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An open letter to the developers of Kerbal Space Program.


Tang_Titan

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4 hours ago, Devric said:

Come on Squad...give the guy a set of  Oculus Rift!

this would be an awesome thing to do

1 hour ago, Snarfster said:

If I knew how to give rep on this new forum, I would ;)

just hit the "like this" button

Edited by BrutalRIP
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On 12/1/2015, 7:55:48, Sequinox said:

Great post, but

Seriously? When are people going to let go the fact that Pluto is not a planet. I don't see any reason why people still say it is. Hell, I don't understand why there were protests about it. It's honestly ridiculous. (Edited by adsii1970)

Actually, there is now debate if it is even a planetoid (makes it sound like a distant cousin to a hemorrhoid, in my opinion). It has been suggested that Pluto, with its largest moon Charon, may actually be a binary planet system. In reality, since its discovery in the early 1930s, it was thought it may have been a comet; but within a year or so of its discovery, it was classified as a planet with an eccentric orbit.

So, for nearly 80 years, the entire world has been taught that Pluto was a planet - your assertion that people should immediately accept the opinion of a board of astronomers that still cannot agree, based on the volumes of scholarly journal articles and other publications, if Pluto is a member of a binary planet system, a planetoid, a dwarf planet, planet, or the hardened core of a long-collapsed gas planet (which is also among the new speculations since Pluto has a detectable atmosphere that stretches out to 60K above its surface). Until there is an absolute consensus among the "expert" astronomers, then what does it matter if someone, a backyard astronomer or casual star gazer, still considers it as a planet?

Let us not forget the true intention of the original post by Tang - it was praising the staff of Squad and others who have developed a game/simulator that has allowed those of us who have dreamed of space travel and journeying to other worlds since those early days of childhood a chance to become a part of reality, if only for a few hours at a time.

Edited by adsii1970
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33 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

Actually, there is now debate if it is even a planetoid (makes it sound like a distant cousin to a hemorrhoid, in my opinion). It has been suggested that Pluto, with its largest moon Charon, may actually be a binary planet system. In reality, since its discovery in the early 1930s, it was thought it may have been a comet; but within a year or so of its discovery, it was classified as a planet with an eccentric orbit.

So, for nearly 80 years, the entire world has been taught that Pluto was a planet - your assertion that people should immediately accept the opinion of a board of astronomers that still cannot agree, based on the volumes of scholarly journal articles and other publications, if Pluto is a member of a binary planet system, a planetoid, a dwarf planet, planet, or the hardened core of a long-collapsed gas planet (which is also among the new speculations since Pluto has a detectable atmosphere that stretches out to 60K above its surface). Until their is an absolute consensus among the "expert" astronomers, then what does it matter if someone, a backyard astronomer or casual star gazer, still considers it as a planet?

The IAU stated that a celestial body has to:

a. Be in orbit around the sun
b. Be made round by it's gravity 
c. Have a clear path around the sun

Pluto has all but c. Meaning it can't be a planet. 

When the IAU changes that, then it will be a planet, until then, however, it is not.

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On 11/9/2015, 2:33:15, Tang_Titan said:

But not until now had I ever felt this close to my long lost childhood dream. When Jebediah Kerman goes into orbit I get a rush. I put it into cockpit mode and blast off looking through the view-port as the blue sky turns a star studded black. Every time Jebediah touches down on the Mun I get back a little piece of that dream that I lost.

I am not in the best of circumstances myself at the moment, though nothing compared to what you describe. I too find a few hours of escape in the sometimes awesome, sometimes hilarious -often both- experiences that the Kerbal universe allows me.

Hitching a ride aboard mindboggling feats of engineering (and strutting). Playing with mass and speed, energy and gravity. Traveling the inter-planetary spaces. Setting foot on other worlds. Waving at the Kraken. I can have a grin on my face just thinking about it, and I'm sure that grin is there more often than not while I am managing 'my' space program (I am not the only one that feels rather possessive of my space program, am I? Including creating my own custom company and flag. Ahem).

Your awesome open letter made me recheck my applicants list. I decided to admit a new rookie astronaut into my space program, by special invitation: this 'kid' did not get cleared by normal channels, but after reading a bit more into the dossier, I think he deserves a shot. I will be closely following the career of Tang T. Kerman, Aerospace Engineer and Astronaut Soldier...

 

 

 

 

 

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