Acidum

So does Greenwich and Earth...

Usually followed by: "I thought it was a dead pixel...", or even "what's all the fuss about one more whitish star on a picture..."

O, da... Osećam tvoj bol... A tek neprilagoÄ‘enost u tim osetljivijim godinama... NauÄÂićeÅ¡ vremenom kako da to prebrodiÅ¡, najbitnije (i najteže) je naći istomiÅ¡ljenike, ili makar osobe sliÄÂnih interesovanja -> zajedno smo jaÄÂi! ...and to translate to out-of-Balkans visitors: Oh, yes... I can feel Your pain... And not to mention unfitness (inadaptability) at that age... As time goes by You will learn how to overcome that; the most important (and the most difficult) is to find same minded people, or at least people of simmilar interests -> together we are stronger! (last part is from a child song about friendship: everybody should know what friendship means, together we are more beautifull, together we are stronger) This is one sad example of situation in countries that pay veeery little (if any) attention on space exploration (or science in general)... I have to disagree on that one... Governments should not use money from science (or space for that matter) for schools and hospitals. They should use money from wars, criminals, unfit and bulky administration, bad politics, and overspending rich people FOR education, medicine, science AND space exploration.

First - first stage does not need to make gravity turn, only reach some drag-friendly height, and leave second stage make turn and orbital insertion. We are being spoiled by current launches where the goal is to leave launch site ASAP, in case of some catastrophic failure. Second - Aeroplanes ARE good model for understanding of reusable space launching systems, as much as cars are good model for understanding of planes. Models, I say, models! Consider safety regulations in air traffic - people observed ground traffic problems and dangers, and made harsh regulations and hard technical solutions in order to bypass named problems. So, cars WERE models to planes. And now take it one step further. And to nihilystic haters who will now say - no, they are very different because you do not have this and that, here are some more examples: - rockets are not meant to come back to earth because of... - planes were not made to carry cargo, nor to serve as restaurants at first (imagine either of those on Wright Flyer XD ). As technology advances so do possibilities and opportunities... Why not catch the tide! - It is far more energy consuming to fly back entire first stage of rocket...fuel for more cargo...splash it in ocean...parachutes... - People already proved that it is not that energy consuming if one uses extremely light materials. If one can land it safely and gently on a landing pad, not splash it in water at measurable part of terminal velocity, than extremely light materials can be used, which leads to less fuel for controlled landing AND more cargo to carry! Parachutes are already beaten to death on this thread, don't need to put my 2 cents too... - 5-10% is maximum money saved... C'mon, really, 5-10% of billions and billions of any monet (dollar, euro, pound, yen...) is very much worth saving per se. And if you take under consideration that 3-4 of other fifths are actually one-time investments...

Possible abiotic sources of purple color could be compounds of manganese and cobalt. Iodine is quite reactive, and it is strong oxidant, so atmosphere on Eve should be highly oxidative in order for iodine to remain in elementary state. You could easily imagine a microorganisms (single cellular or colony-type, like algae) that produce iodine in a similar way that our (Earthly) produce oxygen. Soil would be likely rich in iodine, but it is not obligatory. Evolutionary reasons for production of iodine could be similar to those for production of oxygen on Earth. It is toxic for all non-adapted organisms, so it could eradicate early microbial foes. It can be final product of redox processes. Darker purple coloration of soil could be because of microorganisms themselves - they could be rich in "proteins" (or any similar molecular species) containing manganese in high oxidation state. Why no higher organisms? Solar irradiation could kill any organisms more complex than those considered here. Iodine could intoxicate any wannabe emerging species. Purple-iodogeneric-algae could be THE most adapted species for conditions on Eve, top of evolutionary ladder, and that is why they are spread across entire planet. PS. If you consider speed of reactions with oxygen and with iodine, it is easy to explain that those organisms have quite slow metabolism, they die off very slowly, and they are easily replaced by slowly produced new offsprings. Heck, they could easily be older than Kerbals or any Kerbin lifeform!

I am chemist. Working as analyst (water and air quality) and as researcher (company's science department - non space related, some protein and spore isolation).

Interesting...but no. Open-closed system explanation is already here. Imagine a situation where You persuade ALL the aeroplanes on Earth to come and fly around same spot on one part of the planet (creating cylinder-like flying group). Will the lift from the wings move entire planet (or its atmosphere) in that direction?

Oh yes... I do... I am well known as a very nerdy guy, and it has been like that since my childhood! As the time passed by I managed to make my spontaneous science talk outbursts into humorous situation, ending them with either mad face hitting myself in the head saying "I told You not to do it in front of other people", or guilty face saying "sorry, it is not me, it is a geek inside of me" or "yes, I know, I am nerd"... Ladies usually dig it. Of course, there are situations when I am just to excited about certain stuff to control or make comedy about it. And it is mostly space science oriented. I remember when Curiosity landed on Mars, I got up in the middle of night to wait for THE moment until early dawn (in Serbia). After it landed, I was cheering and glowing with happiness, and I eventually got late to work because I wanted to see every scene that was broadcasted at that moment, waited for my father to wake up to tell him all the details and observe repeated videos with him (he is also space enthusiast), and when I finally got to work I gathered everybody to explain them in detail how it was done (with my hands vividly performing entire launching, interplanetary trip, descending and "skycraning" with lowering and crashing). They all stared at me for a while, looked at each other and silently dispersed, leaving only one colleague (older guy, veeery intelligent, ex hippie) who stared at me with undivided attention in silence for two more minutes, and he finally said "I don't know who is more crazy, You or them (nasa)"...

In KSP it is impossible, in RL it is plausible. About it's stability: Take a satellite in near-perfectly circular orbit (equatorial). If it is above atmospheric influences (no drag) it is stable. Now take more satellites in same orbit with equidistant spacing until they are positioned at each 10 meters. Gravity is still ok, they are not falling down, their own SOI is still far smaller than their respective sizes. And now connect them with e.g. thin strings or cables. No gravitational well is formed, they are still playing around the Earth like children in park. Keep forming ring-like structure symetricaly until You build Niven ring, and it will still not fall down. Period. Structure won't need to be rigid and superstrong. It will have to be elastic. Even Earth is not rigid. As long as You don't put this ring in eccentric orbit, it will be stable. PS. Think of whirligig (ser. ÄÂigra) in vacuum!

First - No, we are afraid that people will wage numerous wars and low-scale conflicts (diversions and terror-like activities) with a lot of killing on Earth. Second - Yeah, thousands and thousands of asteroids in huge area, colliding, grinding and demolishing each other regularly... So any mining colony IN asteroid belt will be constantly bombarded by multi-million-ton rocks. So, if anyone wants to do some space rock mining, only targets would be strayed asteroids travelling on highly elliptical solar orbits crossing near Earth (or other future mother planet) at some point(s) in time. And since those are highly limited in numbers, from the moment we gain technology for such endeavour - conflicts between corporations on who owns the "rights" to mine that specific rock will emerge.