It's time for another let's play featuring The Infographics Show's favorite lab rat. Thanks to
a pandemic we're a bit limited on the challenges we can send our most expendable writer on,
so instead we're having him try out some of the net's favorite games! Turns out, he was
pretty bad at minecraft, but is he any better at Kerbal Space Program? Stay tuned and find out!
Alright, Kerbal Space Program- now this game I've had my eye on for a while.
It was actually sitting on my steam wishlist so I was kind of stoked for
Infographics to buy me a copy and have me play it as a challenge.
I love space, and I love sandbox style games, plus I know about space flight already from my general
knowledge and the fact that one of my friends used to work for NASA before moving to Europe
to work for the ESA. No, I don't know where the aliens are at, and she wouldn't tell me.
Ok, so I figured I'd watch some tutorials before hopping on and
avoid some of the pain of jumping into the game blind like I did with Minecraft,
and the guy I was watching playing recommended a few mods so I installed
them to make life easier for myself. Next, it was time to conquer space- Kerbal style.
First mission, launch a rocket. Simple enough,
especially given the fact that I have like three rocket parts to work with. (use video 1)
I fired up my booster and in seconds my Kerbal was having to peel his face off the interior of the
capsule thanks to the incredible acceleration. I nearly panicked though when after deploying
my chute it decided to not open up until the rocket was like six inches from the ground.
I owe Jeb a cold one, he rode a rocket to nearly certain doom like a pro.
Next mission- orbit Kerbin. (use video 2)
Alright, so to get into orbit I know that you have to move sideways as fast or faster than the
planet is pulling you down. Astronauts only appear weightless in orbit because they're in free fall,
perpetually 'missing' the planet as it pulls them down thanks to their sideways momentum.
It's like when you're in an elevator that's in free fall and experience the same weightlessness-
only an astronaut's body won't turn into jello on impact with the bottom floor
because they never really stop falling, they just keep always missing the earth.
So, I had to launch up on a trajectory with a lot of horizontal speed. Now,
you can go straight up and then at the apex of your trajectory start pushing sideways,
but that's like walking along the sides of a square building to get from one side to
the other. You can cheat instead by cutting the distance roughly in half and just go diagonal.
Thanks to the Kerbal engineer addon I could see the delta V I needed to achieve orbit,
and I got the Kerbin values from a handy dandy subway map I found online. Actually flying the
rocket was a bit hairy, but we got into orbit no problem. Then, I snatched up my science
from the goo canisters because the tutorial I watched online warned about stuff getting
vaporized on re-entry, and then fired my engine retrograde to drop out of orbit. Sure enough,
the goo canisters exploded and I panicked for a moment thinking my capsule was going kablam.
My goal was a Munar landing, so the next step was to achieve a flyby of the Mun. (use video 3)
I decided I'd fly a two man mission, bringing Jebediah and Bob along so
that Bob could do handy science stuff. I used my handy delta v subway map again and
built a multi-stage rocket with liquid fuel boosters- I decided the solid fuel boosters
were overkill for my current needs and made my rockets a bit uncontrollable.
Well, everything was going great until about 8,000 meters when the rocket started flipping
end over end. I realized that in this current design, as the fuel drained it changed the
center of gravity of the rocket and made it extremely unstable in thick atmosphere. Oh,
also, I forgot to put a parachute on the capsule. I was determined to save my Kerbal's lives though,
so I decoupled the capsule and decided that the only way to survive was to jump for it.
Now, Jeb's parachute opened no problem, and he floated serenely down, enjoying the view of an out
of control rocket loaded with fuel flying around over his head. Bob however, well I don't know if
it's a bug or maybe only pilots get parachutes, but Bob had no chute. Moving at 50 meters a second
towards a very pancakey death on the ocean, all Bob could do was put his helmet back on-
safety first, kids- and then start firing his RCS jetpack as furiously as he could. That shaved like
a whole 1 meter per second off his fall speed, but incredibly, Bob survived his splash down!
Nevermind that at those speeds a human would have had every bone in their body shattered, and their
shins would've ended up in their skull if they hit feet first- somehow Bob actually survived.
My rocket needed a redesign,
and Bob needed a loooong vacation. So it was Mun shot number 2 for me. (use videos 4 and 5)
Attempt number 2, a one-man mission because Bob and I weren't
exactly on speaking terms. New, lighter and improved design,
featuring an honest-to-god parachute on the capsule for a safe return this time!
Lift off and orbit went without a hitch, but when I began my Munar injection burn I
kind of realized... my delta v was looking pretty low. I knew I hadn't exactly achieved the most
efficient orbit in the world, but according to my delta v subway map of the Kerbal system,
I should've had more than enough delta v in my final stage to fly by the mun.
With the engine sputtering to a stop, it was time to revert to vehicle assembly- wouldn't it be nice
if real missions could do the same? Would save billions in tax payer dollars that's for sure.
Ok, attempt number 3! (Use video 6)
I skipped recording the liftoff this time because you guys get it by now,
and I successfully completed a munar injection burn- only
to realize that I again was short on go-juice to deorbit and land back home. Once more,
revert to assembly. Time for more tinkering- I'm still coming up short in delta v. There's been so
many versions of KSP I found out, that maybe I was using an old delta v map or something?
Attempt number 4! (use video 7)
Alright, this time I know I overengineered this mission, with more than enough fuel. If
I came up short again, my flying and engineering skills must really suck.
But no, I managed to make it out to the moon and had more than enough fuel to deorbit and make it
back home. As I was cruising within a few thousand meters of the Munar surface though, I couldn't
help but think of how awe inspiring this all was. I mean, I know the graphics are not the best- and
they really can't be in games like this or it'll melt your computer- but there is just something
about space flight that's so awesome. I would've given anything to have been on one of the original
Apollo missions, since apparently the USA has given up on doing anything awesome in space.
After exiting the mun's sphere of influence, I waited to get to apoapsis and fired my deorbit
burn. It's always best to fire at apoapsis since it's more fuel efficient, though to be
honest I had so much fuel left over I could've been as sloppy and inefficient as I wanted to.
Everything was going well until I sped up the game and... I flew straight through Kerbin and
popped out the other side. I guess this is because the game simulates in chunks
and if it's moving too fast it'll simulate straight through re-entry... you know what,
as far as I'm concerned, this is a mission accomplished.
Time for a Mun landing! (use video 8)
Alright, I designed a multi-stage rocket with a munar injection stage,
and then a combined descent and return stage. My tech tree was kind of lacking,
so I don't know if there's better tech out there to do this with, but I was stuck with what I had.
This design was definitely inefficient, and building something more along the
lines of an apollo lander would have been way better. But as I was quickly learning,
this was kerbal space program, and there's no problem that can't be solved with more boosters.
So sitting on the launch pad I decided I'd try to snag some quick science using my brand
new science module. It's free science, so why not? I sent Bob out of the capsule and tried to
sloooowwwllly edge him downwards to get in range of the science module so he could nab the science
and reset it- I wanted to use it again in flight. And that's when Bob totally biffed it, falling off
the capsule and smacking against the boosters before landing flat on his face on the ground.
Ok, my science greed needed to get under control. I'm so sorry- again- Bob,
I'll make it up to you one day...
Attempt number 2, and I decided to just launch. Everything went peachy until about 9,000 meters,
when I tried to do a gravity turn way too early and the whole thing flipped out of control.
I figured I'd throw some fins on this bad boy and sort out the stability problems.
Also, it couldn't hurt to put some booster separators on my big boosters.
Last thing I needed was a mid-air collision.
Ok, attempt no. 3, Rome wasn't built in a day. The fins worked great, booster separation went
off without a hitch... and then I realized that my burn to orbit was hugely inefficient.
Alright, I did some off-camera research to try to get better
tech and came back for attempt no.4. (use video 9)
This time I'd use different boosters and fuel lines so that my main engine could fire at the
same time as my boosters, but use fuel from the boosters rather than from its own reserve.
This way I could gain all that acceleration without using any of my main ascent stage's fuel.
Also, I switched to a one-man lander. Sorry Bob, but you gotta sit this one out.
I can't spare the delta v and I was getting pretty sick at failing.
Sadly the design was pretty unstable and inevitably flipped out of control.
Too bad, because the boosters looked pretty slick.
Ok, complete new design, time for a new attempt. (use video 10). This time I decided that bigger
was better, and used the brand new size fuel tanks and a new engine to brute force my way to victory.
The initial thrust to weight ratio was gonna kill my delta v though low in the atmosphere,
so I strapped on a pair of boosters and lit that firecracker up. To be honest,
I didn't expect this design to work for some reason, probably because it looks so...
dumb. But, sometimes dumb just works, and I was in orbit with delta v to spare.
Or so I thought. (use video 11).
I'm pretty sure my descent burn to the mun was pretty inefficient, because by the time
Valentina touched down she definitely did not have enough fuel to get back home.
Rather than let poor V die on the mun alone, it was time to revert the launch once more.
Man, I'm doing a good job of not crashing things which I feel is the most important
part of this game, but I am crap at figuring out how to fly efficiently.
Alright, attempt number... I forget to be honest. Let's all be grateful the
real NASA didn't screw up this badly. (use videos 12 and 13).
I had meant for Valentina to be the first Kerbal on the Mun, hashtag girlpower, but
when I redesigned the whole ship I accidentally let Jeb pilot it.
At this point, I just wanted to plant a damn flag on the damn Mun already,
so it was mission go with Jeb enroute to be the first Kerbal to stand on a heavenly object.
The new design worked pretty well and I even made it into orbit with some spare fuel in the
ascent stage. That was good, because I was pretty sure I would need it for the descent on the Mun.
I made it to the Mun in one piece and then eyeballed a good landing spot on the sun side,
only to realize I was about to go over the edge of a giant crater
so I fired to change my trajectory to just short of the crater. After a few burns to
adjust my landing area, I screamed towards the surface at over 100 meters a second,
waiting for a last second suicide burn to land safely. It was ballsy,
but you know what- I have faith in the math, and the math didn't lie. The suicide burn was
successful and I hit the surface at about 1 meter a second. Not too shabby for a piloted landing!
Now it was time to do a few bounces, plant a flag, and discover that the Mun was not made
out of cheese after all. Then, well, I hadn't really brought much science to do or anything,
it was all pretty bare bones to be honest, so there wasn't much to do but fly home.
Instead of flying straight into an orbit and wasting fuel, instead I got to a decent
height and burned a trajectory straight back into Kerbin's sphere of influence. Then I flew back up
to apoapsis and with literal fumes left in the tank managed to successfully deorbit- a bit too
aggressively with my first burn putting me on a suicide run straight into Kerbin's surface at an
extremely steep trajectory. I readjusted to something a little less.. 'suicidey',
and time warped for a nice re-entry into the atmosphere. Much like the real apollo mission,
I let my landing stage burn up in the atmosphere ahead of my capsule, leading
to one heck of an awesome light show. Man, is there anything cooler than rockets, or re-entry?
No, the answer is no.
A few minutes later Jebediah was back safely on the surface of Kerbin, except I realized I left
the Smart A.S.S. On retrograde and his capsule kept flipping over trying to align retrograde.
Oh well, Jeb was safe back home, even if it was the middle of nowhere, and my mission
was completed. Mun landing accomplished, and my Kerbal space program was basically as advanced
as the US's- despite the US having half a century to do something other than sit in low earth orbit.
I had a blast with this one, I definitely liked KSP much better than Minecraft,
though in the end, I feel like I'm going to be playing both games long term.
Ready for more action? Check out I played Minecraft for the first time!
Or watch this other video instead!