face at -30°C and exposed to 20 kph winds (roughly -40°C wind chill temperature). This is why it makes more sense to use a wind chill index than a wind chill temperature. It is less likely to be misinterpreted as having any physical meaning or to be used as an excuse to exaggerate. You're in Portland, but I wonder if that is also true in places like North Dakota or Minnesota? It would be important to know how severe the conditions are before venturing out, so I am surprised that the National Weather Service doesn't include any sort of wind chill factor in its weather reports in places where it matters?

Wow. Talk about neat. I love the new pad hardware. RoboRay: He wouldn't have trouble too if he was diving straight down. I'd rather say, his entry angles are too shallow.

Well, I got my sabres working a-ok on 0.23 by updating the mod with the new DLLs from Firespitter and ExsurgentEngineering. FAR installed as well for good measure. Been having some minor problems with gear stability, but I can't say if this is new or not. I got the gear working alright for Spaceplane Charlie (and don't ask what happened to spaceplanes Alpha and Bravo - it's a sensitive subject and Jeb doesn't want to talk about it...) I've seen a lot of talk about overheating while supersonic, but I keep going past 1700 m/s in the upper atmo without the engines ever going into the red. I guess people should just use precoolers like I do? I guess it's not the most impressive plane showcased in this thread, but it'll get a 16 meter long load of 40 tons into a 100k orbit real quick due to the over-abundance of engine power... While I'm sure I could modify it to carry a double orange tank payload, I don't see a big need for launching two tanks at once, and more importantly - it'd slow down the trip to orbit significantly, and I like things quick and painless; if it takes more than 5 minutes to reach orbit, I'd rather use a rocket. Fully loaded it weighs in at 130 tons. Dry mass is 60 tons. I rather like the design: regardless of fuel level or payload size, the center of mass stays virtually unchanged, since I got the fuel outriggers, the central HL cargo hull, and the engine pods all smack in the middle of the center of mass. Also, it looks deliciously exotic. If it looks like the fuselage is sort of coming apart at the seams... it's because it is. Jeb's flying it empty and pulling 5g to show off for the camera. And no... I didn't just spend all night getting that plane out of the hangar... I wouldn't do such a thing, would I? mac

After having created a launcher and landing program that made gathering science from the Mun and Minmus a routine operation, I decided to set my sights upon something slightly more challenging. Duna had been tossed around as a preferred destination by my fellow Kerbalnauts, so I figured, why not? This was a career save and I'd managed to unlock a good portion of the tree, but I was getting bored after the fifth or so Minmus landing. I like the fact that it has different biomes now, but there isn't enough difference between them to hold my interest for much longer than it did. I'll go back when I figure out all this rover business. I constructed my ship out of three major parts. First, there was the Transfer stage, which contained all the engines and fuel needed for the trip. Second, there was the Command module, which had the power, batteries, mobile lab, hitchhiker containers, monoprop tanks etc. that would sustain the brave crew on their adventure. The Lander made up the third part. Everything was launched separately and docked together in orbit.* *I would like to take a brief moment here and thank the tweakables function for letting me launch with empty fuel tanks for the transfer stage. I would never have gotten the thing in orbit without it. Empty, it weighed about 120 tonnes and was also my largest single lift to date. The transfer stage took three or four trips with a tanker to completely fill. I am now an accomplished docking pilot. When all was said and done, there was about 11,000 m/s (+/-) of delta v available. The lander would start with full tanks, but would refuel from the transfer stage to allow it to make multiple landings. Its initial fuel didn't count towards my delta v budget, but every landing I did would eat a little more out of it. Still, it looked to be massive overkill when compared to the best delta V maps I could find, so I remained optimistic. Besides, anything left over would go back into the transfer stage for the burn home. The lander contained duplicate copies of all the scientific instruments, excluding the nosecone part as I've never actually used that and I have no idea what it does. Science, I assume, but whatever. The idea would be to take duplicate readings from all the areas I could, use the science lab to process and transmit one set and EVA to collect the others into the command section for later return to Kerbin. The experiments would then be reset and the entire ship would be moved onwards to the next place of science. I loaded it up with the full crew complement of 7 and set forth to adventure! It was majestic. It was awe inspiring. It had an intercept burn time of somewhere between two cups of tea and reasonably quick pot of soup. Note to self: do not neglect the TWR numbers for the next construction project. Mission Highlights This was probably the most complex thing I've ever done in KSP, and it was the first manned mission I've ever done outside of Kerbin's SOI. It was also the most fun I've had to date. Design and build, launch, docking, interplanetary flight, this mission covered pretty much the whole darn shooting match. While the autopilot option was there, I did all the flying myself on this one. I now consider myself a (lightly) seasoned veteran when it comes to orbital rendezvous and docking. Take that, MechJeb, your services are no longer required! (You can stay if you want to plot all my circular orbits though...) Despite the few attempts needed to make the Duna landing, the mission was a wild success. It netted me somewhere in the neighbourhood of 4,200 science points, enough to unlock the rest of the tree, except for a single node. 550 needed, 427 available. So close. I guess I should have looked into that nosecone after all. There was a brief moment of panic when I tried to make the transfer to Ike. I was still commanding the ship from the landing can, which was docked backwards compared to the rest of the ship. All the indicators said prograde, but I managed to put 300m/s towards a deorbit and crash on Duna before I noticed, flipped the ship around (so slowly!) and burn with the engines pointing in the right direction. Talk about an adrenaline rush followed by a face-palm of epic proportions. I did not manage to take screen shots of this as I was too busy muppet-flailing in panic to hit that particular key. Since nothing broke or exploded, I stabilized the orbit and went to Ike on the next go around. Another Note to self: Next ship, have everything docked facing the same direction to engineer this problem out of existence. I am now planning a similar mission to the Jool system where I hope to put a Kerbal on every moon, with triple the number of nuclear engines. The budget is unlimited so far, but my patience is not.

Why is there economic value in finding ways to smelt iron in conditions not found on earth? Seriously, there's a lot of talk about how valuable materials science experiments, etc... performed in space are, but no actual evidence despite several decades of doing do. Like so many other 'space spin offs', it's smoke and mirrors, not results.

Sure you are! Nothing beats tinfoil hat And about the topic, I hate it more when I'm trying to talk about space technologies with people and they start telling me all that BS pseudoscience stuff and don't even believe me when I tell the truth about them. Gotta ignore ignorant people, or you would go mad after a while.

After the unanticipated success of the first mission in Operation Crew Flight, the flight planners at Munstak Industries were given the go-ahead to plan and execute the second mission of operation Crew Flight. Although many of the objectives were completed by Crew Flight 1, the opportunity was there to learn more and to try to push the envelope of the design. The same ship used for Crew Flight 1 was retrofitted with an array of landing assist motors that could be used to slow the descent of the spacecraft if it was unable to perform a powered landing on its own. Bill and Bob Kerman were both put onto training assignment, but Jebediah was reassigned to the mission as primary pilot. New recruits: Mergard and Ormon Kerman were hired to fill out positions as pilots, while Calrey, Eldun, Camrick, and Sherlin filled out the crew cabin. This time, the ship would ascend directly to 150 kilometers in altitude, and perform plane change maneuvers to test the ability of the spacecraft to reach stations on inclined orbits. After completing three full orbits, each of the crew in the hitchhiker storage unit would EVA, circle the craft once, then re-enter the spacecraft. This mission evolution is extremely important, as it would train crew members in how to transfer between vessels should the common berthing hatch become jammed, or if COTS had to dock with the part of a station that could not transfer crew through to the habitat quarters. Finally, the ship would de-orbit and land back at KSC. As the engines roared to life, the sun bathed the space center in a beautiful morning light. "A positive omen if I've ever seen one," said Jebediah as he pushed the throttle to maximum. "We now have positive vertical velocity. See you in a couple of hours, KSC!" The landing gear drew up and inward as the ground fell away. "Uh, Jeb sir? Are you sure this can is safe?" inquired Ormon. "Nothing is safe. Not in this line of work. The first thing you need to know about flying rockets is that nothing is routine! Sometimes it's all we can do to leave the mission a success, but it's a job that we as pilots train endlessly to succeed at." Mergard spoke up next. "Well said, commander... Man, would you look at that?" "...I've never been this high up before. It's my first mission!" "Take it all in, Merg." Jeb said as he flicked on the intercom linking the command module to the crew tank below. "How are you guys holding up down there? The G's should be past soon. We're heading downrange in about 60 seconds." Camrick: "I think I can see my house from here, Jeb!" Sherlin: "Yeah... God I hate heights!" Eldun: "All good on my end!" That made Jeb smile. "Good! We've still got a long ways ahead of us, but for now just enjoy the ride. 30 seconds to downrange!" Shutting off the intercom, he felt a tap on his shoulder from Ormon. "Downrange?" he asked. "Yup! You see, one doesn't get to orbit by blasting straight up. You gotta build your horizontal velocity first. They should've gone over this with you in classroom training at flight school." "Yeah, I... I knew that," Ormon stammered. "It's just. We're fairly low, aren't we?" "We are, but COTS is an air breathing rocket unlike the ones you studied and trained on in the simulators at flight school. She needs to stay in the atmosphere as long as possible to..." A beeping on the console in front of him draws Jeb's attention to the spacecraft. "Hold on a second." That jolted Mergard from his focused trance on the controls. "What was that?" "Nothing." Jeb confidently assured. "Just a little power drain on the main fuel pumps. I'll just reroute some power to the backups." Over the intercom he announced "Gentlemen, we are now rolling for downrange flight. Please make sure you're strapped in proper-"BANG! "What was that!?" He heard someone in the crew can shout out. "Uh, Gentlemen, we've had something happen up here... Please definitely make sure you're strapped in!" Turning off the radio he turned over to Mergard at his side. "Gods man, what was that!?" "I don't know sir. The engines, they just stopped responding! Thrust is all over the place, and the intakes are shutting down. I... I don't have control of the spacecraft!" Ormon shouted from below "The flight computer thinks the engines are oxy deprived but they're not switching over. I don't know what's going-"BOOM"S**T!" Jeb kept his head. "What just happened? Keep calm man. Talk to me!" "We've lost engine 3 sir!" "We lost power to engine 3?" "No... We LOST engine 3!" "Oh, gods..." he heard Mergard mutter. "Shut them down, Mergard. Shut them all down I can't control this spacecraft the way we're going!" "Negative commander! The flight computer thinks we're still on ascent. It's locked controls!" Jeb grabbed his face and forced him to look into his eyes. "Then shut down the damn flight computer..." "If we shut down the flight computer then the mission is-" "We have no engine! The mission is done. I'm trying to save our asses now!" "Okay... Give me a second... Got it! You should have manual control now, Jeb!" "Okay! Now... I gotta slow these engines down and get us pointed retrograde. Turn on SAS and let the reaction wheels do the rest..." "That's right you magnificent b*****d. Get going the right way..."BANG! POP! SPUTTER! "DAMMIT!" "We're crossing back over the mach threshold commander! Ship won't hold together if we don't straighten her attitude soon!" "I know dammit! I'm fighting it every chance I get!" Mergard was panicking "WhadoIdo? WhadoIdo? WhadoIdo!?" Jeb firmed up. "Deploy the chutes..." Mergard and Ormon objected in unison "WHAT!?" "DEPLOY THE CHUTES NOW!" Ormon shouted first "Jeb, if we deploy the chutes now they'll rip off! They won't survive it at the rate we're going!" "I've slowed us down enough that we won't lose all of them, and we still have the emergency landing brakes!" Mergard objected next "Jeb, if we lose even two of them, COTS can't land on-" "DO IT!" "Okay... Chutes deployed!" "Okay... Now I just gotta get the engines facing the right way... Come on..." "That's right... Just a little bit mo-Agh! Damn you..." "Okay... We're slowing down... That's-" "-Commander, we just lost chutes 4 and 5." "I know! We're slowing down though... This is good. This is good..." "Altitude is at 500 meters!" "What? Why aren't the chutes opening!?" "Quick! Hit the emergency deploy!" KERFLAP! "Chutes are open but we're still descending too fast. Hit the emergency brakes, hit the emergency-" SPLASH! CRACK! BOOM! "Ugh... What the... Mergard! Mergard are you okay!?" Mergard was unconscious in the seat next to him, but he was breathing. "Ormon! Are you okay!?" "I'm fine Jeb... What about the four below?" "What about the... Oh no..." "...Oh no..." *** TOTAL CAREER STATUS: Munstak space program just had its first fatalities on only the second mission, but Munstak Industries will honor those dead, and accept the consequences that come as the result of the failure of their spacecraft. Although the quick actions of Commander Jebediah reduced the death toll by 3, the public trust has been betrayed. There will be hearings, and Munstak will fall under greater scrutiny than it has ever been under... But still, the failure of COTS-2 will only serve to galvanize those who believe in space exploration, as noble causes are sometimes stained with the blood of those who boldly go where no kerbal has gone before. The lessons learned from this accident will ensure that the four brave astronauts who gave their lives to the cause will not have died in vain...

Hyperbolic functions turns out to be a more common name. You start with definition of proper acceleration du/dt = a, where u = dx/dÄ is proper velocity. Because dÄ = dt/γ, we can write a = d(γdx/dt)/dt = γ³(d²x/dt²) when v is co-linear with a. (You have to take dγ/dt into account.) So the differential equation describing motion of a sub-light ship traveling under constant proper acceleration is x'' = a/γ³ for some constant a. For x'(0)=x(0)=0, x(t) = (c sqrt(c²+a²t²) - c²)/a. But x(t) is boring. We are more interested in x(Ä), and that's where things get complicated. Yeah, if you just want delta-V, and not how far you get in specific time with given fuel usage, it's much easier. That's a more elegant derivation than what I worked with, though. So thanks for that link. No. Matter, by definition, is stuff with rest mass. In order to have matter, you must have some sort of wave packets that propagate as massive particles. This is a far more complicated topic. I'm a particle physicist, and I still don't like to think about it if I don't have to. Fortunately, your opinion is not decisive in the matter. QFT says that region of space between two plates has a lower energy than vacuum. Now, you can say that it's vacuum that has a non-zero energy, and CE energy is still positive, just lower than that of vacuum, but from perspective of GR, the distinction is moot. For an Alcubierre Drive, all you need is region of space with energy lower than that of vacuum. That will provide you with negative curvature in the bubble, and that's the only thing you really need. So for the purposes of warping space-time, CE does give you negative energy. Like I said, there are still some questions there, but as far as Standard Model is concerned, it's all cut and dry. Can you practically create sufficient amount of negative energy this way? That's a different question. But not a problem of theory. It does. That's why it's called a strong condition. Standard terminology in math. And maybe the entire world is just your hallucination, and none of the equations work. That's still not a problem of theory. Again, from perspective of SM, we know how this works. If SM is wrong, that's a different matter. Keep in mind that Energy Conditions aren't fundamental principles. They would be nice to have, but we have not found any reason why they should be true. That's just because you don't understand something about the way warp drive works. It is not a PM by any measure. It does not produce energy and it cannot do work. It can move the ship from one location to another without using up any energy, other than what you waste in conversion, but that assumes that potential energy of the ship at origin and destination is the same. If it's not the case, you will have to expend energy to move "up hill". And like I said, there are fundamental theorems that say that energy is conserved here, so if you feel that it is not the case, you're missing something. If the above doesn't clarify it, and you still have questions about it, feel free to ask. Nope. Only local causality matters. There are laws to prevent anything from going faster than light locally. Quantum Mechanics is entirely ok with global causality violations. Yes. That's why I had to correct myself in an earlier post. I've said that global causality is only violated if there is suitable curvature, which isn't the case. Global causality is always violated by an FTL ship. You are absolutely correct about that. It's just not a problem. Not from universe. That's topologically impossible. Maybe from observable universe. And yeah, if you have a really large black hole, so that you aren't ripped to shreds by tidal forces, a warp ship would be able to dip a bit bellow the event horizon. Not very far, but that's still a very exciting possibility. Interesting thing to note, though, is that like for any object that would fall in, from perspective of observer on the ship, you'll never pass the event horizon. At some point, a Schwarzshild Bubble will form around the ship, somewhere outside of the warp bubble. This might prevent Cosmic Censor violations, but I'm not sure about it. No, not really. We know the underlying unified theory. It's a Yang-Mills theory on a U(1)xSU(2)xSU(3)xPoincare group. Unfortunately, it's non-renormalizable. But a renormalizable effective theory exists, which accounts for all quantum effects in curved space-time. It only breaks down near the plank scale. So long as the warp bubble walls are significantly thicker thank plank scale, we can model the whole thing. Bubble "dissolves" when you reach the destination. Detailed Study of Null and Time-like Geodesics in the Alcubierre Warp Spacetime. Light and radio waves propagate along null geodesics. Matter propagates along time-like geodesics. Complete understanding of warp drive mechanics is right around the corner. It's the work that we can finish within decades. What the engineering task of actually building something like this would be will only be clear then. If we don't find any unexpected loopholes, it's going to be an extremely difficult task. But it already seems comparable to any other way of achieving interstellar travel. There are no easy ways there. Unless we find a very serious and currently non-obvious loophole, we are not going to have an easy way to traverse interstellar space. And while there might be things marginally easier than warp drive, warp drive is the only one that's going to be worth it at that sort of expense. If a ship you send to another star is going to take hundreds of years to do a round trip, there is very little point. And building something like a generation ship is not a task that any one planet can undertake. We'll have to have the entire system working on this. All just to send a bunch of people on a one-way trip. How much more practical would be the ship that can make a round trip in just a few years? Even if it's just as hard to build, it's going to be worth it. Pretty much same exact things. We've just had people talk about sub-light interstellar travel for a few decades longer. Warp drive has to play catch-up here. But we're making solid progress. Keep asking questions.

My favorite craft is this: The Joolean II Munar Mission Package - my KSP version of the Saturn V. Just as with the Apollo missions, it brings the command module and lander in one unit, and once a trans-munar free return trajectory has been established the command module turns around and docks with the lander, before activating the CSM engine to capture itself in a retrograde orbit. The lander even has separate descent and ascent stages, so I can leave the lander base behind as a monument to my exploration! I just think it looks so majestic sitting on the launchpad. The "TMI" stage carries the lander and CSM to the Mun. I'm particularly proud of how Apollo-like the CSM and lander both look. Yes, that's a base below. This mission was actually very interesting, and I am going to provide more details on it in my dedicated mission thread when I get to that point in my career. I was basically using the Joolean II MMP to get my crew to the Munar mining base, since I couldn't really use my intended platform the COTS to do so since my refueling station in orbit currently doesn't have any fuel on board... That actually segues into the other craft I'm really proud of - My Munar Keth-o-Hopper SSTO Kethane Tanker, which brings the Kethane mined from the base into low Munar orbit so it can rendezvous with a larger tanker that will send it all home. Instead of using the MMP ascent stage to rendezvous with the Joolean CSM, I sent it the other way into a prograde orbit to rendezvous with the Keth-o-Hopper that I'd left unmanned in orbit (I didn't want to send it up with crew because it was as yet untested and I didn't want to risk messing up any of the systems and then having to send a rescue mission up to bring the poor guy back home). That's the ascent stage docked with my Keth-o-Hopper. And that is my Keth-o-Hopper on the surface of the Mun. Big sucker, ain't it? The reason I'm so proud of it is I actually measured out perfectly how much fuel I would need to get it into orbit and back with a full load of fuel (by design I needed to be able to lift the amount that came out of my miner so that I could keep mining and optimize how much Kethane I get per each trip). As it turns out, with 16,000 units of Kethane to deliver, only about 6,000 actually get offloaded onto the tanker, which is perfectly fine. The rest goes to refueling the Keth-o-Hopper for the return trip back to the Munar surface. I talk all about the mathematics behind designing an orbital fuel tanker in this thread here. It's interesting stuff! Anyway, that's my favorite mission so far, and the two ships that to date I am the most proud of. I have some other honorable mentions that I may post on later!

This is something I've been pretty interested in too, and I used to be a bit more into elaborate asparagus-style rockets. But now I look at the problem a little differently. Agreeing with above, the thing about having engines is depending on how you build your rocket, those engines might just be dead weight sucking up your fuel. A nice strong engine with descent ISP that can lift your craft is all you need, minus your payload, everything else can be fuel. So obviously you can play with multiple engine configurations but if you want to talk efficiency and cost, dropping engines is the most expensive, least efficient method. What I'll usually do now is reduce the size of my lifting stage, and place that fuel into drop tanks. The returns are diminishing, but TWR > 1.07 seems to work well for me. Typically I'll do two sets of three, string them together and drop them as I rise. I may need some small engines on the third set of tanks but I've found intelligent rocket design (I know, KSP isn't exactly founded on that, but FAR and DE support it) is easier to handle and generally just does a better job. I couldn't find a really good screenshot of something I've already built, but this illustrates the most basic version. This ship has quite a lot of fuel on it, but the final tank is quite small in comparison, about 1/5 the total.

Well, there was some talk about what 0.24 will be during Kerbalkon, so if you're really interested you could rewatch those videos: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/60806-KerbalKon-Schedule-Videos

Mission Update: Just days prior to launch window, a piece of debris was spotted floating near the Duna Explorer. It turned out to be rover wheel. Inspection determined it came off the Phobos rover, where it came in near contact with the ballute inflatable heat shield. Old cookey (Macmy) insisted it was the "Space Kraken," an old wive's tale spacer's often talk about. Mission control determined the ballute should probably have been attached a little further away, possibly with a girder in between - a design flaw. It was determined it would be too much trouble to launch a new lander / rover module, and that Wehrman Kerman, Duna Rover Driver would just have to make due with 3 wheels or walk. We went ahead and launched on year 1, day 58 with an approximately 1000 m/s burn to Kerbin's prograde. This episode precipitated several inspections and simulations to make sure everything works out well. Better check for design flaws. Almost everything else in the ship had already been tested prior to launch: kethane rig, ballute heat shield coverage, lander, docking and undocking, RemoteTech control of the probe and autonomous Kethane drill / refinery...everything except the communications system since we were still in LKO. So, lets fold out that fancy long range antenna...in simulation (*cough*F5 / F9 *cough*) Luckily, we have the secondary long range uplink antenna on the probe. Also showing the results from extreme aerobraking simulations using Kerbin's thicker atmosphere. Note: Both Deadly Reentry Continued and Ferram Aerospace Research are installed. This necessitated placing the large folding antenna (needed for RemoteTech2) in an aerodynamically shielded area during lift-off. Hence having it tucked behind a structural fuselage. The ballute heat shields were needed to survive aerobraking and reentry (for the lander).

Yeah, the module is loosely based on the code you sent me but, you're right, it's actually very difficult to get the orbits to update properly with a continuous acceleration - even if you get the velocity alterations right it's easy to lose numerical stability. I think I have finally solved that problem though. I think I can use this code to make an engine module that works during timewarp but it would have to be an entirely new engine module with new particle effects handling and everything so it's quite a big undertaking. I'll talk to Nathan though.

I know that you need differential equations, but I dont know if I follow you when you said "hyper-trigonometric solutions" LOL.. What?? XD Here is a paper where is explained how to calculate ISP in relativistic rockets, all the math demostration, no just the final formula. Also wikipedia explain very well how to calculate the differents variables. And like some guy said some post earlier, if you had into account the relativistic effect of the fuel consumption, then you can not use that variable to calculate other relativistic variable. So you just apply the relativistic effect once for each variable that you want to obtain. So I dont understand where these hyper-tri... solutions appears. Energy and matter is related, so is not the same thing? If we dont know nothing about the negative matter, then we dont know nothing about negative energy too. About the Casimir Effect is predicted by the quamtum theory, in my opinion has nothing to do with negative energy like the one that we are talking about. It produce something that we can call like a negative force, but I guess there are just similar words used to describe very different concepts. I am not sure about that, where it said that the violation of strong condition imply the rest? About cassimir effect, we still do not understand very well the effect, so maybe there is something missing in the equation that it would balance it. All about warp drive seems like a perpetual motion machine, so in that case would violates the law of conservation of energy. Causality is about information.. All the things we learn about quamtum experiments and the latest theories, locate the information like true concept, the only thing that matters. But this one, can not travel faster than light. Is like the whole universe was made to prevent this. Inside of the bubble, you carry information. So the causalities effects needs to be had into account. Also, if you had this, you could escape from inside of a black hole.. Or escape from this universe.. Is this correct? I dont know. I dint read the whole Harold paper. So how thin it is then? The fact that any small scale is rule by quamtum mechanics and the fact that you have also a gravity force that in this case is so strong like other forces imply that we need a new science to said without shame what could happen there. How do you exit if that is the case? You open the window and jump out side? XD Where do you read about this? You really can not compare the technical difficulties of other interstellar methods with warp drive. I am agree with some of your thoughts, but I am tired of read each star trek fans talking about warp drive like a breakthrough that is around the corner becouse they read some sensational title in some publication or comment that imply this. When we talk about real concepts of interstellar travel, we are talking about materials, models, designs, energy, know physsics, practical implications, acuracy limits, etc. But when we talk about Warp Drive, what are we talking about? Really... You still need to convince me about the "solid theory".

VKM 2 and Munbase rendezvous The familiar muted roar of the engine resounded in the small cabin and Jeb was once more blasting off the surface of the Mun, this time for a rendezvous with Bob and the rest of his crew. "Trajectory looks good VKM Two." Milton said, somewhat hesitantly. Jeb paused, listening to Telemetry's nervous tones. The guy still wasn't sure of himself. Well, probably not surprising. He'd barely taken over from Caldin. "Thanks Milton. Nice to hear confirmation from an expert." Wait, did that sound condescending? Gah, have to be careful. "So, how's the weather in Munar orbit?" "Um... cold?" Milton said slowly. OK, so jokes weren't working. Maybe it'd just take time. Better just relax and let the guy get used to this. He'll do fine. Jeb watched the numbers on his board scroll up, and finally cut the engine out. Just the cirularization burn to go. "VKM Two?" Gene's voice interrupted. "I'm reading a vibration in the secondary cooling unit for the capsule. Can you confirm status?" Leaning back Jeb stared up behind the hatch and saw the dull grey cylinder with the little dial's shaking. He reached across to his right, picked up a small wrench and reached up to the offending unit. *CLANG!* "How's that Flight?" Silence resounded from Mission Control for several seconds. Jeb loved this. He was pretty sure Gene had worked out by now that these 'emergency repair procedures' were a joke, but he still got odd looks around KSC when he mentioned them. Hah, he was an expert at these kind of things. Heck, honestly, sometimes you really did have to knock some sense into things. This time though he adjusted a dial on the side unobtrusively to regulate the coolant flow. Surely some of the technicians had noticed dents alongside components he had 'fixed' before? Well, maybe not. "I believe, on a few occasions, I have made it known that I do not like you beating up my space ships, have I not Jeb?" Oooh, Gene was calling him 'Jeb' and not 'VKM Two'. That was a bad sign. "I'm taking it that the meeting with the council didn't go well Flight?" "Don't avoid the issue!" Then Gene sighed "No... no it didn't go well. Sendo is getting frustrated with his fellow Councillors... and from directives from the capital. At least I only have to deal with an irritated council. He has to deal with *shudder* Politicians!" Jeb could practically hear the capital 'P' there. "I'm sure the Chief Councillor will get things turned around. Heck, Sendo's always come through for us before, right?" Another pause came from Gene's end of the line. "What do you want Jeb?" "Me? Want? Pah, I not know what you talk about." Jeb said, acting dumb... rather badly. "You have no patience for the council, you never did. Sendo or the others." "Weelll. I've been trying to get on missions outside of the Kerbin system for a while now. Yeah I know, Duna's our only one so far. So sue me. Still, I learned just prior to my launch from KSC that the Jool mission is a go. When is it scheduled for and can I get on it?" Gene sighed. "Jeb, it's going to be a little while, but you're set to rotate with Dansey for flying the VKM Two from Munbase Alpha on fueling duties. I can't just put Dansey on alone." "So, I'm guessing any Jool mission will need to refuel in Mun orbit... right? So, why not send a replacement on that ship and I swap? Perfect!" "I'll consider it Jeb. Just get back to Kerbin orbit, OK?" "Sure boss. Be there in a jiff! I'm gonna pull a low arc and swing out without circularizing. It's a bit early on the orbit, but I can wing it." Gene sighed heavily. *** "How's it looking?" Jeb said over the rumble of the engine. "I read you at two and half kilometers and closing VKM Two. You realize you're actually increasing closure speed?" "I know, I know. Just trying to get there quicker. You were impatient, right?" "Jeb, come on! Don't play around. I need that fuel intact, and you're wasting some of it!" "OK, OK, I'll just wait a while then shall I?" Jeb chuckled as he disengaged the drive and flipped the ship. Actually he'd been flicking the engine rather than going full bore continuously, so he'd hardly wasted much fuel. But it was fun riling Bob. "Closure rate two hundred and fifty meters per second. You might want to slow down Jeb." Jeb chuckled. He knew his ship. Shortly after he slammed the throttle to max and felt the g's settle. It wasn't much, but after most of a day in zero gravity it felt significant. He saw the radar velocity count drop as he neared the target, and in the rear view mirror he saw the blurry shape of Alpha taking shape. Finally he cut the drive, drifting barely forty meters away and swung around to look at it through the side window. "OK, you definitely won the ugliest ship contest Bob. Do you get a prize?" "Ha ha. Just fill my tanks... AND NO PUNS ON THAT!" "Oh, I wouldn't dream of it!" Jeb said, biting his lip. With a metallic clunk he opened the hatch on his already depressurized capsule. He did plan ahead sometimes! Slowly he attached his flight pack and pushed up and out, grabbing the ladder carefully. "Hey!" Bob's voice came over the line. "Attach a tether for Kod's sake!" "It's OK, Flight pack checks out." Jeb said. "Besides, if something goes wrong and I drift away you can send someone after me, right?" "Just connect the hoses, OK?" Oooh, Bob was snippy today it seemed. Jeb engaged his RCS pack and tested the jets a few times then coasted down to the fuel connectors. Snapping a hose into place he headed off towards Alpha. Glancing back he could see his ship twisting a little from the force the hose applied, but it seemed light enough. Reaching the floating Munbase he grasped a gloved hand to the edge of a tank and edged around till he was near the fuel connector port. "OK, ready to connect." Jeb said, uncharicteristically serious. "Please double check the pumps are off. I don't want to release the valves and have the hose buck like mad!" "They're off." Bob replied simply. A few moments and some busy clicking later the hose was complete, linking the two ship. "OK, ease the pumps on." Whirring vibrated through his gloves as the fuel started to flow from VKM Two into the Munbase. Yup, even more motion from the two ships, but so far it was OK. Jeb watched the manual gauges alongside the connector, and the one in his HUD showing what he had left on VKM Two. "OK, that's enough. I need enough to land back on the Mun Bob." "Roger. Pumps shutting down." Well, that was it. Jeb looked across the intricate mess of cables and struts. Well, maybe it would look better once on the ground. In a way he was envious of them. Landing that thing would be a challenge! The connector from the sky crane to the base was rather specialized, but maybe it could be re-used again as well. The plan called for it and the escape ship to be ditched on a high altitude burn to destroy it via collision with the munar surface. Well, who knows. Plans can change. "OK, I'm heading back Bob. Meet you back at the Mun! I'll have another load of fuel for you." "Take care Jeb, thanks for the assist." Smiling Jeb headed back to his ship. It wasn't pretty either, but it was his, and for a while by the sound of it! Hopefully Gene could get him assigned to the Jool mission. He really didn't want to miss that!