Search the Community

During my eve mission today, it got me wondering what the oceans might be made of, I was thinking methane or something of the sort, but according to deadly reeantry its around 150c on the surface which is far to hot for methane to exist as a liquid. It could be some sort of metal. Given eves pressure compared to kerbin though, it could be a lot of things

I enjoyed the game when I played it a year ago but the expansion hasnt addressed anything that I was wanting added/changed - it doesnt add animated aliens to talk to during diplomacy, nor animated assaults and invasions, nor more events or adding much better use of heroes. All it seems to have added is fighters and bombers, yet another race (meh) and some more tinkering to the game (again). Big chance to completely enhance the game in all its lacking areas has been completely screwed up AFAIAC. Big shame, I have played the original game for 75 hours from beta through release, and am STILL looking for a reason to get back into it again. But this aint it.

Wait until they have a dental procedure involving anesthetic. Talk to them while they're still high off the anesthetic. What the best way of becoming comfortably numb to the point where people only come through in waves.

Destroyer message me and we can talk alright?

Gah. I listened for maybe thirty seconds before I had to shut it off. Lots of talk, very little action. Those guys sound like they're both trying too hard, and like to hear themselves talk. I've seen more content on a ticket stub.

Not sure if you're asking for evidence, seeking further explanation or suggesting a method so I made an album. It includes measurements of the Hecto envelope. Also all this talk of real airships meant I had to make one of these: It still fits on the runway but it dwarfs everything else. Rest of the album

Introduction: So you thought you’d have to assemble a spaceship capable of taking Kerbals to Jool and land them on Tylo in order to be cool? Sure, that is cool and the same goes for other common achievements such as circumnavigating Kerbin or building a Kerbal ISS, but I'll tell you about something else that's cool: flying a robotic aircraft to the airbase island - with ion engines! That's right! Even a seemingly trivial achievement can be super-cool. All it takes is that you waste enough time reaching your destination! Anyway, let's cut the small talk and get to business, shall we? Allow me to introduce you to the slowest aircraft ever flown, the Trollaris! Also known as the snail, the cash shredder, and the flying pitch drop. Takeoff: Beautiful, isn't she? On this picture, you can see her taking off after long wait for decent weather. That's much easier said than done, however, as the Trollaris suffers from a crippling inability to navigate any airspace windier than the average cave. Transit: After a successful takeoff, the Trollaris slowly climbs towards its final cruising altitude of 600 meters, where the slightly lower air resistance will allow it to travel at speeds up to 20 meters per second. Final approach: After a long, boring journey, the Trollaris has finally reached its destination and is now descending towards the runway. However, as dull as the flight was for mission control to watch, it was by no means uneventful. In fact, the flight almost had to be ended when it was discovered that the control tower was cheaply built and had to be replaced. Landing: At last, the Trollaris has landed safe and sound on the runway of Runway Island! Money well spent. Lives well sacrificed. The plane was perfectly lined up during the final approach, but I lost a ton of style points when I forgot to turn off the engine, causing the plane to skip over half of the runway before stopping instead of rolling smoothly along it. Thus, I got no cool landing pictures, but it was a very cool flight indeed!

Many people believe that lunar landing never occurred, how to convince them that people were on the moon When i talk with my friend about Apollo program, he told me that he watched movie about Stanley Kubrick, filmed all landings in film studio. I heard that earlier but i do not believe in this.

Hey guys...I thought this looked like a lot of fun & bought a copy. Still looks like fun but I'm miserable with it, I literally can't figure a thing out in it...and yes I've read through wiki's and hints till my eyes glaze over...it just doesn't make ANY sense to me, can't load a ship that flies, can't take off, nothing...really disappointed. Everything I've read about how to get started just seems to assume I know stuff about the game that's a complete mystery to me... Is there some Moron's guide to this that will talk me through? I'd love to fly :-(

So how big is the memory footprint of this? For all the talk of it being a resource hog, taking it out didn't make that big of a difference.

Looking a few pages back I noticed some talk about an ODST style system for dropping Kerbals to planets. I instantly went into KSP to try my hand at something like this. The final product was this - Ragnarok Storm. A large vessel with 4 resupplyable drop pods, 2 escape pods (capacity 6 total), docking nodes and armor plating. (I wish I could make this interplanetary-capable, but it's going to require more fiddling around. If anyone has suggestions.. ) The RS also has four hitchhiker storage containers for those bigger missions, or for docking purposes. The drop pods are fairly simple, as seen here. Just a clamp-o-tron jr., some KW rocketry fuel/rcs tanks, a decoupler and a command module with parachutes. The two 3 seater escape pods are very simple, just a low profile engine strapped to a fuel tank underneath a command module. The ship is highly photogenic as it skirts past Kerbin. Someday, this may go past the Mun. The ship also features an ejection system for the main command module (the B9 cockpit). One of the drop pods can be seen detaching from the docking node on the top of the ship and preparing for departure. The antennas everywhere are part of a complex defense network. The fairings and docking port detach and the pod is ready! There is plenty of fuel to do a legitimate landing on Kerbin, so I figure a civilian version with interplanetary capability can't be far off. The pod speeds away as Ragnarok Storm disappears into the distance. With the right orbits, you could theoretically hit any part of Kerbin or other celestial bodies with this system. The re-entry protocol begins, letting the engine act as a minor heat shield before entering the atmosphere. The rest of the drop follows the HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) principal of deploying one's chute as low as possible. And that's what I have so far! It's a blast (no pun intended!) to mess around with this system. The civilian version (less armor and defense systems) has significantly less parts and the lag is much less. Ah yes - Mods: B9 (cockpit), KW Rocketry (the armor, fuel tanks) and mechjeb - really, that's it. A second version does have lazor system supported cruise missiles, however.

You are on to talk, posting up things with no pics or download. Although we do need pictures as this could just be a download full of viruses and fail.

I really enjoy the airships as-is, my only wish being to talk you into making an enlarge Ray to fill the gap between it and the Circus .

Shhh, don't get that thread-killing discussion in here, probably don't mean anything by it but people will still get fire in their behinds if you talk about it.

Thanks for your work on this mod. I've started attaching them to some automated landers and I hope to be able to send you some feedback on how it works soon. As you've solicited suggestions, I'd like to talk a little bit about why I think samples and sample returns make a good addition to KSP. KSP is a game about going places, and it does a good job of that. It's a bit weak on doing things when you get there. Taking samples and measurements should be a major component of the game. From how I've heard this mod described, it seems to lay the groundwork well. It seems that the basics of going somewhere and taking samples from a planet are covered. I do think, though, that it would benefit from an EVA component. Astronauts take samples, and kerbonauts should too. The first step in this is pretty straightforward, I think -- allow a kerbal to take a sample and then stow it in the sample return component. I think you've already discussed integrating with the mission manager to provide a system for applying rewards. I'd suggest that the Mission manager might also be used to set up differing mission goals: "Return 100 units of samples from the big crater on the Mun" or something similar. And of course this could also be extended to other science-based goals. Add a telescope component, then missions where the player needs to set up a space telescope, and then set up an interferometer. A far more daunting goal would be some sort of "scoring" system -- Science Points. Realistically, Science Points should be rewarded based on the features being sampled: you'd want to check those river beds on Duna for fossils. That's probably too hard to program, but perhaps a good approximation might be rewarding the player with more Science Points if the samples come from widely dispersed areas. Suddenly, there's a reason to drive or walk hundreds of meters to grab a sample instead of sitting on a lander.

I'm trying to get ORDA's better way of wiggling the controls into MechJeb since it could need that and now starts to support docking anyways, namely I told r4m0n he could rip that out if he want XD If you're talking about quaternions about me you might aswell talk japanese to me <.< all witchery and voodoo to me...

and what if there is a lake on the ground reflecting light from the sun? What if there is cloud or rain or smoke that's blocking inferred radiation? And did you even check what the rear mounted radar does? obviously you haven't because you don't know. And if you don't know, why would people be interested in listening to you talk about it? I'm not a big fan of that Scott guy but just using him as an example, he usually knows what he's talking about quite well and obviously has done plenty of research before doing his videos. You should learn from him. Having the voice of a typical white male is not enough to make a good video. Cuz I mean why would I watch videos of other people playing the game that I own? The person must have something I don't have. Whether it's research into random stuff, dedication in attempting a difficult mission, or interesting ideas to test in the game. I don't see any of those in your video.

Geez. Have some respect for those who can't. I think Tjitte is from a different country than you. I doubt they talk like that inside the TARDIS. Also, 'use grammar!' is not proper grammar.

Sounds complicated and like it would make the UI a bit counterintuitive. Maybe talk to the person rewriting the whole RCS system? S/He might have already changed the thing that prevents switching fuel.

Satellite. A cloud of dust trailed behind the car as it wound slowly up the steep hillside. From the passenger seat Lucan could see out over the plains, down to the twinkling river and beyond. In the far distance, he could just make out a sparse scattering of buildings marking the outskirts of Barkton. Jeb sat at the wheel, jaw clenched in concentration as he drove up the narrow series of switchback curves that masqueraded as a road. Behind him, Bill sat silently next to a large conical object. Four equally spaced bulges around the rim were the only features to break it's smooth surface which tapered upwards to a gently curved tip. Loose gravel crunched under his wheels as Jeb swung into the car park and came to a halt. Lucan pulled a collapsed metal trolley out of the back of the car and began unfolding it. Jeb and Bill grunted with effort as they heaved the cone out through the trunk of Jeb's car and set it carefully down onto the trolley. Sweating in the warm afternoon sun, the three kerbals set about wheeling the cumbersome vehicle up the nearest hill. Fortunately the ground was dry and the trolley wheels hissed as they trundled through the short scrubby grass. They reached the top of the hill and Lucan locked the brakes on the trolley. Bill fussed around it, double checking the brakes and carefully rolling the cone until it rested point downwards on its cradle. Satisfied at last he stepped back and pulled a portable radio from his pocket. "Control, this is Bill. We're ready to go." There was a long pause as the three friends waited expectantly. Then abruptly four green lights lit up around the base of the cone and a long antenna extended out from each bulge. Richlin's voice crackled from the radio. "Control here. Confirming payload activation and incoming test signal. Let me see if I can..." Richlin's voice faded out into static and then a muffled but unmistakeable tone echoed out of the speaker. "beep... beep... beep..." ------------ The last few weeks had seen a buzz of activity at Jebediah Kerman's Junkyard and Spacecraft Parts Company, much to the fascination of the steady stream of kerbals queuing up outside the doors. Quite apart from the wondrous pictures of their planet from space and a chance to sit in the very spacecraft that the pictures were taken from, hundreds of visitors had watched in mounting excitement as the two sections of the Kerbin 1 rocket were slowly assembled in the yard. Others had watched in awe as the two test stands shook to the fire and fury of rocket engines at full power. Still others had lined the streets as Ornie's truck took the completed rocket stages out to the launch pad for assembly. Hundreds had watched from behind the ropes as the lower stage of the rocket was carefully lowered into place on the launch pad and secured to the four restraining pylons. They had held their breath as two kerbals climbed out onto an arm of the launch tower and the second stage of the rocket, complete with conical tip, was hoisted into the air. Some of them swore that they had only started breathing again once the two sections had been gingerly brought together and made secure. On the whole, Jeb thought, it was probably just as well that none of the onlookers realised the significance of the dozen slender looking bolts that held the two rockets together. He unrolled the tube of paper that he was carrying and pasted it firmly to the warehouse door. Jeb turned out the lights and went inside. ---------- The weather the next day was bright and clear, with only a whisper of a breeze to take the heat off the noon sun. Jeb stood in the doorway of the control bunker and looked out over the launch site. Far to his right, the freshly painted Kerbin 1 stood gleaming in the sunlight. Wernher had muttered something about 'white paint keeping the sun off' and 'keeping the fuel tanks cooler' but Jeb suspected that, like everyone else, he just wanted to launch a smartly painted rocket for a change. Next time, Jeb thought, they would make sure that the launch tower was cleaned and painted too. If nothing else, the rusty old scaffolding could hardly inspire confidence in anyone outside of the Kerbal Interplanetary Society. Over at the far end of the field, at what they hoped was a safe distance, a grandstand of tiered wooden benches had been built. Jeb could already see a line of small green figures queuing to get in. Bob had been down to the grandstand earlier that morning to check that the countdown clock was running and that the broadcast link to the launch bunker was working properly. Out at the launch tower he knew that Geneney, Lucan and Richlin were busy fueling the Kerbin 1 and running final checks on the launch clamps and decoupler systems. By noon, the grandstand and the grassy area around it were full to bursting with enthusiastic kerbals. Some, more entrepreneurial types were meandering between the benches selling a variety of cold drinks, snacks and clothing and several hats with the jaunty tilted rocket logo of the Junkyard and Spacecraft Parts Company could be seen bobbing through the crowds. Elsewhere small knots of kerbals were standing around the radio speakers listening avidly to the launch preparations. Everyone was keeping at least half an eye on the countdown clock as it slowly marked off the minutes. "T minus thirty minutes. Weather is holding and lower stage fueling is complete. Bringing telemetry and guidance systems online." "T minus twenty minutes. Upper stage fuelled and ready. Launch vehicle on internal power. All tower systems to launch positions." Geneney and Lucan clambered over the gantries, disconnecting fuel lines and other umbilical connections. Satisfied, they scrambled to the ground and joined Richlin at the winch. With a great creaking and squealing of rusty joints, the tower rotated out of the way, leaving the Kerbin 1 standing alone, tethered to the ground only by its four launch clamps. "T minus five minutes. Launch site is clear, weather is good." "T minus three minutes and counting. Tank pressures nominal. Decoupler systems are Go, guidance is green." "T minus two minutes and counting. We are Go for engine start." Gradually the grandstand grew quiet as everyone watched the last few seconds tick away. "T minus 12, 11, 10..." All eyes turned to the slim pencil of metal on the launch pad. "7, 6, 5..." Fire blossomed from the base of the Kerbin 1 and thunder rolled across the field towards them. For a brief moment the watching crowds feared the worst as the rocket remained stubbornly anchored to the ground. "2, 1 and LIFTOFF!" The launch clamps fell away and the Kerbin 1 rose from the launch pad on a great billow of smoke and flame. A thousand small green faces watched in awe as it accelerated smoothly away, soaring gracefully into the sky and climbing out over the sea until only the bright flame of it's exhaust could be seen against the blue. Down in the launch bunker, Geneney sat in his chair watching the main screen. Altitude, velocity and projected apoapsis were all racing upwards. "Lucan, Wernher - systems report." "Trajectory is good, stability augmentation systems within operational parameters." "First stage propulsion performing well. One minute to staging." Outside on the grandstand, even over the radio link, the crowd could sense the tension in Wernher's voice. Very few of them knew what 'staging' was but it was clearly something important. "3...2...1... First stage shut down. Decouplers firing...separation and second stage ignition confirmed!" The kerbals standing closest to the speaker could just make out Wernher's voice over the cheering in the background. "KIS - we are go for orbit!" -------- Lucan watched the telemetry with trepidation as the fuel drained steadily out of the Kerbin 1 upper stage and the ship velocity climbed higher and higher. As far as he knew the projected apoapsis was now well above Kerbin's atmosphere but they still weren't quite fast enough for a stable orbit. Behind him, Wernher was calling out the remaining fuel levels in an unworried voice. "30 seconds... 25 seconds..." And then the final display on the telemetry screen lit up. Lucan forced himself to be calm. "Projected periapsis 10 km and rising. Eighteen seconds of fuel remaining. Estimated six seconds till loss of signal." Then the numbers on the telemetry display flickered into noise and random characters and went out. Jeb broke the sudden silence that settled over the bunker. "Good job with those trajectory calculations, Luco. What's your best guess on time to reacquisition?" "67 minutes, assuming a clean shutdown and separation," Lucan replied, "Separation should trigger payload activation, so we'll soon know if everything is working." "In that case I think I'm going to take a walk down to the grandstand and let everyone know what's going on. Genie - could you reset the countdown clock to display time to signal acquisition and patch the satellite receiver into the broadcast system please?" "Will do, Jeb. Lucan - could you talk me through the numbers for acquisition?" Bob stifled a yawn. "I could do with a walk too," he said, "anyone else coming?" Richlin got to his feet. "Think I'll join you," he said, " this bunker is getting a little stuffy." "Not me," replied Lucan quietly, "you all launched using my calculations - I want to see whether they were any good." Wernher nodded, "I'll wait here too," he said, "I want to see if the LV-902 did it's job. Lucan can run me through the calculations too." Ornie stayed in his seat. "Reckon I'll want to get the news straight from Mission Control," he said, "rather than watching the clock from the far end of the field." To everyone's surprise, Bill got to his feet. "Think I'll take a walk too." he said, "Either the satellite works or it doesn't - there's not much more I can do down here." ----------- The crowd jostled around them, voices clamouring to know what had happened to the rocket. Jeb did his best to answer their questions as he made his erratic way towards the grandstand, Bill and Richlin following closely behind. Bob took everything in with rather more aplomb, even stopping to buy a fistful of crispy djan chips from a passing vendor. Jeb cupped his hands around his mouth. "Make way! Make way, folks - the quicker I get to a microphone, the quicker you'll all get to hear what's happening." As the crowd parted before them, Jeb led the others over to one of the radio speakers. Seizing the microphone hooked to the side of the speaker stand he vaulted up onto a nearby table. "Good Kerbals - I have some good news and some bad news!" Jeb slowly scanned the crowd waiting for them to quieten down, when his eye was caught by a cheerful array of brightly coloured hats, set out on a bench beneath him. They all seemed to be printed with a rather familiar stylised rocket. The hat seller looked more than a little nervous as Jeb jumped down to inspect his wares but Jeb just grinned at him and hopped back up onto the table cheerfully waving his new purchase. "As I was saying - we have some good news and some bad news. The good news is - we made it to space! The bad news is - we don't know how far." The crowd laughed as Jeb continued. "We do know that we're going to make it at least half way around Kerbin but we're not sure if we're going to make it all the way back. What we have done is to put a radio transmitter on top of the rocket, so if everything goes to plan we should have a little surprise for you in about..." Jeb glanced at the countdown clock, "in about forty minutes." "Now I'm not sure what you good people planned to do but we're going to be right here waiting by this radio. You're all welcome to join us - and if one of you could show me where Bob got those djans you'd be a lot more than welcome!" As the minutes went by, more and more eyes turned to the clock. As it ticked down past the five minute mark, the four members of the Interplanetary Society, looked at each other and silently crossed their fingers. A brief crackle from the speaker was followed by a burst of static. Bill looked up at the clock, which was still showing two minutes to go. Another burst of static, a pause and then, out of the electronic noise, a voice. "..nie, Richlin and too many other kerbals to mention from the great town of Barkton!" Bill's heart leapt as the speaker gave a loud beep and the recorded message started again. It was tinny, it was difficult to hear in places but it was unmistakably Jeb's voice, reading the message that they'd recorded all those weeks ago. "This is the Kerbin Interplanetary Society. Broadcasting from orbit, around the world, around the clock! We are Jebediah, Bill, Bob..." Four green hands clasped in quiet triumph as Kerbin's very first artificial satellite soared through the blackness of space playing its message over and over again to the jubilant crowd around them. << Chapter 3 :: Chapter 5>>

Turns out you can knock out the words quite handily on a tablet Editing is a bit of a pain though, as touchscreens are not exactly precision instruments for selecting pieces of text or spaces between words. Anyhow, this is what I managed to get done... New Directions Jeb stood at the window and watched the queues build up outside the doors of his warehouse. It looked like today was going to be busier than yesterday but he was worried. Ever since the meeting the night before, Geneney had been rather quiet and withdrawn. At first Jeb had put that down to a hangover, certainly the Genie had managed to pack away a good bottle or two that evening. As the day went on though, even the excitement of setting up Bill's pictures and posing for photos outside the Kerbal 1 with the first few visitors had failed to lift his mood. Jeb thought that he knew what the problem was but he wasn't at all sure what to do about it. He sighed, turned away from the window and walked back into the warehouse. On a sudden whim, he wandered out into the back yard and found Ornie packing his truck for the journey home Ornie slammed the truck door shut and noticed Jeb staring pensively around the yard. "Morning, Jeb," he called, "that's me about to head home. I'll be back in a couple of days with the parts." Jeb didn't answer at first and when he did he was strangely hesitant. "Before you go, Ornie, could I ask you something?" "Sure, Jeb - what's troubling you? I wouldn't say you've got a face like a mile of bad road but it sure looks like you can spot that road coming." "It's Genie. He's normally about the most cheery kerbal you could wish to meet but yesterday..." Ornie interrupted, "Yeh. Looked like he could see that bad road as well at times." He looked shrewdly at Jeb. "Reckon you know as well as I do why that would be." Jeb grimaced. "I think so. Putting the Kerbal 2 on hold hit him pretty hard. But dammit, Ornie - he knows that we don't have the parts yet and we can't afford to wait around until we do. We got a few folks in here yesterday but not that many. We need something quick, something to show everyone that the Kerbal 1 was just the beginning." "Oh he knows," Ornie said quietly, " but knowing and accepting are two different things." He held up a hand. "And before you ask, you need to do two things too. Give him something important to do now and let him know that you have a plan. Doesn't much matter how big the plan is but Geneney needs to know that you've thought about how to get from where we are now to where he wants to be: sitting in the Kerbal 2 waiting for launch. Telling him that him, Wernher and Lucan are still next in line wouldn't hurt either." Jeb opened his mouth and then shut it as an idea started to take shape in his mind. "Thanks, Ornie... Yeah, thanks!" Jeb straightened up and jogged back towards the warehouse with a new spring in his step. Inside, the rest of the Interplanetary Society had arrived. Bob had brewed up a large pot of coffee and everyone was standing around, sipping the brew, chatting idly and waiting for Jeb to open up the warehouse for the day. Geneney was already standing behind the reception desk they had hastily put together the day before. Jeb wandered over to him casually. "Hey, Genie, I've been thinking about the Kerbal 2". Geneney's face was expressionless. "Not the stand in machine we were talking about the other night, I'm talking about a proper rocket with a capsule on top and you, Lucan and Wernher sitting in that capsule". Geneney straightened up imperceptibly and Jeb could sense that he was beginning to get some attention. "Mainly I'm thinking that we're going to have to be a lot more organised about the whole thing. Don't get me wrong, I think we've done wonders given what we had to work with but it's time to stop working with what we've got and start thinking about what we need. And that means designing our own parts. If we can find some useful stuff lying around still, then all the better but we can't keep on relying on just finding stuff." Jeb paused. "We still can't afford anything custom but that's not a problem. We can afford the bare metal and we've got the talent - and we're getting the tools - to turn bare metal into spaceships! That's where I need your help, Genie. We need to sort through all the junk out there, pick out the useful bits and make an inventory. Then we need to draw up some proper plans for all the various rocket systems, match what we've got to those plans and figure out what we need to buy to make the rest ourselves." Jeb's voice trailed away as he glanced over at Geneney's stony face. "I know it doesn't sound very exciting", he said "but right now I think it's about the most important thing we can be doing. When I said that the next rocket is a stand in machine, I wasn't joking. Once we launch it, we're nearly out of parts - if we're going to launch anything else at all, we need a change of direction." Geneney's voice was mildly curious. "Why me?" he asked. "Because you're our best systems guy," Jeb said frankly. "Bill is great with electronics; you can't beat Wernher when it comes to engines but there's only one kerbal in this team that I trust to keep everything in one piece once that rocket leaves the ground." Geneney was silent for a moment. "Sorting through all that junk," he waved a hand towards the back of the warehouse, "is going to be a big job." Jeb nodded in agreement, "It will be but everyone can help out with the first sorting. The detailed inventory, planning and matching though... that's another job altogether. Anyway, have a think, Genie. I'll need to talk everyone else through the plan as well but I wanted to run it past you first. For now, I should probably open this place up for the day." ------------- A loud explosion rocked the back yard of Jebediah Kerman's Junkyard and Spaceship Parts Company, followed by a tirade of equally explosive swearing. Ornie switched off the lathe and went out to investigate. An oily cloud of smoke hung over the test stand and the acrid tang of scorched metal and burnt rocket fuel tickled the back of his throat. Some enterprising, not to mention prescient, kerbal had erected sturdy corrugated iron sheets around the stand to serve as a crude blast shield. Judging by the scattering of twisted metal fragments that had blown over the top of them, this had turned out to be a good decision. Wernher stood next to one of the sheets scowling sullenly into the distance. Ornie bent down to inspect one of the fragments. "That's why we test them, Wernher," he said. "Better that they blow up now than on the launch pad. Lets have a look at the test data and..." Wernher's voice was ominously quiet. "Stop trying to give me solutions, Ornie because at the moment I really couldn't care less about solutions. Ranting - yes, swearing - yes. Rational analysis - screw it. Or explode it. Which seems particularly appropriate at the moment." Wernher aimed a surly kick at the blast shield but missed and stubbed his toe on the corner. Ornie kept a carefully expressionless face as Wernher vented his feelings in no uncertain tones. Eventually the flow of imprecations came to a halt and Wernher rubbed his eyes wearily. "I'm sorry, Ornie," he said, "but this was supposed to be the easy part of the whole machine. The LV-9 was working - that's why we chose this design in the first place remember? We even had a prototype all ready to go. I put it on the test stand just to check it out and..." "Blam?" suggested Ornie. "A little more than 'blam' but yes - no more LV-9 prototype. So I built a new one. I even made some improvements along the way. Nothing too far from the original design but they should have fixed some problems that we noticed before and made the whole engine a bit more robust. Instead..." Wernher jerked a thumb behind him wordlessly. "And we don't exactly have an endless supply of spare parts to keep doing this." Ornie nodded. "Gotcha. Tell you what we'll do, Wernher. We're going to take a walk, we're going to grab a bite to eat and then we're going to come back, check over those strip charts and figure out what went wrong." Wernher's face darkened but he forced out a terse laugh as his stomach rumbled audibly. "Alright, alright. Maybe this smoke will have cleared away too by the time we get back. ----------------- Wernher and Ornie strolled back towards the junkyard chewing on the last of their sandwiches. Finally Ornie decided to break the silence. "So what happens if we don't get the LV-9 working, Wernher? Could we go for an RT-5 upper stage instead?" Wernher swallowed his mouthful of sandwich. "We could," he said " but I'd prefer not to. The RT-5's don't have a lot of control at ignition, so I'm not really happy with the idea of trying to light them in mid-air. And once they're lit, they stay lit until they burn out, which doesn't give us many options if the rocket does go off course. I think solids have their place but they're going to need some work before I'm convinced by them." Ornie frowned thoughtfully. "I bet that the Kerbal 1 launch was a fun moment for you then," he commented. "Which makes me think - why not just go for a Kerbal 1 design but with two RT-5's instead of four?" "That might work," said Wernher "and if we can't get the LV-9 to work, it's probably what we'll have to do. I'm not sure it would get us to orbit but it would be better than nothing. We would launch with the Trashcans only, or with the LV-15 running at minimum thrust and then just see how far we get with a single stage once we drop the solids." "It does sound like an LV-15 lower stage lifting an LV-9 second stage is the best plan then," said Ornie. "One decoupler for simplicity, better control for the second stage." "And a symmetric mass distribution as well," said Wernher. "Which will make guidance and control a lot easier. Also a single point of thrust, rather than having to worry balancing thrust from the Trashcans." They walked back through the side gate into the back yard and made their way over to the test stand. Wernher tore off a strip of paper from one of the chart recorders behind the main stand and unrolled it on a nearby workbench. "This is the recording for the fuel supply pressure," he said. Ornie bent over to examine it as Wernher continued. "Engine start is here, pressure builds up to maximum, keeps steady for a minute, begins to oscillate here," he jabbed a finger at the chart, "goes out of control here and then settles at a lower pressure until we turn it off." Ornie tapped the chart absently, thinking it through. "Sounds like a turbopump problem," he said at last. "The engine runs fine to begin with, then we get a problem with the fuel flow here, failure here and then fuel just sprays out of the busted engine at whatever pressure you're feeding it in from the tank. Do you have any pump data?" Wernher went over to the recorders and tore off a second strip. "Impeller rpm," he said, unrolling the paper onto the bench below the first strip. "A pump failure was my first thought too and the data seems to fit. Normal spin-up, runs for a minute and then we start getting variations in speed - which matches the pressure changes in the fuel line. Failure here and then the rpm goes off the scale as the shaft is running freely without any blades attached." Ornie looked closely at the chart. "Looks like we're getting some secondary oscillations on the edge of the larger ones," he said thoughtfully, "They're not very regular though, almost random." Wernher shrugged. "Noisy data. I really need to move the recorders back from the stand." Ornie shook his head. "There's background noise in the whole trace but these secondary wiggles are still quite distinct." His eyes suddenly widened. "Of course! How could I forget!" Wernher raised his eyebrows. "The bearings! Richlin and I had the same problem with our early jet engines. The bearings weren't holding the impeller shaft steady enough and the blades were knocking against another part of the compressor. Just tiny knocks at first - the bearings weren't that bad - but they were enough to set the impeller shaft wobbling. The wobbles build up quickly until the impeller blades start rubbing against the pump casing." Ornie looked up wryly. "At which point it doesn't take long at all until you get a blade failure cascade. These secondary wiggles are the blades 'ringing' after each of those initial small knocks." Wernher's eyes lit up hopefully. "So we just need better bearings? We can easily do that with the parts and tools we have on site!" Ornie nodded enthusiastically. "Better yet, I can still remember how we redesigned our bearings. Can't guarantee that they'll work for a rocket engine but it has to be worth a try!" -------------- The yard went silent as everyone stopped to watch Wernher and Ornie carry the LV-902 out to the test stand. Ornie plugged in the fuel and oxidiser lines as Wernher checked over the test program. They pulled the blast shields into place and retreated back to the control console. More than one pair of fingers were crossed as Wernher scanned the console settings one last time, before flipping back the cage over the master start button and depressing it with an audible clunk. A billow of smoke marked the ignition, followed by a familiar high pitched roar as the LV-902 throttled up. Blazing light poured out of the gaps between the blast shields and the whole test stand shook under the thrust. Wernher watched the timer tensely as it climbed past the one minute mark. One minute thirty seconds...two minutes.... Wernher held his breath, alert to any slight change in the engine noise. Two minutes thirty....three minutes.... three minutes thirty. The light dimmed and the roar of the engine died away and went out. A great cheer went up as Ornie pulled back the blast shields to find the LV-902 still intact on the stand. Wernher let out his breath in a great sigh of relief. His voice shook slightly as he called out to Ornie. "Test 1 complete. Let's review the data, check over the engine and then set up for a full mission duration burn."

BossSquirrelz You should talk with the guys doing the ULA pack and see if you can pool your efforts into one pack of awesome

If there was perfect symmetry we would not be here to talk about it. That's a sort of obvious answer. Only a very small asymmetry is required. Just because it has not been seen/proven yet does not mean it does not exist.

I have only the slightest idea what that means. Soooo... Granted. But now your browsing device is too slow to use it effectively. I wish I understood tech talk.

One of the visions for KSP-TV was exactly this. Create a show, be it a comedy, drama, whatever, and do it with kerbals in some kind of machinima. If someone or a team of people were to do this, I would definitely get it on the channel. Get a pilot done and PM me, we'll talk. Cheers! Capt'n Skunky KSP Community Manager