Sky_walker

US DoD spends more money on air conditioning of the tents than NASA. You really think they're going to give up even a single F-35? Everything can be cancelled if there's political will to do so. And as history have proven many times before: it's by far easier to make a cuts in NASA than give them the money they want. You mean commercial or government?

Well, on paper ESA got the infrastructure needed, only it'd require 2 Ariane 5 ES launches instead of just one. And obviously designing a proper service module (based on ATV to make it cheaper and quicker) and a capsule. Ariane 5 is already man-rated, so launcher wouldn't be a problem. But ESA got no desire to do that - they're full-on robotic exploration, not a manned missions.

Yea, but these hacks-around don't come with any nice white fairing that would fit the rocket design. :/ But yea - be it 1, 2 or 4 engines - doesn't matter as long as we get something for an XL-sized upper stages BTW: Good point about Kerbodyne KR-2L working as an Ariane 5 main engine - that's exactly how I use it. In my version of the Ariane 5 Model got nothing to deal with it. It's just a change to the part in a configuration.

And then the manager mode with science, funds, but no rockets. lol

By the time new president gets into the white house - majority of SLS contracts will be signed and at least the first round of payments for construction will be already done. Elections are 13 months before the SLS launch. As I said - everything is possible, but I find it extremely unlikely to cancel SLS so far into development. At a very least - we will see one launch of a Block 1. Future is uncertain though... Especially because for some reason I don't understand - they planned 4 years gap between first and a second launch.

SRBs are fine. They're actually safer than liquid boosters, cause there's fewer mechanical parts and by this: It's far less likely to have a mechanical failure. They also can be stored and moved around for prolonged amount of time without increasing a failure risk as long as you stick to the safety protocols and don't compromise casing (eg. Challenger disaster).

Elections are in 2016. First flight is planned for 2017. I find it very, very unlikely that they'll cancel it. Oh, and BTW: SLS Block II is very much Constellation Ares V Lite under a different name, new paint, and some modifications. Just look at the Ares V picture and imagine that orange is white with black stripes: All that R&D invested in Ares didn't go in vain.

UPDATE: http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2014/07/24/hints-of-features/ First surface features begin to appear! ESA promised that they'll post one image a day from now on (and think that people complained on this forum just a week ago how ESA isn't open enough!) For those interested: They will share it on a blog and twitter. [edit]: BTW, it's 12 days till arrival

Yep. Agreed. It'd be great if you could collect all the information and then see it on the map view when selecting a planet. And in general - having science that affects player and/or his knowledge about planets. Not just a blue points that you gather here and there for your research tree. As someone put it in other topic: Make science a meaningful gameplay mechanic.

Minus the failed understanding of what inflation is - it's rather good idea, though TBH: I don't find it to be any crucial issue or anything that would negatively (or positively) affect my gameplay experience. Aligning numbers correctly in VAB is impacting the gameplay by far more

Probably USA. Even solely because of the asteroid mission. Still though - I keep my bet on a first landing coming from China.

I'm yet to have that happening. Deadlines are so long, that you will eventually do the contract anyway - even solely because of boredom. I never, ever approached deadline of a contract.

You didn't play much, did you? I went past first nodes in 15 minutes. With all the science points you get from contracts - it's ridiculously easy.

If money would matter for you - stock game isn't ready for this sort of gameplay. There's just too few information to play like that (you even don't know DeltaV!) If you don't care about money - just launch. It's as simple as that.

Higher density - boiling point of O2 is -183 °C and for N2O2 it's +22 °C - so in a room temperature N2O2 will give you higher ISP due to much higher amount of molecules stored that can get in a reaction with fuel, Cheaper to manufacture in large quantities of high purity gas, Can be safely stored for a prolonged time without very expensive equipment (assuming you compare identical densities of both gases (which means: different temperatures)) Hypergolic fuels got a few more advantages than just ability to reignite. They are more reliable and don't require any sophisticated technology to build a rocket (basically the only thing you need is protection against corrosion and keeping it away from humans (most of the fuels are highly toxic and cancerogenic)), they can sit on a launch pad for much, much longer than cryogenic fuels, and are more stable then cryogenic fuels, so transportation is cheaper and less risky.

Tiny request: Can we please, stop mixing modded game with a stock game? It's a topic about suggestions to the game, so let's stick with that - stuff related to the mods should be kept within Add-ons board. Otherwise you only introduce needless confusion.

There is a problem? Rockets can survive icing just fine. It's only cameras that don't like it. Move the camera away, heat it, add hydrophobic coating and/or eject/move protective glass sheet away straight before the touch down. There are many ways to solve it and all of them are relatively easy and/or cheap.

Ekhm... Badlands biome is fairy large. I never had any problems getting there. These are made for new players to learn the game. I agree that the rewards could be smaller, however discovering that ground samples give you science is part of the learning experience. TBH: I'm fine with biomes as they are. Research tree on the other hand.... could easily have twice as many nodes as it does now (some nodes have so many different techs put together that they don't make any sense at all) and the amount of science should be increased at least times 2 if not more. This should increase career playtime by a good 4 times and give people a reason to land on another planets. Perhaps then Devs would also get around adding missing biomes on the other planets... at least Duna

UAE has 15th largest military budget in the world. (depending on a sources to believe - it's between 15 and 17) - they are one of 4 major players in a region. Hardly anything comparable with Norway. In relation to GDP - they spend more money on arms than USA does (in 2012 - UAE: 6.9%, USA: 4.4%, Norway: 1.4%, Hong Kong: 0)

You know what's the weird part? In 0.24 they added science rewards through contracts... ...and at the same time they decreased the amount of science needed to research an entire tree down to 10 098 from 10 348 in 0.23.5. (or at least - guys at KSP wiki did the math and that's the result they got)

Thanks to the oil buisness and everything that lives around it True. Question is - how much of it will survive once fields run dry?

Where are mods when you need them?

Please, please, please add an 3.5m equivalent of the Poodle. Basically: a flat engine that can be fit in-line into the rockets. Right now we have just one in-line engine for the largest size: Kerbodyne KR-2L Advanced Engine, and it's so enormous that it very much limits the designs we can do, and sadly: stock fairings around engines don't allow us to put Poodle in between 2 XL-sized tanks without looking whacky and completely out of place. You know what would be great to have too? In-line Clamp-O-Tron Sr. build on 3.5m (XL) part. Docking bay based on a Kerbodyne S3-14400 Tank with hatches opening space-shuttle-style and a Clamp-O-Tron Docking Port at the one end of interior. But I would swap any of these two for an XL version of Poodle. So far Kerbals cannot move between the components so there's no reason I would see why adapters cannot hold fuel - especially as enormous adapters as this one. If someone wants to use it as a purely structural element - he is free to remove the fuel using tweakables, if such fuel would ever be added in. And IMHO it should - it would differentiate between low-profile adapters and a full-size adapters. Give them a value in game other than ascetics.

Please, stop spamming forum. Write a blog if you want - sure - but we don't need to know about every day of your life.

Look like a mk3 replacement, which is great cause that thing needed a massive overhaul - though I wouldn't mind if it's something new either. Current mk1 and 2 parts are nice, they fit the game well, but Mk3 are IMHO at the point beyond repair - should be scrapped and re-thought from ground up.