John Crichton

Very nice

Wow this is sad! I'm not surprised though. Before moving to the UK I lived in California and NYC...but also got to experience the "Middle" due to travelling. The lack of education was often stunning. I heard people say stuff like "evolution is just a theory" or "the globe isn't warming" or "monkeys don't turn into humans" over and over and over again. I'm originally from Switzerland and even a goat herder living up in the mountains would laugh at these statements.

Those pics make me wanna check out more mods! Looks really nice

I'm tri-lingual, so my inner voice is really messed up

You're kidding, right? We're the only species who completely destroys its own habitat.

We sent probes to the moon ahead of time

If you're able to cross light years in a world ship, I doubt deltaV would be an issue. We're not talking about Kerbals here

Very few species don't have a defensive or offensive capability...especially ones with higher intelligence. Given the potential dangers of embarking on such a trip, don't you think they will spend time thinking about defense (or offense if they're aggro)?? Even if their motivations and psychology is totally different, they'd still face threats in outer space...and the only response is weapons. How else would cope with that? That's unless they follow a "if we get threatened, let's just lay down and die" mantra...which I don't consider likely (because that species wouldn't have survived to the space age that way).

That's like Incas saying "but we have spears" when Cortez arrived

Any aliens capable of making it all those light years to earth could simply wipe us all out without breaking a sweat. They'd have to be so advanced technologically compared to us, no weapon we have would pose a real threat to them. Having said that, I'd like to think we'd help...even if it's because we want their technology and not out of real compassion. Looking at how we treat human refugees doesn't give me a lot of hope though. Cliff notes: Humans aren't ready for aliens imo.

Liked it a lot. The only thing I didn't like was that it turned into a horror flick towards the end...just like Sunshine.

Spent the past few days working on a 5.5k deltaV Kethane lander allowing me to refuel my ship on route during my grand tour. Having done that, I just realised something that makes me feel really stupid... Instead of designing a ridiculously huge lander, I should have designed a 2-stage lander leaving the Kethane refueling station on the surface when ascending again. That way I can use KAS and simply use those lower lander sections as "gas stations". Means my lander can be smaller and easier to work with...and it will be able to carry more fuel up to orbit. Plus, if I ever come back, I can use the same fueling station again. Back to the drawing board...

5 year old Macbook Pro, dual core but with a dedicated Nvidia graphics card. Runs the game like a 5 year old Macbook Pro. It's totally playable, but let's just say I prefer small SSTO over huge 1k parts rocket Building my own computer over the next 1-2 months which will solve all my issues. i7, 780gtx, 16gb ram, 250gb SSD...not that KSP will actually use most of those resources.

Tracking whales from space!! Someone give Sea Shepherd a direct feed!

Jeb often gets impatient when landing, so there's always a 50/50 chance he'll switch off time warp too late...which results in fireworks. And yup, the no electricity thing happens to him too when testing new craft.

Feels good to join a community that isn't 99% business oriented I went to Hotel School (Lausanne, Switzerland) and then completed my masters in real estate at Cass Uni in London.

I'm testing a Logitech G13 at the moment, but they're hard to find. Completely replaces the keyboard

Thanks for the advice! That's pretty much what I'm doing at the moment, cutting all unnecessary weight. Bit of a balancing act between the nukes and aerospikes too, still refining that.

I'm not anywhere near an expert pilot, just started playing 2 weeks ago Just tested my "SSTO to wherever" Kethane lander, and I have a problem. Right now I'm at around 11.5k deltaV, so while I can go pretty much anywhere I want, Tylo's an issue. Went from Kerbin to Minmus, refueled and went on to Pol. Up until that point, no problems. However, once I get from Pol to Tylo, I'm stuck. I can refuel of course, but that will only get me to just beyond Jool, not to the next refueling moon. My (arguably Guinness-fueled) calculations tell me I need 14.25k deltaV if I want a comfortable 10% error margin. In short, I need to somehow find another 3k'ish deltaV somewhere. Using a mix of nukes and aerospikes at the moment. The spikes seem kinda awesome for landings where you really need the thrust (Tyolo, Kerbin, Lythe)...and the nukes are for planetary/moon transfers...slow but efficient. Right now my lander has 15 landing legs (lol), so my guess is if I go any bigger I'll have to invent some makeshift "legs" because the stock ones won't cut it and I don't want any other mods. Up to 197 parts so far. Fiddling around with engine combinations at the moment, but I have a feeling I need to go a little bigger to accommodate those extra 3k'ish deltaV. PS: I'm totally stock too other than the Kethane mod and Mechjeb. The only other mod I have is a spinning habitat for 4 Kerbalites...but it won't fit on my "do it all" lander anyway.

No problem, I hope to have something ready this weekend. Did some calculations (at work, lol) and right now my plan looks a bit like this: - 5.8k deltaV Kethane lander (good enough to refuel everything on anything but Eve, Jool, Lythe, Kerbin and Tylo). If I start with a full tank in orbit, I can land and take off again on Kerbin, Lythe and Tylo though with only my 1 single stage. Obviously refueling is much easier on low-grav moons/planets since I'll have more fuel to spare. - 1st add-on drive upping the lander and add-on's deltaV. This will be dockable to the lander and used to allow refueling on the more challenging planets/moons like Tylo. Will probably stay in orbit when refueling on low-grav planets/moons. - 2nd add-on drive allowing me to make the 10.8 deltaV trip from Pol to Tylo (10% safety margin included). This part docks to the 1st add-on drive and will stay in orbit 99% of the time. That way I can reuse the design for various missions and simply leave out the extra drives whenever I don't need them. All single stage to orbit from Kerbin and on to Minmus to refuel those 11k'ish deltaVs. From there I can reach anywhere in the system without ever having to worry about fuel tanks. The Kethane lander's ready and works like a charm. Gets to Kerbin orbit (100k'ish) but can't land again without refueling. Working on the 2 drives at the moment. It's a bit of a challenge to be honest...but coming from Eve Online I kinda enjoy "spreadsheet games"

Sad...but not surprising. Just look at the number of people claiming evolution is "just a theory" or that global warming is a "hoax". I guess that's what happens if you allow people on the government science committee who claim the earth is 6k years old and humans walked around with dinosaurs. Also doesn't help that a certain political party tries over and over and over again to allow the teaching of creationism (sorry, "intelligent design") as a valid alternative to evolution and abiogenesis. People are systematically dumbed down. I remember my parents taking me to the US when I was in primary school. They taught us about evolution when I was 9 years old...but when we had a chat about school and what they teach us with our friends in the US, they just looked at us as if we were stupid when evolution came up. FRUSTRATING!!! Mostly because while I consider them friends, I also lost quite a lot of respect for them. Didn't even matter when we debunked every single one of their nonsense claims...they start with the conclusion (god did it) and then ignore everything that doesn't support that conclusion. In short, they're denying reality. PS: My uncle made a living of giving astrological "seminars". Made a good amount of cash that way and "read me" a couple of times. Let me reassure you, astrology is complete and utter nonsense...hogwash...snake oil...BS!

I look at cars and think about what parts they could remove for efficiency. Also, whenever I fly (around once a week), I now ask myself what the plane's deltaV is.

Nice one! I'm actually in the process of building a 11k DeltaV interplanetary mothership for my Kethane lander...this gives me some helpful inspiration

I had the pleasure of testing the following: 1) Veyron (twice, once in Saudi Arabia thanks to a client) 2) Ariel Atom (in Abu Dhabi) 3) Pagani Huayra (also in Abu Dhabi...notice a trend?) Of these 3, the Atom was the most fun to drive hands down. The Veyron is an amazing machine but heavy...very confidence inspiring as you drive fast though. The Huayra is probably what I'd get if I bought one of those 3. It's a piece of art, one of the most beautiful cars I've ever had the pleasure of driving. Still think the Ducati Panigale I got to drive 2 weeks ago beats all of them if you're a speed freak. NOTHING comes close in terms of pure speed rush. I would never buy one though, my life expectancy would likely shrink to below 1 year. First time I twisted the throttle I almost pissed myself. PS: Aston Martin's are beautiful too, but they are so prone to break down. Had numerous mates with DB9s and Vantages, every single one had their car break down in at the most inconvenient times. One of them got stranded on top of the Gotthard pass in Switzerland due to an "electronic error".

Good advice here As other have said: 1) 1 Nuke is enough for all but large SSTOs. 2) Use more air intakes. 3) Don't go straight up to 20k, you will be too slow at 20k to take full advantage of the air intakes. I tend to go straight up to 10k and then gradually move to 60 degrees by the time I'm at around 20-25k. I'm at 45 degrees by the time I hit 30k. Obviously all depends a bit on your ship and number of intakes. 4) Don't activate your Nuke before the very last moment. Coast to your apoapsis the second it hits your desired height and fix your periapsis. 5) Consider a 2-stage approach. You might not need the lift of the entire SSTO, make it so that a separate lander detaches from the wings and other necessary stuff. The Hondo is a great example of that...can make it from Kerbin's surface to the moon and back, twice. 6) Turbojets & 1 Nuke seems to be a good combo for efficiency. 7) If you're willing to use mods, look into Kethane...I'm working on a Kethane SSTO at the moment. Would solve all your range issues I recon. 8) Use a carrier rocket in Kerbin orbit. SSTOs are light, so you don't need one with huge DeltaV. Alternatively, use an interplanetary ring...a few examples are on the forums.