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I'm doing a project for school about the educational merits of KSP, and I was wondering: how do players usually expand their knowledge and expertise, and which missions do people usually do in sequence? I've already gone through this process, but I honestly don't remember what I did to get into actually playing the game instead of fooling around... Plus, I'm trying to link KSP player expansion to IRL rocket science history.

So, it appears that on the forums, users who are at school may go on the forums during class/lunch, or not (for example, I always have a window with https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com opened when I do computer science). What about you?

If your a Student. What are your grades?

So im holding a presentation about orbital mechanics for my exams and i need a tiny bit of outside help. -In the presentations I want to explain about some basic orbital mechanics and rocketry maneuvers. The presentation should be around a 10 minute. -For this presentation I also want to plan a fictional space flight to Europa that includes slingshot maneuvers (because that seemed like a great idea and my inner hipster did not want to go to mars because that seemed to mainstream). I believe the correct route would be from earth -> venus -> earth -> jupiter? -For this im assuming time is irrelevant and I can have any planet be at any point in it's orbit at any time (I will ofcourse disclaim this in the presentation). though I might want to know afterwards how long it may take for the planets to align how my route requires them, so then I can explain how the route isn't feasible (or is) because it will take too long (or won't) before we can launch the rocket. -I don't need to explain all the calculations exactly (I don't think) but the more formulas the happier I make the examinators (or so im told), though at the same time it needs to be understandable and approachable. Turns out it's not as easy as ksp makes it seem I've already figured out some of the basics of how to calculate and illustrate orbital trajectories. Things like the two focal points and one of those foci being the orbital body. i confuse the major/semi-major/minor axis (axi?) a little bit. I'm not completely read up yet on excentricity and the time it takes to orbit a body I do (I think) understand how you can calculate the distance with the velocity and vice versa with Msatalite*Vsatalite*Ddistance = Etot One of my biggest sources so far has been this site: https://www.astronomynotes.com/history/s7.htm In case its usefull here is a quick summary of how I so far think how I want to structure the presentation: part 1: explanation planetary orbits take Earth as example Earth moevs around the sun sometimes its a bit slower or faster and sometimes its a bit further away or close to the sun an explanation how you can illustrate the orbit around the sun with some formulas and focal points Stuk 2: doing orbital maneuvers with rockets launch reaching orbit and stabilising escape velocity orbit around the sun changing course: slingshot maneuver with venus and earth final course corrections ariving at jupiter arrivering at europa circularisation landing i've also learned what N-body physics means and.... i mean it's interesting an all as this lad shows of here: And I'm interested to see what will be up with the two planets in ksp2 that are "locked in a dance of death" since I heard those will get N-body physics (I may remember it wrong though). But honestly it sounds like eldritch science not meant for the human brain to calculate and fully comprehend (and it probably is, indeed, only meant for computers to math it out) and I don't think I need to calculate according to them in this case so some questions i have so far: -when performing a slingshot maneuver you gain speed equal to 2* Vp + Vr but is this different under different entree and escape angles ? does gravity, distance of the periapsis, and speed of the planet influence this? how can i calculate this and why has this not shown up in explanations before? -during interplanetary transfers, should i take into account that the planet you are escaping from will nudge your orbit a bit? (your periapsis (assuming your destination is farther away from the sun than earth) will be a bit higher than that of earth if im correct) -does anyone have any advice where to find calculations I need for the route im planning?

First of all, hi. With school in less that ten days, I decided to get used to a PC again (as I had been playing games such as GTA V, Star Wars Battlefront II, Star Trek Online, AND Kerbal Space Program - mentioned later) on my Xbox One. You can imagine running a game such as KSP on a laptop, and go, "okay, what about it?" Well you see, I have so many mods in my game, that when I played it after school, I would go and have my shower and by the time I had put on my pyjamas, it had just finished loading. Roughly around 15 mins. My average frame rate is 35, the graphics have to be turned on to 'Low', but I don't care. Cause I have some new wireless headphones, that project audio clearly. Have you ever heard the beauty of the main theme in surround sound headphones while your parents and sister argue over rights to Netflix usage? I can't even hear them, as these block incoming noise very effectively. Also over the holidays, I celebrated my birthday. And I got the best gift of all: The LEGO Saturn V kit. I had to stand on my chair to put the LES in place, my cat knocked it over (resulting in a very miserable Thursday night having to rebuild it, with Ally sitting on the box just watching me, laughing as I have to build it again after her crazy chasing around the house), and I just spent nearly a day building a custom launch tower for it, as I'm putting it on display at the local library with my dad. And for those who were saying "How do you have KSP for Xbox, if it's not in the store?" Well you see, I kinda have it just sitting in 'My Games & App's', ready to be played. I know it's glitchy, there's no debug menu or mod support (yet), but it was fun seeing my mum and dad try to complete the Kerbal X tutorial mission. Mum got off the launch pad, only to crash, but dad actually got into orbit! So, with school fast approaching, I shall be preparing to sit outside my locker for 90 minutes a day, looking at the various stories on the 'Mission Reports' section, and downloading more mods to further push my available RAM size to dwindling proportions (until it gets deleted by the IT department for the quarterly computer check. Many people have said to delete System32 to hide their games, one actually did it). And with that, hello again!

Hi. i know a lot of people here have college degrees, and I judge from a lot of the chatter that there's at least a few post-graduate degree holders among us as well. It's about the end of the fall semester here in the states. I'm a 4th-year student of Mechanical Engineering at a technical college, I have at least 3 more semesters to go before I finish my bachelor's degree. I'm exhausted. I've spent about 3 solid years hunched over a desk, doing calculus problems. I'm really having trouble focusing on my coursework - my brain is like, actively revolting against me whenever I try to study or do homework. I've sacrificed a lot in terms of personal projects, short-term employment prospects, as well as a social life or romantic life (aside - I'm in my 30s and single) in order to attend school. I know for a fact that I am absolutely intelligent enough to do the work, but i'm having a lot of trouble maintaining my focus and motivation. I have like a 2.8 GPA right now, which isn't terrible, but I know I'm capable of being a much better student that I am. Also I need to have better than a 3.0 GPA for many of the real interesting internships and other opportunities. What have any of y'all done to get though similar situations?

Hi all! Hope you had a wonderful time! I've been on holidays for 3 weeks now, and I'm just about to go to school!.......yay So instead of having a crapton of time to respond and talk, I'll have to sneakily go on my computer and talk to you wonderful guys for 5 days a week, until 11 weeks later when I get 2 weeks off, running the gauntlet of my IT Department who are in the Dungeon, finding more ways to control our computers and terrify us (KSP.exe fears the Bluebox.dll file finding it!). So until then, gotta go!

Hey everyone! I am soon going to have a presentation in school about aerospace technology, engineering and astro sciences. Now, I am already pumped up with a nearly lethal overdose of caffeine to do work, but I still need some help from you guys. There will be sections about general astro sciences, actual engineering, and other stuff, as well as some things about KSP because it simulates it so well. If you can help me out in any way(art, screenshots, or informations), you will be greatly appreciated, and mentioned in the presentation. Thank you everyone.

Not all of us have access to a quality education. Most of us are nerds. And some of us get bullied and/or otherwise ostracized because of our nerd status (or for some other reason, of course.) Welcome to the "Complain About Your School" thread. Here, you can just vent out all the pent-up rage that you have for your school, and share it with the forums. (Just remember to not run afoul of the Forum Guidelines while you are venting, lest this thread be locked. ) Talk. I have a feeling either @NSEP or @StupidAndy will top this thread...

Hello!! I need some help, if you want to put in your thoughts into this, for making a contract for putting up a space station. Here are the things that I need to figure out: What planet should the station orbit? What is the minimum requirements to make an official station How many funds do I have available If I have mods, what should I install and how to include them to the station Maybe if we clear all of this up, we can all do the challenge and compete of who can make the best station with the requirements. Thanks for everyone that will (hopefully) respond. I'll watch and respond to all of the responses.

Hello fellow Kerbals, For my engineering class project, I have to make my own problem- solution project. Me, an avid kerbal lover, I want to incorporate KSP in any way. I have to propose a problem, give a possible solution for the problem, and execute the project I made. It would be a cool way to integrate KSP into school. I can download mods too if the problem requires it. I just would like your guy's thoughts and ideas for a problem that I could solve. All advice is appreciated! Send me a personal message if you want to have a conversation about your project idea. Thanks a lot!