Escapecraft

So I was reading twitter a few days ago and came across a tweet by notch about Kerbal Space Program.
The premise is to build you're own space ship, and fly it into orbit/to the "mun" (The planet's moon).
It's another title following the cheaper in alpha payment model, and currently $15, 0.14 has added persistance and the game supports modding.




The games physics feel accurate without penalising for never having paid attention in physics, and it definatly puts the fun back into functional orbital mechanics.
Here has been my experience so far with the demo:

First launch I did was short hop to 5km before coming back down due to being out of fuel. Various launches thereafter with more engines either touched the edge of space, or exploded violently on the launchpad/cartwheeled into the ocean. Building off of other designs, I managed to create a ship capable of reaching orbit, and then deorbiting (Phoenix Mk I).

With the addition of an extra stage / some extra SRBs, I created Phoenix Mk II. And proceeded with my plan to attempt a munshot (travel to the planet's moon ("mun"), orbit, then come back to kerbal)
The Launch went well. Clean seperation, I had learnt not to jettison stages until they'd burnt up (hint: if you do, they slam into your ship and explosions happen).

The burn for lunar orbit went better then expected, and thus I had an extra stage left over to use up on entering moon orbit. Then the problems started....

I got locked into a bad orbit, one that would not let me leave the mun back to kerbal easily, I wasted precious fuel attempting and failing to correct this. Eventually I went for the more dangerous/stupid approach of point the ship towards the planet and hit the go button.

And It almost worked.

I managed to get locked into Kerbal's gravity well, all I had to do was deorbit. And I ran out of fuel before I could complete the deorbit...
Currently the three Kerbalnauts are stuck in a cold tin can, forever orbiting their homeworld, never able to return
At most, they pass within 2 million metres of it.


Kerbal Space Program comes in lolmac and windows formats, costs $15, has a demo available and my recommendation that if you're even a bit interested, you should try it out.

And I leave you, with the final image of the Phoenix Mk II capsule.

Wow sounds cool, might give it a go after i get a new compy

I played the demo for this a while ago. It's pretty fun. I didn't know they had a moon, though.

That sounds pretty fun actually - I might give it a try.

Iv been playing kerbal space program for a month or two.

KSP is one of the best space/rocket/screw-around games out there. Highly enjoyable

An update on KSP:

Docking is now part of vanilla, as are some basic probes, electricity and maneuver planning system.
Below are details on HabSat II, a work in progress space station orbiting kerbin

They released a new and updated demo a little while ago: https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/download.php

This game is awesome.
Yeah, the demo is now only a little behind the current full version, because it was quite an outdated, more buggy, version.

Spaceplane of awesomeness (forum image restrictions )

beep bep

Spyboticsguy wrote:beep bep

POWERSWITCH

And the second generation of that space plane (actually able to dock to a space station )

haxxorzd00d wrote:

Spyboticsguy wrote:beep bep

POWERSWITCH

I love you both. Also, Yatatatatatatata.

Beard, did you ever rescue those kerbonauts? You could rendezvous with them then EVA them over to a hitchhiker hold and add them to the space station

Also to add, so far I can get a small shuttle or the like up into space and orbit. I may try orbiting many small things then connecting them together.

KSP is 33% off on Steam.

I shall make it a mission to land a giant statue of Lord on the moon.

I shall heavily finance such a mission.

Can I make his eyes shoot Sepratron rockets?

Mechjeb is surprisingly effective at "close parking" the rescue lander

Tehbeard wrote:Mechjeb is surprisingly effective at "close parking" the rescue lander

screenshot48.png

dat high resolution moon texture

Behold the might of the kerbal empire.

Our latest starship, phoenix II has entered high orbit around duna after refueling at our munar fuel depot.

During her shakedown run she will be deploying a satilite into duna orbit to provide more information on the red planet.

For me Kerbin currently has 17 lil nauts in orbit. Not in their ships but still hanging in there.

I may or may not have sent 1 careening into the mun with no lander or fuel...I dont think he made it

Wildwill002 wrote:For me Kerbin currently has 17 lil nauts in orbit. Not in their ships but still hanging in there.

Step 1: Build a "Mass Relay" station in orbit.

Step 2: Bring the kerbinaughts into range of it and aim them at the planet.

Step 3: Press the "Engine On" key.

Step 4: Observe the reentry and mach cone effects of hypersonic kerbals in atmosphere.

You can alter step 2 and fire them into interplanetary space if you use Mainsail engines. That's always fun

for more instructions see this: