Rakaydos

A NERVA equipped capital ship weighing millions of tons can deploy RM-48s- powered probes without worrying about how it affects their performance. The probes haave a much higher TWR, but not nearly as much endurance, and being teleoperated, have an operating range of a lightsecond at best. Being deployed from a mothership in shoals let them play to their strengths while minimizing their weaknesses.

Ender's Game had a better example of a "space fighter", a disposable remotely controlled drone that is more maneuverable than a capital ship, without the total deltaV of a proper warship but enough to be usable as a parasite weapons platform or as a missile. Make them cheap enough, and you dont even need to reserve delta V to recover them, Just detonate them once their attack runs are complete.

In theory, it shouldnt be worse than a planet orbiting a distant binary having a moon. However, the "safe" orbits are much smaller.

I believe this arc is relevant. And the last panel:

Strictly as a 1 shot vehical, ballon based first stage... A 16' baloon has a lift capacity of 2.4 lbs when filled with 100 cubic feet of Helium, and costs 80 bucks -Since this is a one shot vehical let's use hydrogen instead- cheaper and more effective, but instead or recalculating lifts, we'll just use the extra lift for carbon fiber trussing to link multiple balooons to one rig. To lift 1 ton of rocket fuel, you would need ... just shy of 1000 baloons. ($80,000, plus carbon fiber trusswork and 100,000 cubic feet of hydrogen) To list 100 tons of rocket fuel, you would need 100,000 baloons ($8 million, assuming no bulk discount, plus trusswork and 10 million cubic feet of hydrogn.) Hydrogen is $42 for a cylender that holds 197 cubic feet- since we're overestimating the number of baloons, lets round the hydrogen up to 200 so that it's 1 tank per 2 baloons. That works to 50,000 tanks and $210,000. Carbon fiber may be the biggest cost- a 20' x20' solid reinforced carbon carbon sheet (probably over kill, but lets highball things) costs $6,250, x100,000 baloons = 625 million, so that's the place to economise. (For starters, it doesnt need to be solid only trusswork, and it doesnt need to be Space shuttle-heat-shield quality, either)

Rocket balloons, or "Rockoons", are indeed a thing. Use more balloons to launch a bigger rocket- which is another thing the airship people are working on. As for drag problems for the supersonic orbital airship, they're testing verious means of active drag cancelation.

My last lander design has the theoretical delta V for a single stage tylo landing and launch, but by the time it burns off orbital velocity, it's got a TWR of at least 3, and I start pogoing around trying to kill the last of my horizontal velocity. Jeb is sitting there with a functional lander with two material sciences, with only 600 delta V remaining.

Are the ARM engines banned unless modded?

My current plan is to carry a ring of dump tanks that I ONLY use for Tylo ascent- though this makes Tylo an early landing priority, and complicates my early Mun tanker flyby/lander landing+re-intercept (might move that one to the journy home, or when heading to eve after Jool, Dres and Duna. Still need to get the current design to Jool (they're in a Minmus-LKO transfer orbit waiting for the sun to be in the right place, though the orbit will be clear for plenty of time)

The problem with the docking port requirement is that it's a dummy payload anyway, and you have to take special care that you dont let the docking ports leak fuel from the payload to the lift stage. I used a stack separater->Docking port connection to block fuel flow, but when counting parts for a dummy payload, the docking port is just an extra part you have to add.

I still think JP Aerospace will be able to nail "low cost bulk cargo to orbit," but their peanuts make Skylon look well funded.

You need to have you nose below the horizon and go faster than orbital velocity. For an eai breather this may involve intakes at... unconventional angles. I lost almost 5 minutes because the probe that made it back to KSC had half the terminal velocity I'm used to. :/

So, Cybercop?

Looking toward attempting this challange as a dry run for a "Grand Tour" that lands everywhere except Eve, Jool and Kerbol. If I can make a single stage Tylo lander, I should be able to land just about anywhere and catch up with the refueling tanker on a minimum Delta V slingshot grand tour. So far I've got orbit, Munar flyby to minmus transfer, sit in orbit a few laps, reverse slingshot Minmus to Low Kerbin x Minmus orbit on the night side. From there I want a duna shingshot to Dres slingshot to jool capture, but I havnt gotten that far yet.

Let's call it Employee-owned. If it can get the resources to be fully self sufficent (which may require a powerful capitalistic CEO to choose to step down and make it employee owned) it may not need to be tied to outside investers, either. Edit: or a union benifits compromise that believes in supporting a standard of living over supporting working hours vs wage.

What are your thoughts on a sort of "Corporate Socialisim", where a corporate entity that controls a broad base of production gradually increases employee benifits and reduces hours as automation increases- until you have "workers" who were raised in corporation schools working an hour a day on average for minimum wage, but their food, board, and access to media is guarenteed for free by the corporation.

Isnt this the point of budgets? If you can build a ship that can reach eeloo with Tier 0 parts, it's probably going to cost more than the can afford with starting parts. (also, better hope you dont botch the launch)

the question of "Why do I have to cler that minefield" is easilly answered by "Why dont we just send telepresence rigs to clear that minefield? Doesnt matter if it's human or AI on the other end of the rig, the sophant isnt in any danger and may enjoy the thrill of actually doing something important.

Got it finally! (loaded last attempts quicksave... a few times...)

under 40 km away... I just need to nail the aerobreak right (loads quicksave and keeps trying)

Each one is standalone- though they are roughly chronological, the galaxy is big enough that very few things have an effect over multiple books. Player of Games is widely considered to be one of the better ones, as is Use of Weapons.

When you get chance, I would suggest looking up the "Culture" novels by Ian M Banks, that are set over a backdrop of exactly the kind of post scarcity "parasitic" society you claim is doomed. The short version is that to the superAIs that control ships, colony habitats, and even planetary surfaces, having more organics supported by you is a Status symbol, balanced by said organic's free choice to emmigrate to another place if they dont feel like they fit in. (or if they just like to travel, but then they might just take a "crew" position on an AI ship.) It feels like the best possible robot overlord controlled utopia... which is why the books all deal with Contact (the organization that handles contact with other supertech organizations, which may disagree with the Culture's philosophies) or Special Circumstances, the Culture's black-ops division that culture-forms primitive societies that they might someday grow up to be good neighbors.

Psh... WIMPs.

The Tabletop RPG "Eclipse Phase" has an interesting take on future society. There exists a technoligy that makes 3d printers look like medival forges. In the inner worlds, these production facilities are controlled by the great cooporations, and only by competition are prices ever dropped. But in the outer worlds, groups who's managed to get ahold of one of these devices run socialistic, "post scarcity" communes, where anything (within reason) can be made for essentially free, as long as you have the materials and a blueprint.

The delta V requirements would be silly. More likely the plane of dark mass is the net ejected material of all the stars of the galactic disks- that is, rogue planets, escaped asteroids, and other bodies with no star to illuminate them. that would be the source of the impacters.