Kerbal: Project B.E.A.S.T: Part 08

This seems the point where they just shut NASA down as it has been exposed as the Kerbal Murder Program.

Wow wow wow. What an amazing fucking episode!

This may just be me but the video is so damn dark I can't really discern anything. I wish it was a tad brighter.

I had to pause the video and take a moment after Jack sadly exploded on his way home. I'll edit this with further comments after I've seen the rest of the video.

edit: That ending. Oh god.

Never Time warp vinny, never time warp.

Sounds like maybe Scott Manley did something with the west crew that will be up later, he lives around there after all. Maybe show them/us how it is done without spoiling this whole series showing the beast crew how exactly to do it. That little 'break' was probably meant to be edited out.

Wow. That ending.

Phew, this was a real roller coaster of emotions. The kind of roller coaster that malfunctions and disintegrates in the last corner.

I really want a supercut of Austin yelling "VINNY!!!" when this series wraps up. It's in many ways my favorite part of the feature.

Oh. My. GOD.

That ending was an inside job. It was a little too perfect!

In my experience, sometimes that number shows the incorrect burn time. I'm assuming it's just a bug of some sort, might have to do with staging, potentially with the throttle at something other than full when doing so, IDK, but it happens. Kerbal Engineer Redux (which they have installed) does list a node burn time that seems to be correct even when that number beside the navball is off.

Plus they know that timer is there for that (that's where they look when they do the test burn), so I can only reasonably assume vinny has seen that number be wrong before, and has learnt that doing a quick burn will correct it.

The only reason I don't do test burns every time is that at this point I've played long enough to know when the number is off, and without mods do a test burn (as close to the node as I can so it doesn't screw it up much, and as quickly as I can), or just look at KER.

@ashaman456: Take him to the MURDER SLINGSHOT!

The four words that come to my mind after watching the latest installment: I Hate You, Vinny.

There, I said it.

... I don't really hate Vinny but he has an issue with the finer details and attention when it comes to Kerbals in space.

Hope.

The ending of this episode is just too tragic. Well, there's always next episode...

This might be the best series GB has ever done. I'm laughing so hard that I'm crying.

@bbalpert: Fuck, this is a good tip.

@pyrodactyl: I don't know the specifics but I don't think you'd be able to burn THAT much speed off in a single pass without burning up. The nice thing is though that even if you're going through the thin air in the very very upper atmosphere, you'll lose SOME speed. And as long as you're not already going fast enough to escape Kerbin entirely, you can take as many passes as you need. One other thing is that you only "use up" the heat shielding when it gets REALLY hot, so (unless the physics have changed significantly since I last played), shallow passes won't heat a craft up enough to cause any damage.

Wow. The ending of this episode is just perfect.

@bbalpert: With that heat shield, they could have burned off that much speed in one re-entry with 70% of the heat shield remaining.

If Vinny had done the staging correctly!

@austin_walker: Happy to help! :D

From my Grandpa's workshop. He helped design spacecraft for the satellite division of Hughes Aircraft when that was a thing. I think the 2nd and 4th corollary apply today...

You know the guy in Hot Tub Time Machine who keeps getting excited when Crispin Glover looks like he is about to get his arm cut off? That is me while watching this video, knowing it all goes wrong at some point, and thinking I can see it coming.

That ending though....

I love this series.

I had to go watch The Martian after this video so I could feel good about space programs again.

JACK NO

o7

Farewell... You were the bravest of us all.

Oh wow that ending. Wow.

Love it

@bbalpert: Heat shield ablator is consumed as a function of speed and atmospheric pressure. Its modeling ceramic material microscopically eroding away from strikes by air molecules, not a wick burning away. Losing ablator to cold atmospheric entry can be a big deal when engineering an aerobrake returning from another planet or for going to somewhere exotic like Jool or Eve (or the sun if you want to talk way out there), less important on Kerbin since the major use case for a heat shield is stuff like Jack's return and is entirely avoidable. Depending on conduction capabilities through the entire craft it also might not be a huge problem because a spent heat shield still has a temperature limit of something like 3000K.

I do most of my Kerbin system return aerobraking by the seat of my pants but my rule of thumb is as long as you don't hit 30km at 3000m/s, a capsule alone can survive anything Kerbin throws at it. The alone part is not just talking about heat shields though, guarantee's only good for lone capsules with parachutes because reentry heat is strongly determined by mass and presented area and you can quickly get yourself in a roasty situation without very careful engineering.

The first few times were funny. This episode, however, was infuriating.

2500m/s at 25000m. NO BIG DEAL. NBD. FUCK BURNING ALL THIS FUEL WE BROUGHT FOR THIS SOLE PURPOSE.

but on a positive note, still a great series...I just want to pretend this episode doesn't exist.

I couldn't sleep last night, so I put on some Project BEAST as I softly drifted off to sleep.

I woke up with a start to @vinny and @austin_walker SCREAMING into their mics.

I mean... I realize what this series started out as - we watch you guys (Vinny) self-educate on how to use KSP's systems, while the other 2 spout assumptions about how they think astrophysics *should* work, but now I'd like to see you prove you can learn like regular humans.

I Am Jack's Fiery corpse

Devil's in the details, I guess. Onward to part 9!

@pomeroy: They were burning that fuel. However, Vinny didn't realize that starting the burn at 100 km over the surface while approaching Kerbin at 2 km/s vertical speed didn't give him the 50 sec. he would have needed to burn all that fuel before hitting the atmosphere at 70 km. He only had 15 seconds, much too late.

VINNY!!!!!

Everything looked so perfect for Jack... I was looking at the video length and thinking how can they possibly mess this up?

And then Vinny says "you guys wanna go in hot?"

And now a quick glance in this comment section tells me run 2 of today isn't the one either? You guys are so fucking close. I skipped a couple of episodes and am absolutely amazed at how much Vinny has learned. But Jack's run kinda tells me it might mostly be notes and tips rather than an actual understanding of the fundamentals.

You should always try to do your manoeuvres on the apoapsis because that's when you're travelling slowest and that's when your deltaV is the most effective. Even though 'going in hot' might seem more efficient because you travel less distance, you'll actually save a ton of fuel letting the gravitational pull do its maximum work slowing you down. For retrograde burns (ie. landing) once you're past the apoapsis gravity will start working against you again, so doing your burns just before hitting the apoapsis is most efficient.

You'll do this automatically if you just go into orbit first. So just go into orbit first.

Edit: And when I say apoapsis naturally I mean periapsis... always mixing those up.

I almost died laughing at the end. I saw what was happening the whole time, they got distracted with Minmus and the unknown object, all the while time warping toward Kerbin. And then I think he sped it up more for some reason...

This is the best thing on the site by far. Love every bit of it.

As a side note: Never go in hot, particularly on an atmospheric body (Mun is fine for example, as you can burn hard to counteract it, though it's still not ideal for fuel management, deorbital burn still a better route). If you think fuel is an issue for deceleration, get your periapsis just inside the atmosphere (think 67500m) and let it slow you down. It may take several trips around but eventually you'll slow enough to stay in the atmosphere, at which point you'll be moving at a much more reasonable pace.

Second side note: Minmus is easier to land on/take of from than Mun, as there's next to no gravity. I honestly think it's the best starting point for learning the game mechanics since it's much more forgiving.

@monkeyking1969 said:

Nope. I want more Kerbal.

Devastation.

Followed by more devastation.

Wow, I didn't think this could get any better but wow....after killing all these Kerbals I think Vinny might be trying to kill Alex and Austin with anxiety.

I can't handle this anymore.

I have a deep existential worry that someday Vinny will crash our own reality.

This series is my favorite thing right now. It makes me unreasonably happy to be learning this stuff along with these guys. I now really want to play this game, but am definitely waiting until the series ends so it doesn't suck any of the joy out of watching the discovery.

i'm glad the break wasn't edited out. it was relaxing

It's amazing how many things can go wrong in space :D

LOVE THE SERIES !!!

RIP Jack, you were the first to "make it back" to Kerbin from Mun.

Maybe one day, they'll bring someone back alive.