Mikki

[snip] I hope Suni and Butch have an enjoyable and healthy stay on the station. I think a good solution pops up at some point and they can return safely.

As far as i see, starliner is ready to go. Boeings assessment of their spacecraft looks legit and honest. At this state, the astronauts should decide if it safe, and relieve boeing and NASA from further guesswork.

Sure, and i don`t want to be the "Cassandra" doomsayer but melting valve seals on the thrusters doesn`t sound to me like a noncritical issue for trajectory and attitude control. A few broken thrusters are likely redundant and the capsules thrusters are unaffected. In my opinion its still a "stunt" to detach from the ISS with two humans on board, if other options are in reach. A possible mishap will now be blamed on NASA anyway (delay), NASA will blame boeing (incompetence) and another bottomless dollar pit will open on the face of earth, instead of doing the single right thing and send another vehicle for the astronauts. Put some junk into starliner and get it back remotly, resolve the issues and move along. Nobody will be harmed. Not even boeing, in fact boeing will regain some lost respect which in the long term may be more valuable than the accountants brain can grasp.

Every remotly financially sane company must be able to rent equipment from other competitors if human lives are at risk, even if marginal. Just as any competitor in such case is beholden to rent out such equipment (if it is on hand) at regular market price. Boeing is willing to risk it. Good luck from here nonetheless. (I `m not against a successfull return of starliner, i just wonder about the lack of options if something goes wrong. Plan b (not to speak of plan c) looks like a concept of the past.)

Common sense is lost in the matter of crew transfer to the ISS. The two astronauts have become redundant for their masters, as much as anyone else operating on this issue. This is literally the most reasonable (and safest?) solution, while dragon`s track record is the uncertain factor for its occupants, compared to soyuz. Redundancy is a gift, or is it?

Since this thread has become somewhat unpopular for many parkinglot users i came to the conclusion to execute aswell a "no-outdoor parking" policy. Installing autocannons video surveillance around my property gave me enough confidence to guess that Roscosmos will return the unstranded astronauts in due time. (Driving away... very slow...)

Some people are heavily overqualified for this life, he certainly is one.

I think i get the ... joke. Sniffing for isotopes is head on advanced tech i really wonder how long it has been done by the ... supplier.

...If i was a sci-fi writer (which i`m not for any god`s sake huh), i`d convince the reader that humans discovered by chance how to manipulate the higgs field (tapping in on dark energy eh ), enabling large vessels with large enough fusion reactors to literally bypass c in any direction and speed. After realizing that previous assumed paradoxes regarding inevitable timetravel and issues with causality don`t happen as expected, things... get nuts. *insert any plot of your liking* At some point humans meet some aliens with pretty insane techlevel and get lectured from said aliens with the fact that free will is a myth and the future allready happened. Asked about their goals the aliens just mention that tapping in on dark energy just increases the amount of it and accelerates the expansion of the universe and they admit that they have literally caused the foreseeable demise of all things together with some other species they met themself (and exterminated casually) along the way. So, the aliens ask the humans to give up on the nice tech, stop exploration and instead seek for ways to halt the apocalypse. Clearly the humans disagree and plan to annihilate the whole species, convinced the aliens just gaslight the humans into submission. *Huge interstellar war erupts*.

Can someone elaborate to me if the chinese could dock to the ISS ? Is it the same standard as soyuz? How many dockingports are there? I can count four. Am i stupid?

I am sure a fan of sci-fi (see for above mentioned reasons), and i can look over questionable plot devices if the plot itself carrys a certain quality for the reader or viewer. What i cannot take for sci-fi are SW or Strek and alikes, which are merely fantasy in my eyes, mirroring certain historic events like the age of exploration or some 20th century politics and their conflicts in another environment. "Making things up" is literally the essence of sci-fi writing or cinema, making it good enough for a broad audience is a success. At least the goal of good entertainment should be achieved when people pay for it. I think your take on "hard sci-fi" is admirable, but also the most difficult, and as we could see in "The Martian" or "Interstellar", even hell bent cinema struggles here and there with details people can discuss about for years. I haven`t seen "Dune" by now (!) but what i know of is that it doesn`t revolve much about technology rather than some kind of politics mixed with magic. Here we are again.

I really don`t want to crash the party but i`ve heard the ISS grew an appendix. Any chance to get rid of it? Can it be remotly controlled and deorbited? Was the helium used to pressurize propellant? Will it weld itself slowly to the ISS if not removed?

The interdimensional landfill is a great idea, and it sounds remarkably convenient. Full support from here.

The audience for hollywood sci-fi doesn`t care anyway for physics, why bother? And people who know the fallacies just enjoy the show mostly and relax for ninety minutes. A good story is more important, the tech is sci-fi anyway.

So... much... yes!

Aaah... the good ol` banana for scale.

...and the mother of said Egg... Which one is the ghost, which one the machine?

Time will tell, patience .

Now, that i have discovered, that Mr. Dilsby has returned... my mind is blown a way

Probably a real bad idea. I voted no. This is a scientifically touched software and the direction should stay as it is, there are more than enough games to "play"around the topic of warfare.

Hi! I guess you`re from Indonesia. Pulling a typo in the header gave your first like.

MBA`s cannot fathom the meaning of tugboats. so, no. Studied stupidity of "Economy" will only accelerate the waste of money on "CEO`s" and the such. Look Boeing.

He still fools people long after departure, best comedian ever!

You are probably one of the most experienced Kerb yeeter. Do you believe in life after death now?

Hi there! One of us! I have estimated offline KSP trauma for 4000 hours.... still addicted to yeeting Kerbals off the planet. Yes, i am the guy who created "The Dunatian" in KSP1.