(Part 3) Top products from r/KerbalSpaceProgram

I assume you mean just learning about rockets, not literally building your own. Building your own is a hundreds of thousands of dollars endeavor (at the cheapest) and requires regulatory approval from your nation's government - it's no easy task.

I've found that /r/SpaceX is a good place to learn the ins and outs of orbital rockets, though as you might expect it's pretty heavily SpaceX focused, so you'll learn a lot more about Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy than other launch vehicles. The sub's wiki and FAQ sections give a very good overview of SpaceX and rocketry in general, and you should consider giving those a read.

Beyond that, the best thing you can do is seek out opportunities to learn. Do you have a favorite science, engineering, or mathematics professor at school? Talk to them about your interest in spaceflight and what opportunities there are to learn more. There are some great books out there about spaceflight as well, from historical narratives like "The Right Stuff" by Tom Wolfe, which talks about the history of spaceflight. John Anderson's Introduction to Flight was a textbook I used in one of my introductory aerospace classes, it's a bit pricey (though you can save money on an old edition) and obviously reads like a textbook, but give a good technical overview on both air and space systems.

After you've done all that, if you really want to get into the details of orbital mechanics and spacecraft design, you're going to need a college education. Are you in the United States or interested in studying here? I'd be happy to recommend some schools to keep an eye on if you're considering making a career out of this.

Edit: formatting

Science mode limits the available parts until you do the science to unlock more, without having to deal with restrictions like funding. You're almost literally forced to start simple, which is very useful given the steep curve of this game.

I'm no education expert, but I've been playing games since the NES came out. And what I've seen of this coming generation, they're pretty sharp, even if their reading skills are limited. Don't expect a 4 year old to understand delta-v, but fully expect them, after a few weeks of play, to not need to worry about it. If they can survive the steep learning curve, they'll know what engine they want by the picture (most of us do anyway) and they'll know what it does because they tried it and saw for themselves. It might be useful at the very least to explain "this one makes you go fast but uses up all your fuel, this one makes you go slow but uses less fuel" and stuff like that. Basically, talk to them as if you're quoting this book.

A child's mind is a very wondrous machine. If nothing else, trust that, if their interest is strong enough to overcome their failures, they will blow you away sooner than you could ever realize.

As to the Vall anomaly I'll hazard a guess... The KSP dev team is probably avid Sci-Fi readers and one of the greats, Jack McDevitt wrote a series of books (The Academy Series) were a pro-generator race littered worlds with constructs like that.

Won't ruin it for you all encase you want to read it, but its a great series by a great author.

http://www.amazon.com/Omega-Jack-McDevitt/dp/0441012108

Let me plug those books (Larry Niven's The Integral Trees and The Smoke Ring) as excellent reading for anyone interested in "hard" (or, more realistic) science fiction. Be sure to read The Integral Trees first, as The Smoke Ring is a sequel.

Already having a rudimentary understanding of orbital mechanics from KSP will make them a lot easier to follow. :)

Bachelors of Science in Aerospace Engineering (ABET search, input "Aerospace Engineering" for program name). Also consider joining AIAA, especially if you are in school or work in the industry. These both assume you are in the USA.

You can also follow the /r/aerospace and /r/engineering reddits.

As for books, The Martian was a much better book than movie. Jeb can learn a thing or two from Watney. If you really want to learn orbital mechanics, the /r/aerospace folks highly recommend SMAD.

EDIT: Saw someone mention watching live launches. Good idea: NASA TV and SpaceFlightNow.

For further reading I can highly recommend the book "Backroom Boys: The Secret Return of the British Boffin" http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0571214975?pc_redir=1411418581&robot_redir=1
There is a long chapter on Black Arrow, plus other great stories (such as David Braburn creating Elite on the BBC Micro, Corncorde etc)

Aww Yisss, that book is fantastic. It was recommended to me by coworkers when I was interning in a space company.

http://imgur.com/8DwcXga (Proof)

Just pulled it out and another book that was recommended to me called Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down

Here's a link just because I like the cover art :)

This is great! I've been reading Riding Rockets and it's amazing how little insight shuttle pilots had into what was happening on the outside of the ship. In KSP you see everything from any angle, but in real life, you've just got your own 2 eyes and any cameras someone thought to attach.

I'm reading this book about failure right now, and this would be a great cover photo.

Is something like Sam's Teach Yourself C# worth looking into or is it kinda gimmicky?

It’s called the Von Braun Ferry Rocket.

If you don’t know much about Wernher von Braun, I highly recommend you read this book. A model of his rocket is featured on the cover of the book.

This is the book I learned from

buy that and forget the course! :)

I want to have a Rendezvous with Rama. :D

This one is from The Smoke Ring

>East takes you out, out takes you west, west takes you in, in takes you east, port and starboard bring you back

And that's the basics of manuvering in orbit all summed up in one tidy sentence.

> Liu Cixin

Are you talking about this? http://www.amazon.com/The-Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/0765377063

that book is fiction.

https://www.amazon.com/Apollo-13-James-Lovell/dp/0618619585

What kind of math background would I need for this? I've done single variable calculus and some linear algebra; is this in my range?

BTW, second edition is up for pre-order: http://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Astrodynamics-Second-Dover-Physics/dp/0486497046/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420485015&sr=1-2&keywords=Fundamentals+of+Astrodynamics

Oh man... I did not know this existed. I always thought Vall-henge was a nod to Engines of God

Link to Amazon.com Hardcover 2nd Edition (this is the version I bought)

It's weird to read a technical text that is gripping. I read it cover to cover, despite not getting the math.