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To tell the truth, I'm going to write an abstract analysis about the communication form of KSP Forum for other forums / talk places to refer.

woah. cool. I thought it was sacrilege to talk about multiplayer KSP.

She finally did it! I told my eight-year-old daughter she could get a full version of Kerbal Space Program if she stuck with it long enough to get a rocket into orbit. I'd help her as much as I could, and answer any questions she might have, but I wouldn't build her rocket or fly it for her. She worked at it for a while, but got distracted by a Disney game she got for Christmas. I thought I might have missed my window to get her interested. Last night, she came running up to me. "Dad! Dad! Dad! Come look!" -- and she took me to the computer and proudly moused over the periapsis and apoapsis in the map view. Both were higher than 70,000 meters over Kerbin. She didn't have enough fuel to get back, but she couldn't have been any more pleased with herself. Grinning from ear to ear and just beaming with happiness. She had done it. So, first thing this morning, I set her up with a store account and got her her own copy of KSP. We'll download a full copy of the game when I get home. Thank you, devs, for the opportunity to share spaceflight with my daughter in such a way that she can see why it's so interesting and so much fun to me, even though she's eight. And you should hear her talk about technical issues surrounding spaceflight with her friends! ("I was going to turn retrograde and land, but I ran out of fuel. It doesn't matter, though; Jebediah looks pretty happy anyway.")

Ever do anything for the military(....that you can talk about if so)?

Internet videos rarely explain anything really good. However, they are excellent to make people interested in something. So because I would like to talk about the energy and global climate change, I'm posting this few short videos so that visualizing the problem will be easier: And presentation from Stanford University: Of course, the real knowledge is not to be found in a pretty animations but in a lot of tables, articles, reports and so on. So if you are interested in reading about the issue, here for example you can find interesting sources: http://www.postcarbon.org/ http://www.theoildrum.com/ http://peakoil.com/ Naturallly, you should start with the wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil This a very interesting topic, because without a doubt our civilisation depends on energy sources and in fact there are already problems with the supply in various countries in the world - for instance, China will consume all its coal in the next 10-15 years. Some say that peak oil is just a new version of malthusian histery, some say that "the end is nigh" - and I say there is a lot of worrying data which can't be just ignored, because "50 years ago we have computers the size of a truck, now my iPhone is 1000x better then all NASA computers during Apollo program". Progress shouldn't be treated as immutable constant - history shows that only due to the technology which enable the use of the fossil fuels we were able to get here. But what next? Let the civil discussion begin!

CHAPTER 14 AEROBRAKING: EVE *** <source: archive/kh9G3/kadmos_hatch_cam1> <extracting audio files> <initializing voice recognition protocol> <processing> <transcription ready> KADMOS: CLOSING HATCH. EQUALIZING PRESSURE. UNRECOGNIZED: [heavy breathing] KADMOS: WARNING. CONTAMINATION DETECTED. RADIATION LEVEL ABOVE SAFETY LIMIT. PLEASE REMOVE YOUR SPACESUIT IMMEDIATELY AND PROCEED WITH DECONTAMINATION PROCEDURE. UNRECOGNIZED: [gasping] KADMOS: PLEASE REMOVE YOUR SPACESUIT IMMEDIATELY AND PROCEED WITH DECONTAMINATION PROCEDURE. UNRECOGNIZED: [unrecognised] KADMOS: PLEASE REMOVE YOUR SPACESUIT IMMEDIATELY AND PROCEED WITH DECONTAMINATION PROCEDURE. CPT. JEBADAIAH: ...my Kod... I... I saw it... - Pause it. You see? I told you, we have to do something about this. - Do what Ned? What could we possibly do? He's probably the best pilot the space program has ever seen, do you really think that either of us is capable of aerobraking without his help? - Dammit Buzz, you just saw him practically kill himself! He's unstable! - So what? Maybe you want to control “Kadmos†while we burn to death in Eve's atmosphere? Huh? - You're the second in command! You can do this. We'll have better chance with you behind the control panel. - No, no. No. I can't. I won't. Don't ask for it. - What, is that your guilt speaking again? We don't know what caused this trajectory change, do we have to go through this again? It was probably just the malfunction, it wasn't your fault. - But it could be! It could be! - Buzz, I beg you... - FOR WHAT? I screwed up, okay?! We together were trying to figure this out before, remember? We just wanted to get home, but we messed up. Eve is closer and closer. We're going to burn. We will burn, Ned. - Oh frak it! - Where are you going Ned? You can't hide, not from the whole ship! There is no other way, you hear me?! - Go to hell! - Jeb? Jeb! - Hmm? What were you saying? - Kod damn it... Jeb! Get a hold of yourself! We're minutes from aerobraking. - I know.. I know. - Jeb, you're the captain. You have to snap out of it! - Leave me alone, I'm fine. - Are you sure? - DON'T TOUCH ME. Tell everyone to prepare for aerobraking. I'm going to the command pod. - Thank Kod... - Ned? What are you doing here? Where's Buzz? - … - I see. If you want to be helpful you can check on the structural integrity and the accelerometers - Okay. - And turn on the intercom while you are there. - This? - Yes. Is it working? Okay. This is Jeb speaking. I know you're all scared. We all know what the situation is. “Kadmos†is about to slam into Eve's atmosphere with a velocity of 19 thousand km/h. We would be stupid not to be scared. We are the elites of the elites, though, the best; we are the kerbonauts. Not so long ago I saw something which helped me find the will to live again, and though I can't share my experience with you all, I can say this: the Universe is vast and full of miracles. We saw unimaginable things out there far beyond where any Kerbal hasn't been before, yet we didn't see even a tiny fraction of solar system's wonders. I want to live and see them for myself: I'm not letting this crew to die nor will I let “Kadmos†fall apart. We will survive! We will live, laugh, breath and explore, because this is the very essence of our souls. Prepare for the aerobraking, my friends! We are not going down! In this time of trials WE SHALL PREVAIL! center] - T-20 seconds. RCS operational. SAS ready. Main engine ready. Ned? - Structural integrity 79,76%. - Ok. Commencing countdown. T-5, T-4, T-3, T-2, RCS online, T-1, begin aerobraking! - Structural integrity is 79,70% and falling. - Ugh! It's harder to balance than I thought. Stabilizing. - Integrity 79,5%. - What the hell? Its denser than we thought! - Structural integrity 79%. Five G! - But we're barely skimming the atmosphere! - Integrity 78,92% and falling! - WARNING. STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY BELOW SAFETY LIMIT. PLEASE SUSPEND EXECUTING CURRENT MANEUVER. - 10 G, integrity 78,13%! - Come on baby, hold together! - 15 G! - WARNING. G FORCE ABOVE SAFETY LIMIT. PLEASE SUSPEND EXECUTING CURRENT MANEUVER. - Ugh! Talk to me Ned! - Integrity 77,5%, 20 G! - ALERT. HULLS TEMPERATURE ABOVE SAFETY LIMIT. MULTIPLE STRUCTURAL FAILURES. INCREASING PRESSURE IN SECTION F. - Ned?! - … - ALERT. G FORCE REACHING LETHAL LEVEL. PLEASE SUSPEND EXECUTING CURRENT MANEUVER. - No! I... will... I... can't... - WARNING. PROCEEDING WITH CURRENT MANEUVER MAY SEVERLY DAMAGE THE SHIP. MULTIPLE MALFUNCTIONS IN LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEM. ABORT ALL ACTIVITY IMMEDIATELY. - …?! - ALERT. CONNECTION WITH MINER UNIT BREACHED. ALL MINER UNIT'S SYSTEMS NONRESPONSIVE. INCREASING PRESSURE IN ALL SECTIONS .ABORT ALL ACTIVITY IMMEDIATELY. - ...no!... - ...ugh... - CRITICAL ALERT. HULL'S TEMPERATURE 2582 DEGREES. PRESSURE IN REACTOR CHAMBER ABOVE SAFETY LIMITS. ABORT ALL ACTIVITY IMMEDIATELY. - ...argh!... - CRITICAL ALERT. RCS NON RESPONSIVE. SAS NON RESPONSIVE. CONTROL OVER THE SHIP LOST. - ...! - CRITICAL SYSTEMS ENDANGERED. COMMENCING MAIN COMPUTER EMERGENCY RESET. HAVE A NICE DAY.

CHAPTER 13 KERBOL SOI – EVE SOI *** - Play the entry number 36 - AFFRIMATIVE. Captain's log, entry 36. Everything seems to be fine. As I record these words we're travelling further and further away from Jool. The transfer burn executed yesterday was successful, though we still need some course corrections to intercept Kerbin. I think my decision about abandoning the mission was right – we are unable to pursue what's left of our planned schedule without risking being stranded in space forever, a risk I can't take, not after what happened to Sidely. Mac has performed the surgery but there still aren't any signs of improvement. Our current lack of communication with Mission Control might cost Sid his life. We'll soon lose contact with even the probes above Laythe and Tylo. Our onboard comms equipment allows us to receive transmissions only at a the range of just 50 thousands kilometres, slightly more than the altitude of Minmus above home. We're truly alone this far out here. - END OF RECORDING. - Play the entry number 37. - AFFIRMATIVE. Captain's log, entry 37. It's been five days since the transfer burn. Sid's stable, but with no signs of improvement. We are all happy that we're going back home. Tomorrow we will lose contact with the probes; all the data received from them during our journey through the Jool system is safely stored in an onboard computer. I hope it will be worth the cost, both of Kerbals and money. - END OF RECORDING. - Play the entry number 41. - AFFIRMATIVE. Captain's log, entry 41. Jool is getting smaller and smaller every day, soon we won't be able to spot it with the naked eye. Buzz has reported some minor malfunctions in the navigation computer, he's checking it out as I speak. Sid's getting better and his EEG shows increased brain activity. Mac finds this very auspicious. Maybe all of this will end well after all? - END OF RECORDING. - Play the next entry. - AFFIRMATIVE. Captain's log, entry 42. We have a long journey ahead of us, but fortunately not one as perilous as exploring the Jool system was. We're just a tiny speck in a vast dark ocean out here. When I look at the map sometimes it really hits me... - Pause. Open the trajectory simulation 18A. - PROCESSING. SIMULATION FOUND. DISPLAYING. - Play. - AFFIRMATIVE … how lonely our ship is in this unimaginably vast void. The nearest spacecraft are millions of kilometres from us. Jool ExoProbe I launched shortly after our departure from home and should arrive at it's destination in a few months, and Jool ExoProbe II is trapped in a solar orbit after a malfunction. After that, there's just our probes above Laythe and Tylo, “Kadmosâ€Â, and nothing but a cold, radiation-filled space. We're months from home but at least we're on a good course. - END OF RECORDING. DO YOU WISH TO CLOSE THE SIMULATION? - No. Open the entry number 63. - AFFIRMATIVE. Captain's log, entry 63. We're devastated. It turns out that there were serious malfunctions in the navigation computer, or maybe a mistake during impromptu reprogramming? We'll probably never find out, but it doesn't matter. The navigation hardware is fried and we are on a intercept trajectory with Eve. We can't correct it without computers, without which the sightliest error could devastate our chances of reaching Kerbin, and anyways we don't have enough fuel to compensate for it. The nearest place where kethane mining may be possible is Gilly, for that matter. Buzz and Ned are still calculating our options. This is bad. - END OF RECORDING. - Play the next entry. - AFFRIMATIVE. Captain's log, entry 64. We don't have enough fuel to reduce our speed so we can execute a transfer burn from Eve's orbit to home. We have to aerobrake in the densest atmosphere in the Kerbol system and with the interplanetary speed at that. May Kod have mercy on our souls. - END OF RECORDING. - Play the entries 65, 66, 78 and 84. - AFFIRMATIVE. Captain's log, entry 65. Sid has waken up. I still haven't decided whether to tell him what's going on or not. He's sad that the he's missed so much. I promised him that when he's feeling better I'll let him examine some samples. He was surprised that we no longer have science modules, to say the least. At least there's something good about all this. Captain's log, entry 66. Calculations are finished. We don't have any other option: we have to aerobrake and then try and reach Kerbin's orbit and from Eve. Without a navigation computer it will be extremely difficult – luckily we still have one of those Protractor calculators. We still have months before we reach Eve, so there is plenty of time to do maths. Our aerobraking speed shouldn't be that bad. We'll probably have to give up aerobraking at Kerbin however, a second aerobraking would certainly destroy the “Kadmosâ€Â. I just hope we survive the first one Captain's log, entry 78. The results are irrefutable. Maclorf has leukemia. Ironic considering that he spent most of his time taking care of Sid in the medic bay with quite good radiation shielding while Ned who was sitting near the reactor chamber the entire time feels all right. Captain's log, entry 84. Ned has finished the aerobraking simulation. In our previous calculations we didn't include the slingshot effect of Kerbol. Our predicted maximum load is almost 40 G. - END OF PLAYLIST. - Play the last three entries. - AFFIRMATIVE Captain's log, entry 139. We barely see each other now. We don't talk anymore. The ship is silent. We are in a deathrap made of metal and plastic accelerated to thousands kilometres per hour. I continue my Kerbol studies – it has been what, 2 months since I started? I don't feel the passing of time any longer. The sun is magnificent. Captain's log, entry 140. We will soon reach periapsis. We are closer to the Kerbol than Moho is and just few weeks ago we watched it's transit. It's indescribably beautiful, mesmerizing. I don't remember when I ate for the last time. I can't sleep – I keep thinking about the Sun. http://youtu.be/dp7z8Gvexas Captain's log, entry 141. Today we will reach the periapsis. Today I'm going to do this. When I look back at what we've accomplished... - END OF RECORDING. - Editing. Start from the end of the last entry. Commence recording. - AFFIRMATIVE. RECORDING IN 3, 2, 1. - … I can't find anything that could even begin to compare with this view. I understand now why for centuries all over the world the Sun was worshipped as a Kod. We're close and there is nobody to stop me now. I'm going out. Stop. - ENTRY RECORDED. - Close all the files. Log me out. Prepare the airlock for EVA. - AFFIRMATIVE. - Open the hatch. - WARNING. RADIATION LEVEL ABOVE SAFETY LIMITS. EVA IMPOSSIBLE. - Override. This is the direct command from the captain. - AFFIRMATIVE. OPENING THE HATCH.

CHAPTER 1 LOW KERBIN ORBIT – KERBOL SPHERE OF INFLUENCE *** - This is Mission Control - „Kadmosâ€Â, you are go to trans-Jool injection burn. This. Was. Awesome! We're going to Jool! I''M SO EXCITED! Now, where is this checklist? Oh, here it is: Mission checklist - Phase 1 Do not explode on a launching pad - CHECK Do not fall apart during orbital ascend - CHECK Reach destination nr 1 - Low Kerbin Orbit - CHECK Randez-vous with cargo and fuel delivery - CHECK Check all systems - CHECK Randez-vous with Kethane Miner Unit - CHECK [note: isn't it a little too heavy? I'm concerned about our delta V; on the other hand, we have potentially unlimited acces to fuel with this vehicle] Check all systems once again - CHECK Prepare for Jool Transfer Burn - CHECK Check all systems, just to be sure - CHECK Reach destination nr 2 – Jool Transfer Burn Point - CHECK Execute Jool Transfer Burn - CHECK Do not explode or fall apart during Jool Transfer Burn - CHECK Check all systems - CHECK Calculate course corrections if needed - CHECK Deploy solar panels above Low Kerbin Orbit - uhm...CHECK? [note: micrometeorite or debris apparently destroyed one of Gigantor Solar arrays; no big deal though, we need only 2 of them and 3 out of 4 are still operational – near Jool we would have to rely on RTG anyway] So far, so good. Ok, so what's next? Enjoy the view - ... Reach destination nr 3 – Kerbin Sphere of Influence border - ... Check all systems - ... Execute course corrections if needed - ... END OF PHASE 1 Hmm, that sounds pretty.. - „Kadmos†to Mission Control, „Kadmos†to Mission Control. We remind you about scheduled mission plan review, you should finish it before you pass Mun orbit. - Roger that. *** - Guys, let's get this over with, I would love to take some pictures of Mun. Sid, as our Mission Scientist I guess it is you who have all the details. - Affirmative, captain. - Great, so show us what you got. And please, call me Jeb. - Splendid, uhm, Jeb. First, let's take a look at this photos. I allowed myself to make some notes.. - Very professional. - This is Jool system. Unfortunately we can't make any direct observations on Bop or Pol, but we are sure they are there due to some gravitational interactions between Jool and his three big moons. - Don't worry doc, we'll make a lot of pics when we'll get there. - Yes, yes. Our planned trajectory is simple, from the closest moon to the most distant, which is Tylo. - No landing? What a shame. - Well, since this is a first mission there it wouldn't be the best idea to take such a risk. Nevertheless, there is some landing planned on Vall. - Wait, I thought we will be mining on asteroides due to almost negligible gravity. Why Vall? - Good point Buzz. So why Vall, Sid? - First of all, we do not know if they are kethane deposits on any of the Jool moons. But if we find them, then maybe on a way back from Bop and Pol we will use them. Our landers and kethane miner unit are not designed to land on Tylo or Laythe anyway. Speaking of Laythe.. - Damn, I want to land there so badly.. - I'm sorry cap.., I mean Jeb, but not this time. I firmly believe that next mission will land there. - Yeah, sure. So we will aerobrake in Jool atmosphere, than aerobrake in Laythe atmosphere, than go to Vall, then Tylo and the asteroides. That's right? - Exactly. And when we will refuel on Bop or Pol we will have to, how can I say it, make some decision. It's very.. - Great, great, wonderful Sid. Ok guys, that's it – you're dismissed. - But.. - Dismissed I said! *** - „Kadmos†to Mission Control. - Roger Mission Control, go ahead. - Everything is looking good, so we think it's the time to open this special locker in your cabin. - Great, I was wondering why there is something like this on this ship in the first place. - Okay. Listen Jeb, we will tell you what the combination is, so grab some pen, repeat after us and write it down. - Roger, I'm ready. - The combination is: one.. - One! - ..two.. - Two! - ..three.. - Three! - ..four.. - Four! - ..five. - Five! So the combination is 12345. OH COME ON, that's the stupidest combination I've ever heard in my life! That's the kind of thing an idiot would have on his computer or something! Really, guys.. Guys? - We hear you „Kadmosâ€Â. - Ehm.. why don't I hear Flight Director? - It's Flight Dynamics Officer speaking, Flight Director has to, hmm, change some security settings of KASA main server. - … - Open the locker, Jeb. - … - Open the locker, Jeb. - … - Hello, Jeb, do you read us? - Affirmative. - Open the locker than. - I'm sorry FIDO, but I'm afraid I can't do that. - What's the problem? - Well, I already opened it. And could you tell me what the hell is this? Kadmos-the T-shirt, KW Rocketry-the Coloring Book, BobCat-the Lunch box, Lionhead-the Breakfast Cereal.. even Romfarer's Laser Gun! Hm, that's actually cool, but what the heck these things are doing here? - As you know, „Kadmos†is a joint venture between KASA and top-tier private space companies. One of the conditions of our agreement is that at least 20% of each public transmission from „Kadmos†will contain some product placement. - I don't believe it... And what is THIS? - Are you talking about big metallic sphere by any chance? - Affirmative. - Jeb, this is Complex Robotic Assistant and AutoPilot. - Oh crap.. - You are familiar with this model? - No, no, just.. is it really necessary? Hello, I'm the first Kerbal on Mun? I know how to fly, goddamit! - It also makes toastes and very good coffee. - All right, I will give it a shot. *** <establishing connection> <executing Kerbin_r.exe> /* compute additional coordinate points */ radius=sqrt(pos[0]*pos[0]+pos[1]*pos[1]+pos[2]*pos[2]); /* km */ declination=(180.0/M_PI)*asin(pos[2]/radius); RightAscension=(180.0/M_PI)*atan2(pos[1],pos[0]); if(RightAscension<0.0) RightAscension+=360.0; /* compute date & UTC */ <connection established (Kadmos_ship; Interplanetary ComSat_pr; MissionCTRL_h)> <commencing transmission> - Wow. Mission Control to „Kadmosâ€Â, Mission Control to „Kadmosâ€Â. - Yes Jeb, go on? - Do I have to look at this computer gibberish everytime when we will talk from now on? - Negative Jeb, it was just confirming your coordinates. And by the way, congratulations, you are in a deep space now. - Oh my <executing end_r.exe> <end of transmission>

No budget constraints. No political bullcrap. No program getting cancelled halfway through. No ground testing. No paperwork. No research. No material failures. No bidding on contracts. No systems testing. No worries of integrating Part A by one contractor with Part B from another contractor, running with System C by an agency in another country, all controlled by software from yet another contractor. No worrying about getting parts on time. No worry on not having parts in stock. No worries about crew health. No worry about the crews' Garn levels. No worry that the oxygen tank might explode. No worrying that the radio won't let you talk between two buildings. No kerbals hanging lemons on the simulator. No simulator. No training. No hatch blowing early. No torque meter to check that each screw is installed just right. No crew selection. No crew getting bumped for having measles. No pissing contest with the another country. No micrometeorites. No congressional committees when the rocket fails. No two year wait when a kerbal dies. No weather constraints. No public relations. No 1201 alarm. No trying SCE to Aux. But that's just a few differences off the top of my head.

*** PROLOGUE Welcome, this is Jeb speaking. I have something to announce – we are going to Jool! Yes, you heard it – the most promising mission ever will finally take place. Take your seats and relax, your minds will be blown by this news. Behold the jewel in the crown of Kerbal Aeronautics and Space Agency fleet, the biggest and mightiest ship ever build - „Kadmosâ€Â! Impressive, most impressive, isn't it? And it's me, captain Jeb Kerman, who will fly this baby to the very edge of Kerbol system. Years have passed since my famous first-Kerbal-on-Mun landing and technological development is significant. It's not like the old days anymore, when KASA (Kerbal Aeronautics and Space Agency, duh?) funded all the missions. Today there is a huge market of competing private companies, which are able not only of constructing parts for KASA but whole probes or ships as well. Though I have to say that sometimes I miss my old flights. You know, only you, your command pod, several tones of combustible explosives and joystick. Those were the days! Anyway, thanks to this private companies we were able to dream about unreachable – the Jool system. Gas giant, three moons, two asteroids – think about the science! Costs would be astronomical of course, but so the awesomeness. Launching one probe or one lander would be pointless, much effective and cheaper would be sending one big ship to make grand tour in Jool sphere of influence. However any manned mission to such a distant object would be impossible without three key inventions, which made it imaginable: 1. The engine The further you want to go, the more fuel you need. More fuel = more mass = more powerful engines = heavier and less effective engines = more fuel needed = more mass... you get the point. Travelling to the Mun is a piece of cake – you have to reach orbit, than burn for intercept, than burn for circulate orbit and finally burn for returning trajectory. Been there, done that. But Jool is completely different. If you want to investigate whole system, you need to repeat those steps few times. This plus trajectory corrections, changing inclination and so on results in a very challenging design requirements. Powerful engines are heavy and not efficient, efficient are heavy and not powerful. It was the Luecome Nuclear Space Industries which delivered this so needed technology. Just take a look how gigantic improvement their engine was: 2. The hull All motherships designs before K1 Truss Alpha were too delicate to support mass of the ship alone, not to mention surviving through aerobraking tensions. It was Fusty's project that finally was capable of meeting all the requirements. But because of a modular structure it was not enough. There was needed some strut-like solution, but without struts – you know, how can you separate modules if you connected them with steel in a first place? The solution – cutting-edge Quantum Strut technology. Now we're talking – no wobbling, no falling apart (I hope so), no structural failure. 3. The inflatable modules Ah yes, living space. Two days in a tuna can, I mean Munar Module, is ok but when the journey takes two years that's something completely different. Life support system is heavy and with crew quarters it means a lot of additional weight. Solution is simple and brilliant – inflatable modules! Light, safe (relatively) and even with some artificial gravity thanks to BobCat engineers. We will be sleeping in centifuge with nice 1G, but the rest of the ship is a non-G environment, included the 60m2 inflatable habitat modules. So, to summarize this for you guys, some facts about our ship: „Kadmos†- Interplanetary Mothership Vehicle Ares I–class crew - 5 height - 112m diameter - 5m mass – 399,29t (modular structure) TWR on Kerbin – 2.06 ÃŽâ€v (atmosphere) - 5227m/s, T 6m56s ÃŽâ€v (vacuum) - 10637m/s, T 15m10s engines – Z-Pinch nuclear fusion, two MPSS NERVA, two H.O.M.E. Radial aerospikes; during Kerbal ascent four Jool V boosters payload to Low Jool Orbit - est. 70T two Dragon Landers - with monopropelant-based engines two Thor Explorer Probes Kethane Miner – 36t vehicle launch separately, critical to the mission success MechJeb pilot assistant system ORDA docking assistant Romfarer's Lazor integration Protractor interplanetary navigation system Kadmos was an ancient hero who defeated dragon by sowing the dragon's teeth in the ground, from which sprang a race of fierce warriors. And so we will sow probes around Jool. I don't really get the analogy, but the eggheads in KASA find it cool for some reason. So who are those lucky Kerbals who will have chance to truly became a living legend? Except of me, of course, 'cause I already am. Not lucky, a living legend. Well, maybe a little lucky too. Anyway, here is the crew: Jeb – Mission Commander That's me. Pilot and navigator, top tier training, first Kerbal on Mun. I will be responsible for, what a shock, navigation, manoeuvres of „Kadmos†and probes and landers. I'm the boss, I mean if we somehow lost contact with Mission Control, my decisions will be final. No democracy in space, folks. Buzz – Flight Computer Engineer Buzz will take care of all those subsystems, namely Lazor, ORDA, in general all computer stuff. In case of unlikely event of malfunction, he will repair them. In case of extremely unlikely event of, uhm, well, let's just say he is second in command, ok? Nedfurt – Flight Engine Engineer Experimental fusion engine, two ol'fashioned NERVA's and H.O.M.E. Boosters. This plus fuel equals 220t of highly sophisticated machinery with possibility of big kaboom. Nedfurt will do his best to make sure this won't happen. Maclorf – Flight Medic Responsible for our physical and mental health, – I hope he would be bored. In charge of life system support and our supplies. Also responsible for contact with media and proper social interaction. Will be studying psychological and biological effects of prolonged space journey. Sidely – Mission Scientist He knows stuff. That's pretty much it. No, I'm kidding. Sid is responsible for experiment equipment, sample processing, logging and storage. He has a vast knowledge about Jool system in particular, he is also a specialist in geology, geochemistry, planetology and organic chemistry. That's it for now. See you next time on Low Kerbin Orbit! - And how was it? - Jeb, you were supposed to follow the script, we don't have time to record this again - Oh, gimme a break, I was trying. Ordinary Kerbals would prefer to listen about something else than all this science mumbo-jumbo. - KASA public relations policy.. - Come on, everyone will be watching this on TV anyway. Mission to Jool, man! I'm going to Jool! - Yes Jeb, you are. Turn off the cameras, will you? I have to talk with [...]

It sounds like you have no idea what you are talking about. Hop on over to their Facebook page. They are claiming to have shipped '20% of the units' by the week before last... but backers well within that percentage ARE POSTING THEY ARE LYING. Don't talk about it till you know what's going on. I posted to see if anyone here was actually involved. If you are not, then please refrain from posting about things you are completely uninformed on.

Update's been a long time coming.... Not really sure what's going on with the secret project at the moment, depending on what I can get done with the engine tutorial I have in the works and what 3_bit & Mekan1k can do we may or may not release what we have and expand as we continue to make mods (currently the engines are going nowhere, so we'll probably do that). In other news, I've gotten back into programming with Unity3D and I am considering switching to plugin writing once the Frameshift 2 and MonoProbe 2 are completed. I'm almost finished UV mapping the Frameshift 2's main structure, then I can move onto the "doors" and start texturing once those are done being modeled and animated. Plugin Plans: There is the idea for a magnetosphere and radiation plugin, suggested by nhnifong. It's pretty easy so I may start with that. There's also the Kerbal Colony Builder idea layed out by SwiftGates24. Unfortunately we lost the thread and links to the googledocs idea page, but it's similar to RTS for KSP– tech levels and building rockets off of Kerbin... There was a plugin on the forums that allowed for building rockets on other planets, but it was also lost with the Forum Apocalypse; if anyone can get me the link to that plugin I'll talk to the creator to see if he wants to help. *This will wait until the resources are implemented by Squad, to make everyone's job easier* Keep in mind that everything is subject to change and, as always, there are no ETAs besides "whenever it's finished." There will be an update livestream within the next three (3) days, expanding upon this info.

Just saw that thread now myself. Was really sad to see how fast it got derailed into insults. I really dont see how community managers can be blamed for anything of this when they clearly for some unexplainable reason cannot talk about it.

Call it greedy but personally, I just want updates/news so I can spend ALL of my free time on this game that I've been waiting my whole life for (I'm in my early 30s). Delay and/or not talk about it like you usually do upsets me, only because I care about it. If I didn't care, I wouldn't be here. Let's have a fresh start. Come back to us.

Pedonymous, You have every right to voice your frustrations about certain policy aspects, but when you do you should make sure that your criticism is constructive and that you get your facts right. Besides all that I would like you to show more respect for the people that run all major aspects of this community: the CMs are a combination of human resources, spokesperson, tech support and so on. It is often easy to criticise someone but be aware of all the tasks they have besides airing a stream or releasing updates on development; and in the end, even the Community Managers have a boss they have to answer to. For me personally Damion is the guy I wrote a small scientific essay for when I got here, he's also the guy that recruited me as a moderator and - more in general - he's busy working for the community day after day. He appeared on many streams, radio shows and other projects to promote KSP. He deals with the needs of the moderation staff and he's fixed these forums quite a few times. Every dev stream since I've been here I've heard him talk with the developers, relaying questions from the community to them to get an answer. I think he deserves more respect than you're giving him now, and the same goes for Captain Skunky. Calling them clowns is borderline insulting. Like I said, it's easy to criticise people. Contrary to what you're saying I believe that Squad as a company and the community managers included have been very open to the public about problems that have risen and the direction they want to take the game in. Sweeping things under the rug is something that happens everywhere and isn't necessarily a bad thing either: if everyone knew everything then serious consequences can come out of little things. In my personal opinion Squad is as open about things as they can be, maybe even too much so. I haven't encountered any form of censorship on these forums, so where your claim of silencing people comes from I don't know. Unless discussion go out of control, ending in insults or harassment the worst that will usually happen is that it gets closed. The information in that thread is then still publicly available. A community manager must indeed take care of the community but also has to adhere to company policy and the general interest. As such you cannot demand that they satisfy your every need, there is also not a single obligation for Squad anywhere to do so. Even though the KSP TV has been silent, and there was no KSP Weekly I don't think you can complain about the amount of information that has been released this week regarding development. It is well known which direction 0.20 is heading in and many development pieces can be found on the forums, on reddit and everywhere else on the internet. To get back to my first statement: it's easy to criticise, please remember that. You don't know what the job description for a KSP community manager is and your statement is based on many false assumptions and misplaced anger.

Sorry I don't buy this, its ok that Squad doesn't talk to the comunity because the company and project grows. It is bad manners to suddenly stop communicating without further notice. Even if Squad burned down somebody could manage to get a laptop and give notice to us. And we would support them after that.

Not guaranteed. Who knows, maybe their just messing with us. Please, talk to us!

I hope that Squad doesn't decide to stop talking to the community because some whiny idiots in r/gaming decided to complain about not being Squad's bosses because they bought one game. Dear Squad, We don't hate you. Please talk to us?

It says under the forum name what goes where. Like: General Discussion(110 Viewing) Anything and everything about Kerbal Space Program. or General Add-on Affairs(6 Viewing) A General Discussion Place for Talk of All User-Made Things

Actually, most SF universes have explanations that more or less sense in their lore, it's just that it rarely shows up in the visuals. Let me take Star Trek for example: One of the primary ship weapons in ST is the 'photon torpedo'. The lore says that it is powered by a small warp drive and moves at FTL speeds. However, watching any episode where they fire them they appear to be moving at a few hundred Km/h at most (basically at a same relative speed as an AA missile fired from a fighter plane). Also, in a few episodes during a battle scene, the crew members talk about ranges of several thousand kilometers or more but the visuals show the ships dogfighting at a range that seems less than a few kilometers. So, you can rationalize it by imagining that the battle does take place over ranges of thousands of kilometers and you are being shown a 'simulation' with ship sizes greatly exaggerated and visual and audio effects added so it would be more visually exciting and more easily understood... or something...

I'm in High School- I should talk to my Planetary Exploration teacher about this, I have no idea why it never occurred to me to do so

Well, there are a couple of problems. For space exploration, you want a high Isp engine. For space combat, you want a high thrust engine. An ion drive can reach up to around 210,000 seconds Isp, but you'll be lucky to get a miserable 10,000 newtons out of each engine (while a single Saturn V F1 engine can easily do more than seven million newtons). Maybe an ion drive can give you a much higher delta V, but it doesn't help you in combat if it takes a few months to accelerate up to speed. But the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about is the fact that anything a space fighter can do, a missile or drone can do better. For many reasons. Like the fact the drone can use accelerations that will turn a human pilot into a thin layer of red goo covering the back wall of the crew cabin. And the fact that the fighter has to carry fuel to delta V to transit to rapidly the target, delta V to match velocity with the target, delta V to transit back to the mothership, and delta V to match velocity with the mothership. A missile just has to carry fuel to delta V to transit rapidly to the target, period, because the missile does not have to come back home. If manned fighter only carried that little fuel, you'd soon run out of pilots. There are more reasons here: http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/spacegunexotic.php#id--Space_Fighters *Having said that* I know that space fighters are too irresistibly romantic for science fiction writers and fans to avoid. So please carry on with what you were doing.

I need to talk to you as well. Shame I'm barely on while you're awake. Um, I'll PM you now, and wake up around 3-4AM CST which is 8-9AM UTC. So yea, sending PM now..

Isn't that small black ring beneath the decoupler and the ASAS a SAS unit? As for the rest, I think she'll work it out. She likes to experiment. And we still talk about how she wants to do stuff. She told me this morning that after she learns to dock, she plans to put a docking port on each stage and de-orbit debris so that her near-Kerbin space won't end up as cluttered as mine. Actually, shortly after her orbital success, she put some landing gear on it, took it out to the pad to try it out... and was disappointed to find out that the demo's landing gear don't reach past the end of the engine bell. So she's looking forward to "better" landing gear, too. The "improvement" that immediately occurred to me was to ensure that the radial decouplers fire after the four tanks/engines around the core and before the engine on the bottom of the core. But hey, she made it work. I'm sure she'll try to make the design even better.

Alright, so I think I'm not alone when I say that I spend a lot of time thinking about what missions I want to do, and building/testing for them, and actually less time /doing/ them. I think there should be a thread where we do just that. So here. Let's talk about all the things we want to do/have done in attempts to formalize our missions. I'm not saying anyone is actually going to stick to what they post here, but I think it'll be interesting to see how people want to progress through the game. Maybe you have more scattered missions in these alpha versions, and want a more structured mission plan when 1.0 hits, I don't know, but I think it would be fun to design a basic outline for what you hope to accomplish, in an ideal world. So, I'll go to give you all ideas as to what I'm talking about, in chronological order. -Design a craft that can perform a sub-orbital flight. -Design a craft that can place a satellite in some type of orbit. -Design a craft that can place a Kerbal into sub-orbital trajectory and return the Kerbal safely. -Design a craft that can place a Kerbal into an orbit and land the Kerbal safely back on Kerbin. -Design a reliable launch vehicle that can be quickly built and launched for repeatable results of similar missions. -Design a reliable launch vehicle that can be quickly built and launched for repeatable manned missions. -Perform an orbital docking. -Perform an orbital rendezvous. -Send an unmanned probe into orbit of one of the local moons. -Send an unmanned lander onto the surface of one of the local moons. -Send an unmanned rover onto the surface of one of the local moons. -Send a manned orbital-only mission to one of the local moons. -Send a manned surface landing to one of the local moons, returning all Kerbals home safely. -Construct a set of launch vehicles capable of lofting payloads of varying mass to LKO. Use these basic "skeleton" launch vehicles for all relevant missions on out, making improvements as they are realized. -Send an unmanned probe on an escape trajectory of Kerbol. -Send an unmanned probe to every subsystem in the Kerbol system. -Design and construct an orbital station in LKO. -Maintain station in LKO. -Send an Ordan Industries Telescope into high orbit and gaze upon the stars and planets. -Design a very compact single-launch station outpost with long term self-orbit-keeping ability and place it in Kerbinsychronous orbit. -Send an unmanned lander to Duna. -Send a series of unmanned rovers to Duna. -Send a series of unmanned probes to the Eve system. -Send an unmanned lander to Eve. -Design a single-stage-to-orbit craft designed for re-use during crewed missions. -Design a single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane to cut costs. -Send an atmospheric probe to Jool. -Send a manned mission to land on Duna and return safely. -Begin preliminary intense surface study of Mun and Minmus. -Construct an orbital Mun station to act as a go-between for frequent Mun surface missions. -Construct a large fuel depot in LKO. -Send parallel unmanned missions to Duna to construct an orbital station relatively quickly. -Send an unmanned rover to Laythe. -Begin long-term habitation of the Duna station. -Construct a surface scientific base on the Mun. -Construct a surface scientific base on Minmus. -Begin mining/habitation operations of Mun. -Begin mining/habitation operations of Minmus. -Send parallel manned and unmanned missions to Duna to construct a scientific surface base, while also changing out the original station crew with new members. -Send parallel unmanned missions to the whole Jool system to scan for resources. -Construct a high-capacity LKO habitation station. -Construct a high-capacity fuel depot in very high Kerbin orbit to act as a refueling station for passing missions. -Send several more unmanned rovers, landers, and probes to Laythe. -Send parallel manned and unmanned missions to Laythe to construct an orbital station with a docked single-stage-to-orbit vessel. -Use the single-stage-to-orbit vehicle to perform a manned descent to the surface of Laythe. -Take off your space helmets and breathe alien air for the first time in Kerbal history. -Send an upscaled surface base to Laythe. -Send parallel missions to Duna to create a mining and habitation base. -Begin preparations for a Grand Tour of the Kerbol system. -Send an unmanned probe as close to Kerbol as possible. -Send parallel unmanned rover missions to Eve. -Scout Eve for the highest point possible in preparation for a manned landing. -Send a manned return mission to and from Eve. -At the highest point on Eve, construct a self-sustaining very large surface colony. -Perform regular missions to visit the Eve colony. -Design a non-atmospheric lander with mining capabilities that is able to land and take off from Tylo or Moho, in preparation for the Grand Tour. -Design a very efficient SSTO to couple on to the Grand Tour vessel in order to use on Laythe and possibly other very low gravity moons. From there.....? Who knows.. Maybe interstellar if that gets implemented... As you can see I have plans. I've already done half of that in a mismatched order, but I'd really like to follow a structure. So does anyone else have a wall of text they'd like to share?