Kerbal Space Program

[Logan Darklighter]

Okay cool. I've heard of it. But I meant - if you have a specific bit of music that there's a link for? 

Anyway - I've found Holst's "Jupiter" and Blue Danube Waltz my two favorite pieces to hear while playing this game. 

[M Fnord]

Holy balls, are those Saturn V parts?! Where can I find those?

Those aren't Saturn V parts.

These are Saturn V parts:



As for where to get them, http:///www.kerbalspacerepository.com/ has all your modcon needs.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Logan Darklighter]

Oooh nice... *scampers to download*

[Logan Darklighter]

So I made another couple of flights with the Falcon 8. Messed up insertion on the next one and only got a sub-orbital out of it. (though almost all the way around the world on that one! Missed it by THAT MUCH!)

The next one was a stable, if elliptical orbit. VERY elliptical. About 10,000 meters from skimming the top of the atmosphere and being forced down at perigee. And then the spaceship begins to climb again just minutes before passing over the launch site. And that gave me an idea after the first orbit. I waited for the 2nd orbit and watched for KSC to appear on the horizon, then tried to time my de-orbit just so... 









Landing on the grounds of the Space Center itself would've been a hole-in-one. And I didn't get that. But to splash down with it still visible on the horizon? I'll take that as a win! Boo-yah! ^_^

[Ankhani]

Looks like you've got the piloting down.. I've yet to make anything for Orbit. There is one thing I've noticed though, when it comes to launch/landings: Either the Kerbals are some of the most resilient species out there, or the sim doesn't take into account de/acceleration forces. I hate to burst any bubbles, but from that one orbit you listed earlier: "Most Gee Force Endured: 63.5G" at 63.5G, they're under an acceleration of ~623 meters per second per second. Any old average human would be likely be dead, many, many times over if that's vertical acceleration. I'm not sure how it's coming up with those numbers, but it's something to consider if you're looking for a challenge.
---

The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."

>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI

[Jinx999]

I think they include the decceleration from hitting the ground. That appears to be where I got similar values.

[Logan Darklighter]

It may be a glitch where the program has the measurement wrong. Or it could be that those G forces are only for the briefest of moments. Say - during lift-off during a staging change? Or some combination. Or maybe it's adding in lateral G forces to acceleration?

What irks me sometimes - everything will go perfectly in terms of opening parachute. And when the capsule touches the ground, the Meters per second is under 12.5. But STILL the capsule explodes and kills the crew! This seems to happen more frequently when landing in remote places. Once, I apparently touched down at one of the poles and landed on ice and exploded. I mean - what the hell? Capsule lands on the ground on the spaceport with no problems. But landing at sea level on ice is lethal? WTF? (Yes I know landing on an ice pack with an Apollo style capsule would be a bad idea IRL. But this is game logic. And I'm still trying to figure out the way this game thinks.)

[Jinx999]

When that happened to me, I suspected that the capsule had suffered from previous damage, possiibly from re-entry. I'd dropped straight down from a fairly high orbit.

[Logan Darklighter]

Oho! I found out what the problem was!
Via the forums: There's a little bug in the program. Kearth doesn't rotate. And landing on the night side = instant death! If you de-orbit and wind up on the night side of the planet, you're toast, no matter how softly you land!

[Wiregeek]

I knew it. The Kerbals haven't even explored the Dark Side of the Kearth, much less the Mun!
Edit: Y'all are making me want to fire this back up..  my Fallout: New Vegas toon is named Jebediah Kerbal, even..  (Though she's a petite asian gal with a penchant for eating her enemies and blowing heads off, as opposed to a phlegmatic green dude)
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[Ankhani]

Well now that is interesting... If Kearth is tidally locked to it's sun, then that changes *everything* in terms of biosphere... The Kerbals just got a lot more curious.
---

The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."

>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI

[Wiregeek]

I'm not comfortable making more extrapolations without the data on the Mun... is it orbiting? Is it locked in respect to Kearth? We know Kearth is in the Cinderella zone. I think we can safely judge that the atmosphere is significantly thicker than Earth, since there is neither a wasteland area pointed at Ksol, nor an equatorial band of ice on the terminator..
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[robkelk]

Okay cool. I've heard of it. But I meant - if you have a specific bit of music that there's a link for? 

Anyway - I've found Holst's "Jupiter" and Blue Danube Waltz my two favorite pieces to hear while playing this game. 

Ah, sorry. No, I haven't found any of the music floating around out there... but it's the piece they usually use for the actual rocket launches.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Logan Darklighter]

Well I'm getting -closer-. But maybe I let this flight go on a little too long. I launched, then left it to run while me and my dad went out to do stuff. When I came back it was 2 hrs and 30 min into the flight. I waited for KSC to appear at the right point and eye-balled my de-orbit, but apparently in the 3 hrs, the orbital track had yawed off true by a few miles. 

STILL - if it hadn't, it looks like the capsule would've landed inside of a mile of the launch pad! That ain't bad! I think I'm getting the hang of this!

[Logan Darklighter]

Closer... closer... 



Damn!! Almost nailed it that time! The Kerman Bros could get out and WALK back to the break room from here!

[Logan Darklighter]

Also - new version of the KSP is available. No more instant death from landing on the dark side of Kearth! 

Also - some updated textures - which look great up to a point, but at a certain altitude start getting a little wonky. It's ok though. Doesn't really affect anything important. And the water textures are more realistic. 

Also - downloaded a free orbital calculator program. The more I work with this thing, the more appreciation I have for how finicky orbital mechanics are. At low altitudes and orbits, there's a certain amount of brute force involved. But once you start getting up into somewhat higher orbits and start messing around with Hohman Transfer orbits (transferring precisely from one altitude to another) and doing things involving stable elliptical orbits... Wow. All of a sudden you're doing a LOT of change with rather small amounts of Delta V shifts. You can easily get knock yourself right out of orbit or achieve escape velocity with Delta V shifts of only 10s of Kilometers per hour in differences. I'm starting to be amazed at the sheer guts it took the Apollo astronauts to get to the moon and back using what amounted to a calculator and a slide rule! 

Anyway - this has involved a few modifications to my designs. The main one being a modification to my main craft, the Falcon Mk 8 - 



It's not much of a change. Just an extended fuselage for more fuel capacity on the top stage (Stage 3). But that counts for a lot when it leaves me with enough extra fuel to reach higher orbits with enough fuel to do some interesting things if I'm patient. 

Like so: 



No - they're not lost in space. This is not escape velocity. Just a HIGHLY elliptical orbit. I fully intend to get them home safely. 

Notice how much fuel I still have? Plenty for de-orbit and return. How'd I get a craft that size that high up? Orbital mechanics. Basically adding Delta V on an already elliptical orbit at Perigee (Low point of the orbit) a couple of times. The perigee of the original orbit was about 75 kilometers. And the apogee was about 350 or so. I boosted the Delta V on the perigee end a couple of times for the classic slingshot effect. First time it raised the apogee up to about 650 Kilometers. I actually OVERshot the Delta-V on the second slingshot and figured out that I had achieved escape velocity from Kearth! OOPS! So I did a course correction deceleration. But I'm not sure at this point where the apogee is going to be now. I just know that I'm below escape velocity. So we'll eventually reach the top of the orbit and start to come back to Kearth. I'm just not sure where that's going to be at this point. 

EDIT: Update: altitude is 9000 Kilometers and still climbing. I fully expect to break 10,000 Kilometers.

EDIT: Update: Looking at the situation again, I realized that my calculations might not be taking into account all aspects of my vector. Because the altitude was still climbing at a kilo per second at 12,000 even though my MPS gauge (Meters per second) was well below that. At this point I figured that the MPS was mainly showing horizontal velocity and that I should base a further course correction and return on knocking my vertical back only. Pointed straight back at Kearth and lit the engine until I canceled out my altitude gain. Now finally I'm falling back toward Kearth and I have enough fuel left to make any course corrections I might want to do. (And Bill and Bob are no longer panicing. >.>; )

[Logan Darklighter]

Well I was going to post when I got it landed safely, but the program crashed on me. So I didn't get to see what would've happened. Pretty sure I was on a dead vertical trajectory back down though. Would've made it back safe and sound. Ah well.