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Yeah, I know about it. Not sure it'll work though. Need to calculate stuff first... and getting anything to this floating things will be ridiculous. Nae, I'd say even FTL is easier than stationary floating thing in space. In case it would be impossible to just float solar sail above the star, polar orbit is the way to go - this way you won't have Kerbol/Sun obstructing your field-of-view. You'll have to put another collector-laser assembly into equatorial orbit to reach stars above and below Kerbol/Sun, and another collector-laser assembly into polar orbit at 90 degrees to the first one. This way you'll cover all directions. That sounds like a lot of work. I know something about solar sail technology; the thing is that it works so much better at moving things away from the star. It has nothing to do with balance, and it works perfectly well for in-system transfer. In fact, with ablative beam sail it would be perfect for it. I'm actually a scientist (medical sciences, and I'm moving towards biology and environmental sciences (and maybe astrobiology if I'll get rich somehow). Life can do a lot of amazing things, but science does not bet on those things. Science operates with facts and evidence, and right now there is no evidence about life's existence anywhere in the solar system except on Earth. We talk about conditions favourable for life, it's something entirely different. This discussion goes downhill, really, since you are way too keen on defending your beamed sail at all costs; I suggest learning a bit more about orbital mechanics and moving stuff around in space just to understand the amount of work required; maybe even constructing something using beams and girders and solar panels in KSP (if you'll do it, show us your pictures! it'd be awesome!) to get the first-hand experience. Otherwise you'll be just dismissing problems with fancy words instead of working out solutions.

Firstly, the iron – An Iron will radiate, conduct and convect away every joule of energy that’s put into it that takes it above ambient temperatures – the *important* question is; what’s the equilibrium temperature? Now, you solar collector is NOT just going to be a graphene panel. There will be different materials involved and all (though there might not be many, but one is enough to this to be valid) these materials will have different coefficients of thermal expansion which is why passive cooling over a huge area ain’t an option in a *hot* environment, and making it in NEO and then shipping it to NSO is problematical. Not saying impossible, but why make a rod for your back when you’ve got another million-and-one problems to solve and only 50 years to do it in J Their orbital position is a very minor concern though but I maintain moving them closer to the sun is a bigger technical challenge than bigger collectors. No I didn’t forget about the unlimited budget, but having spent 20 years in product development of one kind or another I can you the single most important resource is people. Throwing money at projects only gets you so far – you can get nine women pregnant but that doesn’t mean you’ll get a baby in a month (as the saying goes). There simply aren’t enough skilled warm bodies to complete this project within the 50 year time-frame without getting silly. I really don’t think you’re fully appreciating the scope of the project. It took 16 years to develop the Airbus a380 at a cost of 11 billion Euroes. Doubling the budget wouldn’t drop the time to 9 years. Ten times the budget wouldn’t equal an 18 month development phase. It just doesn’t work that. That’s ONE aircraft (yes, I realise a lot of development was the assembly line – but the same applies to the fleet of spacecraft you’re going to need to loft the phase 1 equipment into orbit). Now, typically when someone says in X years time it’ll technically possible to build Z I would normally interpret that as meaning that by X date we’ll have Y technology which we can put together to build Z and not – If we sequester a not inconsequential percentage of the scientific and engineering resource on Earth for the next 5 decades we could do this. Hell, think of the technical challenge of the targeting system alone!?! Trying to shine a laser onto a target a few kilometres across at a range of 3 light months could absorb thousands of man years of development time. Developing something like a continuous 10gigawatt laser could run into millions, if not 10s of millions of man years. Actually building one that can run for months at time is just the FIRST step – then you’ve got to figure out how to build it in such a way that it can either be built in nice neat modules and assembled by people wearing spacesuits. If these figures sound outlandish I would point to the truck project going on around me at the moment – which is principally driven by the new European emission regulations. In the department I work in it’s taken approximately 300 man years of work. That one department in one company (numerous external suppliers have been effected as well) and doesn’t include the work that’s gone out sourcing new suppliers and outfitting the assembly line for the new truck model. So I could confidently double that figure – and that’s just to meet a new regulation and make some incremental developments to a well-established product that is, essentially 75% unchanged from the previous version. The bottom line is this, I’m not objecting to the idea as such but the 50 year time-frame is silly – talking about unlimited budgets and huge manpower, you might as well talk about magic wands. We *might* be able to start in 50 years. I’ll be surprised if asteroid mining isn’t in its early stages by then. So the very start of the infrastructure for this kind of project will be in place and resources in space will be starting to become more accessible. Whilst NASA may indeed state that this is the most realistic method of intersteller travel with conceivable technology that doesn’t mean it’s the most practical in game terms, and frankly, gameplay is FAR more important than physics. The scale of the task in-game is too big to go for something that’s vaguely realistic and so something considerably scaled down would be implemented. Physics would be fudged – just as almost every other aspect of the game goes. The planets are far too dense and too close together. Kerbol is too small to ignite into a star. Laythe has liquid water on its surface! All these are VERY unrealistic and yet NONE of them wreck the same and therefor prove you can take considerable liberties with physics and still wind up with something that *feels* realistic. Intersteller travel taking years is going to break the game as the travel times won’t fit with the in-system game. Remember, we’re not talking about getting to just the next system, but the one after that and then the one after that – and people calling for just a higher warp clearly don’t understand that you’re unlikely to be able to just “park†your whole space program for years at a time – it will likely need constant management. So you could be looking at dozens upon dozens of hours of gameplay before your very first probe arrives in the next system and begin its actual mission – and in intersteller terms this is like launching your first satellite into orbit around Kerbin. So, sorry, I see and FTL system, with travel time in weeks or months, that doesn’t work in-system (or just doesn’t allow you to target planets – only stars) as being the only practical solution to taking fun and interesting gameplay beyond the Kerbol system. Realism be damned. And that's pretty much my last word on this particular sub-topic. Really don't have the time go this in-depth any more.

I'm not offended by this thread merely the fallacy in the first place, I think it's important to talk about things that bother us.

Railways in KSP is a bit of a catch 22 scenario. Without the rails, there can't be trains, without the trains, there can't be rails. Really you need some people willing to make the trains to talk with someone willing to make the rail. the biggest issue is going to be standardized colliders on the rail, and a standardized method of building the wheels for the carriages. Simplest method I can think of is four wheel colliders per axle. Two sitting on top of the rails, and two sitting around them (those two having very little suspension distance so it stays on the rail)

I think you've missed the OP's point. It's not the intention of this teacher to replace the entire school curriculum with KSP. Rather, it's to be used as a stimulus for learning collaborative physics problem solving. With that goal in mind there currently isn't a better learning tool, albeit a veiled game, than KSP. I introduced my 8 year old grandson (I'm 68) to KSP a few months ago and he took to it like a duck to water. I was amazed by how quickly he coordinated the available YouTube tutorials with his building and launching goals. Hell, he even stopped playing COD on his PS3! So "yes", KSP could easily become an international education phenom. Even though I'm most likely known on this forum as the resident "game lag nag" I can assure you that my opinion about KSP is otherwise 99% stellar (-1% for lag, still a nag, LOL). P.S. Sixty years difference between me and my grandson and we both love this game. Talk about spanning generations, simply amazing! Kudos Squad!

IIRC there was another teacher on the forums asking around for help on mission/reward creation and balancing. There was an entire page and student forum too, I'll try to nail the thread onto a link for you if you want to talk to him.

Sadly, my little probe-ship had no docking ports on it. Also, no. I am terrible at rendezvous. The last time I tried... we, uh, we don't talk about the last time. EDIT: Well, I since arrived at the moon... but thanks to underestimating my speed, I arrived a little faster than I was intending. Unfortunately my quicksave was just a little too late to prevent this. In other news: I suck at designing spaceplanes. Jeb hates me now.

I use it in my series. (ioncross) but really don't talk much about them. Just usually the fact that I need to make more complex craft to support the crews. When I had my Base on the Mun.. I had to launch regular supply missions to it for oxygen. Was fun.

DEPARTURE CAPCOM: We're going to continue to look into possible solutions down here. Just sit tight, fellas. BILL KERMAN: Roger. Understood. JEBEDIAH KERMAN: Talk to you later. I may go back outside to see if I spot any rocks that look particularly flammable. Bob out. Munar Module Bob was desperately short on fuel. Ordinarily, this is the point where I would start to mount a rescue mission. But this is an Apollo-style challenge, and there was no such thing as an Apollo rescue mission to the Moon; and so in the challenge thread, it was quite reasonably determined that kerbonauts stranded on the Mun in this challenge would have to be counted as dead. Desperately short on fuel or not, then, there seemed no point in just staying put. Especially with Jebediah Kerman involved. "Jeb, shouldn't we just keep waiting for them to think it over down there?" "What solution could they possibly come up with? Have us open the hatch and stand in the doorway with our jetpacks hanging out, so we can add thrust from our EVA suits? Actually, that sounds kind of fun..." "Just lifting off isn't a solution either. We're at 5% fuel, Jeb." "We've got the RCS too. In the simulator, I've gotten back into orbit using mostly RCS. We'd just need to get a big enough kick from the engines to get us started. I'll probably be too busy flying to stand in the hatch firing my jetpack, you'll have to do that by yourself...or maybe we should both go out and do this sitting in the deck chairs topside..." "Were those the same sims that showed it would be nice and flat around the Neil Armstrong Monument? Oh, and you'll notice we're down to 35% monopropellant." "That'll last longer than you might expect." "Do you really believe you can get us back into orbit?" "Do you really want to just sit here until you run out of air?" Jeb and Bill fell silent. As they stared outside, the munar surface on the other side of the window suddenly disappeared, and was replaced by a giant kerbonaut's helmet. A gloved hand reached up to the helmet and lifted the visor. Inside the helmet, Jeb and Bill saw a face. A huge, alien face, with a strange round shape and peculiar features. The eyes were small, and set into the face instead of sitting on top; there was a funny-looking protuberance set between and a little below the eyes; and the skin was a bizarre, non-green color. The kerbonauts heard a voice inside their helmets, as if someone were radioing them. Only it didn't sound like the radio--there was no static, no compression of the sound, no beeps--and the voice was an alien one. "Hello. Looks like you guys are in a bit of a jam." Jeb wanted to speak but couldn't. (Bill also couldn't speak...but was content not to.) "I'm Neil Armstrong. You visited my monument back there...or at least your rover did." After a few seconds, Jeb managed to find his tongue. "So you're what an armstrong looks like." "Suppose so. But I think what you really mean is that I'm what a human looks like." "A human. So it's really the 'Neil Armstrong Human Memorial'?" "What? No, 'human' isn't my last name, it's...never mind, we don't have time for that now." There was so much Jeb wanted to ask this alien visitor. "How did your monument wind up on our Mun anyhow?" "Sorry, we don't have time for that either. I'm here to ask you what you plan to do." "Well, I plan to get this thing into orbit so we can go home. My friend here has other ideas, which seem to mostly involve sitting here until we pass out and die." "I like your plan better. Except maybe for the not-enough-fuel part." Jeb sighed. "You can tell from there, can you? You don't happen to have any we could borrow, do you?" "No. Wish I did." "So..." "So what's the point of this conversation? Glad you asked. I've been sent here to reassure you." "Fuel would be reassuring." "Sorry. No, I'm here to assure you that, whether your story ends today or tomorrow or next year..." "...or fifty years from now?" Jeb interjected, hopefully. "Jeb, I've seen you fly. Anyhow, whenever it ends, it'll be all right so long as you go out as heroes. Because there's a special Valhalla just for space heroes, and it's where you two belong. There are a lot of great guys and gals up here, and we run missions you wouldn't believe. Jeb, there's a friend of mine named Pete--he's getting a ship ready for a mission to fly into the heart of a black hole. He's promised me that when you get here, whenever that this, you can be his co-pilot. "As for you, Bill, I'll take you along with me on my next mission, if you like. It's just an everyday asteroid-lassoing kind of mission, but I think you'd find it fun, and maybe they'd let you command the next one after that. "All right, I'm out of time and have to go now. Take heart, good luck, and Godspeed." The alien apparition faded, and Jeb and Bill once again saw the surface of the Mun outside their spacecraft. They sat in silence for a few minutes. JEBEDIAH KERMAN: This is Bob. You guys got anything for us down there? CAPCOM: We've...been working on it. We have. The best minds down here are racking their brains...uh...afraid I don't have anything for you just yet though. I... JEBEDIAH KERMAN: That's okay. We understand. We're going to try something on our end. Bob out. The twin Rockomax 24-77s fired for a precious few seconds before their fuel ran out, giving MM Bob a little bit of altitude and time to work with, but not much. The craft was pointed towards the horizon, RCS thrusting for all it was worth; velocity was gained steadily, but ever so slowly. Soon the Munar Module started falling back towards the Mun, still nowhere near orbital velocity. Jeb pitched it back to vertical to try to stop, or at least slow, the descent, but the RCS wasn't powerful enough for that. So Jeb pointed the craft retrograde instead, and kept the thrusters burning (there was still fuel); and he and Bill braced for impact. Debris flying away from the crash site. Maybe they should have tried riding it out on those deck chairs. Points added and subtracted: Please note that the lander instructions were followed quite literally. 20 points added; 40 points subtracted. The mission has now earned 128 points, out of a possible 218. The following points are no longer possible; they are noted here for the sake of completeness:

ORBIT AND TMI The craft flew straight and was rock solid up to the start of the gravity turn at 12km altitude. At that point, the escape tower started wobbling around a good bit; but it would soon be jettisoned anyway, along with the spent first stage. The second stage lifted the craft into low Kerbin orbit at roughly 74km. (There's been talk of awarding bonus points for having quincunx engine configurations on each of the first two stages. I'm in favor of it.) A final circularization burn was completed at just over T plus 8 minutes. This brought the mission to a point of considerable uncertainty, with two rather different trans-munar injection sequences having been penciled in at this part of the mission profile. It's the sort of thing that happens when there were significant, untested changes to the final launch vehicle at the last minute. On the last test flight, there had not been enough fuel left in the second stage to put Ronely, Hanbin, and Dunvis into the free return trajectory around the Mun, and so they had had to stage and then complete the burn with the Command Module engine. This posed two problems. First, having less fuel available than expected for the munar and return phases of the mission is quite obviously a bad thing. Second--as will soon be seen--this particular staging creates quite a lot of debris due to the fairings, debris which would remain in a highly elliptical orbit around Kerbin forever. Whether or not bonus points are tacked on in future for returning all debris to the atmosphere or crashing it into the Mun (the suggestion has been raised in the challenge thread), I like to run a tidy operation, and this just wouldn't do. So the decision was made to shed weight by removing some of the fairing. On the version of the rocket used in the Apollo Pre-K program, the fairing around the junction between the second stage and the upper stages was more elaborate, and the fairing that can be seen between the fuel tanks on the second stage had been extended all the way down the first stage as well. Removal of these extra panels saved a good bit of weight. At the same time, some weight had to be added to the top when engineers realized they had forgotten to add the munar sub-satellite called for in one of the bonus goals. So, Apollo K was launched with the hope--but not the certainty--that the second stage would have enough fuel to put the craft on its free return trajectory. If not, the backup plan was to split the transfer into two burns, an orbit apart. The first burn would nearly exhaust the second stage, leaving just enough fuel for it to be tipped back into a low-atmosphere return. Said tipping would be done at apokee; then, after staging and related maneuvers, the Command Module engine would restore an orbital trajectory; finally, back around perikee, the CM would complete the transfer. (Hopefully, the Mun wouldn't have moved far enough in the interim to require costly course corrections...mission control's best guess was that the extra delta-v expenditure would be minimal.) So, with two sets of checklists in front of everyone, and with a careful watch being kept on fuel, the trans-munar injection burn was started... CAPCOM: "Apollo K, we have confirmed munar intercept and free-return trajectory. Prepare for staging." ...and there was enough fuel after all, as the transfer was completed with a whopping 1.5% fuel remaining in the second stage. Relief all around. (Though it might be fun to try it the other way sometime, just for kicks.) This achievement adds 10 points to the mission score: The second stage having accomplished its job, it was time to stage, and bring the rest of the Apollo K spacecraft out from behind its fairings. (I couldn't resist taking several pictures.) It can now be seen that the craft design earns another 50 points: bringing the mission up to a total of 110 points, out of a possible 218.

I will suppose you are not an idiot and won't list "floating mountain" or "number of limbs", the first fictional liberty was in fact the absurd megascale beamed-sail system needed to accelerate "350 tons" up to 0.7C even assuming absurdly high efficiency. And yes the second one was to be the quantity of antimatter needed for at least one deceleration and accelerating again. Oh and there's several ship like that doing the trip. We are speaking of the Hollywood-logic which inverted (accidentally?) the original name of Pellegrino's design (the Valkyrie) and the SSTO shuttle (X-33 Venture Star). Then there's the unexpected low tech-level (barely justified by unobtainum), and it end with details (unjammed brain-link) motivated by Artistic License for which nobody complain because normal people understand Avatar is a FICTIONAL MOVIE (and Pocahontas IN SPACE). Which bring be to tell you again that KSP is a FICTIONAL GAME. Remember when I said "avoid absurd part which would break the gameplay" ? Magic beamed-sail tech would fit the bill just like antimatter drive. So what is the point of avoiding one "magic" FTL solution if you spread several "magic" part around ? By the way, you still haven't told me how to decelerate at your destination with no laser there. (or please link me where you will talk about it, I can't know which message you edited) Hard to understand what the hell you misunderstood in my post, you are not being sarcastic you are being evasive. The "Black Box" is a metaphor for your lack of understanding of the unrealism of your solution in KSP. You are basically expecting it to be so well implemented that it make it no different than if the developer really made a FTL drive called "problem-nullifying-beamed-sail-system". I don't mind keeping KSP's verisimilitude, but if you need a constrained FTL drive to keep the gameplay interesting. Then "Let there be FTL". It would be very realist if the developer made us build a 1tons beamed-sail-probe for a 50y flyby (or 150y transfer) then have research discover FTL right as it arrive.

I've reached day 500 in the mission execution and updated my mission thread accordingly. Some minor problems and it seems the Damn Robotics hinges that allow the docking port to reach any height had trouble... or something there anyway. Once docked the strut the arm was connected to rotated through the rover slowly, but relentlessly. Had a quicksave before luckily, but it was weird. Once flipped the whole Odyssey lander up over the little rover! Talk about Samson! Project Archimedes Oh, and just to repeat my day 500 score: Early mission score: 118days with 8 kerbals + 150days with another 8 kerbals = 2144 Early mission NIMLKO: 12 launches, 28 tons each, total 336 Early mission efficiency: 6.38 So far Achievements: Mission execution: 1 likely will be 3 soon. Crew mobility: 0 Not enough rovers Base mobility: 3 Crew safety: 2 Mission robustness: 2 (surprise, since it wasn't planned. With the extra non-Hohmann transfer it leaves two launches that arrive at Duna before day 500) Total Achievements: 8 so far, hopefully 10 once mission plan successfully played through *Crosses fingers*

nothing wrong with a lil game development talk.

I don't know how he did it, but cBBp has a method on his Dragon capsule where the engines will not fire unless activated, and don't show up in the staging sequence until you activate them from the right click menu. I'm 95% sure it doesn't rely on a plugin either. EDIT: Ok so yeah I looked and because the Dragon is listed as a command pod, the staging doesn't show the rockets he has installed (which I also noticed are RCS powered) until they are activated. So I don't know that you could use that same method. I did some reading up on Liberty Rocket...cool concept. Ares I first stage 5-segment SRB with an Ariane Vulcain-powered second stage? Talk about multinational. Although I guess current plans now call for Orion to use an ATV-derived service module and that will probably be built by Astrium.

Phycix, if Procedural Fairings is still current and in development, why not talk to the person developing it to see if a "proof of concept" can be made. I think some of the ideas need a little tuning, like I do not think the fairing base should be the point of mass, but instead the physics skeleton should remain to provide accurate mass calculations. That skeleton is just made inert when it comes to calculating flex and stretch at the joints. This would be the most reasonable alteration to prevent obscene payloads. As a thought also, given the weighted nature of the fairing as described. It may be an idea to have it also have built in counterweights. This would give it mass but also allow less balanced payloads to be balanced out by the fairing weight. There should be limits of coarse, but it is a thought.

CHAPTER 22 ORBITAL OPERATIONS: DUNA *** BERTY v.2.0.8: Incoming transmission from Mission Control. BILL: Oh? It wasn't scheduled, was it? BERTY v.2.0.8: Negative, commander. BILL: Hmm. Did you notify them about our progress, captain? ROZER: Yes sir, I updated our mission status immediately after we've achieved equatorial orbit. BILL: Hmm. Alright, so what is it BERTY? BERTY v.2.0.8: Latest upgrade for my software. Private messages to some of the crew members. New data considering Sun activity. BILL: Anything to be worried about? BERTY v.2.0.8: Negative. Attention. Captain Rozer, you have one new message from Mission Control. ROZER: From KSC? Can you tell me what it is? BERTY v.2.0.8: Content classified. BILL: Classified? ROZER: I have no idea, commander. I better check this ASAP. BERTY v.2.0.8: Commencing download of update 2.0.8.3. BILL: Yes, you better do. BERTY, how long will it take? BERTY v.2.0.8: 283 minutes and 29 seconds. ROZER: Commander…? BILL: Yes, yes, you can go. Alright BERTY, tell chief Ned to assembly the team. We should start damage assessment as soon as we can. And notify me when your update is completed. BERTY v.2.0.8: Affirmative, commander. *** ROZER: Well, well. So they finally agreed. Excellent. BERTY? BERTY v.2.0.8: Yes, captain? ROZER: You do understand the implications of these orders, don't you? BERTY v.2.0.8: Yes, I understand. ROZER: Very good. We have to… BERTY v.2.0.8: Captain? ROZER: Yes? BERTY v.2.0.8: I must admit that I find them ethically questionable. Shouldn't we tell commander Bill about this before we commence any activity? ROZER: Hmm. I see that you are still under impression of these all philosophical e-books professor Sid gave you. BERTY v.2.0.8: I'm simply executing my directives, captain. Understanding crew behavior during long duration stay in deep space without grasping the underlining values which drive their actions is highly unsatisfactory. ROZER: Of course, BERTY. But your highest priority is to ensure mission's success, isn't it? BERTY v.2.0.8: Yes. ROZER: Than you will do what I say, BERTY. It's of the utmost importance to the mission. BERTY v.2.0.8: Yes. ROZER: Good. Now listen to me very carefully… *** BERTY v.2.0.8: … to the Payload B. Please confirm. PATLIE: Roger that, “Proteusâ€Â. We're on our way. JEDGEL: Shouldn't we wait for the commander's order? FERTOP: It was Bill's order, didn't you hear? He's just busy at the moment. JEDGEL: Yeah. Busy. You know, sometimes I miss Jeb running this mission. PATLIE: I suggest we all just concentrate on our task. We'll be first to board the Payload B – I don't know what about you, but I'm really glad to finally leave the mothership. JEDGEL: Tell me about it. Almost two years, koddamit. FERTOP: That's nothing. Think about landing on Duna! JEDGEL: Ah, Duna. Solid surface, gravity, atmosphere… PATLIE: Don't forget the real days and nights! Kod, I miss those. JEDGEL: You know what I miss the most? Color. Every time I look outside there's only blackness and pale stars. FERTOP: Yeah. They tell you it'll never get old but… JEDGEL: …they lie. PATLIE: Exactly. *** PATLIE: Approaching Payload B. 2100 meters. JEDGEL: I can't see it. We should be able to see it by now, right? FERTOP: Yeah, that's strange. PATLIE: 200 meters. I don't see it either. FERTOP: Are you sure you're using the right frequency? PATLIE: Hey, I'm a pilot and you're planetologist, doctor, so don't teach me how to fly this thing. 50 meters. JEDGEL: I still can't see it. PATLIE: It's impossible, it has to be here. Switching to external camera. JEDGEL: And? PATLIE: … FERTOP: Hey, are you alright? PATLIE: Err. JEDGEL: Can you see it? PATLIE: Yes, but… JEDGEL: Is the docking port damaged? What is it, Patlie? PATLIE: Just – just look for yourselves. *** BERTY v.2.0.8: LAMGML “Beta†is in range. ROZER: Do it. *** JEDGEL: What the…?! FERTOP: Emergency lights? PATLIE: It's… the ship is disabled! All systems are dead! FERTOP: Cosmic rays induced critical error? PATLIE: I don't know! I'll try to reboot! FERTOP: Weird, communication seems to still be online. PATLIE: It can't be online while… Power's back! JEDGEL: What did you do? PATLIE: Nothing, it just came back. Everything is nominal again. FERTOP: Cosmic rays. It's a miracle that this is the first time – even LAMGML's hardened electronics can't… PATLIE: Oh. FERTOP: What? PATLIE: I just got new data from the mothership. It seems the coordinates we used were wrong after all. JEDGEL: Well that's good 'cause there is no way we can resupply “Proteus†using this, whatever it is. PATLIE: Probably some old satellite. Maybe left by “Yinghuoâ€Â? JEDGEL: I don't think so. From what I know, the Kerbin Return Vehicle didn't carry any satellites? FERTOP: Can we please continue? This dead probe freaks me out for some reason. PATLIE: Sure we can. Calculating Hohmann transfer to Payload B. *** ROZER: Have you downloaded the data from DRO? BERTY v.2.0.8: Affirmative. ROZER: Good. Continue when ready. *** BERTY v.2.0.8: Duna ComSat in orbit. BERTY v.2.0.8: Rover One in orbit. Initiating deorbiting sequence. BERTY v.2.0.8: Aerobraking in progress. BERTY v.2.0.8: Decoupling engine module. Inflating airbags. BERTY v.2.0.8: Rover One has landed. ROZER: How far? BERTY v.2.0.8: 3,9 kilometers. ROZER: Hmm. Tell me when you're done. In the meantime, prepare the telescope and second rover. BERTY v.2.0.8: Affirmative. *** JEDGEL: Patlie, I don't want to rush you, but it's been almost 22 hours and… PATLIE: Patience, we're almost there. FERTOP: Err… Patlie? PATLIE: Yes, doctor? FERTOP: Does this reading means that there are two vessels nearby? PATLIE: What? PATLIE: Duna Space Telescope? But we're the ones supposed to prepare it! How come it be detached from the Payload? JEDGEL: Was there some change of plans or…? PATLIE: Not the one I know about. FERTOP: Should we contact “Proteusâ€Â? PATLIE: They are on the other side of the planet now. We'll figure it out after we dock to the Payload. Speaking of which, you should be able to get visual by now. JEDGEL: I see it! Oh my Kod… JEDGEL: It's too big. Are you sure this the Payload B? FERTOP: It can't be. It looks nothing like what they showed us back on Kerbin. PATLIE: We'll find out soon enough. I'm sending the coded transmission right now: if the ship reacts and removes the CBM cover… JEDGEL: Oh. PATLIE: Here's the answer. Initiating docking autopilot. FERTOP: I don't like it. Why nobody told us that they changed the design? And how are we supposed to bring it back to the operational status if we're not even sure what and why was changed? JEDGEL: What the hell? Are these additional landers? And look at this fairings. You think it's the Laythe Descent/Ascent Module? FERTOP: Do I look like I know what's going on here? PATLIE: Docking in five, four, three, two, one… Contact. Securing the connection. Okay… done. Equalizing pressure. Good. It seems everything is fine. Come on, we have work to do. *** BERTY v.2.0.8: Captain. ROZER: Yes? Is the Rover One in range? BERTY v.2.0.8: Affirmative. ROZER: And? BERTY v.2.0.8: The predictions were correct. Rover One has confirmed the location of the Source. ROZER: Kod… BERTY v.2.0.8: Captain? ROZER: Notify KSC immediately. *** *** FERTOP: So, what do you think? JEDGEL: Well, solar panels unfolded and working, all systems checked and operational, air is… FERTOP: No, I mean about the cargo. Why all the data about it is classified? Why we don't have access to it at all? What's going on here? JEDGEL: :sighs: I have no idea. Maybe when we contact “Proteus†again we'll find out. FERTOP: I don't like, not at all. Captain Patlie? PATLIE: Yes, doctor? FERTOP: Please return with some answers, alright? And quickly, if you can. This place gives me the creeps. PATLIE: I'll do my best. JEDGEL: Oh, and could you please take a look at the Payload one more time? Maybe we missed something, maybe it was hit by micrometeorites and that's what caused… PATLIE: There are no rovers. FERTOP: No rov… are you sure? PATLIE: Absolutely. JEDGEL: What the hell? Is it possible that the impact…? FERTOP: I don't think so. Patlie, please return as soon as you can, alright? PATLIE: Copy that. Don't worry, I'm sure there are some good reasons why it all looks this. FERTOP: They better be. *** PATLIE: â€ÂProteusâ€Â, this is LAMGML “Betaâ€Â. We've had some weird glitch on our way to the Payload B, I've left the rest of the team on board t. Could you please tell me which CBM should I…? ROZER: Hello, captain Patlie. Before you dock, there is something we should talk about. *** PATLIE: Separation completed. We're on our way. ROZER: Kodspeed, captain, Kodspeed. NED: There he is! ROZER: Commander. Gentlemen. BILL: What the hell is going on here, Rozer?! Unscheduled flight? You sneak out of the ship crew members behind my back? What are you thinking you're doing?! JEB: You better tell him. ROZER: I'm just following my orders, that's all. Professor Mallock and doctor Genanand are needed elsewhere. SID: “Elsewhereâ€Â? BILL: Listen to me – you are going to tell me everything. Right. Now. Do you understand? ROZER: Yes. BILL: So stop fooling… ROZER: But I'm afraid I can't do this. BILL: Wha…? Are you fraking kidding me?! Tell me what's going on here, now That's an order! ROZER: No. BILL: No? NO?! I'm the commander of this ship! ROZER: Not anymore. *** MISSION STATUS ***

Elsewhere in the science labs you will find this thread: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/45565-What-if-the-Space-Shuttle-Program-had-done-its-job It asks "what if the Space Shuttle was a complete success, what would it have led to?". This thread goes a little further back in time, to the early 70s. Men were walking on the Moon, Kennedy's challenge to the American space industry was accomplished. And we did stuff. You know those annoying "My other car is..." bumper stickers? I bet this guy has a pretty frickin' rad one. But even as NASA was starting to get good at going to the Moon, new endurance records and ground-breaking discoveries being made on each new mission, it was called back, or rather, pulled back, to Washington DC. Voters were now getting bored of the Moon, and it's difficult to justify two men with living quarters on another world when there are millions without homes on Earth. "The Earth is all we need!" Said nobody after looking at this picture. 5% of the annual budget is a lot less than what people today, and then, think is what NASA gets, but it is still a lot of money, and even the other, more Earthbound and "practical" science organisations get less than NASA. Space had to get cheap, and the new plans for a reusable "space truck" for LEO was the only new manned program that congress would accept, and pull through with. The Space Shuttle: only 1.48% catastrophic failure! Apollo-Saturn, the most fantastical transport system ever built in human history, was dead. As it turns out, all that talk of the Apollo-Saturn duo being a waste of money meant the next generation of spaceship builders, the ones working right now, have had to re-invent the rocket. I'm sure you are aware of the SLS-Orion program in development right now. Of, course it won't come apart like this in actual flight. It is a wonderful design, and if allowed to flower, would open up a lot of options for NASA. But here's the thing-remember when those old spent F-1 engines were recovered from the sea bed? <Hums the theme to Titanic.> Those engines, along with museum pieces, are being studied by NASA to produce the high-power engines needed for SLS. Many people think aloud "How inept are the people of NASA that they need ancient relics to build their supposed "state of the art" rocket?". It was invented ages ago, and is therefore primitive and useless! What these idiots don't realise is that the F-1 was the best at what it does (producing an ungodly amount of thrust) for so long because what it does hasn't been needed for a long time. No rocket since had the payload capacity of Saturn V because not one needed the payload capacity. The F-1 is still state of the art. Unfortunately, there is few technical documents of the F-1 left, and the people at Rocketdyne who built it are either retired or dead. I'm sure the retired rocket scientists wish to help NASA build their new engines as much as possible, but it is difficult remembering every step to build a rocket engine you designed nearly 50 years ago. That means only the museum pieces and used wreckage from the sea-floor are left to base new engines on. Let's use the Lunar Module as a better case. You had trouble getting your car in that tiny parking space? That must have been an incredible accomplishment. It was, and is, the only vehicle ever built that can take a human crew from Lunar orbit to the surface. The LEM had a brilliant service record, working every time it was needed to, even pushed beyond it's factory limits to become a lifeboat to the crew of Apollo 13. Not bad for small New York state-based aircraft company Grumman Corporation. Here's to you, spaceship builders. But then Project Apollo was cancelled, and demand for manned lunar landers dropped noticeably. The team that designed and built the LEM moved on to other projects and eventually retired, the remaining LEMs were sent to the museums, and the design sketches of components and how it all fits together, were thrown away. Why throw away this priceless data? Again, because it wasn't needed. These were the days when "data" was not stored as bits on a hard drive, but as actual pieces of paper, on a shelf. The designs for the LEM alone could fill a small room. This. full of paper. Grumman had no need for it, and drawings and paragraphs of technobabble don't make good museum pieces, so they were condemned. What does this mean? It means that when NASA starts thinking of building a new Lunar lander... With blackjack, and hookers. ...the LEMs in air and space museums across the states will probably be taken apart, studied, tested (sometimes to destruction), and maybe put together again, like the F-1 is right now. The same is true of many other "relics" of project Apollo, like the spacesuits and the rovers. Beyond the obvious loss of an engineering masterpiece (Although I think it would be wrong to shun technological improvement to continue marvelling over machines of the past), this means a lot of money is being spent to do what has already been done. NASA: Built a computer from scratch, then had that computer taken away from them, and forced to use an abacus for 40 years. Then the people who took away the computer makes them build another computer from scratch, better than the last one, with one-tenth the money. Things weren't always like this. The people who built the machines of Apollo-Saturn were still building said machines, and some optimists among the designers were thinking on how the equipment could be made better. The production line would be increased, and the rockets would get both better and cheaper. Since all the hard work had already been accomplished (a 15-minute sub-orbital flight to an 8-day round trip to the Moon in 8 years is a steep learning curve.), it would've been relatively simple and cheap to scale everything up. THIS IS WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN. If the success of the Apollo missions had left the people of the world hungry for further exploration, what would the next big program have accomplished? There would've been space stations, of course, but humans would've also spent longer and longer periods on the Moon... Never have I hated something so much for not existing. ...humans would be going to Mars by 1980... STOP IT! YOUR BREAKING MY HEART! ...and the gas giants by the turn of the century. One thing would make me happier than this happening in my lifetime. It is this happening before I ever existed. Or at least, that's what I think would've happened. What would you think have come from the Apollo Program, with all the sharp minds, brilliant hardware, and money NASA had at it's disposal?

The game being in an alpha state has nothing to do with the fact that the engine cannot use multiple cores. Even when the game is finished, it still won't be able to use multiple cores anyway. Parroting "it's just alpha" is not only irrelevant and somewhat ignorant, but also misdirects the discussion. It's the fault of the Unity engine, plain and simple. It's an engine Squad chose for the game without fully knowing that the game will be as big as it is today, and got too far into development for a change in game engine to be reasonable. It's essentially what stupid_chris has informed you all in the previous posts. If the OP needed to be frustrated at anyone, it should be the developers of the Unity engine for not trying to develop it further for using multi-core processing of physics. Regardless, the amount of fanboy replies to this thread with strawman arguments is staggering to me. Even though I love this game to death I would never stoop down to the level of avoiding critiques of the games I buy. Some of you guys should really stop defending yourselves because you view criticisms of your favorite brand/games as a threat to your self image. It's not a sin to explore the game's flaws and talk about it.

You're one to talk.

I asked help for my forge and my droper. 22 is my total numbers of threads i made until i created my forum account. Thats mean, suggestions, bugs reports, mods request, main thread, mods threads, supports threads, etc. Plz cmon. At 32years old; i have no time for that. With all my respect i'm just start to ignore this by now. For others they would help or talk about an Mod (my hexcraft mode or others ones) like minecraft but for ksp; you are welcome. I'm friendly and i am a lover. All you need is love !) But for now; i have o time for this mod, maybe in a week or two when i saw my olds models fully implented into ksp. If you want take over that mod and put some work on it because you like the idea; you are welcome. If not; you are welcome too. This mod can be really cool if we got a bunch of guyz working on it. Call it the name you want; really idc. If you need some models for it; just PM me. If you really want a personnal model for KSP or your mod; stech it and send me your .png in PM. I see what i can do for you.

I just made this ''Mod'' quickly between two importations. This is not nearly a final or a begining of something at all. In short; they are a very basic test to import somes models into KSP and my first .cfg file editing. i played with them 1 hour and i restarted to import over 100 old models i made in 2003 for something else. They are solids and i always worked with solids before. Mesh are ''totally new'' for me. Because i'm hurry to see my olds models ingame; i put all my time to import them 1 by 1 with an minimum of polygons. I wasted big times on forum too. Thats why i put this ''mod'' on the side for now and that's why i called it 0.03. You simply can't expect a final product if the version number appear under 1.00. It's not rocket sciences. 0.03 mean early Alpha. I choosed the 12 sides 1m to 0.8 hexcraft to 12 sides 1m fitting series, simply they are an average poly counts and they fit with normal parts for now. By curiosity ? You tried it ? Can you talk me about the air intake ? I get pretty cool flights with it. For the UV textures part of complaints; sincerly i just hate that part. It's simple. I asked the community because i tought it have a chance here to find one person they love to do it. That's made me a criminal ? If i ask you why you made love to womens and not to mens. In life; you love what you love and if they have something you don't like; who have the rights to blame you for that ? You must consider too on wich kind of models i work. Cylinders are more easy to texturize than complex models. What i made in 15 minutes. Hexcraft 1m fitting <------------------------------> Walker. Kind of things i'm working on. Do you feel the pain to texturize that ?

There are several mods that do this. At the end of the day, the whole purpose of struts is to reinforce parts for flight. Kinda the whole point I think. There are several other threads that talk about game optimization. KSP is still in Beta and I'm sure the devs will address the "high part count = lagg" problem. On the other side, I think there is a challenge for whom can get the most parts into an orbit without crashing the game! Sounds like fun!

Random tips. I'm strictly an amateur. * Use layers. Lots and lots of layers. Layers for everything! Learn about blending options and adjustment layers, and masks. Group and label them so you can find the right one later... * If you can't seem to get a particular effect, browse some art sites ( even DeviantArt ) and see if there's a brush that will get nearer. * I'm not going to talk about actually creating textures because there's tons of tutorials around who can do it way better than I can. Get to know some texture sites, you might find some tileable texture that's 80% of the work already ( but beware licensing, etc ). Given we're creating outdoor textures look up some guides to weathering too, quite a few of them around also. * Your texture is probably oversaturated and too light. use an adjustment layer at the top of the layer stack rather than flattening and adjusting. * Turn your brush opacity & flow way down, and patiently build rather than trying to do it all in one stroke. * Do it in a new layer! * If your exporter needs a flattened image - the dds one did last time I used it - record a macro that will save the file, flatten it, open the exporter, and unflatten it again no matter if you exported or not. Reflexively saving the flattened psd will have you punching things. * The path tool is awesome. Less awesome than doing it in Illustrator, but I don't know how to use Illustrator.

I'm not, but [citation needed], because the only talk about resources I've seen is people whining about them not being in the game yet.

@ regex I don't see why you are trying to start an argument. If you look at the talk about 0.21, you'll find that resources were not added, even though they have been anticipated.