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Smug much? Talk to me again after you've designed real spacecraft systems for a living (here's a clue: I have, and it's hard). If I want to go to the trouble of rescuing a stranded mission or resupplying a base I've built, I want to be able to land somewhere close without being right on top of my target. This is not a complicated or hard to understand feature request. If Sarbian or codepoet or anyone else on the MJ team thinks it's acceptable and do-able, yay for me. If not, not. But either way, I don't tell you how to play your game. There's a lesson for you there.

1) Not much way around that at the moment besides zooming in really close and paying attention to how much time is indicated when you click to set the node, unfortunately. 2) Try http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/11322-Different-Conic-drawing-modes . There's a line in your main game configuration file that refers to the conic mode; you'll have to open it with notepad or whatever equivalent you've got and change the appropriate line (which eludes me at the moment; somebody help me out here). 3) All struts in the game are massless; this is a function of how they've been set up in their configuration file. It is possible to over-strut things and actually make them less stable; you'll have to talk to folks with experience on that topic. 4) Well, there is a way to do that from the Main Menu (I think; never tried myself). Meantime there's http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Controls 5) Yep. 6) No.

the hill resets and moves it back to real space and collapses this pocket of space time you talk about with the warp. still your hill but its in normal space time now enjoy.

I've heard a lot of people talk about transferring fuel between tanks, or even between docked spacecraft. How do I set that up?

Void mod is like Engineer mod but it keeps some of the info on screen nice mod. here is a link if u want to look at it http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/54533 modder also as AntennaRange-Enforce talk to him or her about putting max antennarange and range to target in they said they would try in get in the next update on void

Day 278: Canopus T-18 launch KSC announcer: "...and we have liftoff!! Onboard the capsule, we say again, are the crew of the DUMAS-I mission to Duna, Jebediah, Gusdan, Dudsky and Geroly, and the pilots of the capsule, Commander Bill and Flight Engineer Corger. The four brave kerbals will set foot again on the red planet, to explore and..." ----- Bill: "... roll program terminated, all systems a-ok, standing by for staging. So Jeb, how is returning up there after all that training on the ground?" Jeb: "Oh, you know, it would be far better without all this G-force trying to squeeze the ribs out of your eyeballs. Still, you end up missing the good ol' SRBs, pushing you to the stars..." Geroly: "Ehy... dude... how... do you... can talk?... It's like... having a... bloody elephant... sitted... on my lungs..." Jeb: "Well, with the time you develop your breath, and all those nice kerbonaut tricks. But don't worry, when we'll have dropped the first stage, it would be far more bearable. Am I right, mon capitain?" Bill: "Shush. Ok Corger, ready on my mark. 3... 2... 1... Mark!" Corger: "BECO, staging confirmed, ullage go. Ready for ignition..." Geroly: "Ohy, I can breath again! Oh, sweet sweet oxigen, how I longed for thee, my deaHOLYCOWWHATTHEHELL..." Corger: "... and ignition. All systems a-ok, LES tower separation confirmed." Gusdan: "LES tower separation? We could have brought it up with us a little, right? I mean, just to stay safe, right? I mean, not that we needed more safety, this is the safest rocket in the world, the safest rocket in the world, the safest rocket in the world..." :heavy breathing: Dudsky: "Sir, I suspect that Engineer Gusdan may have a respiratory deficit caused by the takeoff acceleration. I ask permission to leave my seat to give medical aid, sir." Bill: "So, first choice, handpicked kerbals as usual, right?" Dudsky: "Sir?" Jeb: :grin: "Like myself. Only the best for the KSP!" Dudsky : "Sir, have you heard the precedent request?" ----- Corger: "Within docking range, sir. Do I have to engage the radar auto-docker?" Bill: "No, you know I don't trust those things. I'm sure you can handle this manually, Corger, so go on and don't scratch the paint from our passenger's ride." Corger: "Hard docking achieved, all contact lights green, hatches correctly lined up." Bill: "Good work." Corger: "Well, thank you, sir!" Jeb: "Ok guys, all aboard your new home!!" Dudsky : "Still I don't get why we are up there 5 days before departure, Sir..." Jeb: "Simple, my inquiring mate. We'll check out every single thing on this flying marvel, and when we're done, we'll check everything again." Dudsky: "Still, it looks all very inefficient to me. We're expending precious supplies, everything has been tested on Kerbin and no malfunction had been signaled by the on board computer." Jeb: "Well, experience teaches you that a computer can be very, very faulty, and I don't want to float endlessly in space to save some liters of oxigen..." Gusdan: "Floating WHAT?" Jeb: "Nothing, nothing, don't worry. Here take this manuals in the main cabin... NO GUS, the other hatch!!" ----- Day 283: Kerbin-Duna transfer window KSC announcer: "...Yes, mission control confirms the start of the last burn for the DTH Interplanetary Delivery Complex. Lasting 4 minutes, will propel the craft to a Duna encounter in 65 days. DIDC is the last unmanned craft to leave orbit, and next is the Tindalos-I, were the kerbonauts are preparing themselves to..." ----- Dudsky: "Geroly, what on earth are you doing? Shouldn't you be checking the engine bells alignment?" Geroly: "Drinking a cup of tea, dude! Do you want some? There's plenty of time before we depart!!" Dudsky: "Geroly, we're leaving in 20 minutes." Geroly: "See? Plenty of time!" Dudsky: "..." ----- Bill: "Have you checked the hidraulic systems?" Jeb: "Yes." Bill: "Primary and backup?" Jeb: "Natural." Bill: "Comms?" Jeb: "10/10." Bill: "Centrifuge motors?" Jeb: "All efficient and ready." Bill: "The heathshield?" Jeb: "We EVA'd two hours ago." Bill: "Just checking if you were paying attention." Jeb: "So... I think the moment arrived." Bill: "Yeah, I think so. Take care of you and of the boys, and bring back a red rock for the kids." Jeb: "Nah, you'll take one yourself when you'll visit. Besides, I don't guarantee for the total safety of Gusdan..." Bill: "I'm not asking for miracles, Jeb!!!" :laughs: ----- Bill: "We cleared the hatch, Jeb, you're free to maneuver. Godspeed!!" Jeb: "Thanks pal!! Ok, aligning for the burn. Last check guys, have you peed? Because this time I won't return at home just after departure..." Dudsky: "No need for: we have lavatory facilities on board..." Jeb: "Dudsky, it was just... I didn't mean it for... You... Oh, the maneuver node. Ok, all ready for ignition in 3, 2, 1... Jeb: "Ignition succesful!! NEXT STOP, DUNA!!!" ----- Corger: "Sir, are you all right?" Bill: "Mhm? What... Oh, yes Corger, yes. Why are you asking?" Corger: "You stared out of the window in silence for the best part of 10 minutes..." Bill: "Ah... I'm a little... absent." Corger: "Worried for the guys?" Bill: "No, not so much. Jeb is a skilled pilot, and apart from their evident deficiencies, his crew is really the best KSP can offer... No, I was just thinking... We three, me, Jeb and Bob, we have always sticked together, since the start of the space program. Yes, we are best pals, but let's face it, they're the good ones... They were the first on the Mun, while I went with up with the second mission; they landed on Duna, while i stayed in orbit to just wait for them... Now, Bob directs the Munar outpost, Jeb is going again to Duna, and I still fly things around Kerbin. It's just, you know, sometimes you feel useless..." Corger: "If I can say my opinion, sir, you're not being really objective. You're the most skilled capsule pilot we have, and half of KSP pilots were trained by you. Also, since I'm flying, I never seen someone to dock so efficiently and precisely, even Commander Jeb is lousy at it compared to you, KSC doesn't validate a new design if it's not tested by you... I don't think that you have to plant a flag on something to be good at something..." Bill: "... Maybe you're right Corger... Who knows... Now, too much talking, and too little action. Plot me a Homann transfer to Spacelab 1, we have science to do!!" Corger: "Aye aye, sir captain!!" Bill: :smile: "One day, Jeb, one day..."

Skylon is designed as an unmanned cargo carrier. Any talk of passenger modules is a long way down the road, it's not an important design goal at the moment (they need to get the thing to actually work first!). There will be humans in the loop but they won't be physically sitting on board the aircraft. This is pretty normal in spaceflight, but a bit alien to people's expectations of aircraft, because unmanned aircraft are still quite rare. That'll change over the next few decades, you're going to see unmanned aircraft becoming a lot more common. The technology is ready, all it needs to really get going is for the regulatory framework to catch up.

Tall rockets have few points of cross-connection, leaving them liable to flex. The "asparagus" stating you hear people talk about makes ships more fuel-efficient, but also provides points for cross connection. By building additional stages around the previous ones instead of under them, your rocket will be more stable, more fuel-efficient, and easier to steer. An example: The side tanks are arranged in opposing pairs, so that there are 3 stages on the lowermost level of that rocket. Also, you can see I've used struts from those side stages to help stabilize the connection to the upper stage. This is where to find aircraft wheels: This is one way to place ailerons, and this is another. Landing planes without landing gear is quite a trick, but this guy pulled it off. Of course, he's crazy. Flying a tanker to the island would be quite a trick. It might be easier (though much slower) to send it as a boat. But there's actually not a lot of advantage to doing it, because the tanker will run out before long and itself need to be re-fuelled. Rockets can't rely on acquiring oxygen from air, and therefore must carry both fuel and oxidizer in heavy tanks. Jets carry the fuel, but skip the weight of oxidizer by drawing it from the air. Thus, the same weight of carried substances will propel a jet much farther. But also, KSP jet engines are simply over-powered when compared to their real-world counterparts. The game is still in development, so there are some odd aspects to it like that.

OK, I've done my homework... I won't bother with screenshots, but I will describe what I've done. First, I determined the intended size of the base toroidal tank model (as used for the large tank, as it turns out): major radius 3m, minor radius 0.5m. This gives a torus volume of Vreal=14.804m3 (this will be used later on. I then edited the model by deleting all non-visible parts, moving the "arms" (and hoops) and the tank section itself apart (for ease of working). I cleaned up the tank part (tire plus rim if thought of as a bicycle wheel), made sure it was all manifold (ie, no openings) and used blender's volume tools to get Vouter=14.409m3. I added a solidify modifier with a thickness of 0.009 (9mm) and got a volume of Vshell=0.509m3. Subtracting gives Vinner=13.900m3. It was then that I realized this was too far out from a real tank of such design (it would be smooth curves rather than faceted), so I cleaned up the tank to be just a torus shape (ie, deleted anything outside the 0.5m minor radus and filled in the holes). For this I got Vfake=13.976m3 (no solidify modifier). I figured that "close enough is good enough" and just used the ratio of the real and fake volumes to scale everything. Thus... V[sub]tank[/sub] =V[sub]shell[/sub]*(V[sub]real[/sub]/V[sub]fake[/sub]) = 0.509*14.804/13.976 = 0.5392m[sup]3[/sup] V[sub]contents[/sub]=V[sub]inner[/sub]*(V[sub]real[/sub]/V[sub]fake[/sub]) = 13.900*14.804/13.976 = 14.7235m[sup]3[/sup] I did similar shenanigans with the arms (and hoops), but didn't bother with any correction factors. I capped the ends to get the total volume (0.183m3), remove the caps and added a 9mm solidify modifier to get the pipe shell volume (Vpipe=0.069m3) and subtracted to get Varm=0.114m3. Thus: V[sub]t[/sub]=V[sub]tank[/sub]+V[sub]pipe[/sub]=0.5392+0.069=0.6082 V[sub]c[/sub]=V[sub]contents[/sub]+V[sub]arm[/sub]=14.7235+0.114=14.8375 The scales (as best I can tell) are, from small to extra-large: 0.25, 0.625, 1, 1.5. Thus, using a density of 7.8t/m3 for the shell... Name Capcity Shell Dry Mass TO-S-1 0.2318 0.0095 0.0741 TO-M-1 3.6224 0.1485 1.1582 TO-L-1 14.8375 0.6082 4.7440 TO-XL-1 50.0766 2.0527 16.0109 Capacity and Shell are in m3, Dry Mass is in tons. Shell is given only for independent verification . All tanks have an LFO wet/dry mass ratio of 4.128 (lousy, but that's geometry for you). If you want a better mass ratio, talk to NathanKell (he'll give you titanium alloy tanks:cool:). [edit]D'oh: forgot to add the tank mass to the fuel mass for the ratio (3.128->4.128)

Sounds like issue 200: https://github.com/Cilph/RemoteTech2/issues/200 Targeting a body will only talk to satellites in line of site and orbiting that body. So something can be in the cone, but if it is outside the SOI of the target body it will not be communicated with. You might add your usage scenario to the issue and see if that might encourage a change in the code proposed by maxdreamland. I personally think dishes should only use cone mode no matter what they target, but maybe that creates a performance issue.

1. Is on the WNTS. Please read that. It's kind of important. 2. Is, at least to some extent, already kind of in the game, I think. Problem is, the ocean is a sphere -- you can't divide it into square grids. Doesn't work. But yeah, something of this kind already exists, AFAIK. You'd have to talk to a dev to be sure. 3. Smoke trails like that... well, how does it react to the camera being rotated? Is it animated? How will it possibly cope when you have a hundred engines running? Will there be issues with how a whole lot of them overlay on each other if they're translucent? How does it react to sudden engine shutoff -- would the entire trail simultaneously disappear? The present implementation is not the best, no, but I think it works a lot better than a static or even animated image.

Skylab? Sounds like a good idea. Talk with Danny_TX and Frizzank to coordinate docking collars, and then we're talking. ;D

Banned for computer talk in a nonsense thread.

Licking Wounds Loddon eased his jets and lifted free of the Base. Here it looked good. No damage visible, no burns or anything showing. But above... He looked up and saw a bulge on the side of the tri-coupler mount and frowned. This was not going to be good. "I'm ascending up to check the coupler." He said into his mike. "Roger EVA One." Bob answered. "Be careful, we're still getting sporadic spikes on the power line. Something must still be wrong out there." "I will." Up he went and looked down on the connector. It wasn't pretty. Two of the docking ports had been jammed down, their magnetic grapples visibly distorted around the rim as the whole port's edge was crumpled. "Looks like when they decoupled only one worked. The others were effectively immediately crushed by not only the full weight of the Skycrane but also probably the actuation systems on the crane. Must have been a heck of a jolt! They've been driven into the assembly mount!" "So... no way to salvage the tri-coupler?" "No, sorry Bob, I think they're going to have to redesign the transport to land beside us. I was never keen about something that heavy docking on top of the base anyway. We do have one docking port left up here that looks intact, but I wouldn't want to trust it." The original aim was to have several small ships here, each able to land on top of the base. With three docking ports in a triangle on both base and lander the engineers thought that docking would be easy to align. The simulators showed it worked, though it took some skill to land right. Then the designers ran across the council and the lander designs got bigger and bigger as the needs went up. The current transport design was over five times the size of the original one and the base's docking port wasn't really rated for that load. Even before this incident there had been talk about just landing beside the base and hooking hoses up instead. Now that seemed the only option. "I really don't think there is any way to fix this Bob. At least not to get all three working again. And the one left is off center. We can't land anything heavy up here, it'd cause lateral stresses. Sorry." "That's OK EVA One. Right now we need to figure out what happened. I want to know how the power spikes got past the surge protectors. We should have been safe." "Yeah, I'd like to know that too. Look, I'm going to check out the skycrane. What's the situation with that?" "Well, saving the whole thing? Probably not an option as it was never designed for long term use, but you should check out the escape ship. The skycrane's systems were incompatible with the base, but the escape ship's computer might be useful as a backup here. Be tricky as the thing doesn't have a docking port. We'd have to rip it out of the ship and cart it over by hand, then re-install it. Not a simple task in a space suit." "True. I'll check it out." Loddan adjusted his RCS and flitted out across the grey plains towards the landed Skycrane. *** The Command pod was rather packed. Only Loddon wasn't present as he was still outside. "I know Gene," Bob said into the mike, "The crew just got back from the check of the ship. Gernand and Caldin offered to carry on the check up in a few minutes. We want to be sure." "And you have no idea what caused the problem?" Gene's voice came over the speakers. "Well, the computer has some kind of issue, and the power fluctuations were what killed it, probably by exacerbating an existing problem. It seems that whatever it was spiked the system so bad it got the backups. I'm not sure how that happened. As to the power spike itself? It's a bit of a guess but we're pretty sure it was some kind of feedback from the actuators on the docking mechanism. From Loddan's suit-cam pics it looks like the hydraulics went nuts when we tried to undock, and when they let loose it caused the actuators to behave like generators. It was so sharp a jolt it overloaded the surge protectors in the docking assembly." "The entire assembly's fried?" Gene asked. "Two out of three ports, and some of the auxiliary systems too. Those we think we can fix, so the remaining port should be functional, but it's off center so won't take much weight without straining the system." "Hmm..." Gene pondered. "How about we send up a replacement computer on a probe core, then land it on the remaining docking port? That should give you operational status again at least. It would be a bit of a jury rig, and be rather exposed to radiation damage and micro-meteorite impacts, but it would work." Bob glanced at the display and raised an eyebrow. "Wait a minute Gene, Loddan's calling. This might be news about the skycrane." He flicked the switch and let Loddan in on the conversation. "Loddan, what'ya have for us?" "Not good news I'm afraid. The skycrane is OK, pretty much untouched, but I'm afraid the nav comp in the escape ship is toast. Must have been fried by the same power spike as our computer. Manual systems work, but trying to use this, even just as an escape ship, would not be easy. I'd suggest we get rid of it just to be sure. If the system is badly fried it's faintly possible something could go nuts if we leave it sitting out here." "OK, but if the computers gone how do we get rid of it?" "Heh, that's easy. I launch it then bail. On low thrust I should be able to RCS out of there and let it just cruise on out, run out of fuel and lithobraking will dispose of the debris for us." A raucous laugh from Dansey caught Bob's attention and he glared at him. For once Dansey's face fell and he looked sheepish. Miracles never cease! "And if it goes nuts on you while you're inside trying to launch it?" "Bob, I'm already inside it to check it out. I'd like to dump it now, just to be sure. I don't like the idea of a damaged vessel sitting here so close to the base. Let me dump it, please?" "Well, we were intending to get rid of it, but I think the plan was to launch it into orbit to be used as a personnel shuttle or something. *sigh* OK, OK Loddan, go for it. Just be real careful, please?" "Oh, only 'cos you asked nicely Bob." A light chuckle from Caldin bought a smile to Bob's lips. "So, you'll need the probe then?" Gene added, once Loddan was finished. "Yes, looks that way Flight. Thanks. Let me know when it's ready." "Will do Alpha One." Everyone relaxed visibly once A solution was found, even if it was a ways off happening yet. "Um, Sir?" Caldin said quietly. "Maybe me and Gernand had better get on the safety sweep? The earlier the better, right?" "Yeah, sure Caldin. Let me know what you find." Caldin grinned and bounced out of the room, Gernand following on behind a little more slowly, shaking his head. His grin said he seemed to like Caldin's attitude at least.

Changing subject, As i know see the original poster who posted my arguments we're invalid has edited his post to change his "subject". Overall DLC's Are a bad idea. We've been flaming over this little post, How about we just stop flaming and try to talk about why DLC's are bad or good for KSP. We don't want to have communities insulted for little things, Such as spelling or grammar.

Let me dig up a (very) old photo... Dang it, can't find it. Must be from 0.18 or thereabouts. Anyhow, my most what? moment in KSP: here I was, just launched my first probe into solar escape trajectory. Either probes were kinda new, or ion engines, and I wanted to see how fast I could get one going. Got the most out of Oberth effect on chemical engines and all that. It gets into kerbol's SoI and... BAM! tuns out the game decides it's going retrograde instead of prograde. A mess of an orbit with high eccentricity at that. Thanks, Kraken! Thankfully Jool was close by, and I managed to squeeze an intercept out of ions. It put the probe on kerbol polar escape trajectory just with the gravity assist. Talk about inefficient trajectories... retrograde encounter with a gas giant and a polar trajectory just to get escape from the solar system! It's got to be in one of my old save files still flying towards that rendezvous, but I don't wanna fire up the old versions, so I guess you will have to take my word for it, but it was one of those moments in KSP that stuck with me. Rune. It was a hilarious bug, that's for sure.

Chapter 11.5: Reunion of foes Over a month later... See/Sig: Wow.... B9k: I know. It looks so beautiful... B9k: Guys- I need to activate the comm array to contact mission control. We may be having a situation here... See: I don't- B9k: Check the gravioli scanner. Sig: ... That is a blinking dot. B9k: Yes, yes it is. MC: Hey guys! How is Duna? See: It's gorgeous! B9k: MC, I am sending you gravioli scanner data now. We have a bogey, decelerating relative to us, directly aft. MC: Get eyes on target DuneDancer. Sig: I can barely see it! See: It's really dark. B9k: It has next-to-no heat signature, and active scanning on bands other than gravioli shows nothing. It seems to have near-perfect insulation... MC: Well then, approach and- Jeb: NO! DO NOT APPROACH! DO NOTHING! Shutdown exterior lights, and deactivate all non-essential systems. See: Jeb? B9k: Why? Jeb: You know why B9k. Just... Observe it. B9k: Complying.... MC: Jeb, we need to talk. You are behaving more and more irrationally. Jeb: Myself, Bill, and Bob have reason to belive this object may be- See: It's moving! Jeb: -hostile... Sig: It's glowing.... See: This can't be good. *THWUMP* B9k: Spacial ripple! SBBBBBBWBAiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq...... Ok, I'm fine. See: Sig, check all systems- Sig: B9k, could you run a system diagnostic? B9k: Primary computing systems offline. All exterior sensors other than the gravioli scanner is offline. Gravioli communication systems are working- 3/4 of the detectors are damaged and non-functional. See: Can it get any worse? B9k: Yes. RTG's are venting gas. Nuclear engine containment is damaged- I doubt the engine will work properly anymore. RCS control systems are malfunctioning, and there is worse news. See: HOW CAN THIS *BLAM* Sig: Oww.... Good thing he has a glass jaw. Right, B9k, life-support is fine, right? Centrifuge is still spun up? B9k: Yes. Sig: Alright. What's the worse news? B9k: The object is on a re-entry path down to near where the rover is. Sig: That's great! Can we set up an uplink with the rover? B9k: Already Patching it through. Give me a minute. MC: ***** Is **ery on** allr**t? B9k: We are still here. No injuries, but we are dead in the water until the damage to the nuclear engine has been checked. See: WhAt happened?... Sig: You were beginning to panic and jinx us all. See: Ah. B9k: Pictures are coming in now. Sig: Isn't there supposed to be something? B9k: Overlaying infrared visuals now. Sig: Turn us toward the estimated landing location. B9k: I am in communication with the AI in the probe. AR: Hey up there! Something came down hard here- I want to go look at it. Can I? Sig: ... See: ... MC: Go ahead AR. AR: YAY! AR: I will send you the gravioli sensor readings- it is very pretty. B9k: The gravioli readings are so high that this vehicle is probably powered by a gravioli acceleration engine. See: Why don't we have one of these? Jeb: I have been working on it for a month- the distortions the engines causes are hard to control. Every engine needs to be tuned to ship, and that is a very touchy job. AR: I am getting closer! I am tuning out weaker gravioli signals. AR: I see it! AR: Is that it? AR: That's it! What is that? See: It's a flying saucer. Sig: I don't think this is a good thing... AR: IT BURNS!!!! SWARM: WE KNOW THIS TECHNOLOGY. WE RECOGNIZE THIS GRAVIOLI TRANSMISSION TECHNOLOGY. CAN YOU HEAR US? MC: Yes, we can hear you. We hope to- SWARM: QUIET. MC: Excuse me? SWARM: BE QUIET. WE ARE SEARCHING FOR AN AUTONOMOUS VESSEL, CAPABLE OF 1/3RD LIGHTSPEED, KNOWN AS NOSTALGIA FOR INFINITY. MC: We know of no such vessel. However, we wish to open channels of communication and trade with you and your people, as well as - SWARM: WE NEED FOR NOTHING OF YOURS. WE WILL TAKE WHAT WE WANT, AND CONTINUE OUR SEARCH. STAY GROUNDED FLESHLINGS, OTHERWISE YOU WILL BE TARGETED. MC: We will not cave to your demands! SWARM: IT DOES NOT MATTER. GOODBYE. AR: HELp me...... B9k: Signal is degrading... See: Can you get the signal back? B9k: No. Sig: Guys? See: I am going to get suited up for an EVA- we need to get out of here ASAP. Sig: GUYS?!?! See: What? Sig: Our sats are going dark. See: That is a horrifying thing to say. Sig: Look- here is the map of out orbits 20 minutes ago. See: Close orbit and much farther orbit. Yes, and? Sig: Here is a map when the probe was taken out. ALL the sats went dark at the same time. See: Oh *****. *************** I hope everyone is enjoying the story! NfI is coming back, and so is the SWARM. I love reading your speculations! Next post will be on the weekend.

Hey sarge playing the BootStrap missions now to test, things seem pretty good on this end. You having issues because you don't have launch stabilizers yet? I made my own for now. Anyway I never new how well written the BootStrap missions were. Nice. Going to play through them to check them out. I might have to talk to the Author and see if he minds me packaging the missions with MCE.

The drag should be way, way lower, n'est-ce pas? Assuming all other things being equal it should get to escape velocity sooner. Guess I should test both. Gonna try out this vegetable theory, see how it goes. What's all this talk about need to throttle down? Why would I throttle down? If the asparagus is dropping engines, technically it is the one throttling down, hehe. I keep my 8 engines till the end. Well, almost. In the second to last stage I drop three Rockomax 48-7S helper engines. I just got a 24.33t ship going 2994 m/s. Now I haven't tried the accepted asparagus way yet, but this seems like a pretty good result.

After having created a launcher and landing program that made gathering science from the Mun and Minmus a routine operation, I decided to set my sights upon something slightly more challenging. Duna had been tossed around as a preferred destination by my fellow Kerbalnauts, so I figured, why not? This was a career save and I'd managed to unlock a good portion of the tree, but I was getting bored after the fifth or so Minmus landing. I like the fact that it has different biomes now, but there isn't enough difference between them to hold my interest for much longer than it did. I'll go back when I figure out all this rover business. I constructed my ship out of three major parts. First, there was the Transfer stage, which contained all the engines and fuel needed for the trip. Second, there was the Command module, which had the power, batteries, mobile lab, hitchhiker containers, monoprop tanks etc. that would sustain the brave crew on their adventure. The Lander made up the third part. Everything was launched separately and docked together in orbit.* *I would like to take a brief moment here and thank the tweakables function for letting me launch with empty fuel tanks for the transfer stage. I would never have gotten the thing in orbit without it. Empty, it weighed about 120 tonnes and was also my largest single lift to date. The transfer stage took three or four trips with a tanker to completely fill. I am now an accomplished docking pilot. When all was said and done, there was about 11,000 m/s (+/-) of delta v available. The lander would start with full tanks, but would refuel from the transfer stage to allow it to make multiple landings. Its initial fuel didn't count towards my delta v budget, but every landing I did would eat a little more out of it. Still, it looked to be massive overkill when compared to the best delta V maps I could find, so I remained optimistic. Besides, anything left over would go back into the transfer stage for the burn home. The lander contained duplicate copies of all the scientific instruments, excluding the nosecone part as I've never actually used that and I have no idea what it does. Science, I assume, but whatever. The idea would be to take duplicate readings from all the areas I could, use the science lab to process and transmit one set and EVA to collect the others into the command section for later return to Kerbin. The experiments would then be reset and the entire ship would be moved onwards to the next place of science. I loaded it up with the full crew complement of 7 and set forth to adventure! It was majestic. It was awe inspiring. It had an intercept burn time of somewhere between two cups of tea and reasonably quick pot of soup. Note to self: do not neglect the TWR numbers for the next construction project. Mission Highlights This was probably the most complex thing I've ever done in KSP, and it was the first manned mission I've ever done outside of Kerbin's SOI. It was also the most fun I've had to date. Design and build, launch, docking, interplanetary flight, this mission covered pretty much the whole darn shooting match. While the autopilot option was there, I did all the flying myself on this one. I now consider myself a (lightly) seasoned veteran when it comes to orbital rendezvous and docking. Take that, MechJeb, your services are no longer required! (You can stay if you want to plot all my circular orbits though...) Despite the few attempts needed to make the Duna landing, the mission was a wild success. It netted me somewhere in the neighbourhood of 4,200 science points, enough to unlock the rest of the tree, except for a single node. 550 needed, 427 available. So close. I guess I should have looked into that nosecone after all. There was a brief moment of panic when I tried to make the transfer to Ike. I was still commanding the ship from the landing can, which was docked backwards compared to the rest of the ship. All the indicators said prograde, but I managed to put 300m/s towards a deorbit and crash on Duna before I noticed, flipped the ship around (so slowly!) and burn with the engines pointing in the right direction. Talk about an adrenaline rush followed by a face-palm of epic proportions. I did not manage to take screen shots of this as I was too busy muppet-flailing in panic to hit that particular key. Since nothing broke or exploded, I stabilized the orbit and went to Ike on the next go around. Another Note to self: Next ship, have everything docked facing the same direction to engineer this problem out of existence. I am now planning a similar mission to the Jool system where I hope to put a Kerbal on every moon, with triple the number of nuclear engines. The budget is unlimited so far, but my patience is not.

Not really. The idealised tables and empirical equations that define wind chill temperature make assumptions about the surface temperature of the body that is being cooled. This is why they talk about the effect of wind chill on exposed skin. The convective heat loss of someone standing naked is obviously different than that of someone wearing a heavy parka because the difference in temperature between the air and the surface of the person is smaller when wearing a parka than it is for someone standing naked. The heat transfer rate isn't a linear relationship either because the convective heat transfer coefficient is also dependent on the air temperature in the boundary layer. You can get away with having an exposed face at -40°C if there's no wind, but it will be darn uncomfortable or even dangerous to have an exposed face at -30°C and exposed to 20 kph winds (roughly -40°C wind chill temperature). This is why it makes more sense to use a wind chill index than a wind chill temperature. It is less likely to be misinterpreted as having any physical meaning or to be used as an excuse to exaggerate. You're in Portland, but I wonder if that is also true in places like North Dakota or Minnesota? It would be important to know how severe the conditions are before venturing out, so I am surprised that the National Weather Service doesn't include any sort of wind chill factor in its weather reports in places where it matters?

Wow. Talk about neat. I love the new pad hardware. RoboRay: He wouldn't have trouble too if he was diving straight down. I'd rather say, his entry angles are too shallow.

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Why is there economic value in finding ways to smelt iron in conditions not found on earth? Seriously, there's a lot of talk about how valuable materials science experiments, etc... performed in space are, but no actual evidence despite several decades of doing do. Like so many other 'space spin offs', it's smoke and mirrors, not results.

Sure you are! Nothing beats tinfoil hat And about the topic, I hate it more when I'm trying to talk about space technologies with people and they start telling me all that BS pseudoscience stuff and don't even believe me when I tell the truth about them. Gotta ignore ignorant people, or you would go mad after a while.