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Ever since the news dropped, things here in the forum have been rather depressing. Negative, questioning what is happening, attacks on other forum members. Things have taken a turn for the worse, and it makes me sad. We were hungry for KSP2, and in spite of its problems, we played it. Fired it up, dealt with bugs, went on missions. Some people are still playing it, and are still creating oddities. @ShadowZone released a video recently where he flung the four OG Kerbals into the farthest recesses of space. spacetime development might be dead, some people are still playing and getting enjoyment. With that said, I'd like to try something new here. I'd like to have a thread where people talk about things in the game that made them feel happy or good about it. Was it some mission you flew? Or perhaps a discoverable you, um, discovered? Something the game has that you didn't realize before that made you think " all righty then!"? I will start. I've got more than 1000 hours in KSP1, but I had never flown to Jool before. I've been to all the other planets, and landed on all of them. Notice I said landed; I still have not gotten back off Eve. But in KSP2, thanks to For Science!, I flew to and landed on Pol, Bop, and Tylo. I was able to return from both Pol and Bop, while leaving a rover on Tylo. Landing that rover on Tylo was the single biggest achievement in my KSP playing time. I'd like to ask that anyone who responds here to please only talk about things in KSP2 that you either never did in KSP1, or that made you feel good about the game. Nothing negative! We have a ton of those threads already; I do not want this thread to get locked because it dives into what is wrong or that TT is evil. Positivity only!

Yes and the M-21/D-21 incident did lead to the cancellation of these concepts. But there was a group of aerodynamicsts and Physicists who pointed out that the B-70 and the A-12/SR-70 are aerodynamically VERY different aircraft. Also the X-15 would be mounted 3x higher off the wing than the M-21/D-21 combo with Vertical fins instead of inward canted fins (which is what the D-21 actually struck first.) And lastly, The D-21 had a rudimentary Autopilot that couldn't compensate for anything (exactly how many D-21 pods were recovered.... 1!) So on the scale of tolerances; we are talking about is almost an order of a magnitude greater than the very tightly fit M-21/D-21. All that being said. Yes I agree this was risky. (Note the D-21 wingtips are almost the same width as the rudders!) Re the B-52/X-15 issue. It couldn't at all have to do with the fact they had to cut a huge NOTCH out of the B-52s wing and the eddy and vortice generated were striking the rudder directly on the X-15. B-52 was not an ideal launch platform for something the Size of the X-15. If the B-36 would have been able to fly Faster/Higher it Might have been ok. There was even talk about re-tasking one of the two YB-60s (B-36 with 8 J57s and swept wings) to carry the X-15 in the bomb bay like the B-36 did with its FICON aircraft (Which dropped away, flew their mission and then RETURNED and landed in the B-36 Bomb bay! (In theory) Note the B-60 would not actually do well because the wing was so thick (it was just a B-36 wing with a new center section that gave it a 35 degree sweep) that the B-60 could barely fly once it actually flew and it's handling was... in a word... atrocious. Look how thick the wing is! It is still the worlds largest (in size) all jet bomber aircraft in the world. The Bomb-bay, when equipped with cutouts for the wings, could hold an X-15 similar to how Maestro carried the X-1 and X-2s. I actually know one of the Engineers who flew on Maestro for some of those fascinating X-plane flights. BTW Said engineer was scheduled to fly on the X-1-3 flight under the B-50 mother-ship (I don't remember that one's name now) At the end of the flight (they did not drop the X-1) they were de-fuling the X-1 when the plane exploded. The F-84 there is roughly 4/5ths the size fuselage to fuselage of an X-15. In the Case of the FICON the tail goes into the bomb-bay.

Welcome to Kerbalism Hundreds of Kerbals were killed in the making of this mod. Kerbalism is a mod for Kerbal Space Program that alters the game to add life support, radiation, failures and an entirely new way of doing science. Go beyond the routine of orbital mechanics and experience the full set of engineering challenges that space has to offer. All mechanics can be configured to some degree, or even disabled if you don't like some of them. A big part of the mod is fully data-driven, so that you can create your own customized game play with only a text editor and a minimal amount of espresso. Or simply use a set of rules shared by other users. Frequently Asked Questions: FAQ Current version: 3.11 What's new: New and Noteworthy Download: Github - SpaceDock - CKAN Docs & support: Github wiki - Discord - Github issues License: Unlicense (unless stated otherwise, parts might be licensed differently) KSP version: 1.5.x - 1.10.x Requires: Module Manager, CommunityResourcePack See also: Mod compatibility - Change Log - Dev Builds Download and installation Download on Github releases or use CKAN Two packages are available: Kerbalism is the core plugin, always required. KerbalismConfig is the default configuration pack. It can be be replaced by other packs distributed elsewhere. Requirements - Module Manager: must be installed in GameData - CommunityResourcePack: must be installed in GameData Third-party configuration packs Make sure to install exactly one configuration pack only. Don't combine packs unless there is explicit instructions to do so. - ROKerbalism for Realism Overhaul / RP-1 by standecco - SIMPLEX Living by theJesuit - KerbalismScienceOnly for Kerbalism with the science feature only Installation checklist for the "GameData" folder required content : - CommunityResourcePack (folder) - Kerbalism (folder) - KerbalismConfig (folder, can be replaced by a third-party config pack) - ModuleManager.X.X.X.dll (file) Mod compatibility and support Checking the mod compatibility page is mandatory before installing Kerbalism on a heavily modded game. Kerbalism does very custom stuff. This can break other mods. For a lot of mods that breaks or need balancing, we provide support code and configuration patches. However some mods are incompatible because there is too much feature overlap or support is too complex to implement. Documentation, help and bug-reporting - Tutorials and documentation are available at the Github wiki - Need help? Ask on Discord or in the KSP forums thread - You found a bug? - Maybe it's related to another mod ? Check the Mod Compatibility page. - Maybe it's a known issue ? Check the GitHub issues and ask on Discord. - You want to report a bug? - Reproduce it consistently, provide us with screenshots and the KSP.log, modulemanager.configcache and persistent.sfs files. - Report it on Github issues (preferred) or in the KSP forums thread. - You want to contribute or add support for your mod? - Check the technical guide on the wiki - Pull requests are welcome, especially for mod support configs. For code contributions, it is recommended to talk to us on Discord before engaging anything. - Read the contributing documentation - To build the plugin from the source code, read the BuildSystem documentation Disclaimer and license This mod is released under the Unlicense, which mean it's in the public domain. Some parts are released under a different license, please refer to their respective LICENSE files. It includes MiniAVC. If you opt-in, it will use the Internet to check whether there is a new version available. Data is only read from the Internet and no personal information is sent. For more control, download the full KSP-AVC Plugin. What does it do? Kerbalism is a mod for Kerbal Space Program that alters the game to add life support, radiation, failures and an entirely new way of doing science. Go beyond the routine of orbital mechanics and experience the full set of engineering challenges that space has to offer. All mechanics can be configured to some degree, or even disabled if you don't like some of them. A big part of the mod is fully data-driven, so that you can create your own customized game play with only a text editor and a minimal amount of espresso. Or simply use a set of rules shared by other users. All vessels, all the time Contrary to popular belief, the observable universe is not a sphere of a 3km radius centered around the active vessel. All mechanics are simulated for loaded and unloaded vessels alike, without exception. Acceptable performance was obtained by a mix of smart approximations and common sense. The performance impact on the game is by and large independent from the number of vessels. Resources This isn't your classic post-facto resource simulation. Consumption and production work is coherent regardless of warp speed or storage capacity. Complex chains of transformations that you build for long-term life support or mining bases just work. Environment The environment of space is modeled in a simple yet effective way. Temperature is calculated using the direct solar flux, the indirect solar flux bouncing off from celestial bodies, and the radiative infrared cooling off their surfaces. The simulation of the latter is especially interesting and able to reproduce good results for worlds with and without atmosphere. Radiation is implemented using an overlapping hierarchy of 3D zones, modeled and rendered using signed distance fields. These are used to simulate inner and outer belts, magnetosphere and even the heliopause. Solar weather is represented by Coronal Mass Ejection events, that happen sporadically, increase radiation and cause communication blackouts. Habitats The habitats of vessels are modeled in terms of internal volume, external surface, and a set of dedicated pseudo resources. These elements are then used to calculate such things as: living space per-capita, the pressure, CO2 and humidity levels of the internal atmosphere, and radiation shielding. Individual habitats can be enabled or disabled, in the editor and in flight, to reconfigure the internal space and everything associated with it during the mission. Inflatable habitats are driven directly by the part pressure. Life support Your crew need a constant intake of Food, Water and Oxygen. Failure to provide for these needs will result in unceremonious death. Configurable supply containers are provided. Kerbals evolved in particular conditions of temperature, and at a very low level of radiation. You should reproduce these conditions wherever your crew go, no matter the external temperature or radiation at that point. Or else death ensues. The vessel habitat can be climatized at the expense of ElectricCharge. Environment radiation can be shielded by applying material layers to the hull, with obvious longevity vs mass trade off. Psychological needs The era of tin can interplanetary travel is over. Your crew need some living space, however minimal. Failure to provide enough living space will result in unforeseen events in the vessel, the kind that happen when operators lose concentration. While not fatal directly, they often lead to fatal consequences later on. Some basic comforts can be provided to delay the inevitable mental breakdown. Nothing fancy, just things like windows to look out, antennas to call back home, or gravity rings to generate artificial gravity. Finally, recent research points out that living in a pressurized environment is vastly superior to living in a suit. So bring some Nitrogen to compensate for leaks and keep the internal atmosphere at an acceptable pressure. ECLSS, ISRU A set of ECLSS components is available for installation in any pod. The scrubber for example, that must be used to keep the level of CO2 in the internal atmosphere below a threshold. Or the pressure control system, that can be used to maintain a comfortable atmospheric pressure inside the vessel. In general, if you ever heard of some kind of apparatus used by space agencies to keep the crew alive, you will find it in this mod. The stock ISRU converters can host a set of reality-inspired chemical processes. The emerging chains provide a flexible and at the same time challenging system to keep your crew alive. The stock ISRU harvesters functionality has been replaced with an equivalent one that is easier to plan against, as it is now vital for long-term manned missions. The means to harvest from atmospheres and oceans is also present, given the importance of atmospheric resources in this regard. No life-support like mod would be complete without a greenhouse of some kind. The one included in this mod has a relatively complete set of input resources and by-products, and some more unique characteristics like a lamp that adapts consumption to natural lighting, emergency harvesting, pressure requirements and radiation tolerance. A planetary resource distribution that mimics the real solar system completes the package. Reliability Components don't last forever in the real world. This is modeled by a simple system that can trigger failures on arbitrary modules. Manufacturing quality can be chosen in the editor, per-component, and improve the MTBF but also requires extra cost and mass. The crew can inspect and repair malfunctioned components. Redundancy now becomes a key aspect of the design phase. Engines have their own failure system: limited ignitions, limited burn duration, and an overall ignition failure probability will even make your 100th moon landing feel like an achievement! Science Experiments don't return their science output instantly, they require some time to run. Some complete in minutes, others will take months. Not to worry, experiments can run on vessels in the background, you don't have to keep that vessel loaded. There are two different kinds of experiments: sensor readings and samples. Sensor readings are just plain data that can be transferred between vessels without extra vehicular activities, they also can be transmitted back directly. Samples however require the delicate handling by kerbals, and cannot be transmitted but have to be recovered instead. They also can be analyzed in a lab, which converts it to data that can be transmitted. Analyzing takes a long time, happens transparently to loaded and unloaded vessels alike, and can't be cheated to create science out of thin air. An interesting method is used to bridge existing stock and third-party experiments to the new science system, that works for most experiments without requiring ad-hoc support. Transmission rates are realistic, and scale with distance to the point that it may take a long time to transmit data from the outer solar system. Data transmission happens transparently in loaded and unloaded vessels. The resulting communication system is simple, yet it also results in more realistic vessel and mission designs. Automation Components can be automated using a minimalist scripting system, with a graphical editor. Scripts are triggered manually or by environmental conditions. You can create a script to turn on all the lights as soon as the Sun is not visible anymore, or retract all solar panels as soon as you enter an atmosphere etc. User Interface Kerbalism has a nice user interface. A planner UI is available in the editor, to help the user design around all the new mechanics introduced. The planner analysis include resource estimates, habitat informations, redundancy analysis, connectivity simulation, multi-environment radiation details and more. To monitor the status of vessels, the monitor UI is also provided. This looks like a simple list of vessels at first, but just click on it to discover an ingenuous little organizer that allow to watch vessel telemetry, control components, create scripts, manage your science data including transmission and analysis, and configure the alerts per-vessel. Modules Emulation Most stock modules and some third-party ones are emulated for what concerns the mechanics introduced by the mod. The level of support depends on the specific module, and may include: simulation of resource consumption and production in unloaded vessels, fixing of timewarp issues in loaded vessels, the ability to disable the module after malfunctions, and also the means to start and stop the module in an automation script. For Modders Kerbalism has a lot of interfaces ready for other mods to use. If you are a mod developer and want Kerbalism to play nice with your mod, please see the wiki or contact us on discord. Legalese

This challenge was continued with permission from the previous thread manager @sdj64 LINK to the old Jool-5 thread There are over forty-five pages of entries and discussion, so look and see what made it and what didn't LINK to the older Jool-5 thread. There are hundreds of pages of entries and discussion, so look at it to see what worked and what didn't! CHALLENGE RULES Given the scale of this challenge, everyone who completes the mission successfully gets a spot in the hall of fame. 1. No cheating, including the stock debug menu cheats, HyperEdit, kraken drives, or file editing. HyperEdit is allowed for testing but get rid of that H when you fly the real mission! 2. No part-clipping of functional parts (fuel tanks, batteries, crew pods, engines, science parts, SAS) into each other. It is okay to clip structural and non-functional parts, wings, and heat shields. 3. Any number of launches are allowed to assemble the ship in low Kerbin orbit (preferably below 100km, not a hard ceiling though, but do try to stay around or below 100km at most). All launches must be flown! 4. There's funding for one main ship only so all the crew, lander(s) and other stuff has to go to Jool as one big ship. Once the ship leaves LKO, it cannot obtain more parts or fuel unless it mines and refines the fuel itself. The ship can separate once in Jool's SOI. 5. Kerbals must be in a pod or cabin (no seats) for the interplanetary journey. Seats are okay for landing and flying within the Jool system. 6. One refueling mission is allowed in the Jool system if you run out of fuel, unless your ship uses ISRU. The refueling mission can only transfer resources, not parts, to your Jool 5 craft. This mission must actually be flown! 7. On all of the landings, the Kerbal must be able to get out and walk (or swim!) around on the surface. Make sure your ladders work! 8. Use Normal difficulty or harder, except, any ComNet settings are allowed including turning it off completely. 9. All the Kerbals have to arrive back to Kerbin surface at the end of the mission, happy and alive. You are allowed to optionally send up a craft to return them from LKO. 10. Mods / DLC: STOCK: only mods which do not add parts and do not change physics are allowed. This includes any informational, planning, visual, autopilot, or automatic functions. DLC: Any and all DLC made for Kerbal Space Program are allowed. MODDED: Use of most parts mods and certain game mechanics mods are allowed. You NO LONGER HAVE TO ASK if your favorite part pack is allowed! Some parts mods are prohibited. Please see below. Specific Mods: ENTRY SUBMISSION RULES 11. Submit your challenge as an imgur album, with good captions and descriptions, as a video or series of videos, or as a thread in Mission Reports. 12. Pictures or it didn't happen! Please keep the resources tab open, as well as show the informative windows from Mechjeb or KER if you use them. Take a picture of every important moment, including transfers, dockings, landings, stagings, and refuelings. For Jeb's Level, also take pictures of the science screen when you recover your craft. Alternatively, video submissions are a great way to show everyone your mission as well. These will help future participants to see exactly how you accomplished each part! CHALLENGE LEVELS 1ST LEVEL: one Kerbonaut lands on all the moons and come back safely. Low mass and low cost and low parts sub-challenges: with stock parts and physics, how low can you go and still accomplish the mission? NOTE: Low cost submissions may not utilize ISRU, or a negative cost would be possible. (Thanks @jinnantonix!) 2ND LEVEL: two or more Kerbonauts land together on all the moons together and come back safely. 3RD LEVEL: There's not enough time left for training one crew member to be an expert on all of the moons, so five Kerbonauts must go to the mission, with at least one unique Kerbonaut landing on each moon. JEBEDIAH'S LEVEL: collect as much Science as possible! Your score is the number of science points from the Jool system only, returned to Kerbin (not transmitted). Only stock experiments count for this! To score, take pictures of the science screen(s) when you recover the data. Otherwise, the rules are the same as 3rd Level. GATECRASHER / HONORARY MENTIONS: Missions completed the mission in spirit but didn't meet every requirement. ISRU: Use of ISRU will get a note ISRU on the entry description in the hall of fame. This includes stock ore harvesting and converting as well as mods such as Kethane and Karbonite. ISRU is allowed for any level of completion. GRAND TOUR: Not officially part of the challenge, but landing on all planets and moons in the Kerbol system in one mission will earn a GRAND TOUR note and the everlasting praise of all of Kerbal kind. Rule 4 is waived, but any Kerbals on the mission cannot return to Kerbin in between any landings and you still must follow the other rules. Additional optional information to help others see how the mission was accomplished: - Which game versions did you use? - What mods did you use, if any? - How many Kerbals are on the mission? - How many launches were needed to start your mission from Kerbin? - How much did your mission cost? - Did you needed a refueling mission? - Did you bring additional stuff like satellites, rovers, etc? - Share the delta-V information too, if you tracked it! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Well, now this big announcement is in the Kerbal News, all the public is excited about this mission and even the Government is watching! Now it's up to you, to the engineers and to the bravest and craziest Kerbonauts of all time! Completion Badge: Anyone who has finished the challenge can add this badge to their signature. The Low Mass Feather badge is available for entries in the low mass sub challenge. Hall of Fame 1st Level- - @Laie Video here. Used a smaller-than-you'd-expect rocket with a dedicated Tylo lander and a spaceplane shell that encloses the Vall-Bop-Pol lander to make the Laythe lander. A very well done mission with a great video. - @Stratzenblitz75 Video here. Used a completely reusable mission involving a tiny mothership which orbited Tylo and tiny landers that explored the system. I should also point out that no nuclear engines or ions were used in the mission. Truly impressive. - @Ultimate Steve Videos here and here. Used a single launch in career mode sending Val to many places in the system including Vall. Very impressive how quickly the mission was thrown together and carried out. - @IncongruousGoat Album here. A simple, single launch Jool 5 mission that only uses 42 parts! Very well optimized and well done. Good job! - @chargan ISRU Gif here. Used an ISRU shuttle and hopped from Kerbin, to the Mün, to the Joolian moons, to Duna, and finished it off with a glorious vertical landing at the KSC. Excellent job! - @GRS Album here. Used a massive, creatively named mothersheep that carried landers for Laythe and Tylo, landing on Vall and Bop (AND DRES!) by itself. As an added bonus, the lonely Dres was even visited, that doesn't happen very often. Amazing job! - @Challyss Album here. Used a brute force 5 meter launch booster with two 5 meter side boosters. Once in LKO used a vector-power stage to boost to an elliptical orbit, then used a rhino powered mothership to go to Jool, where it completed the mission. - @5thHorseman Videos here. Used a single launch to send three Kerbals to the Jool system, where the ship parked in an elliptical Tylo orbit. From there a tug took the landers to their respective moons where they *wait for it* landed. The ship then fired all three Kerbals home safely. An amazing mission and equally amazing videos. - @Xurkitree Grand Tour Thread here. A surprisingly small mission that not only landed on all the Jool moons, but also every other planet and moon in the system. The mission sent a craft out to Eeloo, which landed and returned to Jool before heading home. Once in orbit Derton was picked up by a recovery rocket and landed safely back on Kerbin. Outstanding. ISRU Video here. I don't even know where to start, Xurkitree didn't just do a Jool 5 in this mission, they did it twice. A large SSTO ISRU craft launched and refueled on Minmus before gravity assisting its way to Jool where it completed the landings and then returned to Kerbin, WHERE IT RELAUNCHED and then detached a small non-ISRU craft which carried out the landings again. A fun note was when the Laythe lander landed by computer control while the Kerbal parachuted down. Great job on your fourth Jool 5 submission! - @dvader Album here. A single launch using only chemical engines. Used several gravity assists to make the trip to Jool cheaper in terms of delta-v. Used a small but capable plane for Laythe, and a donut lander for the other moons (with extra fuel for Tylo and Vall.) Overall a very optimized mission, complete with a near KSC landing. - @fulgur Album here. A very small and well optimized mission with a smaller-than-you'd-expect mothership. Ions were used to scoot Jeb and Vall about the system to the various moons, and then left as the small mothership made its way home, getting into Kerbin orbit with only forty m/s of delta-v remaining. (Talk about close margins!) The crew were returned safely by an Aether SSTO. - @Pro100kerbonaut ISRU Mission report here. Used an SSTO spaceplane to go to Minmus to refuel, then flew off to Jool. This mission is the most impressive in how it handled the Tylo landing. Not only was the landing done using the SSTO, but it came directly from Vall without refueling at Bop or Pol. The landings were all completed flawlessly, but was destroyed in a crash landing back on Kerbin. The pilot survived though, and any landing you can walk away from... - @dnbattley Album here. A direct ascent mission to all five moons, starting with Pol and Bop, then Vall, Tylo, and finally Laythe. The tensions on this mission were very high, as Jeb began his Tylo descent on a NERVA powered craft with a TWR of .9, managing to get it above 1 just in time to pull off the landing. From there Jeb flew to Laythe where he somehow missed the ocean (this might be a KSP first) and used the craft's jets to push it into the water for an ocean launch. After struggling back into orbit, Jeb flew by Tylo back to Kerbin, using a Duna aerogravity assist to get the right trajectory (ARE YOU SERIOUS?) Upon returning to Kerbin he was able to sneak in a Minmus landing. This mission is without a doubt one of the more Kerbal ones submitted, complete with Jeb gliding the final stage down to Kerbin with his EVA chute. - @EveMaster Grand Tour, ISRU Thread here. Additional album here. EveMaster managed to complete the Jool 5 challenge with an ISRU craft, utilizing the power of two mammoth engines and a detachable spaceplane. Also went the extra few million miles and completed a grand tour! Both Bob and Jeb were on this mission, however Bill stayed behind on Eve, so only Jeb is being considered for this entry. Regardless, an excellently executed mission. - @ManEatingApe, @Jacke, @dvader, @Muetdhiver, @Rakaydos, and @Pds314 Mission thread here. What these users have completed is the first community Jool 5 mission for this specific thread, possibly the first ever. Furthermore, this mission was done in a 'caveman' style approach, meaning no maneuver nodes, tier one buildings, and launch mass restrictions. These restraints meant the main ship was built over multiple launches. The landings were carried out by a plane and three identical landers, which carried Jeb to, around, and back to Kerbin from the Jool system with excruciating precision. I highly suggest checking out this mission's thread, it's one of a kind! - @Space Nerd Album here. Using a long nuclear mothership, Jeb and Malvis conquered the Jool system in a surprisingly easy manner. An off-center Bop/Pol lander was docked onto the side of the mothership, leading to one of the more interesting mothership designs. Jeb took Laythe, Tylo, and Vall, and Malvis handled Bop and Pol. Once all the landings were done, they flew back to Kerbin and used a 10 meter heat shield to slow down and splashed into the ocean. - @ralanboyle Video here. Using a single brute force launch, a main station of sorts was put into Jool orbit,. From there a Laythe-plane was released, and upon returning from Laythe, a lander/fuel tank combo (and an extra part for Tylo) took on Tylo, then Vall, then Bop, then Pol. They forgot to put a flag on Pol, but who cares. Also, the lander was able to return to Kerbin all by itself. Quite the capable craft I'd say. The mission is edited into a very nice video, and I suggest giving it a watch if you've got the time. - @Carbonjvd Album here. Using the incredibly stylish IPV Excelsior spacecraft, Tridous Kerman flew to Minmus to refuel, where she picked up two more crew members in Minmus orbit. From there they flew to Jool, where they refueled at Bop. After the tanks were full, they hopped to Pol, then Tylo, then Bop again, then Vall. From Vall the crew hopped back to Bop for more refueling, then flew to Laythe. After converting stored ore into liquid fuel, the crew touched down on an island, then (you guessed it) flew back to Bop! (for more fuel) From this final Bop landing, the Excelsior returned to Minmus where it all began, then safely touched down on Kerbin. A stylish landing for a stylish craft. - @camacju Grand Tour. Album here. This mission is impressive as it not only visited the five moons of Jool, but also every other landable surface in the Kerbol System. The Jool portion of this mission was completed after the mothership completed the Eve portion, then used gravity assists to get to Jool. A Tylo assist put the ship on course to aerobrake at Laythe, and after landing on Laythe the lander was then reused for Tylo. The other moons were completed using a smaller lander, and the brave Kerbonaut landed back at Kerbin after quite an exciting trip. Video here. A very well edited video of a Jool 5 mission which used only liquid fuel! Launching from the runway as a spaceplane, the craft flew up before staging its rapier engines and continuing to orbit on nerva-power. The Laythe landing was done using a smaller spaceplane, and the rest of the landings were done using a very impressive lander which used only 1 nerv engine to land on all the other moons, including Tylo! The lander also served as a trip home and as a heat shield so that the brave kerbonaut could parachute to safety. This mission is beautifully summed up in the video link, and I highly suggest checking it out. A truly unique mission! Video here. Another liquid fuel only mission! This one utilized multiple relaunches of the same spaceplane to put multiple fuel tankers in orbit. From there, the craft departed for Jool after some gravity assists and once again demonstrated the unusual, difficult, and impressive use of a nerv-powered Tylo lander. The video this mission was edited into is nice and tidy as well, and I suggest watching so you can see all the work that went into it. Video here. And yet another Jool 5 mission, but this time with only one engine! A cargo spaceplane with a single rapier made multiple launches to place several fuel tankers into orbit before flying a gravity-assist-utilizing course to Jool. Once in Jool space, the Laythe landing was conducted first, and then the plane ditched its outer shell so that just the rapier engine and a few fuel tanks remained. The craft then docked to a fuel module in orbit and flew to Vall, landed, then went to Tylo where a dedicated fuel drop-tank was used with what I'll dub "backflip staging". From there the Pol and Bop landings were done, with fuel to spare. After a fiery return to Kerbin, the brave Kerbonaut, Wildard, paraglided safely into the ocean. I recommend giving this video a watch, because it's short, to the point, and an amazing display of Kerbal engineering. Grand Tour. Video here. This mission is truly a record breaker, as not only was it a Jool 5, but it is the lowest mass Grand Tour without ISRU record holder, with a take off mass of 14.447 tons, less than a Mammoth engine! To focus on the Jool 5 portion of the mission, a spaceplane made a bouncy, thrash-flippy landing, then a tiny tiny lander was used to tackle Tylo. Pol and Bop were handled by a small ion lander, and Vall was handled by a lander so small it looks like a pancake. You should definitely give this mission's video a watch, as words cannot truly describe just how insanely optimized this mission was. - @Goufalite Video here. This mission began with the assembly of a main mothership in LKO. Once complete, the ship cruised to Jool where it used gravity assists to achieve orbit. From there, the spaceplane was deployed to Laythe, but missed its target island. Never fear! The spaceplane had such high performance it was able to fly to a nearby island. Once back with the mothership, the SSTO was drained and detatched, and a capsule on its nose was undocked and docked to the Tylo lander. The Tylo lander used 2 aerospike engines to blow its way to the surface, and the final stage of the lander redocked to the mothership to be reused as the lander for Vall, Bop, and Pol. After visiting Vall and Pol, the lander flew by itself (and out of connectivity range) to Bop, where it landed and returned to Pol all on its own (Goufalite found this method was more fuel efficient). After returning to the mothership at Pol, a Tylo gravity assist sent the crew home, and both safely landed only 50 kilometers from the KSC. This mission made me nostalgic for my first Jool 5 mission, which in turn makes this mission special to me. Nice job, @Goufalite. - @king of nowhere Grand Tour. Mission thread here. This mission was done using Kerbalism, and an absolute UNIT of a mothership. Appropriately named the DREAM BIG, this ship conducted the Jool 5 challenge with dozens of farms, radiation shields, and drop ships to keep itself self-sufficient. Fighting food limitations, mod issues, solar storms, insanity and radiation damage, the crew of DREAM BIG flew throughout the entire Kerbol system planting flags on every world. The mission thread is an entertaining read, and has a video tour of the DREAM BIG spacecraft, which I highly recommend you check it out. I congratulate @king of nowhere on completing the mission, and for not losing their sanity in the process! Mission thread here. This mission was done with tremendous build constraints, and done entirely in a no-contract career mode save. Each launch was limited to 20-25 tons, meaning it took dozens of flights to finish the main ship, the Marco Polonium. The ship used many cost and weigh saving methods, including using the Laythe lander as a stage on Tylo, and by using claws instead of docking ports in some cases. The mission also visited Duna, Ike, Eeloo, Dres, and Eve (orbit) as well. This mission is one of the most entertaining ones I've reviewed (along with one of the most optimized) and I highly recommend giving it a read. Mission thread here. This mission was much like @king of nowhere's previous two in the sense that it involved Kerbalism and self-imposed building constraints. The result was a Jool 5 mission designed and flown to be as realistic as possible, and done with a maximum LKO mass of 140 tons. Bill and Bob took the Economic Downturn and its support craft to Jool and visited Tylo first, using the Seated Man lander, then made way for Laythe to deploy the Sole spaceplane, each accompanied by the space tug Right Answer. Sole's upper stage was reused as a Vall lander, while Seated Man's upper stage was used to land on Bop and Pol. For the inner three moons, great care was taken to limit the radiation damage incurred on the crew, with Bill being irradiated all the way to 95% upon his return to Economic Downturn. The return trajectory had to be tweaked a few times to prevent the capsule overheating, but Bill and Bob ultimately prevailed, and returned to Kerbin with nearly 500kg of samples. This mission is one of the few anxiety inducing submissions due to the challenges imposed by Jool's radiation belt. If you are a fan of gripping mission threads, I suggest giving this one a read. - @Lt_Duckweed Video here. This Jool 5 mission is notable for three reasons. Firstly, it is fully recoverable. Secondly, it only uses two engines, being the nerva and rapier. And thirdly, it was edited into a masterpiece of a video. This mission began with a launch just west of the KSC, and made a direct transfer to Jool. Upon Jool arrival, the elegently designed craft deployed a nerva-propelled lander, which performed the Tylo landing. After refueling at the main ship, the lander then visited Vall, Bop, and Pol with refueling trips to the main ship in between. The lander then returned to the main craft, which transfered to Laythe, completing the final landing. The craft then returned to Kerbin and came to a stop on the KSC runway, returning with it every part it launched with. I must repeat the high quality video the mission is edited into, and strongly suggest giving it a watch. - @bwest31415 Album here. This mission began with the launch of a long thin rocket which was followed by a normal transfer to Jool. Upon arrival to Jool however, inflatable heat shields were used to induce a Joolian aerobrake, a maneuver I've scarcely seen used since the addition of reentry heating to the game. The first landing to be done was Laythe, and the final stage of the lander was used to land on Vall and Tylo. The lander then left the main ship behind and traveled to Pol, then Bop, then back to Kerbin all without refueling. Jeb landed safely back on Kerbin after a toasty aerocapture, and exited the pod to take in a nice mountain view. - @18Watt ISRU, Thread here. This mission was done as both a Jool 5 and a Kerpollo submission. The mission began with a brute force launch and direct transfer to Jool. The mothership used wolfhound engines, which was good for TWR but slow when the ship was fully fueled. The ship flew first to Tylo, and after landing, the Tylo ascent stage would be reused for later landings. Next, the ship went to Bop to refuel, then to Laythe, where a staged spaceplane returned the brave Kerbonaut to the mothership. Next Val went to Vall, then the ship went to Pol and landed, before returning the crew to Kebrin, who parachuted to the surface of one of Kerbin's icecaps. - @OJT ISRU, Thread here. This mission was fully reusable* (apart from deployed fairings but we couldn't decide if that counted or not) and landed every component of the main ship back on Kerbin upon finishing the Jool system's exploration. The mission began with three launches, one for the mothership, one for the lander, and one for the SSTO spaceplane. Due to unfortunate moon placements, no gravity-assisted captures were possible and a retroburn was conducted. From there, a surprise Laythe aerocapture was conducted, saving much needed fuel. After the Laythe landing, the main ship flew to Vall, left the plane in orbit, and then landed with the lander beneath it and refueled on the surface. Next up was a Tylo landing with razor thin fuel margins, followed by Pol and Bop. It is worth noting that this mission did not repeat OJT's previous Jool 5 mission's Pol refueling process, in which the lander did numerous trips to the surface to bring tiny bits of fuel up to the main ship. With the landings complete and plenty of fuel to spare, the ship flew back to Kerbin where it landed piece by piece, with the lander being launched an SSTO parachute module. An excellent mission, and no doubt a fine achievement. - @kspfreak Video here. This mission not only visited the moons of Jool, Bop's Kraken, and in a rather small vehicle, but also visited every other moon in the entire Kerbol System! This mission's video is a fun watch, and ends with a fun paraglide back to the KSC. A mini grand tour of sorts, and very well done. - @JeDoesStuff ISRU, Video here. An SSTO submission! Coming in with a mass at just under 30 tons, JeDoesStuff showed off an incredibly refined ISRU SSTO by flaunting it around the Jool System. Included on the spaceplane are subtle but clever features to aid in launching horizontally, such as Vernier thrusters on the nose to raise attitude during takeoff, as well as a large landing gear that is only deployed to angle the craft. I haven't seen the latter of those additions on an SSTO before, so I applaud the ingenuity! The video this submission is contained within is also very well edited, resulting in a brief, yet concise viewing experience. If you're looking for a fun video to watch, or to see a razor-thin-margin Tylo landing, then this submission is for you. Low Mass - @EvermoreAlpaca Video here. Mass of 6.2 tons. Spaceplane launch, gravity assists off Kerbin and Eve to reach Jool. Landed on Laythe with the same rapier used in the launch stage, returned to orbit with an incredible TWR, scooted over to Tylo where the most bare-bones Tylo lander I've ever seen was used to land on and take off from Tylo (saved fuel by having Bill push it to the top of the mountain), flew over to Vall where the landing was done using staged batteries and a single ion engine. The Vall lander (which was also part of the Laythe lander) completed the last two landings on Bop and Pol and returned to Kerbin using many more gravity assists before preforming an aerobraking, with Bill parachuting to the space center and landing atop the RnD. - @Alpaca Z Video here. Mass of 5.8 tons (Current Record!). Vertical launch using a whiplash ramjet engine, which was staged prior to orbital insertion. Resonant orbits with Kerbin and Mun assists were used to set up a KEKKJ gravity assiste route to save fuel. Spider engines were used in a two-stage Laythe lander design to save weight, and EVA construction was used to rebuild craft to negate the need for decouplers or rebuild the craft (or get away with only bringing one chair). Landings were otherwise routine apart from an incident on Tylo where the lander fell on its side, requiring an intuitive solution to rebuild the craft in such a way it could use redundant engines as support pillars. The video is very well narrated and goes into much more detail regarding the craft's design and flight plan, I highly recommend watching it to get the full picture of this mission. - @camacju Video here. Mass of 5.2 tons (Current Record!). This mission not only shatters the previous record, but does so with an impeccably made video. Launch mass was saved in numerous ways, one of which involved using tiny flags in place of landing gear for the horizontal KSC Runway takeoff. EVA construction was used to reassemble the craft(s) into what was needed at any given point during the mission. The vessels flown and techniques used are difficult to describe, so I highly encourage a watch of this mission to see some of the best of Kerbal engineering. - @camacju and @Ultimate Steve Grand Tour, Video here. Mass of 7.6 tons. This is a meticulously crafted and borderline perfectly executed low mass mission. This was not only a Jool 5, but also an entire grand tour weighing not even 8 tons! The video's excellent editing allows it to speak for itself, and I highly recommend you watch this mission to see perhaps the greatest low mass mission in the history of KSP. Low Cost - @jinnantonix Video here. 34,663 funds. The thread's first low cost submission! Using a low cost launch vehicle and a K-E-K-K-J flyby route, the mission put Val and a fuel-tanker station in elliptical Laythe orbit. From there one lander tackled Laythe, and another tackled the other four moons, with an extra few stages for Tylo. It is worth mentioning that this mission used no electrical charge and relied entirely on engine gimbal and some RCS to steer. On the way back, a double Eve flyby helped slow down, so an aerocapture could be done at Kerbin, where Vall proceeded to parachute onto the VAB. - @camacju Mission here. 24,070 funds. This mission used a SRB powered launch stage and a terrier powered transfer vehicle to get the landers to Jool (after numerous gravity assists). A dedicated Laythe lander tackled the ocean-world, while a multi-stage Tylo lander tackled the rest of the moons, and returned the brave Kerbonaut Wildard Kerman to Kerbin. Before heading back however, the new space-construction method was utilized to steal a solar panel from the transfer stage, marking the first time this creative form of staging has been used. Mission here. 17,635 funds (Current Record!). This mission is a more stripped down version of @camacju's previous low cost mission. This mission featured a visit to Laythe's ocean floor, and utilized eva construction to manually remove empty fuel tanks from the mission. Additionally, eva fuel tanks were used to refill the brave kerbonaught's jetpack to enable fuel savings by extended jetpack use. Low Parts - @bayesian_acolyte ISRU, Album here. A small, single stage craft comprising of 31 parts. Bayesian_acolyte said there could have been some part count improvements, but even without it the mission still did so much with so little. This mission shows just how far ISRU can be stretched, especially with that Tylo landing. - @Majk Thread here. A simplistic Jool 5 mission consisting of only 30 parts . The mission began using a very basic launch stage, and flew to Jool using a long nuclear ship. Lander reuse enabled part count savings, and usage of the nuclear ship as an ablative heat-shield helped return Val to Kerbin's surface in one piece. - @Majk Video here. Easily the most simple Jool 5 mission completed to date, accomplished using only 9 parts (Current Record!). This mission started with the 9th part, an RTG, stowed inside the command pod before installing it in orbit. It is also worth recognizing that a clever method of timewarping in the tracking station enabled refueling to take place while utilizing only a single RTG. The submission takes the form of a short, concise, and wel narrated video, and I highly encourage giving it a watch. 2nd Level - @jinnantonix ISRU, Album here. Used a big launch with a self-refueling vector-powered lander that made multiple Laythe landings and mined ore from every moon. Two kerbals were landed on each moon and the lander was recovered at KSC. - @Kerbolitto ISRU, Album here. Excellent mission done using two space shuttles capable of refueling on moons. Absolutely amazing job. In all things I ever thought I would see happen in KSP, a space shuttle landing on Tylo was not one of them. - @Marschig ISRU, Videos here. Not one, not two, but three ISRU planes flew to Jool and to all five moons on both the 3rd and 2nd levels. The SSTOs also visited Duna and Minmus in their missions before landing back at the KSC. Truly exceptional. This is the first time I've seen three Jool 5s all submitted at one time! - @PhoenixRise86 Album here. Used a mothership for the first part of the mission, then resorted to ions to get to Ike and Minmus, then safely back home. Also, this is the first 2nd level mission to not use ISRU. - @GRS: Album here. The highly anticipated Sheep v2 did not disappoint, and went above and beyond by visiting not just Jool's moons but also Kerbin's and Dres. Used massive nuclear boosters to get around the Jool system and the Tythe lander to get two Kerbals on every moon and Dres, before using the Sheep v2 to land the entire crew on Minmus and Mun. Spectacular! - @Xurkitree ISRU Video here. This modded mission utilized ISRU, a nuclear mothership, and eight aerospikes to land on all five of Jool's moons with Cerdrin and Lodous Kerman. Returned the lander and mothership to LKO where a separate rocket retrieved the crew. I highly encourage watching the video submitted, it is excellently edited and the music supports the awe of the mission. - @QF9E Thread here. This mission used a blunt-force approach by lifting off on a powerful launch stage, and made quick work of Jool's moons. The moons were all visited by one lander, which dropped various attachments that helped it land on some of the bigger moons. At the end of the mission, the three brave kerbonauts safely touched down in the ocean, and a BFR style spacecraft recovered the remains of the lander in Kerbin orbit for historical preservation. Truly an impressive mission indeed! - @Mars-Bound Hokie ISRU Mission here. Using the Anubis II SSTO, Tancan, Fernal, and Kenby Kerman flew to Minmus to refuel, then blasted off for Jool. After touching down on Laythe to refuel, the crew went for Bop, then to Tylo. After landing with no liquid fuel to spare, the Anubis II was refueled, then launched for Pol. After a risky auto-piloted landing, the ship refuel before bounding to Vall, where the crew had a group picture. Heading back to Kerbin, a mix of brute force and aero-braking was used to get the trajectory needed to get back to the KSC, and then the crew refused to ditch the plane and pulled off the legendary runway landing. - @king of nowhere Mission here. "And so I completed the Jool 5 in day 383, 1 hour and 9 minutes of a new career" are the words typed by @king of nowhere at the end of the mission thread, and fundamentally capture the astronomical accomplishment documented within it. In a career save speedrun, it was decided to focus on a Jool 5, and the mission was optimized for time rather than mass or cost. The amounts of delta-v put into each maneuver to achieve bullet-like trajectories around the Kerbolar and Jool systems is simply jaw dropping. Over the course of the flight, the La coscienza di xenon and its landers managed to plant flags on all 5 moons within a 12 day window, which I don't believe has ever been done before. If you wish to see the chronicles of a one-of-a-kind, record setting Jool 5 mission, the flight of the La coscienza di xenon is the mission thread for you. Grand Tour Mission here. @king of nowhere's second Kerbalism Grand Tour, but with radiation shielding 3 times less effective, bugs, life support issues, frantic crew members smashing fuel cells and dumping food overboard, and so much more! This mission chronicles the Nail Bolt on its tour around the solar system, finding monoliths on every world and making it back in roughly two decades. This mission thread covers the begins, rebeginnings, redesigns, quick fixes, and compromises that took place during the Bolt's journey not just to Jool's 5 moons, but to every other surface as well. This is one of the most thorough submissions the challenge has seen, and is a great resource for those considering Kerbalism entries of their own. - @Lyra Mission here. A single launch mission! Using a spaceplane for Laythe, a notably slim Tylo lander (with a reusable upper stage for Vall), and an ion lander for Bop and Pol, this mission was a pleasant, self contained romp around the Jool System. One unique aspect of this mission I've seldom seen elsewhere was the use of claws on the nuclear mothership's outer hull. This allowed the landers to not need docking ports and attach to the hull like barnacles. A very clever, mass saving decision for the landers for sure! 3rd Level - @iAMtheWALRUS Grand Tour, ISRU, Album here. Used SSTOs to launch the mission and used moon hopping to get around the Kerbol system. Very nicely done. Also, first 1.4 submission - @sturmhauke Album here. To put it in the words of the pilot them self; "A mostly reusable mission to all 5 of Jool's moons. Single launch SSTO carrier drone, with a separable mothership and 5 landers." Very well done and efficient mission. Used fuel cells to power ion crafts for Bop and Pol, sent a plane to Laythe, and conquered Tylo with a rocket lander. - @mystifeid Album here, ISRU. Used two launches to put a mothership and a universal lander into orbit. Then used left over launch stage to boost to Jool and then around the system until it ran out and was staged at Tylo. Bob landed on every moon, accompanied with a different Kerbal for every moon. Very nice mission, and even had the added bonus of a near KSC landing. - @PhoenixRise86 Album here. Used a single launch of pure rocketry, no jets, ions, or nukes used in the entire mission. This mission did the Jool 5 mission in style, with some of the most interesting landers I've ever seen, including an aerospike Laythe plane. - @Marschig ISRU, Videos here. Not one, not two, but three ISRU planes flew to Jool and to all five moons on both the 3rd and 2nd levels. The SSTOs also visited Duna and Minmus in their missions before landing back at the KSC. Truly exceptional. This is the first time I've seen three Jool 5s all submitted at one time! - @jinnantonix ISRU, Video here. Of all the Jool 5 missions I have seen in this thread so far, none treat their Kerbals better than Jinnantonix has. The craft was modular in design and split into several different arrangements for various landings, and came with a gravity spin for deep space transit. Very considerate, and very awesome. - @Grogs Album here. Two launches to build the main ship in orbit, one crew launch for realism. Used a giant transfer stage to get the landers to Jool. Chemical engines pushed the landers about the Jool system, with nine Kerbals in total being involved in the mission. Once the landings were completed the mothership returned to Kerbin where a fourth launch collected the Kerbals and returned them safely to Kerbin. - @Pipcard ISRU Thread here. A well executed, eight Kerbal mission with one of the longest ships I've ever seen in this game. Excellent mission that toured the Jool System in an engaging thread. Mission was assembled in multiple parts, flew to Jool, landed on the moons (being sure to refuel on Bop and Pol when needed), EVA jetpacked off Tylo, and the crew was returned to Kerbin by a separately flown space plane. - @Kerbolitto ISRU Mission here, here, and here. Kerbolitto's second submission! Using a space shuttle with several surface experiments, a crew of eight explored the system. The Tylo landing was done with perfect margins, landing with no fuel left! This craft may also hold the record for lowest TWR launch of Bop in history, and an outpost on Laythe with a mini-plane was even constructed. Bob chose to stay behind and man the base while the crew returned home. Excellent end to an excellent mission! - @Ksp Slingshooter Album here. Assembled the main ship using multiple launches, then flew to Jool, settling in an elliptical Jool orbit with some help from a few gravity assists. From there the landers detached and flew to their moons, one by one and completed their landings. Due to some unexpected occurrences at Laythe, the Vall lander swooped in and rescued the Kerbal, taking both back to the mothership. Without enough room in the command pods for everyone, two brave Kerbals rode back to Kerbin on ladders, detaching and re-rendezvousing during timewarp. A rescue craft was launched, and met the mothership just in time, with only three minutes to transfer the Kerbals before a fiery re-entry. Truly a Kerbal mission! - @RoninFrog ISRU Thread here. Using the gloriously huge HMS Sauron, Jeb and 16 friends took to Jool in this massive SSTA. First they stopped at the Mun, then flew to Pol, then Tylo, then Vall, Laythe, and finally Bop. On the way back to Kerbin, time and fuel and the positions of the planets made a Duna landing prove itself most useful, before heading back to the Mun, and finally, back to Kerbin. This 1 stage mission has some amazing screenshots in its thread, as well as most amusing comments for each picture. If you're wanting to learn more about an ISRU approach, I suggest giving this mission a peak. - @OutInSpace Video here. Using a total of eight launches, this mission's mothership was constructed methodically, complete with an enormous pair of transfer boosters. After heading to Jool directly, the mothership flew to Tylo, Vall, and Laythe by itself, and sent an ion craft to Bop and Pol instead. After numerous attempts, the Laythe plane was finally able to show what it could do, and the 5 crew returned to Kerbin orbit, where they were picked up by a landing craft. If you want to see the nitty-gritty maneuvers used during a Jool 5 mission, I suggest you check out this mission's video. Its editing and methodicalness make it an unintentional flight-tutorial for getting to Jool. - @Entropian ISRU Mission here. Using a 5 meter tank with 5 meter tanks strapped on the side and a large cluster of mastodon engines, the craft rocketed off the pad to Minmus, where it refueled and went off to Jool. Landing on Laythe proved to a close call, with ZERO delta-v remaining upon touchdown. From there the ship bounced to Vall, Tylo, Pol, and Bop, before making a rough splashdown on Kerbin. It is worth noting that the crew did forget to put a flag on Bop. However since every other mission criteria was met and the craft was landed on Bop it is still being counted. - @GRS Grand Tour. Mission here. This time with the Sheep v4 the Jool moons were visited again, along with 60 other destinations! Relying heavily on ion power, landing after landing was accomplished visiting worlds close to the sun, around Jool, and even outer dwarf planets. So many worlds were mentioned that the Jool 5 portion is only a tiny fragment of the overall mission. There is genuinely too much in that mission to describe here, so I highly suggest you check out the most expansive sheep yet's thread! - @s_gamer101. Mission here. This mission began with the launch of an enormous reusable launch system that placed the main ship in orbit. A trip to Jool ended with a fiery aerocapture above Laythe, where two of the crew members took a small spaceplane to the surface. After a tricky fuel situation in which drop tanks were accidentally kept as huge pieces of ballasts, the Tylo tug was used as an extra stage to boost the main ship. This proved to be enough delta-v, as once the landings were completed the ship cruised back to Kerbin, where they parachuted safely to complete the mission. - @AlpacaMall Mission here. This mission began with the launch and orbital construction of the KSS-J "Orca". Engineer construction added fuel lines and removed unneeded RCS thrusters, and the craft departed for Jool with a reusable lander upper stage, with lander stages for Laythe and Tylo. The landings were completed in the following order: Laythe, Tylo, Vall, Pol, Bop. From Bop, the Orca was left to serve as a relay station while the crew module left for Kerbin. The vessel landed with all the crew and 23458 science. - @BeanThruster Album here. This mission began with the launch of Vapidity, the mothership used during the mission. Instead of going to Jool, Vapidity made its first flight to an E-class asteroid so it could refill all of its fuel tanks (it launched almost empty to save weight). After flying to Jool, the first landing took place on Tylo, before leaving the engine nacelles in case later refueling was needed. Next, the last stage of the Tylo lander was used to land on Vall, then the lander flew solo to Bop where it awaited the rest of the ship. Vapidity took the time to take a spaceplane to Laythe, then went back to low Tylo orbit to refuel. Vapidity met the Vapidlander at Bop, conducted the landing, then went to Pol to do the same. Vapidity returned to Kerbin before the crew landed using the Laythe spaceplane. In total, the crew collected 20113.6 science. - @RuBisCO ISRU Album here. This mission began with a lot of mainsail engines to push the main craft into orbit, and delivered not one, but seven Kerbals to the surface of each moon. The first visit was Pol, where cleverly built piston legs kept the refueling craft perfectly level. Next was Bop, then Vall, then Tylo, where a rover and lab were brought to the surface and returned to orbit (except Tylo where it got left behind). For the Laythe landing, the crew took down a spaceplane, as well as a helicopter and a floating lab with plane-refueling capabilities. The helicopter was used to collect science from the local area, and after being refueled, the plane returned to orbit. After the main ship was refueled on Pol, the crew returned home. - @18Watt ISRU , Mission here. This mission is nearly identical to 18Watt's previous submission, but now has accommodated a unique Kerbal for each moon, bumping it from a 1st to a 3rd level submission. Main ship refueled on Minmus before heading to Jool, refueled on small moons, and pilots Val and Billy Bobfurt flew each unique specialist to their respective moons. - @Krazy1 ISRU, Album here. This mission was done with the Principia mod, which makes gravity and orbits behave more realistically. The spacecraft used was the "2 by 4", named after its two mammoth engines and four nervs. First the craft launched to Minmus, then visited a passing asteroid, then went back to Minmus to refuel, then shot off to Jool. After the Laythe landing, there was some trouble getting to Vall due to orbital issues. After Vall came a very bouncy Tylo landing, which was followed by a Pol landing, and then a Bop landing. It is worth noting that Bop is orbiting retrograde in this mod for orbital stability. After completing the landings and experimenting with weird orbits, the 2 by 4 traveled home, refueled on Minmus to prep for landing, and then touched down safely on Kerbin with its crew of 5. ISRU, Album here. This mission utilized an orange and gray aesthetically pleasing spacecraft. Once launched into orbit, the craft refueled on Minmus, then shot off to Jool where it landed on Vall, then flew to Tylo where it performed this landing, before nearly burning on Laythe, then finished up with Bop and Pol. Upon returning to Kerbin, some excess ore was turned to fuel to save weight, and the crew splashed down 10km from the KSC. - @Kimera Industries. Mission here. This mission's mission thread chronicles the Avocado on its journey to Jool's moons and back, using appropriately named components and landers. Due to its nuclear propulsion, the escape burn was split in two, though did not go gently into that good night, and upon arriving to Jool, took use of a convenient Tylo assist to go almost directly to Laythe. From Laythe, a lander was dispatched to Vall and Pol, then the entire ship reunited and migrated to Tylo where the landing was achieved on the fifth try. Next came Gilly 2.0 Bop, where an interesting SPOILER was discovered. Upon returning to Kerbin with little to no time for caution, the cargo container and its draggy friends kept the craft from overheating during airbraking, and the crew landed to live another day. Jeb's Level - @Xurkitree Grand Tour, ISRU Album Here. Collected 19,711.3 science from Jool on a girl's night out mission with no lack of gravity assists. A note from the author said that the mission greatly improved their skills in KSP and proved that fact well with the insane gravity assists they pulled off. Also first Jeb's Level on the new thread yay! - @ManEatingApe Video here. And here. And here. And here. And here. And here. Collected 16,532.0 science from Jool. There isn't anything I can say about this mission except you need to see it for yourself. Exclusively low tech was used, and collected in space science from all biomes. This mission did the near-impossible, with primitive parts, and landed all Kerbals safely back on Kerbin. - @SolarAdmiral Video here. Collected 42,296 science from the Jool System. Single launch on a cluster of three meter parts, before heading off to Jool. Started with Laythe first, landing using a floating platform. Science was collected with a small jet-powered boat. Next stop was Tylo, where a rover was used to collect science from many biomes. On Vall one landing was done, and a hop added to it before heading to orbit again. Numerous biomes collected from Bop and Pol by hopping around in their low gravities. Direct shot home and landed all seven Kerbals to tell the tale. Absolutely astounding mission! - @jinnantonix ISRU Video here. Collected 82,510 science from the Jool System. Single launch, one much smaller than you might expect. Used a plane to gather large amounts of science from Laythe, dove into Jool's atmosphere, grabbed science from almost if not everywhere, and even managed to use the Laythe plane as the final stage on the Tylo landing. Had an artificial gravity system to facilitate the kerbals, and landed back at the KSC. Honestly jinnatonix managed to do so much in this video I can't describe it all here so I suggest you just watch the video. Amazing job. - @GRS Album here. Collected 28,643 science from the Jool System. The long awaited Sheep mission that satisfied both the Kerpollo and Jool 5 requirements led by Simone Kerman that explored the Jool system and returned home Apollo style. The mission had a heavy launch and went to, around, and from Jool using a massive nuclear stage. The usage of the Scifi visual pack gave the mission a unique look as it took science from every moon (including Jool's upper atmosphere!) in style. Incredible. - @Jim123 Video here. Collected 8780.9 science from the Jool System. Single giant launch put a large nuclear mothership in orbit. Flew straight to Laythe where the landing was completed with a dual stage to orbit (and Jeb's jetpack). From there the crew went to Vall and landed, before heading to Tylo and dropping one of the most Kerbal looking Tylo landers I've ever seen to the surface. After Tylo biome hopping was used on Bop and Tylo, before a pair of service modules detached and went back to Kerbin, boosting each other home where the crew landed. Nice video. - @jost ISRU Album here. Collected 16940.2 science from the Jool system. Flew to Jool using a long nuclear mothership. From there an ion ore probe helped find ore on every moon but Laythe for the rocket lander. Laythe used a three seat plane for the landing, and even found a geyser while on the surface. Landed on Tylo with 1m/s to spare before refueling, and landed everyone safely back on Kerbin after leaving the nukes in a graveyard orbit around Kerbin. Excellent! - @Beriev Album here. Collected 49430.1 science from the Jool system. This entire mission was done in a 6.4x solar system. Launched off the pad with an absolutely enourmous rocket, fittingly dubbed the 'Absolute Unit'. Used many kicks to get out to Jool, where the ship split up to tackle the moons. For Laythe and Tylo, ascent vehicles were landed separately, before the crew arrived on-surface. Later, both sets met up at Vall, then flew to Pol, then Bop, and then to Dres. After a fun journey, the Absolute Unit returned to Kerbin, and the crew landed safely. This mission has an incredible execution and design, as well as a well-captioned Imgur album. I highly suggest giving it a look. - @Pro100kerbonaut Video here. Collected 10238 science from the Jool system. This mission was done with a rather interesting, asymmetrically balanced ship, and had quite the bouncy ride. On Tylo parkour was done, on Laythe swimming. On Vall two landings were done, and on Pol and Bop the lander bounced around. This mission used a combination of a gravity assist off Tylo and a retro-burn to capture at Jool, and upon return to Kerbin parachutes were attached to the crew section using a klaw. A fun mission with great editing. - @king of nowhere ISRU Mission thread here. Collected 105136 science (Current Record!) from the Jool system. This mission was insane from its conception, with the goal to collect every single bit of science from the Jool system as possible. While this goal was not ultimately accomplished, the mission is still one of (if not) the greatest Jool 5 submissions I have ever seen. To collect science on each world, a durable lander known as the Dancing Porcupine was deployed and driven on all moons but Laythe. For Laythe, a spaceplane called Absolutely NOT Albatross was used to collect science from each biome. In fact, Absolutely NOT Albatross did even more than just Laythe. Using a multi-stage attachment, Absolutely NOT Albatross visited the lower atmosphere of Jool and returned to tell the tale. The craft's brave pilot even took an EVA report while in flight before ascending. The main ship dubbed the Flying Christmas Tree, and was capable of refueling on low gravity worlds. Upon returning to Kerbin, a craft launched to return the brave Kerbonauts to their home-world. Having visited every biome on every moon, it is no surprise that this mission amassed more science than any other Jool 5 mission before it. I highly recommend viewing this mission's main thread. Amazing job king of nowhere! Mission thread here. Collected 11395 science from the Jool System. This is my favorite submission to the Jool 5 Challenge I have ever reviewed. The sheer amount of effort put into this mission cannot be overstated. King of Nowhere started this mission as a nanocristalline diamond caveman mission, which in short meant no contracts, no facility upgrades, no quicksaving, on career mode, while starting the save with severe limitations. While the mission ended up needing quick-loading, it still is eye popping to see just how much work went into it. Each launch (in the VAB) was limited to 18 tons maximum, so a work around was used by having docking ports around the base of the rocket, to which separate boosters would be docked using a runway-launched rover. This meant that many launches required multiple launches of booster attachment vessels before the rocket itself could attempt to leave the pad. After over 100 launches, the Navis Sideralis Neanderthalensis and all its cargo were ready, and the ship departed for Jool, leaving a most amusing pattern of drop tanks in its wake. Upon reaching Jool, disaster struck when the Tylo lander suffered an anomoly, and quicksaves were needed to complete the Jool 5. While at Jool, science modules were discarded after use because a lack of KSC upgrades prevented their resetting, and every aspect of the mission, from flying between moons to the landings themselves, were executed with meticulous testing and prior calculation. I cannot possibly explain everything this mission did in this little blurb, so I highly encourage anyone who wants to see some of the best Kerbal engineering I've ever seen to check out the linked mission thread above. - @OJT ISRU Mission thread here. Collected 26871.3 science from the Jool System. This mission thread contains some of the most eye-catching, visually stunning KSP screenshots I have ever seen in a Jool 5 submission. The mission itself was tested and proofed in sandbox, and consisted of a long, skinny mothership, a spaceplane, and an ISRU lander for Tylo. With the lander and plane hanging from docking points on the main ship, the craft boosted to Jool and used a Tylo flyby to capture. Visiting Vall first, the lander took around 100 days to refuel. The ship then flew to Pol where the relatively tiny lander (in relation to the mothership) flew to Pol's surface and back numerous times to refuel the main ship before it could head to Bop. At Bop a kraken was discovered, and on Tylo the crew found it refreshingly eventless. The last destination was Laythe, where the plane and lander were left in orbit so the main ship could return to Kerbin. A return craft returned the crew and science, and crew XP was had by all. - @Robin Patenall Mission thread here. Collected 61174.6 science from the Jool System. This mission began with the construction of the Emerald Star, a large and reconfigurable interplanetary vessel that required 17 launches to complete. Once built, the Emerald Star used Eve and Kerbin gravity assists to efficiently sling itself to Jool and started with Tylo. Using one of the Emerald Star's 3 drive cores to send itself down to a lower Tylo orbit, the lander successfully brought the crew to and from the Tylic surface. When the mission reached Vall, a magical anomaly was discovered, one which would prove to be only one of many odd discoveries made on Jool's moons. An SSTO found one on Laythe as well, during one of its three total landings. A monolith was found on Pol, and a deceased kraken on Bop, one which caused a crew member to lament their inability to bury it. Once the landings had been complete, the remains of the Emerald Star returned home, where it was parked in Kerbin orbit awaiting future assignment. - @problemecium Mission thread here. Collected 8755.7 science from the Jool System. This mission thread covers the finally completed tale of the Aletheia, a massive, nearly 1.3 kiloton mothership. With numerous cargo bays, it brought landers, an SSTO, a deployable space station, numerous pieces of scientific equipment, and two ARKS to return the crew to Kerbin if needed. Upon construction, Aletheia and its seven crew members proceeded to Jool, using 46% of its total fuel. The transfer section was left behind in Laythe orbit while the rest of Aletheia continued on. After Laythe came Vall, where one of the ARKS was used to refuel the Tylo lander to enable it to tackle Vall (the ARK was then joined to the deployable station and left behind). The lander then tackled Tylo, and was left behind for future use. Bop saw the discovery of a hopefully deceased Kraken, and Pol marked landing number 5. This romp unfortunately depleted Aletheia of the fuel sufficient to return to Kerbin, so the second ARK spacecraft brought the crew home safely, using a Mun assist to tweak its final trajectory. This is one of the more aesthetically pleasing Jool 5 missions, and done in career mode in a very well typed out and necromanced thread, so if you are a fan of large stylish motherships, I would recommend giving this thread a view. Gatecrashers / Honorary Mentions - @JacobJHC Grand Tour, video here. Giant single launch craft, also visited every planet and moon from the OPM planet pack. Very big. Gatecrasher because crew hasn't landed yet. - @Fraus Mission here. There's nothing that can be said about this, other than that this mission definitely had more thought put into it than any other Jool 5 I've seen. - @cqIpb Mission here. This mission was flown on an Xbox, and pushed the console to its framerate limits! cqIpl was inspired to do a Jool 5 mission after finding this thread, and despite not being able to land on Laythe due to lander instability, still had a lot of fun finishing the rest of the mission, and took a few great screenshots along the way! As of writing this, cqIpb is still new to the KSP Forums. Welcome, we're glad you're here! - @Alpaca Z, using a craft built by @Lt_Duckweed (with permission) Grand Tour, ISRU . Video here. Using a rather simply built SSTA, this mission was a simple case of flying around the entire solar system and refueling everywhere. This craft utilized air-fans, ions, vectors, and nerv engines, allowing it to be not only capable of high efficiency maneuvers, but also those requiring high TWRs. A highlight of this mission was the strategy to use EVA construction to rebuild the back of the plane to enable it to land vertically on Tylo's surface. Why bring landing legs when you have wings that could do the job just as well? This mission's video submission is also of a high quality, so I recommend giving it a view. In all, the crew of three finished their grand tour in only 15 years and 117 days! Efficient and speedy Moved to Honorary Mentions due to the fact that the crew could not exit onto Tylo's surface.

Do not use post it notes to talk on the web.

I've noticed a few people on this forum play Ace Combat games (like five lol) and I also noticed that you could make threads about specific games here. Seeing as there is no dedicated Ace Combat thread, I made this for Ace Combat players to talk about... well, Ace Combat and such. How do you do the campaign, what's your go-to fighter and special weapon, etc. Ace Combat is a series of games that take place in the alternate universe of Strangereal. Strangereal's Earth has different continents and countries. The player's character is a "silent protagonist" and is always a fighter pilot from one of the fictional countries. Common traits of Ace Combat and their campaign-based gameplay involve: a wide spread of aircraft and weapons, enemy ace pilots, and giant superweapons. Not to mention the excellent storytelling (usually), graphics and music. Also, fun fact: more players play KSP than Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown by monthly average from Steam, but roughly the same number of games have been sold for each. AC7 released five years later than KSP, however.

Musk has always been a manipulating idiot who's failed upwards getting a bigger pile of cash. He's never been actually good, just good at corporate manipulation and control and selling himself as doing things he never did. He's always bought into corporations and manipulated his way to control--sometimes failing and getting fired. Along the way, Musk gathered a cult following who just think he's the best thing since sliced bread. He may have slowly grown to believe his own propaganda, maybe. Careful examination of Musk has always shown this. However, when he played silly buggers with Twitter and got caught in a deal to buy it--which the Twitter Board held him to--Musk got forced to buy Twitter. And now has demonstrated no matter how bad Twitter was before Musk, it was a paradise compared to how it is now. Showing how bad his decisions are about an actual tech company has really shown to more that Musk isn't a genius but an idiot. But I think it's likely his long pile of promises for Tesla will be what sinks him. It will eventually become like Enron but even bigger. How long this will take to play out and how is unknown. But despite Musk convincing first his tame Tesla Board of Directors and then the Shareholders, there's no true justification for him being paid US $45 billion for what he has done. That's a massive share of the profit for every vehicle that Tesla has sold. When its latest vehicle, the Cybertruck, is a horrible design--demanded by Musk--and a complete failure. They and other sane investors likely voted against Musk's bonus. But he apparently convinced enough of the Shareholders to get that past. There was a "fear" that Musk would quit as CEO if he didn't get his massive bonus. There's some crazy talk about Musk being vital for the success of Tesla. HOW?!? He's the one destroying it. And the value of Tesla Stock went up after the vote was announced. Stock Market Investors can be quite stupid in the short run. However, when real sales and finance figures come out and it's more and rising failure, things will get rebalanced. When this will catch up to Musk, not sure. But I think it will eventually.

We don't really need to make up any announcements. The official KSP X feed said it best: We are continuing to support, and we will talk when we can. That's about the best you are ever going to get.

There probably is some limitation on how much they could talk about. I recall a feature video, can't remember which one, where Nate mentioned an interstellar(?) engine. He described it as pure white light. Nothing more. Some engines (for metallic hydrogen) were featured, while others were hidden. Why? Probably they have some sort of information they need to hide. Can't tell without seeing the NDA. However, these last two months... well, they speak for themselves.

Granted. The bottle opener can not only talk, but can automatically identify and open bottles. Unfortunately it thinks you're a bottle and "opens" you (i.e. removes your head). I wish for nothing in particular.

Just because it was cleared to talk about certain aspects of Rask and Rusk does not mean all of Rask and Rusk are immune to NDA. [snip]

And they had talked about Rask & Rust, meaning it wasn't covered under NDA. We don't know if the "solution to the Rask & Rusk problem" was covered under an NDA either so I don't see the point in this NDA talk. Signing a paper that allows higher ups to scam people is a moral failure, I don't care what spin anyone puts on it.

Has been a while since I commented on my own post but I hope that people continue to talk on this post.

They get cancelled quickly because of corporate greed. I wish for one of those lost 2003 bottle openers that talk

Not necessarily. Do you know the Enigma encoder machine from Germany used during WWII? Someone coded it in VB6, creating the machine application where you pressed buttons. At the same time, he released the source code. Various applications could be developed by reusing the code already written on the rotors and pegboard. An interesting application is that you typed the message, pressed a button, it was encoded with the Enigma and it was passed to Morse effortlessly. And vice versa. That is why I do not think we have to start from scratch, but we have to access what has already been written and talk to those who participated. Documentation is very important, whether written or transmitted verbally.

You guys are just as mixed up in all of this as us, so of course it's no slight toward the mods, bug hunters, et cetera. More towards Take Two Interactive, the problem is it will go unanswered. There's few things worse than purgatory, for better or for worse it's time for someone to talk about it. I suppose once the WARN deadline passes, the end of this month, the likes of Nate, Nertea, et cetera are free to actually talk about it. It's a shame because if there's one thing I could and would never accuse Nate of being, and that's not absolutely enthusiastic about 'the work'. The dude seems like he genuinely loves the concept, the Kerbal way, to the extent that he kinda angered the community a bit with their decision to have wobbly rockets. But yeah!

Vanamonde-stradamus @Dakota and @Nerdy_Mike are also under NDA's, which are probably stricter than what the mods here have signed. And I really do believe that if any of them knew anything AND that if they could talk, they would have already. Very well said, especially the part about other hobbies. I've long put off trying to learn how to play lead guitar, and I have the time to do so. I mean, I had the time when I was playing KSP1, KSP2, Juno, NHL 20, Madden 18...you get the point.

KSP 1.12.x Near Future Propulsion [1.3.5] Last Updated August 26, 2021 This pack contains advanced electric engines for deep space travel. Generally engines split into the following categories: Gridded Ion Engines: like the stock Dawn, they have low TWR and great Isp. They run on Xenon fuel. Hall Effect Thrusters: similar to Gridded thrusters, but with better TWR at the cost of some Isp. They run on Argon fuel and are pretty cheap! Magnetoplasmadynamic Thrusters: with the best TWR of all electric engines, these engines are very power-hungry. They run on Lithium fuel. Pulsed Inductive Thrusters: similar to Hall thrusters, they run on Argon fuel and have the unique ability to dump extra electricity into the engine, increasing Isp but generating more heat. VASIMR Engines: high tech and fancy, these engines run on either Xenon or Argon fuel. They can be tuned for high-thrust, low Isp operation, or low-thrust, high-Isp operation These engines are all very power hungry - use nuclear reactors or high intensity solar to get the power you need. Their balance has been finely tuned to work with stock mechanics and to extend the KSP experience, particularly in combination with the Community Tech Tree. Full Screenshot Gallery Frequently Asked Questions Q: Will you add a part I want? A: I have defined this mod as feature complete, and bugfixes are all I plan to add. Q: The mod album shows parts that look old/don't exist. What's up with that? A: Keeping the gallery up to date is not super easy. I have it as an action item in the future but this takes time away from real modding. Q: Does this work well with KSPI-E? A: Talk to FreeThinker about this, he manages KSPI-E and its compatibility with NFT Dependencies (Required and Bundled) Module Manager B9 Part Switch Community Resource Pack Licensing All code and cfgs are distributed under the MIT License All art assets (textures, models, animations) are distributed under an All Rights Reserved License. All bundled mods are distributed under their own licenses. Download Mirrors Primary (SpaceDock) Secondary (CurseForge) Tertiary (Github) Issue Tracking and Source KSP 1.12.x Near Future Electrical [1.2.3] Last Updated July 21, 2021 Ever wanted some futuristic energy generation that wasn't too... futuristic? I have you covered here. This pack contains: Nuclear Reactors: Turn Uranium into power! Attach nuclear reactors to your vessel and generate large amount of electricity. Ensure that you have enough cooling capacity with radiators for your reactors to work properly. Refuelling Parts: store extra uranium, reprocess it and extract it from Ore with containers and reprocessors. Capacitors: discharge for a burst of power! These parts can be charge up with normal generating capacity, and once activated will deliver a large amount of power to your ship's electricity banks. Very mass efficient! Full Screenshot Gallery Frequently Asked Questions Q: Does this work well with KSPI-E? A: Talk to FreeThinker about this, he manages KSPI-E and its compatibility with NFT. Q: The mod album shows parts that look old/don't exist. What's up with that? A: Keeping the gallery up to date is not super easy. I have it as an action item in the future but this takes time away from real modding. Q: Will you add a part I want? A: I have defined this mod as feature complete, and bugfixes are all I plan to add. Dependencies (Required and Bundled) Module Manager B9 Part Switch Community Resource Pack Dynamic Battery Storage Licensing All code and cfgs are distributed under the MIT License All art assets (textures, models, animations) are distributed under an All Rights Reserved License. All bundled mods are distributed under their own licenses. Download Mirrors Primary (SpaceDock) Secondary (CurseForge) Tertiary (GitHub) Issue Tracking and Source KSP 1.12.x Near Future Solar [1.3.2] Last Updated July 21, 2021 This pack contains many concept solar panels to use on your ships and stations. There are many sizes ranging from small form-factor panels up to gigantic solar arrays. Additionally, some wraparaound solar panels are provided, for coolness. Full Screenshot Gallery Frequently Asked Questions Q: Will you add a part I want? A: I have defined this mod as feature complete, and bugfixes are all I plan to add. Dependencies (Required and Bundled) Module Manager Licensing All code and cfgs are distributed under the MIT License All art assets (textures, models, animations) are distributed under an All Rights Reserved License. All bundled mods are distributed under their own licenses. Download Mirrors Primary (SpaceDock) Secondary (CurseForge) Tertiary (GitHub) Issue Tracking and Source KSP 1.11.x Near Future Construction [1.3.1] Last Updated December 26, 2020 This pack contains a good number of skeletal trusses and construction type parts for building those near-futurish ships you see in concept art. You'll enjoy: A 1.25m size class triangular truss set A 2.5m size class octagonal truss set A 3.75m size class square truss set A 5m size class annular truss set Adapters and connectors galore! Full Screenshot Gallery Frequently Asked Questions Q: Will you add a part I want? A: I have defined this mod as feature complete, and bugfixes are all I plan to add. Q: The mod album shows parts that look old/don't exist. What's up with that? A: Keeping the gallery up to date is not super easy. I have it as an action item in the future but this takes time away from real modding. Dependencies (Required and Bundled) Module Manager B9 Part Switch Licensing All code and cfgs are distributed under the MIT License All art assets (textures, models, animations) are distributed under an All Rights Reserved License. All bundled mods are distributed under their own licenses. Download Mirrors Primary (SpaceDock) Secondary (CurseForge) Tertiary (GitHub) Issue Tracking and Source KSP 1.12.x Near Future Spacecraft [1.4.3] Last Updated August 26, 2021 This pack contains a variety of parts for making crewed spacecraft. This means command pods. Pretty much just command pods, but also monopropellant engines in many sizes! Full Screenshot Gallery Frequently Asked Questions Q: Will you add a part I want? A: I have defined this mod as feature complete, and bugfixes are all I plan to add. Q: What is up with the RPM IVAs? A: Some exist but now require the ASET props pack to work. They only function for the older (Mk4-1, Mk3-9, PPD-1) pods. Q: The mod album shows parts that look old/don't exist. What's up with that? A: Keeping the gallery up to date is not super easy. I have it as an action item in the future but this takes time away from real modding. Dependencies (Required and Bundled) Module Manager B9 Part Switch Near Future Props Licensing All code and cfgs are distributed under the MIT License All art assets (textures, models, animations) are distributed under an All Rights Reserved License. All bundled mods are distributed under their own licenses. Download Mirrors Primary (SpaceDock) Secondary (CurseForge) Tertiary (GitHub) Issue Tracking and Source KSP 1.12.x Near Future Launch Vehicles [2.2.0] Last Updated July 21, 2021 The latest and greatest (for size, perhaps) in launch vehicle components. This pack includes 5.0m Parts: a balanced and extensive part set that provides a new size of rocket parts. Comes with tanks, adapters, utility parts and specialized components for engine clustering. 7.5m Parts: an extra-large set of rocket parts for those huge constructions. Includes adapters, clustering, cargo and utility parts. Advanced Engines: several new rocket engines based on a whole set of concepts in the 0.625 to 3.75m sizes. Support Parts: new supporting parts that help enhance the large rocket experience, like heavy RCS thrusters. Full Screenshot Gallery Frequently Asked Questions Q: Will you add a part I want? A: I have defined this mod as feature complete, and bugfixes are all I plan to add. Dependencies (Required and Bundled) Module Manager B9 Part Switch DeployableEngines Licensing All code and cfgs are distributed under the MIT License All art assets (textures, models, animations) are distributed under an All Rights Reserved License. All bundled mods are distributed under their own licenses. Download Mirrors Primary (SpaceDock) Secondary (CurseForge) Tertiary (GitHub) Issue Tracking and Source KSP 1.12.x Near Future eXploration [1.1.2] Last Updated July 21, 2021 This pack contains a set of parts to help enhance and improve the KSP probe experience, particularly in the later game with larger probes. You will find: More Probe Cores: A set of eight new probe cores in medium (1.25m) and larger (1.875m) sizes. Probe Bus Parts: Cargo bay-like parts that match the footprints of most probe cores (stock and NFX). Useful for storing batteries, fuel and the like Probe Fuel Tanks: New multi-fuel probe tanks in stack and radial sizes that are in the vein of the stock Dumpling and Baguette More Direct and Relay Antennae: More antennae that seamlessly fit into the KSP CommNet system to fill in missing ranges and add more interesting options. Reflector Antennae: A new type of antenna that does nothing on its own, but instead bounces signal from another antenna to amplify its range. Point antenna at a deployed reflector to recieve the bonus. Available in many sizes. Small Probe Parts: A few small probe parts (battery, reaction wheel) to fill out the probe range Full Screenshot Gallery Frequently Asked Questions Q: Will you add a part I want? A: I have defined this mod as feature complete, and bugfixes are all I plan to add. Q: I'm using Remote Tech and something doesn't work! A: This mod is not compatible with RemoteTech. Some aspects may work but the reflector/feeder system would need to be reimplemented by the RT devs. Dependencies (Required and Bundled) Module Manager B9 Part Switch Licensing All code and cfgs are distributed under the MIT License All art assets (textures, models, animations) are distributed under an All Rights Reserved License. All bundled mods are distributed under their own licenses. Download Mirrors Primary (SpaceDock) Secondary (CurseForge) Tertiary (Github) Issue Tracking and Source KSP 1.12.x Near Future Aeronautics [2.1.1] Last Updated July 21, 2021 This pack contains large and powerful aerospace parts, such as jet engines, intakes, and nacelles. It was preciously part of the MkIV Spaceplane system but has been split off. Large Multimode Engines: Big (2.5m), powerful RAPIER-like engines for your wildest spaceplane needs. Large Jet Engines: Hefty 2.5m engines - turbofans and turbojets for big aircraft. Advanced Propeller Engines: Super-efficient low speed propfans and turboprops. Lift Fans: Designed specifically for efficient VTOL and available in many sizes, these engines can run on LiquidFuel and air, or be driven electrically for flight in oxygenless atmospheres. Nuclear Jet Engines: Massive, rewarding engines that let you fly almost forever! Large Nacelles and Intakes: Of course, 2.5m nacelles, engine pods, precoolers and advanced intakes to help out. Full Screenshot Gallery Frequently Asked Questions Q: CKAN Support Questions? A: Talk to CKAN folks, CKAN is not supported. This is because KerbalActuators, a dependency of this mod, is specifically NOT listed on CKAN. Q: Will you add a part I want? A: I have defined this mod as feature complete, and bugfixes are all I plan to add. Q: I don't like the balance of *thisPart* A: I appreciate suggestions from experience aeronauts for engine balance, it's not really my specialty (Sith lords are). Dependencies (Required and Bundled) Module Manager B9 Part Switch Community Resource Pack KerbalActuators DeployableEngines Licensing All code and cfgs are distributed under the MIT License All art assets (textures, models, animations) are distributed under an All Rights Reserved License. All bundled mods are distributed under their own licenses. Download Mirrors Primary (SpaceDock) Secondary (CurseForge) Tertiary (GitHub) Issue Tracking and Source Special Thanks A big hand to @Streetwind , who basically designed the balance for the whole NFT suite. If you appreciate this project, please consider contributing to my caffeine addiction! I really appreciate it, and also helps justify this time sink to my wife , which results directly in more models.

There's a very strong selection bias in these. Worth looking into, but without a metastudy, all you really have is that climate has changed in places that had wind turbines and solar panels built. It also changed in most places where it hasn't. We're kind of going through a major climate shift. That's the reason we're looking into alternative energy sources, remember? And there is absolutely nothing establishing a connection between the change and the infrastructure. You'd have to study hundreds of sites with and without infrastructure change to even pick up the connection when the averages have shifted so much over just a few years. And yeah, the bias in the Russian article is obvious. Yeah, huge "citation needed," on this one. Windmills can certainly cause the moisture to fall out as a rain. Any obstruction to the air does. Forests, famously. Except, it's deforestation that leads to desertification and not the other way around. The law of conservation of matter, that this paragraph refers to, precisely tells you that if the windmill made the air drier, that moisture ended up somewhere. It ended up as fog and clouds behind the windmill, resulting in rainfall on the terrain. That might have been rainfall that didn't happen somewhere else, but it certainly hasn't resulted in less moisture reaching the ground on the net. If anything, the dryer air will promote more evaporation over the bodies of water, resulting in even more rainfall. Again, see forests and differences in rainfall over plains vs mountainous/hilly terrain. Rapid temperature increases we're seeing due to the CO2 emissions, in contrast, have been linked to a lot of areas getting drier weather. Also to some absolute monsoons in other areas, whether or not they installed wind farms. And you want the real kicker? Take a look at CO2 concentrations over Europe, and compare them to the maps shown in the article. Heck, some of these are precisely mapping to the coal emissions from the Germany's increase in coal burn after the nuclear power plants were shut down. The author's just another pseudo-intellectual unwittingly picking up the lines from European coal industry. Unsurprising, really, given which news sources that industry backs in Europe, and the political climate in Russia. It's shockingly easy to lie to people with no media literacy using charts. And yes, the author does talk about nuclear energy. And so do the German coal firms. In the key of, "Oh, yes, it would have been better to keep the NPPs running, but who knew? Now we have no choice but to mine more coal." Germany screwed up big time. But pinning the climate impact caused by resulting coal emissions increase on wind farms is not going to make things better. Rightly so.

Well... I have been trucking on in the game with the challenges + extra steps I put upon myself. But I must admit that a driving factor for me last year was the encouragement from the forum. As of now its actually not the state of the game that kills lust to play.. its the despair of the community. I think its even worse on the official discord.. I feel the KSP2 general chat only talks about substitute games for KSP2.. and when ever I post something I did in game.. no one seems to care. I know that this can come off as very self centered.. or like: If it come across as that - it is not my point... my point is, that when ever the game got tough it was the encouragement, suggestions and feedback from the community that got me going.. And none of my other acquaintances care enough about space travel to understand it when I talk about what I am doing in the game. So what I am really saying is.. I miss the community. I have decided that once Im dont with my current mission report - ill stop playing KSP until further notice.

Is there anything in particular you're hoping to achieve by being a troll that actually comes out and says "Hey guys! I'm a troll!" I mean, It defeats the whole purpose... And if we read the bit you quoted... "someone you believe is a troll" vs "someone who is a troll" Couple of things wrong with what you said here. First, you are the one that keeps shifting the goal posts and burden of proof. I've asked you pointedly and directly what proof you have to show that the game cannot be fixed, and you have yet to answer the question. In this latest example, you try to dodge the question by stating that neither I nor Lisias have proof that it can be fixed...and then state that Lisias has provided some explanation that you believe is hear-say. Secondly, I'd like to challenge you to go find where I stated that the game can be fixed. In fact, I'll even point out something I said in this thread as a direct response to you: So you either read what I wrote here and completely ignored it, or you glossed over my post and failed to see it. Either way, you are wrong when you say that I am saying it is fixable, primarily because I never said that. Go ahead and look through my posts in this thread; I've got all day. This assumes I'm not reading your posts, but rather just spamming the thread. Neither of which is true, because I am in fact reading your posts, and I'm responding to them directly. Copy/Paste only works when you aren't interested in actually talking. The big issue here is that you haven't even defined what you mean by "not fixable". I could make the assumption that you are talking about modding the game and not the actual code...but that doesn't seem right. Mods may make it appear that the game is fixed, but no, the underlying code is the problem as that still has issues for anyone who hasn't used the same mods someone else has. So let's assume, then, that you are talking about the underlying game code itself and attack this conversation from there. Are you a programmer? Have you had the chance to actually look at the underlying code and analyze it to the point where you can say with 100% certainty that it cannot be altered so as to make the game "fixed"? Have you had in-depth conversations with the actual developers on this topic, and if so, can you share those insights with us? My final guess here is that you don't even know what you mean when you talk about the game being "fixed", nor do you have an idea of what state the game would need to be in to be considered as "fixed". I think you simply have had bad experiences with bugs and just assume the game isn't fixable. Not that you've tried, of course; why else would you continue to not answer the question, other than to protect your own narrow viewpoint? I'll retract my claim as soon as you show me a build of the game that loads in a few seconds, can handle thousands of parts without turning into a slideshow, and doesn't implode if a Kerbal ragdolls in just the right way.

Couple of things wrong with what you said here. First, you are the one that keeps shifting the goal posts and burden of proof. I've asked you pointedly and directly what proof you have to show that the game cannot be fixed, and you have yet to answer the question. In this latest example, you try to dodge the question by stating that neither I nor Lisias have proof that it can be fixed...and then state that Lisias has provided some explanation that you believe is hear-say. Secondly, I'd like to challenge you to go find where I stated that the game can be fixed. In fact, I'll even point out something I said in this thread as a direct response to you: So you either read what I wrote here and completely ignored it, or you glossed over my post and failed to see it. Either way, you are wrong when you say that I am saying it is fixable, primarily because I never said that. Go ahead and look through my posts in this thread; I've got all day. This assumes I'm not reading your posts, but rather just spamming the thread. Neither of which is true, because I am in fact reading your posts, and I'm responding to them directly. Copy/Paste only works when you aren't interested in actually talking. The big issue here is that you haven't even defined what you mean by "not fixable". I could make the assumption that you are talking about modding the game and not the actual code...but that doesn't seem right. Mods may make it appear that the game is fixed, but no, the underlying code is the problem as that still has issues for anyone who hasn't used the same mods someone else has. So let's assume, then, that you are talking about the underlying game code itself and attack this conversation from there. Are you a programmer? Have you had the chance to actually look at the underlying code and analyze it to the point where you can say with 100% certainty that it cannot be altered so as to make the game "fixed"? Have you had in-depth conversations with the actual developers on this topic, and if so, can you share those insights with us? My final guess here is that you don't even know what you mean when you talk about the game being "fixed", nor do you have an idea of what state the game would need to be in to be considered as "fixed". I think you simply have had bad experiences with bugs and just assume the game isn't fixable. Not that you've tried, of course; why else would you continue to not answer the question, other than to protect your own narrow viewpoint?

This is the KSPI-E support thread where you can ask questions on KSP Interstellar Extended If you want to chat about KSP Interstellar you can do it at our new Guilded Server (old: KSP Interstellar Discord Server ) For talk about new development and features request you have to be in the KSPI-E Development thread For any release related news or issues, please discuss them at KSPIE Release thread KSP Interstellar Extended (KSPIE) is a plugin for Kerbal Space Program, designed to encourage bootstrapping toward ever more advanced levels of technology as well as utilizing In-Situ resources to expand the reach of Kerbal civilization. KSP Interstellar Extended aims to continue in Fractals original KSPI vision in providing a realistic road to the stars. Players will first gain access to contemporary technologies that have not been widely applied to real space programs such as nuclear reactors, electrical generators and thermal rockets. By continuing down the CTT tech tree and performing more research, these parts can be upgraded and later surpassed by novel new technologies such as fusion and even antimatter power. We attempt to portray both the tremendous power of these technologies as well as their drawbacks, including the tremendous difficulty of obtaining resources like antimatter and the difficulties associated with storing it safely. The goal being to reward players who develop advanced infrastructure on other planets with new, novel and powerful technologies capable of helping Kerbals explore planets in new and exciting ways. The principal goal of KSP Interstellar is to expand Kerbal Space Program with interesting technologies and to provide a logical and compelling technological progression beginning with technologies that could have been available in the 1970s/1980s, then technologies that could be available within the next few years, progressing to technologies that may not be available for many decades, all the way out to speculative technologies that are physically reasonably but may or may not ever be realizable in practice. KSPIE also introduces a modified version of the CTT (which is a hard depenancy) which add additional technodes and integrates them better with other tech nodes If you appreciate what I create, please consider donating me a beer you can donate me with PayPal or support me by Patreon Download & Installation Instructions step 1: remove any existing KSPI installation (GameData\WarpPlugin folder) step 2: download KSPI-E and extract/copy the GameData to your KSP Folder (allow overwrite) Recommended scale: KSPIE part are based on real world parts. For realistic balance, it is recommended to scale Kerbin to at least 2.5x or 3.2x size and if you want to get serious scale to 6.4x or 10x size. Scaling can be accomplished via Kopernicus, Sigma Dimensions, and scale preset configs are available through Rescale! Recommended Part Mods Supported Tech Trees Recommended Star System/ Galaxy mods: Recommended Tool mods: Suggested Challenges: Documentation & Tutorials KSPI is one of the most sophisticated mods for KSP. To help you get started, you can make use of the following resources: The most recent tutorial (RUS/ ENG) KSPIE reference spreadsheet by Friznit Beamed Power Sheet Sheet Beamed Power Calculator KSPI-E Guide by flyguybc KSPI-E for Dummies KSPI-E Guide by Nansuchao KSPI-E Technical Guide KSPI-E Wiki Mission/Vessel Examples Neren Solar Power Station flyguybc SSTO Interstellar Adventure Video: KSPI-E Youtube Videos: 9 part Russian Tutorial by @ThirdOfSeven 3 part EnglishTurorial by @Aaron Also: Pebblebed Thermal Turbojet SSTO Demo Warpdrive antigravity tutorial Support KSPI-E add support for the following mods

Hello guys, gals, and nonbinary pals! The purpose of this thread is to act as a place where we can brainstorm ideas for how we would want to see an eventual sequel to KSP be developed so that it can avoid the pitfalls the current KSP 2 fell into. That is to say, I want to try identifying what went wrong with KSP 2 development, and much more importantly, figure out a plan of attack for how a hypothetical future attempt to develop a KSP sequel could work. After all, there is an argument to be made that a lot of the issues that occurred with the KSP 2 development were from the people in charge not understanding the community and what it actually wanted, so by getting together as a community and brainstorming all of this now, if someone does try making a KSP sequel in the future they’ll already have this as a good jumping-off point for what they should do to make us happy. So, without further ado, to start us off with here are my thoughts: Based on the recent digging by ShadowZone along with trawling acorss the various threads on these fourms, I think it’s fair to say that KSP 2 failed for the following primary reasons, in rough decreasing order of importance; 1 - Company upper leadership not understanding how game design works, leading to such problems as a refusal to commit to changing engines or refactoring code despite the scope of the project requiring it 2 - An overcomittance to secrecy causing years of work being wasted on reverse-engineering KSP 1 code rather than just asking the KSP 1 devs, among other associated problems 3 - Improper management resulting in massive efficacy losses (e.g. developers being moved around constantly and not being given time to settle) 4 - An unwillingness to pay developers respectable amounts 5 - A lack of interest in community input resulting in prioritization of the wrong things When designing a KSP sequel, there are basically two options. The first is to use the unity engine, reuse much of the KSP 1 code, and essentially aim to run a short, cheap project that delivers a highly polished version of KSP 1 with a bunch of the best mods being incorporated into the stock game. This is, to put it mildly, a bad idea, given that the KSP 1 engine and code is almost completely incapable of properly handling that, as anyone who has played heavily modded KSP 1 will know. Implementing anything like interstellar, colonies, and especially multiplayer, would require so much work to update the existing code and systems, and work around the limitations of unity, that it would be cheaper and faster to go with option 2. Speaking of which, the second option is to start from scratch in a new engine, and develop a game that is a true successor to KSP 1 rather than a polished version. I think this is the objectively correct course of action to take, however it seems the upper leadership for KSP 2 disagreed. The original plan as I understand it was to do option 1, delivering a better version of KSP one with some mods made stock, using the same engine and code. However, scope creep then very rapidly increased the goals to include interstellar, colonies, and probably the thing that killed it; multiplayer. This would require a new engine and refactored code to work, but the upper leadership was made up of business executives that had never coded a game in their life and who decided to explicitly make that not an option. Thus, the KSP 2 team was forced to develop a game of impossible scale using old, outdated code, and a bad engine, and to make it worse, while they were handed all of the KSP 1 code to work from, they were not allowed to talk to the original KSP 1 devs. That decision alone probably cost them a year or more of development time. With all that out of the way, if a development project for KSP 3 was announced tomorrow (or if KSP 2 was restarted from scratch), and I was somehow placed in charge of setting the development goals and pacing, here’s what I’d do. Firstly, start from scratch in a new engine, probably Unreal. As far as I’m aware the only good alternative to this would be building a custom engine, but from how I understand it the development costs and amount of time required would be incredibly prohibitive, so Unreal it is. Secondly, don’t have any secrecy. Have all of the developers talking with the public, be very transparent about what people are working on, and what the roadmap is, and be prepared to listen to community feedback and change accordingly. Release to EA as early as physically possible, and while we would probably have to charge full price for it, make it exceedingly clear (and in legal writing) that if we don’t fulfill our roadmap goals within a certain amount of time we’ll refund all the copies sold regardless of playtime. Also set realistic goals, and prioritize getting code and core system mechanics working first, then optimisation, and only then user experience and graphics. Of course in reality all of these would have to be developed in parallel, but I would want there to be a heavy emphasis on leaving anything that's purely visual/graphical for as late as possible (though obviously you still have to develop your systems so the visual stuff is fully integrated when the time comes and isn’t just duct-taped on top like most KSP 1 graphics mods are). Design the game's code and systems from the start for modability. I’m not sure if we could do something quite as far as what, say, Hades and Hades 2 do, where literally all of the game's code is unencrypted and open for anyone to see and edit, but if that’s possible it would be great (I’m not aware of actual downsides to doing this, it’s just that there’s so much cultural momentum in the industry against it that it would be hard to the leadership to allow it even if it would make the game way better for no extra cost). Pay the developers properly, and don’t put people in management positions who don’t have the experience required to fulfill that role properly. In fact, if possible a worker-led development program, such as one done in a cooperative or other worker-led company, would be ideal. All empirical data collected to date indicates that worker-led companies are multiple times less likely to fail, are more stable, produce higher-quality products, have way better working conditions, and the workers enjoy their jobs orders of magnitudes more. Interestingly, the people in worker-led companies usually vote to reduce wages rather than lay people off in times of hardship, which is usually the right move because losing talent is really bad. The only downside is that the per-unit cost of their products is usually higher because they pay their workers more, so even if they never go out of business, they have trouble climbing up the ranks in the market as it were. Still, for developing a game like this a high amount of workplace democracy would seem to be key. Oh, and don’t implement multiplayer. From what I’ve seen, everyone on here who’s familiar with game design seems to agree that it’s a massive undertaking that would take an insane amount of effort to pull off even when starting from scratch, and it’s not super clear to me if the demand is even remotely high enough to justify that. I would love to hear all of your thoughts on that though. So, with all that being said, here’s a rough roadmap of what I would expect from release onwards. Of course, I’m not a software engineer, so I may be overly optimistic or pessimistic here. Also, keep in mind that while I lay it out in just a couple of major updates, I think in reality it would be better to do this with a much larger number of individually smaller updates, but I don't have the patience to write all of that out, sorry about that. Oh, and I would love to hear all your thoughts on the order I've put all of this in, especially the career mode release, since I'm not certian myself if it's the best. Initial full release (1.0) - Recoded from scratch in Unreal engine, utilizing 100% new code, and heavily optimized. - Graphics on par with KSP1, but using all-new systems and with allowances in place for them to be properly improved in the future without it just being a series of patchworks and band-aid fixes like it is in KSP1. - All new parts, most redesigned from the ground up to be more internally consistent and fill gaps, and with most stock KSP1 parts represented out of the box. - Complete UI revamp across the entire game to improve user experience as much as possible, including a redesigned parts window and filters in the VAB so that when thousands of parts are added in the future finding and sorting them doesn't become a pain. - New resources and resource systems, including new ISRU systems, for a more detailed and realistic experience while still being streamlined and easy to understand. - Systems in place to allow for easy integration of robotics parts and kerbal-deployable parts in the future, maybe with some limited number of them already implemented. - Very basic science mode implemented, but no career mode yet. First major update (1.1) - Graphics improvements. - More parts, think stuff from stockalike station expansion, planetside, the near future mods, etc, along with all the KSP1 DLCs and some of the stuff they planned for KSP2 (Orion etc). - Basic life support system, with 5-6 new resources, as well as simple crew habitable volume requirements, all togglable in options. - Interiors properly modeled and visible through windows, and going on EVA fully animated with the hatch opening and everything. - Kerbals now only carry small SAFER-style jetpacks in their inventory, and go on EVA by default using by fully modeled tethers and climb along the outside of vessels using a completely new set of climbing mechanics. MMUs are separate parts like command chairs that they can get in to fly around properly. Second major update (1.2) - More graphics improvements (now up to the standard of heavily modded KSP1). - More parts, mainly focusing on high-tech stuff. - Other star systems and interstellar gameplay mechanics. - More structures on Kerbin, including entire cities, along with new launch sites. Third major update (1.3) - More graphics improvements. - More parts. - Career mode, completely overhauled to use a better progression system that feels more like an actual space agency, with programs instead of contracts, and part unlocking based both on science collection and the programs you’re running. - Colony system similar to what was planned for KSP2. - FreeIVA polished and implemented into stock, maybe with VR support. Real History DLC - Basically Bluedog Design Bureau, Tantares, SOCK, KNES, and every other stockalike historical parts mod you can think of, but all put on several metric tonnes of steroids. - Virtually every spacecraft ever conceptualized or designed, let alone actually flown, in the history of the human race, all meticulously modeled to 99% accuracy (more accurate than BDB for example), while maintaining a stockalike style (though they would all be fully in scale to each other, not shifted to conform with KSP's 2.5m, 3.75m, etc diameters). - Plus all the launch stands and pads to go along with them. - And a revamped VAB parts list system to allow for you to actually navigate all that. - Would probably require a significant team of 3d modelers working around the clock for years to complete, hence why it’s a paid DLC. - Full compatibility with the RO DLC mentioned next if you have it installed. Realism Overhaul DLC - Pretty much RSS/RO, but with the polish one would expect if it was properly integrated into the game itself, and even more attention to detail and features, for example: - Procedural crewed pods and modules, with editable interior layouts and systems. - Procedural engines on top of a selection of most real ones. - Procedural tanks, with the internal bulkhead arrangements and all that being customizable. - Human rather than kerbal astronaut models (togglable if you don’t want that). - Improved structural simulation system, with internal part stresses properly modeled, so the weight of your tankage and structure now actually depends on what it’s supporting and how many gees it’s expected to endure, etc. - An aerodynamic simulation system that could make FAR blush, plus a thermodynamic simulation system to match (togglable). - Principia-level n-body physics (togglable). - The option to play in either RSS (plus real nearby star systems) or 10x stock. From what I can tell KSP 1 got developed to 1.0 in around 4 years, by about 12 people, and KSP 2 went from having all work on it restart to 0.2 in a little over 3 years with a team of 70 people, while also dealing with massive management inefficiencies and trying to work systems into the KSP engine and code that would be faster to just do from scratch. Therefore, I would optimistically estimate that we could probably get from development go-ahead to 1.0 on my roadmap here in about 3 years, assuming a development team of 70 people like KSP 2 and it’s properly managed and well-funded. From how I understand it the fully burdened cost (e.g. the entire cost the company pays, not just their salary alone) of a software development employee for this sort of role is typically about 200k per year, and the KSP 2 team had it capped at 150k by upper leadership that led to severe issues. For some margin of error, let’s say 250k then. That means, for 70 people for 3 years, the total dev cost to 1.0 will be about 52.5 million dollars. To get to 1.3 and then the DLCs is harder to estimate for me, but let’s assume 5 years, so 8 years total. That means the total dev cost from development go-ahead to DLC#2 will be 140 million dollars. KSP 1 has around 100,000 reviews on Steam. On average, games on Steam have 63 sales per review, and though this can be lower, it increases the older a game is so it’s probably actually higher. In any case, going by those figures that means KSP 1 sold 6.3 million copies. The price of it changed a bit over time, but was usually around 40-50 dollars. That means we have an existing playerbase of 6.3 million players to attract, not counting new players. If we price KSP 2 at 50 dollars, and only half of them transition over to KSP 2, that’s 157.5 million dollars. If the two DLCs each sell for 10 dollars and attract a total of 0.5 million players, that’s another 5 million dollars for a total of 162.5 million. That gives us a total profit margin of 22.5 million dollars, which is very tight, but might be just about doable. Keep in mind, that was assuming 70 people and a total dev time of 8 years. Given the DLCs are unlikely to be very profitable relative to the cost of making them, if we delete those and scale down to, say, 3 years to 1.0 and 2 years to 1.3, so 5 in total, and redo all the math, accounting for no sales from the DLCs, we get a total dev cost of 87. 5 million and a profit of 70 million dollars, which is much more workable. So, does anyone have any thoughts on these ideas? Am I being completely nonsensical and not understanding how game design works? I would love to hear some input on all that, and also if you have completely different ideas on how to go about redeveloping KSP 2 I would love to hear them as well! There was after all also that recent tweet after all from Jundroo, the Juno New Origins devs, about potentially getting some of the KSP devs onboard and reworking Juno into essentially a KSP sequel, I would love to talk about that but unfortunately I just don’t have the knowledge about Juno to be able to comment, especially given I’ve never played it or followed it’s development, but I'd be happy to hear others discuss it. EDIT: Okay, so, I wrote that post pretty late last night, and I’ve now had the chance to think about some stuff, and I want to expand a bit on my thoughts. Firstly, timescales. I’ve gone crawling across the forums once again for some more information, and I realized I misremembered some of the stuff relating to KSP 2’s development, specifically they didn’t restart development in 2020 but kept on using the old work they had, but started refactoring it. However, given the way people talk about how this decision cost them time, I think it’s fair to assume they could have restarted from scratch code-wise and still gotten to the point they did, or even further perhaps, in 3 years with their team of 70 people, so my estimates still seem reasonable. Also, apparently the KSP 2 devs were really close to having colonies and interstellar in the game for the initial EA release, and the fact they’re still not out even now was mostly due to them getting tied down fixing things and optimizing and whatnot, along with a lot of mismanagement. So it’s possible we could aim to have those in the base game for the initial release of this hypothetical reboot, though I still think it would be a better idea to build the game’s code ready to accept that, but not actually include it until a future update. Also, I must have been really tired yesterday because it seems I missed this, but there are actually already a couple of threads on here talking about pretty much exactly this. Sorry about that, if the mods deem that this one is redundant and close it I fully understand. Now, the key question. What do people actually want from a KSP game? There’s been some talk of a colony-designer game where you start out with something akin to cities skylines or something like that, and then start launching rockets later. I don’t agree with this idea personally, while I do like the idea of something city-builder style for the colonies I think that should be a late-game thing. However, one thing I am thinking about would be for the KSC upgrade system in career to be replaced with a city-builder style system where you get to actually build the KSC. So you start out with just, I don’t know, a small airfield and tiny pad for sounding rockets, and you get to, using a cities-skylines style system and interface perhaps, redesign and expand it over time until eventually you have an entire space center. Of course, unless you just want to be placing down upgraded versions of the same 8 buildings over and over, we would have to find new buildings to add and things for them to do. Maybe have it so that placing multiple launch pads could have an actual benefit, such as introducing a system like kerbal construction time where refurbishing pads take time? You could have that be togglable in settings as well - I know adding togglable stuff like that massively increases development costs but for stuff like construction time etc it doesn't seem like it would be a massive issue compared to some other ideas. And maybe we should make the players put a lot of thought into how they lay out their space center, with the way buildings are connected to each other and the distances involved all being important. For example, make your crawlerways too long, and it takes a while for the rockets to get to the pads. Make them too short, and if a rocket explodes not only does your pad get destroyed but your VAB might as well. While we’re talking about this, I may as well brainstorm other ideas for career mode as well. Instead of contracts, maybe we could have programs, which each contain several goals and milestones, and give you research benefits. And instead of like it is in KSP 1, we could lay the programs out on a tree. Selecting a program to do could give you research benefits to the parts that would be involved with it, like a lunar landing program reducing the unlock cost of the LM-style lander pod. And to stop the game from becoming linear, we could make it so that you can skip further down the tree and initiate a later program if you want to without doing the ones leading into it, but that would incur penalties like lower rewards or less research benefits. And we could make it so that if you landed on the moon without ever actually selecting the lunar landing program, it would autocomplete it but not give you any rewards for doing so. I think a good way of doing this would be for each program to have a set end goal, or maybe multiple, and also have several milestones along the way. For example, if you take the lunar landing program, it will give you individual missions for a crewed lunar flyby, orbital mission, and the landing, each with their own rewards and research benefits, on top of the rewards and benefits from the overall program, which could be set so that the more of the individual missions you complete in a program the higher the total bonus reward you get will be from the entire program itself when you complete it. I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts on this though, given I’m pretty much just spitballing here. I’m also not sure if this would completely replace the contract system, or if we should still have some conventional one-off contracts as well to supplement it. In any case, to round all of this off, I think there should be three main difficulty settings for career mode. In easy mode, the city-builder elements of the KSC are disabled, and it just expands automatically over time or maybe it starts out really big. The core gameplay loop here would be similar to KSP 1. There would also be no life support, no commnet, and no construction time. On regular default difficulty, life support and commnet is enabled, as are the city-builder elements for the KSC, but construction time is still turned off. On hard difficulty, not only is construction time turned on, but life support now takes into account not just the resources you have, but also how much livable space there is, and also radiation becomes a factor. When starting a new game, after picking career mode large buttons would appear for these three difficulties, with description below them fully explaining all of this to avoid confusion, and of course there would still be the option to go into the advanced settings and mix and match all of this. Next, changes outside the space center part of the game. Going over to spacedock and looking at the most popular mods can give us an idea of what the community seems to want most, and so let’s go over that real quick. Firstly, visual improvements. Given we’re switching to a new engine and rewriting everything from scratch, building these into the base game to a level that even surpasses KSP 1 should be possible. I would prioritize getting the underlying systems needed for the visuals to work done first, and then actually adding all the visual stuff later though. Next, stockalike parts mods, especially the near future series along with some others. Adding a much larger selection of parts in a stockalike style should be possible, hell it’s probably one of the easiest parts of the entire development process, though if we’re redoing everything from scratch I think we should take the opportunity to completely redo the stock parts as well rather than just copy them. However, after doing some thinking I do believe the stock 1.25m, 2.5m, etc scales should stay, but with additions like 0.9375m, 1.5m, 2.1875m, 3.125m, 4.25m, and 6m, along with maybe even larger scales than that. We would need a new parts sorting system to deal with all that without it getting confusing, but I don’t think it’s anywhere near impossible to come up with one that would still be easy to use and beginner-friendly. I considered upscaling everything by 1.5 to 2 to be more or less actual scale (in terms of the spacecraft), but I think part of the kerbal charm as it were is that they’re slighter smaller than humans are. This decision may come back to bite us later with RO/RSS DLCs and mods though. Oh, and more spaceplane parts sizes would be nice, right now we just really have three. If we’re really clever with how we choose them and model the adapter pieces for them, we could even allow people to make unusually shaped vehicles like an X-33 by stacking various adapter pieces in front of each other. After that, we have interstellar extended, which again should be easy to implement compared to everything else. There are also a lot of quality-of-life things, better burn time and docking port alignment indicator for example, which again should be relatively easy. Kerbal attachment system, kerbal inventory system, and ground construction as well, we’re already close to that with the braking ground stuff anyway for the former and the latter would come with colonies. You have to keep going a while before finding any planet mods, even kerbalism seems to come before that, but nonetheless I think an overhaul and expansion to the stock kerbal system, along with more star systems for interstellar, would be nice. Actual asteroid belts, way more asteroids and comets, rings that have actual particles in them, all sound like amazing ideas if they could be properly implemented. Another gas giant as a Saturn analoge, and an ice giant or two, would also be really nice, and completely revamping all of their moons to be more realistic would be awesome. Jupiter has almost a hundred moons and thousands of smaller objects orbiting it, and Saturn has even more. Most of them would be very small, but even then, it would add a lot of interest to those systems I think, and I can’t imagine it would be hard to implement compared to all the other stuff we’re talking about. It would also be nice to see some more interesting features on the planetary bodies themselves, especially ones that require specially designed equipment, and effort and skill, to get to, like deep ravines that require kerbals to bring climbing equipment or winches to get to the bottom of. Also, stuff like FreeIVA and through the eyes of a kerbal are really cool, and it would be neat if we could get those fully implemented at some point, maybe even with VR support, though for all I know that might be as difficult as multiplayer would be. But in any case, fully modeling the interiors of spacecraft and having them be visible through windows also seems like an awesome idea, and since KSP 2 did it it probably is possible, though we might want it to be togglable for low-end computers. Also, I really like the idea of having kerbals go on EVA properly, by getting in an airlock, depressurizing it, and opening the hatch to step outside, all fully animated. We could have it so that kerbals can’t just exit from any random hatch, thus making having actual airlocks important on larger ships. Some smaller pods, Apollo-style ones for example, obviously could just have the entire thing depressurize as they did IRL. And once on EVA, it would be cool if we could have fully modeled tethers, and redo the climbing system from scratch so the kerbals have to clamber across the sides of the spacecraft until you unlock EVA jetpacks. I’m not sure whether the EVA packs should be modeled like they are in stock, or if they should be large, clunky things that have to be stored externally and entered like an external command seat, like the real ones are, I’d love to hear your thoughts on that. Of course, we could still give the kerbals smaller and less powerful SAFER-like packs that they can carry on them. Alright, that’s about all I can think of for now. I’m sure I’ll come up with more ideas in the future, and I might keep on posting them, but for now I’d love to hear some feedback on all this. I’m trying to figure out what the community wants most from a KSP sequel, not just what I do personally, so it’s important I don’t just ramble on about my own thoughts unchecked.

Calling 911 to talk about the thing I can't talk about.