Kerbal: Project B.E.A.S.T: Part 04

Stealth upload!

And I was just about to sleep too... OH WELL

Part 4 on Jan 4? I like it!

Sneaking! You guys are sneaking!

In space no one can hear you Kerbal.

I am loving this series. It combines logic, creativity, madness and hope all in one nice package.

It is hard to notice new content on site with the front page still in goty mode. I suppose its my fault for not using twitter though.

I got irrationally angry to find out there are people out there trying to tell Vinny how to build his spaceship. I dunno why that bothers me so much, probably because it's against the whole spirit of this endeavor. Vinny's engineering (Vingineering) can only suffer negatively when interfered with by anyone other than Vinny.

The red and purple lights make it look super evil. Is Project B.E.A.S.T. made by the bad guys?

I love this feature, and I don't want to be one of those backseat people, but Vinny keeps burning retrograde at his periapsis to degrade his orbit and burning prograde at his apoapsis to extend it and it's tearing me apart. That's the least efficient way to do both of those things!

Am I just missing something, or is this justified?

HNNNGGGGGGGG

"BUT HE'S DOIN' IT WRONG"

Bad (guys) Eagerly Attempting Space Travel?

Playing (spoilers if you haven't checked the GotY lists yet, I guess) the 4th best game of 2015!

@the_ruckus: It is never your fault for not using a third party service :p They need to do something about the front page now that new content is going to start rolling out, I only found out by my YouTube subscription showing this vid

Alright, this is my new fav.

@the_ruckus: I'm sure the site will go back to normal when they get into work.

This is my favourite series since the P4 endurance run, easily. I'm glad that the conflicting comments about what to do cancel each other out. I like providing advice but don't want you to actually take it.

This series should be presented in high school physics class with the tagline "Project BEAST is a warning not a manual!!"

Every new episode gets me closer & closer to actually opening Kerbal up & seeing if I can get a satellite into orbit something equally unremarkable compared to VinCo's flight to the moon & not back.

I love this series. I wish I could erase their memories and make them start over just so we could do it again and again.

They still have mass though. And more mass means it is harder to accelerate. Right?

To infinity...

Come on Austin, you should know better than that.

If anybody would be able to post the texture pack mod Vinny added, it would be much appreciated!

@defordj: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/92113-025-astronomers-visual-pack-interstellar-v2/

I think he's using that one.

Also there's this one

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/51142-1051-05-4-dec-3-2015-environmentalvisualenhancements/

I absolutely adore this series. You guys are great.

Also, the moon rotates, but in such a way that it's always (almost) keeping the same side towards earth - however despite the name of the astounding album 'the dark side of the moon', it's not actually always dark, as you witnessed firsthand!

Also, check yo thrusters! Different ones do different things and most importantly have different levels of fuel efficiency.

This was exactly what I went to this comment thread to check. I was wondering if I was going insane.

In general, it seems the gang vastly underestimates the importance of burning at the right time.

Yes! Yes! Yes! Moon! Moon! Moon!

It wouldn't be Giant Bomb if the guys weren't taking the literal least efficient route to achieving their goals, It's kind of their thing.

Vinny's reign of terror continues.

God damn Kerbal looks like a lot of fun.

These videos might be my new favorite thing on Giantbomb

Almost miss this cause of all the GoTY stuff

Hopefully this will be the episode where they realise one of the fuel lines is hooked up backwards...

@almostswedish:

Yes, this is correct. A less massive craft requires less impulse (less fuel) to achieve the same delta-v (e.g. a given orbital maneuver).

The point in the original comment is somewhat meaningful though; shedding weight while closer to planet has a larger effect because of the more significant gravitational force (noting also that even while in orbit, the craft is very much subject to Kerbin's gravity; it's just not trying to fight it anymore).

Haven't watched this part yet, but so far they've been using solid boosters to reach orbit. You can't asparagus stage those, and it's not like they'd end up with more fuel by getting rid of them. At some point they will probably end up adding larger / more liquid fuel tanks (in order to achieve the goal of flying to Mun *and* back), and eventually the craft could become heavy enough that solid fuel isn't quite enough to break atmosphere (just spitballing -- I'm not experienced enough with Kerbal & what parts are available to know this will definitely happen).

They could probably significantly reduce the fuel usage for the "widening the orbit" part of the flight by 1) angling the craft better during the booster stage, 2) starting the horizontal burn closer to apoapsis (which is where the existing velocity is entirely horizontal), and 3) shedding asparagus-staged tanks ASAP (there should be some way to display the fuel levels of each tank as Vinny has mentioned before). For point #3 theoretically having the same amount of fuel distributed among smaller tanks is more efficient (assuming the overall weight would be the same) but I believe there are probably significantly diminishing returns going past 6 sections.

It's also possible that there are simply more efficient (in terms of weight or fuel) parts available in the editor.

PS I think this series is best if @vinny and friends figure as much as possible out on their own. But I would love for one of the team to deep-dive into the science (e.g. reading stuff like http://www.freemars.org/jeff/speed/) and drop some knowledge bombs during the broadcast. Maybe even a brief "blackboard" segment (maybe even better if the actual gameplay is *not* informed by this knowledge, and it's more like a "what went wrong" kind of thing).

From a near-circular orbit the efficiency difference is not too important IIRC. And if the goal is to move the apoapsis down, retrograde at periapsis is the right thing (e.g. when circularizing an orbit). Whether that's worth doing in the first place is another question though. Timestamp for what you're talking about?

I only knew this was here because I saw the upload on Youtube :3

Vinny still callin' "Xbox One" the "360" #same

TWR, that column next to delta-V, is Thrust Weight Ratio. You set the window to the celestial object you want (Mun, Kerbin) and if that number is a decent amount above 1 (such as 1.2), you know that the craft at that stage has enough thrust to offset its weight and takeoff. If that number is 1 or lower then you won't be able to take off.

Additionally, you can have the stage delta-V stats open during flight and it should let you know when that stage's tanks in the asparagus staging are empty (no delta-V left).

Also, you aren't breaking your parachute. It is turning red in the staging to signify it isn't safe to use the parachute, heat/aerodynamic forces will tear it off if you use it when it is red.

Someone suggested to set Mun as target probably to help you out when you are out of plane with where you want to go. Mouse over the Ascending/Descending nodes (the green pointy ones), they should say something like +/- 5°, ideally you want that close to 0°. The closer to 0º the easier it will be to get an intercept course. You can adjust this by burning in some direction near the ascending/descending nodes. (radial? normal? prograde? who knows! you will when you try it out!)

Aw. If they did the mono burn at apoapsis they would had have the first one no problem.

Oh shit he attached the reaction wheel to the heatshield. This'll be fun.

You probably got to that part already, but the thing that happens before-around 30 minutes-ish, with the monopropellant... is just excruciating if you have any experience or knowledge at all about orbital mechanics...

Edit: Austin, your skittishness is adorable, but if the closest point of orbit is 30,000 kilometers above the surface, you really shouldn't worry about clipping through the moon on the way to that point. That's not how it works.

Yup, just watched it. Certainly that was pretty much the opposite of what should have happened :) Though that whole run was kinda screwed up from the beginning (orbit lopsided in the wrong way for Mun intercept, even a bit tilted if I'm seeing it right). Even ignoring that, he could have at least used up the remaining fuel + OX before jettisoning it and using mono.

This is my favourite series right now. Also, that thing they built in the "next time on" segment looks like it shouldn't be.

@quantris: Just wanted to say that your posts are great. At least, I think that they're great. I mostly understand them. Maybe, I think. Either way, I left them feeling more informed if not in addition more confused so...that seems like a job well done!

Also, on topic, I love this series SO MUCH.

@vinny Your editing on these is fantastic. I'm excited to see you guys get there and back.

This is impossible! You guys must be wizards to make them thar space planes what fly 'round thuh orbit. There's literally no way I can decipher what's going on in your heads as this feature moves forward but I find it all incredibly entertaining. I like to think that the Kerbals are basically precursor time lords trying to figure out space travel in the early days of their civilization. Thanks for this video series. That 'next time on' is going to kill me.

@almostswedish: Yes. The mathy way:

F = ma

Therefore, a = F / m

So if we increase mass, acceleration will decrease. We divide by a greater number so acceleration will be smaller. In order to achieve the same acceleration with a larger mass, we will need greater force, which means more thrust.

I'm ANaturalFirmness and this is my favorite series on the Giantbomb.