Before I discovered and played KSP, I..

[JimmyAgent007]

I was in the 'burn directly at the target' crowed for sure. I knew orbits of planets needed to be just right for the shortest travel time, so when i got to that stage it wasnt a surprise. But I sent many ships into interstellar space having burned everything directly at the Mun expecting it to catch me. Some days I wish i could relearn everything all over for the fun experience that it was. Docking for me was easy in concept, building a ship with the thrusters in the right place took some thinking, but it was the rendezvous in the first place that got me. it was at this point i learned about maneuver nodes.

[Formykka]

I thought that to get into orbit you just fly up.

I also thought that to get to the Mun you just fly at it and you'll reach it in no time.

Yah, these two, which I suppose isn't too surprising since I spent most of my college astronomy sleeping off hangovers.

There's also a lot I've learned on account of KSP, since, when I first started playing it inspired me to read a lot about the solar system, apollo and voyager.

Also made me appreciate Neil Degrass Tyson's criticism of "Gravity"'s silliness.

Also, I finally got the real humor of Douglas Adams joke on "how to fly" in HGTTG ("miss the ground")

Also that I can be entertained for hours watching a slow-mo video of the Apollo launch from the perspective of the base of the engines.

"yeah, it's counter-intuitive to me that you speed up for another craft to catch you"

Same. I also realized that I'm not so incredibly dumb about space 'cause NASA made a lot of the same mistakes during Gemini & Mercury.

[Kinglet]

Because of KSP I plan on becoming a aerospace engineer.

[CpPolar268]

...thought that rendezvous could be achieved by launching in a retrograde orbit while the target is in a prograde orbit...

[The Destroyer]

Before I bought KSP, I thought to go to other planets you just pointed at them and thrusted. And what is this, a GRAVITY TURN??? WUT

[SlyReaper]

Because of KSP I plan on becoming a aerospace engineer.

I was already an aerospace engineer when I started playing KSP. Not just aerospace in fact, but actual rockets. Nothing I learned on the job gave me as much intuition for rocket science as KSP gave me.

[James_Eh]

... had not alienated my family, and still drove to work. Now I take the bus so I can work on new designs on my laptop.

[Formykka]

Because of KSP I plan on becoming a aerospace engineer.

I firmly believe in about 15 years space agencies are going to be seeing a flood of engineers who got their passion for astrophysics from KSP.

Astronauts. on the other hand, I'm not so sure. I don't think witnessing the myriad ways Jebediah can meet his demise is doing a lot of favors for the future of that particular career choice.

[razark]

Astronauts. on the other hand, I'm not so sure. I don't think witnessing the myriad ways Jebediah can meet his demise is doing a lot of favors for the future of that particular career choice.

Especially if they read these threads and realize where the engineers designing the vehicles got their inspiration.

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Same. I also realized that I'm not so incredibly dumb about space 'cause NASA made a lot of the same mistakes during Gemini & Mercury.

This is why I'm not too hard on myself. I definitely knew that one did NOT simply point at destination and burn. I wouldn't have known to call it a gravity turn but I knew the general idea behind why they started pitching over. Couldn't really see it with, say, the Saturn V but I remember once someone pointing out that the shuttles would start pitching even before clearing the tower. As a kid I was a huge fan of rocket launches but I didn't understand bupkus about what was actually going on. But over the years I picked up a bit of information here and there; a magazine article, a book, a movie or whatever. I knew that orbital rendezvous involved the highly counter-intuitive step of burning in the OPPOSITE direction because it had been in a book I'd read where the main character was doing that.

Of course, none of that means squat when it comes time to actually FLY it.

[SkyRender]

Many of the absolute fundamentals (that you have to be going fast sideways to orbit, and that multiple stages are required to really get much of anywhere) I already got. What I didn't understand was the actual processes behind orbital mechanics. I learned those quickly enough, and handily the Mun was added not long after I started playing so that I could also learn about orbital transfers.

[astropapi1]

Before I discovered and played KSP, I had friends...

*cries*

[qromodynmc]

I have experienced similar things and even worse.. I thought parachutes would help me to slow down while landing on mun.

[Thomas988]

I knew nothing about rocket design and orbital mechanics.

Nothing.

[Russoft]

I used to read about space and space craft (among a plethora of other topics) during my lunch breaks so I can't say KSP taught me a whole lot in of itself. It did push me to learn even more about rocket design, though. And it did give me a better grasp on orbital mechanics even though I had a general understanding before. Actually, I didn't know before that a prograde orbit is easier to achieve than a retrograde orbit.

[Cirocco]

Being an engineer, I had some notions of orbital mechanics before I played KSP, but playing this game really made them a lot more intuitive. I also learned a lot about aerodynamics (yes even with the aerodynamics model being what it is . I looked up the real-life equivalents because it peaked my interest) and got a lot more appreciation of the HUGE amount of power required to put even small payloads into orbit.

KSP is also the reason I now have a subscription to ESA's newsletter and any new job positions because you never know

[xcorps]

I thought orbit was an altitude.

I thought the relative speeds were a LOT slower.

[Formykka]

I knew that orbital rendezvous involved the highly counter-intuitive step of burning in the OPPOSITE direction because it had been in a book I'd read where the main character was doing that.

NASA didn't read that book. From the wiki on Gemini 4 and the first attempt at orbital rendezvous:

"NASA engineers had not yet worked out the idiosyncrasies of orbital mechanics involved in rendezvous, which are counter-intuitive. Simply thrusting the spacecraft toward the target changed its orbital altitude and velocity relative to the target. When McDivitt tried this, he found himself moving away and downward, as the retrograde thrust lowered his orbit, increasing his speed."

When I first read the account of Gemini 4 I felt a whooooole lot better about myself. And, like NASA i learned quickly from my mistakes, which I guess is the important thing.

[Formykka]

Before I discovered and played KSP, I had friends...

Jebediah, Bill & Bob are your friends now. Those other people were never *really* your friends. Did your old "friends" let you stuff them into a homemade rocket?? When you asked what they wanted for their birthday did your old "friends" say "MOAR BOOSTERS!!!!"?

I didn't think so.

[The Jedi Master]

I was about to link to a post in a previous thread, but I realized this was that very thread. *facepalm*

[weezl]

I had to learn what a Hohmann transfer for planetary rendezvous is all about. I thought I knew how it worked. I was wildly wrong, because I didn't realize you had to wait for everything to be at the right angle. My first few attempts were a disaster, until I saw a video with someone talking about putting a protractor on the screen. I was like "huh? why does the angle matter?" and then of course it all clicked.

I know exactly what you mean. I really need to find some people IRL who play this game so I can stop annoying my dog by explaining the subtleties of docking techniques.

Flip side is, if you have to go afk your dog can take over and fly a passable approach to an orbital station.... although I'm not sure I'd trust the little guy with the actual docking..

[weezl]

"Before I discovered and played KSP, I.."

1) had a life.

2) Had never heard of Hohmann.

3) knew about orbital rendezvous and the Gemini program (my father in law was part of Apollo and the Space Shuttle).. but only as a name..

4) played more games involving shooting (still do actually.. except that the greedy little KSP game likes to take a lot of my gaming time!!).

I'm addicted to games that reward personal effort and are hard.. and KSP is hands down the winner in this category.. I had to understand all the math just to know what was going on.. flip side of all this is that I was 'that kid that was into math' when I was younger.. so for me its just a matter of warming up stuff I knew 40 years ago... that is a LOT easier than learning it the first time 8-)

Edited June 27, 2014 by weezl

[Skorpychan]

I knew a bunch about orbital mechanics, but didn't really know how to apply it.

However, before I discovered KSP, I was looking for a game like KSP for years.

[magnemoe]

I knew a bunch about orbital mechanics, but didn't really know how to apply it.

However, before I discovered KSP, I was looking for a game like KSP for years.

I also know about gravity turns and Hohmann transfers but no idea how it was done, so my first rockets was launched strait up too.

My first trip to Mun back in 0.18 went well I got into orbit but lost control of probe as it only had one static solar panel and it was pointed away from sun until probe run out of power.

So yes I understood that you increased your Ap until it intercepted the moon, my first trip to Minmus was worse, I managed to get an intercept, even impact trajectory somehow, not sure how as I did not understood about burning 90 degree to your trajectory to change it. did not see I was on impact trajectory until pretty close so increasing or reducing speed did not help so I waited until close to minmus before braking hoping to get more time to view it and suddenly I was moving away from surface and was able to get into orbit.

[Wallace]

Flip side is, if you have to go afk your dog can take over and fly a passable approach to an orbital station.... although I'm not sure I'd trust the little guy with the actual docking..

Don't trust a dog to dock? Can you calculate the perfect intercept to get a frisbee into your mouth, and at the correct angle too? I didn't think so!

Personally I trust my dog to pilot a rocket any time.

Edited June 27, 2014 by Wallace