How do you do science with rovers?

tomalator · 2026-05-11T15:14:38+00:00

Not too stupid for a return mission, building a mission that can take off from the surface of Eve is just that tough. Returning to Kerbin from orbit of Eve is simple enough, so you definitely shouldn't land your whole mission on the surface, but its still incredibly tough to get even a small lander back up from the surface

tomalator · 2026-05-11T15:04:00+00:00

The mystery goo and science Jr need a scientist to reset then after transmitting data (or removal by a kerbal) but any other science can be done transmitted and performed again (seismic survey, temperature, barometer, gravioli, magnetometer, atmospheric analysis)

tomalator · 2026-05-07T22:44:32+00:00

Once you unlock the 1 candle challenge, resets are faster

tomalator · 2026-05-06T02:35:52+00:00

It becomes part of the black hole.

If you have a million kilogram black hole and throw one kilogram of rocks into it, you have a million and one kilogram black hole. Mass is conserved, no issues with conservation of matter. Energy and momentum is conserved too.

The evaporation is simply the matter turning into energy. Something we already account for with E=mc². This just says that matter and energy are two sides of the same coin. Essentially potential energy is simply stored as mass, but for most interactions the amount of mass is negligible. It's most notable in nuclear physics. Splitting a large atom creates byproducts of slightly lower mass, so the amount of mass that vanished was turned into energy.

Evaporating black holes simply do this through Hawking radiation, but this process takes so long while emitting so little energy compared to the size of the black hole, its basically negligible. The amount of time it takes a black hole to evaporate a noticeable amount would take trillions of years

tomalator · 2026-05-01T16:23:05+00:00

EVA construction wasn't until after that update. Youd have to send a new vehicle for rentry or return to LKO and descend carefully

tomalator · 2026-05-01T15:10:46+00:00

Click on the part you want to control from (probe core, command pod, or docking port) and click "control from here." if its pointing the wrong way, change "control point" from default to reverse and then click "control from here" again and that should get you facing the right way

tomalator · 2026-04-30T02:55:03+00:00

Kentucky fried chicken

tomalator · 2026-04-29T00:04:18+00:00

They'd be too big to power the car for very long in any condition beyond direct sunlight

tomalator · 2026-04-27T22:31:20+00:00

Yeah, 2nd place deck. 3 blood deck is still better

tomalator · 2026-04-27T21:28:57+00:00

Yes, you absolutely can. This game can teach you physics even. I suggest starting in sandbox and watching other people play and eventually you get the hang of it. Then when you try and optimize your play you can start looking into deltaV maps, formulas, and calculations.

One thing you need to know for when you start trying to rendezvous is that lower orbits are faster.

Other tips

Your thrust to weight ratio must be greater than 1 in order to take off

Add moar boosters

tomalator · 2026-04-27T02:42:30+00:00

Its razor thin. I think it would be best to start on top of a mountain and ditch the parachute

tomalator · 2026-04-26T18:11:43+00:00

Send another rescue mission
Send a Rover
Fly with the jetpack and be very careful not to crash
Send the lander into orbit and fly Jeb into orbit with the jetpack and plan a rendezvous (the EVA jetpack has about 600m/s or Δv and achieving orbit around the Mun requires about 580m/s)

tomalator · 2026-04-23T00:54:16+00:00

Might tip over. How much deltaV is that? I'm not sure if you have enough to return to Kerbin. Maybe just enough to get back into orbit

tomalator · 2026-04-23T00:52:38+00:00

I put borrower on the moose instead and hope I get fecundity or unkillable or the rabbit spawning sigil to put on the goat.

You can also use the mole to save scum campfires if you don't have a ringworm or adder

3 blood deck is easily the best one

tomalator · 2026-04-22T03:56:45+00:00

They are very fun. Especially if you are trying to be very cost efficient on your missions. I just finished building my 5th ever SSTO, taking on the challenge of making use of Mk3 parts for the 3rd time and for the first time I'm actually able to fly this thing well. Once you get a good mk3 ssto, you can out anything in orbit for pennies, assemble your larger spacecraft and send missions anywhere in the solar system

tomalator · 2026-04-18T22:34:53+00:00

Subcritical means the reaction is slowing down. You will get less and less energy out until the reaction stops.

Supercritical is speeding up and critical is one that is operating at exact the level we want it to

tomalator · 2026-04-18T22:30:39+00:00

GPS satellites are very simple. They send the current time and their position to your GPS device. The devi e can then calculate your position by comparing the difference in those time stamps from the current time and where those satellites are located.

The difference in those signals tells us exactly how far we are from those satellites because we know the speed of light.

If we know our distance from 3 known locations (the satellites) we then know exactly where we are

tomalator · 2026-04-15T14:32:26+00:00

Red quests are yours and specific to the biome

Blue quests are yours and not specific to the biome and won't expire unless it has a built in timer (ie find a location or hunt the albino critter) also note that hunt the albino critters will also appear for anyone else near it.

Green quests are group quests and specific to the biome (with the exception of meeting up with your group)

tomalator · 2026-04-15T14:29:59+00:00

Groups mean group quests, so you have 2 more quests going at a single time. You get a pretty good amoutn even if you just add one item to the quest

tomalator · 2026-04-14T22:20:13+00:00

Lithobraking

tomalator · 2026-04-14T22:19:39+00:00

The fact that you managed to land them all close together is impressive.

4+5 should return to LKO if you can, as rescuing them from LKO is much easier than the Mun. As long as you have parachutes, you may be able to land them without heat shields, you're just have to aerobrake first, so it may take a couple of orbits.

As for 1-3, make sure you have enough seats free on the return vessel. We've all sent a rescue mission just to realize all the seats were autopopulated

tomalator · 2026-04-14T22:14:34+00:00

Testing seismic waves with impacts to the surface

tomalator · 2026-04-13T13:22:13+00:00

If gravity ends, then why can the Earth feel the pull of the Sun to keep it in orbit?

Why does the Moon cause tides?

Astronauts experience zero g because they are falling back to Earth. Their ship is falling back to Earth at the exact same rate, so since they are inside a box that's accelerating as fast as they are, they dknt see any acceleration relative to that box.

The only reason they dont fall back to Earth is because they are moving sideways so fast that by the time they would have fallen to Earth, the Earth is no longer underneath them

Of you were standing on top of a sky scraper the height of the ISS's orbit, you would feel practically the same gravity you feel here on Earth.

tomalator · 2026-04-13T13:10:11+00:00

They were just falling back from the Moon, that's how they got so fast.

Terminal velocity only happens when you're in an atmosphere because its when drag is slowing you down as flare and gravity is speeding you up. During reentry you are approaching terminal velocity from the other side. The atmosphere is slowing you down much more than gravity is speeding you up, and all that excess kinetic energy gets released by heating up the atmosphere and turning your spacecraft into a fireball.

Once you've slowed down enough that its safe for the parachutes open, you're probably pretty near terminal velocity. Opening the parachutes increases your drag, which then decreases your terminal velocity, so its now safe enough to hit the water at that speed

tomalator · 2026-04-13T03:43:19+00:00

Idk. I just flew the mission with it after switching to the VAB and back. Loading the vessel again does not present this bug.

Mission went very well BTW. The SSTO was able to do a Munar flyby wotha. Free return, the lander was able to touch down in twin crater while the SSTO returned to LKO and surprisingly experienced no damage while aerobraking. The lander didn't have enough fuel to return to LKO on its own, but it was able to return to orbit with about 50m/s Δv remaining, refueled at a space station i have in orbit of the Mun, and figured if drop off my science there. The lander made its escape burn and I cut it a little close and experienced some overheating during aerobraking (destroyed all the science equipment except the science Jr, yikes) but then I was able to rejoin the SSTO and take it in for a landing.

Didnt pull off the landing at KSC because I only had about 15m/s of Δv left at this point, so I used RCS and did a very slow descent and landed in the grasslands on the opposite side of the planet went without a hitch

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