Aw, but I like my sims stupid difficult.

I'll check it out. I think my biggest issues actually stem from difficulties with the center of gravity in my designs which I understand 0.17 will provide visual cues to in the designer. The shuttle type fuselage, for example, if you stick an engine on the back of that it ends up well below the long axis so it always wants to pitch up when the engine is producing thrust, which makes flying it manually next to impossible.

My attempt to copy the space shuttle layout, piggybacking a large fuel tank with side mounted boosters, saw the spectacular end to a few brave kerbals. I realize now though, that the real shuttle fires all its engines from the start, whereas I was trying to start just on the boosters. It did some pretty cool loops above the launchpad, but didn't get very far. At least (for now) the launchpad itself is invincible.

Ah, the complexities of physics! I may have to pick up a copy of KSP - it sounds very Orbiter-lite, but all you folks are having such a good time with it...

The main engines are also gimballed in pitch and yaw to counter any undesired torque from aerodyanmics or the solid rocket boosters.

From http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/technology/sts-newsref/sts-mps.html#sts-mps

Yes Orbiter lite is a good way to describe it. I would say that it's not realy lite in such it has all the same physics as orbiter and is as complex as orbiter, just done in a cartooney way with a fictional solar system and easy to use interface. In fact, with eva's and building your own space craft, KSP has a lot more to offer in that respect. If you are not wanting to simulate an earth solar system environment excursion, then KSP should more than cover your space needs.


There is a selection of Gimbling and non gimbling engines in KSP. Choose wisely, with gimbling comes great responsability young padawan.

Give it a go Einstein, i will guarantee you will be hooked!

@ Aero - SAS modules have a TORQUE RATING - This is no longer depicted on the Advanced SAS module's description but you can see it on the smaller one which has a rating of 10. SO if you have a large constuction you may need more than one SAS module to help manouver under various conditions. Remeber that capsules have a small SAS in them already. also aerodynamically, some larger constructions unless very very stable will start to go out of control (AKA mach effects) if accelerated too much. Some of my larger ones start loosing control about 850 - 1000 vertical speed in the thicker air. They can exceed this in very thin air. (using vertical velocity here as a speed guage).

I only use keyboard for rockets and joystick for planes. FOr me, it just works out easier that way.

Im going to livesteam a lunch to the Mun in Kerbal Space Program in about 30 minutes.

http://www.twitch.tv/masterjts

Anyone is welcome to watch. I will leave the chat up so you can ask questions.

Ooooh very nice. I may have to get out of bed and watch this. Will you be on SimHQ TS?

It's possible to balance out your planes pretty well, you just have to figure out the center of lift and try to put the center of gravity close to that as possible. Usually you can sort of eyeball it and refine from there, but I'm looking forward to tools making it easier.

As for the shuttle fuselage, the engine mounting spot looks a bit low, but it's actually worked fine for me so far. All my issues have been when I moved the engine up.

Here's an example of a flyable space plane I've been working on (runway takeoff, climbs and flies like a plane until 10km, then hits the rockets). I like to use delta wings with a large center fuel tank, so that the CoL and CoG are both at near back of the plane (this also seems to help stability in the rocket phase). Canards and stubby wings at the front can help control and move the CoL forward a tad if you need it (helps control as you can think of it like pivoting the nose of the plane around the CoG at the back).

You also have to keep in mind fuel use changing your center of gravity if you want to fly up from a runway launch and then fly back down to landing (in the case of this plane, it's about 40 tons lighter when landing). So this design is nose heavy on launch, but balanced and easy to fly for landing. For a shuttle, you'll just want to balance the empty weight.

If you can get the balance down you can usually fly manually without too much trouble. Also if you hold alt while giving input, you can trim the plane. alt-x resets trim.



The big 1m tank puts most of the fuel weight in one easier to balance spot.

Wow, thats a great looking construction there !!!

If you keep up with the website Giant Bomb, you'll know that they have taken to doing demo videos of hardcore flight simulators like DCS: A-10C and Rise of Flight to hilariously predictable results in a recurring feature called "Flight Club." Anyways, they've decided to take a look at Kerbal Space Program and this is probably the hardest I've laughed since their Black Shark video:

http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-kerbal-space-program/17-6420/

Here is an official list of the new planets for .17 and .18+

Well, with the fix to the <censored> bug coming in 0.17, we are going to need to build some very fuel efficient rockets. With introduction of further planets passed minmus, Docking surely can't be too far away as i can see a need growing for having a rendevouz fuel supply somewhere.

Can't wait, its going to be great.