Mostly a quick and dirty mockup of the actual craft, didn't add all the Solar Panels / RCS / monoprop tanks, etc etc
I'd probably go with a centrally mounted Tri-adaptor LV-N cluster and then just attaching blobular tanks on the sides.
However, I saw something crazy today when researching the best way of bringing along liquid fuel. In terms of fuel efficiency:
Mk1 LF>Mk2 LF>ISRU+Solar array+Large Ore tanks>Mk3 Liquid fuel>LF only Rocketfuel tanks
ISRU+Solararray+Ore is actually more efficient than mk2, but the weight of the ISRU means that the breaking point is somewhere around 500 tons. With the mk3 you gain about 1 ton per every 10000 fuel, which means that at 250 tons of fueltanks you're better off bringing ore.
Vs normal fueltanks the breaking point is a stupidly low 10000 units of fuel (Yes, it's better to bring along an ISRU+Gigantor array+3 Large Ore tanks rather than bringing along 3 Rockomax jumbo tanks).
We demand vacuum adapted large LF tanks!
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
So I started a new save in 1.0.5 and decided to finally try out this newfangled CKAN thing to handle my mods. And it's completely fucking broken for me. I check all the mods I want, hit Update, check all the required dependencies, and ... it doesn't install everything. It just decides to un-check random mods and forget about them. I go back and check them again, Update, install... now some other mods have been un-checked and uninstalled!
Example: I check all the Near Future stuff. It installs everything except Power and Propulsion. I re-check Power and Propulsion, Install... now Construction and Spacecraft have been uninstalled!
this was supposed to be the better way.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKERS
Well, got a big science mission setup to go and clean up on Minmus. Had enough dV to hit three or four biomes in one trip so I launched, got there without problems, landed in my first biome.
Turns out that you can't EVA if you have a 2.5m heat shield directly on top of a Mk1-2 Command Pod. Good to know...good to know. Guess I should be happy that wasn't my first manned Duna mission.
It used to just clean experiments, but now it converts them into science or something. I've read this wiki and am still confused as to exactly how it works.
MuddBudd on
There's no plan, there's no race to be run
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
It used to just clean experiments, but now it converts them into science or something. I've read this wiki and am still confused as to exactly how it works.
1. You take science experiments to your Mobile Lab vehicle.
2. You use the Yellow Lab Bottle button (just like transmit, except a different button) to build up Data.
3. Cram your two highest rated scientists (the more stars the better) into the ride, connect it to major amounts of electricity and start converting Data into a lot more science.
4. Take your science experiments (which you used to build up your science lab Data) and bring them down to kerbin and cash in even more science. No need to wait for the Mobile lab.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
1. Put a lab in orbit somewhere (further is better)
2. Put at least one Scientist in the lab (two is better, higher levels are better)
3. Remove experiments from instruments on EVA and stick them in the lab.
4. Right click the lab and Review Data, and choose experiments to Convert into Data
5. When lab is filled up with 500 Data, start Processing to generate Science
6. When lab is filled up with 500 Science, Transmit it back to base
7. Realize that stock settings make this process take literally forever and commence weeping
8. Paste this into a .cfg in gamedata and make it actually practical again:
@PART[Large_Crewed_Lab]:
{
@MODULE[ModuleScienceConverter]
{
@researchTime = 5 //Stock = 7 Scales the time research takes exponentially (larger numbers equal longer research)
@scienceMultiplier = 2 //Stock = 5 The data-to-science return ratio
@scientistBonus = .4266 //Stock = .25 The star multiplier for scientist skill
}
}
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKERS
So I started a new save in 1.0.5 and decided to finally try out this newfangled CKAN thing to handle my mods. And it's completely fucking broken for me. I check all the mods I want, hit Update, check all the required dependencies, and ... it doesn't install everything. It just decides to un-check random mods and forget about them. I go back and check them again, Update, install... now some other mods have been un-checked and uninstalled!
Example: I check all the Near Future stuff. It installs everything except Power and Propulsion. I re-check Power and Propulsion, Install... now Construction and Spacecraft have been uninstalled!
this was supposed to be the better way.
hmm, odd. i use it quite a lot with success
one thing you need to be aware of is that CKAN is very strict about version requirements, and unfortunately a lot of addon makers fail to update their mods or properly configure them so that CKAN will work when a patch comes out
a cheap and mildly dangerous way to get around this is to edit the KSP readme file to have an older version number, which is how CKAN determines what version you're on
be prepared for every single addon in the game to stop working when 1.1 comes out, and few to even get updated within the first week
1. Put a lab in orbit somewhere (further is better)
2. Put at least one Scientist in the lab (two is better, higher levels are better)
3. Remove experiments from instruments on EVA and stick them in the lab.
4. Right click the lab and Review Data, and choose experiments to Convert into Data
5. When lab is filled up with 500 Data, start Processing to generate Science
6. When lab is filled up with 500 Science, Transmit it back to base
7. Realize that stock settings make this process take literally forever and commence weeping
8. Paste this into a .cfg in gamedata and make it actually practical again:
@PART[Large_Crewed_Lab]:
{
@MODULE[ModuleScienceConverter]
{
@researchTime = 5 //Stock = 7 Scales the time research takes exponentially (larger numbers equal longer research)
@scienceMultiplier = 2 //Stock = 5 The data-to-science return ratio
@scientistBonus = .4266 //Stock = .25 The star multiplier for scientist skill
}
}
How literally forever are we talking here?
Follow up questions:
1. How much 'data' does each experiment generate?
2. How do you know when you've gotten all the data out of the experiments you've put in there?
There's no plan, there's no race to be run
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Experiments generate variable amounts of data generally scaling with how much science they return. A crew report has little data value, a surface sample has a lot.
When you review the experiment you can convert to Data, Keep, or Transmit. Once you've converted it that button is greyed out. The lab holds a limited amount of Data and you can't overcap it, anything past the cap is lost so don't just load everything at once.
while Processing it uses power to turn Data into Science, which it also holds a finite amount of. When it's full, Transmit the data back home to clean it out.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKERS
A full lab does take weeks to process (how many depends on the scientists skill, with zero star scientists it can take a year. Max star scientists...like 3 weeks tops), but it generates 2500 Science in that time.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Right. Which means you need to either set alarms to clean it out or babysit it for extended periods in timewarp.
That config I keep posting reduces that time to less than a day, but balances it with reduced data-to-science ratio. Personally I find the convenience and speed far more worthwhile than additional science. There's so much science out there.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKERS
I need to level up my scientists... I don't have the big crew capsule yet so generally I just take a pilot.
Weeks isn't necessarily bad, if we're talking in-game time. I was thinking of setting up a science/fuel depot on Minmus and just leaving a crew there to manage things long term.
-edit-
This would probably also be a good training ground for science kerbals to bring along on farther missions like Duna.
MuddBudd on
There's no plan, there's no race to be run
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
I need to level up my scientists... I don't have the big crew capsule yet so generally I just take a pilot.
Weeks isn't necessarily bad, if we're talking in-game time. I was thinking of setting up a science/fuel depot on Minmus and just leaving a crew there to manage things long term.
-edit-
This would probably also be a good training ground for science kerbals to bring along on farther missions like Duna.
Don't be afraid to attach a probe core to the mk1 capsule and put a scientist in.
Right. Which means you need to either set alarms to clean it out or babysit it for extended periods in timewarp.
That config I keep posting reduces that time to less than a day, but balances it with reduced data-to-science ratio. Personally I find the convenience and speed far more worthwhile than additional science. There's so much science out there.
Or you go to the tracking station, hit maximum warp, and go check back in five seconds.
It's almost as if balancing anything by in-game time is meaningless in KSP.
Right. Which means you need to either set alarms to clean it out or babysit it for extended periods in timewarp.
That config I keep posting reduces that time to less than a day, but balances it with reduced data-to-science ratio. Personally I find the convenience and speed far more worthwhile than additional science. There's so much science out there.
Or you go to the tracking station, hit maximum warp, and go check back in five seconds.
It's almost as if balancing anything by in-game time is meaningless in KSP.
Well, unless you're one of those people who installs a life support mod
Eh, Life Support isn't that bad. At absolute worst it's basically just a time limit + a weight tax on your ships. The big 3 Life Support mods (USI, TAC, Snacks!) all have either extra mods or built-in components that allow for partial or complete recycling of life support materials.
I'm still proud of that fully-sustaining USI/MKS base I built on Minmus. Admittedly, I think I lucked out and had all the resources in one biome, but it was still pretty cool. I could build just about anything completely for free.
+2
Dhalphirdon't you open that trapdooryou're a fool if you dareRegistered Userregular
I found the main consequence of life support mods was that it prevented you from timewarping months or years at a time unless you built in ENORMOUS stockpiles of life support to your stations
This meant it was much more important to run an actual space program with multiple ongoing missions at any one time, constant maintenance launches for your stations, and avoiding timewarping, rather than simply running individual sequential missions and timewarping to transfer windows.
I liked it, but it did mean that if you wanted to do an interplanetary mission taht you'd send it off and then it'd be a while before it arrived, and you'd have to do lots of other missions in between.
Right. Which means you need to either set alarms to clean it out or babysit it for extended periods in timewarp.
That config I keep posting reduces that time to less than a day, but balances it with reduced data-to-science ratio. Personally I find the convenience and speed far more worthwhile than additional science. There's so much science out there.
Or you go to the tracking station, hit maximum warp, and go check back in five seconds.
It's almost as if balancing anything by in-game time is meaningless in KSP.
It's almost as if I specifically mentioned "babysitting in timewarp."
I can't speak for anybody else but by the time I'm throwing mobile processing labs around I've got a half dozen+ flights going on in some form or another and don't want to hop in and out of time warp for weeks to clean out a lab.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKERS
Mission was to fulfill like six contracts in one go:
-Taking 10 tourists total on trips, around Kerbin or the Mun. (Some wanted just Kerbin, some just wanted flybys, a few wanted Munar orbit)
-Using the Twin Boar engine/fuel tank combo at a specific height and speed. (Basically launch conditions)
-Having the 2.5m heat shield at a specific height and speed (which was basically re-entry conditions)
-Running a test on the Mainsail in Munar escape trajectory. (Seriously this one was annoying... why would I bring a Mainsail to the Mun?)
I had to redo that landing, as the water landing broke off the passenger sections for some reason. Ended up doing a lot more aerobraking and coming in over grassland. Was able to keep the (now empty) side engines to get a little bit of cash back too.
Looks like passengers want to start landing on the Mun now though, so these big combo missions may be getting trickier. I may make my next mission science focused and check out Minmus. Also going to rescue a stranded Kerbal from orbit.
There's no plan, there's no race to be run
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Eh, Life Support isn't that bad. At absolute worst it's basically just a time limit + a weight tax on your ships. The big 3 Life Support mods (USI, TAC, Snacks!) all have either extra mods or built-in components that allow for partial or complete recycling of life support materials.
I'm still proud of that fully-sustaining USI/MKS base I built on Minmus. Admittedly, I think I lucked out and had all the resources in one biome, but it was still pretty cool. I could build just about anything completely for free.
Hey, don't forget IFI!
No one remembers IFI.
Actually, I suspect that IFI's "problem" is that it's designed in a realistic way (treating Kerbals as humans) to not be fully nonrenewable (even on Kerbin, you'll be able to breath, but you're going to run out of standard-issue food packs, medicine, airport novels, etc. sooner or later). It's very simplistic to manage, but you just have to have an awareness of your travel time and pack accordingly, as actual space programs would.
Of course, for a ~200 day trip to Duna (or more), where there's very little to do, having a hibernation option is attractive.
I like it, but I can see why it's not for everyone.
Eh, Life Support isn't that bad. At absolute worst it's basically just a time limit + a weight tax on your ships. The big 3 Life Support mods (USI, TAC, Snacks!) all have either extra mods or built-in components that allow for partial or complete recycling of life support materials.
I'm still proud of that fully-sustaining USI/MKS base I built on Minmus. Admittedly, I think I lucked out and had all the resources in one biome, but it was still pretty cool. I could build just about anything completely for free.
Hey, don't forget IFI!
No one remembers IFI.
Actually, I suspect that IFI's "problem" is that it's designed in a realistic way (treating Kerbals as humans) to not be fully nonrenewable (even on Kerbin, you'll be able to breath, but you're going to run out of standard-issue food packs, medicine, airport novels, etc. sooner or later). It's very simplistic to manage, but you just have to have an awareness of your travel time and pack accordingly, as actual space programs would.
Of course, for a ~200 day trip to Duna (or more), where there's very little to do, having a hibernation option is attractive.
I like it, but I can see why it's not for everyone.
There's a mod for hibernation that works with all the other life support mods. It's buggy and still being worked on, but it looks pretty good so far
Hey, anyone using 1.0.5 with 64-bit--is Vessel View via Raster Prop Monitor broken for you? All I get is a green or grey screen with polygons, like VV is zoomed too far in.
Eh, Life Support isn't that bad. At absolute worst it's basically just a time limit + a weight tax on your ships. The big 3 Life Support mods (USI, TAC, Snacks!) all have either extra mods or built-in components that allow for partial or complete recycling of life support materials.
I'm still proud of that fully-sustaining USI/MKS base I built on Minmus. Admittedly, I think I lucked out and had all the resources in one biome, but it was still pretty cool. I could build just about anything completely for free.
Hey, don't forget IFI!
No one remembers IFI.
Actually, I suspect that IFI's "problem" is that it's designed in a realistic way (treating Kerbals as humans) to not be fully nonrenewable (even on Kerbin, you'll be able to breath, but you're going to run out of standard-issue food packs, medicine, airport novels, etc. sooner or later). It's very simplistic to manage, but you just have to have an awareness of your travel time and pack accordingly, as actual space programs would.
Of course, for a ~200 day trip to Duna (or more), where there's very little to do, having a hibernation option is attractive.
I like it, but I can see why it's not for everyone.
There's a mod for hibernation that works with all the other life support mods. It's buggy and still being worked on, but it looks pretty good so far
Hah, I've already been using that (if you go back a few pages, you can see the hilarious looking hibernation "truck" I designed), and some screencaps of Valentina Kerman's crew getting frozen. It's quite good so far, and its power and unique resource demands make it hard to abuse.
Still trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong with Vessel View....maybe it doesn't work in 64-bit?
Managed to rescue a Kerbal from orbit. It... was fairly annoying. I couldn't get a rendezvous closer that 700m or so, but managed to rescue her anyway. TBH, I think the only reason I was able to get her over to the pod was she accidentally hit it, thereby reducing speed.
I need to research better ways to pull that off.
There's no plan, there's no race to be run
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Sounds like you're not matching speed. Just before you pass the rescue ship, switch your navball to target mode and burn retrograde until it reads 0. Then your orbits will match and you can take all the time you need to close in or eva. Eva'ing without matching speed is some Jeb grade stunt work.
+2
Nova_CI have the needThe need for speedRegistered Userregular
Sounds like you're not matching speed. Just before you pass the rescue ship, switch your navball to target mode and burn retrograde until it reads 0. Then your orbits will match and you can take all the time you need to close in or eva. Eva'ing without matching speed is some Jeb grade stunt work.
It does teach you how orbits work, though, as you have to constantly compensate for the changing positions!
Posts
I'd probably go with a centrally mounted Tri-adaptor LV-N cluster and then just attaching blobular tanks on the sides.
However, I saw something crazy today when researching the best way of bringing along liquid fuel. In terms of fuel efficiency:
Mk1 LF>Mk2 LF>ISRU+Solar array+Large Ore tanks>Mk3 Liquid fuel>LF only Rocketfuel tanks
ISRU+Solararray+Ore is actually more efficient than mk2, but the weight of the ISRU means that the breaking point is somewhere around 500 tons. With the mk3 you gain about 1 ton per every 10000 fuel, which means that at 250 tons of fueltanks you're better off bringing ore.
Vs normal fueltanks the breaking point is a stupidly low 10000 units of fuel (Yes, it's better to bring along an ISRU+Gigantor array+3 Large Ore tanks rather than bringing along 3 Rockomax jumbo tanks).
We demand vacuum adapted large LF tanks!
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
please dont tell me it will be another two or three months!
Example: I check all the Near Future stuff. It installs everything except Power and Propulsion. I re-check Power and Propulsion, Install... now Construction and Spacecraft have been uninstalled!
this was supposed to be the better way.
Turns out that you can't EVA if you have a 2.5m heat shield directly on top of a Mk1-2 Command Pod. Good to know...good to know. Guess I should be happy that wasn't my first manned Duna mission.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
If you are talking about the science jr experiment, you right click and store the experiment.
Then you can EVA with a scientist to take the data and reset the experiment to run it again.
MWO: Adamski
It seems to do more than that though... it increases science gained? Hang on lemme look this up.
This thing: http://wiki.kerbalspaceprogram.com/wiki/Mobile_Processing_Lab_MPL-LG-2
It used to just clean experiments, but now it converts them into science or something. I've read this wiki and am still confused as to exactly how it works.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
1. You take science experiments to your Mobile Lab vehicle.
2. You use the Yellow Lab Bottle button (just like transmit, except a different button) to build up Data.
3. Cram your two highest rated scientists (the more stars the better) into the ride, connect it to major amounts of electricity and start converting Data into a lot more science.
4. Take your science experiments (which you used to build up your science lab Data) and bring them down to kerbin and cash in even more science. No need to wait for the Mobile lab.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
2. Put at least one Scientist in the lab (two is better, higher levels are better)
3. Remove experiments from instruments on EVA and stick them in the lab.
4. Right click the lab and Review Data, and choose experiments to Convert into Data
5. When lab is filled up with 500 Data, start Processing to generate Science
6. When lab is filled up with 500 Science, Transmit it back to base
7. Realize that stock settings make this process take literally forever and commence weeping
8. Paste this into a .cfg in gamedata and make it actually practical again:
@PART[Large_Crewed_Lab]: { @MODULE[ModuleScienceConverter] { @researchTime = 5 //Stock = 7 Scales the time research takes exponentially (larger numbers equal longer research) @scienceMultiplier = 2 //Stock = 5 The data-to-science return ratio @scientistBonus = .4266 //Stock = .25 The star multiplier for scientist skill } }hmm, odd. i use it quite a lot with success
one thing you need to be aware of is that CKAN is very strict about version requirements, and unfortunately a lot of addon makers fail to update their mods or properly configure them so that CKAN will work when a patch comes out
a cheap and mildly dangerous way to get around this is to edit the KSP readme file to have an older version number, which is how CKAN determines what version you're on
be prepared for every single addon in the game to stop working when 1.1 comes out, and few to even get updated within the first week
How literally forever are we talking here?
Follow up questions:
1. How much 'data' does each experiment generate?
2. How do you know when you've gotten all the data out of the experiments you've put in there?
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Experiments generate variable amounts of data generally scaling with how much science they return. A crew report has little data value, a surface sample has a lot.
When you review the experiment you can convert to Data, Keep, or Transmit. Once you've converted it that button is greyed out. The lab holds a limited amount of Data and you can't overcap it, anything past the cap is lost so don't just load everything at once.
while Processing it uses power to turn Data into Science, which it also holds a finite amount of. When it's full, Transmit the data back home to clean it out.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
That config I keep posting reduces that time to less than a day, but balances it with reduced data-to-science ratio. Personally I find the convenience and speed far more worthwhile than additional science. There's so much science out there.
Weeks isn't necessarily bad, if we're talking in-game time. I was thinking of setting up a science/fuel depot on Minmus and just leaving a crew there to manage things long term.
-edit-
This would probably also be a good training ground for science kerbals to bring along on farther missions like Duna.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Don't be afraid to attach a probe core to the mk1 capsule and put a scientist in.
Steam ID: Obos Vent: Obos
i've been staying away from the game for fear that
A) The saves wont be compatible
and
I remember that being frustrating before. I wanted to use the quad adapters to bookend stuff.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Or you go to the tracking station, hit maximum warp, and go check back in five seconds.
It's almost as if balancing anything by in-game time is meaningless in KSP.
Well, unless you're one of those people who installs a life support mod
those awful, horrible monsters
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
I have a gut feeling 1.1 is going to break saves--which is why I went back to playing 1.05, honestly. I'd like to be wrong.
I'm still proud of that fully-sustaining USI/MKS base I built on Minmus. Admittedly, I think I lucked out and had all the resources in one biome, but it was still pretty cool. I could build just about anything completely for free.
This meant it was much more important to run an actual space program with multiple ongoing missions at any one time, constant maintenance launches for your stations, and avoiding timewarping, rather than simply running individual sequential missions and timewarping to transfer windows.
I liked it, but it did mean that if you wanted to do an interplanetary mission taht you'd send it off and then it'd be a while before it arrived, and you'd have to do lots of other missions in between.
It's almost as if I specifically mentioned "babysitting in timewarp."
I can't speak for anybody else but by the time I'm throwing mobile processing labs around I've got a half dozen+ flights going on in some form or another and don't want to hop in and out of time warp for weeks to clean out a lab.
http://imgur.com/a/aUghD
Mission was to fulfill like six contracts in one go:
-Taking 10 tourists total on trips, around Kerbin or the Mun. (Some wanted just Kerbin, some just wanted flybys, a few wanted Munar orbit)
-Using the Twin Boar engine/fuel tank combo at a specific height and speed. (Basically launch conditions)
-Having the 2.5m heat shield at a specific height and speed (which was basically re-entry conditions)
-Running a test on the Mainsail in Munar escape trajectory. (Seriously this one was annoying... why would I bring a Mainsail to the Mun?)
I had to redo that landing, as the water landing broke off the passenger sections for some reason. Ended up doing a lot more aerobraking and coming in over grassland. Was able to keep the (now empty) side engines to get a little bit of cash back too.
Looks like passengers want to start landing on the Mun now though, so these big combo missions may be getting trickier. I may make my next mission science focused and check out Minmus. Also going to rescue a stranded Kerbal from orbit.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Hey, don't forget IFI!
No one remembers IFI.
Actually, I suspect that IFI's "problem" is that it's designed in a realistic way (treating Kerbals as humans) to not be fully nonrenewable (even on Kerbin, you'll be able to breath, but you're going to run out of standard-issue food packs, medicine, airport novels, etc. sooner or later). It's very simplistic to manage, but you just have to have an awareness of your travel time and pack accordingly, as actual space programs would.
Of course, for a ~200 day trip to Duna (or more), where there's very little to do, having a hibernation option is attractive.
I like it, but I can see why it's not for everyone.
There's a mod for hibernation that works with all the other life support mods. It's buggy and still being worked on, but it looks pretty good so far
http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/112328-105-deepfreeze-continued-bug-squashing-v0202-27-jan-2016/
https://kerbalstuff.com/mod/424/ScienceAlert
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
I've been using it with no problems by using the patch here: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/69538-104-sciencealert-189-experiment-availability-feedback-july-13/&do=findComment&comment=2385192
The intern was kept, but seatbelt usage became mandatory
Hah, I've already been using that (if you go back a few pages, you can see the hilarious looking hibernation "truck" I designed), and some screencaps of Valentina Kerman's crew getting frozen. It's quite good so far, and its power and unique resource demands make it hard to abuse.
Still trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong with Vessel View....maybe it doesn't work in 64-bit?
I need to research better ways to pull that off.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
It does teach you how orbits work, though, as you have to constantly compensate for the changing positions!