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If EA owns KSP, everybody will play it or know it, but when we'll talk them about delta-V, rescue missions or phase angle, they will think we don't know how to play Kerbal Space Program... For EA, it will be as Xeldrak said:

Rama 4: Mun or Bust All of these docking exercises had been performed under the assumption that the munar landing(s) would involve a rendezvous in Kerbin orbit (KOR), Mun orbit (MOR), or both, between Rama and a separate landing craft that would descend to the surface and return. The design team for the latter, however, had yet to produce even a final design, let alone a working model. In its absence, advocates of the "Direct Ascent" approach gained favor within the program; their argument could be summarized as "Rama can already get to the Mun; why not just give it a little more fuel and some legs and let it land?" The end result - the Munatic mk 3 and the stretched "Rama M" - was a little more complicated than that, but not much. The former now included a full ring of nine strap-on liquid boosters (after the issues with the SRBs on Orbiter, it had been decided to avoid their use on kerbaled flights; these could at least be throttled back in case of emergency) and an extra "transfer" stage that would do the job of actually sending the spacecraft to the Mun. The latter had half again as much fuel, a more powerful radio (with a collapsible dish), landing lights, a telescoping ladder and a set of hydraulic legs that would swing down and extend. Rama 4 was a spectacular night launch - four Mainsails and nine T-30s, all at full thrust, made sure of that. It was just shy of a year after Stayputnik 1, only two since the President's speech and considerably sooner than that self-imposed deadline. The strap-ons burned half their fuel, transferred the rest inward, and fell away a mere twenty seconds into the flight; the three secondary boosters (throttled back slightly, to avoid overheating or overstressing the rocket) lasted another minute and some seconds, to the start of the gravity turn. The core stage carried the transfer stage and Rama CSM to the very edge of orbit, then was jettisoned to fall somewhere in the middle of the ocean, just as planned. Jeb let the spacecraft coast to apogee before using half of the upper stage's fuel to establish a roughly circular parking orbit in the vicinity of 100 km. It would not remain there for long. The night launch had been timed to lead almost immediately into a prime window for a TMI. Only twenty minutes after launch, a 90 second burn put Rama 4 on course for the Mun. At T + 27 minutes, after KSC had confirmed their trajectory, Jeb jettisoned the nearly-empty transfer stage and used the service module's RCS to nudge them free of the engine shroud. They were now flying free and heading out of low orbit, where only Sidden, Gus and Kennard had gone before. After separation, the service module's engine was used (for just a few seconds) to raise Rama 4's periapsis, or closest approach to the Mun, to a safe altitude. The transfer stage, on the other hand, would be allowed to crash right into it. This had been part of the mission plan from early on; not only would it help keep space around Kerbin free of possibly hazardous debris, some scientists thought that "something really cool" might happen when the discarded stage hit the munar surface. Alas, cameras on Rama 4 saw only a small puff of dust and the formation of a new crater, later confirmed by telescopes on Kerbin. (Not until instruments were left on the Mun by this and later missions would the sound of it "ringing like a gong" from such impacts be recorded.) At T + 6 hours, Jeb fired the engine again to slow Rama 4 into munar orbit, between 85 and 86 km above "sea level". Confirmation was transmitted back and forth before the new orbit carried the spacecraft around the back side of the moon and out of line-of-sight with Kerbin. The crew took plenty of photographs of the surface, adding to those taken by Rama 3. Contact was reestablished with mission control just as the sun "set" behind them. Considering his options, Jeb decided to go ahead with the primary landing site: the northern part of one of the dark munar maria, just south of the ship's equatorial path. The mood in the capsule was positive as they began to descend, though Bob spent a lot of time peering anxiously at the instruments and out the window as the ground came up. But even he was smiling when, 7 hours and 3 minutes after launch, Rama 4 touched down with a gentle thump. Jeb cut the throttle, looked everything over, and gave KSC the good news: "Munatic Base here, we made it. We are on the *beeeeeep* Mun, over." All over Kerbin, kerbals cheered, fainted, hugged each other, and otherwise reacted to the news. Wernher, a smile on his lips, quietly raised a glass to his colleagues and drank. When the noise died down, Jeb asked for and was quickly granted permission to exit the craft. As the world watched, he made his way carefully down the ladder and then the last few feet to the powdery regolith. Turning, he looked out at what Buzz Kerman would later call "the magnificent desolation"; then, with a mighty whoop, he jumped several times his own height, almost half the distance he'd just covered. Thus, "Hooo! ... That was fun" became the second set of "first words on the Mun" recorded in the history books. The three kerbonauts spent a half hour outside - planting the flag, taking more photographs and measurements, bouncing around the lander in the low gravity, picking up loose rocks to take back with them and leaving lots of corrugated footprints in the grey soil. When it was time to come back in and prepare for the return, Jeb lingered at the foot of the ladder for a last look around. "So long, Mun. We'll be back real soon." Rama 4's ascent took it to the west in a low arc, with an initial apoapsis of only a dozen kilometers; with no atmosphere to climb out of or other craft to rendezvous with, the only concern was clearing the highest peaks. A retrograde orbit was chosen, against the Mun's rotation, to clear its sphere of influence as quickly and efficiently as possible. Most of the service module's remaining fuel was expended escaping the Mun's gravity into a return orbit for Kerbin; the rest, as well as some RCS propellant, was used in another course correction burn to fine-tune the approach for re-entry. There would be no chance to pick a landing site - Jeb, Bill and Bob would have to set down wherever their aerobraking maneuver left them. At T + 13:30 hours, while passing over Kerbin's night side, Bob (now in the center seat, as Jeb had demanded a window for the return) turned the spacecraft to face back along their course; ten minutes later, as the sun rose behind them, he jettisoned the service module. From that point on, the capsule was really being flown by Sir Isaac Kerman. Rama 4's re-entry was the longest, shallowest, and thus the gentlest recorded in the program; it crossed most of the Eastern Hemisphere before finally splashing down just off the tip of [18° N, 140° E], with a total mission time of 14 hours. Jeb and his crew were soon recovered and (after a short time in quarantine to make sure they hadn't brought anything back besides photos and rock samples) given more parades and more medals. A replica of the flag and plaque left behind by Rama 4 is on display at KSC. The text engraved on the latter reads: "Here Jebediah, Bill and Bob Kerman first set foot upon the Mun. They came in peace, and curiosity, and reckless enthusiasm." Rama 5: A Wild Ride Jerfry, Hardin and Sidden Kerman knew they had a hell of an act to follow, but the crew of Rama 5 resolved not to let the pressure get to them or impair their performance. And in the final analysis, the second munar landing was - except for one case of Sidden's exuberance getting the better of his judgment - as close to a textbook mission as any flown by the program. Rama 5 was another night launch, but it would make its TMI burn on the daylit opposite side of the planet, over half an orbit away. This maneuver was executed without incident and the ship was soon on its way to the Mun, preceded by its transfer stage. Both the kerbonauts and many at mission control breathed a sigh of relief; no trouble had been expected from the newest addition to the spacecraft, but it was nice to have that confirmed. That addition was bolted to the side of Rama 5's service module, below the repositioned high-gain antenna: a solar-powered rover, designed to extend the range of the kerbonauts beyond how far they could comfortably walk, hop, or jet about with their limited pack fuel. It had done well in trials in "the sandbox" on Kerbin, and its weight was slight enough that it didn't shift the CSM's center of gravity (much), but the real test would come on the Mun. The braking burn was also accomplished flawlessly, and Rama 5 settled into low munar orbit. The primary landing site for the second mission was another dark sea of (mostly) flat lava flows, a quarter of the way around the Mun and as far north of the equator as the first had been south. It was a hard target to miss, requiring only a slight change in the tilt of Rama 5's orbit to reach. Jerfry did his best to encourage his anxious crewmates during the descent. Rama 5 touched down on solid and level ground shortly after T + 5 hours, 30 minutes. There was some cheering, then most of the home audience switched back to the Sportball game on the other network. After making sure that the engine was shut down, the craft's footing was secure and nothing had sprung a leak, the crew deployed the rover. In munar gravity, a cart that had fallen straight down on Kerbin sprang outward to land lightly on all four wheels. The brakes automatically engaged, and the rover awaited its first rider. Again, the commander was the first one down the ladder. Jerfry hopped around a bit before declaring, "Jeb's right, this is fun." The other two kerbonauts soon joined him, and a quick round of Rock-Paper-Scissors (best two out of three) later, Sidden had won the right to drive the rover. In an effort to keep the rover's weight as low as possible, the operator had not been supplied with a proper seat; instead, he was expected to cling to a set of handholds, controlling it with a few levers for throttle, brakes etc and leaning his body this way and that. Sidden was not deterred, and quickly climbed aboard. He brought the rover around in a slow turn, then aimed it at a large rock near the top of a nearby rise, some 600 meters away. Jerfry expected him to stop there, take a sample and come on back, but Sidden had other ideas. Seeing the ground sloping away before him, he decided on the spot to "see what [the rover] could do." The next twenty minutes are recorded in the annals of the program as "Sidden's Wild Ride." Among other things, he learned that the rover could reach speeds of over 20 meters/second on a downgrade (and catch considerable "air", if there was any to be had on the Mun) before one or more of the wire wheels collapsed. By the time he picked himself up, dragged himself over to the rover and got the wheels bent back into a vaguely round shape, he was almost nine kilometers away from the lander and, for the first time, beginning to wonder if he had enough oxium to get back. And, just to make matters worse, the lack of an ionosphere to bounce radio signals off of meant that he couldn't even call for help until he was back in line of sight. He briefly considered abandoning the rover and making his return by jetpack, but the prospect of running out of fuel halfway there and/or plowing faceplate first into the surface at an even more unsafe speed daunted him. Turning the rover around, he headed back up the gentle slope at the best speed the electric motors could muster. It was a much chastened (and short of breath) Sidden who arrived back at the spacecraft forty minutes later, slumped over the controls. Jerfry and Harfrid leapt aboard and brought the rover to a stop, then dragged him off it and up the ladder. Once they got the cabin repressurized and Sidden's helmet off, he revived and apologized at length. His comrades assured him they were just glad he was all right, though they did extract a promise from him not to do anything like that again. He humbly remained aboard while they finished up a somewhat abbreviated excursion plan. Rama 5 lifted off from the Mun at T + 8 hours, leaving behind one slightly-banged up rover and another flag but, thankfully, no fallen kerbonauts. (Jerfry and Harfrid had agreed, while back out on the surface, not to inform KSC of what had happened until they were all safely back on Kerbin.) The plaque on the flag gave their names and noted that this proved the first landing was not (entirely) luck. Their TKI burn was, again, practically flawless - it took them straight back along the Mun's orbit and brought them in at nearly the perfect altitude on the first try. The CSM came in over the Great Western Desert, of which the crew got some great photos with the few film packs they had left before they had to secure the cameras for re-entry. The service module was jettisoned just before reaching the west coast, the capsule streaking across the width of the peninsula as a brilliant daytime meteor before plunging into the waters of Booster Bay like so many first stages and failed launches before. This craft came down much gentler, beneath three parachutes, and splashed down at T + 15 hours and 26 minutes. The story of "Sidden's Wild Ride" was kept out of the papers for years. When it came up during the post-mission debriefing, there was talk of scrubbing Sidden from the program, until half the kerbonaut corps - Jeb himself first among them - stood up and admitted that in his place, they might well have done the same. Rama 6: Ice Follies The original mission of the space program had now been technically satisfied twice over, but they weren't done. For one thing, there was still another moon up there that no one had been to yet. Rama 6 was to change that. A mission to Minmus posed new challenges, but nothing that Rama and the mark 3 Munatic couldn't handle. True, it was a lot farther and at a bit of an inconvenient angle, but the pilots of the program had plenty of experience (though some of them only in simulators, so far) with matching orbits. The really hard part, as one writer had observed, was getting into orbit of Kerbin; after that, you were "halfway to anywhere." And if Minmus was so much smaller than the Mun, that meant it would take less delta-V to land on or take off from - enough to make up for the extra needed to get there. The biggest question - one that the best telescopes Kerbin had at the time couldn't answer - was what the damn thing was made of. All the astronomers could say for sure, from squinting at it and analyzing its orbit, was that it was lighter, shinier, and greener than Mun rock. Finding that out would be one of Rama 6's primary objectives. Minmus' weak gravity also meant that a rover like the one carried by Rama 5 would have almost no traction, but some bright boys had a solution for that too. Rather than wheels, Rama 6's rover would have RCS quads, to carry it over the surface like a super jetpack. The basic idea seemed sound, but there was no real way to test it (or train with it) other than in orbit or on Minmus. The kerbonauts would have to figure it out once they got there. The crew of Rama 6 - Hudwise, Kenkin and Obney Kerman - were selected for being some of the calmest kerbonauts in the whole program. This mission would be longer, in both duration and distance, than any that had come before, and the administrators didn't want to take a chance on anyone cracking or panicking while far from home. The three that were finally picked could all be counted on to "maintain an even strain" in a crisis. There were no glitches or problems during the launch from Pad 1 - by day, this time - and while the TMI burn was a bit longer (by about 50 m/s), Rama 6 was soon on its way. A little over six hours into the flight, the spacecraft passed the Mun's orbit and the crew officially became the furthest-traveling kerbals to date, a milestone that was acknowledged with smiles and a few laconic jokes. They would not reach their real destination for another day and a half. Similarly, the crew had to be informed by mission control when they entered Minmus' gravitational influence, as there was little or no indication aboard the craft. Over the next few hours, a small pale green dot in the starfield grew into a lumpy mint green ball. While Kenkin took photographs out the side window, Hudwise set up the burn that would turn their flyby into a wide orbit. After less than a minute at full thrust, Rama 6 became a satellite of Minmus. Intercepting Minmus during this part of its tilted orbit around Kerbin meant coming in at a high angle, over the poles. Rather than spend precious delta-V adjusting the inclination of their orbit, Hudwise decided to simply tighten it up and look for a good landing spot. There were plenty of nice flat frozen lakes (or regions that looked like frozen lakes) down there, and he could reach them as easily from this orbit as any other. Another pair of braking burns (to lower first the periapsis, then the apoapsis to match) left Rama 6 circling the small moon at a distance of a mere 20 km. Many more photographs were taken at this close range. Finally Hudwise made his selection, and turned the ship around for the next pass. The sun was already low in Minmus' sky over that region, however, casting the hills and valleys in deep shadow, and by the time the craft came around again the landing site was (just barely) on the night side of the line. Hudwise chose not to abort, but to continue the descent by radar and landing lights. Two bright circles appeared on the flat, glittering surface... then suddenly vanished in a roiling, opaque cloud of steam. Hudwise reacted instantly to his fellows' startled cries, aborting the landing and throttling back up before easing off into a hover at 500 meters. By that time the cloud had mostly dissipated, and Obney was able to observe that while the hot exhaust had melted a shallow crater in the ice, it did not seem to have broken through to liquid (or rock): "Must be frozen solid all the way to the bottom, however deep that is." With fuel, options and daylight all running out fast, the crew elected to put down again a short distance from the original spot. Hudwise had to rely entirely on the radar altimeter for the last dozen meters, cutting the throttle precisely at zero; he waited until the cloud cleared again and he had visual confirmation from the other kerbonauts before informing mission control (at T + 2 days and 24 minutes) that Rama 6 was safely down on Minmus. The celebration in the capsule was brief, with the crew more focused on getting outside to survey the surroundings and their craft. Kenkin won the toss and was the first down the ladder. "Kinda slippery - watch your step" were the first words, accurate if not very poetic, spoken on Minmus. The other two soon joined him, and found themselves standing in another shallow crater, gleaming in the floodlights, jagged in some places and treacherously smooth and slick in others. A thin layer of ice had refrozen over the landing legs, but it could be and was quickly chipped away with their rock hammers. With that taken care of, Hudwise and Kenkin moved out of the crater to start drilling for core samples while Obney unpacked the rover. The latter was one of the great disappointments of the mission, if not an outright disaster. In actual use, it proved almost impossible to hold on to the pitching and rolling sled while also working the thruster controls. Obney was thrown off again and again, cursing as he flew through the near-vacuum in slow motion, before finally abandoning the thing where it had come to rest. Despite this setback, and the added difficulty of working by helmet lights, the crew returned to their craft with the core samples (which were placed in an insulated, refrigerated compartment - i.e., the beverage cooler) at the end of their half hour. At that time, another conference and vote was held to determine whether they should immediately start back for Kerbin, or attempt a short hop and second landing on one of the sunlit plateaus to the west, to take more samples and observations from the highlands. All were in favor of giving the latter a try, with the understanding that another abort would mean the end of the mission. Rising out of yet another steam-shroud, Rama 6 lifted off and turned westward, clearing the rolling hills with legs and ladder still extended. Hudwise had gotten the hang of flying on Minmus by now, and after just a few minutes of flight time he found a nice flat mesa to set down on with hardly a bump. "And that, gentlemen, is how we do that." The second EVA went much more smoothly - between the better lighting, more experience moving around on the ice in very low gravity, and no need to bother with a troublesome rover - and many samples were obtained, not only of the ice but also from some exposed boulders. Tired but pleased, the kerbonauts finally climbed back on board and began securing everything for the trip home. Liftoff and the escape burn were performed by the checklist, with little chatter. Three and a half hours later, Rama 6 left Minmus behind (or vice versa) and began the long fall towards Kerbin. Two days out, two days back. Kenkin, pilot for the return leg, ran the tanks dry with the corridor correction burn and fine-tuned it with the RCS, which still had plenty of fuel. Kerbin swelled in the windows. The spacecraft came in over the broad blue expanse of the Eastern Ocean, dropping the service module just as the Mun rose over the horizon, calling to mind Rama 4's re-entry. This one was much shorter and sharper than that long gentle glide, pressing the crew firmly into their seats as the capsule punched a fiery hole in the atmosphere. But soon the pressure eased, the sheath of flame faded, radio contact was reestablished and the chutes deployed. Rama 6 splashed down in mid-ocean just short of four days and nine hours after blast-off - yet another record for the program. TO BE CONTINUED...

Either talk about the video or don't post. Any arguments that spawn after this warning will result in infractions on both sides.

RETOOLING: RAMA AND ROCKOMAX Even though the President's speech had only called for sending one kerbal to the Mun and returning them safely to Kerbin, it was decided early on in the program that for maximum safety and redundancy, it would be best to send two or even three kerbonauts along. Not only was three one of the "magic numbers", it was also the practical limit of current engineering - though some scientists were already imagining even larger expeditions, with whole fleets descending upon the Mun - and the point at which most discussions of "but what if something happens to...?" trailed off into absurdity; it was difficult for the planners to imagine a mishap that could incapacitate three kerbals at once without destroying the spacecraft outright. It was equally clear that there was no way that an Orbiter could carry even one kerbal to the Mun and back, let alone three. (Not if he intended to land, that is; Jeb volunteered to attempt a once-around and free return, just to see if it could be done.) A capsule had been designed that could support three kerbals for the duration of such a mission, but all by itself - without parachutes, crew, or the supplies needed to sustain them - it weighed five times as much as a Krishna pod. The Mun rocket would have to be built on a new and different scale - larger, stronger, heavier and more powerful than anything built so far. And Jeb's junkyard, frankly, was not up to the task of making such parts - especially not with Jeb himself busy with/distracted by kerbonaut training. Enter Rockomax. The industrial conglomerate had been waiting for such an opportunity since the news of Stayputnik broke. A leading manufacturer of storage silos, large pressure tanks and high-capacity pumps, many of their products could be adapted to the needs of the program with little work or delay. With their cash reserves and profits from other divisions, Rockomax could afford to always be the lowest bidder. Thus, Rockomax became the space program's biggest contractor - and the company that would build most of the Mun rocket - by being there at the right time to fill a need that few others could. Rama 1 - 3: Advanced Orbital Operations Even though it was only intended to carry Rama 1 into low Kerbin orbit, the name of the new booster - Munatic, mark 1 - left no doubt as to its ultimate purpose. Taking inspiration from Orbiter, three stages of X200-32 tanks, stacked two high and painted flat white for high visibility and heat management, were grouped around a fourth core stage. Each stage had, at its base, a single giant "Mainsail" engine - Rockomax's trump card, a rocket motor so powerful that it required the purchase of gauges with more zeroes just to measure its thrust. All four of them would fire at the start, to lift Munatic and its payload off the pad, but fuel lines ran from the three outer boosters to the center; once empty, they would drop away, leaving the still fully-fueled core stage to finish the journey into orbit. The Rama capsule itself was also a mix of the familiar and the revolutionary. First, it was difficult to talk about the capsule (now the "Command Module") separately from its dedicated upper stage, the "Service Module", which provided it with air, water, and electrical power during flight. The service module included ASAS, RCS, and one of Rockomax's small rocket engines, the "Poodle", which was "only" about as powerful as a LT-T30 or the new LV-T45 but built to a shorter, wider form factor, with a larger reaction chamber and smaller bell. Kerbonauts still sat with their backs to the base of the capsule and the thick heat shield, but now the cabin was large enough to fit three of them, with enough room to trade seats if necessary. It was also amply supplied with windows, both forward and to the side, at least for the left and right seaters; ironically, the center seat, mounted below the other two and designated for the mission commander, had no windows at all and required flying by instruments alone. (Jeb protested bitterly about this, but was ignored.) Radial parachutes (three of them, allowing the crew to touch down safely on land or water) and a docking port on the nose (with its own protective cover) were now standard as well. During a ground test of the capsule with the Rama 1 backup crew - Sidden, Gus, and Kennard Kerman, who would later fly on Rama 3 - the hatch was accidentally locked from outside; it was soon found that the spare key had been lost, requiring a locksmith to be called. As the capsule had not been stocked with snacks for the test, the crew soon grew hungry and began banging on the hatch and hull, demanding to be let out and/or fed. This accident resulted in a delay of several weeks while the hatch was redesigned and other minor changes made to the capsule. Two months after Krishna 3, the new capsule and its service module was finally rated ready to fly; it was mated to the top of a Munatic and the whole thing rolled out onto Pad 1. At the same time, another craft was being prepared for launch on Pad 2. The ADT (Advanced Docking Target) was also mostly just a scaled-up version of the original; one new feature, however (the multiple docking "hub") was to have considerable influence on the next few missions, and pave the way for permanent installations like Kerbin Station 1. Rama 1 was the first time that the famous team of Jeb, Bob and Bill all flew in space together. The mission went well, despite Jeb's usual hotdogging and the need to use the service module to give the craft the final push into orbit; rendezvous with the ADT, launched twenty minutes earlier, occurred two hours into the flight. Once they were securely docked, Jeb and his crew settled in to wait. Rama 2 was launched three days later, as soon as the next Munatic and its crew could be made ready. Jerfry Kerman was commander on this flight, with Almy and Harfrid Kerman as his fellow kerbonauts. They had no trouble making the rendezvous, and Jeb and Jerfry shared a handshake across the docking hub. (The ADT, along with the service modules of the Ramas, contained extra supplies for long-term operations in orbit but no habitable space; that would come later.) Commander Sidden Kerman and Gus and Kennard Kerman of Rama 3 had to wait another week to launch, while the engineers finished making their first significant change to the Munatic design: the addition of another set of outer boosters, with fuel lines that fed into the original set. This was intended to help Rama 3 reach orbit with full or nearly-full tanks, in anticipation of the next phase of the mission. After launch and another long wait for a good rendezvous, Rama 3 finally docked with its two predecessors and the ADT in a cross formation, with 80% fuel (compared to the 50% of the others). Fuel was transferred from the ADT and the other two service modules to top up Rama 3, which then cast off and initiated the first ever TMI (Trans-Munar Injection) burn. This was the "once-around" course that had been considered before. The crew of Rama 3 also had no means of landing; their orders were simply to loop around the Mun and return, taking photographs and other measurements while they did. (Indeed, these kerbonauts had been selected for the likelihood that they would follow those orders and not do anything rash, as Jeb might be tempted to in their situation.) It took them eight hours to reach the Mun and eight hours back. They returned with just enough fuel to brake into Kerbin orbit, but not enough for a second rendezvous, so it was decided to have them descend right away. Their tanks ran dry while they were still high in the atmosphere, about to overfly KSC, and they splashed down far out in the ocean. Jerfry and Rama 2 were the next to cast off and make their deorbit burn. Their maneuver went much better, with a splashdown within sight of the launch complex. Rama 1, the first up, was the last down and landed even closer, just to the north of KSC. This left the ADT alone in orbit, with only a few liters of fuel in its tanks. As with the original in the aftermath of Krishna, it was deorbited to keep space tidy and gather data for the scientists as it broke up. It also made a very nice light show from the ground.

Well I'm from the future so I'm a big fan of 1.0 but I can't talk about that without ripping the universe a new blackhole so I'd have to say in the present day my favorite update so was was .20... the backend work let me up my lag free craft up to 700 parts

Well it won't run Crysis. The simulated processor runs at 100KHz and has access to 128KB of RAM. Doesn't sound like a lot, but a competent developer can do a lot with that. If I had to give a rough analogy, it's probably within an order of magnitude as powerful as a graphing calculator (one of the old school TI-83 ones, not the fancy new ones with color displays). Since the spec for the CPU has been out for a while, a number of developers have already written fairly impressive programs. A good place to see some of these is here: http://0x10co.de/. The Tetris game I was playing in the video can be found here: http://0x10co.de/ua5qu. Another thing to keep in mind is that the capability is mostly limited by what kind of external (virtual) hardware we come up with for it. We could make the Do-Everything Device, and the processor could then just talk to the Do-Everything Device and have it do... everything, but that wouldn't be in the spirit of the design.

Then people really really need to stop telling me not to talk about the only one we have.

Yay, you fixed the debugger! Hey, I saw your pressure fed engine and immediately thought of something. That itself is a cool mod standalone, up in the caliber of things like RemoteTech and Deadly Reentry. I think that should be a standalone (that works with Kethane) rather than an integral part of kethane (if it is, I will be trying to figure out how to disable the pressure fed thing in the config, I don't want that level of realistic difficulty). I do think it would be cool to have a pressure fed engines mod in use with both RemoteTech and Deadly Reentry (and FAR, talk about realism).

JDP I have a suggestion for Remote Tech: When taking control of multiple ships at once have the option to group them into one command box as to make landing 3 landers at the same time easier. Also add the option to remotely stage. Thanks I'm having fun with Remote Tech! Edit: Also the retro grade computer doesn't know where the retrograde is when landing. Luckily there is a surface function. Edit: Also Mechjeb control doesn't seem to work for other ships even if they are right next to you while under remote control. Would be nice if there is anyway to make this work. Edit: For MechJeb control it only works IF you engage the auto pilot while controlling a ship before you switch off it. Mechjeb will continue to run on the previous ship but no remote updates can be given to update the Mechjeb on the other ship. Which isn't anything Remote Tech contributes to but i think its possible for remote tech to talk to Mechjeb on the other ships.

Yeah, #kspmodders on EsperNet irc. If you could hop in there, we could talk about some stuff, would probably be good. Licence for my code is "do whatever the heck you want with it, I don't care, just don't hack into the government with it :P".

this is nice... but you're going to want to do something a bit different if you want to make a good mod. Talk to Cliph, he's doing something with progcom and remote-tech. He might have an interest in this. I personally like the idea of programmable computers in game, especially if they're not omnipotent, which makes it !!!FUN!!! when things go wrong. Though I can't say that I like assembly being used. Personally I would prefer something like python, with the python idle and text editor.. but that's just my personal preference.

Vasquez Kerman: Really, SWARM?! **** you too! Do you have.... (cue start of rant, 5 minutes later, rant over in 3, 2, 1).... Alright, I've calmed down a bit. I still want to fry those stupid probes' circuits, but at least I can talk sensibly. Okay, when the SWARM went after The Grand Idea, I was going, "Oh boy, Vasquez Kerman and Fox62 (Chief Spacecraft Designer and head of the PR division) are going to be ticked the heck off." (Yes I have written my character into my interpretation of the canon (You have Mekan1k in their, so why couldn't I have myself in the fictional company I came up with)) (And yes, the CEO does use older swear words, (He's 65 years old, for heck's sake!) but he uses fewer of them.) On a different note, the CEO would likely authorize The Grand Idea to use it's long-range laser spectrometer (a science gadget engineered for analysing asteroids at a distance) to attack the SWARM. You could render this as a Sunbeam Lazor battery hammering the SWARM. The reason it has a lazor-tech beam has already been pointed out. It has lazor-system as a back-up flight control system.

Guys, I'd slow down and just submit and discuss craft rather than planning out how two Zokesia associates are going to railroad Macey's series. This is a craft submission thread, and there's no reason to assume any of these ideas will make the final cut. Don't get ahead of yourselves and scare off any more potential submissions with all this talk of Zokesian dominance. So, little old me is supposed to be some kind of competition to the most popular Rocket Builders group in the community? That's... that's more of a compliment than what I can only assume was supposed to be a thinly-veiled threat. Congratulations? Maybe I'll just keep cranking out mediocre aesthetic craft to nip at your heels a bit. Point being, submit spacecraft, and leave the script-writing to Macey please, if that's alright with you.

If this thread were a persuasive business suited gentleman with a carefully worded and superiorly crafted hypothesis, I would invite him inside to talk it over with coffee. And then I would bite him.

You can't really talk about ferromagnetism the same way as gravity because you can't have a monopole. The metal sphere would be pulled more strongly to the poles than to the equator, so the orbit wouldn't just be elliptical, it might be peanut shaped. But I think it's doable, probably not stable though.

So I'm sorry if this belongs at a different place but today is the 44th anniversary of Neil Armstrong legendary walk on the moon:D So this is a thread to talk about the Apollo 11 moon mission:cool:

The first rule is, you DO NOT talk about release dates... ...but if I were to take a guess, I would say within the next 6 hours. (don't quote me on that.)

usually i listen to people talk... on skype it can get irritating sometimes, I miss music XD lol

Knewb here trying to better grok the process... Is there any way to see the payload weight? I just constructed a satellite and I want to know if the launch vehicle I used earlier has the power to get it into orbit, how can I compare weights of payloads? How can I see what DeltaV my launch vehicle or any stage in my launch vehicle will produce? Is there a way to have my payload power turned off during launch? So when I hit the launch button it automatically runs some kind of Launch Action that turns off all the power of non-essential pods? Is there any way to see what total electrical consumption the parts currently in assembly consume? So I know how many panels or batteries to add? What is a gimbal? I see in the action group for my engine a Toggle Gimbal option... what does this do exactly? Why does everything talk about a 2 stage rocket to get things into orbit? Why not just a single stage? Thanks!

I did a quick research on it, there's not much talk about it honestly. Wikipedia has references those are red (or blank references), so yeah, it's probably not as discussed as the other atmospheric skimming techniques. I won't advance myself too far on it, but IIRC, by getting enough lift, you could somehow "bounce" off the atmosphere and gain a significant amount of speed.

They likely did survive the breakup, but it's also likely they we unconscious very shortly thereafter and quite likely all the way to impact - the cabin vented to ambient on breakup, and there is insufficient O2 partial pressure at that altitude. They spent around a minute (from breakup to peak altitude to back down again) in those conditions. In the end, NASA judged that it was impossible to determine conclusively if and when they lost consciousness and exactly when death occurred. Google up the Kerwin Report for details. A few years later I was attended [a Navy] training course with a Navy diver who worked on the recovery effort. He didn't talk about it much, but some of things he alluded to always made me think he helped recover the crew compartment... and looking back now with things I know now but didn't then, I suspect he had some pretty serious PTSD issues.

The mark of a great computer game, it seems to me, has always been whether or not you're prompted to think about it when you're not in front of the computer. KSP has buckets of that. But it also has a bunch of things that I want in the universe of my game's development. No DRM. A community of thoughtful, intelligent, humorous, helpful, considerate people. Developers who talk to -- and listen to! -- their customers. Regular postings of plans and how they're coming along. Periodic surprises that leave me amazed and stunned. It helps me communicate to other people why I find spaceflight so fascinating -- even people who've never thought twice about spaceflight -- and that's invaluable. (Anything that helps people communicate their passions deserves an enormous amount of credit.) There's probably lots more, but it's amazing to find all this in one place as it is.

Apollo Flight Journals are here, with full transcripts, audio, photos, video, mission documents, etc: http://history.nasa.gov/afj/ Likewise, the Lunar Surface Journals are here: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/frame.html On Apollo 8, Frank Borman (the commander of that mission) had a bout of vomiting and diarrhea brought about by either motion sickness or a 24 hour bug. The astronauts had to collect little bits of vomit and feces that were floating around the cabin using paper towels. They didn't report the problem to mission control over the public channel. (They tape recorded it and sent it with a telemetry data dump.) Mission control called back to talk about it the next day; you can read the transcript here, starting at 29:47 GET: https://history.nasa.gov/ap08fj/06day2_green.htm

I hope you're not speaking for the devs because that wouldn't be very smart. I don't know how things will develop but right now there's nothing that would give players an intermediate challenge. We have the Kerbol system, and then suddenly we have talk of FTL drives and flying to other systems in a matter of days or something. Where's the middle ground? Well it's right here in the form of an expanded star system. (Actually it's here)

This logic, with regards to discussions on future technologies, is the logical argument I have an absolute pet peeve with. Let's be absolutely clear here: The absence of evidence stating that something is impossible, is not the evidence of its feasibility. Such an argument by its entire premise is an illogical fallacy. That said, I can't personally imagine any way in which we will come up with the energy to routinely, or if even once, curve time enough to send anything larger than a single subatomic particle in an Alcubierre drive. At the end of the day, energy is required to move mass or space-time, and there is finite energy on this planet and in our star. The energy consumption for accelerating space, matter, or what-have-you grows to titanic proportions when we talk about Alcubierre drives or even 0.01C accelerations. From the most basic standpoint, when looking at this on a general, basic level, you see that you'd have an easier time OBLITERATING THE ENTIRE PLANET than moving matter past C.