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The Epstein drive is a literary device, it's not even a theoretical engine. I'm fairly certain it's not going to be in KSP2 and if there are plans for it I'll consider the game an absolute failure. Real talk though, if you want to get to another solar system in a reasonable amount of time you're going to need something which has an isp which is a significant fraction of C. If you use that in-system it will likely trivialize travel but it's worth noting, again, that engines can usually only prioritize thrust or isp so you'll still need landers and utility craft, and you're probably not going to be using something like a nuclear salt water rocket for a lander either because that would constitute landing on a continuously detonating nuclear explosion. The challenge is not going to go completely away.

Since I do not really know about you, there's a risk I'm going to talk some nonsense, but on the other hand, there's also a chance of telling something useful. So I a flipped a coin and… Let's go: Chances are that you will miss it in the future. Try to focus on the good things, and try to accept the difficulties as the price you need to pay to getting such memories. This will not make things easier, but it will allow you to build memories that will be precious later in your life. Christmas is a bittersweet time of the year to me - to the point that 4 years ago I didn't mind having to work December 24 and 25 (my son was visiting his mom, so no parental negligence here ). But yet, I have one big regret about this event: I had a friend, one of that friends that you make when you are a teen and carry on for the rest of your life. And by some reason, we ended up getting into the same troubles in life [EDIT: and doing the same things to fix them]. When I fired my family and moved away from them, I took some really harsh years - I made a bold move, I liquidate all my economies buying a home on the Subprime Mortgage Crisis (that also affected Brazil, only a bit later) and I took me almost 10 years to rebuild my finances - the sad fact of life is that somehow my poor economic state leaked out my network and by then all the job offers I got were paying less (because the <piiii> knew I had little to no choice due pressure on paying the mortgage). EDIT: This friend of mine did more or less the same, except by the jobs offer - he did way better than me on this one. No regrets here, I would not had afforded this home otherwise. But it took a toll on my friendship, because I was working all the time, including holidays, for some years to pay all the bills and rebuild my savings (not to mention trying to keep contact with my son, still a kid and living very away from me at that time) - what it means I neglected that friendship, because he was living a bunch of hours away from were I live and I rarely could spare that time at the same days he could and vice versa. What I didn't knew is that he had a serious health condition, and he were risking dying suddenly sooner or later - and, so, every year I failed to spend some days with him on the holidays meant smaller chances on managing to do it next year. And, then, he died. About a week before Christmas. On the very year I was finally sabbatical and could attend something with him. I can't say I regret all that years I spent the holidays working my cheeks out to pay the bills - my son and I have a comfortable life nowadays exactly because I did all that sacrifices. But, yet, I still regret not spending more time with this friend of mine even at the cost of some economical security on the short run. That friend of mine would die nevertheless - but I would have more memories of such friendship, and he surely deserved such. Buy a cargo cart. Second hand, third hand, build one yourself - but get yourself a cargo cart. One that you could use on the streets. I can't emphasise enough how my life got way less hurtful once I started to get old on the very day I bought one for myself. I bought it in 12 instalments to avoid financial risks on the short run, and so I ended up paying almost 25% more than if I had bought it upfront - but even this way, it worth it because I didn't hurt my back anymore since then and, so, didn't had my DayJob© jeopardised by pain in the back (the upper one! ). Check your home's power, you may have fluctuations sporadically on your electrical system. Additionally, do you have a neighbour engaging on ham radio? In a way or another, a HAM radio emitting near you would saturate your WiFi antennas to the point the MCU could not handle the noise and just crash.

Alright, by soon I guess I meant a month. Time really slips by, doesn't it? *** CHAPTER 8: SETTING THE FOUNDATION YEAR 2, DAY 120 - DRUZHBA 1 Crew: Bardok, Spokoynyy, Alisa For 60 days the cosmodrome may have seemed completely silent. But inside, it was the perhaps busiest place on Kerbin. Workers for both the CKR Space Program and the Korolev Design Bureau (KDB) have been working hard day in and day out on the CKR's newest manned spacecraft: the Druzhba Spacecraft. The Druzhba Spacecraft is capable of carrying three Kerbals into orbit at once, complex rendezvous maneuvers, and even has the capability to dock to other spacecraft! The CKR hopes to use it in future manned missions to the Mun and Minmus. The rocket, called the K-8 Druzhba, has had a... complicated design history. Originally the rocket was going to be a standard K-8 Grom. But simulations showed that the rocket would be too top heavy, and go crashing into the ocean after the gravity turn began. So, instead, a whole new rocket was designed. The rocket, while sharing some of the core design design choices of the K-8 Grom, is much more it's own thing now. However it's still similar enough to be part of the K-8 lineage. And, guess what it includes now. That's right, a Launch Escape System (LES)! The LES is designed to fire it's motors away from the rocket, carrying it to a safe distance to deploy it's parachutes. Originally, the abort systems on our spacecraft would just be the landing retro-rockets, which could hopefully pull the command module away, and then the Kerbonaut onboard would possibly be able to jump ship manually. And, according to simulations, this would probably work only about 60% of the time. Not good odds. This increase of safety aboard our spacecraft will hopefully carry on to the future, providing more reliable spacecraft for long term missions. Only time will tell. Anyways, where were we? Oh, right. Off with the mission! "Engine ignition, and liftoff on Druzhba 1!" - Gen Kerman "Go for booster sep." - Gen Kerman "Roger, booster sep." - Bardok Kerman The spacecraft fairing separate, revealing our glorious machine! "Druzhba 1, you are go for orbital insertion." - Gen Kerman "Shkiper reignition successful! We are on our way!" - Alisa Kerman Stage 2 is ejected, and Druzhba 1 is now floating freely in orbit! The crew look down on Kerbin in awe, and stretch their legs in the increased space inside the spacecraft. Due to complaints from crew during the Zapad and Zakat missions of the very little leg room during their missions, engineers added a little extra habitable area sort of like another module, and the crew can move into and out of the area at will. Also, this extra habitable area doubles as an airlock! Instead of carrying around that bulky inflatable airlock, Druzhba flies with an airlock built into the spacecraft! Maybe it's still not all that practical, but it's better than that crappy inflatable one. Now, back to the mission. Once in orbit, Druzhba 1 will perform several tests of its systems. The first of these tests will be a test of its monopropellant systems. This will require the spacecraft to fire it's thrusters, forward, back, up, down, and side to side. This is done on Flight Day 2. Que the montage! Once done that, Druzhba 1 will perform an inclination change to align with Minmus's orbital plane on Flight Day 3. This will really just be a test of how well the Druzbha's engines behave on orbit. Que montage again! "Inclination change proceeding smoothly, mission control." - Bardok Kerman Oh, I guess there wasn't much of a montage there. On Flight Day 3, Bardok steps into the habitat/airlock, and upon opening the hatch, his breath is taken away from the completely unobstructed view of Kerbin. "Looking down at our planet, I've had an amazing realization. A realization that make shake our entire world view. I'm in space, and those losers aren't! Haha, I win!" - Bardok Kerman While on EVA, Bardok has to make a visual inspection of the spacecraft. Make sure everything stayed in place and what not. Everything looking good, he takes a chance to look out towards the Mun. Someday, he thinks to himself. Someday I'll be there. Maybe he will. Only time will tell. After about 15 minutes on EVA (the longest yet!), he makes his way back aboard Druzhba 1. He says that it was sad stepping back inside the spacecraft, but hopes that his EVA experience will not be his last. His optimism is paying off though, as the CKR sees him as a valuable pilot in the future. Druzhba 1 spends another three days in orbit, collecting data and photographing Kerbin. However, as missions do, it eventually comes to an end. Druzhba 1 faces its engines retrograde, and begins its journey back down to Kerbin's surface. "Mission control we are beginning our de-orbit burn. Ignition of the engines was successful." - Alisa Kerman Druzhba 1's main command module now makes the trip back alone, as it was the only part of the spacecraft meant to return to Kerbin. "Chutes deployed successfully." - Alisa Kerman "And a perfect inflation! Prepping landing retro motors." - Alisa Kerman And like that, Druzhba 1 safely lands in the deserts of Kerbin! Rescue teams are quickly dispatched to their location, so they should be back at the cosmodrome in a few hours. Druzhab 1's success means that future missions are coming, and continued testing of the spacecraft may finally prove capable of the Mun and Minmus flight it was meant for. All we have to do is see where the program goes. *** YEAR 2, DAY 130 - MUNA 9 While the crewed division was quite busy with Druzhba, they at least had a plan with what the payload looked like. Muna 9 was the exact opposite. The payload was in a constant development hell, and coupled with the current cosmodrome expansions, issues piled up high. Engineers, scientists, and even janitors were throwing around ideas for what the actual lander should look like. The lander had 500 different designs thrown around, some cheaper and more realistic, and others so outrageous and bizarre that nothing short of mining out every resource on Kerbin would make them possible. In the end, a "little" two stage lander was picked. The probe will fly to the Mun, do some science experiments, pick up some surface samples. and then return back to Kerbin after a day on the surface. Pretty straight forward... on paper. "Liftoff on Muna 9, on its journey to and back from the Mun!" - Gen Kerman "Clean booster sep!" - Gen Kerman Muna 9 enters LKO with no error. But the journey's not over yet. Mission control immediately gets to work setting up the spacecraft's TMI maneuver, and before you know it... "We are go for TMI!" - Gen Kerman We are go fo- hey! I was gonna say that! Muna 9's deep space tug stage finishes up the burn, and Muna 9 enters the coast period. The probe will be put on hibernation mode to save energy on the way there. "We are go for our MOI burn." - Gen Kerman "Roger, re-igniting LV-909s." - Kris Kerman Muna 9's de-orbit burn "We are 700 meters from the surface, continuing suicide burn." - Gen Kerman "Contact!" - Gen Kerman Muna 9 is now standing on the Munar surface! However, the job is STILL not done, as now Muna 9 has to collect science. A lot of it. It's brought practically the whole suite of science experiments, and most importantly Mun rocks are picked up. Many Mun rocks. Scientists back on Kerbin simply drool at the thought of having their very own Mun rocks to pick at and study, and if money was still a thing in our society, we're sure these rocks would go for millions. After a day on the Munar surface, the upper stage of the lander is separated and fires it's engines, beginning its long journey back to Kerbin. Interestingly, engineers wanted to launch the spacecraft into a retrograde orbit. This was essentially a stress test of all of the lander's systems "Ignition of the ascent stage engine. We're on our way home!" - Kris Kerman "Kerbin return maneuver in 3,2,1... re-ignition of ascent stage engine, we're on our way back to Kerbin." - Gen Kerman The return capsule has quite a fiery re-entry, entering Kerbin's atmosphere at speeds of over 3,000m/s! "Chute deployed, and we are back home!" - Gen Kerman Yes, after 4 days in space, Muna 9 returns with the very first samples of the Munar surface! Recovery teams quickly circle the spacecraft, pick it up, and carefully extract the load of samples the spacecraft collected. These will be handed to R&D immediately, who will study the rocks and further distribute them to other labs around Kerbin. The data collected from these rocks will give us further information into not just the birth of the Kerbin system, but the birth of the entire Kerbolar system! It's an exciting for the CKR Space Program, and more exciting are certainly to come. *** YEAR 2, DAY 148 - YEVA 1 Kerbalkind once again prepares to extend its influence even further than the Kerbin system. This time, we have our focus set much closer into the Kerbolar system. Her purple majesty, Yeva. Many have speculated what may be waiting for us on Yeva. Some say that, due to it's purple color, it may be very similar to Kerbin. Couple this with the fact that Eve is a similar size to Kerbin, Kerbals who suspect this may not be too far off. Yeva 1 is pretty much a sister probe to Duna 1, but with... oh, no, it is the exact same probe. With the exact same launcher. Hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. "Liftoff on Yeva 1, carrying Kerbalkind to the planets!" - Gen Kerman Is this just me, or is it kinda funny to see the hammer and sickle on the side of a building meant to look like NASA's high bay assembly building. Yeva 1 finds itself racing a comet on liftoff. Yeva 1 firing its engines for orbit Once in orbit, ground teams immediately begin preparing for the burn to Eve. This is easier said than done. At the time of launch, the Mun was positioned in such a way that it would always get in the way of every burn we did. And its position was annoying enough that we couldn't use this to our advantage at all. In the end, spamming skip orbit enough got us a good position for a maneuver. And now... We're off to Yeva! "Setting probe to hibernation mode. Good luck, Yeva 1." - Gen Kerman *** YEAR 2, DAY 160 - MYATNYY 8 Myatnyy 8 will follow the exact same mission profile as Muna 9. Nothing else to add. The interesting thing about this mission is more the destination itself. The past few missions to Minmus have shown that Minmus itself is an interesting place. Despite not having an atmosphere, Minmus does in fact have weather! However, the exact way this happens is quite a mystery. Samples of both Minmus's "clouds" and surface ice will be collected, and scientists on Kerbin will use this data to understand more about Kerbin mintiest and most mysterious moon. Launch Sequence Once Myatnyy 8 enters orbit, well, you know the procedure. "Go for TMI!" - Bobak Kerman Myatnyy 8 begins the coasting period of its mission. I will tell you all that I did not get any pictures of the whole orbit process around Minmus, as at this point I was just so sick of the mission. I already had to redo it twice, so I gave up on screenshots and just flew the craft. But I did get pictures of the landing, and that's the cool part. "We are beginning our descent down to Minmus's surface, I need all controllers on standy in case anything goes wrong." - Bobak Kerman "1km up, speeding up suicide burn." - Kris Kerman "Almost there..." - Bobak Kerman "Contact! Myatnyy 8 is standing on Minmus's surface!" - Bobak Kerman After a quick celebration in mission control, work begins on running the experiments on board the spacecraft, as well as the collection of samples on Minmus's surface. After a day on the surface, the ascent stage fires its engines and Myatnyy 8 begins its journey back to Kerbin. Another success under our belt! Myatnyy 8 is quickly recovered, and the mission comes to an end. Myantyy 8 has brought back perhaps some of the most important data in spaceflight to date. However, our engineers and scientists have one more idea for Munar and Minmus exploration, and they expect it to fly sometime late in the year. You all will have to wait to see that. *** YEAR 2, DAY 180 - DRUZHBA 2&3 Crew: Dzhebediya, Bob, Bill; Valentina, Stadun, Derdas We always talk about the capabilities of the Druzhba spacecraft, now it's time to put them to the test. Druzhba 2 and Druzhba 3 will be a test of rendezvous and docking. The spacecraft is, after all, equipped with a docking port. Once docked, both spacecraft will spend a week in space together. Dzhebediya and Valentina will also perform an EVA together, much like Zakat 3 and Zakat 4. Afterwords both Druzhbas head back home one after the other. It's a pretty straightforward mission. Also, due to the expansion of the Kerbal Cosmodrome, pieces of the spacecraft no longer have to be sent to the Dessert Cosmodrome for launch. All of our rockets can be sourced right here. It really streamlines the whole assembly process, as well as save a lot of fuel for the spacecraft during rendezvous. Granted, the changed inclination would be good to do further stress tests on our spacecraft, but really it's better for the engineers this way. The Dessert Cosmodrome is better for satellite launches, anyways. "Liftoff on Druzhba 2!" - Gen Kerman "LRBs depleted of fuel, separate now Druzhba 2." - Gen Kerman "Clean sep, Baikerbanur!" - Bill Kerman "Ignition confirmed on stage 2." - Bill Kerman "Alright mission control, starting our coast to apoapsis." - Dzhebediya Kerman "Rog, Druzhba 2." - Gen Kerman "Druzhba 2 orbital entry established. Good flight!" - Gen Kerman "Alright, thanks Baikerbanur! Tell Druzhba 3 that we can't wait to meet up with them." - Dzhebediya Kerman "Will do." - Gen Kerman With Druzhba 2 in orbit, it's now Druzhba 3's turn to liftoff from the Cosmodrome. "Woooo, I love that feeling mission control! You gotta send me on more missions!" - Valentina Kerman "Clean booster sep, mission control!" - Derdas Kerman "Good to hear! And Druzhba 2 reports that they can in fact see your contrail from liftoff!" - Bobak Kerman "Orbital entry established, Druzhba 3." - Bobak Kerman "Rog, Bobak." - Valentina Kerman With no time to waste, Druzhba 3 immediately gets to work setting up their rendezvous with Druzhba 2. Inclination changes, rendezvous burns, the works. Before you know it, they're already at the spacecraft. Slowing down at rendezvous. "Approaching Druzhba 2." - Valentina Kerman "Docked! Miss me, Dzheb?" - Valentina Kerman "Tease me all you want, I still hold the title for farthest flying Kerbal." - Dzhebediya Kerman "For now." - Valentina Kerman Dzhebediya and Valentina face off outside their spacecraft. For the next five minutes, the words "I'm" and "better" were exchanged in that order continuously. Dezhebediya and Valentina boarded back into their spacecraft after a very mature discussion, and Druzhba 2&3 stayed in orbit for the next week. During that time, much of Kerbin's surface was photographed, and the crew played a game of Linkor, perhaps one of the best board games the CKR had created. It's not a very eventuful mission otherwise. After the week is over, both Druzhba 2 and 3 separate and go their separate ways. Druzhba 2 on re-entry, with the airlock module burning up behind it. Druzhba 2&3 with their parachutes deployed We've proven long duration spaceflight, and we've proven that two spacecraft can dock together in orbit. But what if we did... both at the same time?

Those USAAF guys had no real choice. Their casualty rates were insane, too. I went to an 8th AF luncheon, and sat with a few old guys. A fighter pilot (P-47) gave the talk that day, and he talked about them all being kids and that they felt invulnerable. He said, "If you had told us at the briefing early in the morning that 9 out of 10 of us were not coming home, we all would have all looked around the room and thought, 'You poor bast*ards'."

I've managed to talk to quite a few, and all of them basically say, "I was just doing my job" and/or something like, "The real heroes are all still there, buried."

None* of them want to talk about it, which means remembering it, when they'd just as soon forget it * - (in general, I'll assume there are exceptions).

And I'm hearing that the second installment will be quite good. ...possibly good enough for my spouse to actually enjoy! I got bored last winter and started digging through this box of old paperbacks in my basement; books I've had (and kept because I loved them) going all the way back to the 70s and 80s. That's ownership; most are reprints of classics, with some like the Julian May (Many Colored Land) series being 'new' when I was reading them. There's a lot in there that did not age well. I'm actually okay with that; my daughter is the only one in the family that really enjoys SF... and she enjoyed watching the show. Plus - I can talk math with her!

Welcome. I'll be documentation the colonization of the soon to be released KSS2 interstellar mod for KSP1. This system contains a number of unique and interesting features. Get yourself a nice beverage that tastes almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea and follow along. I will be primarily focusing on the needful for FTL trips out to the Aethera system. Unless you are doing this in sandbox mode, there will be considerable buildup of infrastructure and resources (particularly graviolium and fusion pellets) to support the 4-9 day trip. Note: My primary mods Blueshift FTL drive KFS gravatic drive Buffalo2 for rovers Pathfinder for habitat DSEV for various ships Other mods: Custom Barnkit: This provides for a Level 4 Tracking Station. You will need this for communication across interstellar distances GU Parts (legacy): In particular, this provides the antennas with the necessary range to talk back to the KSC. This is desired if you are going to do anything with probes. I'm not sure where this can be obtained now. DM me if you need it. Kerbal Attachment System / Kerbal Inventory System : In particular, KAS in conjunction with DSEV has parts that make the construction of a shuttle craft able to carry all the needful to a planet A note for STL cats: Do not think that you can use stock engines for Aethera. If you are new to Interstellar travel, get yourself acquainted with the numerous mods available to provide blowtorches with the required ISP to get you there - and more importantly - settled into an orbit.

KT is awesome. She came and gave a talk at the U years ago and I got to spend some time with her. She went back to JSC from the talk to be capcom, so a buddy and I sent her thank you flowers, delivered to MCC. The florist near JSC actually made a thing with flowers sorta like a liftoff with a plastic shuttle coming out of it. We saw it delivered on NASA Select (old NASA TV), which back in the day you had to have sat tv to see—the old ~2m dishes from the 80s.

@Superfluous J @Hotel26 I don’t think it has anything to do with logic or whether we could build a simulation with our understanding of computers. In my opinion, if there is a simulation it was built by something of such great knowledge and power its actions would be indiscernible to us, just as a fish isn’t really capable of discerning complex human behaviors. But yes, the question of “Are we in a simulation built by ourselves/other humans” can be answered with a pretty certain no. Unless we start getting into questions of whether “we” is literally us, as in I built this simulation for myself but wiped my memory as I went inside. Which isn’t really a question about “are we living in a simulation” but could begin slipping into arguments about solipsism. Pretty much. Insofar as it isn’t a scientific idea but is being peddled as a sort of “higher truth” “within the boundaries of science*” it basically hits all the marks for New New Age theological thinking without the theo. *At least this is the strong vibe I get from such believers who talk about their ideas. EDIT- It should also be noted simulation theory can be an idea held while being religious too. Look up Philip K. Dick’s 1977 speech in Metz, France.

It's been ten years since the end of the Second Great Kerbin War. The country of Bismarck, after two attempts at world domination, have finally been subdued, and it's fascist politicians replaced with politicians focused on better international relations. However, after the war, much of the world laid in ruin from the horrible battles. Out of the ashes though rises a new age of technological innovation, and with this new innovation comes advancements in technology and science. To further these devlopments, the new Kerbin United organization has set up the KSRO, aimed at advancing Kerbalkind into the future and yada yada yada whatever. I'm sure you've heard the whole thing a million times. It's all anyone can talk about. Now, I personally believe this whole space program thing is a political stunt. It's not meant to "aid Kerbalkind in technology" or whatever. It's simply a distraction from the actual issues of the world, and a waste of time and money. We haven't even fully recovered from the war yet! Many of Kerbin;s cities still lie in ruin, the economy's whack, and our leaders are frankly incompetent. And Bismarck's politicians weren't replaced, they were lined up on walls and executed. While they had committed terrible war crimes, committing a terrible war crime back is not the way to go. At this point, it's puppet state for Victoria and Bonaparte. What are these places you ask? Well these are the countries of Kerbin. They're really the big guys of everything happening on the planet. And the living conditions in these countries are absolutely awful though. Bonaparte is a stones throw away from becoming a third-world country, and Victoria's two seconds from becoming a total surveillance state. Anyways, space program, space program... ah, yes. Where's all this technology coming from? Well, the KSRO isn't starting from scratch. Rocket technology was developed by Bismarck during the war. A horrible machine of destruction called the KV-2. Picture of said machine Granted, this was the machine that ultimately led to the downfall of the new Bismarckian conquest. Well, there were several other factors, but still. Adoofus Kerman, dictator of Bismarck and starter of the war, made this machine his passion project. And it scared the very life out of the allies... when it worked. Sure, parts of the Victorian capitol Lundun were destroyed, but this rocket had more failures than successes. Frankly it's a miracle its engineers weren't executed by Bismarck. Now, I'll tell you more about the story leading up to our first launch later. In fact, the first launch vehicle is still being built. There's a lot of story to tell, and a lot of my anger with this "new era" to be unleashed. For now, you all have a nice day. You can bet I won't have one. I have to write for this stupid agency.

we questioned what you know of phisics because you do not talk like an expert. Except for a few throwaway line that do hint at technical competence, like mentioning the physics of two spaceships orbiting each other (without whom I'd just dismiss your claims of MS as internet bravado), most of your messages come across as just ranting about things that have perfectly reasonable explanations. what you described in your first post was perfectly compatible with orbital drift, so the simplest explanation was that you were experiencing orbital drift and had no physical knowledge. even now, you boast of a MS in aerospace engineering but you never correctly describe orbital drifting. Their guidance code and whatever else they covered for their masters definitely won't pertain to the "space" in aerospace if they're having trouble coming to grips with the fact two orbits will behave differently to one another. I think that their qualifications are likely irrelevant to the discussion.

first you said that the acceleration was slow, now you say rapidly. which description is false? keep in mind that ksp has smaller planets with faster orbits, and so the effects of drifting are bigger than in real life. both hotel26 and 18watt already did mention the possibility in their answers. if the two ships are sharing the same orbit, one in front of the other, they can be very stable. if they are one above the other, they will drift away much faster. perhaps. what you described the first time is perfectly compatible with normal orbital drift, now you say that the change in speed is fast. I have experienced bugs with trajectories too, so there may be a bug at work. we questioned what you know of phisics because you do not talk like an expert. Except for a few throwaway line that do hint at technical competence, like mentioning the physics of two spaceships orbiting each other (without whom I'd just dismiss your claims of MS as internet bravado), most of your messages come across as just ranting about things that have perfectly reasonable explanations. what you described in your first post was perfectly compatible with orbital drift, so the simplest explanation was that you were experiencing orbital drift and had no physical knowledge. even now, you boast of a MS in aerospace engineering but you never correctly describe orbital drifting. We who are posting here have years of practice at this game. we do not have a degree, we do not know how to write guidance control code, nor we know about crafting techniques for advanced aerospace materials, realistic aerodinamic models, actual gravitational equations, or a bunch of similar stuff I suppose is studied in aerospace engineering. but we do have a lot of practical experience running orbits, rendez-vous, dockings, transfers. I showed ksp to a friend with a phd in physics - he specialized in particle physics, but he took courses in orbital dynamics - and I was surprised at how much more knowledgeable I was than him. I would bet good money that when it comes to this practical understanding of the kind of orbital operations required in this game, we are actually more experts than people with actual degrees. in this specific field of space navigation, we are even more experts than several people working at nasa, because there's plenty of people who are not working on orbital mechanics but are instead building rovers, improving thermal shields, ruggedizing delicate science instruments so that they will survive space, how to establish communication protocol. Or perhaps writing code. And so we also don't appreciate being talked down to with snarky comments questioning what we know about physics either.

Chapter 2: The Ascender Year 1, Day 29 The new KSP has been planning their next move, and they decided to go big or go home. This is the Ascender Capsule, manufactured by AtomicTech, a major contender in the post-war aerospace sector. While the capsule had been a scrapped project from the old program two decades ago, AtomicTech was able to secure blueprints as well as manufacturing components from the warehouse. The Ascender Capsule can hold two kerbals as well as some basic flight instruments. Before the KSP can launch the capsule to orbit, they first have to test the abort system. "John, I think it's working!" "Successful abort system fire! The capsule is still intact." "Let's just drive to the capsule and check it out." "I can't see any damage. I think we're good to go!" Later that evening, John and the growing team of 28 employees held a meeting. "Now that we have a crew capsule, we can attempt to visit whatever the old program left in orbit. The most prominent of these is the Hope Orbital Research Platform. Although the radio equipment used to communicate with the station have long been destroyed, we can try to establish comms to this station. However, we would need to send a crewed vessel to install the equipment within the station." Herbrett blurted, "Why do we have to put the equipment inside the station when we can just attach a utility module to the station on the outside?" Herbrett continued, "We can use those grabbers that you brought to work today, Nathanael. That way, we won't need to worry about whether the station's docking ports still work." John interrupted Herbrett, "Enough talk! Let's get to work!"

Finding Wyvern insufficiently capable of generating Chemicals, I decided to launch an Industrial Refinery module to operate as a dedicated chemical plant. It took 9 days to reach Minmus, by which time Odyssey was finally arriving at Dres. I activated the crossfeed to the landers, giving the nuclear engines access to all the liquid fuel on board. Somehow the crew managed to fully charge the batteries, allowing the vessel to limp in with a constant power drain of a bit over 1 ec per second. With life support shut down and just the inflatable module for habitation, only engineer Ennie Kerman was still at his post. The other two slackers went on strike, if you can believe it. Even with all the LF available, it wasn't going to be enough. Odyssey was going to fly off into Kerbolar orbit. Something to do with a miscalculation over liquid fuel verses liquid hydrogen, which meant the vessel would have less delta-V than expected. To make up the difference, RCS added its miniscule thrust for the duration of the burn, and in fact made the final ten m/s of deceleration that ensured a successful capture. Admittedly, if she hadn't been carrying a 2.5m tank's worth of RCS to begin with, this might not have been neccesary. Talk about cutting it fine! Wishing I'd thought of this earlier, but better late than never. A pair of flat-aspect solar arrays had been sitting on either side of Odyssey's main propellant tank. Their original purpose was to ensure that no matter which direction Odyssey was pointed, it could receive at least some solar power. That meant they were effectively useless extra mass so long as the vessel was oriented to allow its main arrays to point at the sun, which is basically all the time. Ennie Kerman went EVA to move them somewhere more useful. Generating a whopping 3 ec/second, these panels allowed the hydroponics gardens to be reactivated, ensuring that the crew would at least have Supplies to (hopefully) last them until Valkyrie arrives.

I think it's more like a part of the community thinks they don't talk enough and another part thinks they talk too much, and we take turns complaining about it!

This community switches between "they talk too much" and "they don't talk enough" like an overclocked metronome.

I stand corrected. Promise or not, I think it was a bad idea to state that goal. If saves break it’ll look like they failed to meet that goal, and if they have to do extra work or make compromises to stop them from breaking, the game will suffer. Their biggest communication problem is that they talk too much!

it's like 30 minutes into the 0.2 announcement talk iirc.

No need in billions. Thousands of influential adepts; millions of motivated expendables, ready to self-sacrifice, relevant eschatological discourse, secret plan of eternal life and/or reincarnation. Healthy and worthy like never before. Just the low-level crowd formally belongs to all religious and spiritual groups (and in 99% of cases doesn't know the very word "gnosticism"), following the p.1. The first rule of the Fight Club - you do not talk about Fight Club. No need to affect everyone. The elite is enough. Reincarnation, regeneration, thin plane existence, other bonus options for the chosen. Show them a possibility, then have a deal. P.S. Still insisting that SETI should stop sending their silly pictures, and start translating Marx's Das Kapital at the neutral hydrogen frequency. Let's hit'em first!

Oooohohohoho you know you just activated my trap card. Let's start, in no particular order, might mix and repeat things. All of below has been recorded on 23" 1080p monitor. The clutter. The various windows and instruments take a lot of screen space. This is an issue even on nearly 90% of Steam Survey users who have a 1080p screens. Here's why: Can you tell that there are three other windows hidden behind those visible? They all go over each other with no regard to other's positions, and dragging them around to find the one you need is tiresome. Especially since they are sooooo big while also having a lot of unused space inside, with tiny fonts. And while you can resize some of them, it's not what I'd call helpful: This is the maximum horizontal width of parts manager in VAB. See the issue? The thing could hold two columns and keep twice as much data on the same space. All windows should be as flexible as possible. Inconsistency, that may be long. Because for some reason, of four windows visible here, each one has a different style. The sizes, the fonts, the colors... Even the title bars are different. Some are resizeable, some aren't... And it follows throughout the entire game. On this single screenshot here I can spot at least a dozen of different fonts styles, sizes and whatnot, often within a single element. One piece of the navball has four, can you notice? Then just below that.. The fifth. Aaaaand below the navball... 3 different fonts, 3 different sizes, why on Earth is the time smaller than the altitude? The launch button has three as well, and then there's staging, also with at least three: And the flight report... Why exactly is the right half different from the left? And also, I've noticed... What's with the alignment? Two baselines? W H Y ? And even if the font happens to be the same (I like the smooth one) it comes in at least six sizes. All across one interface. That's not a very unified UI if you asked me. Minor thing but needs noting. Some switches are presented as actions, some as status. I think I'd rather also have a On/Off switch for the engine instead of a button. Engine activated: Green. Or dark if deactivated. Now, the thing I hate the most. Form over function. It's something I've dealt with before with another game (https://www.reddit.com/r/Forspoken/comments/zhdr1m/can_we_talk_how_terribly_designed_the_interface/) although this was a demo prior to release. The thing with interface, is that its most important function is being easily readable and clear to the user. Unfortunately, KSP2 isn't that. Get an average person with glasses, make them sit in front of average-sized screen at perfectly reasonable 1080p with 100% UI scale, and show them one of the fullgame screenshots above. Ask them to read the navball or time to PE or fuel consumption of a Dawn engine without leaning forward. I can't do that. And the new additions don't really help. Here's a real size orbital mode navball sphere: Lots and lots of white lines crossing each other with little to no spearation between them. And it's not the worst part. I zoomed in on the screenshot to take this, but it didn't make anything better - can you tell, at a glance, what's in the circle? I can't. I even went for a comparison with KSP1 and huh, who would've guessed... While only slightly larger (it could've been me, it's an old screenshot) and everything is clear and easy to read. Sorry to say, but KSP2 is a regression. And you had such great ideas during development: It's as clean as day and even has hints where other attitude markers are, it's glorious. And it followed on the entire interface, I believe, even with few hiccups (the LCD font in places etc) it was one of your best yet. Same with VAB. Nice, clean modern design, smooth iconography, perfect for a space age game You even had the same or very similar icons in the interface in the last 4 years, but decided to pixelify them. Shame. Please note I'm not talking about layout - it's fine with me. Forgot to mention that the iconography gets even worse in map/tracking station while zooming in or out... Good luck targeting the moon. Of course, Only fixing the scaling would help, but the smoother icons would look so much nicer. All in all, it would be for the better if the retro pixely style was gone and sent to where it belongs - in the museum. Give us the Dragon, not the Starliner (that never went anywhere) Ease of use. Deleting parts in VAB. There are few days around it, Del button, or dropping them into part picker. However, the dropping, which is what I use the most, comes with one problem. It can only be done in few places: Drop them elsewhere, and you either close the part category, or pick another part. Annoying. Better explanation or refinement of saving system. I got that fairly quickly but there are still many people who don't and have a hard time grasping the idea of workspaces. I know that what you save in VAB is a workspace (read as: a document, and it's what you're opening with editor of choice) and below that a vehicle (a page or paragraph) that you choose to launch directly from launchpad/runway. Overriding saving a document under the same name will make you lose the content saved previously, that's obvious - but not clearly explained in the game when it looks like this Save vehicle, then it shows saved vehicles, but they're not actually vehicles but workspaces... You get the idea. It's all over the place. Now onto the other thing.. That orbital info... there isn't enough info to be actually useful. And I'd rather not switch between seeing AP/PE and inclination/whateverelse. Plus relative inclination to target, angle from prograde... All those need their own space together. But I picked this particular screenshot because it has one problem - the timer ends at 6 hours (Kerbin day). If your AP/PE is more than 6 hours away because you're in very high orbit... you won't know it from there. Also, the window titles.. look like some dev variables. But I think that's it for now. More reading in: https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/topic/219151-can-we-talk-about-accessibility/ https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/topic/220482-why-has-the-ui-to-be-so-ugly https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/topic/210240-the-new-ui-for-ksp2-improvements-and-regressions-from-previous-concepts/ (this one is even from before release, right after EA announcement)

That isn't good. Unfortunately, until she hits rock bottom and sees the need for help, there's not much those around her can do to help. But there's a little bit of hope. Let me explain: I have PTSD, depression, and high-performing anxiety, and because they are all friends and needed a new playmate, they brought in OCD for giggles and grins. It took me to the point where nothing made sense; I was mad at myself, in the middle of another "life crisis" (I went from one of these to the other), and there was always agitation under the surface. Your sister sounds like she's close to this stage now. I am no expert in psychology, but I can tell you what I went through. Maybe this will help you understand what your sister may be thinking and feeling: The outward anger and hostility were because I felt I should better control things in my life, but I wasn't. Many things I thought were wrong in my life weren't apparent to anyone else but me. And I could not understand how they could feel things were fine when they were not. So, whenever someone would ask me why I was mad, I'd lash out rather than explain what I was going through. Why should I? In my mind, if they could not see it for themselves, what good would it do for me to explain it to them? The outward anger was also driven by seeing other people "happy, happy!" and wondering why I could not be like that. Some folks seem to have the ability to get hit in the face with a shovel (metaphorically speaking), laugh it off, get up, and go about their day, never even bothered by it. Then there was me; I was depressed, and the lack of enjoyment or the joy of a typical day just ate at my very soul. It made me even angrier and more depressed and fed the ill feelings I already had. The outward anger is also driven by being misunderstood by others. A lot of people around me had no idea what I was going through and would often say stuff that I took (because of my depression) wrong. Sure, some of it was dumb statements, such as, "Snap out of it" or "You've got so much going for you." But when you are buried in depression, your perception of those around you and perceptions about yourself -- you do not see it. All you see are those kinds of comments being critical of you. So, you resent the helpful comments and gestures, even those made in good faith. One of the best things you can do is to let her know you're there, but don't push or back so far away you become unapproachable. Buy her favorite snack food, soda, or other trinkets/gifts as an "I care" gift. It will be met with distrust, skepticism, and questions (and probably anger). But keep doing it, make it unpredictable, and be polite. Eventually, she will let you in. It will not be an easy thing to do. Her self-isolation is a part of her pain from the depression. Her acting out towards the rest of the family resembles a hurt animal striking out against its rescuer. For about four years, I volunteered for both the university's and community college's mental first aid team - and I am the faculty member that as soon as there's a report of a student thinking of suicide, I come to talk to the student. So far, there's been three occasions in the last two years to use my training, unfortunately. I'm good at it because I sank to that point in my life in 2004; I was lucky enough that a good friend kept reaching out and didn't back off, regardless of how nasty and mean I got. I am no psychoanalyst, just a guy who has lived that life. Don't hesitate to involve a family therapist, even if she doesn't go. They will give you and your parents powerful tools to deal with the situation.

Sufficiently spaced out network of individual habitats and evacuations of threatened ones. I.e. how we manage predictable disasters here on Earth right now. Hurricane heading towards Florida? Evacuate. Volcano getting ready to erupt under Grindavik? Evacuate. Asteroid on course to hit Hellas City? Evacuate. There has been a lot of talk about potential methods to deflect threatening asteroids. The problem is that all the feasible ones have to be implemented a long time before inevitability of impact becomes apparent. That means sufficient funding is unlikely to be allocated in time to be effective. Improving technology will eventually change that, but there is still a long way to go.

My sister's a nihilistic ass who hates anything to do with anything. And she is perhaps the worst person to be in a car with. And I had to be with her for two hours talking about "how we should all just kill ourselves" and "I'm too stupid to get a job". She's NOT stupid, far from it in fact, she just refused to put in the work to find opportunities and now she's taking it all out on us. Not that I can say anything. She yells at me, locks herself in her room, and then comes out an hour later with a phony apology. And then the cycle repeats. Sorry to rant to a bunch of strangers on the internet, I just feel you all are the only people I can talk about this to.

The Communotron 16 is a direct antenna. Direct antennas will only talk to ground stations or relay antennas, they cannot talk to each other. If you're trying to make a comm network, you need to use relay antennas.