Kerbal Space Program (in-dev retail game)

[Krusade]

Even with a well designed aircraft I'm not very good at landing. I'm much happier landing vertically, to the point were I have in the past rigged up some very complex parachute and landing gear systems for planes launched from the runway.

[Pirate hater]

Even with a well designed aircraft I'm not very good at landing. I'm much happier landing vertically, to the point were I have in the past rigged up some very complex parachute and landing gear systems for planes launched from the runway.

I must say I am glad I am not the only one doing this.

My current design gets to the limit of the jet engine and when I switch over to the liquid engines my plane rips itself to pieces.

[OmegaKnight]

My current design gets to the limit of the jet engine and when I switch over to the liquid engines my plane rips itself to pieces.

What rocket engine are you using? and where is it placed?

[pjknibbs]

Also, what altitude are you at when you do this? With enough air intakes you should be able to get to 20k metres on jet power alone, and at that height the air density is quite low so you're less likely to get torn to bits by aerodynamic effects once you light the blue touch paper.

[andrewas]

Last time I flew a spaceplane, I had the jets at full throttle till 30K, and they didn't cut out entirely till 44k. I think I could have kept them going a little longer but by then ion drive was more powerful.

[Aragosnat]

Mine usually cut out around 18-19 km up for my current build then I lose the momentom and can never seem to gain it back once lost. So in short I need at least one or two more intakes. But, yeah. I use parachutes to land mine as well as I suck at landing too. Plus it is the only safe way I know of to land on water.

Edit: Actually. I find it odd that the air intakes are not full when at ground level. One would think they would be full at least on Kerbin and less on worlds with a lower pressure and easier to fill on higher ones.

[esd]

They have to allow for thicker atmospheres, I expect - such as a valley that's not full of water. Just a guess.

And I've not used a parachute to land a plane since I made that plane video (before spaceplanes were supported)

Ladies and gentlekerbs, I give you the Kubble Space Telescope (with pro-orbit drive unit still attached):

[ external image ]
Mass (Not including launch structures): 20T.
Drive: 4x Ion engines, each with 2 tanks of Xenon.
Energy: 4x giga-arrays, 8 medium arrays.

On the end of each spine is a small antenna and a floodlight, am considering putting LAZOR beams on it too (magenta for towing, and of course the LAZOR weapon), because it reminds me of a Shivan vessel...

[felter]

That is pretty cool, nice one. After many attempts, failures and explosions, I have only managed to get a single part of my station into orbit. I've got a hell of a long way to go to manage anything anywhere near that.

Was watching a video last night and he was talking about how they are going to introduce re-entry, you know where you can fail at re-entering the atmosphere if you are not at the right angle, and he was saying how tough it was going to make it and how he was looking forward to it. I find myself hoping we can turn it off, as right now I have enough problems with the way it is.

[esd]

Kubble is a single vessel - no station connecting going on there (unlike my Staging Station). Trick is to use "asparagus staging" to get it into orbit (and a LOT of trusses!).

http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki ... us_Staging

I too am not looking forward to re-entry angles being important. It seems a step in the wrong direction to me (as does too much atmospheric drag, as mentioned in the article), but that could just be my inner-me saying "change bad!".

[pjknibbs]

The main issue with making re-entry dangerous is that the aerodynamic model used in KSP doesn't really allow for tricks that they use in the real-life space programme, like using the capsule's aerodynamic lift to keep it in the high atmosphere for longer and thus ensure it's going slower when it hits the dense stuff lower down.

[imperium3]

Also there's less scope for hiding non-aerodynamic parts (like a rover or space station part) within capsules than there is in real life. Unless they introduced such capsules it would become impossible to land a rover on Eve, for example.

That said, by making re-entry harder are they talking about a risk of burning up if you don't have a heat shield/hit too fast, or the very real danger of just bouncing off the atmosphere if you come in at too shallow an angle?

[Aragosnat]

Also there's less scope for hiding non-aerodynamic parts (like a rover or space station part) within capsules than there is in real life. Unless they introduced such capsules it would become impossible to land a rover on Eve, for example.

That said, by making re-entry harder are they talking about a risk of burning up if you don't have a heat shield/hit too fast, or the very real danger of just bouncing off the atmosphere if you come in at too shallow an angle?

My guess would be all of the above. But, then again. Say bye bye lap top do to calculations either way. XD

Regardless. I usually try to slow down enough to avoid that in the first place and certainly hope we get containers to store rovers and probes in as well as what ever else we Kerbals can think of.

[pjknibbs]

That said, by making re-entry harder are they talking about a risk of burning up if you don't have a heat shield/hit too fast, or the very real danger of just bouncing off the atmosphere if you come in at too shallow an angle?

The latter can already happen, believe me, so I doubt they're talking about that!

[Aragosnat]

Well. Got a probe around Eve and another one around Jool SOI (not the planet itself) with another heading towards Jool along with a probe for Duna and one for Des. Busy me it seems.

[OmegaKnight]

0.20 is now available
along with this delightful vid

[Aragosnat]

So how many of you have made a flag for this game yet? I have. Just need to take a Mün picture when I get a craft to land upon it.

[Krusade]

Not done that yet but I have stuck one of the new external seats on a booster and flown that.

[Aragosnat]

Well here is my flag and a picture on Mün. To Bad I forgot the head lights for landing as well as hitting a slow. Lost 3 of the largest solar panals and one comm unit from landing and trying to right ship up with landing gears.

http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/7656 ... 9031179948

[Aragosnat]

Well this wee hours in the morning for myself. I was finally able to dock in space with one of my creations Minmus. Unfortunately forgot to take pictures as well as had to add inmore RCS fuel.

I do have to say Minmus is the best so far for newbies docking area. As Kerbin just have to high a gravity well and the Mün is not much better. But, will try these areas at some other time. AS I want to create a Mün colony at one of the arches as well as finding all of the anomilies.

[felter]

Anyone done any of the scenarios, I tried impending impact and I was just not good enough, nearly made it back but I've just not managed to do it.