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Slight correction. First post of the thread, fairly easy to miss if you're not paying attention, I had to hunt for it a bit to find this quote: [edit] for those looking to change that, there was talk of it a page or two back.

Not rocket scientists, engineers! In my experience scientists can and do read(talk to any about peer review work), on the other hand an attitude I found common among engineers was that manuals got thrown out with the packaging and wrapping - and anything that they couldn't figure out how to work, coax or kick into working was either "designed wrong" or "came broken".

Thank you for clarifying. I had thought that the earlier talk of energy networks was theoretical. It would be nice but I believe you're right in that the current transmission is p2p and will not relay. I'll be testing this to be sure once I unlock them in my career mode play.

You see, you guys keep saying NEWTONIAN physics. Not everything obeys these laws. Go on google and look up "superconductor", find the Ted talk on it. Here's some quick facts about them: They have ZERO electrical resistance. They can lock themselves in 3-DIMENSIONAL SPACE around a magnetic field. They can carry over 70,000 times their weight. They, most importantly, have ZERO ENERGY LOSS. We are dealing with QUANTUM physics here, not Newtonian. With more research in this field we could find a way to make a FTL spacecraft.

@Seanner I've made a replay to your post earlier, but deleted it because it wasn't any good, but now seeing your "nvm" I'm super curious what was that about Oh and one small thing i wanted to point out, is that fuel itself (unless its antimater) is generally much cheaper than engines. So it would take a lot of launches to net a profit on efficient engine. Right now fuel goes for around 200 for most tanks (with a 162,5 minimum on the 16t one). Aerospike costs 2566c per ton and LV-T30 costs measly 680c per ton. Yes the numbers aren't balanced but i do believe that when we have "credits" implemented in career mode engines will be at least 5x more expensive than fuel tanks (that's when the second TWR revolution will come and things like 1,2-1,3 TWR will be the optimal for standard rockets ) And if we wanted to talk about real engines, i think even thou we could retrieve the engines they won't be able to do much launches before scrapping or total overhaul (maybe 5 or 10) so the benefit's of lower fuel usage would be minimal.

I haven't personally tested this, but as far as I know, there is a relay value on either the receiver, transmitter (I can't remember), so I am like...90% sure that you can relay power as long as the transmitter sats have both receivers and transmitters on them. There was talk a while back on how to best set up a low Kerbol power network and I believe that using relays was key to getting the most out of that set up.

A short story that is in WIP. Will keep updating. It doesn't start well. Chapter Portal (For Chapters not on this Post)l Chapter Two: Laythe Station Chapter Three: Duna Chapter Four Prologue Cheers erupted from Mission Control as Bill Kerman stepped onto the Dunaian soil. This was a moment to be celeberated, as the spacecraft Duna Five touched down onto the fourth planet from their star, marking the fifth landing on Duna. The craft was to stay on Duna for a record six years, paving way and manning the small research outpost that had been built. Many expected the best for the mission, and even now as Duna Five walked on Duna, many other ships where already there, bringing the total number of crew at the base to ten. Meanwhile, further out, at Jool, transmissions came in from Laythe Station and the Jool-7 vessel exploring Tylo. Kerbalkind was soon becoming a true spacefaring race, and some scientists even suggested going to Lucifer, a star system11 light years away. Johannas, the Director of Spaceflight Systems, did not share in this excitement. Tensions where arising, politically. Kerbin was becoming too small to hold all the nations, and the constant arms race between the Provinces and the Union was proof of that. The former leader of the Union had been sporty, offering aid to the Provinces and warming up relations between him and former President Madfield. But he had fallen a year ago, by an assasians bullet. The new leader was extreme beyond ones beliefs, and wanted to wipe the Provinces off the map. The fallout center located near the VAB was always near his mind, and he stayed close to the exit. In case something happens, he thought. At Military Intelligence, the gathered officers and officials shared his beliefs. They where gathered in the Central Command Chamber, a large underground complex that ran almost all the the military functions for the United Proviences. "At 0400 hours today, one of our spy planes captured this photo of an Great Union military installation near the mainland of the United Proviences. This action cannot be tolerated. Send for the President immediately." A officer left, and came back, with a Kerbal dressed in a suit. "Yes?" "Mr. President, we have a probelm." "?" "The Great Union has established a military installation near the Provincal border!" "What country?" The National Security Advisor looked at a set of papers, and flipped through them, looking for the location and country of the offending facility. "Sir, it is located at Karkow" "The Republic of Karkow? The strong ally to the Union?" "Yes, Mr. President" An lieutenant colonel burst into the room, carrying a stack of papers and handed them to the National Security Advisor. He saluted both the president and the Advisor, and slowly exited the room after wishing them a 'good day'. "Convoys are headed into the area. Land convoys." "How far is it from our border?" "We are currently in striking distance. It can strike targets as far as our capitol." "Get up the Karkowian President on the phone" "Yes sir" The advisor motioned toward a worker, who dialed a number and handed it to the President. "This is the President of the United Provinces" "Huhhhhh" The Karkowian President slurred his speech, and fell asleep on the phone after making a brief mention of what...was it Vodka? "...zzzzzz....." "Koddamit!" The National Security Advisor looked at the President. They stared at each other for some time. The Minister of Domestic Affairs entered the room, and looked uncomfortably at the advisor. The advisor nodded, and pushed some buttons, and quickly gave an order to a officer standing nearby. "Put the Defense Forces on High Alert" "Sir." "?" "Several missile launches where detected near the border." "Where are they headed?" "Huding, sir. Population, 18 million. It's the commerence center of our nation. I wonder why they chose to strike there first, instead of the capitol." "Order the military to launch the Horizon warheads, immediately." "Sir-" "Do it. Now." The officer sighed, and called the missile launch base. Alarm bells rang, and millions of Kerbals scrambled to their fallout shelters. At mission control, their europhia had turned to utter panic. Wehner, the head Adminstrator of the National Astronautics Agency, grabbed the communication headset and quickly gave some orders for the astronauts. "Some crap is going on! Hang on, and don't go back to Kerbin! All flights are cancelled! Stay where you are!" That was the last transmission from Mission Control. Hundreds of missiles hurled toward the sky, and hundreds of bombers took off. Millions fled to fallout shelters around the nation. The militaries where mobilized. The Great Union, realizing it's strike was detected and a retaliatory strike was on the way, launched each and every last of it's nuclear missiles. The United Provinces did the same, as hundreds of rockets hurled toward the sky, carrying with the payloads of death and destruction. Eighty minutes later, the astronauts on Duna watched as the bright blue star of Kerbin erupted in flames. The war had begun and ended in less than an hour, and Kerbin they knew was now gone from existence. Chapter One: Immediate Effects Nedfred Kerman was in a panic. Duna Base One was safe. He was safe. But his family, his home, his country. Gone. He got up, and headed toward the airlock. "Where are you going?" "Out. Give me some time." "Ok then, but get back soon. We're the last koddamn Kerbals alive, and we should look into...alternatives." "Got it." He grabbed one of the EVA suits in the habitat, ignoring the curious glances of the kerbolnauts around him. He pulled out a control dial, and pushed several buttons-the access code for the airlock. 24205 He heard the airlock pressurizing, and the hatch opened. He stepped in, and it closed after him. It started to depressurize as he secured his helmet. The dial on the control panel turned green, and the hatch swung open to reveal the Dunaian landscape. He jumped out, his boots crunching the regolith beneath him, and started off for the horizon. He walked past the base modules, always staring straight ahead at the horizon, the hills, the beautiful landscape in front of him, as he turned off the radio to base. How nice. What beauty is it in this universe. Gripping a screwdriver in his hand, he took his last breath and stabbed it into his oxygen tank. Ned never made it back. He was not the only one. "Wheres Ned?" The sun was rising over the Dunaian horizon. It had been around seven hours since Kerbin had bit the dust, and Nedfred was missing. Bill looked at the faces of the Kerbals gathered around him, and looked back at his sheet. "Where is Ned? Ned? The Chief Science Officer? Where the frak is he?" "He took a EVA seven hours ago sir. I think he manually disabled contact, and he...just said 'Give me some time', and left. I thought he was going to hang out around the rovers, blow off a little stress, and such, but nope. Noone's seen him since he walked off..." Bill Kerman stared at Scott. Scott nodded, and sighed. "Well, that's one less mouth to feed. Supplies?" Thomas stood up. "Enough for ten years for all of us, and we have another supply craft coming in. It'll handle without control, as I believe someone had the idea to preprogram it." "Good. Then how long?" "Fifty years." "Building matierals?" "Enough to erect another hab, but not much." Bill paused. "So, everything at Duna Base One is fully intact?" "Yes." Everyone sighed in relief. Millions of Kilometers away from Duna, Jool-7 was in orbit of Tylo-and wanted to go a different way. "Landing is cancelled. We're not going to Tylo." "But Jeb....." "Shut up. I'm going to hope for a rendezvous with Laythe Station, and then we go to Duna." "Fine." Picking up the thorttle controls, Anrey Kerman looked at Jeb. Jebediah nodded, and went back to reading the last copy of Kerbal that existed in the universe. "When do we burn?" "....Uhhh.....didn't control tell us?" "All control told us before our planet bit the dust was something about a window in a month. And that's back to the irradiated hellhole that our towns now are. They also told us about the lander they put in orbit here a month ago, but we don't need that anymore." "A month? No good. Pull up the manvuering computer." Anrey quickly pushed several buttons, and a orbital map appeared on the screen. Jeb began to mess around with the map, inserting nodes here and there for a burn to Laythe. "That'll do. Head for the node direction and fire the engine." The ship began it's burn toward Laythe as the sun set in the distance behind them, over the curviture of Tylo. Picking up the radio, Jebediah began to scan for the radio frequency of Laythe Station, his eyes scanning the void in front of him, staring at the blue dot of Laythe. "Laythe Station, this is the Jool-7, do you copy?" *static* "Laythe Station? Do you copy?" *static* "Laythe Station?" -silence- "This is Mission Commander Jebediah Kerman,of the Jool-7. Hurry up and talk. Anyone? Tom? Lodlo? It's Jebediah! We're going to rescue you!" Finally, a voice answered. "Yeah...this is Tom Kerman.." "Wheres Rodlo?" "Took a spacewalk...saw him remove his headset transmitter and then reenter with his thrusters. I'm alone up here." "So, he's gone?" "I guess so. Should I cash in on his life insurance policy?" "Kerbin's gone, dude. And so are these companies." Last moments of Rodlo Kerman over Laythe, captured by Station Telescope Camera No.8 "I'm going to pick you up. Stay put." "Hah, ha. Yeah, I'll stay inside the habitat. Feel free to refuel from my ample supply of liquid fuel when you dock." Adjusting the thrusters on their ship, the crew of Jool-7 could do nothing...but wait, and watch as Kerbin burned. Jebediah Kerman sighed, and turned from the window. "So. Can someone tell me again on what the crap happened?" "Kerbin got nuked, and control bit the dust. What else? We're stranded." "Ok then....everyone, lights out and get to sleep." "Jeb?" "Huh?" "Will we survive?" Jebediah Kerman looked at Kerbal who said it. He paused for a second, then decided on his answer. "Yes.." "Cya then. G'night." I hope so, though Jebediah, before going back to the controls of the Jool-7, staring at the growing dot of Laythe in the distance.

Hey Nauthy, I don't mean to nag, but the last day I have to make youtube videos until December (I think) is tomorrow (Friday). Could you just talk to him, see what he's doing? Thanks. -Cake

This is not any more OP than welding the parts together using the welding tool. To me, launching is a grind, and the exciting stuff happens in space. I'll talk to UbioZur to see what he thinks of this idea.

I can't seem to be able to sync with the rest of the server. It displays that I'm synchronizing with the rest of the world when I log in, but it actually does absolutely nothing. It only lets me sync when I'm seemingly piloting a spacecraft, and after it syncs up KMP disconnects me from the server, essentially making this mod useless apart from me being able to talk to others, like a slightly worse version of Kerbal Live Feed(because I can't pause and quickload). EDIT: That error is gone for now, but now KMP attained this nasty habit of randomly disconnecting from servers! AAARGHHH! It's like it's trying to do anything it can to keep me from playing Kerbal Multi Player and to trap me into Kerbal Single Player!

"No mission is beyond salvaging some usefulness- even if its goals do change." Scant consolation that is, thought Jerbo, remembering the mission controller's words to calm him down. Jerbo had come to realize that, painfully, he probably wouldn't be going to Duna. Instead, he and Doneley- with that weak stomach and blank stare on his face all the time- would probably be forced to spend the next few days extracting aluminum and oxygen from regolith, and the next few months or more performing research on the Mun. "At least we won't necessarily be stuck in this same ship that whole time" Jerbo thought. There had been talk of landing the supplies for a more permanent base at their location- as it appeared reasonably flat, and was near several craters that might prove worth visiting. Mission Control had even provided them with an orbital image of the vicinity of their landing site, to illustrate this to them. The Lunar Science Module- as some buffoon initially renamed their mission- would eventually be drained of remaining fuel and scrapped. It's the *Munar* Science Module, thought Jerbo- what's Luna? (OOC: Luna is the name for Earth's moon.) In the meantime, their mission was now to rendezvous with a new model of Duna Science Module, that would be launched from Kerbin shortly- and transfer what fuel to it they could. "Great", thought Jerbo- "we've become nothing but the space equivalent of oil drillers and gas station attendants." He knew, of course, this wasn't true. While Mission Control did speak of searching for Kethane deposits around the Mun- and especially in their vicinity- no gas station attendant could fly a 100-ton rocket, thought Jerbo- also thinking back to the 900-ton plus behemoth it had been back on the launchpad... \ Regardless, he had a mission to perform- and Mission Control was providing him with the tools to do it... As a first step, they had immediately ordered that a small probe be sent from the LKO Spacedock carrying a new "radiator tower"- whatever that meant- to allow them to cool their craft and reactivate its nuclear reactors and associated generators. In the meantime, they were to begin performing research on the local geology and radiation levels, to advance science and better characterize their location's suitability for a permanent base. Most of a day of research (6-7 hours) passed, and the radiator tower arrived as promised. Jerbo's first duty was to remove the still-functional solar panels from the nearby crashed-down skycrane-style probe that had been used to transport it, and re-attach them to the radiator tower facing towards to now setting sun. The extra electricity, mission control assured them, would help a tiny bit with running the ship's power-hungry electrolysis systems... Meanwhile, Donely would be employed at the much more "hazardous" task of re-routing the ship's heat exchange fluid to the radiator tower, and re-activating the ship's nuclear generators- as mission control still didn't trust Jerbo's unstable mental state since his breakdown... (OOC: KSP Interstellar's Science Labs appear incapable of utilizing ElectricCharge directly. Instead they utilize the "Megajoules" representing mechanical energy stored in its generators. However the generators only produce this resource when the ship is producing surplus power, and proportional to the surplus- as they are essentially a form of electrical storage. It is unclear to me if the maximum rate of Megajoule production can be raised by having a large EC surplus- but it *IS* clear that a proportion of the generator's Megajoule output can be diverted to produce EC instead if the ship would otherwise be running an EC-deficit. Since the Munar Science Module originally had no other method of producing electricity besides the generators, this was always the case- and so utilizing a few working solar panels from the gently-crashed ship would slightly increase the Megajoule output of the generators...) Finally, after a hard day of work unscrewing solar panels from the crashed probe, and drilling them onto the top of the radiator tower- after carefully navigating to the top by RCS jetpack- Jerbo finally finished his part of fixing the electrical systems. Shortly after, Donely burst into the Science Module with a wide grin on his face, and announced "It's finished! The radiators are venting the reactors' heat correctly, and we'll be electrolyzing regolith at full-power now in no time!" "Great" thought Jerbo- "now we get to haul glamorized rock-dust for the next week, and get filthy electrolyzing and purifying it into rocket fuel-grade materials". Of course, he didn't say this- instead he just game Doneley a half-hearted high-five, and returned to the scientific experiment he had been working on in the corner... "This is going to be a looonnnng month ahead of me", thought Jerbo... OOC again: As you can see, I did manage to figure out a way to save at least some of the usefulness of the damaged Science Module. Unfortunately, I don't trust a radiator stack tied to the front of the ship by nothing but a KAS stack winch to survive aerobraking on Duna... I could be acting over-cautious about this, but I've decided to go with launching an entirely new ship with two built-in 2.5 meter inline radiators instead of the deployable sort that broke before (the inline radiators would be identical to the two the tower you saw there was constructed of. They're heavier than the deployable radiators, but they should have a lot less chance of breaking on a possibly less-gentle touchdown on Ike than the super-gentle one I made on the Mun before- which still managed to break them anyways...) In the meantime, I'll be needing to launch another Duna Science Module, and the Duna Crew Module, soon- and get them out of the Kerbin system before the necessary intercept orbits become any slower or require any more Delta-V: (Keep in mind that Duna is to the RIGHT of Kerbin's prograde vector as seen here. It should be DIRECTLY in front of the vector for the fastest and lowest-energy Hohmann Transfer, ideally- and it will only continue to move further to the right the longer I delay my additional launch windows... It would be to the LEFT of the prograde vector if it was *approaching* the transfer window instead of moving away from it, by the way. Given its current position, any intercept course will have to have a significant radial component outwards from the Sun in addition to its prograde component- which is a lot less efficient of a way to get a transfer...)

Is there a dummies guide to the communication system somewhere? I've got a couple of comm satellites in orbit but I can't get all of them to talk together.

I'll 2nd this. SCANsat should be released. Talk to that guy from "part from my garden shed" get his permission, put your stuff together, release and you will "Win" . No further discussion needed.

Partial Update Well, nothing has been working. it just kept getting worse and worse and worse and I was ready to just HyeprEdit the darn thing up there until I realized that I as going at this, THE WRONG WAY! I mean really, talk about Uber Facepalm through the skull. I mean, if you've guys seen the screenshots, it should of clicked already, if not, then don't feel bad, because THIS is what I should of done. Oh and I kept forgetting to boot Jenbur out of the Lander Cab, it's like, DUDE, you are NOT going to the MUN! I know you miss your buddy Alan but you are STAYING here pal! I hope this works....

Well firstly, if it was possible to make universes with life on a lab, then we could already be a micro-verse in someone elses lab. As for the rest, i really dont know, but one can simply go with .. 42-> Big bang -> create universe -> expand -> shrink -> Big anti-bang -> 42 .. He can go ..42 -> Alien Multidimensionals -> Lots of drinks and 9 months later -> create universe -> 24 .. All im saying, is when the discussion is going at this scale, you really dont talk about physics, but Philosophy. Tell that to the Nobel and PHd lads for me. Just a small final edit to just say that the discovery of the fitness or otherwise of our universe, really doesnt add or change anything about our perception of the kosmos. It is (at least for us humans) something of a big deal already, it doesnt make a difference in the "wonder" part, if we were ment to be or just barelly made it in here. At least for me.

I guess the main reason I asked is that I'm a Unity developer myself, and converting my projects this week has been as simple as opening them in the newest version of Unity. Generally I've seen some small improvements and encountered no conversion issues (yet.) KSP is obviously a fair bit more complex than my projects, but I wondered if there was some talk of them already experimenting with 4.3 on a git branch and if it had rendered any interesting results. Ever the optimist, I guess..

Hmm, you might be right. But do consider moving the NovaPunch 5m parts to Experimental Rocketry - it will allow you to shift most of the NP tech tree towards more advanced technology, bringing it more in line with the stock parts. I just think we get the 2.5m parts a bit early. Anyway, I'm not here to talk about NP. So I have a question: will there be enough shuttle-derived parts in this mod that we can make an SLS, or will that require too many non-shuttle derived parts for you to include it here?

While in build mode, i find myself accidentally clicking the wrong part when trying to move things like struts and attachments. I also noticed that when you hover over a part, it turns slightly white (along with it's icon in the staging list). I would like to suggest that you provide either an alternate color that is easier to see (bright red?) or the ability for the user to modify the color that items are shaded during "on hover" events. The problem gets really bad when you have spent an hour building a three layer asparagus/onion configuration (without saving) and accidentally click an inner engine thereby messing up your fuel hose routing...talk about frustrating... Thanks guys !

Are there any mods out ther thad add new planets or even better new solar systems? Is it even possible to make mods like that or would that alert game too much? I tried to google them but I couldn't find any. I heard some talk about planet factory mod but couldn't find any link to actual information about it. Thanks in advance for your help.

Ha ! Talk about it My attempt to an Eve lander that can re-orbit does one (and only one) backflip through its ascent, ruining the already very limited DV (in regards to crazy Eve requirements). Trying to do an universal grand-tour SSTO lander (that refuels itself with Kethane on the ground), so far managed to make one work until Tylo, but Eve requires additional stages, and those are already quite crazy difficult with stock game, with FAR it's a real challenge Since every additional weight on the top stage means exploding masses for the bottom stage, and that universal-SSTO is around 83t (but has around 4000 DV by itself), lifting that off Eve surface (after landing successfully ! that means sound structural design) will require some creativity.

Well a computer lock-up made me lose my first version of this post earlier today. Let's see if I can get through this one without getting interrupted by the Kraken. For any who are interested, I've updated my set of mods and Eagle Craft files again. Here's the new link: Logan's Eagle Mods and Pods So what's new? A few tweaks to performance of the Eagle. Specifically the way the side translation thrusters were mounted for better balance to make it easier to use in both VTOL and Orbital operations. An attempt to reduce part count, complexity and redundant mods necessary A couple of new parts custom made by Lackluster. (That guy is awesome!) And a completely new type of pod for carrying and deploying a set of mapping probes using the SCANSAT mod and plug-in. First off - the RCS translation issue. The way I had mounted the thrusters before was adequate for VTOL operations. But it was off of the COG enough that it made the ship roll too much. And in orbit/zero-g this made it very hard to dock with anything. So I took a close look at where the most common Center of Gravity was for the Eagle. It changes a bit with different load-outs, but I found what I thought was a "sweet spot" and did some more testing. The end result is that instead of mounting 4 RCS blocks tucked behind the truss on the sides, I was able to reduce it to 2 RCS blocks - 1 fore and 1 aft. Clipped into the top of the body. You can see below where they are (the small squares on the "roof" of the fore and aft part of the main truss tank). This change does two positive things - it makes for steady side-to-side translation with minimal roll, and it reduces the part count since I could get rid of the redundant RCS blocks. In regards to further reducing part and mod count, I reduced the amount of struts I was using and used standard Squad struts instead of going overboard with the tougher and weightier B9 struts. Turns out not to have compromised the structural integrity at all. Apparently I was "over-building". Overall I managed to reduce part count there as well. I love the B9 mod, but I try to use it sparingly. What I don't use sparingly of course is the LLL parts. They make up the majority of the pod designs. Probably the most popular pod is going to be the passenger pod since that's close to the original show. I asked Lack if it was possible to create a single part pod that could replace the multi-part version that I was using before. He not only said yes, he did it himself. And I've included it in my new mod pack above and in the craft file. It REALLY helps reduce the part count. I was using around 15 parts before to make those pods. Now it's down to 7-8 and the overall part count on a passenger Eagle is around 35. Down from nearly 50 before. I don't remember if I did this on this version or the last one, but there was a slight tweak to the design of the Kethane pod. I put the crew hatches up near the front, gave them ladders for easier access, and added an extra set of solar panels. Also - I moved 2 of the 3 RTGs that this Eagle was using from the Eagle itself to the pod. That means the pod if it's dropped on its own somewhere is much better able to power itself. It has a total of 3 RTGs and 6 solar panels, with a pair of extra solar panels in the KAS boxes just in case they're needed. Lastly - here's that new pod I mentioned above: There are 4 of the SCANSAT style mapping probes on this carrier. They are self-powered with solar panels batteries, xenon tanks and Ion Engines for tweaking of orbits. They also have comm-dishes in case you want to use something like Remote-Tech. And if needed, they can re-dock with the Eagle. Imagine sending a pair of Eagles out to Jool. One could be the Kethane prospector, the other could be this one. The Kethane Eagle could keep itself, the second Eagle and even the probes topped off with fuel for an extended survey of the entire Jool moon system. So there you go. Test and see what you think! Lastly - I want to talk about quantum struts. I tried to refrain from using them before because they seemed a bit of a "cheat". But after banging my head on the "Drop and pick up" problem all this time I decided to give in and try it out. OH. MY. GOD. 4 Quantum struts placed on the truss bar and pointed straight down makes the pods totally stable - AND you can (with some deft piloting) dock with one and pick it up again and it won't fall off of one end or the other! It'll actually re-dock perfectly straight! And they can be placed very unobtrusively with hardly any of the "beam" showing at all. Just the tiniest pinprick of light between the quantum strut part and the pod that's easily ignored. I didn't put quantum struts in my mod pack above. But if you want to use the Eagle for moving stuff around? SERIOUSLY consider getting the Quantum strut mod! It'll absolutely complete the Eagle experience! Well that's it for now. The next pod I design I think I'm going to try for the classic winch pod. Wish me luck! (And Devo - I hope you're still out there, mate. Getting a little worried about you!)

There is quite a lot of coal in the ground, over 1000 GtC. CO2 response in ppm CO2 is roughly half of that value -- 500ppm CO2 just by burning all the coal. Pre-industrial CO2 levels were 275 ppm, we're now around 400ppm. That would kick it up to around 1000ppm CO2. You're correct that CO2 has a half-life of around 50 years in the atmosphere so it depends on how fast we burn it all up, but if you assume we are unrestrained in our acceleration of fossil fuel burning we can do that on the order of 50-ish years, and throw in oil and nat gas (and lets not talk about methane release from fraking nat gas) and 1000ppm CO2 is probably conservative. From paleoclimatology, the last time the Earth saw levels that high was roughly 40 million years ago -- and the Antarctic had melted. Once you put the poles melting on the table, you get ice-albedo-feedback for one since the ice caps at the poles reflect radiation back into space, and that leads to further warning, so that even if you decrease the CO2 levels you have to take the time to re-freeze the whole Antarctica. There's also a feedback between high temperature as a cause and higher CO2 as an effect -- so that once temperature changes have taken hold, the biosphere actually produces more CO2 and doesn't wash it out as effectively, so you can't consider just the half life of CO2 without considering that you're bumping the equilibrium up to higher values all along the way. There are a whole lot of feedback loops that occur which make it likely that if we hit 1000ppm that the Himalayas will melt in 300 years or so, and Antarctica will be gone (probably on a longer timeframe like 1000 years, which is still a blink of a geological eye). So, it will return, but it took 15 million years from the Eocene maximum until the Antarctica reglaciated. And the globe was clearly habitable the whole time. We're not going to sterilize the planet through CO2 by any means. The problem is what kind of issues we cause ourselves in the meantime and what the cost is. Humanity will also survive (assuming we don't kill ourselves through strife and nuclear war or secondary effects like that). But far from having to worry about the Antarctic melting, we already are likely to have an ice-free Arctic in the summer months. There's evidence, and a strong reason to believe, that this is already changing weather patterns, and leading to very strong atmospheric blocking and a series of heat waves and (seemingly paradoxially) cold snaps, leading to a rapid rise in the number of billion-dollar weather disasters per year (more than can be accounted for just by land usage and inflation). You also dump more heat in the atmosphere and you energize weather systems. You have more moisture in the atmosphere so that rainfall is on average heavier -- and even snowstorms are on average heavier (they'll still occur and when they do they'll be more energetic). And then sealevel rise and inundation is terrible for communities living close to the sea (lots of them being very poor and not having any ability to mitigate the problem).

So. One of us could talk to Nova and ask him to release the coding of this mod so one of our more programming/texture orientated friends could finish this.

Stock lander can has 15, as do almost all 2.5m stock pods. If you stack three small lander cans together, you'll have a total of 9. We thought 12 was a happy medium, but this is still under discussion. Initially, I called these buttons the same as they appear in the VAB for player convenience. They could, of course, be renamed if there's enough demand for it. We'll try but no promises yet. No problem, that's configurable, it's one of the things you can do yourself. I'll try to make this more convenient. Fuel gauges will require a config edit if you use non-standard fuels, in the future I'll make a patch, but you can already do it yourself. This is very much dependent on player preference. You can edit that in monitor configuration, though -- remember that it's expressed in terms of frames, not seconds. Right now the monitors can display things but can't receive interactions from the user, and that would be a separate project of significant code size. But the system is modular enough to make writing a plugin for it easy, you could try to talk someone into doing it while we're busy with other things.

I don't know what's giving you guys that idea. A rogue AI? That's just crazy talk; AI's only go mad in those stories that people tell to scare us. Nothing to worry about here.