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My big project is a space station called Ascension Station. The first version of it was too laggy to be usable at nearly 1000 parts and more than 200 tons, and the version I'm making now looks to be just as laggy. The first pic is the whole station from 0.20, the second is the Mk II station core in orbit in 0.21.

Yeah Constructing previous SSTOs has led me to build better booster for rockets easily. The ones I've built used actually about 1 turbofan per 15 ton, and utilized about 6 RAM intakes per Engine, which allowed them to got to 26Km+ and 1500 m/s+, then I use the Nukes+Radial engines to climb to 30-36km where a TWR of .5+ (just Nukes) and a speed around 1800 m/s is able to keep the vessel climbing to orbit. At which point circularization becomes easy since the delta v of just nukes was usually around 4500 m/s, and I was usually left with ~800 m/s delta v after circularization. The biggest one I made was 42 tons, had 3 turbofans, and 4 nukes. However when I tried to make a 10+ Kerbal VTOL SSTO Thats when the problems hit. To get enough fuel for IP travel (Which to me was a must), the vessel started to weigh 100-200 tons. This wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for the fact that 30 engines (with Ideally around 60 intakes for the Jet engines) taxes my computer too much to be practical (I can't even play with the aerodynamic effects because they crash my computer). Basically I'm not able to do this project with Stock KSP.

Prologue X-1 test flight Purpose: Test of the suborbital rocket X-1 Mission status: Successfully completed Commander: Jebediah (not on board) Mission chief scientist: Wernher von Kerman Crew on board: none Crew on ground: 4 Speaker voice: “T minus ten.†Speaker voice: “Nine.†Speaker voice: “Eight.†Speaker voice: “Seven.†Speaker voice: “Six.†Speaker voice: “Five.†Speaker voice: “Four.†Speaker voice: “Three.†Speaker voice: “Engine startup.†Speaker voice: “Two.†Speaker voice: “One.†Speaker voice: “Zero.†Speaker voice: “Aaaaand… Liftoff!†The silence in the Mission Control building, which was nothing more than a shed with some obsolete computers and a bike as power supply, was gone. Everyone cheered. But the mission wasn’t finished yet. The unmanned rocket still had a long way to go. After a minute or two, when everyone had calmed down the work started again. Jeb: “Bob, what is the current height?†Bob: “5 km, still increasing.†Jeb: “Bill, can Air Monitoring and Defense (AMD) confirm this height?†Bill (to AMD): “This is mission control, can you confirm the height of 5 km for our rocket?†AMD: “Nope. It’s 6 km right now.†Bill: “AMD confirms that our rocket is still flying, even though it is higher than our information tell us.†Jeb: “That’s not a problem, you were just too slow.†When the rocket achieved the height of 12 km the gravity turn needs to be prepared. Jeb: “Okay guys, gravity turn is imminent, Bill does our RC-Receiver still work at that altitude?†Bill: “I don’t know. We’ll find out soon.†Jeb: “Bob activate RCS Thrusters, disable SAS and change to manual control.†Bob: “RCS active.†Bob: “SAS disabled and control set to manual input. Now the rocket’s destiny is in your hands Jeb… good luck!†Jeb: “Ok, thanks. Heading set to 20°. SAS enabled.†When the rocket reached the height of 18 km, it had to be tilted a bit more. Jeb: “The rocket’s heading is now 45°, it’s pretty easy to fly. I hope the RC-Receiver doesn’t die.†The heading was changed 2 more times, then the rocket had its final direction. During the gravity turn the first stage burned out and was decoupled. AMD: “Your rocket just broke into two parts!†Bill: “JEB! JEB! JEB! JEB!†Jeb: “Huh?†Bill: “AMD said our rocket broke into two parts!†Jeb (facepalming): “No… Bob just decoupled the first stage.†Bill: “Ohh… okay…†Bill (to AMD): “We decoupled the first stage. This is no error.†Bob: “…†Jeb: “…†When the second stage finally burned out, they activated the professional antennas (just before the toy RC-Receiver died) and unfolded the solar panels. The data sent by the probe told them that it would reach an apoapsis higher than 200 km. The three Kerbals feared that the Space Kraken would eat the probe, therefore they used the probe’s RCS Thrusters to lower the apoapsis to about 190 km. The probe reached its apoapsis and hurtled back to the ground, where it would crash with about 150 m/s into the firm ground of Kerbin. As soon as the probe reentered the atmosphere of Kerbin, AMD called mission control. AMD: “Uhhm guys, your rocket isn’t crashing into Kerbin, is it?†Bill (to AMD): “Actually it is.†AMD: “Did you know that crashing 3 ton metal cans into Kerbin is a crime?†Bill (to AMD): “No, we didn’t. But did you know, that our rocket will crash with such a speed into Kerbin, that nothing will be left after the crash?†AMD: “Uhhm… I think it’s ok then.†Jeb: “What did AMD want from us?†Bill: “They were just asking if we’re really crashing our 2 $ Metal can into Kerbin…†Jeb: “Ok.†Bob: “I’ve got a great idea… we could use the impact of our probe to collect geological data about Kerbin.†Jeb: “That’s really a great idea. Wernher, could you built a machine that collects the data for us?†Wernher: “How much time do I have?†Jeb: “Uhhm… 5 minutes or so.†Wernher: “Ok, that should be enough.†Wernher built a small seismograph and put it on the ground. He told everyone to stop breathing, because this would distort the readings. 2 minutes after Wernher finished his work, the probe hit the ground and squashed 15,643 ants. Jeb: “Guys, we just guided the first suborbital rocket in the history of Kerbin. I think we can proudly say that we are heroes.†“Knock. Knock.†Jeb: “Who’s there?†“WHO.†Jeb: “Who is ‘WHO’?†“World Hero Organization.†Jeb: “Oh, okay, get in.†2 guys in suits entered the shed and introduced themselves as Fumus and Nel. They were commissioned by the government to offer Jeb, Bob, Bill and Wernher the possibility to help the government starting up the space agency named Kerbin Interplanetary Agency. Their ultimate goal would be to visit all the planets in Kerbol’s solar system and to look for habitable places. The government arranged contracts with 3 of the major rocket tank and engine producers: Novapunch, KW Rocketry and AIES Aerospace, as well as contracts with a Kethane-Group and computer fabricators like MechJeb. They also bought some smaller Companies with good solutions like the Kerbal Attachment System. In total there were contracts or interactions with the following companies: - Squad - Novapunch - KW Rocketry - AIES Aerospace - Kethane-Group - Mechjeb - Kerbal Attachment Systems Chapter 1 - Preparations First Kerbal in Space Purpose: Sending a manned rocket on a suborbital trajectory. Mission status: Successfully completed Commander: Jebediah Crew assigned: 1 (2 if you count Jeb's ground radio contact (Bill)) The rocket named X-2 was a modified X-1 rocket: To the first stage they added two asparagus-staged boosters. On the top of the rocket the Probe-Body was removed and a single seated capsule was placed there instead. The calculated delta v was enough to achieve a suborbital trajectory, make some course corrections and then land the capsule safely. Jeb: "When will the rocket start?" Bill: "T minus 20 seconds" 20sec later: Jeb: "Whoooooooooooooohooooooooooooo!!!111!!!1!!oneeleven!!!11!!" Bill: "Everything ok?" Jeb: "Yeah, but i never felt so much g ever before!!!" Bill: "Okay." At about 15 km the first stage was decoupled and a short time after that the gravity turn was initiated: Jeb: "Okay guys, gravity turn was just initiated by mechjeb." Bill: "We can confirm this." Jeb: "By the way: Are we there yet?" Bill: "Nope." At the end of the gravity turn the second stage was decoupled. The rocket only needed very little thrust of it's orbital insertion engine to complete the burn. After the rocket had left the atmoshpere the solar panels were extended. Jeb: "Are we there yet?" Bill: "Yes." Jeb: "May I take a walk outside?" Bill: "You can't walk outside, there's empty space, you can't walk on Nothing!" Jeb: "Well may I go out of this little capsule anyways?" Bill: "Yes, but get back in before you reenter the atmosphere. And don't get too far away from the capsule! And don't..." The radio contact was automatically disabled, when Jeb opened the airlock. Jeb: "SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCCCCEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!" The airlock was closed again, when jeb had left the capsule. Radio contact was reactivated. Bill: "...did you understand everything" Jeb: "Sure" *flyin 'round* Bill: "That's fine." Jeb: "EVAing is soooo coooool!!!!" *spinning uncontrollably* Bill: "really?" Jeb: "Yeah, absolutely. But be silent so I can feel the silence up here!" Jeb was flying around and doing selfies for some time when suddenly Bill broke radio-silence. Bill: "Jeb, you should get back into your" Jeb: "But I don't want to get back down there." Bill: "Well I think you don't have a choice..." Jeb took hist last photo and sent it to KSC, where almost the whole staff instantly used it as desktop wallpaper for their computers. The rocket first seemed to come down over land, but the atmoshpere slowed it down enough, so it could land in the water of the biggest visible crater on Kerbins surface. Jeb was amazed by this suborbital flight and wanted to do another right after he landed. Unfortunately there was a lot of paperwork waiting for Jeb to do. But the paperwork had to wait until Jeb was forced to do it (This mission was actually done just a day after the test of the X-1, but it's a lot of work to write all the texts & upload the screenshots, so I didn't have the desire to do it right away (There are already 3 more missions to post)). Due to the success of the first official mission of the K.I.A., the government granted the K.I.A. more money to play with. The next goal of the K.I.A. will be to bring a 3-Man capsule into space on a stable orbit.

Oh I see what he meant. Nah. I'd rather it be a solid piece and get back those UV spots. We'd save about 100-200 polygons and UV vertices right there which we can invest in the cockpit buttons, airbrakes and other features. You can only enter and exit the shuttle through the port (left) hatch. If you attach the docking module, you can also exit from that piece if you put Kerbals in it

A hard budget of 300 dollars for three items is a very hard limit. If we divide the cost of each component, you have a limit of 100 dollars per item. Let me tell you firsthand that spending anything under 150 dollars on a GPU is simply not worth the money. I recommend spending about $200 on your GPU, 300 dollars on your CPU and mobo, and buying W7 or W8 for your OS. If you only have 300 dolars to spend, then keep saving your money until you have about double that.

You use less dV because you've got all the dV you spend in stock overcoming drag losses back all of a sudden ( which is realistic - Earth rockets lose 1-200 generally, I think Saturn V losses were about 40m/s ), there's nothing else going on. Parts are tuned for stock aero, mebbe we need FAR nerfs for rocket engines like the jets have been.

I do have a question though, for the speed bit, do all the kerbals have to remain on it for your max speed? as I am running into a bit of an issue after the 120~ mark for kerbals, where once I get past around 200 m/s they all just kinda warp off of it and shotgun outwards, here's a picture of the aftermath of one small bit of the sky, though most just pop into smoke randomly, so these are the (un)lucky survivors:

[Mission Report 7 - Updates to Day 500] Day 351 - The Three Amigos Ride Again Bob had been checking his calendar every day since he arrived. He had been on Duna for 155 days and was ready to go home. Although he was starting to get used to being on Duna, he really wanted to talk to someone in Mission Control about getting his 'test-pilot' status back. He still suspected Macly and Hudsey had planted evidence to make it look like it was his fault that the CDM 4 exploded on the launch pad. The only way to prove that it wasn't his fault was to get back to Kerbin and look over the report. And now, finally, he read on the KSC report that morning that the Crew Transfer Vehicle was in orbit above Duna. It was almost time to go home! He grabbed the radio and tuned in to the transfer vehicle's frequency. "Base Two.. I mean Habmod Two.. calling Crew Transfer Vehicle.. come in Crew Transfer Vehicle.." "Base Two? Bob? Hey how you doing, buddy?" It was Jeb! Jeb had come to Duna.. but why, he wondered? "Jeb, wow, what are you doing out here? Aren't there any new rockets to test back on Kerbin?" Bob asked, sounding chipper for the first time in 155 days. "Well, Bob, Bill and I came out here to pick you up and bring you back into the test pilot program. Bill and I were talking about the good old days and reminiscing about all our crazy mishaps and we got this idea to come along as the pilots for the Crew Transfer Vehicle. I had to pull a few strings to come on the mission without being a part of the surface teams, but mission control owed me one. After all, they took away our best astro-navigator from us!" "Thanks, Jeb. So, Bob's there, too? I can't wait to see you guys! It's been okay down here, but it has been a little boring. But I've been training Ludlong to be a better pilot and he's really taking to it on the simulator. I also shared with him all the stories about the Mun mission from last year when Bill and I were on the surface for 200 days and all the things we learned about duration missions. He seems to really like being down here." "That's great, Bob! Because we came out here for more than just to pick you up. Bill was looking over the telemetry from the Duna transfer vehicles and we think that there's enough fuel left over in them to take a little trip?" "What do you mean, 'take a little trip'?" Bob asked. Bob recognized the tone in Jeb's voice and knew that he was about to propose something unapproved, untested, dangerous and definitely a lot of fun. "We think you should fly the surface shuttle up to the docked transfer vehicles and get every drop of fuel you can from them. Bill tells me that if you can completely fill the shuttle with fuel, we will have enough fuel to do an Ike flyby. We might even have enough to land, but we need you to check the math for us and to plot one of your famous 'free return trajectory' flybys." Bob's mind starting working immediately on the math to perform that kind of burn. He thought to himself, "We'll have to shut off the radial engines because they're gas guzzlers.. chutes won't work..". "That sounds like a great idea! Is this an 'approved' mission?" Bob asked knowingly. "I'm in either way, but I was just wondering how much trouble you're getting me in this time?" "We don't think that Mission Control is in any position to argue with us, ha ha! When do you think you guys can make it up here?" "We're already wearing our helmets, we'll be right up." Bob see's the orbit in his mind Bob and Ludlong climb aboard the rover and Bob takes a final look at the 'Test Pilot Parking' plaque he wrote on the flag. For the first time since he got there, seeing the words 'test-pilot' didn't make him feel uneasy. Bob knew that it was Kerbal Space Center policy that anyone landing on a new planet or moon for the first time would automatically get their 'test pilot' status. He was going to be a test pilot again, all thanks to Jeb and Bill's idea to land on Ike! As Bob and Ludlong approached the Duna Shuttle and gave it last look over before launching it into orbit, Bob was feeling pretty good. He was also really proud of how thorough Ludlong was being in his pre-flight check of the shuttle. "I think Ludlong is going to be a pretty good pilot", he thought. "Hey, Ludlong, I'll handle the docking but I was wondering it you wanted to take us into orbit?" "Sure thing, buddy! I was hoping you'd ask me!" As they settled in to the pilot and co-pilot seats, Bob continued to be impressed with Ludlong's ability behind the controls. He knew where every switch was and every step to complete as if he'd been doing it his whole life. As Ludlong counted down to ignition, Bob turned his head and took one last look at Duna. He was almost going to miss being here, he thought. Then, as Ludlong got to zero he hit the throttle and they quickly ascended into orbit. Bob and Ludlong leave Duna Supply Drop and New Crew to Habmod Two Ludlong did an amazing job getting the shuttle into orbit and it only took two orbits to meet up with the Duna transfer stages. They were docked together still, but there was no plans to use them for anything. There was almost no power on them and no supplies left, except for a small amount of fuel; just enough to top off their tanks on the shuttle. Docking was very challenging as there was very little room to squeeze the big shuttle onto the docking clamp. Bob was thankful that Ludlong turned out to be such a good pilot. Bob let Ludlong handle the roll controls while docking to make it a bit easier. Eventually, the shuttle latched on to the docking port and they began the fuel transfer. There was only a few units of fuel left when they were done, but they did get a full tank of fuel. They should have enough to land on Ike! As Ludlong and Bob undocked from the Duna transfer stages and moved their orbit to match Jeb and Bill's orbit, the Crew Transfer Vehicle was busy with their activity. First, the two supply drops were sent to the surface, each carry 480 units of supply, and then the two new crew members descended to Habmod Two, Ludlong and Bob's old campsite. As the Duna shuttle approached the Crew Transfer Vehicle, Bob looked out his window and said, "Man, that thing is big.." "It sure is, Bob! I'm going to miss our little Habmod, though. I was wondering.. since you Bill and Jeb are going back to Kerbin, do you think I could go back to the Duna surface?" "Lets check out the supplies when we get docked. There might just be enough to support five kerbals down there until the next supply. Good idea, Ludlong! Oh, and by the way, you just earned your wings.. you're officially a pilot now! Congratulations!" "I couldn't have done it without you, Bob. Thanks buddy." They shook hands and Bob took the controls for final approach to docking. Bob and Ludlong dock with the Crew Transfer Vehicle We are go for Ike landing! After sharing some stories about their time on Duna, Bob and Ludlong look over the supplies and decide that there would be enough, but just barely, for Ludlong to head back down to Duna. He would have to use the crew descent vehicle as his base, and there was only enough room for one, but he seemed really excited about it. Bob documented the changes to the mission plan and sent them back to mission control. After a handshake and goodbyes, Ludlong boarded the crew descent vehicle alone. He was still grinning, but at least Bob knew why this time: he was really excited to be going back to the Duna surface. With a short burn, Ludlong expertly piloted his descent module back to the surface. As soon as he landed, he marked his site "Fort Ludlong". When mission control replied, Bob finally found out what Macly and Hudsey were up to and why they weren't coming back with them to Kerbin. Mission control said that they volunteered to go on a mission to the mountain that was north of their habmod and to stay on Duna as surface experts for another tour of duty. Bob was not sure how this happened since he had read every communication that was sent to mission control and there was never anything about volunteering to do anything, but he was very happy about it. "Say, Jeb, you didn't have anything to do with keeping Macly and Hudsey on Duna, did you?" Bob asked Jeb. Jeb smiled briefly but did not acknowledge the question. "Now lets get to Ike and earn those test-pilot wings back for Bob!" Day 500 - Back on Kerbin The Duna Space Progam was going extremely well. To date, there have been 1491 kerbal-days on the Duna surface, the program was extended for an additional 500 days, and Macly and Hudsey volunteered to be Duna surface experts and also to drive up to the mountain in the north. Mission control thought it was interesting that the email from Macly about volunteering to stay on Duna came from Jeb's email address, but they decided not to worry about small details like that. Macly radioed back that they were at a peak, but couldn't go any higher with this rover due to the terrain. He named the mountain Kolympus Mons and sent back a panoramic sunset shot. As the day 511 transfer window approached, the new 3 kerbal habmod was launched into LKO and the dual launch of the Duna Orbiting Station and its propulsion stage were also launched and docked together. Three kerbals were sent to check out the Duna Orbiting Station and three more were sent up to crew the new habmod. While the inspection team was at the station, it marked a new record for the number of kerbals in space: 14 at the same time. Mission control thought this would make a perfect time to celebrate! Chokolate cake and kookies were brought in for the celebration and video of the event was broadcast all over Kerbin. At the end of day 500, both the unkerballed crew delivery mission to the new habmod and also the inspection team from the Duna Station were brought back to Kerbin's surface. Mission control then lined up their burn plans to send two vessels to Duna on the same transfer window, a feat not yet attempted by the Kerbal Space Center. Inspection Team leaves Duna Station Panoramic Sunset from Kolympus Mons Coming in Mission Entry 8 Complete mission hardware catalog The three amigos come back to a hero's welcome Two vessels leave for Duna Complete launch summary to date and sustainable mission plan The new guys visit Fort Ludlong (it's Bartdorf and Danlong) Mission Entry 7 Photo Album

With 4 RTGs, lights on at full acceleration, it just barely hits the batteries and will eventually run them dry. It probably doesn't need that much storage. Maybe putting one of those new 200 unit small roundy ones where the octagonal strut is might save considerable weight. It's a little top-heavy. I have a tendency to over battery my craft. Even more so now with the reaction wheels drawing so much power.

Game is stable on my machine, albeit a tad slow loading up, slow getting to the space centre, slow from the VAB to the pad...generally slow transitions. Game plays fine at the current part count I am using (about 200 - 300 max) at the moment. I am using the Steam version but launch the KSP.exe directly and dont have Steam running. Win 8 pro on a AMD Phenom II x 6 1090T CPU (3.2 ghz), 8 gigs RAM and 580 GTX. I have a fair amount of mods : MechJeb2, Chatterer, Universe Replacer + Raredens 4k texture pack, KAS, Lazor Mod, Damned Robotics parts and Infernal Robotics Fork plugin with Magic Smoke Industries Slider, Aviation Lights and Kethane mod. Hasnt crashed to desktop ever, touch wood.

I saw this the other day on Rocket Builders forum, looked liked a fun thing to try, but also hard, me with my skills failed horribly ... But I think other people should try this as well because for some reason the author didn't post this in this forum so I did. To win the craft most be with the least parts that means the lowest amount will win. Go crazy with mods (But not to crazy like 200 mods that no one can download) and if you are even nicer, posting the craft file will be really appreciated. Also a craft with less then 600 parts is recommended.

First it take away the chalenge of putting 200 ton in low Moho orbit. However it let you make the huge base at Moho north pole you wanted to make.

Ladies and gents, I give you Space Station Beta: I used Fustek, FustekX, KW Rocketry and KSPX to build this thing. Space station Alpha was moved to a 200 km Munur orbit after the completion of Space Station Beta. The last 2 pics show the refuler craft filling up the RCS tanks. The first crew is expected to arive tomorrow!

[TABLE]Eve Kerbin Kerbin moons Duna Jool Jools moons 2,198,623,303,065 1,378,037,515,897,520,000 149,728,992,024 567,235,188,600 144,568,830,400,860,000,000,000,000,000 5,525,199,785,183,930,000,000 s 36,643,721,720 22,967,291,931,625,400 2,495,483,200 9,453,919,810 2,409,480,507,000,000,000,000,000,000 92,086,663,090,000,000,000 Min 610,728,695 382,788,198,900,000 41,591,387 157,565,330 40,158,008,440,000,000,000,000,000 1,534,777,718,000,000,000 h 25,447,029 15,949,508,290,000 1,732,974 6,565,222 1,673,250,352,000,000,000,000,000 63,949,071,590,000,000 days 69,718 43,697,282,970 4,748 17,987 4,584,247,539,000,000,000,000 175,202,935,900,000 years [/TABLE]

Anyway with Mechjeb or any other addon to auto-deploy my sputnik's parachutes (say when vel < 200 m/s) on the auto-land thingy?

Moon's equatorial radius is 1200 kilometers. Earth's equatorial radius is 6000 kilometers. Kerbin is 600 kilometers, Mun is 200 and Minmus is 60. If we would have a Minmus-like moon at that distance ( probably twice the Moon's orbit ), I don't really think that it would affect us. Even if it had 600 kilometers. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Finally got my rover to my stranded Kerbals on Duna only had to drive over 200 km to get there and now a 65 km drive to their escape vehicle after I get something to munch on.

Here's mine: The Rovemate 9001 I created two versions. The more "serious" one weights 0.46 tons, costs 2240 kerbal dollars and has a maxspeed of 22.2m/s. 4x Wheels (1200) 4x Solar Panels (400) 1x Thermo (200) (It's hard to see on the screenshots, its mounted on the front of the rover below the antenna) 1x Antenna (150) (What good is a rover that can't phone home to tell anyone about the data it gathered ) 1x OCTO2 (230) 1x Beam200 Pocket Edition (50) 1x Small cubic thingie (10) (Forgot the name) It can probably also climb difficult terrain, but I didn't really test it that well, only did some tests on the launchpad. 40 points I guess. Then there's the Rovemate 9001 Mk2 version, which has 23 sepatrons added, for a total weight of 1.98 tons and a cost of 4540 kerbal dollars. It's topspeed was quite a bit more than just 22.2m/s, but it wasn't exactly controlling very well! Probably doesn't count..

Greetings folks! I have a small request for somebody of a brave heart, sharp eyes, and steady hands. Or any pirates, space bandits, and ex-soldiers. Valley Inc. have already submitted the 'Callisto' to the Hanland and have started working on a light fighter, useful as a carrier fighter or maybe a scout attached to a capital ship. Yet we still have worries about that Light Escort, even after testing it out ourselves. So this is what we are asking for is a pilot to do. Retest it. It is already doomed to failure or success if selected but we would like more input on its ability to delivery its warheads and survive battle. So we are asking for a crazy...skilled pilot to carry out three tests for us. Not two, not four, three. One - We know it can fire, and hit the target, at a distance most ships engaged at in the first season. But we would like it to be tested at 900+ meters. Two - A fast attack run, in which the 'Callisto' is flown by the target and unloads its warheads at point-blank range. Three - Fire at its armored sides at 200 to 500 meters. We know it is unlikely to stand up against capital ship weapons but we would like to see the results - could the pilot survive for example? If you do try out these tests please give us honest feedback. Pros, cons, suggestions. We would like to use that information to improve on the light fighter. Of course, the fighter is being built for different goals in mind, but input will greatly help shape the future of our program. Here is the blueprints of the 'Callisto' https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BzWVddevUqx5Qi1PcG1ES0dPeU0/edit?usp=sharing The Action Groups control the missiles being fired - 1, 2, 3 - of course this can be changed to suit the pilot. It can not be reloaded so you would need at least two in orbit for testing. We only ask it be tested against Spiritwolf ships, medium to large, as those will likely be what it is up against if selected and what it was designed to deal with. We hope. Thank you very much for reading this posting. We will send you payment, to the bank account of your choice, when your report is received. Then we will give you a five day head start before sending the ninjas after you because you know too much. Hey, sorry, but we're the bad guys. Don't worry, we'll kill the ninjas with trained monkeys. And send the money to your widow. Then give her five days head start. Look forward in dealing with you in a future life, Valley Inc. Allied to Hanland (until their back is turned). PS - Just joking - we're not going to pay you.

Can anyone tell me why the engines automatically throttle down sometimes? When i'm flying at a height of 1000 m, the engines only put out ~75 kN, but if i activate the airbrakes/start pitching up, they will start to put out their full ~115 kN. This is annoying, as, even though it might save fuel, it keeps me from testing how fast my plane can go. Has it got something to do with this? atmosphereCurve { // Based on Isp/TSFC data from NASA EngineSim, and Kerbin atmo. key = 0 1731 0 -8600000 key = 7.5E-06 1675 0 0 key = 0.0006 1781 0 0 key = 0.11 1715 0 0 key = 1 1800 120 0 } Or this? velocityCurve { // Based on Fnet data from NASA EngineSim, curve fitted with MuMech CurveEd key = 0 1 0 -0.004 key = 200 0.67 0 0 key = 300 0.44 -0.008 -0.008 key = 350 0 -0.01 0 }

I've done some recent heavy lifting, I'd advice you to build your launcher around the payload rather than trying to make one under it. I'm sure there's better ways than what I do, but as I dislike asparagus staging I go for raw power. If your budget is about number of launches rather than cost/mass/parts you can go wild and just add until it flies. Here's a picture of a launch I did just now with a saved launcher, so it's easier to see than in the VAB. The payload is 200 tons with the launcher built around it, the whole thing is open down in the middle as you can tell. You could do your 150 ton fuel depot and add a bit of fuel+engine (and RCS) below it for orbital manouvers, unless you have a tug in orbit. First stage: 24 orange tanks worth of fuel, 16 mainsails. Second stage: 9 orange tanks worth of fuel, 8 skippers, 16 radial engines. The radial engines were added late in the design process for extra oomph since I didn't want to redo the entire first stage. Still, it works.

if you put your apoapsis at about the Mun's height or below (11400 km), it won't take many hours to travel back to your Kerbin periapsis for the final burn, so you should still be within the right transfer window. having already spent about 860 m/s or so, there will be only 200 m/s left for the last burn to transfer to Eve.

I've been known to think of it in terms of the FL-400 (there didn't used to be a -200, let alone the brand new -100), or the X200-16, or the X200-32 (the -16 also didn't used to exist, let alone the -8... which holds the exact same amount of fuel as the FL-T800, btw). And there's actually a very good reason to use fewer larger tanks rather than a bunch of smaller ones, other than partcount and wobbling: the game models the weight of a part more or less as if it were spread evenly throughout the part. This includes fuel weight, even as it's decreasing. If you use two FL-T400s, it'll drain the top one first, shifting the center of mass of that part of the stack downwards. If you use a single FL-T800, the center of mass stays in the center of the tank. You'll still get CoM shifting relative to the rest of your rocket, of course, but locally it's much improved. On smaller rockets in particular it'd have more of an effect (the Kerbal-X could probably benefit from this if it had a -64 and a -32 instead of three -32s.)

The fastest (I believe) spacecraft we've actually launched are the Helios probes, reaching a speed of 70.22 km/s because of the sun's gravitational pull. That's 0.000234c. That's pretty impressive. The calculation isn't difficult though; if there's a planet within 50 light years that can support life, IF we were to somehow get a craft to escape our solar system with that velocity (Voyager 1, fastest spacecraft to leave the solar system, is moving at around 17 km/s relative to the sun at the moment), it would still take about 213,675.2 years for the probe to show up, not to mention the other 50 years it takes for any signals to get back (okay that's a minor thing on the grand scale though). The Homo genus, the one which includes us, Homo Sapiens (but back in the past they would have looked pretty different, obviously) is 2.5 million years old. Modern humans are 500 thousand years old. The subspecies (that is, humans that look pretty much exactly like us without the differing structures and all), Homo Sapiens Sapiens is 200 thousand years old. Now I understand that there's some efficient high speed engine technology on the drawing board, in particular that warp drive that bends space time in a way I don't fully understand to travel faster than light, but until that stuff gets loaded up into a rocket and fired, I'd say we aren't going to send a probe out 50 light years away. 213,675 years is a long time for something unplanned (or even literally impossible to anticipate) to go wrong.

While I don't know how heavy your ship was, how much fuel it had, etc, it seems like using that RCS fuel to add to your velocity would have gotten you an extra 200 m/s much faster than just dumping it. Holding H for five minutes vs. WASD for fifteen or something like that.