Kerbal: Project B.E.A.S.T: Part 11

Someone said a couple of episodes back that with all the time warping, especially the uncontrolled stuff that ended up with ships exploding in the atmosphere and one ship orbiting the sun, more than ten years has passed in the game world since they launched their first few ships.

@vinny@austin_walker it generally takes less fuel to change the plane of your orbit (the stuff with ascending and descending nodes) the higher the orbit is - think of your altitude kind of like a lever, the same force gives you more torque on the orbit the further out you are. I'm pretty sure that's vaguely correct, it's been like 5 years since I did classical mechanics

I dunno if they did something weird with saves, but at 34:40 it shows the game timer down the bottom at year 1 day 37 (I think it starts at year 0?)

@L1ama When at AP, you're moving slowest so your trajectory can be most easily changed, when at PE, you're going fastest and get the most benefit from the Oberth effect, I think.

"V" to switch pilots when in IVA (Intra Vehicle Activity - i.e. cockpit view).

Rescue from solar orbit is going to be the same as from Kerbin orbit, only: More Delta V, more precision needed, and more planning unless you're okay with decades of waiting in orbit.

You can change your trajectory side to side or get some lift by angling the pod side to side or up into the airflow during reentry, but do it carefully when the flames are out or you will explode.

Thanks for the fun guys!

Didn't think I could love the Beast crew more, and then they referenced modest mouse....

Everyone getting frustrated with them for detaching their half-full tank of fuel: they don't understand that the fuel will not explode the moment they get fire particles around their craft, or that they don't need to worry so much about coming at a steep angle into the atmosphere. They don't understand a lot about re-entry, as a matter of fact; and I'd have thought everyone watching would be aware of that by this point.

Thanks for making these GIANT BEAST

Oh wow, I can't wait for the next episode. I also can't wait to see what kind of goliath they're gonna have to create to rescue that one orbiting the sun.

stinger spoiler:

Oh God, a LITERAL cliffhanger!

I have a feeling that next week's episode will cause every human to simultaneously yell, "VINNY!"

I can't wait...

"Also, we're falling right now."

"Yeah, but we're still in an orbit."

"Ah, yeah, yeah."

Conveniently, you're both right! Good ol' space physics.

EDIT: How do you even pull these previews off? Jesus...

The ship they're currently using can easily make that trip and back. I dare say it could get to Mars Duna orbit and back if they were efficient about it.

Oh my god, that teaser for next episode!

omg that preview oh god oh god

Lord they could really benefit from learning to stick these landings in less than 45 minutes.

ok let me join the chorus of going holy jesus that preview. You could NOT have planned that better ... man.

Vinny's Kerbal astronauts are some of the ballsiest heroes ever.

His Kerbal engineers should all be shot for incompetence.

The 10 seconds of Modest Mouse talk near the end made me so happy.

this is one of my favorite series on the site. Looking forward to the next episode!

Loving the show guys - one suggestion for @vinny@austin_walker have you considered using an unmanned craft for the long distance rescue? It would save you putting more innocent Kerbal lives at risk!

@rob: I don't think they know about it

OMG that preview

@l1ama: Ya thats basically right. The farther from Kerbin you are, the slower you're going, thus the smaller your velocity vector is. Small velocity vectors take less Delta-v to rotate than large ones because of how vector addition works.

Oh my god the preview. This is just one of the best series.

That landing was much more stressful than it needed to be.

Looks like the next landing doesn't go so well...

It always bothers me when they jettison their fuel instead of using it to slow down.

Also, the struts being a separate stage after their engines at liftoff is kinda bothering me.

Thanks to this show I went to see actual real spaceships in London and it was awesome and worth every penny. Those Russian ships were crazy small, and seeing them all burnt up from re-entry was pretty mad. :D

Also, space toilet and space monkey flight suit? Everything SPACE!

The photo below is the control panel from a Vostok 6 spacecraft from 1963 that was at the exhibition. It was pretty much for show as the pilot had no real control, it was just to show them where they were. The crazy thing was, they had the control panel from a Soyuz spacecraft that still services the ISS now, over fifty years later, and the control panel had almost exactly the same physical globe indicator, just a little more modern buttons around it (and by modern, they'd look about right on an 80's VCR!)

( @austin_walker and @vinny and @alex Thought you Kerbal guys might want to see this :) )

@vinny@alex@austin_walker

I'm gonna put this in a spoiler block in case you don't want it, but concerning your first two stages during liftoff...

Ground control to Major Vinny

Wait, haven't some of these Kerbles been in space for decades?

THAT CLIFF HANGER.

The goooooooooooooood tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimes

edit:

Oh my god, that preview! I knew things were getting too peaceful.

I appreciate that the guys are still learning and that there's still room for disaster. The spirit of this thing has been great all around

It seems like they're still occasionally thinking about distances and fuel the way you think about a car traveling in a straight line and not always appreciating that what looks like a huge distance isn't always going to be traversed under power so much as parts of it are going to be taken care of by gravity and inertia.

@scribble: This is pretty neat!

i enjoyed the jumpcut.

Vinny is the master of teasing previews and, apparently, jumpcuts.

Has anyone made a best-of for all of these Kerbal videos? I think that would be great.

I am really looking forward towards playing it one day

What's Ales's thing with Here comes the sun?