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Chapter 3: An Old Friend Commander’s Log 12, Day 25: There it is again, the Mün floating past my porthole. It’s a reminder every 40 minutes of the past and yet the future as well. The burn for Münar Insertion is plotted into the Nav Computer and is scheduled in just under 3 hours. Its been almost 2 decades, but I feel like I am finally coming home. ******************** Jeb: Alright folks, today is the day. It’s time to get serious and do what we were trained to do. We might be all comfy and such floating around in this magnificent ship, but out there everything is out to get you. If we work together and be smart, we will all come home. Now, how is the naming of the landers coming? Gerbo: We have a few suggestions that have come in. Jeb: Perfect. What do you have so far? Sid: Gemini. As in the twins. Jeb: Castor and Pollux? Sid: Well I meant it as in Gemini 1 and 2 but that could work too. Hertrey: What about Rigel 1 and 2? Nel: Just doesn’t have a good ring to it. Herrick: Why can’t we just leave it as Lander 1 and 2? It seems so trivial to waste so much time over a couple names. Pat: It’s bad luck to do that! Herrick: Seriously? Bill: It would be nice to have them named even if it’s just to better distinguish them. Pat: And for luck... Jeb: Anything else? All: … Shelgun: What about Apollo and Artemis? Bill: Weren’t they twins as well? Jeb: You bet but what’s the correlation? Shelgun: Apollo was the god of the Sun and Artemis was the goddess of the Mün. Bob: The two most important things in the sky for us. I like it. Jeb: Any objections to it? All: … Jeb: Then I vote we name Lander 1, Apollo and Lander 2, Artemis. Sid: Agreed. Gerbo: I like it. Jeb: Then its settled. Apollo will go down on the Mün commanded by Sid. We make our insertion burn in 30 minutes so let’s strap things down and prepare for it. Sid: Yes, I would like to run the burn at 100% output to test the engines out on this short burn. So the acceleration will be a little over 1G so be prepared for it. Jeb: Perfect. Let’s go to the Mün folks! ********************* Nel: Sphere of Influence has been reached, Periapsis is projected to be roughly 110 kilometers. Jeb: Looks good Nel. Bill, when is our orbital burn? Bill: 3 hours and 20 minutes. Nel: I would like to start up our ScanSat equipment to test their capabilities. Jeb: Good idea, we can choose our landing site from the map it generates then. I’m headed to my quarters, let me know if something comes up. Nel: (over intercom) Sid, are you there? Sid: Go ahead Nel. Nel: Is Apollo ready yet? Sid: Should be, need me to check again? Nel: You can once we are in orbit, no need to worry. We have a burn coming up soon anyways. Sid: Well don’t you worry, propulsion systems are ready down here! Nel: I wouldn’t worry anyways, I trust you with those engines with my life! *********************** Commander’s Log 13, Day 25: She’s beautiful outside my porthole. Just the way I remembered it. I wish I could go down there one more time, but Sid needs to test out the lander capabilities. It’s just Minmus doesn’t sit well in my heart, the past weighs heavy on it. Bob: Jeb, you should come to the bridge. Jeb: I’ll be right there. Nel: Here’s the map we have so far. ScanSat makes great equipment, that’s for sure. Bill: What’s the blip of color there? Nel: The High Resolution SAR Scanner. It only functions at high orbit so it only scanned as we approached the Mün. Jeb: This places looks ideal, lets head down on our next orbit. Nel, go get Sid and Mitburry and suit up. You have a landing to perform. ********************* Sid: All systems powered up, Apollo is ready for departure. Permission to undock Jeb. Jeb: Looks good here, be safe and we will see you in a few orbits. Nel: Bring the fusion engine online. Sid: Already powering up. Mitburry: 200 meters from Orion, we are clear to deorbit. Nel: Firing engine. Sid: Cut engines in 3, 2, 1, mark. Nel: Engine off, now we coast down to our landing sequence. Mitburry: 5000 meters, speed 540 meters per second. Nel: Restarting engine, landing sequence started. Sid: It looks like we are losing some efficiency on the engine, I will have to take a look at that when we get back. Nel: Is it serious? Sid: We have plenty of fuel, no worries. Nel: You just had to find something to tinker with already, didn’t you? Mitburry: 1000 meters, we are on the flight path. Sid: It is a legitimate reason this time! Nel: Not like that one time... Sid: We are not talking about this now. Gear down. Nel: (chuckles) You never talk about it. And that’s a touchdown. Well guys, we are on the Mün. Mitburry: As commander, I think you should go first Sid. Sid: I’m climbing down now. Sid: Stepping down now. Sid: The landscape is surreal, it seems so foreign. Nel: Not the first words I would go for, but that should do. Sid: We aren’t the first ones to come here so I don’t think that applies... Nel: I suppose not. Well, plant the flag, we are coming out now. Mitburry: This is amazing. Sid: Isn’t it though? Have you never been here? Mitburry: Not once. I always dreamed of it though. Nel: Honestly, I haven’t either. Most of us haven’t wandered far from Kerbin orbit. Have you, Sid? Sid: Many times. But the view never gets old from here. Mitburry: It’s so beautiful. Nel: You already said that, you dinglehopper! Sid: Really Nel? That’s the best name you had? Nel: My girlfriend always calls me that, I guess it rubbed off on me. Sid: Sometimes I really worry about you bud... Mitburry: You guys done? Nel: I don’t want to dig this hole any deeper, so most definitely. Were you looking at rocks or something? Mitburry: No, look. Nel: Wow. Sid: It really makes you feel small looking up at our home. Nel: We really are small in the whole scope of things when you think about it. Mitburry: It’s like out of a movie. Only I can reach out and touch it. Sid: And to think this is only the first picturesque view of many we will see. Nel: Do you think we will make it back when this is all done? Sid: Jeb is the only Kerbal I know who could get us back; without him, I fear what the mission will become. Mitburry: Well, I suppose we should grab some samples for the lab and head back in the lander. Orion will be coming back over us in 10 minutes. ******************* Nel: Preflight checks are good, Sid are you ready? Sid: All good here. Mitburry, tell us when to take off. We want to make this rendezvous as simple as possible. Mitburry: Fire engine in 3, 2, 1. Nel: Firing. Pitching over to 45 degrees and beginning our climb. Mitburry: Looking good here, 10 seconds till cutoff. Nel: And off. What's our closest approach? Mitburry: 700 meters. Sid: Well, we can tell Jeb the Nav Computer is functioning well. Jeb: That’s great to hear guys, we see your approach and it looks exceptional. Sid: I guess that means we are in range of communication, I didn’t expect you on the line Jeb. Jeb: Well you know me, always sticking my nose in everything. Sid: As long as you keep us all sane out here. Nel: Killing off relative velocity now. Final distance is 750 meters. Sid: Shutting down engine now. Proceed on RCS. Jeb: I’m counting on you to help me out with that one, Sid. Mitburry: You are on target and closing. 400 meters. Retracting solar panels. Nel: Almost there… Mitburry: 10 meters, proceed straight towards the docking port. Sid: And we have positive dock. I’ll see what I can do for you on that one, Jeb. Jeb: Welcome home guys, its good to see you again. Mission Status

You don't. You just ask stupid questions just to be difficult. That's not winning you any arguments, and only highlights how little you know about the subject. To be honest, I'm starting to grow tired of it. Covered at least three times in this topic. Same as we do about positive energy. How about you estimate stability. Or energy required. Or anything. You just make empty claims again. How about you learn a few things about interpretations before going off to make stuff up again. Like, the fact that all interpretations are equivalent for starters. This isn't like interpreting bible. There is math, and theorems, and a lot of other stuff you didn't bother to even get the basic idea about before jumping to conclusion and start throwing accusations. We do. You are still living in fantasy land. Bwahahahaha. Sorry. Come back when you actually know what M-theory is about and how it relates to standard model. And you're making more stuff up. No, keep going. We're having an excellent and very productive discussion here. Why don't you tell me what local symmetries are, which ones are available to which fields, and how they actually relate to any physical particles. You first. How is anything you've asked relevant to what we are talking about? We had these in 1930s. And since then, greatest minds of the century, starting from Einstein himself, to Dirac, Pauli, Feynman, Fermi, Bohr, Noether, and many less known, but still incredibly talented physicists just sat on their rears doing nothing. Nope. Haven't seen it by that name. I'll keep it in mind. Of course, that only makes it more funny that you don't have a clue what holographic interpretation means. You've read something about them, and you still didn't realize that they have to have more dimensions than observable universe, and not fewer. I've addressed that a number of times. You are arguing purely from your ignorance of how QM and GR work together. We know how this stuff works on every relevant scale. SR also says that light always travels in a perfectly straight line. According to SR, gravitational lensing is impossible. Now, I could try and explain why SR applies to Warp Drive only locally, but these sort of things have been like talking to a wall so far, so why don't you explain to me how SR is supposed to hold in a space-time that's not Minkowski. That's because you don't have a first clue what any of these things are. We've already covered all of these points. Fact that there are other people on internet just as confused as you are doesn't mean that you're right. Oh, good sir, why don't you tell me about the difficulties in quantum computation. Like, why we have a quantum algorithm that breaks factorization problems in poly time, and yet public keys are perfectly secure. Or why we have quantum teleportation, but I still have to drive to work. Maybe you'd like to learn a few things about QM before you start saying stuff? These aren't vocab problems. They are problems with you understanding concepts you are trying to discuss. That'd be nice. You just don't know any. How am I supposed to talk physics with you if you don't know first thing about it? Please, tell me. And you are wrong. There are already objects in this universe that are traveling faster than light relative to each other. So can you please stop talking out of your posterior? In other words, you have your opinion, founded in nothing but fantasy, and you refuse to learn any actual science, or acknowledge observations that contradict it. Good to know. I'll let you work out what I'd say that makes you, because I'd probably get banned for typing it out. You're hopeless. If you don't even understand difference between knowledge and information, there is just no helping you. I've been continuing to answer questions I've figured might be useful for someone else, if they are reading by chance, but I honestly give up with you. Thickness of the bubble varies. Variations depend on particular parameters which also vary. You're asking pointless questions, and you don't even seem to have understanding to realize why they are pointless. So lets try it the other way, explain which part of the theory suggests that QM effects are going to be unpredictable. Something? Anything? No. Because you don't know QM even at undergraduate level. Let alone have any idea what QFT even is or how it applies here. Yet you have the gall to argue with somebody who does QFT for the living. Fantastic. More arguments from ignorance. Awesome. You keep on going with life like that. You know what would help, though? If you didn't disrupt discussion where other people are talking about actual science of it. You keep wanting to drag in unrelated topics which you don't understand anything about. Q-Thruster is just a rocket. It's a type of a photon drive. It does not help you at all in crossing interstellar space. It is absolutely useless if you don't have a matter-antimatter reactor with high efficiency. Even with a nuclear reactor, you are much better off using an ion drive, because Quantum Thruster is such a horrible energy hog, and you'll have better net ISP using actual reaction mass than burning through massive reactors for no good reason. Again, learn some freagin' theory. Start with classical mechanics. You really don't need much to understand why Q-Thruster is useless without all the other technology for which we don't even have a starting point yet, and even with one, you're still limited to fractions of light speed, which is completely pointless on interstellar level.

I think by nature, KSP solar systems will never be procedural. That's just how KSP is set up. Now, does the graphical quality need work? Probably. Remember, the game is still technically in alpha and last I heard, the earliest date even being considered for a beta release (KSP 1.0) is well into next year (March to May). There is a LOT of development left to do, lots of things still on the table. Don't forget that better aerodynamcs, reentry heating, resource mining, and asteroid belts are coming, and there is talk of said belt being off rails! Can SE let you capture an asteroid? Once things like these and better physics come in, then massive IP ships cease to be space worms and KSP goes to a level which I don't think SE can match.

This would all be really cool in video form, too. I'd love to see Kerb cut to a clip like they would on a real life talk show.

CHAPTER 12: WOLF Dean: “Alright control, I’m heading to that depot now. Are you sure the other two have made it safely?†KSC: “Positive. The depot is reading two docked ships; a Hawk and an Arrow. Only the Arrow is showing signs of damage, but that’s just one parachute from what we can tell.†Dean: “Oh, alright then.†KSC: “Just watch out for Buzz. The last time he saw an Elite fighter, he obliterated it. We don’t exactly want him doing that to you.†Dean: “Uh, thanks for the heads up… Wait, haven’t you told him I’m flying up in this crate?†KSC: “We’re maintaining radio silence for the moment. Firespitter activity around that area has been a bit higher than we’re comfortable with. You’re going to have to convince Buzz to not shoot you.†Dean: “Great…†Several hours later… Kenhat: “Buzz, we’ve got incoming!†Buzz: “Son of a--!†Dean: “Buzz, wait, it’s me, Dean!†Buzz: “Like hell I’m going to fall for that, scumbag!†Dean: “No, really!†A warning goes off in the cockpit of the Elite as Buzz targets the ship. Dean in turn targets Buzz to hold a Stalemate. Dean: “Buzz, I promise you, I’m Dean Kerman! Look, to prove I’m not here to kill you…†Dean: “See? I’m out of my ship! I can’t hurt you now!†Buzz: “…Dean? Do you mind telling me what the hell you’re doing piloting one of those… things?!†Dean: “That ‘thing’ is a Firespitter Elite class light fighter that we captured, somehow. I don’t know the specifics of it, but I do know this; it’s going to get me behind enemy lines.†Buzz: “Behind enemy lines?†Dean: “Firespitter has started work on their own space station, Buzz. I’ve been told to infiltrate and investigate, plus gather intel that otherwise would go amiss.†Buzz: “Oh really?†Dean: “I swear.†Buzz: “…†Buzz: “Alright, you’ve convinced me. Do you need to dock?†Dean: “I’ll need refuelling, yeah.†Buzz: “Bring yourself in, then.†Dean: “Is this depot automated?†Buzz: “Yeah. After the first spacedock was destroyed, it was decided to commission this little thing to host military starfighters instead of relying on another spacedock to accommodate us.†Dean: “Fair enough. Keeps any civilians and scientists out of trouble.†Buzz: “Exactly.†Half an orbit later… Dean: “I’m clear, beginning transfer.†Kenhat: “Good luck out there.†Buzz: “Anything you find, report it to us as well as control. It could prove very useful.†Dean: “You got it, Buzz. Hopefully I’ll see you sooner rather than later.†Buzz: “Aye.†One hour later… Firespitter station: “Incoming fighter, please transmit clearance codes.†Dean: “Copy that, transmitting now.†Firespitter station: “Hmm, an older code. I haven’t seen this one for a while. Still checks out, though, so you’re clear to dock.†Dean: “Roger that, beginning docking sequence.†Dean: “Docking successful.†Firespitter station: “We’re refuelling you now. Hey, did you hear about that fight the boss had with Krumer?†Dean: “A fight? What happened?†Firespitter station: “We’ve got the documents here if you want to have a look. Heck, I’ll send them to your ship’s computer.†Dean: “Ok then. Now, what have we here…†<LOADING> <LOADING> <DOCUMENT LOADED> Krumer: “Listen, Director, I want to talk to you about further service. I do believe we are winning against those space-faring fools, and that attack against their station was brilliant. I want to keep the pressure on them.†Miting: “You forget that that attack on their spacedock came at the cost of one of our pilot’s lives, as well as the mobilisation of further military units on their end. To continue to go on the offensive while we’re outgunned would be a fools errand.†Krumer: “You have the money I’m paying you to do this job, so I suggest you invest it in more ships than they have.†Miting: “It isn’t that simple. We don’t have the infrastructure necessary to mass-produce our ships unlike them, plus their weaponry is more advanced. I don’t think that pushing another obvious attack is the way forward just yet.†Krumer: “So, what do you propose?†Miting: “What do I propose? I propose that you get off our backs! You’re pushing us too hard, for crying out loud! Hell, it was your government that initially held us back before you came begging for our help!†Krumer: “Excuse me?†Miting: “You do recall your little raid on our facility, followed by the various sanctions?†Krumer: “Yes, of course I remember that.†Miting: “And then you came crawling to us because you saw that we weren’t giving up as a privateer organisation.†Krumer: “I saw your potential only after the raid and as those blithering idiots at KSC and MSI started really hassling me. I needed to get them off my back, so you seemed like a good choice.†Miting: “Wow, a compliment?†Krumer: “You’ll have no more if you maintain this attitude, Director!†Miting:â€ÂHey, you’re forgetting that you are the one who needs us! I could easily pull out of this contract if I so desire, and where would that leave you, hmm? Sat amongst a pile of criminal charges all directed at yourself. Before you even consider telling me what we should be doing when you know very well that you aren’t funding us near-enough to complete the goals you set out, think about who you are actually dealing with. I’m heading home. Good day, Krumer.†<DOCUMENT END. CLOSING> Dean: “Whoa. I didn’t know things were this delicate.†Firespitter station: “I know, right? I guess we up here are lucky to know such information. That said, we are the pinnacle of Firespitter technology; this station took a while to get prepared, and we need every scrap of information to fight off those KSC guys.†Dean: “Yeah… say, what’s that other ship docked here? I’ve never seen one of those before.†Firespitter station: “Well, obviously there’s the other Elite, but that there is a Scimitar fighter-bomber. Any cap ships that come our way will have a nasty surprise.†Dean: “Sounds good.†Firespitter station: “It does indeed, especially seeing as we have Director Miting and General Haddred visiting the station in the next few days. We need all the help we can get.†Dean: “Director Miting is coming here?†Firespitter station: “Yes, and he is most pleased with the rate of progress we’ve had.†Dean: “I’ll scout the area out once he arrives, then.†Firespitter station: “Good idea.â€Â

lol no im not but i do sorta talk and look like him, luckily for me i put the drugs down a long time ago and i am much smarter than Badger

Per HarvesteR's Talk at Unite 2013, Map View IS the scaled-down version of the Kerbal system which is also used for more distant terrain. Kerbin there is only 600 metres across, and only when the player is on or near the ground, a higher resolved patch of terrain is rendered in a different camera, then blended onto the panorama around the player. This is also likely the source of dodgy shadows of chutes when more distant terrain is looked at through the chute's lines, and when the remote shadow closes in on the actual object as it descends. It's there, then vanishes, then fades back in slowly. So, objects showing in Mapmode have a rather explainable chance to turn up on the surface.

Thank you, I have used ksp.olex before, but "upgraded" to Protractor although I feel like I've lost a bit of connection to what's happening a bit now. I will still use Protractor for now but double check the data before leaving.. I didn't realise that you could hit your main burn straight from orbit. The way the vectors with the encounter vectors look, it seems like you should wait...I have always cleared the SOI and then made my main orbit burn. Clearly I've been making some mistakes there! I'm not sure how I completely managed to ignore all the talk about using the Oberth effect, live and learn though : )

i cant answer your question, but i can point you to someone who can. Talk to youtbe user Nassault (i belive thats how you spell it) he did the pale blue dot vid that was featured a while back.

Well... Without getting into any specifics about something that is illegal to do outside of the military... Jamming is actually very easy. when it comes to the EM spectrum (thats Light -> UHF -> Microwave) ect. all sensors read a "wave" that bounces back. Thats how the Stealth planes work. I'll talk about the F-117 because it's old stealth technology. Basically it prevents the EM signal from bouncing back to the source thus preventing it from being detected. there is also EM absorbing materials. Those are known as "Passive Stealth" Now also some old technology is the IR Jammers. they were played with in the '70's+ Basically you get a very bright IR Source and Blast it out "Blinding" the Targeting source. Now... the basics of IR... it's not heat. it's molecular motion (kinda) Now... a "Cannon" won't work. We'll take your 2.4ghz phone as an example. What is the Actually frequency it uses? We don't know, so what we will do is Blanket the area with with 2.3ghz all the way to 2.5ghz just in case. Well what amplitude is it using? how powerful? can the Target just increase it's gain to get away. can it employ ECCM? (Electronic Counter Counter Measures) with your ECM (Electronic Counter Measures) be able to stealth? Because a VERY simple ECCM method is to just Blow up the ECM. you can VERY easily build a tracking system to target that MASSIVE Radiation coming from you. so as long as your jamming them there missile / turret / Bullet is whizzing right at you following your jamming signal. There is more to it, but much of it is classified and VERY illegal to do. You make a Jammer at home and your toast (it's very easy to triangulate) Jamming is more about fineness then brute force. Look at the AN/ALQ-184 and the AN/ALQ-131 Both currently used and operated by the USAF. I can't go into detail about them but wikipidia as some fun info to think about. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radar_jamming http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_countermeasure The info there is public info and something to think about. In space, there is a lot of background radiation. so ECCM will be FAR superior. as for visual... There is always a way to see, it's called frequency shift. Also known as signal processing if your IR Viewfinder is being jammed use something else. Every object emits some sort of EM radiation. so if the IR range is being blocked try UV or something else. look at the pictures nasa gives on the sun! 4 other views none of which are the visual light scale. Not saying you can't Jam the target with raspberry but you best know what the target is using before jamming and make sure you can block it all if you want to "blind" them, and thats a LOT of power... Now that the "Can't be done" is over... how to do it. Well, by using a very sensitive direction receiver to receive the active signal from the target vessel, you can active a ECM program, and using a separate system as an ECCM you can counteract the Targets ECM and ECCM to try to maintain the Diversion. as for passive devices (cameras, recovers, ect) thats were intelligence comes in. You need to know what they have, and try to block it, you could use a phasing Light pulse Quickly ranging the Spectrum of light in pulses it won't permanently blind them but it will give a very fast strobe effect reducing the ability of the target to get a clear shot (think of moving with a strobe light, thats similar to what it would be like) by using broad spectrum jamming as well as more precise methods at the same time you could denny the target a few sensors at a time. You would need many systems targeting the different components at the same time. A single fighter could not achieve this feat, however a squadron or flight of them could. assuming each bird was responsible for a different subassembly. a larger ship (Similar to a C-130J) could do more but be less manuverable. a few of them could do the same as many smaller. if you had a destroyer sized vessel you could theoretically have most if not all the ECM / ECCM on that ship, providing telemetry and information to the less hardened fighters. I could go on, but i won't. The ECM field is large and very interesting.

I'm not the best person in the world to talk to scores about, but some suggestions come to mind from what I'm familiar with. There's from Sunshine.Maybe from Powaqqatsi, might not be what you're looking for. from an Eva OST might be useful.Looking more at "The Smallest Piece" for inspiration, there is from another Eva OST, but that might be too fun.((I'm not a weeaboo I swear)) I assume this film is about Kerbals reaching a massive milestone, what emotions do you want to convey along with it?

Cleaning up. Fingers danced over the controls, beeps felt rather than heard as the capsule was depressurized, and displays lit with warnings. 'WARNING- THROTTLE OVER-RIDE NOT RECOMMENDED.' Was prominent amongst them, but others about over pressure on the fuel tanks and dumping Oxygen reserves were flashing, as well as others. "OK, lets get this going." Loddan muttered and hit activate on the panel. It felt odd to be instructing the electronics rather than directly activating the engines, even if the computer itself wasn't working. He felt the ship leave the ground at a steady one third gravity, just enough to break Mun's grip and sail skyward. He then made sure the controls were locked and reached up to open the hatch. "I'm bailing Alpha One. See you soon!" He said as he swung the hatch wide and crawled out. Activating his RCS he threw himself clear and watched as the Escape Rocket soared away overhead. I'd probably hit so hard there wouldn't even be any wreckage! Steadying his flight he burned hard with his Monopropellant to cancel the velocity that the ship had already gained when he bailed and soon he was coasting back to base. On the way down he got a good look of the land with the base, the skycrane... and off far to the left he realized that was probably VKM One. Didn't Jeb refuel that thing? "Hey Alpha One. Mind if I take a detour? If we cart the VKM One back to base maybe I can cannibalize some gear from that? At least it's fully functional." There was a pause on the line and Loddan wondered if they were thinking he was nuts out here or something. "Well, how much RCS do you have in your flight pack EVA One?" Bob replied eventually. "I don't want you close to your limit." "Oh don't worry about that. This is only slightly further than back when Jeb rescued me from VKM One in the first place. Back then I had about half a tank left. This should be easy." "Heh, you want to salvage your old ride huh?" Came Dansey's jovial tones. Loddan rolled his eyes. "Not really Dansey. Frankly I think we might be able to scrap it. Is it even possible to build stuff up here from parts? We could make ourselves a new ship from bits and pieces!" "Er, I don't think that's going to work Loddan." Bob said uncertainly. "We simply don't have the equipment. About all we have here is a simple welding kit and I think it's only good for certain materials. Trying to build something from scratch... we'd need at least both a tig and mig setup, let alone any more complex materials. That doesn't even begin to account for non-metallic assembly that..." "OK OK! I'm sorry I asked!" Loddan interrupted, chuckling. "A simple no would have been good enough." "Well, I can ask Dunkel to see if he knows of a way, but likely it'll take a while to get any of that kind of gear shipped up to us. Something to think about for later, huh?" "Yeah," Loddan said as he circled in towards the VKM One, "Maybe one day we could even be self-sufficient up here?" "One day, maybe. Not today. Supplies will last only so long. The sooner our transport ship arrives the better in my books!" With a shake of his head Loddan settled to the ground beside his capsule and tried to see what was still functioning. *** Seanbur gazed through the window and shook his head. He was really here, on the Mun. Heck, this wasn't even a 'trip', he was stationed here at an honest to Kod Munbase! They were finally doing it, finally extending Kerbals reach permanently off Kerbin! The thought was incredible! "Seanbur, ya seen Caldin laddie?" A burr laden voice called from the hatch out of pod three. "Um, no Gernand. Not since the maintenance check was finished. I'm hoping the systems let us access the science pods soon. I'd like to start work!" "I thought old Jeb had done loads a science in these 'ere crater back when he checked out this area over eight months ago?" Seanbur sighed and looked back out the window. "True, true. There are some things left to do in the area, but not much. Really? I'd like a rover so I can explore and study the regolith of different regions! Think of what we could do. Range far and wide, study the whole makeup of the Mun! I wish they'd get the vacuum proofed wheels working right." "Aye, well last I heard Dunkel had simple wheels down. It was the motors for 'em that were giving him jip! I think I heard him cursing the 'Damned shoddy coils' on the things a couple o' days ago." "Hmm, maybe I could get them to send up a simplistic rover? I mean, if we had RCS on it we wouldn't need motors on the wheels, right?" Gernand blinked. "Ye ha' any idea how much Monopropellant ya'd burn laddie? That's a terrible idea!... Why dinnae I think o' it?" He chuckled, slapped Seanbur on the back and headed back off down the corridor looking for Caldin. Seanbur went back to pining for Lithospheric science. Soon.... Soon... *** Bob peered through the window and watched as Loddan roared up off the ground and 'hopped' towards them. It was a little nerve wracking to watch the engines burn so near the base but Loddan was a pretty good pilot and put the little ship down bare meters from the Base. Bob could feel it through his feet when VKM One touched down outside! Quite a thump! "Good landing Loddan, now get back in here. We're going to go over with Gernand what exactly we're going to do with that ship of yours. There are a few options." "Righty-ho Alpha One. Be back soon, just let me shut it down." "Flight to Munbase Alpha. Do you read?" Bob hit respond on his panel and answered Gene. "I read you Flight. How are things down there?" "Not too good. The council is not pleased at all! They were counting on some nice shots of the transports landing on the munbase couplers for their posters. Seriously though, I think the funding is faltering in places. The Jool mission is fully funded, but, yet again, the council is pushing for re-usable vessels and a less costly launch system." "Hmmm, I hear you Gene. Heck, even Loddan is getting in on it. He was wanting to start building ships up here! You might want to ask Dunkel what we'd need to get started on that. Heck, we don't even know if there are any ore deposits around here we could mine to use!" "Construction on the Mun... and interesting idea. I think I could sell it to the council certainly, but I'll talk to Dunkel and Wernher first to see what they think. I don't want to try to sell something only to find it isn't possible after it's approved! Thanks Bob. So, any change on the Base status?" "No, afraid not. Computer is still down and Caldin had another look at it an hour ago. It's not recoverable. Let us know when the replacement computer pod is ready. We could do with it." "Roger Alpha One, we'll keep you apprised. Right now Best go over a detailed status report for the record now things have calmed down a little." "Understood Flight." Bob said tiredly and called up the base information screens, tying into a laptop to get something operational. OK, have a pen ready? Then I'll begin...."

Up to now, we've all been talking about using a human pilot in the event of an emergency to land the thing. What about other stuff such as life support failures and what not? If it turns into the equivalent of the airlines with untrained individuals going up, how are you going to talk them through improvising a solution to, say, an air scrubber? Its hard to get machines to improvise, never mind if some power failure means you have to save what power you have left for EDL.

Talk about smug. You think it's a good idea, I don't.

Smug much? Talk to me again after you've designed real spacecraft systems for a living (here's a clue: I have, and it's hard). If I want to go to the trouble of rescuing a stranded mission or resupplying a base I've built, I want to be able to land somewhere close without being right on top of my target. This is not a complicated or hard to understand feature request. If Sarbian or codepoet or anyone else on the MJ team thinks it's acceptable and do-able, yay for me. If not, not. But either way, I don't tell you how to play your game. There's a lesson for you there.

1) Not much way around that at the moment besides zooming in really close and paying attention to how much time is indicated when you click to set the node, unfortunately. 2) Try http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/11322-Different-Conic-drawing-modes . There's a line in your main game configuration file that refers to the conic mode; you'll have to open it with notepad or whatever equivalent you've got and change the appropriate line (which eludes me at the moment; somebody help me out here). 3) All struts in the game are massless; this is a function of how they've been set up in their configuration file. It is possible to over-strut things and actually make them less stable; you'll have to talk to folks with experience on that topic. 4) Well, there is a way to do that from the Main Menu (I think; never tried myself). Meantime there's http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Controls 5) Yep. 6) No.

the hill resets and moves it back to real space and collapses this pocket of space time you talk about with the warp. still your hill but its in normal space time now enjoy.

I've heard a lot of people talk about transferring fuel between tanks, or even between docked spacecraft. How do I set that up?

Void mod is like Engineer mod but it keeps some of the info on screen nice mod. here is a link if u want to look at it http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/54533 modder also as AntennaRange-Enforce talk to him or her about putting max antennarange and range to target in they said they would try in get in the next update on void

Day 278: Canopus T-18 launch KSC announcer: "...and we have liftoff!! Onboard the capsule, we say again, are the crew of the DUMAS-I mission to Duna, Jebediah, Gusdan, Dudsky and Geroly, and the pilots of the capsule, Commander Bill and Flight Engineer Corger. The four brave kerbals will set foot again on the red planet, to explore and..." ----- Bill: "... roll program terminated, all systems a-ok, standing by for staging. So Jeb, how is returning up there after all that training on the ground?" Jeb: "Oh, you know, it would be far better without all this G-force trying to squeeze the ribs out of your eyeballs. Still, you end up missing the good ol' SRBs, pushing you to the stars..." Geroly: "Ehy... dude... how... do you... can talk?... It's like... having a... bloody elephant... sitted... on my lungs..." Jeb: "Well, with the time you develop your breath, and all those nice kerbonaut tricks. But don't worry, when we'll have dropped the first stage, it would be far more bearable. Am I right, mon capitain?" Bill: "Shush. Ok Corger, ready on my mark. 3... 2... 1... Mark!" Corger: "BECO, staging confirmed, ullage go. Ready for ignition..." Geroly: "Ohy, I can breath again! Oh, sweet sweet oxigen, how I longed for thee, my deaHOLYCOWWHATTHEHELL..." Corger: "... and ignition. All systems a-ok, LES tower separation confirmed." Gusdan: "LES tower separation? We could have brought it up with us a little, right? I mean, just to stay safe, right? I mean, not that we needed more safety, this is the safest rocket in the world, the safest rocket in the world, the safest rocket in the world..." :heavy breathing: Dudsky: "Sir, I suspect that Engineer Gusdan may have a respiratory deficit caused by the takeoff acceleration. I ask permission to leave my seat to give medical aid, sir." Bill: "So, first choice, handpicked kerbals as usual, right?" Dudsky: "Sir?" Jeb: :grin: "Like myself. Only the best for the KSP!" Dudsky : "Sir, have you heard the precedent request?" ----- Corger: "Within docking range, sir. Do I have to engage the radar auto-docker?" Bill: "No, you know I don't trust those things. I'm sure you can handle this manually, Corger, so go on and don't scratch the paint from our passenger's ride." Corger: "Hard docking achieved, all contact lights green, hatches correctly lined up." Bill: "Good work." Corger: "Well, thank you, sir!" Jeb: "Ok guys, all aboard your new home!!" Dudsky : "Still I don't get why we are up there 5 days before departure, Sir..." Jeb: "Simple, my inquiring mate. We'll check out every single thing on this flying marvel, and when we're done, we'll check everything again." Dudsky: "Still, it looks all very inefficient to me. We're expending precious supplies, everything has been tested on Kerbin and no malfunction had been signaled by the on board computer." Jeb: "Well, experience teaches you that a computer can be very, very faulty, and I don't want to float endlessly in space to save some liters of oxigen..." Gusdan: "Floating WHAT?" Jeb: "Nothing, nothing, don't worry. Here take this manuals in the main cabin... NO GUS, the other hatch!!" ----- Day 283: Kerbin-Duna transfer window KSC announcer: "...Yes, mission control confirms the start of the last burn for the DTH Interplanetary Delivery Complex. Lasting 4 minutes, will propel the craft to a Duna encounter in 65 days. DIDC is the last unmanned craft to leave orbit, and next is the Tindalos-I, were the kerbonauts are preparing themselves to..." ----- Dudsky: "Geroly, what on earth are you doing? Shouldn't you be checking the engine bells alignment?" Geroly: "Drinking a cup of tea, dude! Do you want some? There's plenty of time before we depart!!" Dudsky: "Geroly, we're leaving in 20 minutes." Geroly: "See? Plenty of time!" Dudsky: "..." ----- Bill: "Have you checked the hidraulic systems?" Jeb: "Yes." Bill: "Primary and backup?" Jeb: "Natural." Bill: "Comms?" Jeb: "10/10." Bill: "Centrifuge motors?" Jeb: "All efficient and ready." Bill: "The heathshield?" Jeb: "We EVA'd two hours ago." Bill: "Just checking if you were paying attention." Jeb: "So... I think the moment arrived." Bill: "Yeah, I think so. Take care of you and of the boys, and bring back a red rock for the kids." Jeb: "Nah, you'll take one yourself when you'll visit. Besides, I don't guarantee for the total safety of Gusdan..." Bill: "I'm not asking for miracles, Jeb!!!" :laughs: ----- Bill: "We cleared the hatch, Jeb, you're free to maneuver. Godspeed!!" Jeb: "Thanks pal!! Ok, aligning for the burn. Last check guys, have you peed? Because this time I won't return at home just after departure..." Dudsky: "No need for: we have lavatory facilities on board..." Jeb: "Dudsky, it was just... I didn't mean it for... You... Oh, the maneuver node. Ok, all ready for ignition in 3, 2, 1... Jeb: "Ignition succesful!! NEXT STOP, DUNA!!!" ----- Corger: "Sir, are you all right?" Bill: "Mhm? What... Oh, yes Corger, yes. Why are you asking?" Corger: "You stared out of the window in silence for the best part of 10 minutes..." Bill: "Ah... I'm a little... absent." Corger: "Worried for the guys?" Bill: "No, not so much. Jeb is a skilled pilot, and apart from their evident deficiencies, his crew is really the best KSP can offer... No, I was just thinking... We three, me, Jeb and Bob, we have always sticked together, since the start of the space program. Yes, we are best pals, but let's face it, they're the good ones... They were the first on the Mun, while I went with up with the second mission; they landed on Duna, while i stayed in orbit to just wait for them... Now, Bob directs the Munar outpost, Jeb is going again to Duna, and I still fly things around Kerbin. It's just, you know, sometimes you feel useless..." Corger: "If I can say my opinion, sir, you're not being really objective. You're the most skilled capsule pilot we have, and half of KSP pilots were trained by you. Also, since I'm flying, I never seen someone to dock so efficiently and precisely, even Commander Jeb is lousy at it compared to you, KSC doesn't validate a new design if it's not tested by you... I don't think that you have to plant a flag on something to be good at something..." Bill: "... Maybe you're right Corger... Who knows... Now, too much talking, and too little action. Plot me a Homann transfer to Spacelab 1, we have science to do!!" Corger: "Aye aye, sir captain!!" Bill: :smile: "One day, Jeb, one day..."

Skylon is designed as an unmanned cargo carrier. Any talk of passenger modules is a long way down the road, it's not an important design goal at the moment (they need to get the thing to actually work first!). There will be humans in the loop but they won't be physically sitting on board the aircraft. This is pretty normal in spaceflight, but a bit alien to people's expectations of aircraft, because unmanned aircraft are still quite rare. That'll change over the next few decades, you're going to see unmanned aircraft becoming a lot more common. The technology is ready, all it needs to really get going is for the regulatory framework to catch up.

Tall rockets have few points of cross-connection, leaving them liable to flex. The "asparagus" stating you hear people talk about makes ships more fuel-efficient, but also provides points for cross connection. By building additional stages around the previous ones instead of under them, your rocket will be more stable, more fuel-efficient, and easier to steer. An example: The side tanks are arranged in opposing pairs, so that there are 3 stages on the lowermost level of that rocket. Also, you can see I've used struts from those side stages to help stabilize the connection to the upper stage. This is where to find aircraft wheels: This is one way to place ailerons, and this is another. Landing planes without landing gear is quite a trick, but this guy pulled it off. Of course, he's crazy. Flying a tanker to the island would be quite a trick. It might be easier (though much slower) to send it as a boat. But there's actually not a lot of advantage to doing it, because the tanker will run out before long and itself need to be re-fuelled. Rockets can't rely on acquiring oxygen from air, and therefore must carry both fuel and oxidizer in heavy tanks. Jets carry the fuel, but skip the weight of oxidizer by drawing it from the air. Thus, the same weight of carried substances will propel a jet much farther. But also, KSP jet engines are simply over-powered when compared to their real-world counterparts. The game is still in development, so there are some odd aspects to it like that.

OK, I've done my homework... I won't bother with screenshots, but I will describe what I've done. First, I determined the intended size of the base toroidal tank model (as used for the large tank, as it turns out): major radius 3m, minor radius 0.5m. This gives a torus volume of Vreal=14.804m3 (this will be used later on. I then edited the model by deleting all non-visible parts, moving the "arms" (and hoops) and the tank section itself apart (for ease of working). I cleaned up the tank part (tire plus rim if thought of as a bicycle wheel), made sure it was all manifold (ie, no openings) and used blender's volume tools to get Vouter=14.409m3. I added a solidify modifier with a thickness of 0.009 (9mm) and got a volume of Vshell=0.509m3. Subtracting gives Vinner=13.900m3. It was then that I realized this was too far out from a real tank of such design (it would be smooth curves rather than faceted), so I cleaned up the tank to be just a torus shape (ie, deleted anything outside the 0.5m minor radus and filled in the holes). For this I got Vfake=13.976m3 (no solidify modifier). I figured that "close enough is good enough" and just used the ratio of the real and fake volumes to scale everything. Thus... V[sub]tank[/sub] =V[sub]shell[/sub]*(V[sub]real[/sub]/V[sub]fake[/sub]) = 0.509*14.804/13.976 = 0.5392m[sup]3[/sup] V[sub]contents[/sub]=V[sub]inner[/sub]*(V[sub]real[/sub]/V[sub]fake[/sub]) = 13.900*14.804/13.976 = 14.7235m[sup]3[/sup] I did similar shenanigans with the arms (and hoops), but didn't bother with any correction factors. I capped the ends to get the total volume (0.183m3), remove the caps and added a 9mm solidify modifier to get the pipe shell volume (Vpipe=0.069m3) and subtracted to get Varm=0.114m3. Thus: V[sub]t[/sub]=V[sub]tank[/sub]+V[sub]pipe[/sub]=0.5392+0.069=0.6082 V[sub]c[/sub]=V[sub]contents[/sub]+V[sub]arm[/sub]=14.7235+0.114=14.8375 The scales (as best I can tell) are, from small to extra-large: 0.25, 0.625, 1, 1.5. Thus, using a density of 7.8t/m3 for the shell... Name Capcity Shell Dry Mass TO-S-1 0.2318 0.0095 0.0741 TO-M-1 3.6224 0.1485 1.1582 TO-L-1 14.8375 0.6082 4.7440 TO-XL-1 50.0766 2.0527 16.0109 Capacity and Shell are in m3, Dry Mass is in tons. Shell is given only for independent verification . All tanks have an LFO wet/dry mass ratio of 4.128 (lousy, but that's geometry for you). If you want a better mass ratio, talk to NathanKell (he'll give you titanium alloy tanks:cool:). [edit]D'oh: forgot to add the tank mass to the fuel mass for the ratio (3.128->4.128)

Sounds like issue 200: https://github.com/Cilph/RemoteTech2/issues/200 Targeting a body will only talk to satellites in line of site and orbiting that body. So something can be in the cone, but if it is outside the SOI of the target body it will not be communicated with. You might add your usage scenario to the issue and see if that might encourage a change in the code proposed by maxdreamland. I personally think dishes should only use cone mode no matter what they target, but maybe that creates a performance issue.

1. Is on the WNTS. Please read that. It's kind of important. 2. Is, at least to some extent, already kind of in the game, I think. Problem is, the ocean is a sphere -- you can't divide it into square grids. Doesn't work. But yeah, something of this kind already exists, AFAIK. You'd have to talk to a dev to be sure. 3. Smoke trails like that... well, how does it react to the camera being rotated? Is it animated? How will it possibly cope when you have a hundred engines running? Will there be issues with how a whole lot of them overlay on each other if they're translucent? How does it react to sudden engine shutoff -- would the entire trail simultaneously disappear? The present implementation is not the best, no, but I think it works a lot better than a static or even animated image.