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No civilization capable of that kind of expansion is going to be listening for radio, they'll be listening for whatever they use, which is going to be a lot better than radio. We're already on the cusp of leaving radio behind ourselves. So what if the Milky Way is .5 billion years younger than the rest of the universe? It still would have to go through an entire generation of stars before any of them were capable of producing the elements needed to form proper planets with sufficient resources for life to form. So, 6 or 7 billion years for enough stars to have burned all the way to carbon or iron and gone boom? Another billion or so years for new stars to form out of the ashes of the old with planets that can properly support the formation of life, having the necessary ingredients. Another 3 billion years for that life to reach a point where it can begin moving out from its home. So, we're up to about 4 to 3 billion years ago, roughly, when the first civilizations could reasonably have begun to explore space. Still within your time window. But I think you're being too generous. At .1 c, it's a nearly 50 year trip from here to the nearest star...and that's just the trip. Right now, we ourselves are looking at a minimum of 50 years just to build a ship that could get to the true edge our solar system within a human lifetime. At .005 c, they won't colonize anything. The only thing anyone will ever send, are probes...and probably not even that, when it's going to be an 800 year trip. Ok then, so scratch that. Every civilization is going to fully infest its homeworld before it even gets to the rest of its solar system. For us, that's about now, so we'll stick with the numbers we've used so far. In which case, it took us 50,000 years about, to get to that point. Considering how things have gone in the last few centuries, we could probably truly fully take over the solar system in about a thousand years, if we become hardcore expansionists and do nothing else. That's not really worth including in a billion-year timescale, so we'll mostly skip it. Once they get to that point though, they're still staring at a trip that's going to take the better part of a century in a best-case scenario. (warp drive is off the table because, even if it works, it can't be used effectively) And they're certainly not going to be flinging colonists out there willy nilly (if they want them to succeed, anyway). So to really fully "master" a given colony world (a necessity before attempting to master another star system, itself a necessity before attempting to colonize another star), you're looking at at least another thousand years...plus another thousand to get the system under control. Now, at that point...you have two systems with which to support a third, so you could do it in about 1500 years total instead of 2000. You're still looking at 50 year trips in between, though, and that's on the good side...assuming habitable worlds are that close together. Otherwise you're looking at having to engineer special habitats or terraform colony worlds from the very start before you can even put a reasonably large population there...tack on at least another thousand years to the colonization process. So what're we up to now? To get 9 other star systems fully developed along with the home system (and we'll go with a drop of 1,000 years development time for every two systems colonized, to simplify), you're looking at at least 11,000 years or so (I didn't go through it all in my head)? So after a certain point, the inner systems of this empire will no longer be viable for establishing colonies, since they're much too far away from the colonial frontier to contribute anything meaningful within a reasonable amount of time. And then we have a new problem anyway. Once this empire hits about 20 ly across, it's going to stop expanding. Because if it expands any farther, it hits the same issue as every pre-industrial empire before it...communication. You can't build an empire when you can't talk to it, and when it takes 20 years just to make a statement and get a response, you're done. At that point, you have to turn over near complete autonomy to each star system, and not all of them are going to want to play ball with colonization anymore. And that applies even if they manage to develop some magical type of shielding that lets them safely travel at .999999999 c. The communications barrier will stop them at a diameter of around 20 to 30 ly. If they develop FTL propulsion of some kind, that changes things, but not by much. Consider, to even double the speed of light, even with White's revisions to the warp drive, would take enormous resources. At double c, it's a 2 year trip to the nearest stars. At quadruple c, it's one year; at 8 times c, it's 6 months, etc...we all know that, right? But then, you still have to spend thousands of years fully mastering all those systems to support the energy-intensive and complex drives that you're tooling around with. And even so, you still run into the communications problem. At even 8 times c, you only double the diameter of your empire, at best, which by then becomes 40 to 60 ly...80 if your set-up is really good. That's a 5 year trip to get from the homeworld to the outer colonies, 10 to get form one edge to the other. And it requires physical travel, not merely a "call", which is going to take even more resources, and still takes too long. Sorry, but no, you have to have serious FTL capabilities to even consider conquering a whole galaxy. Otherwise, all you're doing is breaking your own civilization into pieces and hoping the other pieces don't decide the original piece were real jerks. And best-case scenario, it only applies to local space. No one will ever colonize vast swaths of space at sublight...period.

Just to comment on the mod discussion earlier on in the thread, how about on-server mods, like you can do in Minecraft? There could be 'modpacks' for the server itself, you select which ones you want to use in the VAB using a simple GUI window, and the parts from those packs appear in your part selection. That way you won't HAVE to get specific mods to play on the server, you just select which ones you WANT to use and use them. Of course you can only use the modpacks while connected to the server. I realize that it is too early to talk about all of this, I just wanted to...well...[insert something smart and witty here]. Anyway. EDIT: Post No. 321!!!

Will look into that, as sometimes I feel the info available for a "space faring race of kerbals" is somewhat poor concerning their own spaceship design haha. Whoa whoa whoa, let's not talk crazy here!

As an Interactive Developer with more than a decade of work experience, I fully understand the dilemma that Squad faces, which again leads me to think, that it was/is a mistake that they themselves decided to host there own mod database. It is true, that a new website dosn't fix the current one, however from my understanding there is only 1 guy on the website development component, and it is in my believe better for him to focus on a new website, rather than fixing the old one. Nobody likes the job of maintaining old code, nor is it an easy job when you look at the rather unintelligible search function. It may be easy for you, me and the IT experienced players of this community. However, I dont know if you've noticed the amount of players that dosn't have that much computer experience on the forums. So many people asking different questions, that you may be doing a /facepalm over. Are we as a community just to forget about them. Sometimes, it feels like Squad has, however as someone else mentioned as well in a different thread, using mods is at the users own discretion and therefor Squad doesn't hold any responsibilities nor obligations. I may not have played this game for the many years that a lot of the players have on this forum. However, during the last 2-3 months that I have played it. I've grown to find it very much enjoyable, and would at any time recommend it to others. So why shouldn't I want to improve said game, if I believed I had something to contribute to it. If I had been on this forum for the last many years, I might have been able to gain the recognition that it would require to make a new and community hosted mod database. I atleast know I have the skills. But what can one do with skills alone. So instead I must try to contribute to the problem at hand, with what ever I have. Most of this might seem like it is what most people are thinking, however I haven't seen much talk about it. So with the little recognition I have, I would like to ask the community, what do you feel WE can do to help the situation? Besides whining, which accomplishes nothing...

That's one of the long-standing plans for Career mode, yes. The Astronaut Complex was the first step in that process. We don't yet know what form the training will take, but there was talk at one time of being able to let the Kerbals themselves take control of the vessels if they were skilled enough (ie. a sort of loose autopilot; presumably they'd just execute maneuver nodes you set up).

As far as I can tell, Tylo is unclaimed but its Spartwo that you need to talk to

lets not talk about age i am old enough to have watched the original movies in theaters. About Tylo is that rock unclaimed. if not id like to set up shop there if it is ill take the snowball out at the end of the universe. Thanks Zekes, that one was fun to make i learned a lot about VTOL recently and had to put something up.

I'm pretty sure there was talk of research-over-time for long term space-stations / satellites on the last KSP TV dev stream (Squadcast 6)

Haven't checked those figures (they sound right) but I did some basic guesstimates when considering that KSP tanks are not actually tanks, they're stages with tanks inside. So, let's talk about the Titan I (the kerolox version) and its first stage. I figure as one of the first missiles, and not a tank-is-skin job like the Atlas (that to this day has one of the best dry:wet ratios ever), it's a good minimum baseline. In addition, it's nice because it has not much in the way of thrust plates or heavy interstages or guidance, and it's easy to see on a cutaway that the fuel tanks take up most of the internal volume of the stage. I come up with: Diam Height Mass Fmass Ehgt Emass Enum Vol Dry Mass Mass/KSPVol Mratio (dry:dry+fuel) Titan I-1 3.05 16 4 72.2 3.13 0.84 2 86.7 2.32 0.000133757 0.030446194 Fake TI-1 1.95 10.24 1.13 22.16 2.00 0.28 2 21.7 0.57 0.000132367 0.024607888 The fake Titan I uses the 64% rescales (real:KSP), and a rescale of 1/3 on engine mass (close to .64^3). Its dry mass is slightly lower to account for a 0.4t decoupler. Note that the volume ratio is about 1/4.7 stock (stock is 0.000625, or 1/1600), and the mass ratio is about 1/4.5 stock (stock is 0.11111, or 1/9). If the tanks were just tanks, as you say, rather than 2 tanks + outer skin + misc structural mass, then it does seem reasonable the ratios would be off by a factor of 10, not ~5.

Everyone likes to talk about all the times their missions went well and were successful. I've only been dabbling in KSP for the past few days after getting it months ago. I'm not skilled enough to successfully pull off an orbit, even after four revisions of my ship's design, but I have had magnificent failures. My first try, I forgot to separate the stages, so my parachute activated at launch. You can guess where that led to. But, since I had Jebediah on board, who everyone thinks is awesome, I decided to bail out. Among all the explosions and freed solid boosters, Jeb leapt out of the spacecraft and fell to the ground, bouncing and narrowly avoiding the destruction. He was unharmed. On my third try, I forgot to add radial decouplers to my tall boosters, so they were dragging me down. I decided to try an EVA report while my course was set to peak at about 30 km and then fall again. Jeb fell off of the capsule. He caught onto one of the still-burning tall booster, dragging it off course. The G-forces pinned him there for a few seconds, but when the ship started spiraling, he was flung off. He recovered, and used his jet pack to fly back to the ship, and, luckily, he managed to hold onto the spiraling capsule long enough to get back in. He detached the boosters, sending them off into space, and burned retrograde to slow his descent, and survived, landing in the middle of the ocean. I am now a believer in Jeb. Share your experiences!

I don't think for a second the stock tech tree will remain this simple. We've got a lot of other mechanics coming down the pipe, and I don't doubt that quite a few will find a home as nodes on that tree. We may even see stat-buff sub-nodes. I guess what I'm trying to say is, it's silly to make a grand judgement on what is effectively a placeholder in an alpha. Let's wait until the tree is shaken to talk about what fell out of it.

I'd take it easy with the bumps. I imagine a lot of folks will be off playing 0.22 and probably only logging on to the forums to talk about 0.22. Give them some time to find their way back to the Fan Works! About the probes, there's a lot of potential storytelling there. Off the top of my head: 1. You've got the old Apollo style arguments of spending money for national prestige vs spending money for science - and probes fall squarely into the 'spending money for science' camp. 2. Then you've got spy satellites, early warning satellites (to monitor for enemy missiles), communication satellites (ostensibly for civilian use but really for the military). Lots of fun political stuff to do in low Kerbin orbit. 3.Then you could make a bit more of particular discoveries rather than a general reference to 'lots of data'. Finding water or kethane on the Mun would have a big impact on your space program, especially if it develops into a race to put your base on the most strategic spot on the Mun. 4. Finally you could go for the 'StarWars' theme and have orbital weapons. Just some ideas anyway. It's your story!

Naaaaw, it is not as bad as it looks stargazer. This rant is happening after every update release and I guess the Devs are used to it. Anyhow, the Mods are doing a very good job to talk some sense in the upset gamers that overhyped themselfes and imagined the then released version as a Final game that cannot be tweaked. The community here is by far the best I have ever been in; right from the Devs to the one guy struggling with the Demo. BTW. Like after the Release of 0.21, the Devs are probably working on a Hotfix for the Issues that occure and hassle the gamers in 0.22. So stay tuned and dont lose hope

Okay, no, that's a bit too early to talk about .24. /thread.

Boomerdog, First of all, look at the popularity of Deadly Reentry, FAR, KW, B9, etc. The mods that added hardcore functionality became extremely popular, because that is what people want. Second, and this is by way of analogy , let's talk about another company that tried to cater to a simpler audience. Microsoft and MS Flight. Microsoft thought they could make more money if they developed a flight game that was simpler, and was not called a simulator. When simulator fans complained they, like Squad, spoke about the 'silent majority' of gamers who didn't use forums and didn't want a simulator. They were wrong, and MS Flight's development was cancelled. The fact is, the simpler crowd wants Minecraft, wants Angry Birds, etc. There isn't really demand for a game that's half realistic simulator(KSP's physics and rocketry) and half arcade game. That repels both audiences. If Squad wants the hardcore crowd(their most likely audience), then they need to start implementing aerodynamics, reentry heat, etc into stock. If they want the simple crowd, then they better make space straight up and create a iPhone version.

I need to get back onto manned misisons soon as possible. Writing about probes is killing my writing style, which is quite apparent (Check out the differences of my manned flight and probe chapters...) I'm truly sorry about the poor quality of the latest chapter, as there is little to nothing to do with probes. After all, they can't talk, they have nothing inside (No likeable characters = No drama), and just provide science. I also need to shift the focus more away from the National Astronautics Adminstration to the Royal Space Agnecy and the Great Union Space Programme. I'm trying to make everyone a protaganist. Yes, the General Secretary of the Party is a protaginist, the Emperor of Roboda is a protaginst, President Madfield is a protagnist, everyone is a good guy. I'm also going to force in some factors like politics and militarism.

Dunan-X - The Arrival "I still can't get a lock on Kerbin, Jeb. The heatshield for the rover is blocking the high-gain." "OK, thanks Dosby. Just send them something short on the low-gain so Gene knows we made it past Ike. No time to turn the ship to transmit now." Great. Another design flaw. First there was the unplanned encounter with Ike (Why did they bother with the high approach if they were going to hit Ike anyway?), and now this. Not that any of it bothered Jeb. Never did. The whole world could be exploding around him and he'd still keep smiling along. Bill wasn't as happy. He hated these long burns, and didn't look forward to nine minutes of strange noises and heavy vibrations. At least they weren't trying to aerobrake this collection of junk. And maybe it would drone out the two CCHR highlanders and their strange language. It'd been driving him slightly batty for the last 55 days, not understanding half of what anybody was saying. Bill pulled his "don't hit this by accident" post-it note from the transfer stage's controls, which garnered an odd glance and a snicker from Jeb. "What? Can't be too safe." Jeb kept grinning, a grin you could hear across the ship's PA. "Ok dudes, this ride's about to get bumpy. Make sure you're strapped in. Duna capture burn in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Burn!" He motioned to Bill, who hit the throttle for the main engines. The NERVAs started up perfectly after almost 50 days in the cold, and suddenly the kerbals were punched into the back of their seats. Random bits of floating debris pinged along the back of the capsule. Or was it the bottom? "This outta wake up old Shep!" Nine minutes felt like thirty. The drive section of the Dunan-X was designed with the limited availability of nuclear fuel in mind, and only featured 4 of the fancy NERVA engines. When you’re mass is in the “several hundred tonnes†range, those four little engines can take a little while to do much of anything. Still enough to give you a kick after weeks in microgravity. When the burn was finished the Dunan-X was in a nearly-perfect 400km by 100km orbit inclined at 45°. Just like they'd planned. All the random bits of junk at the bottom of the capsule started to float forward again. "OK, Bill, lets get the satellites deployed so we can see what we can see. I'd like to get down to that big red rock." Jeb unsnapped his restraints and floated into the back cabins of the ship. Bill looked down to see Shepson asleep in the lower seat. He'd slept through the entire capture. Bill could only shake his head and set about polluting the Duna system with satellites. -- Deploying the MP-SMC-1 wasn't very easy. They put the craft off-balance at Ike when they dropped the first microsat. Bill decided it'd be easier to fly it remotely and at one-thirds throttle. The good news was it didn't take nearly as much fuel to get it into a polar orbit as Bill had feared. Thank you, lower Dunan gravity. The MP-SMC satellite array is a relatively simple solution for planets without a communications and mapping network. The package consists of three micro satellites attached to the “mother†MP-SMC satellite. The three microsats can serve as communication uplinks or mapping satellites, and relay data back to Kerbin via the mother satellite. The mother satellite also serves as a local router, directing in-system communications efficiently. The package is topped off with a healthy booster, allowing the satellites to deploy into nearly any desired orbit. A message from Kerbin crackled on the radio momentarily, then Gene's voice came through clearly. "DX, this is Cape. We're not sure what you meant in your last message by 'Something Short,' and we're hoping you haven't encountered major electrical issues. Please respond when you receive this to advise on your Dunan capture burn. Cape out." "That guy has no sense of humor" remarked Jeb as he bounced back into the cabin. “We’ll have to wait for the first surveys before we narrow down our landing options. With our orbit, I expect they’ll want us to go for the Category-B sites in the north. Night landings make for bad T.V. But first we need to finish our circularization burn." In the dark, naturally. "And get those satellites working." The orbits after everything was deployed. Four of the microsats will move into a pseudo-Molniya orbit and become communications satellites following the completion of their initial mapping mission. With Ike guarding Duna-sync orbit, Molniyas are the best option for reliable commsats. Take On Duna (Descent) "Look Jeb, I don't think this is safe. It has an automated landing system for a reason." Bill knew this would happen. It was inevitable. Almost as though the mission planners expected it when they added the rover to the mission payload. Here they were, in orbit around Duna, a million kilometers from home, and Jeb was about to do something stupid. "Jeb we haven't even finished the satellite surveys. If something goes wrong we might not be able to find you. It's a big planet." "Hey, we named it Lucky for a reason, right? There's still an open seat if you're game Bill. It'll be one heck of a ride!" "You're hopeless Jeb. Just be careful." The sound of the rover pulling away from the Dunan-X was jarring. After hundreds of Kerbin days in empty space, the most noise they'd heard were the strange sounds that worked up the spacecraft from the main engines. This noise was more of a snap and a shriek, followed by the sound of fairing tethers smacking the side of the ship. Bill just shook his head and returned to the surveys. Only a few more passes then he could join his mad friend on the surface. As usual Jebediah was heavy on the retrothrusters, getting the Rothar lined up for its entry onto the Dunan stage. "Lucky" they called it. Lucky for Jeb they'd decided to install a heat shield at the last minute, otherwise his trip would be warm and short. Part of the way through the burn Jeb used the rover’s self-righting mechanism to kick the upper fairing away. Don’t want to run into that on reentry. Entry? Retroburn complete, Jeb sat back in the driver's seat and took in the very unique Dunan sunrise. “Hey Bill!†“Yes Jeb.†“You see that big mountain just over the horizon? We should drive over to that when we get the chance. Shouldn’t be more than a day or two. Looks like it reaches up into space!†“Whatever, Jeb. Just keep us updated on your reentry and landing, ok?†What a wet blanket. "C’mon Bill! This should be more fun than my Mun landing! I’ll call you when I find the nearest snack machine." Jeb kicked back and braced for the awesome fire and light show of reentry. Entry! First Kerbal on Duna! With style! Always count on Jebediah to make a crazy theatrical entrance. Enter Jeb, stage sky. Next Year's Model Time hasn't stopped back on Kerbin, where the engineers just finished testing the vessel for Bob's mission to Vall, and were proceeding with launch and orbital assembly. First up was the crew lander. The XKV-2 lander is capable of returning from most of the moons in the Kerbol system, and a couple of the planets. While not as roomy as the Dunan-X, it makes up for the lack of amenities with a noticeable reduction in mass. Lightweight parachutes are included for emergency use only. The assembly launches were all unmanned, and crews will launch to finalize the ship at a later date. Here's a fuel pod being launched. Just imagine there's a nice fairing on that. The drive segment proved the most difficult to get to orbit. Initial plans were to include only one of the fuel pods and have the main drive use larger tanks. This necessitated the creation of a larger launch vehicle, dubbed the Heron XK. Unfortunately the rushed design failed, resulting in a catastrophic (and radiation-spewing) loss. A quick design revision (and a hushed nuclear waste cleanup effort) and the new drive section was within the limitations of existing and proven launch hardware. Two of the six nuclear engines were salvaged from the failed first launch, the other four were robbed from another (now delayed) program. The change necessitated the inclusion of a second as of yet unbuilt fuel pod, bringing total module count to four. The new drive section was launched without a hitch. Initial assembly complete. Presenting the newest ship in the KSA's Interplanetary Exploration Fleet: the "Axiom of Choice." Total mass in current configuration: 165t. Current part count: 128. Each additional fuel pod adds 55.3t and 20 parts. The lander stage was developed from the proven Dunan-X design, with a reduced part count and a lower mass for operations on smaller moons. The main drive stage features a 50 percent increase in thrust over that used for the Dunan-X. The modular design allows for the inclusion of any mission payload. The fuel pods allow the ship to expand to meet any need. This is truly next year’s model of Interplanetary vessel! The first mission planned for the AoC is shake-down run to the Mun and Minmus. By then construction of the revised fuel pod will be complete, providing enough fuel to reach and return from Vall with the mission payload. With the Axiom of Choice launch and initial assembly complete back in Kerbin orbit, it was time to send up the inspection and final set-up crew: Bob. Gene had offered to delay the mission until after the Dunan-X landing, but Bob refused. “I’d rather watch it from orbit. I hear there’ll be fireworks over Kerbin City.†So while Jeb was busy descending to Duna, Bob was headed skyward from Kerbin. Night launch, as is my custom. This was only the second launch of the Peregrine-based Eala, and everything went perfectly. First rendezvous with the Axiom of Choice was almost two orbit away, and Bob would be back over KSC and Kerbin City just in time to watch the Dunan-X landing celebration from space. The fireworks weren’t as impressive as he’d hoped, but his ship? His new ship? That’s pretty. Now if only he wasn’t so terrified by EVA. (The Eala 2 was my last launch in .21. Very smooth flight.) Take On Duna (Awakening) - Jeb Jeb awoke to a terrible headache. He couldn't remember much of the night before... was it something he ate? What was up with the buzzing sound? The sun was spinning overhead in an agitated way. And bright. Too bright. Thinking about it made his head hurt even more. He crawled around for a bit, decided that wasn't working and pulled himself using the walking stick he was carrying. Walking stick?!? He hobbled around using the stick, taking in the scenery, trying to shake the cobwebs out of his mind. Why was everything so red? And what on Bop was that noise! The Rothar had landed hard. Jeb was knocked unconscious when the rover’s chutes deployed, snapping him back with near-lethal force, causing the heat shield to be jettisoned early in the process. (He was lucky to be alive.) The whole reentry was a bit strange to him anyway. He expected flames, and wind, and noise. The air on Duna was too thin, and it caught him by surprise. He’d disabled the automatic landing system so he could choose the best landing spot, so instead of a soft, RCS-cushioned landing, the rover hit the ground at 20 meters per second. The unconscious Jebediah was thrown from his seat. That infernal noise! Jeb violently smacked the side of his helmet twice, then glared at the empty Dunan wasteland. Nary a green thing nor a blue thing to see. And of course he’d packed only a few small snacks. Had to make room for this walking stick. Flag! Where did that come from? Flag! Right, flag. Jebediah Kerman, First Kerbal on Duna! (Maybe.) Jeb remembered he had a radio. And friends in orbit waiting for him to call. "Hey Bill! Got a landing target for you! Big flag, says 'First dude on Duna' or somesuch." Jeb noticed the buzzing went away when he had his hand over the push-to-talk button on the side of his helmet. He played around with it a bit before he realized the problem. "Good to hear from you Jeb. We were starting to get worried. Send us your coordinates and I'll get started running the numbers for our landing." "Sure thing, Billyboy! I'll get to it right after I patch this hole in the side of my helmet!" (I had to fight KSP over this landing. The collision mesh for the self-righting legs is apparently /too/ close to the chairs, which was causing Jeb to be ejected 500m above the surface. Two attempts later I realized I needed to leave the legs extended, but even then the landing was rough. The Rothar flipped, ejected Jeb as debris, then came to a stop upright a short distance away. I had to persistence edit Jeb back to an EVA state.... perhaps the landing really did kill him? Not today. This won’t be an issue in .22, as the update has nerfed the landing legs, making the self-righting design useless.) Landing the Dunan-X - Bill It was white knuckle time for Bill. That last bump felt like it was more than just air. After 60 days in a vacuum even the thinnest atmosphere felt like sludge. The sound of the wind rushing past the lander’s windows was reassuring though. Sounded like reentry on Kerbin. Sounded like home. But Jeb was on the surface with a cracked helmet and probably a concussion. No time to waste. No time to screw up this landing. “What is that eeediot pilot of yours thinking he is doing now? Glupek! [some unintelligible sentence]†Shepson just shrugged and went back to lazily watching the fast-approaching Dunan landscape. It was the most he’d heard out of Luton since they broke orbit. Luton still had a stiff accent, and the only other Highlander in the area was back in the orbital module. No idea what that rant was about, but he was more curious what happened to the parachutes. He thought there’d be more of them. The chutes took too long to deploy. And since they were still reefed they weren't doing much. The geeks back at KSC had warned Bill he'd need to land on flame, but he didn't think he'd also need to kill his lateral movement with the engines too. Bill decided to trust the guys with the glasses and slide rules and punched the landing gear. Right as the drogues opened up. The main chutes were less subtle than the drogues, and knocked around everything that wasn’t bolted down. Bill was increasingly nervous. Time to throttle up. No, wait. Coming in too fast, throttle up! 30m/s, still too fast. 25m/s. "It was never this hard in the simulations!" he screamed. Think of the open mic, Bill. Calm yourself. 20m/s. 30 meters.... [bOOM] That one hurt. All the bumps and fake gravity from the main drive were nothing compared to hitting the ground at speed. The landing legs took some of the force (and prevented any real damage), but they also caused the ship to bounce into the air. Bill was struggling to keep it upright. The chutes cut. The ship fell like a brick. [booM] Another bounce. You couldn't see outside through the fire and smoke or the sand kicked up by the engines. [screeeeeeee] The legs were skidding across the dune, gouging four neat trenches. Bill killed the engines to stop the hovering, hands still gripping the controls tightly. The ship stopped shaking. All the gauges read zero. Shepson yawned audibly. "Are we down yet?" The Dunan-X had arrived. -- It didn’t take Jeb long to drive the half kilometer to the landing site. It did, however, take him entirely too long to find a spare helmet that matched his old one. The rest of the crew had managed to do their “first so and so on Duna!†ladder descent. Interviews, big speeches, famous phrases. Jeb rubbed the inside of another helmet from the storage bin and tossed it aside. Not the one. “Jeb, they’re all the same! Just, c’mon, you’re holding up the flag ceremony!†Bill was growing impatient as usual. Time to go outside and wear a fake smile for the cameras. If they could see it through the cheap space helmet. From left to right: Dosby Kerman of the ISC, Luton Kerman of the CCHR, Bill Kerman, Shepson Kerman and Jebediah Kerman of the FSK. The plaques on their respective flags read “In Unity for all Kerbalkind†or some equally motivating phrase in the language of their respective nations. We think. (No one really bothered to check the translations before shoving them on the ship 70 days ago.) (Yes, I had to edit in the different flags in the persistence file. It'd be nice if KSP allowed us to choose the flags at planting, but I'm happy just to have them now.) The Dunan-X was my final 0.21 mission, bringing the Ninth Cycle to an end. There will be a short epilogue before I jump into .22. Thanks for reading!

Has anyone gone up that tower on the island yet? Talk about a workout.. btw, Jeb only fell down three times on the way down..

O how fun it is to hear people talk about things the think they hear on TV. Ofcourse it's about funding. How else are you going to pay for your research? What do you think happends with it? Researchers aren't bank directors getting bonusses while the bank is in debt buddy. And how do you think you GET funding? By having a good idea! How do you get a good idea? Well, start by thinking of something that isn't know yet, and wanting to know it. Wait, I think I know a single word for that. I think there's a Mars rover named after that word. Which is up there to find out things we don't know Now would you mind pointing out the part where that is BAD thing? This is a game about creativity, reaching for the stars! Who the hell are you to say that someone else is not ALLOWED to do something creative in theyr own single player game?

It's exactly what the title says. So go ahead, talk about your dreams!

Talk about coincidence. I did not do another burn since the trans-Munar injection btw.

Well, it's how most 'real physics plausible' warp drives would work. (Like the one NASA wants to make.) Mostly because conservation of energy and conservation of momentum mean that if you go from Earth orbit to Jupiter orbit a lot of energy has to some from somewhere. It's also explicitly how hyperdrive works in Larry Niven's Known Space books, and a few others. Most Sci-fi franchises don't talk about it, because the relative velocity (and distance, really) between planets and stars is the kind of thing the writers don't want to worry about.

I find the shilly-shallying of the colonials rather tiring old chap. Can't we talk about something civilised, like cricket?

At zero or a positive increase will cause the chute to deflate and fold. It is cut to avoid all those nasties that I mentioned. (Well it is cut because the game can't collapse the chute and ropes on top of your ship or have it flutter around. The game engine does not support it from what I understand.) What I'm suggesting is that if you had watched your vertical speed indicator more closely you could have seen that was going to happen and either cut your throttle or decrease it to avoid your chute going away. i almost had that happen to me last night. (Never talk to your wife and fly at the same time). I did catch it in time to avoid the chute from being cut. also, the games does not do rope physics.

Love this mod! I'm kinda RPing the research required for it right now by trying to finish the tech tree before it's released - and I'm no Manley. I had to send rescue missions out for my initial flights to the Mun and Minmus, and now I need to rescue the guys sent to rescue Jeb from the Mun. At least he has two other Kerbals to talk to now.