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littlemisterbig

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Who here plays kerbal space program? KSP is a game where the players create and manage their own space program. Build spacecraft, fly them, and try to help the Kerbals to fulfill their ultimate mission of conquering space.The game is currently under heavy development. This means the game will be improved on a regular basis, so be sure to check back for new updates. Right now, KSP is in Sandbox Complete state, but we want you to try it out and have fun with it. The Demo version is free to download and play, and will remain so forever.(https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/)

Website: https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/220200/

May seem somewhat pricey but i highly recommend it its provides hours of entertainment and has a massive community where you can get any questions answered and can get mods and show off your creations and see other's creations.

Thanks, Littlemisterbig

P.S. Add me on steam!
 
KSP comes up on the forum everyone once in awhile. Here's a thread from a year and a half ago:

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?47704-Any-Fellow-Kerbonauts

I've not been playing it as much as I had before, but do play it once in awhile. Just yesterday , having not played it in months, I made up a winged SSTO craft that was able to make orbit with a good margin of fuel left (It uses the Rapier engine that extracts oxygen from the air and allows that engine to work like a jet engine till the air is to thin, then it acts as a rocket engine).

Below is my favorite lander design, which has been used on missions to various planets including Moho, Duna, and Eeloo, and returned (though it jettisoned a lot of tanks and engines along the return trip).

- George Gassaway

H2TbOhB.jpg
 
My game-enthusiast son gifted me with a copy...and I have been avoiding it knowing full well that once I start I'll get sucked in rather deeply..... :)
 
Yeah, I got in a debate with a kid on this earlier. Why launch these? I launch HPR. I don't understand KSP due to the fact there is no risk. In HPR, you risk a few hundred $$ on a small HPR. On the other hand, you just hit ctrl z on KSP and undo what ya did. No risk. Period.
 
Yeah, I got in a debate with a kid on this earlier. Why launch these? I launch HPR. I don't understand KSP due to the fact there is no risk. In HPR, you risk a few hundred $$ on a small HPR. On the other hand, you just hit ctrl z on KSP and undo what ya did. No risk. Period.

Uh, you can't undo a flight mistake with Control-Z (unless that is a new feature), so it seems you have not actually tried it out.

A person CAN press F5 to save the game at most parts of a flight (but not when landing!), but if you do not save it then you can't go back to the save. If you think there's no risk, try flying to just the Kerbin moon to land on it without doing a save along the way, risking all of the time and effort you put into the flight if you end up crashing and having to start the flight over rather than the last save point.

It is a great way of learning how to make your own rockets, thrust to weight ratios, tradeoffs of ISP's versus engine performance, and plain flying. To fly one into orbit manually is quite an accomplishment, both in the design (if you do it from scratch without making a close copy of an existing vehicle), and in piloting efficiently to get it into an orbit rather than a long ballistic arc that comes back down, or shoots off into solar orbit never to return home.

Once that is mastered, then there's moons and planets to fly to, which helps one to understand how orbital mechanics works..... even though you do not have to be a "rocket surgeon" to get the hang of it. Though many stick around Kerbin and make various other types of rockets, space stations, learn to rendezvous and dock, or plane crazy stuff that fortunately won't hurt anyone or anything in the real world if (when) a disaster happens.

Also, you can do some incredible clustering and staging that you'd never be able to get to work that reliably in model rocketry or HPR. Well, once you work the bugs out to get the "staging" sequences just right.

But if it's not for you, that is FINE. What I do not get is why then come into this thread and disparage something you apparently have not really given an honest chance of trying.

- George Gassaway

Little Joe-II by Tom Beach, which I gave legs to become a lander.
4vMD4.jpg


A base set up on Gilly, which is a very low gravity moon of the planet Eve.
OSVNPDc.jpg


Coming in to dock.
A6yRvqp.jpg


Photogenic burn of twin nuclear (NERVA-like) engines
mJ6XwwC.jpg


Map view of orbital paths, showing that a return from an inner planet (Moho, their Mercury) should approach close enough to be able to get back to Kerbin (yellow orbit), once a tweak burn is done.
QuUzHPb.jpg


This launch vehicle's core shares fuel from the two outer booster tanks, not using any of the fuel in the core until the outer boosters burn out and separate.
s4kuW.jpg
 
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I guess I should probably log in---I think I left a couple of kerbs in orbit a couple months ago:facepalm:
 
Yeah, I got in a debate with a kid on this earlier. Why launch these? I launch HPR. I don't understand KSP due to the fact there is no risk. In HPR, you risk a few hundred $$ on a small HPR. On the other hand, you just hit ctrl z on KSP and undo what ya did. No risk. Period.

So, there has to be money on the line for it to be a worth while distraction?

Also, there are things you can explore in KSP that you wouldn't be able to with this hobby. (Putting a lander on the Mun, building a space station, (virtual) interplanetary missions, etc.) It's fun, just a different kind. (Of course I haven't played in a few months, poor Bill Kerbin is probably still in LEO wondering if mission control is ever going to design, build and send up a rescue vehicle to get him back down.)
 
Uh, you can't undo a flight mistake with Control-Z (unless that is a new feature), so it seems you have not actually tried it out.

A person CAN press F5 to save the game at most parts of a flight (but not when landing!), but if you do not save it then you can't go back to the save. If you think there's no risk, try flying to just the Kerbin moon to land on it without doing a save along the way, risking all of the time and effort you put into the flight if you end up crashing and having to start the flight over rather than the last save point.

It is a great way of learning how to make your own rockets, thrust to weight ratios, tradeoffs of ISP's versus engine performance, and plain flying. To fly one into orbit manually is quite an accomplishment, both in the design (if you do it from scratch without making a close copy of an existing vehicle), and in piloting efficiently to get it into an orbit rather than a long ballistic arc that comes back down, or shoots off into solar orbit never to return home.

Once that is mastered, then there's moons and planets to fly to, which helps one to understand how orbital mechanics works..... even though you do not have to be a "rocket surgeon" to get the hang of it. Though many stick around Kerbin and make various other types of rockets, space stations, learn to rendezvous and dock, or plane crazy stuff that fortunately won't hurt anyone or anything in the real world if (when) a disaster happens.

Also, you can do some incredible clustering and staging that you'd never be able to get to work that reliably in model rocketry or HPR. Well, once you work the bugs out to get the "staging" sequences just right.

But if it's not for you, that is FINE. What I do not get is why then come into this thread and disparage something you apparently have not really given an honest chance of trying.

- George Gassaway

Very good explanation GG.

BB...do not take it as some sort a point of pride that you risk a few hundred dollars with an HPR flight.

BFD.

Why don't you ask some of the old heads around here what they have risked doing what they have done in their lives. And yet some of them enjoy computer games and simulations...you going to think less of them because they do? Heck, some of them have even flown HPR...and yet play KSP.

GG showed some of the stuff KSP can do. You can even use it to recreate historical missions...or missions that never were. How small of a rocket do you need to send a single individual to the moon for a soft landing and stay there...yea, that was considered (https://www.wired.com/2012/04/one-way-space-man-1962/).

Recreate a moon mission building a direct ascent rocket verses a LOR concept. Or recreate a EOR mission. Or building an open cockpit lunar lander...yep, that was proposed (https://www.astronautix.com/craft/lmllight.htm). You can see just by these concepts how much your boost vehicles would have to change as the size of your payload would increase. The tyranny of the rocket equation in action (https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition30/tryanny.html).

FC
 
What's the purpose? It's a game. It's purpose is for you to have fun. Additionally, you can learn some of the science of rocketry through the game.

I haven't played it for some time. It's a pretty hard game to play. I bought it awhile back but I don't remember my login info and I am on a new computer now. Do I have to pay for it again for my new computer?
 
What's the purpose? It's a game. It's purpose is for you to have fun. Additionally, you can learn some of the science of rocketry through the game.

I haven't played it for some time. It's a pretty hard game to play. I bought it awhile back but I don't remember my login info and I am on a new computer now. Do I have to pay for it again for my new computer?

Depends...did you buy it through Steam or through Squad directly. In either case, as long as you can prove to the folks who you bought it from that you are you, you should be able to redownload it.

FC
 
I play it a lot, it's absolutely my favorite game/sim. KSP also ignited my interest in rocketry to an extent.
 
KSP is is a great game. Tons of fun to go for a moon landing or to land on other planets and have a return trip (or send a rescue crew and return them all). Also fun to just make an absolutely ridiculous rocket or spaceplane and watch it fail spectacularly.

There are also tons of great mods that add some purpose to the game or just other parts for extra customization.
 
I was wondering about KSP and TRF and low and behold a thread on the very subject. My middle son introduced me to it a around 18 months ago and I have been a regular player since.

For what it is worth it was KSP that got me to build real (albeit small) rockets and explore how and why they actually worked. Funnily enough now I am flying LPR I still Kerbal :) Following last weekends flying session I have come to the conclusion that my rockets need moar boosters ;)
 
I DO!! FYI-KSP 1.0 is coming out on Monday the 27th! Happy Flying!!

Wow, I knew 1.0 was coming out, but not the date.

Monday……the 27th..... that is my birthday.

But I need to avoid the temptation to explore it….. lots of things to get done this week.

Below, a mission I did a few months ago to Dres, flying thru the big narrow canyon. Used a 100% reusable booster rocket, two side boosters that boost vertically and land back at the launch site, then a center core that puts the interplanetary stage into orbit then de-orbits and lands back at the launch site. Sorta Falcon-9 Heavy-ish, but with significant differences. The link below is to an album of pics and descriptions.

https://imgur.com/a/9Fi4Z#0

xmjPnSX.jpg
 
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Am looking forwards to the V1 release but I am hiding under the duvet until the hype engine runs out of steam :)
 
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Damn you all to the Mun! Now I have got started in this idiocy that is Kerbal Space Program. OMG it's fantastic. I just started on 1.0.2 so have no idea of anything previous.

Nothing to risk? My hair! I spend hours planning and building the space craft, only to realize 1/2 way to orbit that I forgot to put solar panels, etc, on it!

Only got to orbit and placing space stations at the moment.

The rescue missions and the Mun, etc, have me worried... but , i will learn and master!
 
Heh, KSP 1.0.2 was only a minor bugfix version, I have 1.0 but they're basically the same(Not going to wait hours for it to download for a minor bugfix release!!).

You did not miss a whole lot of bad stuff, only the Kraken(Before .18), bad stock aerodynamics(Before 1.0), no contracts in career mode(Before .24) and no exploding buildings(Before .25). Oops, I hope I didn't spoil anything there!

You can revert the flight to the launch or the VAB, but if you autosave or quicksave, then you will have to do it the hard way, by landing on kerbin without killing you Kerbals!,

Check out the mods for it though, you might find something you want to add to the stock game. There is a forum for KSP, it is also powered by vBulletin, so it is similar in format to TRF.

Have Fun!!
 
Heya! I thought you might be interested in this!
So I have recreated the entire Spacex Starship and Superheavy mission in KSP, and I have programmed it all to fly autonomously using KOS as a mission controller computer!.



All the elements are there, launch, stage seperation, boost back burn, suicide burn, superheavy landing propulsively at KSC, 2nd stage (starship) to orbit, orbital docking and refuelling, the reentry "skydive", and Starship landing propulsively. (a few kilometres short of KSC, but close enough for a Kerbal recovery team haha).

Theres still lots of room for improvement, but its all functioning successfully at a fundamental level!
 
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