Kerbal Space Progam: Rocket science is harder than it looks!

randombattle

Or alternatively...


What is this game?
Kerbal Space Program is a new indie sandbox game that puts you in control of a frighteningly reckless space program. Your single goal is to put the successfully develop the Kerbals space program and send some brave little Kerbals into space. Secondary goals include actually bringing the crew back safely, remembering to put a parachutes on the capsule, and if you are lucky... err skilled enough... you might even be the first in Kerbal history to orbit the world.



Goals and controls just like they have at NASA!

Now keep in mind this game is very, very early in its development. The first version of the game came out a couple weeks ago but shows a lot of promise. For now your only goal is to actually get to Kerbalnauts out of the atmosphere and into space. To accomplish this you slap together a mish-mash of solid and liquid engines, explosive disconnectors, wings, and parachutes. Then you launch to mixed results. There's already been a few updates and website revisions with another version coming real soon. These guys seem dedicated to this and it's super easy to add in new parts and pieces. If you feel like you have the right stuff then you too can be one of the brave men and women to explore space!
Download Here

Since there aren't really any defined goals as of yet so a lot of it is finding fun things to do like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4spKNbcMVk

or this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSmwUs7nDWg


But at the end of the day KSP is, at it's core a game about the science of space flight which looks more like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcGWNtd5P7I

Metallikat

Here are links to two part pack mods:

http://www.speedyshare.com/files/29364470/EXTRA_EXTRA_PUT_IN_PARTS.rar
http://mod.gib.me/kerbal/mods/

Avynte

Jebediah is 8-) as fuck.

A note to new players though, try to avoid using the mod pieces for your first couple play sessions. They make breaking orbit drastically easier and take away some of the charm of launching your kerbels [strike]to their doom[/strike] into space in some horribly mishmashed atrocity of a rocket.

Metallikat

Avynte wrote: »

Jebediah is 8-) as fuck.

A note to new players though, try to avoid using the mod pieces for your first couple play sessions. They make breaking orbit drastically easier and take away some of the charm of launching your kerbels [strike]to their doom[/strike] into space in some horribly mishmashed atrocity of a rocket.

Some of them just make sense though, especially the extra connector bits. The reason they seem to make the game easy, is because there's no real objective, just seeing how high you can get. When they add stuff like going to the moon? You're going to NEED massive rockets that have parts that allow for better stability. A lot of times I see two rocket parts sway wildly away from each other and rip off, and wish I had a connecting girder part that kept parts from moving or connecting parts together. As stress increases, more of them would be required to hold them together.

Satsumomo

Looks insanely time consuming and fun.

I will download this now. (Also, change "then" to "than" in the title!)

fadingathedges

I love the little portraits.

Suriko

This is a fun little game.

Just wish I could get the damn parachute to open.

Edit: There we go, just needed to seperate stages properly. Safe orbit achieved.

Basil

So far, thirty three Kerbals have died in the name of science.

Satsumomo

This is amazingly fun, currently orbiting at around 3000m/s around, Earth? Whatever it is, but I'm still losing altitud though. God speed little Kerbals!

This game has a lot of potential, can't wait for new updates.

CaptainNemo

Can I get the Kerbal's asses to Mars?

Elvenshae

Okay ...

1: High-speed lawndarts is really fun!

2: For a game in which proper positioning matters, it's really hard to line up your rocket motors.

3: I have this great design which nigh-immediately crashes into the launch tower, shatters, and explodes with rocket pieces going off in all kinds of directions. I haven't laughed this hard in forever.

4: But, seriously, the controls on this are tough.

The Deliverator

Elvenshae wrote: »

Okay ...

1: High-speed lawndarts is really fun!

2: For a game in which proper positioning matters, it's really hard to line up your rocket motors.

3: I have this great design which nigh-immediately crashes into the launch tower, shatters, and explodes with rocket pieces going off in all kinds of directions. I haven't laughed this hard in forever.

4: But, seriously, the controls on this are tough.

Make sure you get the 0.8.1 update. It adds a way to symetrically place parts, making properly aligned rocket arrays much easier.

edit: As I posted this, 0.8.2 was put up, fixing a couple of bugs in the VAB.

Aiserou

This is a really fantastic concept for the game. I hope they go full out with the space program management stuff. I want to have various clients that need certain types of rockets to carry a payload to a certain orbit/moon/planet.

Chrysis

I've got to say, they're tough little buggers. I'm not sure how they survived 88G of acceleration, but they managed it.

GalagaGalaxian

This should go in the OP.


I wish my laptop could run this. However the videos are hilarious enough.

Morrandir

I swear this game is more fun when you try to make rockets that have no chance of leaving the launching pad, let alone go into orbit. I made one that explodes right as the very first stage is initiated.

jackal

I've been hoping someone would make a thread for this (so I wouldn't have to). More people should be playing this game. It's the only game where failure is generally more fun than success.

Suriko

1580 kilometers reached, unmodded.

Only 354,820 to go until the moon now!

Edit: I have found the best soundtrack to this game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lp_PIjc2ga4

Shit cribbed from a 4chan thread:

Drake

Finally.

I've always wanted a chance to prove I can do it better than those assholes at NASA.

They think they own space or something.

jackal

Oh, useful facts and links:

Orbit and Escape velocities

The planet is really small. It has a radius of 600 km (less than 1/3rd the moon), but the surface gravity is identical to Earth's. This means the planet is very, very dense. It is much more dense than any material that could exist outside of a neutron star. Because of the low mass in comparison to earth gravity drops off much quicker and escape velocity is much lower. (for example at 300 km above earth gravity doesn't drop off much at all. at 300 km above Kerbal it will have dropped off by roughly 1/3.)

The atmosphere is extremely thick, and ends at roughly 35 km. No matter how fast you are going when you hit the atmosphere you will be going 100 m/s by the time you hit 1 km.

Unless it has been fixed in 0.8.1 or 0.8.2 you will die if you land on the dark side of the planet. Common theories for the cause of this are xenomorphs, Riddick, and space communists.

tyrannus

GalagaGalaxian wrote: »

This should go in the OP.


I wish my laptop could run this. However the videos are hilarious enough.

Jeb ain't giving no damns

Big Classy

The moon? I'm trying for Mars!

undeinPirat

holy shit this is timewaster of july 2011

TheKoolEagle

urgh my computer at work cannot handle the game well, i must wait until i get home to kill all the poor little kerbals :shock:

Demerdar

downloaded.

Big Classy

CaptainNemo wrote: »

Can I get the Kerbal's asses to Mars?

Sure, its getting the rest of them there thats the problem. I'm pretty sure their body parts all made it to Jupiter that last explosion.

DietarySupplement

Oh my God.

I've wanted a game like this for a long, long time

Oh my God.

edit: Also

jackal wrote: »

Unless it has been fixed in 0.8.1 or 0.8.2 you will die if you land on the dark side of the planet. Common theories for the cause of this are xenomorphs, Riddick, and space communists.

This made me laugh pretty fucking hard. Well done.

Drovek

I am laughing my ass off

Built a rocket from scratch (after doing the tutorial and smugly thinking it was a piece of cake.)

Damn thing managed to veer out of control, I managed to mostly stabilize it in level flight (pretty damn close to the ground.)

Tried to quickly drop all rockets to try to save the poor fellas with the 'chute, but the one directly behind rammed the capsule and wouldn't let it deploy chute.

Then it crashed into the ground while my guys screamed their heads off.

undeinPirat

if there was a national agency for death rockets that have multiple stages of explosion

i could easily head the r and d department of that

BloodySloth

They're still rocketing up into space at over two kilometers per second, and their rate of deceleration is actually slowing. I think they're lost in space.

undeinPirat

jeb don't mind

jackal

As you move away from the planet your rate of deceleration will always slow (because your distance is increasing). The question is whether your distance is increasing fast enough so that the force of gravity will never be able to pull you back in.

In your case the answer is "yes, and then some." Escape velocity at that altitude is only 800 something m/s.

useful table

BloodySloth

They're at 11650 K now. I kind of wish there was a fast forward button or something. When (if) they ever get back to the earth, I'll post a shot of the rocket they used to get there.

Are any of the parts packs worthwhile? I kind of expect most of them to be cheat-rockets with hours of fuel and infinite thrust or something, which would kind of ruin the purpose of the game.

EDIT: Ah, so basically they're well and truly doomed? Well I feel a bit better, then. I can just abandon the poor bastards and get back to the real science.

jackal

In terms of part packs, the fatboy XL is a bit of a cheat because it doesn't weigh enough. However I cannot recommend Sunday Punch's parts pack enough. AFAIK all his parts are properly weighted (except for the escape tower, but that's because otherwise it wouldn't work with the stock parachute).

edit: some parts in his part pack don't connect properly, but there isn't much in terms of documentation to work with, so not everything works quite right, but it is pretty great otherwise.

Drovek

OK, another rocket which pretty much was this because it turned to level flight pretty fast. Amazingly, this time I managed to keep it level enough to exhaust the rockets and saved the poor bastards for another go.

kleinfehn

I played this game until 3 in the morning when I had to work at 8.

Now there are mods? Oh god.....I will never sleep again.

Syrdon

jackal wrote: »

As you move away from the planet your rate of deceleration will always slow (because your distance is increasing). The question is whether your distance is increasing fast enough so that the force of gravity will never be able to pull you back in.

In your case the answer is "yes, and then some." Escape velocity at that altitude is only 800 something m/s.

useful table

Strictly speaking, if the velocity is all perpendicular to the planet, it doesn't matter how much you have, you'll always fall back. Basically, if you didn't thrust sideways going up, your guys are going to make a splatter at some point. Add in other sources of gravity and that may change.

jackal

Syrdon wrote: »

jackal wrote: »

As you move away from the planet your rate of deceleration will always slow (because your distance is increasing). The question is whether your distance is increasing fast enough so that the force of gravity will never be able to pull you back in.

In your case the answer is "yes, and then some." Escape velocity at that altitude is only 800 something m/s.

useful table

Strictly speaking, if the velocity is all perpendicular to the planet, it doesn't matter how much you have, you'll always fall back. Basically, if you didn't thrust sideways going up, your guys are going to make a splatter at some point. Add in other sources of gravity and that may change.

I don't think that's correct.

edit: Eh, maybe it is... I don't know.

Syrdon

Short version of the argument is that gravity continues to have an effect regardless of distance, so it will continue to accelerate you towards the planet no matter how far you are from it. Its possible I'm thinking orbital speed though, been kinda a long day already.

BloodySloth

Unfortunately my wunder-rocket design that doomed my mans to a slow death in the cold of space was lost. I've been trying to repeat my success with similar builds but all of them explode spectacularly in the air. I'm not sure if this is a failure or not.

At one point I tried to detach a rocket stage early to try and prevent them veering too far off-course, which resulted in three solid fuel rockets plowing through my entire spacecraft, including like 9 full liquid fuel canisters. It was beautiful and horrifying.

jackal

Syrdon wrote: »

Short version of the argument is that gravity continues to have an effect regardless of distance, so it will continue to accelerate you towards the planet no matter how far you are from it. Its possible I'm thinking orbital speed though, been kinda a long day already.

http://www.physicsforums.com/archive/index.php/t-41264.html

The gist of it is that once you are out of fuel it doesn't matter how you launched (but punching the heavens is the least energy efficient way to do it).

It is true that the earth's gravity will always exert some amount of force but if you are traveling away from the planet the sum of the force of gravity from now to infinity converges to a finite value. Unless I'm mistaken the value is exactly equal to the amount of force required to slow a body moving at escape velocity to 0.