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[Graknorke]

I just made a round trip to Duna and Ike with a slightly upgraded probe from last time (it has the gravioli detector and the atmospheric analyser). 2000 science. I love this probe.

[GlyphGryph]

I wish there was a benefit to satellites.

[Graknorke]

I wish there was a benefit to satellites.

You don't have to make them landable.

[Girlinhat]

I wish there was a benefit to satellites.

You don't have to make them landable.

He means (I assume) that there's currently no purpose in, for instance, communications grids, GPS, solar flare warning... or anything.  Satellites are merely practice and serve no actual purpose.

Unless you're using a mining mod, and can scan using them.

[GlyphGryph]

You don't have to make probes of any sort landable to benefit from them. Sattelites don't need to be landable, no, but offer absolutely no benefit over probes at the moment.

Also, finally got a nice moon orbiter going, plenty of fuel left, was considering trying for a landing...

Huh, you can run out of batteries for the reaction wheels in your pod, and apparently the battery recharge rate on your fuel engine thingies doesn't actually imply they recharge your batteries? GOOD TO KNOW

[Girlinhat]

Engines contain alternators, they can recharge batteries as long as they are actually thrusting.  It's the same way a car engine only charges the battery as long as the engine is on, but the battery dies if you don't drive it for a while.

[Canisaur]

It'd be nice if when you were building your rockets you could simply click on an attachment point instead of having to finagle the camera and mouse to the exact right angle to get it to snap in.

"No, I don't want it to attach to the side of the engine next to it, I want it to attach to the stack separator above it, ffs.  HOW IS IT NOW HORIZONTAL?" etc. etc.

[Sean Mirrsen]

The engines recharge your batteries only when they are running. And only certain engines.

As for satellites, I imagine they're going to be far more popular once science is rebalanced/extended, and the economy kicks in. Right now you can pretty much extract all possible data on a planet/moon in the course of one well-planned mission. This really shouldn't be possible. Once science missions require more involved exploration of orbital and ground space, lighter and more cost-efficient probes with science equipment should gain some popularity.

[WillowLuman]

I removed the FAR plugin and I am trying to remake my shuttle as a standard craft - damn it is hard

I guess it is to heavy because to fly horizontal it needs an angle of attack of 20 degree. anyone has a large space plane ssto design that works just to see the differences?

Spoiler: here is my failed attempt to increase lift (click to show/hide)

This might be a little too big, though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMOzbtZAfWM

[BigD145]

You don't have to make probes of any sort landable to benefit from them. Sattelites don't need to be landable, no, but offer absolutely no benefit over probes at the moment.

Also, finally got a nice moon orbiter going, plenty of fuel left, was considering trying for a landing...

Huh, you can run out of batteries for the reaction wheels in your pod, and apparently the battery recharge rate on your fuel engine thingies doesn't actually imply they recharge your batteries? GOOD TO KNOW

There are at least two mods that use satellites as science trickle chargers.

[GlyphGryph]

The engines recharge your batteries only when they are running. And only certain engines.

Actually, this may have been what caught me, I guess - maybe I was looking at the stats for one engine and actually put on a different type. Certainly possible. I think the battery was recharging during my ascent, but stopped when I was thrusting in space.

Anyway, I had my kerbal dude get out and push-point the rocket in the right direction, but accidentally ejected the rockets in the attempt (Why is decoupling the same key as leaving ship!? Argh!) Tried to do a nudge by hopping off then hopping back on, but instead of pressing space->f, I pressed f->space. And then my doom was sealed. >_<

[Canisaur]

The engines recharge your batteries only when they are running. And only certain engines.

Actually, this may have been what caught me, I guess - maybe I was looking at the stats for one engine and actually put on a different type. Certainly possible. I think the battery was recharging during my ascent, but stopped when I was thrusting in space.

Anyway, I had my kerbal dude get out and push-point the rocket in the right direction, but accidentally ejected the rockets in the attempt (Why is decoupling the same key as leaving ship!? Argh!) Tried to do a nudge by hopping off then hopping back on, but instead of pressing space->f, I pressed f->space. And then my doom was sealed. >_<

Stage locking is your friend.  Alt+L (on Windows) will lock your current stage so accidental spacebar presses do nothing.  Provided you remember to actually lock it, of course (and unlock it... "why isn't my parachute deploying?!")

[Skyrunner]

Speaking of accidental ejection, once I decoupled my high atmosphere~LEO engines while they were on. They blasted away and took my final stage radial engines in the process Thankfully, I was able to use the transit engine to get into an elliptical solar orbit, so all was good.

I wish you could revert stage ejection >_>

[WillowLuman]

Sadly, it's not physically possible.

[Girlinhat]

If you decouple with docking ports, you can reconnect... or use quicksaves...