Kerbal Space Program, Revisited.

[PeZook]

Damn. I'll need to go there

[Simon_Jester]

What I wanna see...

Hm. Direct ascent, staging-is-for-wimps, chemical-for-liftoff, nuclear-rocket-for-delta-v. So that we can have:


Explorers on the Moon!

What can I say, I'm sentimental about some strange things.

EDIT:

I wonder if there are canals on Duna?

[TimothyC]

What I wanna see...

Hm. Direct ascent, staging-is-for-wimps, chemical-for-liftoff, nuclear-rocket-for-delta-v. So that we can have:

<image snip>
Explorers on the Moon!

What can I say, I'm sentimental about some strange things.

It would take some remodeling, but I think that could be done. You'd need to use one of the plugins to make it so that you can shut down the nuclear engine for descent on the Mun and on Kerbin.

[TimothyC]

Right now the cBBp Dragon Capsule is functionally a cheat part (To the Mün and probably back with just 2.10 stages (two main stages and two drop tanks). Here we see a crew of 7 on the Mün (Left to right is Thompfrid Kerman, Dilney Kerman, Thomemone Kerman, Gildan Kerman, Bill Kerman, & Bob Kerman - Jeb is the one atop the lander)



And here is Kerbin overhead:



In the background of both you see the Armstrong Memorial and Luna-1 (the first craft that took Jeb to the Mün). Jeb left it when there was a serious chance that there wasn't enough fuel to get back, so he had hitched a ride on a rescue lander.

[PeZook]

Man, I just realized I have never, to this date, landed on the Mun. So far I only did orbital missions, the result of one is a Kerbal pilot stuck in high orbit. The attempts to rescue him have so far cost the lives of 15 Kerbals who attempted to fly the rescue ship.

[eion]

Man, I just realized I have never, to this date, landed on the Mun. So far I only did orbital missions, the result of one is a Kerbal pilot stuck in high orbit. The attempts to rescue him have so far cost the lives of 15 Kerbals who attempted to fly the rescue ship.

Thank god the Kerbals developed perfect life support before basic rocketry, right? He can just hang out there until you get the hang of it.

[PeZook]

I figure they just held their breath?

[xthetenth]

They're green. They photosynthesize.

[Imperial528]

Well, I just landed on Mun, for the first time in this version. By accident.

Coincidentally, this is also my first successful rocket for 0.17. Successful in that it achieved its design purpose: land on something. Unfortunately, I had to use the ascent stage to do so, since I burned up the descent thrusters to achieve orbit and still have the deep space thrusters.

On September 25th, 2012, Enwin Kerman came to the Mun. Not because he wanted to, but because we couldn't get a gravity slingshot to send him out into solar orbit, and orbital rendezvous tend to be harder than rescue missions on a planetoid. So now he's stuck until we invent a rocket that actually works the way it was supposed to.

Ironically, some debris I had left in a Mun-encounter-eventually orbit actually achieved by itself what I wanted the RIII to do: it's in solar orbit now, when I'd wanted it to be captured by Mun and crash into it.

[Tolya]

In .15 I did 3 succesful mun missions, with landings and shit, and each time nobody died (!). Now I've directed my efforts towards planes - and I must say, it is a bitch to fly them with no trimming functionality, even with a good joystick.

And now, onto the drawing board for a hypersoar!

[Dave]

In .15 I did 3 succesful mun missions, with landings and shit, and each time nobody died (!). Now I've directed my efforts towards planes - and I must say, it is a bitch to fly them with no trimming functionality, even with a good joystick.

And now, onto the drawing board for a hypersoar!

It is now possible to trim the roll, pitch and yaw inputs by holding Alt and pressing the roll, pitch and yaw keys (Alt+X to reset).

[PeZook]

I have just put an unmanned probe on Duna, after staying up till 1:30 A.M. yesterday trying again and again to hit the planet.



Spacecraftski on approach to the red planet, which shall soon be green!



Entering the atmosphere ; After a last-ditch maneuver with the nuclear rocket, made because the well-prepared mission controllers weren't really sure where the atmosphere started.



Chute deployment ; Good thing Grandma Kerman is good with a needle and thread!


....and touchdown! Score!

So, now time to hit EVE, then maybe get back to rescuing that poor guy I mentioned before, who's now been ejected into solar orbit by the Mun's gravity.

[TimothyC]

Thanks to the wide functionality of parts coding, we now have the ability (with Kreuzung's Electrical Energy plugin) to give Kerbals EVA Parachutes:

[TimothyC]

0.18 is now out. It adds a revamped resource system, docking, fuel transfer, a totally new electrical system, the ability to both cut and repack parachutes, better support for multiple crew spaces on a single rocket, better support for uncrewed command modules, a major art pass both on the parts and on the heavenly bodies, a new moon for Jool, and a large asteroid between Duna and Jool. The biggest thing other than docking is the new maneuver nodes system that will allow you to pre-plan orbital maneuvers and operations.

[ryacko]

I am considering, once school ends, buying Kerbal Space Program.

Anyone have issues with the store?

Since the demo/last free version, any changes to the gravitational model? In addition, do really elliptical orbits still cause you to leave orbit?

Besides collisions, any equipment failures or accidents?

[TimothyC]

I am considering, once school ends, buying Kerbal Space Program.

Anyone have issues with the store?

I didn't have any issues - there have been a few minor ones from some people, but nothing major.

Since the demo/last free version, any changes to the gravitational model? In addition, do really elliptical orbits still cause you to leave orbit?

Only paths that take out out of a sphere of influence cause you to 'leave orbit'. The Kerbol (solar) SoI is infinite, and you want to leave the Kerbin SoI to get to other planets (added post 0.13.3)

Besides collisions, any equipment failures or accidents?

Nope. Nothing breaks without hitting something else. If you have an uncrewed craft without power you can't control it however.

[HMS Sophia]

Currently orbiting the main world, with a minimum distance of about 180,000 metres... the furthest distance is 25,000 kilometres
Can anybody say elliptical?
I'm just watching to see what happens...

ETA: After 14 days in orbit, they're still up there...

[PeZook]

And they'll stay. 180km is well outside of Kerbin atmosphere. Unless you get snagged by the Mun and ejected into solar orbit or something. It happened to one of my brave space pioneers when he was returning from a mapping mission and ran out of fuel.

He spent the next 7 years orbitting Kerbol waiting for rescue.

It never came.

[HMS Sophia]

They were orbiting perpendicular to the moons orbit, so no chance of getting snagged. A bit dissapointing for my first actual orbit, but thank god for warp. Now I need to think about buying the main version...

[TimothyC]

Currently orbiting the main world, with a minimum distance of about 180,000 metres... the furthest distance is 25,000 kilometres
Can anybody say elliptical?
I'm just watching to see what happens...

ETA: After 14 days in orbit, they're still up there...

The SoI for Kerbin in the pay versions (and I think in the free one) is ~84 Mm.

Pezook - check out the hangers on the island.

[PeZook]

Pezook - check out the hangers on the island.

The what?

[TimothyC]

Pezook - check out the hangers on the island.

The what?

Right off the coast (just east of KSC) there is an island with an airfield. Said airfield has three hangers, a control tower, & a gravel airstrip.

[CaptHawkeye]

So after some 30 attempts or so I finally got my first Kerbal in space.

Many died in the name of science...and let's be real i'm just getting started with the body count.

[xthetenth]

I've killed a ton of innocent probes getting a feel for nuclear and ion engines so far. But on the plus side, I'm getting close to putting a probe in orbit around Duna.

[PeZook]

I've killed a ton of innocent probes getting a feel for nuclear and ion engines so far. But on the plus side, I'm getting close to putting a probe in orbit around Duna.

In 17.1, I crashed something like 50-70 nuclear rockets into Kerbin counting testing and all missions.

Contaminating vast swathes of the pristine homeworld of Kerbality? Totally worth it!