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[Sirus]

Yeah, I was surprised too. Apparently it's called Mun (insert two dots above the u), and you can fly to it, orbit it, land on it, and take off again with proper ship design. Since I can't even successfully orbit yet, I clearly have a long way to go

[PsyberianHusky]

I have crashed into the moon if that is worth anything, I have also had it slingshot me out of Kerbal's orbit.

[Silfurdreki]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

-struts here-

SO.
MANY.
STRUTS.

This thing can get out of the Mun's orbit, at least. It's pretty cool.

So many ASASes. Someone earlier in the thread said that having multiple ASASes was a bad idea, since they're basically autopilots for the RCS (IIRC), and that they would fight for control if you had multiple. Don't know if it's true, but it sounded reasonable.

Also:

Spoiler: I managed to land on the mün earlier (click to show/hide)

Unfortunately, I had to jettison the actual lander, since its fuel ran out a few hundred thousand meters above the mün. That craft got offf the moon, though, and managed to spectacularly miss Kerbal and settle into a nice orbit around the sun Kerbol.

[Aqizzar]

Unfortunately, I had to jettison the actual lander, since its fuel ran out a few hundred thousand meters above the mün. That craft got offf the moon, though, and managed to spectacularly miss Kerbal and settle into a nice orbit around the sun Kerbol.

I'm most impressed that you somehow took off from a lateral start in a non-lateral rocket without blowing up.  What's your trick?

[sneakey pete]

Low gravity and thrust vectoring engines would probably be the trick.

[Orangebottle]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

-struts here-

SO.
MANY.
STRUTS.

This thing can get out of the Mun's orbit, at least. It's pretty cool.

So many ASASes. Someone earlier in the thread said that having multiple ASASes was a bad idea, since they're basically autopilots for the RCS (IIRC), and that they would fight for control if you had multiple. Don't know if it's true, but it sounded reasonable.

It runs pretty well. It used to have solid boosters that would explode as it exited the atmosphere.

EDIT: Also, if the SASs weren't there, the outer boosters would collapse into the center of the ship, causing a catastrophic failure HUGE EXPLOSION.

[Lightning4]

I love how positively gleeful the Kermans are in that picture. I guess any day is a good day when you stop moving and you're still alive. Even if it's on the mun.

[forsaken1111]

I love how positively gleeful the Kermans are in that picture. I guess any day is a good day when you stop moving and you're still alive. Even if it's on the mun.

Jeb: We made it!

Others: Uhh... now what?

Jeb: -Pushes launch button, full throttle, vectoring away from the surface- WOOOO!

Others: 

[Silfurdreki]

Unfortunately, I had to jettison the actual lander, since its fuel ran out a few hundred thousand meters above the mün. That craft got offf the moon, though, and managed to spectacularly miss Kerbal and settle into a nice orbit around the sun Kerbol.

I'm most impressed that you somehow took off from a lateral start in a non-lateral rocket without blowing up.  What's your trick?

Mainly luck, I think. Being on a pretty flat surface also helped a lot, I imagine. It wasn't a pretty launch by any means, there was a lot of spinning trying to get the rocket to point upwards, and it would have been flat out impossible in an atmosphere and with a higher gravity (i.e. on Kerbal).

[alway]

With more experiments come more discoveries!
I was playing with small craft consisting of 1 or 2 SRBs with a large number of wings (controllable sort). Turns out you can fly perpetually with them. I flew at an altitude of 12 meters above the sea for 11 unpowered minutes at a speed of 40 to 50 m/s, with the ability to continue indefinitely. When speed gets low, pull up, then go back down, and you will gain a few m/s in speed. The 11 minute craft was relatively slow and had 4 rear wings and 6 front wings mounted on a srb attached to the bottom of the crew capsule. I also created a faster craft which had about 70 or so wings mounted on 2 srbs directly under the crew module (no stage separation). This craft traveled at close to 90 m/s, also showing no signs of stopping.

My theory as to the source of this perpetual motion is the motion of the wings themselves as they move. My guess would be that force in some complex interaction with the physics systems involved imparts some of itself on the forward velocity of the craft.

Spoiler: The 11 Minute craft (click to show/hide)

[Peewee]

That's an impressive find, and I just confirmed it.
You can also fly in a spiral and gain altitude and speed at the same time.

[monk12]

That's amazing.

[alway]

Found a couple more related things while creating experimental aircraft. A craft covered in more wings than should fit can generate a decent amount of lift by spinning (q & e key spin, I mean), but is unfortunately unstable due to the number of wings physics-ing those they overlap. Wings fly out at random, and the craft are liable to explode without warning. Further, craft with less wings than the required amount to generate lift above gravity's force can be incredibly effective at slowing a craft entering the atmosphere by spinning. As the ability to spin increases with velocity and air density, a craft covered in wings can essentially reverse direction if pointed upwards, falling downwards, and spin in initiated. Similarly, a spinning highly-winged craft pointed downwards while approaching the ground can maintain speed which due to air resistance would normally be impossible; a craft falling from 5000 meters achieved an impact velocity of over 300 m/s, whereas most craft will be slowed by air resistance to about 100-150 m/s.

The most interesting thing I found, though, involved a heavily winged craft with an ASAS module in control of the wings. Starting from a velocity of about 177 m/s, I pointed the craft a few degrees above the horizon, enabled the SAS, and watched as it climbed from an altitude of about 100 meters to a full 9500 meters, losing velocity only as the atmosphere began to thin. The ASAS module kept the wings in a sort of oscillating motion, creating enough thrust/lift to go at an extremely shallow angle from 100 meters to about 7500 without a drop in speed. Beyond that, speed dropped off sharply as the atmosphere dropped off; but still, to reach such heights entirely unpowered is quite an interesting sight. In short, wings allow some really interesting stuff at low altitudes, though methinks their usefulness for serious spacecraft is relatively limited; at least as far as the effects found in these experiments go.

[Criptfeind]

Well, How much control did you have after they stopped lifting? 9500 meters is not insignificant I would think. If you could then regain control and jettison them that might work as a way to get into space using much less fuel.

[Peewee]

I can't get over 9000, though I currently have a command pod, 136 winglets (several hit the launch tower), 1 booster, and 1 ASAS veeerrryyy slooowwwly floating away from the launch pad at 716m. (10.4m/s, mostly sideways, less than 1m/s up)

I can't stop laughing.

~4 minutes later, here's a screenshot. (1.5 MB)
http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/3143/trolololololo.png

Aw, KSP crashed at 9:43 / 897m / 10.9m/s.