cptdavep

Wouldn't expect an announcement too soon. Musk is a clever chap when it comes to PR (and everything), and he'll know that releasing details of his Mars ambitions while his rockets are grounded would be a massive own goal as the media wouldn't take it seriously. I agree with others, he'll wait for a successful 1st stage landing before releasing details of BFR and MCT. I think falcon is pencilled in to return to flight next month so it hopefully won't be long to wait!

I think if we're blowing that amount of delta v on something we'd be better off doing a flyby of Sedna, it's on closest approach of its huuuge orbit in the next few decades and it's a rare opportunity to study something from so far out, which maybe even captured from interstellar space. Or maybe Uranus or Neptune systems deserve Casini style orbiters as we know very little about them.

As someone who's been playing the game for ages I've long ago landed on and returned from all the planets. I've been itching to explore somewhere new for ages! So, since 1.1 will bring 64bit to all platforms does that mean squad will finally have the spare memory to give us more planets and moons without breaking the game? I'd love to visit a ringed gas giant, and an ice giant or two. And now we know how exciting Pluto is maybe Eeloo can be moved to Jool where it seems to belong and we can get some new outer worlds? I know we can do these things with mods but it just doesn't feel the same somehow as visiting proper official stock planets. Anyone else excited about new places to go?

You know, I think I remember hearing it wasn't possible due to the lack of memory in 32bit... If that's changing now maybe we'll get it!

What about gas giants or brown dwarves?

Could you actually argue that Pluto and Charon are contact binary since there's evidence of them sharing atmosphere?http://www.space.com/30089-pluto-moon-charon-red-pole.html

Oooo, that looks interesting, might have to add to my reading list!

We know there are such things as contact binary stars, where pairs of stars orbit so closely together around their centre of mass that they're actually warped out of shape, touching, sharing stuff. We also expect there is such a thing as a binary planet, where two bodies of similar mass orbit a point outside the body of both objects, an example (if only they were classified as planets...) is Pluto and Charon. This got me thinking, would it be possible for there to be a contact binary planets? If they were gas giants they would share an atmosphere, and probably have crazy weather and electro magnetic interaction. Or two water worlds could share an ocean. Or two rocky planets that are warped out of shape and touching, maybe with crazy volcanic activity. Would it be possible or is my imagination getting carried away? What effects would it have on different types of planets?

I wonder if it's possible to make one small enough to fit on a cubesat? Someone could stick one in space and see if it really works quite cheaply!

Well I'm really enjoying Elite at the moment. Have had a go at every career, done tons of exploring and am now back in the bubble do community goals, trading and bounty hunting. Sure sometimes it's a bit samey and grindy, but I have a spaceship which can explore the whole freaking galaxy! Anyway, I thought the idea of landing on the planets and driving the Scarab looks so much fun I decided to try it for myself: Here's the whole mission:

I guess if they were making one now they could stick a few cubesats each with high res cameras and release a swarm into the system. Not sure that sort of tech existed back then though.

That's interesting, you see a small flash at 2.24, but then nothing unusual until it explodes properly a few seconds later. Maybe reinforces the idea that it's cold LOX forming the initial cloud which you can't see in infrared, and it doesn't actually explode until the amazingly robust first stage goes pop. It's quite impressive how long the first stage keeps going straight considering what's happened to the second stage and dragon getting thrown free.

Maybe we get some Spacex toys?

I know it can and has been done with just plants. Not sure it's possible to achieve with livestock too. The Walstad Method for planted aquariums is pretty close though, requires minimal maintenance. http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/Walstad_method