MSD

Donwload the game here. That's where you'll get the most recent version.
Kerbal Space Program:: Download
The forum there also provides a quick way to interact with the developers, if you like the game I suggest you sign up.

"The sky calls to us. If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars."
-Carl Sagan

Unfortunately, some day is way the hell out in the future and you'll be destroying yourselves a whole lot. That's how the Kerbal Space Program works. Start the game. Run the tutorial and build a sensible rocket. After that you have no choice but to give in to your phallic compulsions and build ridiculous rockets and blow up your poor Kerbal Astronauts time and time again.

"What the hell are you talking about?" you ask? Like I said, start building rockets. Try to make it to escape velocity; try to make it to orbit; try to do anything and return the poor Kerman brothers to their home planet alive.

Here, we have a basic liftoff.



No, that solid rocket booster I'm using is not included with the game. Some guys on the Something Awful forums and others on the Kerbal Space Program forums have been making new parts. they're available here. Index of /kerbal/mods Fortunately, the game's designers have made it easy to make your own parts with a little 3d modeling experience. You'll quickly learn which pieces are good and which aren't. If you're just starting, get Sunday Punch's pack and unzip it into your parts folder.

But back to the launch.

Notice how terrified Bill and Bob are? Bill and bob are damn wieners. Jebediah, on the other hand simply does not give a fuck. He will smile on through somersaults, losses of control, and sometimes even smile right up to the moment of his untimely death (which will happen frequently until you get in the habit of putting a parachute module on the ship.

But eventually, you'll get to orbit. At this point in development (version 0.8.4,) there are no missions, you have to make them for yourself. Go as high as possible, go as fast as possible. make the most circular orbit possible, make the most eccentric orbit possible without slingshotting past apokee (where Earth's apoapsis and periapsis are called "apogee" and "perigee," the corresponding points around the tentatively named "Kearth" are "apokee and perikee,) and achieving escape velocity


This is orbit


And https://gist.github.com/1073201]This is a chart of circular orbit velocities and escape velocities when launching from "Kearth."

For fun: my 6 orbit/safe landing craft made before symmetry made it easy


And the ill-fated Colossus II design (broke up on ascent in upper atmosphere, killing all aboard.)


Just remember, when times get tough, look at jeb and smile. He's probably going to die, but he's right there smiling along with you.

Jetée

Looks quite fun, the way you put it. Thanks for the mini-lesson/tutorial/recommendation package, MSD.

Alas, to answer what is presumably your opening rhetorical question, when I went onto the main site to begin the download stream just two minutes ago, I paused a sec to see the spec details for the game. My five-years-too-old processor will not handle the minimum requirements for this game, not to mention it is quite sizable (for me, at least) a MB hit to someone who's trying to cut back on the daily downloads.

However, I will get back to this foray in comical space-launch simulation next month, once I get the need for an upgrade sorted out.

__________________
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world (that is the myth of the Atomic Age) as in being able to remake ourselves.

—Mohandas K. Gandhi

Baraka_Guru

Thanks.....

I spent futile hours trying to break atmo the other night. I went to bed, dejected, at just after 3:00 a.m.

So addictive!

I'm going to check out the forums to learn how to build a better, less assplody, ship.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

MSD

Yeah, this game tends to eat up productivity and free time. The bites it takes out of your day are measured in hours, not minutes.

SuburbanZombie

Don't know what I'm doing, but having fun watching the ships spiral around and explode.

Going to try and do better next time....

Lucifer

this is the reason I started to play video games! So much fun, I find myself giggling insanely as my ship spins around and explodes. I was up till 12:30 last night playing it, and my latest creation, a 10 stage, liquid fuel behemoth has even got Jeb looking scared! Getting into orbit is a bit tricky and I haven't quite mastered that yet. I'll keep trying even though Seamaiden makes me feel guilty for slaughtering my 'Beaker'-like buddies!

__________________
I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
- Job 30:29

1123, 6536, 5321

MSD

FYI, version 0.8.5.x2 is out, it corrected some bugs and added a few features.

For those interested in modding, Sunday Punch's parts pack 1.06 is out. He's added a heavy but efficient NERVA engine for upper stage use.

maltesh on Something Awful made this handy chart to help you get into orbit https://spreadsheets0.google.com/spr...mc&output=html

If you're really good with throttle control, you can achieve single stage to orbit with stock parts using 4 liquid fuel tanks and a normal liquid engine, but you have to put a decoupler on the bottom of the stack due to a bug sticking heavy rockets into the launch pad. Otherwise, attach solid boosters to the side of a 3 tank liquid fuel stack, throttle up to max, ignite the liquid engine as soon as the boosters burn out, cut the engine when you hit about 40km, swing the rocket level with the horizon, coast out until your vertical velocity drops to almost 0, and use the chart to find how fast you need to go for orbit.

Baraka_Guru

I couldn't get on the server. Overloaded I guess.

However, I will point out that Sunday Punch pack you recommend makes things SO much easier!

And thanks for the additional tips.

__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön

Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot

supersix2

Wow this is awesome. But is there a time acceleration component? The re-entry thing seems to take a while.

Lucifer

oh, that explains a thing or two. I was wondering why my 10 stage behemoth just sat on the pad and scared Jeb, until I lit off the 9th stage decoupler, then it took off like a bat out of hell!

__________________
I am a brother to dragons, and a companion to owls.
- Job 30:29

1123, 6536, 5321

MSD

Not yet, but the developers say there will be.

supersix2

This game is embarrassing me. I'm an aerospace engineer and I'm failing at achieving orbit. I downloaded the Sunday Punch add-ons and boy those helped a lot. I got really close but was having major attitude control issues which caused me to lose a lot of horizontal velocity. I recovered and we getting close but then I accidentally staged my upper stage and left my guys in a horribly unstable trajectory. They would have eventually landed... somewhere.

I've told people at work about this game and got them addicted too.

MSD

One issue I have, and since you're an aerospace engineer maybe you can tell me whether I'm right or not, is that I think the physics engine is calculating longitudinal static stability wrong. A rocket with the center of pressure behind the center of gravity should be stable and tend to maintain its course. I feel like either CoP or CoG is being calculated incorrectly, which is compounded by the obscenely thick atmosphere, causing an unrealistically high tendency of rockets to be unstable at low altitudes.

supersix2

Yea, the stability seems a little off. I'll have to bust out my SMAD and SPAD (Spacecraft Mission Analysis (Propulsion) and Design) books to figure out exactly what is wrong.

If i had to guess, it would be CoP that is being miscalculated since it is more complicated to calculate and depends on how the atmosphere is modeled.

One thing I would like for them to do to make it more realistic is compute the aerodynamic forces on the vehicle and make it a parameter you have to monitor during ascent. If you end up accelerating too much in the lower parts of the atmosphere it could severely damage if not destroy your vehicle.

---------- Post added at 11:59 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:02 AM ----------

Finished my first successful orbital mission! Didn't get too high 100.5 km with an perigee of 67 km. I think technically atmospheric drag would have de-stabilized my orbit well before I ended it at the 16 hour mark (I got to orbit then left for the night returned and was happy the little Kerbals were still in a good orbit). Did my deorbit burn using the handy orbit calculator. Landing was at 16 hours 3 minutes MET. Next thing I have to try is a precise re-entry to land them back at the Kerbal Space Center. (Or just off the coast).

My rocket was a fairly simple 3 stage tandem with solids plus the main engine being the first stage then the main engine all of the second stage. 3rd stage was a small service module fuel tank and propellant that I used to circularize my orbit and perform my deorbit burn. I still had about half of my fuel at SM sep that I could have used for orbital maneuvering during the mission so I think it was a pretty successful design.

MSD

Well, it's modeling some sort of forces on the rocket that can rip it apart

And if you stack too many parts, strange things can happen.


Simple rockets still work best overall. You can manage SSTO at a 60km more or less circular orbit on four liquid tanks and a stock liquid engine, with just enough left to deorbit.

diergray

Definitely going to check this one out!

__________________
"Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out.” ~ James Bryant Conant

supersix2

I made a rocket using the larger tank and engine first stage and one lesson I learned is keep those engines on low throttle at lift off because more often than not the structure broke and caused the first stage to slam right into the upper stage and destroy the whole thing. The nice thing about the rocket is that I can reach escape velocity with it.