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In November of 2022, a Space Launch System Block I took to the night sky of Florida. But... what if a very similar vehicle flew much, much earlier? What if Orbital ATK didn't demand no less than 5 segments for Solid Rocket Boosters? What if Constellation was much less considered than another option? A proposal going by the name of... "DIRECT" Space Transportation System Derivative ____________________ Common Core Stage Every rocket in the series would utilize a Common Core Stage. This would take the External Tank from the Space Shuttle, remove the feedlines on top for the orbiter, attach a thrust structure to the bottom, remove the nose cone LOX tank, and attach a liquid oxygen tank extension and cap with a forward skirt for mounting instrument rings/payload fairings or interstages. This new core stage would be common to every flight of the vehicle. I will refer to it as the CCS. Naming The name given to each Jupiter launch vehicle had three digits; the first digit being how many stages the rocket has, the second being how many engines are on the Core Stage, and the third being how many upper stage engines it has. For example, the Jupiter-246 has 2 cryogenic stages, 4 main engines, and 6 upper stage engines. Jupiter-130 The Jupiter-130 was the first variant of the v3 family. A new thrust structure would allow for the mounting of RS-25s straight onto the CCS, which this variant would use 3 of. The instrument ring and payload fairing would be mounted straight to the top of the CCS. This medium-lift vehicle could lift about 50 tons into LEO, and was designed as a replacement for the space shuttle servicing and rotating crew on the International Space Station Freedom using CEVs. There was no ISS in my timeline. Instead, Space Station Freedom will be the "ISS" of this thread. Jupiter-246 The Jupiter-246 is very similar to the Jupiter-130, but includes a forth RS-25, and most significantly, the Jupiter Upper Stage; a very large hydrolox tank powered by the existing RL10B-2s used on the Delta IV. The instrument ring and payload fairing would sit on top as they would on the CCS of the Jupiter-130. This launch vehicle could put over 100 tons into Low Earth Orbit, which would allow for a crewed return to the Moon and eventually flights to Mars. These two rockets would be the backbone of crewed spaceflight, for decades to come; allowing for continued and much safer servicing of Freedom, a return to the Lunar surface, rides to Near Earth Objects, eventual flights to Mars, and much more... ____________________ On January 1st, 2011, a Jupiter-120 prototype roars into the morning sky of Florida. The age of Jupiter has begun.

Welcome to the development thread for Duna Direct! What is it? Extraplanetary lander, habitat and parts pack for Kerbal Space Program - Based on the proposal for Mars Direct by Robert Zubrin and David Baker of Martin Marietta in 1990. Fly the mission! Live the adventure in the custom-made mission Duna Direct: The First Flight! Use of mods requires Module Manager Compatible with the following mods (automatically applied upon mod detection): Module Manager (Required for any other mod compatibility) Near Future Props - Fully furnished interior RCS FX - RCS Flame FX by JadeOfMaar auto-on if Module Manager is present. (Remove patch if dislike) (Special thanks @JadeOfMaar!) Tweakscale - Scaling of all parts B9 Part Switch - Texture swapping on Stage 2 Real Plume - Better engine FX for all engines Breaking Ground (Squad) - Inventory space Near Future Electrical - RTG Decay (thanks @Gordon Dry!) Connected Living Space - Adds passable options Kerbal Inventory System - Adds KIS inventory space RealChute - Changes parachute parameters USI Life Support - Various USI Life Support compatibilities TAC Life Support - Various TAC Life Support compatibilities Kerbalism - Full Kerbalism compatibilities (Special thanks @Sir Mortimer!) Snacks! - Various Snacks! compatibilities Remote Tech - Antenna modifications Confirmed working with the addition of: Cryo Tanks Community Resource Pack 1.10.1 Update Changelog: 1.8.x Update Changelog: Disclaimer: This mod has not been tested with anything other than those listed above or in versions of KSP other than 1.5.1. There is also a lot going on with these parts. Testers have been awesome and I've done everything I can to make it work properly but as usual, if there are any bugs please report them over in the development thread. Thank you! Parts list with 1.8 updates: A very special thank you to all the testers who added valuable feedback and suggestions which led to many improvements over the original goal. Download from Spacedock Installation: Extract the contents of the GameData folder to your GameData folder. Structure should then read GameData\MarsDirect\ Mission is also available from the Steam Workshop Duna Direct is License CC-BY-4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Alright, so it took me far longer than I care to admit to figure this out. ...maybe I never figured it out and someone told me how to do it. :-D As with all things, once you know the trick, it does seem painfully obvious. I felt a little dumbstruck when it was shown to me, so I figured it might be worthwhile to post a "How To" for everyone. Given a Kerbin day is 6 hours... Every 3 hours the KSC is in the perfect launch window to fly your craft directly into a Minmus inclined orbit. So at any given time, you are no more than a few hours worth of game time acceleration away from a Minmus launch window. Knowing this, there is no reason for me to ever do a secondary burn to adjust my orbital plane to align to Minmus, which obviously speeds along my Minmus missions and saves me fuel. This quick video shows you exactly how to do it!

(brief) Discount on steam for direct buyers? Quite some time ago i bought KSP but it was direct, but now due to having to download the whole thing every time an update comes out (update might just not work for me) and having to constantly watch my mods so they stay up to date, i just want to buy it on steam. I know they no longer hand out steam versions due to it costing money on their side but could there be a discount for people who have bought it that would equal the cost on Squad's side for giving it away? Either by buying a code from the steam web page or some form of discount. I'd be willing to pay a bit more for a steam version. If im missing some fundamental detail for why this isn't a thing please tell.

Years ago i purchased KSP directly from the website and i want to know if there is any way to get it for free on steam since i've already purchased it. I'm tired of having to re-download the game every time it gets an update and i want to switch over to steam. Any help would be appreciated.

I would like to add ailerons to my craft and assign joystick axis or setof buttons to directly control them. For example small ailerons for trimming, or some more complex shenanigans. Is there a mod that allows that? Preferably stock parts controlled differently, but ideas about part mods (infernal robotics for example) can be suggested also. edit: It seems that there is no mod like the one I want. Is there anyone kind and skilled enough to make this kind of mod? I would draw an owl for you if you do. There's oly two things I'm dreaming of: -In a setup menu, there would be some extra axes/buttons called "extra1" etc. You could assign joystick axes or any buttons to them. *Three buttons per axis: +, -, reset to 0. Kinda like the throttle is now. But the range would be -100%...+100% -In VAB, the part properties window there would have an option: assign axis/buttons 'extra1' to this part" + option to invert. *This could go to ailerons, risable gears, engines... Any moving part. Thinking about VTOL, robot-shenanigans, etc.