Zucal

Today's when the embargo is lifted, I think. We should see some streams and/or videos coming out soon.

I think the biggest gap part-wise is the fact that we're playing a game about exploring a solar system with little green men, and have nowhere to put those little green men. We've got two capsules, five airplane cockpits, soon-to-be three passenger cabins, and only three parts (science lab, hitchhiker, cupola) for building manned interplanetary vehicles, bases, and stations- arguably half the game! We literally have as many kinds of ladder as we have parts to build those things!

woot, 500 pages and 5k replies.

Working on a Juno with custom solar panels.

They're not necessary for manned missions. Most manned Mars concepts include propulsive capture. Aerocapture is an extremely risky maneuver, and obviously mission planners feel that: more fuel > more risk.

Hh? That's what I'm saying. 45 tons is with all three cores expended. With reuse, Falcon Heavy's payload to LEO is drastically reduced.

I agree with many of your criticisms, but I don't think this is a valid one. I think SLS is very likely to be flown more than once. Why on Earth would they abandon a project that they've already completed, is the darling of Congress, and grants them a versatile super-heavy lifting platform? SLS Block IB is going to fly for sure, barring a RUD on EM-1. NASA doesn't have a habit of canceling projects that have already been built and flown'er getting multiple times on missions. They're getting 4 times the payload capacity of the shuttle to LEO for half to a third the price. It's a step forward in every way. BFR is a non-player at this point.

That figure assumes all three cores are expended, and SpaceX almost certainly won't fly that configuration unless they're paid extra by NASA. Assuming no crossfeed and full reuse, FH's payload to LEO is probably in the high 30s. Sorry, but that's not true. SLS Block II's only addition from Block IB (which flies on the second or third total flight) is the advanced boosters. Nothing else is changed. The booster proposals are already out and hardware is already being tested by the companies in question. SLS Block II has a decade to be completed. You can't complain that Congress is overfunding SLS and then complain that Block II is currently unfunded! By comparison, the only work done on BFR is testing of some of the engine components. Not a single weld has been made on BFR, we don't even know what it looks like, what its payload will be, or whether it will be so specialized that it cannot be used as a general super-heavy lifter.

Sorry, but no. SLS Block II can throw 50-60 tons to a Lunar transfer orbit, and the heaviest launcher proposed (Falcon Heavy) will be able to do slightly more than half that to LEO. BFR does not count.

Only one of the two plans outlined in the article uses an all-chemical transit stage. The reason that the cargo is braking in orbit is because that vastly reduces the complexity of EDL- see the Viking landers. The extra mass of fuel was obviously deemed worth the increased safety. This isn't their set-in-stone, fixed course. This is an outline of a few notional routes the Mars program might take, without including the many game changers that are extremely likely to happen between then and now.

Two things. One is that the reason that high orbit was chosen is because departing from LEO using SEP means the crew spends too much time in the Van Allen belts. Two: This entire plan assumes the worst case scenario. NASA doesn't receive more funding, commercial parties are unable to contribute launches to lessen the pressure on SLS, ISRU doesn't become more capable/reliable, etc. Many things about this will change for the better between now and when the program begins to pick up speed.

I'm optimistic. The tentative flight plans laid out seem to be fairly low budget given what SLS is, and NASA has ages to develop payloads.

Here! The Kerbal Network subforum.

The YouTube video doesn't appear to be working either

Except for durability. In that, Orion will excel.

it would also remove any semblance of realism the game tries to cling to.

You don't need to get there in a few weeks to be safe. The risk is super low-level anyway (a smoker's risk of cancer goes down if he goes to Mars but doesn't smoke), except for CMEs, and that's solved by just having a storm shelter shielded by water/supplies.

It's absolutely possible. You just need more of it, it's not like chemical engines stop working out past the moon.

That.. that's not going to happen. The "Singularity" is not a thing. Moore's Law is running out of time, and if someone says "exponential growth" I'm going to kick a wall.

IIRC the only reason Orion couldn't do it now is because it needs a higher-rated heat shield. That's not a huge upgrade.

Exactly. They may look similar, but there's a difference between seeing a box filled with wires in the middle of a war-torn, violence-racked country filled with hostile forces, and seeing the same object held by a fourteen-year-old engineering student in school wearing glasses and a NASA shirt.

NASA at that time was barely allocating any resources to anything but Apollo, it was a single-minded agency. it also had the full weight of the administration's support over three presidencies behind it, and so much funding they were stumbling over it. That NASA is a completely different beast than what we have now, and the situation that led to is isn't going to happen again. So, say you give SpaceX all that money and tell them to go to Mars as cheaply and quickly as they can. Now let's say they do it, quick and dirty using Bigelow Habs, Dragons, and Falcon Heavies. Great. Now what? Going to Mars shouldn't be just about bragging rights, but about stable and long-term expansion. You won't get that by doing it as quickly as you can, but by slow and methodical building of skills and tech.

Or lack of one!

Goes for you too How is the color scheme not part of the overall art quality? I and several others think it looks kinda hideous as is, and are offering criticism about it. Changing the colors shouldn't be awfully time-intensive, considering 1.1 is entering QA soon and the majority of RoverDude's work on the new comm/antenna system is probably done. And regardless, the solution to problems with the stock game shouldn't have to be "Use a mod."