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[puke]

Whoops, TOTALLY misread that.

You meant that this isnt a real thing:  http://www.hover-bike.com/MA/

[forsaken1111]

They're not?

I'm pretty sure they are.  I played a lot of Aces of the Pacific as a kid, and fondly remember dive bombing runs using the air brakes on a Lockheed P-38J.

Also:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_brake_%28aeronautics%29

BIKES. Airbikes. Airbrakes are absolutely real.

Whoops, TOTALLY misread that.

You meant that this isnt a real thing:  http://www.hover-bike.com/MA/

Yes. We don't currently have airbikes that can fly around with the sort of freedom and efficiency as marc's marvelous creation.

[puke]

Oh, I didn't mean that the MA Hoverbike thing was real.  It has never flown untethered, as far as I know.  No, I'm in total agreement with you, we dont have real ones of those yet.

Maybe not ever.  The real problem with personal VTOLs is not an engineering problem, but practicality.  They are hard to regulate and insure in such a way as to make them generally accessible, and even if you /could/ there is the problem of Thrust.  They just kick up too much shit on takeoff and landing that you couldn't use them in a populated area without throwing dirt and rocks into peoples eyes.

Marc's thing is pretty cool, though.  Reminds me of this little gizzy: 

[Gabeux]

Did anyone ask for a Mobile Phone Recharger?

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

No? Okay

This is so stupid. I'll wait until I unlock MK2 Batteries - my other trucks are using same size/position docking ports and I don't really need that capacitor right now.
Will be my first mining base. I'm excited 

[nogoodnames]

I've completed my RSS Moonshot launch vehicle and, as expected, it's pretty ridiculous. Presenting the Kronos LXIII:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It's taller than a Saturn V and more than twice as massive. The first stage is made up of 63 Aerojet M-1 engines (sadly not nearly as powerful as the real version) hence the name. Each launch costs over 4 million kerbucks. I made this scale so you can get some idea of just how enormous it is:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

So far I've done 9 "official" missions in what I've dubbed the Artemis program, vaguely following the Apollo program. Totally by accident the crew of Artemis 1 died while testing the launch escape system and finding out the parachutes were insufficient for land use, but I reverted. Artemis 5 was the first using a completed spacecraft with the smaller Kronos XLV launcher, but it and 6 were attacked by launch clamps during ascent so I had to switch to letting it rest on the engines. This lead to Artemis 7 crushing the launchpad and exploding. The launch escape system was used but it sent the pod into a spin and the parachutes couldn't be deployed in time, this one I didn't revert. After that I experimented with a lot of different configurations before just turning on indestructible facilities. 8 was the first to make it to space, 9 did a flyby of the moon and now 10 is in a parking orbit, awaiting its translunar injection and the landing dress rehearsal.

[Gabeux]

That thing, sir, looks scary. And awesome. 


I just FINALLY landed a module from my "MIRSU" base (Modular IRSU), after the worst possible flying I've ever done in my KSP-career.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It was a beautiful landing..after multiple deaths and a whole rollback because a real bad bug happened in which I could do anything and my ship would explode completely. The Klaw bugged out and became a bomb, thinking it was inside another ship. The rollback enabled me to fix a lot of crap, and drop my crappy Skycrane design and simply use jets on the base-module trucks. Gotta love Drop Shits. Drop Ships!!
Also, Fraps crashed at the EXACT moment I landed. This is not my day.

What's funny is that it took a long time to land one module..and I have another one in orbit and probably 3-5 more to launch from Kerbin. I better get gud.
I'm also going bankrupt just because I always wanted a mining base.

EDIT:
Nom nom nom.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Bringing Fuel Cell Generator and Storage next!

[MagmaMcFry]

I made the ultimate KSP craft: A moon lander that has an integrated science lab, all the experiments, orbital survey scanner, mining drill and ISRU converter.

Spoiler: Landed on the moon (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Same flight, landed on Minmus this time (click to show/hide)

This thing has 4760 delta-v when both the fuel tanks and the ore tanks are filled. I can go from Moho to Eeloo and back with this, with pit stops at Gilly, Minmus, Ike, Dres and Pol.

Edit:

Spoiler: I'm on a Gilly (click to show/hide)

Edit2:

Spoiler: @Ike (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Down to Duna (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Back to Ike! (click to show/hide)

Edit3:

Spoiler: Dres (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Bop (click to show/hide)

Now I need to timewarp for 30 years or such to get to Eeloo ;_;
Edit4:

Spoiler: Look Kerma, I'm on Eeloo! (click to show/hide)

I did it! I brought three Kerbals to Eeloo, and I can bring them back again. And I didn't even need ion engines or NERVAs!
Edit5:

Spoiler: Got to Moho too (click to show/hide)

That landing was nerve-wracking though. Look at that fuel gauge, another 0.1 seconds of thrust and my fuel would have run out. Didn't actually expect to make that landing, given how bumpy Moho is.

[nogoodnames]

I've made a pretty big discovery. "Physicsless" parts now have a mass! The CoM still doesn't move when they are placed, so they must apply their mass in some special way to avoid making more physics calculations. This explains why Mechjeb kept giving me lower dV values in flight than in the VAB, it discounts the physicsless mass in the VAB but not in flight. Gone are the days of limitless TWR RCS engines and infinite electricity.

I'm actually kind of happy about this. I never really abused physicsless parts too much, and now I can stop worrying about "needlessly" adding mass when using batteries other than the Z-100. Although, I'm not too excited about struts having mass.

[MarcAFK]

I'm making an assumption that it simply adds the mass of physicsless parts to the existing center of gravity.

[nogoodnames]

That's what I would think, but it wouldn't work for craft made of only physicsless parts, so I don't know.

[miauw62]

As Scott Manley demonstrated, craft made entirely of physicsless parts don't really work at all.

[nogoodnames]

They do now, I made one in 1.00 to test how they were affected by the aerodynamics. They just can't be the starting part so you have to decouple them. That's what first made me suspect they had mass since it actually accelerated realistically except for not having any drag.

[forsaken1111]

physics-less parts add their mass to the parent part they're attached to

[nogoodnames]

physics-less parts add their mass to the parent part they're attached to

Yes, you are right. The CoM indicator just doesn't move in the VAB which is very unintuitive. I guess most of the physicsless parts are so small it wouldn't make much difference, but it should still be fixed.

As for the special case of a craft composed entirely of physicsless parts, it seems the game will actually calculate a proper centre of mass for it. The individual parts all act as a rigid single unit. However, I noticed that my test rig made of physicsless parts produced much more lag than a craft with the equivalent number of normal parts would. With less than 200 parts my game was stuttering along as if there were 1000. My guess is that it was due to me using a lot of the large dish antennas. Their models are probably a lot more complex than, say, a fuel tank, which resulted in the lag.

Also, I was wrong about not being able to use any physicsless parts as the first part, you can with several.

[flabort]

Was going to update on my mission to rescue Jeb from eternal sun orbit, but got distracted by forsaken's avatar again.

Erg. Every time I see it I have to stare and watch for a good 5 minutes. _{such a cool avatar}

OK, think Flabort, what were you going to say?

Oh, yeah, got two more ships stranded in lopsided orbits around the home planet. I'm starting to suspect that maybe I shouldn't double up on the purpose of each ship I make and just make one with no science parts at all to rescue him. Just a cockpit, some stabilizers and a small battery/solar panels for RCS use, and get-to-space-stuff.