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KSP Weekly: Planum Australe

SQUAD

By SQUAD
in KSP1 The Daily Kerbal

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SQUAD

SQUAD

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Welcome to KSP Weekly! Recently, a team of researchers from the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) in Rome presented evidence of a vast subglacial liquid water reservoir on Mars’ South Pole.

The team, led by Dr Roberto Orosei used data collected by a radar instrument, the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS), on board ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft.

The data showed that there was a source of liquid water spanning about 20 kilometers across in a region called Planum Australe, about 1.5 kilometers below the surface. It was detected by sending 29 sets of radar pulses under the surface, with reflections showing a radar signal almost identical to that from lakes of liquid water found beneath the ice of Antarctica and Greenland on Earth, heavily suggesting it is liquid water.

The exact nature of the water is unclear though. The characteristics of this suspected water are complicated by the conditions it is in. On Earth, subglacial lakes reach temperatures of about -60°C. But the intense pressure of the ice above lowers the melting point of the water, to the point where it exists as a liquid in large freshwater lakes. However, under this region on Mars, it’s thought the temperatures drop to about -68°C. In order for the water to remain liquid here, it is probably full of salts like magnesium, calcium, and sodium.

On Earth, a handful of subglacial lakes have been drilled into and we have found bacteria within them, so this discovery is considered as a major step in the hopes of finding past or present life on Mars.

A few years ago, scientists found evidence for water trickling on the surface, known as recurring slope lineae (RSL). However, these features are short-lived, with the water quickly evaporating in the low-pressure environment on the Martian surface.

It’s long been theorized, though, that there may be more stable bodies of liquid beneath the surface, as evidenced in this research. To answer this, researchers hope to use more data from Mars Express over the next years.

Although there is still much to learn and an actual drilling operation is still out of our reach, this is a very exciting discovery. On Earth, liquid water almost always means life. Coupled with the recent discovery of the building blocks of life on Mars, we might end up finding that life is much more common than we thought in the universe.

[Development news start here]

Yesterday we released Patch 1.4.5 and with it, various improvements and bug fixes for both the base game and the expansion have been included. For instance, we have incorporated a quality-of-life feature that lets you dismiss pop-up dialogs with the ESC button. We also fixed several issues regarding the Steam Workshop in-game incorporation, and included a subscribe/unsubscribe button to the Mission Play dialog for Steam shared files on the Community tab for your convenience.  Click here to see the full release notes.

In addition to all the work that even a small release like 1.4.5 entails, we have kept ourselves occupied with other exciting tasks. KSP continues to be a great platform to be improved upon and we are dedicated to continue providing updates to the game and making it the best experience possible for all of our players. We will continue to keep our players updated on upcoming developments here on KSP Weekly.

Remember that you can also share and download missions on Curse, KerbalX, the KSP Forum and the KSP Steam Workshop.

That’s it for this week. Be sure to join us on our official forums, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Stay tuned for more exciting and upcoming news and development updates!

Happy launchings!  


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theJesuit

theJesuit

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9 minutes ago, SQUAD said:

Yesterday we released Patch 1.4.5 and with it, various improvements and bug fixes for both the base game and the expansion have been included

Thank you @Squad.

Was hoping for that announcemet today :) I guess it will come Soon!

Peace.

Edited by theJesuit
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Rejected Spawn

Rejected Spawn

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Anyone else hoping for more content to be planned, DLC or otherwise? :D Personally I'd mostly want some 10x bigger (or more powerful) versions of almost all things and stock propellers so any player ever will actually want to go anywhere near Eve... Come to think of it a major reason to add them is to make craft capable of getting around on oceans without getting stuck when the fuel runs out, just imagine how much more accessible the oceans would be!

Stock hinges too, omg the joy it would bring to have transforming crafts without resorting to mods or 300 parts glitchy workarounds. Ah okay Squad you loveable goofballs better announce something soon before I get too disappointed when you can't meet my increasingly unrealistic dreams.

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Tyko

Tyko

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1 hour ago, Rejected Spawn said:

Anyone else hoping for more content to be planned, DLC or otherwise? :D Personally I'd mostly want some 10x bigger (or more powerful) versions of almost all things and stock propellers so any player ever will actually want to go anywhere near Eve... Come to think of it a major reason to add them is to make craft capable of getting around on oceans without getting stuck when the fuel runs out, just imagine how much more accessible the oceans would be!

Stock hinges too, omg the joy it would bring to have transforming crafts without resorting to mods or 300 parts glitchy workarounds. Ah okay Squad you loveable goofballs better announce something soon before I get too disappointed when you can't meet my increasingly unrealistic dreams.

You said it yourself - "increasingly unrealistic dreams"  - There are mods that do those things and if you use a mod they don't have to mess with the base game. I think many of us would prefer a more "realistic dream" of having the game stable and playable. :) 

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Redneck

Redneck

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I was kinda hoping they would shed some light on some ideas on the table for future development. I hope it is enhanced IVA (roverdude prolly cringing right about now :P)

Edited by Redneck
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ExtremeSquared

ExtremeSquared

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Yes, that too. I was referring to the fact that the R&D building lists 5(edit:nope) biomes for Duna, and biomes, by definition, all contain biological life. In fact, there is no body in the entire system that does not host life. Pretty sure the mystery goo plays into this somehow?

Edited by ExtremeSquared
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klgraham1013

klgraham1013

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1 hour ago, ExtremeSquared said:

Yes, that too. I was referring to the fact that the R&D building lists 5(edit:nope) biomes for Duna, and biomes, by definition, all contain biological life. In fact, there is no body in the entire system that does not host life. Pretty sure the mystery goo plays into this somehow?

...or it's just a misuse of the term biome taken from it's similar use in Minecraft.

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ExtremeSquared

ExtremeSquared

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7 hours ago, klgraham1013 said:

...or it's just a misuse of the term biome taken from it's similar use in Minecraft.

If it was just wrong, they would have fixed it by now. After this long, it makes more sense to assume omnipresent life forms.

Add to that the fact that they survive decades in just a space suit with no air, food, or water, and it paints a picture of the system being the home of some really hardy biological specimens.

Edited by ExtremeSquared
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klgraham1013

klgraham1013

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44 minutes ago, ExtremeSquared said:

Ehhhh, that's more of a 1.0 joke. For those of us here from 0.17 or so, this game is finally getting pretty well polished.

Been playing since 0.18.  I wasn't joking.  You're saying there's life on Moho and Eeloo?

Edited by klgraham1013
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panzer1b

panzer1b

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IQdgxhW.png

Im for one actually happy with this update, didnt break any of the mods i care about, fixed my number one biggest visual eyesore with the fairings missing reentry fx, and seems to run smoothly enough even with some higher then usual part count warships not to mention every single visual mod that i used to use back in 1.3.1 (and KS3P atop that for extra fluff). 

Fp9unUC.png

My chibi star destroyer with 2 starfighters and some extra ammo onboard doesnt lag whatsoever.

9687Q1C.png

Accidentally whatever was done to teh fairings seems to have fixed the texture glitching/artefacting in scatterer, so i can finally go back to using tht mod and actually having KSP look and feel the way it should have from the start, utterly beautiful (cant stand playing bone stock anymore without at least SciFiVE mod installed, preferably with scatterer, KS3P, and texture replacer ontop of it since the stock skybox is trash compared to the one i use).

DUyiAqD.png

Well, thanks alot for the new version devs.  I have to say no complaints from me for once :D (well aside from having to delete untiyanalytics.dll and make sure KSP is blocked from accesing internet).

KOmtc6W.png

Edited by panzer1b
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