Kerbal: Project B.E.A.S.T: Part 07

We here now!

can't wait!

YES!

WOOO.

This is the perfect companion to Insomnia!

Night starts are somewhat hard to follow on the screen :(

What a way to start the week!

I saw this gif this morning and it made me think of Project B.E.A.S.T

http://i.imgur.com/O4fNbhC.gifv

"Flappin-ass rocket dick" for Character of the Year 2016

woke up early before work again to watch this! Perfect way to start the week!

If you want to stop guessing about the need to dip into the next stage to complete a burn, you really should hit the "VESL" button on that little "Flight Engineer" window whenever you are flying. It'll bring up a real shitstorm of numbers, but the important ones are

• Node Delta V: How much Delta V you need to complete your planned node (add the node before checking)
• Time to Node Burn: That halfway point that Vinny keeps trying to hit; nodes assume an instant change in velocity, so you want to do half of your burn before you hit the node, and half after. This will remove the "tap engines to see the correct time" thing that Vinny does, as it calculates it based on the thrust you have available in your current stage. (However, the next entry may make this inaccurate)
• DeltaV (SX): the Delta V remaining in your current stage, where "SX" is your stage number, i.e. S5 or S3. If this number is lower than your Node Delta V, you'll need to burn into your next stage! And that can change your Time to Node burn if your thrust is lower, so be wary of relying on that if you are running low on fuel.
• DeltaV Total: How much kick you have left in your rocket overall. Great for realizing when you won't have enough oomph to make it back home, before you go and strand yourself. :D

Not sure how many more videos are in the pipe, but something to keep in mind if you do see it (and handy for anyone else out there that wants to get into KSP).

EDIT: Just got to the preview and realized that they actually do this next time! It's great to see them learning. :D

I remember when they were very conservative and taciturn in their approach to their lunar endeavor, now they are renegade rocket scientists looking to fight back what has held them back since the dawn of time...gravity.

Sppaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace. These videos are A+ content.

It looks like MunShot Check Fuel Line got kicked into an even worse orbit by a close pass to the Mun. That's a really, really ugly one to have to go fetch. I think the apoapsis of that orbit is actually outside of Kerbin's SOI, so shouldn't that be showing as an escape trajectory?

Figuring out how to flip your lander back upright is a time honored Kerbal Tradition! You guys are almost there, don't let frustrations keep you down!

This is becoming one of my favourite series. It could run for years. :D

yes, they should never stop doing this! This is so good! :D

Oh Vinny, the intro/outros are still great! 2 minutes in and I burst out laughing

Project B.E.A.S.T the anime....

I think that when they have already landed on the muun, getting back is just a case of pointing towards kerbin, and reach muun escape velocity. Kerbin`s gravity will pull them back in.

That is the way I have been doing it atleast.

Man the music in this game is epic

its not totally necessary to launch from the periapsis when the orbit is super even, your launches from there maybe saved you guys at most 5 seconds of burn. Since its tricky to control the rocket during the solid stage i'd suggest not turning at all until that stage is over, then using the liquid stages to generate the orbit by themselves. its a little less efficient, but it'll save you fuel in the long run, not having to fix your orbits later.

also maybe look at the xenon engines, its super light and should be helpful (if your desperate) for the trip back to kerbin.

Like. A. Glove.

As someone who has never played the game and have no idea what he's talking about, I have to imagine the problem they really should be trying to figure out is how to control the angle and direction of their orbit after launch. It just seems to be the one "random" thing that keeps screwing them up.

That bit's actually depressingly easy. If when they launched they held an easterly heading, they'd end up in an orbit that aligned with the moon's. Basically every degree you are off of a 90° heading is a degree of inclination of your eventual orbit relative to the moon.

On their first launch this episode, they spent 600-700 deltaV aligning their orbit with the Mun's. That's almost as much fuel as you need to land on the moon from orbit. Considering that they had to have wasted an additional 600-700 deltaV getting into a dumb orbit in the first place, that failure to point east at launch wasted more fuel than their entire last stage of their rocket carries.

I don't know what the delay on hints is, but here goes:

• When you have an orbit that is pretty circular (say periapsis 80 km and apoapsis 90 km) it doesn't matter much where on the orbit you launch for the moon.
• The Kerbal Engineer's surface module can show you a "time to impact" it is very useful because you can just focus on keeping that number from decreasing too fast and you will get a smooth landing.
• The vessel module also has something called suicide burn (a last minute burn to use the minimum amount of fuel to land) it is shown as a distance, when it reaches zero (or negative) it is too late to stop.
• The landing gear on your luna lander from this episode is the heaviest in the game and costs you a lot of fuel. Similarly the huge solar panels you are not using.
• Rather than just adding more of the same size of engines+fuel, consider making the lowest stage a larger size (diameter). Each stage you make need to be significantly larger than the one above it, so this would be really helpful to make something less rickety and easier to control.
• Try to turn much more before reaching orbit, going sideways is what actually matters going up is just to get you out of the atmosphere. You want to be going at least 45º east before you have to stop burning due to the apoapsis reaching 80-100 km.

I stay up just to watch these a.s.a.p. when they are posted. I was rewarded with the amazing mono-flip-landing episode for my fandom. This is a good thing.

The best part of GB!

The music in space reminds me of the Night Elf music in WoW, kinda depressing as it brings me back to those days--not a good period in my life.

Vinny learned about ascending/descending nodes!!! :D

There might yet be hope for those brave Kerbalnauts!

This is the best content. The BEAST content.

Really hurts me to hear them call the Terrier the "shitty" engine. Their rocket is rife with over sized engines coupled to tiny fuel tanks. The last stage accounts for like 1/3 of their deltaV. Its the only stage that makes sense.

So at 27 minutes when Vinny is fast-forwarding while waiting for the Mun to line up, we actually get to watch one of their ships get put into a path that will take them out of Kerbin's orbit entirely.

That's the ship that they notice is on a crazy-far orbit later on in the video. The game only shows you an escape indicator for your current ship, but that one there's going to keep on going and start orbiting the sun instead of Kerbin. They're never going to get that guy back to Kerbin.

Next episode is when they go from killing kerbals by smacking them into the Mun to killing kerbals by smacking them into Kerbin, isn't it?

@vinny - when you take off, especially at night, rotate the camera until you see the band of stars and aim for it. This will allow you to get a parallel orbit to the moon and make it a lot easier to get there!

Is it strange that I feel proud of these guys? This game has a really brutal learning curve (not quite Dwarf Fortress, but close) if you don't know what you're doing. A lot of people get frustrated and quit, but because these guys set a goal for themselves they stuck with it and it's really fun to watch them slowly learn all the quirks and intricacies of orbital mechanics. There's certainly a lot less of me thinking "oh my god vinny no" than there used to be!

Man, the teasers on these vids kill me

& thanks for noting that @bedurndurn, I totally missed it - looking forward to that guy's fate...

That's amazing.

I just accidentally skipped to near the end and saw what looked like an extremely aesthetically pleasing orbit! I can hardly wait!

Easily the most distressing series GB have ever done :D

I applauded.

Even though I own it, KSP continues to be a game I admire (and those who master it) from afar.

When will the death and destruction end? WHEN!?

How many more episodes will we see before someone figures out you can click the angle snap button next to the symmetry button in the bottom left to snap parts you are placing to one of 8. If you look at your ship from above you'll see that the solid fuel boosters are attached at a pretty severe angle.

Death and destruction, FOR SCIENCE! <3

I always have a smile from beginning to end in all of these videos.

After 2 straight days of shoveling snow, this video made me literally laugh so much it hurt.

@bedurndurn said:

It looks like MunShot Check Fuel Line got kicked into an even worse orbit by a close pass to the Mun. That's a really, really ugly one to have to go fetch. I think the apoapsis of that orbit is actually outside of Kerbin's SOI, so shouldn't that be showing as an escape trajectory?

If I understand correctly (I very likely don't), as long as the periapsis is within Kerbin's SOI, it'll remain in Kerbin orbit. They actually got really lucky that it didn't end up on an escape trajectory, that ship is still within their grasp but only barely. But at this point it's only a matter of time before it has another Mun or Minmus encounter, which will almost certainly slingshot that ship into an escape trajectory. So if they want to rescue that guy, they'd better do it soon.

That said, I don't think they have a ship with enough fuel to do it, let alone the expertise to match such a crazy orbit. I fear the pilot of the MunShot Check Fuel Line may be doomed forever.

The obsession with finding the exact right moment to escape a circular orbit, in order to save a second or so of fuel, while at the same time wasting half a tank correcting an easily avoidable wonky orbital plane, is beautiful to see.

I really really hope that once they do a mun-kerbal return (hopefully in the next ep?), they set a new goal. What would be the best thing to aim for?

Personally I think getting a rover to either Minimus or the Mun is great fun and all you need is to expand on what you have already learned in order to succeed.

Trying to do docking, intercept orbits, or build things in space is a whole other ballgame. Although I would love to see them try and build a big 'stranded kerbal scoop' ship and fly around the solar system rescuing stranded kerbals, I don't hold much hope for their success.

I love that every next episode preview seems to end with Austin and/or Alex yelling "Vinny!"

They are definitely moments away from internalizing the correct piloting needed for the task. They could have made a good shot at a return from that latest landing if they were more comfortable with the idea of launching off the moon horizontally, they had a fair deal of fuel and monoprop left. Going straight up meant gravity ate a lot of their fuel. The other fun part will be seeing if they can learn which orbital mechanics apply when, because they are in for a surprise if they try to return to Kerbin by burning at an arbitrary periapsis of the moon. Doing a gravity assist with the right geometry followed by aerobraking back at Kerbin means you can get home with peanuts in the fuel tank.

i love all the videos and content that giant bomb creates, but there has not a been a show that i have waited for every week more than this show...thanks guys!!!