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What you talk about is PIPA and SOPA, and we all saw how that went. The public does have a voice, and on that occasion they chose to use it. Quite loudly. And what I said about the countries that cansor the web not having good relations with other countries- well, that\'s just about true for Iran and China.

Here is an interview about the XV-6 from the Prime Minister of Avienne. I can not do the pictures 'Why did you decide to develop the XV-6?' 1. The Republic invested in Vertical Take-Off and Landing mechanisms as a means of saving both space and money in areas that are lacking in the aforementioned qualities. Many of Avienne\'s old carriers, such as the AVN Reinstar and the AVN Kenomo, had a very poor record with new horizontal takeoff designs. The computer models performed at Avia University showed that those ships, and any ships of their class, were incapable of transporting and deploying the latest naval plane models designed for the Avia-Class Supercarriers. Seeing as it was much too expensive to scrap the ships and build new ones, the task was given to various private corporations to build a prototype for a craft that could takeoff from ships of their class and still take advantage of the latest technologies. Later, the Oxbolt Corporation presented the XV-6, which appeared to be the best deal available. 'Were you aware of certain problems with the method?' 2. Oxbolt advised us of 4 possible problems - a) The malfunction of one engine could send the entire plane into freefall The instrumentation panel could, at times, pop the glass due to the panels having a resonance frequency similarly enough to the frequency emitted by the engines at certain thrust levels c) The tilt-rotors had a tendency to get stuck mid-transition, which could prove disastrous as per 'a)' d) The fuel lines were made of a light metal to save money, but some of the lines were forced to run close to the outer paneling. That meant that if a bullet punctured the outer wall of the plane, it could strike a fuel line. The Ministry of Aerospace worked diligently on the problems before building the first manned prototype, but apparently they didn\'t work hard enough to prevent this catastrophe. 'The safety record of the Odyssey II has been increasing, but awful during the beginning why is that?' 3. The Odyssey program from the onset was plagued with engineering problems mostly because of the newness of the mechanisms which were employed for VTOL. However, as the team of the Odyssey worked on the project longer, experience was gained and new people were brought in from across the nation to work on the dilemma. Now, a full team of highly-trained specialists have been working to make the Odyssey II fully operational and safe. 'Why are you still believing the principality of tilt-rotors, even after the Charlesburg Airshow Disaster?' 4. Tilt-rotors are a necessary part of the future of aerospace and the Republic is not willing to let itself be left behind. In addition, in the long run it is much cheaper to research these new technologies than to continue to use outdated methods of travel in places where it is simply impossible to use them. As I mentioned before, the ships, which are perfectly capable of operating normally, are simply incapable of using the new aircraft. Where expense out does funding, it is necessary to research new technologies which offer coming in under budget. Money drives the world, and the world\'s supply of it is quite limited, including the lavish Republic\'s. 'The Chief Engineer of the XV-6, after being interviewed has been fired, and in trial against his company. Why have you not forced it to end?' 5. The Republic will pursue any and all persons and entities responsible for the catastrophe, and no one is above reproach. The Republic will not end a trial simply because it is bad PR, that is both against the Grand Republic\'s ideals and its laws, and we will not intervene in the matters of private enterprise, that being faulty design on the corporation\'s part, but also the failure of the government ministry to properly examine the design and find the faults before rushing it into production. Both parties are to blame, but we will not cover things up to avoid reprimand, but rather, learn from it. 'Do you believe that tilt-rotors, are important or not?' 6. Tilt-rotors are very important to the future as I have outlined above, and they are the key to future of en-atmospheric aerospace. 'Thank you, and do you wish to make anything important about the tilt-rotor development?' 7. No problem. I don\'t really have much more comment that I\'m allowed to disclose, but if you want to talk about the future of orange juice, I\'m all ready. Did you know the market, which is currently trending towards milk, will quite soon rush to the juice market? Why? It\'s quite simply really, as you can see by the numerous charts I have prepared. You see, Figure A-1 shows the increase in...

Edit: I\'ve tried to remove as many of the K-names as I thought appropriate...which turns out to be basically all of them. I\'m not changing the title, though, as it is a reference to a fantastic miniseries (and book , I assume, though I\'ve never read it). Without further ado: Kerbal Space Program and its associated copyrights owned by Squad and its associated entities. This is a labor of fan-love and is not intended for monetary gain. From the Kearth to the Mun Chapter 1: Jebediah Kerman\'s Junkyard and Spaceship Parts Company Engineer First Class Malachi Kerman stepped out of his ancient Coupe and regarded the corrugated aluminum fence that stood between him and the mountain of rusted-out old junk currently shading him from Kerbol\'s harsh light. Malachi hated the desert, hated the dirt and grit that got everywhere, and hate hate hated his ancient car with no air conditioning. But what he really hated was junk. Malachi Kerman had been selected by the Program for his fastidiousness and attention to detail, which his manager said 'should help balance out all the other poor slobs we\'ve got working on this thing.' Malachi spent his weekdays working twenty-hour shifts consisting of writing elegant, concise proposals and critiques which were summarily rejected for being 'just not the way we do things here, son.' Instead, the veritable mob of other engineers at the Program got to spend all their time lazing about like drunken slugs, occasionally hammering out the odd bit of something that looked vaguely like actual work, then go back to sleep. Malachi spent his weekends as far away from the Cape--and its Kerbal Space Center--as he could get. Which, of course, was why he had volunteered to drive out to the middle of nowhere to try and gain an audience with--he checked the note his manager had given him--'the best damn junk salesman and all-around badass you\'ll ever meet.' Malachi looked up at the vast expanse of wavy, discolored metal, baking in the sun. 'Junk indeed,' said Malachi under his breath. 'Say somethin\', slick?' Malachi jumped and spun towards the voice. A man stood in a doorway cut seamlessly into the metal, the door hanging open beside him. Malachi looked him over: slim but not scrawny, reasonably tall for a Kerbo of his age, looked about thirty-five. He was dressed in blue jeans, a tucked-in button-down shirt, and a leather jacket. In the desert. In the summer. Right at high noon. Malachi checked the paper again. Other than 'junk salesman' and 'badass', there were no other identifying remarks. Malachi had found this place by driving the three hours to the desert and asking where the junk was. It had been easy from there. 'Are you Jebediah Kerman?' said Malachi. The man leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms over his chest. 'Who wants to know?' 'I\'m with the Program,' said Malachi. 'We were wondering if--' 'Program?' The man raised an eyebrow. 'What Program?' Malachi blinked. It had honestly never occurred to him that Jebediah Kerman would need to be reminded about that. 'The Space Program?' said Malachi. 'This is Jebediah Kerman\'s Junkyard and Spaceship Parts Company, isn\'t it?' The man leaned out of the doorway and peered up at the wall overhead. Spray-painted in red letters were the words 'Jebediah Kerman\'s Junkyard and Spaceship Parts Company.' He leaned back and gazed levelly at Malachi. 'So it is.' He grinned. 'I guess that makes me Jebediah, right?' Jeb stepped out of the doorway and walked up to Malachi, grabbed his hand, and began shaking it vigorously. 'Pleased to meet you, Mister Government Agent.' Malachi retrieved his hand as quickly as he could, massaging life back into his fingers. 'Malachi, please.' He straightened his tie. 'Now, Mister Kerman--' 'Jeb, please,' said Jeb, grinning. Malachi pressed his lips together. 'Mister Kerman, the Program has asked me to extend to you an offer.' 'Let\'s talk inside, Mister Malachi,' said Jeb. He turned and vanished into the darkened interior of what Malachi presumed to be a residence built into the wall. Malachi sighed and followed him, glad to be out of the heat. He closed the door behind him and looked around. It was a small place, to be sure, but actually fairly comfortable. Most everything was made of repurposed junk--a table made of old aluminum barrels and a sheet of steel, chairs made from other, smaller chairs, a mirror made from hundreds of rear-view mirrors glued onto a sheet of wood--but it all seemed to fit. Jebediah sat on the bench-seat couch, reached into a cooler at his feet and pulled out two aluminum cans. 'Soda?' he said. Malachi waved a hand and sat in the chair across the table from Jeb. 'Oh, no, I don\'t drink.' 'How d\'you stay alive, then?' said Jeb. 'Ah well, more for me.' He cracked open both sodas and set them on the table in front of him. 'Now, Mister Malachi, what\'s this \'offer\'?' Malachi nodded; here was something he was familiar with. 'The Program needs your expertise, Mister Kerman. You\'re the only \'Spaceship Parts Company\' in the country.' 'That was to entertain my niece and nephew. I might as well be a house-parts company for everything I\'ve done with this junk.' Jeb frowned and took a pull of his left-hand drink. 'What about Steadler, or O.M.B., or any of the other big firms out there?' 'They\'re far too important to do the big work, Mister Kerman. They\'ll only contract us for a few elements. Nobody particularly cares about tanks and engines and such.' 'I know tanks and engines just fine, sure, but I don\'t know much about building spaceships.' 'Neither does anyone else at the Program,' said Malachi without thinking. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he slapped a hand over his face. 'I mean--' 'Bunch of drunken slugs, right?' said Jeb. 'Eh…unfortunately,' said Malachi. Jeb nodded. 'Okay then, I\'ll do it. Somebody needs to bring some cool to that place.' He downed the rest of his drinks in two long pulls and wiped his lips with the back of his hand. 'On two conditions, though,' he said. Malachi remembered what was written on the other side of the piece of paper his manager had given him: 'And don\'t come back without him!' While the prospect was tempting…well, what else was he going to do all day? 'Name it,' he said. 'First, I get to go on whatever big mission it is you\'re trying to do out there. You need me this bad, I want in on a piece of the action.' Malachi made a note on the piece of paper. 'And the other?' He pulled a pair of sunglasses from a pocket inside his jacket and slipped them on. Grinning, he said, 'I get to drive.' Chapter 2: The Cape Malachi wondered where his life had gone wrong. Jebediah Kerman\'s vehicle of choice was a cherry-red Thrillmaster convertible manual-transmission monster of a car, and his idea of driving it was ramping over the far wall of his junkyard and onto the other side of a low hill, onto which he had paved a road leading from the hill to the main highway. Malachi watched his Coupe dwindle in the distance as Jeb put his foot down and refused to let it up for any reason. 'Don\'t you think this is a little excessive?' cried Malachi over the oppressive wind and engine noise. 'Go big or don\'t go at all, that\'s my motto!' said Jeb, one hand on the wheel and the other holding another can of soda. 'I\'ll let you pick the station!' Malachi examined the car\'s stereo. It was possibly the most beautiful thing he had ever seen--chrome detailing, every kind of media player, little green glowy lights--and he took a moment to admire it before selecting a station. Jeb grinned at him as 'Speed-Recording Device Desire' began blaring over the sound of the rushing wind. 'I like your style, Malachi!' Malachi considered the statement for a moment and decided it was a good thing. He hunkered down in the seat and tried to enjoy himself. It was a long ride to the Cape. *** They saw the rockets first. Or rather, bits of them, scattered all over the highway. In some cases, right in the middle; traffic just diverted around it and went on honking and yelling for no reason at all other than for the hell of it. Malachi wondered, not for the first time, if he was actually an alien from another planet. One with less…Kerbalness. 'I can see why you need me,' said Jeb, 'if this is what you call \'rocket science.\'' 'I don\'t call it that,' said Malachi. 'They call it that.' 'What do you call it?' Malachi yelped and grabbed hold of the passenger door\'s interior handle as Jeb swerved around a particularly large bit of one of the more successful rocket engine prototypes. 'Junk!' Jeb laughed. 'Right up my alley, then, isn\'t it, slick?' The Cape was only a cape by virtue of the fact that it jutted out slightly more from the east coast of the continent than the bits immediately adjacent to it. The Kerbal Space Center was situated as close to the coast as it could get without putting floats on the buildings, which were generally low to the ground and armored on top. Except for the Vehicle Assembly Building, of course. Malachi sighed when it came into view around one of the low mountainous foothills that surrounded the Cape. It was a monolithic structure, tall enough to house a skyscraper inside and packed full of enough rocket stuff to launch it into space. If, of course, they could ever get the engines to stop exploding all at once and start exploding over time like proper rocket engines. Jeb pulled into the parking space marked 'KSC Administrator' and stared up at the building. He gave a long, low whistle. 'Not bad, not bad,' he said. 'It\'s pretty big, isn\'t it?' 'Well, the rockets going to the Mun are going to have to be pretty damn large,' said Malachi. 'The Mun, eh?' said Jeb. 'Sounds good. How close are we to getting there?' 'Well, the Mun\'s about eleven million meters away, and the top of the VAB is two hundred meters off the ground.' Malachi scratched his head. 'How tall are you?' 'Never mind,' said Jeb. 'I think I get it.' A figure was walking towards them from the shade of the VAB. He was of average height, mustachioed, in a white button-down shirt and suspenders. 'Ah,' said Malachi as the man approached them. 'Administrator Kerman, this is Jebediah Kerman. Mister Kerman, this is Administrator Kerman.' Jeb stuck his hand out of the car, and the Administrator shook it. 'Pleased to meet you.' The Administrator grinned. 'You\'re just the guy for the job, Jeb. Your reputation precedes you.' 'Mister Kerman wants to be on the crew, sir,' said Malachi. 'That right? Well, stands to reason!' The Administrator scratched his head as Jeb and Malachi got out of the car. 'Unfortunately, we\'ve already got a prime crew. They\'ve been training for a year for the missions ahead.' 'Training for systems that aren\'t even designed yet,' muttered Malachi. The Administrator appeared not to have heard him, while Jeb was stifling laughter. 'Well, I like your man Malachi here,' said Jeb. 'So if they\'re anything like him, I bet we\'ll be on the Mun before you can blink!' 'Yeah…' said the Administrator. 'Just like Malachi.' He coughed awkwardly. 'Anyway! Why don\'t we get down to business, eh? Mister Kerman--' 'Jeb,' said Jeb. The Administrator nodded. 'Right, Jeb. Mister Jeb, we would like to contract with your company for the purpose of building tanks, rocket engines, and various and sundry other parts as may be required for the construction of big rockets that go WHOOSH and ZOOM and generally don\'t blow up when we push the big red \'Launch\' button, okay?' Jeb put a hand to his chin, thinking. 'Do I get my own parking space?' The Administrator grinned. 'Have mine!' 'Then I\'ll do it.' He clasped hands with the Administrator again. 'We\'ll draw up the particulars later. For now, I want to see the rockets.' 'Such as they are,' muttered Malachi. Jeb grinned. 'They\'re inside,' he said more loudly. 'This way.' Malachi led the way into the building. Administrator Kerman kept trying to engage Jeb in conversation, but all Jeb seemed to want to do was look at the pictures of rockets on the walls. Malachi had been through the VAB so often that the pictures were practically invisible to him now--especially since they were, exclusively, 'before' pictures. They had already seen the 'after' shots, scattered all over the highway. They took an elevator up to the top of the building, then stepped out onto a mesh-metal balcony that ran all the way around the inside of the massive space. A rocket was taking shape on the main floor, tanks strapped together with tape and string and stages glued to other stages. There was a capsule on top, but no parachute. That, Malachi thought derisively, was still under development. 'Welcome to High Bay Three,' said Malachi. 'Don\'t ask what happened to the first two.' 'Er, you call that a rocket?' said Jeb, peering down at the monstrosity below. 'I\'ve had random piles of junk that looked more flightworthy.' For a moment, a look of annoyance passed across the Administrator\'s face, but it passed quickly. 'Of course. That\'s our prototype. We\'re going to launch it off this afternoon and see how it works. Then we\'ll give you the data and you can help us make improvements, okay?' Jeb frowned. 'How long until the launch?' The Administrator leaned over the railing and yelled down to the Kerbos working below. 'How long until the launch?' One of the Kerbos, hard hat askew, waved something up at them. 'The bottle says we have to wait half an hour for the glue to dry!' he said. 'Better give it an hour!' said the Administrator. He grinned sheepishly at Jeb. 'Er, two hours, then. We still have to drag it out to the pad.' 'Oh, okay,' said Jeb. 'So, you have some kind of big platform thing that rolls out there?' The Administrator scratched his neck. 'Er, something like that.'

Thanks, If it doesn\'t have one, can i call it : Bryant Newell & Scales, New ant Scales or Hawkinge crater I no they are not the usual name, but that will make it a landmark on Mun road maps in the year 3000 Would it be possible to call it Hawkinge, and somewhere say: found by Bryant, Newell and Scales, Maybe in Brackets? I hope Hawkinge Could be used, because its were I grew up, And i would love to be able to go there more! Who would i need to talk to?

'I\'ve been sort of sick for a few weeks... my crazy comes and goes, and sometimes makes me not want to talk to anybody at all. Doing better now. I think I\'ll record some this weekend.' If it\'s depression, I recommend exercise, it can be really effective. If you don\'t want to do that, drink a lot of water. A lot of people are consistently dehydrated because they drink coffee/soda instead of water. I\'m sure you know what\'s best for yourself, but these simple things have helped me a great deal =)

please talk to the plugin maker not us I am not a programmer

People have tried, its too freaking hard but just cause 3! miiight come out and miiiight have multiplayer EDIT!!! Yesterday a rumor surfaced from Xbox World that Just Cause 3 could be on the way for 2012. Apparently Avalanche is not letting any rumors spread the way Rockstar and other studios do, and they quickly shot down the news by saying that they aren’t releasing any games for any platforms at all in 2012. In an interview with Eurogamer, Just Cause creator Christofer Sundberg stated that…â€It\'s just a rumour and we\'re not releasing any game in 2012â€. Avalanche Studios already confirmed in a studio press release [via PlayStation LifeStyle] that they’re working on a new IP for Microsoft and Sony’s new consoles, even though the consoles themselves have not been announced. The project is scheduled to release in the first quarter of 2014. According to Eurogamer, Avalanche is also working on two additional projects, said to be “huge†that will release in 2013. The studio is obviously keeping busy and I’m curious if those two other 2013 projects are still Xbox 360 and PS3 titles, or Wii U, PS4 or Xbox 720 titles. It’s hard to say right now but with all the next-gen talk it wouldn’t be surprising if Just Cause 3 made an appearance on the next-gen consoles, given that there isn’t too much else Avalanche could do with the open-world action series on the current generation consoles without sacrificing graphics or gameplay.

I think parameters have to be specifically coded into a given part module in order for them to work; you might talk to the creator of the Zoxygene plugin about that.

I\'ve been sort of sick for a few weeks... my crazy comes and goes, and sometimes makes me not want to talk to anybody at all. Doing better now. I think I\'ll record some this weekend.

Seconded. I think that the way the Kommunity (see what I did there? :) is heading is going to result in Kerbol becoming a clone of our solar system with duplicate names etc. I\'d prefer it be as distanced from ours as possible, down to the point where even the structure and make-up of the solar system is different, eg when interplanetary missions are created, the nearest planet not bear any similarities to Mars. However, we can talk about this for hours, but ultimately it is up to Squad, thankfully.

The main issue I think lunar colonies won\'t work is the gravity; i\'m sure that people cannot survive in it for long periods. Maybe once we have some sort of protection for 0g space station crew we can talk about a moon colony. At least with mars it\'s quite a bit closer to 1G. And these guys don\'t need any money from NASA, they don\'t even need that much if everything goes to plan. The main issue is that getting the living complex designed, tested and online before anyone arrives is going to be so much more than just buying the components. Nothing like that has ever been attempted by anyone, the costs of R&D to get it to a high enough level is way too much for an almost non existent company.

I don\'t plan for this to be much - only about 500 words. I just wanted to get my feet wet in KSPFF, and get some quick reviews. I\'m more of a poetic writer who fills his space with description instead of content like dialogue. In the future, I will hope to have larger stories, either canon, headcanon, (Oxford Comma FTW!) or RP. Written in the perspective of Jeb, and I see him as a giddy, fast-talking thrillmaster (at least for now. I\'m pretty mad at some girls who talk this way, so expect lotsa spaghetti gory deaths for the gossipy Jeb). Again, this is not my best work - you can expect much better. Enjoy! Thrillmaster to the Core It\'s funny how some uber-smart dude rolled up one day and just yelled out: 'A body in motion tends to stay in motion!' and everyone believed him. He\'s wrong, because on Kerbin, gravity and all that dumb stuff slows the moving thing down until it rolls to the epitome of boringness - standstill. I\'d like to give that super-smart/dumb guy a big slap in the face - that is, a rocket-powered slap. That\'s right, I\'m the rocketeer of legend. The one. The only. The AWESOME! Jebediah Kerman! Aww yeah, that\'s me! If you didn\'t know, I\'m immortal. If that mysterious force up there that likes to shake around the rocket and make it do stuff smashes me into the chilly-cold surface of Minmus or blows me up in a totally awesome fireball of fun they call an explosion, I always find my way back, ready to do it all again! Bob likes to scream and puke a lot and Bill hardly has a grip on the situation, so usually I have to be the muscles, brains and funny guy - good thing I\'m radical at all three! But still, life\'s rough out in space - the food isn\'t any good and you just get to sit there while you wait to go to the Mun or something. We can\'t even, like, hop outside and do stuff in space! It\'s just like living in a jail cell - in space! Well, that\'s all the time I have for you - the guy with the beard and the funny talk has told me I\'m going on a Kerbol escape mission without any life support. Seeya in a couple hundred launches!

Oh puh-lease!! I don\'t wanna talk about it

well there alot of talk about EVA\'s and i wonder if you will be able to make one or more of the kerbals leave the Comand Pod and walk around on the surface of the Mun and to actaly launch rockets and Space planes you have to Walk to and enter your space craft and or rocket onec your at a spot you like you can just have one of them leave and you can walk areound with one of them

Read Sweet Apple Massacre and then talk to us. Seriously, I lost my poop during that.

Wow, talk about being DEAD WRONG. I\'m in the beta and it is NOT Pay To Win. Do your research bud.

I used to talk about Candlejack, but then I

Perhaps I\'ll talk with the community manager and work on getting all the KSP LP\'ers together to help push this further. -DR

You sir are a genius when it comes to plugins, and I have noticed more people are starting to talk about, and recommend, your work

So, because this has infected way too many threads, we can have it here. If you can\'t stay civil, then don\'t talk. I\'ll start: Metric is better than imperial because it works in a regular numbers of multiplications (10, 10, 10 etc.) as opposed to an irregular numbers (12, 3, 1760 etc.)

Hey, everyone! Since the RP is officially shut down forever on this forum, I figured I\'d better redirect my creative juices into a new aspect. And, seeing as I love to write and consider myself a decent author, I\'ve decided to type up a KSP-related short story. So, without further ado: Just a Day in the Life Launch commencing in five, four, three, two, one... 'WAHOOOO!' Jebediah Kerman, known more commonly as Jeb, yelled enthusiastically as the shuttle rocketed into the air. All three of the ship\'s crewmembers were glued to their seats due to the high speeds they were travelling. Bill was desperately attempting to keep the rocket steady, while Bob was passed out and snoring in his seat. 'For the record, this was a really bad idea,' Bill muttered, punching flashing buttons with one hand while controlling the rocket with the other. 'I mean seriously, Jeb, what made you think a rocket made entirely out of solid boosters was a good idea?' Bob snored in agreement. 'I still stand by my choice,' Jeb responded, donning the sunglasses he always kept in his spacesuit. 'What could be better than flying through the air at hundreds of meters per second with no control whatsoever over your thrust? Just sounds like a good time to me.' 'Just come help me with this thing,' Bill said, exasperated. 'I need you to steer while I keep it from overheating.' 'Whatever.' Jeb lazily reached over and pressed a random button. Immediately a decoupler activated, pinning the command module to a now un-steerable hunk of randomly placed rocket boosters. 'Wrong button!' Bill screamed. 'That was the emergency ejector! We were only supposed to use it after the boosters ran out! Bob finally woke up. 'Where the heck am I?' he asked, then looked out the window and saw that he was in an uncontrollable rocket hurtling through the air at breakneck speed. 'Oh, right, it\'s Tuesday.' 'Ah, Tuesday,' Jeb reminisced. 'The only day those boring scientists let me make my own shuttles. I love Tuesdays.' 'Hello!' Bill yelled. 'Trying to keep us alive over here! A little help would be appreciated!' 'Yeah, yeah, yeah,' Jeb responded. 'Just relax. Even if we die, they\'ll just clone us and we\'ll be right back where we started.' Just then, the rocket\'s SRBs finally depleted, and the shuttle began to decelerate. Bob looked over to the altitude meter and gasped. 'Hey guys, look, we made it out of the lower atmosphere this time!' 'Woo!' Jeb punched his fists in the air. 'New record!' 'Now, how are we going to get back down?' Bill said. 'I hope you didn\'t \'forget\' the parachute again like last time.' 'No, I didn\'t forget it,' Jeb said, looking annoyed. 'Have a little bit more faith in me, will you? I knew you\'d be worried, so I took the parachute off the top of the pod and set it inside for safekeeping.' 'Jeb?' 'Yeah?' 'THE PARACHUTE NEEDS TO BE ON TOP TO ACTIVATE, YOU IDIOT!' 'Whoa, Bill,' Jeb replied. 'I don\'t know where this new angry side is coming from, but I don\'t like your attitude. We\'ll be fine.' 'It\'s a good thing I installed a backup parachute when Jeb wasn\'t looking!' Bob pulled a remote out of his spacesuit. It only had one button on it, labeled 'open parachute.' There was also a warning label, stating to keep the remote out of reach of toddlers and Jebediah at all times. Bob pushed the button, and just as the shuttle began to fall back to earth the parachute deployed. 'We\'re saved!' Bill rejoiced, smiling. 'We\'ll live after all!' He began to prepare the pod for landing, steadying it and such. 'Fine,' Jeb said, 'But Bob, I\'m going to have a serious talk with you after we land.' He looked thoughtful for a moment, then sprang up. 'I almost forgot!' Jeb told the others. 'I installed an experimental engine on the command module!' He reached for a large red button with the word 'DANGER' above it. Immediately after he pressed it, there was a BOOM and everything went black. ... Two hours later, Jeb, Bill and Bob stepped out of the cloning vats, looking refreshed. 'Yeah, let\'s not do that again,' Bill said, and Bob nodded agreement. 'Maybe leave shuttle design to the professionals, Jeb?' 'Are you kidding?' Jeb replied. 'That was the most awesome time ever! In fact, I have a few more ideas, most of them involving moar boosters. Believe me, next Tuesday is going to be awesome!' With that, he bounded off towards the VAB. Just Another Mundane Mission 'Oh, you\'ve got to be kidding me...' Bill Kerman rubbed his fingers against his temples, fighting off a headache as he viewed the speed gauge. 'Jeb, what the heck did you get us into?' Jeb, Bill and Bob were currently flying at thousands of meters per second, hurtling towards the Mun at extremely dangerous speeds. They were on a Mun landing mission, but at this point it seemed more likely that they\'d become a new crater on the Mun\'s surface. Bob was screaming his head off, Bill was desperately attempting to steer the craft, and Jeb was relaxing in his seat and drinking a milkshake he had snuck onboard. So just an average expedition. 'I don\'t get why you guys don\'t see the genius behind my ideas,' Jeb countered. 'Turning an old fuel tank into a decoupler worked perfectly; the tank exploded, separating us from the other stages, just like it was supposed to.' 'Except for the part where it caught on fire too early,' Bill retorted. 'And then blew up our orbit stage, as well as mangling our landing stage. What are we supposed to do now?!' 'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!' Bob said. 'Exactly, Bob,' Jeb replied. 'I\'m glad you see it my way. All we have to do is slingshot around the Mun, then around Minmus, launching us into an orbit around Kerbol until we ultimately end up back in an extremely high orbit around Kerbin, at which point we\'ll just deorbit until we end up back in a sub-orbital trajectory towards the Mun.' 'Wouldn\'t that just leave us where we started?' Bill asked. 'We\'re already in - Oh my god, only fifty thousand meters above the Mun and still going nearly five kilometers per second.' Bob passed out from fright, collapsing onto his chair. 'Look, just give me the controls,' Jeb said. 'I hid some miniature rocket boosters in the rocket just in case of this issue.' He reached under the control panel and pressed a small, inconspicuous button. Immediately, windshield wipers began to sweep across the windows. 'Wrong button!' Bill yelled. 'Forty thousand meters, and our speed\'s still increasing!' 'Yeah, yeah,' Jeb muttered. He pressed a huge, extremely conspicuous button, and immediately a few tiny SRBs began to fire. 'How did that solve our problem?' Bill asked, annoyed. 'We\'re just going faster towards our deaths!' Jeb pulled down on the pitch, slowly moving the navball\'s indicator upwards. 'See? No problemo. We\'ll just fly low around the Mun until the SRBs run out, and then hit the ground on the wheels I installed while the engineers were sleeping.' A crackly voice emanated from the communications radio. 'Bzzt... You did what?' 'Erm, nothing,' Jeb said. 'Definitely not wheels to ride around the Mun\'s surface or anything.' 'Mission control!' Bill yelled. 'We could use some help!' 'Bzzt... Oh, relax, Bill. We\'re getting the cloning vats ready as we speak. 'Nice to see you have a lot of faith in us,' Bill muttered, then his eyes widened as he viewed the altitude meter. 'Ten thousand meters! Jeb, how\'s that idea of yours coming?' 'Got it!' The nose suddenly pitched upwards, barely missing a giant arch that the rocket passed. The SRBs finally died down, and the craft began to fall towards the Munar surface. 'Now THIS is what I\'m talking about!' The broken landing engine suddenly broke off the main body of the craft, and wires and pieces of small debris began to make a trail of sparks and metal. It also woke Bob up, who groaned as he looked out the window 'We\'re not going to last much longer in this state,' Bill said. 'Soon this whole thing\'s going to fall apart.' 'Relax, I\'m landing...' The craft had leveled out, but it was still going at an extreme speed. 'You all need to relax. We\'ll be fine.' 'Hey, guys...?' Bob was rummaging at the back of the command module. 'I think I found a remote for a retro rocket back here.' 'Really? Activate it!' Bill said excitedly. 'We might have a chance of living!' He lunged for the button. 'Aw, come on, Bill,' Jeb said. 'Why do you have to be such a killjoy? I can land this thing myself, thank you very much.' And with that, the craft rumbled onto the Mun\'s surface. There was a huge jolt, and Bill and Bob were thrown against the floor of the command module. The craft flipped over multiple times, before finally coming to rest on its side in a crater. 'WAY too close, Jeb,' Bill muttered angrily. 'And how are we supposed to get home?' 'That is a good question,' Jeb said, although he didn\'t look very worried. 'But don\'t worry, I brought plenty of Mountain Dew for everyone!' Atmosfear 'I can\'t believe we got stuck testing a plane while the recruits are in orbit and on the Mun,' Bill grumbled. 'We\'re the most experienced team the space center has!' 'Yeah, most experienced at blowing up,' Bob joked as he climbed into the cockpit of a new spaceplane design. 'Jeb makes sure of that.' 'I, for one, think this flight is going to be awesome,' Jeb said. 'I installed a few, um, special surprises, to make our jobs more interesting.' 'I swear, Jeb, if you mess this up again, I\'m going to kill you,' Bill replied angrily. 'Eight launches in the last two weeks, and only two of them were successful.' 'Loosen up, will you?' Jeb responded, then started the plane\'s engines. It began to move forward down the runway, steadily gaining speed until it lifted off the ground. 'I guess that wasn\'t too bad,' Bob said. 'We haven\'t exploded yet, at least.' 'Oh, you just wait,' Jeb said, grinning. He suddenly pulled the roll to the side, and the plane did several corkscrews through the air as it flew upwards. Bob screamed, and Bill desperately attempted to keep the nose up. 'Stop that, Jeb!' Bill yelled, shoving Jeb\'s hands away from the controls and steadying the plane. Just then, something kicked in and the plane began to shoot straight upwards at an extremely high speed. 'What was that?!' Bob said as they flew up higher and higher. 'Jeb...' 'Well, you know how you said you didn\'t want to fly a plane?' Jeb looked like he was barely holding back laughter. 'I installed rocket engines instead of atmospheric ones, as a joke Who knows, maybe we\'ll get into orbit!' He burst out laughing, then pressed a button on the control panel. Immediately there was a click sound as the wings and outer hull detached from the plane, revealing a small rocket inside. 'Not funny, Jeb!' Bill yelled, trying to level out the rocket and avoid going any higher. 'I dunno, it is kind of funny,' Bob remarked. 'See? Even Bob\'s enjoying it,' Jeb said, donning his sunglasses and taking the controls. 'We\'ll just shoot into orbit for a bit, and then return when our engines run out. No harm done.' 'Except for the fact that the plane\'s body just crashed down to the ground,' Bill retorted. 'And that we\'re almost out of fuel, and that we\'re going nearly a kilometer per second.' 'I don\'t see the problem with any of those things,' Jeb replied. 'Bzzt... Jeb, WHAT THE HECK did you do?' A voice said out of the transmitter. 'Get back down here, now!' 'Fine,' Jeb muttered, and swung the nose of the rocket completely downward. They lost control over it, and the shuttle flew randomly through the air. 'Happy?' 'Give me that!' Bill grabbed the controls, steadying the rocket pointing slightly downward. 'Jeb, did you happen to remember to install a parachute when you made this rocket? 'How was I supposed to put a parachute on the nose of a cone-shaped cockpit?' Jeb replied. Bill had passed out, and was asleep in his chair. 'Ugh, whatever. Did you remember a decoupler, at least?' 'A what?' 'A decoupler, Jeb! Did you remember to put in a decoupler!' 'Nope.' 'Great.' The rocket finally ran out of fuel, and began to sink like a rock towards the ground. Bob snored, Bill screamed, and Jeb smiled as they fell closer and closer to a large mountain range. 'Ooh, I nearly forgot!' Jeb reached out onto the control panel and pressed a small button. An SRB suddenly kicked in, slowing their speed down. Jeb also moved the nose up, leveling the rocket out for landing.The ground grew closer and closer as the rocket slowed down, until... 'We\'re alive?!' Bill had woken up and was looking out the window, Jeb having somehow landed the shuttle. 'Yep,' Jeb remarked, leaning against the control panel. Suddenly he slipped, his elbow hitting the button for an emergency afterburner, and the craft exploded. Orbiting Around 'Well, would you look at that,' Bill said, looking at a panel of various orbital information. 'We actually managed a circular orbit this time!' 'Only because we tied Jeb to his chair the whole time,' Bob remarked. 'Yeah, thanks a ton for that,' Jeb muttered. 'And it\'s only the day before Tuesday, too! Show a bit more respect for your commander.' 'Sorry, Jeb,' Bill replied, 'But we\'ve seen what you\'re like in the days leading up to Tuesday, so we had to take some desperate measures to get a successful trip.' 'Hey guys, come look at this view,' Bob said, pressing his face against one of the command module\'s windows. 'You can see half of Kerbin from up here!' 'I bet if I spit out the window it would go straight through somebody\'s brain,' Jeb joked, looking down at the planet. 'Well, don\'t get any ideas...' Bill responded, checking over the orbital information one last time. 'But really, this turned out pretty well.' 'You mean boring,' Jeb grumbled. 'What\'s the fun in a successful mission? I haven\'t been to the cloning vats in, like, three whole days.' 'And with any luck, we can keep it that way,' Bob replied. 'I hate the cloning vats. You just sit there in a tub of green glob for an hour, and then you step out perfectly fine. It\'s weird.' 'At least it keeps us alive,' Bill said. 'And it\'s necessary, because of Jeb.' 'Hey, it\'s not my fault I\'m more fun than you guys - Oh, hey look, an asteroid.' 'A what?' 'An asteroid. Headed our way.' 'Great...' Bob screamed and passed out. 'By the way, why does he always do that?' Jeb asked. 'Defect at birth,' Bill replied. 'Whenever he screams, his body loses so much oxygen that it temporarily shuts down and he passes out.' 'Ah, I see. Now, what are you going to do about that asteroid?' 'I don\'t know,' Bill said. 'It\'s headed straight for us! We\'ll never be able to steer out of the way in time! Do you have any genius ideas in that head of yours, Jeb?' 'Well, I have a couple,' Jeb replied. 'But I\'m still TIED TO A CHAIR.' 'Oh, right.' Bill untied the ropes around Jeb\'s wrists and ankles that were binding him to the chair. 'Okay, now what?' 'Did the scientists install that experimental new afterburner I told them about?' Jeb asked. 'I\'m not going to answer that question,' Bill replied, looking away. 'You just did.' Jeb pushed a glowing red button; the rocket suddenly shot forward like a dart, gaining speed extremely quickly. Jeb used the momentum to steer the rocket around the edges of the asteroid. 'Well, we did it,' Bill said. 'But now the asteroid is heading straight for the space center!' 'Huh, what are the odds,' Jeb responded. 'It\'s almost like this course of events is being controlled by someone sitting at a desk and typing on a computer in an alternate dimension! Do you know what we have to do?' 'Yeah,' Bill said. 'But Bob isn\'t going to like it.' 'Like what?' At some point Bob had woken up, and now looked quizzically at Jeb and Bill. 'We\'re just going to slam our multi-billion dollar rocket into an asteroid at thousands of meters per second, obliterating it,' Jeb replied. 'And Bill helped me come up with the idea, no less! It\'s amazing!' Bill screamed and passed out again, slumping backwards in his seat. Jeb hit the afterburner one last time, and the rocket slammed head-on into the asteroid. A few hours later, all three Kerbonauts stepped out of the cloning vats and sighed in relief. Apart from a few smaller meteorites scattered around the area of the KSC, there were no damages. 'You know, Bob, I see where you\'re coming from,' Jeb said. 'Those cloning vats are kind of gross.' 'Does that mean you\'re going to try a bit harder not to blow us up?' Bill asked hopefully. 'Are you kidding?' Jeb laughed. 'Tomorrow\'s Tuesday!'

My suggestion for designing the systems is simple: call up or write to some astrophysicists. I\'m sure there\'ll be lots that will happily talk about their field and provide all kinds of interesting and (semi) realistic possibilities or even actual discoveries. Knowing that some facsimile of the in-game thingie is out there would be very cool

Yes, but if you want to get ideas from a public place or a library, you can\'t talk.

This is a joke, right? Are you aware of how toolish you sound? To suggest that the Mun arches are a \'spoiler\'? It\'s bad enough that people talk like the second KSC is the equivalent of Snape kills Dumbledore. Maybe whenever a new part is released we shouldn\'t talk about it because SPOILUZRRZZZZ THERAZ SPAES PLAENUZ IN VERSCHUN 0.15!!!111oneELEVEN1111!! Hey here\'s a thought, if a tiny bit of geometry totally ruins the game for you, stop reading the forums and go do your exploring. I for one don\'t give a shit, it\'s your problem if you consider something a spoiler and nobody else\'s. This is like intentionally going to Hooters specifically to complain about how women in hotpants with cleavage showing offends you.

Turn the picture upside-down, and THEN, we\'ll talk.