Kerbal Space Program
 

Somebody voted for talking about Astrophysics, so...

Kerbal Space Program! One of my favorite games...although I haven't actually played it in a few weeks.

Anybody else play it?

I like building big fancy space stations, and complex interplanetary ships. Always a fun time.

I've wanted to play it, but haven't had the chance. Played a demo NASA Lunar Space Station creator once, though.

I know of it, but don't play it myself. Closest I get is Space Engineers where I'm currently hollowing out and Asteroid for base. Not sure how I'm going to fit a refinery in there, though. Things designed for space building work a little awkwardly when walls get involved.

...I may save money to get Space Engineers...
Asteroid Base, away!

(On another note - Universe Sandbox^2 is a cool simulator)

I've been at it for 12 hours now. Much more progress has been made since they brought in the terrain leveler and I can fix the mistakes I keep making with the hand drill. Does feel a little like cheating, though.

*twiddles thumbs while waiting for Salone to show up*

Oh, I've got Space Engineers, too. :D I haven't played it since the planets update. It's neat, but I like Kerbals more. Having to think about orbital physics is fun.

I saw the planets update. My asteroid warren feels less special now. :(. Not sure how I'm going to approach the next part of my base. I have rudimentary power and walls, and a med station with some storage cubes. Not sure what to do next.

I usually appropriate one of the cargo ships or an abandoned one as my mobile base and modify it over time.

I'm not sure this thing is actually moving anywhere at any significant speed. It's the starter asteroid on survival mode.

Also, shouldn't this be in the games & tech forum?

lol, good point.

And asteroids don't move in SE.

I play Kerbal, but I am awful right now. Playing career mode, and so far I can barely manage to get a capsule in to successful orbit around the planet. The one time I landed on the moon, I wasn't aiming for it. I never got to it again.

I think my designs are just...off.

Haha... My most recent career game has a space probe on its way to an intercept with Jool, 6 kerbals in orbit around Duna, and another ship of 5 kerbals going to Eve...although those guys aren't gonna land. (The Duna ship did send people down.)

Eve sucks to take off from.

I don't know what my issue is really, I suppose I'm just...designing wrong. I just always feel like a small child stumbling through the game. I've exploded so many ships. My science always drops off and I can never get enough to unlock the next set of things.

Hmm, well. I play with a multitude of mods.

One that is very helpful is "Kerbal Engineer Redux." It gives you displays of the ship's deltaV capabilities, among other things. That's quite helpful, especially after looking up a deltaV chart of the system. You need ~4000 dV to get to orbit, then another 1000 to get into Mun orbit, and about 300 to get back.

See, I think that would be something I need. My entire design philosophy is "We'll slap it together and see how far it gets'. Maybe I am not the target audience for the game.

Naw. That's exactly the philosophy of ksp! It's just there's a large subset that does what I do, modding galore.

So how exactly do you build a ship that can, you know, maintain orbit and still have enough fuel for a return trip? Or, better yet, make them link up?

Wait wait, how the hell do you build a space station?

In general, you start with the little ship that you want to make the whole trip. A one person capsule with a parachute and heat shield, for instance.

Then you add a decoupler and a small stage that would be enough to bump the thing out of orbit, so like a small size 1.25m tank and a Terrier engine.

Now another decoupler, and a bigger stage that'll do the orbital burn. Then another stage below that that's main job is to get everything else off the ground and up about 10km.

Orbit isn't about getting really high, it's about going sideways fast enough that when you fall back down, you miss the planet.

Space stations her built in pieces.

So, here's some pictures.

My main space station, creatively titled "Orbital Assemblier." I've got a mod that lets me build ships in orbit and on other planets...assuming I have the materials for it, as well as a place to build. I build my interplanetary ships here.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...assemblier.png


I've got a base on Minmus, scandalously titled "Minmus Base"
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...minmusbase.png

In low orbit over Duna, I've got the somewhat ponderous ship "Expeditious" patiently waiting for the transfer window to return to Kerbin...
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...xpeditious.png

And on its way to Eve, there's this other ship that I haven't actually decided on a name for yet.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...eveVisitor.png

Most of the crew for things like the Expeditious, Orbital Assemblier, and the eve ship fly up on a moderately-overbuilt spaceplane, uniquely titled "Mako"
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...5/ksp/mako.png

Mine is named 'Starpuncher', but I won't be linking any pictures because the only thing it punches is my home planet when it fails to properly leave atmosphere and careens in to the ground.

Maybe I should really just consider starting over and going back to the tutorials.

Probably not a bad idea.

In addition to the in game tutorials, there are since excellent videos out there explaining how to do different things. Scott Manley is always a good choice for that.

But Toho, why should I sit through a video when I can always constantly bug you to hold my hand tthrough every issue I might have?!

Jokes aside though, I am making progress. I have unlocked basic aviation, and aviation is where I shine. My only issue now is making a properly balanced rocket capable of getting that plane in to high orbit. With my current setup, it likes to rotate and lose balance as the atmosphere thins out, most likely the control surfaces no longer applying, you know...control.

When rockets flip over, it's typically due to drag.

Easiest way to fix it is to put fins on the bottom of your rocket. And less wings up high.

This helped. I was able to get to the moon. Unfortunately this was not my plan and I wrecked in to it going very very fast.

But! Where Kerbals die, others can dream to fly!

Indeed! Kerbals live for the thrill! :D

Not for long they don't.

Tonight I might attempt to land an unmanned vehicle on the moon. Here's hoping a Stayputnik will work and I can actually transmit that far.

There's no limit on how far transmissions work, unless you're using a mod that adds that in (RemoteTech).

Only trouble with Stayputnik is it flies like you don't have a pilot aboard...SAS doesn't work.

I...need SAS. I think that's the only reason my rockets survive launch.

Oh boy.

Yeeeah. No SAS makes things VERY difficult.

The next level up of probe core has SAS, though.

Screw it. Another Kerbal can be sacrificed to the Mun. SAS is neeeeeeded!