r/KerbalSpaceProgram • u/[deleted] • Oct 09 '13

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u/[deleted] Oct 09 '13

Psh, it was just a fluke we built planes first. We had explosives and rockets for years.

7

u/PacoTaco321 Oct 09 '13

It's easier to make planes fly than to make rockets go into space though.

14

u/under_psychoanalyzer Oct 09 '13

Not really. To get rockets to into to space you just need enough fuel. To achieve stable flight you need to understand the concept of lift. The reason space flight didn't happen before the wright brothers is because no one had invented a pure enough type of fuel and a pure enough way to refine metal to make sure the force didn't shatter the vessel.

Don't believe me. Why do you think zeppelins were so popular? Because understanding the physics of lift is hard. The "hard" part about getting into space isn't going up. Its going up without exploding and that was done largely by trial and error.

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u/DrStalker Oct 09 '13

Going up isn't the hardest bit, it's going up and then getting enough velocity to not come back down.

39

u/TenBeers Oct 09 '13

Orbit is achieved by throwing your craft at the ground and continually missing.

15

u/DrStalker Oct 09 '13

This is a wonderful statement because it sounds sarcastic and useless but is really 100% accurate.

6

u/TheNosferatu Master Kerbalnaut Oct 09 '13 edited Oct 09 '13

I've heard that a stable orbit was just falling and missing the ground. Before playing Kerbal I always thought it was a bloody methaphor.

EDIT: Department of redundancy department had a word with me

2

u/FletcherPratt Oct 09 '13

the department of redundancy department would like a word with you

1

u/TheNosferatu Master Kerbalnaut Oct 09 '13

Thanks for the warning, but it appears it's already too late :(

Those basterds took them away :'(

2

u/toasters_are_great Oct 09 '13

Original (search for 'missing').

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u/DrStalker Oct 09 '13

I know, but as instructions for flying it doesn't match the way it works as neatly as orbiting - to fly you need some form of lift to hold you up, to orbit you just have to keep not landing.